Counting His Blessings

Interview by Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn

In these days of the barrage of politically correct messages espoused by stars, there's at least one artist who won't be using Woodstock to promote a political or social agenda. Adam Duritz of Counting Crows strongly believes that for him, the stage is not a pulpit.

"I'm not sure it's really for musicians to change the world," Duritz said from the West Los Angeles recording studio where he was wrapping Counting Crows new album, This Desert Life. "I have very strong political beliefs, but they are personal. I don't want to espouse my political beliefs because I don't believe that's my role. To tell people what they should or shouldn't believe. Common decency and the dictates of your own consciousness should lead you to believe, or vote for, or do or say the right thing. It's not for me to tell people what that is. But that's not to say other people shouldn't do it. It's just how I feel. I'm not so sure about anything myself to go tell everyone what to do. It's enough for me to tell myself. And I'll deal with my own conscience if I'm wrong about something."

Always the skeptic, he added that he wasn't sure that one voice, or one song, could really make a difference. "I think people would have to be different. I think people are the same as they've ever been. So surround yourself with a good group of people and build goodwill there. I have nothing but admiration for the people who are believers. There's nothing wrong with trying it. Someone like Bob Marley, or Bono or Lennon. But for me to do it, it doesn't ring true to me. It's just a little disillusionment thing with me."

Even when asked whether Lennon changed the world, or a song like "Give Peace A Chance" ended the war a day earlier than it might have, he stuck to his guns. "(John Lennon) changed rock 'n' roll. I don’t think Richard Nixon really cared about John Lennon. I was never as big fan of his (Nixon), but I think he ended the war."

Woodstock.com caught up with Duritz at Village Recording Studio in Los Angeles, where he was wrapping the follow up to the group's first two multiplatinum studio offerings, August and Everything After and Recovering The Satellites. At this point in his life, he's pretty much done it all, and glances back with a removed, if not sad look. From his early party days to stardom, dating famous actresses and generally being the toast of the town, he now views with the poet's eye and sees much of it as an empty promise The album's title, This Desert Life, says it all.

"The album's title is a line from a song. He's talking about being a little wiped out by the nightlife. The lyrics go:

There's a nightlife falling down on me,
I just feel like a change,
Beneath the sun and the summer,
A sea of flowers won't bloom without the rain.
But, oh this desert life,
This high life here at the dying end of the day,
I wasn't made for this scene, but I was made in this scene,
And baby, that's just my way."

Of course, the album is autobiographical, as all his works are. "All my songs are about one thing. I'm myopic in that way. The whole album is looking back at all the changes that have gone down in the last 10 years. There is a song about being young and living in Berkley, getting stoned and going nowhere. It's a fairly celebratory song about someone realizing his life is going nowhere. He's sort of thinking, he better get out of there, but it’s a fun song. You look back and see that is was something you had to grow out of, but its not something that's necessarily a drag."

He apparently found some joy and even humor in his desert, as well as a wasteland. "This album It's definitely funnier that our other albums. It's got more humor, more fun. …That said, the person you are is the person you are. And I'm a moper."

So don't expect any stand-up routines. "I think tomorrow could be a lot better than today. That said. We're finishing up our record, so today's pretty good too. There are times when I found things really hard to deal with. And I don’t think its like that anymore. But it could be better. Charlie's happily married and has a kid. That sounds pretty cool. I don't have that in my life."

One song in particular runs deep, "Amy Hit the Atmosphere," which tells the tale of a young giril who managed to bail out before she crashed and burned.

"It's about a creative group I knew of writers and painters. The whole group became junkies.. They all slipped into the heroin culture There was this one really young girl named Amy, she was about 18. She got sucked right down there, but she managed to get out. A sweet kid, she moved back to Wyoming. And cleaned herself up. Went back to being a ballerina, went back to college. That's what that song is about.

When asked how he himself managed to avoid the heroin chic scene that drags down too many musicians, he said "I'm done with that. I'm not preachy about drugs. I've been there. It didn't wear well on me. None of the guys in the band are 21 anymore. We've sort of formed who we are going to be in life. It's 1999 and you have to be a fool to think heroin is safe."

The San Francisco-bred group, comprised of Duritz, guitarist David Bryson, bassist Matt Malley, keyboardist Charles Gillingham and drummer Ben Mize, didn't actually record the album at the Village studios. Like their previous efforts it was recorded in a rented Hollywood house. "I don’t like recording in studios," Duritz says. "We came to Village and did the vocals for "Rain King" and "Mr. Jones" here. I was looking for ways to keep from making sterile recordings. We hung out with (The Band co-founder) Robbie Robertson for a while and he gave us some advice on making records. Robbie suggested we get a house, saying 'Why don’t you do what we did. Get a house.'"

Robertson refers here, of course, to one of the most famous "houses" in rock history, Big Pink, where Dylan, The Band and others made magic in upstate New York and in a way, helped create a musical mystique up there that the original Woodstock then cemented. The house-cum-studio was where the seminal album Music From Big Pink was recorded.

Duritz does not stand alone on the new Crows album. While it was being recorded, the house was often filled with people from his new boutique label -- guesting on songs and playing endless games of poker --and naturally, the band. "Were real collaborative. Even when I write the material its just a skeleton, chords and melody. To really make it you need a band. Everyone had a very free reign on this album. This is a very collaborative album."

The group, who has toured with the Stones, is no stranger to giant concerts, and should get along fine with the vast Woodstock venue. "Playing big shows can be a lot of fun . Being on tour with the Stones is a blast. We did that Texas Motor Speedway show, that wasn't like a concert. That was like triage. They were just carting people off in stretchers the whole time. There was like a 5,000-person mosh pit and the ambulances would just pull up. Even on the slow songs, there were like ten people a song being carted off.

He said he was encouraged to take the Woodstock gig because of the movie. "It’s a big event. It should be fun. You get to see lots of bands. It's not completely my kind of gig. Personally I prefer to play at night where it's just a Counting Crows gig. But it seems like a fun thing to go to. I'd love to see the concert. So if we have to play to get our tickets, so be it."

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