Gregg Turner Group | Angry Samoans | Interview

The Gregg Turner Group is a band founded by the legendary Gregg Turner of the Angry Samoans. His musical pedigree heralds back to L.A.’s punk-rock progenitors of which he was a co-founding member of.

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The Gregg Turner Group is Gregg Turner on vocals, Sarah Meadows on bass and harmony vocals, David Barsanti on drums, and Aaron Anderson on lead guitar. ‘Songs For Sparrow’ is the most recent album by the band and it was a truly professional and slick studio effort. In addition to the new album, Rarebird Lit published Turner’s collection of stories titled, Hallucinations From Hell: Confessions of an Angry Samoan. ‘Songs For Sparrow’ is not all that punk-rock a la Angry Samoans, but more in the awkward direction of Modern Lovers, Tom Lehrer, Allan Sherman and The Velvet Underground. The latest batch of tunes dial 60’s flavored garage-ish folk rock a la Kinks, Zombies or Smithereens.

“I’m a voyeur of the sounds I like and dial these influences in the songs I write”

It’s fantastic to have you. Have you found the recent isolation creatively challenging or freeing?

Gregg Turner: If you mean Covid, I don’t feel all that isolated these days. Over the first two years I jumped into writing more songs and finishing my tome of short stories.

The Gregg Turner Group was formed in 2019, tell us how it all got together and who are members of the band?

I’d been playing solo gigs primarily around town here (Santa Fe, New Mexico) and then decided to add a drummer and eventually a lead guitarist. (I can’t play leads to save my ass) – so the net result is more of a group/band collaboration these days. I write the songs, sing lead vocals and play rhythm guitar. Sarah Meadows is the bass player and sings backup vocals. (She has a gorgeous voice). David Barsanti is the drummer and currently a 25-year old lead guitar prodigy, Aaron Anderson plays the leads. On the new record, Phineas Luke plays all the leads.

You’re doing quite a different music these days, is the material you play today coming from some of the very early influences: 60s psych rock?

I’m a voyeur of the sounds I like and dial these influences in the songs I write: The Kinks, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Velvet Underground, late 70’s punk rock (Television, Dead Boys, et cetera) with a little Jonathan Richman and Tom Lehrer thrown in for seasoning.

“I was pretty much an academic math nerd until I saw The Stooges play”

I would love it if you could talk a bit about your background. Where did you grow up and what would you say first inspired you to become a musician?

I grew up in the Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. I was pretty much an academic math nerd until I saw The Stooges play at the Whisky a Go Go in 1973 and then Roky Erickson with Doug Sahm at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood. Those were game changers for me.

If we would visit your teenage room, what kind of records, fanzines, posters would we find there?

My teenage room was really pretty dull – a proof that pi is irrational on one wall.

What are some early local shows you attended back in those days?

Too many to list, but the winners were Patti Smith Group in 1976, The Stooges (as mentioned above) at the Whisky in 1973, the first wave of Roxy Music (with Brian Eno) at the Whisky, Dead Boys at the Starwood (in Hollywood) and many many Procol Harum gigs.

We are all very excited about your recently released album, ‘Songs For Sparrow’. How long did you work on it and what would you say was the concept behind it?

I think ‘Songs For Sparrow’ is the most professional and really the best assortment of tunes I’ve recorded to date. I like the diversity of the songs, my friend Phineas Luke played all the leads (and he’s a whiz) which amped up the quality of the songs. Wrote a lot of the songs quickly during the first wave of Covid and I think the home-studio where it was tracked turned out superb. The title of the record is a reference to the chick who runs a club in Taylor, Texas (about an hour from Austin) that is a watering hole for touring bands – we’ve played there a few times. Incredible sound and ambiance.

Can you share some further words about writing, recording and producing the album?

Uhm, well e.g. ‘Necrophiliac In Love’ was a riff from the Dion song ‘A Teenager in Love’ of course. I’m a huge fan of 50’s music legend Tom Lehrer – he wrote distasteful songs like ‘The Masochism Tango’ and ‘Poisoning Pigeons in the Park’ and so forth. So ‘Necrophiliac In Love’ was from this playbook. ‘The Last Twenty Years’ is my apocalypse attempt a la Barry McGuire (‘Eve of Destruction’), ‘Vampire Dog of Jesus Christ’ leans in the direction of Roky Erickson. I always thought if Jesus had a dog it would be very misbehaved (the result of a “botched resurrection”) and the tune alludes to the fact the mutt bites Jesus and his dad. ‘Mr. Freeze’ was inspired by a story that ran in the local paper which described an old man found rigor-morticized in a dumpy motel room – been dead for a couple weeks with the AC apparently running and it was the middle of winter. The cops who stumbled onto this scene were quoted as saying that the room was “COLD, SO COLD, FREEZING!!” I just extrapolate from that. ‘Right Track Now’ is a ballad that Powell St. John wrote for Roky and The 13th Floor Elevators in the 60’s. It’s about being on the “right track, meaning “train track,” it’s a train song. Sarah and I recorded as a duet which I think came out nice. ‘Medication’ is a warning about antihistamine abuse (an issue for me a long time ago – I’m very allergic).

