Abandoned Pools' Tommy Walter chats it up

Tommy Walter, formerly of the Eels, left that band to write and record his own material before the Eels even finished a second record. Walters, whose new band is called Abandoned Pools, recorded the material on Humanistic in his South Pasadena apartment and took the bare tracks to Boston's Q Division studio, where he worked with producers Paul Q. Koderie and Sean Slade. Abandoned Pools issued Humanistic in September of 2001. The News-Letter's own Brian Udoff caught up with Walter at the end of the Flickerstick/Abandoned Pools tour in Old Bridge, N.J. on Feb. 26.

News-Letter: You mentioned that you recorded material on minidisc for the album?

Tommy Walter: Yeah, I was basically making samples. You know at the very beginning of the record, all those piano samples? That's just me on my parents' piano with a minidisc on. And then I just threw them in the sampler.

N-L: I read on the Web site that you used Macintoshs to put together the whole album.

TW: Yeah.

N-L: What program is that?

TW: Just ProTools, it's like a digital/audio thing. What you get is what looks like a mix board - you move the sliders on the screen and everything - and then you get another visual representation of each recorded audio track. It's a good way of doing editing.

N-L: Did you do all the production work on Humanistic?

TW: Almost entirely - all the computer stuff, yeah. But then I went to Boston, and we recorded a lot of stuff to two inch tape. Then we threw that into ProTools and we edited it.

N-L: I saw you open up for Zwan back at the Roxy.

TW: Oh, cool, you were there? Excellent.

N-L: Yeah, I'm sort of a big Pumpkins fan, but I was wondering, I've heard some comparisons between Abandoned Pools and, most recently, the Machina album. Do you think you have any influences there?

TW: Well, it's funny because people say Machina. I've heard a lot of people say "Machina, this is early Pumpkins." I think it's just because our voices are both nasal, basically. I think that a lot of people who are big music fans think it sounds more like British music than it does Pumpkins. That's what I kind of prefer to hear, but it's fine with me. A comparison to Corgan is no problem with me, that's for sure.

N-L: Did you get to talk to him at all before or after the show?

TW: I just waved to him at the beginning of the show; he was just walking by and said hi. We could have talked to him in the hallway at the upstairs, except he and I kinda passed each other in the same way that most artists walk near people, and that's with our heads down. [Laughs.] And I didn't really get a chance to talk with him, but it was great - it was a cool show to play. That was a weird night because we'd just go upstairs and there's Tom Waits, there's Nicolas Cage, and No Doubt were all there. And it was only our second show or something, so we didn't play very much.

N-L: So is this the touring lineup now? But you did almost everything on the album?

TW: Yeah, this band I have now is put together to tour, but for the record, it was just me and Josh Freese, the drummer for A Perfect Circle and a lot of other stuff - the Vandals and punk bands like that. So yeah, I put this band together just to go out on tour.

N-L: Are they going to be involved in the next album?

TW: Depends. I mean, yeah. If I had this band now, I'd probably make the record with them.

N-L: The question everyone likes to ask, of course, is when the next record is coming. I'm not going to pester you with that, but I'm wondering what are your expectations for the next album, both commercially and artistically?

TW: I kinda have it mapped out in my head already - it's gonna change by the time I get to it - but I like the way this record is formatted in terms of its diversity, where you have a song like "Ruin Your Life," which is almost Motown, hip-hop, and then you have "Seed" and other rock tunes. I kind of want to carry on that tradition, but I don't wanna just repeat myself. I have it mapped out in a certain way just to keep challenging people, because I know that we need to have songs that are accessible and melodies that stick in people's heads - and I like writing songs like that anyway, so it's fine - but I just wanna continually write a more challenging record and write the kind of record that is to other people that records like Kid A or Uncle is to me, that kind of stuff.

N-L: What's probably the first thing that sticks in the mind when someone hears about you is the fact that you formed Abandoned Pools after you had left the Eels. Largely because - it's been rumored - that you thought that they were getting too big? Abandoned Pools certainly is rising in profile now. Do you just want to keep small, or is it.

