Interview with The B-52s

Since 1976, the B-52s have become one of the greatest party bands. From "Love Shack" to "Roam", the B-52s remain to be one of the most adored rock stars to date. Selling over 30 million albums, the dynamic group is back at it with their new live album With The Wild Crowd. TheCelebrityCafe.com’s Shakala Alvaranga spoke with B-52 member Keith Strickland about their tour, the recent break-up of fellow Athens band R.E.M and the future of the B-52s.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: The B-52s is releasing their first live album With The Wild Crowd. What made you guys decide to do this?

Keith Strickland Our agent had booked a show for February in Athens. The date was very close to the 14th, which was the 34th anniversary of our first performance in Athens. The show was also a benefit for the Georgia theatre, which had burned down. We performed there in the early days. It’s has been an important venue for music in Athens. It’s historical. It felt like coming full circle. And then, someone suggested we film it and it all kind of fell in place. It developed organically.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: What’s your favorite song on the album?

Keith Strickland: I really like “Wig.” I really like how it turned out, and, the songs from Funplex. We recorded those songs before ever performing them live in concert. Since then they have taken on new characteristics. It was good to document those songs live. It’s kind of fresh to my ears. The songs are always different every time you perform them.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: How do you think you have grown from your big hit “Love Shack” to now?

Keith Strickland:"Love Shack" is a bit of a novelty for us. It’s different from most of our material. When we were writing it, we really didn’t finish it. We put it away. When we played our demos for our producer, Don Was, he asked if there was anything else, and we were like well there’s this one other song. After he heard it, he goes “This is brilliant!” We didn’t have the chorus at the time, and he was like if you just repeat this one part, then you’ve got a chorus. I still see that song being unique. Its much more R&B than our other songs. Certainly, that song broadened our audience immensely. And now it has become a standard. I can’t go into a karaoke bar without hearing someone do "Love Shack". It's grown…it’s bigger than us. I don’t feel like we are any one particular song, we really are a strange band. It's odd to me. Sometimes, I think we shouldn’t have had this success that we’ve had. We’ve always been ourselves and had fun with it.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: As in strange, what do you mean?

Keith Strickland: Strange as in strange music! We didn’t start making music to have a career. It was more of an exercise in free expression. We used to go to parties and dance to Aretha Franklin, The Jackson 5 and James Brown. When we started writing music, we knew that we wanted it to be dance music; music that people would want to dance to. It just came from the heart.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Currently, the group is touring. How has that experience been?

Keith Strickland: We tour more than we record, obviously. It feels very natural to us. It’s great! We have our niche and an audience. People always show up at our shows. So, I can’t complain.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: How do you feel about the recent break-up of fellow Athens band, R.E.M?

Keith Strickland: Well I read their statements and it made sense to me. I have admired R.E.M’s integrity as a band as much as their music. They’ve really done it their way. They have written a wonderful body of music - a real game changer. Perhaps it’s over in terms of them making new music, and performing, who knows, but their music will always be here.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Where do you hope for your group to go in the future?

Keith Strickland: I really don’t think too much about the future. Whatever happens, happens. We’ll do it until we don’t feel like it anymore!