Conan Neutron (Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends)
SPB: Each record from Conan Neutron has had a very different, yet arguably dark, theme. Do you approach each record from "ground zero," or do you see a direct lineage between each theme? (In other words, do you "build off the previous release, or start completely over" each time?)
Conan Neutron: I think it is kind of funny that Neutron Friends kind of presents as a big fun rock band, and it is...but sometimes the subject matter is pretty... messed up?
I'm a big lover of the concept record. I think when done well it provides context and value to the listener that makes the totality of the experience more than the sum of the parts.
With the first record (Enemy of Everyone), I was dealing with the loss of my best friend through late childhood into adulthood, the guy that got me playing music. Our lives just went very different ways. He was often hard to be around and sculpted himself into a marble statue of isolation and alienation. He died at the time I was writing the lyrics, and I didn't even realize that darn near everything was about him. You know, he played music too. He never toured, he never made records and he was always kind of salty about that with me because I did. He did get to be on a record though, because it's a stylized version of us in high school taking dumb goober "promo pictures" for a band that could barely be bothered to write songs. David Yow did it, who was his favorite frontman of all time. So he got that, even though it was after he died. I owe him a lot and he is always with me. Just like Chris from Replicator who died last year, just like Vern Rumsey from Unwound and Household Gods who passed the year before, and my friend author Jason Myers who passed away a few weeks ago. They are with me, even though I'm not remotely spiritual...you know?
+Second record was more intentional. I really love the Thomas Harris Hannibal Lecter books. I also love (some) of the movies and the tv show, and I firmly believe that Lecter is one of the more interesting characters in fiction. I started thinking about how these killers and people trying to find the killers look at what they do. As art, as an artist becoming. Then it just became about being an artist. However, I was leaning very much into doing things as first-person allegory. So there was definitely some: "Hh, I'm pretty sure people won't think I'm a cannibal here...buuuuut..." moments. Joke was on me because people either: A) don't listen to the lyrics, or B) It didn't bother them, or C) got it.
More than any of our other records, that one seems to connect to folks and I'm really glad because, beginning to end, it was exactly what I wanted to be. Wouldn't change a note. There's a tune on there that we have never played for some reason, but the line is: "There's no reason to call for help/ you'll be dead before they arrive." Which I still get a kick out of. Clearly that isn't first person experience!
So then we did the singles, and those are all over the place, but after that is Dark Passengers which is STRAIGHT UP a record about depression and mental health, imposter complex. All that. I was thinking about those that we have lost, and the struggles so many of us have, I am included in that group too, and just decided to get as real with it as I could. A lot of people just see the results of what I do and all they see is the relentless productivity. What they don't see is the path to get there, which is often hard. The key was to not make it SOUND depressing though, and I think it got there. It definitely connected with a lot of folks in a strange and horrible time where everybody is struggling. I'll tell ya though, I was so in my head about that record that I was heading towards a freak-out about it. Not a thing I normally do. You just...you get one chance to do that right, you know? Didn't want to blow it. Once again though, it's the exact thing it was supposed to be. There's a couple songs I doubt we'll ever play live though. I'm a pretty open dude, but opening up that way was a bit of a tribulation and frankly terrifying. I *STILL* call it "the goth record" even though that isn't really true and there are some hard bangers on it. It's just that the subject matter is about psychological challenges we all face instead of like: wizards and elves and such...or worse: LOVE!
After that? Dangerous Nomenclature, which was a cool concept. Pick three song titles and both bands on a split write songs to those titles. With a band like Erratic Retaliator Strategy I knew that would be wild and not at all like what we do. Literally, just a thing I thought would be fun for a certain kind of music fan. I am that kind of music fan. So then we get to ADULT PROM, which is an insular concept with esoteric presentation by another band with a rich built world and history. LUNG. All based off of an actual experience (an Adult Prom we both played) and the rough idea is to dance with the one that brung ya. Kate does a duet with me on the Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends song, Tony, Dale and I add tracks to one of their tunes and we each do a cover song by the other band. Pretty cool, right? I feel like that happened a lot in the ‘90s and I just missed it because I was too young. So here we are taking that kind of fun concepts and putting it in a modern context. I hope.
To actually answer the question, I consider this band to be very creatively fluid. When I think of artists I really love that I aspire to be like, I think of David Bowie and Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Fugazi, Neil Young, DEVO, Melvins (heh), Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Artists who took big swings and weren't afraid of big misses. Artists who might have wide swaths of material that doesn't connect with me, but always follow their North Star and are willing to invite their fans along with them. In that way, it is like starting over every time (see our song: “Starting Position”) but there's a continuity to it as well. I've had a lot of folks who I really respect say that they feel that this is my most fully formed and fully realized band. That feels great because, of COURSE I feel that way...but that kind of thing gives me the courage to relentlessly truck forward and push towards the next thing and know that I have the trust of the incredibly talented folks around me. I'll never take that for granted, ever. The fact that some folks wanna come along with my crazy little flying circus is something I hold very close to my heart during the hard times.
So when it comes to concepts, I suppose you can call me the premise keeper.
And to quote BTO:
You ain't seen nothing yet.
