AMZ - I just wanted to ask you a few questions about your new album.  I love it....I think it’s great.

SP -  Whatever you want to talk about, baby....anything.

AMZ - I wondered about “The Rugburns.”  In one press release it lists you as a “former” member of the group and yet in an interview you state that there will be another “Rugburns’” album.

SP - Oh yes.

AMZ - So this is just a side project then?

SP - No. It’s what I’m really into now---they’re both what I like but I just
wanted a break from that.  I wanted to do something different.  But the
members of the "Rugburns" have always changed over the last fifteen years.  The cool thing about the "Rugburns" is that it’s been an outlet for me to do all these other songs I write.

AMZ - So then you’ll concentrate on your solo stuff but still have
that outlet with “The Rugburns?”

SP - Yeah.

AMZ - Something else I wondered about was a comment you made about
“loving love” and yet being reluctant to admit that.  Maybe not reluctant,
but you say it like it would be a bad thing for people to hear.  <raucous
laughter from Steve>  Do you really believe that love songs are passé?

SP - No.  I don’t think they’re passé.  I really don’t.

AMZ: Because you said there’s a meanness in the world.

SP - I’m just reluctant to talk about it because.....<pause>....it’s
embarrassing.

AMZ - Embarrassing?  Why?

SP - It’s easier for me to sing about it.  I love singing about it.  Because you always sound so stupid when you talk about it.

AMZ - OK....I know what you mean.  <laughs>

SP - Because then I listen to what I say and I go “what a moron!”  <laughs>  At least if I sing it, then put it on a tape, I can go “well, that’s what I did and that’s  how I meant it to be.”  Like the song  “I Love Everything About You.”  That song is so dear to my heart.  I don’t mind hearing that and to some people that would be a  sappy song.

AMZ - I don’t think any of these songs are sappy.  Actually, the
song “Good Morning (Waking Up With You)”.....I love that song.  Is there any kind of story behind it?

SP - I was on the road and I usually write in the mornings, and I was missing somebody.

AMZ - It’s a fabulous song.  It just seems to really nail it, I don’t know.
It just gave me a great feeling.

SP - I know....it’s weird.  It was the first song that we recorded for the
record and we sang and played it live, we sang and played everything live
and so it got a good feel to it and that was the first song that we did.  I had
always played with “The Rugburns” and so I sat down and a couple of those songs I had played with “The Rugburns” but then I sat down with Jim Keltner on the drums and these other musicians and it gave the song a whole different treatment.  It sounded better than it had ever sounded.

AMZ - Like it wasn’t a “Rugburns” song, it was a “Steve Poltz” song?

SP - Yeah.  I really got into just being able to call this album my own name
and I could do something different and not what people expected, if I’m out on tour I don’t have to do songs like "Dick’s Automotive" and the other stuff and get real rowdy.  I can be a love song troubadour.  And the shows still have humor and all that.   I can’t escape that.

AMZ - How do you go about writing your songs?  Do you have a certain routine you follow?

SP - Yeah for me it’s usually in the mornings.  I wake up and I have the
guitar next to the bed and I usually wake up anywhere from 7 in the morning to 8:30. I wake up pretty early and then I start playing guitar. I don’t get out of bed.  Just like on the album cover.  Except I’m under the covers and I just strum my guitar.  It’s kind of like meditation for me to just strum my guitar.

AMZ - That sounds like a great way to wake up.

SP - It is and it really relaxes me. Then I usually, because I’m kind of
semi-conscious just waking up, my hands will do something that I didn’t
know they could do.  Because I’m not thinking about it.  Then I stumble
into some weird little riff or something and then a thought comes into my
head, and I’ll write a song and I’ll just make something up.  Even something from my answering machine the other day---as an outgoing message I’ll make something up.  A friend of mine just sent me a tape with 70 songs that he had taped off of my answering machine and it only has songs that are 45 seconds long.  And I’m going to be putting that out in the next---probably it’ll be out in the next 2 or 3 months.  It’s lower than low-fi, because it’s recorded off a microphone that’s held up to the answering machine.

