Interviews
An Interview with Rob Wright from NOMEANSNO
by Felix Thursday (photo by Rachel Motpeit)
Nomeansno was formed in 1981 in Victoria, British Colombia. 
In
1995 they released their 12th album, The Worldhood of the World (As
Such). It marked their 9th release for Alternative Tentacles and is
their strongest, most diverse effort to date. Recently, I had the
opportunity to talk with Rob Wright, the band's co-founder, lyricist,
bassist & vocalist, about music, sports, books, film and the worldhood
of the world.
With The Worldhood of the World (As Such), Nomeansno seems to be
heading in yet another musical direction. What factors were
responsible for the more basic approach on this album, which is quite
a departure from your last (Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy?), which
was, perhaps, your most abstract and least accessible?
Rob: You know what it is? I think it's because we do an about face
every two records. We make records that a lot of the time are
amplified in production and songwriting ambitions. We write a lot of
long songs and a lot of dark songs--epical songs--and then after a
while we get kinda sick of that and then we write some shorter,
up-tempo, more accessible songs. Simply because that's sort of a
relief for our audience, and for us as well. When we did this album,
we'd also just recently done a lot of work as The Hanson Bros., which
is our alter-ego band. It's sort of a punk rock, hockey and stupidity
thing, so I gravitated toward simpler notes. That why the album sounds
a little more "guitarry", a little more up-tempo--a little more
"poppy" maybe, if I dare say it--than the last one certainly, or some
of the others.
What are your influences? It's difficult to discern what you guys were
bred on. It frightens me to think of what you were listening to as
kids.
Rob: (Laughs) Myself, I was listening to The Beatles--that was my
first musical revelation. I graduated up to Jimi Hendrix and then the
Ramones and the Sex Pistols--that's what you get after that. I'm 41
years old, I've been listening to music since the early 60's. But when
I started playing music seriously, I stopped buying and listening to
music. That was kind of weird actually, but I try to draw on
everything I've heard. My brother (Nomeansno's drummer) has been
trained in a jazz band for his drumming, and he's coming out of
classical training, so we bring a lot of different things to our
songwriting and try to throw them in as they come to us, and not be
too particular or fussy. Anything goes as long as the song is good.
With the recent mainstream success of punk rock, you seem to remain
true to your independent ideals despite the attention and finance
that's afforded to newer bands like Green Day and The Offspring. What
are your views regarding major label signings and using corporate
radio and MTV as vehicles for promoting music?
Rob: I think it's a double-edged sword. it gives an opportunity to a
lot of people. To me, hearing a band like Green Day be top of the pops
playing the music they do...it's sort of a justification. I really
enjoy it because I always though the Ramones and the Buzzcocks should
have been top of the pops when they came out. I thought: "This is
really great pop music. This is pure, beautiful pop music, you know.
Why don't people like this?" It was a mystery to me. I guess it was
the edge and the coarseness of it, and the rawness of it, that turned
people off at the beginning. But it's nice to see that 15 years later
people finally wake up and go: "Oh yeah, this is great!"
Yeah, but 15 years later! Isn't that pathetic?
Rob: Yes, it's pathetic as well. At the same time I don't really like
major labels co-opting. I don't consider them the big evil, the big
brother up there in music, though. What they are is basically people
who make money making music, and music that sells a lot of copies and
makes a lot of money. So it's a really simple, straightforward thing.
The trouble with that is that a bunch of music is lost. Music is about
making money in the end and the value of it is in its marketability.
The value should be in the emotional connections it makes between
people, and its ability to communicate and bring people together in a
sort of transcendent, soulful thing that there is and people have
found valuable since they first sat around a campfire and banged drums
and screamed at each other. That's the spirit that's still gotta be in
it. Now if you can do that and still make a million dollars, fine. But
it all you're doing is making a million dollars with music that
doesn't have anything left in it, then it's burnt. That's always been
the argument with major labels and the commercialization of music.
