An Interview with the Warlocks' Singer/Songwriter Bobby Hecksher

By Patrick Hambrecht

(I wrote this article in 2001, before the Warlocks' second album "Rise and Fall" was released. I think the zine editor I wrote it for thought it was too long and gossipy, but I liked it the way it was. And so here it is now.)

All of Bobby Hecksher's music hums with THE DRONE - a huge, continuous hypnotic sound that warbles and vibrates with a dark California voodoo. It's that feeling of an ecstatic shroom-peaking buzz, seguing into a creeped-out, compounding paranoia. Minus the patchouli.

Hecksher has created some of the coolest psychedelic rock of the last decade, collaborating with artists like Beck and Brian Jonestown Massacre. His former bands, Charles Brown Superstar, The Magic Pacer and his new group, The Warlocks, have spanned from trashed-out pop, to tape-manipulated freak-outs, to mean mod hippy jam rock. His music has been compared to rock as diverse as Gary Numan and the Velvet Underground.

BEING POOR & SMASHING BECK'S STUFF

PATRICK HAMBRECHT: From the albums and old articles around 1992 - 98ish, it seems like there was this super-productive scene Los Angeles scene that WIN Records and artists like you, Petra, Beck, Miss Murgatroid, Weezer were in...

BOBBY HECKSHER: It wasn't the best period for me, but it was fun as hell sometimes. All this shit was happening to everybody. It was a fucking whirlwind of shows, drugs, fights, burning money, screwed up relationships and drama.

The low point was being super-poor with no bread, staying in a shitty room under Beck's house with no sink or kitchen. Not to mention all my equipment got stolen out of Beck's garage. So I couldn't even practice! The ironic thing was that all of his new snazzy gear was in there too (he just got all that major label cash) and the thieves took all my stuff and not his! Which was all I had to my name -- something like 3 grand in keyboards, guitars and amps. But that's the brakes. Nobody from that time really talks to each other now.

I was pissed at Beck because no one on "Stereo Pathetic Soul Manure" got paid anything. Beck's pissed at me cause I smashed his 4 track ... that kind of stupid shit. I later found out that he just got ripped off too, not that any of that money shit matters. It doesn't. All he had to do was say that.

I haven't seen Petra in a year, I hang out with Rachel once and again and Tanya plays on our new album on a track.

Charles Brown Superstar, back in the day.

CHARLES BROWN SUPERSTAR

PATRICK: People still talk a lot about Charles Brown Superstar, but I haven't been able to find much good info about the band. How did Charles Brown Superstar start?

BOBBY: Charles Brown Superstar started out as an idea I had -- to do a loud, psychedelic disco thing with basses being the main instrument. I wrote all the music and it was fun. I didn't feel like singing yet.

Benett wrote her words and sang it her way. And it was a good collaboration at the time, being 19. We would rehearse in this downtown loft with this girl Lisa on drums. She was so out of her head and refused to clean up any dog shit, so there were piles of shit everywhere, but no one seemed to notice or care.

I know we were doing something right when the near by film crew paid us to stop rehearsing so they could shoot some movie. It was fun for the 2 years it lasted, I guess.

Benett's new album, available at http//www.enjoybenett.com

PATRICK: What was the dynamic between you and Benett?

BOBBY: Benett still wants some sort of relationship, but I can't deal, really. I don't know, some things are hard -- y'know? I wanted to release all that stuff on CD but WIN Records is being a bunch of weirdos -- so maybe someday. We were offered all sorts of offers to make records and sell the masters to other labels and weird shit, but things just sort of went undealt with.

BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE

PATRICK: How were you involved with the Brian Jonestown Massacre?

BOBBY: I met Anton about 5 years ago at Moguls (old LA club). Magic Pacer opened up for the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and it was fun. I ran into him, off and on, over the next couple of years. I almost played keyboards with him then, but they were, like, all on a lot of drugs. So I just split and didn't see him for another year or two.

Then I ran into him early last year. He got his major label troubles, then burned through all the money and drugs. He fired his band and had all the instruments in hock. It was a self-inflicted bad spot. Me and Farmer Dave, the Beachwood Sparks keyboard player, took a trip up to his house -- he lost that house next week -- and hung out with him. He was a mess! The house was trashed, there were guns everywhere, he was high and it was gross.

