Adam Duritz Discusses Bootlegs, Across A Wire, And The New Album with Wall Of Sound

Bootlegs are an issue that every band has a different take on. Some do their damndest to prevent themselves from being taped live. Others, like the Counting Crows, encourage and embrace it, indirectly creating enormous networks of tape traders across the world, and in many ways, creating hundreds of albums the band never intended to be released. But in many ways, that's the point. In part one of this three-part interview, Crows' frontman Adam Duritz, a collector himself, shares his own views on bootlegs with Wall of Sound. Tune in over the next two days to find out what he's got to say about the band's recently released live album, Across a Wire: Live in New York, as well as the new record the band is currently recording.

Did you decide to released Across a Wire because those performances had already been bootlegged anyway?

First off, the album's not a response to bootlegs. After all, there are a ton of bootlegs of us, but I think they're great. I think they're cool. I love going to concerts, but, hey, you can't really take them home with you. Bands don't always put out live albums, and a live album isn't always as good as a certain concert. So it's a chance to keep more of the band you like. I don't think they compete with your records. If a kid spends all that money to buy an import of a concert that may not sound good, they'll buy all your records.

You've got a collection, don't you? Any highlights?

Well, I have a very memorable Beatles bootleg. You can't hear anything on it: "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome" then the crowd roars. That's all you hear. I have some cool Tom Petty and Sex Pistols-that Winterland show and also some interviews. I also have some old concerts of Springsteen, a bunch of stuff that showed up on his live album. I got them when I was a kid; those ones are all on vinyl. One of them has this long monologue where he talks about Geronimo the Indian.

Do you have the Dylan live '66 shows that have been leaking out for years?

No, I don't have that. Wait; is that the stuff that's on that Ten of Swords thing they released? Yeah, I've got that-I also have this great Van Morrison bootleg from when he played in the studio at KSAN. I actually had a cassette of that for years because a friend of mine was the program director there. She had it on reel-to-reel-I later found a full version of it in Dublin. There's a fantastic bootleg shop in Dublin-they tend to have our concerts the morning after they're played. You walk in about 10 or 11, and they have the concert you played the night before. They have a huge bootleg section, including everything that ever played Dublin. It's so astounding.

So you don't mind the live shows, but what about when your demos pop up? I know some from August and Everything After got bootlegged.

Well, it's crap to me, but I can see that people want it. I guess the way I developed as an artist was just not to learn the craft of being a songwriter. I'm not musically talented in that direction. But I think I've become more of an honest songwriter. So when I hear the early stuff now, it sounds really fake to me. It bothers me. It makes my hair stand on end.

Why? Does it sound like you're trying too hard to be a professional?

When you start off, you tend to write songs that sound like other songs you've heard. When you try to explain a feeling you have, the clearest point of reference you have is a song where someone explains that feeling. What's good about my writing now is that it's very honest, and I don't feel that about the early stuff. But I know kids who love those songs. It's just my value judgment on it. It's not really phony, but I see it that way. It makes me cringe. Everything I've done since our first album, I'm totally proud of. But it isn't a big deal to me-I just don't like those songs. It's more laughable than anything. I'm embarrassed.

With just two studio albums under their belt, was it too early for the Counting Crows to go about releasing a live album? Not according to Adam Duritz. In part two of Wall of Sound's exclusive three-part interview, Duritz discusses what went into putting Across a Wire: Live in New York together. Tune in tomorrow to find out what he's got to say about the new record the band is currently recording, and check out part one, where Duritz sounds off on bootlegs-and his own tape collection.

Let's talk about Across a Wire. There's been some criticism along the lines that it's pretentious for you to release a double live album after just two studio albums.

I don't think you should ever be scared of pretension. I believe deeply in pretension. Otherwise you never do anything. We finished the Storytellers show that night and just said, "Man, that we should put on a record." It's so different from anything that anyone's heard from us. All the Unplugged albums, few of them over the years have had really interesting reworkings. The Nirvana was a great show. The early ones Jules Shear put together were really cool. I guess the Clapton was a pretty big reworking, but I never really loved that "Layla" much at all. But that rewriting is the purpose of the show.

How did you go about coming up with the new versions of your songs?

All summer long in soundchecks, we had a little room set up backstage, and we'd try to invent a new version of each song, plus we'd play an acoustic set in the middle of each show. But if we couldn't come up with a different version of the song, we didn't do it. Some of them we already had. "Mr. Jones" we'd been working on for years. And same with "Rain King," we had the workings of a long time ago. A few developed when I blew out my voice during one of the first tours, and we had a choice of either going home or playing acoustically. Then on this tour we worked with "Catapult" and "Angels of the Silences" to make them so radically different, but we didn't come up with the new version of "Have You Seen Me Lately" till literally 48 hours before the Storytellers show.

You must have given up a lot of money to release it at a two-for-one price. I assume the record company didn't volunteer to eat the cost.

