Interview: Creed Bratton (The Grassroots & The Office)

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As far as we know, Creed Bratton is still coming to New Zealand in June.

Bratton is the former guitarist and vocalist for American pop-rockers The Grassroots (Midnight Confessions, Where Were You When I Needed You) who then moved on to a career in acting with his most notable role as “Creed” in the American version of The Office. 

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda (who is a huge Grassroots fan) spoke to Creed Bratton a wee while ago before the Corona virus hit hard. Listen in as the two of them talk about Creed’s days in the band, working on The Office and what we can expect from his variety show he will perform in Wellington and Auckland on June 2nd and 3rd.

Click here to listen to the interview:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

C: What is the 13th Floor, it says here next to your name?

M: That’s the website that I run here in Auckland….. 13th Floor Elevators

C: Well, you may not know this, but the 13th Elevator is the band from Austin, a very psychedelic band, but in L.A, I was in the 13th Floor.

M: I was aware of that

C: Oh you were aware? And we were the 13th Floor in L.A and we’re playing at the London Fog right next to The Whiskey over the Valley and we’ve been playing around for Europe when we became The Grassroots

M: Fantastic

C: Pretty fantastic yeah

M: It is I love it and I just had to tell you, I’m a huge Grassroots fan because I’m at the right age so I can sing every song that you guys recorded from ’67 to ’72.

C: Fantastic. Well listen, I’ve got years, this is before The Office, every month I was working doing all kinds of odd jobs y’know staying in class, study and acting doing what you do as an actor and musician and I was still cutting my own solo album with my friend Henry Louis, Joni Mitchell’s producer and then Peter White working with him also and I was playing in this club and this guy came up to and Paul Downey and he had been in Herman’s Hermits and he said he was doing a show with Joel Larson who is the original drummer from The Grassroots and Virgil Weber and they were playing and Rob wasn’t gonna do the show and Warren didn’t want to do the show and they needed someone to sing the songs and I hadn’t done The Grassroots song in years so I said, ‘Well, alright I’ll go check it out,’ so I met them and we were rehearsing and when we were doing Temptation Eyes I realised that was the song that they recorded right after I left the group and I said, ‘You know, I love this song’, so on this last album which will be out by the time I get down there to do New Zealand, the album is called Slightly Altered and I do, on that I do a very, very strange and beautiful rendition of Temptation Eyes with a trombone solo of all things.

M: I can’t wait to hear it.

C: Oh it’s pretty cool I have to say, pretty cool. Yeah so there we go

M: I saw The Grassroots the version run by Rob Grill back in the eighties sometime in a small club and they played for two hours straight.

C: Where?

M: It was a place called The Red Creek in Rochester New York

C: Ok

M: And every song was a hit, it was incredible. I knew the words to every freakin song for two hours. Very impressive.

C: Yeah but towards the end, I remember I saw them too later on and they were starting to use pre recorded tapes though, which I y’know, and they didn’t have to do it because Rob, he’s such a great singer, He was, God bless him he’s gone now, but he had one of the great pop voices there’s no doubt about it.

M: Yup, he was good. Anyway so tell me about the variety show that you’re bringing down here.

C: Yeah basically what it is, we know it’s not like a vanity project when an actor gets on a T.V show and he decides to put out an album. I’ve been doing this professionally since I was seventeen, worked playing in front of people so I’ve always acted and I’ve always done music. So the show will talk about my upbringing …… travelling around Europe, being in The Grassroots, and I’ll tell stories about being on The Office, cause a lot of songs especially in the later years, I wrote while I was on set of The Office waiting around for shoots, I’d go in the green room with my guitar and write these songs and they would just come to me, that’s the way it works. So that’s basically it, they’re gonna hear a lot of back stories about The Office, from the horse’s mouth as it were and then they’re gonna hear my original songs and what inspired them. Yeah, that’s basically the show.

M: I assume your experience with The Office was a positive one?

C: Oh my goodness, that was the best. I mean The Grassroots was fun but this was a life changer, The Office, I mean how lucky, you work as an actor for years to get a shot on a TV show or a movie and I’ve done some little TV shows here and there and a couple of good movies and stuff but The Office, just yeah. I got to go to work every day and laugh with my friends for about nine seasons, that’s as long as Seinfeld was on and now I’m not bragging it’s just a fact it’s the most downloaded show on Netflix still it’s insane. I don’t know how that happened but it did. Pretty great.

