Ahead of their Australian tour with Golden Plains, Eddie “King” Roeser of Urge Overkill talks to Mary Boukouvalas about the past and all things Rock N Roll (Submarine).

How are you going? Are you relaxing at the moment? You’re back home?

Yes I’m relaxing and it’s snowing in Chicago?

Snowing in Chicago. Well you will be pleased to know that Melbourne which you are touring soon, is 28 degrees.

Great... I remember we're at opposite times of the year.

We do get winter, we also get four seasons in a day … but we don’t have snow.

I always remember Melbourne is kind of laid out like Chicago, a big sprawling grid…

That is so true. Do you remember anything that happened that you could share with us from Big Day Out and other tours in Melbourne?

I just remember that we felt an affinity, that we felt like it was the Chicago of the southern hemisphere. It reminded us of Chicago, I guess.

Oh that’s excellent. So it felt very much like home?

As much as you can be when you’re on the opposite side of the world. Yeah it was just a refreshingly real city. We thought everyone was really nice, and we’ve always had a lot of good shows. We had our publishing people there were always great. Yeah, no real specific memories as of now. Although I do remember, yeah I remember being here and it was cold a lot of the time I don’t know when I would have been there.

That was probably in the latest tour -2006 maybe - you played the Corner Hotel and it wasn’t one of the BDO summer festivals.

That’s right.

I have seen you about three times so photographed you twice. I haven’t interviewed you yet if you could just indulge me with some questions from the old days?

Yeah sure.

How did you first start in the band and why did you take the name from the Parliament song?

Well Nash and I grew up on stage in the state of Minnesota we didn’t meet until then. He had been involved in a band that was breaking up, and he’d already named the band Urge Overkill. The other two guys, the drummer and the bass player, they were the band that didn’t get off campus really. But I’ve been searching for somebody to play with and it was really just a great environment to find anybody who shared my taste but finally went to a party and saw the band play in a basement and apparently it was their last gig.

A couple of weeks later I asked around where I could get a hold of this Nash character and even though I had never played bass before that’s how we started out like I just lost the drummer and the bass player I’m sorry it’s over. I said well I’m sure I could pick up the bass. Let’s give it a shot, I’d always been a guitar player with my own ideas. You know, it took off from there. Steve Albini was at the same school. He was Nash’s roommate at the time and the band moved off campus and very soon he had dropped out so needless to say I didn’t spend a whole lot of time on campus after that.

But Big Black … played at the same party actually. I saw Big Black do their first night and that was a real eye opener for me in that you know it was a fairly conservative campus at that time and I finally found - after being there a year- I finally found you know the people that I wanted to hang out with.
Steve was just learning to record music and soon after that, in the next couple of years, he was moving to a house and setting up a recording studio and we recorded most of our record in his basement as sort of a guinea pig project. And Touch N Go had been releasing Big Black and Steve played them some of our material so that’s how we got our first record out. That was all happening in Chicago back in the late 80s.

And when you said you find someone who shared your taste in music, who were your infuences? What music were you listening to back then, in this conservative campus?

At the time Urge Overkill sounded like AXE, like really fast tunes that had some melodic elements in them. ….and I think I added maybe a slower, harder rock, like more garage thing, but our first record was almost like really a wall of sound. We didn’t really do quite a few overdubs; it was almost like proto Stoner rock our first record …pretty heavy but also psychedelic too. It had some unfortunate Chicago funk elements shifts ‘cause we were probably playing faster than we should’ve because that all the bands were playing kind of fast you know it was the days when punkrock had elements of hardcore beat which we dropped pretty soon shortly afterwards. We always had a sort of heavier sound than what was happening in Chicago at the time; was sort of faster more upbeat stuff, like Naked Raygun, things like that.

So, who would you say is your favourite artist of all time?

Oh boy, I would have to say my favourite artist for all time … I’ve been listening to his stuff for the next couple probably Reverend Al Green I really like that stuff. It’s outside my expertise. I would do anything to be able to sing like that.

