Rodeo FM ‘Right Wing Planet’
Activism bears its resilient roots in the twangs of country and echoes of folk. Right Wing Planet is a special project, where voices that can’t be canceled or silenced find a new home. Like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pearl Jam, The Clash and alike, who once used music to speak up again power and capitalism, fighting for peace and equality, Rodeo FM vocalizes climate disaster, exploitation, class war and the economic gap between the rich and poor.
The singer-songwriter/bandleader Pat Carter insists that Right Wing Planet isn’t an album of hope, but the resilience and call for action vested in the warm Americana sounds give much hope and strength. It’s an understanding between the normal-day people. The sound of comfort and joy, even though the reality is grim. Right Wing Planet has so much folk and blues in its spirit. There’s no big concept here. Nothing too grand that normal-day people couldn’t understand or relate to, only the experience of living in the same world that everyone can easily relate to. Right Wing Planet speaks about topics that are immediate and impactful in life. Like the smog that pollutes the air, it’s everywhere, yet so easy to turn a blind eye.
And even though it’s grim and cynical in a sense, there’s a theme of beauty that runs through the album, sonically. The bright sonic palette, the foot-tapping rhythm—there is so much to love, so much to take from life, and so much to fight for. A man who has lost hope in life would not be here to unite and fight. And there’s also so much punk and ska in Right Wing Planet, taking shape in the brewing of nostalgic, twangy old sounds. Carter’s honest vocals and unfiltered storytelling are angsty and piercing. A bit of dirt and a bit of grit. Life crashed through and smoothed off the teenage grungy punk edges, but still it lives in another form. “Open wide” gives you a lot of that bright ska vibe, and “Listening to country” only confirms that. The two songs speak about repression. But unity is what these songs really create. The storytelling brings people together, just like the foot-tapping country songs often evoke a social experience.
There’s much anger speaking about the brokenness of this world, but Right Wing Planet has little to do with anger, but much to do with change and expression. Read our interview with Pat Carter of Rodeo FM, where we chat about Right Wing Planet.
Punk Head: I love how haunting the songs in Right Wing Planet are! I simply can't shake them off. Where did you find the inspiration for them?
Rodeo FM: I assume by haunting you mean the deeply disturbing topics that are being discussed on Right Wing Planet? On how this planet is falling apart due to capitalist exploitation of people and nature, ever-growing repression and militarism in the face of the intensifying crisis, people struggling to make ends meet, people, drifting apart as they are being manipulated and played by the randomness of consumerism and a general lack of depth in how the world is presented. the actual grossness of all of it. Well, the inspiration is easy to find, just take a look around. It is right here, in your life. Your rent is too high, your food is too expensive and the pressure of social expectations - especially with young people all addicted to social media - leads to fragmentation, hostility and ultimately a dystopic everyone against everyone else. all this against the background of the world burning and the capitalist machine extracting ever more wealth. Yes, that’s pretty haunting, I agree. I try to package these inaccessible tunes, sometimes even with a bit of a pop appeal, just because I like that, I like nice music. But don’t be fooled, Right Wing Planet is not an album of hope.
PH: If you have to pick one, what would be your favorite song? What's the story behind it?
Rodeo FM: I guess the title track would be the obvious choice. But if you want to look beyond this, check out “open wide,” a more friendly and - for a change - non-political tune about redemption through someone else. These basic human interactions still exist, people looking out for each other, even outside family or friends circles, the random magic still exists in the world in spite of the conformity machine and the effort of the system to destroy anything that does not yield a profit.
PH: Can you tell us more about you as a band?
Rodeo FM: Basically. the band is my baby, that is Pat Carter, singer and songwriter. I have been running this band for nearly 20 years now, with 4 albums and 100s of shows from Southern France to Eastern Ukraine. I have had about 20 musicians passing through the band, the latest lineup consists of Luis de Cicco on guitar, also the main man of the Italian Hillbilly Blues band Caboose (check them out by all means), Alessandro Guida, a Napoli-born session player and teacher and drummer in various bands and projects and Daire MacMághnuis, multi-instrumentalist and Rodeo FMs bass player, also a conductor and man behind the Dark Room Orchestra, a progressive folk project showcasing some of Berlins best session musicians. On the album, we also had some guest musicians like Justine Jardin on pedal steel who also joins us live here and there.
PH: Who are your biggest influences?
Rodeo FM: When I was a kid I wasn’t really into country music at all, I was raised on the 60s/70s rock, you know, Exile on Main Street all the way, as well as 80s hardcore and Punk bands like Hüsker Dü, Black Flag and Dinosaur Jr, so actually I feel quite at home on a blog called Punkhead ;-) After Nirvana broke through, in 1991, I sort of started losing interest in this, I never liked Grunge. But by then I had discovered Alt-Country, actually by accident when I was going to a concert in the late 80s featuring two bands I had never heard of. I just went as one of them was on SST, the No1 Punk label at the time. The SST band was called Soundgarden (who didn’t impress me much), but the other band was Giant Sand, sort of the Godfathers of Alt-Country, playing as a two-piece set, just Howe Gelb on guitar and John Convertino on drums and they totally blew me away. After that, I started checking out the bands at the time, Uncle Tupelo, Jayhawks, Long Ryders, Whiskeytown and got into classic stuff, too. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is still one of the best albums ever I think.
PH: What would you like to tell your supporters out there?
Rodeo FM: Hang in there, get organised, challenge capitalism on a local level. If you wonder how to get involved with work and other things to handle, there surely is a tenant resistance movement in your town or something similar that will attack the system from one angle or another. seek them out, just hang with them low level, start helping out and get to know people. you will get sucked into this more and more and I find this is a very rewarding experience. and in the end, it is always the number of people that counts.
