Ritchie Young was born and raised in a Republican family in Bend. He played a little music is school, but he will tell you he was “horrible.” Though he plays the guitar and sings lead vocals for his band, Loch Lomond, Young admits he identifies more as a producer than a musician.
In many ways, although he is just over the Cascades, he is worlds from where he came from. He splits his time now between touring Europe with the band he started 10 years ago with a friend, Rob Oberdorder (Ages and Ages) – and living in Southeast Portland.
Live performances range from Young by himself to a full band and any combination in-between.
Ten years and many incarnations of the the band later, Loch Lomond has returned home to Portland from the 2014 tour and is awaiting the release of its fifth album.
The band is doing a winter tour of the West Coast of the United States with The Vaselines — an alternative rock band from Glasgow, Scotland, who gained notoriety (after they broke up) when Nirvana covered two of their songs on the “Incesticide” album (1992).
Loch Lomond and The Vaselines play the Doug Fir on Sunday, Jan. 25.
Sue Zalokar: Loch Lomond is a tender 10 year old project. Tell me the origin of the band name.
Ritchie Young: I wanted to call the band The Mountains but there are tons of “mountains” bands. We ordered some reel-to-reel tape on eBay and it had a sticker on the box that said Loch Lomond.
On the tape itself were old French — or was it German? — nuns singing. We sampled that in our first record.
S.Z.: Camaraderie – there seems to be quite a lot of that in the band.
R.Y.: It’s because there is no core, core group. Well, there is a core group, but we pull members in and out over the years, so they don’t feel pressure to tour every tour or do everything that the band is doing.
It seems like a large family reunion – some people can show up and some people can’t. Some people are having babies, some people are doing other things.
S.Z.: You play violin, but as a mandolin …
R.Y.: I don’t play violin. I just fake it. I should just get a mandolin. It’s kind of embarassing.
S.Z.: But it’s quirky and it has a distinct sound ...
R.Y.: Yeah, I’m trying to get that pitz sound out of it …
S.Z.: Pitz?
R.Y.: Pizzicato. I haven’t played the violin for a while, actually. I write using a lot of different instruments, but live I play guitar and sing.
S.Z.: Did you play music in school?
R.Y.: I was awful. I’m not a musician. I more like to produce stuff. If someone were to put the most basic piece of sheet music in front of me, I wouldn’t …
S.Z.: There are (at least) two kinds of musicians though. There is the classically trained musician who came up playing and reading music and practicing. And then there are people who can intuitively hear patterns and make patterns. Those skills are equally important. So, how did you come to music then, or how did music come to you?
R.Y.: In high school I got grounded for having a nail gun fight with my friend in wood shop class. And I hit him above the eye and I was grounded for the entire summer. My dad had an acoustic guitar upstairs, and it had a Neil Young book in it.
S.Z.: Voila! You’ve said you had a weird childhood. What was weird about it?
R.Y.: I was a weird little kid, yeah.
S.Z.: You were diagnosed with ADD as a kid.
R.Y.: I’m almost 40 now and it’s much better now. There is still a lot of energy …
As a child, my family lived right on the woods. So, my friends and I created a kind of fantasy land.
S.Z.: You seem to live in a surreal, ethereal world, and in listening to your music, you have some remarkable dreams – many of which have become what you’ve called “simple songs that the band fill and color in.” Talk about creative process.
R.Y.: Every song is totally different in how I go about creating it. The ones that I try to force are always awful. The ones that I just nudge and guide, the ones that kind of just come to me, are my favorite.
I never really got into psychedelic drugs. Maybe I should?
S.Z.: I don’t remember many dreams.
R.Y.: Oh! I remember most of my dreams.
S.Z.: What is an interesting dream you’ve had recently?
R.Y.: I had an entire Russian prison escape film, the entire thing, with the option for a Part II. I woke up completely exhausted from running through the woods and dogs chasing … it was in color and fully had a plot and a sub plot.
S.Z.: There is research that shows an undeniable link between ADD and creativity.
R.Y.: It’s kind of an outlet. Letting that part of your brain — that is always moving — just letting it go. Well, you have to learn to pull it back sometimes or it will just be running around the room.
S.Z.: It’s the new year. Is that an important reflective time for you?
R.Y.: (After a long pause) Yeah. And after two or three months of rain … actually it’s been pretty nice this winter.
S.Z.: It’s bizarre. The roses behind my place are still blooming. Blooming!
R.Y.: Global warming. Yay. I’m joking.
S.Z.: It is a tragedy, global warming. What are your thoughts about that?
R.Y.: I was shocked when the pope addressed it.
S.Z.: He continues to impress.
R.Y.: I mean, that is like a billion people who have been advised to take action to fight global warming.
I would be much more concerned if I had children or my brothers had children.
S.Z.: What do you think about the growing rift between police and the public in general over the continued killing of black boys and men?
R.Y.: I should have gone into law and then I could have a much more eloquent response to that. As far as race is concerned, uh, I’m a white male and so I can’t really speak to anyone else’s experience.
S.Z.: But surely you have thoughts about it.
R.Y.: It’s horrible. I don’t think people should be killing cops nor should cops be killing people.
I’m really confused why grand juries are not bringing these officers to trial — even if there is video — just being shot down in the street. I think it’s being tolerated because of white fear that they’re losing control and so they (police) are tolerating a certain amount of backlash.
You have to go to BBC or external news sources to even read about these things.
S.Z.: As you travel, do you get a sense of what Europeans think of the gun violence in America?
R.Y.: From the people I have talked with, they are both disgusted and fascinated by us.
We played this tiny town in Germany and it was the first time my brother, Michael, played drums with us on that tour. He was drinking beers with two small-town German boys and they told him that he looked European. “You don’t have a huge, thick neck and you don’t have scars where the bullets went through”(pointing to his chest). I think some people think it is like the Wild West – which in some places it kind of is.
Most people are fairly educated on what is going on.
S.Z.: To the same degree that we are, I suppose.
R.Y.: I think we’re all just baffled. What the hell is going on?
S.Z.: It’s true. Republicans have the majority in both houses of Congress and Obama is on his way out the door …
R.Y.: I don’t think anything is going to change. Because they (Republicans) were obstructionists before. They’re not going to try to overthrow Roe vs. Wade or do anything for the Religious Right. They’re not going to help poor people. They won’t help the middle class. I think it’s just kind of throwing the ball back-and-forth from the people who really control this country: giant corporations.
Just because they shuffled the board room up a little bit – it’s still the same board room. I’m jaded today.
S.Z.: I’m asking you all the easy questions …
R.Y.: I think maybe I should stop bitching and do more things.
S.Z.: We all should do that. What is 2015 going to bring for you?
R.Y.: Try to be productive. Try to motivate myself to get more done. The band was having drinks and we were talking about everything that we do is for ourselves in an unintentionally selfish way. So we all decided we wanted to volunteer, but we weren’t sure where to start.
S.Z.: We should talk. I have a few ideas.
R.Y.: I thought you might.
sue@streetroots.org