Farmer Dave was, like, scared for his life. But something told me to help out Anton -- even though he was being a prick that day -- so I did.

I got some shit from the Warlocks because I put them on the side for a month or so. But I felt if I was in that spot, I would hope someone would help me without having some fucked-up motive! This is also where I ran into Jeff Levitz one of my best friends. Jeff helped dig up a drummer, Hunter -- who is now in the Warlocks. I had my house to rehearse at, and we got it going so Anton was staying sober, and I played bass for him for almost a year.

The infamous Anton, courtesy of Bomp! Records - photo by G Taylor Crothers

Shows were fun, and drunken. The Warlocks opened many of them. I helped deal with the shows at first, making sure we got all Anton's shit out of hock with the money. It was fun, and we're still good friends, and I play with him when I can -- we hung out last night. I think -- I'm not sure - that I'm somewhere on the new Brian Jonestown Massacre album on Bomp! He's on the Caveman Rock and Angry Demons songs from the new Warlocks EP.

THE MAGIC PACER

PATRICK: I get a sense of regret and chagrin from you & James about your former band, the Magic Pacer.

You said on the Warlocks web site: "I don't know... this wasn't the best music I was doing, some of it was just really bad. But I was depressed and just doing tons of drugs and working stupid jobs to get by."

And then James said in an interview on the Vendetta web site a year ago:

"I was in a band with Bobby Hecksher from the Warlocks called Magic Pacer. I quit the band for various reasons. We did one record, which is out of print [laughs] and rightfully so. He would say the same thing!"

PATRICK: I don't get it! I always thought those albums were really groundbreaking. The White Room especially, I thought was amazing. Even if they weren't full of radio-friendly synth hits, I haven't heard anything do what those albums did.

"When I Dream I Dream of the White Room" - The Magic Pacer's druggy synth masterpiece.

What don't you like about your Magic Pacer stuff? Is there anything you'd change about it?

BOBBY: The only thing I regret about the Magic Pacer was working with James. He was in it to further his own career. I should have kept it a synth-folk band, but I changed it to a rock group because of his bitching.

I wanted to go ALL keyboard and drum machine. He thought it was silly, and we went to high school together and shit, so I listened.

I hated his fucking girlfriend at the time and she hated me because I took James away from her when we played gigs. LAME. The moment he met enough people to start his own project, he split.

I don't know -- I mean, I also played in his band for a bit and that was fun. My head was in all different directions. But, I didn't really think like that then. I just thought it was just lame and things didn't work out with Magic Pacer.

One day I realized "dude your songs suck" and went to start the Warlocks. I mean, I look back on it now and there was a lot of shit he did, that he was pushing me to do, shit I didn't wanted to do. Like TRY to be mainstream and get record deals -- We almost did too! But I said, "fuck it"....

...I like the first album -- that was cool. The second one was just awful. The best songs in my opinion were the ones I did alone. We were almost friends again but then he ripped us off, the Warlocks, at a show we played with his band in San Francisco. The fucking nail in the fucking coffin, as they would say.

Bobby Hecksher in the Magic Pacer, read more at: www.EndlessLa.com, Photo by Drew Fullner

DRUGS! DRUGS! DRUGS!

PATRICK: So, I wanted to talk to you about drugs, a little bit.

BOBBY: Great topic.

PATRICK: I think the drug culture is a little different in New York versus Los Angeles...

BOBBY: Yeah, how so?

PATRICK: Being from the Midwest, where it's more like a bong on every table --- as opposed to more of an inner-sanctum, VIP room, New York kind of thing...

BOBBY: Yeah, when I lived in Florida it was like that, a bong on every table...

PATRICK: What's it like in Los Angeles?

BOBBY: It seems like it’s more kept to oneself. Not a lot of sharing.

PATRICK: How true to life was that movie you made about hanging out and doing cocaine at a Los Angeles house party - the one that you had streaming from your old web site?

BOBBY: I've never done cocaine.

