Today, Paul Leary shares a video for ‘The Bird Are Dying’, the latest single taken off the forthcoming reissue of his debut LP, ‘The History of Dogs’ (originally shared in 1992), out now via Shimmy-Disc/Joyful Noise. The single comes alongside a music video created by Arturo Baston.

Speaking on the track, Paul wrote: “Nature is cruel. We humans have only added to the cruelty. ‘The Birds Are Dying’ came from a dark period of my life. I still think about those birds, looking for a place to hide. I, too, was looking for a place to hide”.

Paul Leary’s latest solo LP, ‘Born Stupid’, came out last year via Shimmy-Disc/Joyful Noise. Both records — ‘Born Stupid’ and the newly reissued ‘The History of Dogs’ — are available to pre-order as a 2xLP bundle.

No, it doesn’t sound like the Butthole Surfers. It was never going to sound like Butthole Surfers. Get over it! It’s time to revisit Paul Leary’s 1992 debut solo LP – the avalanche of sound he titled ‘The History of Dogs’, “revisited” here with two additional tracks that did not appear on the original LP, including one that will soon appear as the first video from the LP, “Speedo Man.” You won’t believe your eyes. Believe me. This 1992 LP was way ahead of its time. Originally released on Rough Trade Records during the glory days of Butthole Surfers’ crash course across the stages of every music festival criss-crossing the globe, this is zany, complex, unhinged, and sometimes just gloriously weird music, but it also features some of the most catchy indie pop music anthems you’ll ever hear, and certainly far catchier than anything you’d ever hear from the Butthole Surfers catalog of psychedelic hysteria. Kramer, who played bass guitar in the band in 1985, says, “It was the year of the dog, and I was the bassist in the greatest band in the world. Life was good”. Last year, Shimmy-Disc released Paul’s 2nd solo LP, ‘Born Stupid’, to rave reviews. It was his first solo LP in nearly 30 years. Now it’s 2022 and Shimmy-Disc is reissuing Paul’s first solo LP, re-mastered for vinyl, with a vengeance. Like Kramer said…”Life is good”.

“I’m an observer, and I think in music more than words”

‘The History of Dogs’ is being reissued, so let’s take this opportunity to discuss the making of the record back in 1992. What runs through your mind when hearing it again after all the years?

Paul Leary: It reminds me of what a miserable person I was. There were clouds over my band, I felt like I needed to look around for other things to do. ‘The History of Dogs’ ended up being a step towards becoming a producer, and so I take comfort in that.

What would you say influenced you back then the most?

I was trying to shed influences, which is a fool’s errand. I had long since lost my album collection and most everything else to living on the road. So I wasn’t listening to a whole lot of music. But if I had to name three influences, I’d say T. Rex, Neil Young, and Cab Calloway.

Your latest solo LP, ‘Born Stupid’ came out last year via Shimmy-Disc/Joyful Noise. Would you like to share some further words about its creation process and would you be able to draw some parallels between ‘The History of Dogs’ and ‘Born Stupid’?

‘Born Stupid’ was a decade in the making. It started out as an effort to make another Butthole Surfers album. When that fell apart, I had all this stuff I’d been working on lurking around in my brain. I needed to get rid of it. Most of the music and lyrics came to me while riding my bicycle around the neighborhood. Most of the stuff that made it to ‘Born Stupid’ would have probably never made it to a Butthole Surfers album anyway.

You are sharing a video for ‘The Bird Are Dying’, the latest single taken off the forthcoming reissue of his debut LP. What’s the story behind this song?

I was depressed about myself and about the human race in general. I think a news story came out about dwindling bird numbers. And I’m still depressed about the human race…

Below is a list of Butthole Surfers albums. Would you like to take a moment and share a sentence or two about each one. Anything that comes to your mind when remembering it.

‘Psychic…Powerless…Another Man’s Sac’
We recorded that album at BOSS studio in San Antonio. It was in an area of town known for drugs and prostitution. I was sleeping on the floor of the studio at night. The owner Bob O’Neil left me with a pistol to hold the fort. One night some guy tried to break the door down. I yelled at him, but he kept trying to break in. I held that pistol up to the door and cocked it. The sound of that sent him on his way. Then I was left trying to figure out how to in-cock that pistol. I hate guns.

‘Rembrandt Pussyhorse’
That was kind of recorded all over the place. The finishing touches were recorded at Kramer’s Noise New York studio. We were hanging out in New York at the time. Suddenly we needed artwork for the European release right away. I hit the streets of Manhattan trying to come up with an idea, when I ran across a magazine stand that had a women’s bodybuilding magazine. It made me stop and stare. So there it was.

The American cover came from Gibby’s collection of terrible disease pictures.

‘Locust Abortion Technician’
We decided to try and record ourselves instead of paying for studio time we couldn’t afford. We bought an ancient 1” 8-track machine with tube electronics and 2 microphones. You could plug the microphones directly into the tape machine. We mixed on some kind of cheap terrible board to 1/4” tape.