You guested some musicians on it including Billy Miller’s autoharp. You had a band together called The Blood Drained Cows. I loved the project and I remember when Billy sent it to me years ago.

Billy Miller is a genius, a total prodigy. He can sound beautiful and then quickly dissonant on a dime, like a freak out of Lou Reed and Jimi Hendrix. I try to incorporate him on all my projects and recordings. Billy played on the second Blood Drained Cows record called ’13,’ produced by Andy Shernoff of The Dictators.

“We’d toss “bronco worms” at the audience and frozen sheep eyeballs”

I would love it if we could discuss VOM and Angry Samoans. How did you originally meet Richard Meltzer and other members?11. What led to formation of VOM?

Richard Meltzer, Mike Saunders and I shared fanaticism for the early Dictators. When Meltzer moved to LA in 1975 we would hang out and go crazy listening to ‘The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!’ (their first record). It was hilarious and obnoxious and sonically a breath of fresh air. Wasn’t long before the impetus to be even MORE obnoxious took hold, which resulted in VOM. We’d toss “bronco worms” (because they bucked up from the ground) at the audience and frozen sheep eyeballs (during our cover of The Doors ‘My Eyes Have Seen You’). That was a bad choice, because the venue started stinking of lamb. We’d put barbed wire on the front of the stage before we started playing and dump trash behind it. Then it all got outta control. The manager at the Whisky (we opened for The Dickies in 1976) turned off the power half way through our set and told us he was throwing us out on the street “just like that asshole Morrison.” Badge of honor – or something. Meltzer got physically exhausted after a couple years of this, so when it ended, Saunders and I couldn’t let a good/fun thing go, so VOM morphed into the Angry Samoans.

‘Live at Surf City’ is such a bomb, full of energy. How do you remember it?

It was recorded in like three hours. I still love ‘Electrocute Your Cock’.

Can you elaborate on the formation of Angry Samoans?

VOM was the continued model in the beginning. But Mike Saunders and I tried to synthesize a mixture of The Dictators’ irreverence and the psych-out of Roky Erickson. That was the blueprint. Saunders and I were watching professional wrestling on the tube one morning (before turning it into a sissy circus of body builders) and there was this bad guy tag team called the Wild Samoans. Mike checked them out and commented on how “they might be sorta wild, but uhm NOT VERY ANGRY.” Hence the band name.

What kind of gear, amps, effects, pedals did you have in the band back then?

All tube Silvertone amps, I played a 68 Epiphone Riviera, Saunders a Silvertone guitar in the very beginning. We rarely used effects pedals – any of that stuff. Just turned up the amps to 120% and let the crunchy overdrive do its thing.

How well aware were you of the Texas psych and the 13th Floor Elevators back in the early 70s? I’m asking, because you opened for Roky Erickson and the Aliens in Richmond, California although Roky didn’t show, but you became friends with Aliens.

I first heard ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ in the early 70’s – maybe from listening to Nuggets. Incredible – the voice, the snarl, the attitude. So I quickly procured the first two 13th Floor Elevators records and marveled at the riverbed sonic stabbings of the guitars. Stacy Sutherland was an amazing lead guitar player. First caught Roky Erickson playing with Doug Sahm in 1975 at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood. Just an incredible handful of songs he’d just scribed. I followed around Roky and the Aliens wherever they’d play in the Bay Area – I was a groupie puppy dog. The Aliens lead guitarist, Duane Aslaksen, is one of the hall of fame musicians, so fluid and talented, that no-one knows about unless you caught the Aliens live or listened to their first record ‘The Evil One’.

Tell us about the Bad Trip Records.

Just a name we came up with to put out our own records really.

What’s the story behind ‘Inside My Brain’ EP and your debut album? Where did you record it? What kind of equipment did you use and who was the producer? How many hours did you spend in the studio?

