DAZ: Were you aware of Screaming Trees when you were in Skin Yard, before then even?
Barrett: Yes. The first time I saw Screaming Trees was in 1987, when I was in college at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. They were on SST at the time, so I think this would have been for the ‘Even If and Especially When’ tour. They were already pretty famous in the Northwest even then because to be on SST was quite an accomplishment. I remember that it was a great show, with the brothers flailing around on the stage and Lanegan motionless in the centre. And it was loud as hell.

DAZ: How were you introduced to the band? At what point were you asked to join?
Barrett: Kim White, who, at the time, was working at Geffen Records and later, became the Tree’s manager, introduced me to Van. She and I met when I was in Skin Yard and she brought Van to a show we were playing in Long Beach, CA. Skin Yard was on Cruz Records, an offshoot of SST, and Long Beach was the label headquarters.

DAZ: What differences did you find drumming for the two bands? How long were you given to learn their back catalogue?
Barrett: I learned the back catalogues pretty quick, there wasn’t a time issue, I just did it on my own. Drum-wise, I was pretty much given free reign to develop my own style, as long as it supported the songs. I always put ‘the song’ first so it was a natural thing. I can see the evolution in my playing through those, and other bands I’ve been in through the years. It was pretty idealistic as far as that went, they knew I had good instincts and usually let me do what I wanted. We had all listened to the same records so we knew what was cool and what wasn’t.

DAZ: What did you make of the other three members?
Barrett: I immediately liked Van, everyone did. We all agreed that the Trees couldn’t have existed without him. His personality was very ‘Falstaffian’ in that he was this huge, drunken poet-warrior that made us feel like we were on this Holy Musical Crusade, which at times it felt like. Gary Lee was much quieter, but he was the real songwriting machine in the band. He could crank out tunes like no one I have ever met since, he truly has the gift. I was roommates with them both at one time or another between tours, so we got to be good friends as well. Lanegan and I always related closely because of similar life experiences and we are still good friends to this day.

DAZ: By the time you joined the Trees, the media spotlight was very much on Seattle. What was this like from your point of view?
Barrett: Well, the funny thing is, most of the big Seattle bands were never in Seattle during that time because they were out on tour, sometimes in the far corners of the world promoting their records. We would see each other during the holidays at the usual haunts like the Crocodile (Peter and Stephanie Buck’s club) or at someone’s house party. But, largely, we spent those years on tour. It was a great time though, there was a real feeling of camaraderie, like we were on a mission to save rock ‘n’ roll.

DAZ: You didn’t seem to get involved in songwriting until ‘Dust’ and even then only a co-credit. Was songwriting confined to a solely Lanegan/Conner arrangement?
Barret: Actually, I co-wrote 3 songs on ‘Sweet Oblivion’ and 3 songs on ‘Dust’. My speciality was writing intros and bridges and I was a pretty good arranger because of my music school/jazz studies in college. There was already a pretty stratified system in place when I joined the band but, slowly, they let me contribute. And, I would say, the best Trees songs were the ones we wrote together in the rehearsal room.

What were your high and low points with the band?
Barrett: The highest point for me was the very first tour I did with the Trees. It was Europe in the summer of ’92, ten years ago now. We had just completed ‘Sweet Oblivion’ and were doing a promotional tour before the release of the album. I remember that we were drunk most of the time, but in a happy, optimistic way. We played some transcendental shows and the band really came together. We also played with Nirvana at Reading that year. Mudhoney, L7 and the Melvins were also on the bill. It is still the most amazing rock show I have ever seen. Nirvana was absolutely the best band on the planet that year. After that, the whole thing became a blur, we toured for two years, non-stop, made two more records (one of which was never released, the other was ‘Dust’) and went back on tour for another couple of years. Remarkably, I can remember most of the shows, some were amazing, others catastrophic.
The lows were the many little things between everything else, the kind of things that don’t really need to be mentioned. But, all in all, it was an incredible band that really rode the lightning. Also, I have to say that seeing Van and Gary Lee get married and have children [to women, not each other, readers] was a real highpoint. It proved we were real men and not just maniacs. And, Marks’ recovery after all the shit that he, and the rest of us, had been through was the greatest part of all .The triumph of the spirit.

