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Oct 02, 2003 Web Exclusive By Nick Hyman

Eels’ E is one bad motherfucker. The guy is so tough that he had four releases come out last year (all great) and he still had time to try to get my ex-girlfriend’s phone number. Bastard. E’s been making underrated music for years, not to mention putting on one of the best live shows around, and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down. E’s 2003 output alone should win over discerning music lovers with its brutal honesty, humor and butt-shaking rock! So, come on in and take a seat for Mr. E’s wild ride.

E: After all these years, I’m still under the radar.

Nick: How was the Japanese tour?

E: It was fun. There are a couple of songs that we’re doing where I give long speeches during the songs and we had a Japanese translator come out and after every sentence she would translate and it was pretty fun. We liked it so much that we wanted to make her a permanent part of the act. We’re thinking about bringing her everywhere and having her translate in Japanese even though we’re not in Japan. It would really work, even though you don’t know Japanese. Very charming.

N: Eels seems to be much more successful outside of the U.S.——why is that?

E: It’s weird; we’ve had a lot more support in Europe over the years than in America. English is a given now for so many countries, I often wonder if they’ve translated my lyrics incorrectly and they think that I’m some kind of genius based on something I never really said.

N: Your lyrics stem from a very American upbringing. It seems weird that it would connect more elsewhere.

E: I think in general, they appreciate music more. Music is such a small part of people’s lives in America and is not a big deal anymore, and in Europe they still cherish the music and art is an important part of their day.

N: Are you ever going to stop touring for this album?

E: Probably.

N: It seems like the never-ending tour.

E: By the end of it, it will have been 80 shows since June, which is a lot.

N: I was at the August 15th show at the Henry Fonda Theatre and you had four encores.

E: We’ve been getting a little crazy on the encores. The thing that’s crazy is I’ve always admired bands like The Who, who never even do an encore. I like that like I admire songwriting that is very succinct. Get in there and get out. Tell your story and trim all the fat. I’ve always wanted to be like the band who doesn’t do encores but it just becomes a matter of pacing for the show and it’s a nice thing to have a little break; to have a certain arc for your set and come back with a different energy and do a few songs. And if they won’t let you go, you just have to be nice and play more. A lot of times we’ll come back after the lights have gone up and keep playing for the stragglers, the late-nighters that have nowhere to go.

N: Like a ZZ Top cover?

E: Perhaps. For instance.

N: Your live shows are impressive. How much preparation goes into your live set?

E: We rehearse a lot at the beginning. Probably more so than many other bands. I’m like the James Brown whip-cracking type when it comes to this kind of thing. I like to be oiled up. I mean business. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. It might not be one of the best nights of your life but my goal is to make it one of the best nights of your life. I want people to leave feeling good.

N: You’ve been making music for most of your life; did you ever have any formal training?

E: The only formal training I had was when I was six years old; I took drum lessons for a year and that was it with the formal training.

N: What instrument did you pick up after drums?

E: It was drums for a long time, then slowly by the time I was nine or ten, I was writing songs on the upright piano in the house. By the time I was a teenager, when I was sixteen or seventeen, I started messing around with my sister’s acoustic guitar.

N: How did you learn to play the piano?

E: Just messing around. My mom might have taught me a couple of chords. Same thing with guitar, I would pick up chords from friends and you start piecing things together.

N: What happened to your drummer, Butch? Did he go off on another tour?

E: Yeah, Tracy Chapman.

N: Are you guys still buds?

E: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’re in touch. It’s all okay. Actually, it was a lucky break because Puddin’ really rocks, the guy who’s playing drums with us now. I’ve got to say that honestly in a lot of way the lineup I have now is better for what I’m doing this year. It’s exactly what I set out to do. It’s nice.

N: Did you have an idea of what Shootenanny was going to be while you were making it or did the quick nature in how it was recorded come together while writing songs?

E: I didn’t set out to do it quickly. Because of the nature of how it was recorded, it went quickly. It was done like a live album, essentially, so three minutes later your song is done.

N: 2003 has been very busy for you with the release of Shootenanny, the Electro-Shock Blues live album, the Levity soundtrack and MC Honky.

E: And a few other things smattered around like the Holes soundtrack that has a couple of Eels songs.

N: How the hell did that slip by? Are they exclusive?

