The following is a transcript from a really quite fascinating and insightful telephone conversation with Steve Loborec, the sole mind behind the Worsh Ahts, a new musical “group” located just a short ways from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Though virtually unheard of, the work of this lone composer/musician is interesting enough, to me at least, to warrant a short interview. He plays songs that seem to transcend categorization, and covers topics from the terrible, i.e. disasters like house fires and automobile accidents, to the downright silly, i.e. imaginary diseases and fatal balloon wounds, to what he, himself, calls “musical mini-biographies” of people who ran for President of the United States and lost. Is he a genius? A madman? This short conversation was an attempt to get to the bottom of that. I’m not a music critic. I don’t work for any magazine. If I did, this interview almost certainly would not have happened. Q: Firstly, thank you for agreeing to this “interview”. A: Thank you for wanting to interview me. Q: So, you alone are the Worsh Ahts? A: Correct. Q: So you aren’t exactly a “band”. A: Not a band, but a man. Q: But, you do play instruments? It’s not just computer programmed- A: I play instruments. Q: What all do you play? A: Guitar, bass guitar, drums and percussion, piano, organ, banjo… basically anything I have access to I play, or try to play. Q: Multi-talented. A: Multi-acquainted, I’d say. “Talented” might be pushing it. Q: But you wrote and recorded a slew of songs here- A: Yeah. Q: Decent songs, that is, it’s obvious that some degree of thought went into them… and you did them on your own. How does one go about that? A: I just get an idea in my head and transpose it to music. Q: That simple? A: Well, no. Getting the idea is the easy part. Turning what might sound like a lush composition in your head into actual music can be tricky. Q: Do you feel you’ve succeeded into turning these compositions of your mind into music? A: I’d say 75% successful. Q: Why only 75%? A: Well, I keep hearing things I could’ve added, or stuff I could’ve done differently. Q: I see. A: I’m inhibited too. I have pretty sub-par recording equipment and no editing software or anything like that. So if I make a mistake it’s there. Q: Why would you release this material if you didn’t feel it was perfect? A: If I waited until I thought the stuff was “perfect”, I’d probably never release anything. Q: Where did you come up with the name? A: Well, it’s actually pronounced “the Wash Outs”, it’s just spelled in ‘Pittsburghese’. Q: Why do you put “the Worsh Ahts” on your records and not “The Worsh Ahts”? A: Because it’s not a proper thing. Q: How long have you been playing music? A: About ten years, but I’d say only about half of that time I was really writing and working at things. Q: You have two records out? A: Correct. “Songs From Six Deep” is the debut L.P. and then there’s the “Mad Pussy E.P.” Q: “Songs From Six Deep” is certainly an unusual debut record. A: Yes. Q: What was your motivation behind that? A: I just wanted to try and do something completely different from anything else I’d heard. Q: Would you consider it a concept album? Is it supposed to be a sort of experiment in sounds from “beyond the grave”, as it were? A: In part, yes. It’s sort of a dark musical journey to strange, sometimes frightening, places. Q: What made you mix the record the way you did, with clean instrumentation and distorted vocals? It seems to me that perhaps most people would expect the opposite with this sort of music. A: Right. That’s it. Q: That’s interesting to me, because most artists make music with the public in mind, pieces that they think will appeal to fans of their particular genre, things that could be deemed “radio friendly”, what have you. A: Yeah. Q: But you’ve made this record, and the following E.P. as well, with what appears, to me, to be an almost anti-popular music approach. Why? A: It’s just what I was feeling at the time that I made them. I didn’t consciously say that I wanted to be known as an anti-pop group. I only knew that I wanted to do something that was different and original. Q: The E.P., “Mad Pussy”, is sort of the opposite of “Songs From Six Deep”. Distorted, much heavier sounding instrumentation, and with clean vocals, even some harmonies complete with falsetto. Was that a conscious decision, to do the opposite of what you’d done on the first release? A: Yeah. I don’t want to repeat myself. I’d like every release to be and offer something different. Q: So you don’t believe in finding a formula that works and sticking to it? A: When I find a formula that works, I’ll let you know if I decide to stick with it. In all seriousness though, if many bands had stuck to a formula that was working, we’d have missed out on some of the greatest albums ever released. Q: Can you give me an example of that? A: The Beach Boys. They had a solid formula going, they were making hit records. But if they hadn’t changed that formula we wouldn’t have “Pet Sounds”, which is one of my personal favorite records of all time. Q: That’s true. And the same could be said for The Beatles as well, I suppose. A: The Velvet Underground is a great example. They put out four records and every one of them was something totally different from the one that preceded it. And all four of them are really good records. Q: But they didn’t really get any acclaim until after they had ceased to exist as a group. Do you fear this happening with you? A: I don’t fear it. I just do what I do and if people dig it, great. If not, well, who knows. Maybe after I’m dead I’ll be appreciated. Q: The lyrics on the “Mad Pussy E.P.” are more comic in nature than the previous record. A: It was made in a different place, personally. “Songs From Six Deep” was made in the winter. It was cold. The days were shorter. Hence a darker sound. “Mad Pussy” was done in the summer. Q: The title of the E.P. could be considered controversial. A: Only if your mind is in the gutter. Q: But, you obviously made a decision to name it that, knowing that people could potentially be offended. A: I named it that because of the photograph I took, the photo that became the cover