What’s Your Favorite Colour?

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Two decades ago I was able to arrange a short interview with Living Colour that ran in my college newspaper. I had fallen in love with their debut album, Vivid, and wanted to share it with the world, and I was thrilled to be able to talk to the band about it.

Today, full circle, as I had a chance to speak to Living Colour’s drummer, Will Calhoun, in advance of a benefit show he has organized next week in support of MoveOn.Org’s work in this election cycle.  The show will take place next Wednesday, Sept. 10 at Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, in Manhattan.  Tickets are available here.

Twenty years ago I saw Living Colour at CBGBS and the Ritz put on the best shows I ever attended.  Much has changed since then, but I have seen Living Colour many times since over the years and have always come away shaking my head in amazement.  A must see show for a very good cause.

My interview with Will Calhoun follows:

Q: Let me just first say that I’ve been a big fan for a long time. I actually interviewed you guys when I was in college and we were all much younger so I’m really glad that you’re all still doing what you’re doing and very excited to see you next Wednesday.

A: Thank you very much. You know, we went through a little bit of a short break period, a down period, a pause I guess you could call it but we’re working together and touring.

Q: Living Colour has always been a very political band, very attuned, very aware. Is this the first time you’ve gotten involved in an election in this way?

A: No. The first time we were really kind of one of the first bands to organize the Rock the Vote tear out card in our CDs.  If you are 18 years old with a driver’s license you should be able to vote. When Clinton signed that bill we were invited out to the White House for the signing of the Motor Voter. That was our first time of being out there.

During the Clinton era when we were out on the road we just felt like Clinton did have a sort of a galvanizing interest for younger people. We were on the road touring and we noticed playing colleges and playing rock venues or night clubs that a lot of the younger people were talking about Clinton and his campaign and how they felt like this was an opportunity for them to really feel like they were involved with that process.

So we talked about it so much in interviews and in the press, both in America and abroad, that we should do something about it and we decided to have that little tear out in our CD cover and you could sign it and send it in and that helped push the vibe of the Motor Voter Bill into fruition. We decided to ask Sony, ‘is that okay to put that in the insert’ and they said ‘yes’ and that was our first engagement in the electoral process, speaking awareness to younger people.

Q: Are you seeing a lot of that same enthusiasm today? Is that why you’re organizing this gig on Wednesday?

A: Well, the gig on Wednesday really comes from conversations with friends, my friends in Africa, in Spain, in Israel, and Japan, here in the States, just going traveling around the world and having all of my friends and promoters and people, my friends parents, or what have you, feeling Obama and his vibe and America and the war and a lot of other things. If you go over to other countries and you read German magazines, a few of the international magazines, you read about the war and the press there in so much more detail. They’re more informative than Time magazine and magazines here.

And they’re curious. I just noticed the conversation never ended and I also noticed being an American and being here in the States just the vibe of Obama, the vibe of the campaign, the vibe that people were getting pumped, they were tired of the same scenario.

People are broke. They’re losing their homes, they’re losing their jobs, people that I know that made six figures a year who got injured on their jobs are barely getting by with the minimal health care they have. It just – it hit the shank. The system really hit the shank. And it’s shaking up everyone, not just blacks or whites or immigrants or college students trying to pay back their loans. It’s hitting some serious average folk and above average folk, if you want to put it that way, in the country.

So I wanted to put the concert together really with Daniela and Family Stand, two artists that I like that also make very conscious music and really – we talk about, as musicians, change, and we talk thinking differently – not so much you have to vote for Obama –  a lot of my friends are independents, a lot of them are Cynthia McKinney fans, but in spite of that, in reality, we were just talking about the opportunity to think differently, to be in a situation where you can actually have an impact on your life or on the environment or on whatever, your religious beliefs in schools or not, or your unborn child and you can go down the list.

We have these conversations as artists when we’re in the Frankfort airport or all together at a jazz festival in Switzerland. We are talking about these kinds of things.  The concert really is just about thinking differently, about us being artists, being creative, being affected by all these things that are happening to us. We travel so we see the Bush haters, they come to our shows, they talk about it, they ask us about it.

