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doomedandstoned · 7 years ago

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Uncle Acid: The Veil is Lifted

~By Jamie LaRose~

Photographs by Burning Moon

'Wasteland' (2018), the latest offering from Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, will melt your brain. This pleasurable trip induced via neuron-altering sound will send you on a ride into the void of dilapidated humanity, then back to earth in an awakening.

We had the chance to visit with Uncle Acid founding member Kevin Starrs about the new album and his own inspiring musical journey. He also indulged some unusual fan questions.

Come trip with us.

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"At the end I was sick everywhere."

I was curious about the narrative underlying 'Wasteland.' Is it a follow-up to the story behind 'Mind Control' (2013)?

It’s funny, I never really thought of much similarity between the two albums. There is an underlying theme of manipulation, propaganda, and things like that, which were sort of touched on in Mind Control. Wasteland is a little more fragmented, almost like fragments from a memory disc or something like that, that’s all been shattered and thrown together. So although all of the songs relate to each other, it’s not so much of a linear story as the other albums are.

That makes sense. The title track seems to encompass a wide array of styles, from the 1960s to present, with its melodies, harmonies and psychedelic dissonance. I feel like a time traveler. Do you think music is a true form of time travel?

Yeah, you know, you associate memories with certain sounds. In this particular track, as you say, there are so many different influences on that. It wasn’t really intentional, that was just the way it kind of panned out in the end. That’s actually one of my favorite tracks of the album, just the way it turned out. I think it came out really great.

I agree. Mind blowing.

Thank you.

"Even if we have a pristine recording, I’ll do whatever I can to destroy it."

I had my headphones on, I sat back, and I kind of lost myself in that track “Exodus” after I had listened to the album and I found myself startled. This has happened before, when I was listening to that Jimi Hendrix song, “The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam’s Dice,” for the first time. I got into the groove with "Exodus" and there’s this weird, kind of heartbeat sound coming in and it took me off guard. I almost forgot I was listening and then it snapped me into a different place.

That’s great. I mean, that’s sort of the idea of it. It’s to mold you into a false sense of security, then you’re going along and all the sudden it stops -- that part about the mercenary or whatever, that sawing sound like somebody’s skull is being sawed open and gets stuck into the brain, and there’s all kinds of panning and effects that swell around your brain. Especially if you say you listened to it on headphones, it can be quite disorientating. When I finished this album, finished mixing it and listened to it straight through for the first time, at the end I was sick everywhere. For whatever reason, it made me feel very uneasy, I don’t know if it was the music or because I had worked on it so hard, but it was quite strange to just vomit after you’ve finished an album like that.

It almost surrounds the part of your brain where you’re unable to escape from it. It makes sense to have felt that way, that’s how it happened for me, as well!

Nice. I’m glad.

So what's the story behind 'Wasteland'?

It was based not in a desert wasteland, but a city wasteland, with large, boned-out buildings. Loads of propaganda and things like that. The story just evolved as I was writing it.

Before this interview, I asked fans is they had some questions for you. Here's an unusual one to start: "How do you feel about spirit animals?"

Spirit animals. You know, I’ve never really thought about that.

Like if you have a dream or event that involves an animal coming to you?

I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that sort of thing.

Seemed like something that was possible.

Well, maybe. I mean, I’m not really sure what kind of spirit animal I would be, to be honest.

Another fan question I got frequently was, "Who's Uncle?" Are you?

I guess that would be me, yeah. I started it and I used that name in the beginning “Uncle Acid” just because, you know, I didn’t think it was going to get anywhere. It was just kind of a small project and I wanted to remain anonymous. It made sense to take a name like that, but as the band grew a lot bigger and it became an international thing, I didn’t want it to become a character that I had to play -- you know, some fucking whatever -- so I thought, "We’ll scrap the idea and I can just use a different sort of name" and became K. R. Starrs and then Kevin Starrs. There’s just all different kind of ways of putting it, so it can be quite confusing for people.

You go by many names, perhaps you have not settled yet? There’s probably another form that will somehow emerge.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There could be, yeah.

"It was just kind of a small project and I wanted to remain anonymous."

