Interview by John Wisniewski
AMFM MAGAZINE: Paul, tell us the new album, out on Shimmy Disc, “Born to be Stupid”. What inspired you on this one?
Paul Leary: Well, “inspired” is a strong word in this context. Songs come to me at a very slow pace. These days I do most of my songwriting on my bicycle. It isn’t a deliberate process, it’s just where my head goes when I’m pedaling. For the past few years these songs creeped into my head until I had to flush them out. It’s such a relief. Like exercising a demon.
AMFM: Could you tell us about working on the debut album of Spray Allen?
Paul Leary: The recording of Spray Allen’s debut album was like going to another planet where everything is just perfect. I am always honored to be working with Eric Wilson. He is an extraordinary musician and a very dear friend. Everyone in Spray Allen is an extraordinary musician. On top of that, they brought in other extraordinary musicians for collaboration: Gabrial McNair, Stu Brooks, and Angel Number 8. It’s really unfair to have that much talent working together. We holed up at Sonic Ranch in west Texas for a month. That place is magical. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, and everything you could possibly need to record an album is there in abundance. Seriously, this was the most fun I’ve had in the studio in a long time.
AMFM: You also are working on a new album with Cocky Bitches. Could you tell us about this?
Paul Leary:We are in the early stages of songwriting now. Sam and Baroness have been writing material, and it’s bike riding season for me. I’m kinda hoping for something very stripped down. So we could, like, actually play our own songs. And stuff. For a change.
AMFM: will you make a new album with The Butthole Surfers? Do you still speak with members of butthole surfers?
Paul Leary: I don’t see another Butthole Surfers album getting made. But we will always be brothers for life. We still speak to each other. We’ve just all kind of moved on.
AMFM: Can we look back at some past work of yours? What was it like working on the meat puppets album “Too High to Die “?
Paul Leary: Working on Too High To Die was a blast. That was my first paying producer gig. I was such a huge fan of the band. They really inspired Butthole Surfers in our earliest days. I got to hire my favorite engineer Stuart Sullivan and go to Memphis and hang out recording my favorite band. I wasn’t even thinking about anything but having fun. I never considered that it would yield a radio hit and go gold. But it did, and that changed my life. That album led to Sublime. What led to “Too High To Die” was my production on a bluegrass album by an Austin band called Bad Livers. I got to produce that album by fronting the cost of the studio. Meat Puppets liked that album enough to hire me for their major label debut. I never had an idea that I was off to a career in production.
AMFM: Could you tell us about working with the Surfers on the classic “Hairway to Steven “?
Paul Leary: “Hairway to Steven”. I remember my first conversation ever with John Paul Jones when we was getting ready to produce our “Independent Worm Saloon” album. He brought up getting a kick out of the name “Hairway to Steven”, and it took me a minute to remember “Stairway to Heaven”. D’oh! We recorded that album in a suburb of Dallas. We didn’t have much budget, so we needed to get in there and crank it out quick. What I remember most is the studio was in a dry county and a massive ice storm hit.
AMFM: What usually inspired the Butthole surfers to create unique albums?
Paul Leary: We used to kid that the music was an excuse to make album covers. We felt beholden to no one, and got a kick out of being ridiculous. Making albums is also a good excuse to get off the road for a while. The inspiration for the music depended on our mood at any given moment. We were always together for so many years, on the road mainly but eventually having a single house to live in and record. I think we recorded all of Locust Abortion Technician with two microphones plugged into a giant 8-track machine in our living room in Winterville, GA. Making an album with two mics is really kind of a fun thing to do.
AMFM: Any favorite Surfers albums?
Paul Leary: Probably Locust Abortion Technician. But also Rembrandt Pussyhorse…It’s still hard for me to believe that anyone else ever liked our music. We were pretty abusive.
Paul Leary Walthall is a music producer from Austin, Texas, best known as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist for the American rock band Butthole Surfers. He is also the producer of a number of songs and albums by other bands, including U2, Sublime, Meat Puppets, Daniel Johnston, The Reverend Horton Heat, Pepper, Maggie Walters, Bad Livers, Slightly Stoopid, The Refreshments, Tumbledryer Babies, and Sludge Buzzard. Leary produced Sublime with Rome’s debut album, Yours Truly. (Our related story: https://www.amfm-magazine.tv/sublime-with-rome-rome-ramirez-on-the-new-release-blessings-out-may-27th/
In 1991, he released a solo album entitled The History of Dogs. In 1994, Leary appeared on the song “Lounge Fly” from the multi-platinum album Purple by Stone Temple Pilots. He also performed backing vocals on the Meat Puppets and Bad Livers respective renditions of his song “Pee Pee the Sailor”.
Leary appeared on one track on the 1999 John Paul Jones (ex-Led Zeppelin) solo album Zooma.
He formed a new band called The Cocky Bitches (formerly Carny) and in 2014 contributed three songs to the Melvins album Hold It In.
Leary released Born Stupid, his second solo album, on February 12, 2021 via Shimmy-Disc and Joyful Noise.
