Creating Our Own Tradition: the Perils & Rewards of Group-Think

by Evan Cantor

I sometimes wonder how marvelous it must be for so-called “solo artists” to do their thing.  Independent of anybody else’s opinions, wishes and desires, the solo-artist can do as they like, collaborate with whomever they wish and create at will.  In a band, one must deal with multiple points-of-view, numerous opinions, ego-driven differences, leadership struggles, musical and philosophical differences, wildly disparate kinds and levels of talent and general madness.  Nonetheless, there are rewards in having a band and operating, to varying degrees, via “group-think”.

Although I may have run Walls Of Genius relatively despotically in the 1980s, it would never have been what it was without “group-think”.  We jammed, improvised, assembled and performed as a group.  Nonetheless, a Walls Of Genius track was periodically something I made all by myself, something made by Little Fyodor alone, or that very rare something generated primarily by Ed Fowler, the third ‘founding’ member of the group.  Since these “solo” creations became Walls Of Genius tracks, it provided a great variety of sounds and a great deal of freedom to create at will, regardless of “group-think”.  This is one of the reasons that you never knew what you might hear when you saw the name Walls Of Genius.  We relished that freedom and unpredictability.  Of course, with time, certain of these elements became predictable.  The classic Walls Of Genius ‘formula’ emerged, a melange of solo materials combined with the three of us improvising together.  Little Fyodor would not have been Walls Of Genius all by himself and neither would I.  So the unpredictable became itself predictable.  I should note that veto power was invested in all three primary members of the group.   

Working to expand the limitations of 4-track technology, Fyodor and I would employ overdubs in tandem.  Two persons recording on each track gave us up to eight things going on.  Thus Little Fyodor assisted me with percussion, synth and background mania on various pieces.  I provided some lead guitar, percussion and bass on a variety of Fyodor songs.  We both provided back-up vocals for one another.  A third approach was in true experimentation in which we very consciously worked together to create something unusual that reflected neither participant dominantly.  A fourth was the Fabulous Pus-Tones, wherein Fyodor and I sang unhinged duets, mostly in the service of deconstructing old pop tunes but sometimes on originals like “I’m Falling In Love With Ellen”.  Finally, a fifth approach was simply uninhibited improvisation by whichever musicians happened to be there that day.   Such sessions could only exist as a result of a ‘group-think’ approach even if the thinking was unconscious, below the floorboards so to speak.

It wasn’t always happy days group-thinking in the living-room studio.  Little Fyodor wasn’t always overjoyed to play percussion on one of my Joe Colorado songs.  For him, this could be like doing-the-laundry.  It was just boring to do it, but he soldiered on in support of the larger project.  I wasn’t always happy playing lead guitar or bass on Fyodor songs.  He knew what he wanted, wasn’t happy until he got it ‘just right’ and I would get frustrated by the perfectionism.  His approach was, and remains, sufficiently unique that it wasn’t always easy to adjust to it.  Was I just a robotic bass player to be programmed?  I soldiered on as well.  In the long run, the results were good.     

Group-think helped in assembling our albums and with the marketing of them.  As a dee-jay with some years of experience, Little Fyodor always had a good ear for song order, so he organized as much of that as I did.  When he thought I had gone too far with my obscene cartoons, he spoke up and I respected those wishes.  Ed was most of the time blissfully unaware of the entire world beyond our living rooms.  But finally he objected to the inclusion of my song “Ballad Of A Patriot” because it contained the refrain “so fuck you, Ronald Reagan”.  He wanted to give our albums to his friends and family whom he thought would be offended.  He was not concerned, however, about Little Fyodor’s multiple versions of “Everybody’s Fuckin’” on the Pussy Lust cassette album.  Go figure, right?  So the “Ballad” went to a compilation and didn’t appear on a Walls Of Genius album until 2017, as a bonus track on Bandcamp.  Times have changed.  Plus, since Ed doesn’t own a computer, he has little to say on matters involving the digital world. 