I had another fan question, "Would consider doing a Cactus cover in Uncle Acid style?" They suggested “One Way or Another.”

You know, I’ve never really thought about doing a Cactus song. I guess “Evil” would be a good one to do. That was the first Cactus song I ever heard, so that could work. It’s always good to do sort of unusual songs for covers. I’ve got a couple of ideas that we could use as B-sides if we ever need them, strange covers that maybe people would be a little bit surprised with.

I had a somewhat strange request from someone who asked if you could live in their basement, because it wasn’t doomy enough. In relationship to that, I was wondering if you’ve gotten strange fan requests and what the strangest request might have been.

It tends to happen in the U.S. amazingly. I remember meeting someone and he wanted me to sign his pickle jar. He had like and empty, large pickle jar. He was very adamant. I don’t know what he was going to put in it, but he was adamant that it needed to be signed by me.

That can go in a lot of different directions. Like, you’ve signed a jar that something can go into.

It could be some body parts -- anything, really. I mean, you never know.

I live in Florida by way of Portland, Oregon and the last time I saw your band was in Philadelphia, you were playing with Danava. I know you’ve toured with them a couple of times and I’m a huge fan, as well. How you did like touring with Danava and what other bands have you enjoyed sharing the stage with?

We’ve been pretty lucky, as we’ve gotten to tour with a lot of really great bands. Static Vision, I really love what they’re doing. We’ve got Blood Ceremony coming up here and we’re really excited about that, we’ve been looking to tour with them for a long time. I’ve been a fan of theirs since their very first album and I love everything that they’ve done. It’s always just been difficult to get schedules to match up. We finally got a window of opportunity to tour, so we are really looking forward to that. And, of course, as you say, Danava -- one of the best, the best band in America, in my opinion. Greg’s always been very supportive of us, as well, so we always have a good time touring with those guys.

In the album, I hear a kind of '80s metal influence with theatrical stylings muffled down into psychedelic tones and that brain-mesh we spoke about. What are some of your most notable influences to date?

Pink Floyd is a huge influence, especially on this one. Pink Floyd, as well as Roger Waters solo stuff. He makes albums that are very immersive, it goes back to using sound effects and spoken word, and sound samples of voices. He always does that on his albums and it makes it immersive for the listener, adding a sort of paranoia feeling to it sometimes. So, yeah, Pink Floyd, I love that band. Neil Young is a huge influence, as is Simon and Garfunkel.

I always assume that people aren’t going to like it.

You have a style that transcends time. Someone could recognized Uncle Acid as a band from the '60s, but with the modern attributes of mixing and mastering. It feels so expansive. You’ve been able to cover so much ground, using musically recognizable forms from each era without replicating the bands that influenced you. How do you pull off this unique sound?

I just write to my particular tastes. I always assume that people aren’t going to like it. So, if you have that in mind, any sort of good reaction is going to be unexpected, really. We’re not trying to recreate anything that’s happened in the past, I just have a specific sound that I like. Sometimes that’s contrary to what’s going on currently, especially on the production side.

A lot of the metal production is very clean and you can hear every single element of the drums and everything is perfectly in place. It’s all really sterile and I really don’t like that sort of thing, so I go in the exact opposite direction. Even if we have a pristine recording, I’ll do whatever I can to destroy it, run it through preamps, and turn everything up. I make it sound kind of disgusting, the opposite of what’s popular at the moment. We use a mixture of analog and digital, as well. There is a place for digital in recording, you can make it sound really good. We’re not specifically trying to recreate anything from the past, but I guess because our music production is so different from a lot of the modern productions. People just assume that it’s trying to be like that.

Speaking of the modern production in relationship to your process, do you use vintage equipment in recording?

It’s a mix, really. A lot of the guitars we use are new, made in the last 10-15 years. I’ve used an amp from 1958 and an amp from 1972 and then an amp from 2005. Whatever sounds good, basically, we’ll use. In the studio that we used, they had a lot of great, old vintage equipment, stuff that’s been in there for 50 years. Microphones and tape machines and echo chambers that we used were used on classic records, and we got to use them.