MULTIPLE DRUMMERS NAMED THERESA

PATRICK: You've never used cocaine, but you made both a pretty cool song & then a movie about it. How come?

BOBBY: I just don't like uppers of any sort. That's all that song is, about other people. I will say that cocaine was our old drummer's - Theresa's -- first choice of high. She was doing a lot of coke at the time we were making that movie, which is why she's not in the band right now, and her ex-husband Danny now plays drums with us instead.

PATRICK: Whatever happened to that movie? I can't find it online anymore.

BOBBY: I'll put it back up on the Bomp.com website when I get a chance.

PATRICK: What do you think the connection is between psychedelic music and psychedelic drugs? Obviously, you can enjoy psychedelic music without drugs. But once you do take something like acid, the connection seems obvious. It changes the way you hear the music.

BOBBY: It's hard to say, really. A lot of people who haven't taken LSD don't get really far-out psychedelia. I think you can connect to psychedelic music more if you've taken drugs.

PATRICK: I've always enjoyed your music -- even the more trashy pop stuff like Charles Brown Superstar -- as psychedelic music.

BOBBY: Thank you. It's what I do. I consider all the music I've done psychedelia, in one sense or the other - even though they're all different in some ways.

BOBBY: I would love to get some acid...

PATRICK: Yeah.

BOBBY: Good acid is hard to find.

PATRICK: Can you relate any formative psychedelic listening experiences, one that made a big difference to you as an artist?

BOBBY: The first time I saw the Butthole Surfers.

In Florida when I was a kid, there wasn't shit for music. In fact I'm embarrassed to say that my first concert was Huey Lewis and the News -- yikes. Then I saw some country acts, and then the Butthole Surfers. I was like HOLY SHIT THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR! They made me want to play music.

Gibby was naked, and there where dogs onstage. My friend broke his arm stage-diving. It was amazing. Not to mention 2 drummers and a rad light show.

PATRICK: Yeah, 2 drummers like your new band the Warlocks, right? Hey, wasn't the Butthole Surfers drummer also named Theresa?

BOBBY: Yeah, it was. Weird huh?

PATRICK: I have a friend who worked with her at a school for the blind in Austin.

BOBBY: Really? Is she still doing that?

PATRICK: No, I have heard that there were some incidents of Theresa being Theresa, which didn't go well...

BOBBY: Yeah, she was fucking great in that movie, Slacker.

PATRICK: I'm curious if you moved to Los Angeles from Florida for music, and what your first LA music experiences were like.

BOBBY: No, my Pops got a job offer. And we left from Florida the next day. But it was always about music. I was putting on shows with punk groups -- anything that anybody was doing that was different. And that's how I met people when I first got there. Putting on shows.

THE GARY NUMAN/GRATEFUL DEAD CONNECTION

PATRICK: The music you've done crosses a lot of genre boundaries that most musicians don't - from New Wave to Kraut Rock to loud-ass jam-oriented stuff. What do they share that appeals to you?

BOBBY: Well, I just like to move in different directions all the time.

I'm really into jamming right now and I think the new Warlocks record will have a lot of jamming in it. Not like noodle noodle noodle, but jam so you get the feeling we're trying to fuck with some of the controls in your head. Which is very hard to do and I can tell that it sometimes frustrates the shit out of the band.

PATRICK: Do you consider a lot of new wave/synth-rock music psychedelic? It seems like a lot of people just lump it in with '80s dance music and junk like that.

BOBBY: Well a lot of synth rock is just crap and should be lumped in with '80s new wave/disco. But others were really on to something, like Klaus Shultz, Brain Eno, Tim Blake & Tomita. They all have a zillion records out, but to me each has only a few really good records and songs that I can listen to over and over. The majority of their other stuff is just boring and cheesy.

PATRICK: Reviews of your albums used to mention Gary Numan all time. Are you a big Numan fan?

BOBBY: Gary Numan's a freak, which I why I like him.

I don't really listen to him very much these days, but what I like about him is, he had a vision, man. I mean from Tubeway Army, to the keyboards, to the wall-of-light rock shows. I mean, fuck, did you ever see the god-awful cover of "Warriors"? Did anyone bother to tell him that Mad Max was a huge movie? Fucking hilarious! Jesus and the face paint album? I assassin? Whoa!

