- Patsy Desmond
- Jennifer Herrema and Neil Michael Hagerty
Despite its best efforts to be out of step with its era, Royal Trux couldn’t help but define it. After establishing a reputation for chaos and art-damaged, deconstructed rock, the duo did a mid-90s about-face and signed with Virgin for the David Briggs-produced, Stones-y Thank You (1995). Fresh from a split with the major label after the visually repulsive/aurally adventurous Sweet Sixteen (1997), the duo moved to Virginia and settled into a period of prolific experimentation, releasing a loose trilogy with Accelerator, Veterans of Disorder, and Pound for Pound on Drag City between 1998 and 2000. Drag City has been reissuing Trux records regularly, and the cycle was completed with Pound for Pound on October 21, 2014. The album is ripe for reevaluation.
John Dugan: Which city do most fans generally associated Royal Trux with? Not D.C. usually, right?
There was a brief period when Royal Trux, Golden, Trans Am (and even the Make-Up according to Neil) seemed to comprise a kind of boogie-rock-influenced scene. Were you conscious of that at the time?
How did having your own studio shape where things went with the band?
Hagerty: We planned very early, 1985, at the beginning, something like: we’ll be fucked up for about ten years, roll with it, get signed, and grab the money. Then we had enough money to do what we wanted to, tour on a decent level . . .
Hagerty: We did that a number of times, maybe not always. It’s just that you get into another level of sympathy with the band members on a tour—tighter, faster and intuitive playing—and I liked to capture that and use that rawness to balance out the conceptual elements of the record so the music didn’t get trapped in a cerebral void.
