Last week, I got a press release touting the premiere of The Molochs’ new video for “No More Cryin'” on the Brooklyn Vegan site. I enjoyed the music, and the look and the feel of the video, and immediately sent off a few questions to the Molochs’ singer/songwriter, Lucas Fitzsimons, via e-mail. Their new album, America’s Velvet Glory, isn’t out until January 13 on the Innovative Leisure label, and I was wondering if it would have the same throwback sound. According to Fitzsimons, there’s more to it than that.
How indicative of the new album is “No More Cryin?”
Glad you asked that, actually. I’d have to say “Cryin’” is one of the more traditionally structured songs on the album… It’s the one that sounds the most ‘60s. While I still love the song, I’m eager for listeners to hear the rest of the album and see that it goes deeper than the so-called ’66 sound of this first single. With that said, the influence of classic, folk-based (not even ’60s, really) music runs through the entire LP.
Other than maybe the microphones, everything in this video looks like it could have been shot in 1968. Were you looking to make this look like an appearance on a late 60s TV show?
We weren’t looking for it to look like anything because the video was actually completely the vision of the director Evan Pritts. Before we even knew this album would get picked up, Evan and I were working together in Santa Fe Springs and I showed him the rough mixes of the album as they were getting done. He really liked “Cryin’” and approached me to do the video. I gave him total freedom to realize his own idea for the video. I trusted him to do so and it turned out to be a really nice match. It does remind me of the type of dance hall the Stones were playing in the film Charlie is My Darling circa 1965.
That mirrors the production on the song, as well – did you do anything specific to get a 60s-guitar-pop sound?
Nope, not really. we’ve always just had a really twangy clean guitar sound—never use reverb or really any effects. Maybe Jonny, who engineered the album, did something on his end, but if so, it was minimal. I was also really into overdubbing a very hard, percussive acoustic rhythm track over a lot of the songs on the album, including this one. But you see, that type of idea was taken not only from 60s sounds like Beggars Banquet and Madcap Laughs, but also some 80s artists such as Go-Betweens, Jacobites, the Clean.
What the hell happened to your drummer’s crash cymbal?
He lost his temper during the filming of the video and threw it, frisbee style, at my head. it missed and cracked in half against a wall.
The press release mentions that the first album didn’t go far – are you doing anything differently this time to get the music out there?
Actually having a label put it out, ha! The first couple releases we did were done solely on our own with little resources. We didn’t have a promo plan or anything like that. We also didn’t have any money. We basically booked a release show and hoped people would buy it. Pretty silly when you think about it. This time around we have an experienced label taking us under their wing and getting the type of distribution, promo, etc. That the album needs to get some actual exposure. Once the public can hear it, then they can make up their mind, but if nobody ever hears it, can’t do much there.