So, what of this Eugene S. Robinson? College graduate, former dance instructor, musician, fighter, author, etc. There's a lot behind the man. Rather than wasting any more of your time, let's get started.
When I last interviewed you (right before the release of "Love That's Last...), I mentioned that you'd make a good writer. In the time between then and now, you've had two books published: FIGHT... and A Long Slow Screw. How have the reactions been to both?
Well, FIGHT: everything you ever wanted to know about ass-kicking but were afraid you'd get your ass kicked for asking was a wild ride. It brought in a lot of people who had no idea who Oxbow was. And, of course, in my little egomaniacal world there was no one who didn't know about Oxbow and so this was a surprise to get new people at shows who had only shown up via the book. And the book, of course, got me all kinds of places I never could have gone with only the band: NPR several times, Sirius satellite radio, pretty much every place but the New York Review of Books. And the New Yorker. I sold about 9,500 books. Which, to me, was a success. To the people at Harper Collins? A failure.
A LONG SLOW SCREW was put out by our friends at Hydrahead Records on their new imprint called Robotic Boot. Which is as close to self-publishing, given my friendship with those guys, as it was possible to get. But the book went through a tortured path into existence....from Random House to Penguin Putnam to almost obscurity. It was a blast to have this out. We've only sold about 4500 copies but that's good enough for me. And it gives people nightmares, which is even better.
But the best and most satisfying part of both of these books has been the slow public realization that I am a real writer and not just a guy in a band who thinks enough of himself to want to publish his fucking diaries. Like Brian May is a real astrophysicist, I think it is probably safe to say that I'm real enough of writer to make people forget that I jump around on stage in my underwear.
Do you have other books in the works?
Yes. But I don't like working for free. And so am in no hurry to finish it. Not until I have someone who wants to put it out. But things work in strange ways. A French company Les Editions Incultes is releasing A LONG SCREW in France in French in January 2012. And I have another French company releasing a play I wrote called THE INIMITABLE SOUNDS OF LOVE. In October I have been told. So that's pretty productive for a guy who spends most of his time these days fighting.
A few side projects...
1] STRANGER BY STARLIGHT...a great atmospheric, creepy thing I am doing with this kid Ant Saggers. Still has no home. But we're looking for someone to put it out.
2] LEISURE HIGH...a duo thing I am doing with Bevin Kelley from Blevin from Blechtdom. Has a home but I have yet to return the contract because I have a thing about contracts. I like to hand them to people. Not just mail them in. And thusfar the label owner has not been available to meet.
3] SAL MINEO...Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu and I are doing this.
4] BLACK FACE...Chuck Dukowski from Black Flag and me plus an all-star crew doing Dukowski-era Black Flag...all Dukowski-penned Black Flag songs, recorded but never released when he left Flag, redone with me on vocals. Cool deal.
5] PETIT + ROBINSON...me and laptopist Philippe Petit. Record comes out in July.
There's also some talk of staging the play in France that I wrote. I'd like to find someone to publish it here but who the hell publishes plays? I have no idea. I'd also like to start doing TV commercials, TV movies and films again but there are only some many hours in the day.
Of course. Realistically, it is the only reason we're still out there. I mean we're more sensitive than most to temperature changes and if the needle was slipping backward...if the shows were smaller, the crowds less significant, the reviews not so enthusiastic? We'd fuck off for sure. That is not to say that we'd stop making music, but for sure we'd stop loading thousands of pounds of equipment in a van and taking the show on the road. I mean we can be geniuses without leaving our houses. so it might sound like bullshit when guys in bands say it but it is truer than not: the audience is the only reason we're still out there. well, that and deep-seated insoluble emotional difficulties.
I've been seeing footage, and photos, of Oxbow performing acoustically in smaller rooms/halls. Where have you guys been doing this?
All over the place. Wherever people want it. And plenty of places where they did not.
Niko has been involved in other projects, and you've been popping up on different albums; making guest appearances. Are these other projects a means to express different things that wouldn't necessarily fit Oxbow, or is it more to keep busy? Something else, perhaps?
Well, like I don't know if you have read accounts left behind by Hendrix's father where he said he couldn't figure out why there was all of this broom straw in the kitchen when he knew none of his kids were sweeping up and then he spied on Jimi who was jumping around in the kitchen playing the broom to the radio. At which point he decided to get him a real guitar. Well, I am like this about voice/vocals. And so if I have an opportunity to do something, very akin to experimenting with my voice, well I do it. I mean I don't sing new songs with Oxbow until I am standing in front of a mic in a studio. but I go to practice. So it all happens in my head until we're ready to document it. But with other people's music, as long as they meet the stipulations....those being
1] don't suck
2] feed me, fly me, pay me [negotiable the further away from sucking you are], and give me a place to stay and3] extra points if I can write the lyrics [after sending me your other lyrics, song titles and record title]
....I am in. Simply because it offers me a chance to do what I don't normally do with my voice...and that's achieve a coloration maybe I have yet to work with in an Oxbow context.also there are very few bands that I hear and think, "man...I can't offer them ANYthing." So it is ego driven. I think, like Christ, I can help/heal the world. Or at least the world's music. AND I like making music with people for whom making music is a serious goddamned pursuit. since that closely mirrors how I feel about it.
This shit will live well beyond me. It better be good.
Hydrahead has a pretty loyal following of its releases. How has it been going, so far, with them? More releases planned under their banner?