TW: Oh no, I wouldn't say I left the Eels because it was getting too big. I left the Eels because my role in the band was being diminished, and I just felt that I had more to offer. I wanted to make a stepping stone out of it, because the bigger and better that band got, the more unhappy the singer was when there was less attention on him. And it was more of the band. Other than that, we were a really good band, and he wanted to be "singer/songwriter guy," which I wasn't into. So I had to turn it into a stepping stone, and be like, "I have more to offer than wanting me to be your dumb bass player," and that's never what I was anyway, so, "I'm outta here. I got other things to do."

N-L: Going to your bass experience, you learned the bass - it was your first big rock instrument you learned - and the album is filled with really great bass hooks, especially in songs like "Remedy." How do you go structuring songs? Do you start off with the vocals? Do you start off with the bass and guitar lines? What happens?

TW: It depends [from] song to song. "Remedy" was based on the keyboard samples, the piano samples I came up with. I was just noodling a little bit and came up with that stuff - I just came up with the little samples and I started playing acoustic around that, and then came up with the melody. But a song like "Sunny Day" was all drum loops and string samples and voices. That started out as sample-based. And then a song like "Never" was just acoustic guitar, simple voice. So it all depends, it all depends. But I never write lyrics first. I'm not like the guy who's gonna sit around and write poetry or something. "Yeah.I'm gonna set that to music, it'll be beautiful." It's always after, an extension of what the emotion established by the music is, for me.

N-L: How many tracks were actually recorded for the album and didn't make it?

TW: Well there's, what, 12 on the record, and we recorded probably four more, so 16 total. They might show up as B-sides. or not.

N-L: Are we going to be able expect on the next album some more Star Wars references? Boba Fett and all that? Are you looking forward to the next movie?

TW: Totally, although I'm a little bit afraid of the N Sync rumor. Did you hear about that? They might be in there. That's a little bit frightening. I hope that doesn't turn out to be that way. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it because they have Jango Fett, who's Boba Fett's dad; that's cool. [Laughs.]

N-L: What are your aspirations for the band, long-term? Or just for your musical career?

TW: I feel lucky enough to be doing this again, because with the Eels, "You'll have anything better than this." Well, actually, I will. So, as far as being able to have a career and making it a long-term situation, I'm pretty grateful for what I have now in that I've achieved this much success with Abandoned Pools so far. And I feel like we have a lot of good momentum right now, so I think it's just going to get better. But long-term, the one thing I think we're missing on this record is that feel of a live band - because it's not a live band, we're overdubbing a lot of stuff. Which, if you want to make a Smashing Pumpkins reference, is the difference between Mellon Collie and Adore. That would be the main thing, just to make a record that would be the band that's toured together and grown together, and then go to the studio and make some crazy record. Also, I just want to keep doing this as long as I can. I just want to make the kind of records that blow other artists away, that they use as inspiration. That would be really amazing if somebody made a record that I loved, and they cited me as a reference. That'd be great. And that's both for ego reasons, and it's also for the fact that you want to be involved in the world of music, and you want to be part of that process, that on-going scenario, of what's going on in the music industry.

N-L: Going with the music industry, everyone has a beef with MTV now. On MP3s and such, your Web site did something relatively unprecedented, which is that the whole album is up there, streaming. And so few bands have done that so far, but it seems like more are opening up.

TW: A lot of the times when I went on Napster, I found this Sneaker Pimps record, which was their second record, on Napster. I found it on Napster, and it was a record that didn't come out in the United States. It was an import - I got it after the fact - without the girl. They fired the girl, and they had the guitar player singing. It's one of my favorite records ever - it's called Splinter - I never would have found that record if it wasn't for Napster. Maybe I would have, but I ran across so many cool things on being able just to download it on the fly. And then, of course, later I bought the records, because I like having CDs anyway. I understand where the Metallica people are like, "Don't steal our music; you're taking food out of my baby's mouth," that kinda stuff. Because I'm already getting screwed by the industry to a degree. Artists don't really get a good deal; I don't need to get screwed by fans, too, you know? [Laughs.] Everyone's picking at you, and yet, if you make a record they don't like, they hate you. So, almost virtually, you get stretched in all sorts of different directions. So there's limits to everything. Hopefully, the music industry will change a little bit and be nicer to the artist, and yet, I do want my music to get out there, but I do want to make money off of it, too, because that's what I'm doing. I'm not doing this for fun. It is fun, but that's not why I do it. I do want to make a lot of money, and I want to live a comfortable life, because it is a lot of struggle, and I think a lot of bands deserve their paychecks.