M: As an actor, what was it like for you to play a character that was kind of yourself but not really?

C: Well that’s it you know, people get together, people are either relieved or disappointed when they meet me because they want to see the character or they’re glad that I’m not because I’d be stealing from them or killing them or something. He’s quite a hyped up version of who I am as an individual, I’m more of a introspective, quiet type actually and he was very hyped up  you know, I always referred to him as a cracked tuning fork, he looked like he was philibrating… coming off the edge somewhat. That’s how I looked at him too. My motivation of course physically was Jacque Tati facial, Jack Benny, George Gobel, people like that back from the ….. I’m old, I’m an old guy so those are the people that inspired me.

M: George Gobel is a name I haven’t heard in a long time.

C: Yeah, so I loved the way he did his thing. Just the physical, the timing and stuff that’s my own of course naturally but some of those takes of that Jack Benny, that slow looks he gives, you’ll see that in Creed, you’ll see a little bit of that in Creed.

M: Was making the transition from musician to an actor, or were you always kind of doing both?

C: I always did both. I’ve done both like I say I started out at high school doing the plays. I was a drama major in college, also played on the weekends to make money, I went off to Europe with a folk trio after college for two years, came back and played in a band but I also then started doing film and T.V and so I bounced back and forth between the two and people say well which one would you do if you had to drop one? I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t know how. I’ve always done both and it’s worked out so that’s as good, why would I rock the boat?

M: Makes no sense at all. So music wise, what kind of stuff are you doing these days?

C: Well, I don’t know if you heard the last album I did called While The Young Punks Dance. It’s more of a folky album, more of an introspective album, very acoustic and not a lot of band stuff. That’s out and it’s been selling well, I’m getting steady downloads from that and that also has the song ‘All The Faces’ on it from the finale of The Office which that part went viral of course, that was a great thing it was a great privilege. I always thank Greg Daniels for allowing me to do that on this show. But the new album, I’ve got three really hot bands, I’ve got a band called Jack Ship with some great musicians, I’ve got a band called The Bojo Monkeys. I don’t know if you saw the movie Echoes In The Canyon that Jacob Dylan did about music from the Laurel Canyon and the sixties in L.A, the California sound, you know that one I’m talking about?

M: Yep

C: Well his band, I went to the premiere, met the guys in the band, really hit it off with them and then we started talking and then my producer had produced that album, Dave Way my producer, so I said would you guys like to come in and maybe play some songs with me? And they said absolutely so I recorded three songs with them and this album which will have a lot more uptempo songs that I ever recorded before, will be out by the time I get down to Australia and New Zealand on this tour.

M: Oh good

C: So it’s some fun stuff, this album will be called Slightly Altered

M: And you’re gonna be here at the beginning of June it looks like, so …….

C: It is and I know how beautiful it is down there, I met a lot of Kiwis and a lot of Aussies here and they’re all so much fun and I know I’m gonna get along with them just fine and it’s gonna be great, can’t wait.

M: Do you have to worry about things like the corona virus and all that when you’re travelling around?

C: Well, I haven’t been travelling because of it and I was coming down there before but the fire thing hit and that stopped it because it was right then. There was smoke and the promoter actually told me well don’t worry, we’re gonna have oxygen on the side stage for you, breathe through it, well I said that’s not gonna fly, I’m a singer that’s not gonna work so I was disappointed, I hope the fans weren’t disappointed but I know they understand you can’t be singing and coughing at the same time.

M: No that doesn’t work

C: That’s what I was told but they said actually we have oxygen for you. But no, I will come unless of course I mean, my God, and I hope this is not gonna happen, what if it gets to be June and there’s quarantines and they stop all, it could happen.

M: It’s possible I suppose but fingers crossed.

C: I doubt it, I’m planning to come down. I’ll take that dingy,  I’ll just get on a boat somehow and get over there. I’ll put the mic underneath my little hazmat suit and perform, It’ll be fine

M: Yeah, it’ll be fine. What could happen?

C: What could happen what is the worst that could happen?

Creed Bratton is due to perform on June 2nd at San Fran in Wellington and in Auckland at Neck Of The Woods on June 3rd. 

 

Marty Duda
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