There were times when Group-Think broke down completely, especially in the case of ill-considered collaborations with outside musicians.  Passive-aggressive manipulation proliferated all around and generated falling-outs.  These relationships would have benefited greatly from actual “group-think”, if we had only been able to communicate more effectively.  We were all young and inexperienced in this world, so what did we know?  None of us can be blamed for having once been young and inexperienced.

What about artistic freedom?  Because of the “formula”, we essentially had all the artistic freedom we might ever have wanted in a band situation.  Nonetheless, with a ‘band’, you must subsume some of your own wishes and desires in order to reach a compromise with others’ wishes and desires.  When Little Fyodor and I experienced artistic differences in ‘86, it never occurred to me that Walls Of Genius could be anything other than it had been, a group consisting of at least Ed, myself and Little Fyodor.  It’s not like I “owned” the name Walls Of Genius.  I could have, if I so wished, had Walls Of Genius “present” me as a solo artist, just as we had “presented” Little Fyodor (“Slither/Sloth”).  But at that time, I had no wish to do so as I had lost interest in the avant-garde.  And now that I am once again interested, I use the revived Walls Of Genius “brand” as my outlet for that expression, as well as nearly-conventional songs with rather pointed lyrics (i.e.  “Make America Mexican Again”).

Make America Mexican Again
(Evan Cantor)

Intro:  D G A D  (2x) (mariachi horns) 3/4

We are all rapists and criminals, now we can say it out loud D G, A D
It’s no longer subliminal, we’re brown, illegal and proud. D G, A D
There’s no way to keep us all outta here, D G
                                      go right ahead with yer wall A D
You can pass more laws but for all you fear, D G
                                      It makes no difference at all. A D

       Let’s make America, F G
       Let’s make America, F G
       Let’s make America, F G >>Bb-Stop
       Mexican Again! (n.c.)-to break  

break:  D G A D  (2x) (mariachi horns)

                  Aye aye aye, yo soy un gringo borracho D G A D
                  Me gusto cerveza y tequila tambien D G A
                  Me gusto margaritas y mescal Yucatan! A  D

       Let’s make America, F G
       Let’s make America, F G
       Let’s make America, F G >>Bb-Stop
       Mexican Again! (n.c.)-to break  

break:  D G A D  (2x) (mariachi horns)

California, Nevada and New Mexico, they used to be part of us D G, A D
From the Oregon coast to El Paso, we ride in the back of the bus D G, A D
We pick your veggies and we pick your fruit, D G
                                      We make your guaca-mo-lay A D
In rags, in pee-jays and Savile Row suits, D G
                                       You know we are here to stay. A D

       Let’s make America, F G
       Let’s make America, F G
       Let’s make America, F G >>Bb-Stop
       Mexican Again! (n.c.)-to break  

break:  D G A D  (2x) (mariachi horns)  (END G>D!)

Such songs have historically disturbed fellow members of my straight bar-band and folk-music ventures.  For Little Fyodor, it’s a different ball o’wax.  He has a successful avant-garde career as a solo artist.  I imagine it’s more of a challenge for him to determine if-and-what he’d like to bring to Walls Of Genius that isn’t simply an extension of his successful solo career.

Ultimately, Walls Of Genius benefited, and continues to do so, from the fact that it is a group and no one individual’s solo project.  The radical differences in our approaches created excitement and vibrating tension to Walls Of Genius.  With Little Fyodor and me, it’s a little like the Lennon/McCartney dialectic.  Or the Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald collaboration, voices like silk and gravel intertwined.  When Fyodor and I get crazy singing together, channeling Wild Man Fischer and The Shaggs, it’s a unique thing unheard anywhere else, hence Walls Of Genius.  Because there is a group dynamic, we are forced to discipline ourselves in our solo contributions.  Although we had complete freedom to create such things, there’s only so much space available within the ‘formula’ for any one album.  It’s possible that this categorization or pigeon-holing is antithetical to the project.  Our beginnings emerged from the desire to cast away all discipline, to simply go wild and create, unhinged and uninhibited.  Well, times changed and still do.  In the process, I’d like to think we created our own tradition.