Les Claypool, 54, is a funny type: grey goatee beard, straw hat, black clothes, round glasses and an almost philosophical flow of speech. If you didn't know better, you might think you have a painter, writer or university professor in front of you. But the man from San Francisco is a musician. Rock musicians. And what one: Since the mid 80s he is mastermind, frontman and bassist of Primus, has released nine studio albums with the trio and at least as many with various side projects as well as composed the title melody for the cartoon series "South Park". In spite of his enormous popularity, he has not yet experienced the great commercial breakthrough. But he didn't miss it either: "We swam on the alternative rock wave of the nineties for a few years, but we basically had nothing to do with it. And we were never the band that got a lot of airplay. We did too much nonsense for that, with crazy concepts and nonsense songs. When it got boring, we took a ten-year break."
In this one, Claypool likes to tell us, he applied for the vacant position of Metallica bass player. "I went to school with Kirk [Hammett], so we know each other very well. And they jammed with me too, really gave me a chance. But it quickly became clear that we were not on the same wavelength. I'm too arty and crazy for them. That wouldn't have worked."
Especially since Claypool can do things with Primus that would be unthinkable in the Metallica context. Like the current work "The Desaturating Seven", a concept album based on the children's book "The Rainbow Goblins" by the Italian writer Ul de Rico. It deals with seven nasty mythical creatures that feed on rainbows - until they defend themselves. "I don't know how many times I've read this book to my kids. And I have to admit that I find it exciting myself, both in terms of the story and the drawings. It's one of the better books kids can use to annoy their parents. At some point, I got the idea, "What if I vertone this? Wouldn't that be a good concept album?"
