Brain interview (Feb 2015) on the I'd Hit That podcast

[mortismurphy]

And he did cite Axl's concert delays as a reason for leaving.

Maybe one of the reasons. Not the sole reason as he already envisioned himself sitting behind a desk not having to travel the world every year.

If touring was his passion in life, I'm sure he would have liked to continued with Guns.

But it is chaos which he describes, completely unprofessional, crazy.

I think the environment is also to blame, they were allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted. A result of being such a big band in that period of time I guess. It seemed like money was never an issue.

I really still have to listen to this interview, so I don't want to comment on too much before that

But

Why is there anything to blame?

If it was a crazy atmosphere and people where total characters    What's wrong with any of that?  

Even if some of the concert delays where one of the reasons brain left....    Why is that a bad thing?  I don't see these things as negatives.   It's actually pretty cool.

I semi, agree. I have never been obsessed with this 'negative' 'positive' thing anyway. This is this board. This is jarmo's mantra. Real life does not work like that, between two clearly demarcated binary opposites.

The reason I say 'semi' when I agreed there with you is there is, much of this that is detrimental to the continuation of a line-up or the release of music. Everyone (except for Jarmo) wonders why 'Axl does not release music?'' There is your answer, in that interview. It is impossible to release music with that sort of working regime. A lot of people question why band members leave? Brain specifically states Freese left because he was 'tired of sitting around for three years doing nothing'. Brain says, he left because of the concert delays.

It is all there in the interview.

[jarmo]

Lot of bigger bands with more money than Axl do not have that madness.

Yeah, you don't see the bass player in the Stones getting a solo spot in their shows.

Brain says, he left because of the concert delays.

Really? That's the main reason?
He says he got worn out of the late shows. Doesn't say he left mainly because of that.

He actually says the whole experience was cool and he just got older and didn't wanna do it anymore.

Direct quote: "I left because, you know, I had a kid and I just thought wanted really get this composing thing going. I wanted to give it a shot."

"How many more shows do I need to play? I toured the world three or four times...."


There you go.




/jarmo

[Spirit]

And he did cite Axl's concert delays as a reason for leaving.

Maybe one of the reasons. Not the sole reason as he already envisioned himself sitting behind a desk not having to travel the world every year.

If touring was his passion in life, I'm sure he would have liked to continued with Guns.

But it is chaos which he describes, completely unprofessional, crazy.

I think the environment is also to blame, they were allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted. A result of being such a big band in that period of time I guess. It seemed like money was never an issue.

Lot of bigger bands with more money than Axl do not have that madness. Can you imagine Jagger not showing up for rehearsals before a huge gig, only to turn up in the early morning insisting on a very weary Richards/Watts/Wood to go through everything again before him, sitting there nonchalantly on a chair? Can you imagine Chinese Democracy levels of studio wastage happening with a Springsteen album?

At this point all the money came from the record company, I guess they regarded Axl/GNR as pretty big since they just poured money into the project.

I think it's wrong to compare this version of GNR with The Rolling Stones and Springsteen. Axl was doing something that really hadn't been done before, rebuilding a band that already had achieved enormous success. It was a brand new band really, he brought together people from all angles and was trying to make this work. It wasn't a group of people who knew each other inside out and could just write an album from the get go. They were allowed to use the time they needed to get in sync, that's my estimation of it anyway.

Sure there seems to be a lot of down-time, and the reason for it is not something we know 100%. I don't think Axl just decided to kick back and rest for 2 years just for the hell of it. We do know he was involved with a lot of legal business at the time.

[TheBaconman]

And he did cite Axl's concert delays as a reason for leaving.

Maybe one of the reasons. Not the sole reason as he already envisioned himself sitting behind a desk not having to travel the world every year.

If touring was his passion in life, I'm sure he would have liked to continued with Guns.

But it is chaos which he describes, completely unprofessional, crazy.

I think the environment is also to blame, they were allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted. A result of being such a big band in that period of time I guess. It seemed like money was never an issue.