Actually, the record company was real generous about it. I don't think they were wildly enthusiastic about the live album concept to begin with, but once we talked about how cool it was, they were comfortable with it. We also put forth the idea of making it inexpensive, and they were all for that. It's just sensible. They wanna make money, but in this case, they could see there was a way for us to both come out of it not too screwed. They didn't try to scam us.

Where did hidden studio track, "Chelsea," come from?

Recovering the Satellites. When we finished up the album, we just couldn't figure out a place to put it. It was one of two songs we recorded for Satellites that was myself on piano singing and three friends of mine playing trumpet, trombone, and sax. But when it came together, we just could not figure out how to sequence the album. I never realized before I made a record, but sequencing is as important as anything else you do on a record. Either it works or it doesn't; everyone thought those two songs had to go. "Good Luck" is the other, one of the best songs I've ever written, and "Chelsea" is right up there. But they unbalanced the album, making it too much of an "Adam" thing. When we pulled them out, it worked.

You've made DAT recordings of every show you've ever played. Was it tempting to sift through them and come up with the ultimate live version of every song for Across a Wire?

I'd rather fucking slit my wrists than sit around listening to myself, going through tape after tape. I don't have nearly the patience. I just couldn't do it. Am I self-involved? Yes, absolutely, but not that self-involved. Let's face it, I'll happily examine my navel all day, but I won't listen to those tapes. Plus, it was cool about each disc being one show; they're complete in a way. Two nights at Counting Crows concerts. Not to downgrade doing a definitive live album, because that Springsteen live set is great for me. But I don't have the patience for it, and I don't trust anybody else to do it. I'm a lazy control freak.

The Counting Crows have recently released a double-live CD, and are now busy in Los Angeles, laying down tracks for their third studio album. In part three of this interview, Adam Duritz tells Wall of Sound just how different the process is this time around, and what fans might be able to look for in the future. Make sure you check out parts one and two, where Duritz sounds off about his own bootleg collection, and how that interest is related to the band's recently released Across a Wire: Live in New York.

So, let's talk about the new record.

We've been recording for a couple of months. We decided to do this one differently. We've always concentrated on making Counting Crows the kind of band where we could play with each other. Early on when we were such a young band, we wanted to learn to react to each other. On the first album we did it quietly. On the second album we do it on a greater scope. Over the last few years we wished we could have more time and more experimentation with songs.

How are you using that time this time around?

Because we do our work in houses and we don't use recording studios, it doesn't really cost us any more-we just the rent on the house and the engineer's time. Before we started, we'd already talked to David Lowery about doing the album. I asked him if he'd like to come along early, told him I had some songs, three or four, but that's all I had, and told him I'd never played them with the band. But we had lots of musical ideas; we just wanted to start working. David came out at the end of May, and we all got started. We have till sometime in October with him, when he's got to go on tour with Cracker. The entire process has been so creative, so different, completely freed from preconceptions.

So what does it sound like?

That's hard to say-I don't know if it'll sound radically different, I'm too in the middle of it right now. To me, all our albums just sound like us. I know people who think Recovering the Satellites is completely different from August and Everything After, but then we've had reviews saying they're treading the same ground.

So will we see it early next year?

I made a rule that I wouldn't think about getting the album done on a timetable. It's the first time I've entered the studio without having the lyrics finished. This time I went in with tons of musical ideas, but no songs. But I love what we've done. We'll be done when we're done, I guess. I know it sounds vague, but that's it.

It must be satisfying to have the luxury to do that.

One of the nice things about the live album is that it gives us a bit of a bridge. The fans have something to satiate them, and we get more time to work on the record. I look at this as something I'm making the most of. I love the kind of music we do. I want to do it for a long time. Too often people are thinking too much of the right now-trying to wring as much out today, like they're not gonna be here for long.

Have you had enough success that Geffen will just let you have your way?

It's been that way since the beginning. We went to the label we thought would give us the creative freedom we wanted. I mean, we traded away a lot of things for that freedom. We gave up a lot of money up front, we traded away a lot of perks. But I didn't have a problem with that then, and I don't have a problem with it now. We run it the way we want to run it.

Covers have always been an important part of your live shows- have you ever thought about working any of them onto an album?

Actually, we've been thinking of making an album of cover songs, at some point, by bands like-well, not like covers of "Maggie May." Let's face it, there's no point in covering "Maggie May." One thing that's forgotten about this whole thing is we participate in an art form where there are so many forgotten songs. There are so many great artists out there that never, ever get heard, and they have these songs that are priceless. And those songs just sort of disappear and fade away. They're in the memories of people who were at the Hotel Utah or Paradise Lounge in San Francisco on a particular night. Other than that, they might as well have never existed. Some of those songs are by friends of ours who were great S.F. songwriters. We've thought about making that album.

Is that going anywhere?

I think we'll probably do it next. It's a matter of finding the right time to do it, where it'd work OK.

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