Fishbone Interview
by Dave Sharp on Apr 16th, 2011
In honor of the Tennessee debut of Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone — screening 4/16, 5:30pm at Regan Green Hills Cinema as part of the Nashville Film Festival — Sinizine.net is proud to offer an interview with Norwood Fisher.
The following interview took place over the phone at 88.3 WMTS in Murfreesboro, Tenn. three days before Fishbone played with Slightly Stoopid and Simeon in Nashville, Tenn. on 26 February 2012.
SZ: How’s the tour going?
Norwood Fisher: We’re having, lemme start over, [Shouting] I’M HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE!
SZ: Good to hear! So, you guys have been on the road for a few days now and are coming to play Nashville soon. Knowing that you guys have a very diverse array of influences, what would be some Nashville artists in that country music vein that have influenced your music over the years?
NF: Um. . . Well I don’t know if Patsy Cline is from Nashville or not, but I actually have a great love for Patsy Cline, ya know? And I actually have a great deal of respect and love when I hear Willie Nelson songs, but he’s not exactly Nashville either right? He’s Austin, TX.
SZ: Yeah, I think he and Waylon Jennings both got kicked out and went of and did their own thing.
NF: Right, exactly. But you know what I mean, it’s like actually, again…you know… there are some artists that are cultural icons and they are for a reason – they transcend. And so, you know- that’s what we all strive to be.
SZ: So who are some up and coming artists that you guys might be looking to play with in the near future?
NF: Actually, we’ve done some shows with a band called The Aggrolites, and I really love the Aggrolites, and I just can’t wait to do more things with them. Uh, there’s a band called Viva Voce which I’m a big fan of. They’re outta Portland, ultimately like a two piece band, husband and wife. They wrote one of my favorite songs called “The Devil Himself.” There’s a touring act called Road Dog – I mean not Road Dog – Yard Dogs! And actually, I love Yard Dogs.
SZ: When you guys are looking for bands to take out on tour, do you start with a particular genre like ska or funk or rock and the branch out, or is it just whoever you guys wanna play with at the time?
NF: Um you know what? It is whatever feels right, and we try to support the ska scene and punk rock and things that relate to that, but ultimately there are all kinds of bands from all over the map, and ultimately we’ll do anything and we’ll play with anybody.
SZ: Who have been some of the more interesting bands you’ve played with over the years; maybe bands you wouldn’t immediately associate with a Fishbone show?
NF: Oh, uh… That’s a good question. [Laughs] You know, in Los Angeles–in the L.A. Area– this was when we were coming up, we did a lot of shows with Rockabilly bands, and we actually loved that… although… actually, there’s a band called Nashville Pussy- I don’t know if you know who they are…
SZ: Oh yeah, I’m quite familiar.
NF: Again, one of my favorite bands, and it may not be like a no-brainer, but I thought the show worked well. I guess ’cause I’m a fan.
SZ: I can see it working, I mean they have some of that same metal influence that you guys kinda have had on some of your stuff.
NF: Yeah. . . and ya know. . . I dunno. Maybe more so just because we run the gamut of the music spectrum it just. . . like it all works. I tell ya what- here’s one: like we’ve done shows with. . . It was one summer. We were doin’ these festivals and we did a few shows where it was Blue Oyster Cult, The Gap Band, and Fishbone. Now I thought that was and incredible bill.
We have, even though it might kinda make sense it was still kinda surreal, was when we did shows with… ah… We did at least a show in Buffalo where it was Joan Jett and… well Chuck Berry headlining and Joan Jett and Fishbone. That was surreal. Maybe it was 100% appropriate, but it was still surreal.
SZ: Your comment about running the musical gamut sorta leads into a question I had: You guys started off as, not necessarily a straight forward ska band, but as your career began to pick up in the early 90s, Fishbone’s sound really began to change. Was it a pragmatic change, just playing new sounds to match the talents of some new lineups, or was it a creative choice to just break out of that ska sound?
NF: Maybe there was a little bit of all of that in there, but mainly it seemed like our equipment was changing. Like we were getting better, more heavy-duty gear that could actually make those chunky sounds and so we were just playin’ with it, ya know? It was just us experimenting and playing with stuff, and at the end of the day when we write, we write whatever we write. Then its like “What’s the best songs?” And then we just pick the best songs, and if they happen to be heavy like that, then that’s what you get.
SZ: A lot of bands that have been around as long as you have only have one or two original core members. Is the Fishbone Line up pretty much the same every show, or is the line up, or are the line ups put together fresh for each tour?
NF: Well, we more or less have a set band, and sometimes because mostly the guys work a lot with other people, but they try to prioritize Fishbone. Like sometimes a couple of them have other things they have to do, ya’ know? Its like right now, Rocky George of Suicidal Tendencies is a standing member of Fishbone, but he…uh… his father actually just passed away last night, and he is staying back to be with his dad, to actually take care of him. So we had Tori Ruffin who actually played on the record– on the Still Stuck in Your Throat record– and toured with us and actually knows a bunch of the material. Tori Ruffin actually came out and did it– did the tour with us– and he is on out here with us now.