Lot of bigger bands with more money than Axl do not have that madness. Can you imagine Jagger not showing up for rehearsals before a huge gig, only to turn up in the early morning insisting on a very weary Richards/Watts/Wood to go through everything again before him, sitting there nonchalantly on a chair? Can you imagine Chinese Democracy levels of studio wastage happening with a Springsteen album?

I am pretty sure jagger is a bit of a character in his own right....

I don't see anything wrong with Axl showing up late or not at all to the studio.   Everything you mentioned above.  If it did happen is not bad.  

I think it's actually pretty funny and cool.  

[NaturalLight]

Primus, Tom Waits, Guns N Roses, Praxis - Brain's worked with all of them (he was a member of GNR for 6 years). He talks about the aforementioned as well as what he's been up to recently - Composing for film. He also tells some great Buckethead stories. Great hang. Recorded in Venice Beach, California February 2015

Listen: http://idhitthatpodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2015-03-03T09_15_15-08_00

Source: http://idhitthatpodcast.podomatic.com/


He talks about coming to the realization that he doesn't wanna keep touring forever and started learning using computers.



From 38:30 on he talks about Buckethead ("he was talking with a puppet" [the host and Brain laugh]), introducing him to people, how he got involved with GN'R.

Talking about Buckethead in GN'R:
"What wore out the managers. There's millions of Dollars on the line, and they're [managers] talking to a fucking puppet. So finally, he just went MIA, and the only way to get a hold of him was through me. And it was kinda fun. I mean, at that point I was like "Oh, ok, to get a hold of the main guy keeping it together, Slash's replacement, was to go through me. I kinda felt like a big cock, you know... Whatever."

Later on "He kinda got off on that, that it wore everybody out and that I was together enough to speak for him."

He says Buckehead probably did this to protect himself.

"You couldn't get a hold of him for a month. We're going tour coming, is he coming? I don't know if he's gonna show up."

Says Buckethead would go MIA, and nobody knew where he was.

---

"He signed his contract with Axl at Disneyland."

"Even at rehearsal, he had the mask on. Nobody ever saw him."

And Axl loved it?
"Yeah. I mean. How could you not love it? That was... It was awesome. It was the greatest. Every time was like what mask is he gonna walk in this time?"

"That was his thing"


After the 1:00:00 mark Brain says Josh recommended Buckethead to GN'R. Ozzy Osbourne had already been interested in hiring Buckethead, but it didn't happen for some reason.
At that point Primus was ending, so Brain was available when Josh left.

Brain was not sure if he was into rock music at that point.

Axl invited Brain to come and meet everybody.
He's flown down First Class and driven to the studio in a nice car, he meets Axl there ("he was super cool"). Three months later, Tommy calls him and invites him down to L.A. again to jam.

They jam and Brain says he sucked because he didn't know any of the songs. Then he realizes he'll look like a douche for not learning them and he asked Tommy for a day to learn them.
He comes back and gets a new drum set up. Stayed up all night to learn the songs.

"Then I felt like this is the real deal"

He says he listened to Appetite "this is a well crafted album"

He talks about rehearsing for Rock In Rio and how they did a whole set with pyro and confetti so Axl could see the show.

He says Axl was always good to him.

Brain said he left when his kid was born, he didn't wanna tour anymore and wanted to focus on composing.

He says he hasn't talked to Buckethead for two years.


Talking about recording a song.

"Axl knows his shit".

Brain replays the part of a song, Axl listens to the recording of the song and notices that Brain had missed a kick drum compared to an earlier take.

"I was like Wow! He caught that!"




/jarmo

Thanks for transcribing the parts that you did. When I get some time, I'll check out the links.

My take away from all this is that (even though the puppet thing was funny) Buckethead comes off as irresponsible.
Probably not a popular sentiment, but if the band that employed you is trying to tour and they can't find you . . .

Brain came off as pretty reasonable. I caught a few GnR shows with him and was impressed, although that wasn't really surprising. While I've never been a big fan of Primus, that band had some super talented musicians in it.

[mortismurphy]

And he did cite Axl's concert delays as a reason for leaving.

