‘Under the Southern Stars’ next month sees International Acts back and touring Australia after a gap of two years, and if you wanted to bring music back with a bang then the line-up ticks all of those explosive boxes. The Rockpit caught up with the frontman of Stone Temple Pilots, Jeff Gutt for a chat about the tour, their wonderful 2020 album ‘Perdida’ and so much more…
Mark: How’s things?
Jeff: Hey, how are you Mark?
Mark: Good thank you Sir, great to see you.
Jeff: Good to see you too my friend.
Mark: Thank you for taking the time to talk to The Rockpit.
Jeff: Right on brother.
Mark: We’re in the unusual situation of being based in Western Australia where Under the Southern Stars isn’t touring so I’m going to have to see if I can sneak out of the State and see you. It’s great to be able to talk to you as I think one of my favourite albums of the last couple of years has been ‘Perdida’ the album you managed to sneak out last year.
Jeff: Perdida, thank you and that was definitely something we were proud of. It was originally just supposed to be an EP – we went in to record just six songs but we enjoyed it so much we just kept (laughs) writing them and recording them, so we finally had to put an end to it, otherwise we would have ended up with a triple concept record or something!
Mark: (laughs) Now that would have been good. I’d be in for some of that. What I think I liked most is that you imposed those restrictions on the recording making t acoustic, and there’s nowhere to hide doing that and it ended up so wonderfully well?
Jeff: I think it was that we wrote a lot of it when we were on a tour up in Canada in the Winter time, Because there was snow outside and we were stuck in a lot of no window cement, there was a lot of down time in the hockey arenas after soundcheck. So there was a few hours there when the brothers would pick up their guitars and start showing their ideas and it kinda just morphed that way. Then we had six songs to record when we got back, and then it just turned into many! (laughs)
Mark: Two albums in now I’m sold, you sound wonderful on the latest albums and I love the way you treat the older material. Do you find it daunting at all coming in after Scott and Chester? How do you approach that? Does it affect you?
Jeff: I mean yeah, I looked up to those guys personally. I never met Scott, but I love Scott – he was a big influence on me when I was learning how to sing and what it meant to be a frontman and his fearlessness and all those things that made him who he was. So I learned a lot from him and to be able to go up there and sing those songs and carry on his legacy like that is definitely something I’m very proud of and humbled by. I try not to think about it too much as a ‘me’ versus ‘them’ kind of thing – I just try and go out there, because I love those songs too like the fans do, so I just really want to go out there and represent it honorably.
Mark: It must be hard too on a Festival bill were you have a limited amount of time. I personally would love to come down to hear the new stuff but I know I’m probably in the minority there! So I know that’s not going to happen. (laughs)
Jeff: (laughs) Yeah we have like an hour to go through the whole catalogue and make a setlist – good luck man! (laughs) We have about five different setlists but we’ll definitely have more than one because we don’t like to do the same thing every night – it keeps it interesting “Hey which one are we doing tonight?” you know.
Mark: I remember almost two years to the day seeing my last international act so it will be great to make my next band Stone Temple Pilots especially when you’re playing with Cheap Trick, Bush and some wonderful local bands like Electric Mary and Rose Tattoo. Have you played with any of these bands before?
Jeff: Yeah we did a couple of tours with Bush, they’re great guys and it’s great to see them again, it’s something that never gets old and Gavin’s a great dude, But I’ve never met or spoken to or even been introduced to anyone in Cheap Trick so I’m psyched and can’t wait to get out there and fanboy over that every night!
Mark: (laughs)
Jeff: I’ll be checking them out from the side stage, it’s gonna feel like a successful moment standing there while Cheap Trick is playing, it’s pretty cool.
Mark: One of the things I most love about the music of Stone Temple Pilots is the diversity and you’ve kept that going, you’re a band that never seems afraid of tackling anything.
Jeff: Nah. Would it help to be afraid? (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) I don’t know, let’s try!
Jeff: Probably not! (laughs)
Mark: No it probably wouldn’t (laughs). The creativity has always been strong and you’ve kept it going with that last album, so many sounds and styles rolled in there, it blew me away.
Jeff: Thanks Mark.
Mark: I do hope you get to play a bit of it live? Can you guarantee me one?
Jeff: Hey you never know, but it’s definitely a different vibe. It’s hard to change the vibes up that much when you’re only doing an hour and there’s so much of the catalogue to do. But you never know we might get an itch and want to do one of them, who knows man (laughs) you might find out before I do!
Mark: Let’s see what happens! When I listened to Perdida I wondered if that was the way you wrote, in that stripped back way. As an artist it’s great to see you so involved in the new material, is it about sitting down with an acoustic guitar and strumming away and waiting for the magic to happen?
Jeff: Sometimes. Sometimes yeah, sometimes its about using your imagination, sometimes its about being compassionate and putting yourself in other people’s shoes and trying to see the world through their eyes. Or it’s based off an emotion, or it’s based off a feeling and you just kind of start from there. It depends on what the music is telling me to do. If it’s a recorded track, or a demo or something I can listen to over again, that usually helps. Like on ‘Sunburst’ I was sitting on the balcony right over there watching the sun come up because I hadn’t come up with anything all day, or all night, and I was failing miserably because I was over-thinking it. And then the sun came up right over my building and it just dawned on me how precious the sunlight is. That’s basically where I came from, and obviously it’s a metaphor for other things, but everyone’s gonna let it… It’s gonna mean different things to different people.
Mark: And a wonderful way to close the album too with that sun coming up, it sits beautifully there lyrically and sonically.
Jeff: Yeah, a song of hope.
