Les Claypool is best known for Primus, Oysterhead and his solo albums — but he's also a budding novelist, screenwriter, film director and actor.
The crossover artist may be on to something with his first feature film. "Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo," a jam-band mockumentary full of Claypool's signature oddball humor, won best comedy at California's Tiburon film festival this spring.
Claypool is confident that jam-band scenesters will embrace the film. Mike Gordon of Phish and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Ratdog both make on-screen appearances.
"The film is not a hippie-bashing film. In fact, it's an endearing look at the scene itself. It's more taking the piss out of these four or five characters that take themselves a bit too seriously," said Claypool, who plays one of those characters. "It's very dry. It's inspired by the Ricky Gervais stuff with the BBC's 'The Office.' "
People are also reading…
"Electric Apricot" is not Claypool's first film project. He directed most of his music videos, and his first novel, "South of the Pumphouse," due out in July, actually began almost a decade ago as a screenplay about a fishing trip turned deadly.
"I decided I'm going to write this into novel form, and that way, if it ever does get made into a film and it's completely different than my original notion, at least folks that might be interested will be able to see what the original story line actually was," he said.
As busy as he's been with the book and the movie, Claypool found time to record a new album. "Of Whales and Woe," which was released in May, is a whirling, unconventional ride through aggressive bass-driven rock and funk grooves with Claypool's signature speak-sing vocals supplying quirky lyrics. It's the first album to have just Claypool's name on the cover.
"I've had my name on the front but it's always with something else — Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel, or Bucket of Bernie Brains or Frog Brigade," he said. "This is the first Les Claypool just my name, naked there, alone."
The Claypool-only credit was his agent's doing.
"He said a while ago, 'I'm just going to book you as Les Claypool and you show up with whoever you want,'" said Claypool, whose backup in Tucson will include a sitar, saxophone and ukulele.
"I play with extraordinarily talented people, and extraordinarily talented people tend to be in big demand, so the same ones aren't always available," he said. "It gives me the freedom to show up with whoever is available."
Claypool was at Bonnaroo last weekend with Oysterhead, which includes Trey Anastasio and Stewart Copeland (of Phish and Police fame, respectively). Over the next year, he plans to tour behind his solo album and book, get his film distributed and work on new Primus material.
"More than anything, variety is the spice of life," he said. "The smart business thing for me to do is to do Primus and that's it, but that would drive me crazy. I'm not interested in that. I'm very fortunate that I'm at a point in my life where I can do these other things and it's not a detriment to my financial stability — at least not yet. I'm just trying to enjoy myself, you know what I mean?"
If it does get to be too much, Claypool will fall back on his true aspiration.
"My ultimate goal is to open a hot dog stand," he said.
quick take
Les Claypool in concert
with Carneyball Johnson
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St.
Tickets: $22 in advance, $24 day of show through www.rialtotheatre.com or 740-1000
