James Williamson, Frank Meyer, and Petra Haden have formed a trio called The Pink Hearts and are poised to release their debut album, Behind the Shade, on June 22. Upon first listen to "Riot On the Strip" I was sent on a journey to the center of getting my ass kicked. It's everything you need a rock-'n'-roll song to be. It's hot and sweaty. It's mean and nasty. But, the record is not constrained to just one sound, nor is the vocal delivery and instrumentation fixed into one set of emotions. One minute, it's loud and quite abrasive, the next it's full of Americana nuances and harmonizing. That doesn't mean the record suffers anything in terms of cohesiveness. The sounds and imagery are eclectic, almost schizophrenic at moments, but it's so well done and put together that it qualifies as one of those rare albums that takes you on a journey while it slowly begins to grow on you.
James' signature guitar work is carved into the woodwork of the record and hammered down with Frank's gut punchy vocals. But, just when your eardrums are turning black-n-blue, Petra steps in to calm it all down. At least as much as a record as combustible as this would allow. The album is already widely anticipated and is going to be one of this summer's best releases. Just wait. You'll believe it when you hear it.
All three members of The Pink Hearts have a history anchored in rock-'n'-roll. Most people reading Punk Globe will most likely know that James was a member of The Stooges and is responsible for the iconic guitar sounds on 'Raw Power'. Subsequently, he went on to become vice president of technology standards at Sony Electronics. Frank has fronted The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs on and off for years, written books, composed music for various television shows and movies, and most recently directed a documentary. He has such an impressive amount of credit to his name that he might as well have introduced the Meyer Lemon, but that was another Frank Meyer who was responsible for that, and he dropped dead in 1918. Then there is Petra, who has been in several bands including That Dog, Tito and Tarantula, and The Decemberists. She is an accomplished violinist and is the daughter of jazz bassist Charlie Haden. She is not present in this interview, but her name pops up during the course of it. That said, she will be present at the live shows the band has coming up starting at the end of this month. Find out when they come crashing into your town. Then buy a ticket. I crammed a few questions into Frank and James' busy schedule. Their answers are below. Don't forget to buy the record. And for God's sake...turn the FUCKER UP!
Friday, June 29 @ El Rey. Los Angeles, California.
Saturday, June 30 @ Great American Music Hall. San Francisco.
Tickets www.axs.com
jameswilliamsonandthepinkheart
http://
Punk Globe: You have a new band project and the new record is out soon. There are two shows booked so far. Some of the material is different from the kind of music you're known for. Are you excited or a bit nervous about doing it live?
Frank: The first two shows are June 29 at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles and the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. We have more shows being lined up throughout the rest of the Summer and Fall. The album was written by James and myself and features Petra Haden on co-lead vocals and violin. It has a lot of the punk heaviness you’d expect from him, but Petra adds some depth, dimension and femininity that is a total suckerpunch.
No, I’m actually not nervous about singing the new material live at all. In fact, I’m really looking forward to it because the live set is a mix of the new songs James and I wrote, plus tons of Stooges classics. So there’s plenty of fast, hard-rockin’ high-energy punk, which is what we’re known for, but there’s moodier stuff too. We get to stretch a bit more than our previous bands. For me, it’s extra fun because I get to really sing my heart out and push my voice further than I ever have, and I don’t have to split my attention by playing guitar too. So I guess, doing this without my crutch, my guitar, is the biggest challenge. I'm probably more nervous about that more than anything.
Punk Globe: James, this new record is your first since Re-Licked, which featured 16 different vocalists. This time around, you have only two, who are not providing guest contributions, but are band members. What drew you to collaborate with Frank and Petra?
James: On my last full-length solo album Re-Licked, I had around 14 guest singers altogether. Of course with that many singers, it's impossible to tour. However, when we were asked to tape a couple of episodes of “The Carson Daily Show," a number of the singers came to LA for the taping. And since they were already going to be in town, I asked them if they would like to do a live show. Even with that, I was short quite a few, so Cheetah Chrome suggested I use Frank Meyer. I asked Frank to do “Sick of You” and was impressed with not only his singing but with his stage presence as well.
