Danny Bateman on Grog, Odysseus, and Tom Thibodeau
A peek inside the mind of New Rochelle’s prized amphibian
Danny Bateman has been a busy guy. In the four years since his last album, Frog’s singer/songwriter/multi-hyphenate has entered fatherhood and shifted careers.
Also of note: Bateman officially welcomed his brother Steve into the band. And Frog’s newest record channels the swirling depths of their fraternal consciousness. On Grog, the duo unearths sounds and settings that had yet to grace Frog’s catalog. It’s a journey of discovery for the listener as much as it is for the Batemans, who tab the collection as “exciting” as well as “gothic and cartoonish.” What more could you ask of Frog?
To mark its release on November 17th, I got to chatting with Danny about Grog, the Mets, Mozart, and much more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How does it feel to have the new music out in the wild?
I’m pumped about the reaction. Frog Nation seems hungry. They’re in the streets and are hungry for it. It took a long time to make this record, so it’s good to get it to a point where I can’t change it anymore.
Would you consider yourself an overthinker?
I don’t necessarily think I overthink stuff, although I do overthink stuff sometimes. It depends. It’s a long process. It’s really unusual for me to make a record for that long and work on it as much as I did. To answer your question, I’m really happy about it.
You mentioned that Grog is set in Hades. Walk me through that journey of drifting down the Styx and to what degree the narrative of this album is a reflection of your experiences throughout that time that you were writing and recording.
When I made this record, I was entering a period of great change in my life. I had children. We went through COVID. And yeah, I was raising twins during that time. I don’t know if you’re a parent, but it changes everything about your life in a way. It’s like a different perspective.
Yeah, a different lens.
Yeah. But it’s too large for the words that we’re using. So I was dealing with that and it was pretty frustrating to be completely isolated. I had two screaming kids and there was nothing else. It worked out and I’m so happy with my family life. But that first part, I was not prepared. The band was a way for me to get away from that for a second. Me and Stevie would go into that room and I would go to insane places with him. I’m still inside of it. I went so far down in there that you’ll never find me again.
Grog seems to contain some of the most intentionally genre-bending music that you’ve put out. You chose “Black on Black on Black” for the leading single. It’s a different flavor.
Oh, yeah. That song, I wrote it on a banjo. And I had recently read Ulysses and The Odyssey too. I really loved The Odyssey. I like the beginning when he wakes up on the beach and there’s this goddess and she’s trying to make him have a home with her. He’s like, ‘No, man. I gotta go home.’ And she’s so mad about it. Calypso. And then he lashes a raft. It’s awesome. Like Lost or something. You might remember that show.
How could I forget? Do you see yourself in Odysseus’s journey? Like, you as the avatar for the character on the album.
Everyone can see themselves in Odysseus. That’s why he’s still talked about 2500 years after he was written. The narrative of the album in a start-to-finish story is an interesting idea. There’s a lot of violence in it. There’s songs about murders. I don’t think that I necessarily see myself as the avatar that runs through the record, but each of them is its own little story that I think together are greater than the sum of their parts. That was my intention.
What is it about grog as an entity that spoke to you in a way that signified the eerie, gargoylish energy that you describe this album with?
I wanted to name a whole series of records Frog, Bog, Clog, and each of them sort of informed the world. Clog would be a Swedish dance-reggae record. And then Bog would be a swampy ass record, which I think I’ve actually done before so maybe I wouldn’t try that one first. I thought there was a lot of promise there. I am not doing that but I like the idea.
Grog — I was introduced to it by The Secret of Monkey Island, which is a computer game from the ’90s. I’m definitely dating myself now, but it’s one of the funniest and greatest adventure games that has ever been made. You played this hilarious wannabe pirate. Eventually you become a pirate and you’re one of the best ones. Let me just spoil it for you right now. I was trying to avoid spoilers at all costs, but, you know, here we are.
So this is record number five.
Depends how you count the shorter ones. But yeah.
Assembly of songs number five. Can you think of one song from each of the records that you would choose to act as a snapshot of Frog at that moment in time?
Starting with the self-titled, I think it’s got to be “Nancy Kerrigan.” That was the first Frog song. We just wrote the song and sang it same day. I haven’t listened to it in a long time, but I have fond memories. The history of the band is sort of a history of me. I was not comfortable at all making actual recordings. For better or worse, that’s like what it sounded like.
With Kind of Blah, they’re all sort of the same vibe. I think the secret track at the end, that was what the record was like. I was listening to only Miles Davis for a long time. I read his autobiography and really got into it. This very lonely, minimal kind of dreamy vibe. And then there’s a kazoo solo.
With Whatever We Probably Already Had It, that was the emo record. I didn’t like Whatever when I first finished it. But now I like it. I think it’s my favorite out of the early ones. There’s some funny stuff on there. I feel like “Something to Hide” is a really good song. I was friends with this couple and the song is the story of them meeting. It was a really slow tragedy of bursting apart one life and then a really awesome moment of starting a new one. And the story just struck me somehow.
