“Sinner Heart’s Soul Food”, Krooked Tooth’s third album, has just been released: Jürgen Plank talked to guitarist and singer Emanuel Preuschl and drummer Martin Peham about band influences such as Mississippi John Hurt talked about in the same way as about the drum rhythms in Captain Beefheart. The conversation also turns to skateboards and the band’s strong do-it-yourself attitude. On December 8th, 2023 you can watch Krooked Tooth live together Experience The Rocksteady Conspiracy at the Arena Beisl in Vienna.
You name your music with the genre Freakblueswhat do you mean with that?
Emanuel Preuschl: Freaks were the guys in London in the late 1960s and their musical output was based somewhere in the blues. But there were clearly other ingredients, in the direction of pop. The genre Freakblues Rainer Krispel said in an interview about our album “Bad News”. I can’t quite say whether the word creation is his, but it pretty much sums up what we do. Because what we do is already reminiscent of somewhere The Creamthis also includes people like Captain Beefheart which is featured on the new album with a beat.
So the question for the drummer is: What about the beat of Captain Beefheart?
Martin Peham: Emi once came to me and said: please watch this groove Captain Beefheart at. I actually sat there for a while until I figured out how the drummer played it and what he meant. It was a challenge for me Groove to get it like that. I am grateful to Emanuel for this. I probably wouldn’t have come up with this idea myself.
Emanuel Preuschl: Our song with this special groove is called “Like a Vessel”, the original is called “Click Clack”.
What is special about this rhythm and how did you incorporate this input into your drumming?
Martin Peham: It’s a very exciting tripletGroove, which is emphasized in a duolic system. I love these kind of grooves! I find everything that has a bit of a triplet touch but still goes over 4/4 and even bars, and everything where the rhythms shift, to be brilliant. I’m totally on board with that.
Krooked Tooth (c) Thomas Lieser
Blues and Americana are influences for you, even a blues musician like Mississippi John Hurt. What can you learn from listening to his music?
Emanuel Preuschl: Mississippi John Hurt is a good start, I think, because we have an implementation of very simple harmony sequences. But they are then implemented with an alternating bass on the thumb and a kind of chord melody accompaniment that is rather unpretentious. At the same time playful and rather cheerful. I discovered many years ago that I found more interesting lines when I played with my fingers rather than the pick. That’s why for me it was ideal studio material to listen to and see: how does he implement it so that it always has a pumping bass and at the same time a melody and tangible chords. Lyrically and in terms of mood, it lies somewhere between doubt and hope and the daily injuries of being human, so to speak. That’s always strong in the blues, that you complain but you don’t give up. The early bluesers are good for getting to know and hearing this combative lament.
“THE GUITAR SOUND COMES ENTIRELY FROM HOME-BUILT INSTRUMENTS”
One track on the album is called “Major Taylor”, who is that?
Emanuel Preuschl: That was a track cyclist. He was American and only the second athlete to be black and a world champion. He had to overcome a number of hurdles on the way to the world championship title in a racist country. Although it was successful, some organizers practiced segregation. I wanted to dedicate the whole album to him. And I have one for designing the cover person of colour wanted, related to cycling. But I couldn’t find anyone there, so I changed the album title to “Sinner Heart’s Soul Food” and did the cover art myself.
A DIY spirit is important for your work, not just with the cover, but in general. How does this show up?
Emanuel Preuschl: The guitar sound comes entirely from self-made instruments. I soldered the amplifier that I play on the album myself. Chris also put together the 212 box that I played on himself. The guitar is my own design, which I made myself in the Happy Lab. I wound the pickup myself. Whatever performances we manage to organize, we do ourselves. There is no management.
Martin Peham: Emanuel does most of the organizational work; I may take over the T-shirt sales in the future.
On the title track “Sinner Heart’s Soul Food” your singing reminded me of Elvis. How did that come about?
Emanuel Preuschl: Guitaristically there are clear role models and styles that I tried to learn and incorporate. In recent years I have found more and more courage to use my own voice when singing and have moved up the register significantly. I always wanted to sing like Howlin’ Wolf. But that’s just not possible with my voice. But a massive, loud voice with a bassy foundation was my role model. That’s why I find it funny that you mention Elvis, who also has a really great organ, especially in the bass. Of course it would be cool to sound like Elvis.
