Chris Robinson - Something To Crowe About
By Courtney Reimer
VH1.com
August 2, 2002

When the Black Crowes announced they were taking a hiatus earlier this year, singer Chris Robinson didn’t set up the hammock for an extended siesta. He hunkered down in the Malibu home of his mother-in-law Goldie Hawn, writing the songs that appear on his forthcoming solo debut, New Earth Mud. After a short acoustic tour of America and a Parisian recording session with a few English “jazzers,” he sat down with VH1 to talk about how it will be to get back in the tour van, why his new songs fall somewhere between Neil Young and Bobby Womack, and whether the Black Crowes will ever fly again.

VH1: So what’s the story with the new album?

Chris Robinson: It’s called the New Earth Mud. There are 12 songs. Hopefully it’s coming out by the end of October. I want to tour and get this record up and running, to show people the music that I’m into it. I’ve written some more and I’m about eight songs away from thinking about making another record. I want to keep things open, and see how I feel.

VH1: You recently went out on your first solo mini-tour. How did it go?

Robinson: It was really mini, but it was fun. I haven’t sat in a van and driven to shows in a while. It’s good to take a bunch of new songs and play them on acoustic guitars. You fall into it without thinking too much about, “How do we make this something people want to see?” Guitarist Paul Stacey and I added more music, so the sets really started changing. Every night was very different, which is always good.

VH1: Were you just debuting new material at the shows?

Robinson: No. I play some songs that didn’t make the new record, too. There were different covers. We play a Dan Penn song, a Traffic song, a Garcia/Hunter song, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan - Badfinger, too! I didn’t want to play everything from the record because some songs aren’t suited for acoustic settings.

VH1: What inspired your new songs?

Robinson: Most of them are born out of a place of love. There are some songs like “Untangle My Mind” and “Katie Dear” that are really personal. There’s a song called “Barefoot By the Cherry Tree” whose verses have stark imagery, depressing things about old women staring out of windows into gray skies and getting into black limousines. But the chorus is about watching a beautiful girl dancing in the sun by a cherry tree. It’s very joyful. To me, that’s the way life really is. It’s give and take, light and dark.

VH1: “Katie Dear” is obviously about your actress wife, Kate Hudson.

Robinson: Yeah. But “Katie Dear” is also the title of a famous Louvin Brothers song about two lovers who end up committing suicide because their parents don’t understand them. I’ve always loved that title. Musically there are elements of all the things I like on the album. We were trying to find a place between Neil Young and Bobby Womack. I have the country-folky-rootsy side, this heavy psychedelic side, and then I have a flat-out soul/funk vibe. The guys I worked with are really jazzers at heart! Paul Stacey, who co-produced the record and plays guitar and bass and keyboards, is from London. There was also this incredibly gifted keyboard player named Matt Jones. But the album is very focused. It’s an American guy from the South who wrote a bunch of songs in Malibu, got an English band, and recorded a record in France. It’s the all-American story!

VH1: You recorded the album in France? How did that happen?

Robinson: I made New Earth Mud in Paris while my wife and I were there, both working. The studio was an old, funky, dusty type place. It hadn’t been touched since the early ‘70s. You can hear the dust on the album! This guy who is now doing sound for me is an American expatriate who moved to France 20 years ago. He knew some people in my management company and said, “He would like this place.” It was the first studio we looked at, and it was awesome. But it was a pain in the ass, too, [working] with the French engineer. It was just me, some blokes, one French guy, and 894 cups of tea!

VH1: Did you feel more relaxed recording in Paris?

Robinson: Definitely. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but when you’re in a band you don’t really have time. Then stuff comes up and now I’m allowed to take this time. Then again, you make a lot of records, get into a vibe and suddenly it’s just you working in a French studio. You think, “Okay, I’ll remember how to do this by myself...” After a day, you’re rolling. I’m a firm believer in the artist knows best and, especially for this record, I wasn’t prepared to have people start telling me, “You can’t do that” or “Don’t do this.” So being so far away from the United States was another mental boost.

VH1: What comes after the release of New Earth Mud?

Robinson: Hopefully I’ll get an electric band together with the guys that I worked with, play some dates, take Christmas off, then make another record and go back out on tour. We’re also talking about putting out a Paris show as a vinyl record. I want to have more of an independent [label] vibe. If I have five new songs and they came out great, I want to be able to put out an EP, and have these outlets to do things outside of the big push that surrounds an album.

VH1: It sounds like you’re really into doing this. Does that mean the Crowes are a thing of the past?

Robinson: For today it is. I’m sure all of us have a different take on it. It’s like, “Did you break up with her?” “Yeah, man.” Then she’ll say, “I broke up with him!” It’s that same kind of sh*t with bands.

VH1: So would you leave the door open to returning to the Black Crowes in five years or so?

Robinson: Or in five months! Whatever! I’m leaving the door open to see what life gives us. I love my brother [Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson]. The stuff he and I know about each other is fine. I love everyone and the people who gave us the space to be the Black Crowes. But I’ve also never been so content and happy.

VH1: From here on out, you’re flying by the seat of your pants.

Robinson: Yeah. It’s good. Things are falling into place. It was really funny. I was in Malibu, writing these songs and stuff. My wife and I were homeless. We were living in her mom’s house. I sat down with my old manager and he said, “So what does it feel like? No manager, no band, no record company, no booking agent, no tour manager, no schedule...” I was like, “It’s great!” But I’m getting ready for the full thing. It feels good. I hope people like it. People who hear it are affected by it, and that’s all I can ask for. Life is just your ideas and laughing and your friends and your love. Everything else is what you want to make of it. With the time that I have, I want to make music. This is the music inside of me.