Interview – ’68
68 supported by amongst others, West Midlands outfit The Crimson Star, play the O2 Academy on 9th December. Back in August, and on their first ever visit to the UK, Dave Musson caught up with Josh Scogin and Michael McLellan before their show in Milton Keynes to hear the story of ’68 so far.
12 months ago, Josh Scogin was finishing a farewell tour with seminal punk rock band The Chariot after ten years of pushing the boundaries of frantic. Never one to rest of his laurels, Scogin was soon back in the public eye with his new project ’68 – a rock duo with Scogin on vocals and guitar and joined by Michael McClellan on drums. Countless touring soon followed along with a quite brilliant debut album.
BL: This time last year you were both doing very different things, but now we’re here talking about ’68 – talk us through the past year for you guys.
Josh: I was just getting off Warped Tour with The Chariot. As a band we’d already called it a night but we hadn’t made it public yet. (to Michael) When did I meet with you?
Michael: You announced it September and then we met after that.
Josh: I was still sorting it all out – very much in the thought stages…I might not have even known that I wanted it to be a two piece at that point, I’m not sure where I was at. I do know that, when we parted ways as The Chariot, I knew I was going to do music in some form or fashion I just didn’t know quite what that was going to look like. I don’t know where I was mentally at that point, but it was very shortly after that I was going to meet with Michael and discuss him joining, and he said yes.
BL: ..and then it all just flowed from there?
Josh: Well, I had to do the farewell tour first. It was like “hey, you wanna join this thing that I think will be kind of neat?” and he said yes, and I said “cool, no wait for two months!”, haha! I went on that tour, which ended in late November, and as soon as that happened, that’s when everything really snowballed for me and him. Immediately we went to the studio, immediately he was recording, immediately we were talking to labels; everything switched after that last show.
BL: The debut album ‘In Humor and Sadness’ is delicious and has been getting plenty of great reviews – you must be pleased with the reactions to it?
Josh: Yeah, it seems nice. Obviously as an artist it is nice when people jump on board, even though you don’t necessarily make music based on that, but it is nice when you seem to get something from it. It’s something we put our time, effort, heart and soul into, so when people say nice things that is, obviously, quite nice!
BL: .. and Michael, am I right in thinking that when you recorded the album, Josh would give you a track and you’d just go in and record it almost straight off?
Michael: Pretty much. He went in about a week before me, stuck himself in a room, and spent a week writing songs. There were a couple of times when he wrote a song in the morning, showed it to me and a couple of hours later I’m tracking it, and by the end of the night we’d have a pretty good skeleton of a song.
Josh: It was very impulsive, very spontaneous and I think you can feel it in the record. I feel like I work well under pressure; all the things that would normally get in the way, like sleep and eating, they seem to fall away when you think “ok, I’ve got one week to write these songs”. Ahead of the recording I wrote four or five songs, and then as we’d finish for the night, I would go back into that room and make sure I had at least one song for the next morning.As far as playing drums, he would hear it that morning and track it that night.
BL: The ‘underground’ way you marketed the album – two songs early in the year, then the Quiet Country sessions and the various bits on YouTube – were great and added real intrigue to the album. Were you ever tempted to plug the album in a more traditional way?
Josh: My mind is set in an underground music (if that even exists any more) way, so things come more naturally to me in that sort of mentality, but having said that, a lot of it was just taking advantage of any situation. The Quiet Country thing wasn’t necessarily pre-planned, it was more we were starting a tour and they told us what they do and asked if we wanted to do it. I saw that some friends of mine in the band Kills and Thrills did it, and I enjoyed that, and Keith from Every Time I Die’s 90s band had also done it, so we went for it. Even that session would have been way easier to have not done it, but we had the opportunity so we went with it.
BL: Well I’m glad you did it! I ripped the audio from those long before the album came out because I wanted something to listen to – just don’t tell them I did that!
Josh: You’re not the only who did that!There a couple of others who did it and I’m totally down with it.
BL: The way you promoted things almost made the band seem like a rock and roll ‘Fight Club’, as in, “don’t talk about ’68”…but I’m guessing you do want people to talk about ’68?
Josh: I don’t know – I have guitar picks that say “don’t listen to ’68”, haha! Like I said, a lot of it just came out and was about having to just be focussed on the record. Everything was moving so fast I wasn’t able to plan much. I’m not very good at selling myself – if I have an idea that I feel is good artistically then I’m happy to go with that but I’m not very good at just the general promotional stuff. But if I have a picture that I think is worth showing, I will show it. While we were releasing a record, we were making sure we could pull everything off live, because how I have my live setup is pretty tricky, so we were just practising and taking any chances that came along. We just rolled with the punches and made whatever we could make work, work.
BL: You cemented a reputation as being an incredible live performer for The Chariot – I guess putting on a good live show is still a big thing for you?
