A Conversation with Fred Schneider of The B-52’s – HuffPost 10.21.11

Mike Ragogna: Fred Schneider of the B-52’s, how are you?

Fred Schneider: Doing very well, Mike. Thanks.

MR: Great. This newest record marks 34 years since you guys first played in Athens.

FS: Yeah. (laughs) We played in the foyer of my friend Julian’s house and all of our friends took artistic photos of people dancing, but they didn’t really take any pictures of us. (laughs) So, there are only a few shots from that first gig.

MR: This live album is kind of a shoutout to how the band started, right?

FS: Yeah, because all of our friends in Athens and all of the Athens bands over the years came to the show along with some new fans. It was great. Some of our friends with children even came.

MR: Nice. Now, you guys officially broke onto the scene with your hit single, “Rock Lobster,” right?

FS: That’s right.

MR: Do you remember going from being some cool Athens band to having this gigantic dance hit? What was that like?

FS: Well, every summer, I went and stayed with my parents in New Jersey and one day, I went to Asbury Park with them and they were playing “Rock Lobster” on the boardwalk. That’s how we knew we were on our way. The whole band started out as something to do because there was nothing to do in Athens and there was no alternative music scene at all except for maybe one band in Atlanta. So, I moved back to Athens form Atlanta and we put the band together and thought it was something we could actually do besides our crummy jobs.

MR: How did you end up being “discovered”?

FS: We started playing the Mud Club and word of mouth sort of carried us. We were also the only band allowed to play both the Mud Club and Max’s Kansas City only because we had to drive 800 miles back to Georgia in a station wagon with all of our equipment — so it was mostly word of mouth. Then when the single came out, that sort of got a lot of people interested.

MR: Not only was the music fun, but you also dressed in outrageous colors, all very new wave retro-chic. Plus you had some great creative staging, so your shows really were like a party, weren’t they?

FS: Well, yes, because none of us planned on having a music career. I mean, we all liked music and we liked making it, and I liked writing, but I don’t play any instruments. It just snowballed and we got carried with it. Luckily, we got to make a lifetime career out of it.

MR: How did you all meet?

FS: I met Keith and Ricky in the early seventies at a street dance in college. I was dancing crazy with a friend and they were dressed up pretty wild and throwing foam at people. (laughs) They came and talked to me because they thought I’d be a really interesting person. So, I started hanging with them and eventually I started doing some basement tapes with Keith while Ricky was studying in Germany. Some of those ideas later because ideas for songs for the band. Then we met Kate around town. I never actually met Cindy, Ricky’s sister until right before we did our first jam session in 1976.

MR: When you first started playing gigs together, could you tell by the reactions of the crowds that something truly cool was happening?

FS: Well, the first time we played Max’s Kansas City, there were only about 17 people there. It was a Monday in December and everyone was wearing black leather and smoking cigarettes. I had to throw the curtains open because they wouldn’t open. None of us was even prepared to be playing a show in front of an audience, but luckily, some of our friends were there. We were even dressed up in our typical B-52’s wild clothing. I didn’t even bother to ask if they wanted us back because we played where Patti Smith and The Velvet Underground played, so either way, it was the highlight of our careers so far. (laughs) Gradually, our shows went from us standing around looking interesting to dancing around and being wild and performing in new wave clubs.

MR: Great. And you guys were at the forefront of the new wave sound, including the use of the mighty Farfisa organ.

FS: Yeah. Well, we had no money for instruments so we used whatever we could afford. Ricky had a $20 guitar from Sears and the case doubled as a speaker, so he used that. He would play in these great open tunings and if a string broke, he’d play with whatever strings were still intact. (laughs) He’s a genius at that.

MR: Now, in 1981, you collaborated with David Byrne on your album Mesopotamia, and that seems to be a turning point for your music. What was that creative collaboration like?

FS: Well, we always have our music and lyrics pretty much done and we just want the producer to add their sonic talent in creating a landscape that our music shines in. It also turned out a little more funky than our normal stuff. That album did particularly well in Detroit thanks to an African American DJ named Mojo. Our manager at the time didn’t like the fact that we were being promoted to a primarily African American audience and we were like, “Screw that!” We wanted whoever liked us to listen because we are all big soul and funk music fans.

MR: Excellent, so who are some of your musical influences?