What about growing up? What kind of music did you listen to?

Well when I was in high school the bands thriving nearest my home town were the … The Replacements… that was what we were into about the time the band started playing; they were pretty unknown. You know, I remember fIREHOSE too -bands like that, you know we were very into Big Black, the other Touch N Go bands.
In high school though I went pretty much straight from the rock of the day although it had been recorded earlier but I was always a big listener Led Zeppelin… and the Rolling Stones.

That’s old skool

It was fundamental; those were fundamental bands I learnt to play guitar to. And I can’t leave out AC/DC either.

Oh ACADACA well done.

Indeed.

Well definitely the Aussies would like that reference definitely.

A must.

When you mentioned Steve Albini earlier he was quite critical when you signed with Geffen Well how did you feel about that when you first were friends as well as working together and then what was it like working with Butch Vig.

I suppose it was just a philosophical difference. You know signing with the major label we were taking our chances and letting go of total control of our music in exchange for the possibility for the kind of exposure that we would never be able to get on Touch N Go he just had a philosophical belief that just wasn’t the honourable way to play music and that music ought to be and you know if you were going to be part of the punk world that these people didn’t value music in the same way that they ought to.

We found that they were real fans of our band and we had a pretty good working relationship with them and that if we understood at any time they could decide to focus their energy on other bands but we decided that we wanted a bigger, we wanted to take the chance to get better exposure and to spend some more time in the studio. None of us owned a studio like he did and it ended up being something I don’t regret but for us we felt like maybe we were dreaming but we pretty much got the support that we needed. We believed in ourselves and it ended up being a good decision. Our difficulties later were largely of our own making and had nothing to do with the label.

Although I wouldn’t recommend every band go outside to a major label and probably at this point I wouldn’t even want to be on a major label myself. They really have become more dependent on every record turning a profit. At the time that we signed in it was understood that there was money in the system and they could afford to lose money on bands. They can’t really do that anymore.
So it was a matter of timing and finding somebody else at the label who likes the band. We pretty much got what we hoped for. We had good help and you know we knew what we were doing.

We expected that criticism … that we were selling out.

It sounds very much like selling out and the tall poppy syndrome that we love to hate those bands that make it big but are still sort of alternative.

Right.

We have that syndrome here in Australia too.

Yes I think that things have changed now so much that so that you really have to sign away a lot more with the major labels now. You used to be able to keep your publishing and your merchandising and things like that. They want all that too … things have gotten … that’s become I think a less viable option.

I’ll just move on to your new album because I realise we are running out of time. What’s your favourite track from your latest album: Rock N Roll Submarine?

Well I guess, it’s hard for me to choose from the first four songs but I do think that Effigy is one that ended up, that just as a personal favourite that was something that I had in mind and came together really quickly.

You wrote and sang on that one didn’t you?

Right and another that came out in a kind of unexpected cool way … I don’t know I think the first four songs are really, you know ... when I put the record on I can’t really pick a favourite.

Do you think your music has developed over the years in a certain way or towards a certain direction or what do you think of your sound these days?

There are a lot of things that I come up with or that we come up with as a band that maybe don’t happen to sound like what’s going to fit in the Urge box, all have a specific standard but it’s important that, as eclectic as we are, you sort of want to keep it, keep things to what’s going to work as a rock band and as positively as a live song.

I don’t know how much developed in terms of complexity if anything I like stuff that is going to be even simpler and more direct which is always you know you are always hoping that something is going to come along and be a breakthrough …you know I am still waiting …

Ha ha I think you have had a few breakthrough songs believe me. Sister Havana and Positive Bleeding are are still floor fillers.

Well thanks so much I like to sort of think at this point we are hoping to at least just hold the line.

What do you think is next for you guys?

We’ve been back kind of going into the studio as we had an opportunity to check out some different places where we might be recording next time, and we played through some of the ideas we had and I think we got some usable material that’s pretty cool.

Fantastic.