When I began to write new music early last year, I approached Frank to see if he could write some lyrics for me. He was so prolific that it became clear that this writing team was going to work. Beyond that, the combination of Frank & Petra's vocals was amazing.I’ve been aware of Petra’s work since around 2013 when I was looking for a backing singer for the final Stooges album, Ready to Die. Our mutual friend Mike Watt suggested that I listen to Petra's a cappella album of The Who Sells Out. I was impressed. I met with her and became more impressed as time went on. She did some amazing vocals on “The Departed” for Ready to Die and other tracks. From there, I did a single with her on lead vocals to raise funds for animal rescue, and I also enlisted her to great effect on my release last year with Deniz Tek, “Acoustic K.O.” I've only been talking about her voice — her violin playing is also incredible!
Punk Globe: Frank, you wrote all the lyrics on this record. How did the band decide on who was responsible for specific things like writing? And was it all done collectively or by the band bringing in individual efforts that turned into a Pink Hearts song?
Frank: James and I wrote the entire album together, except for one song, “Destiny Now,” which he wrote with Paul Kimball. He approached me last year with a few song ideas and was interested in collaborating. Some of the music he sent was hard rockin’ like you’d expect, but a few were really dark and atmospheric, even some acoustic. I was hearing traces of stuff like Nick Cave and Alejandro Escovedo (we covered his “Died A Little Today” as a bonus track). I loved it. So I wrote lyrics and melodies and rearranged what he sent a bit, demo’d it all on my laptop the same night and sent it to him. He was fairly shocked by my quick turnaround but …dude, this was JAMES FUCKING WILLIAMSON. I wasn’t fucking around. When he said, “Jump,” I said, “How high?!?” and started working really hard and loose and fast. Plus I was going through a bunch of shit in my personal life at the time and wanted to capture the urgency of it all. I felt like the lyrics needed a sense of tension and transition, of emotional panic, and I was happy to use my own personal life as the guinea pig for this particular art project.
Punk Globe: Did you know Petra before this? How was the experience singing with her?
Frank: I had never met Petra Haden before James trapped us in a vocal booth together minutes after we first met and demanded we come up with a spontaneous, perfect two-part vocal harmonies together…live…on the spot! Aaaaand, “Roll tape!!!” By the time we got out of that sweaty vocal booth we were best friends for life.
I was very familiar with Petra’s work. I saw her band That Dog live in the ‘90s, and knew she played with Mike Watt and the Decemberists. After James and I wrote the first few tunes, he suggested adding Petra to the mix. He had worked with her on the last Stooges album, Ready To Die, and his Re-Licked and Acoustic K.O. albums, and thought we’d sound great paired together. I loved the idea…though I don’t think she had any idea who I was, necessarily. But after James put us through vocal bootcamp, we soon bonded over being obsessed with an obscure Carole King album, the soundtrack to her animated collaboration with Where The Wild Things’ Maurice Sendak, called Really Rosie. We started joyously singing it over and over and James just was like, “What the fuck is happening here?” Turns out we both grew up in the same L.A. hoods and had a million mutual friends. So once she got into the band, I started writing knowing we had her as a weapon. We wrote stuff for her to sing, like “Pink Hearts Across the Sky,” plus stuff she and I could duet on, like “Purple Moon.” It’s been an amazing experience. She is hands-down the best vocalist I have ever worked with or ever been in the same room with. We are a rad team.
Punk Globe: The song "Riot on the Strip" is definitely loud and raucous, but some of the others like "Pink Hearts Across The Sky" are a bit quieter. Since this is a band project was there an effort by all of you to have that soft and loud contrast on the record? Or did it happen naturally?
James: It just came about naturally. I was writing a variety of music for the album and, as with all projects, some of it was used and some wasn't. In the case of "Pink Hearts Across the Sky," Frank was driving home in LA traffic one day and saw these Pink Balloons floating across the sky. The image felt so symbolic that he paired it with the music I had sent him. It's a simple but powerful song about hope and dreams. I think it will resonate with lots of people.
