So how will the Old 97’s reconcile the fact that the band is poised for a return to its hardscrabble indie roots, even as their frontman is getting a major-label push? “As long as that boy don’t get above his raising, we’ll be good,” Hammond jokes. “We love Rhett and hope he gets what he wants out of his experiment. He still writes kick-ass 97’s stuff. I’m not worried about him too much — Elektra will probably drop the ball anyway, would be my guess, and we’ll see him soon enough for 97’s recording.”
Working with his significant other Grey De Lisle on her album Homewrecker also gave Hammond a taste for getting back to indie-style basics. “Recently I’ve built a pretty decent home studio for myself, all analog with old ribbon and tube mikes and all, and there’s some serious talk amongst our band about DIY-ing it the next time around, whether we end up on a label or not,” he says.
His interest in vintage equipment has also convinced Hammond to shelve a completed album by the Ranchero Brothers, his acoustic side-project with Miller. “I decided to re-record the entire thing, because I’m still looking for a certain ‘sound’ that I didn’t get on the first attempt,” Hammond says. “My home studio includes an old 1960 Ampex 4-track machine that’s been restored, so I’m anxious to get Rhett in there and see how it sounds pumping through those old ’50s ribbon mikes into that machine. I think that’s the sound I’m looking for. We’ll see — Rhett’s pretty busy right now and it will be awhile before he’s free to do anything but come over, drink lemonade and trade songs.”
Miller, too, says he feels confident about balancing his own career with the band.
“All I know is, we made a pact with each other that we would always be Old 97’s, and there would never be a reason good enough for us not to do this,” Miller assures. “And certainly, it is going to change from the way it has been for the last ten years, where we deadheaded all over the continent. I just don’t want to do that forever, for my whole life. But we are always going to be friends, always going to make records.”
To that end, even in the midst of getting ready to roll out The Instigator, Miller had two hometown shows lined up for August with the Old 97’s — the group’s first gigs of 2002.
“One thing about this band that is very good is we communicate very well,” he says. “We have had to, to be the same four guys in the band as long as we have been. They understand. They knew I was going to do this.”
Furthermore, he notes, not everything he’s been writing for his solo album is necessarily destined for the Kiss lunch box. “There are four or five [songs dropped from The Instigator] that will be in running for the [next] Old 97’s album, which is the project in my mind that I would like to do next,” he says. “I had already written the majority of it before I went in to make this record. By exclusion of these songs, the list has grown.
“I don’t think this is unreasonable: simultaneous careers, where I make records and I make records with them,” he says. “I can always be with Old 97’s and I can always be myself. I don’t know why that couldn’t be possible.
“The saving grace is, nobody can own us. Nobody takes away our right, our free will. We can make records together. I can make solo records. We can do whatever we want. As long as our hearts are in the right place, it is all going to work out.”
ND contributing editor Paul Cantin lives in Toronto and believes the National Hockey League’s instigator fighting penalty is a good thing.