E: Yeah, they’re exclusive. I like being involved in the good kids films like Shrek and Holes.

N: That was great synergy being on the Shrek soundtrack being that it was a DreamWorks film and that’s the label you’re on. What’s your relationship like with your label?

E: Well, it depends on how you measure these things. I mean, the good part is making the records and I really don’t enjoy anything that happens after making it. I’m always happy to be making another one and I already know that I’ll be making another one but my new plan, and I know that fans won’t like this much, is to just make records and not put them out. I just want to be happy and I’m only truly happy when I’m making records. Shootenanny only took ten days to record and ten days of happiness is not enough for me I’ve decided.

N: The live record was available online. Do you think you’d go that route?

E: I don’t know. I just want to make music and I don’t care about putting it out. Let them sort it out when I’m dead.

N: You bastard. Okay, who directed the “Saturday Morning” video?

E: Steve Hanft, who also did our “Flyswatter” video.

N: I was detecting a heavy Evil Dead 2 vibe.

E: Yeah, I think he had that in the back of his mind.

N: How do you feel about making videos?

E: They’re fun to make, but ultimately it’s getting harder and harder to make good ones because for a band like us it’s hard for anyone to ever see the video. There’s a lot of money and energy put into these things, and sometimes you wonder why. That was a fun video to make. I got to dance around with a bunch of teenage zombies and sell pancakes on the side of the road. It was a fun couple of days.

N: You also worked with Wim Wenders.

E: That was a really fun one, being in a prison full of German girls.

N: How did Levity come about? We’re you approached by the filmmakers to do the score?

E: Yeah.

N: Were the Eels songs on the soundtrack creating exclusively for the film or were they lying around in the vault?

E: It was new stuff that came about while watching the movie. I never watched the whole move. I saw it in pieces. I didn’t really know what I was dealing with. I wanted to experiment and see what it was like to have a real job and have someone boss me around. I found out that I’m not very good at it.

N: You also worked on The Anniversary Party soundtrack. You seem to like films.

E: Well, I say no to more films than I say yes to. I actually found out yesterday that I’ve got a bad reputation for this. It’s hard because it’s a gamble. I won’t put my songs in commercials but I will put them in films. I try hard to see what films will be good to my song. So many movies that look like they’re going to be great end up terrible and vice versa. There are so many factors involved with too many people’s fingers in the pie with bad ideas that you never know how it’s going to turn out.

N: Does it suck shaving now?

E: Yeah, you’ve got to find the time. After a couple of years of not shaving, you’ve got to find the time to shave. That said, there was a lot of beard care and maintenance when you have a big, scraggily, bug-infested beard. You still have to take care of it in some ways. Just like bad hair days on the top of your head, you have bad beard days. There’s nothing worse than a bad beard day when your beard just isn’t working.

N: Let’s talk about writing songs. Do you carry around a notebook to jot down ideas?

E: I carry around a tinny book in my pocket that I’m always scribbling things in. If I don’t have that, then I’m always scribbling on napkins and that kind of stuff and sorting it all out later.

N: Most of your songs are based directly on your life. Much of your life is on the road touring. Do you think you’ll ever have a “road” record?

E: [Laughing] No. We always joke about that, actually. We’re always quoting the great songs about how hard it is to live on the road like Bob Segar’s “Turn The Page” or the Bon Jovi song with the line, “on this steel horse I ride”.

N: “Wanted Dead or Alive”

E: We’ll get off stage and get into the bus and we’ll say, “turn the page.” Yeah, it’s tough being on the road. We’re sitting there having sex with six groupies and passing the bong back and forth and we look at each other and say, “this sucks.”

N: Yeah, look at these hot Japanese girls on our laps

E: People could just feel my pain. It’s so lonely because these girls don’t understand me.

N: It’s so hard to communicate at home, but now it’s even worse.

E: Pass the heroin.

N: Just shoot right in between the toes.

E: That’s all that’s left.

N: You’ve put out a couple of releases on the internet, and all the while record stores have been closing in droves. There seems to be a problem in the music industry with how to release albums and at what price.

E: Rock hard times. Hard times for rock.

N: So you’re just going to make music and whatever happens to it, happens to it.

E: I don’t know.

N: You’re going to piss off your fans and I’m one of them. I almost hung up the phone.

E: I’m used to that. It’s really a dire situation. It is a lot of the reason why it’s not that fun to put records out.

