Luke Dumpert: What spurred you guys to start Primitive Ring?
Charles Moothart: It really started with a conversation between Bert [Hoover] and I. We both have spent a lot of time touring with a lot of bands. So, there were a few conversations he and I had where we were just kind of wanting to have a new collaborative experience. Sometimes you just need to kind of hit refresh on that creative energy. We talked about just getting together and jamming, and Jon [Modaff] has played drums with Bert a lot. Jon was also then playing drums with me, and so we'd all spent time playing music together. So it just made sense, like our worlds were kind of coming together, you know?
At the time, Bert had a recording session booked with our friend Eric Bauer, who's an awesome engineer. They were just going to just do a garage home recording session, just a kind of “throw paint at the wall” kind of thing. Since he already had that booked, Bert was like, ‘let's just write a couple songs and do that.’ That's what ended up becoming our first two seven inches. So, it was kind of just a fortuitous moment where it just made sense.
Luke: Your bio states ‘Rock and roll is in its essence a primal experience, and the name reflects that.’ Does the ‘Ring’ in your name represent unity within the band, to expand on that primal feel through your music?
Charles: I'm glad you asked that, because, to me, I think that's the most fun thing about the name. You can kind of take any definition of the word “ring” and it works. There's the ring like we are all here together, then there's also the sound. There’s also the physical primitive ring, like, if you were to think of [it as] some archaic or lost vestige of the past or something. I think that it's a fun way to kind of pay homage to both what the band is as three people continuing the journey of rock and roll. We’re aware we're not reinventing the wheel, but we still take pride in what we do. We are all part of the primitive ring.
Luke: The album is described as a Genesis story, and I was wondering, do the lyrics tell a story in chronological order within the tracklist?
Charles: No— but there are moments, though, where I think that we are toying with that. Once “Fire and Brimstone" started coming together, it was pretty clear that it was going to be track one. Once we were working on it, we were like, ‘cool, let's tackle this as the opening song.” We were really trying to lean into a kind of a cinematic [feel]. Bert kept using the term ‘title,’ like if the record was a film– then this is the title sequence. That, in itself, felt like an explosive creativity moment of kind of being like, ‘this is the genesis of the record.’ This is us really trying to make ourselves known to the world, or whoever wants to listen and to people who are getting familiar with our music. Our singles were that as well, but this is us kind of trying to put some mistakes out there and be like “This is who we are, and we retain the right to go farther than this.”
Luke: I’m glad you brought up “Fire and Brimstone.” The string arrangements on that song and “Golden" are awesome. I think they add to the song in such a unique way. How did you decide to bring those into the mix?
Charles: With “Fire and Brimstone”, we were definitely in the demoing process. We used a Mellotron to get the sounds we knew we wanted there. And Lena, who plays strings on the record, she's just so talented in so many ways. She's a great musician, she has a great ear. She's also an incredible guitarist, so it's like she has a rock and roll mindset. She can do both things and take it on. We figured out a way to kind of tackle the idea in a way that actually makes sense for her instrument.
With “Golden”, once we knew we were going to have strings and some keys on there, the idea came to us to have it end with those with the guests being part of the ending. I don't always like to reference the references we make, but there's definitely a Here Come the Warm Jets [by Brian Eno] kind of energy that I think we were trying to channel where it's the end of that record and the way it kind of fades away, then all of a sudden you're left with this beautiful line. Lena was just kind of freestyling.
Luke: Was the original release of “Golden In Your Eyes” more of a demo?
Charles: Yeah, I really like the life that that song has had because when we went in to do the first session, we didn't really know what we're going to come out with. Like, in our heads, we were like, ‘Oh, if we have one single, or whatever this is a win.’ And then once we realized that we had three songs, it was like, ‘Okay, well, shit, if we could get four, that would be awesome.’ Bert had that basic melody for Golden, and I started kind of playing with it in my head a little bit and came up with a very basic vocal arrangement.
It's funny because it was obviously the outlier of the three. Like the other three tracks were rocking, and this one was going to be mellow, which was fun too, because at a certain point it was just us three sitting there playing acoustic guitars. Jon is playing the 12 string on the seven inch recording. I was just kind of trying to lead the way that I heard it in my head with vocals and we just started layering it. But the real beauty of it was that after we'd made the song, we're like, “Oh, this is really cool.”
It feels really rough around the edges on the seven inch. It essentially is a demo. Once we started playing it live, you know, realizing that it worked in this more up tempo, rocking [way] like The Velvet Underground, that it started to open up new approaches to that song. Then it kind of took on a life of its own.
So it became a fun thing when we realized, “Oh, this might be the only song that we re-record from our first four seven inches for the LP”, especially because it's the only one we felt like we really were starting to play differently. That song had a really fun little journey, [going] from being a little seedling to now just this fun rock song.
Luke: Your cover of “I've Been Waiting for You,” by Neil Young is fantastic. What led to the inclusion of the B side to “Luck”?
Charles: That was one of those things where we had it in our heads that we wanted to do four seven inches in a year, and then make it the goal to make an LP out of all songs that were not on the seven inches. I don't remember where that decision was made, but we consciously made that choice at some point in time. I feel like, at least in our world.
“I've Been Waiting for You” pretty early on was a song that was Bert’s idea to cover it, and I would have never thought to cover that song. We started playing, and we were like, ‘Oh, this is awesome.’ When we first played our first couple of shows, we didn't really have enough songs to play a show, so we needed something like a cover to bring into the mix. We fell in love with playing it pretty quickly. The first two seven inches were recorded in one session, and the second two seven inches were recorded in another session. We were writing a lot at the time and we sat down and set out a couple days at my rehearsal space to record what would be the next two seven inches and it was a no-brainer that “I've Been Waiting for You" would be one of those songs.
From: https://www.occult-magazine.com/interviews/primitive-ring-charles-moothart-interview
