:: SEXTON BLAKE / STARFUCKER ::
Interview and Photography by Bethany Reed
And how did you acquire your other band members?
Thom I met working at this thing called ACT, registering people to vote. Thom played bass and he’s just a really nice guy and we’re still good friends. And Tim’s the drummer. I don’t know why but it’s just hard for me to have a band. We’re all still friends though. I think I’m actually going to do some recording at Tim’s new studio. Oh and the original drummer was this other guy named Ryan. Another nice guy, but yeah. It just didn’t go well. That was my fault. It’s better now though. I guess I just didn’t really want to play that kind of music [Sexton Blake] live. It’s just so taxing to evoke that emotion all the time, you know? I’d rather do something fun - which is what I’m doing now with Starfucker.
Okay, so just to kind of define things in a sense - would you say Sexton Blake is more say intense and emotional -
Yeah. That’s what it became.
Whereas Starfucker, your other solo project, is something fun and light-hearted and you don’t have to take yourself so seriously.
Yeah. That’s exactly it.
So how many years has Sexton Blake been in existence.
Well, I started recording it without a name about a year and a half before I moved to Portland. But when I thought of the name Sexton Blake, I was actually envisioning something more like Starfucker, not the quiet music. But Anthony, Expunged Records, was interested in it and that’s what he wanted to release. So that became sort of his kind of thing.
So what is the discography for Sexton Blake.
Well the first one - It just says Josh Hodges and Sexton Blake. It’s a fake soundtrack to a fictitious movie called Sexton Blake.
So that was the theme.
Yeah. Then there’s some songs on various compilations and also I’m on the Elliott Smith tribute CD. Then the most recent thing I’ve done is the covers album (Sexton Blake: Plays the Hits!)
Would you say you’re theme oriented in terms of your music?
Um, I like the idea of a concept album. I really like concept albums. Um ... yeah. I have a lot of them in my head, so ...
Okay, so what inspired the covers album Sexton Blake: Plays The Hits!
It’s was Anthony’s idea (from Expunged Records). I really wasn’t doing anything at the time. I was working this really shitty job and he called and was like, ‘hey. I was just listening to all these songs and I was thinking how good it would be if you covered them. I could pay you and you wouldn’t have to work that job.’ So I was like, ‘well, that’s a good idea’. So then we haggled for a while and were like ‘tell me what songs you like’ and then of course, my friends were like, ‘well if you’re going to do that song, you should also do an Air Supply song’.
So did you get the final say in what songs made it?
Yeah. I mean, some songs I just hated too much to take the time to even learn them. Others were too challenging. I picked songs that I thought I could really do them justice and do them well. I also wanted them to be songs that no one else would think to cover or that were more like karaoke songs.
So I’ve told you this before but I really feel like if you’re a musician, you shouldn’t try to cover another musician’s song unless you know it can be executed well. I have to say, even when I heard the demo material for this album, I was impressed with how you really made these songs your own but also paid tribute to the originals.
Yeah, well thanks.
So what for you makes a good cover song?
Um, like you said, I think if you can shed some new light on the song itself or expose a good song that was hidden by say, crappy production. I think the 80's have a lot of examples of good songs that were hidden by cheesy or crappy production.
Yes. So going back to Sexton Blake, how much do the other members participate in the song writing process or do they at all?
When I first started I wrote every part. But see that was the problem with the first drummer. It’s like, they were bored playing exactly what I told them to play.
Would you ever be open to collaborating at all?
I would but I’m really picky. I mean, it’s hard to trust somebody if I don’t really trust them. So it’s hard to work with someone if I don’t.
They would have to really understand your vision.
Yeah. Or I’d have to trust that they have a similar vision. Because if you compromise, it’s just going to be crap and something nobody really wants.
That makes sense.
So yeah. But [Sexton Blake] did kind of evolve and eventually we tried to do more stuff as a band and write songs together and we all had a little bit more to do with it. We actually recorded an album, pretty much, that probably will never get finished and we all had a little more to do with it, but -
No... B Sides? No EP’s?
No, I don’t think so. Well, maybe. I don’t know. Tim has all those recordings. His production style is a lot different than mine. I’m used to sitting in front of a computer and having full control and he does stuff and I don’t like it and we’re both really controlling. But I’d like to use his studio for Starfucker and use him to record the sounds and then mix it myself.
So that will be interesting.
Yeah, well ... he’s more skilled at that anyway. It’s just that I know what I want. But, he is good enough for me not to be sitting there telling him what to do, so ...
