Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

For a band to re-invent itself successfully three times over is no mean feat. But then, not all bands are created equal… and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are one hell of a band. The San Francisco natives, who're now based in the heaving mass of LA, have finally crafted the most complete of their five studio albums in Beat The Devil's Tattoo - one that somehow perfectly captures the shoegaze psychedelic stoner-rock of their first two albums, the folk-gospel of their masterpiece Howl and the scuzzed-out garage of the brilliant Baby 81 . It's the idealised Black Rebel Motorcycle Club album - pulsating, heady and with a kick that'd leave a mule looking ashamed of its inadequacy - and it was completed in the face of the adversity inherent of parting ways with long-time drummer Nick Jago. Vocalist/bassist Robert Levon Been is currently sweltering in his home in LA in the middle of a balmy American summer, reflecting that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were always aiming to create something as definitive as Beat The Devil's Tattoo . The lot of the artist, however, means he's still searching for that elusive ideal of being 'content' - especially after the doubt surrounding the band around genesis of Beat The Devil's Tattoo .
 
"I'm still waiting to feel content," Been laughs. "At the time [we started the record] I was almost hyperventilating, or paralysed with anxiety… But that all ended once, I think, with the first song or two that we wrote and jammed out. I think Mama Taught Me Better was the first one we wrote with Leah (new drummer, ex-Raveonette Leah Shapiro); it came really fast and no-one said anything, it was just done in like 15 minutes," he grins at the memory. "We were like 'what the fuck was that' and it was a really good sign, just the kind of sign we were waiting for… that, you know, we can keep the same structure that we've had - where we write as a band and it would just kind of happen - and without that, I dunno if we would have probably called it Black Rebel… 'cause that was so much of what a 'proper' band is to me.
 
"Without that," he clarifies, "it probably means that we would have to doctor it, and conceptualise it and create it like, building it track by track or something, which might sound interesting, but it felt like a band again so we didn't have much of a choice…"
 
That BRMC even made Beat The Devil's Tattoo is somewhat remarkable, as the band weren't sure until they'd clicked with Shapiro that they'd continue on post-Jago. It also shaped the way Been and creative foil Pete Hayes approached writing the record, and with a new perspective - and sans a personality that had been a part of the band for a long time - the sound of BRMC was able to evolve into a more over-arching , definitive ideal. The band holed up in the same basement studio in Philadelphia where they crafted Howl, amid one of the coldest winters in Pennsylvanian history and emerged with not just a record that sounded like a band who'd rediscovered their mojo, but as a band who were tighter than they'd ever been.
 
"It's a relief that we're still alive and kicking," Been admits. "You know, we had a falling out with our drummer right before we started making it, so we were all pretty black and blue from that falling out… we didn't know what we were going to do, or how we were going to make records… if we were going to make records," he shrugs. "And it was kind of just by chance that we met our drummer Leah; she kind of came in and resuscitated us…" he says emphatically.
 
"Playing with her," been continues, "kind of gave us, like, a new perspective… but it just fit in a way like we weren't fitting together with Nick anymore. So the songs started coming - a lot of them in a short amount of time - and it just felt like new life… you know, that had been missing for a while. So, I guess you could call that happy," he chuckles darkly. "It's lots better than being sad, I guess…."
 
"This record," Been finishes, "was just a matter of exploring how we took with Leah - what would come out - and a few songs were surprises to all of us. I don't think we would have made this kind of record with Nick; I can't say what that would have been. So this one was just to see what we're made of; we didn't get too tricky with it. We recorded a lot of songs - more than we put on the record and some that we are going to have on the next - so I guess the bigger question is 'what are we going to do next?' and umm…. I don't have a very big answer for that," he laughs. "I'm trying to keep things small in my own head until I have to get to it, until I get there."
 
That the band are feeling - and sounding - like they're a cohesive unit is unusual, and one that Been is wary of revelling in, and it mirrors his appreciation of the way people have initially reacted to Beat The Devil's Tattoo.
 
"It's kind of spooky good…" he squints, "we're kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. We're not used to things going well, I guess," he laughs. "So it's a little unnerving. But we're trying to get used to that. It's cool. People were are warming up to the record; we started [touring] a little before it came out, so you're starting to see people's expressions change for the new songs and their mouths are starting to move a little bit more as they're starting to learn more of the lyrics. You like see them crack open; it's cool. Like day after day, it's like 'Ok, they're learning it'."
 
