Bob Burt, thank you for joining me today. Oh, thanks for having me. So you have such an interesting background and it's a huge background. But more importantly, you have a new record coming out that's been long-awaited, Beach Bongo Bloodbath, which comes out June 12th. That's on bar none records. And tell me about the album because I was checking that out today and it's really cool. It's really interesting. It's like Soundscape, but it's also like old school punk rock mixed in with a bunch of things. Tell me about the album. Well, it wasn't like a planned thing really. I mean, go back a little bit. So in 2012, my wife had died earlier that year. And in 2012, I got called up by Lydia Lunch and I joined her band Retrovirus. And we toured around the world for 11 years. And it was great because I go way back with Lydia and she's one of my favorite people. And we got to play a retrospective of her music career. And I got to go plenty of places that I never went before and was having a really amazing time for being in my 60s. And then right towards the last part of being with her, I hooked up with John Spencer and the hitmakers. John was my old bandmate from Pussy Galore. And he works hard. And even with a two and a half year break because of COVID, I played 221 shows with him around the world, banging on the metal percussion again. And both of those things kind of came to an end at the, I'm going to say, the beginning of 2020. The beginning of 2023, maybe. And right when that happened, my girlfriend's health started declining. So I had to take care of her. So it was good that I wasn't traveling at the time. And so in Hoboken here, for the longest amount of time, I share a practice space which turned it to a recording studio with my longtime friend, Mark C, who played in the band Live Skull. And I've known him since 1982 or something. And so because I couldn't really travel, I got asked to do some shows and I put together this solo performance with this crazy percussion set up. And I sang some of the songs that are on the record. And I did four shows and got a good response. And I said, well, since I have access to this space, I might as well lay it down. So it was real casual. I would lay down the basic tracks, listen to them for a month and go in for another couple of half days and do more. And that's how it was put together. It was definitely not like an ego thing. Like I need to make a solo record. I didn't even know it was going to be a record. But once I got it happening, I said, OK, yeah, this sounds, I was happy with it. So this is, I mean, it's a very short record. It's only like 26 minutes long. But so yeah, so I got it done. And I approached Bar Nun who happened to have their offices in the same building where our rehearsal recording space is. And yeah, they dug it. And they've been totally behind it. And it's all happening. Yeah. And it's fun. Like it's a fun record and it kind of harkens back to your early times. So people that don't know your background, it's a very huge background. So you were an early drummer, original member of Sonic Youth. Obviously you play with Pussy Galore. You play with a bunch of bands that are very well known and they're very influential bands. You're a writer, publisher, producer, graphic artist, photographer, worked with Andy Warhol and you were heavily involved in the New York scene, 70s and 80s. And tell me about who are some of your early musical influences? Well, you know, I grew up in the 60s. And so right from the start, you know, most people my age that are musicians will tell you and it's hard to relate to in this day and age. But, you know, when I was eight years old, seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, like that just like changed everything. And I got interested in the drums and I took drum lessons for a year when I was 12. And, you know, and then I moved out of my house when I was 18 and didn't even think about the drums for a really long time. I was, you know, more interested in trying to be a fine artist at the time. And I was always attracted to the counterculture. Even in the 60s, you know, my dad had a liquor store that I used to work in as a kid and next door there was a record store. So, you know, you'd see like, you know, the latest Beatles and Stones records and like, hey, what's this freak out by the mothers of invention or the fuzz, you know. And so, you know, I just got totally into music. And of course it was the 60s. I was 14 in 1969 and started experimenting with, you know, LSD and smoking pot, whatnot. All the goals that you need. And, you know, luckily, I missed being drafted by a really short amount of time. I didn't have to deal with that. And so I just started going to shows and then, you know, when I was in high school, it was the early 70s. And that's kind of like, you know, when I was in high school, that's when Ziggy Stardust came out and transformer. And I started like, kind of transforming from hippie. I wouldn't call myself a glam rocker, but I was a big fan of all that kind of the Roxy music. I fell in love with it as soon as I heard them and the dolls, you know. That's such a magical time too, especially kind of like being in being while you're in Jersey, but you're going to New York all the time. Yeah. And actually, you know, the New York Dolls, they were big influence. As soon as I saw that cover in the record store, I bought it. And then like a few weeks later, me and my girlfriend went to see them at Max's Kansas City. And it was like 1973, I guess. And then I just started going, you know, besides going to concerts because I grew up right next to Biseick, which had three concert places. And so, you know, my very first date was opening night of the Capitol Theater. And it was the J. Giles