Stone Temple Pilots – Interview

The Stone Temple Pilots have been one of the most influential bands of the ’90’s, alongside such international artists as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Once cast as Pearl Jam wannabes, they have outgrown this undesirable tag by releasing four amazing records. It was their song, “Sex Type Thing”, that introduced them, but it was “Plush” that left them in our psyche.

Now they are back. With their voice, Scott Weiland, in prison for a year, it is the duty of the other band members to hold everything together as they wait in anticipation of his release. No. 4 is their heaviest record since their first; they are sure to win back fans that may have strayed after their previous release.

With a handful of questions from STP fans, I got together with drummer Eric Kretz.

How long did it take to record the new album?

In actuality it took four and a half months, and in true reality it took three years. We started recording in late January, early February. That is when we started pre-production, which is the writing process as well as getting our chops back, and from there we went to NRG in North Hollywood. And we had a few detours towards the middle of the record. We finished up and mixed the record in about, yeah, four and a half months.

Was it true that you guys recorded Purple in three weeks?

Yep. Recorded and mixed in three and a half weeks. And the difference with Purple is that we came off of a year and a half tour from the Core album, so all of the songs were worked on during sound check. So with this album we had two and a half years since we last were together musically. So when we got together in February, we came in with like forty songs, everybody had loads of songs. At that point it is pretty overwhelming, the first couple of weeks, because you’d be driving to rehearsal, listening to songs, trying to remember, ‘What song is this again?’ We just had too much material to digest.

Were you playing before the recording of the record?

Yeah, we were playing before for like five weeks during the writing/rehearsal phase. And we were rehearsing because we decided to get rid of some of the cobwebs with a Viper Room show.

When you bring songs in, is it drum tracks or piano tracks? I’m curious about what you are working on.

I have a nice little exquisite home studio and sometimes I just show up with a finished product. (laughs) It makes it kind of confusing, I’ll admit, and doesn’t leave much room for interpretation. I have a nice little cornucopia of instruments. Not only was I working with the guys in the band, but other guys like Brendan [O’Brien] and other great musicians, and produce and learn from the best.

Speaking of Brendan O’Brien, he produced this record as well as all your previous releases. Is it that you have a really good chemistry with him?

Yeah, we do have a really good chemistry, but it is also that it is a lot easier to not have to worry about trying to change something. We were so overwhelmed by the amount of songs we had, and originally we planned on doing a double album, so it was like not a good time to try something new and not have it work, whereas we know with Brendan it is going to come out amazingly well. His input and energy are so wonderful that it makes it a joy to record. It is just a whole language between an artist and a producer. The artist is trying to get across what it is you want it to sound like on tape. It is really impossible to explain what it is you are trying to get on tape, so it is the job of the producer to interpret that language and get it on tape the way the artist wants to hear it. Brendan has always had a wonderful and natural ability to do that. You don’t even have to say what you are going for and sometimes it comes out better than you ever expected.

When I interviewed Gordon, they had the same things to say about Brendan.

Yeah, and, on top of him being a great guy, he is really, really fast, which is how we like to work. And that is why with an album like Purple we can get it done and mixed in three and a half weeks. It’s great. By the time you get done explaining it he has it patched in and done.

Was it just a rumor or was it true that there was going to be a cover of a Led Zeppelin tune on the new record?- Maxim Moldenhauer – [email protected]

Oh. Well, sometimes, when you are waiting around for your singer, which is often the case with most bands, we just pull out all the big Zeppelin hits. (laughs) Myself, Robert, and Dean are such huge Zeppelin fans, but it is just a rumor for now. We didn’t record anything. We already did that previously with the Encomium album (Led Zeppelin Tribute Album). It is hard to speculate, but I’d have to say if we were going to do a cover it would probably be a Cheap Trick cover before we did another Zeppelin cover. Cheap Trick songs are just fucking amazing.

Speaking of amazing, I just absolutely loved “Atlanta”. It’s funny because that song reminded me of the Sound Of Music.

