How Was the Show Interview 4/11/08

An Interview with Rick Widen of Tuesdays Robot on 4/11/08
By: David Rachac

Rick Widen is the principal songwriter and singer for the folk band Tuesdays Robot. In this interview, he talks about his musical journey, his orientation to the peace movement and his new CD, Peace Sing-A-Long, which will be celebrated at a CD release party at the 331 Club on Friday, April 18.

HowWasTheShow: Tell me about your musical background - when you started playing, early bands and how the lineup for Tuesdays Robot came about.

Rick Widen: I've been playing the guitar since junior high. I took a lot of French horn lessons, but no guitar. Me and my friends mostly taught each other by going on our friend's computer and downloading Smashing Pumpkins tabs from whatever the Internet was in '95. Or we would just listen to our favorite records and figure it out as best we could. Most of high school was spent playing straight-edge punk or emo--back when emo just meant noise-punk with sappy lyrics. We thought it was dumb when people started calling Weezer and Dashboard Confessional "emo." Nowadays, I have no idea what emo is, except that it isn't on a valid Scrabble word list yet. Oh yeah, and we threw a lot of yogurt at the Goth kids because we thought they were posers.

After spending a lot of time trying not to be a poser, I went to college in Duluth and met Andrew, who helped me discover that all I really wanted to do was drink Premos and listen to Dylan and The Band. On a side-note, it's funny when people ask you who your favorite band is and you say "The Band." A lot of people just don't know what you are talking about, but that's cool.

After college, Andrew and I moved to Minneapolis with our other band Great Big
Dreams, which was kind of a Radiohead, Kid A thing. We played together in Tuesdays Robot as a side project for four years as a duo before Josie found me on Myspace. We had known Josie in college and it wasn't long before she was playing keyboards for us. Nick joined the band soon after he got back from a teaching stint in New Zealand. We've never had a full time bass player, but have always really wanted one.

HWTS: Where did the name Tuesdays Robot come from?

RW: Well, my nickname in high school was "Robot," mainly because I was, and still am to an extent, a kind of Forrest Gump space-case. I can't remember where "Tuesdays" comes from. Maybe we just used to practice on Tuesday, or I thought it sounded cool. Most of the time, if something "means" anything, the meaning is assigned after the writer writes it. I've found that whenever I sit down to write a song that specifically means something, it turns out really crappy. Oh yeah, and there is no apostrophe, not that it matters much.


When people want it to mean something, I tell them it's a warning for people not to become "Tuesdays robots," basically people that don't pay attention to stuff and get jaded by the fact that they feel they can't make a big difference in the world. We used to call them "tools," although now I try not to use too much language that sounds like it's harping on people. While I think it is true that most of us feel we can't make big differences, we've got to understand that little differences are just as important. Here is a lyric from a song I'll probably never finish: "We're all robots and we all deserve it/Are you a robot slave or a robot servant?" And that means whatever you want it, too, I suppose.

HWTS: If one was to categorize your band solely on your name, one might think of an electronica band, not one so steeped in a country and rock vein.

RW: As far as sounding country or folky or rocky, I think for me, it's mostly important that people listen to the lyrics. I can think of about a jillion bands that sound better than us, but when it comes to bands that I can connect with on a content/conceptual level, I get a little lonesome. I don't really know the Dixie Chicks, if you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong, there's gotta be plenty of people writing good songs out there nowadays, I just haven't met many yet. My friend Stook is one of them, real positive songs. Gabe Barnett, he's playing our CD release, he has some songs that'll really make you think, if you're into that kind of stuff.

I really try hard not to think that singing topical songs or peace songs is any more valid than bumping electronica. Dylan once said something like you can't change anyone's mind with a song, that songs aren't "about" anything, although I think really he was just trying to get people off his back. But I agree it's not really about changing minds as it is promoting a feeling, mostly the feeling that there's something going on and other people can feel it. The reason most people are turned off by topical songs is that most of them just vent frustration and are full of put-downs. Nobody really wants to listen to that too much I think, let alone sing along to it. I hope Tuesdays Robot can avoid that whole vibe.