FS: Well, I’m basically a writer, and several songs on the first and second albums came from poems that I wrote for classes in college that we added more ideas and music on to. So, musically, I think a singer might be insulted by me saying that they were my influence. I like funky stuff, though. I like being rhythmic vocally rather than just singing a song, you know?

MR: Yeah, it’s the approach on both your B-52 records and your solo albums.

FS: Yeah. Well, I’m a big fan of Dada and surrealism, and that influences my writing. I also loved Soupy Sales as a kid, so pretty much from Day One, I had a pretty silly sense of humor. I was also pretty cynical as a kid–didn’t really much like things like circuses or parades. I was a curmudgeon.

MR: (laughs) Were you still a curmudgeon after having such huge hits with “Love Shack” and “Roam”? What was your reaction to those albums being such huge successes?

FS: It was bittersweet because Ricky had passed away and Cindy was devastated, of course, as was Keith because they had been friends since childhood. Losing a friend and musician and arranger was just a severe blow–we didn’t know if we could go on. We, obviously, did go on and Keith took over the guitar and started arranging more of the music and Cindy was ready to give it a try again. Once we got back together, we realized that we still had it and wanted to keep doing it. We were even told that “Love Shack” was too weird by the record company. We always pitched all of our music to alternative radio stations because mainstream stations didn’t really play our stuff, and then gradually, mainstream stations started playing, “Love Shack” and saying that they had always liked that song and were happy to play it to which I say, “Yeah, right.” (laughs) They claimed they couldn’t play it because the programmers said they had to play The Eagles or something. (laughs)

MR: You guys were actually a part of a bigger movement in music that was counteracting the somberness that came before, don’t you think?

FS: Oh, yeah. It was a breath of fresh air. People were using all different influences and original ideas. It was substantially more interesting than mainstream radio. I mean, I didn’t listen to much radio in the eighties because I was on tour. Back in Athens, you had to buy singles–you’d read about a song in magazines, and then you went and bought the singles of these new, great, interesting bands because they didn’t play them on the radio, and you didn’t have MTV, so you had to create and search for this music yourself. That’s what we did. We’d put out our single and load up our gear and drive in a van with our manager at the time, and sometimes, our opening act, The Amazing Phyllis–she would do a sort of cheerleading glove routine to the tune, “These Boots Are Made For Walking”–that was something people had never seen. (laughs) We just did things our way.

MR: Now, this is probably a sensitive question, but do you think of Ricky often?

FS: Yes, of course. He’s instrumental on all of the records through Bouncing Off The Satellites, and as I said, he was Keith’s best friend and Cindy’s brother, so it was very difficult. We lost someone very close to a disease that no one understood at the time. We lost a lot of friends within a year or two of Ricky’s death. It was such a different time.

MR: At the time you were creating all of this alternative to mainstream music, did you have any idea that Athens, Georgia, would be at the center of this new age, so to speak, in music?

FS: Well, actually, we left before we really exploded onto the scene. R.E.M. really got things going and put Athens even more on the map. It became a music mecca by the mid-eighties. Now, you can go to about 15 different clubs and see some pretty incredible bands playing at the bars.

MR: Are you guys considered heroes walking through the streets of Athens?

FS: People treat us really well. The places we hang out when we’re in Athens are still pretty laid back, but people respect us. They realize that we contributed early on to putting Athens on the map.

MR: Is there any one song that you feel most akin to of all of your recordings over the years?

FS: Oh, boy. (laughs) I would have to give you one from each record! Our songs are so diverse, but the most recent record, Funplex, is one of our best; it’s right up there with the first two and Cosmic Thing. It took a couple years for it to come out, we had to pay for it, and we only had a few days at a time to write each song, which was new for us. Unfortunately, the label we had in Europe and the rest of the world tanked, so the album never really got to play overseas, but it did well in the US.

MR: Here in the US the B-52’s have a nice place in pop culture.

FS: Well, we really don’t try to write any b-sides–we never put out anything unless we think it’s really great. We only have one song that will probably never see the light of day, because it’s not that great. We don’t do b-sides. (laughs)

MR: That’s a great slogan. One of my favorite songs by The B-52’s is “Private Idaho,” can you tell us a little bit more about that song?

FS: We really put a lot of time and effort into every song that we write. Some songs might sound a little frivolous or campy, but they’re a lot more clever than people give them credit for. People can read so many different things into that song, which we like to do with all of our songs. We do a lot of songs about freeing yourself, you know? Life’s too short, and so is my attention span.

