I Left My Heart in Chicago?: Interview with The Flying Luttenbachers

fakejazz: Could you begin by describing the current status of the Flying Luttenbachers, and the recent events that have transpired?

Weasel Walter: I've pretty much despised Chicago in general since about 1998. I just feel like for what I'm trying to do and think and feel, it's a terrible place to live. I'm sure it's great for other people, just not me. The problem has been finding a better place to move to. After extensively touring the country with the previous incarnation of during the last two years, it's become apparent to me that the West Coast is ground zero for the new underground rock thing, so, I'm splitsville. You only live once! It happens to be that my band reached another impasse at this point as well. During the early fall of this year Alex Perkolup left the band in order to get his personal business together. We had a tour already booked for November, including a great show at CMJ, so once Alex bowed out, I figured that it was time to 'plan B'. It was obvious to me that there wasn't anyone who was going to be able to step in and learn all of this convoluted material in a month with anything more than barely adequate results, so I quickly made the decision to move to the front line on bass in tandem with Jonathan and then set about creating backing tracks for us to play with. After tons and tons of intense work on my part, we did one show as a duo, but I wasn't satisfied with the presentation and decided to let Jonathan Hischke go and just do it myself, exactly the way I wanted it to be. After that I did about 13 shows as this one-man karaoke freak-out machine. They all went very well and as planned. Smoke, blinking lights, noise and action! I got a good response and some people said they liked it more than the full line-up! I feel like I proved my point though, and I'm more than anxious to start a new line-up in San Francisco when I get there in February. I'll be working on some solo tracks for a new album, but right now I'm just trying to get ready for the move. I see the future music being more extreme, intense and complex, reintegrating some of the more abstract characteristics that have been touched upon in the past.

Do you plan to continue to handle percussion duties in the new lineup, or will the oft-foreshadowed switch to guitar or bass finally take place? What instrumentation do you see being used in the next version of the band?

Uh, well, I consider myself a conceptualist and composer first and foremost, and an instrumentalist second. The instrument is merely the tool to accomplish the job with. I guess I'll play drums again -- although I really don't care about it very much. If I were to find a drummer to improve upon what I've done (and it wouldn't necessarily be too hard - any excellence in my drumming is due to sheer force of will, not dazzling technique), I'd gladly move to some other post in the group. I have a lot of harmonic, melodic and timbral ideas that simply cannot be conveyed on a drum kit. I'd certainly like to explore these further, especially in improvisation. Up until now, my writing for the band has had to suffice as far as saying what I'm trying to say.

How much trouble was it to find suitable musicians in San Francisco to fill the new line-up, both in respect to skill and attitude? Did you attempt to find people known already from their work in other groups, or relatively unknown musicians?

I don't have a set line-up for SF yet. We'll see how that goes. I have one person in mind who is an utterly incredible musician and I'm fairly certain it's going to work out. Other than that, I'm winging it, as usual. I'll be playing in other groups with people you might recognize from other bands, but that's just on the side or whatnot.

You mentioned earlier that you're a composer first, musician second, Can you foresee a point at which you'd discontinue playing completely, and, instead, concentrate solely on writing and teaching (and perhaps even conducting) the material? Is this something you'd be interested in?

Um, well, I'm of the notion that if something can be done best or most efficiently by myself, then I'll just do it. I like to get things done without a lot of horsing around. There are a lot of abstract ideas I'm trying to deal with that I haven't had much success conveying to others in a way that they could seem to grasp in a timely manner. I don't see myself as some kind of rarified musical messiah or something pompous like that . . . there are just certain uncommon or unpopular concepts that I want to deal with in this music and these sorts of parameters largely aren't things that most musicians I have had in the band have dealt with very much on their own. There's plenty of precedent for the things I'm trying to do, however specific or obscure those might be. I'm looking to work with people who have a very high level of technical and theoretical ability and also want to perform with the most intensity possible. It's usually one or the other unfortunately. I'm disinterested in not being directly involved with the execution of my music. I find a healthy challenge in that activity. I didn't say that I'm not a musician -- I'm just not an INSTRUMENTALIST. I'm not a "drummer". I play the drum kit, but I don't identify myself with that instrument anymore than any other that I play. I don't pledge allegiance to any specific instrument or tool. They're all just fine and dandy. A means to an end. The idea in my head is more important to me than any instrumental skill I may or may not have. I utilize whatever tools I have around to attempt to make stuff. I haven't touched a drum set in almost 3 months and I really don't care. I'll play the drums again, but I don't have any hunger to play them for no reason. I have a hunger to express myself with music though, and if the drums are the tool to do that with, then so be it.

When can we expect the recorded swansong from the band's Chicago period? Will it contain tracks both by you solo as well as those with Alex and Jonathan? Will it be a Troubleman release?

Around June of next year, hopefully to coincide with touring by a new line-up. I'm recording the whole thing by myself. I doubt that there will be any guests, but who knows? Maybe by the time I get to SF, I'll change my mind. It's in progress -- I have all the material, but in need to find the time to record it. It will be on Troubleman Unlimited with the title "Systems Emerge from Complete Disorder."

You’ve developed some pretty successful collaborations outside of the Luttenbachers in Chicago with various musicians in many different realms of music. Do you think that you’ll find equally sympathetic minds in San Francisco that will allow you to continue to improvise from time to time or play in another death metal project?

I find inspiration where there's a pool of unusual characters to draw from. This pool has dried up into a shrimply little puddle in Chicago lately. It's extremely wet in SF right now. I like the challenge of putting unusual, idiosyncratic people together and seeing what happens. Lake Of Dracula was a past example of this. I'm primarily interested in working with people who have a strong personal voice or vision and clearly there's no dearth of people like that in the bay area at the moment. You've got Erase Errata, Burmese, Numbers, the kids from XBXRX, Deerhoof, Total Shutdown, The Vanishing, John Dwyer from Pink and Brown, Crack W.A.R., The Curtains, et al. That's more good bands per square mile than any other place in the world right now. I don't really care about improvising these days. It seems pointless to me. I'm more interested in composition and group aesthetics. I don't really care too much about playing in the death metal idiom, per se -- I'd rather continue to play weird, fast, technical music, but I'm not concerned with what idiom it happens to fall into.

Do you see a lot of similarities between Chicago circa '94 and the San Fransisco of today? Is there a similar atmosphere musically that you can see?

Well, I don't like to make such black and white comparisons. If anything, it seems like the bands are much better in the SF scene than they were back in the old Chicago days! Let's face it: they're both "scenes". Pockets of focused, intense activity. That's the similarity. People doing weird, cool stuff. These things come and go. Just like it's in the Bay area now, it'll eventually dry up and that energy will reappear someplace else. It always does.

When can we expect the new group to be up and running? Are you going to practice a lot before public performances, or go more of a trial by fire route?

I can't say when it'll be ready. When the music is ready to be seen by other humans.