We see people interested in Obama, we see military kids over in Europe who talk about doing their third or second tour and I  wanted to have a concert in New York City that deals with us thinking differently, us maybe registering to vote, those of us who are not registered, and the possibilities of having change in our lives or in our, for those of us who have kids, in our children’s lives, whether it’s for the environment, whether it’s just the way we think about race or having that conversation about race or anything along that line. That’s what I’m conscious about.

Q: Do you think you get a different perspective when you’re overseas?

A: Absolutely. Absolutely you do. If you watch the news here, you look at CNN or FOX or any of these news programs and you go abroad it’s night and day. I was in Holland when Katrina hit and I was turning the channels between watching Dutch news and BBC and CNN and I can’t even explain to you the range of difference between the three of them.

The Dutch news guys had on their fly fishing gear and they were in the water sort of, doing interviews with people who were telling you their stories and who were pushing their mothers by plastic floaters, college kids that were trying to escape the Dome because they said they’re trying to kill people in that Dome and the police wouldn’t let them cross the bridge.

These are the things that I saw on Dutch television.  BBC softened it up a bit and CNN, in my opinion, had angled the argument, had angled it. The storm, what was happening to the folks so much wasn’t the issue, although they showed it, there were other things like looting that became the topic of discussion.

And I’ve been down there three times in three years and it’s still completely a sad situation. You go up past the high school, you see a 15 foot water stain on the building and it’s closed. So yes, I do see it differently. And also when you’re American and you go abroad and you meet people from other countries they ask you those questions; “what’s up with the government, where is the Navy, where are the troops, why isn’t there any food, why are people dying?” And you see it in a different light.

The only way I can describe it is when you are living in America you are kind of in yourself and once you leave here you get an opportunity to look at yourself like maybe that salt and pepper shaker on the table – you can pick it up and look at it from the bottom and the top and spin it around and hold it and get a real perspective on yourself or on the country from that kind of view versus being an American, being inside the salt shaker.

Q: Given how terrible things are in this country over the last eight years, what do you think that Barack Obama will be able to accomplish in the White House?

A: I still think a lot of it has to do with us. I think that Barack Obama can accomplish a lot of things in the White House but I think what’s important is the citizens of this country put pressure on him and demand things. We have to become involved. We can no longer be in the stands yelling ’shoot’ or ’swing’ or ‘don’t drop the ball.’ We have to get on the field now and put the pressure on Obama and Biden and everybody else – locals, our senators, and our mayors.

It’s time for us to take a responsibility with our fellow citizens in this country. It’s a different scenario. My grandfather gave me an example of when a house would burn down and catch on fire – he was a self-made man, a farmer, so on – in the South, they would pass the hat around in the church and the local lumber guy would come by and everybody would rebuild the person’s house. That’s kind of the concept. I know a lot of celebrities went down to New Orleans and so on but we have to take some more responsibility as human beings and as citizens for ourselves and the things we want. We need to help.

We have to put the pressure on everybody. It has to start at the bottom from your neighborhood association person all the way up to your pastors, parents, single parents.  Also the village concept, which is how I grew up. Everybody’s parents were everyone’s parent. Those were the responsibilities of a people taking responsibility for their area or their lifestyle.

I think as citizens of this country, and whatever, immigrants, green card holders, what have you, being here you have to think about it from a team/village concept, not just pulling a lever and then saying okay this is the guy that I want. One guy is not going to do it alone, one lady is not going to do it, one term is not going to do it alone.

We have to remain focused and diligent about the things we really want to have. We have to really deal with the reality of no more drilling, if that’s what you want to do, or abortion.  It can’t just be an argument. We have responsibilities too. We can’t just organize a gig and throw it say ‘hey, I did my bit and donated the money.’

We have to continue to write the tunes and continue to inspire people and keep that pressure on for change and I think Obama is an example and kind of a first step in that direction. Is he going to run the full touchdown from the end zone back to the other end zone by himself? I don’t know. If he does, great. I’m not planning on it, but I think we have to be out there on the field and be part of that process from one end zone to the other; we can’t be in the stands anymore.

Q: I’ll ask you one more question about politics. You live in New York City, and as a band you are very closely identified with New York City. What are the changes that you’ve seen in the city since you started out as a band? I know a lot of the clubs that you started out playing in no longer exist. Is it harder for musicians now in New York than it was when you guys were starting out?