N: Have you gone through Apple’s iTunes to put out music?

E: Yeah, actually we’re about to be on that. I don’t think DreamWorks had a deal with them until now. I don’t know, we’ll see how that works. I’m sort of in denial about it all. I think the whole internet issue isn’t that big an issue. I think it’s more about how the record companies do things. They sign a million acts and let them all make one record and don’t really nurture anybody. You hear it all of the time; a lot of the old great artists like Ray Charles said he wouldn’t make it as a new artist today because it took him five albums to have a hit. The world wouldn’t be such a rich place without Ray Charles. It’s kind of a tragic time.

N: It doesn’t seem like Shootenanny has received much promotion?

E: There never is.

N: Souljacker seemed to get a bigger push.

E: Really?! Well that’s sad, because I can’t imagine any less than they did for Souljacker. They were all excited about Shootenanny because it charted higher than any of the other ones when it came out but that was pretty much the end of the excitement, I guess. Whatever, I’m on to the next one soon.

N: MC Honky—just throwing it out there.

E: I just got a pain my stomach. Go on.

N: That’s a cool record.

E: I’ve got a lot of issues with the man but I’m still a fan of his record. When I hear him open for us, I still really enjoy the music.

N: Perhaps it’s more of what the kids are listening to.

E: I don’t know. I think he thinks that maybe but I don’t know if that’s really true or not. I just like the positive message that comes in a lot of the songs, which is contrary to what he’s like as a person from my experience. That happens to a lot of artists in the opposite way where a lot of guys seem nice on the surface and they put out this scary evil music. He’s got the opposite thing going on where he’s scary and evil in person and he puts out this nice sort of life affirming thing in his music.

N: Does he ever steal the equipment and sell it for drugs?

E: He hasn’t done that but I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s not a drug guy. He would probably sell our equipment to get money to go to a whorehouse. There were a couple of times where he didn’t show up for a show and he turned up at whorehouses passed out and this is all over the world. The guy belongs back in his bedroom. He’s not used to the attention; he doesn’t know how to handle so much attention. It’s like taking a teenager out for their first rock tour but it’s so much less attractive for an old guy.

N: There seemed to be an altercation that night at the Henry Fonda.

E: Yeah, that was the night where he started playing one of my instruments while we weren’t on stage and had to have security deal with it. It’s kind of embarrassing to happen in front of everybody and makes me think that everybody thinks that we’re unprofessional.

N: Sometimes that’s a cool reputation to have.

E: I’ll have to start milking that.

N: You’ve put out five albums now, how do you feel about that?

E: As opposed to two others before that.

N: Of course, as E, not Eels. Is it time for a greatest hits record?

E: You mean greatest hit.

N: You’ve got enough strong material for a killer record.

E: I actually wouldn’t mind putting out a collection of b-sides and rarities. I know last year DreamWorks was talking to me about doing some kind of best-of thing but I wasn’t really into it. Eventually, it could happen be we could just wait until I’m dead for that to happen. I’m not sure. If they decided that it was something that I should really do, I might go along with it.

N: Do you think death is lurking around the corner for you?

E: Let’s look at the odds; I’ve got it coming from every angle in the gene pool.

N: Tom Waits had an amazing quote about Eels being nominated for the Shortlist Prize. [“Electric Jungian therapy on vintage pawn shop instruments. Tribal grooves and garage energy. The Eels are outsider like folks that paint with fingernail polish. I eagerly await each new release. What’s not to like about cheap microphones, distortion melody and great songs?”] How did that feel?

E: It was fantastic. I don’t give a shit about the award or any awards but I do give a shit about Tom Waits talking about Eels. It doesn’t get any better. It was a total shock to me. For someone that is one of your idols to say that they can’t wait to go to the record store when your record comes out, it doesn’t get any better. I was in a good mood for three days after that. That’s a long time for me.

N: How do you choose songs to cover?

E: It’s pretty much what happens naturally. In the case of “Get Ur Freak On”, some people would write that we did a “kitschy” cover of the Missy Elliott song and I would read it and it would drive me nuts because we never do anything to be cute or kitschy. It’s only because I love that song and we came up with a version of it that felt like an original interpretation of it and it rocked, I thought. We were into it. You see bands doing it all of the time on MTV now, doing some cover of an ‘80s song and it’s sort of a cute moment. That’s never what it’s about for me.

