American Music Club are one of rock 'n' roll's most under-appreciated bands. Back together again after a very long trial separaration, lead singer Mark Eitzel - 'America's greatest living lyricist' according to some members of the music press - tells Tony Clayton-Lea why image is nothing, but the thirst for creativity is everything
In a parallel universe where critical acclaim equals massive record sales, American Music Club reign supreme alongside The Go-Betweens as one of the most under-appreciated bands of the past 20 years. Tell this to Mark Eitzel, the band's lead singer (and the person responsible for forming AMC in the early 1980s, splitting AMC in 1995 and reforming AMC last year) and he will curse at you. Tell Eitzel that he has been described as "America's greatest living lyricist" by more than several august music publications and he will pause theatrically before informing you that descriptions such as these and 50 cents wouldn't buy him a cup of coffee.
"It's bullshit, but it's nice for people to say things like that," he says from his home base of San Francisco. "Most people would ask, I think, the following question: he's the best living lyricist in America? Fuck him! How come J-Lo isn't covering one of his songs, then? Is he better than Eminem? No."
In his mid-40s and carrying the weight of expectation on his shoulders, Eitzel is clearly a brave and (some might claim) tortured soul. He has ventured out of a comparatively lucrative solo career that has sustained him since his 1996 début solo album (60 Watt Silver Lining) and regrouped American Music Club for no other reason than that it was creatively the right thing to do. Some things never change, however: Eitzel is still battling against an indifferent public, and is still cautiously warm towards critical acclaim.
Looking and going back, though, seems very much the antithesis of what Eitzel is about. Reflective and layered he may be as a writer, he implies - quick to stress that the current same-member band is as much about new material as old - but he's also optimistic about the future. Well, as optimistic as a thoroughly despondent songwriter is allowed to be. He's aware that perception can make or break.
"They think I'm a miserable bastard who has suicide marks on my wrist," Eitzel says of the casual AMC observer. "They want me to be very, very serious with them and listen to their problems. I'm not like that at all, which is the trouble. I have this idea of life that was fed more by Harold Pinter than my own demons. But my own demons are there, you know, in force. I'm not what people think, and that's probably my own fault because when I was younger I had a romantic idea about 'being' the song, 'living' the song. I don't have that any more."
Why not? What happened in the interim to knock the stuffing out of his idealism? Eitzel says that each year is a new book in his life, each day a new chapter. "The new chapter in my life is called Cut The Shit Motherfucker. I write it every single day; or at least I try to. It's a work in progress... " If anything, so is Love Songs For Patriots, the recently released "new" AMC album. In many ways little has changed: the words and music still seep with mordant humour and languorous time changes; Eitzel still sings of forbidden things and errant emotions. This man has always been mature, surely? "I used to have the arrogance of the young, but I can't rely on that feeling anymore. I know that when I finish a song it feels pretty good. It's hard to write, it takes me a while, and when I'm finished I know I look at the end product and reckon it says a lot more than I would otherwise have said. I like that feeling. I like singing songs that worked for me. Am I the person that describes the zeitgeist of the time? No, because I'm not cruel and unhappy."
Not having the arrogance of the young, though - cannot that mutate into the confidence of the older person? Perhaps, Eitzel allows, but he claims there's a reason why a lot of great songwriters produce their best work in their youth. "It's because they're not thinking about all the shit that they are in in their lives. They're just channelling the words and the music in that instant. When you're older you have to process so much more information and it's a drag.
"For a lot of people, the intent is diluted or muddied. With the possible exception of someone like Leonard Cohen, a lot of older songwriters tend to write simple songs that are obvious; they tend to write about what they know, which is less interesting than writing about what they're guessing. I mean why do Paul McCartney's newer songs kinda suck? Or Lou Reed's for that matter? These people have done more than I'll ever do in my lifetime - I'm fully aware of that - yet I look at them and I go, stop trying to tell me the truth and start guessing."
How long Eitzel will hang around in his AMC capacity is anyone's guess. In his favour is that he hasn't got the band back together just for the money.
What differentiates solo from band performances are instinctual and emotional responses. "Without AMC, I would have to explain in what keys the songs would have to be played. It was a really hard process. AMC know they want to provoke an emotional response with the song, they know it's going to happen, so they just do it. They don't even want to know what the notes are because they know them. There's more comfort than conflict in that, which is great." Comfort? It's a word that many would hardly associate with Mark Eitzel.
Perception plays funny tricks on a person. "Look, man - you're a lead singer for 25 of your years and that makes you a weird person. I try to fight being that weird person. If you're lucky you get to battle with it.
"It goes back to the singer/songwriter thing we touched on - you sing about what you know and you sing about what is mysterious to you. If you're always battling your self-image, then you're singing about what you know all the time and that gets boring. Of course I do that, also, but there are levels in terms of what you want to say."
As for AMC and their on/off/on relationship, Eitzel says that it was never his intention to break up the band. "It just exploded," he claims, admitting that he has missed the innate and tuned-in companionship of his band colleagues. "But yes, these are great musicians who spent 10 to 15 years playing my songs. Why wouldn't I miss that? That's incredible."
American Music Club play Róisín Dubh, Galway, tonight and The Village, Dublin, tomorrow. Love Songs for Patriots is currently on release.
