Fishbone: Back to Ground Zero
Angelo Moore talks about overcoming ‘Stockholm Syndrome’
It’s been almost 20 years since Fishbone released their last full-length studio album.
But on June 27, the acclaimed punk-ska-funk band will end this drought when they release Stockholm Syndrome.
“We knew it was the right time when we got the musicians to fill in the spots and interpret the music,” says vocalist/saxophonist Angelo Moore, calling from the band’s tour bus as it rumbled across New Mexico.
This decision to reshuffle the membership lineup is also a crucial reason why Moore chose this album’s title: “’Stockholm Syndrome’ is [when you’re] praising your captives, and at one point in Fishbone’s most recent history, things started to feel like a penitentiary,” he says. “It started to get a little claustrophobic. When you’re in a scenario where your partners start to feel like captors, that’s definitely the point where I was calling it ‘Fishbone Penitentiary.’ It had a feeling of dysfunctional family traits within the band.
“And so,” he continues, “even though Fishbone made a lot of really great music and had a lot of good times, after a while, your colleagues start to feel like your captors — that’s when the end of that whole lineup was coming because you can’t feel like a captive forever. But you’ve got to thank your so-called captors for all of the great ideas and the music and the art that they were a part of creating.”
As on Fishbone’s previous seven studio albums, Stockholm Syndrome — featuring a revamped lineup that also includes returning singer/keyboardist Chris Dowd along with Tracey “Spacey T” Singleton (guitars), Hassan Hurd (drums), JS Williams (trumpet), and James Jones (bass) — touches on a variety of socio-political topics.
“There’s a song on there called ‘Racist Piece of Shit.’ That was the single. That’s the one they banned. So I guess we probably wrote it so that it could get banned, so people want to go see what the fuss is all about,” Moore says with a laugh.
He says that the album’s 12 songs have “a lot of angst and trauma in a lot of the subject matter, a lot of life experiences in there. A lot of the lyrics and subject matter comes from a lot of dysfunction, misinterpretation, the result of pride and ego and a lot of misunderstanding and bullying.”
He thinks this ultra-realism is one of the reasons why Fishbone’s music has connected so strongly with listeners.
“It’s definitely the rebels’ music, for sure,” he says, “and [because] the subject matters that we sing about are based on real life experiences, there ain’t too much fantasy going on. Maybe just a little bit. But for the most part, we have lyrics coming from life experiences. We had the experience ourselves, or see happening around us. I think everybody can relate to some down to earth experiences that we all know.”
At the same time, the band’s exuberant and eclectic sound also exudes a certain joyfulness, which Moore says is deliberate.
“The music is supposed to be there to release you and free you,” he says.
Besides listening to the new album, fans can also get a dose of Fishbone’s cathartic sound at one of the band’s numerous upcoming live shows across the United States. They’ll join Less Than Jake’s “Summer Circus” tour that runs throughout this summer, and they’re also doing a string of their own headlining shows from June 28 through July 5. They’re set to perform at the Long Beach, California, stops of the Vans Warped Tour on July 26 and 27, as well.
When people attend one of these shows, Moore says, “They’re going to get a fresh, powerful interpretation of Fishbone. They’re going to hear some of the new stuff, too.”
Moore co-founded Fishbone when he and the other members were still in junior high school in Los Angeles. During that same time, Moore was already showing promise as a budding lyricist.
“I’d just write a lot of poetry when I was in junior high and high school, and then reading it [out loud] on the boardwalk and the coffee shop,” he says.
Through a music class at school, he began learning to play the alto saxophone, thus following in his father’s footsteps. “My dad played saxophone with Count Basie for a while, so he was always into the heavy jazz and stuff. Jazz and blues.”
Later on, Moore also drew a lot of inspiration from reggae and ska. It was this unique blend of various influences, he says, that contributed to the distinctive Fishbone sound.
“All the music that you hear, you end up playing, and it just ends up being part of your music, anyway,” he says. “As you’re making up whatever you’re making up, all these different styles of music, you incorporate. From that, you get your original sound.”
As Fishbone evolved, Moore gradually shifted into the lead singer role. “Singing goes along with playing your instrument,” he says. “Sometimes you’ve got to sing the parts, and sometimes you just end up singing a song. So I just ended up singing a lot of songs that everybody was making. Everybody was singing; I guess I just ended up singing the most.”
VIDEO: Fishbone “Racist Piece of Shit”
Fishbone released their debut album, In Your Face, in 1986 — but it was their next release, 1988’s Truth and Soul, that brought them widespread attention. Their third album, The Reality of My Surroundings (1991) did even better, landing the band on the Billboard chart and earning them a hit single with “Everyday Sunshine.” They’ve retained a loyal following ever since.
Moore says he’s well aware of the pressures that come with meeting people’s expectations for his work at this point — but he doesn’t let this unduly influence him.
“People expect you to do maybe a certain thing because they remember you from the last time they saw you, or the first time they got acquainted with your music — they want to be able to see that and embrace that and re-experience that to the end,” he says, “but it ain’t necessarily the case because everybody gets older and time moves on. You’ve got to change with the times, because the time will be moving on without your ass if you ain’t careful.”
These days, he says, “I find myself having to learn how to recreate and to reinvent myself if I want to keep playing this music with as much believability as I have.”
Moore also feels a certain sense of responsibility to continue working because he’s now the sole continuous member of Fishbone.
“If I quit the band, the band will cease to exist. That’s what people keep telling me,” he says. “So I feel like I’ve got to stay here and make sure that it keeps going forward.”
VIDEO: Fishbone “Last Call in America”
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