N: Have you heard the new OutKast record?

E: Actually I just saw that video this morning.

N: “Hey Ya”

E: I loved it.

N: That’s probably my favorite tune in the last five years.

E: How’s the rest of the record?

N: Andre’s record, The Love Below, is stunning. I don’t know if you’re a Prince fan.

E: Yeah, we used to do “If I Was Your Girlfriend”. We used to do that every night for a year. A radically different version of it. I’m gonna have to pick up the new OutKast. It would be great if there were more of that kind of thing happening. It’s rare, I can’t remember the last time I turned on MTV in years and said, “Wow, what’s this?”

N: It was the number one album in the country last week.

E: You never know, sometimes there is some hope.

N: If only all popular music could be this interesting.

E: It’s so rare that something like that happens.

N: But at the same time, Limp Bizkit was in the top ten as well.

E: But have you really paid attention to the sensitivity of Limp Bizkit’s lyrics; you might be missing the point.

N: Do you listen to music a lot?

E: It’s really rare because I’m working on so much music all of the time and usually the last thing I want to do is to listen to music in my spare time when my ears are burning. I really might not know that there’s good stuff out there. I just happened to see that OutKast video. That’s a rare occurrence when something like that happens. If I do listen to music, it’s usually some instrumental film score to relax to.

N: I’d like to go through your records and maybe you could tell me your feelings about them.

E: Once I did this, I used to have the same manager as Neil Young and once we were in a record store in London and I flipped through every Neil Young CD while he would give a one-word assessment of them like “crap, crap, masterpiece, crap” —I can do that kind of thing.

N: You can give more than a word; you could even give a sentence.

E: Alright, let’s see how it goes. Crap, sorry. You go first.

N: A Man Called E

E: Hmmm, the problem with all of these is that I haven’t heard them in a while.

N: I thought you’d just wake up and have a Daisies of the Galaxy day.

E: Yeah, right, why would I want to live in the past? It’s not a concern of mine and besides it would drive me crazy with all of the things that I would want to change. But the beautiful part of my life is that I can change it at the concerts. So I can go back and if I wanted to go out tonight and play a song from A Man Called E and play it the way I would record it for Shootenanny. But going back and just listening to it would drive me crazy. I don’t want to go back and listen to the past. They all represent where I was at that point, but usually by the time I finish a record and get it out, it’ll already drive me crazy. Some of the songs from Shootenanny which came out in June [of 2003] we play radically different live; several of the songs are really different and I like them a lot better the way we do them at the concerts. What are you supposed to do, wait a year to put out a record to know how to fix it or something? But it’s impossible because you would never know unless it came out and you went out and played all of these concerts. It’s designed to drive you insane.

N: Well you could do that with the songs that you plan on recording and never releasing.

E: That’s my plan, I’m just gonna constantly continue to revisit things over the years and update them.

N: It would be cool to have a record where you have certain tracks that you take on the road for years, and finally lay them down for an album after five years of tinkering and reshaping.

E: Yeah, yeah. In the past I’ve always been about capturing the moment and moving on to the next things but I’m going to try to slow down the process a little bit.

N: Where do you record, do you have a studio?

E: Mostly in my basement, but Shootenanny was an exception in almost all of that was recorded in a conventional recording studio because we needed more room to set up to play live. My basement is small and you can really only do one thing at a time, so the songs have to be built up piece by piece.

N: I interviewed Lisa Germano, who has worked with you in the past. How do you choose your collaborators?

E: It’s usually just a friendly type of situation where you just call somebody and ask them if they want to come over and play.

N: Lisa only had great things to say about you.

E: God bless her. Did she tell you what a tender lover I am?

N: So, A Man Called E.

E: It was 1991 when I recorded that which is a long time ago. I’m sure I wouldn’t be happy with the production on it. I hadn’t really developed an ear for what I wanted. I had that feeling of cluelessness that you don’t really realize you had until later when you realize that you were clueless. I might like the core of what’s there. I might be like Elvis Presley with the voice of insecurity and bravado and the whole human experience in someone’s voice. I don’t know. I don’t want to have to go back and listen to it.

N: Broken Toy Shop.

E: Probably the same, pretty much. The same feelings.

N: Beautiful Freak.