art. The cat was yawning, but I happened to snap the picture at the right time and it looked crazy. “Mad Pussy” just seemed like a perfect title. If people take offense, that’s their problem. It’s certainly not intended to be vulgar, and, as it happens, I loathe the amount of unnecessary vulgarity found in everyday conversation. It says something about one’s intelligence, or lack thereof. Q: You’re currently working on a record about people who ran for President of the United States and lost. A: Right. Would Be Presidents. Q: Why? A: Because losers are winners too! Q: It just seems an odd choice of subject matter. Do you think people will actually be interested in hearing these songs? A: No more or less interested than they’d be with anything else I’ve done. Or will do in future, I imagine. Q: That seems a slightly pessimistic outlook. A: I consider it a realistic outlook. I mean, I can’t make super polished recordings. I can’t do vocal correction or anything like that. That seems to be what most folks want to hear. Flawless super-productions. But to me, that’s phony. I take pride in the fact that the stuff I’m doing is real. It’s basically live recordings. And each track is as close to mistake free as I could get it on my own, without the aid of pro-tools or anything like that. Q: You’re basically saying you take pride in your mistakes. A: Well, we all make them. I’m just unable to cover mine up with studio trickery. And I’m okay with that. Q: Would you if you could? If you had good editing software, would you utilize it and make your releases sound more professionally done? A: There’s no point in my answering that question. I just work with what I have and do the best I can with it. Sure, there are errors. And there are things that could probably sound much better. But then, it wouldn’t really be me. It’d be what I’d like you to think I sound like. See what I mean? Q: I think so. You’re saying that you prefer the way you’re doing things because it’s more “real”. A: Yes. There’s not enough reality in modern music. Q: Not enough reality in modern music, but almost all of modern television is “reality”. A: Pretty strange, is it not? Q: Indeed. So, how many songs will be on the Would Be Presidents record? A: Thirty eight songs covering forty individuals. Q: Will this release be a radical departure from the sounds of “Songs From Six Deep” and “Mad Pussy”? A: You bet. They’re nice little musical mini-biographies that, hopefully, you can learn something from. Q: Do you feel that music can help one learn? A: Oh, absolutely. Q: How so? A: Well, if you were to read about, say, DeWitt Clinton in an encyclopedia, you could potentially learn something, but it might not be an enjoyable experience. It’d be like a task. You may have to force yourself to remember the information, just reading words over and over. But a song about him… you can get into the melody, hum and eventually sing along, and you’ll remember the lyrics, the bits of information on his life, far easier. You can sing the words to a song in your head, but I don’t know that it’s very simple to recite an encyclopedia passage, even if it’s brief, in your head. Music simplifies the learning process, eases the recording of memories, as it were. Q: Could you play live as the Worsh Ahts? A: Well, I could do some acoustic numbers, but that wouldn’t be the same. I think the Worsh Ahts have to be strictly a studio act. Q: So what is your goal musically? Simply to create something different and hope that people like it, or at least appreciate it, despite the fact that it’s very lo-fi and there are mistakes on it? A: Yeah, basically. I mean, perhaps there’s some like-minded people out there who will think I know what I’m doing as a musician and composer and will respect the fact that I’m trying to do these myriad different things myself and keep it all original. Q: Do you ever think about trying to recruit a band? A: Not really, no. I mean, it’d be a trip to find a group of folks who’d be willing to learn the songs. And I think it’d be interesting to hear “Songs From Six Deep” or “Mad Pussy” live. But I seriously doubt that I’ll find anyone who is interested in doing that. Q: What about joining another group? A: I wouldn’t mind that. If it was a group that I dug, you know. Q: What sort of music do you like to listen to? A: A nice little variety of things. You want me to rattle off some names? Q: Please do. A: Fats Waller, Django Reinhardt, all sorts of jazz and big band swing from the twenties through the forties. I like oldies, you know, doo-wop stuff. Joy Division, The Smiths, Talking Heads, The Cure, Christie Front Drive, DEVO, The Beach Boys and the Velvet Underground, who I mentioned earlier, Frank Zappa, and then some darker, sort of heavier stuff like The Fall, Flipper, Big Black, Tad, Meat Puppets, and Butthole Surfers. Q: Interesting. Now that you mention some of those artists, I can pick out some of the influences on your music. Anything more modern? A: Not so much, although my favorite current group is a band called Electric Needle Room. They’re two brothers from Kansas and are absolutely phenomenal. I love their work. I seriously think it’s the best thing out there today. Q: So, after the Would Be Presidents, what’s next for the Worsh Ahts? A: Doo-wop. Q: Really? A: Absolutely. Q: Well, I for one, will be looking forward to that. Thank you again, Steve, for taking the time for this interview. A: Not a problem. Thanks for having me. There you have it. A look at one of the, in my opinion, more original and fascinating artists in music today. He is “not a band, but a man”, and he calls himself the Worsh Ahts, not a proper “group”, but a talented individual musician and composer. You can hear the music for yourself on the Worsh Ahts Facebook and YouTube pages. As to acquiring the records? Loborec says that anyone who actually likes them can simply contact him via either of those pages, and he’d be pleased to ship them a copy free of charge. When I asked why he wasn’t charging for the records, he responded that “the best things in life are free”.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 04:24:42 +0000
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