AMZ - That actually sounds kind of interesting.

SP - The songs are really goofy.  Like there’s one about dog shit called
“The Dog Doo Blues.”  There’s another one about being skinny called “Me Not Got No Slow Metabolism.”

AMZ: That’s my kind of music.

SP - Each song is 45 seconds long so it’s great for people with
Attention-Deficit Disorder.  The song is over faster than you can blink an eye.

AMZ:  Will you market it towards people with ADD?

SP - Yeah.  I’m gonna have it stickered that way.  “If you love Dokken....you’ll love ‘Answering Machine’ by Steve Poltz.”  “If you like Jars of Clay, you’ll love Steve Poltz.”  Just things that are complete non sequitors that make no sense to what the album’s gonna sound like.

AMZ - Your music has a bit of a country feel to it.  What kind of music do
you listen to in your off-time?

SP - Funk.

AMZ - Punk?

SP - Funk and Punk.  Anything that ends with U-N-K.  No, I like everything. That have I been listening to lately?  I’ve been listening to a lot of Rikki Lee Jones.  I bought this CD called “Traffic in Paradise.”  So much of that and a lot of Vic Chestnut.  I love Vic Chestnut.  The album’s called “About to Choke.”

AMZ - I’ll have to check that one out.  What about your collaborations with Jewel?  Are you going to keep writing with her?

SP - Oh yeah.  I would love to do a CD with her one day.  Everything gets so legal and now, how things are....I’d just like to put out CDs and not have it be this big event.  Just create, and put it out, be an artist.  Just make a painting. But the music business is so different.  If you were an artist, you’d just keep painting and do what you do.  The weird thing about the music business, is like, for instance:  I recorded that album in 15 days.  I just went in...played everything, sang everything live. Played and sang at the same time and it has this feel.  It’s like “ok, there.....that’s done,” go out, do a little promotion, then “let’s make another record.”  In the music business, it’s gotta be this big event where “The NEW album is coming out.”  And then it’s like 2 years you work it and blah, blah, blah.  Then they have contracts....”well, for the next period you owe us this many songs, and this needs to be out.”  Whereas I just want to keep putting things out.  Like this answering machine thing with 70 songs on it, and get together with Jewel, do a CD, write songs for it, have that come out, and then keep my blinders on, keep looking forward and do something else.  Just keep creating.  ‘Cause that’s what gets me high.  It does.  I get off on it. Being in the studio and playing live.  Both things are viable forms of art for me.   Because in the studio, you’re just with your producer  and you’re not really entertaining, you’re making this art. You’re layering it as almost a painter would.  You’re putting on these different textures.  Then in a live show, it’s just like this devil-may-care attitude. You throw caution to the wind and there you are.  Almost like a car accident.  They’re just staring at you.  I like that.

AMZ - I did see where you said you liked that anxious feeling of being
onstage.  The sweating up on stage.

SP - I love it.  Sometimes you just feel like “man, you are blowing it.”
Like the other night I played this gig in Philly, my whole theme for the
night was “I’m sorry I suck so bad tonight.  I’m gonna practice so hard this next week and next week I swear, I’m gonna be better.  Just show up.  Gimme one more chance.”  I just wasn’t “on,” and then that became my theme so then that actually made the show “on” because I was talking about it.

AMZ - Boy am I sorry I missed your show.  So, tell me, what kinds of things do you like to do when you’re not playing music?  Do you have any sort of hobbies, like building model planes or something strange like that?

SP - I’m stalking Jon Secada.

AMZ - Are you?  Hmmmm......

SP - Do you know who he is?  What did he do?

AMZ - Yeah.   I’m not sure.  I’m not really a fan.

SP - Who did “The Lady in Red?”  Was that Chris DeBurgh?

AMZ - I think so.  So you’re stalking him.....not Jon Secada?