E: Not my favorite. I like “My Beloved Monster” and “Flower”. Not a lot of favorites of mine on that one though.

N: There was a weird mix of “Your Lucky Day In Hell” that ended up on the Scream 2 soundtrack. How did that come about?

E: I don’t remember.

N: It was a Dust Brothers remix, if I do recall.

E: Yeah, I don’t remember how that came about.

N: Electro-Shock Blues.

E: I like that one.

N: I love that one.

E: I don’t know what it would be like to sit down and listen to that one but this is just my abstract impression of it after not listening to it for six or seven years. I like the idea of it still. I feel some pride about it. I was very focused on it. Part of what might have worked about it was that it was such a horrible time in my life. but when I think about the times in the day that I was recording the album I actually miss those days, that part of it. It felt like this is my friend, like this warm great feeling that I have this to pour myself into and it was a very lonely and terrible time in my life. and that’s maybe why it worked— because it was such a vital lifeline for me.

N: The whole package was nice, with the great artwork throughout. Like a little present.

E: That costs fifteen bucks.

N: I also have a double 10-inch record of that album.

E: That’s my favorite thing that we’ve ever put out. I love that. The blue-vinyl double 10-inch is the nicest thing they ever made for us.

N: Daisies of The Galaxy.

E: I like that one. I think there are a few things on it that I would do differently. I wish I could do “Grace Kelly’s Blues” differently. I like the way we’re playing it at the concerts a lot more; it’ s much more stripped down, kind of meat-and-potatoes. Some of it might be a little too slick in my mind, production-wise. I do remember, the last time I heard it being surprised at how much I liked it. I could be wrong on what my opinion is, because the last time I listened to it, I liked it the
way it was.

N: Plus, there are two versions.

E: The Wal-Mart version has “It’s a Monstertrucker” instead of “It’s a Motherfucker”. I actually prefer “It’s a Monstertrucker”. I was very proud of that because I thought it was so ridiculous what they were asking me to do by changing this piano ballad that has “motherfucker” in the title. So I just thought about proving my point and having a little fun in the process. Basically, I just talked over the song on a CB radio in trucker lingo. Fortunately, many people get the Wal-Mart version when they’re not expecting it, and probably think I’m just insane.

N: Would that be far off?

E: No. From the talk I hear. I hear the people talking.

N: The people talking or the people talking in your head?

E: Yeah.

N: Souljacker. Why did that album take so damn long to come out in America?

E: That’s a question for your local DreamWorks representative.

N: I might fire off a letter.

E: You should. I like that one, I think. I haven’t listened to it since it came out but there’s some on there I really like the idea of, like “Dog Faced Boy,” “That’s Not Really Funny” and “Souljacker Part 1.” “Jungle Telegraph” I think I would still like. Some of ‘em I would like to redo. “Friendly Ghost” I might wanna redo.

N: How did you hook up with John Parish?

E: We met on Top of the Pops in England. It’s like the English Solid Gold. It’s kind of an unlikely place to meet but he was there with PJ Harvey and we were there doing “Last Stop This Town.” He was a big fan of Electro-Shock Blues, which had just come out, and we got to talking backstage and I really liked him. Someone had previously mentioned us working together and at the time I didn’t think it was such a great idea. Then I realized after recording “Souljacker Part 1” that I wanted to do more songs like that. I thought he’d be a great collaborator for that type of stuff. We kept meeting up in different towns while on tour and hang out and eventually we started to work though the mail. He would come up with something in his basement in Bristol and he would send it to my basement in LA then he came over and we did a bunch of stuff here.

N: Do you work on ProTools?

E: Yeah. Shootenanny was a combination where we would lay down the basic tracks on two-inch tape and then we would put it on ProTools HD for editing and it was a good combination. I love the sound of tape more. The ProTools HD thing sounds really good, but I don’t have that in the basement. I just have regular ProTools there.

N: I’ve heard some ProTools records lately and they’ve sounded tinny.

E: That’s a problem when you get out of tape. You get a real digital problem with the sound. There’s ways to compensate for it with little gadgets and tricks and tubes to run things through in the name of getting it to a warmer place.

N: Shootenanny.

E: Masterpiece [laughs]. You’ve always got to say that about the new one. “I’ve never been writing as good as I am now” is what everyone always says in every interview. There’s already things about Shootenanny that I would change, like “Rock Hard Times” in concert. I much prefer to the way it is on the album with the stripped down two guitars and voice. I like it a lot better like that.

