The Butthole Surfers' drummer, King Coffey, sat down to discuss the band's latest singles, the irreverent spirit behind their new music video, and After the Astronaut, the long-lost album that remained in the shadows for more than three decades before finally seeing the light of day.
This album was written a couple of decades ago, right?
It was going to be an album for Capital Records. It would have been the follow-up to Electric Larryland, which, for better or worse, had the hit “Pepper” on it. Electric Larryland was fun to make.
We were kind of throwing all kinds of ideas at the dart board, and “Pepper” was one of them. We were listening to “Trip Off” at the time. Unfortunately, it became a hit. Capital thought we could keep making “Peppers’,” all career long. And the thing was that that was a fluke for us.
Having said that, they kind of gave us free rein in playing a lot more with samplers and computers, which was in our wheelhouse. It was fun to do. It had an experimental vibe to it. It reminded me of Abortion Technician; just let to our own devices. We were using an 8-track machine. Coming up with ideas and then pursuing them. It was that kind of experimental, I thought was like this new album.
So, we made these songs, and Capital seemed happy with it. They put out review copies, and it got reviewed in Spin Magazine, of all things. Unfortunately, we got into a war with our manager. Our manager convinced our label that we were crazy, and in fact, we were crazy.
Ultimately, Capital said, “You guys are too much of a headache. We’re not going to produce that album. But we’re also not going to let you off your contract.” So, we were doomed. We had an album. They wouldn’t release it. They wouldn’t give us permission to make another version of it. They were just holding the contract. They wanted somebody to buy it out. And that led to a stalemate for a few years.
Eventually, we found Hollywood Records. They bought the contract. They put money up front. They wanted to get their money back, which is understandable. They wanted some hits. Unfortunately, the band they approached for the hit was the Butthole Surfers. It’s just not going to work.
So, they scrapped about a third of the album. Took out some of the more experimental stuff, [and] put more commercial stuff in it. At that point, we were desperate. We were trying to be good company-men. Basically, have a career again. We were like, “Sure, let’s do this.” But it really made for an inferior album.
The album that we wanted to release would have been out on Capital Records, and it was cool songs. That’s the album that’s coming out now, called After the Astronaut.
What made you want to release the album now?
Basically, [because] we could. Paul found the original two-inch tape that comprised the album. He wanted to go in and master them again. Make them sound even better. And he asked Hollywood if we could have the rights to do it: to release it on our own. Surprisingly, Hollywood said yeah. So, we hit up Sunset Boulevard, who did the live album that came out last year.
It was always a point of contention of ours: that we had this album that we liked that was shelved. It was just frustrating. I’m glad it’s finally seeing the light of day the way it should have been in the first place.
How much of the album has changed since its original recording?
Paul went in and remixed all the songs. There were some songs that were never released, and everything else that later came out. Paul went in [and] did some remixing here and there. Nothing night-and-day. It just sounds better. The way it should have been.
This is your first time in a long time releasing something new, right?
Yeah; I mean there was that live record released last year, but that was recorded in ‘93, so it’s not really new, but it hadn’t been released yet. It has been a curious time for us because the documentary that took five years to make finally started playing the festival circuit last year. I think it’s wrapping up now, and they’re going to announce a release date for that.
It was strange that Stranger Things used “Human Cannonball” for an episode. Odd things are happening. Since odd things are happening, let’s just make it odder and release a shelved album.
What have the responses been like?
We’re not touring, so it’s hard to get a gauge, and this record hasn’t actually come out yet. For instance, you and I are talking. We haven’t done interviews in over a decade. It’s fun to get interest back in the band. And now that we’re all older, we’re still friends. We’re still family. So, it’s good to have an excuse to work together again and hang out with my homies. It’s been really fun.
Are you guys looking to play any shows again?
There are no plans. Paul has let it be known he doesn’t want to tour again. Paul said that for the first time in his life, he’s finally happy. Touring would make him unhappy, and none of us want to make Paul unhappy.
