The Clumsy Lovers - Vancouver, Canada
After The Flood - CD Review & Interview
By Patrick Ferris

Vancouver, British Columbia band The Clumsy Lovers is the hardest working band I've come across to date.  With over 300 logged shows per year, they have the toughest touring schedule of any band we've featured, and they are still able to put out a CD of new music every year.

With a sound that is uniquely their own, The Clumsy Lovers take their influences of traditional Celtic, ska, bluegrass and folk, transforming it into their own blend of supercharged folk-rock.  Known for their homespun arrangements of classic rock covers as well as their originals, their chemistry of high-energy Celtic-rock dance music seems to be catching on as their grassroots following has grown across North America. 

After the Flood, their eighth CD scheduled for release in September, is an eclectic mix of 15 original songs plus a bonus track, ranging a broad spectrum of genres that displays the musical ability of these musicians to yet again, re-invent rock.  The title track was my favorite, but there were several memorable tracks that are bound to become classics and not a bad or dull track on the entire CD.  Introspective, well thought out lyrics and creative arrangements make After the Flood an ideal compliment to any CD collection and a must for any Clumsy Lovers fan!  

Because their schedule is beyond ridiculous, I consider myself fortunate to take 34 minutes of guitarist/vocalist Trevor Rogers time, in a call to his cell phone a couple of hours before their show that evening in Omaha, Nebraska.

<HotBands> Hi Trevor

<The Clumsy Lovers> How you doing Pat?

<HotBands> I'm doing great. I'm reading your bios on your website, and am laughing at some of the comments and stories. Some sound like they're right out of the movie The Blues Brothers.

<The Clumsy Lovers> I haven't seen the website in a while but there are always new stories to tell.

<HotBands> I first heard about your band from somebody that saw you at The Tractor Tavern in Seattle, and did a review on your CD Under the Covers with The Clumsy Lovers, a few months back. You have a very good bio section on your website that gives the insights of each band member, but I'd like to find out how you got started. Where did you meet, how did it start, and when did it take off?

<The Clumsy Lovers> It started in 1992 out with some friends jamming together. I've been with them about 7 years now.

<HotBands> Were you there in the beginning?

<The Clumsy Lovers> No, I started with the band in 1996. When I started playing, it was more of a weekend or hobby type of thing.

<HotBands> How many years has the band been a full time gig for all of you?

<The Clumsy Lovers> Well, I quit my job about 4 years ago.

<HotBands> Has the band been touring for the last four years? I see that you do around 300 shows a year.

<The Clumsy Lovers> Yes, we definitely play over 300 shows a year. We play almost every night.

<HotBands> I'm very fortunate and grateful to be able to take this time to speak with you on your cell phone!

<The Clumsy Lovers> Yeah. I just had my brush with fame. We're staying in the same hotel as Linkin Park here in Omaha, Nebraska tonight. We were getting our oil changed and the guy there saw all of our guitars and asked if we were in the band. I told him we're in a band, but not THE band, but we are staying in the same hotel as Linkin Park. He got excited when I said that and said "Oh yeah...I've heard of them!"

<HotBands> Maybe one day there will be people saying, "We stayed in the same hotel as The Clumsy Lovers".

<The Clumsy Lovers> Could be, could be.

<HotBands> You've been at it full time for four years and have something like eight CDs released?

<The Clumsy Lovers> Every year, we try to put something out. After the Flood, the CD that's coming out in September, we put a lot of time and money into, so the production is another level higher. I hope our fans like it.

<HotBands> We have a lot of readers that haven't heard of your band, so for their sake, how do you classify your band and what are some of your fan comments?

<The Clumsy Lovers> We used to call it Celtic rock, but when we added a banjo it sounded more bluegrass, so now we call it 'Raging Bluegrass Celtic Rock'. It depends on the song and mood; songs can range from traditional Irish folk songs to traditional bluegrass, to world beat and ska...the bottom line is that it's rock and roll.

<HotBands> I reviewed your last CD Under the Covers with The Clumsy Lovers which was a collection of cover songs that your band performs and arranged to suit your sound. Would you say many of your fans know you because of the list of covers you play? How many songs are in your play list, and how many are original?

<The Clumsy Lovers> I think we have about 80 songs and two-thirds of them are original. I think some people might know us for that last CD, but we're like a lot of bands...we play songs we like in our own style. People are always saying things like "Aww man, you gotta play Hot Dog by Led Zeppelin because we're going to record it". We get requests for all kinds of songs...from hard rock to old country. Fans of ours might bring a friend to the show, and they won't know any of our songs, but if we slip a cover song in there, they'll say "Hey I know that!" which will suddenly include them in the fun.