N: Maybe you could re-record all of your albums and put them on your website.

E: Yeah, there’s so many indications that I’m turning into Prince.

N: He was thinking about doing that.

E: I know. I’ve also been putting together albums in a very similar fashion to some of his albums like Sign O’ The Times where he just cannibalized all of these unreleased albums and just put them all together into something else. I’ve got way too much in common with Prince and it’s just scary.

N: Are you a Jehovah’s Witness?

E: Yes I am, and a Scientologist. I actually call myself a Jehovah’s Scientologist.

N: You should write an album for L. Ron.

E: I actually have an album by L. Ron. I got it at a swap meet. It’s a two record set of his musings over prog synthesizer shit.

N: I got propositioned by a Scientologist last year.

E: I’ll tell you what I really love about Elvis and stop me if I’ve already said this. That human insecurity that you hear in his voice in all of his records, but particularly in the ones that are critically thought of as his worst records…but the great thing is that I don’t want things to be all clear and to be a five on the emotional scale of one to ten; I want to go up and down like a roller coaster ride. When Elvis’ wife got into Scientology, I thought he put it so well and succinctly and that’s why he’s the King. He said, “I’ve checked it out, they were all head and no heart.” It’s the genius of the King.

N: Are you on an Elvis kick lately?

E: I’ve been on an Elvis kick for the last two years, and it definitely inspired our live show and the ghost of the King has been present. We’ve been covering “Tiger Man”, a song he played a lot. The suits that the band are wearing are exact replicas of what Elvis’ band are playing on the ’68 Comeback Special.
I’m not doing a parody. We’ve done fifty or sixty shows by now and nobody has ever said that we were doing an Elvis thing, but I did want his ghost to be in the room. The suits are made of Memphis polyester.

N: Didn’t they just put out an unreleased track?

E: Yeah, that seems to be happening every couple of months.

N: That’s gonna happen when you go, right? DreamWorks is going to hold on to all of that stuff.

E: If they can get there grubby little hands on it. It’s a scary proposition. I guess I should organize everything somehow because there’s so much stuff that I don’t want to come out and so much stuff that’s half finished and is not appropriate.

N: What would be great is if the stuff you didn’t want to come out, came out and was heralded a masterpiece. Would you roll around in your grave if that happened?

E: No, I’ll take it where I can get it.

N: Do you follow Prince’s work now?

E: No, like a lot of people I’ve lost track at this point. It’s been a while. You have to be a member of his fan club, which is kind of a tall order.

N: I met a crazy girl at one of your shows.

E: What was her name?

N: Her name was Carol.

E: What happened?

N: We had a tumultuous relationship.

E: With a girl you met at an Eels concert! What are the odds?

N: We had been going out for about a month and she asked me to tell her that I loved her. I said no and she slapped me.

E: She slapped you! That rocks. You go girl. Wow.

N: Then, after slapping me, she said “what about now?”

E: That’s fantastic. That’s like movie dialogue.

N: She was an actress.

E: So she was like hot, crazy girl and she was at an Eels concert?

N: Yeah.

E: That’s very exciting. Was she a big fan of Eels or was she really not that familiar?

N: She wasn’t very familiar.

E: I wouldn’t expect her to be that crazy. That’s genius. Then what happened?

N: I started laughing.

E: I would want to just marry her. I would be so turned on and I would be like “I love you and I mean it.” She sounds cuckoo, but what would the world be without her.

N: I’ll always remember that show because that’s where I met her.

E: You actually met her in the audience. How did she like the concert? Do you mind if I call her?

N: I’ll forward you her e-mail address.

E: Please. I’d love to have a woman slap me and say “what about now”—it doesn’t get much better than that. I recently found out that I like to be beat up by women. It’s a strange story. After a show in Belgium a couple of months ago, this girl got backstage and she wanted to box me. My life is all about new experiences, and I’d never boxed a woman before, or a man for that matter, and I thought, “why not?” So we were in the hallway backstage, and everyone started circling around, and I’m boxing this woman and she beat the hell out of me and I realized that I kind of liked it, probably because it was the only physical contact I’d had with anyone for a long time. She hit me and it felt like a kiss. So do you mind if I call Carol? What about now?

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