Welcome Back...HATER


One of ex-Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd's projects finally gets its 1995 recordings released.

Interview by GREG PRATO

Although ex-Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd has been playing fairly regularly basis since the group's split in 1997, many of his musical ventures have slipped under the radar--the Wellwater Conspiracy, the Mark Lanegan Band, etc. But you may be hearing again from Shepherd sooner than you think, with an archival release from another project, Hater, and he's also fronting a new band, Unkmongoni.

Since it was recorded back in 1995, why didn't Hater's 'The 2nd' come out sooner?

It was just more or less a demo session that Matt [Cameron] and I were doing, getting ready to record 'Down on the Upside.' We just had the recordings going, just kind of messing around. Some of the songs were taken off the recording sessions and put on the Soundgarden record--that's how 'demo friendly' it was. And it wound up being called a Hater session, because the guy that we were recording with wrote on the cassette 'Hater Sessions Two.' Otherwise, we wouldn't have even thought of that stuff. Then of course, the band went defunct. And over the years, just the lack of interest or the gumption on my part, it was like, 'Ah, no one cares.' I had all these cockamamie ideas of taking the tapes and taking all the guitars off and putting strings on it. Then A&M folded, so it became a process--either shopping it to someone or not, and finishing mixing. Because I never liked the mixes at all. Everyone just kind of scattered and left it in my hands. Finally, friends of mine [Burn Burn Burn Records] said, 'Hey, we'll put it out,' after being rejected by three different labels. And it seems fitting to me, that it's local and it's friends, y'know? It used to be that if you wanted to see Hater, you had to come here.

Two songs from these sessions later appeared on Soundgarden's 'Down on the Upside' ("An Unkind" and "Dusty"). How did the Soundgarden versions differ from the Hater versions?

Well, Chris' voice fucking rules and Kim's guitar playing rules. Right there, it makes it ten times better. There's a fine line between being a demo and being a finished thing. "Dusty" was just an instrumental on the Hater stuff, so Chris saved that song right there.

Let's talk about your new band.

The guy Drew Church is the bass player, [and] is partners with Burn Burn Burn Records--he's just a good friend. I always wanted to play in a band with him. I would tell Bubba Dupree, the guitar player of our band, 'Someday that guy's going to be our bass player.' So Bubba and I always had this kind of joke pact about whoever starts a band first, the other guy gets into it automatically. So I started a band, and now Bubba's the other guitar player. Bubba used to play in that band Void and Earth 18. So that's me, Bubba, and Drew, and we're in-between drummers right now. Our drummer just quit the other night. We have 20 songs recorded already. Every one of them has titles and almost all of them have vocals and everything done. I'm actually at Soundgarden's old building right now, it's called Space, and downstairs, I've set up my studio and rehearsal room, as a recording room. So we've been recording for months. Just whenever we want, we've rolled tape.

Any confirmed song titles?

'Anymore,' 'Simple,' 'Hollow Temple of the Other Monkey's Shoe,' and 'Stone Pale.'

And what's the band's name?

Unkmongoni--it's what Tarzan used to yell to the animals to run and be free. He'd yell 'Unkmongoni!' and they'd all run away through the jungle.

Has the band recorded yet?

We're getting our demos done, and we're going to see if there's any interest anywhere. We were about a week away from being able to play live as far as I was concerned, and then the drummer quit. Now we're just trying out new drummers.

I remember reading a rumor last year that you were working with Kim Thayil [ex-Soundgarden guitarist] again...

No, we always lie about stuff like that. Somebody's always coming up with weird rumors about that stuff. And I have no idea how they get that idea.

You were friends with Kurt Cobain. Despite how the media portrays him…he was a just regular guy, right?

Yep. They like to say that he had charisma. Bullshit. He didn't have any…he was just 'Kurt,' and that was that endearing quality. I met him in Olympia, I don't even think he'd started Nirvana yet, or Bliss, they'd change their name all the time. I met him at a party--we were both sitting on the end of a couch--and I go, 'Oh, you're like me, huh? You always wind up at this spot at the party.' And he says, 'Yep.' Everyone else is partying and we're sitting there, being loners on the end of a couch. There was thankfully a guitar, and we'd swap it back and forth. That's how we met, because we were both kind of shy weirdos, y'know? Well, I'm the weirdo, I don't think he was, I think he was more shy. Like even that guitar, he said, 'Yeah, I always find a guitar and then I'll just sit alone and play guitar at a party.' We were just smoking cigarettes, talking, and kicking back. [Through the years] there was always a rumor through our grapevine that we were going to play music together--me, him, and Buzz [Osbourne, of the Melvins]. I'd always hear that from people, because our friendship from touring and everything, it turned into a grapevine.


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