[Caspar Babypants, AKA Chris Ballew of the Presidents of the United States of America, plays a free in-store set at Easy Street Records in West Seattle, tomorrow at 6:30pm. For more Caspar fun, check out part one of Clint’s interview here.]
Kids can be exhausting. Do they ever get to you?
No, because they’re other people’s kids. The only thing that stresses me out even slightly, and it’s a pleasurable stressed out, is at live shows when things get weird and chaotic and they’re all over me. I stress out that some piece of equipment is going to fall over on somebody. I put down tape lines for safety, but when shows get a little crazy, I worry about little kids getting hurt. But their energy doesn’t stress me out at all. I depend on their energy for my own happiness.
What about all the DIY? Writing, recording, producing, booking…
It can be a little intense. This morning, I really, really wanted to get in the studio but couldn’t because a retail store did not receive a package of CDs. I had to spend time doing label-y stuff that I didn’t want to do. I have to constantly change my hat. [Doing different voices] Okay, I’m a label guy. Now I’m creative. Now I’m studio maintenance.
How is I Found You! different from your previous albums?
I would say it’s not different at all. I’m actually kind of enjoying being free of that whole reinvention thing. I never did understand that. If you have a sound that you love and a vocabulary that you love, there’s no reason to do anything different. The songs are different, the subjects are different. Maybe some albums have a little more energy, or there are more traditional songs, but it’s really minimal. It’s more transmissions from the same planet. I love the planet I’m on, so I’m not gonna get on a rocket and leave anytime soon.
How do you bring in the likes of Rachel Flotard, Stone Gossard, and Steve Turner?
I usually call people. Steve just came out of a Facebook chat about something else. I said we should do a song together and he didn’t waste any time. He immediately sent me iPhone movies of him playing riffs on his 12-string. I used one of them and we’re off and running [on “Too Dirty To Love”].
I’m working on a song with John Roderick from the Long Winters for the next album. I’m also really trying to get Peter Buck from R.E.M. because I have four or five songs that I cannot finish and I think his aesthetic would really help.
I was going to ask who’s on your wish list.
I want to have Kim Thayil from Soundgarden in, because he played on the Presidents’ debut album and it would be a nice full circle. Then I’d have a grungie from every band—Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Nirvana. [Laughs] I really like involving non-kid musicians on my albums. Weird Al [Yankovic] is on one, Krist Novoselic is on one. Stone Gossard has been an incredible fan from the beginning. He really got it. If you watch the Pearl Jam Twenty movie, [in the scene] when he’s walking around his house, you can see a Caspar album on his CD player. I was like, “Wait a minute!” I would love to get Eddie Vedder and his ukulele chops on an album. And the ultimate one is Ringo Starr.
I read that you’d done the Beatles’ “Blackbird” on piano.
I ended up recording it on an early ’80s Casio keyboard. It’s basically a calculator that makes sounds. It sounds almost like a robot “Blackbird.” [Laughs] I thought I was going to do a Beatles cover record at one point. I did “Little Child,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Cry Baby Cry,” “Good Night,” “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” “Only a Northern Song,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” and “Within Without You.” “Blackbird” and “Little Child” came out really good, so I might put them on the next record. I wanted to do some of the songs about expansive love, because that’s what I think children experience every day. They’re enlightened. And slowly, over time, they lose it and become regular people. That’s one of the reasons I love hanging out with kids.
So, finally, an Easy Street show.
Yeah, I’ll be playing songs from the new album [tomorrow] at 6:30 p.m. It’s my first official in-store as Caspar Babypants. [Owner] Matt [Vaughan] has been a great supporter of my stuff. I get a mural every time I have a release, and I drive by it every day, so there’s a sense of pride. It reinforces my love of West Seattle and the feeling of finding my home here.
And then you’re playing Benaroya in May?
Yeah, two shows on May 4—not Benaroya, but Nordstrom Hall. At Benaroya, people are so far away. It’ll be more intimate and a better vibe. I’m going to have a 36-piece orchestra [backing]. The idea is that I’ll do my songs that have classical elements. I was steeped in classical music in studying piano, and my mom took me to the symphony when I was a kid. So I incorporate classical elements a lot.
Do you miss rocking out at all?
I still rock out. [The Presidents] have yearly Showbox shows on President’s Day weekend. We’re going to Australia in March, the northeast in April. I get my travel and touring ya-yas out that way.
How could you expand your kid-world empire? Web? TV?
I’m working on a TV show. I figured that’s a way my thing can go out. But I don’t want to be on the show. I will voice a character. It could be a really cool way to get Kate’s aesthetic out there. She’s going to do all the character design and art. It’s gonna be two-dimensional, me in a paper world interviewing worms and bugs and trees. I’m going to record myself talking to kids, saying “What are you afraid of? What are you excited about?” And the audio will be the kids’ voices through that stuff. That will lead to a song on the topic.
Where do you see Caspar Babypants in five years?
I will have already finished my 10-CD box set. [Laughs] I’ll probably be on album 12.
Still doing it all yourself?
I think so. I really like this whole thing being part of my life, and not being my life. I don’t like the idea of having success taking over and eliminating all the joyful times that created the songs that created the success in the first place. I really want to be able to live in Seattle, go around with my wife, eat food, be with my kids, see the seasons change. I like the Pete Seeger model, where you take care of your own backyard. I’m taking care of Washington State, and I’m really happy to do that. I don’t need a lot of money to live. I just need to buy food and pay my bills.