Mark: March 2022 Under The Southern Stars is going to be a wonderful experience for a lot of people, I just can’t wait for it all to finally happen. I’ve just got a couple of questions I love to ask song writers because I always get so wonderfully varied answers and I love what you’ve told me so far.
Jeff: OK no pressure!
Mark: (laughs)
Jeff: I don’t do well under pressure! (laughs)
Mark: What makes a great song for you? What are the essential ingredients?
Jeff: I think the essential ingredients of a good song are being able to connect with it first of all. I listen to a lot of instrumental music I think because of the pressures of vocals and melodies and lyrics is taken away, so I’m not judging anything – I can just listen to a song for what it is. So I listen to a lot of stuff like that, just for that reason (laughs) maybe because I do it for a living and I don’t want to be critiquing everyone else’s work! I feel if you can connect to the song and the music and the lyrics and it comes from the basic parts of life – whether it’s an emotion or a felling. And then try to create a painting almost without being descriptive, trying to take someone somewhere – whether it makes them think about a person or the way somethig looked, or maybe give them deja vu somewhere down the road when they hear the song. Or if it takes someone back to a different moment in their lives or in time. Basically you become the soundtrack to other people’s lives. And with that comes a huge responsibility of keeping it pure and honest and trying to not be too pretentious with it because then things tend to fall apart quickly. (laughs)
Mark: Yeah, I get that, I could talk to you all day about song-writing. That’s a wonderful answer I think that you’ve explained the difference between the music that we all know and listen to and the music that actually means something to us.
Jeff: I hope my answer was good enough (laughs).
Mark: (laughs) Top of the class. I’m going to put you on the spot with a few now!
Jeff: Oh boy!
Mark: If you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any great album from any point in the history of music, what would you have loved to have seen being made? Just to be there when the magic happened?
Jeff: Well it would definitely be the early years of Pink Floyd. I think that would be great just because there was so much innovation going on with them.
Mark: The Syd Barrett era?
Jeff: Yeah probably right after that when they were dealing with the loss of Syd, even though he was still alive he was kind of ‘gone’ in a way, you know. There was so much that went into things like ‘Wish you were here’ and things like that, and you can stamp and paste that in a lot of different places. That would definitely be one I’d want to be a ‘fly on the wall’ for sure.
Mark: A lot of great albums have come out of great emotions and when you said ‘Wish You Were Here’ I’m imagining that was a pretty turbulent time for the band.
Jeff: Oh yeah.
Mark: What sort of things do you get up to in your down time? I imagine you won’t have a lot of down time when you’re over but is there anything you have on the bucket list?
Jeff: (Laughs) my schedule is completely open as of now, and I just want to be able to have some time to get out in the streets and check out the ‘realness’ not in the car that’s driving me around or whatever it is, I just want to kind of get out and see the real side of it. And I’ve never been there so (laughs) I’m just going in with both my arms open! I want to see as much as I possibly can. Mark, if you’ve got a list for me give me your list!
Mark: I will. And I’ll also add “Look out for the Drop Bears”
Jeff: The what?
Mark: The Drop Bears,
Jeff: Am I gonna get punched in the face when I say that? (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Jeff: Do I get a wedgie if I say that? (laughs)
Mark: No it’s a bit of an urban myth, it might give you a bit of a laugh.
Jeff: Look I’m writing it down!
Mark: Before we go let’s dial it all back. Where do you’re influences come from? Who inspired you? When did you realise how important music would be to you?
Jeff: Well it was basically when I was younger and my Dad’s record collection. When I hear certain songs I can still remember the carpet in the living room floor – I can see it in my head. And I think that was when I knew – when I would hear something and it would trigger a memory or a thought or a feeling. And that was such a great time growing up and being able to connect with my Dad and with music – so I feel that had a lot to do with it. And that was the Simon and Garfunkel’s and the Karen Carpenters and John Denver even, and James Taylor and The Eagles. Just a lot of things like that, some Bob Seger – you can’t go wrong with Bob Seger.
Mark: Indeed you can’t.
Jeff: And I love great voices where no one else could do it like that, like Joe Cocker and Neil Diamond – voices when you hear them you know exactly who they are right away.
Mark: The next question has to be – where were you when you got the call (to join STP)?
Jeff: Where was I? Well I was in L.A. because I’d been auditioning for about a year and a half at that point (laughs). I was living in this house share with a bunch of other people and I had some friends over and we were in the back yard and my phone rang and it was the office for STP’s Manager. So I kind of stepped away into the laundry room which was off the garage to take the call, and while I was out there taking the call I looked down… and they were inviting me to the office and I knew they were inviting me to offer me the gig but I didn’t know that 100%… so I looked down and there was this megaphone in the room that I was hardly ever in. So I asked the owner of the place “You’ve just got this megaphone just sitting around?” And he was like “Dude I’ve been looking everywhere for that where did you find it?” (laughs) And he said “Man you wouldn’t believe what happened today” and I’m like… “There’s this megaphone just sat there in the room I go into the take the call about the gig”.
Mark: Definitely a sign from Scott.
Jeff: It’s something man, I don’t know what, but it’s something (laughs)
Mark: It sure is. And now that we’ve got to know you, just to leave you feeling really comfortable we’ll end with an easy one…
Jeff: OK.
Mark: What is the meaning of life?
Jeff: What is the meaning of life? I have to say it’s everyone working together and having compassion for each other and doing things out of love instead of hate. I think that’s pretty much the meaning. You can take the other route but it doesn’t lead anywhere good. I feel that honesty and love – that’s the meaning of life.
Mark: I’m with you on that one. It’s been an absolute pleasure speaking to you today. I can’t wait till you hit the stage.
Jeff: You too my friend, thanks Mark.
Mark: Stay safe.
Jeff: See you soon.
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