The US-American David Judson Clemmons found a new home in Berlin many years ago. Rock music, highly emotional rock music is what he presents on his solo albums and with his two bands JUD and The Fullbliss. While his solo works are arranged more spartanly and The Fullbliss rock with a smoldering and longing, JUD is a heavy and rough band. However, David Judson Clemmons is always concerned with the everyday struggles, society and politics that can make the life of the so-called little man a strain. With eclipsed the Berliner-by-choice talks about his bands, about his life, about the present time and about the recently released JUD album "Generation Vulture".
eclipsed: The new JUD album "Generation Vulture" starts with a rough guitar thunder. Is that the sound that corresponds to how you see the world, society and "schizoid humanity" (as you call them in the new song "Find Us, Heal Us")?
David Judson Clemmons: "Rough guitar thunder" - I like that. I hope that my works reflect society lyrically and sonically. Ever since I started out as an artist, I have felt in myself the ability to express this. "Schizoid humanity" refers to the fact that the term "humanity" actually sounds quite likeable, although nowadays there is far too little friendliness to be found and some people are real bastards
eclipsed: All the lyrics are full of anger, despair, bitterness, sadness. What makes you think that?
DJC: I am a very optimistic person. I always try to look at things positively. Like, "Hey, today's the end of the world. But it's still a beautiful morning." Strangely enough, all the struggles and efforts inspire me. Usually it starts with the fact that I am not satisfied with myself. Then at some point it "clicks" in my head, no matter if I'm sitting in a train or going for a walk somewhere in town and see a poor soul who has lost her legs or can't speak anymore. When I see how many people have to fight every day to experience the next day, and at the same time there are so many greedy, ungrateful people on this planet, then I get a stomachache. That cheers me on to deal with it and tell the truth.
eclipsed: The album has the subtitle "An Album For The Living. An Album For The Dead". What's it all about?
DJC: That has a literal and a metaphorical meaning. Literally: Each of us has lost friends and family members in recent years. For all these is the music. Metaphorically: The music is for everyone we love. For all who live their lives "alive", and also for those who, while they live, are as it were already "dead", i.e. somehow lonely and isolated. With this album I want to build a bridge and connect both
eclipsed: On your last solo album "Cold White Earth" the song "You Died Again Today" contains the line: "The only way to live is to die and try again." Do you think the world will die and then try again?
DJC: Of course I didn't mean it that literally. It was all about pressing the reset button and sobering up because I was a heavy drinker. Oh man, now you mention this song and in me this feeling comes up again that I have to die and start all over again. Right now I have a scene coming to mind ... you must know, I'm a science fiction fan ... the scene in the last episode of "Battlestar Galactica": The captain gives the order that the whole remaining space fleet should fly into the sun and thereby destroy itself. I don't want anything like that at all. But we should be aware that something like this could really happen if those greedy assholes took power.
eclipsed: How do you rate the new album compared to the older ones?
DJC: I like all my albums. With every album I try to create a kind of time capsule. I would like to capture a piece of culture in it. I want to give the album a personality. When you hear the album years later, then it should be like a "map" of that time. I'm also trying to predict what might happen. I wrote the new album in 2014 and recorded it in 2015. So long before Trump came to power. It's funny, but the night we finished the base tracks for the album, the Belgian airport was hit. And the day we finished the mixing, there was the truck hit in Nice. They're terrible people who do these things. So many innocent victims. On both days I came home so happy from the sessions. Then I saw the news and thought that we should no longer be happy in our lives. "Generation Vulture" is an attempt to capture this jolt in society and culture. So many things change, psychically, mentally, technically, globally, culturally. I wanted to put that on the album. I tried very hard to make the album timeless, without compromises, with many guitars, and to integrate James, Steve, Jan and Anne [DJC's longtime musical companions].
eclipsed: You're from Virginia, USA. Please tell us a little about your previous life.
DJC: I was born in Virginia in 1966 and moved to Los Angeles in 1986. I was just 19. I took this step alone with my bandmate Steve Cordrey. It was crazy, actually, but we did it. Steve still lives there. In high school, we had different bands. We played cover songs of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and other classics. So we were a little isolated in Richmond, Virginia. My father owned a small business, and I had many friends. We were a good family. After I went to Los Angeles, some family members died. This has changed a lot. However, it was still a good basis for the start into life. In Los Angeles, I did various jobs. I've tried a lot of things. Speed metal, for example. I played Murdercar with Ross Robinson and Dave McClain in the band. Me on bass. That was a lot of fun. But from then on I also did my own stuff and wrote many songs for my own project Ministers Of Anger. Dave played the drums and I played all the other instruments. That was some sick stuff. I couldn't play that today. This was reissued a few years ago. But Ministers Of Anger hasn't turned out to be anything. Later I lived in Pittsburgh. There I met Chris Poland (the original guitarist of Megadeth). We formed the band Damn The Machine. I was singing and playing guitar. We jammed. We actually got a major deal at A&M. That was a great, but short episode. It could have been more, but our management was weird. We were dragged to clothes stores, had to change our hairstyles, and I felt the pressure to be like David Lee Roth. That just wasn't my thing. That just went too far for me. When they tried to send me to an acting school, we dropped out. Damn Hollywood. I said: "Fuck it", sold off my expensive guitar equipment and got my old Marshall amplifiers out again and founded JUD with my old buddies. That was in 1994. From today's perspective, that was a great decision.
eclipsed: When did you come to Berlin? And why did you stay here?