SZ: Looking back over the years, what has been your favorite record you’ve worked on with Fishbone?
NF: Uh. . . Its the next album comin’ out that we’re workin’ on right now that we don’t even have a title for. . .[pregnant pause] Its always the next one.[Laughs]I’m so excited to go forward.
SZ: That actually answers a question about if the rumors of a new Fishbone album are true.
NF: Yeah, we’ve been working on new material. We did some recording and we’ll get off this tour and complete an EP and then we’ll go into a full length record.
SZ: Any ETA on when those will drop?
NF: The EP will be slated for the summer, and we don’t really have an ETA for the full length right now. Ya’ know, it could be a fall release, it could be early 2012, we don’t know that much yet, but we’re actually. . . actually maybe we’re kinda jumping ahead with the songwriting and start to work on what would be some of the songs for the full length as well, as we work on the EP.
SZ: How does the songwriting breakdown? Does everyone write their own parts, or do you write the bulk of the material and say “This is what I got; what do you think?” or is it a little of both?
NF: Its a little bit of both like, you know there are songs that people write as individuals, and the amount of control that each person exerts over those individual compositions, it differs from song to song even. You know, sometimes a guy will introduce a song and he will be like “Yo, this is the bass line you need to play.” Sometimes it’s like “I put down a bass line but its not- I don’t think it’s the be-all end-all, put down what you feel comfortable with.” And that’s with any instrumentation on it. And when it’s really beautiful, we have time to stretch out and you know, we have things that come out of jams where everybody has kinda like the equal input.
SZ: Any advice for younger bands trying to get out there and hack it, particularly large bands with seven or eight members to herd together?
NF: Yeah, just you know keep the communication level high and keep your heart in it for the music you know? ‘Cause nothing is promised: the money, the girls, the things and even if you attain it, it could be fleeting. Not everybody that sells a million records continues on a long career.
So you know, figure out how to be in the present and enjoy what you have and just keep your heart in the music. Keep it about the music, ’cause that’s what can’t be taken away.
SZ: Got any cautionary tales from “The Road” or crazy tour stories?
NF: You know, there’s a whole lot that can be said about being a touring musician. You know like this far in the game I can honestly say that Fishbone rollin’ with Slightly Stoopid, we’re having the time of our lives right now, playing in front of amazing audiences and writing a new history every step of the way, ya’ know?
But really, “Is there a cautionary– ” No, ya know: Live with reckless abandon. To the hilt.[chuckles] Because if you don’t live life to the fullest, you’ll look back and you’ll be wishing that you had opened up your mind and your heart and that you had flown higher, ya know? So, my thing is like “Yo, if at the end of the day you wish you woulda’ did something, make sure you do that shit your next living day.”
[both laugh]
SZ: That’s some pretty sage wisdom. As far as audiences you were talking about: you guys are out with Slightly Stoopid who are kind of a reggae band, and you guys have been in the ska scene for a while. Have you noticed any differences with how shows have gone over the years with ska’s ebb and flow in popularity?
NF: Eh, yeah. you know its an amazing– ska has an amazing life cycle, you know? You know, the current popularity of bands influenced by Jamaican music it’s a – you know, its an incredible thing.
You got to think, like the first person to really bring like Jamaican based music into the mainstream. . . was Annette Funicello, you know?
SZ: Who you guys did a movie with.
NF: Yeah! [Laughs] Very proud to say!
SZ: So how exactly did Annette Funicello bringing Jamaican music to the forefront?
NF: Well you know what? She was on the Micky Mouse Club, man. And she was straight up, that was America’s Sweetheart. She grew up on television, right? And I remember that when I told my father that we were gonna do the movie and the song– record a song with Annette Funicello– and he was like “Yeah, I remember watching her grow up on TV, watching her sweater get tighter.” And then it hit me! She was a girl who became a woman on television, and nobody had ever done that before her. And so she was like really America’s first real sweetheart. And to me, she was the peanut butter lady* [chuckles] But it didn’t hit me till my dad said that, like really what she meant to America, and so for her to come out and do like “Jamaican Ska”–ya’ know– and introduce, like really– cause Henry Belafonte was doin’ island music as well, right? But it didn’t mean exactly the same thing. Ya know?
So, Annette Funicello being apart of Surf Culture as well, it makes it appropriate right now – like I surf, right, I’m a surfer, my drummer’s a surfer– and it makes it really appropriate the sounds, that bands like Slightly Stoopid and the Expendables, they represent surf culture. And so it is come full circle, where it went away from surf culture with the English ska movement–the 2-Tone Movement– but it did something really important that I think, you know, she was a vanguard in this way. That she was taking the very white world of Disney and she just injected color into it by brining Jamaican ska and Jamaican music to the party, you know?
SZ: Do you remember the first time you ever heard Jamaican music in your life, or was it something that was always there?