Punk Globe: Frank, your new film "Risen: The Story of Chron "Hell Razah" Smith just won Best Documentary at the Hollywood Verge Film Awards. How did you get involved in that project?
Frank: It’s been an amazing journey, man. I met Hell Razah when his group Sunz of Man were signed to Red Ant Entertainment in 1997, where I was just a li'l ol’ publicist. In fact, I took the job at the label because I was a huge Wu Tang Clan fan and I knew they had just signed. I worked that whole campaign and was there when they recorded with Earth Wind and Fire, Wyclef Jean, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, RZA, and did all the big videos and tours. After the group parted ways, Hell Razah and I stayed friends. We made music together and talked on the phone a lot. But in 2010 I heard he suffered a brain aneuryism. I called up and he didn’t sound too good, and he downplayed how serious it was. But when I was out on the East Coast and visited him, I saw he was hit harder by it than he had told me or had told the press and his fans. He had lost his entire left side, his ability to walk and his ability to rap. He was taking speech therapy and occupational therapy, but his insurance was capping out and he wasn’t getting the attention he needed. He was angry and depressed and just not in a good place. I loved him and was sick to my stomach that he was in this situation, So I grabbed a camera and started filming his rehabilitation, therapy, and slow climb back to life, love and music. We shot on and off for six years and I watched him work his way back to the things he loved: his passion for music, rapping, his band, his family, his spirituality, and we watched him mend a lot of fences. It became a story everyone can relate to: what do you do when everything you love, everything you worked so hard for, gets taken from you? Do you feel sorry for yourself and wither away? Or do you fight and become stronger from the journey? That is what Risen: The Story of Chron "Hell Razah" Smith is about. And we are honored to be winning these awards and getting official selections in all these film festivals. Please follow us at www.risendocumentary.com an
Punk Globe: James, you're known for being a wild guitar player who has influenced many musicians. On this effort, you've done some things on the new record that are obviously different from the Vox AC30/Les Paul sound. Were there any challenges involved with this record? Meaning did you step out of any comfort zones in order to collaborate and do something different?
James: You have to remember that for every "Search and Destroy" or "Raw Power" that I wrote, there was also a "Gimme Danger" or "No Sense of Crime." So I've been writing as many ballads throughout my career as I have rockers. In that sense, this was very familiar territory for me. But, in writing for this band, I had a very rich vocal palette to work with so I could really expand my music. There is still the Vox AC30/Les Paul combo in lots of places, and there is also the Martin D28 things (like on Raw Power). I even used a Fender Telecaster on a couple of things to add a different tonal quality. I definitely mixed it up a bit.
Punk Globe: What's next for The Pink Hearts? And where can people buy this record and maybe catch the band live?
Frank: I’m here to sing when James wants to play, damnit! We seem to have a good groove going, so long as he keeps writing these badass riffs and giving me such great music to work with, I’m happy to write and sing and tour with him. Our debut album as James Williamson and the Pink Hearts is called Behind the Shade and it's out June 22 on Leopard Lady Records. The week of the release we are doing two west coast shows, June 29 at the El Rey in Los Angeles, a hometown show for Petra and I, and June 30 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. And although I was raised in L.A., I was actually born in the Bay Area, and one of my favorite Stooges bootlegs is from Bimbos 1974 in SF, so kinda cool we’re launching with these particular shows. Then in August and September we are doing a bunch of dates around the country. There’s talk of Europe as well, but who knows. When James and Petra wanna rock, I am there. You can find out more at http://
Punk Globe: You have said before in previous interviews that you don't really like writing lyrics, which led you to handing that part of the process to Frank who just happens to be an accomplished writer. What is it about writing lyrics that you don't like? And do you think you might explore that in the future?
James: I'm just no good at it, plain and simple. Sure I can write some lyrics, but they are so labored and painful that I'd much prefer to hand over that job to someone like Frank (or Iggy or Paul) who are gifted with that talent. At this point in my life, I sincerely doubt I'll start my lyrical career. I'll just stick to playing guitar!
