COACHELLA PHOTOS by Pat Krausgrill

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Interview in Rise and Fall of the Harbor Area

Rise and Fall Interview

Since this is A San Pedro based magazine, tell us a little history about your time living in the town.
I lived in the 90732 from when I was 5 years old until I went away to college. I went to Crestwood Elementary, Dodson Junior High and San Pedro High. My friends and I used to play pool and go swimming at the Y on Beacon Street; we liked to roam around that area. It was a crazy area before the redevelopment. It was actually pretty cool; it had lots of waterfront character. Wed watch the winos catch and eat pigeons and look at all the crazy waterfront bars and their patrons. After college I came back to Pedro. I moved into a storefront on 7th St. with my band WURM. That lasted two months. The winos and crazy people would dance outside while we practiced; soon there were crowds of them. The landlord heard about it and gave us the boot. We lived in the old Mermaid movie Theater on Pacific Ave. and Santa Cruz in the RSP. It had formerly been a live porn venue. That was a sweet set up, we used to skateboard down the aisles! The neighbors were tough though. We had to bolt the doors into the floors because people would try to break them down so often.
One of my most vivid memories of San Pedro was driving home from a gig in Hollywood and seeing the LPG ship explode from the Harbor Freeway in south Torrance. We thought it was the beginning of WW3. I left Pedro by early '77. Well, actually, I lived in Pedro again for about a month in 1980 but that was it.
I've done so many great gigs in San Pedro though. A memorable one was, the now famous, early Black Flag gig with the Alley Cats, Plugz, and The Reactionaries (who later became the minutemen). Because I'd lived there, and skateboarded its aisles, I knew the Mermaid theater would be a great gig venue. We were booked to play there but The Mermaids owner chickened out and we ended up playing at the teen post around the corner. The audience wrecked the place, which was really lame. But promoting that show was how I met D. Boon and Mike Watt. I was so stoked to meet another band from Pedro! We ended up adding The Reactionaries to the lineup. After The Reactionaries became the minutemen we signed them to SST and began what would be a long and musically prosperous relationship.

My Friendly Linda Bukowski (widow of Charles Bukowski) called me the other day when she found out that the CD6 was playing in town. She told me that she met you at a Black Flag show you guys played at Alpine Village in Torrance in 1981. We both wondered if your name had any connection with the late writer Charles Bukowski.
I got the name Chuck Dukowski from a lighter I found which was engraved with the words Chuck the Duke. I found the lighter at the Wurm Hole, which is what we called our place, in Hermosa in late '77. I was looking for money in the couch the morning after a night of partying and there it was. This was a time when a lot of people were taking punk names, John Doe, Pat Smear ect. So I became Chuck the Duke. I later added the kowski because I thought it gave it a regular guy type of feeling. I wish I could say I did it in honor of the great writer Charles Bukowski. At least it made me become aware of him and begin to read his stuff.

The original concept for the CD6 was to replace the guitar with horns and keep it somewhat improvisational. I noticed that you added a guitar player at your recent gig at Harolds Place in San Pedro. Is this a permanent fixture in the CD6?
I'm not really rigid in terms of adhering to concepts. We still do a good deal of improvisational material though its not the 100% free form of our early days. Our new guitarist Milo is also the oldest of our four children. He played on one track of Eat My Life and worked out so well we added him to the band as a full time member. Milo allows us to maintain the same basic chemistry we'd developed yet gives us a new arsenal of sounds to work with. We're already working on material for our next album.

Is this the first band that your wife Lora Norton has been involved with? How did that come about?
Lora's had other bands, but just for fun. Id say it is her first serious group. I'd heard her perform in another band she had where she sang and played guitar and I was impressed. She has an incredible voice and a lot of stage presence. We are a great songwriting team. Check out the lyrics to Xipe Totec, they're all about an Aztec god who was worshipped by flaying people and wearing their skins! Or Freedom? Lora wrote a beautiful melody for that and the lyrics are so powerful.


