KLIPH SCURLOCK ON MUSIC, INDEPENDENCE AND MOVING TO WALES

Originally from Lawrence, Kansas, Kliph Scurlock now resides in Cardiff. He’s the former drummer of The Flaming Lips and the current drummer for Super Furry Animals frontman, Gruff Rhys, and he’s worked with other Welsh acts such as Gulp and Gwenno. We had a chat with him about his love of music from Wales, the independence movement, moving to Cardiff and embracing Welsh culture.

Do you remember the first Welsh band/artist you ever heard?
Well, I was a big Badfinger fan and aware they were Welsh, but the way I was taught in school growing up was that the United Kingdom was much like the United States and that Wales was just one of the “states” in the United Kingdom. I knew that Wales and Scotland were their own countries, but didn’t realize they had their own histories and cultures (and languages). I mean, I suppose it makes sense that I was being taught this by the descendants of English colonists - likely the descendants of brothers and sisters of the same people who tried to wipe out the Welsh language, but, yeah... I knew that the history of the United Kingdom went back much farther than the history of the United States as it’s known now, following the relocation and genocide of the people who already lived there, but I never fully appreciated it until I’d spent time here. That being said, the first Welsh language band I ever heard (and went nuts for) was Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. It was the song “Merched Yn Neud Gwallt Eu Gilydd”.

What was it about Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and “Merched Yn Neud Gwallt Eu Gilydd” in particular that got you hooked on them?
I can remember hearing Merched Yn Neud Gwallt Eu Gilydd for the first time like it was yesterday. Initially, the intro bit kind of annoyed me and I thought, “what the fuck is this all about?” Then the song kicks in and I thought things were looking up and I appreciated the enthusiasm in the playing and the fact that the keyboard that a lot of people wouldn’t find aesthetically pleasing was the loudest thing in the mix. Then the singing kicked in and I thought, “wait, what the fuck are they singing?” and looked at the back of the CD case to see what the hell was going on and was faced with a bunch of letters I recognised arranged in ways I didn’t and was full on intrigued and into it. Then it stops abruptly and I thought, “oh, bold move, where are they going to go after this?” and thought the song would be instantly ruined if they just went back into the same thing. Well, as you know, the song becomes an absolute psychedelic wonderland there and they’re singing about being happy they don’t have school in the morning and I was absolutely fucking hooked at that point. In the 3 and a half minutes of the song playing out, I went from thinking this was some dumb wanky bullshit to thinking I’d just discovered the best band in the whole world.

What made you decide to relocate to Cardiff? And what has your experience of the city been like so far?
Gruff Rhys invited me over to do a tour with him in the summer of 2014 and I did a good enough job that I became a member of his “band”. So, I came over here more times for touring and whatnot. It was always great for me to leave home and come to Wales because I loved it here so much, but at some point, it felt like I left home to go back to Lawrence, Kansas, so I thought maybe I should try to get a visa and move here. So I did.

My experiences have been mostly positive, but there are so many tiny differences between the way things are done here versus the way they’re done in the States that I was thrown off a lot initially. I still run into the odd thing that I approach the wrong way because it’s done differently here, but it’s been mostly great. I mean, life sucks sometimes and I’ve had some hard times, but I don’t think that has anything to do with Wales itself.

What were your first impressions of the Welsh music scene when you moved over here? And how does it differ to where you’re from?
I mean, the reason I first became interested in Wales as its own country rather than just a part of the U.K. was because of the music, so my opinion was pretty high. Other than that, the scenes themselves are pretty similar as far as I can tell. I’m speaking specifically of Lawrence, Kansas versus Cardiff because I haven’t spent enough time anywhere else to feel I have any room to accurately compare and contrast. Cardiff’s quite a bit bigger than Lawrence, so there are more bands and more venues for bands to play at, but both are really thriving scenes with a huge amount of talent, which is helped (and some might say driven) by the fact there’s a university which brings in new blood every year.

One major difference is that there are more bands in Lawrence than solo and/or electronic performers. I think the reason for that is likely because houses aren’t all crammed together like they are here, so it’s easier to kick up a ruckus in the basement or garage with your friends than it is here. Over here, you have to be pretty determined to be a band and pay to rehearse at MusicBox or wherever, so I can see how for the creative individual, it might be easier to just set up some crap at home at an acceptable volume and figure out how to do it yourself. But now that I’m spewing this supposed great insight into America versus Wales, I just remembered that techno music never took over in the States the way it did here in the ‘90s, so that probably factors in as well. I mean, the Prodigy had a couple of hits I remember hearing, but the club culture scene or whatever you want to call it never really poked its head up from underground very much. And it’s been 5 years since I’ve lived in Lawrence and had any grasp on what new bands were coming or going, so it may be completely different now. It probably is since the role of the new generation is to reject as much as possible from the previous one and forge as fresh of a path as they can. I know I did when I was young, but I’m old now and the only path I forge is between my couch and the fridge.

How did you first meet Gruff Rhys and what led you to start working with him?
I first met Gruff when the Lips invited him to play an unannounced solo set before us in Bristol in early 2003. I was a huge fan before, which is why I had suggested him for the Bristol gig, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that we got on really well. Between then and me moving here (and even up to today, really), he was my source for what the cool music happening in Wales was. He was so enthusiastic about me being curious about what the hell was going on in this country that he would always send me things he was digging at that time, along with turning me on to the classics like Meic Stevens.