band Humble Pie and Captain's Camel. And then right down the block was another old porn theater that had a concert. I went to see Pink Floyd during the Amogamma tour. And in the Montauk Theater, I saw the Alice Cooper Love It to Death tour, which was, you know, mind blowing. Right. And then, you know, so I started going to concerts, went to the film Orisa a few times, saw some shows there. And then I started going to clubs. And it started with me and my friends really being into Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys. And we used to go see him, her play all the time and in the New York Dolls. And then, you know, in 1975, my friend said, hey, let's check out this CBGB place. This girl, Patty Smith is playing. So I walked away. What there is like Patty Smith and television and like, you know, 15 people. Right. And I just, that was my whole new world. So I just started going there like four times a week. So I saw the beginning shows of all those bands, you know. Yeah. I mean, like what a magical, cool time. I grew up in LA in the 80s. So we were playing the Roxy, the whiskey, the gazzaris, because I'm a musician as well. So it was like the same thing I could kind of relate. It's like people like, what was it like in the 80s? It's like, well, I don't know. I was just, it was just that you're just living it. You're living life. But that's such a magical time. Tell me, tell me about the sonic youth story with you, how that came about. That came about because, all right. So I wasn't even thinking about being a musician. And I was, I became a fine art soap screen printer. And that's how I ended up doing war halls work. But before that, I was working in a soap screen place in Soho. And there was this little ad in the back of the village voice that said punk rock art wanted. So I went down and I showed this, my stuff and I ended up getting into this group show with like Joey Ramone and all these, and it was like, for me at that time, it was just like, mind blowing at the end of the world. And I stayed associated with that gallery and that's where I met my future wife. And I was living in New York City at the time she was in Jersey City. And we decided to compromise that we moved to Hoboken in 1981. And, you know, and it was great because I lived a block away from Maxwell's, which had every band in the world. And I spent half my life in that place, you know, just going there and then eventually playing there with every band that was in. And so one night we were at a club, not Maxwell's, but one of the bass that we were there to see didn't show up and we were sitting there drinking and someone said, Hey, is there a drummer in the house and my wife or my girlfriend at the time, Linda's like, Yeah, Bob is and I got up on stage and started jamming with these two other guys. One of them ended up being Peter missing. I don't know if you're familiar with the missing foundation. But anyway, so we were kind of like, you know, very primitive. I wasn't really a good player or anything. And we kind of had like a kind of a flipper vibe kind of causing trouble. That's okay. Some of the best some of the best bands came out of constant. Well, we weren't one of the best bands, that's for sure. But anyway, after about seven months, that fell apart. And I was always on top of what was going on. So I saw this article one day in a New York rocker that was talking about the composer Glenn Branca was starting a new record label with neutral. And the first release he was putting out was this band called Sonic Youth. And so I bought the Sonic Youth record as soon as I saw it. And I really enjoyed it the first EP. Still one of my favorite Sonic Youth records. And then I went to see them a couple times with Richard Etzend playing drums at the Mud Club once and at CBGBs. And then one day the same record store where I bought the record, you know, because it wasn't so hard. So I would wander around during my lunch breaks and stuff. And so one day I walked into rocks in your head. It was the record store and there was that flyer on the wall that said Sonic Youth needs a drummer. So I took the flyer off the wall, I still have it. And that's how I joined them. And then funny, just, you know, in recent times, I didn't even realize it till Thurston's book came out. But I was actually the only person that called. Oh, funny. Hey, well, you know, it was fate then. Yeah, yeah. And it wasn't, you know, they weren't popular at the time, but it was, you know, it was cool. And they were already heavily into the New York scene, from what I, my understanding. But it's such a cool thing because you played on some of their seminal records. Like there's four, four. Well, you tell me the story. How many records did you play with them on? Well, so here's the story. So I joined them when I joined them, they were writing the songs for Confusionist Sex. And we went on the first tours, which were down south with the swans, which were, which was crazy, you know, this is like 1982. Yeah, towards the 82. Right. The tour was in two parts. And I did the first part. And then they, they fired me. And then it turned out that the drummer that they wanted to replace me with couldn't go couldn't tour. So after they fired me, they called me back and asked me to do the rest of the tour, which I was cool enough to do, even though. And so after that, they replaced me with Jim Scolvunos. And so he ended up recording most of the songs on Confusionist Sex. And then I ended up being on one, the live version of I want to be your dog from the tour. And I, when they played live, I went to see them with Scolvunos and soon it was over. I said, well, yeah, you know, he's good, but he doesn't play making the nature scene as good as me. And they agreed. So they