KAREN MOSKOWITZ
Maktub, from left: Thaddeus Turner, Davis Martin, Reggie Watts, Daniel Spils, and Kevin Goldman.
KAREN MOSKOWITZ
Maktub, from left: Thaddeus Turner, Davis Martin, Reggie Watts, Daniel Spils, and Kevin Goldman.
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Maktub—vocalist Reggie Watts, drummer Davis Martin, bassist Kevin Goldman, keyboardist Daniel Spils, and guitarist Thaddeus Turner—formed in Seattle 10 years ago. The band's mutable sound—equal parts rock and soul, with as much metal, jazz, funk, and pop thrown in on top, with frequent samples added to live instruments—has made them the go-to band for folks looking to pinpoint how multifaceted Seattle's music scene has become. Their first two albums, 1999's Subtle Ways and 2002's Khronos, made waves locally and, increasingly, nationally, particularly after Khronos, which featured a head-turning cover of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter," was picked up by New York indie label Velour for national distribution. They also tour like demons, while each member—particularly Watts, with his impossible-to-miss Afro—keeps a high profile locally, sitting in with various other musicians and playing solo gigs; Watts issued a solo album, Simplified, in 2003. For Say What You Mean (Velour), which comes out Tuesday, April 12, the band worked with New York producer/engineer Bob Power, who's worked with Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and the Roots (whose drummer/leader, ?uestlove, is a vocal Maktub fan). The Jukebox—featuring Watts, Martin, and Goldman—took place in the Seattle Weekly offices on a bright spring day.
Serge Gainsbourg et Brigitte Bardot: "Bonnie and Clyde" (1968) from Comic Strip (Polydor)
Reggie Watts: Oh, it's Gainsbourg.
Seattle Weekly: I know Reggie's mother is French. Did she play you this kind of stuff when you were young?
Watts: There wasn't that much French stuff. My mother was primarily into James Brown, Nana Mouskouri, Edith Piaf—some French stuff, but nothing like this.
SW: Was there much in the way of French culture in the house?
Watts: Oh, definitely, just because of the fact that she was French. We'd have French food for holidays, French onion soup; I went to France every summer.
SW: In terms of music, did you pick up much from going to France?
Watts: I wish that France had something to offer a bit more [laughs]. Whenever I'd go to France, I'd check out the music every once in a while. MTV was new at the time, and they'd be showing the French version of [whatever was popular], and I was not interested at all. I heard it, but nothing stuck in my mind.
Davis Martin: When was this recorded?
SW: 1968.
Martin: It sounds like loops—you know, [like] samples, digital music.
Kevin Goldman: It sounds very montage.
SW: It's been sampled a few times; Luna covered it with Laetita Sadier from Stereolab singing the Brigitte Bardot part. Obviously, a lot of the French artists who are making waves now are making sample-based electronic music. The French seem to excel at that, rather than at rock and roll.
Watts: Yeah, definitely, bands like Air. Sometimes you get some bands like the Young Gods, more rock stuff, but yeah. Their hip-hop is good, too.
SW: When I moved here the first time, in 1996, there were a lot of acid-jazz types of things going on in clubs, with DJs and musicians collaborating. I know you guys play out in a lot of different configurations. When you started Maktub, did you do it with an eye toward combining that kind of thing with rock?
Martin: For me, that's where I came from as a player. I also played a drum set at Strong at the Crocodile [Cafe], with [house DJ] Donald Glaude, that sort of thing. That was how I played. That's what I liked to do, and that's how I met these guys. But Maktub was never about trying to do a certain style of music. It was about what everybody could bring to the table.
Shellac: "A Minute" (1991) from At Action Park (Touch and Go)
SW: The reason I'm playing this is that Steve Albini grew up in Montana, and so did Reggie. [laughter] What was the music like there? Obviously, Albini went in one whole extreme direction after he left there, and in a way you did the opposite.
Watts: Yeah. There weren't really kids doing local music in Great Falls. There were bands in Missoula—it was a college town. My friend John Thomas was super into Steve Albini, and pretty much anything that's cool, that's well respected, that was hyperunderground, we listened to. I understand the mentality behind it, for sure. Whenever we'd go to the school, we'd always see bands like Fugazi and local bands [like] that. I was in a band called Autumn Asylum, which was kind of thrashy. It was cool—a cross between new wave and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But Montana definitely can produce some interesting psychological states that inspire music like that.
Growing up in a rural area, you're always going to have the radio—a lot of butt-rock and a lot of classic rock, stuff like that. I think a lot of material that's on the new record reflects that. It's got a lot of those rock grooves that we like, or have come to like later on in our lives, however you want to look at it. I was influenced by Montana, and I definitely understood it when you'd go over to people's houses and they have the deer hanging up in the garage, and the guy who'd have the plaid shirt or whatever, chilling out, drinking beer with his dad, his friend, and would go down and polish his guns or stuff, that kind of mentality, you know what I mean? Buck knives—like, kids coming to school with knives [laughs].