Krooked Tooth (c) Thomas Lieser
Martin Peham: For me, I never think in terms of genres. “Click Clack” by Captain Beefheart I didn’t know, for example. I’m also in other bands and every band is a different genre and I love merging different genres together and doing my own thing with it. With the melodies that Emi brings, I just try out what feels good. And then the feedback comes anyway: yes or no.
“I’M ALWAYS PLAYING SOMETHING ON THE GUITAR, BUT SOME IFFS STAY, THEN THEY ACCOMPANY ME FOR A WEEK OR TWO”
How do you feel about writing the pieces?
Emanuel Preuschl: First there is a reef. I’m always playing something on the guitar, but certain riffs stay and they accompany me for a week or two. If they stay, I try to nail them down and make a song out of them. These are mostly ideas that rock and blues have. The music that I like to listen to myself, be it old stuff by Jimi Hendrix or new artists like Jon Spencer, who adds another facet to the blues with his bad sounds. It’s important that the music grooves properly. I don’t want anything to sink into self-pity, even when I broach a difficult topic. I don’t want it to come across as depressing, I want it to be more motivating. There is also a call for a strike on the record; “Cooking” is about a work stoppage.
You give me exactly the keywords that I wrote down: namely, that your blues lack heaviness. And I also wrote down the song “Cooking”, what is the idea behind this song?
Emanuel Preuschl: I once worked in a company that manufactured bicycles. The issue there was that the management forbade me from cooking in the shared kitchen. I was really mad and these are the lyrics to this song. We never went on strike.
So no hunger strike. So on another topic: there is a video that shows you on skateboards.
Martin Peham: We didn’t enjoy rehearsing that afternoon. That’s why we went skateboarding. The others have been driving since they were 16 or even longer. At the Longboard I’m kind of the outsider, but they accepted me. As you can see in the video, I’m the only one riding with full protective gear because I didn’t dare do anything else. We even had to climb over the fence – I guess skater style – to get to the skate park because the skate park was actually closed. That day I managed my first jump – an ollie.
Emanuel Preuschl: That was during the Corona period and we postponed the test because we were waiting for a test result. And because we waited, we brought forward the skating and shot the material for the video.
Given your musical direction, I would guess: Rolling Stones and not The Beatles?
Emanuel Preuschl: I always say: The Stones have made it longer. They are probably unpleasant to each other, but they have my great respect for their level of commitment over many years. When it comes to songwriting, I prefer listening Beatles-songs. The sound is something different again, the technical possibilities were simply different back then.
Martin Peham: I’m more with them Stones, we are different. I find them Beatles great, especially when drummer Ringo Starr just plays the toms and people dance to it, then what Dave Grohl once said in an interview is true: he’s a fucking bad ass. Otherwise I’m more of a fan of Charlie Watts because he’s a jazzer who plays rock and I see myself more there. I’m more with them Stones and maybe that’s what defines us as a band.
If you think about your future as a band: where will you be in a few years, recording-wise and success-wise?
Emanuel Preuschl: A goal for me when recording is always to capture as much of the energy as possible that we can bring live. This is fueled by a huge joy of playing, which needs to be maintained. My impression is that when they have fun on stage, it usually rubs off on the audience. The people on site are having the party anyway. I would also like to play more outside of Vienna. I see our music as being completely compatible with many musical tastes; I can imagine being able to play tent festivals without overwhelming people.
Martin Peham: I see it the same way. I don’t know whether it has to be a fire brigade tent festival like I knew from my youth, because I grew up in the country. But there are enough smaller festivals that we could fit in well. If that’s the tent festival then I’d be happy to go there too, I’m not ruling anything out.
Thank you very much for the interview.
Jürgen Plank
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Krooked Tooth live:
Fri December 8th, 2023, 9 p.m
Arena Beisl, Baumgasse 80, 1030 Vienna
together with The Rocksteady Conspiracy
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Links:
Krooked Tooth
Krooked Tooth (bandcamp)
Krooked Tooth (Facebook)