Maybe one of the reasons. Not the sole reason as he already envisioned himself sitting behind a desk not having to travel the world every year.

If touring was his passion in life, I'm sure he would have liked to continued with Guns.

But it is chaos which he describes, completely unprofessional, crazy.

I think the environment is also to blame, they were allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted. A result of being such a big band in that period of time I guess. It seemed like money was never an issue.

Lot of bigger bands with more money than Axl do not have that madness. Can you imagine Jagger not showing up for rehearsals before a huge gig, only to turn up in the early morning insisting on a very weary Richards/Watts/Wood to go through everything again before him, sitting there nonchalantly on a chair? Can you imagine Chinese Democracy levels of studio wastage happening with a Springsteen album?

I am pretty sure jagger is a bit of a character in his own right....

I don't see anything wrong with Axl showing up late or not at all to the studio.   Everything you mentioned above.  If it did happen is not bad.  

I think it's actually pretty funny and cool.  

Again, I never said it was 'wrong or 'bad' per se. I said it goes a long way in explaining a lot about why there have been multiple band members and an inability to release new material. If you think band members leaving because of Axl's inactivity is 'cool', then you are perfectly entitled to that view of course. It is all in the interview.

Lot of bigger bands with more money than Axl do not have that madness.

Yeah, you don't see the bass player in the Stones getting a solo spot in their shows.

Probably because the Stones officially do not possess a bass player!!

[jarmo]

Maybe Buckethead might not have been ready to deal with the business side of being in a big band like GN'R, and it was his way of distancing himself from that.

But yeah, it made things more complicated for all involved it seems.

Probably because the Stones officially do not possess a bass player!!

Exactly.

Different band, different way of doing things.



In case you missed this edit to my earlier post:

Direct quote: "I left because, you know, I had a kid and I just thought wanted really get this composing thing going. I wanted to give it a shot."

"How many more shows do I need to play? I toured the world three or four times...."



/jarmo

[Spirit]

Maybe Buckethead might not have been ready to deal with the business side of being in a big band like GN'R, and it was his way of distancing himself from that.

But yeah, it made things more complicated for all involved it seems.

Could very well be. We don't know much of Bucket's personality as we've never seen his face or even had a 'real' interview with the guy. I can imagine it being a huge shift for a person who's used to depend only on himself, and having a totally different level of pressure. Some can deal with it just fine and it can be harder for others.

Paul Tobias wanted out of the touring, that's a guy who probably works better in a behind the scenes setting. Nothing wrong with that, people are different.

[D-GenerationX]

The whole process sounds incredibly dysfunctional and disjointed.

How "interesting" and "fascinating" one finds it tends to be in the eye of the beholder.

[Spirit]

The whole process sounds incredibly dysfunctional and disjointed.

How "interesting" and "fascinating" one finds it tends to be in the eye of the beholder.

They seem to have recorded a lot of stuff. Even though a lot of it isn't what ended up as parts of any song, I still would be interested to hear some of the ideas that was thrown around. To me it seems like they were left with a lot of creative freedom, and there was a lot of exploring. Even if the whole thing seems to be rather 'unorganized' just from the few stories we've got, I think they enjoyed doing what they did at the time.

As time passed and the frustration came of not seeing the fruits of their labor, that's also understandable.

Personally I hope some of them kept some sort of journal or video taped the process, so it could be used as a documentation either in book or video format for the fans. I think that would have been real cool to read or watch.

[HBK]

Brain Is Cool, Thanks

 

[JDA]

I have never been a Brain fan, but great interview. I always felt he was there for the check and didn't care about the band. Interesting stuff on Bucket, I thought he took the mask off around the band, apparently not. Would get annoying after a while, but kinda funny too.

[Ginger King]

The whole process sounds incredibly dysfunctional and disjointed.

How "interesting" and "fascinating" one finds it tends to be in the eye of the beholder.