HWTS: Peace Sing-A-Long is your second Tuesdays Robot disc. What are some of the similarities and differences between this disc and your self-titled disc?

RW: Well, I guess my whole life I've been one kind of poser or another, and in our last album, I was doing my best Dylan impression, employing a lot of irony and wit and WTFs. This Peace Sing-a-Long album was started as a way to be more positive about how I've been feeling over the last five years. John Lennon died right before I was born, also Bob Marley, and I think many people forgot how fun it can be to include a positive or political message in pop music. Although Punk carried the torch and don't forget "We are the World"--that was dope. Billy Bragg, too, I think. I suppose with this album I was just hoping to add to the body of work that's already out there.

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, just keep it spinning as best I can. Trying to be a peace-poser, I guess. Although I do try to put my money where my mouth is and frequently go to WRL meetings and RNC planning shindigs and the like - it's going to be wild, Minneapolis! I'm moderately involved in the peace movement, but there are scores of people that deserve more recognition for this sort of thing than me and my silly songs.

HWTS: Which song do you feel is the cornerstone of the album?

RW: My first inkling is to say "I Am U" because it sounded the best. But really the best song for what it is would have to be "The Seeds of Peace." It's the only one on the album that wasn't produced, we just did it for fun when Josie was picking up her friend from the Amtrak station. She was ticked when we chose that version over the digi-produced one, but we had her overdub a track onto it, so it was all good. It also ties a common thread to our first album which revolved around a song called "Tribalism Yodel." I suspect the songs were born out of people forgetting that it is not enough to just take care of your own. I think the peace of our own society is forfeited every time we drop one bomb, or neutralize one enemy combatant. I mean, come on, pouring water on someone's head can't make us safer from "terrorists," whatever that means.

To me, there are no terrorists, everyone on the planet is an American to me, if you catch my drift. Don't get me wrong, there are criminals in this world, but criminals are the result of an unjust society, not the cause. To me, it's completely counterproductive to invent categorical divisions between human beings. "Us and Them" thinking leads to war, "I Am U" thinking leads to peace. Most things in life are not this simple, but peace is this simple--it's the courage to act on the principle that is almost humanly impossible. Sometimes I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, I just have to put it to a tune. And out of the lot of silly songs that I write, those kinds of songs are the most important to me.

HWTS: What other music projects are you involved in?

RW: I play pedal guitar and banjo with a lot of local folkers, most recently Meg Ashling, Brian Just and Jonathan Delehanty. Also our jug band, The Como Ave Jug Band, is playing the CD Party on April 18. Honestly, if I had to choose one band to be in the rest of my life, it would be the Jug Band, in spite of any ambitions I had for the Robot. Much of the reason I produced a "sing-a-long" album was that sometimes I just really feel alone a lot of the time. I simply love it when people are singing the same tune, and with the Jug Band, it's almost impossible to feel alone. That's what it is all about.

HWTS: Your CD release party for Peace Sing-A-Long will be Friday, April 18 at the 331 Club. What are we going to see there?

RW: Heartfelt folker and good friend Gabe Barnett, the ruckus Como Ave Jug Band and Tuesdays Robot will be playing songs off the new album as well as sing-a-long songs from the peace movement catalogs as well as other sing-a-longers that don't really have any more of an agenda than blocking out the lonesome blues. Right now, I'm most excited about this medley we put together where we do "Give Peace A Chance," "The Times, They Are A'Changin'" and "Hey Jude" all at the same time, smushed together like a lot of things should be.

HWTS: Any final comments?

RW: It was the peace symbol's 50th anniversary--as it appeared in the peace movement--in March! We didn't plan that or anything, it's just a funny factoid. Lastly, I'm working on a myspace for TC peace vigils. It's not much of anything yet, but by May, it should be a good source for info on what's going on in the peace movement here in the Twin Cities. Visit www.myspace.com/TCpeacevigils if you would like to stand on some bridges or light some candles.