Nearly 20 Years and Eight Albums In, Clutch Takes Its Future Into Its Own Hands

Nearly 20 years and eight albums in, Clutch takes its future into its own hands

BY JOHN PATRICK GATTA D.I.Y.

RULES ARE MADE to be broken. But Clutch doesn’t follow the rules. tatonic heavy blues scale and maybe lyrics that are less earthbound. The Maryland-based quartet has paid a price for faithfully Some people say, ‘Well, they must be doing drugs.’ Actually, it might staying on a creative path of its own. During its 18 years togeth- be called imagination.” er, the band has bounced between major and independent labels with Drummer Jean-Paul Gaster goes for a more basic approach. “At this no record company able to shape a marketing plan that brings about point we’ve been around for so long and so many labels have come and anything more than a cult following. gone, I’m fine with just calling it ‘rock and roll.’ At the end of the day, Clutch excites record executives because its music defies easy cat- it’s all of those things. It’s what we listen to: jazz, blues, ‘60s rock and egorization and then gives them headaches because…well, its music roll, all the way through modern stuff. It’s all of the American music defies easy categorization since it absorbs hard rock, funk, blues, jazz, that gets cooked up together into that thing that we do now.” psychedelia and punk. Think Black Sabbath and George Clinton join- ing forces for an approximation of its core sound. Although he bristles at being referred to as a stoner rock act, Neil A SURPRISINGLY KEY influence on Clutch was another heady stew of Fallon is fine with pretty much any description. “I can say every band American music: Go-Go music, a bass-heavy, funky variation of hip-hop that’s included in the stoner rock umbrella doesn’t like to be called that developed around the Washington, D.C. area that never took off stoner rock because we know most of ‘em. commercially. In the D.C. area, the genre remains popular and fre- “A lot of those bands are great. So, if that’s what we’re considered quently propels massive, all night dance parties. Gaster recalls going to be like, I’ll take that as a compliment. But I do think it trivializes the to dances years before Clutch formed and paying strict attention to the music a bit. What I think those bands have more in common is a pen- rhythmic work taking place.

RELIX | OCTOBER 2009