Grandaddy - Glastonbury, UK, Summer 2003
By: Toby L
Rumours are that Grandaddy, so excited about their impending Glastonbury appearance in 2003, flew in especially the day before their performance to sample some of the legendary exploits to be indulged within the expansive Pilton site; put simply, frontman Jason Lytle is believed to now be a specific 'fan' of the Healing Fields...
Come Sunday, the festival's final day, and the 'Daddy are provided the honours, offering one of the closing performances of the event - a chance to make a quintessential, lasting impression. Fittingly, they do - their set a masterful stroke of buoyant alt-pop thrills, interspersed with more thoughtful, brash and challenging matter, and the sort of accompanying eccentricity that usually purveys any trade considered 'worthy', or - what the hey - 'genius'... Bowie wouldn't be a fan otherwise now, would he..?
Just minutes before their show, however, and founding member/drummer Aaron Burtch and keyboardist Tim Dryden are seized, wrestled into a gazebo, pushed into chairs and subjected to a rockfeedback inquisition. Subtle pre-show nerves are evident, in addition to general post-party exhaustion. But at the core, lays an excitement as to what the ensuing evening has in store.
Upon considering today's sunshine-ridden environment, what would you deem the perfect environment in which to witness Grandaddy live?
Aaron: 'Well, this is actually pretty close...'
Tim: 'Maybe slightly less humid.'
Aaron: 'Yeah, or in a fishing-hole. Or two. That would help out. But this whole area around here (waves across the perimeter of the backstage bar) is pretty beautiful, and there's a breeze and everything. It should make for a good Grandaddy concert experience.'
What have you enjoyed most since turning up on-site?
Aaron: 'I can't actually say whilst this is recording (smiles sheepishly). But, besides all that stuff, The Polyphonic Spree yesterday were really, really great, and I'm good friends with a lot of those kids, so it was real fun to see them yesterday and hang out. And Radiohead, of course, were awesome.'
How do you go about choosing the balance for a set-list at such a large-scale festival?
Aaron: 'We do take it into pretty heavy consideration. We definitely like to play old stuff, and middle stuff, and new stuff, and it's always a full spread of band-eras, whilst we like throwing in a b-side or two here and there, because we simply like the songs; it's not the songs' faults they didn't get put on an album.'
Hopes for today's performance?
Aaron: 'There's nothing unusual planned - like dancing teddy-bears or anything. We'll play some music, and we'd like to have run our visuals, but it's too light outside, so we can't get away with that today. It'll be stripped-down rock 'n' roll...'
Tim: 'Extremely hard rock. And airing the new songs.'
Speaking of which... 'Sumday' and its material marks a much lighter display of your work to date, especially when compared to the large airiness of 'The Sophtware Slump'...
Aaron: 'All the way through, there were so many songs involved with the process - three times as many as the amount that were actually recorded. Narrowing it down to the ones we felt the strongest about was the toughest challenge, but then the actual recording was also pretty arduous.
'There was one really prominent part on this album that was taken from an old, old, old song... from 1993... which was mutated. And, to hear the new version, that was pretty... wow, well, neat. It was a matter of not wasting anything - only a few people will have heard it before, and it's good to integrate it back into the fold... and welcome an old song back.
'It's also always a consideration to us when we're making the records of whether we are going to pull off the live-versions of those songs...'
Tim: 'Though we didn't as much with this record...'
Aaron: 'Yeah, that's true - simply because we didn't have much time. The record got made, then mixed, on to the artwork - and then we were on the road for touring before we even f**king knew it.'
What keeps you motivated when you're out there touring?
Tim: 'It's performing good shows, mainly. If you feel excited about going on, and you feel that you've got a good grasp on it, and the shows go well...'
Aaron: '... Then that's that, really. And every now and then, something really neat will happen out of nowhere, like you'll have a day off or something and you'll feel like you're a traveller, that you're doing something new, and not beating your head against the wall... But, most of the time, you feel like you're beating your head against the wall!
