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So
there we were--smack in the middle of the hairy, spandex-laden
80s--and along comes Black Rock Coalition co-founder Vernon
Reid with a few friends: a drummer with a Berklee College
of Music degree, Will Calhoun; a bass player, Muzz Skillings,
who joined after a BRC meeting; and this actor (Platoon,
no less), Corey Glover, whom guitarist Reid caught
singing "Happy Birthday" at a mutual friend's party.
Living Colour didn't set the world ablaze
with 1988's Vivid, even though Mick Jagger produced
a couple tracks. Radio and MTV didn't pay much heed. But
after six months of extensive touring, a clip for "Cult
Of Personality" surfaced on MTV and the ride began. "Cult"
hit #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, Vivid went
double platinum, they won readers' polls, a Best Hard
Rock Performance Grammy, and opened for the Stones on
their Steel Wheels stadium tour. Bassist Doug Wimbish
joined the group in 1991, after Skillings departed the
ranks and the group's sophomore effort, Time's Up,
won a second Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Doug's
track record wasn't anything to sneeze at--his studio
credits include George Clinton, Madonna and Jeff Beck,
not to mention the Sugar Hill sessions--and his presence
was integral to the group's critically acclaimed 1993
album, Stain.
But in January of 1995, everything ground
to a halt as Reid announced the band's breakup, explaining,
"I have not made this decision overnight. I've been struggling
with it and searching my soul for well over a year...finally,
it became obvious that I had to give up the band."
Fast forward to December of last year
at CBGB's (where everything basically started for the
group), when Vernon, Corey, Will and Doug shared the stage
for the first time in seven years...and killed. More importantly,
they all realized it's about time to write another Living
Colour chapter, and that starts with the first show on
their reunion tour, right here at Portland's Crystal Ballroom,
May 7th. Exotic spoke with bassist Doug Wimbish
about the reunion tour, what caused the breakup, and what's
in their crystal ball.
Exotic: Tell me about the story
of the comeback, the  CBGB's
gig...it wasn't billed as a Living Colour show.
Wimbish: No, and it kind of went
out wrong... here's what the deal was: It was a Headfake
gig. To give you a little history, myself, Will Calhoun
and Vinx were in a group called Jungle Funk, and I had
the concept for the band Headfake about six or seven
years ago when I was in London [Wimbish moved there
in 1984] writing some drum 'n' bass material. Jungle
Funk did some of that material, but about two years
ago we knocked Jungle Funk on the head, and me and Will
decided to do gigs as "Headfake, featuring...." And
the whole concept was to feature different people. About
a year ago, Corey got dropped from LaFace's label, so
we decided to feature him. We did a gig at CBGB's with
Corey, and then we decided to do another one...We had
already talked to Vernon, and we figured why don't we
invite Vernon to do the Headfake gig?
The word got out. Everybody knew that
Vernon was going to sit in with us, so we decided, fuck
it, let's just go in and rehearse a few Living Colour
songs. So we booked the gig as Headfake, and we went
into a rehearsal studio for two days and rekindled about
twelve (Living Colour) songs. When we did the gig we
played three Headfake songs, and then ten or twelve
Living Colour songs. Now the press has it written that
Living Colour was under a fake name, as Headfake, and
that's just not true. Headfake has been around for a
while; it's just that nobody knew about it here in America.
Exotic: What was the first Living
Colour song you played that night?
Wimbish: We just hit 'em hard;
we did "Time''s Up" right from the gate, into "Go Away,"
into "Middle Man." We did "Open Letter," "Cult of Personality,"
"Bi"...The crowd went absolutely bananas. It's funny,
the last gig Living Colour had done was at CBGB's, December
15th, 1993. And there we were again, seven years and
seven days later...
Exotic: And after that, who was
it that said, "Why don't we tour?"
