Doctor’s Orders: Archers of Loaf’s Eric Bachmann prescribes his favourite albums
Archers of Loaf are one of the most eminent alternative rock bands of the 1990s, and the fact that they are returning with a new album for the first time since 1998’s White Trash Heroes, has rightly got a lot of people excited.
The band’s new opus, Reason in Decline, is a marvellous way to announce their re-arrival, with frontman and creative mastermind Eric Bachmann’s writing style maturing significantly since the days of ‘Web in Front’ and ‘Harnessed in Slums’. The North Carolina band’s classic bite is still there, but it’s been repackaged in a more refined way, as you’d expect of four men who have lived numerous lifetimes since they first called it a day in 1998.
In partnership with CALM, we’ve asked a selection of our favourite artists and public figures to share ten records they would prescribe for anyone and the stories behind their importance. Doctor’s Orders sees these favourites discuss their chosen records in detail and why they deem them essential for living well. As for CALM, whose full name is ‘Campaign Against Living Miserably’, they offer a free, confidential and anonymous helpline for those most in need of mental health support.
We recently sat down with Bachmann to discuss his ten favourite albums of all time, and it was enlightening, to say the least. But first, a little back story of Reason in Decline. After the band reunited for a string of reunion shows in 2015, they found that their creative passion was reignited. However, at the time, things didn’t go to plan, with Bachmann’s attempts to write new material seriously impeded by his feeling that the band’s identity was trapped in the past.
Fast forward to 2020, though, and things would change. The frontman suffered a pandemic-induced breakdown due to the stresses and uncertainty of the lockdowns, which compounded his underlying mental health issues. After he recovered, though, the Archers had finished what might be their most complete record to date, imbued with more honesty than ever before.
“I’m 51, I’ve been [writing and playing music] since I was 14,” Bachmann said. “I’ve been doing it for a living since I was 22; that’s 37 years. For the first time, when COVID happened, I couldn’t do it. All that was taken away, and it was a massive psychological setback, to the point that I had to get help. I already had a problem with suicide ideation, constantly thinking about this shit. And I’m not ashamed to say that. Thousands and thousands of people have the same problem. Anyway, all this got baked into the songs.”
Of the band’s return, the frontman concluded: “What I really think about going back to the Archers and doing a new record is that the three other members of this band are awesome. It’s not about responding to the past or whatever our bullshit legacy is. I just wanted to work with these guys because I knew the chemistry we had and that we still have. I knew that was rare. I didn’t care what it ended up sounding like.”
The music that has inspired the artistry of Eric Bachmann is all the more valuable, given the struggles he has openly discussed. The band’s new sound can be both abrasive and touching, and on Reason in Decline, they manage to make a more profound mark on us than the indomitable White Trash Heroes. Duly, the records Bachmann has listed for Doctor’s Orders appeal to both facets of their work, with something for everyone to help in times of need.
In support of suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). If you or someone you know is struggling, head over to thecalmzone.net for practical support and advice. There are loads of ways to support CALM and their life-saving services. If you fancy making a small donation, £8 can answer a potentially life-saving call.
Archers of Loaf name their ten favourite albums:
Son House – Oberlin College
The first record that Eric picked was a rare live album from 1965 by the American delta blues legend Son House, who he noted for having a defining impact on the development of rock ‘n’ roll music over the following decades. Bachmann explained that he came across the record at university, and since then, it has been one of his favourites.
“I found that when I was at Appalachian State. I was a saxophone major at Boone, North Carolina, in 1988-1989 – somewhere in that range – and I went to the library to do some stuff. And I found all this old, it wasn’t Alan Lomax stuff, but it was Smithsonian Folkways touched up, and I ended up landing on this Son House record; I think I had read an interview with Captain Beefheart or Tom Waits, maybe, and talking about Son House being like the beginning of it all. So I saw Son House. And I love this record because the first, like, eight minutes are of him just talking.”
“He’s just talking about how he used to have a church, and there’s different kinds of love. And there’s love that you love, like, you’re like, God loves you. And then there’s love, and you know, I’m… You know, I won’t go into all that, but then there’s love, like how your woman loves you. And then she does you wrong, and you do her wrong. And that’s, you know, and he just keeps on going, and after about eight minutes, he plays a song, and it’s just riveting.”