Dean wrote the music during the mixing section of Tiny Music and we usually mix albums in Atlanta. We recorded that in ’95 and it has been around for a few years. We didn’t try to go for a specific sound or era. But with a song like that, you just keep it very basic with acoustic guitar and light on the drums, and it’s a vocal performance type of song so you just build it around the vocals. We kind of went with a very ’60’s type of production.

Do you have a favorite song on the new album? – john lewis – maryland, USA

I think that song, “Atlanta”, because lyrically, Scott is going through a divorce right now, and knowing the ex for the last ten years I know what is going on with the lyrics. And it really just chokes me up.

Do you have a favorite song to play live? – jessie – unknown ([email protected])

I think for Robert and Dean they really enjoy “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart” because of the high-octane groove and Dean loves to bust out that solo. For me, I think it is easier the first song of the set or the last song of the set because I’m so nervous and have so much anxiety before the first song that halfway through I’m not thinking about anything anymore.

Do you also get that charge of adrenaline so that you can’t get to sleep at night and stay up to all hours of the morning? – percy fish – salt lake, utah, USA

Yeah. That is half the problem of playing in a band, and that is that you can go from playing in an arena to ten to fifteen thousand people to your hotel room and watching free channels on tv trying to come down from this emotional high. You just sit there and you are like, ‘Wow, this is a lot of fun.’ Then you realize you get to do this again tomorrow in a different stadium. It all changes on a nightly basis.

A lot of people were wondering if you are just tired of answering the same questions over and over again about Scott?

Yes and no. We are kind of tired of it because it is so repetitive, and not only the questions, but also the situation. But this time around I can honestly say I know where he is and it does give me a bit of comfort to know he is probably in the best place he can be right now for his health and treatment.

I think a lot of people are just sick of reading writers asking the same questions about it.

A few months ago I would tell people that Scott was back in jail and they would go, ‘Oh’. That would be their response. It was ”Oh.’ Not like, ‘Oh my God.’ It was just weird, but it was because it has been going on for so long that the public and my friends are kind of used to the situation. He is in the place that can give him the best help he can get right now. It is just so reassuring to know.

When did you first realize that you could make a living being a drummer? – sara wright – phoenix, arizona, USA

I have to think about that one. Hmm.

I swear the readers are good at whipping these questions out.

I know. That is a good one because it is something you have to be stupidly blind to about going into. You have to think that there is nothing else that is going to happen or that all these other avenues that you can go down for a career aren’t for you. And you have to just have this moronic blindness and say, ‘This is all I’m going to do and, God damn it, I’m gonna get there.’ I think it is very healthy to have three other guys in a band ten or twelve years ago that were going through the same aspirations. We didn’t allow the world to get us down or let the phone company beat us up or our landlord beat us up. It was like, ‘Fuck it.’ What is more important is that the band succeeds. It is hard to answer that question. (laughs) You just have to go into it with blinders on. Once you get there you have to ask yourself how you keep it going so I don’t have to go back to being a waiter.

When did you start playing? -jamie – madison, wisconsin,

I think I was ten or eleven. My older brother had the KISS Alive II album and I would spin it and stare at the pictures and see Peter Criss’ enormous drum kit. And I would listen to his drum solo in “God Of Thunder” and I would be so emotionally overwhelmed at how great that sound was. My mom asked me one day out of the blue, ‘Do you want to take drum lessons?’ She said it was because I was banging pots and pans, but I don’t remember that. (laughs)

I loved KISS growing up and, you know, the first time I saw them live was during their last tour. And they are still putting on the best rock show.

I know. It is true excessive rock ‘n’ roll, isn’t it?

Yep.

Everything is just so over the top with the guitar on fire to the flames.

And Gene Simmons spewing blood above the stage during “God Of Thunder”. I mean, I had so many nightmares about that as a kid.

(laughs)

What else did you grow up listening to?

From there I got into Queen and Led Zepplin. My buddies and I would do your typical goofy after-school things, like grabbing the tennis racquet and doing air drums and playing Queen and Zepplin. I really got into Black Sabbath.

Are there any bands today that we might catch you listening to? – derik – london, england

I just got the new Refused record and I love that. They are this band from Sweden and they have a way that they do their song arrangements that is so untypical. They don’t do the usual verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus and they change the songs in all sorts of ways. And the constant screaming and energy is great. It is really insane.

