Interviews

Murder By Death

Interview with Adam Turla on Apr 26, 2007 by Archive Bot

There's not much to say regarding the interview you're about to read. It's pretty extensive and says just about everything that could be said already. So, I'll be brief. You can thank me by purchasing a copy of that gold vinyl print the band just did of In Bocca Al Lupo for me. That would be sweet. Anyways, I had the chance to sit down with Adam Turla, vocalist and guitarist for Bloomington, Indiana's Murder by Death while the band was in Chicago on tour with Reverend Horton Heat, who they'll be on tour with for a very long time, so check 'em out, because they're awesome…and I said so. Oh, one thing I should mention. Ian—"what fucking Ian, guy?"—the dude that edits for this site, decided to ask a few good questions only after I turned the recorder off. The only really important thing you should know from that is that we discovered Adam's favorite album cover may be that of Weezer's self-titled blue-disc, and he actually has a Weezer cover band called Weezor that performs once in awhile around Bloomington. Keep that in mind, it may be in a music trivia game somewhere, someday, I suppose.
 
By: William Jones
 
You're on a very extensive worldwide tour with Reverend Horton Heat right now. How has it been going so far?
 
Adam Turla: It's awesome, actually. We're having so much fun with the Reverend Horton Heat. It's awesome to be out with a band that's so technically advanced. Every night we just go out there and hear them play; it's sort of something to aspire to. You don't usually get that when you're out supporting another band. Those guys just know what they're doing. And we're having a blast. We're playing bar shows, getting wasted, playing rock 'n roll. Can't argue with that.
 
How were you originally approached about this tour?
 
AT: It's crazy. We heard they were looking for opening bands, and we submitted, thinking it would be really cool, but we didn't think we'd get it, for whatever reason. The next day, they said, "Yeah, that sounds great." We got the offer, and then a week later, they offered us a May tour in Canada, and a week later, they offered us an August tour—we're actually going to go play the bike rally at Sturgis, which is awesome. I've been there. I really like that subculture. Basically, they just approached us about it, and they kept asking us to go on tour with them.
 
With the diverse acts of rockabilly, Irish-punk, and you guys, how have the crowd responses been?
 
AT: It's been really good. Honestly, we're doing quite well. A lot of new people are hearing us, and people are buying CDs, which is always cool. I appreciate when a person buys a t-shirt, but you want to be recognized for your music. You don't want someone to go download the music and buy the t-shirt. Ideally, you want people to listen to you, not just wear your shirt around. As an artist, I think that's a desire everybody has.
 
Last time I saw you guys live was the late New Years Eve show in Iowa City—
 
AT: [Laughs] No shit? We were so drunk!
 
How did that come about? Why choose Iowa City, IA, for a New Years Eve show?
 
AT: Actually, Iowa City was probably the first town that recognized us as being a legitimate band—a touring act. We would play shows there, and we started to build a fan base there very early in our careers, so we always appreciated playing there. Our friend bought Gabe's Oasis, and she renamed it The Picador. We played the grand opening of it, and because we had a history with that city, she said, "You should play the New Years Eve show." So, we did a matinee—an early, all-ages show—and a late show. During the matinee, people were bringing us shots. We were just drinking hard and having a good time. So, by the time we go on at midnight, as I'm sure you saw, we did the countdown. We look over, and our friend, the promoter, Jackie, has given us each a bottle of champagne for stage. At this point, we're all 15-20 drinks into the night. We had to drink it, you know? I just remember, during the first song, Sarah just dropped her cello on the floor she was so drunk. It was a blast. It was a really fun show.
 
So, you guys had posted on the websites that you had five breakdowns on the last tour?
 
AT: We had five breakdowns, yeah. It was a rough tour. We tried to play for a younger audience, and it did not work for us. They just didn't like us. It was kind of a pop-kid audience, and it was an experiment. Basically, we got convinced to do this tour, and the kids in the band were really nice, friendly, and cool. The audience were just a bunch of little kids who—there was a review of the tour, in New York, and it began, "What a terrible tour for Murder by Death to have to be on. Adam Turla walked up the stage and says, 'we're going to play some rock 'n roll music,' much to the chagrin of the audience." Basically, they just wanted cute guys with girls' haircuts and shitty music. We're not especially cute, and our haircuts are pretty mediocre. The music was maybe a little more old-fashioned than they were expecting. It didn't work out, but this tour is awesome. We're playing for fuckin' bikers, drinkers, and rock 'n rollers, so I like it.
 
