- Music
- 05 Jun 15
Counting Crows Interview
A firm favourite of Irish audiences for two decades now, Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz is here to tell us the feeling’s mutual. He also discusses touring life, the problem with major labels and why he can’t judge the American Sniper...
As surreal as it was seeing not only Justin Bieber flanking Floyd Mayweather but also Jimmy Kimmel bobbing along, hood up in proper piss-take fashion, behind Manny Pacquiao as the boxers headed for the supposed Fight Of The Century, that’s nothing compared to the Counting Crows entourage when they hit Ireland. “Tony O’Donoghue,” comes the unexpected answer when I ask singer Adam Duritz who he’s most looking forward to seeing. “The sports guy? We’ve known him for a long time. He’s one of the first people I always see, but I see Tony otherwise anyway because he comes lots of places to hang out with us.”
So when the RTÉ broadcaster isn’t interviewing beleaguered managers after heavy defeats, he’s gallivanting around the world after emotive American rock bands. Good to know.
“Our tour manager joined us in April of 1994, he’s one of my best friends. I lived with him for years, and he’s a Cork man,” says Duritz, explaining the connection to both Ireland and Tony. “And so we’ve always had a lot of friends in Ireland – his family and friends. When we go there, it’s always a little like going home.”
In truth, wherever they play, Counting Crows are relishing the road these days – as the 50-year- old frontman laughs: “You know what bands like? People coming out to gigs!”
Celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2016, they’re an extremely tight live unit at the peak of their powers.
“It seems like we’re always on tour. And to a certain extent, we are. We’re home for periods.”
Having the first two months of 2015 off didn’t sit particularly well with the frontman, who found it “strange” in a way regular gigging, with its highs and lows, no longer is.
“You’re very much connected to seven or eight people on stage and some several thousand people out in the audience and then you’re suddenly sitting in a hotel room by yourself. Or in the back of a bus. And that is a little weird! I have more trouble being at home... I do not know what the hell to do with myself. I used to struggle a lot with being on the road; I don’t really any more. There’s a kind of agoraphobia about being off tour, where it's like: 'Wow, that's a lot of off-time... What the hell am I supposed to do now?!’” Wondering what friends he is supposed to call or whether he should take up gardening...
“Yeah. It really is a bit confusing to me. There’s something nice about having a purpose each day.”
With that in mind, you can see why he was so eager to conjure up new songs for the band as soon as they finished touring 2012 covers LP Underwater Sunshine. The chemistry between them each night also fuelled the creativity and fire that would become last year’s Somewhere Under Wonderland.
“You don’t spend too much time concerned with other people’s perceptions of it,” says Adam. “It’s wasted time. You can’t depend on pleasing other people. Sometimes people are sick of you. Understandably! Sometimes they’re really into seeing you. Music’s got a lot of ‘cool’ in it. It’s different from movies or anything else. We really do wear it on our shirts. We get together in groups to talk about how we like this one thing. So it makes it more vulnerable to people deciding when you’re cool or uncool. I’ve been both several times now. It was more concern because I wasn’t sure if my songs were good. I’ve always depended on my songs to be very personal and I wasn’t sure if they were as good this way. Then I realised, ‘Oh, they are!’”
The band cut ties with Geffen in 2009, in part due to their outdated approach to online promotion. How did they find that initial post- Geffen period?
‘Oh, absolutely pleasant! It was great. No frustration. It was nice to just not have to be pulling your hair out all the time. There’s a basic disconnect between what the world is and what the record companies want to believe it is.”
Now in partnership with a major, rather than working for them, they are operating by a new set of rules: “We’re not doing any more multi-record deals with anybody. No more do you get to have us for several records and you take a vacation on this one because you know you have us for another one. We’re going to do records and you’ll know if you want it because you’ll be able to hear it.”
The record in question sounds like a road movie, a love letter to America.
“I do think it’s all a bit of a love letter. For better or for worse, considering how love affairs tend to turn out in my life! There’s certainly culture and history there. All the touchstones of your life. You’re surrounded by a world that has its own history, and you interact with it here and there.”
“It’s about the mythology of this loner being out in the middle of nowhere on his own. A heroic icon of American culture. But it’s also about this idea of spree killers, or serial killers, and how that hero icon interacts with this very scary, anti- social icon.”
Talk turns to American Sniper, Clint Eastwood’s controversial but wildly successful big screen adaptation of the life of Chris Kyle.
“The truth is, it’s a guy’s life. For better or for worse. You want to have a modern society? Turns out you need guys to go up on clock towers to shoot people. And then it turns out, in a modern society, you end up in horrible ways stuck with guys in clock towers shooting people!
“On one hand, the guy up on a building shooting people is a hero and he’s saving all these lives,” Duritz says of people like Kyle. “But from another perspective, he’s a killer. And at the same time, there’s a different guy up on a clock tower at some university shooting people who is a horrible villain. But in his own mind, he’s doing something. It’s a chaotic, scary world. It is awash with violence. I find it hard to condemn someone who volunteers to serve, but I’m not going to pretend to understand him either... I’m not going to pretend to understand or judge that guy. I have enough trouble judging myself.”