“So, Son House is, you know. I don’t know if this record was, I think it might have just been like two or three songs that was on this compilation, and then it came out later, maybe. I guess it did come out in ’65. Yeah, anyway, whatever it was, I didn’t, I wasn’t exposed to the whole record first. It was just a few tracks that I had found at the library. And then I eventually found the record, and it’s been with me my whole adult life.”
The Clash – London Calling
A lifelong fan of punk music, Bachmann admitted that this entry could have been by anyone from The Jam to The Ramones, however, there is something special to him about The Clash and their late frontman Joe Strummer due to his connection to the likes of Arlo Guthrie.
“Well, this could have been The Jam. It could have been Gang of Four. It could have been Wire. It could have been, you know, The Ramones. It could have been so many things. But of all the punk stuff that came from you guys… To me, Joe Strummer is a direct conduit to Arlo Guthrie. I feel like of all the pop music made, this is the most that I relate to, not because it’s got the most connection to folk. It’s got the most connection to in my ears, in my mind, and I feel like Joe Strummer connected to that tradition more than Johnny Rotten or other punk people, you know.”
Brian Eno – Discreet Music
A big fan of ambient music, Bachmann made it clear that he’s a big fan of Brian Eno, and mentioned that two of his most lauded records could have made it onto the list. However, he opted for 1975’s Discreet Music. He expressed that this is one album that particularly helps him when he’s struggling mentally.
“You know, I was so close to putting Another Green World there or Music for Airports there. Then I realised you know, that stuff… that spatial stuff, with the percussive kind of electric piano sound to the DX7 stuff. I really preferred the Hiroshi Yoshimura stuff in that way, that’s why I had to add that later on the list.”
“But the Discrete Music was more strings, of course. That record was introduced to me by my friend Mark Griffiths. I used to live above a Greek restaurant in Chapel Hill, very early Archers days. I worked as a dishwasher at the Carolina coffee shop, and I worked as a waiter at this place called The New Orleans Cookery. And I lived above a Greek restaurant, it was $135 a month, there were eight rooms and two shared bathrooms. And it was a halfway house for people that were just out of prison. And there were people like me that didn’t have any money, and we’re kind of artists or musicians. And my friend Mark was more like me, and he had a cassette of this. I don’t know where he got it, but he played it for me, and I was just, I just sat and listened to it like four times in a row. You know, just listened to it. Because I had been a music major and I loved classical music, I loved what he was doing to the different tracks of Pachelbel’s ‘Canon’. I just really responded to it.”
“I feel like if I’m in a bad spot, mentally, if I put that on, it doesn’t put me in a happy spot, by any means, but it removes where I was before I started listening to it.”
John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band
Plastic Ono Band is an album that Eric has loved since he was a child. Initially pulled in by John Lennon’s use of profanity, it’s been with him for a long time, with the bells on ‘Mother’ hitting that sweet spot.
“I had a radio. I was living with my mother. My parents had divorced.I was listening to the radio, and I had a cassette recorder attached to the radio, and when a song came on that I liked I would hit record. And I was trying to get ‘Whip It’ by Devo. I was trying to get that song, and there was a Blondie song I was also trying to get on my mixtape. And I think that Double Fantasy had just come out, which had ‘Watching the Wheels’ and ‘Woman’ and that stuff. And I think I was trying to get ‘Watching the Wheels’… And so that was my first… Obviously I’d heard of The Beatles, but I’m ten, you know, maybe nine or ten years old. My parents divorced when I was eight. And so my life was kind of in an upheaval that way. So that was really my first introduction to that. And then, I guess, late at night, there was something about John Lennon.”
“Yeah, and I remember hearing, I guess it was ‘Working Class Hero’, which is, I think, the fourth song on that record. This was a little kid not really understanding the full grasp of what he’s singing about. But I just remembered on the radio – they didn’t bleep it out – he said, “Fuck”… And I remember him cussing in the song. I was like, ‘Ah man! That’s amazing’, you know? ‘Coz I’m a little kid, and that drew me to that. And I eventually ended up going to The Record Bar or one of these old-school record stores that are out of business now, and I bought that record on cassette. And ‘Mother,’ the bells at the beginning. Yeah, I always love those bells.”