DAZ: Legend has it that a fight between the Conners resulted in you getting trapped beneath a fridge – did this really happen?
Barrett: Yes, that was the legendary “Question and Answer” showin Cleveland, Ohio (I forget the name of the club). We had played a two and a half hour set with multiple encores. Finally, there were no more songs to play so Mark came out and sat on a stool and fielded questions from the audience, with his usual charm and wit. It was a great night, truly unique in it’s style and form. Afterwards, in the dressing room, Van and Lee got in an argument about something ridiculous. I told Lee to stop whining and he threw a beer bottle at my head, which was flung so hard, it stuck in the plaster of the wall. Had it hit my head I would have surely died or at least been seriously injured. I leaped at Lee who was reaching for another bottle to fling, and Van and I tackled him at the same time. In the ensuing melee, a refrigerator fell on top of the three of us, who were on the ground at this point. But, because of the brother’s combined girth, the fridge rolled off them and on top of me. It nearly crushed me. True story.

DAZ: Were you aware the EMP show would be your last?
Barrett: Yes, I think we all knew it was and we played up to the challenge. Later, I saw some of it on video and thought, man, if we had been this good when it counted, we’d still be playing.

DAZ: If the Trees had done another album, would you have been involved?
Barrett: We did do another album, 11 songs that have never been released. Not the ‘aborted record’ with Don Fleming but a final record we did in ’98-’99. We did it ourselves, after we left Epic (which was actually our choice, we did not get dropped, we got out of a very bad deal). The intention was to find a new deal with a different label, but the industry was in one of its now frequent purges, and no one would sign us. I produced one session and we did a second session later as well. Combined, it made for a good final statement. I hope that over the years, the songs will get released on soundtracks or other mediums. We’ll just see. I learned long ago never to rule out anything with the Trees.

DAZ: What are you busying yourself with now?
Barrett: I have just started my own independent label called Fast Horse Recordings, distributed through Ryko. This is after I spent the last four years traveling and studying with drum masters in Senegal, Ghana, Belize and Brazil.
In 1999, Peter Buck and I went to Cuba as diplomats for a musical conference between Americans and Cubans. There we met Joe Cripps, formerly of Brave Combo.

DAZ: The Brave Combo that was Tiny Tim’s backing band?!
Barrett: Yes, Joe was in the band when they played with Tiny Tim. That’s a story in itself! Joe is also a percussionist and he and I decided to start Fast Horse together, as well as a new band called the Wayward Shamans. Peter is also involved in Fast Horse as a producer and A&R advisor. We still do Tuatara together and, in fact, we have a new album called ‘Cinemathique’ coming out, as well as Wayward Shaman’s debut ‘Alchemy’ on April 30th here in the States and hopefully where you are too.
The Shamans are really my working band since Tuatara is more of a studio/film soundtrack project. The Shamans are very rhythm oriented and this debut album is based on field recordings of rhythms Joe and I studied in Africa Cuba and Brazil. The sound of the band is jazzier than you’d expect, with a bit of soul and trance experimentation. We recently signed Mississippi legend, Cedell Davis, a 78-year-old slide guitarist. We just recorded his new album in Dallas with myself on drums, Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey [of Young Fresh Fellows] on guitars and a couple of Wayward Shamans filling in the band. We also signed a great Brazilian vocalist named Mylene Nunes and her record will be out in the Fall. Fast Horse is based in Taos, New Mexico where I now live, and Dallas, where Joe lives. Taos is an old Wild West frontier town that has historically had a thriving artists scene (Easy Rider was filmed here). Mostly writers and painters and a few musicians as well, but it’s the spectacular landscape that draws people from around the world. I bailed out of Seattle a few years ago, after the yuppie invasion ruined the spirit of the city. It used to be a blue-collar, working class paradise, and the music reflected that. But that has changed. We voted in a corrupt mayor who brought in all his California developer cronies. They evicted the artists, tore down their lofts and put in all of those horrendous, pastel condos. It’s truly awful to behold, looks liked Cleveland after the facelift. I’ve been back a couple of times for recording sessions and family visits but there’s no music scene to speak of. It’s pretty depressing, and a lot of the famous artists and musical residents have moved to other cities, including L.A. if you can believe that L.A is more promising than Seattle! Did a couple of years there myself doing studio sessions and a little soundtrack work. Then I moved to New Mexico, the ‘Land of Enchantment’. Or ‘Entrapment’, as the locals say.
In between my label and band duties, I have also managed to become an ordained Zen monk. Not a monk in the strictest sense of the word, but I have been studying for a few years now, and two years ago I received my ordination papers. I plan on continuing my studying and hopefully earning the Priesthood. And that in itself is a metaphor. In Zen, we say everything is impermanent, nothing lasts, especially the good things. And that is exactly what happened to the Screaming Trees and Seattle, the city we called home. How’s that for a rock ‘n’ roll story!

 
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