MUSIC

Bob Schneider still sticking to the direct fan approach

Austin icon is back with a new record after divorce, fatherhood and a changing industry.

By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, October 01, 2009

Since his previous studio album five years ago, Bob Schneider has been married, gone through a divorce and had to conform his life to the demands of single fatherhood. It's been a time of emotional upheaval, and yet, when he listened to an early version of the album "Lovely Creatures," which had a pre-release party Tuesday at Waterloo Records as part of HAAM Benefit Day, he realized that he had made a record of love songs.

"The divorce was the most painful thing I've ever gone through, the first true failure of my life," the 43-year-old local music icon said. "But I have so much love for my (4-year-old) son. It's love like I've never felt before, and it must've crept into the new songs." Much of "Lovely Creatures," which comes out Tuesday, was written during a self-imposed 14-month period of celibacy that followed the separation from his wife.

Featuring the catchy KGSR-FM favorite "40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet)," the new album is Schneider's most commercially viable since 2001's "Lonelyland," the best-selling album in the history of Waterloo Records (nearly 25,000 copies sold in that one store). Gone are the off-color lyrics and oddball references that might have kept Schneider from being a crossover success in the past.

But even as Schneider and producer Dwight A. Baker (Kelly Clarkson) set out to make a record that would expand the singer-songwriter's appeal beyond cult hero status, Schneider said he turned down an offer to release "Lovely Creatures" on Lost Highway, the major label home of Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson and Lucinda Williams. The record will instead come out on untested Dallas indie label Kirtland Records.

The deal-killer with Lost Highway, part of the Universal Music Group, was the contract that Schneider said would prevent him from selling live CDs of his shows. For the past five years, Schneider has recorded all his live sets, making CDs available for purchase just minutes after the last song of the night.

"I just can't imagine not doing it that way," said Schneider, who calls his instant live CD business Frunk. The most he's ever sold after a show was 120 double-disc sets for $15 each. The average is about 30-40 a show.

"I can pay the bills just playing in Austin," said Schneider, who owns a modest home and recording studio in Bee Cave. "But when we're out on the road, the dust tends to fall into the red. The live CDs help us break even."

Schneider said he gets virtually no media attention outside Texas but has a small, yet growing core of diehard fans across the country.

"You hear a lot these days about the empowerment of the independent artist," said Schneider's co-manager Randy Miller. "But Bob's understood the importance of direct-to-fan relationships for 10 years. Even when he was on a major label he retained the rights to put out side projects. He's constantly keeping the fan base active."

On Tuesday, nearly 250 fans (including Schneider's mom, Katie) who purchased "Lovely Creatures" a week in advance jammed into the aisles of Waterloo as Schneider and his band played new songs, ranging from the sad and poignant "Changing Your Mind" to the optimist LP opener "Till Somebody Catches a Feeling."

The 30-minute Waterloo set was a fan marketing event tied to HAAM Benefit Day, a fundraiser for the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.

A more pure, soulful dose of Schneider's diverse musicianship has been available at Saxon Pub every Monday night for 10 years.

Back in the early years, it was the place where you'd be most likely to see actress Sandra Bullock, a Schneider flame at the time. Nowadays you're most likely to have to park, ironically, in front of Bullock's husband Jesse James' Speed Shop next door.

Things have changed, but Schneider and band are still packing them in.

Because the singer plays local venues as often as four nights a week, he offers himself in different musical formats to keep it interesting for him and the fans who follow him from gig to gig.

There are the Scabs, his powerhouse funk band, and the Bob Schneider Bluegrass Massacre, which puts banjo and fiddle to his songs about Captain Kirk and losing your mind. On his big weekend shows, such as Saturday at the South Padre Island Seafood and Music Festival, he emerges as party host, playing all his radio hits and naughty dance numbers to a hard-drinking, college-age crowd.

But on Mondays, he brings out his singer-songwriter side with an ever-morphing band he still calls Lonelyland, even though they rarely play songs from the album "Lonelyland" anymore.

On a recent Monday, the band moved easily from hard rock to whispery ballads to funk to reggae to mambo to indie rock to glee club art rock. They even played a song Schneider wrote with son Luc called "The Hulk." As always, the night's final number, "Time To Go," was done in a style dictated by the audience, which chose Blondie. It's an "only in Austin" residency.

Most of Schneider's hard-core fans, who consider Monday the end of the weekend, know the routine by now. Schneider pulls up in his white Lexus SUV at 8:27 p.m. and parks in the space that's always empty because it looks as if it's illegal. He goes in through the stage door, where his band is waiting. There's maybe a "hi" or a nod on the way to his keyboard or his guitar, but at 8:30 sharp Schneider starts playing, and the band kicks in.

During the course of the two-hour set, with the sellout crowd of 180 packed in and craning around the band as if it's a game of craps, Schneider will mix old favorites such as "Tarantula," the Scabs showstopper re-recorded for "Lovely Creatures," with songs he's never even rehearsed with the band.

Some of these new songs come from a game played within a songwriters group that includes Patty Griffin, Jack Ingram, Billy Harvey, Bushwalla and, when he's not on tour, Jason Mraz. Each songwriter is given a phrase each week to work into a new song. The new album's "Realness of Space" grew out of the assigned phrase "bear fur."

"I'm writing songs all the time," Schneider said. "The more you write, the better the chance of writing something truly great."

The singer, who moved to Austin from El Paso in 1987 at the behest of his art teacher's friend, musician/artist Terry Allen, admits he's no longer the creative workhorse he once was.

"Before Luc was born, I was capable of living a 24-hour, self-centered, self-absorbed existence," said Schneider, who's been sober 14 years after a 1995 stint in rehab. "I was always writing, always drawing, playing music, making videos. It was actually a pretty pathetic way to live."

The self-proclaimed "horrible husband" is focused on being an attentive father. "When I dropped Luc off to school today," Schneider said on a recent Monday, "I knew I wouldn't see him again until Wednesday, and that hurts."

But Monday night makes it better. "Even if I was headlining the Erwin Center on a Saturday night, I'd be looking forward to Monday at the Saxon," Schneider said.

He said he loves the spontaneity, the musical communication, the closeness of the audience. "It's really the best show, and the most fun, I have all week."

Back in the spotlight

Bob Schneider will celebrate the release of 'Lovely Creatures' with a show Oct. 2 at Antone's. He will play the Austin City Limits Music Festival with the Scabs on Oct. 3.