What's the music scene in Bloomington, IN, like?
 
AT: Everybody's in a band. Everyone in that city is in a band. Tour bands—there's not that many that come through. Occasionally, you get a big show 'cause it's a big college—about 40,000 students—but most of the time, people just go to small, local shows. It's kind of funny for us to be a national act, but also local. It's just odd. Something that makes these scenes suffer—the law is, if they serve alcohol, you have to be 21 to get in. You either play an all-ages show where there's no drinks, no smoking, over by 11, or you play a 21+ show, where the opening band goes on at 11. We try to combat that system. A couple weeks ago we did—Friday night, all ages; Saturday night, bar show. It worked pretty well. In most towns, it's a bar, it's open—you could have a 10-year-old kid in there next to a 50-year-old dude that's wasted. It's fine.
 
As far as where you grew up, and where the band comes from, what are some of the major influences of the band?
 
AT: Well, Bloomington is an extremely hip town. Everybody is into really obscure rock 'n roll. Personally, the bands that really made me think about what I wanted to do—David Bowie for the far-out lyrics, the crazy fiction; The Animals, for the real rock 'n roll sound, badass vocals, wailing; Eric Burdon, he's just a great singer; I really like Tom Waits, he's just a great storyteller, and he has a lot of character to his songs; Johnny Cash, Nick Cave; artists that we all love.
 
What happened with your departure from Eyeball?
 
AT: We put out our first record with them. They said, "Hey we like you. We'll put this out." So, we put it out, and it was very DIY, but it kind of took off. Then, we had a second record and they're like, "Hey, we'd like to put it out." Okay, sure, why not. It took off more. Then it became time to do a third record, and they always said they just wanted to be a stepping stone for us. It came time to decide what we were going to do with our next record, and we decided to put it out ourselves, just because it made a little more sense at the time. We wanted complete freedom with the record, so we just kind of did whatever we wanted. I don't know if we'll continue with that in the future, but we'll see.
 
So East/West just gave you that option to do your own imprint?
 
AT: Yeah, we basically have our own label and they just provide the back-end.
 
Who came up with the idea and who shot the video for "Brother"? I really like the style of it.
 
AT: I like it, too. A guy from New York named Rob Hall shot it. He's a very famous editor. He edits videos, movies, and he just started breaking into music videos as a medium. We found him and thought, oh, this guy's really showing a lot of talent—sort of a young, talented guy. He shot it here in Chicago, actually, at the John Barleycorn Bar. I really like it. We were basically driving to a show one day—playing some college gig in Ohio—and we were talking, we need to do a video. Well, the song's sort of a drinkin' song about people who are kind of wild and troublesome. So, why don't we have it set in a bar and have a bar fight happen? We'll do it as kind of old-fashioned, because that's sort of the general theme of the band—that old-fashioned feel. It just happened, so we were very happy to do it. I love movies, so it was fun to be part of a video.
 
Specifically, what is your fascination with writing songs about the devil?
 
AT: I studied religion in college, so I've always been very interested in any sort of good vs. evil, or the things in between. I'm just very interested in the idea of sin and of hell. It's fascinating to me to approach that. It's such great fodder for writing. When it came time to write an album, it just seemed like such a good backdrop—use the devil as an actual, physical character. It came very naturally after the idea came, as I think anyone who writes books, lyrics, etc. will tell you. As soon as you have an idea, it just comes out.
 
How does the idea of In Bocca Al Lupo—"In the mouth of the wolf"—play into the theme of the album, and how did you first come across the concept?
 
