Catching Up With... Bob Schneider

Paste: I counted you’ve done nine albums in nine years, I don’t know if that’s a correct count because I read somewhere it was 20 albums in 16 years. So when do you sleep?

Bob Schneider: I like what I do so I spend a lot of time writing this stuff. But actually that’s kind of the tip of the iceberg. Most of the songs I haven’t recorded yet. I spend a lot of time writing and recording. So that doesn’t seem like a lot of records to me. I’ve put out nine Bob Schneider records but then I’ve put out about four Scabs records, four Ugly Americans records, four Joe Rockhead records and then I’ve been on some compilations.  But then I’ve recorded two records that I haven’t put out yet and I’ve recorded literally 400 songs that haven’t been put on any records either. But obviously I wouldn’t release all 400 songs because they’re not all good, but maybe 200 of them will eventually get put out. It’s maybe like 12 more records that I’ve recorded that I haven’t put out.

Paste: You’re constantly creating, then.

Schneider: Yeah, I write a lot of songs. There’s that idea that eventually most songwriters start writing pure drivel after a while. So it’d be good to have a backlog of songs so I can keep making those available even though I might have forgotten how to write a good song.

Paste: Do you feel like the threat of writer’s block is always hanging over your head?

Schneider: No, not writer’s block. Just the inability to differentiate between what’s good and bad. I think what happens is that when songwriters get really old they get really self-aware or something and they’re just unable to differentiate between what’s good and bad. And then they’ll just put out anything. So you get some of the very best songwriters of all time, now that they’re in their sixties, have put out some music that is amazingly bad… I’m not going to say who those people are.

Paste: I listened to your podcast on your website. You talked about your writing process using the metaphor that sometimes an idea arrives at your doorstep like a package, and then you work on it and embellish it. Describe your process when you create a song.

Schneider: Usually I just sit down in front of my computer and I’ll have a guitar in my hands or I’ll play the piano. I have a little studio and all kinds of different guitars and keyboards and synthesizers. So I’ll just pick something up and start playing it, fooling around with it until I find something that sounds interesting. Then I’ll record that. And I’ll think, ‘Oh, what kind of ideas am I picking up in my head?’ and then I’ll just start writing them down and keeping it together and forming it. It’s really very much like looking for fossils in a desert where there’s a lot of fossils. Sometimes it’s like a full, bad-ass brontosaurus right close to the surface, sometimes it takes a little bit of digging and you’re not sure what the fuck it is, and maybe I have to guess a little bit. Maybe I get off track and I realize later it was something else. But, it’s very much like that. Sometimes I find a full thing, sometimes I find a little thing, sometimes I find one of those swirly fucking things that everybody has, that there are millions of. But whatever it is, I don’t feel like I have control over what it is. It just is what it is. I dig it up. And then I take it to people and I say, "Check this shit out!" And then they go, "That’s great!" and then I’m like, "I’m very clever!" [laughs] That’s how it works.

Paste: When you’re working with the Scabs, the Ugly Americans or alone, is it mostly your thing or is it ever collaborative?

Schneider: No, it’s never collaborative. I like to work alone. Songwriting for me is like masturbation, I like to do it alone. I feel uncomfortable if someone else is nearby and watching. So I always write alone. I used to not write alone. In fact, I started in a band where we would just get together and jam and create songs on the spur of the moment like that. And then, gradually, over the years, I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve done that less and less. And now I haven’t done that at all in years and years. And then every once in a while people ask me to collaborate or do something. Usually I say no, but, like, the Dixie Chicks asked me and I said yes. So we wrote a couple songs together and that was really cool. But the only reason I wanted to do that was that there was an opportunity to make a lot of money. But if it was just some regular person who wanted to co-write, I’d say no. It’s very unappealing to me.

Paste: What is the least appealing aspect of that to you?

Schneider: I feel very self-conscious when I’m collaborating. When I’m in the creative process, that’s the last thing I want to do. I don’t want to think about what somebody else is thinking about what I’m doing. I just want to be doing that thing. That very mysterious thing. It’s hard for me to do that if there’s somebody there. And I’m worried, like, ‘I look like a dumbass.’ Well, the problem is, I am a dumbass.  I don’t want people to know that. So what I can do is, I can dig up my little fossils, and then present them, and people are like, ‘Whoa, you’re not a dumbass!’ ‘That’s correct, I’m not a dumbass.’ When really I am.

Paste: I want to talk to you about the Saxon Pub in Austin. What I want to talk to you about is: every Monday you try out songs for a crowd of regulars that gather there. How experimental or crazy can you get with that?

Schneider: I mean, I can do anything. I really do not care. I say that in the sense that, I’m just going to play whatever I want to play and I don’t really care if the audience wants to hear some songs that they’re familiar with, that maybe is on a recording. If they’re there for that, they’re going to be disappointed. If they’re there to hear music they’ve never heard before, or to hear songs that are played differently, then they’re in the right pub. Having said that, I really want those shows to be magical. And most of the time, they really are. They’re my favorite. Because I’m hearing the songs for the first time. And that’s just a real wonderful gift that I get by playing there. Whereas, if you’re playing stadium shows, you’re not ever hearing a song for the first time, it’s very rare. But at Saxon, you really do get the chance to hear some new songs. And sometimes you wring some blood out of the stone because you’re singing it, and maybe you hit a note that you hadn’t hit before, and all of the sudden, you’re hearing it differently. And there’s that energy again in the song… And that’s one of the reasons, I think, that the live shows I sell are so successful and people enjoy them so much, because all those other shows are one of a kind. No two shows are ever the same.

