Ralph Covert Interview

INTERVIEW WITH RALPH COVERT FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

Ralph Covert, of Ralph Covert and the Bad Examples talks about his gigs, rock and roll and his music.

DM) It seems lately in music that most of the rock bands which are succeeding are "hyphen"- rock bands. That is, Alternative-rock, ska-rock, dance-rock. It's a rarity to hear such pure rock and roll like you play. Why does it seem that people have abandoned that style?

RC) The industry is about niche marketing. It is a huge business, with something like 30,000 records released a year, and everybody is trying very hard to find a market. For me, the song comes first. Am I pure rock and roll? I'm not very good at looking at things from that perspective. I'm more interested in whether the music feels right in my gut.

DM) Which of your songs hit you as your personal best, your signature song?

RC) Certainly the spirit of resilience in "Not Dead Yet" has grown to symbolize the band's perseverance over the years. I personally think "Out of my Element," "Adam McCarthy," and "Bed-time Girl" are three of my favorites.

DM) Are there any songs that you are tired of playing?

RC) We've been around for 12 years, sometimes doing 300 shows a year on tour, so it's very important to rotate songs in and out. Fortunately, we have so much material it's silly. One of the joys of my being a prolific writer is that we can play three sets and still have songs left. Currently, I'm less likely to play some of our "heavier" songs like "Hey, St Peter," and "Beast Within." I think it's more the arrangements; in a way... there was a period where the band members wanted us to be rough and raw (which I love, too) but not all the time (everything in moderation), and so I'm enjoying the current line-up, which reflects more my own craft-oriented preferences (as long as we still get to rock when we want to, which we do.) Ironically, I played "Hey, St Peter" at an acoustic show the other day and loved it, and I also played a reunion show with the original line-up a couple of months ago. I remembered as we played it what a great song "Beast Within" was, so I guess it all comes back to my original point of taking a break from a song when you need to. Remind me to go into the different line-ups of the band and how it has evolved as a result.

DM) On the inside of the CD cover you say, "Every band has a story. The famous ones we all know..." How would you summarize the Bad Examples story?

RC) In 1987, we formed the original line-up of the Bad Examples. Visions of record deals and world tours danced in our heads, and we recorded our first album, "MEAT: The Bad Examples," which we initially intended only as a demo. Total studio hours: 13. Total budget: under $200. It's still selling, which shows what I know! Our second album, "Bad Is Beautiful," took several years to make. My goal was to learn the road map of what it took to make a fully fleshed-out album. We learned a lot, and we played lots of gigs while making it. We paid for most of it ourselves, though we were fortunate enough to sign a European record deal when we were almost finished, and the album was released world-wide. We spent 3 years touring coast to coast in America and had several small hits in Europe. This was at the time when grunge became huge, and our brand of melodic pop-rock wasn't the flavor of the day... we never had the big hit record which would have brought us to the attention of the bigger industry. We did build a very loyal fan base, played thousands of shows, and have over the years continued to make music we're proud of -- 10 CD's worth. Our story? Making music 'cause we love to do it.

DM) What gig was your favorite to play?

RC) Too many to mention. From quiet acoustic shows in front of 20 rapt listeners to full band energy-orgies of beer-and-guitar-incited madness for a packed club ... what makes a show fun is the shared experience of making music to communicate with the audience. I routinely get teased by my band and/or a club owner because I play too long ... I just can't get enough on the nights where it's working, and I only get more energized as the night goes on. I played a show in Harrogate, England with a friend of mine, Jason Feddy, a great songwriter and performer, as big a fan of my stuff as I am of his ... We were at a club called The Blues Bar, and it was the hybrid fusing of the two types of shows I listed above. We played for six straight hours to a great audience. He finally begged me to stop! At one point, I body-surfed across the room, up a stairway, then over the balcony and back to the crowd and the stage! Not bad for an acoustic show.

DM) I admit I am pretty upset that I've never listened to your music before. How do people react when they realize that you already have a "best of" CD when there are some people who have already climbed the charts and burnt out after one album?

RC) I say, I'm glad you found the music and found you enjoy it. The reactions I hear from people are that they're glad to have found the music. It's a tough biz...many worthy bands get chewed up and spit out by the industry. There are thousands of hard-working musicians out there playing their heart out for sh&^ money, and they deserve all the credit in the world. Some are on major labels; some are on no label at all. Whenever musicians can connect with an audience that appreciates them, all the better.

DM) Some artists don't like the major labels. What's your feel on this?

RC) A major label is a tool. They are a well-financed marketing and distribution corporation, and as such they can spend enormous amounts of money and do a relatively effective job of getting large quantities of CD's into the marketplace. The flipside is that they are governed by a corporate mentality, which means the employees will behave in a way which is most likely to allow them to preserve their job within the corporation -- i.e., they won't take any chances unless they're relatively certain their head won't roll if they're wrong. Also, given the high stakes nature of the modern-day recording industry, immediate sales and success are imperative. Major labels only rarely stick with an act long enough for the act to develop and mature (unlike earlier eras in rock).A tool is only as good as the job you are using it for. Both a jet airplane and a hammer are tools, but a jet airplane is as lousy at pounding a nail as a hammer is at flying you to New York. Major labels are good at funding and distributing CD's and lousy at developing artists' careers.

DM) Which would you prefer at this stage of your career?

RC) The best of both, of course! I've always been a fan of having your cake and eating it, too. If a major label situation comes along that will let me continue to do what I do best (writing great songs, exploring new sounds, and delivering the goods live), I would be very happy to test myself on that scale. Every time in my career when it has been a make-or-break situation, I've kicked ass. I'm confident in my craft, and I've been doing this long enough to do it quite well, thank you. I'm not willing to pretend to be something I'm not. I'm just not calibrated for chasing the fashion of the latest wall-paper style and spitting it back out. I feel good about the quality of what I do, and if it catches on because of what it is, there's nobody better than I at doing what I do (like it or hate it). There are a lot of things other people do better than I, and that's what I love them for.In the meantime, pursuing things on my own, as an indie, frees me from the need to second-guess what I do. I love the freedom of it, I hate the poverty of it, although, to be fair, I work at it hard enough that to call it poverty would be crass and disrespectful of the folks out there that are truly in need. I am blessed to have fans that dig what I do and will come out to see me do it, and to be able to pursue a variety of interesting other things like teaching songwriting, teaching music for little kids, playwriting, teaching acting as an artist-in-residence in the public schools in an arts-integrated program, producing albums for other artists ... fun stuff, and through it I learn more about my craft and bring fresh ideas to my music.

DM) I assume touring takes a toll on your family life. How do you juggle both?

RC) Simple -- haven't been touring too much lately. It pays for sh&^, is exhausting, and takes me away from all the other things I talked about in the last answer. When there's a really damn good reason to do it, I will, happily and aggressively, knowing that it's a lot of work, but that it serves a purpose. Until then, I'll go out for short bursts when there's something to be gained, but nothing more. I've lived that myth, and it's romantic at times, but genuinely a myth.