As far as working with him, it was a case of me inviting myself and Gruff being too kind to tell me no. There were a few times around the release of Candylion, his second solo album, when I invited him as a solo artist to open shows for the Lips and I would sit in and join him on a song or two. Then there was a show in Chicago in the summer of 2007, I was going to go anyway as it was on a day off while we were on tour and he invited me to play drums at it. But the one where he really dug his grave and got stuck with me was in the late summer of 2012. He was doing his investigative tour of the U.S. while researching and filming American Interior and he was playing 3 shows that were all within a 6 hour drive of where I lived. I told him I was going to be coming to the shows as I had the week off and told him I could bring drums if he wanted, to which he replied, “yeah, great.” I didn’t realise at the time that he wasn’t just doing a straight concert of tunes, but was telling the story of John Evans interspersed with some tunes. If I had known that, I don’t think I would have foisted myself on him, but in hindsight, I’m really glad I did.  Fast forward several months later and he was coming back over to the States to film interviews with some people he wasn’t able to get a hold of the first time and he asked if I would want to record those new songs I had played with him for the soundtrack and I said, “fuck, yeah!”. We figured that Omaha, Nebraska would be an equal distance for us to drive, which was perfect. We’re both good friends with (and fans of) Mike Mogis, so we set up a date in his studio and recorded our little brains out. About a year later, the movie and album are getting ready to come out and Gruff invited me down to South By Southwest to watch the premiere of the movie and play a couple of shows with him, which I jumped at. The week after that was when shit hit the fan between Wayne and I, and I was fired from the Lips. I emailed Gruff and told him my schedule had suddenly cleared up and offered my services. A couple of months later, he said that the drummer he had booked for that year had suddenly pulled out a week before a tour was starting and asked if I wanted to do it and yeah, he’s been stuck with me since.

I saw you play with Gruff in Crickhowell last Christmas and noticed you were wearing a YesCymru t-shirt. What are your thoughts on the current independence movement and what are the reasons you support Welsh independence?
I am happy with how much the independence movement seems to have gained traction in the last year or so, especially as it seems that everybody who’s now part of, or supporting the movement is doing so for the same reason I am. I have absolutely nothing against English people or England or anything like that. In fact, I have some very dear English friends and, when concerts were still a thing, I spent a lot of time in England either playing or watching music. But the government in Westminster just absolutely does not give a fuck about Wales and we have an unfair lack of representation in Parliament. I also don’t like the fact that my taxes go elsewhere to be distributed as someone else sees fit - which usually means that far less money comes back to Wales than leaves it. I’m absolutely not nationalist, nor am I a separatist. I’m actually really super bummed that Brexit is happening because I like feeling like I’m an Earthling rather than Welsh or American or whatever and Brexit is the opposite of inclusive. So, while the idea of independence does go against a lot of my beliefs, I do feel it is more important that we be self governing and our taxes stay within the country to fix things here rather than roads in London or for there to ever be the possibility of Westminster deciding to flood one of our villages again so that the people of Liverpool can have water. I mean, come the fuck on, it rains 390 days a year here. How is water even an issue?

The music scene in Cardiff has struggled over the last few years after losing a lot of small venues, and it’s only going to get worse due to the pandemic. What do you think music in the city needs to recover from these losses?
I think people need to put their money where their mouth is and go out and support bands and venues. That’s the only advice I can really offer, if you call that advice. I don’t think there’s anything we can do to stop greedy property owners from thinking there’s more money to be made elsewhere and chucking, say, Gwdihŵ out so they can build luxury flats. I haven’t lived here quite long enough to fully understand the role of the city council in things like this, but I’m assuming it’s staffed by selfish assholes like pretty much all government positions are and they don’t give a rat’s ass about any sort of culture because they wouldn’t know culture if it robbed them at gunpoint. So maybe the answer is that people that are truly creative and not just chasing a dollar need to get involved in local government. I wish I had the answers.  If I did, Johnson, Cummings, Patel, etc. would be occupying jail cells and not our day-to-day lives.  

Have you had a chance to travel around Wales? If you have, is there anywhere in particular that’s a highlight?
I’ve done a fair amount, I think. I don’t have a car, so I haven’t been able to do as much as I’d like, but I’ve been pretty fortunate to do a good amount. North Wales is absolutely a highlight. I can easily see why rich douchebags want to buy second homes there, though I wish they wouldn’t because they’re pricing out people who’d really like to have just one home. If I had my own car, I think I’d likely live in north Wales, at least for a while. But it’s a challenge to get from there to here via public transport and my “work” is here, so here’s where I am, which is absolutely fine seeing as I do love Cardiff, but I am a small town boy at heart.

What is something unique that you’ve experienced since moving to Wales, that you wouldn’t experience anywhere else in the world?
Everything here is pretty unique, but if I was to try to pinpoint one thing, I would have to say the Eisteddfod. If the Eisteddfod was a town, I would move there. Dw i ddim yn siarad Cymraeg, so I don’t understand most of what’s being said, but there’s some sort of special magic in the air at every Eisteddfod I’ve been to.

What are your experiences of football here in Wales?
I’ve got to say that I am usually so obsessed with music that I rarely notice anything happening that isn’t music. I keep wanting to go to a match because I live almost directly across the street from the stadium and love going outside and people watching as the fans go to or leave from the stadium. It’s especially impressive to watch after the game is over because everyone leaves at once and the whole street is just a throng of people.