Okay. Well, I know your busy promoting the Sexton Blake covers album, but you’re also focusing on Starfucker now.
Yeah. That’s more what I’m into these days. I just think we all got bored with Sexton Blake and Starfucker’s fun. I like to play drums and also I have this thing where I write at least one new song for every show I play.
Oh, wow. I didn’t know that.
Well, now I can’t really keep up with it as we’re playing much more shows, but we do other stuff like now we have a video and we like, dress weird or whatever. I don’t know. I think Starfucker is more like a basement party show type of band and it’s loud and you can dance to every song. And Sexton Blake was more slow and poppy and pretty.
Do you have anything ideas in the works for how you might want to evolve more with Starfucker?
Yeah. Well already, I’ve got Ryan playing with me now, which I started completely playing alone. So now I have him. And then there’s this guy who I’ve never played with but we’re going to tour California together and so that tour should be fun because I might have like two or three drummers for it. But yeah. And then I might just quit playing shows in Portland pretty soon so I can work on trying to finish an album for Starfucker because I just have lots of unfinished music.
Would you like to go national with it or just keep Starfucker a local project.
I’d like to tour nationally just because it’s fun and it would be nice to make money at it. But I think really, it’s more that I just want to do it as long as it’s fun. If it’s not then it just becomes a chore and then it’s not worth it. It’s not the most important thing for me, to become this really successful musician in some way like that. I have some offers that are sort of in the works, but it’s just a matter of it being something I enjoy. So, we’ll see.
Nice. Well, thanks for the interview.
Yeah.
For more info and to listen to Sexton Blake visit: www.myspace.com/sextonblakemusic
For more info and to listen to Starfucker visit : www.myspace.com/starfuckerss
So, how did Sexton Blake come together originally? I mean, how long had you been playing music in Portland and what made you decide to pursue solo projects?
Well, actually Sexton Blake started in New York. I moved to New York after high school basically to play music. I was around 20 at the time and stayed for about four years. I traveled around a bit during that time. I played as a hired musician in a friend’s band and we went to like, Australia and we did a U.S. tour. So that was fun.
Yeah.
It was actually um ... Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s sister’s band.
Oh Okay. I didn’t know you did that.
Yeah. And I was also in a band with Randy, who is in Junkface now. We basically moved to New York together and we had a band that didn’t do anything really. We only played a few shows and didn’t really record anything. We had a couple people really trying to get us to do stuff but it was like aggressive rock, and I don’t know. It just wasn’t really into it. So anyway, in my spare time I was doing Sexton Blake and other stuff. I went traveling to Thailand and went on a ten day meditation retreat called Vipassana and that kind of changed everything for me.
So that’s where you kind of discovered that?
Yeah.
Is it a form of Tibetan Buddhist meditation?
Yeah, well ... actually this was taught by someone who’s not really religious at all. He was like, a really rich business man who was really miserable and he’s from Burma and this guy taught him. His ten day silent retreats are really stripped down. So there’s not really much of the Buddhist philosophy. It’s just the basic experience. He’s like, ‘do this and experience what happens after ten days and you’ll see that it works’.
Right. So it was a good introduction for you.
Yeah. It’s really popular in Thailand. It’s basically designed for people who don’t want or can’t be monks. I know Rivers Cuomo does it now.
Oh, okay.
Yeah. So, then I went back to New York and would stay at home and record on Randy’s computer. That’s where I recorded most of the Sexton Blake album, the first release. And I didn’t have any idea of what I was doing. I just started messing with things. I didn’t even write words. I would just sing and that became the words.
That was my next question. Does the sound of Sexton Blake come from this really organic place or how much of it is more a product of what you’ve been influenced by musically.
Um. I think there were definitely a lot of influences. At the time I was listening to a lot of like, Beck and Pinback and Elliott Smith. But also, I was just recording it for myself. I didn’t have any real plans to do anything with it.
So yeah. It was not at all what I really wanted to do like, all the time. It was more like therapy for me. But this guy [in Portland] got a copy of it and wanted to put it out and it was like the stars were all aligned. I was living in Michigan at the time and I had just broken up with my girlfriend. I was pretty miserable and aimless and he was like, ‘you should come up to Portland and play a CD Release Party’. And then Ryan who was dating a good friend of mine at the time in Michigan, I recruited him to be in my band and we played a show out there and then both decided to move to Portland. I still play with him in both of my projects, Sexton Blake and Starfucker. He’s in Junkface too.
