Hot! hot! hot! - inteview with rock group Jonathan Fire Eater's lead singer Steward Lupton - Interview

Interview, Oct, 1997 by Ray Rogers

Rock'n'roll's sparkiest newcomers, Jonathan Fire Eater, have already set New York City crowds ablaze. Now, with the release of their major-label debut, they're ready to ignite the rest of the world

With their alabaster complexions, mod haircuts, and dandy black blazers and ties, the members d Jonathan Fire Eater come across like junior rook 'n' roll gravediggers. After playing together In various ska and punk groups at tony St. Albans prep in Washington, D.C., they relocated to New York City, where their club performances - mix of theatrical neuroses and raw, Farfisa-organ-driven sincerity - fired up audiences searching for something moro than a whiny, grungy bar band. It wasn't long before word spread and Jonathan Fire Eater (drummer Matt Barrick, bassist Tom Frank, singer Stewart Lupton, guitarist Paul Maroon, and keyboardist Walter Martin) won a huge contract with DreamWorks, which has just released the dark and delicious Wolf Songs for Lambs, a disc rife with the contradictions that make the group so engaging.

The day I mat with singer Stewart Lupton, he showed up slurping on a cherry red Popsicle and waving a studded dog collar in one hand. "I thought I'd see what your reaction would be," he said with a wink.

RAY ROGERS: YOU have something of an unusual background for a rock band. You all went to St. Albans; you yourself studied poetry at Sarah Lawrence. Why do you play rock 'n' roll? How do the two go together?

STEWART LUPTON: Music is much more immediate, much more exciting. A book like Ulysses is incredibly exciting, but still it's a book, and you've got to read it in a chair. Nothing else makes me feel the way music does. It has an effect that can't be discussed - like when you get chills from listening to a song. It's a physiological thing.

RR: Why do you think your music translates so well to a New York crowd?

SL: I think it's exciting: a rock band that's really rocking 'n' rolling without distortion. Every night you can go out and see a band at some club, and often it won't be memorable, but we had this idea to make our shows more like a night out. We try not to intimidate people through volume, but to relate to them and create an atmosphere, a mood. The atmosphere we want is like an adult family outing, this nurturing tenderness. It's not done a lot. A lot of bands are really into scaring people.

RR: Critics often write about your band as gloomy and scary, but I'd say It's more warm and inviting.

SL: Thanks. Warmth is a good thing.

RR: What kind of mood would you say you create?

SL: The most fabulous thing about this job is that you can change it every night. And if you're really egotistical, you can create it around whatever mood you're in. It changes from song to song: Every song is like a different room with different ways of feeling. On a bad night, it's one shitty motel.

RR: You all have a similar style of dress. How did you cultivate that look?

SL: It's just the way we dress. We didn't have any meetings or any portfolios drawn up. We went to a school where we had to wear suits and ties. You get to a certain age and you start hanging out with girls and figuring out about sex. It's hard to look good in a blazer and a tie, but we figured out ways to. We had a lot of clothes left over, so we just kept doing that - because it worked. But we all had girlfriends then; don't have them now.

RR: You don't?

SL: No. There's a very big girlfriend-shaped hole in my heart.

RR: You're searching for a girlfriend?

SL: Yeah. I don't know if I'd be a very good boyfriend right now, though. We travel a lot, and I'm kind of scattered. I'm very disorganized, spacy.

RR: Those are probably endearing qualities.

SL: Yeah, maybe. Except I tend to attract very maternal girls who want to put my socks together and stuff.

RR: Tell me about the title of the album, Wolf Songs for Lambs.

SL: You know how sometimes there are several different people inside one person? It's just about taking care of yourself and other parts of your character. A sheepish wolf, you know? We're all part wolf and part lamb. We're interested in seeing how they work together.

RR: Are you more lamb, or wolf?

SL: I don't want to think of them as, like, lamb: shy, quiet, humble; wolf: antagonistic, violent. I'm both - like everybody else. That's what the title's about.

RR: What part of you do you think needs to he taken care of?

SL: Oh, a pretty big part. I'm capable of being very nurturing, and tender too. Hey, I'm really starting to sound like a good boyfriend, you know?