You know, we’ve got a backlog of demos where the songs we like a lot but we probably want to re-record just at the point where we might want to change a couple of things. So we’ve got plenty of, we’ve got a lot of really good ideas and what you sort of are hoping is always going to happen is you come through with two or three songs that really stand above you know the standard you might have and are good ideas and they’re good and they’re all strong. We’re just kind of waiting for that next lead to happen which you know we waited as long as we could on the last record and we certainly think it’s a really great record. You may come up you may strike gold at some point.

I can’t say right now what we’ve the next great song to kick off the next record I’m not gonna say that because we’re always hoping for something better. What we’ve got is pretty good. If we were to go in tomorrow, we’ve got a record right now quite easily.

Excellent. Do you think we might see some if these live in the Australia shows?

You know this just took place a couple of weeks ago; the way we organised… and not all being in the same town, it’s a stretch but I will put it on the list. How’s that - I’ll put in a request for new material.

Yay! Well we’re always looking for new ways that you guys are expanding. I’m wary of the time because I know there’s another interview coming up.

You know we can keep going until the next person calls in if you’ve got another question

They haven’t called in yet? So, you can tell when they call in? Oh perfect, I’ve got lots of questions but before that, I just wanted to let you know that one of my live photos of Urge Overkill graces the walls of Corner Hotel, along with Joe Strummer and other artists who played there. You’ll have to check it out.

Okay, yeah, I hope we can do that. I don’t know if it’s the area.

You’re playing The Espy in St Kilda next time. It’s quite close to The Corner Hotel.

Just depends on time. I remember it being a real rock and roll place.

Yes, definitely, both the Espy and The Corner are rock and roll places
Did you go to the Cherry Bar when you were in Melbourne?

Honestly I probably did I just don’t remember

It’s in AC/DC lane so it’s probably one that you would. Yes, we’ve had a laneway changed and named after AC/DC.

Oh wow. Well they deserve it. What part of town would you call that?

AC/DC lane is in Melbourne CBD. You should try to check it, and Cherry Bar, out.

Ok, yeah, if we do have time.

You left the band in ’96. Do you talk about that at all and how did you finally agree to put the band back together?

Well, we really had a lot of …

Sorry Eddie but are you strumming your guitar in the background?

Well a little bit … I tend to do that when talking on the phone. It does get to people.

Well, I’m honoured. I’m going to say that you played for me!

(Laughs.)We had a lot of contact you know with going out to shows and things like that where people really in Chicago especially were proud of having Urge as one of their... we were their band... doing the magic.

What was so bad was going to get in the way of this great thing. And we sort of, as time went on, exactly what it was that was bad and made it so that we couldn’t play together, we just forgot what it was that so that despite all that, with Nash and that we would never play together again, and enough people showed us enough support and belief that they would be there to support us that we decided to give it a try and of course you know it was far more positive. It was a lot of fun.

And we didn’t immediately run into … we weren’t in the same situation we weren’t going to bring up the things that had been the worst aspects of the pressure the expectations were over obviously, so the stuff we fought about was gone. So you know it had to do with all the people around here and Chicago … I think they’re somebody else on the line …

Ok that’s your other call thanks so much Eddie.

Ok thanks a lot. Talk to you again soon. Bye.

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Australian tour dates for URGE OVERKILL:

THURSDAY 8TH MARCH: MELBOURNE, THE ESPY
Tickets $45 + bf from www.espy.com.au, ph: 1300 762 545 or in person at the Espy Bottleshop and all Oztix outlets

FRIDAY 9TH MARCH: BRISBANE, THE ZOO
Tickets $40 + bf from feelpresents.oztix.com.au, ph: 1300 762 545 or in person at the venue box office and all Oztix outlets

SATURDAY 10TH MARCH: SYDNEY, THE GAELIC
Tickets $44 + bf from feelpresents.oztix.com.au, ph: 1300 762 545 or in person at all Oztix outlets

Also playing the Golden Plains Festival 2012.