Chris Isaak Plugs In On Speak Of The Devil

Allstar
September 22, 1998
By Kevin Raub

Chris Isaak may be able to stop women dead in their tracks with his broken- hearted love songs, but that doesn't mean he can wax poetic in the kitchen. "I don't cook," he says. "I'll make myself a salad without anything on it. I just throw a bunch of vegetables in a bowl and eat 'em. I'm also really good at making oatmeal and I eat a lot of sardines."

Not the most appetizing diet in the world, but then again, food isn't Isaak's vice anyway -- that would be women. And since he is currently holed up in the middle of nowhere in Utah filming an independent film called Shepherd, he's feeling a little lonely. "It's desolate out here," he says. "If there was a woman who came through town, I didn't know about it."

Sounds like it's time for another broken- hearted love song -- something that, ever since his 1985 debut, Isaak has made quite a living from. Speak of the Devil, his latest musical diary, released Tuesday (Sept 22) on Reprise, is no exception. But a few things have changed, like the fact that Isaak plugged in for most of Speak of the Devil, with many of the tunes, including the first single "Please," radiating a slightly more electric feel then most of his previous work.

"This is my seventh album and you realize as you go along, it's like painting," he explains. "You can't keep painting with the same color and painting the same thing and expect to get different results. For the first time, I recorded using a lot of things that other people have always used, like writing on electric guitar, writing with a rehearsal space so I could be loud, and recording in a bigger studio. I even had to take my shirt off to sing some of the songs on this one."

Isaak is referring to the intense heat that resulted from cramming a full band plus a production team into a small, non- air- conditioned San Francisco studio. One would think such unpleasant conditions might hinder the tedious process of making a record, but on the contrary, Speak of the Devil is Isaak's best work since 1993's San Francisco Days.

Still, Isaak enjoys the pampering he receives as an actor between making records and touring. "I think being a musician is a little tougher, because I'm responsible for more things," he says. "When I'm backstage, people will come to me and tell me, 'The right side monitor is broken, we need to buy this part to fix it. Do you want to authorize it?' You've got details to think about, you know? When you're acting, they just say, 'Mr. Isaak, more lemonade?'"

Isaak plays a sheriff who uncovers details of a murder committed and covered up by teens in a small town (I Know What You Did Last Summer, anyone?) in his current film project, the aforementioned Shepherd. But between acting and singing, Isaak hasn't had much time for a social life lately, which makes great fodder for more broken- hearted love songs but doesn't do much for his carnal thirst.

"If you look at my calendar at what I have to do -- well, for one thing, I have a calendar of what I have to do! That's a bad sign. Most people don't say, 'Let me see what I'm doing for the next two months' and look at a calendar. I just wish people lived longer. The fact that we don't makes me want to jam in all kinds of stuff. But I've had times in my life when I had months and months with nothing to do, and that's kind of awful too."

Despite the fact that there is not a female in sight, Isaak is pretty content for the time being. After all, he can't cook, remember? "They feed me all the food I can eat," he laughs. "The catering is wonderful. You have tons of choices. I think, 'What could be better?' Every day when I get done I tell the [catering] guy, 'Fantastic job!' and I think I'm the only guy who does that."

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