Count Bateman, you know, “RIP to the Empire State Flea Market” is a good song. That’s a good place. I miss it. I don’t know if you know where it is.
I do not but RIP to it. We raise a glass.
Yeah. We raise a glass. And on Grog, take your pick. I think they’re all interesting. I like “Maybelline” and “Ur Still Mine.” I’m not sure if I’m good at picking singles or not. Whatever, man. Who cares? Just have fun with it.
Are you a sports fan? And by that I mean are you sick?
I’m a big Mets fan. We’re a long suffering franchise, and then we got bought by a pretty wealthy person. It hasn’t really changed in terms of results, but it’s been a good time in that he always makes it interesting. But yeah, it’s disappointing to be honest.
Are you a Knicks fan?
I would say I’m a Knicks fan, but I don’t follow basketball that closely.
Are you acquainted with their coach, Tom Thibodeau?
No.
Oh, okay. I was going to ask which you thought was more befitting: Tom Thibodeau drumming for Frog or Tom White coaching the New York Knicks. He’s kind of a toad-like man, so I feel like that would be pretty appropriate. His voice, everything about him.
Sign him up. I’ve had two great Frog drummers. This sounds like a third. I think he’s next in line. He sounds perfect. Every Frog drummer, they didn’t know how to play drums and I just sat them down and I said, “Okay, you play drums now and I’ll do everything else.” It’s always worked.
100% success rate.
100% success rate. If you want to start a band, just find someone you really love. You don’t need to know how to play but the relationship needs to be really good because the music that comes out of it is that relationship, you know?
Your brother Steve is officially in the band now. How did him coming in alter your process of writing and recording, if at all?
Tom moved to England and I made Count Bateman by myself. I drummed on it. I did everything on it. Steve was a fan of the stuff I was doing. So he started playing drums with me. The thing that broke the solo Bateman experience was playing shows by myself. It’s just not fun. I need someone up there to help me make some noise. I love my brother and he’s an amazing musician and we’re just a good match. And then Tom moved back and now he plays bass in the band. So the whole family’s back together.
Did Tom know how to play bass ahead of time, or did you just hand him a guitar similar to drums and say, “You play this now”?
No, no. He’s a professional bassist. He went to school for it. He’s just a great musician. And he’s a very amazing person to hang out with and be friends with.
Is there one song that you respect to the point that you think, ‘Damn, I would love to write something like that,’ that’s maybe not in your wheelhouse of sounds that you’ve captured previously?
Mozart’s “Piano Sonata №3 in B-flat.” He wrote it when he was 19. It’s just so fire, dude. Every single thing that happens in it is so fire. That guy, he had something from God. He was a little kid making this insane shit. Everything that he ever did was worth listening to.
I wanted to ask about Frog’s popularity across the pond. Is another UK tour in the cards for you guys?
Your lips to God’s ears. I mean I play three shows a year. I work a lot. If I play a show, I’m not back to normal for a week or two. It’s worth it, but I’ve got to put the family first.
If there was another country for your music to go crazy viral in that would end up yielding a tour, where would you go?
I love that question. I think anywhere. If they’re down with Frog, Frog Nation is beyond borders. Frog Nation lives in the ether and everyone’s welcome. I’d like to visit Japan. I don’t know if we have any fans over there, but, again, your lips to God’s ears. Honestly, any country. I would go to Alaska. That’d be awesome, and my kids could come. Actually, I went on one trip on a plane with my children which was pretty intense, but was worth it. If I had to tour with them too, I’d have to steel myself. We’d make it through. I think they would like it.
What’s the minimum age of your children before you start indoctrinating them with musicianship so that you can have backing musicians at low cost?
Family band?
Yeah, exactly.
Sort of already. I play piano every day and they’re always getting annoyed by it. I’ve got some videos of them jamming on the drums with me. They really like that. You’re just making really loud noise banging stuff, which is a three-year-old’s specialty. Really jibes with their core competency. Both of my kids can make sound on the trumpet. It took me a while to do it as an adult. So maybe they’re going to be trumpeters.
I would consider myself a fairly competent musician and it sure as hell did not seem that way as soon as I picked up brass. You’ve got some savants on your hands.
Yeah man. I’m just excited. I want to figure out a way that I can release a lot of music. Like if I was allowed to, I could do an album a month easy. I could do even more than that if I really tried. I don’t think anyone’s ever released 24 albums in a year, but I could definitely do that.
When you were talking about the Grog/Bog/Clog thing, I was likening that to Sufjan Stevens trying to do the 50 states. You might be prolific enough to pull that sort of thing off.
The music part of it is easy. I can do that. The rest of it, I still haven’t figured that out, you know?