It's not that people are making a lot of money doing it, or that it's
become an industry--I don't care. It's the fact that the process takes
away from the value that's in music--it's more than that. Having said
that, we ourselves have sort of gotten involved in the commercial end
of the business. We're doing another Hanson Bros. record and it's
being funded by Virgin/EMI. But the Hanson Bros. do pretty commercial
pop music. It's kind of a win/win situation for us. They gave us the
money to do what we want. Since it's always been such a joke, we've
been hesitant to spend most of our income getting it going--which is
what you have to do if you want to do a serious recording. So it's
kinda nice to get them to pay for that. The upshot, of course, is that
if it goes nowhere we go: "Oops! Oh well." (Laughs) Nomeansno has
always completely shied away--and, I think, rightfully so--from the
big marketing business--videos and all that kind of other crap,
because, as I said before, I think it would hurt the music. But with
the Hanson Bros., if it ends up being screwed by a major record
company--who cares? It's not a real band anyway.
Wow, that's real positive.
Rob: (Laughs) Well, that takes us off the hook. We can continue to do
our little cottage industry band and keep it nice and neat--in control
and under our belts--and not have to worry about becoming rich pop
sensations, which is a danger. Even us, after knowing what we know and
being through what we've been through...you look at bands like Green
Day and go: "Oh gosh, we could be like them."
Why would you want to? I saw Green Day open for you!
Rob: Yeah, it's hilarious. Soundgarden opened for us a couple times
too. But when you look at that, the idea that success is actually good
for you and your music, it's 99% wrong. It usually does nothing but
screw people up, and I know that for a fact. I've seen it happen to
people in bands. So you've got to keep your head together and think:
"Are we really that dumb?" We did it the way we do it, so why change?
Okay. Now I've got a few questions for you regarding Canada.
Rob: Okay.
First of all, with how dismal things look for the Blue Jays and the
Expos this year, when do you predict that Canada will be in another
World Series?
Rob: (Laughs) Oh god, it's such a tragedy with the Blue Jays. What
happened there? The team just like disintegrated and then they sold
them all off. But, by the way they were playing there at the end, I
can see why. What happens to a team? After the strike it was basically
the same team that was in the World Series, but they couldn't do a
damn thing. But of course the question up here isn't who's gonna win
the World Series, but who's going to win the Stanley Cup playoffs.
That is what's really motivating Canadians. Baseball's caught on up
here, but if you really want to see real sports frenzy you've got to
come up here and go to a hockey game and get into the hockey scene.
People are obsessed by it.
Actually that's all I have in my "Canadian Question" repertoire. What
about favorite books?
Rob: I'm a huge James Joyce fan. That's what I like to read. I also
dabble in German philosophy because it's almost impossible to
understand. But if you can just get through some of it and actually
get to what they're trying to say, it's amazing.
Like Nietzsche?
Rob: Or like Heideggar. Actually, The Worldhood of the World (As Such)
is a quote from Heideggar.
Alright!
Rob: (Laughs) How pompous and pretentious is that? Of course, there's
a sense of irony involved. I must confess to being a closet
intellectual. I dabble in that kind of stuff--it's good for writing
songs.
What about favorite films?
Rob: Films...I'm really disappointed in films. Although I'm interested
to see Fargo, the new Cohen Bros. film. But as far as major commercial
films, I've just totally lost interest. I saw Braveheart. It was the
biggest turkey I've ever seen. I thought it was just horribly
overblown. Then it gets the Oscar! I just couldn't believe it. I'm
just not in the mainstream anymore. I very rarely go out to see films.
What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Rob: Italian lemon sherbet! It's the greatest thing in the world, that's easy.
finis.
Okay, so my interviewing skills were pretty weak at the time of this
interview. It was my first interview, so piss off! Rob's answers are
interesting (as usual) I can't believe I asked the dreaded
"influences" question. Oh well. You can purchase Nomeansno LPs and CDs
by simply clicking on the Alternative Tentacles link on this here
website. And, if you'd like to read more about Nomeansno, simply click
on the other two interviews.
This interview appeared in Church on Thursday, Issue # 2, sometime in 1995.