AT: Both Sarah and I took Italian in college. It was a phrase that came up. We were talking about this album—each song is about a sinner who has done something wrong. Some of them are on the fringes; they're not dead yet; they haven't gone to hell, but they'd really have to make a turnaround to make it happen. When we were writing the album, something that came up as an opportunity—"in the mouth of the wolf." It works with this idea of these people who have been sinning their whole lives, and then realized, "I've been screwing up this whole thing." So the people, they're in the mouth of the wolf, metaphorically, and they have to fight their way out, do something good to amend their past deeds. Sort of like, you're at the gates of hell; make your last ditch effort to get the hell out of Dodge.
 
For the last two albums, you've posted explanations of the songs on the websites alongside the lyrics? Was there a large demand from fans for something like this?
 
AT: We would get so many emails from people who wanted to know more. "Tell me more about the song." People have created projects, plays or ballets or whatever, that they wanted to do to our album. So, they want to know more details. I figured it was an easier way—here's the worldwide interweb, available at our fingertips for you people to consult. Instead of writing each person an individual email, here's the information for everybody, not just people with projects involved.
 
That's got to be pretty flattering that people are creating their own things based on your music—
 
AT: Yeah, I got an email today—someone who's writing a play and a musical version, where they're singing our songs for this college thesis. We've been getting that for years, and it's awesome.
 
Have you had the opportunity to see any of these?
 
AT: I saw a video of a play that someone did, to one of our albums, once. I saw a ballet that was done to one of our songs. It's great. It's very flattering. It's so flattering that all you can do is say, "awesome." It never occurs to you, when writing it, that you'll inspire people to make new art out of your own.
 
You've also made mention of people showing you their Murder by Death tattoos out on the road—
 
AT: Yeah, that's been the new thing. We started a thing on our website, because we've just seen so many tattoos where they take our artwork, or scenes from our albums, and have 'em tattooed all over 'em. So, we started doing a little database on our website.
 
Have there been any particular standouts?
 
AT: A lot of people get the spider from the cover of Who Will Survive, but then a lot of people get the scene from that album where the Devil's getting shot in the back. There's one song called "Three Men Hanging"—people tend to get the more iconic art, the stuff that's more obvious. They'll tattoo a design off a t-shirt. We have a lot of friends that are artists who do all our merchandise, which is why I think our merchandise is kickass—instead of just getting some graphic designer to whip something up just to sell it, we get real artists to interpret scenes from our albums and actually develop them into a visual piece, which I think is fun because it crosses music with physical art.
 
Have you written any material for the next album, yet?
 
AT: Yeah, I've got a couple songs—five or six songs done—and I recorded a few of them.
 
Is it based around a particular concept again?
 
AT: Yeah, I love to have an overarching theme. I would say I think it will be somewhere between Who Will Survive and our latest album. Maybe the storytelling elements of Who Will Survive—it's going to be more rockin' though. It's definitely going to be a rock album.
 
The stories told in your songs all have a literary feel to them, but do many actually relate back to personal experiences?
 
AT: Yeah! The truth is, I don't like to tell, usually, which are the true songs and which are the fakes. Some songs are fiction; some songs are autobiographical. Some songs are autobiographical, with fiction involved, like a Hemmingway novel or something—a true story but with a twist. It's more fun to not say which ones are the true ones, because I think people would be surprised by which ones are real and which ones aren't. I've had criticism from some people who won't believe the songs that are actually real, but they'll believe in ones that aren't. I think that's kind of humorous. I like seeing those reviewers try to get on their high horse and say, "this song is obviously so not true," but it's like, oh, you just picked the one that is actually about my life. I love having a little mystery surrounding it.
 
How do you view new technology like iTunes, where the focus is more so on singles than ever before? As someone who is interested in themes over the arch of an album, do you think things like this are destroying the album?
 
AT: It doesn't help us; that's for sure. It hurts us a lot, but yet, it's what's happening, so I'm not going to sit around and bitch about it. The fact is, we just move on. We just make our records, and the truth is we just don't sell as many records as the band that puts out a single. We'll never make as much money, but we'll have this satisfaction of having created something that's more than just one hit song. And I think that's how any band, that's not a pop band, will observe it. Sure, many bands would rather have the money at the end of the day, but there's something to say for not doing it for that reason, just trying to write an album that really means something. When I have someone approach me and tell me they wrote a play, or a thesis for their doctorate, or composed a ballet to our music—I get satisfaction from that. I don't get $100,000 [laughs], like Fall Out Boy or something, but I get the satisfaction of someone being truly inspired to create something of their own. What am I going to do with a million dollars? I'm so happy where I am. I don't need anything else. I'd rather make something that matters than be rich.
 
