Wagging the Ceramic Dog: The Marc Ribot Interview

May 09, 2023

When I received a press release and interview request for Marc Ribot and Ceramic Dog, who are playing with The Bad Plus at The Toby Theater 6/13, I had not been exposed to their music before. After listening to their music and reading their bio, I realized I had the opportunity to interview a prolific musician who collaborated with Tom Waits and Allison Krauss, among others. Marc Ribot is a very intelligent man with a great sense of humor; I hope you enjoy the conversation below as much as I did!

Amanda Hobson: So your tour is getting underway very soon.

Marc Ribot: We're leaving Wednesday.

AH: Wednesday! So it's gonna be a huge tour, right? You've got the US, and then you'll also be going to Europe. Is that correct?

MR: Yeah, that's the plan. It's gonna be most of the time between this Wednesday and mid-July.

AH: As I understand it, even traveling to just a few cities that aren't even that far away is a very demanding schedule. How do you handle that when you go on tour? With all the things you've done over the years, you're probably used to it. But how do you personally prep for going on tour? Especially a tour as large as this one?

MR: Well, I start by berating myself for not practicing more. That usually leads to, um, you know, I don't know, going out and practicing even less. Then, eventually, I got around to rehearsing with the band. That's probably more productive.

AH: Than?

MR: Anything else I do. Then one day, I woke up and noticed that I had to leave that day, and then I did my very best to get in the car.

AH: You're like, "OK if I must…"

MR: Yeah. Well, I try never to look at the itinerary. I try never to look at the itinerary until the morning of the day that I'm leaving. So that keeps it interesting. It's always a surprise.

AH: Yeah. I would think, too, that if you look at it beforehand, it probably would get overwhelming. And you're like, "Oh, I don't wanna know what we are doing!"

MR: I don't want to clutter my mind, you know?

AH: Exactly!

MR: I need every branch I still have left.

AH: Exactly. Then, you know, when you're on tour, it's like you're in tour mode. Everything has to be a set schedule. Do you guys get time for doing anything that's just free time? Besides the occasional day off for, like, sightseeing or stuff like that or….?

MR: Well, I spend most of my free time sleeping. But the truth is, I enjoy being on tour because, you know, playing night after night is exhausting and all that, but it's the only time when other than in the studio when the music really develops, you know, hit

it every night. And when you get immediate feedback from the audience, you know what's rocking the house and what isn't. So that's when the music really grows. Sometimes I wish that it was like back in the day when people could have one-week or even one-month runs in the same club so their music could develop while they have the extreme luxury of sleeping in their own beds. But that's not the way it is now, so

I like it. You know that we can build into the feeling of being a band, you know, after I think it's been, uh, God, I don't know how long it's been with Ceramic Dog or something like we're approaching. I don't know. It's been more than 15 years. I'm bad at math, but it has been over 17 years. I realized the other day that Ceramic Dog has been my longest long-term relationship, which is great in a way, but also sad.

AH: Well, if you're in a band that long, I mean, that's a great success to me. I mean any kind of relationship, but especially with a band because you have to find people you collaborate with well, that you can put up with each other on long trips, stuff like that. It's more like a family, albeit sometimes dysfunctional.

MR: That's true. All great bands are dysfunctional families. Anyways, I get along. I have fun touring with Chess and Shazad because they can drive well, and they laugh at my jokes.

AH: Hey, there you go. That's all you need.

MR: They're also pretty good musicians.

AH: Yeah, they're great musicians.

MR: I agree. I was doing something. Maybe it was joking.

AH: Yeah, I know. ::laughs::

MR: See, you laugh at my jokes!

AH: Yeah. See, I laugh at your jokes. I like to laugh. I love a good sense of humor.

MR: So you play the tambourine?

AH: I can.

MR: Oh, OK, well, maybe you can sit in!

AH: Hell yeah! I'm down any time; I love the rock and roll lifestyle.

MR: Yeah, so good for me!

