VBS.TV Blog

KING TUFF'S MOM IS GETTING USED TO HIS SHIT

July 01, 2009
by TERRY HAND

• Music
• United States

King Tuff is a longhair from a cowtown in southern Vermont who sits in his room all day and writes songs that make the entire recorded output of the Flamin Groovies and Todd Rundgren sound like Hitler’s meth-farts. He made hands-down the best album of last year and may already have made the best albums of this year and possibly the next five years if he’d let anyone listen to them.

Supposedly he’s sitting on an archive of some 100-odd tunes just waiting to be pressed, though the most anyone from Colonel has heard is whatever’s bled through from the background on his voicemail. Dragging musical hermits kicking and screaming through the process of releasing records has become a pretty standard trial by fire for anyone trying to run a label in the past 20 years. The problem with Tuff is he’s not pulling this for some sort of ridiculous mystique or because he’s too fragile for this cruel old world of ours. Guy just doesn’t pick up his phone.

After months of calling his house to eke a couple answers out of him about Was Dead or his work singing for Witch or his old folksy band Feathers or absolutely anything at all, we finally decided to forego the man himself and just talk to the friendly voice at the other end of the line: King Tuff’s mom.

Here’s our interview with her, there’s a couple of songs at the end for you to reward yourself when you’re done reading.

VBS: Hi, King Tuff’s mom. I’m sorry to bug you, but I’ve been trying to set up an interview with your son and it hasn’t been working out too great.
King Tuff’s Mom: Yeah, Kyle’s really hard to get a hold of.

So I’ve learned.
He also doesn’t really, like, plan. He just does everything on the spur of the moment, so you can’t pin him down for stuff. It makes things difficult at times.

Does he live at home when he’s in Vermont?
Um, he’s here but he’s not here? [ mom laugh ] Our schedules are totally different so basically I just see evidence of him. I might wake up and see dishes around, or I’ll come home from work and there’ll be a new pile of clothes somewhere. So I know he’s been here, but he has a studio downtown that he spends most of his time at. His mailing address and stuff is here. And I guess for all intents and purposes he does live here, but really he doesn’t. This is just where all his stuff is.

Does he have the same room he had as a kid, or did he pull one of those teenage move-to-the-basement sort of deals?
No, actually we left Vermont right after he was born and moved back when he was seven. The two places he and his brother lived in before this house were rentals, so we had to keep all the walls white. When we finally bought our own house we promised them they could paint their rooms whatever color they wanted.

What did Kyle pick?
The carpet in his room was red, so he had us paint the walls and ceiling this intense neon green. It was like walking inside a giant watermelon. There weren’t any curtains, so the room just like glowed. It was pretty neat.

Interesting. Is that where he’d record his music?
Oh, he’s recorded stuff all over the house. We have a bomb shelter and at one point the bomb shelter was his recording area. Then he made his room into a recording studio. Now that he’s got his spot downtown, he’s moved most of his stuff down there

Was he touchy about you and the rest of the family making noise while he was trying to put stuff to tape?
Not really. The only thing is if he got a phone call and I didn’t know he was recoding and knocked on the door, it would screw him up. Then he’d get a little bit pissed, but anybody would if you were in the middle of doing something. For the most part, he would record at night when I was sleeping.

Didn’t that bug you? Could you hear it or do you guys have really thick walls?
Oh yeah, I could definitely hear it. But I have his music in my brain, so it’s fine. It would just interweave in my dreams. Actually it got to the point where even if he wasn’t recording when I was sleeping, I kind of heard his music in my dreams.

Aww, that’s sweet. How long has Kyle been into music?
Oh, from the time he was teeny-tiny. The first thing he ever wanted for Christmas was a record player with Jefferson Starship. This was back in the 80s when he was either 2 or 3. The song he wanted was “We Built This City.”

Good song. When did he start playing music on his own?
He took drum in elementary school and had this little drum set he’d play on. When he hit middle school, that’s when he started forming his bands.

Do you remember any of their names?
Let’s see… One was Ludicrous. [ mom laugh ] And that was years before that rapper Ludacris came out. I know Ludicrous went through several names, but that’s the only one I can remember.

Did they play a lot of shows or battles of the bands, or was it just kind of a bedroom band?
They didn’t really get into battle of the bands that I can remember, but there was a kids’ place, like a teen center that they played at. Kyle was into punk at that point so the shows would get pretty wild. They got kicked out after one and weren’t allowed to go back because things just got too crazy.

Do you know what happened?
Not exactly. During that time period you don’t really want your parents coming to shows. I think some things may have gotten smashed, but I feel like it wasn’t really their fault. More just the crowd.

When you say Kyle was into punk, was it just the music or did he go in for the full magilla?
Oh, he got into the style, especially the hair. When he was younger he went through the phases with all the different hair colors and stuff. The only one that really got us was his tri-hawk and that was because it was, I’m probably getting the colors wrong, but I believe the sides were bright pink and the mohawk part was green? That was the hair that actually got his father to be like “Look I’ll buy you a hat if you want to go out to dinner with us.” mom laugh And it wasn’t because he himself hated it, it was just other people’s reactions. My husband was ready to kill these idiots who’d make comments to him when we were walking down the street together.

(l-r): Kyle’s mom as Kyle, Halloween 1997. Kyle as himself, every other day 1997.

Kyle had a few major projects before starting King Tuff, like Feathers and playing in Witch with J Mascis. Does he keep you guys posted about what new bands he’s in and what they’re up to?
We hear things, but not with any regularity. It’s like, how much do you really confide in your parents?

That’s true, but there are also those kids who are like “best friends” with their parents and tell them every little thing that’s happening in their life.
Kyle does not. I wouldn’t say he’s trying to be secretive or anything, he just doesn’t talk. If I come out and ask him things, he’ll answer me, he just doesn’t usually talk about what he’s doing. Half the time I don’t think he even knows what he’s doing. Like, with this last Witch tour I’d ask him, “When are you leaving?” and he’d say, “I don’t know.” He knows he doing it and he’s got some sense of when it’s going to happen, but even the day before when I asked him what time his flight was it’s, “I don’t know.”

Does Kyle ever play you his finished music or do you only hear what he’s working on?
He doesn’t necessarily play it for me, but since we’re in the same house I don’t have a choice whether I’m going to listen to it or not. Usually there’s music going in the house and for the most part, I like it. Some of the Witch stuff, the first time I heard it was like… Oh God. But when you’re exposed to something long enough, you don’t mind it that much. I do really like a lot of the Feathers stuff. There’s a lot of stuff on King Tuff that I like, and then there’s some of the Witch stuff that I like too.

Do you ever put on his records when he’s not around, or is the constant nocturnal bombardments enough for you?
Yeah I always hear it, but I don’t tend to put it on. When nobody’s in the house I’ll usually put on some of my stuff.

What’s your stuff?
Are you familiar with the religious group the Shakers?

I am.
A lot of times I’ll listen to old Shaker music I’ve got on CDs. That and maybe some old Beatles or James Taylor, but I don’t tend to put that stuff on when Kyle or his brother are around.

Why? Do they get on your case about it?
No, I don’t think they mind it. It’s just not what they’d listen to on their own. There’s this one song, “Simple Gifts” that when they hear it I know they think of me, cause that’s my all-time favorite Shaker song. But I like the original version of it, not all the crap that people embellish it with.

Oh, like when the Boston Pops will cram it in the middle of bombastic medley with like the national anthem and such?
Exactly. Just give me the basic song.

From Was Dead (Click to buy it on itunes.)
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