Pink Mountaintops

A conversation with Stephen McBean

(November 2006)

Interview by Adam McKibbin

Photograph by Dale Nixon

On their first album, Pink Mountaintops largely (if unintentionally) devoted themselves to the delicious and time-honored topic of sex.  Reveling in its lo-fi libido, the album offered a different side of frontman Stephen McBean, who made his inroads into the Vancouver music scene in the mid-90s as Jerk With A Bomb, then split into the separate but related peaks of Pink Mountaintops and the bluesy, good-kind-of-psychedelic Black Mountain.  While the first Pink Mountaintops album drew from the enforced loneliness of the touring lifestyle - and the anticipation of a reunion with a waiting lover - the second album, Axis of Evol, performed and recorded by McBean in his bedroom, sounds like the inevitably more troubled Morning After (or perhaps Later That Same Night).  Spiritual imagery abounds, seemingly anti-drug warnings are dropped onto preternaturally pro-drug music, and the songs -while still hazy and rollicking - seem decidedly more troubled by the world outside the front door.

Strange bedfellows aren't limited to the songs.  Having previously taken Black Mountain on the road with Coldplay, McBean and Pink Mountaintops are set for a few shows in December with - woman! - Wolfmother.  Those are limited to San Francisco and Los Angeles, but the band is also playing a handful of shows down the West Coast (dates at the bottom).  Right before Thanksgiving, McBean talked with The Red Alert about Axis of Evol, sex and politics, and his band's upcoming shows and future plans.

How did you get paired up with Wolfmother for those two upcoming shows?

I’m not sure.  We don’t know any of them, so they probably had a handful of bands that they wanted to do shows with, and we were available.

Do you worry about audience perception with shows like that?  Or are you able to not worry about it?

Well, it’s one of those things…it’s obviously nice to play to audiences (laughs), as opposed to empty clubs.  But it’s more about the people you’re playing with, and if you’re having a good time, it doesn’t really matter—if the audience is into it, it just makes it that much better.

So having a good show isn’t contingent on having a good audience.

Right.  It can be anything that sets it off in a good way—or a bad way.  Sometimes the audience will really love it, but we think it’s the worst piece of garbage. 

Are there pockets of the country you’re still itching to play?

I’ve never been to the South past Houston and Austin.  I’d like to go down in that area more, like Atlanta and Kentucky.  Eastern Europe, too.

Are you constantly writing, or do you have more focused periods of writing as each album comes along?

Pretty much constantly writing, and then certain ones make it into their little homes and little families, and other ones get shoved off to the street.  But sometimes those will turn up later, and find a welcoming home later.  But, yeah, it’s really a constant.

Did you hit patches of writer’s block where you think, damn, am I ever going to be able to write a song again?

Sure.  When it’s not fun, it’s not fun.  I’ll go get wasted and go to parties and stuff.  Hang out with Ted [Bois] and Josh [Stevenson] in a van.  (laughs)

Any thoughts on the next album?  Are there songs already earmarked for it?

Yeah, we’ve got a bunch.  It’s going to be more of a band thing, because the ones so far have been kind of recorded as bedroom projects, or however you want to put it.  The people who are playing together right now get along good.

That’s the band that’s out on the road?

Yeah.

The next record that we see will be a Pink Mountaintops record, then?

Well, I don’t know.  We’re working on a Black record, too, and I don’t know which will come out first.

Axis of Evol was almost entirely a one-man show, right?  Production and recording and everything.

Yeah, except for the group vocals.  I did it in my bedroom.

Do you enjoy that technical side, or is it a matter of necessity?

No, I love problem solving, getting a piece of technology and sitting around forever just figuring out how it works so you can use it for a minute.  That’s pretty fun…especially without manuals.  (laughs)

Of course.  Do you have songs that pop out fully formed, where you don’t have to really problem solve?

Yeah, there are a few on [Axis of Evol] that are like that.  “Plastic Man” was like that, it was like the second take for the lyrics and guitar and vocals.  We added a few things after, but, yeah—it’s that aspect of Pink Mountaintops that I love.  With some bands, you have songs and you take them out on the road, and then you record them.  For us, by the time we’re playing them live, we’re doing them quite differently.  At the time, you can think, “Oh, damn, I wish we had recorded it this way,” but it just makes for surprises in a live setting. 

There was so much talk about the sexual aspect of the first Pink Mountaintops record.  It was kind of funny, actually, that people found it so remarkable to find some libido in their music.  Was it a conscious decision to step away from that on Axis of Evol?

Yeah, everything is about sex in rock and roll.  But it wasn’t really a conscious effort; you get a few ideas and stuff just comes out.  Some people were like, “Oh, the new one’s not about sex.”  Why would I want to do that?

I think the first record was seen as sort of a mission statement.  Also, the impression is that it’s more fun to make music like that.

Sometimes, yeah, but when you’re not in the mood, you feel like an idiot when you’re playing live—or if it’s an all-ages show and there are 13-year-olds in front of you.  (laughs)  It was meant to be fun, and it was dedicated to my partner at the time.  But that’s the thing about music:  sometimes it’s boring and sometimes it’s fun.  It all depends on the mood, the people you’re with, the crowd, whatever.

The weight of the world definitely factors in more heavily on Axis of Evol.  That made me curious about your take on something Neil Young said earlier this year, which was basically that no one in the younger generation of songwriters was stepping up to tell it like it is.  Bullshit or does he have a point?

That’s an absolutely pompous statement of his.  I used to be maybe more involved with what you could call the punk rock underground, and it’s like after watching American Hardcore, if you want to be old and jaded, you can say, “Oh, there are no good punk bands anymore.” But that’s bullshit—you’re just not going to the shows.  Sure, there’s the Warped Tour stuff, but there’s always a group of kids somewhere that are saying “Fuck the government” or whatever.  Obviously, people like Neil Young have a history of eloquence with political songs and statements.  When the Dead Kennedys came out, the name itself terrified mainstream America, but in this day and age, it’s just shock value, it’s not going to have the same effect.  If you write a song that’s like “Kill Bush,” it won’t have the same effect.  In this day and age, “Love thy neighbor” might be more important.  It’s easy to be political, especially in the punk scene where everyone is like “Smash the state, fuck this and that.”  But they can’t even get along with their fucking friends!  How are they supposed to change the world if they’re just fighting with everyone in their little circle?  But, yeah, there are always people doing their thing politically—whichever way.

Yeah, it’s odd, because you have Neil Young saying things like that, but then you also have a fairly commonly expressed sentiment that too many musicians have been making political statements.

Well, yeah, and it can be ridiculous.  Maybe not at this level, but if you’re world-famous, all of a sudden you’re expected to be a diplomat and an intellectual—but you’re playing a goddamn guitar.  You’re a rock and roller!  Who wants to be Sting, you know?  (laughs)