So, I don’t see tours. We did one show, but we’re such perfectionists, which sounds strange to say, but we have to practice every day for a month just to play one show. And we live in different states now.
Gibby lives in Brooklyn. Jeff lives in North Carolina, so it’s kind of hard for us to practice. But who knows? The past few years have taught me that anything can happen, and it might happen, who knows.
There are three singles from the album out so far. Why did you guys choose those as a re-introduction to the band?
A lot of it was the record company’s decisions.
“Buyio,” I think, was the second song released via video, and that was one song that never came out in the first place. That song is unique because it has a jungle drum and bass kind of backbeat in it.
When we did it, it seemed fresh, and like three years alter, when it came time to put together Weird Revolution for Hollywood, jungle kind of seemed a bit passé. But now what’s weird is that jungle is back again. Some of my favorite labels are these jungle labels out of the UK. It’s just weird. It’s like the past 20 years never happened. It’s the same kind of stuff. So, it’s cool that it’s come back again.
“Intelligent Guy” was one song that we wanted to be a single, but Hollywood just didn’t feel it. I don’t blame them, but I always liked that song.
Is there a song that isn’t out yet that you’ve always wanted people to know?
Yeah, there’s one song called “I Don’t Have a Problem With It.” That was one song that Hollywood cut. I understand why they cut it because it’s a weird song. At the time, I was really into this 90s band out of London, I think, called Scanner. What Scanner did was he had an all-frequency radio that could pick up some cellphone calls.
So, these cellphone calls were out there in the air, and he would incorporate that into his live show. I was just fascinated by it, so I found a radio that can do that, and you’d always hear one side of the conversation. You can’t really tell the whole thing, and you didn’t know who you were listening to, but still, it was fascinating. It was just out there, floating in the air.
I spent hours just listening and recording. We took the best of it and made a sound collage out of that. One thing I realized listening to other people’s phone calls: everyone is sad, or they want to have sex, or they’re sad because they’re not having sex. That’s what the majority of the phone calls seem to be. Just sadness or loneliness or “can we hook up?” Some kind of combination of all that. That really seemed like the human condition in Austin at the time, and maybe it still is. I don’t know.
That technology is no longer available, but it was cool to make a song based solely on that. But I also understand why a record label would not want to release it. Maybe somebody will hear themself in a Butthole Surfers song from twenty years ago. Who knows?
You mentioned “Intelligent Guy,” and we need to talk about that music video. There have been really mixed opinions on it. You’ve said that you’re perfectionists with your music, and there’s a very acclaimed artist attached to the project, but a lot of people were very confused by the artistic choices made in the music video. Can you talk about what that process was and how involved you were in it?
The video was made by Ron English, who is a digital artist. What he did was he took his various characters he’s made through the years, but then he animated it and stitched it together using AI.
But because people hear the word AI, they immediately freak out and say that you’re taking jobs away from people. Ron couldn’t animate his figures all by himself, but he could ask AI to make them move and transition from one scene to another, and that’s what he did.
But the core images, the images in that, were stuff that Ron made. It’s really hard to explain the nuances of all that. To me, I think Ron did a great job. I think the video is surreal. And if people have a problem with it, they have a problem with it, but to me, AI is a tool much like a computer is a tool.
This whole new record that we’re talking about was a product of new tools at our disposal: samplers.
On this record, I don’t think I play any actual drums. What I did was I took loops from all different kinds of music and just looped it like crazy. Put layer upon layer upon layer. When sampling first happened, it was really controversial, and now it’s mundane, you know? I think there’s a chance that AI is going to be like that. It’s just a tool. But I think I have a minority opinion in all of this. It’s such a hot topic right now, but I think it can be used in interesting ways, and Ron certainly did [that].
Ron English’s work, that was totally up our alley. It’s things that we love, and we’ve always loved using technology to help us create stuff. Exactly what Ron English did. We could totally relate to it. You lose the battle, trying to explain the use of AI in it. AI is new for humans. We’re still figuring it out. There are bad things that can come of it: creating videos that pretend to be real when, actually, they’re fake, but the Ron English is totally surreal. It’s his own characters and his own thought process, but he used a tool to help animate it. It’s clumsy, but I think Ron did a great job. I laughed when I watched it.
