by Jennifer Maerz for Spin.com - 5.15.2001
Former Soundgarden/current Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron and Monster Magnet founder John McBain are no strangers to alt rock, but that doesn't make them great fans of the stuff. Sick of mainstream mediocrity, in 1992 the two formed the Wellwater Conspiracy, a band that takes leave of the stale present, and brings rock back to the more experimental days of '60s psychedelic garage. McBain spoke with Spin.com last week all about the Wellwater genesis, evolution, and what the future holds.
"I think one of the reasons we liked a lot of the obscure stuff was from just kind of hating what was out there," says McBain from the band's studio in Seattle. "New records don't appeal to me-stuff from the '80s and '90s-so it was a lot more adventurous to just go back and look for old stuff."
Now in their ninth year, Wellwater is about to release their third album, The Scroll and Its Combinations, through TVT Records on May 22. The album sounds nothing like Soundgarden or Monster Magnet-even with ex-Soundgarden members Ben Shepherd and Kim Thayil guesting on a couple tracks. And other than the song "Felicity's Surprise"-with vocals from Eddie Vedder-it sounds nothing like Pearl Jam. In fact, Scroll is more like something you'd hear trickling out of basements 40 years ago as rock misfits dropped acid and jammed to the 13th Floor Elevators, the Electric Prunes, and the Strawberry Alarm Clock (except that on the Wellwater version, the production is much slicker). The album is actually a collection of nine original songs and two covers: Q65's "I Got Nightmares" and Steve Morgen's "Of Dreams." McBain says choosing the right songs to cover involved hours of fact checking and record shopping. "[We bought] '60s psyche compilations and Back from the Grave [a multi-volume set of obscure garage-punk]," he explains. "Occasionally they'd stick a song in there by a band like Q65, so I'd hunt down the originals. It involved lot of research." And it's their passion for these older goodies that helped shape Scroll into a playful sampling of Nuggets-styled rock. Songs experiment with fairytale innocence ("Tick Tock 3 o'clock") and half-hearted menace ("I Got Nightmares"). The record could even be the soundtrack to Peter Fonda's1967 LSD flick, The Trip, as Scroll's hallucinogenic songs are splashed with chirping birds, maniacal laughter, orgasmic moans, and other theatrical effects. Nonsensical lines like "Frog and toad are friends / Elephants making marinade" inspire the kinds of visions that are usually clarified the further you travel from sobriety.
Predictably, Cameron and McBain say they're quite fond of what happens when drugs meet rock'n'roll. "It's like Clapton," says McBain. "Clapton really did his best stuff on drugs. He's done some good stuff since then but I think [Cameron and I] both pine for that kind of stuff. When you clean up and you record straight, you start questioning things and trying to get it perfect. But when you're all screwed up on dope it sounds like a masterpiece." But just so you don't get the wrong idea about Wellwater, Cameron is quick to add that the band is not advocating dosing themselves, but rather, "We just think that Clapton did better music on drugs." Another element to the production of Scroll was a completely hands-on attitude, something Cameron says has stayed with him since his Soundgarden days. Meaning the two switch off on different instruments, creating something they say keeps the music true, and "doesn't sound so much like a product." "I think it's a matter of bands taking control of their music and doing it themselves," says Cameron. "We come from that school as well. It just sounds refreshing compared to a ProTools, pro record that's kind of the norm these days."