The recording studio that you use, do you know of the history of the equipment that you have been able to record with?

Yeah, we’ve recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles for the main tracking. That’s where the first couple of Van Halen records were made, Neil Young recorded there, the Stones, Zeppelin, The Doors. I mean, it’s just a who’s who, all these classic albums were made there. There is something about those rooms that held a sort of vibe to the place, which definitely helps. You feel this sort of leisure gain, because you’re playing in a place where you know so much great music has been recorded. You want to up your game a little bit to match that.

"Question everything and keep your mind open."

It sounds like that studio would be very filled with their presence in a way, if you have that sort of sentiment about spaces.

Yeah, absolutely!

Do you have a message to the universe from Uncle Acid or Kevin Starrs?

Question everything and keep your mind open. That’s it, really. In a lot of our albums, we present stories where if people would question things maybe it wouldn’t have turned out as bad for the people on the albums. A lot of the time, people just fall for the propaganda, they fall for what they’re told, and it always ends terribly for them. All of our albums have that theme of just things going terribly wrong for people.

Question Your Destiny

Jamie LaRose reviews Uncle Acid's new heart-stopping spin

The fifth album by Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, 'Wasteland' (2018 - Rise Above Records), is filled with questions -- questions one needs to ask to avert the miry void of a dismal, propaganda-filled eternity. Uncle Acid is Kevin R. Starrs (lead guitar, vocals, organ) and the Deadbeats are Vaughn Stokes (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), John Rice (drums), and Justin Smith (bass). The narrative of these songs begs us to interrogate our reality by asking "What's real?" In a dismal, decayed, apocalyptic world, the way to find escape is through a journey. From beginning to end, the psychedelic melodies will keep the soul alert through its dark night. The album contains extreme mastery of a personal style orchestrated by the infamous Uncle Acid himself. Trust me when I say it will affect your brain chemistry.

The storyline of Wasteland has us constantly second guessing ourselves as we're guided by the tones of insanity. “See Through You” will gives a launching point into space. It sounds as if you are being launched into a rocket where you will meet this very tune in the expansive voids of outer worlds. The best way to experience the album in the most immersive way would be to listen with a nice pair of headphones. The intricacies of the chaos created will become so intense that you have to wonder if you’re listening to something interdimensional. After speaking with Kevin Starrs, the creation comes to life in a different way, yet everything makes sense when he explains that the reaction you feel was intended.

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Music Video by Gryphus Visuals

Kevin Starrs has gone by many different names throughout his time with the band, yet his style always remains outstandingly individualistic and organic. There are hints of many different styles throughout the record, from groovy psychedelic rock and '80s hair metal to the futuristic possibilities of unknown noise. It is apparent that the influences he referenced most, such as Pink Floyd, come into play in the writing process. Even though the nature of this record has obvious influences, drawing from a wide array of inspirations, there is not the slightest indication that it is contrived in any way. The style is well-developed by Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and thus distinctly their own.

There is something about this writing style that focuses intricately on brain invasion. The final track, “Exodus,” is a great example of neural integration within this musical masterpiece. While listening, I became entranced by the lulling melody of the swaying guitar riffs, quintessential Uncle Acid vocals, and the snazzy high hats. This comforting sound is like a rocking chair, with a quality of restless relaxation. Finding myself enraptured by this hypnotism, I sank further into a state of calmness. This came towards the end, right when a decision must be made. In the outro, I was awakened to memories of the album in its entirety, as if I was waking from a dream. The enrapturing nature of this song affected me greatly. I felt confused, lost. As soon as I realized I was still listening to the album, I awoke a new person with a piece of myself curious to hear my own heartbeat. It wasn’t my heartbeat, was it? No, it was the awakening.

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Film by Billy Goate

Overall, the experience of listening to the new Uncle Acid album for the first time was much more than I ever expected. Each time I hear the songs in succession, I encounter an invasion in my head. Finding the truth is hidden within the questions we ask ourselves and Uncle Acid has let us in on this discovery. In order to find oneself, we must take a look inward. If that doesn’t work, take a look at your realm of outward influences and you will discover yourself once more in the Wasteland.

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