 |
Chris Isaak
Chris Isaak playing his Gibson J200
Chris Isaak Talks Guitars, Scotty Moore and His New
Album
by Ellen Mallernee
August 6, 2009
It’s been 18 years since
Chis Isaak
wagged his sand-encrusted eyebrows at you in his iconic “Wicked Game”
music video and 10 years since Stanley Kubrick had Nicole Kidman sashay
around in her underpants in Eyes Wide Shut with Isaak’s “Baby Did A Bad,
Bad Thing” throbbing in the background. These pop culture moments have
marked — and in some ways made — Isaak’s career since inking his first
record deal with Warner Brothers in 1984.
Besides the ongoing mainstream exposure (anyone catch him on the MTV
Movie Awards this year?), he’s maintained his visibility with relentless
touring and consistently great albums. Plus, he has a great sense of
humor and his eyebrows are still hot. As he puts it, “I’m loquacious and
affable.”
Just before a promotional stop in Nashville last week, 53-year-old Isaak
and his snow white Maltese Rodney set up camp in the back room of the
Gibson tour bus to talk about Gibson guitars, the influence of Scotty
Moore and the good fortune that has propelled Isaak’s lengthy career.
Though he has a really, really good new album out,
Mr. Lucky, he also has another project to promote: his BIO channel
TV show The Chris Isaak Hour. Despite television having occupied a
larger slice of Isaak’s time in recent years, hesays music is and always
will be his priority.
“I’m always writing music,” he says. “I never stop writing. If I got hit
by a bus today you could go to my kitchen table and there’s 20 songs
laying there on a cassette.”
The title of your new album, Mr. Lucky, is a reference to the good
fortune you’ve experienced. Do you believe in karma?
No, if I had karma I would be Mr. Unlucky because I don’t think I
deserve all the good luck I’ve had, but I have been lucky. My parents
are still alive, knock on wood, and my family’s healthy and we all like
each other. If I could have my parents around for another 10 years and
not have anything, I would have that. That’s the biggest thing. And I
sing for a living. For godsakes, that’s so fun. My background is that my
Dad worked in a sawmill his whole life. We come from a small town. We
didn’t have anybody in showbiz. We didn’t have any friends that had
money. We never really went anyplace. I remember eating Bisquick
pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner for days on end because we
didn’t have any money. Nowadays I can go into a restaurant and I can
order without looking at the menu. I don’t have to worry about what it
costs, and everytime I do that I feel so lucky. The weird thing is I
never order anything expensive because all my tastes were developed when
I was broke so I like liver and onions, sardines, all kinds of cheap
food.
Looking back what was the most memorable part of writing and
recording the album?
We did things very quick and very inexpensive. I never go places and
spend a lot of money. I go places and try to record. When I go in a
record studio, I walk in and the microphones are set up and people are
starting to light candles and order food and I go, ‘Don’t bother
ordering the food. We’re going to be done by the time we get to it. So
turn the candle light off, and turn the lights up bright, and let’s go.’
I walk directly to the mic and start singing.
For this album, we really worked fast and it was fun to work that way. I
don’t like to do a thousand takes. I love Pro Tools because it can fix
things and I hate Pro Tools because it can fix things. I’m a guy who
likes to see the little mistakes that musicians make. I like to hear
them in there; they’re fun. You get more energy.
What was the first guitar you owned?
The first guitar I ever bought for myself was a white Epiphone. I’d seen
a picture of Elvis playing a light-colored acoustic guitar, and it was a
really pale, pale Epiphone. That’s why I bought that guitar. And I still
have it. Over the years it’s kind of turned yellow and had to survive a
lot. A house burned down around it but the Epiphone was OK.
What guitar players most influenced you starting out?
Scotty Moore. To me, it would be OK if they put a 10 cent charge on
every rock and roll record and it went to Scotty Moore directly. That
would be a fair payment because without Scotty Moore none of us would
have jobs. I really think he had so much to do with rock and roll. Elvis
was great and he’s given all the kudos that he should be given — he
deserves every bit of it — but Scotty Moore is kind of in the shadow of
that. Without Scotty, Elvis could have ended up being another Dean
Martin, which is a great thing, but you wouldn’t have had this brand new
sound. A lot of that brand new sound was that guitar. I still play my
guitar strings with real heavy gauges because I read that’s the way
Scotty Moore played his Gibsons and I went, ‘Well if that’s the way he
gets that sounds that’s the way I gotta play.’ I can never sound as good
as him, but I try.
