Blue Brother Plays It Cool
Emotions still run deep in Chris Isaak’s music and in his private life, writes Nui Te Koha.
The Melbourne Herald-Sun
10/24/96
By Nui Te Koha
The premise, it would appear, is to present Chris Isaak in a much happier light.
"Forever Blue" - Isaak’s album from last year: a desolate and desperate post-mortem of the break up with his long-term girlfriend - did much to cement his reputation as one of the great, hopeless romantics.
Last month Isaak lobbed on these shores with a collection of old and new songs, recorded in Mexico with makeshift instruments and attitudes under the banner, "The Baja Sessions". Again, it was the Isaak we know - songs of romantic longing, tailored for listening as the waves roll in, the humidity cools and the sun sinks into the sea. So, while "The Baja Sessions" goes to some lengths to say that Isaak’s healing process is near completed, it seems Isaak The Man will always be merchandising melancholy. The guy can’t help it.
In Australia last month, Isaak and drummer Kenney Dale Johnson promoted "The Baja Sessions" like a play- anywhere-travelling roadshow straight out of a bad Elvis movie.
However, Isaak was still intent on pushing buttons marked "sad" and "lonely".
For this interview, Isaak, on guitar, and Dale-Johnson, on brushes, introduced themselves via an old song that chokes. "Oh, how it hurts/And I know I’m to blame/With me/I’ll take my Bible and your picture."
"Kenney brought that song on the tour bus with us last year," Isaak says, shifting the blame, "he’s always bringing bad 45’s on the bus and inflicting his misery on us."
"The Baja Sessions" are re-arrangements of tunes from the Isaak albums "Silvertone" (1988) and 1992’s "San Francisco Days" (his re-working of "Two Hearts" and "Dancin’ come up a treat) as well as documenting Isaak’s fascination with the old and obscure, and Hawaiian songs. "It was going to be romantic songs and love songs," Isaak says, "an album of love songs that fit on a beach or under a palm tree."
Why there?
"Because it’s the perfect place to fall in love."
Did you find the songs from "Silvertone" and "San Francisco Days" more in line with the mood you wanted for the new album?
"We tried to do a lot of songs," Isaak says.
"I could have done "Wicked Game" but I think it would’ve sounded the same in this arrangement. In the end it came down to which ones sounded real good." "I don’t know whether the albums were positive. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t tell you which songs are on what album."
He agrees the re-working of "Two Hearts" is a superior version. Jimmy Pugh’s organ solo is the proverbial icing.
"We were down in the studio, fighting to get that organ solo on the track. I don’t think the producer was a big fan of it. So while the producer was out getting coffee, I called Jimmy and told him to come down." "When he got there, he started setting up this beat-up, cheap little organ. I was shocked. ‘Is that the organ you’re going to use?’
"Yeah," Pugh told Isaak, "this is the one you like."
"Are you sure?"
"I’m positive."Pugh plugged the machine in and cranked it up to the trippy heights of the solo first played on the "San Francisco Days" version of "Two Hearts".
"It sounds so fonky!" Isaak beams. "It’s so south-of-the-border, It’s way out there."
It was the same deal, Dale-Johnson says, for "Think of Tomorrow". He played on a kit that had been left in the rain and housed a hive of dead wasps. "But," Isaak says, "I’ve learned that ugly instruments often play beautiful music."
"Sweet Leilani" is one of the many Hawaiian songs Isaak has threatened to record. The harmonies sound slightly cheesy and a touch "Blue Hawaii".
Knowing Isaak’s propensity to be tongue-in-cheek, how seriously should we take this track?
"Very seriously," he says sternly. "I love that song so much, I tried to buy the rights to the song from day one. I’ve never tried to buy any song, but I feel so strongly about "Sweet Leilani".
"I remember first hearing it as a kid. I was in a second-hand shop and I couldn’t afford to buy this record. It was only a buck, but I was a kid. I was heartbroken because I couldn’t have it."
"Now I don’t need my own copy. I’ve got my own version."
Chris Isaak flirts with the idea of movies. He’s done bit parts with some of the best - David Lynch and Bernardo Bertolucci - and was originally offered the male lead in "Moonlight and Valentino", but the role went to Jon Bon Jovi.
Is the cameo role Isaak’s style?
"No," he laughs, "I would love to be in these films for a lot longer, but I’m unable to dedicate the time. My music comes first." "I’ve been a bit worried, too," he says. "The studios keep sending me these sensitive-guy parts in bad movies. I’d read the script and think ‘Is it just me? Maybe women will like this movie." "But then I’d show my friends the script and they’d say, ‘God! This is awful’!"
Isaak toured Australia, where he sells most, earlier this year and plans to return in summer.
"We always say we love a country, then we get in the car and say ‘God! I can’t believe people live here! They don’t have cars? Why don’t they leave’?" he jokes.
"I’m always telling Kenney, ‘You know, we could live here’ and he’s like ‘duh!’ We met a couple of guys from INXS who live in England, and I’m thinking ‘Where are their heads at? They’re from Australia, which is full of sunshine, great people, beautiful country, great food, wonderful beaches." "And they’ve said, ‘No, I want to go to a place where they tax me 90 percent and it’s always foggy."
Blue Boy Picture
Back to Articles