The album, much like the video, was deemed “too weird.” How would you say it relates to your other albums? Do you think it’s weirder? Do you think old fans will get into it?
I hope old fans will get into it. While we’re known as being a noise band, I always thought we were more of an experimental band. Our very first record was an EP, and it starts off with an almost parody of hardcore called “Shaw Sleeps in Lee Harvey’s Grave.“ It’s a hardcore song; it’s really fast. It lasts all of a minute and thirty seconds.
Then the next song is a total pop song called “Hey.” It’s just a really sweet pop song. Those were the first two songs the band released in our career. The band has never been like we had to adhere to one sound or one idea other than to make stuff that amuses us and stuff we thought was cool sonically for whatever reason.
So I think all of our records are fairly diverse as far as song selection. Our first Capital record, Independent Worm Saloon, was a straightforward rock record in the way, but it had folk music. It was diverse. I think we’ve always thought of ourselves as diverse.
Always kind of monkeys, in a way, playing with new toys. When we got a chance to play around with new toys, we got After the Astronaut, which was really fun to make, and I think there are some good songs in it. It’s diverse musically.
I was really happy with the record, and I think fans who have followed us for years can see that commonality from record to record, as far as each song is a bit different. It’s all kind of messed up. It’s what we do.
What do you remember from originally recording the record?
It was a fun process because we all had identical setups at our houses. We had the same recording gear. One of us would come up with an idea, and then we’d share it with the other two, who all lived in town, and we were all swapping discs back and forth. Like “here’s your idea, and I’m going to put this on top of it. Oh yeah? Well I’ll put that on top of it” until eventually, we came up with a song. It was different work, in a way.
Usually, we work in a studio or a practice room, come up with a bass line, and come up with a guitar line. This was like a variation of that, but all done digitally. It was a different way to work, but also kind of felt familiar as well, because we were always bouncing ideas off of each other, whether in a practice room or, in this case, swapping files back and forth.
Is there anything you’ve been enjoying about getting to release another album and working with the band again?
I think that’s been the biggest bonus. Paul and I have been doing a lot more stuff together while working on this, but also hanging out more with Gibby. It’s just fun working with those guys, you know? I realized a while back that I’ve spent more time with the band than I had my own family.
I left home when I was 17, to rarely return, and I’ve been with the Buttholes [from] 17 on, and I’ll be 62 next month.
I’ve spent a lot of time with these guys, but for the past few years, we really weren’t doing much, so it’s cool to have a reason to work together. It’s been really fun just hanging out with my buddies.
Speaking of the band, do you have any favorite memories with them?
I’m gonna go way back. I recall our first time on the East Coast, we were playing in front of like five or ten people. We were playing any show we could and none of us had careers back then, none of us had girlfriends or boyfriends back home, none of us had any possessions other than our instruments.
We were literally living from hand to mouth. We would go through garbage cans to pick up recycling bottles to get the ten-cent deposit to get enough money for a slice of pizza; that kind of thing. Our bass player at the time said “I need some nourishment. I need some milk.”
The band explained: “Look, there’s just no money for us to buy milk just for yourself.” He said, “I need milk. Why are you doing this?” I looked at him and said, “Because I’m having a blast. Because here we are! We’re in New York, we play in this great band, we’re having the time of our lives, and I’m loving it! I don’t want to go back to Texas and wash dishes again. Let’s tour; let’s conquer the world! Let’s have fun; let’s do stuff.” That kind of mentality, like screw it! Let’s go out; let’s be broke, let’s play, let’s do our thing was so liberating.
A few months prior, we were all washing dishes in Austin, and Gibby said, “screw this. Let’s be a band. Let’s go on tour.” When he said that, we all signed on and cast our fate. There was no looking back, and it’s just been a total blast. It’s been decades of so much fun, and I’m so grateful to Gibby for saying, “screw washing dishes, let’s be a band. Let’s tour.”