AH: So the other day, me and my friends sat and listened to some of the Ceramic Dog tracks. What is your approach to songwriting when you're sitting down with the band, composing a song, or writing lyrics? I saw in the press release that they describe your songwriting as a stream of consciousness, which I'd agree with.

MR: Well, you know, different songs developed in different ways, and some of our material has developed out of jams that happened either live or in rehearsal with the band. Other songs I've written by myself, some, period, some of these come out as lyrics that get written over time and kind of thought out more or less normal song structure, and others come from, like, rants that I have no idea where they come from. I've developed a talent for speaking in tongues.

AH: Speaking in tongues?

MR: Yeah. Like I don't know who or what is speaking through me, and I think I'd rather not know. But yeah, it speaks.

AH: But you know what? That's pretty awesome, though. It's just like something else takes over, flows through you, and you just roll with it.

MR: That's the good thing about being an atheist. It means you could be an equal-opportunity employer of both God and the devil.

AH: Exactly. I also wanted to ask another question. Your music is so all over the place, and I love it. What are you influenced by? What are you listening to currently?

MR: I've been going back and listening to a lot of people who I've been into in the past, you know, like, Sunny Shara. The stuff I love. I've had an entire day of obsessing over Patty Griffin. People can say what they want, but Patty Griffin? Fabulous.

AH: Yeah, I'm the same way. When I read your press release, it describes your music as post-punk fusion. I think that's a label put on there because I don't think I would know how to describe it. Would you describe your music as that, or would you just say I play music? I think because it's so varied and layered, I don't think that's something that you can necessarily put a label on. I think you guys are great, and it just blows my mind.

MR: Oh, thanks. I usually allow others to place the labels, and I don't mind them. I started learning guitar from Haitian classical guitarist Franz Casus. My first electric guitar playing was really blues influenced. I figured out more about what I wanted to do as part of New York City's no-wave. So that, in turn, led me to some of the roots. Some of the influences like that of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time Band and James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic, etcetera, etcetera.

AH: So, just a final question. Are you guys gonna take time off and work on more music, or are you not really thinking about that yet?

MR: I haven't planned that far, but I am working on other projects. The next thing I want to do is have all these demos I recorded over the years. Now, when I told that to somebody else who's like a young, younger musician friend of mine, they said, "What's a demo?"

AH: Seriously?

MR: I realized that that word dates me. So, in other words, way back in the mists of time. People would record things to get record deals in the hopes that somebody would pay them for recording them very cheaply and quickly for what they were doing and then pay them for artistic potential or something in what they're doing and then pay them to record it more expensively later. Now, with Spotify, it is 0.38 cents a spin; there's no commercial potential in anything that most of us are likely to do.

That custom of trying to actually get deals that pay has gone out the window. I'll just record whatever it is and not waste the money on anything else and just record the record and hope somebody buys it. So hence my friend asked what the demo was. For decades, I always had these great plans that I would record these songs, and I would think, "Well, I'll play it for some rock star, and they'll record it, and I'll make a million dollars." But then, one day, I listened to all of them, and I came to the sad realization that they're really much too weird and that no rock star was ever gonna record it, so I may as well. I decided I might as well put them out myself. And that's what I'm in the process of trying to do now. Only there are so many of them that it's been difficult to figure out how to put them together.

Marc Ribot and Ceramic Dog will be playing at the Toby Theater this month on Tuesday, June 13th. Check out their latest single and the similarly titled fifth album, "Connection."

CONNECT WITH MARC RIBOT + CERAMIC DOG:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER |YOUTUBE

-Amanda Hobson

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Amateur painter/photographer, Professional Nerd, Elder Punk Rock Chick, and Hopeful future Renaissance Woman. I want to learn everything.

Amateur painter/photographer, Professional Nerd, Elder Punk Rock Chick, and Hopeful future Renaissance Woman. I want to learn everything.

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A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.

Updated: June 10, 2023 @ 3:42 pm

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