A: Absolutely. A lot of venues have closed down, a lot of the downtown property has been purchased by NYU for dormitories and so on. The scene has changed, on St. Marks and 42^nd street, the Lower East Side, that Hell’s Kitchen area, it’s all changing.

Yes, it is harder. I think the alternative rooms are pretty much gone. It’s also difficult for younger, more experimental musicians who want to find a place to jam or get together and work on some things. The rooms now vary; they’re like A and Z. There are the venues that are well known for Stevie Wonder or Wynton Marsalis or U2, this kind of stuff. And then you have these Bleaker Street clubs for struggling bands, college bands, folk bands that are trying to come up get started. The middle ground are almost gone, even if you are a known artist.

Ironically Brooklyn is opening up with some interesting places and it used to be Manhattan it was basically downtown Manhattan, as you know. And yes, it has changed. It has become a bit more difficult but that’s also a process we have to look into. Even if it means artists looking at getting their own venue or talking to someone about leasing a building, we have to take that step forward. We can’t expect the real estate folks in this town to put another CBGBs in town. That’s not what we’re expecting but yes it’s become more difficult… you go to these other cities and realize there’s a DJ club, there’s a punk club, there’s a rock club, there’s an alternative, a black club or they have the same venue that has multiple nights. There are still a few places in New York; nothing like it used to be in the 80s.

Q: You all recently did a show in Harlem that featured Muzz Skillings on the bass for you. What was that like?

A: It was great. No hard feelings. This is a business and we had to make a move and move on but there hasn’t been any bad vibes or bad blood with Muzzy. I actually enjoyed doing the gig and a lot of people in the audience said it was good to see him on stage again with you guys.

You have some hardcore fans who love Muzzy who felt like getting Doug was a mistake and vice-versa. The main thing is when the greatest hits record came out there were five of us in the album jacket because we still consider Muzz part of the team; he was part of two very successful albums for Living Colour that put the band on the map.

But that was really our second gig with him.  Jack DeJonette contacted me, he was throwing a private party, an anniversary for his wife and his wife was a Living Colour fan and he wanted to hire us and Doug was out of town and he wanted us to do a private set of music, mostly the first record, and we couldn’t, Doug wasn’t available, and Jack and I spoke on the phone and we decided let’s just call him and ask him if he wants or do it and the Harlem gig was kind of a second gig with Living Colour in the last two years, but it was great.

Like I said it wasn’t a bad scenario of him being fired or us not speaking or anything anymore. It was just a business move we had to make. We had a great time, he had a great time. We have separate music lives but we still call each other on birthdays. Our siblings are all in touch, all of our families are very tight. There are eight Skillings, two sets of twins. Our families still stay in touch with each other. There really isn’t a bad vibe. It’s something we wanted to do. I thought it was great to do a Hendrix tribute and having Muzz play on it in New York City in Harlem and he is a Queens guy, I’m Bronx, and Corey and Vernon are Brooklyn guys so it was nice to have him be a part of that experience.

Q: I’m sorry I missed it. You have a CD and a DVD coming out before the end of the year, right?

A: Yeah, we are working on a record and we have a French live show in that’s going to be on sale for this fall but we are considering putting together a combination package of early shows. We have a lot of footage and it is kind of sitting around, some tremendous shows, even from the nineties that are just lying around, we would like to try to put together something for our fans. We have to just make sure how it works as a package. Like a new record, new songs versus having a DVD attached to it. Maybe we’ll do it separately but to answer your question, that’s the idea - to get out some of the nostalgic things. This Guitar Hero thing, having Cult of Personality on Guitar Hero, introduced us to a bunch of new young fans, kids who don’t know Living Colour, they don’t know Cult of Personality, have no idea who the band is. So we’re considering putting together some kind of an anthology, a visual anthology of some of the gigs and shows and interviews as a second piece.

Q: And are you working on new music with the group as well?

A: Yes, working on new music. We will go on tour in September, the end of September, October, guess you could say to mid-November maybe if we have a little bit of space between the two tours, 10 or 11 days break we’re going to record some of the new stuff, come back and try to finish that by February maybe have a spring, early summer release in 09.

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