Total disclosure: I’m a huge Tommy Stinson fan. Starting from the days when he, as a teenage upstart, held the bassist spot with one of the coolest bands of my generation, The Replacements, and through all the other bands he’s been associated with, I’ve always held Stinson in high regard.
Life didn’t stop for Tommy Stinson after The Replacements called it quits. Stinson occupied himself with his own bands Bash & Pop and Perfect; he became a member of Guns N’ Roses for a while, sat in for Soul Asylum for a stint and still had time to put several fantastic solo albums out along the way.
Needless to say, Tommy Stinson likes his work.
Currently, Stinson’s focus is on the revival of Bash & Pop. Following the band’s sonically raucous debut album, 1993’s Friday Night Is Killing Me, Tommy has put together a new lineup and regrouped the band. Their long-awaited follow up album, Anything Could Happen (released earlier this year) has garnered loads of great reviews and has more than satisfied longtime Tommy Stinson fans.
To add to that revitalization, Stinson has decided to take the new version of Bash & Pop out on the road. In support of its dazzling new record, the band is hitting the road hard and heavy, both as headliners and as an opening act on the current U.S. trek by new wave veterans Psychedelic Furs. On a rare break from his current touring schedule, Stinson took some time out to talk to me about his current projects and take a fond look back at the past.
Below is the jovial exchange I had with one of my personal rock and roll heroes which was most definitely a journalistic highlight for me. Get more information on the show via local.cltampa.com.
Talk to me about the new Bash & Pop album and how it’s the follow up to Friday Night Is Killing Me from 1993. You’ve done a lot of work in between those two releases…why the long wait between the two albums and why did you want to bring Bash & Pop back?
You know, it came to me because friends of mine who’d heard some of the new material were hearing it and thinking it sounded like a Bash & Pop record and stuff like the first record. It sounded like that because of the way it sounded. Mostly because I recorded all of it like a band. I did it the way as closely as I could to the way we used to make records in the 80s.
Like here’s a new song, you go in the studio, you learn it real quick, you record it while everyone’s fresh and into it and then you move on to do the next song. And I tried to do that with that first Bash & Pop record, but I got inhibited by a few different factors that, you know, were out of my control, so this one was actually even more of a band record ‘cause, really, I set my band up in my studio and just said, you know let’s take three passes at this new song, here’s how it goes, play it, be done with it’ and that kind of vibe. It’s something I haven’t had the luxury of doing in years so you know it was a good thing. And, in turn, everyone who I played it for, confidantes and etcetera, thought it sounded like a Bash & Pop record so I thought ‘shit, I still own the name, why not?’
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Well, it’s a great record. I was very happy to see it come out and was elated to see that name again.
Well, thank you!
Speaking of the first album, I don’t know if it was a conscious effort but, I always felt like that was the loudest-recorded CD I’d ever heard.
Really?
Yeah, I worked at a record store at that time and we used to play a lot of discs in a CD changer on random and I used to play Friday Night Is Killing Me a lot. And, I swear, every time a song from that disc would play, it was so much louder than anything else that was in the changer at the time.
(laughs)
Yeah everyone would look right at me and say, ‘this is the CD you played, right?’
(continues to laugh hysterically) Yeah, I hadn’t heard that! And this is from a while ago…I’m assuming you’re talking about from when it first came out?
[Note: a brand new, deluxe edition of the album has been recently released by Omnivore Recordings with an entire bonus disc of demos and unreleased tracks.]
The funny thing about that is that it was recorded analog and had to be dumped down to digital after the fact to be sold, to market, and that, and back then, people like Don Smith and all the big producers at that time were all trying to figure out ‘how are we gonna make this digital shit sound as good as vinyl and as good as an analog piece of tape? And they were all messing around with different ways of doing that. Stephen Marcussen mastered that record at a place called Precision Mastering. He did a fantastic job of doing that, as best he could, because now, these days, the digital properties that go into mastering, there’s a lot more to work with obviously…it's evolved and stuff but man, back then, it was pretty rough going to make a good-sounding record and those guys were all completely on it. Don Smith, he mastered that record with a fine-tooth comb.
Well, it sounds incredible to this day.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
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I wanna go back a bit and talk about when you first started out; you started so young, you were a teenager when the first Replacements record came out. I always felt that to a lot of kids, being similarly aged and into that band, myself included, you were actually doing the thing we’d been dreaming of. Did you ever feel a sense of representation for kids of that same age? Was that something you thought about? Did that ever click in your head?
You know, I never pondered that so much. I was just kind of rolling with the punches as it were. I didn’t really think about that until years later when I was thinking ‘Wow…I’m still able to make a living of this and I’m pretty fucking lucky,’ and having gratitude for that. You know, I’ve been doing this…for almost…like 30 years now, and I’m still sitting here doing interviews with guys like you and talking about this shit, and making music, and they still pay me a little bit to play so, lucky fucking me!
And that’s a good thing!
Fuck yeah! But now, to answer your question, I think that’s fantastic. And knowing that I’ve had the chance of a lifetime that lots of kids that didn’t get that chance would have loved to have done, I can tell you right now, don’t join that party, kids. It’s a lot of work! (laughs)
Well, you hear this a lot from Replacements fans, but I love that band, and I’ve loved them since I was very young, and a big part of it was because you. For us, for kids your same age, you really represented what we were rallying around. You were a big part of the attraction.
