G.Love & Special Sauce

When the three-piece of guitarist Garrett "G. Love" Dutton, drummer Jeff Clemens, and upright bassist Jim Prescott first came onto the Philadelphia scene in 1994, no one knew quite what to make of them. Here was this band, fronted by a guy who calls himself G. Love, trying to fuse together the complicated musical craftsmanship of blues with the lyrically driven style of hip-hop. But oddly enough, the experiment worked. After being dropped from Sony following their 2001 release, Electric Mile, the band has kept a low profile, playing a few shows here and there. Now with a home on Jack Johnson's new label, Brushfire Records, G. Love and Special Sauce are set to release their sixth album, The Hustle, sometime in September. G. Love describes the album as having a "garage funk sound," a kind of raw and live blend of hip-hop, blues, and as G. says, "funk spelled with a 'ph.'" Recoil talked with G.Love over the phone just as the band was arriving for a gig in Philadelphia. I was originally going to oblige the request G. made that I replace every word starting with a 'f' in this article with a "ph," but then I thought there would be too many people out there who just wouldn't get it.

It has been three years since the band has put out a record. What have you guys been doing since then?
G. Love: Basically just working on the record and doing some touring. I had a kid, so I kind of slowed down to do the family thing for a second, and now I'm ready to roll.

R: Do you think it's harder for bands like yours to make it in the music business today because there are less major labels out there?
GL: Yeah. After we left Sony we definitely had some trials and tribulations in finding a new home, but we were able to find a couple of different deals eventually. There have been a lot of mergers, but I would say nowadays there are more independent record companies than ever before. I think there's an opportunity for people to put out music on all different kinds of levels even more so now. The independent labels have even more of a shot now to make it in a sense. A lot of artists have artist-driven labels. As far as more underground bands like myself putting records out, I think there's still a good market for it and people willing to get behind it. Basically in this day and age, one of the most valuable things you can have is a live touring base, and that's something we are lucky enough to have. Our live show has kind of been the epicenter of our whole existence. That translates into dollar signs when it comes to record companies being interested in you. They know that if people are coming out to see our shows, then there's a good chance they're gonna be buying the record.

R: In the past you have stated a strong desire to put out some of your own solo material. Why is that?
GL: Some of my favorite records are records that just have a dude playing a guitar, whether it's old blues stuff or Bob Dylan's early recordings. That's stuff that I personally gravitate to, so I guess it would only be natural for me to want to put out my own stuff. I do have one independent release called Oh Yeah, which is kind of my first record. It's solo acoustic, but I'd like to do another one that is more contemporary.

R: So do you think there are certain musical directions you would like to follow, but can't in a band-type environment?
GL: Well, yeah, that's where it's challenging to put out something like a solo record. The record label always want to do a commercial release, whereas for all intents and purposes, chances are a solo acoustic recording in this day and age won't be too commercially viable. That's not what it's about. It's about music, but it's tough to get someone to put that out. I will put it out when the time is right, after I drop my next record and I have more power to do what I want to do.

R: You have a real passion for touring. Do you think the feeling you get when you're performing has dwindled since you first started playing due to the financial aspects of the music business?
GL: No, man, touring is something I definitely love to do. I love to get out in front of people. That's why I love and still play music. It's like a rush, getting out in front of a great crowd. Being able to have them respond to the music you're playing, you can't really replace that feeling. I think it's also the bread and butter of what we do. Its always gotta be about the music or it's not going to work. That's what it's always been about for me. It's just a pleasure to be able to play music, and I'm really thankful for it.

R: You guys came out at a time when most people thought it was impossible for a new band to come out with a unique sound. Do you ever feel unappreciated by the music world?
GL: Whenever they put out the best records of the nineties or of the twenty-first century, we really don't make those lists. I definitely do think that we had a pretty influential record (1994's G. Love & Special Sauce), especially because of the underground impact of it. It wasn't a huge commercial hit, but it was a moderate hit, and everyone knows who we are. Sometimes we feel a little slighted, but at the end of the day, it's like, we'll get our props. It's not really about… I mean it's great if you are able to make the cover of Rolling Stone. But there are plenty of great bands who haven't made the cover of Rolling Stone and there's plenty of shitty bands who have made the cover. I don't think that's the ultimate tell-all. We've seen people come and go, people get hot and cold while we have kind of been the tortoise and the hare. I just know our time is coming right around the corner, but really we've been having our time for the last ten years. We get our props just from the fact that we're still out doing it. We haven't had a record out in three years and this whole tour's sold out. Something is going on there. Someone's giving us props [laughs].

R: There seems to be a lack of knowledge of the different styles of music out there today. What are some ways in which we could expose people to the wide diversity of music?
GL: People always ask, 'Do you encourage people to buy a lot of the blues records that have helped you to learn what you do?' Yeah I do, but for better or for worse people eat what's fed to them. Businesses always want to feed the people the newest, latest projects so that they can continue to make money. There's no secret as to why they are not showing Robert Johnson or Bob Dylan on MTV. They're not showing the best artists, they're showing the best selling artists. Certain people just listen to music, and some people go way beyond just listening to music and get really into the history or do things like you do, want to write about music, and DJs that go back and dig through the crates and pull out the treats. So there's a lot of people that are really in-tune with great music. But those people are nowhere near the majority. The majority of people just listen to whatever everyone else is listening to.

R: Do you think there's a message in music that's been lost due to the value our culture puts into money?
GL: Yes and no. I think the most important thing of music is to make people dance and make people feel emotional. Giving people those chills in their spine when they're driving home from work in their car, I think that's the function of music and probably always has been. Music continues to do that whether you like it or not. I don't think this, but you might think Justin Timberlake is a terrible artist just because he's pop. But shit, he's got a great voice and he makes people dance. I know people really get off on his shit, and that's the point of music. Whether you like Justin Timberlake or Bob Dylan, at the end of the day it's music coming into your brain and going into the neural receptors that process the music in your brain. It's all releasing the same chemicals in your body. And that's what music has always done since people started originally making music. I think you can say a certain kind of music has been more successful than others because of the marketplace, but I don't necessarily think that's a crime. Like you said, there's niches, and if G. Love was as big as Justin Timberlake or if Bob Dylan was as big as Puff Daddy, then you'd probably be talking shit about Bob Dylan and G. Love.

R: Have you had any life-changing realizations during the last three years you have been out of the spotlight?
GL: After we left Sony I was definitely kind of nervous about whether we'd get picked up, whether we'd get a new deal and what my future would hold. I was kind of nervous for about a year. But after that I kind of felt empowered. I was like, 'Hey look, I'm still out doing my thing and just because I don't have a deal right now it's not stopping me.' The people are still coming and my guitar is still here. I just realized that we're our own entity and don't have to be relying on any kind of corporation to make music, to make a living. I think that gave me a lot of creative freedom as far as what type of music I wanted to make and [to say], 'Hey, it's okay to be who you are musically.' I went a lot of different ways in the last two years demoing out stuff for my record as far as production styles and songwriting. I kind of ended up right where I started, and that's a good place to be for G. Love. That's kind of what our record is, totally old back in the day sound for us, except that it's kind of progressive as well. That's why I call it garage rock with a 'ph.'

April 2004