'But, during that hour and a half when you're playing together, you're with your friends onstage, and having a good time, well, that's a great escape...'
When you consider other artists presently producing music, are there any around that you musically identify with at this current stage?
Aaron: 'Actually, there's a whole slew of bands that we have a pretty intense kinship with.'
Tim: 'A lot of people are doing really honest things; and making honest music is what I think is most important from all this.'
Aaron: 'And it's not as rare as people consistently make it out to be - there's a lot of good shit out there. It takes a lot of sifting, as there is a lot of badly motivated stuff, but music is pretty healthy at the moment.
'Jason and Jim did a bit of work on Earlimart's new work...'
Tim: 'Yeah, they're friends of ours...'
Aaron: 'And they fit right into this slot. It's rock-music, but there's extra depth to it, extra consideration in the recording-process to make it a new product. And they're good guys as well - good guys making good, new music.'
What is it about a certain sound that makes you feel a warming to it, the fundamental assets it must contain?
Aaron: 'That's a tough one, because I don't know... We've just been doing this for so long now that it almost feels as if we don't need to talk about it or try to figure it out. Once we're there, we're there - it's pretty much automatic for us. Also, I don't write songs as well, so I don't have to consider it so much - we get the songs from Jason, and - generally - they're pretty good... Though the work is spread out amongst the band, songwriting duties: that's not my department.'
Why is it that so many guys come to your shows?
Tim: 'Probably because we're old and ugly.'
Aaron: 'I dunno. We're just enough 'rock' for guys to like us, but just about feminine enough for them to feel like they're getting in touch with their own feminine, sticky, sweet side. But we're getting more girls coming out. And we like it when more girls come out...'
Tim: 'Not purely for them to take their shirts off during shows...'
Aaron: 'No. Simply, girls just smell a lot better than guys.'
What kind of girls take the Grandaddy fancy?
Tim: 'Hmm... For me, there's no specific type.'
Aaron: 'Me... It's my Lydia; she's awesome. She even got me this, ten years ago (points to a presently adorned, uber-heavy, rock-lords Slayer tee), and it's my favourite shirt. It doesn't have many washes left in it, all the seams are split... so I only bust it out on very special occasions. It just pisses me off all these young dudes wearing shirts by old rock bands like Kiss and AC/DC and they think they look so cool. But, me, I actually like Slayer; you should watch me put on a Slayer record late at night and just - well - watch out...
'There's actually a pretty big Metallica thing that went on with us, especially in the early years. Metallica was something to strive for - them and Bad Brains, they were very important to us.'
Do you think that such thrash-metal titans of rock have manifested an influence in your indie-based, lullaby-like sound?
Aaron: 'I think you can hear it in there. Somewhere.'
Yes... So if you play such a track as yours, e.g. 'Summer Here Kids', backwards, you can actually hear the 'Tallica's 'Sanitarium'...
Aaron: 'Quite possibly. And I've always thought that'd be a rad way to write a song - to transcribe the chords of a famous song, but backwards, and reverse the arrangement... So then no-one will know you're ripping it off.'
What are the main things that have changed over the years for Grandaddy, as a band, aside from capabilities..?
Tim: 'I think Jason's got even better at recording, at even writing songs maybe. We drink a bit more than we used to...'
Aaron: 'I don't think anybody drinks any more than they used to! (Laughs) Because we couldn't physically drink much more.'
Tim: 'I guess. My tolerance is certainly pretty high now.'
And what next for the 'Daddy?
Tim: 'To sell records? To be honest, the more people we can turn on to what we're doing, the better.'
Plus, for those that are into the band, what are the things you'd hope they're able to pick up from your ongoing endeavour?
Aaron: 'We're pretty forthcoming in interviews, so if there's anything they don't know already, then they probably don't want to know what we're also up to...'
One last anecdote?
Aaron: 'Tim farts in his sleep.'
Tim: 'Not as loud as you, Aaron...'
Artists in this article: Grandaddy