What are your thoughts on Electric Bird Digest (1991)? It’s a good record that didn’t seem to get much attention or praise.
Oh, I love it. I think it’s right up there with my favorite Fellows records for sure. It’s the most consistent record because it’s the only one where we went in and made it in two weeks’ time. We recorded it and mixed it all together at the same time in one studio. We did it with (producer) Butch Vig, which was really exciting. He had two weeks off between doing (Nirvana’s) Nevermind and Gish by the Smashing Pumpkins. We literally did that record in the two weeks off he had between those records. We had a little less success than those guys. [Laughs]

Using him, did you have visions of having more success with that record?
Well, only in that we made a record that would’ve been more suitable for airplay because it was a little higher-quality, sonically. But he was not a known producer then at all. He had just done Nevermind, but it wasn’t out yet. We just knew him from doing Killdozer and the Tad record, Eight-Way Santa. The one that really got me fired up was the EP he had done with the Fluid and the Urge Overkill record he had done with “Ticket To L.A.” on it. Americruiser, I think it’s called. By the next year, he was a household name practically because of those records, and he was getting $100,000 offers to record bands, like the Cult or whatever. But we called him up when we were doing our next record (1992’s It’s Low Beat Time) and said, “We know we can’t afford you now, but we’d still like to work with you.” He said, “I have four days off at this time, come on out and record.” He didn’t really charge us any more than he did before, which was literally about nothing. [Laughs] So we were able to work with him on It’s Low Beat Time, but just for like four songs.

There was a nine-year gap between Low Beat and Because We Hate You (paired with the Minus 5’s Let The War Against Music Begin in 2001). In retrospect, prior to Because We Hate You, people started calling Low Beat the Fellows’ swan song. Did you see it that way at the time?
Not really. I think we knew were going to scale things back and not be on tour all the time, but we were still a band. We still played a lot. You think between 1992 and 2001—wow, that really is a long time—but we did put out a lot of music during that time. We put out records in Spain and Japan and toured a lot there, so we just started doing things that seemed fun to us. We got off the treadmill of putting out a record and then touring for three months, driving around the country playing the same clubs that we’d played 10 times before. We loved doing that, but it got to a point in people’s lives where it became hard to keep doing it. Our only preconception for that record was that we wanted it to be a really crazy record and sound like it was recorded all over the place. We wanted it to be a big fucking mess. [Laughs] That was our goal.

Would you say you’re still together now, or are you done?
Yeah, barely. You’re catching me at the one time in the last 20 years where I would go, “Maybe we are breaking up.” I’ve always said we wouldn’t break up because there’s no point to it. We can always play when we want to play, so why break up? But the last year, every time we get offered to do shows, I call everybody up and there’s always someone who doesn’t want to do it, so I go, “Ah, fuck it.” But we are going to play a show in May because there’s a tribute album (titled Because We Love You) coming out, and we’re going to play the record release for that. These people in Seattle put it together, unbeknownst to us, but we got wind of it when people we knew would say, “Hey, I did a song for your record,” and we’re like “What?” So that’s coming out in May and we’re going to play the Croc in Seattle. I can see that being the last time we play together. Our drummer just doesn’t seem very fired up to play, to tell the truth. He doesn’t like getting up on a stage in front of people, it seems like. The rest of us love it. We love getting up and making fools of ourselves in front of people. It’s life.

I wanted to ask about the stuff you did with (former Flamin’ Groovie) Roy Loney as the Northwest Movers. How did you get involved with him? I imagine you were a fan of the Flamin’ Groovies.
Yeah, definitely a Groovies fan. Actually, the weird thing was, I originally was fan of the Groovies with “Shake Some Action” and all of that. That’s what first turned me on to them, the post-Roy, Merseybeat Flamin’ Groovies or whatever. But when I was living in Sonoma, there was a club called the End Of The Beginning, and Roy Loney & The Phantom Movers used to play there a lot. I was totally into them. I saw them live, and they were some of the best shows I’ve ever seen. That’s really how I got into him, then I went back and got into the early Groovies stuff, which is amazing. I really was more of a fan of Roy Loney & The Phantom Movers because they were the best band. They were so smokin’. When I moved up to Seattle, this band from Eugene backed him up. That’s when I probably first went up to him and talked to him and met him. My friend Rob Morgan, who was head of the Squirrels, another band I was in, began corresponding with Roy and became friends with him and he said to Roy, “Come up here, we’ll back you up.” We ended up doing a five-day tour, playing Groovies songs and Phantom Movers songs and some covers, and it was a blast. Then we started talking about doing a record. Roy and I began sending tapes back and forth with song ideas, and he had piles of songs. We went into the studio and recorded like 27 songs in four or five days. That’s what the first album came from and much of what will be the second album, if it ever comes out. [Laughs] Which I actually think it is.