I was wondering if you heard the new Rage Against The Machine album. The song “Born Of A Broken Man” sounds a lot like “Army Ants”. It made me wonder if you guys were friends.

Actually, we don’t run into each other very often because for the last few years we’ve been on tour, and they have too. But the early incarnations of STP and Rage Against The Machine used to gig together at the Coconut Teaser and the classic Hollywood digs. We’ve known those guys for a very long time. They are just beautiful individuals. They really believe strong in their message and performances.

I was surprised that first off Rage slowed it down like that, and then secondly that I knew I heard it before. Then I realized it was STP.

If anything, I have to say that I don’t know if it was a tribute to us, but that they too are such huge Zeppelin fans, like all of us. I mean, and then you have the Beatles, it is rock ‘n’ roll. You get that blues in there and the pop sensibilities of the Beatles and I would have to say that [Zeppelin and the Beatles] are the most influential bands. You just can’t escape that Zeppelin groove thing, the same with the Beatles.

I don’t even want start on how much of a Beatles fan I am.

You know, and we sit back and laugh because it is over thirty years later, but the songs are just so artistic.

If you put most of those songs on the radio today

They’d still stand up.

Since you guys are still putting out rock, what do you think about the lack of rock today? – darrien dits – nyc, ny, USA

It is sort of weird because some of the newer bands that are out there today have incredible energy. They really fire me up. But as far as their blues or pop influences, I think they lack that soul of the art and maturity. It just doesn’t come across. It just seems to be all energy and not enough soul, and I think my whole life I have been drawn to those types of bands that had a combination of raw energy and soul. For me, the newer bands aren’t too exciting. Whereas bands like the Dust Brothers and Propellerheads, Beck who are more art oriented that can put across that energy, I’m more drawn to that. They are more interested in the artistic side along with the energy. So it isn’t just pure macho energy. It is exciting, but after a few songs I need more.

What I love most about your albums is that you go from that rawness with songs like “Sex Type Thing” to a great slow track like “Creep”.

Yeah. I think America just craves that energy right now, so that is what they are getting. But I think it just shows that the artistic and emotional depth isn’t prevalent in American society. And it is really a shame.- Matt Beere – http://www.stonetemplepilots.org

We had a bunch of people wondering if you ever got on the web to look at fan sites? –

I don’t own a computer and part of the reason is because it is so incredible, and there is so much on there that I’m such a freak in that aspect that I’d probably stay up for three weeks straight and wouldn’t know how to stop. For me, it is better that I don’t have a computer and I go downstairs and play my piano. It is just a very organic, natural outlet.

What are your plans from here on out?

Well I’ve got a few weeks of promotion and then I plan on going to Hawaii for three weeks and surfing my ass off.

Are you a good surfer?

Uh, no, but I am forced to be adequate with those fucking waves. (laughs)

Some people never get a chance to make it as a musician, but you’ve been in one of the most influential bands of the decade. Do you look at STP as being as influential and important as perhaps other people do? – tiny – bayville, ny, USA

It is hard to answer that without being pompous. But, yes, I do because of the songs and constancy of the songs that we have contributed, and because of the depth of some of our songs. I would say that, strictly based on songs alone, I would have to say yes. I am just so proud of every record we have done. Sometimes making a record has been difficult, but because we are such a closed group that most people don’t know all of the intricacies and, you know what? None of that really matters. What really matters is that the songs create an emotion. Whether the emotion is positive or saddening, it is important. Even with pop acts today, I was thinking about this yesterday, but pop has been around since music started and, just because I don’t like Britney Spears or all those boy bands, it [still] really effects a lot of people. For me that is all that matters. I’m not going to put a judgement on that because it is what some people need to hear. They need non-threatening, very simplistic lyrics, and if it helps them deal with their issues, that is what is important. That is kind of what we’ve unconsciously done. We haven’t purposely tried to effect people. It is something we do very easily and I think we do it very well. We are just lucky enough to have a lot of great bands to support us.

+ charlie craine