It's always nice to see a band put forth that effort to make a cohesive piece or work instead of a series of singles…
 
AT: I think that's going to be the danger of what happens with the music scene over the next however many years, until they figure out what they're going to do with the music. I've heard certain labels I've talked to say, "At some point we're just going to become obsolete. There won't be labels; there won't be CDs. Everyone's music will be free." And it's an interesting idea, because I come from a generation of people where the album is the only thing that matters. I've bought 100 CDs to 1 t-shirt. I'm not of this Myspace era, where people go out and they want the stickers, or buttons, or t-shirts, but they didn't pay for the CD. The idea of free music is such a foreign idea to me; I can't even make a judgment call on it.
Last CD you listened to, and was it good or bad?
 
AT: I'm trying to think, because our tour manager—he literally downloads CDs onto his iPod to torture us while he's driving. He'll download the latest emo craze band, just to put it on to drive us crazy. He'll look at me and be like, "fuck you," and then he'll play it. I can't remember if he played anything like that today. The last CD I put in myself was William Elliot Whitmore—a guy who tours with us a lot, one of my oldest friends, and a fucking brilliant musician.
 
Last movie you watched, and was it good or bad?
 
AT: Big Trouble in Little China. It's good. It's better than good. We own it in the van. We literally watch it 5 to 10 times a tour. It's our favorite band movie.
 
A band you haven't toured with but would most like to?
 
AT: That's a really good one. I'm going to say this one especially for—I like 'em a lot, but—Matt, our bass player, but we'd really like to open for Queens of the Stone Age—awesome rock 'n roll. I think that would be cool. I'd love to open for Tom Waits, but he doesn't take support out, so that's just how it rolls.
 
Favorite drink?
 
AT: I like straight whiskey. I just drink straight whiskey.
 
Any particular brand?
 
AT: My favorite right now is Bulleit. If I'm going to mix, I'm into gin.
 
Murder by Death is on a plane that crashes in the mountains—who gets eaten first?
 
AT: That would have been easy a couple years ago [laughs], but I'm going to go with Matt, because he doesn't ever complain about anything. So, I feel like we could be peeling the flesh off of him, and he'd just be like, "Hey man, can you grab me another beer?" He' be all right with it. I just wouldn't feel as bad.
 
The three bands on this tour are playing dodgeball—who gets picked last?
 
AT: That's a tough call. The Reverend Horton Heat—Jim—is the oldest, so we don't know if he's still got it in him. I've never seen him play dodgeball. I think we're the most spry band. So, I'm going to say Reverend Horton Heat is—he's old—I'm going to tackle that one. I'm going to take him out—knock him out.
 
What's the last book you've read?
 
AT: I finished a book about two hours ago called "The Places In Between," by a Scottish guy named Rory Stewart. What he did was—four months after September 11, he decided to walk across Afghanistan by himself. He did the entire country by foot. He just wanted to learn about the Afghani people; he's a history teacher. He's a very fascinating guy, a young guy, probably 30-35. He almost got killed a few times, but also had these incredible, benevolent experiences by the people there. This book's incredible, because, as an American, we have a very jaded, right wing perspective on Afghanistan. When you read this book—most people there don't know what the World Trade Center is. They literally do not know where America is. It's amazing, because we're fed the idea that Afghanis hate America, and the truth was, as he walked across this country, they just weren't involved with that. It's a small group that was anti-American. So, it was a really cool book.
 
All around the world, what is your favorite bar?
 
AT: The New Brooklyn Tavern, in Columbia, SC, where we often play, has the most breasts. I'm just throwing that out there. The Grenada in Lawrence, KS, has the most whiskey, in close comparison with Gabe's Oasis/The Picador in Iowa City. But when I'm home, in Bloomington, IN, I like to go to a place called The Video Saloon.