NF: Um. . . Well, I remember. . . There was music that was played that I didn’t really understand the difference. Like it was all music; it was all beautiful, right? And it was first like, really like the black radio stations in Los Angeles started playing Bob Marley, you know? They didn’t play it a lot. It was something that you would hear periodically and at the same time they would drop a Jimi Hendrix tune every now and again as well. And I knew who Jimi Hendrix was; I had those records. But the Bob Marley thing it was like “Whoa! What was that?” you know? That was really different. Ya know, so those, I remember that and like the curiosity that was “Ok, we gotta figure this out.” And we were already, you know not the entire band, my brother, Fish–the original drummer– and I, you know that put us in a space where we were immediately like “Ok, we gotta experiment with this.” You know, so we experimented with the rhythms. And so like the first three bands that we heard– so like first they played Bob Marley, and then I don’t remember the order after that, but it was Black Uhuru and Steel Pulse that those radio stations played, and that really like woke us up to what reggae was.
SZ: What are some ska and reggae records from over the years that you don’t think get enough love?
NF: Well, you know what: The track that really warms my heart is the song “The Israelites.” You know, Desmond Dekker. You know, it’s not an unknown track, but its one of those things, when I hear it its like… It’s like the vibe and the magic of it really… it really like touches me
SZ: Are there any Fishbone songs that move you in the same way as “The Israelites?”
NF: Uh. . . you know man. . . I can’t give you that one. That doesn’t really apply. Like for me, when I sit and I watch the audience move– I tell you what! I’ll give it like this: “Party at Ground Zero” when we play it live, and if we play an hour, hour and half, two hour show– it doesn’t matter. When we play that song, people, they dance and they dance harder than at any given point in the show, and that, that is what moves me more than anything.
SZ: Any stand out moments from Fishbone live shows that you care to share? Crazy things that have happened?
NF: You know what, there is a moment. It was…uh, we were playing Rutgers University. This was in the early 90s I think, maybe late 80s, but I think it was like it was somewhere between ’89 and ’91.
We’re playin’ Rutgers University and the audience was wild! They were doing things that we hadn’t exactly seen before. Like, the audience members, they were launching each other into the air. Like a guy would step into another guy’s hands and launch him self up above the crowd to “go swim.” They looked like flyin’ fish, right? Poppin’ outta the sea of people, the sea of humanity. So we were laughin’; it looked kinda like a cartoon from where we were standing on the stage, and it was hard to play. And they were kinda, they were more aggressive in a way that we weren’t used to seeing as well, right?
And so the show’s going down, and then all of a sudden, on top of all this, this prosthetic limb comes flying up onto the stage, and its got all these signatures all over it. So I’m thinkin’ “wow, these Rutgers University kids are crazy!” I was thinkin’ that the medical department kids had signed something and then threw it up to the band as a gift.
Well, about three songs later this kid launches up from the audience onto the stage, and he’s hoppin’ on one leg. He only has one leg, and he’s comin’ up to get his prosthetic leg![laughing] Our tour manager didn’t notice that he had one leg, and he ran over– we were playin’ the song “Lyin’ Ass Bitch”– and he ran over and he tackled the kid as he was trying to get his leg.[laughs] And that had me laughin’ so hard that I couldn’t even play. Like I had to stop playing and tell him “The kid has one leg; let him get his leg.” And the kid picked up his leg–he let him go– he picked up his leg, he put it in the air in victory– the crowd went nuts. Then he hops to the front of the stage and dove headfirst into the audience.
And the coolest thing about it is we made sure, the band, we made sure that we met that kid after the show, his name was Art, and he was the hugest Fishbone fan, man. We got to know him and he was a cancer patient and he would come to the shows–he would actually break out of the hospital to come to Fishbone shows. So whenever we would see or here that he was comin’, we’d make sure that he could set his wheelchair on stage so he could you know, watch from the stage, or you know, we fully accommodated him, ya know. So we were friends with him until he passed.
SZ: I was gonna ask what’s the weirdest thing to ever get thrown up on stage, but it sounds like a prosthetic leg is pretty tough act to follow.
NF:[laughs] Yeah man! Yeah. . . Art galvanized his place in out hearts and imaginations, you know.
SZ: That’s about all I have, any closing words or parting wisdom?
NF: You know, just keep the love in your heart, and that’s what we try to put forth in our music, is Love. It’s not, you know, life it may not be easy, and it might not be promised, believe me, it’s not promised to be long, so live it to your fullest and keep love in your heart.
*Note
In the 70′s and 80′s Annette Funicello was a spokeswoman for Skippy Peanut Butter. In 1987, Fishbone appeared with Funicello and Frankie Avalon in a scene in the film “Back to the Beach” performing a version of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires’ seminal hit “Jamaican Ska.” Funicello had previously covered the song in 1964 on the “Annette at Bikini Beach” album, which is the version to which Norwood is referring here.
Interviewer: Thomas Harding
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Many thanks to Fishbone for mentioning Art.. Great memory for those who still miss him, he was my cousin. Best of luck on the tour and new album!!!