Last summer, with The Black Crowes a safe distance behind him, Rich Robinson began assembling his next musical endeavor. John Hogg, lead singer of the British rock group Moke, had originally met Robinson when his band opened shows for the Crowes back in 1999. Powerful, soulful vocals, combined with his sincerity and vibrant stage presence were a perfect fit for the stylistic sound Robinson envisioned. To give the new band a rock solid rhythm section that was stripped down and raw, he looked to bass player Fionn O’Lochlainn, who then ultimately led Robinson to discover the thrashing, yet tight drummer Bill Dobrow. With Robinson’s freshly written songs ready to be brought to life, and his newly found role as chief lyricist solidified, the band worked feverously, and in November, Hookah Brown debuted at the intimate Arlene Grocery in New York City.
In less than six months since first gracing the stage, Hookah Brown has gone from Rich Robinson’s new project to Rich Robinson’s band. With two brief tours already under their belt; sets are becoming looser, solos are growing longer, and fans are calling for new Hookah songs rather than the classic Crowes anthems they were used to hearing him play. Where The Black Crowes had a large musical landscape, full of earthy blues, Hookah Brown is a prism of power rock and hard-edged, gnarly wails that lets the four of them play with four distinct voices culminating into one. “One of my goals is to keep Hookah Brown a four-piece,” says Robinson. “I don’t want to try and re-make The Black Crowes. I want to take what I learned from the band and try it in a different context. It’s all about leaving space in the music.”
Since my first Black Crowes show in the summer of 1992, I have been a fan of Rich Robinson’s guitar work. Over the past ten years, some of those Crowes songs have remained personal favorites, tied to life moments, capable of spurring vivid memories of some great times. Blasting “Jealous Again” in a friends car, “No Speak No Slave” openers, listening to Amorica in it’s entirety for the first time, not to mention seeing the cover. I’ve grown up listening to Rich’s work, and I’m already building new memories with Hookah Brown.
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Hookah Brown offers a lot of new ground. On a song such as “When You Will,” which features both you and John on dulcimers, it has more of a Celtic sound. Did you want to get more into that world style of playing, or is it just a culmination and influence of having half the band from England?
No, that was just the way I wrote the song. I’ve had those dulcimers since Three Snakes, and actually on “How Much For Your Wings?,” that’s that dulcimer, and also “Better When Your Not Alone” on the intro. So I’d gotten into it a long time ago, and I just wrote it as is. And that’s just sort of how it came across.
This band, with the hard, start-stop riffs, it sounds closer to almost a contemporary rock, or pop-punk, as opposed to the southern rock of the Crowes. Is that the four of you coming through collectively, or is it just where you are musically at right now?
Yeah, I don’t know. I mean ’cause the Crowes were a lot more than just southern rock, we really had a lot of different elements. I think the sort of raw factor of it stems from us being a four piece. And these are riffs, you know, I’ve always written big rock riffs, but when it’s accompanied by a second guitar, and a keyboard, background vocals and vocals, there’s just a lot more added to it. Whereas with a four piece…that’s it.
And though there are four members, you could almost call Hookah Brown a trio. Have you found this to be both freeing and limiting at the same time?
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Yeah, It’s cool…exactly, it really is both of those. Having a keyboard does give you another element, and you can add a lot, but luckily everyone, you know, Fionn plays keyboards, I play keyboards, John plays keyboards, I play bass, Fionn plays guitar, John plays guitar and bass…so we can cover a lot of the stuff, like when we played “Wiser Time” or “Gone” or whatever, we did sort of cover those things. And I think we have that ability, and that’s a positive thing.
Well you don’t have those other elements to fall back on, so you guys are really just holding onto each other.
Yeah, and I think it’s hard with just the four piece, but it’s also great. I mean if it sucks, it really sucks (laughs) and if it’s great, it can be really great. Look at Zepplin and bands like that over the decades that have really made some amazing music.
Yeah. And going along with that power trio sound, Bill, the dummer, he’s really tight. I mean he’s definitely not a Santana, Earthy-vibes player. He almost belongs more in CBGB’s than the Fillmore. How’d you hook up with him?
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He was playing in a band called Extra Virgin, with one of the guys from Blind Melon [Rogers Stevens], and Fionn the bass player had seen him play, and was like ‘we gotta get this drummer, he’s fuckin’ great.’ Cause I was playing with a bunch of different guys. I played with some sessiony guys, and they were great. Everyone I played with was really cool, but sometimes it just didn’t fit. I’m not into sort of a, sterile vibe, which sometimes can happen, depending on who you play with. And so, he was like ‘this guys fuckin’ great, he’s really natural, and he’s got all this ability,’ and so on and so forth, and so I was like ‘yeah, I’d love to check him out.’ So he came down and instantly it was great. And it was like ‘oh, ok, there you go.’
Yeah, he’s great. He really adds a whole signature vibe to Hookah Brown.
Yeah, totally. All of us do. Fionn’s very specific how he plays, and John has a very specific voice. And I play, you know, the way I play is the way I play (laughs), so it’s a really cool, specific thing.
So delving into a bit of your history…when you were 20, 21 years old, you were playing Red Rocks and The Meadowlands. Was that overwhelming at such a young age?
Well, not to me. I mean, the first time we played a big gig I remember we were in Europe and we were doing this thing, and we were the first band on the bill at like 10:30 in the morning…at this thing called The Pink Pop Festival. And that was the biggest crowd we’d ever played to and there were like 15,000 people, or 10,000 people and we were all like ‘oh my god!’…and we just, ran around (laughs). Our manager was like ‘you gotta grab people’s attention!’ and when your 19, or 20, you just don’t know what the fuck your doing (laughs). And the managers telling you that. So, we saw a video of it, and we were haulin’ ass, playing the songs so fast, and we were running up and down the stage, you know, just not knowing what to do.
