Recenty, Punk Globe got the chance to speak with Jeff Pezzati – one of the pioneers of Chicago punk, the member of Naked Raygun, The Bomb and Big Black. In this interview we speak with Jeff about the upcoming Naked Raygun full-length album and Jeff’s solo projects, hissongwriting and his thoughts on the Chicago music scene. Hope you’ll enjoy!
Punk Globe: You have a new Naked Raygun full length coming out soon. Tell us about that
Jeff: In general, we wrote it over a period of a years. Everybody in the band wrote a couple of songs. Bill wrote a couple of songs, Pierre wrote a couple of songs, Eric wrote a couple of songs…We all wrote some songs for it. The guy who mixed it - Steve Gillis. There is a studio in Chicago called “Transient Sound” – he actually was so into the record that he brought it to a mastering guy from New York (since then has moved to Nashville), who actually mastered Eagles’ “Hotel California” album. He’s just great!
Punk Globe: Since the 90’s you haven’t been releasing any full-length albums. But in 2009 your first single after a long pause came out – “Mein Iron Maiden”\”Out Of Your Mind”. It was followed by two more releases – “Growing Away”\”Just For Me” and “Burning Red”\”Black Eyed Blue” – speaking about these records and this phase in your career how did you, and all the other members of Naked Raygun reformed?
Jeff: Em…It happened because, Eric – our drummer, he met Jake Burns [of Stiff Little Fingers] or something…At the show. I’m not really sure. But basically Mike from Riot Fest put us together. He’s been managing us for a while. Like 2009 or something. He kept managing us for five years. He did it well –we played and we released some records [singles].
Punk Globe: Listening to your new record, It’s very intense and dynamic. With such tracks as “Amishes”. Or “Black & Gray”. How did you get that intense sound? And when you started working on the project did you know that is the direction you were aiming for?
Jeff: Well, each person wrote his own songs. Basing on his own experiences. So I don’t think we were trying to be much different from old times. It’s just everybody’s songwriting. But you’re right! The dynamic is pretty intense.
Punk Globe: Listening to it, I realized that you, continuing what you had been exploring with “Raygun, Naked Raygun.” – am I correct?
Jeff: Well, I kept writing the songs for my solo-record. Since around the year 2000. So since “Raygun, Naked Raygun” (came out in 1991), I’ve been writing songs and recording them on a four track cassette recorder. I recorded on it for a long time until it broke. Then I started recording a on digital CUBASE program – for a while. It was difficult for me – not to play, and write songs. So, I’ve been writing ever since…
Punk Globe: After years of experience doing different projects – like The Bomb – and other collaborations with other artists ( Jeff sang on an Akaline Trio S a Rise Against song and also on the Textbook album.) – Did these projects reflect into your own music?
Jeff: Well, I think you should always write what you hear in your head. Just get it out of the way. You write it down, you record it so you won’t worry about this song anymore. And it doesn’t matter what kind of music it is – you should write it. If it’s folk song or whatever kind of song – jazz song, big band song – you should write it down. That’s my advice!
Punk Globe: After the release of “Basement Screams” your lineup changed completely. And I guess, speaking about the record, I may call it classical for the Chicago punk-scene. (And punk-rock in general). It’s really furious and intense. But at the same time, most of the fans, when they think about Naked Raygun think about “Throb Throb” – how can you describe the changes that you went through as musician in between these two records ?
Jeff: Your lineup had changed. John Haggerty came in and played guitar. He combined the things Santiago did and different guitar-styles. We also changed drummers at that point. Jim Colao was our drummer on ‘Basement Screams” – he played with a lot rhythm. Eric Spicer took over drumming and he’s got a very heavy sound. He’s more straight ahead so it created totally different sound. “Throb Throb” is a more formulated.
But a lot of people like it.
Punk Globe: On the first EP most of the songs were composed by Santiago. So when did you get involved as a song writer?
Jeff: That’s really good question! First song I wrote…I think it was “Knock Me Down”. And…It just came out very easily. Partially, because I saw Santiago’s songwriting. And that’s where I got into writing songs. I was Inspired by him, really.
Punk Globe: Do you remember your first lyrics?