Yes. You know I have a category of people who I call "favorite people." This is a noteworthy designation since what it really means in my cosmology is people whom my liking of is far out of proportion to anything they would have actually ever expect based on what's passed between us. And I can name them. Tom Mallon, Richard Kern, Allan MacDonell, Mike Fox...and the guys who run Hydrahead. There are a few more on that list. Now I have close friends who I feel that way about but they would not be surprised to hear it. The people mentioned above might be. I'd do a lot for these guys. Anytime. Anyplace. Without many questions. Because they have typically done me good turns that have usually altered the course of my life for the better. Or sometimes not. Mike Fox is just the most genial guy in the world and if I could bring a tenth of that to my dealings with other human my place in heaven would be assured. Of course Mike will probably now get arrested for a string of cross country murders...but he's always been a prince to me.
You might notice that there are no women on that list. That's only because the list of women is waaaaay too long to make it sense to list.
But yeah. I have side project stuff out on other labels but Hydrahead is where we'd like to be until we die. Or they die. whichever comes first.
I remember seeing a post you made on Facebook about possibly playing with The Offspring. Really, The Offspring? Is that possible, or is already a legend to be told along with Bigfoot, etc?
No. that was strange and this kind of strangeness happens periodically. It's so strange that I usually write about it since I start to think I made it up. The Offspring was one. And AC/DC was the other. And neither happened, but we were approached.
From the looks of some of the pictures you've been posting; it looks like you've been working on your BJJ game. Who are you training with these days? Are you just competing in grappling tourneys, or competing in MMA fights, also?
I'm training with Team Serao...technically a Luta Livre team...that is Brazilian catch-wrestling/submission...but outside of the belting system it's all the same...I am an Orange belt in luta livre...this is a the equivalent of a purple belt in BJJ I think. And yeah, I am just competing in BJJ tournaments. But that's because I am training 7 days a week, twice a day for two of those days in this. when I get good enough to just skate a bit I'll go back to working on my stand up and fight again MMA.
I saw the video you posted where you gave tips on how to handle a bar fight...while intoxicated, if I'm remembering correctly.
NO....it's when you were being assaulted by a drunk!
Being a former bouncer, and current performer of rock-based music in bars, clubs, etc...I'm sure you've had your share of experiences. How did you get approached to do these videos? Do your tips stand up to Bas'?
A website in Germany asked me to do it. So I said, "hell yes." and my tips and Bas's? Well no one has made a remix of my tips yet. And Bas is a bona fide fucking bad ass. I am a tourist by comparison, hahah....
Anyone that makes more money than we do.
Tell me what you're willing about "The Thin Black Duke."
It's the next Oxbow record. We've come up with a new scheme to record and release it. We have finally come to believe that the album is dead. So we will release it 2 songs at a time. On vinyl. Until all of the songs, not in order, exist in the marketplace. THEN we'll release it on a DVD with video, documentaries, outtakes, extra art the whole deal....but at the END. this is ambitious but it will be great and intense and for people who like Oxbow: perfect.
What are some of the major events in your life that have made you who you are today?...From Whipping Boy...to Stanford graduate...to involvement in pornography...to a lover of all things combative (though this may be out of order)...to Oxbow?
This is a very very complex question. But let's start with Stanford: It was luck and a certain amount of kismet. I had a calculus class in high school taught by this lunatic, which it turns out I could get out of if I went to see a college presentation. The only one offered then was Stanford. Which was presented over by a sort attractive hippie chick who showed us pictures and said: "it's 30 minutes from a beach...and 30 minutes from san fran." I asked what the ratio of males to females was and when it was close enough to guarantee continued sexual contact that I had been used to growing up in New York City under the dual aegis of both disco and punk rock, I signed on.
Didn't visit. Didn't talk to anyone about it. California seemed cool and hardcore was just happening so it made sense.Of course I was wrong about a lot. It was also the beginning of the Reagan revolution and the student body was mostly from california and was so unsophisticated [I mean who had never met someone who didn't believe in god before? half of my classmates apparently]....I quickly figured out I had made a terrible mistake. In all but one regard: the music. I have said it before and I will say it again: punk rock saved my life. School became my job and my whole social life, network and contacts occurred under the shit-smeared arch of hardcore.
Which gave birth to Whipping Boy....tours with Minor Threat, Negative Approach....shows with the Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys...crazy craziness and eventually only 6 months late a degree in communications. Or journalism.
Fighting predates this and goes back to a genetic predisposition for being an opinionated loud mouth and a hater of bullies.
Pornography goes back to Larry Flynt being the only one in America who was willing to pay me $2000 for 2000 words on collections thugs.
All of these roads seem logically placed. To ME. But I'd never think of them as "major events." That seems to be something you could say in retrospect. But while in the midst of them? You're just pulling on all kinds of intuitive throttles and hoping you don't die.
What do you want to be remembered for the most when you leave this world?
For being a great father, genius writer, and compelling performer. And the fact that I will have died with my pants around my ankles jumping out of someone's bedroom window? Well, I'd just as soon have that forgotten.
And, lastly...someone is reading this who has never heard of you, or Oxbow. Give them a reason?
There are no salient reasons why one WOULD listen to Oxbow. I must side with the gnostics here whose theories on received knowledge very clearly seemed to suggest that everything is not for everybody and those that are meant to know? Well, they know. And everyone else? Justin Bieber!
http://www.theoxbow.com
http://www.eugenesrobinson.com
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