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By Steve Irsay (Gazette Newspapers – gazette.com) 5/2004
Roots rocker James Intveld is one of those people who is always doing so much, it is amazing he can get any of it done.
The guy’s a singer, actor, composer, front man and sideman, who happens to play about every instrument you’d ever need to make roots rock. He’s even a handyman.
“I’m remodeling the bathroom—gutting the place— and I did the same thing with the living room,” said Intveld, 44, from his Burbank home.
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The multitasking multi-instrumentalist admits that his busy life has affected his musical bottom line. While he has earned a reputation as one the most talented and hardest working guys on the roots rock scene and shared the stage with the likes of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, he has managed to record only two solo albums in 20-plus years of playing.
“I have material for a new record,” he said. “I just have to get around to making one.”
Cop-out? Consider just a partial list of Intveld’s various credits:
• The singing voice of Johnny Depp’s title character in the film “Cry-Baby”
• Touring lead guitarist for roots-rockabilly pioneers The Blasters
• Music composer for an episode of the Travel Channel’s “Road Trip”
• Co-star alongside Billy Bob Thornton in the upcoming film “Chrystal”
When Intveld the musician has managed to sneak away into a studio, the results have been impressive.
On his 1996 eponymous debut, Intveld played every instrument on songs ranging from traditional rockabilly to eerie ballads. On his 2000 follow-up, “Somewhere Down the Road,” he and his band offered up a silky smooth mix of country and non-traditional roots rock. Intveld describes his new material as, among other things, singer-songwriter and alt-country.
If it sounds like there have been a lot of descriptors attached to Intveld, there have been. And he’s not sure if any of them stick.
“I kind of don’t fall into any of these categories,” he said. “I am sort of falling through the cracks here. That is just where I’ve landed after all the years of music I’ve played.”
Raised in Compton in a house filled with music, Intveld was a man-about-town in the Los Angeles rockabilly scene of the early 1980s. He playing in a rockabilly band, The Rockin’ Shadows, with his brother Rick, who went on to drum for Rick Nelson and died the day after his 23rd birthday in the same New Year’s Eve 1985 plane crash that killed Nelson.
Intveld soldiered on and during a gig at the now-defunct Palomino club Intveld was approached by director John Mark Robinson about using his song “My Heart is Achin’ For You” in the 1984 film “Roadhouse 66,” starring a young Willem Dafoe. Intveld also landed an on-screen role in the movie.
“After I did that I just sort of caught the acting bug,” Intveld said.
He went on to study method acting for 8 years and worked with his late friend River Phoenix, and Sean Penn.
These days, the once clean-shaven and pompadoured Int-veld is sporting long hair and a beard in preparation for a role in an 1800s Western to be filmed in Tucson, Ariz.
After that, it’s back to the studio to help score an Ang Lee film; then do the same for a new John Waters film; then head to Nashville for a gig before jetting off to France to play with singer Rosie Flores and, well, you get the idea.
“It seems like I am always doing all these side things.” Intveld said. “Maybe I need to drop everything.”
Not likely.
James Intveld and his four-piece band will be playing at 9:30 p.m. this Sunday, May 30, at the Blue Café, 210 Promenade. For show information call 983-7111. For more information on James Intveld and to purchase his music go to www.jamesintveld.com. |
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