RTX
Western
Xterminator
(
My childish relationship with rock-n-roll usually means my rock stars idols are all men, an immature attitude unfortunately shared with much of the music industry. Thanks to Jennifer Herrema, this is all changing. RTX, fronted by the goddess of hard rock deconstruction bursts through the doors with guns ablaze on their latest Western Xterminator, vacillating between mushroom-hazy psychedelic numbers like the opening title track, vocals sounding like they were forced through a hookah into an echo chamber, and Motor City endgame blasts like "Dude Love" and "Restoration Sleep" reeling off into the night like Guns N Roses interpreting the Book of Revelations. It is consciously over the top, but shows a demented dedication to the rock of all our misspent youths and hopefully, our mismanaged futures.
The finest moments on
the record mix experimentation and bombast, like on the epic "Rat Will Kill"
which sounds like the greatest conceivable hair metal track could ever be
produced. RTX is anything but a tired retro act like The Darkness or the
thousand versions of Ratt touring this land of ours. Ever since her days in the
much heralded Royal Trux, Herrema has been cleaning her gun and practicing her
aim. To call it thinking person's hair
metal is to detract from the libidinous thrall of this music. It makes me feel
like I'm fourteen again, when I dropped the needle on my stepbrother's copy of Paranoid.
That detuned bellow forcing my stepdad to peer around the corner, saying "not
again..." Yes. Again. And forever.
Herrema was kind enough to be my favorite interview subject yet a second time and discuss the gear-head particulars of the record, modeling vs music, and the rock of the people.
Outsideleft: The vocals
on
Jennifer Herrema: I
used a variety of things on each song but first and foremost is the natural
offset of triple tracking...that coupled w/ using different mic's
(Sennheiser,Akg,sure,Neuman), pre-amps (Chandler L Germanium, Ampex
vintage tube,UA LA610, Neve 1272) and other processing (Empirical labs
distressor, Palmer PGA - 04 Amp simulator) created the various vox atmospheres.
OL: What inspired this
record? I hear as much Ziggy Stardust as I do AC/DC in it. Is that part of it,
or am I completely missing the point.
JH: Yeah, I think we did
well if we conjured that analogy....as I admire both sounds and they are
indelibly etched in my musical subconscious along w/many other genre defying
and defining bands and albums.... I've always considered the music I make as
inclusive and Western Xterminator is no exception.... so far the response to
the record has been incredibly great and for the most part responsibly
articulate although I have noticed a tendency for some writers to get a bit
hung up on the bigger, heavier guitar rock first impression as a means to an
end....that would be a short sighted uninspired take on the album because the
album is not an end....just another topical terrain covered by the Rad Times
Xpress!
OL: What music do you
listen to besides your own? What's been blowing you away lately?
JH: Mac Dre, Nas(hip hop
dead), Cheeseburger, any thing produced by Tom Werman or Andy Johns,
Danzig(Danzig), Ozzy Osbourne (Ultimate Sin), Geto Boys (We Can't Be Stopped),
Parliament (Motor Booty Affair), Dio (Last in Line)
OL: Who plays the solos
that crop up throughout the record?
JH: Brian McKinley
OL: With every weener
indie rock band rising with the tide, is the time right for RTX to set the
balance right for rock-n-roll?
JH: Yeah. Totally, but
I'm not sure that we'll be allowed
OL: Were you asked,
would you go on tour with Guns N Roses, provided they could get their act
together?
JH: Sure
OL: Has your modeling
career helped or hurt your music career? Vice versa?
JH: The modeling I've
done has been exclusively a result of my music career....It's totally helped me
financially but for people who may be predisposed to writing me off....it's
usually used as fuel for their rationalization; that type of person is of
no use to me anyway and in weeding them out...the modeling has been a win-win
situation..dig?
OL: How sick are you of
people asking if you and Neil are on speaking terms?
JH: I don't really care
but they never get the truth out of either one of us....Neil and I are still
playing off each other from a distance.
is an odyssey from the backwoods bars and small-town dives to the swampside dance halls and converted clapboard barns of a Louisiana Saturday Night. Don't leave Heathrow without it. His first book 