Roberta Flack – First Take
American singer Roberta Flack provided Eric with one of his favourite performances of anything in the form of ‘First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, and with her being a North Carolina native, the Archers of Loaf frontman feels a real connection to her.
“So, she’s a local girl here. I grew up in North Carolina. I live in Athens, Georgia now, but one reason I feel like putting her on the list… one of my favourite songs and favourite performances of anything is ‘First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, and that’s on that record – her version of it is on that record, and I just weep. You know, it’s just the most beautiful song and that arrangement, Ron Carter playing bass. I mean, just the band is incredible.”
“The strings coming in, and her voice is mind-blowing; and she lives in Black Mountain. She lives about 20 minutes from where I went to high school. So I feel very connected to her anyway, just as a singer, and somebody that’s from North Carolina and lives in North Carolina – but that album is great. And there’s that Leonard Cohen cover on there, there’s great songs on it, but, really, if there were no other songs on it, I’d put it on there just for that one song… So that to me, is really probably one of the most beautiful moments in pop music.”
Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen
Although he came to Songs of Leonard Cohen late, the record provided Eric with a metric for songwriting, saying it had a “massive” impact on his life and how he wanted to write songs. He also explained that he loved the late Canadian songwriter for his grasp of the English language, which he maintained even pips that of Bob Dylan’s.
“I mean, there’s no one. There’s no one I can think of. And I’m including Dylan, and I’m including Townes Van Zandt, and I’m including Richard Thompson, whoever you want to think of. There’s no one who I think has a better command over the English language, than him (Cohen).”
“I think Dylan is awesome. I love him so much, you know, but I think there’s just the command over the language. I think Dylan’s was more of like a flash. It’s more like, he’s very rooted in a tradition. He’s very rooted in the Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Arlo Guthrie thing. And he’s wearing a lot of denim, and he’s very aware of how he’s being perceived. And he’s playing a character. And it’s a great character. And it works, because he’s one of the best writers of all time, if not the best, you know? But I’m talking about the lyric, the command of the actual language.”
“In just what you’re saying in terms of the human relationship, people that love each other, and then it falls apart – this kind of thing. He’s very good at that. As a kid, I think I had an aunt that might have had it and played it, but I didn’t know it. I knew Leonard Cohen’s name, and I knew ‘Suzanne’, and I knew ‘That’s No Way To Say Goodbye’, and I knew ‘Marianne’; just the stuff I had heard just through osmosis just from being alive.”
“And so I didn’t really come to it as a fan, until I was probably 23 or four, as the Archers were kind of in their heyday. So I would argue that that had a massive impact on my life in terms of how I wanted to write songs.”
Kraftwerk – Computer World
Relating this to his son, Bachmann has been a fan of 1981’s Computer World since he was a child, with his friend Luther introducing him to it. Recently, it has taken on a greater meaning for him, as his five-year-old son is a big fan.
“This isn’t that interesting. I apologise. I have a five-year-old, and there’s one more on the list that also relates to this. I have a five-year-old, and my little dude just loves singing, ‘I’m the operator with my pocket calculator'”.
“He loves singing that. I grew up with that music. I listened to that. I lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when I went to live with my father. I lived with my mother until I was about ten, and then at that age, I went to live with my father. And he put me in a Catholic school, and I had a friend named Luther. And Luther was really into hip-hop. He was into the Run DMC and Prince as well, and just opened my mind to music coming from the African-American community and Kraftwerk, you know, after Afrika Bambaataa, and I know he’s had some trouble, but that music is important.”
“And Kraftwerk was massively influential to that. So he kind of introduced me to that through the backdoor through hip-hop. And I just think it’s the funniest, it’s so much fun, and there’s such a sense of humour to it. I feel like it’s so incredibly rewarding in terms of being an audiophile, like it sounds so amazing. I don’t know how they got from the sounds, some of those Geiger counter sounds. It’s so clean, and yet it’s got the right amount of grit on it. It’s just such an amazing engineering feat to me.”