N-L: How do you feel about the musical landscape right now? Have you had any favorite albums you've picked up in the last year? Any bands you just discovered that you want to tell everybody about?

TW: Well, what's going on in radio today - it's funny that "The Remedy," which is on the radio now, is stuck between a whole bunch of bands going "RRRRAAARRR! RRRAARRR! RRRRRAAARRRR!" and screaming - "Cookie Monster" bands - and then, occasionally Coldplay comes on, and you're like, "Oh, thank you." And that's a breath of fresh air. Remy Zero put out a pretty good record; I like that. I really sorta got into. Aphex Twin came out with a record which I really liked. Two French guys, Autechre, electronica. I try to balance between the alternative rock and electronica.

N-L: Who do you cite as your influences?

TW: My background is classical music; I played French horn in orchestras and those kind of things. So it's a combination between the things I grew up listening to - Depeche Mode, the Cure and the Smiths - British stuff like that, and then newer things - Billy Corgan and the Pumpkins and then Blur, the Verve, Radiohead, and then DJ Shadow and that Uncle record - I'm a big fan of all that. Deftones, I mentioned Coldplay, but that's less of an influence; I'm more of a fan of theirs. I think it shows on the record that I don't try to niche myself in just listening to one type of thing. Because I like a lot of hard rock stuff. I thought the last Filter record was really good. I just try to keep balance between the rock stuff and the sampling-based stuff.

N-L: Regarding MTV, I've seen your music videos through the Web site, but it just seems like they're playing the two extremes. Do you watch it much when you're not on tour?

TW: Well, I'm more of an M2 fan, because on MTV, they're showing the WWF stuff, and there's a big fanbase for that, but I'm not really interested in it. But I think M2 is really cool, because they showed that Basement Jaxx video with the monkeys. And I thought that was amazing, and I saw it a lot on M2, but I don't think we'd see that very often on MTV. Jimmy Eat World was on there a lot; I think that's a good band. I just think there's a lot more interesting things going on M2, because with MTV, you start watching, and all the sudden you're just staring at it, realizing twenty minutes have gone by. But with M2, you can leave it on like a radio station, there's cool things happening. And they've been playing our video. I like being in that area, as opposed to Creed, which is an MTV band, clearly. I'm more of an M2 person; I like it a lot.

N-L: How's the touring been going so far?

TW: Touring? We've been doing this tour in a van, which - it's not a van tour. There's been twelve and fifteen-hour drives. But it's alright, we just come out here because I feel that because we're a baby band, we have to win one fan at a time. I'm totally up for that kind of challenge. A lot of times when we go on stage, they might not know who we are until they hear "The Remedy" or something like that. They might not know who were are, but by the time we're done, I feel that we're winning people over, so that's pretty rewarding right there.

N-L: Many artists say they prefer playing in smaller clubs as compared to giant arenas. Do you see Abandoned Pools ever getting beyond the thousand-or-so sized club? Do you have any intentions for it to go that big?

TW: I think we could do the kind of rock show that would open up to that sized venue. I think that would be totally fine. I think we could fill [those venues] with our music, we could do that. I don't like - I like the small club shows, too, but I don't like it when I'm sitting at the keyboard or something, and there's somebody two feet away from me. Because it's like they are seeing the man behind the curtain to a degree, "Look! He just scratched his nose!" It's almost too close, and I sort of want that separation. But I know we could do the big arena places, too.

N-L: Thank you very much.

TW: My pleasure, man.