Jeff: Well, I was in bands that played in basements a lot. …never got out of the basement. I was in a band that only played James Gang songs. That was kind of funny. And that’s where I learned how to sing. And I liked on being on stage – not just being in bands that played all Rolling Stones songs. I didn’t want to play in the basement all the time. Just practice there. Practice-practice …So I could not play there anymore. At that point punk was making a lot of noise as a new thing. When we started – we had no drummer. And the people in the band at that time were really terrible musicians. We just played three shows. It was really good. There was a lot of energy. And I thought it was really refreshing music. So…I just switched everything. From usual UFO covers and heavy metal stuff I got to punk-rock. And felt better about it.
Punk Globe: The music scene in Chicago seems to be quite a close community. Did you feel it has always been ?
Jeff: I think people encouraged others to start bands. Other bands went to their shows. And was really nice little scene for a while. Pretty small so everyone knew each other….
Punk Globe: At the moment, you’re in the process of recording your first solo album ‘The first EP’. Tell us about that?
Jeff: I wrote these songs – firstly “Make Me Whole” [song] – a long time ago. And I played it once live. And everybody was talking about it! They really-really loved it. And kept on saying: “Release it! Release it!” – but never did. Now, I decided to put the songs together and release an album. “Make Me Whole” is different than Raygun songs, obviously.
Punk Globe: Creatively, how is it different, working on a solo project, Not working on a band recording ?
Jeff: It’s not too different. If you’re the person writing a song for Naked Raygun – you’re writing almost all the parts. Drum-part, bass-part, guitar-part, vocal-part. A lot of bands…I was in The Bomb. And in that band it was more difficult to write the songs. Jeff Dean – the guitar-player was more difficult to write songs with. He just brought to practice guitar-parts, riffs. He never said, “Put this here, vocals there” – it was difficult. I said, “You don’t give me the melody only these freaking chords ?”. The first Bomb’ album I wrote by myself (except one song). So, it was almost like a solo-record. I wrote all the songs.
Punk Globe: The sound on your solo-record are quite light. Even though there are still some dynamic overtones – like the chorus of “Make Me Whole”. It’s an acoustic, folk and there some hip hop. is this the sound you were aiming for?
Jeff: I have this beautiful keyboard. (Korg Triton Workstation). I never used to write on keyboards. It’s very beautiful. Sometimes when you’re recording everything with it, you get lost in the sounds that it makes. It’s really huge and just great! Something that sounds like a real-orchestra – which is great! So, I wanted to write a song on keyboards…
Punk Globe: Your lyrics talk revolve around human relations and misunderstanding. Starting with “I Lie” and finishing with “Black Eyed Blue”. In the early years your lyric were much more centered around struggles. In what ways has your attitude regarding songwriting changed ?
Jeff: Well, in the 80’s we were slightly political .We didn’t like the Reagan regime back then. And Al Gore’s wife was putting all these warning signs on our records. About swearing stuff. Now I don’t think about that. I’m a bit older.
Punk Globe: Withyour earlier songwriting, one can see the different stages of your songwriting. For example, on the album, “Jettison” – there are quite a lot of songs where you write about violence. Like “Solders Requiem” or “Free Nation” – how do you describe that phase in your songwriting?
Jeff: Well…I didn’t write those songs. They’re really good songs! “Solders Requiem” is a very popular songs, actually!
Punk Globe: How important was it for you to convey your opinion towards what was happening back then?
Jeff: Yeah. I think we really didn’t want to speak about things in an obvious way. We brought up different issues to talk about. So people could decide for themselves what’s right and what’s wrong. We didn’t want to be obvious. Things are not always black and white.
Punk Globe: On “Make Me Whole” it seems that the subject manner was turmoil . Do you feel that, humanity will finally prevail when we will not have “Chinese walls” between us ?
Jeff: Em…I hope so! But I don’t know! If you’re go to another planet and you say “Take me to your leader!” You’re speaking about one guy. One guy. But on Earth…That’s not the case. I think that we all should get on the same page.
Punk Globe would like to thank photojournalist Meredith Goldburg for wonderful shots!
Follow Jeff Pezzati on Bandcamp: https://pezzati.bandcamp.com/
And Naked Raygun' Facebook-page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/7795997394/