MR: (laughs) Are you guys going to be touring anytime soon?

FS: Absolutely. We’re booked til December 1, then we’ll start looking at next year’s schedule. Hopefully we’ll do something for our 35th anniversary, so I won’t be able to keep telling people I’m 30. (laughs)

MR: Fred, do you have any advice for new artists?

FS: Yeah, go viral on YouTube. (laughs) No, honestly, I would say just do your own thing. We waited 16 years to put another record out, so the whole landscape has changed. Unless performers start making money performing or selling singles on iTunes, I don’t see how they can make any real money. It’s really tough out there, especially with people downloading music for free through all of these websites that steal music. I would just say you have to get on YouTube somehow and get noticed. You have to present a good product, of course…or at least something outlandish.

MR: (laughs) Right. Speaking of outlandish, what to you think of Lady Gaga?

FS: Well, I like some of her stuff. I’m still mostly a soul and funk person as far as the music I listen to. I’ll take Deborah Harry any day. (laughs) But I do like the fact that she is doing her own thing and sending out good messages.

MR: Yeah. It seems as though she’s following in the footsteps of Madonna, right?

FS: Yeah–being outrageous for being outrageous’ sake. I mean, Madonna never did anything that was that shocking to me except maybe hitchhiking in the nude in her book. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) That’s right, huh. Is there anything in the news right now that’s catching your attention?

FS: Well, the Republicans are being traitors. If they want Obama to fail, that means they want America to fail and the American people to fail. And with another debt crisis looming, it’s just obvious that racism and big business are taking over.

MR: How frustrating is it to watch Congress not actually addressing any of these issues because of politics.

FS: Yeah, they’re just blocking everything. It’s racism and class warfare. Someone who recently defected from the Republican party told me that it’s true that they don’t care about the middle class or the poor, all they care about is getting money for the rich. And it’s okay to make money, and the people I know with money think it’s more than okay to pay their fair share of taxes, it’s just this new breed of Republican that is ruining our country.

MR: On the other hand, I also believed President Obama was going to be the type of President that would constantly be in front of the cameras reporting to the nation the good changes he’s made, and that hasn’t been the case.

FS: I was totally let down, but it seems like he’s finally getting his mojo going. I mean, when you watch John Boehner at a Presidential Address, it looks like he’s about to fall over. (laughs) We’re just stuck with the worst Minority Leader and Speaker of the House –they are not in touch with the American people.

MR: I also don’t understand why the American people repeatedly vote against their own interests.

FS: It’s good to want government out of your bedroom and personal lives, but most people are probably just trying to make ends meet and don’t really have time to think about it. When you’re one paycheck away from the street, that’s what you’re focused on. I mean, they can’t even agree amongst themselves. You have lunatics like Sarah Palin and Rick Perry ranting everywhere. It’s Planet Right-Wing.

MR: (laughs) Would you like to send any advice along to our President to turn the tables on all of this?

FS: Champion all of the causes and platforms you were elected on. Tax the wealthy, let the Bush tax cuts expire. After the worst President in 100 years you’ve got to learn something from his mistakes. Just stand on the ideas that we’ve elected you for because right now, you’ve lost your base. Even if you say you want to do something, you have to really back it up, which he’s starting to do by forcing the Republicans to take America’s best interests to heart.

MR: Any predictions for next year’s race?

FS: Well, unless the Republicans can come up with a candidate that makes any sense, I think it’ll be Obama once again. Maybe the Democrats can get something started to show the American people that the Republicans can’t do anything for us. (laughs)

MR: Are there any other projects coming up that you’re working on?

FS: There are, actually. I have a side group called The Superions and they have a single out now called “Bat Baby” for Halloween. We’ve basically just put out an EP and a Christmas album, but it’s a fun project. I’m so busy with the B-52’s that I haven’t really had time to focus on it. Plus, it would be like starting over again. It’s much easier to just get seen and establish yourself on the internet. The B-52’s also have a DVD coming out. It’s so difficult for us to do a record because we all have to be in the same place and pay for airplanes and hotels, then people just download the music for free. But who knows? We may just put out a bunch of singles.

MR: Nice. Is the DVD that’s coming out a companion to this album?

FS: Yes. It’ll be coming out early next year.

MR: Well, Fred, thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule for this conversation, ans thanks for your candor.

FS: Thank you so much, Mike. It was a pleasure being here.

Transcribed by Evan Martin