<HotBands> I've not yet seen your band, but heard about you through a friend that saw you at The Tractor Tavern who said, "You gotta write about these guys...they're a party from beginning to end". I went and listened to the music, thought you were not only excellent musicians, but you were very funny, and I knew I wanted to interview you. You're in the US on tour all of the time, which must be grueling for social life outside of the band. Over the years, how many incarnations of The Clumsy Lovers have there been?

<The Clumsy Lovers> The bass player, fiddle player and myself (guitar, vocals) have been together for eight years. We had an accordion player for a long time; we had a mandolin player for a while and have had a few drummers’ come and go.

<HotBands> How did you come up with the band name?

<The Clumsy Lovers> The Clumsy Lover is actually a bagpipe song that the band used to play, so it was decided to go with that way back when.

<HotBands> Do you tour all 50 States?

<The Clumsy Lovers> I think we've done something like 43 States. We're out of Vancouver, British Columbia which is above the Northwest corner of the United States, so we did a lot of local shows all through Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho which is where we started our following.

<HotBands> What would you say your average crowd is now, and what is the biggest crowd you've played for?

<The Clumsy Lovers> There was about 25,000 at the Boise River Fest and we did a 4th of July party in Idaho that had about the same number, but they were out for the festival and we weren't the only band. We still play a lot of clubs and colleges all around the Northwestern US regularly. It really makes a difference if you have an existing following or if you're going into a town with no promotion or advertising.

<HotBands> I'm sure that it gets more fun as the crowds get bigger, right?

<The Clumsy Lovers> We were in Dallas a week or so ago, and there weren't a whole lot of people there, but they weren't there for the bar, it was a crowd that came down to see us and it turned into a party, but for the most part the bigger the crowd makes it more fun to play.

<HotBands> Better pay too, huh?

<The Clumsy Lovers> Yeah, you really need to have a couple of hundred people at your shows regularly to be able to support a band full time.

<HotBands> The Internet is our realm, and I'd like to know how it has affected your band and the ability to reach your fan-base?

<The Clumsy Lovers> That's a good question. I must say that that as far as our mailing list goes, we have many more names now on email than we ever did on snail mail, and it's instant, free, and can be forwarded to friends easily. It makes it easier to keep in contact with our fan base and we don't have to go to Kinko’s, make copies buy the envelopes, lick them (yuck) and then mail them at 33 cents a shot. If you do 3000 people a month, that adds up fast, and the email has saved us lots of time and money. As well, anybody that wants to book the band can check out the website, which saves us lots of money in having to send out promotional material. We don't have too much in the way of sound samples, but we have more than enough to give anybody an idea of what we are about.

<HotBands> When did the change happen from hard copy to e-copy? I've been in this business for a number of years and knew this would be the way things were done, but a lot of bands and even more club owners pooh-poohed the idea.

<The Clumsy Lovers> I don't know specifics for you on that, but I know we have way more people on our email list than our mailing list. When we send out our newsletter, we'll get 50 replies instantly of people telling us they are coming to the show and bringing friends. I guess it started about that time...about 5 years ago that we started noticing the Internet playing a major role in promotion. There is still a place for snail mail...having something in hand helps them remember it, but I'll tell you...I'd personally rather spend less time at Kinko’s stuffing envelopes and spending money. A couple thousand pieces of mail takes a LONG time. Email has been a real blessing.

<HotBands> On the other side of the coin, what do you think about file trading? I can think of at least a couple of bands we've featured that built their following through the trading of MP3s. What do you think about how the RIAA is going about attempting to regulate file trading?

<The Clumsy Lovers> I really don't have an opinion either way on that. Honestly, there are lots of bands like Yonder Mountain String Band, The String Cheese Incident and even going back to the Grateful Dead, that developed followings from people recording their shows, so we encourage it. I know a lot of people burn our CDs, but in the end, it’s all good advertising.

<HotBands> You make your money touring and selling CDs at the shows, so how do you feel about people burning your CDs?

<The Clumsy Lovers> I've had people come up to me and say "I burned 10 of your CDs because I wanted everybody at my work to have one". Part of me wants to say that I'd prefer that they would buy them, but at the same time, those 10 people weren't going to buy or even hear them anyhow, you know what I mean? I mean that I'd rather have them listening to the music because then they may come to the show and bring somebody. The Grateful Dead and all of these wonderful bands over the years that have developed an informal trading network that promoted the band to no end. There will be a percentage of people that would want to check it out based on that free copy they got. More and more, you can get our CDs in the stores like at Tower Records and such, so if somebody is interested in the artwork or lyrics or graphics, they can purchase one there. In the end, it all works out for the best.

