Roger Clyne says that the Peacemakers’ indie success comes from making art with heart

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 4, 2007

By Steve Newton

Certain TV theme songs are unforgettable, whether they be goofy (Gilligan’s Island), extravagant (The Avengers), or just plain cool (Hawaii Five-O). But few are as all-out rockin’ as the theme from King of the Hill. It’s a goddamned shame it’s only 30 seconds long.

Roger Clyne wrote that exhilarating ditty back in the mid ’90s, and the band he fronted at the time, the Refreshments, recorded it. But the music of his current quartet, Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, doesn’t tend toward similar surf-twang riffs. The group’s new CD, the ambiguously titled No More Beautiful World, takes a kinder, gentler approach to rock.

“The music is mellower, I think, just ’cause I’m mellower,” reports Clyne, on the line from his home in Tempe, Arizona. “The music’s more loving because I’m more loving.”

Heartfelt though they are, Clyne’s latest songs contain messages that are unmistakably barbed. “Goon Squad” includes lines like, “So many riches, too many poor/Too many generals stabbin’ flags in a foreign shore/New season, new reason, same ol’ war/Who let the goon squad in?” Sounds like the goons in question might be the Bush administration.

“Easily could be,” replies Clyne. “I try to avoid being too topical. But I do find that humankind creates the same problem over and over again, so if we ever have different names in the same positions, I hope that the song will be relevant.”

Clyne–whose band plays Richard’s on Richards on Sunday (April 8)–is reluctant to come down too hard on his country’s foreign policy. He’s quite patriotic, as can be seen in the footage on his MySpace page of him singing the U.S. national anthem at an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game. (“It’s a major-league team and I was major-league nervous,” he recalls.) But considering the ongoing carnage in Iraq, you’d think that the leader of a band called the Peacemakers might have trouble putting his heart into lyrics about bombs bursting in air.

“It’s difficult for me not to be critical of war,” he relates, “but I don’t want to add my energy to negativity, I want to add my energy to positivity. I don’t want this to sound as if I’m shirking my duty as a world citizen, but I’d rather be pro-peace than antiwar.”

When the Refreshments were let go by Mercury Records after two albums–including 1996’s gold-selling Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy–singer-guitarist Clyne and drummer P.H. Naffah formed their own group, which currently includes guitarist Steve Larson and bassist Nick Scropos. So far, the Peacemakers have released four independent CDs, with 2004’s Americano! debuting at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Internet sales chart.

“We’ve earned every inch we’ve gained,” says Clyne of his band’s indie success, “and I think it comes mostly from not deviating from our mission statement, which is to make art with heart and not worry whether or not it’s going to sell anything.

“And the irony is that it has been succeeding. Not in a way that any giant commercial entity could tolerate, but for us it’s been a slow, steady, fruitful growth, and I’m grateful for anybody that lends an ear.”