Paste: You said in the podcast that you’re generally shooting for an "I don’t give a fuck attitude" in your shows, but you said that’s really hard to maintain in an arena show because it’s such a big deal that you’re up there. Is this really something that’s part of your ethos?

Schneider: If you can get to a point in your show where you are not self-conscious playing in front of an audience, and you do not care about anybody else’s opinion, when you can lose yourself in exactly what you’re doing then you are in the moment and connected to that energy source. That’s what you’re shooting for. It’s like good sex or something. If you’re not worried about, "Oh, what do I look like, I hope I look good naked," if you can just forget all that and just have sex and enjoy it, that’s pretty sweet. And that’s the same with music. If you’re standing in front of a bunch of people and you’re like, "Oh my god, these people probably hate me!" then, it’s not a good feeling, it’s not fun. And the audience is going to pick up on that. They may not know if you’re hitting a wrong note or not, ‘cuz they really don’t know, but what they will know is if you are into it or not into it. That they’ll pick up on and you can’t fake it… Actually, I say that, but you can kind of fake it. ‘Cuz I have faked it and I’m a pro and I know how to fake it. Fake like you don’t give a fuck, and give a fuck. But eventually, they’re going to suspect something’s up. You know, we have amazing brains. Super computers. People don’t use ‘em necessarily… I would like them to use their brains more. But whatever. Take what you can get.

Paste: You've mentioned that you wouldn’t want to hang out with Aquaman because he wouldn’t have good stories to tell. Can you think of one superhero that you’d want to sit down and have a beer with?

Schneider: Probably the Mighty Thor. Mainly because I think he’s been around for like thousands of years, so that motherfucker probably has a few stories to tell. Let me think for a second… I’ll go with the Thor for the moment unless I think of somebody else.

Paste: I also wanted to ask you about your upcoming tour. You entitled one of your past tours, “Songs Sung and Played on the Guitar at the Same Time with People in the Room.” That raises the bar pretty high in terms of tour titles, so what are you going to call this one that's coming up?


Schneider: I have no idea and normally I don’t do that sort of thing. The only reason I did that was that my manager at the time said that it would get people excited. I think what happens is most people do this: they put out a record and then they tour it. And so they call it something, just to give it some razzle dazzle. But who knows? My manager may say, ‘Oh, we got to call this the “Lovely Creatures Tour.”’ It’s really trickery. Most of rock and roll is trickery. Me, myself, I prefer no trickery at all. I really like to make it as hard as I can for myself. Then if I succeed I can say I succeeded using little or no trickery. I look at other people, and I go, "They’re using a lot of trickery." So even though they’re succeeding, are they really succeeding? Yeah, they are. They’re absolutely succeeding. They’re making some cash. They’re living much better than I am. But I can go, "You know, they use a lot of trickery, and so I’m still better than they are."

Paste: You live in Austin. I know it’s different than it was 10, 15 years ago. How are you feeling about your hometown these days?

Schneider: I love it. You can change it all you want but at its heart… it’s kind of like a person. You can do all this stuff. You can get rich and famous and live in a big house and do a lot of yoga and get therapy and do all that shit and then show up at the awards ceremony and be like, "Yeah, I’m fucking looking good. I’ve got it all together, and it’s all cool, and all this." But really, whatever that cool you is, that was created when you were like two, you can never ever change that information. That information will always be the same no matter how vegan you get or how intellectual you try to sound, the core of you is always going to be the same. That’s the way it is with Austin. All the stuff on top might change, there might be a bunch of condominiums now that weren’t there, there might be a bunch of people, there might be more traffic. But the core of it is still this strange oasis of openness and friendliness and liberalism, really, in the middle of a big, wide, heaping, conservative Bible belt which is in the South. That thing that it is will always be there no matter what. It’s been great for me. I fell in love with it when I first moved here maybe 20 years ago and I’ll never move.

Paste: Before wrapping up, I’ll check back in with you and ask if you want to stick with your Mighty Thor answer?

Schneider: I guess so. I mean, the first thing I was going to say to be cool--like I had the cool answer, but I immediately discarded it--was Luke Cage. But I was like, ‘Do I really want to hang out and have a conversation with Luke Cage/Power Man?’ He seems really agro. He’s pissed off, he’s wearing a fucking chain. He’s easily riled. I may say something upsetting, he may fuck me up. Thor seems a little bit more even-keeled. I don’t even think Thor would know that I was fucking with him. And then at the end of the day, even though he didn’t understand me, he would kind of like me. ‘Oh yeah, I kind of like that Bob Schneider. Yeah, he’s all right. A little strange. I think he might have been fucking with me. But there’s something likable about him. Whereas Luke Cage, I think I could get fucked up.