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Then after that was our first arena tour, opening for Aerosmith. So it was a little overwhelming, but by the time we really got to play like Red Rocks, and all those sort of arenas, I think we really calmed down…and actually the thing that helped us the most was us touring with Heart (laughs). Because we toured with Aerosmith, and you know, no one was in the place to see us. They could have given two shits (laughs). But whatever…you know, we loved Aerosmith and as kids we were big Aerosmith fans, so those guys would come watch us, and we’d freak out (laughs). And it was our first thing, and it was new, and we were excited, but we didn’t know what we were doing. And the next tour was Heart, and we played Canada, and no one there knew who we were, or gave a shit, and it was all these families, and the families would just sit there and look at us like we were insane. So we said ‘fuck it, we’re still gonna play’ and just turned around and just looked at each other, and really learned how to play as a band. And that helped us really more than anything, and that was it, you know. That sort of taught us, and the next arena tour we did was Robert Plant. And we started to really get a handle on it by then.
And now with Hookah Brown, how is it going back into the small clubs again?
The thing with touring on the level that the Crowes did is that you toured with your own PA; so it’s the same PA every night, same monitor man every night, and it gives you a lot more consistency. The stage is pretty much the same every night, and you can really get up there and get into a groove and none of [the logistics were] an issue…the music was the issue. And when you play small clubs it’s cool, but stages are different, the monitors are different, the PA’s are different, and it’s just this thing. So, there’s pros and cons, as with everything.
You mentioned how you are playing ‘Wiser Time.’ The lyrics of that song are quite reflective of the past and there has been some debate as to why you added that particular song to the Hookah Brown repertoire.
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Well, we’re not going to play anymore Crowes songs. We did it at first, because it’s a song I sing on. You know, there’s no like, big dig to anyone as to why I play it. I wrote the song, I sang on the song…and I love the song. And at first I was a little bummed out about the thought of never playing it again. It was almost like a security blanket. I’d go on stage and I’d be like, ‘well I can play this, and this is what I’m used to, and I’ve played this a thousand times.’ But now we’re getting into our own stride, and I’m happy to be doing what we’re doing.
And now you’re writing a lot of lyrics. That’s not something you had done much of in the past. I’m curious though as a lyricist, how is it writing a personal lyric, and then having John sing the words?
I think it’s really cool. And he’s really great about it. He’s like ‘I love these lyrics, and I love singing these songs.’ He says…’I don’t really see it any different than a song that I wrote.’ I mean, he’s got such a great attitude, and he’s cool about everything.
With the Crowes, you’ve had huge industry experience and lots of success. So now starting Hookah Brown, what are you looking for in terms of a label, and tour support, and all that?
Well, I definitely have more realistic goals. I understand what it’s all about and what it really is. I mean, look at the industry right now, it’s in the shit. The funny thing is, is that all these major labels drove it there because of their bullshit, and now they’re holding on tighter and tighter (laughs)…they’re holding on tighter than ever to really wrong beliefs. The way they get around doing anything is by “not” signing anything (laughing), you know what I mean? Look, if you say ‘no’ to a hundred bands, it’s pretty likely that you won’t have a failure, because out of a hundred bands, maybe one would do one thing. But if you say ‘yes’ to three bands, and all three of them tank, you lose your job, and it’s just this sort of weird-ass backwards way of doing business. And they turned it into this service industry that’s all about what people want, and how do they know what they want?
Yeah, and they’re just banking on the sure thing.
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Yeah, and there is no sure thing, and they don’t fuckin’ know what it is. You know what I mean…and it’s some asshole who got a business degree from fuckin’, the University of Wisconsin or whatever, and instead of going to work for IBM, he goes and works for Sony Music, and he doesn’t know shit about shit. And he’s telling artists how to write songs, and it’s disgusting.
Switching gears…I wanted to ask you about your experience playing with Jimmy Page, and what you took from that as a guitar player.
It was amazing. It was really great playing with Jimmy. He’s obviously an amazing guitar player, and that’s what I got from it…just how much fire he plays with. It was really inspiring to stand next to him, and he would just fuckin’…whip into a solo (laughs). And that’s what was really great about the whole thing. Just being able to hang out and listen to him play.
Well, you shared the stage with everybody. Is there anyone else on the collaboration wish list?
Well, I’d hoped along time ago to play with George Harrison, or do something with him, but it never happened. But we have toured with some amazing people, and it’s been unbelievable.
What about contemporary artists? I’m not throwing that in as a standard question, but because as I mentioned before, the Hookah Brown sound is more contemporary-rock.
There are definitely bands that I like, I mean, I really like both Coldplay albums. I think they’re great, and I like the first two or three Radiohead albums, which I thought were amazing. And you know, Wilco is cool…there’s lots of bands…
You also recently scored a film?
It was this guy, he was a fan and he made his first movie. I think he was just out of film school, and he’s 24 and he got a chance to direct a film. So he made the film, and he liked the Crowes and he called me up there to sort of check it out, and I flew up to see the movie. And the movie wasn’t really my thing, but I wanted to score a movie, so I did it, and it was really cool.
And you also did the LA Philharmonic project. What’s going on with that?
I’m still working on it. it’s slated to happen next March…2004, so we’re sort of waiting to see if it’s going to happen.
So the future of Hookah Brown?
Well, we’re gonna put out a record in September or October, go on tour, and just do our thing.
