by: Gina Arnold (Sunday Datebook, page 49)
[webmaster note: this article is an interview with John Lombardo. By February 1987 he had been out of the band for 7-8 months so obviously this is not a recent interview. You will find many of the same quotes in the December 6, 1985 article from the San Jose Mecury News which was also written by Gina Arnold.]
Few rock bands have as misleading a name as the New York-based 10,000 Maniacs. Not only is the band 9,994 members short of its title, but not one of the six shows the slightest maniacal tendency. The only thing "maniacal" is how unusual its music (utilizing traditional American folk instruments) sounds next to the vacuous posturing of most rock 'n' roll bands.
According to Maniac guitarist John Lombardo, there's a reason for this disparity. "Jamestown, where we come from, is near Pennsylvania - Appalachia country," he explains. "There's a real oral tradition in music, lots of fiddle and bluegrass festivals and things like that. We've always been aware of that aspect of our local culture, so even though we listened to Gang of Four and punk albums when we got together, there's this conscious intention to incorporate our own roots with rock."
10,000 Maniacs' songs, though rock-based, include mandolin, accordion and banjo. Their subject matter is folk-oriented, thanks to singer Natalie Merchant's interest in the past: On The Wishing Chair, their LP released last spring on the Elektra label, Among the Americans details the history of the Cherokee Indians' battle with Andrew Jackson; Everyone a Puzzle Lover is about aging, and the lovely, lilting Lily Dale is about a cemetery near Jamestown that, according to Merchant, has the highest incidence of psychic phenomena in the country. Traditions, both oral and musical, run rampant through their melodic and fervent performances.
"We do have a real nostalgia for Americana, and a sadness for institutions that have dematerialized before our eyes," Lombardo says. "Maddox Table, for instance, is about a furniture factory in our town, and coincidentally the building got torn down the same week that The Wishing Chair was released."
The group formed five years ago in Jamestown after they had met at a community college radio station. "None of us had even picked up our instruments till after college," Lombardo recalls. "People say we sound like good musicians now, but it's really only perseverance and fortitude - four years of doing absolutely nothing else." In 1982, the Maniacs issued their first album Human Conflict #5 on their own Christian Burial label. It was, as Lombardo points out, "practically a vanity press-type deal. We recorded it at the college engineering room, with people banging on the doors trying to get us out the whole time." The band's second LP, Secrets of the I Ching, found its way to John Peel, a BBC-London disc jockey who airs obscure bands (Peel was responsible for the discovery of Dire Straits in this fashion).
Peel's support attracted attention to the band, as did the unusual folk music and Merchant's arresting voice and lyrics. The band began touring, "sometimes sleeping in tents by the roadside," Lombardo recalls. But the group gained a following and Elektra Records soon signed it. The Wishing Chair release is scheduled for an Elektra follow-up, to be produced by Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon fame. That currently is in production. The Wishing Chair received good critical attention, but scant public response. Lombardo isn't worried, however. "There's been a lot of growth in college radio of late," he says. "People are sick of formats. They're sick of drum machines and synthesizers and music that whines on and on about romance. The pendulum has got to swing back soon."
Lombardo, who calls himself "a vinyl guru - people call me in the middle of the night to settle arguments about obscure records," adds that the main impetus for the Maniacs' existence is their disdain for what's currently popular in music.
"It kills me when I look at the American charts," he says. "Just the awfulness of the music appalls me. It's as if no one cares. In England, bands are held accountable for every lyric; but in America - when did anyone ever chastise Michael Jackson for having sexist lyrics? Sure, they harp on and on about censoring sex and violence, but then they don't even acknowledge the anti-social stuff in music - that romance equals power and dominance - that's inherent in most songs.
"I personally can't like a song if the lyrics are bad, and I think all those groups are irresponsible. I mean, there's old Michael Jackson practically denying his parentage on the radio, and no one even cares or notices. It's a violation of the spirit of rock music; it's some weird mutation, and I loathe it. You know, this may sound snobbish, but I don't feel all that good about the idea of my record's being in the same collection with an album by the Starship. We're trying so hard to be so much more than that."
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10,000 Maniacs will be appearing Saturday at the Berkeley Square and February 9 at the I Beam.