This is Roy Loney & The Longshots’ Full Grown Head (1994) that you’re talking about?
Yeah, Roy Loney & The Longshots. There will be a part two. There was tons of stuff recorded besides the stuff we did at the first sessions. Roy and some of the other Longshots lineups have gone in and recorded a bunch more songs. I played on those a little bit, but I wasn’t really part of those sessions. I overdubbed some keyboards, but I’m not the bass player anymore. I just sit in on keyboards or something. It was such a great thing to play with Roy. He’s Mr. Rock ‘N’ Roll, he really is.

I came across this description of the tour you did as the Northwest Movers: “The band blazed a trail of destruction across Washington and British Columbia.” Is that accurate?
[Laughs] That was pretty much true. That first five-day tour we did, we got in some trouble. There was some destruction that went on. It wasn’t really by me, but I was kind of involved with it. We had a really good time.

The first thing you did under the Minus 5 name was The Minus 5 EP back in ‘93. How did that come about?
It was a Hello EP, the old Hello Record Club that John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants did at the time. It was a mail-order, subscription EP club.

Who was in the Minus 5 at that point?
I just started recording a bunch of songs I had that, again, seemed non-Fellows-like. Some of the stuff, I started just playing acoustic guitar and singing by myself. Peter (Buck) had moved to Seattle by then, and Jon (Auer) and Ken (Stringfellow) from the Posies—I would get them to do overdubs or maybe Ken and I would do the basic track or Peter and I would do it. It was always acoustic, no drums or anything. Any drums that were on it were overdubs. I didn’t really know what we were working on or what it was going to be called.

How did you first hook up with Peter Buck? I imagine you probably crossed paths on tour.
Yeah, exactly. There was a lot of that, hanging out on the R.E.M. bus or backstage, giving him the latest Fellows record or whatever. He and Mike (Mills) would come see us play in Athens, and we’d end up talking and drinking beers and listening to Big Star till all hours of the morning. [Laughs] We just met over the years like guys in bands do. Then he spent a month in Seattle when they were doing Automatic For The People in ‘92, so he called me up when he got into town and we started hanging out a bunch. And he ended up moving to Seattle, so we started playing together all the time, whenever we could.

I want to read you another thing I came across, this time in reference to Old Liquidator: “Old Liquidator continues McCaughey’s slump into self-flagellation.”
Wow. I don’t remember seeing that one. Um, that’s interesting. I wonder what I was continuing it from. [Laughs] I wonder what was the beginning of my self-flagellation.

I think it was probably in reference to how the Minus 5 stuff was more “serious” or introspective than the Fellows stuff.
Well, believe me, that was fully intended. I just write way more sick, slow, sad songs than happy, fun, rock ‘n’ roll songs. You wouldn’t know it from the Fellows, but I’ve always written about five of the dark songs for every one fun rock ‘n’ roll song. The Minus 5 was definitely created to get those songs out of me, so they would leave me alone. [Laughs] But they haven’t. They’re still torturing me.

A lot of the songs you write are funny but not overly jokey, but you also write poignant songs that aren’t sappy. How do you balance that? Do you even think about it, or is that just how your songs come out of you?
I don’t really think about it. Lyrics pop into my head while walking around Seattle or when I sit down at the piano or pick up a guitar. It’s just kind of what comes out. With me, the lyrics come before the music, or at the same time. I never write music first. It’s just kind of all about the stuff that pops into my head that I think sounds good. It’s more the way the words seem to sound than what they’re saying a lot of the time. I’ll go with my instincts most of the time, even if I think I don’t know what the fuck something means or if it makes any sense or not or if it’s disturbing.

What are your thoughts on the making of The Lonesome Death Of Buck McCoy (1997)?
Peter had tons of music for songs that R.E.M. was never going to use, so we started trying to collaborate. He gave me a bunch of songs that I would try to write lyrics to, which I’d never really done before. It was kind of hard for me, but it was a really good exercise. As usual, we brought in the usual suspects to play on it, as well as some different people, like Robert Pollard. I can’t remember who all was on that record, but the Presidents Of The United States Of America were on one song.

I’m glad you brought up Pollard because I find you two fairly comparable, if for no other reason than you’re both so busy.
I can’t come close to him, though. As a songwriter, he’s left me in the dust. [Laughs]

Well, maybe. I think he sometimes puts out too much stuff. The highs are great, but some of the lows are pretty low. I consider you prolific but consistent.
I definitely put out one record for every five that he does.

In a general sense, what drives you to be so busy or prolific?
I don’t know. I kind of wish I was more prolific now. I’ve kind of tapered off, and I don’t write as many songs as I used to. That kind of bums me out, but part of it is just because I’m so busy playing with lots of different people and doing the R.E.M. thing. A lot of that ends up inspiring songs as well. If I can’t write songs, I’m pretty much fucked. It just seems like that’s what I’m supposed to be doing. I wouldn’t say I’m driven, but writing songs just has to happen for me or else I feel really useless, even though it doesn’t really matter if I ever write a song again. As far as anybody else is concerned, it’s not really that big of a deal.

I don’t know if I’d say that.
I’m not putting myself down or anything. I’m just saying the world could go on without another song about booze. [Laughs] But it’s not going to because I’m going to keep on writing them.

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