Ah, thank you.
And you’re a pretty in-demand guy. You’ve played with a lot of other bands. You always seem to be able to bring your own level of excitement and enthusiasm to all the projects you participate in…whether it be with Perfect or Guns N’ Roses…what do you personally feel you bring to those types of bands or projects?
Well, you know, I think a lot of it is a particular attitude and a particular amount of credibility that I try to maintain if I can. Where I come from, The Replacements were press darlings because we didn’t just write like ‘Hey baby, come light my fire’ fucking songs…you know, we put some thought into it and I think that era of alternative rock and all that stuff kind of set a new bar for songwriters in a way.
Bob Dylan was always someone that inspired a lot of good songwriting and good lyric writing in the rock world but I think that in doing that in the alternative world, the pop world, I think that era kind of set that bar a bit higher and I think Paul [Westerberg] was very well on that tip and I think that he was way ahead of the curve in that and so, growing up and writing songs myself, I was always trying my best to kind of appreciate that bar. But without losing a certain amount of excitement and sense of humor. That’s another thing…people take themselves way too seriously when they’re coming up in their ‘rock pants’ and I prefer, you know, it’s gotta be good, it’s gotta have an attitude and it’s gotta have a little fucking humor in it and I think that’s probably about what I bring to the table.
Do you prefer lead vocalist, frontman duties with your band? Or are you more comfortable as part of another band and being in the background? Do you have a preference in those two roles?
You know, I don’t. I like doing it all. I think all of it is important. I think it’s good to be versatile. I’m a really versatile person in that regard, and I enjoy that. That keeps me from getting bored with any one thing because I really don’t have that great an attention span for things, so if I can kinda keep moving around, doing a little bit of this, like I got this side band with my ex-uncle-in-law [Chip Roberts] who is my best bud and we go out and do this thing called Cowboys in the Campfire..it’s a duo with me on acoustic and him on electric and make as much racket as we can and it’s fun. That a whole ‘nother thing and we play some Bash & Pop songs, especially the ones that he helped write. I got about three of four things on the burners at any one time these days and it’s partially trying to look for the next inspiration but it’s also partially because I like doing lots of different things.
It’s definitely inspiring that you’ve done so much over the years.
Wait until you see my TV show that I’m producing! (breaks out in laughter).
Oh really? Is that really a thing?
It is definitely a thing.
So, something else to look forward to…
Oh yeah!
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So we’re looking at a new Bash & Pop lineup these days. What’s the most obvious difference in the two lineups and the two records? What’s changed most about the band?
Well, the new lineups alive, for one. (laughs) I say that in jest but, sadly, the original lineup had the Foley Brothers, Steve and Kevin, bass player and drummer in the band, and they’ve both passed, sadly, years ago but..um..I think other than the fact that these guys are alive, I think, like I said, I think, at this point, except for the bass player that you’re gonna see…our bass player had to go back to his business…we lost him in the full-time sense.. we’ll be getting him on and off, that’s Justin Perkins by the way, but for the most part the band that I got right now, we made up about two-thirds of that new record together and when I went out on tour with Bash & Pop originally, I had just me and Steve after the record came out especially and then other people we’d get to come out to play but this is a sturdy, agile rock band.
And you seem to be doing a lot of touring; you’re doing this opening slot for the Psychedelic Furs tour, you’re doing some headlining shows. What’s your plan for appealing to an audience that may not be familiar with your music? How do you intend on winning over that crowd?
You know, I think we’re just gonna be what we are. I think that people will like it or not and that’s the opening slot — good, bad and ugly of it all. I think I probably won’t come out blazing as much as we would in our rock shows where we blow their heads off right outta the gate but let’s not placate them and play to what I’m playing to a little bit. But for the most part, we’re gonna be who we are. That’s just the way it works out and I think there was a fair amount of thought put into this going in and I think we’ll do alright.
There will be a good mixture of people in the crowd. I know there will be a lot of longtime fans of yours who are so psyched to see you and there might be some that are unfamiliar but I think it’s going to be a good cross-section of people. The Furs always do well when they come here to the area and there’s a lot of people locally who are really excited that you guys are coming because I don’t recall Bash & Pop every playing here before.
No, I don’t think we’d ever made it that far south. [Editor’s note: The band did play Orlando in May.]
So, you’ve lived a life in rock and roll. What are some of the valuable lessons you’ve taken from that type of life?
The only real lesson I’ve learned really in all this is that you just gotta stay true to yourself. Over all the years, and even the Replacements years, we actually towards the latter part of our career, tried to be more aloof and something that made more of a package to sell and make this song or try to write that hit and that kind of scenario and I know Paul actually kind of got bogged down in some of those thoughts at different times in The Replacements years and, myself included, on my own, I kind of tried to do the same sort of thing and I got to a point in my life where I don’t give a fuck anymore about any of that.
I’m gonna make the records I make and I’m gonna put them out there and sell them on the road and whoever wants to buy them buys them, but I don’t go home and sit and stew and cry and worry about anything about what people’s perceptions or wants and needs are about what I do. You know what I mean? I don’t have the time for it. I just keep rolling…hopefully my ticket will come.
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This article appears in Sep 14-21, 2017.