Have you ever gotten to meet Scotty?
I got to play with him on an Elvis special.
Couldn’t have been a nicer guy. Real quiet, low key and still a
fantastic player. That was probably one of the most exciting things I
ever got to do is play with Scotty Moore.
More exciting than singing a song about your dick being in a box at
the MTV Awards this year?
Yes! Much, much more exciting. Scotty Moore is the reason I got into
rock and roll. And he was playing a Gibson. Early on I looked at
hollowbodies and I always wanted to get the money together to get a nice
Gibson guitar and once I was able to get one, I would never go back. I
started off with a Silvertone guitar and they’re nice but once you
become a professional musician and you’re playing out on the road night
after night you want to stay in tune the whole set. Then the difference
between a Silvertone and a Gibson is a big difference. Gibsons really
hold up.
You have a one-of-a-kind Gibson. Tell me about that.
It’s the white Gibson I play all the time and it’s a little smaller than
some other guitars but it’s nice on-stage. It’s still heavy and it’s got
a nice ring to it. The big thing I look for is that it doesn’t feed
back. It doesn’t go out of tune. It doesn’t break down. I play it every
night, all night long and I wail on it pretty hard but it doesn’t break
strings and it doesn’t go out of tune. They’re put together well.
Do you use your Gibsons in the studio too?
Yes, they have a nice sound in the studio. Epiphone has a couple of
guitars that I play in the studio too — the Joe Pass are amazingly nice
sounding, but Gibsons are really the ones that hold up. I’m a musician
who lives on the road a lot of the time. I play a lot and if you do that
pretty soon you have different standards. Like at my house it’s fun to
play real goofball guitars sometimes because you can play them and tune
them right in the middle of the song. Can’t do that on-stage. It’s gotta
be good. Can’t just be junk and colorful.
For players looking to get that Chris Isaak tone, are there any
little tone secrets, tips or tricks? Any gear recommendations?
I can think of a lot nicer sounds, but I guess I would start by saying
listen to Scotty Moore. That’s a much nicer sound there. That’s what I
was headed towards.
For me, I play rhythm guitar and a few leads in the show, but I don’t
like the sound of rhythm guitar when it’s stepping all over the lead
guitar. I want to be able to play leads four or five times a night and
be able to quickly do it; I don’t want to switch guitars. So I need a
guitar that’s pretty versatile. I’m playing 20 songs a night.
For the pickups on the guitar I have right now, I set the bright pickup
a little bit louder and the mellow pickup I set a little lower. I keep
it set on a mix between the two, and when I play leads I throw it all
into bright. It’s a little brighter, pops out, and it’s really simple
and it’s really good. I look for a tube amp with a reverb on it. I don’t
have a bunch of pedals and effects. I go right into the amp directly.
For me, that’s pretty simple and pretty good. I don’t have a lot of time
to fool around with stuff with my feet because I’m leading the band.
You’ve had some really high-profile guests, like Stevie Nicks, on
your TV show. What has it taught you about yourself, having to do these
interviews and stretch yourself in that way?
It always scares me to death to ask questions. It’s always difficult.
Hopefully I’m not a difficult person to interview because I like to talk
to people and if someone doesn’t ask the right question it really
behooves the person being asked to just tell a story. You know what
we’re trying to accomplish here. Some people, though, are uptight and
terse. But at the least you should go online and look up information
about the person the night before you’re going to interview them. I’m
amazed that people don’t do that. If the person wrote a book, I’ll try
to read it. I just never wanted to ask bonehead stuff, you know. The
tough part is the questions, but the cherry on top is I get to play with
the people and I get to meet people.
If your life were a pie chart, how much of it right now would be
focused on your music life and how much on your TV life?
Ninety-nine percent on music, always. The TV show was me talking to
musicians and playing with musicians. Trisha Yearwood came on the show
and was an old friend of mine and Michelle Branch came on, and they’re
both on my new album. So one thing helps another. You meet people and
go, ‘Hey they would be great for this song.’ That’s how you start to
know musicians. Good things happen when you get out and play music. If
you’re a songwriter and you’re sitting in your house, get out and join a
band, even if it’s not your best band. Get out and play and meet other
musicians. That’s how things happen.
page added October 11, 2009 This article
was originally published and is copyright by
Gibson Lifestyles. It is reprinted here for posterity, courtesy
them. |
