Reflections on College: Chris Isaak
Link Magazine
Oct/Nov 1998
"Love songs with a rocking beat" is how former boxer/sometimes actor/perpetual babe magnet Chris Isaak describes his new album, Speak of the Devil. He's hanging out in our luxurious midtown-Manhattan office, strumming a few new tunes with some Danny Aiello look-alike on hand drum.
Chris' voice still sounds like it's being phoned in by the late Roy Orbison, which, if you ask us, is a very good thing. And while he'll forever be a romantic, Speak of the Devil marks the dawning of Isaak's experimentation period, if you will. He tells us he's been listening to a lot of Radiohead and Portishead--even fellow Stockton, Calif., homies Pavement. But truth be told, Speak of the Devil isn't OK Computer; it just rocks a little harder than we're accustomed to.
He plays us another song, and we chat for awhile. With Link and the College Television Network being the kings of all college media, Chris lets us in on a secret all rockers try to keep from the public: He went to college. We're not talking some jock majoring in kinesiology, as Chris puts it. After attending school in Tokyo for awhile, our man finished up at the University of Pacific with a double major in communication arts and English.
"I didn't want to quit, because I knew that once I quit I had to get a job," he says. One job he turned down was a gig with the CIA, which tried to recruit him because he speaks Japanese. So instead of spying in a faraway land, Chris gets to play rock star and frolic with Helena Christiansen and Bai Ling. Yeah, screw the CIA.
Speak of the Devil is out now on Reprise.