They seem to have recorded a lot of stuff. Even though a lot of it isn't what ended up as parts of any song, I still would be interested to hear some of the ideas that was thrown around. To me it seems like they were left with a lot of creative freedom, and there was a lot of exploring. Even if the whole thing seems to be rather 'unorganized' just from the few stories we've got, I think they enjoyed doing what they did at the time.

As time passed and the frustration came of not seeing the fruits of their labor, that's also understandable.

Personally I hope some of them kept some sort of journal or video taped the process, so it could be used as a documentation either in book or video format for the fans. I think that would have been real cool to read or watch.

There was a chicken coop and hardcore porn...and an entirely different band (APC) was created.  Arguably they had too much creative freedom and time to explore.

[Spirit]

The whole process sounds incredibly dysfunctional and disjointed.

How "interesting" and "fascinating" one finds it tends to be in the eye of the beholder.

They seem to have recorded a lot of stuff. Even though a lot of it isn't what ended up as parts of any song, I still would be interested to hear some of the ideas that was thrown around. To me it seems like they were left with a lot of creative freedom, and there was a lot of exploring. Even if the whole thing seems to be rather 'unorganized' just from the few stories we've got, I think they enjoyed doing what they did at the time.

As time passed and the frustration came of not seeing the fruits of their labor, that's also understandable.

Personally I hope some of them kept some sort of journal or video taped the process, so it could be used as a documentation either in book or video format for the fans. I think that would have been real cool to read or watch.

There was a chicken coop and hardcore porn...and an entirely different band (APC) was created.  Arguably they had too much creative freedom and time to explore.

APC is pretty great! 

[Ginger King]

The whole process sounds incredibly dysfunctional and disjointed.

How "interesting" and "fascinating" one finds it tends to be in the eye of the beholder.

They seem to have recorded a lot of stuff. Even though a lot of it isn't what ended up as parts of any song, I still would be interested to hear some of the ideas that was thrown around. To me it seems like they were left with a lot of creative freedom, and there was a lot of exploring. Even if the whole thing seems to be rather 'unorganized' just from the few stories we've got, I think they enjoyed doing what they did at the time.

As time passed and the frustration came of not seeing the fruits of their labor, that's also understandable.

Personally I hope some of them kept some sort of journal or video taped the process, so it could be used as a documentation either in book or video format for the fans. I think that would have been real cool to read or watch.

There was a chicken coop and hardcore porn...and an entirely different band (APC) was created.  Arguably they had too much creative freedom and time to explore.

APC is pretty great! 

Agree.  I saw them with NIN in the early 2000?s, good show. 

I find this entire time period equal parts fascinating/depressing.  So much music was (allegedly) created during a period of time that was (arguably) very unstructured and chaotic.  These interviews shed light on the mystery surrounding the making of CD.  It's depressing (not in a "I'm on the ledge" type depressing) but depressing in the sense that this chaotic environment, which maybe helped them create the music, was unsustainable, and that the inactivity (or artistic integrity) led to its breakup.  It's fascinating that anything ultimately got released (plus the Bucket and APC stories).   

I have not listened to Brain?s interview yet, but from the comments it sounds like he left for a myriad of reasons, one being no interest in touring/traveling away from family, another being he was tired of the concert delays.  Is that a fair assessment?  If so, then it?s just a matter of what you give more weight to as the primary motivation for leaving.  The battle lines here have clearly been drawn.

[jarmo]

I have not listened to Brain?s interview yet, but from the comments it sounds like he left for a myriad of reasons, one being no interest in touring/traveling away from family, another being he was tired of the concert delays.  Is that a fair assessment?  If so, then it?s just a matter of what you give more weight to as the primary motivation for leaving.  The battle lines here have clearly been drawn.

Yeah, apparently this can be interpreted in multiple ways:

"I left because, you know, I had a kid and I just thought wanted really get this composing thing going. I wanted to give it a shot."

"How many more shows do I need to play? I toured the world three or four times...."

Even before his first big gig with GN'R (Rock In Rio 2001), he was getting into computers and music.

The usual suspects, spin all this into meaning Brain left mainly because he didn't feel like playing shows later in the evening.





