King Chameleon

From Frank Zappa to David Bowie to the Talking Heads to Nine Inch Nails, guitarist/songwriter/singer Adrian Belew is the Waldo of the avant-garde rock scene. There are a few out-there recordings with alien time signatures to be found without his fingerprints on them, but uncovering them is almost as hard as it is to put a label on the forty-nine-year-old Kentuckian. For all of his progressive tendencies, you see, Belew is a master at pop songcraft -- a Beatlemaniac whose knack for intricate yet hummable melodies has enhanced latter-day King Crimson and characterized his off-beat but consistently satisfying solo career. It's this kinder, poppier side that rules on his latest solo outing, the acoustic Salad Days (out Feb. 9), and that will likely be at the forefront of an upcoming reunion album with the Bears, the Squeeze-able pop outfit he fronted briefly in the late Eighties. Not that he's gone soft, mind you. When the Rolling Stone Network caught up with Belew at his Nashville home studio, he was knee-deep in a new album of electrified aggression -- among a half dozen other things.

Between your solo work, King Crimson duties, producing and guest spots, you're a tough one to keep up with. How many projects do you have going at any one time?

At any one time I probably have several going, but what I do is say, 'I'm gonna work exclusively on this and this,' and that'll consume me. Day after day I'll wake up thinking about the project I'm doing. Currently, I'm doing an all-new solo record -- an all-electric power guitar trio. But, at the same time, I have ten songs done for the next Bears album, and I have this ongoing, long-term project called Dust, which is a rarities collection which will probably span four or five volumes and become a boxed set. And there's always King Crimson looming in the background.

So it's safe to assume this electric album you're working is an entirely different beast from your latest release, Salad Days.

So far it's very aggressive guitar music with fairly busy bass lines and drumming -- not that far-off from King Crimson. It's very unlike Salad Days, which came from a period where I looked back at all the material that I'd written as a songwriter and decided to do fresh acoustic renditions. In 1993 I did a record called The Acoustic Adrian Belew, and a couple of years later I did a follow-up called BelewPrints. But both were only sold at shows and through mail order, so very few people know about them. Salad Days includes some material from both and also two live tracks from Buenos Aires, Argentina. What it shows really is the songwriting aspect of what I do.

From Robert Fripp to Trent Reznor to David Byrne, you've got a long track record of working with eccentric, left-of-center artists. What draws you to these people?

Well, I think as well as the strong sense of pop music I grew up with, there's always the adventure side, the experimental aspect, so I've always been attracted to the music that's the most innovative. Over the years there always seems to rise to the top someone who's doing something unusual enough to attract my ears, and I've been fortunate to be able to work with so many of these people. But I've also worked with people like Paul Simon, Robert Palmer and Cindy Lauper, who are more mainstream. But I don't consider myself a studio musician in a conventional sense at all, because I don't read charts; if someone wanted me to read something traditional, they probably have the wrong guy. Fortunately, I get calls by people like Trent Reznor instead who want me to stretch out and try and do things that no one's done before. When I joined Frank Zappa in 1977, I was the only person in the band who didn't read music. When I asked Frank if I should learn to read music, he said no, that I'd already figured it out my own way and that I did know the rules, I just didn't know the names of the things. And, perhaps doing it my way had caused me to be unique, so that it really wasn't all that necessary.

What is on the horizon for King Crimson now?

King Crimson, at this stage, is mostly putting together compilations and reissues of different things, but I foresee that we're on our way to doing an all-new record. When I spoke to Robert [Fripp] just a few days ago we talked about doing some work together in October. He and I will probably get together before then, just to sit down quietly and start to make a blueprint of some new material. It's difficult for me right now because I'm in the middle of doing a fairly aggressive guitar album and the music itself is not that far off from King Crimson for once. But as soon as I've exhausted this, then I'd love to sit down with him and we'll start writing new material. But on our calendars for King Crimson at this point we have October open to play live shows somewhere. I hope we have some new material -- if not, maybe we'll just go out and play some live shows just to keep ourselves warm.

King Crimson seems like a very intense gig. It's probably not the most fun group to be a part of, is it?

There is a sense of humor about it all. I mean, underneath it all Bill Bruford has a great sense of humor, so does Tony Levin. And Robert Fripp can surprise you with some of his humors. But, it is all very dry. And I don't think "fun" is the first word I would choose. It's not a fun band. I have other musical explorations I do for fun, but King Crimson is more for, uh, challenging yourself.

RICHARD SKANSE
(February 4, 1999)