Q&A: Uncle Kracker
ByAug 21, 2002 10:00 PM
Matt Shafer, known to the masses as Uncle Kracker--and Kid Rock’s DJ--is the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll dad. He glowingly sings about his wife and two daughters on his latest album, “No Stranger to Shame,” due in stores Sept. 24.
Matt Shafer, known to the masses as Uncle Kracker--and Kid Rock’s DJ--is the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll dad. He glowingly sings about his wife and two daughters on his latest album, “No Stranger to Shame,” due in stores Sept. 24.
The album’s first single--the passionate, rollicking ballad “In a Little While"--was among last week’s most-added songs on video and radio, and Shafer is planning a major tour behind the album when Kid Rock’s tour wraps up in November.
Shafer talked with SoundSpike about “No Stranger to Shame,” how it differs from his debut “Double Wide” (which spawned the adult-contemporary hit “Follow Me"), his new wonder-boy guitarist and the absence of Kid Rock on the new album.
SoundSpike: “No Stranger to Shame” carries a strong Motown and Memphis influence. Living in the Detroit area, it’s only natural to be a Motown fan.
Uncle Kracker: Totally. That’s all I listened to growing up. That’s all I know [about] writing songs and hooks like that. It’s not necessarily Motown. But it has that influence. I didn’t really have a game plan going into the new record, but [I guess] the game plan was to go song-for-song and go for it, as opposed to having a game plan [for the album as a whole].
But there’s the horns and the strings, but not too much. Everything’s good in moderation. It’s not a big old-school-sounding record. It’s not dated, either. It’s just straight songs. Some are a little lovey-dovey, some are not.
Speaking of lovey-dovey, there is a range of emotions on “No Stranger to Shame.” It runs the gamut of unhappy to gleeful relationships.
There’s a song, “To Think I Used to Love You,” that I actually wrote about the music business. I like to write songs that mean one thing, but could also mean another thing to someone else. Like with “Follow Me” [from “Double Wide"], it’s a cheating song but it wasn’t me cheating. It was the other one cheating. I like to write more universal songs than anything else.
There are signs on the album of a relationship in turmoil. Would you say that’s accurate?
Not at all. I did “Memphis Soul Song” for my wife, and “Letter to My Daughters” for my daughters. I have two beautiful daughters, 3 and 2. They keep me on the top of the world. Then there’s “To Think I Used to Love You” about the music business. I go through a little bit more emotion than the last record. It’s about what happened after almost four years on the road. I ended up in the studio and maybe I was a little more sensitive than I should have been, but I’m not scared. (laughs)
“Memphis Soul Song” was originally about Memphis. But [Martin “Tino” Gross from the Detroit band Howling Diablos and I] turned it into something more beautiful than it was originally supposed to be. The demo of it was a completely different song. But when I got in there, I thought my wife deserved one of them songs. It was an easy way of doing a love song without coming off too corny.
I noticed in the credits that you have a different band now.
I did a little juggling around this time. [My former bandmates, most of whom were from the ex-Mercury Records band Charm Farm] went on and started a new band themselves. I brought down my new guitarist from Mancelona, Mich. His name is Brian Schram, he’s 22 years old and completely rips it up. He’s a cross between Yngwie [Malmsteen] and Stevie Ray Vaughan. I met him when [Kid Rock’s lead guitarist] Kenny Olson got married up in Traverse City. While we were up in Traverse City, the kid was playing in a bar. I said, ‘Jesus Chris. You want a job?’ It couldn’t have worked out better. My [former] bass player [Scott Krause] is actually a drummer, so he moved over to drums. I put Mike Bradford on bass. He produced this record.
It worked out for the better. Them two guys [guitarist Steve Zuccaro and drummer Eric Hoegemeyer] wanted to start their own thing. I wish them all the best. Steve was a good player, too. But I ended up with another good player and another good drummer. I’m sappy because I’d grown used to those guys. You get used to that that, but you know what? It’s going to be fun again.
You worked with a few special guests on “No Stranger to Shame” including country-soul singer Dobie Gray and Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray.
On [the song] ‘No Stranger to Shame,’ Mark and I, when we toured last July through August, we wanted to get together and write and record one song for a Christmas album. Every time we linked up, we talked each other out of it or someone talked us out of it. We ended up not doing it. But I wanted to do a track with him anyway. It seemed appropriate. But trying to get him into the studio was nuts. I don’t know if he’s really that busy or if he’s just pretending to be. I think Mark does some Brian Wilson shit. He just sits around in bed all day. He’s a really good friend of mine. But he came down to the wire. We were mixing the record before he came down.
Was Dobie Gray as difficult with the cover of “Drift Away?”
I felt like a complete ass because he’s such a good singer and I’m so not. I’m more of a crooner than a singer. He sings and I croon along and fool around. I told him, “I should not be singing next to you, Dobie.” He seemed to like it, though. He congratulated me on the version. He said I nailed everything that should have been nailed. He wished me luck and said he loved how different I did it from the original.
Though he appeared on “Double Wide,” Kid Rock doesn’t make a single appearance on “No Stranger to Shame.”
He was busy doing his press junket for the “Cocky” record and had a lot of stuff to do. If I didn’t make this record during a 3 1/2-week window of time, I wasn’t going to be able to do it until now. It worked out good. He gave me the ball and I ran with it.