Wimbish: It was myself and Will,
actually. We pushed it; we'd been talking about doing
it for a while. A lot of it is timing. Our lives are
a lot more complicated, busier. We've all done solo
things. I've been doing a lot of production over in
Europe with different things. I did the Stones' last
record and Depeche Mode. We're all quite active, and
it's hard getting everybody together. Me and Will
had been talking about doing stuff for over a year,
and now is the time. Everybody's really comfortable
and happy that we have enough old material, and some
new stuff to play--the band sounds fucking great. We
sound better now than we did before.
"What Living Colour
was a part of creating--that alternative scene--came back
to bite itself."
Exotic: I
was going to say, in terms of material, you've got a lot
more than just the Living Colour songs. Corey released
Hymns, Vernon did Mistaken Identity, and
you and Will have your stuff. Are you going to mix it
up on the road?
Wimbish: Yeah, and we'll be doing
a couple of covers. But see, we're melting back into it--we're
glaciering out, you know what I mean? We've really only
been playing together for a few days. But the mental health
of the band is fantastic, which is where everything begins
and ends. You can front all you want to, but if there's
issues and you don't deal with it, that doesn't go away.
We've managed to get together, [admit] there were some
things that went down, find a way to work out solutions
to the problems, and find ways to support each other in
what we''re doing. And we're a much healthier band now
than we've ever been, quite honestly. We're one or two
good songs away from getting some major attention, from
aggravating people again. [laughs]
Exotic: You're hinting at all
this new material, are there any official plans to head
into the studio?
Wimbish: Yeah, but man, honestly,
we did the CBGB's gig and some rehearsals, and a lot
of Camp David meetings. And those meetings have cleared
the webs so that things can flow freely. It's amazing
what talking can do to give you clarity to play some
notes.
Exotic: What went down after
Stain that prompted the band to break up?
Wimbish: What really should have
happened was the band should have taken a break. When
I got into the band, so much had happened, it was spun
like a top. They should have just chilled out, reshuffled
the deck and then made a record. But because of the
success of the first two records [there was pressure
to produce]. And in the blink of an eye, the band was
finished. It was burnout, and everybody just needed
to do their own shit.
I think things could have possibly worked
out better, but, it's hard, man...Until you know what
it's like to have something and then not have it, is
when you understand what you have.
Exotic: How did the burnout affect
Stain?
Wimbish: I think it was just
a matter of timing with a lot of things. The Stain
sessions were during the "dressed in black" era.
It was like, the colorful days were over. You had Nirvana,
you had the grunge shit kicking in...So there was a
different scene that was happening. I think in that
transformational time, the band really needed the opportunity
to evolve a little bit more. But, quite honestly, I
think Stain was ahead of its time.
Exotic: Back then, I thought
so, too. It was dark, and maybe had a little too much
raw information for the pop world.
Wimbish: It was too much information.
Sometimes you have to say, "Here's the slow ball,
see this? Here it is, come get it." And you've got
people hitting that jammy out of the box. [laughs]
It's just, things changed. Marketing changed, music
changed, the scene changed. Really, what Living Colour
was a part of creating--that alternative scene--came
back to bite itself.
As it turns out, everything has worked
out for the better. The bottom line is, you want everybody
to be happy with the group, with what they're doing.
It's got to be that kind of vibe. Now we've got some
shit to say. Heads are a little bit clearer; what
we're dealing with now is just the time factor. There's
a whole new fan base out there, and we don't want
to come back out there on the nostalgia trip, you
know? We always had something to say. We weren't no
"let me stick my tongue in your
ear" kind of band. At the end of the day, people remembered
it. Look at a lot of the new bands,
like, Rage Against The Machine, or, the sounds of
Limp Bizkit...
Exotic: Definitely. I spoke
with Scott Phillips, the drummer from Creed, and he
went off on how huge Vivid was for him.
Wimbish: Creed, that's Ron
St. Germain who produced their album, and he did Stain.
That touches us, man. There are a lot of bands
out there that know (the ground we laid)--like P.O.D.,
System Of A Down. Hopefully, when we get out on the
road we'll see some love. We're ready to hit this
shit, man.
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