Les Claypool

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If musician Les Claypool were to have a spiritual brother in the arts, it might not be another musician. Most likely the quirky former leader of Primus and all-over-the-place bass player would have connection with "Evil Dead"/"Drag Me To Hell" director Sam Raimi. Like Raimi's theatrical combinations of horror and humor, Claypool combines darkness and humor in everything he does.

"I think that's a great analogy," says Claypool in a call from his home in Sonoma County, Calif. "Sam is a huge hero for me. There is an element of tongue-in-cheek in everything I do. Like Sam Raimi, like the Coen Brothers, even Frank Capra, there are certain dark elements within that fun."

That can be heard from Primus' early 1990s albums to Claypool's new disc, "Of Fungi and Foe."

In that light, the first piece of music that made a big impression on Claypool when he was a child should not be surprising:

"Back then you'd go buy a single for a dollar. I never had any money, but I would get a dollar if I ever got an A on my report card. I would very rarely get A's, but I would in art. I remember getting a dollar and buying 'Amos Moses' by Jerry Reed. 'Amos Moses' really stuck with me. Jerry Reed was tremendous. His stuff was funky. Great guitar player."

He didn't, however, follow in Reed's footsteps and take up guitar.

"What drew me to the bass first off was being repelled by the guitar," says Claypool.

In junior high Claypool witnessed a trio of fellow students performing a cover of the Allman Brothers' "Ramblin' Man" on two guitars and drums in the school gym/cafeteria.

"They were playing through these two little Fender Champ amps and it was the most horrible thing I'd ever heard," says Claypool. "At the time, I didn't know the difference between a guitar and a bass, but I remember thinking: 'I do not want to play that instrument right there, whatever that is!'"

Ironically, one of the guitars was being played by Todd Huth, who later became the original guitarist for Primus.

"He's a great guitar player, but at the time, it was horrible."

Shortly thereafter, while watching other bands, Claypool decided he liked "the one with four strings" and decided to take up bass. He started Primus in the mid-1980s. By the end the decade, Primus had a national following.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, Claypool began a series of collaborations with other musicians and Primus went on a hiatus that has continued for the past nine years.

Claypool says his current band ("Mike Dillon on marimba, vibraphones and various junkyard percussion, Paulo Baldi on a mutated drum kit that I built for him and Sam Bass playing cello") makes music that is a little moodier and darker than past ensembles.

"There's some dark imagery we use in the set, so it's a little creepy."

Claypool is on the way to combining his visions for music with his visions for film. In 2006, he premiered his first feature-length film, "Electric Apricot: The Quest for Festeroo," a mockumentary on a ficticious jam band, which met with positive reviews.

If that happens, count on Claypool to have the most un-Hollywood way to decompress:

"For me, being on a tractor is such a Zen thing. Some people do yoga. Some people run. I like firing up my flail mower and ripping through blackberry bushes! There's something Zen about that. It's like working in a garden with a giant piece of machinery. It's a release for me. Sometimes you get in those spaces and they can be creative spaces and sometimes it's an escape from that. You know, sometimes you can't go to sleep at night because your mind keeps putting things together. The tractor helps all that. I love my tractor."

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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