Clinic’s debut album, Internal Wrangler, has been out for over a year in Europe but was only recently released to the American public. Owing much of their stateside fame to Radiohead, for whom they opened during the Kid A European tour, Clinic has only recently piqued the interest of Americans — but isn’t that how it works most of the time?

Internal Wrangler is refreshingly innovative, blending styles from the likes of the aforementioned Radiohead, The Velvet Underground and the Stooges. Almost every song teeters on the edge of a train wreck of quirkiness, but the voice of Ade Blackburn, lead singer and guitarist, sometimes serves to calm the storm.

Blackburn’s singing could be compared to a prepubescent Thom Yorke, and his lyrics are often difficult to decipher. On “The Second Line”, the chorus is some approximation of “diggy diggy a mom a non.” Other songs are not quite as inaccessible, and Blackburn’s vocals move in layers within the music, as opposed to over it.

Internal Wrangler is nothing short of phenomenal. Do not be surprised when it turns up on many “top” lists for 2001, including ours to be published next week.

The Badger Herald recently caught up with Blackburn from his home in Liverpool, England.

BH: The lyrics on Internal Wrangler are most of the time unintelligible and inaccessible. Is there motivation behind the unidentifiable vocals on the album?
AB: Lyrically, it is fine to excuse lyrics in a rhythmical sense. When we write the songs, quite often it will be not written from chords as a songwriter might approach it. It will be more from the music. In that way I don’t consider in all the songs the singing, the lyrics, to be always the most important element in them.

BH: Your song “The Second Line” definitely demonstrates the unidentifiable lyrics. Are you actually singing words or is more like just mush?
AB: Its kind of just phonetic: sounds that seem to fit together well, with the rhythm of the song. Some of it is words and some of it isn’t, but I would still actually choose the sounds of the rest of the lyrics of it quite carefully. It wouldn’t just be any sort of sounds.

BH: “Distortions” is a particularly good song on the album, and the lyrics are clear. What is the song about?
AB: Yes, I see what you’re saying, that song has a full sort of lyric to it. It’s easier to follow. It’s about having a conflict with yourself, choosing between the right and wrong thing to do in different situations in your life.

BH: Musically, Clinic seems to draw from a lot of different places: some early ’70s music like The Velvet Underground, along with some punk and garage rock; and also from other forms like electronica and some more ambient-type music. Who would you name as your biggest influence?
AB: I think what you’re saying is true. I wouldn’t say it was any particular band or bands that is the biggest single influence on what we do. I think I tend to like particular sounds or songs that people have done, but I think that what you’ve identified as a lineage for us is true.

BH: If you could make people understand one thing about your music what would it be?
AB: To appreciate its pop music, the underlying basis of it. It should be music you can dance to.

BH: Your music seems to be particularly historically conscious regarding rock ‘n’ roll. Do you think rock has become more conscious of its past in the last few years, and is this the direction it is going?
AB: Yes, to an extent. I think it becomes harder and harder to make original music or original combinations of things that people haven’t heard before. And with rock being approximately 50 years old, you really have to be able to use different things from the past and make new things by combining that with other stuff.

BH: When talking about historically conscious rock, a band like The Strokes, who get compared a lot to The Velvet Underground, comes to mind. The Strokes are big in Europe and America right now. What do you think of them?
AB: I like some of the Strokes’ music: songs that are more Velvet Underground and slightly the same thing with the Stooges influence to it. There is a side of it that is more ’80s with an orange juice, Smiths-type guitar to it, is not really what I am into.

BH: Band like Blur, Oasis, Pulp and Coldplay are part of Brit Rock popular in the states now. What do you think of the current state of British Rock?
AB: I’ve never really been able to take Oasis seriously; I’d have to dismiss them. I think there is some intelligence to Blur’s music and I like some things they have done. The newer wave of bands like Coldplay and Travis, I think their music seems so weak: there is no edge to the music. It’s melodic music, but it would seem to me to be more for older, middle-aged people than young people — pretty safe. It’s not anything I can listen to.

BH: What music have you been listening to and enjoying lately?
AB: Recently, a band from Liverpool called Coral. They’re kind of a mixture of all kinds of things like Captain Beefheart and also Public Enemy. And another Liverpool band called Kling Klang. They’re sort of a weird Kraftwerk-influenced band. I always try to listen to bands from the early on. That’s when you get the innovative stuff.

BH: Clinic has toured with Radiohead a lot. What is your relationship like with them? Do they influence you, and have you learned anything from them?
AB: The way the gigs are put together is really relaxed, not what I expected perhaps before we’d played any shows with them. There’s no egos, and everyone is just really down to earth. That impressed me — that you could be a band at their level and have a really well-balanced view of themselves and being celebrities. Musically, what they are doing with the last two albums was a brave step. They could’ve just done OK Computer, Part Two. To choose what they did, something more challenging, I think was admirable.

BH: On Sept. 30 in Japan, Carl (Clinic’s drummer) played tambourine with Radiohead on “In Limbo.” How did that come about?

AB: Because of the way it is with Radiohead, really relaxed, they came into our room and said to Carl, “Do you want to play this?” They needed some extra percussion on the song, and Carl played for the other five nights, the other Japanese gigs that we played. That kind of attitude towards it, where you’re not really precious, you let other people get involved in it, I think that’s cool.

BH: Does Clinic have a new album in the works?
AB: The next album we are going to release will be in March, and we’ll come over to America and a fuller tour than last time.

BH: What is most perplexing to you about American culture?
AB: That’s a good one. Maybe the old clich? about British people being quite reserved and Americans being more open. They would come up and talk to you openly in the street. That was completely different. Everyone seemed to say just exactly what they felt. I thought in some ways that was better, but it was just hard to adjust to.

BH: What is your favorite food?
AB: Chili.

BH: Do you like it spicy?
AB: Yeah, very spicy, yeah (laughs).

BH: Britney Spears?
AB: I think she looked better maybe a year or so ago, but now she seems to have aged a lot more than she should have.

BH: What do you think is most difficult about women?
AB: I don’t really find them difficult.