We tracked it with the late spot at SST studios in Redondo Beach. Used pretty much the same gear as what we played live. I think it was recorded in just a couple days. We produced it ourselves, though initially we were going to credit Lee Ving of Fear because he came around a few times with a couple suggestions. But then the shit-hit-the-fan Rodney Bingenheimer politics (‘Get Off The Air’ was on ‘Inside My Brain’ EP) got in the way, and Lee asked us not to credit him.

Have you ever experimented with any psychedelics?

No. Never trusted my fragile psyche to withstand that onslaught.

Listening back, how do you feel about ‘STP Not LSD’, ‘Return to Samoa’, ‘The 90’s Suck and So Do You’?

The ’90’s Suck and So Do You’ was recorded by the confederate Angry Samoans which was a forgery that continued after the last official version of the band played at the Club Lingerie in 1991. It pretty much “sucked” like the record’s title. ‘STP Not LSD’ I like about half of it – underrated I think because it didn’t follow in the hardcore tradition of ‘Back From Samoa’. I can’t even remember anything about ‘Return to Samoa’. It might’ve been a bootleg or the illegit project of the bass player, not an official release. There’s a release of some original tracks with interim singer Jeff Dahl that is great – he was great but I can’t recall what that release was called.

What are some of the most important players that influenced your own style and what in particular did they employ in their playing that you liked?

I’m not a very accomplished musician – I’ve been playing guitar for 40 some odd years, but you wouldn’t know it. I mean, actually I think I’m an OK rhythm guitarist – I strum well, have a good right hand rhythm. So rhythm guitar great like Lou Reed, Roky Erickson, and lots of others were super blueprints for me.

What would be the craziest gig you ever did?

I think the VOM gig at the Whisky, where they cut the power on us, that I talked about above was pretty fun. There was also the very first VOM show that incited the audience to a bug tossing free-for-all. Some dude who looked like Bozo the Clown started throwing molten wax from the candles on the tables at us. Good times.

Looking back, what was the highlight of your time in the band? Which songs are you most proud of? Where and when was your most memorable gig?

Songs most proud of ‘Electrocute Your Cock’ (VOM), the anti-Rodney diatribe ‘Get Off the Air,’ the song ‘Inside My Brain,’ plus many others too numerous to list. The songs on my new record ‘Songs For Sparrow,’ I’m most proud of these. I really like ‘em and I generally have a hard time liking anything I do.

You wrote a fantastic book, Hallucinations from Hell: Confessions of an Angry Samoan, was it difficult to remember all the details from the past?

I’m an experiential voyeur. I indelibly remember nuances of weird shit that goes on around me. I would write details of all these stories on dog-eared scraps of paper and marginal notes in old computers. So it was just a matter of putting this together along with all the out loud anecdotes of this stuff that I would torture my friends with ad nauseum. But constructing the written narrative for these stories was a different proposition. I wanted the writing itself, the words, the sentences to have a punch, a type of beatnik energy a la Ginsberg, Kerouac, Bukowski. So it was a bit of a tightrope-wire act constructing the text the way I wanted but not letting this get in the way of the details of the stories themselves. Hopefully it works.

Did it bring any (almost) forgotten memories?

I often retain snapshot memories of these incidents in my head (inside my brain if you will) and expunging these recollections in and for print is cathartic. I could write a sequel to this book evidencing much more of this type of shit, but not sure if my publisher would go for it (I’m told we sold only about a thousand copies).

Is there any unreleased material by Angry Samoans or any related project that you would like to see being released

Actually, Saunders and I tracked a mini-LP under the name the Mistaken in 1987 (before the last two Samoans releases). There were 7 songs including covers of ‘Eve of Destruction’ and a rockin ‘version of The Velvet Underground’s ‘I’m Set Free’. Four other originals that I wrote and one original by Saunders. Maybe the best thing I’ve ever put out. I’d started a little college band in 1986 with this chick drummer who was pretty damn good and a bass player. No Samoans, but Saunders eventually clocked in at the last minute when we recorded this record. He plays some blistering leads on it. My record company Triple X is re-releasing this at present, and hopefully should be out within 6 months or so. Great stuff if I do say so myself.

Thank you for taking your time. Last word is yours.

I think I’m done.

Klemen Breznikar

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Headline photo: The Gregg Turner Group (April 2023) | Sarah Meadows (bass, vocals), Gregg Turner (guitar, lead vocals), Aaron Anderson (lead guitar), David Barsanti (drums) | Photo by Nate Duran

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