And indeed, those BRMC fans are also a strangely divided lot - many love the early shoegaze stuff, or the roots-gospel folk material, or revere the scuzz garage period - but Been himself is happy with the body of work he and Hayes have behind them. Truth be told, though, surely Howl is his favourite BRMC album?
"Ha!," he laughs. "I dunno - I used to think of them as like kids that you don't want to call 'favourites' or say that one's my favourite. But now they just seem like ex-girlfriends and they all have their place and they all have their time and they all taught you something… and some were more like 'romantic' love affairs and others beat the hell out of you; but they all made life a little more interesting. So I love them all and I hate them all at the same time. But that's kind of great too. But yeah, I'm not content to leave it as it lies."
 
It's obviously a legacy that is still forming. What remains remarkable about BRMC is the territory they've traversed since the initial hype surrounding them back in 2001 with their self-titled debut. Lumped alongside rock revivalists such as The White Stripes, The Strokes and The Hives, BRMC brought a definite sense of 'fuck you' swagger and danger - hell, their name alone (ripped from the name of Brando's gang in The Wild One) set them apart - to a movement that was sorely image-based. That the same band could create something as masterful as Howl is their biggest strength - and Been admits the band didn't feel too much kinship with their contemporaries, and that worked in their favour in being able to brand out musically.
 
"I don't know, I never felt like we were invited to any of the parties, or that we were included," he chuckles. "We were talked about it at the end of it… it always seemed like we were mentioned at the end of the list of other bands and that was probably the only thing that saved us in the end, 'cause we were never truly a part of a 'movement'. So we've just been the quiet kids in the back of the bus that you don't really pay much attention to… we were kind of left to do our own thing.
 
Wait a second… aren't they the ones who usually flip out and go psychotic? You know - keep your eye on the quiet ones and all that?
 
"Yeah, umm, I'm not saying that didn't happen," Been admits with a hearty laugh. "It's just… you're kind of left alone just to you know doodle in your notebook or whatever it is. It was kind of our place. But I like that. Maybe if people forced more expectations on us, that might of turned us into something else. Doing our own thing… that's the only thing that probably helped us be a bit more risky with things. With certain records and directions, I think if people were paying more attention they might of, you know stopped us somewhere along the way," he grins.
 
Which is almost crucial to the band's collective thought process - they're the band who once asked Whatever Happened To My Rock 'N' Roll - and it seems with Beat The Devil's Tattoo, they're still wondering. What they do represent, however, is a band that, while occasionally hit and miss (like the dubious instrumental-ambient drone album of 2005, The Effects Of 333) are also capable of some of the most arresting music in contemporary circles. They're forever searching for the next evolving step in BRMC as a band, and Beat The Devil's Tattoo serves as a fair summation to this point.
 
"Yeah, I dunno," he shrugs when prompted about his feelings of the future of the band, and how he's seen the band and music in general around them evolve . "I'm hoping that dignity comes back to rock 'n' roll music. I feel like there's not much dignity in being a musician, one that gets to be in a band, touring around. I think it's even harder to hold your head high now than before. Especially with the internet shit, it's like great for getting anything in your head out toin the world, but once everyone can do that… it's kind of like 'ok, now what?'
 
"It's making it really hard to make records and to have it as a day job basically. I don't give a shit too much about industry stuff, but that's one thing that I noticed, you just want people to be proud of their music and their art, like 'yeah I'm to pick up that guitar and I'm going to go make songs and I ain't going to have to work in fucking Starbucks half the time'.
 
"That's what I mean about the dignity of it, that you don't have to make an excuse for what you're doing… and whether your parents like it or not doesn't matter, as long as you can, you know get away with murder, that's the whole point," he chuckles darkly.


BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB play Billboard The Venue on Wednesday July 28 (which sold out in an hour) and a second show on Saturday July 31 (which is an early show - they're on at 8pm) tickets from ticketek, moshtix and billboardthevenue.com.au).
 
Their new album Beat The Devil's Tattoo is out now through Vagrant/Shock.