Fishbone - Frankenstein Has A New Kind Of Ska
Ever wondered what seminal musical artists with over 20 years of record industry credibility do on their days off? If you’re talking to Angelo Moore from Fishbone and you answered with Ten Pin Bowling with your daughter, then you get a gold star. In between strikes, Angelo shared with us his life philosophies (and the distractions and exhilarations of his beloved daddy/daughter game of bowling).
‘I never knew that I’d be doing this for so long. You never can tell. Then again, I don’t know any other way. Actually I do know a couple of other ways. I have a side project called Dr Madd Vibes. But …. Ooooh man!! (Angelo’s daughter gets a strike). Blending funky ska grooves that power Fishbone's music, they have been able to combine politics and humour whilst still be taken seriously. ‘I think it’s important to keep the humour in it otherwise you just get real angry… Oh, I think my game is over. I think my daughter won. No wait a minute. I think I won. Yeah I got 98 and she got 95. Man, but she seemed to get way more strikes than me. Hang on, let me give my daughter some money’.
Game over, we continue with the interview. Longevity is a rarity in music these days. Fishbone have influenced many, been labeled by one and all and they still keep on keeping on. How do they do it? ‘Love, tolerance, perseverance, patience, endurance, compromise and things of that nature. It’s a love for the music and the art. As for labels, I don’t mind having all those different labels as Fishbone is about being diverse.’
You get a better idea of where Angelo gets his musical leanings when he rattles off his personal favourites. ‘The Specials, Bad Manners, The Selecter, a lot of English Ska and James Brown, Funkadelic and Sly Stone are the funk music influences. I love reggae and of course Bob Marley. Lots of reggae!
It’s refreshing to know that whilst there’s brass, strings, keys and percussion in this 7 piece outfit, they still do the basics. ‘We all contribute to the writing and arranging process in Fishbone, but we still have to practice the songs’. That makes me feel better. Even the pros have to practice – cool. Multi instrumentalist Angelo has another feather in the cap though. He plays the theremin. ‘Yeah I discovered the theremin in a studio in Atlanta whilst we were recording Chim Chims Bas Ass Revenge. It was in the basement. I learnt how to play it but my band mates hated me for a while. I like it though. It’s like a classical instrument – but you don’t touch it! It works on electrical waves. Two antennas – one is the pitch and the other the volume. It’s like a keyboard with no keys. You can’t move around a lot and you have to focus on it but you get a beautiful noise out of it if you concentrate.’
A ten year gap between tours downunder seems a longer than normal period. Could the others in Fishbone really hate the theremin that much? Angelo explains. ‘Personnel changes, personality clashes and artistic differences. Sometimes this happens to a band when it is going through an evolutionary period. Fate decides whether you live or die. Fate has decided that we can keep on livin. Guys grow together sometimes and then grow apart. New ones join. It’s like Frankenstein. The head, the brain and spine are intact, but we had to get some new arms and legs!’
Once with giant label Sony, what does Angelo feel about the big labels and pop idols these days? ‘It’s one sided, selfish and capitalistic. It’s unfair to the underground audience. Without the underground audience, there wouldn’t be any roots to the tree. Without roots, there is no tree to stand up on. A lot of these pop artists owe their place to the underground cultures. I don’t pay attention to American pop culture anymore. America is too linear and the underground music culture is more accessible in Europe.
A man such as Angelo has a voice that should be listened to. He not only has deep roots, he has a deep passion and experience that can not be bought, unlike the commercial system he knows so well. ‘New artists should try to be as independent as possible. Unless you’re playing something the calibre of Beyonce or Christine Aguilera, the media aint gonna help you. You got to try and do a lot of it yourself. Outside of America has always been more interested and accessible to underground and eclectic styles of music. It’s more enjoyable for musicians to play. A lot of people don’t want to think. They don’t want to get too deep. They just want to hear something that is not going to get them thinking too much’. Angelo, we’re glad that YOU still are.
Fishbone are currently touring Australia this April.