‘Hairway to Steven’
We recorded that one in Farmers Branch, Texas. Why I have no idea. Probably got a bargain on the time. You could smell the country-western in that place.

‘Piouhgd’
The Texas Highway Department evicted us from the shack we were living in in Austin. They gave us money to move, and we used it to get a place out in the country in a tiny town called Driftwood. I set up a crappy digital studio and we recorded ‘Piouhgd’. The name of the album was generated at random by throwing a dirty sock on a computer keyboard.

‘Independent Worm Saloon’
Out of nowhere we became the top grossing independent road act according to the charts. That got us a deal with Capitol Records. I couldn’t believe we signed to the label of The Beatles and Grand Funk Railroad and Dean Martin. We had interest from every top producer at the time. And then John Paul Jones put his hat in the ring. No way I was going to pass up a chance to work with John Paul Jones. I learned a lot about producing from him. He worked his ass off and was fun to hang with.

‘Electriclarryland’
We went to Bearsville Studio in New York to record that one. I flew early to play guitar with the Meat Puppets on the Conan O’Brien show, so I got to spend a night alone in the residents house down the hill from the studio. When I woke up, there were wild turkey and deer in the front yard. During our recording session, the studio shut down for a day to celebrate a studio anniversary. We were invited to their party, which was a lobster feast. I sat down under a tent to eat my lobster, and looked over to see Todd Rundgren eating a lobster. I’m a big fan of Rundgren going way back. I’ll never forget watching Todd Rundgren eating lobster under a tent.

‘After the Astronaut’
‘After the Astronaut’ was to be our follow up to the success of ‘Pepper’. Before ‘Pepper’, Capitol pretty much left us to our own devices. Having a big radio hit wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be. Suddenly there were people lined up around the block telling us what and how. I struggled with that. Our manager struggled with everything, and at some point Capitol had enough. I recently ran across the multitrack recordings for that album, and I have been transferring them to Pro Tools for mixing. That album will finally see the light of day.

‘Weird Revolution’
Surfdog/Hollywood bought us out of our Capitol contract. They did not want to release the album we had recorded for Capitol, so they hooked us up with producer Rob Cavallo and we recorded at the famous Ocean Way Studio in Hollywood. The owner of the studio was Alan Sides, and he had a basement full of incredible studio gear. He let me touch the console that ‘Pet Shop Sounds’ was made on, and also the console that John Lennon recorded ‘Imagine’ on. Alan then set up his extra-special $50,000 microphone for Gibby to record vocals with. Within a minute of singing into it, Gibby spilled a highball on it. It only got worse from there. I wanted to go home. I had never not wanted to be in the studio before.

Have influences changed during the years?

Well, I don’t listen to much new music. I work on music so much that I prefer silence or TV outside the studio. I guess that makes Judge Judy my influence now.

Tell us about your guitars and effects.

A lot of guitars and amps and pedals have come and gone through my life. Right now I have two amps – a modern Magnatone Twilighter combo, and an old Ampeg Reverberocket II for when I’m feeling Randy. I have a wonderful Stratocaster built by John Cruz, and a ‘78 Les Paul that I had custom painted pea soup green. I also have an Danelectro that I picked up on eBay many years ago. And an old 7/8th scale Sears Silvertone built by Danelectro. That is the guitar I mainly used on ‘Born Stupid’. My main pedals are all ancient. I have an Ibanez TS 808 Tube Screamer, an orange and blue Super Fuzz, and a green Soviet Big Muff given to me by John Paul Jones for recording on his album.

Was there a moment when you knew that you wanted to become a producer?

I became a producer before I knew what a producer was. When I figured it out, I became curious about doing it for someone other than my own band. I offered a bluegrass band in Austin (Bad Livers) to invest in studio time if they’d let me produce an album for them. That album led to my first paying producer gig for Meat Puppets. That album led me to Sublime. I was very lucky.

Do you find yourself to be a perfectionist, in control, or do your ideas lead you, taking on a life of their own?

I am definitely a perfectionist, but never at the expense of letting ideas lead the way.

A peek into your creative process please, digital or analog?

I cut my chops on analog tape. Transitioning to digital felt like going from silent movies to talkies. It was a difficult transition, but god I don’t miss wrestling with tape any more.

What makes a good production?

Happy clients. And you should be able to like a project within a few seconds.

How’s The Cocky Bitches coming alone?

We have a few songs recorded and a few more in the works. I’m hoping we have another album by the end of the year.

Are you active with any other project at the moment?

I just finished producing an album for Texas Radio, which is led by Carty Talkington, who wrote and directed the movie Love and a 45. We even got Renée Zellweger to sing on a song. That album was a lot of fun to make. Prior to that was the band Spray Allen, with my dear friend Eric Wilson from Sublime. That’s out next month. For the time being I am going to be remixing the old Butthole Surfers catalog. There is a documentary movie in the works for the band. Hopefully that comes out next spring, and hopefully there will be new Butthole stuff to go with it.