You wanted it, you got it. Another amazing interview with Jeff McDonald. 1993 marks the year of the band's fifth full-length LP, Phaseshifter, and instead of me explaining what it's about, you might as well hear it from Jeff himself in detail. I managed to catch him in a hotel in Minneapolis on the first day of the LEMONHEADS tour. He bravely battled a cold to give me this interview.

T S: First of all, lets talk about the new album cover which is an amazing idea. Who thought of it?
Jeff: A friend of ours, Cameron Jaime, he's an artist. He's really into going to thrift stores and finding what kids had scrawled on books. So we just wanted to do something that was kind of a tribute to the kids.
T S: Why is there no lyric sheet?
Jeff: Just because we were too lazy to get them together and figure out what our lyrics were.
T S: Is Drew Barrymore a big REDD KROSS fan?
Jeff: I guess.
T S: Oh, you just thanked her for no reason.
Jeff: Yeah.
T S: OK, "Jimmy's Fantasy" starts off with the "Standing in Front of a Poseur” thing. Any reason for that?
Jeff: No, we're just paying tribute to ourselves.
T S: What’s "Jimmy’s Fantasy" about?
Jeff: It’s just kind of about people whose egos and fantasy world melt into their own reality and they begin to create their own realities.
T S: "Lady in the Front Row”. What’s that about?
Jeff: Just rock and roll dedication.
T S: "Monolith".
Jeff: That’s kind of like a bitter, optimistic look at a rotten world and trying to find the good.
T S: The FRIGHT WIG cover "Crazy World".
Jeff: That was like the ultimate feminist statement sung by a man.
T S: My favorite song on the record, "Dumb Angel".
Jeff: That was a very fun one. That’s kind of in the "Jimmy’s Fantasy’ vein. Overexcess, genius mixed with chemical warfare. That was co-written with Roger Manning of JELLYFISH. There's a singer-songwriter named Roger Manning. I have no idea what he sounds like but I've seen his records and a lot of people think we co-wrote with him and they ask us why.
T S: The new version of "Huge Wonder”.
Jeff: "Huge Wonder” is just Hollywood runaways, Axl Rose impersonators, prostitutes, crackheads, smog, and police.
T S: On the Insipid single its called "No Small Wonder”.
Jeff: No, I don't know what they did with that. It came back on that single titled "Small Wonder” but it was never called "Small Wonder”. That was their mistake. Classic rock misprint.
T S: I thought you might’ve got the name from the T V show.
Jeff: Well, when we said "It’s no wonder, no small wonder”, we were definitely thinking about the T V show. We definitely can't escape that whole television influence. No matter how hard we try to live it down it still works its way into our music.
T S: Well, that’s what the band is known for.
Jeff: I know, but it's time to move on. Look at us, we try to move on and we pay tribute to the scariest show ever put on television.
T S: OK, "Visionary”.
Jeff: That’s like a bitter look at the backstage, behind-the-scenes rock and roll industry.
T S: “Pay for Love” you co-wrote with your new wife.
Jeff: Charlotte Caffey. Yes, that’s just one of those relationship songs of the agonies and ecstasies of a love affair.
T S: "Ms Lady Evans”, is that about a transvestite?
Jeff: (laughter ) No, but its about the transvestite within each of us.
T S: "Only a Girl".
Jeff: That’s another bitter break-up song. That’s Steven's ode to his last girlfriend.
T S: "Saragon".
Jeff: It’s another love song. Its about people who totally demean themselves just for a relationship. We created a retarded super-hero for that song.
T S: “After School Special”, the traditional Steve sung song on the record.
Jeff: Yeah. That song is another ode to the classic juvenile delinquent.
T S: You guys released a lot of singles for the new album and they all have different B sides. So I guess you recorded about 17 songs or so.
Jeff: Three of them were recorded during the album session, “Tico and Yolanda", "Disco Bitch”, maybe there were only two. The rest of them were all live recordings we did for the BBC and we did some of them in my 8-track studio in our basement.
T S: How about "Tico and Yolanda” on the "Jimmy's Fantasy" single?
Jeff: That was kind of our observations about the lack of underground movement in L A. The characters we used were S L A (sic) members. We had to represent the missing male and female element in underground music.
T S: "Disco Bitch" sung by the fabulous Gere Fennelly.
Jeff: I guess that song speaks for itself. I guess its some experience Gere had to go through.
T S: One of the faster songs you've written recently.
Jeff: That was written and recorded basically at the same time. Totally live in the studio.
T S: After that was the Sympathy 10” (2500 REDD KROSS Fans Can't Be Wrong).
Jeff: That was a combination of British singles.
T S: And also "Any Hour, Every Day”.
Jeff: That’s the other song that was recorded for the album. That was another nepotism, like heavy duty collaborating. That was written with Charlotte again. Its on the album if you have the European and Japanese version.
T S: Does the Japanese CD come with English lyrics that are totally wrong?
Jeff: You know, we should have them. We should tell them to translate these lyrics for us. Most people love that.
T S: On the Sympathy 10”, you put "Huge Wonder” but you didn't put "Super Sunny Christmas”. Are you just gonna leave that obscure?
Jeff: I don't know why we did that. There was a time there for a few months where we were putting all these records out in different formats and at one point the band said "I don't care, you guys deal with it”. It was so confusing. I don't know what’s on what.
T S: When that (Insipid) single came out I was wondering what was up with the band at that time.
Jeff: We were, too. We didn't really know what we were gonna do. That was the first thing that came up. Someone said, "Oh, some Australian label wants to do a single" so we just said, "Oh, sure".
T S: On the "Lady in the Front Row”, 7” you do the P J Harvey song.
Jeff: There's two versions of that. There's one that we recorded in my basement and there's one that we did for the BBC.
T S: This one's the BBC.
Jeff: There's another weird thing because the one we did in our basement is actually better than the one we released.
T S: "I'll Meet You Halfway". A great version of it.
Jeff: Thanks. It was recorded in our basement That was engineered by my brother-in-law. See, we're like a family organization now.
T S: On the 10”, "Standing in Front of a Poseur”, the new version.
Jeff: That was a BBC recording, too. We didn’t want to re-record our album tracks so we just started digging for things that we had never really done.
T S: You do the Kinks cover, too.
Jeff: Yeah, "Fancy", from "Face to Face". One of my favorite Kinks records.
T S: Are there any more songs from that BBC session?
Jeff: There's one more, "It Won't Be Long", by the Beatles. I think it might be on the B-side of our new British single "Visionary".

By: Tom