DJC: That was 2000. You can just live well in Berlin. But already in 1993 I came to Europe for the first time. That's when we toured with Damn The Machine for a month with Dream Theater. I didn't think much about it in 2000. In retrospect, that was also a good decision. Artistically I fit much better to Berlin than to Los Angeles. You have no idea what kind of bullshit happens in LA. For my band The Fullbliss we should sign a record deal. Then the guy from the record company said that they didn't make contracts with musicians older than 25. Something like that makes me sick. L.A. is a strange place. I miss the city, but my home is now Berlin. I have friends and fans here, and nobody cares how old I am. And I don't care how old others are. This is the right life for me.
eclipsed: What do you think of Donald Trump?
DJC: A piece of dog shit on the road that you have to ride your bike over and over again until it's finally gone. Give me the chance, and I'll do it. He's a selfish idiot with no sense of diplomacy. Bernie Sanders would have been the man. The problem is, people are assholes. They want peace and freedom. And then they complain all the time about someone who wants to lead them in exactly that direction. They don't want poor people getting the same medical care as the rich. The Americans need a new mental adjustment. Like a bat in school. He needs something on his nose in front of everyone. Then he can sit down and cry and apologize. Then he goes to sleep, gets up the next day and can try to make himself a better person. That's what America needs. And that's why America chose this idiot.
eclipsed: How do you decide for which of your projects, JUD or The Fullbliss or solo, you want to use a song?
DJC: That's the free choice: the, the, the, the, female, male, neutral, what can it be? I usually know that when the song's done. When we're working on an album, I write the songs for that album as well. I usually get the ideas just like that. I don't know, cosmos controlled, maybe. I try to express these ideas in melodies and words. An album is then a vehicle of these ideas. The world is changing, and I wouldn't be surprised if the album format disappeared at some point and only video singles were sold. But I like albums.
eclipsed: What are the differences between JUD, The Fullbliss and David Judson Clemmons, the solo artist?
DJC: My feelings about it are hard to put into words. I feel certain structures that dictate the different orientations. The respective songs speak for themselves. The Fullbliss has a rather southern influence. Indie, Los Angeles, everything's more American. Strings are present in the sound, and everything seems a bit lighter. JUD, on the other hand, is clearly darker and heavier. JUD develops more than teamwork. It's more of a family thing. Of course the songs have loud guitars, a heavy bass. This is a real power trio, with excellent drums. JUD is the band that doesn't become famous, but should be kept going, as a place to have fun, so to speak, for the people who know this place. My solo albums come into being when I don't know what to do. The DJC songs are more European. In the last few years I have missed playing the guitar a bit, and that brought me back to JUD. I don't want to put any of my projects in the foreground. It's also fun to take turns and keep things a little chaotic. Sometimes I think I should just take care of one thing. But whenever that happens, I get feedback from the fans that they like the other projects as well. I think I'll leave it as it is.
eclipsed: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
DJC: Oh ... strengths: I am driven by a creative force that allows me to continue composing and singing even when others have long since given up. I go on and on. Some might laugh about it. But I keep going because I need this and because others need this. Weaknesses: I have too many ideas. My consciousness is a wild place. I'm always trying to focus on just a few things. I was just talking to my wife about what's on my mind. A new topic every few seconds. She couldn't believe it. I need to learn to control that.
eclipsed: What do you see yourself as? As rebels? As poets?
DJC: I like stories like David and Goliath, Robin Hood or John Henry. I've never trusted fanatical or opportunistic guys. I have no problems with religion. But I think it's wrong for one to force the other to go to church. I hope I represent the worker and speak for the ordinary person - and that I can sing and speak so that people come together, from right and left, from above and below. Finding a common basis. I don't want to call myself a rebel. But I want to be an advocate of the weak and the beaten. I hope I'm a poet. But not in a literary sense, but more through the feelings that my words trigger. I try to find words that others don't use. In Los Angeles I once read the lyrics of a new song to a friend with whom I was in a cover band in Richmond in the 80s over the phone. He interrupted me and said, "Man, what you write is so different. Your words have power and strength." I think that was the moment when I realized that I could do it and that I should go on with it. Although I never had much interest in reading. When I read, I fall asleep. Only a few books can keep my interest alive. Jules Verne, for example. I feel my job as a writer is important to me. Even if I don't have much success with it. But who knows. I'm moving on.
eclipsed: Your musical career has now lasted over 20 years. How do you see your personal development?
DJC: My first recordings with Dave McClain and Ministers Of Anger were in 1987, 30 years ago. Moving to Berlin has been very good for my development. I think the combination of Southern Virginia, West Coast L.A. and Berlin is a great encouragement to my work and to me personally. Things I internalized in the USA, I have discarded again. By that I mean this, too: Someone who has a day job or works with his hands or makes music doesn't have to be a loser. Soon my seventh child will be born, and everyday life is a marathon run. I am extremely proud of what I have achieved. I have to accept that fate keeps me on the carpet. When I'm sad or desperate, it's only temporary. If it shines through my texts, then it is only temporary and is simply due to the times in which we live. I feel a little wise after all my travels. I've come a long way for a not so successful musician. I was lucky and met a lot of great people. Sure, I'm mature, but I still have to learn and grow. I know that I am in the second half of my life and that I have to take advantage of the opportunities that now present themselves. And I have to realize that my position as frontman of JUD and The Fullbliss is a very special one. We are only small, but there are many smaller bands. Even though I still have many wishes, I am happy. I'm at peace with myself. My soul helps me, speaks to me and reminds me that all the struggles in my life also have meaning. I must accept this and use it to stay connected with other people, not to put myself above them or to subordinate myself, to live with them on the same level, be it with the last scum or the most noble spirits. I have to keep going.
*Interview: Bernd Sievers