When and why have you decided to start playing the five-string electric bass?
I started with the 5 string because it was interesting to me to add a bit more dimension to my musical language. I had a longing to make a move with my playing and felt that that it was a good time since I had no group and could start a new one around the sound Id develop with the five string. I saw this cool red one at Guitar Center and mentioned to Lora how if I were going to get a new Bass that thatd be the one. She bought it for me for my birthday in 1999.

The new record Eat My Life was recorded at Flea's (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) personal studio and he also plays on a track on the record. How did that come about?
Flea is awesome. He is a true music lover and he's really helped us out. He liked our EP The Hammer Will Fall and wanted to see us play. Finally he and his wife Frankie Rayder finally made it to one of our shows at the Knitting Factory. After the show he asked us if wed like to use his studio to record. We sure did. It was such a lucky thing for us. We'd been planning to record and were seriously considering doing it in our living room. Which would have been OK, maybe, but was crap next to using all of Flea's sweet equipment. We got to use some of the coolest vintage audio gear ever made. I have never, in all of the recording I've done, been more pleased with the sounds coming into the board.
Flea hung out in the studio a bit during the recording. He added the tamborine and mellotron on Venus in Furs. A mellotron is a crazy machine they used a lot in the sixties. It's basically an analog sampler. It has a bank of tape loops where each tape is played by a key on a keyboard. The mellotron comes with a giant box of different tapes loops of all sorts of instruments like violins and flutes. Flea hooked it all up and was demonstrating it when it hit us that it might be a cool and helpful addition to our version of Venus in Furs. So we asked if he'd play it and he did. Venus in Furs is one of our most popular songs.
Flea helps out a lot of people. He's the founder of the Silverlake Conservatory where people can get low cost music training. He and his family are super nice people.

The new record has somewhat of a political feel to it. Ive read somewhere that the CD6 are unafraid to stand against our countries tyranny.
Yea! Everything everyone does makes a difference for the future. We want to make the most positive and effective difference we can. We live in a pig state of unrivaled proportion that spreads pain and suffering in our names, at home and the world over, to further the economic interests of a very few, very wealthy individuals. The most important thing we try to get across to people is that how you live your life does make a difference. Think about what you buy, how you treat people; the world is made of all those little things. Violence begets violence but good begets good. Our leaders try to pit us against each other, middle class against lower class, race against race; we're all just trying to have a decent, happy, life free from fear of poverty, of loneliness. How free do the do you feel to lose your legs in Iraq? if you've lost your child? if you lose your life? Dying for George W. is the exact opposite of freedom to me.
You and Lora started your own label called Nice and Friendly Records with the CD6 record being the first release. What plans do you have for the label and how far do you plan on taking it.
We founded Nice and Friendly Records to put out the debut CD6 record Eat My Life and any other cool music that comes our way. I know and enjoy the record business and Lora, as a partner, brings skills that make us much more effective. We plan to patiently take Nice and Friendly as far as we can. We hope to fulfill a dream I had long ago of having my kids grow up in the midst of running a label and eventually leaving it to them.
For someone who hasnt heard the CD6 give us a short description.
I call it Acid Punk, which suggests our freeform roots and our willingness to take off into a group improvisation while we maintain an aggressive edge. Our sound is rooted in rock but Lynn Johnston's horns suggest free jazz. In some of our songs the clarinets are layered and sound like a woodwind chamber piece. We should have made a song where we got rid of al the other instruments! Loras vocals are powerful and soulful, she sounds like Janis Joplin or Patti Smith.
Any plans for touring.
Not right now. But maybe sometime soon we'll bust that move. It'd be fun.
Last Statements.
We hold these truths to be self evident: That nice is good and mean is bad.
Were all part of making the change we want to see in the world.
Camus said: In these times of victims and executioners it is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioner.
Hello Human.

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