Josh: I don’t think I will ever change. When I was a kid dreaming about being in a band it was always about playing a live show rather than recording a record – even though I do enjoy recording a record. It wasn’t signing contracts or making money, it was playing live. The spokes of the wheel always come from the live show. We only record records so we can play more live shows. I feel that, even though this is way different than The Chariot live, mentally it’s still very much the same; I’m very passionate about the lyrics I’m singing and there’s still the idea of trying to raise that boundary between the audience and the stage, and instead making it something we can all enjoy together as one unit. We’re still new enough that every night is different and we’re still developing and evolving every night, which I think is a nice way for us to figure out where we do belong.
BL: ..and Michael, what’s it like being in a duo with such an icon?
Josh: Icon! haha!
Michael: It’s awesome, I’ve listened to Josh’s bands for years and it’s a pleasure to play with him. I’m definitely happy that he asked me to play with him and it’s amazing; a lot of fun, a great dude, good hangs…
Josh: Yeah, yeah – next question!
BL: The name ’68 is a bit unusual – I did some research on the year 1968 and there was a lot of interesting stuff, like the Vietnam War, student protests in France, Led Zeppelin were just getting going…did any of that have a bearing on why you picked ’68 or is it just a celebration of the year Celine Dion was born?
Josh: Haha, how did you guess?! I think all that comes together; with ’68 I like the imagery that pops into my head anyway. I feel like music hadn’t gotten terrible yet. I also liked the idea of just having numbers because I’ve always thought about touring and so I always want to think of it globally, not just the United States of America, so I like that idea that it can cross all language barriers by being numbers, instead of a word that might get translated weirdly. But, to answer the question, the actual reason 1968 came out is because my Dad had a ’68 Camaro. He’s passed away now, but in all the ups and downs of me and him, that was something we bonded over and definitely felt a connection over. That car was such an iconic muscle car – you can’t sit in it and not feel awesome – and it has something about it, some sort of power about it. And again, it was right before cars started getting terrible! But all the imagery, the fact that it crossed language barriers, for me all lined up so that it felt right and felt like it was supposed to be the name for this duo.
BL: You’ve said in other interviews that part of ’68 is about finding out exactly how much noise two guys can make – you’ve been on the road for a few months now, got any findings?
Josh: It’s not fair that you’re asking me while we’re overseas, as I’ve actually had to take away a lot of things to be able to fly over. But, having said that, we’re definitely making the most of what we’ve got and I don’t feel like it’s sub-par. Some of our tricks and toys we did have to leave in the US – maybe some of it is because it’s our first time overseas, and maybe next time we can explore a little more, but I think that’s always going to be an evolving thing. You’ll see us play one song tonight and then see us play it again in three years time, and I think the things will have evolved. And it’ll be different again three years after that. I’m always learning what we can do, between learning more and having the money to be able to explore it it’ll always be growing.
BL: You’ve built up something of a catchphrase in “here’s a song you’ve never heard, please sing along” but more and more people will have heard your songs now – are you going to have to come up with a new catchphrase?
Josh: I am always inventing catchphrases! I do still say that because a) I think it’s funny and b) I think a lot of people still haven’t heard it. The homage I’m paying to is Kurt Cobain on the Unplugged album, when he introduced About A Girl and said “this is a song off our first record, most people don’t own it”, which is a hilarious thing for such a huge band to take a stab at everyone with. We did a tour in the States with Chiodos and anybody that was there was probably there for Chiodos and not us. Even if they were there for us, there was no music for them to listen to, so I started saying it in real life but I kind of keep saying it!
BL: If you met someone who hadn’t heard ’68, what would your elevator pitch be; ’68 is…?
Josh: I’m not very good at coming up with things like that. It’s hard as an artist saying that, because you’re basically putting your own boxes around what you do and that’s very contradictive to everything that I try to do. But, if for some reason I was in a moment where I felt like I had to that, I guess ’68 in general is the idea of trying to create art and explore art that can hopefully feel as much modern as it does vintage, paying homage to the classics while hopefully inventing something new. I’m not necessarily claiming that I’m succeeding in that, but that is the goal, that is the thought process. Anything beyond that…you spend months trying to tear down walls, I don’t want to build them back up.
BL: Finally, Josh – you’ve shown in the past that you’re not afraid to move on from projects – leaving Norma Jean and obviously calling time on The Chariot…should ’68 fans be worried about the lifespan of this project?
Josh: Haha! Not yet, haha! If we start getting famous then maybe. I wasn’t planning on calling time!
Michael: I’m not!
Josh: This is me, this is who I am and this is where I’m at. With The Chariot, you never want to overstay your welcome as an artist or just as a person doing things, and I felt that The Beatles were around for 10 years, who are we to argue with that? But for now, for ’68, for six/seven/even ten years, we should be good to go!
’68 starts its UK tour this weekend and hits the O2 Academy 3 in Birmingham on Tuesday 9 December, where local band The Crimson Star will be supporting . Tickets are £9 from the venue or £6 direct from The Crimson Star – head to their Facebook page for more information.
Interview and band photos – Dave Musson