Black Mountain: Let Spirits Ride

When you dream of becoming a ‘rock star’ it no doubt involves victoriously punching the air in front of a sold-out stadium gig, Freddie Mercury style, or combining the cream of guitar rock signature moves in a way that would make Marty McFly proud. Little thought it seems is given to the laborious time spent travelling or the mundane periods of just waiting around in unfamiliar venues.

Matt Camirand, bassist with nu-psych rock behemoths Black Mountain is clearly in the throes of the less glamorous side of being in a touring rock band when The Skinny meets with him backstage at T in the Park, fresh off the Futures stage after a blistering but brief half-hour slot. “It was just in the last song that I started to feel we were hitting our stride and then it was over,” he laments. “I wish we could hang out and have a little experience but we’re leaving now. We’ll literally have been here for like, two hours in total.”

Testament to this, our interview takes place in the Black Mountain tour van, partly to get some peace and quiet but also because Camirand is not exaggerating; five minutes off the stage at T and after our brief conversation the band will literally be back on the road. “The whole idea is to play smaller places, so that way when the record comes out I guess we can come back and not do what we’re doing now,” he explains of the necessary grind.

That new record is up-coming third album Wilderness Heart, a relatively punchy burst of classic rock templates that strips away much of the proggy excess that endeared us to 2008’s breakthrough In The Future to begin with. “This time we wanted to do something totally different,” Camirand begins. “We wanted to do some really concise, shorter stuff and just do a ten-song, 45 minute album you know? Just go in the opposite direction.”

Tracks like opener The Hair Song exemplify this, with its upbeat Californian slide-guitar riff, call and response vocals and Camirand’s nod to a certain bass legend. “It’s the worst title ever but it’s my favourite song on the record,” he beams. “The reason I like it so much is because I got to really release my inner John Paul Jones. I don’t particularly play bass like him but the riff, it just happened instantly – like there was no other bass part for that song. It was cool and very refreshing to hit on something new for myself.”

When a direction re-think is on the cards it no doubt helps to get in some outside ears to rein in your penchant for sixteen-minute prog epics. “It’s the first time we’ve hired an outside producer,” admits Camirand on the recording of the new effort, which saw alternative rock engineer Dave Sardy (Slayer, Nine Inch Nails) in LA and drone specialist Randall Dunn (Boris, Earth) in Seattle juggle production duties. “It feels like having another member in the group and it’s challenging because it’s hard to let a ‘stranger’ into our world because we’re all so tight and have spent so much time together,” says Camirand. “It was a big leap of faith for us, but it was something we were all willing to do because we could easily have made the same record again otherwise.”

It’s a change that works, largely because In The Future was such a masterclass in various disciplines that there seemed little doubt Black Mountain were well-versed enough to hone their technique in whichever way they saw fit. It’s also likely to capitalise on the exposure they received with In The Future, being a more inclusive and less intimidating record. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t expect it a little bit,” admits Camirand of enjoying such success and hoping for a little more. “I’m 34, I’ve been on the road since I was 17 so it’s about fucking time! It’s pleasantly surprising but at the same time we’ve all been working really hard towards this for so many years that it’s like ‘fuck, I wish this had happened ten years ago!’”

Yet despite the fact that Camirand now describes Black Mountain’s status as “full-time”, all members of the group still manage to engage in a dizzying amount of side-projects, Camirand being no exception. “For me it’s more like ‘not work’,” he claims of one of his other projects, notably Blood Meridian. “It’s like getting together with some friends to have a few beers with no agenda whatsoever. It’s purely for fun and enjoyment.” And yet the man still finds time to put in shifts for Insite, an organisation that works with the poor and chronically ill in his hometown Vancouver. “For many years they gave me the time to do the band and always welcomed me back when the band wasn’t making any money,” he explains. “So I feel like I owe them a little bit of time, you know?”

Time he certainly doesn’t seem to have as our interview comes all-too-quickly to an end, with the rest of the band clambering into the modest tour van ready for the next stop. So what’s going on the tour stereo? I casually ask as we part. “Wu-Tang Clan is about the only thing we can all agree on,” is the swift and surprising reply. “But every time we do a tour, less and less music gets played on the stereo. This whole tour has just been silence,” jokes Camirand.

Given the thunderous noise we have just witnessed at their hands and the gruelling schedule that lies ahead, a little bit of peace and quiet does seem in order. That’s rock ‘n’ roll for you, kids.