But man, he's got balls for not listing to ANYBODY when it came to concept and music.

I actually almost got to interview him for Ben Is Dead, but his brother or his assistant screened the questions first. I think when he got to my gearhead synth-101 questions like "Do you think Moogs are better than the Sequential Circuits?" they were like, "screw this guy!"

Patrick: What do you like about the Grateful Dead?

BOBBY: Well, I just got into the Grateful Dead this week. It's almost like my own joke hit me back. I think they are quite good actually, and man can they jam. I hate when Weir or Lesh sing though, yuck. I don't like anything after '85. Might be a phase, might not.

AND NOW...THE WARLOCKS

The Warlocks. Bobby is on the far right.

Patrick: How much of the Warlocks longer material is improvisation? Does improvisation play a larger role in what you do on stage than it used to?

BOBBY: The Warlocks are getting better and better all the time. We are growing as a group and as people. There's been a lot of line-up changes and stuff, but the core group of guitar players have, for the most part, stuck together.

After all the stormy weather from my last couple of bands, I think I got that "fucking-psycho-stay-away" vibe. I couldn't get anyone to play with me, at first. But none of that shit stopped me. I knew I was on to something. I'm one lucky bastard to have the talent I have with me right now. It wasn't like that at first.

Live shows are fun as hell, most of the time. We can jam, play songs, play mellow-Floyd like, or make noise. The new record is going to be dark and dreamy.

I'm more focused now with Bomp Records, Greg Shaw and Betsy behind me. All of the guitar players in the Warlocks have different talents. JC is great at feedback and ambience. I think he can be even better than he is now, in time. Cory does the solos and most of time he blows my mind, when he wants to. Caleb was playing guitar to but now he plays bass, which is totally new to him! He is the anchor for the guitars along with Hunter and Danny on drums.

Improvisation helps us deal with the monotony of having to play the same songs, day in and day out. We're proud that our shows are never the same.

WHAT MEAN THIS?: "WARLOCK PA PA NO LIKE CORY, PA PA BOOT CORY"...?

PATRICK: It seems like "primal" is the word that comes up when people talk about the Warlocks these days: The driving two-drum, multi-guitar pulse of your new music; the skull-to caveman-speak that happens on the intro of your web page; the splattered-blood Bomp contract, typing drunk on the message board.

Bobby signs Bomp! Records contract in blood.

Does that seem like an apt description of where you're aiming, for something visceral?

BOBBY: Yeah, primal is a good way to put it. Yup, I feel I'm getting more hostile inside my head as I get older. I thought I would mellow out, but that's not the case.

PATRICK: Even when Charles Brown Superstar was at it's trashy-greatest and most pop-sounding, there still sounds to me like a drive to one big huge hypnotic drone of power that goes through all of your music -- with the big synth tones in the Magic Pacer, and then the huge rock sounds in the Warlocks.

It's one of the things I like most about your music. Is there a conscious drive to create this big washing, violent sound?

BOBBY: Yeah, I'm trying to floor people.

PATRICK: What other music artists - past or present - are you listening to these days?

BOBBY: Dylan, The Dead, Tim Blake, The Animals, Neu, Sonic Youth and some disco. And stuff that's new this year and around Los Angeles -- Elliot Smith, BRMC, Beachwood Sparks, Nubian Lights & Nebula.

PATRICK: What's your favorite thing about being a musician?

BOBBY: Everything, the good and the bad. When it works and you moved somebody it's all worth it. Playing around with sounds. I don't know. It's a hard question because it's so near and dear to me.

PATRICK: On the caveman rant on your web page, you wrote: "TAMKIN play drums better than CATGIRL BUT TAMKIN ANGRY DRUMer slow DANNY NO LIKE WARLOCKWE came WARLOCK on lemoyne st. .BAM BAM CORY was first."

What does that mean? Or this?

"WARLOCK PA PA NO LIKE CORY PA PA BOOT CORY.but now CORY play too..BAM BAM PA."

BOBBY: I was just fucking around with the band. It’s fun to make them paranoid!