SP - Maybe I’m stalking Chris DeBurgh.  Until he teaches me the chords for “The Lady in Red.”  My life won’t be complete.  So, basically, I’m like the guy who’s tracking down “the Fugitive.”  The one-armed man....I’m trying to track down Chris DeBurgh and learn the chords to “The Lady in Red”.....that’s probably my goal in life.  That and to be on a bill between Dokken and Judas Priest. Be the middle act and come out and sing love songs to a bunch of heavy metalers. Maybe in Detroit.

AMZ - That would be interesting.  I think it could work. <laughs>

SP - That would be “rad.”  <laughs>

AMZ - I have to confess, I hadn’t heard of “The Rugburns” before getting this CD.  Now I want to find that stuff to add to my collection.  I just really loved this album and want to hear more of your stuff.  You just seem to like, paint pictures with these songs.  See....and again, maybe if I could sing that it would sound better than it sounds.

SP - I love lyrics.  I love the way words float like feathers.  You shut
your eyes and you can see the words just fluttering, and floating, like
right on the water and they just make your mind just follow what the words
say so that everything else that happens in your life is almost hypnotic.  You know what I mean? You just follow the sounds of words as they float off of a tongue. I love that.  It’s sexy.  Totally turns me on.  That’s why I love Rikki Lee Jones.

AMZ - You just have such a way with words on these songs.....

SP - I love words.  What I like to do is...I like to paint a picture and have
somebody be there, to build the tension.  Like “Forbidden Fruit”....I want
them to feel the fact that it was a prostitute, and the nervousness, and the
fact of it being forbidden.  Or like being outside of a pool hall, you know,
with rain coming down. I want people to be able to see what’s happening.

AMZ - I think you’ve succeeded.  I really do.  Have you always been writing these love songs like, along with your “Rugburns’” stuff?

SP - Yeah....and that’s why I wanted to do this CD.

AMZ - Why now?

SP - I was too much of a wuss before.

AMZ - You were too much of a wuss?

SP - Yeah.

AMZ - Did you think that people wouldn’t like it?

SP - Yeah.  I thought I’d be laughed at.  “they’re all gonna laugh at you... they’re all gonna laugh at you.”  Like in “Carrie”.....remember when her
mom kept saying that to her?  That’s what I heard.

AMZ - Did you think that it was because it was different from “The
Rugburns’” stuff or just in general?

SP - I just thought I could only write graphic songs that dealt with death and destruction and weird topics and I didn’t know I could get real sensitive.  I’m getting more in touch with the sensitive side to me.  The older I get....I tell you what, there’s nothing wrong with getting older.  I’m settling into my skin more.

AMZ - Getting more comfortable with yourself.

SP - Yeah.

AMZ - That’s when this kind of stuff comes out.

SP - Yeah.  It does, doesn’t it?

AMZ - So, “Silver Lining” is the first single?

SP - Oui....and I just made a video for it.  It should be out in April.

AMZ - I know I’m getting ahead of things here but what do you see as the
next single?

SP - I like the second song on the album.....”Good Morning (Waking Up With You).”

AMZ - That’s exactly what I was thinking when I listened to the album.

SP - I think that can be a smash hit.

AMZ - I definitely agree.  I’m looking forward to hearing more of your
stuff.  When I find a performer I like I tend to look for all of their
stuff.  The next thing, and the next.

SP - Like stalk them?

AMZ - Not quite.  Not them.....just their albums.  I won’t literally stalk
“you.”

SP - I think there’s something sexy about being stalked.

AMZ - Ok...well, I’ll have to get a bus first, or something......

SP - I don’t think stalking should always be thought of in the pejorative.

AMZ - I guess that’s true......if you like it, it can’t really be thought of
as stalking.

SP - I like the fact that somebody would go to jail for somebody and just
psycho out.  Fantasize about duct-taping their wrists
together.....slaughtering a lamb.

AMZ - Ok.......   What was that?  I think I hear my kids calling......<laughs>

SP - <laughs>

AMZ - Seriously.....I’ll definitely be  looking forward to hearing more, as
soon as you get it out there.  I really enjoyed talking to you.  Thanks a
lot.  I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today.   Have a
great day.

SP - No problem.  Au revoir.