/jarmo

[Ginger King]

I have not listened to Brain?s interview yet, but from the comments it sounds like he left for a myriad of reasons, one being no interest in touring/traveling away from family, another being he was tired of the concert delays.  Is that a fair assessment?  If so, then it?s just a matter of what you give more weight to as the primary motivation for leaving.  The battle lines here have clearly been drawn.

Yeah, apparently this can be interpreted in multiple ways:

"I left because, you know, I had a kid and I just thought wanted really get this composing thing going. I wanted to give it a shot."

"How many more shows do I need to play? I toured the world three or four times...."

Even before his first big gig with GN'R (Rock In Rio 2001), he was getting into computers and music.

The usual suspects, spin all this into meaning Brain left mainly because he didn't feel like playing shows later in the evening.

/jarmo

Did you listen to the whole interview?  I have not, so my question still remains:  is it a fair assessment to say he left for multiple reasons, one being no interest in touring/traveling away from family, another being he was tired of the concert delays?

I don't see any spin there. 

[EmilyGNR]

I have not listened to Brain?s interview yet, but from the comments it sounds like he left for a myriad of reasons, one being no interest in touring/traveling away from family, another being he was tired of the concert delays.  Is that a fair assessment?  If so, then it?s just a matter of what you give more weight to as the primary motivation for leaving.  The battle lines here have clearly been drawn.

Yeah, apparently this can be interpreted in multiple ways:

"I left because, you know, I had a kid and I just thought wanted really get this composing thing going. I wanted to give it a shot."

"How many more shows do I need to play? I toured the world three or four times...."

Even before his first big gig with GN'R (Rock In Rio 2001), he was getting into computers and music.

The usual suspects, spin all this into meaning Brain left mainly because he didn't feel like playing shows later in the evening.

/jarmo

Did you listen to the whole interview?  I have not, so my question still remains:  is it a fair assessment to say he left for multiple reasons, one being no interest in touring/traveling away from family, another being he was tired of the concert delays?

I don't see any spin there. 

Why would you take up the cause of the idiots and defend their attempt to yet again demonize some aspect of GNR without listening to the entire audio? Are you waiting for someone to transcribe the entire thing?

It is clear after hearing the entire audio that Brain was primarily tired of touring, and he describes feeling like the beat up road cases used to transport equipment.

This was a very interesting interview, despite the usual bunch attempting to make it negative and somehow dark.

I enjoyed the part about Bucket making everyone talk to Herbie, truly an eccentric creative genius. 

[jarmo]

Did you listen to the whole interview?  I have not, so my question still remains:  is it a fair assessment to say he left for multiple reasons, one being no interest in touring/traveling away from family, another being he was tired of the concert delays?

I don't see any spin there. 

I listened to it. I posted a recap and several direct quotes from it.

There were multiple reasons, the spin some put on it is to make the late shows be a bigger factor than it seems from the interview itself!



/jarmo

[D-GenerationX]

I find this entire time period equal parts fascinating/depressing.  So much music was (allegedly) created during a period of time that was (arguably) very unstructured and chaotic.  These interviews shed light on the mystery surrounding the making of CD.  It's depressing (not in a "I'm on the ledge" type depressing) but depressing in the sense that this chaotic environment, which maybe helped them create the music, was unsustainable, and that the inactivity (or artistic integrity) led to its breakup.  It's fascinating that anything ultimately got released (plus the Bucket and APC stories).   

Really?  Equal parts?  That's interesting.  I'd have pegged you differently, frankly.

I would think that there would be an almost exact inverse proportion of people finding this all "fascinating" and "interesting" to the number of people that considered this a huge clusterfuck that had little hope of success and no real sustainable way to run a professional operation.  I really didn't figure there was much crossover there.  I would think you are in one camp or the other.

I would think it only retains the "fascinating" and "interesting" labels if the payoff was far more than we got.  One album and another one that maybe, someday, perhaps, if things break right, but don't stay up nights waiting for it...comes out? 

Right now, is all that really all that compelling for 14 songs in 14 years?