let me come in and record that. And that was my first, you know, studio recording. And so Scolvunos didn't last long. And then they called me back in in the few months where Scolvunos was with them. I think he did like two shows. And but during that time, I was practicing with other people and my drumming improved a lot. And they were desperate because they had this speed trial show coming up and they were leaving for Europe the next day. And so, so they called me back and I rehearsed with them and then played the speed trial show, which was great. It was in this little art gallery. It was like the fall swans, Lydia, everybody. It was a cool little noise fest. And after our set, we went to the bar across the street and they were saying, well, you know, we were going to Europe to set up this tour. You know, we come to Europe with us and I just said, well, you know, a couple conditions. A, it's not going to cost me a penny. And B, you're not going to fire me as soon as we get back. Those are good conditions. Yeah. So I ended up, you know, coming back and then we recorded the Kill Your Idols EP. And then after that, we recorded, you know, the Bad Moon Rising album. And then at some point, thirst to put that Sonic Death record out, which was a, I'm on like at least 89th, 90% of that. And then, you know, we recorded Bad Moon Rising, which was the first full album I ever played on. And, you know, it's amazing that it's still talked about today. Yeah. I mean, those are very influential albums. That's obviously a very influential band. And it's, and only, you know, not only that, but then you're also, as you mentioned, immersed in that scene, which was a very vibrant scene at that time. And that kind of ties into Andy Warhol because he was also part of that whole New York scene, 70s scene. Tell me about the story about hooking up with Andy and I, because I know you had a silk, you mentioned Fine Art Soak Screen. Yeah. So I was a Fine Art Soak Screen printer and it was actually, you know, when I was in high school, we went on a field trip to see the Warhol retrospect at the Whitney Museum. And I just got so, I was such a big Warhol fan. I was really into him and the whole factory scene. I read all the books and stuff. I mean, I didn't start working. I worked for him like in the 80s when he really, when his art career wasn't that good. And I didn't actually work with him. I worked for his right hand man. Well, we did all of his artwork. And so I printed a lot of print editions and a lot of paintings. And, you know, never really even saw Andy. Like whenever people hear that I worked with Warhol or for Warhol, they always think, oh, you worked at the factory. And I'm like, no, that was like 20 years earlier. But, you know, so it was a great job. I met a lot of people there and, you know, like I can go to like, you know, the Andy Warhol Museum and walk around and say, I made that. I made that. We made those when I was working there, we made those really gigantic camouflage last supper paintings, you know, it was like, so a lot of that stuff. So yeah, that was cool. And then, you know, and then I worked for him right up to the day he died, you know. Well, you know, the thing is, too, is that he was, again, another influential guy and one of your kind of early heroes. So it's always amazing when not only when you meet your heroes, but then if you get a chance to work with them is, you know, what was that like for you? Were you just like, wow, how did this happen? Or was it like something that just a collaboration aspect of it? It was, I don't know. Yeah, it's kind of funny because before I was doing any of this stuff, you know, my biggest heroes were Andy Warhol and Lydia lunch, and I ended up working with both of them. Yeah, crazy. You know, for both of them. And, you know, it's funny because when I was in one of the group shows that I was with that gallery, I made a handmade flyer. And I collaged all this stuff and I had Andy Warhol and Lydia lunch in this flyer. And then it was just like, yeah, it is pretty amazing that, you know, like, like, like, I always wanted to be a part of that world. And, you know, living and being in New Jersey didn't make it, you know, that easy. Like I wasn't part of the whole mud club crowd or whatever like, even though I went to these places, but, you know, I wasn't part of that whole scene. And, and it's great because, you know, everyone that I looked up to back then, you know, whether it was the void or the bush touches, like, and I now I know all those people. Right. Yeah. And it's, you know, that's an awesome life, man. You get to, you get to live like, you get to live in many different worlds, which is really interesting. And with a lot of people that have become legends and very influential folks, along with yourself. So these days you have the album coming up. What else are you have you been up to? Are you still doing writing art stuff? Yeah, I'm working on, you know, I had my book come out in 2018 on Hoseck Books. And that's sold out of two printings. And right now, I'm working with this company, Hat and Beard. I'm going to do a photo book. I had an exhibit of my photos here in Hoboken. I got some photo shows in the works. It's just so many things. I'm doing a spoken word thing at a for the genre is Death Record Release Party this Sunday. May 15th, I'm sitting in with live skull because they're drama rise some things he has health issues. And so, you know, and I've been playing, you know, pickup shows here and there. Yeah, I think I'm, you know, and plus, you know, I'm still, you know, dealing with my the health of my girlfriend. And so, yeah, you know, so I have no plans. I think I've done enough touring in my life. You know, you got to get tired of being on a