<HotBands> Who writes most of the music for the band?

<The Clumsy Lovers> Well, on After the Flood,  being released next month, I wrote a couple of them, the banjo and fiddle player came up with a lot of the music part for the solos and stuff, but the current CD is mostly bassist Chris Jonat's songs. I think there's 14 original tunes on it.

<HotBands> You guys are touring so much...that's got to be hard. Do you get tired of it?

<The Clumsy Lovers> You know, somebody asked me the same question just yesterday. I never get tired of IT, I just get tired.

<HotBands> How old are you now, Trevor?

<The Clumsy Lovers> I'm the oldest in the band and I'm 34. I really think that a lot of it is how much we drive. We put on about 100,000 miles (161,000 kilometers) per year. The other day we were getting our oil changed and the guy couldn't believe how many miles we had on our 2002 van. We left Bozeman, Montana for Omaha Nebraska and it took us 16 hours...and that was our day off. So getting back to the question, we're not tired of the lifestyle, but we'd all like to be able to spend more time at home with our friends and extended families. Nobody in the band has families with children, so it's more a matter of losing touch with your close family and friends. We all have phones and are home once a month for a couple of days and we try to route our tours through the Northwest to make it easier to get back home.

<HotBands> What do you think about the way the RIAA is going after file-traders?

<The Clumsy Lovers> I don't have much of an opinion on that because it really doesn't affect us. I mean if our sales were down 20 percent because of the Internet I might feel differently, but I really don't have a firm opinion either way on this.

<HotBands> Are you on your own label?

<The Clumsy Lovers> Yes. Right now we put out our own CDs and make our own T-shirts and stickers. We have our own label and are completely independent. We have a booking agent but aside from that, it's just us putting out our CDs every year.  

<HotBands> If you were approached by a major label, would you bite, or are you content having total control over where you're going with your music?

<The Clumsy Lovers> We're happy where we are, but we'd entertain the notion if somebody came to us. Most of the bands that we know that have gone that route ended up breaking up some time later and there were problems with the release of their CDs. It's great having a wonderful career you control totally.

<HotBands> It's great to be able to see bands like yourself out on the road being able to make a full time living at your craft and being able to put out wonderful music every year for the world to hear. What do you think the main inspirations are for your music?

<The Clumsy Lovers> Thinking back, we write about things like traveling in the van, being lonely, regular events in our lives I guess. But the way we write songs is hearing something like a blues song and saying 'let's try it and see if we can make it sound totally different'.

<HotBands> You're on the road so much, when do you have time to practice?

<The Clumsy Lovers> Hotel rooms, taking a few minutes before sound-check, if we're home for a few days we'll get together for new songs, and sometimes even in the van.

<HotBands> So learning new songs is a way to break up the monotony of playing the same material every night?

<The Clumsy Lovers> Oh, totally! Sometimes we'll hear a song in the van and say 'Let's try that tonight'. It could be any type of music...sometimes old music, anything really.

<HotBands> How do you cope with being with each other so much in such close quarters?

<The Clumsy Lovers> We listen to the Walkman, we all read a lot, sometimes driving and zoning out looking out the window.

<HotBands> That's a really hard life, and I don't envy that part of your lifestyle, but I really appreciate people like you because you're out there carrying the torch for every independent artist out there in the world.

<The Clumsy Lovers> Thank you! It is a hard life and we sometimes get burned out but everybody gets burned out in his or her own lives and jobs regardless of what it is. We consider ourselves fortunate to be able to do this. When I left work, I said "well, I can do this instead" rather than being at home in a conservative style life.

<HotBands> It sounds like a lot of fun and even though it isn't right for everybody, but for the people that have to do it...you either have the calling or you don't.

<The Clumsy Lovers> Now is the time to keep going too. It would be a horrible time to quit because things are just starting to come together, you know? We're just now becoming nationally and internationally known. The festivals are getting bigger and the offers are getting better...every month is better than the last.

<HotBands> Is there anything you'd like to say to the readers out there? We've been getting a lot of traffic from Europe and especially the UK. I think you'd probably be a big hit over there.

<The Clumsy Lovers> We'd like to get over to Europe sometime in the future and in the meantime are still focusing on the music. Look for our CD next month and give it a listen. Thank you Pat, for supporting independent music...that's great.

<HotBands> Thank you for your time today Trevor. I look forward to seeing you next time in Seattle.

For more information on The Clumsy Lovers, CLICK HERE

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