15 MINUTES with the Spin Doctors

The Spin Doctors, a New York-based funk-rock band, came to the Black Rose Wednesday, February 12. The group is currently on tour (as it always is) in support of its most recent album, Pocketful of Kryptonite.

After the band's hour-and-a-half performance, lead singer/songwriter Chris Barron, mystic/poet/disgruntled ex-suburbanite/pothead, spoke with 15 MINUTES.

15 MINUTES: What did you think about the Harvard crowd tonight? What were you expecting?

CB: Pretty much what we get. Usually we get a cross section of everything; I'm kind of proud that we get a pretty diverse following. I really think we really have something for everyone. All different types of music. We don't have really one style. We try to be diverse and cover a broad range of dimensions.

15 MINUTES: Is Harvard different from other colleges?

CB: You can sort of measure it by sort of different facets of the crowd--rowdiness, drunkeness, receptiveness to certain phenomena. Just to give you an example, this audience was really receptive to the rap. When I spoke to them, they were really receptive to the words. Some places you go to, they just want a groove. These kids were really listening. They're used to being talked to.

15 MINUTES: Why do you attract such a large following of deadhead kids?

CB: These days kids dress like deadheads wherever you go. Walk into an A&P, walk into a 7 eleven--wherever you go, kids dress like deadheads. What do you know?...They're by no means a focus for this band. Our bass player hates The Dead. For me I'm more into things I read and stuff I listen to.

15 MINUTES: What's with the languages you speak?

CB: MOW B'Jow. It is an attempt at a translation of the sentiment of angels.

15 MINUTES: Is it in any particular tongue?

CB: In MOW B'Jow. Somewhere between a language of thought and speech, thought translated into speech.

15 MINUTES: What's the mystical angle of the music?

CB: This world is full of misplaced mysticism. If you have a problem with your car, that is the mystical car--where really the properties and possibilities of the car are the mystical thing. what's the question? A music concert is a place...it's an open format its like a play with the script being made up at the same time. There is also theatre. Theatre is from when people though a bear was going to come and eat them there are certain parts of the tribe that ventured forth from the cave to slay the bear. When they succeeded in doing this, they returned to the cave and told the rest of the people--that stayed at home and couldn't watch--how they did it. At that period of time and still on a subconscious level, all things were endowed with spirit, with a mystical essence. They'll never explain everything there'll always be a fring of human thought wavering in a breeze of unsurity. And that's where we are. It's imagination we're trying to entice people like pied pipers to the edge of their souls.

15 MINUTES: What about Blues Traveller?

CB: I love those guys. I've known them since I was a teenager.

15 MINUTES: Why are you so popular?

CB: Why are we so popular? I think it's because we have a sincere love of the search and service we perform. If we're anything we're sincere. And although everyone's a hypocrite, we're trying to burn our fingers on sparks and I'm sure that must be entertaining to most. Just to search don't be afraid of life that's usually so mundane. We're saying don't be afraid.

15 MINUTES: Where's your next step?

CB: We've been out of the country. Ithink it's three times. for the first time, now,we're going to go counterclockwise.

15 MINUTES: How was your reception inSan Francisco?

CB: We're doing well in San Francisco.Its not just the deadheads that come to see us.Its the intellectuals, weirdos, gay people. We'rerealy interested in human question, and so are TheDead. God bless them. I happen to think they'reone of the greatest rock bands that ever came downthe pike. But God knows there is more to the worldthan rock and roll bands, as you well know.there's physics and orgasms and pineapples.

15 MINUTES: Who're you going to vote forfor president?

CB: I wish Frank Zappa would bepresident. I'm a devout American. I think theprinciples, the original concept of the americandemocracy, is a beautiful concept for agovernment. I'm not sure if the execution lives upto it. I'm afraid if I vote for Zappa, I would besupporting Bush. So my answer is anybody but Bush.

15 MINUTES: How many years is Tysongoing to get?

CB: If he is really guilty, they shouldput his ass away. It's a shame that the other mostpopular rapists lately got acquitted and the Blackguy gets thrown in jail. I mean if he did, I hopethey fry his genitalia. If he didn't, I hope he'snot taking the fall just because he's Black.

15 MINUTES: Is your music alternative?

CB: It's rock and roll in the broadestsense. If rock and roll is a range of fieldsstretching from reggae to heavy metal, andeverything in between stemming from Africanrhythms and tonalties, then we are a rock and rollband in the broadest sense of the term. The onelabel I can't put on all our tunes is rock androll. My favorite rock and roll band is theRolling Stones. I like Jonathan Richmond and theModern Lovers. I really think people should readmore poetry.

15 MINUTES: Who are your favorite poets?

CB: I really like Homer a lot. I likethe classics. I think there's a need forreconstruction in poetry. I've read the Odysseythree times, three different translations. A lotof people who read this are thinking, god thisguy's pompous...I like the Greeks a lot. I love toread cool literature. That's my favorite chore, toread arcane, abstract tomes.

15 MINUTES: How long have you beenplaying together?

CB: Three years.

15 MINUTES: Do you like to play fuckedup?

CB: I don't like to. I don't haveanything against people getting fucked up. I don'thave anything against people sucking goat dicks,but I find that when I smoke I sing off pitch. Oneof the reasons that we're a pretty popular band isthat we have a sense of honoring our ticket weconsider our ticket a contract I have signed andhanded to everyone in the crowd and said I amgoing to do the best. I've tripped on acid onstage a number of times so you never going to nowwhen that happens.

15 MINUTES: What's that like?

CB: Extremely frightening. It's baptismby fire. But it's very rewarding. Pot tires myvoice off. I used to get really high when my voicewas high. now I'm willing to slow down. It's notso cool now to be carrying pot around the country.

15 MINUTES: Where'd you go to school?

CB: I went to Princeton High. I went toBennington for one year. I studied ceramics, alittle anthropology. I got into poetry, though. Igot into writing my own poetry. I wrote poetry fora while before I got into others. I'm dyslexic soits hard for me to read. So I had to work prettyhard towards being a poet before I got around toreading other people's poetry. I don't think I'm apoet yet by any means. I have a way to go.

15 MINUTES: What's your personal goal?

CB: My personal goal is to live on afarm and rule a dog and a cow and a pig.

15 MINUTES: Who do you like out thereright now?

CB: Perry Farrell (former lead singerfor Jane's Addiction) I think is the greatestthing since sliced bread. I weep that he quit.He's so beautiful the things he does and says. Iwent to see them once. It was so funny there werelike 10,000 people there. And I felt like I wasthe only person in the crowd who understood whathe was saying. I wouldn't presume to know him, butI would presume to know what its like to be up onstage behind a mike stand. He made this comment,"you guys, you're like worms out there, tenthousand worms out here" and I shouted out at thetop of my lung, "what do the fuck do you meanPerry? What the fuck are you talking about?"That's weird, though, `cause I knew exactly whathe was talking about. Anyway, that's sort of anobscure story.

15 MINUTES: Why didn't you guys play"Two Princes" (the band's most recent single)tonight?

CB: One of the things about this band iswe try not to play the same set twice. We try tomix it up. When we first started playing. Weplayed in New York City, where you have to playlike five nights a week. Just to keep ourselvesinterested and to keep people coming back, we playa different set everynight. Just like tonight, wedidn't play two princes. So you come back anothernight and maybe we'll play it