bus. Well, yeah, not even a bus. But it's just kind of like, you know, it's so funny because most people that do a ton of touring through all these years, or with their cells or their same band, like I've toured Europe like 20 times, but it was with like seven different bands. I mean, while you're like a working a working musician, you know, that's that's one of the advantages of being a drummer. Well, you know, as you know, it's hard to find good drummers and good bass players. I'm a bass player. So, yeah, but that's cool man. What a what a fun life. And, you know, it's funny when you're a kid and you want to be a musician, you know, you're kind of your eyes are wide open and and you're just wondering what the possibilities are. It's fun to get on this side of things and go, wow, I did all this stuff. Yeah, I mean, you know, and I did it all with, you know, not very much talent. Well, that's that's not true. You know, yeah, I mean, for a lot of things, I was just at the right place at the right time. And, you know, and one one thing about me getting a lot of work and not so much even like the skill but, you know, I mean, you know, I'm not sure. I mean, I'm a dependable person. I've never missed a show. I've never missed a rehearsal. I get along with everybody. You know, so yeah, those are and those are big things because those are big things. As you know, with musicians, it's not always that easy. No, you know, I mean, a lot of the drummers that I came up with, you know, not not a lot of them are, you know, still working or still around. Yeah. Yeah, I can relate to that. What's some advice that you would give to young musicians but are creatives in general? What's some couple of points that you've really learned and you kind of mentioned a couple of them right there but yeah, my advice is to be creative, have fun, don't even think about having success. Just if you create something unique and original, whoever digs it is going to find you, especially in this day and age, right, you know, you know, it's so different now in every way from when I was coming up and, you know, I was playing with a sitting in for a band recently of younger people and and the one thing I like that the on dummy was just like, all these New York clubs now, they all have back lines. So you show up like with a simple bag, you know, it's just like how much easier in the 80s and even 90s and 2000. It was just like, you know, I mean, CBGB used to have seven bands a night and there would be seven drum kits. You know, and so many times I would play these little shows right like load the my drum kit into my car, bring it to the place, set it up, play a show to nobody, and then you know, break it down, unload it for in the morning. And like, you know, those days are gone. So, you know, I mean, unless you know, of course, if you're going on tour, you're going to have your own stuff. But but you know, so many things are just so different now, you know. But yeah, you know, and it's for better or for worse. I guess I don't know. That's how you look at it. I mean, in some ways, it's better. I love the fact that I can go on YouTube and watch myself play 40 years ago in Italy or something like that. You know, like, you think you remember things, but when you're watching it, you're like, you know, Well, and you and you I mean, the thing is that you have an important history and a lot of people, I mean, I'm only scratching the surface because you also had a very, a very popular fanzine that you put you published and there's a lot that we could go out for a couple of hours probably. Yeah, no, I know. It's like when we're when we're working on the bio for this record, it was just like, What do you start? Yeah, you know, Glenn Morrow was writing it and you know, there was just, you know, and he's put in all this stuff, you know, and I was just like, I said, this is how you know, I said, most bios you write, you probably have to pad them. Exactly. Yeah, I've got I've got it the same way. I've got 10 jobs. So people people like, what do you do? I'm like, well, it's kind of a wacky list. But hey, Bob, thank you so much for joining me. I know you're a busy guy. And, and reading on your history, it was just really fascinating. And I, and I, you know, just your basic label, your big label could be just creative guy because you've covered so many different genres and really been had a lot of effect and an inspiration to many people. Oh, thank you. And along with the groups and the bands and the art and everything. So it's really awesome to speak with you. Thank you so much. Tell people how they could find you and your work and all that stuff. You know, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook. I'm easy. I'm easy to find and easy to get tracked down. You know, I get contacted by people all the time. I got a message last night on Facebook. I know on Instagram from someone and they said that they were, you know, casting a movie and the director thought I would be good. Are you interested in acting? And I was just like, well, I'm not an actor, but tell me more, please. Yeah, you know, yeah, it's fun when that stuff happens. You're like, well, I had thought about that, but okay, let's let's try it. Well, awesome. Everybody, Bob, check out Bob's new album coming out. It's Beach, Bongo, Bloodbath on Barton Records in middle of June, June 12. And also check out your book out and you have the photographs and everything else. I'm sure some of that's a lot of that's on your social media pages that they can check out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just Google me. There you go. Thank you so much, Bob. I really appreciate your time. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Awesome. Have a great day. You too.