King Tubby – King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown
Another album connected to his son, Eric is a huge fan of dub, and now, so is his son. He explained that this record holds a special place in his heart as it was the only thing that would send his son to sleep when he was a baby, and that now it has had such an effect on the younger Bachmann that he loves the sound of the melodica, courtesy of the iconic Augustus Pablo who features on the record.
“Same thing with my son. I love dub music, I love King Tubby. When he was a baby, I would put my phone in my pocket and play this album, and it was the only freaking thing that would put him to sleep. It was the only thing that would work. So I would hold my little dude, and my wife would be at work – she’s an ICU nurse – and I’ll just be walking around. I have a house with a… If you walk through the kitchen, the foyer, then around the bedrooms, the hallway and then back, just a loop. So we’d just walk around playing “Lion”, and I would play the whole album, and my son to, this day, wants to play the melodica because he loves Augustus Pablo.”
“‘Play some Augustus Pablo, I want to hear the melodica’, ‘I’m like, okay, man’. So this music. I’m so proud of myself as a parent. It’s like the only good parenting thing I’ve done is, like, introduced my little dude to this Jamaican stuff, to the roots of like Flying Lotus and all this great shit that’s been influenced by it.”
Hiroshi Yoshimura – Music for Nine Post Cards
Another classic ambient record, Bachmann explained that because he included Discreet Music, he had to include Music for Nine Post Cards. A seminal work by the late Hiroshi Yoshimura, it’s a masterclass in the notion that art is a process.
“I was not going to put that on there, but when I put Discrete Music by Brian Eno I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to add this dude’, because that music is – I listened to that kind of music probably more than anything else – ambient music. Because I just do it while I work on stuff around the house, and just even when I’m working on lyrics, I’ll play that. And I’ll just work on the lyrical ideas I have going on. But that music to me, I’ll put that on, and I’ll listen to it more frequently. I just go to it more than Music for Airports, which I know influenced it. I know Brian Eno came first. And I know that he was influenced. But you mentioned something interesting about art being a process.”
“And one thing I love about him is I guess he came up in the 70s and 80s. This album came out in ’82 originally in Japan. So basically, he was really inspired by that Fluxus stuff. That movement is all about the process, doesn’t matter what the art looks like, or sounds like, it’s about the process, which I think has been really influential to everybody after it. You know, because now it’s like, yeah. I don’t necessarily listen to it. But I’m glad I did it because it helped me. The process itself is valuable, you know, and that music, he argues, or I would argue, comes from that school of thought. But anyway, I just liked the way that stuff sounds. I know it’s kind of similar to Music For Airports. I know you can you could argue, people have argued that it’s a rip off of that, but I disagree. I think it’s its own thing .”
Townes Van Zandt – Live at the Old Quarter
The final record Bachmann picked was the legendary Townes Van Zandt live album, Live at the Old Quarter, which was recorded in 1973. Arguably his most candid release, the Archers of Loaf mastermind, explained that he doesn’t normally listen to live albums, but because this one is so profound, it is one of the most cherished titles in his collection.
“I mean, that’s a moment. You know, it’s just such a moment. Very rarely do you hear live records that capture somebody’s ability and charm in one recording. I don’t usually listen to live recordings, you know, but because it’s acoustic, and his voice is so stripped down, there’s no problem with the audio, you know? He just, his jokes are charming. He’s still with it. His brain is still functioning. And the songs are, forget it.”
“I mean, they’re just so, while, yes, I will say that Leonard Cohen has a better command of the English language. And, yes, Bob Dylan had more of the flash and was more presentable and more, Townes was. I mean, it’s just so beautiful. You know? If you’re running down the interstate, and you’re listening, and you just want to listen to somebody, like, to me, that’s just like great driving music, you know, late at night, you’re driving by yourself. That music is just so. And that performance. You know, he’s the best, man. I had to get him on there. That’s all, I had to get him on there. And that’s my favourite record of his so.”
