Crooked finger.

MOST SKATERS OUT THERE should know who the Archers of Loaf are. If not, that's okay. They aren't together anymore. Eric Bachmann has moved on, and Crooked Fingers has become his musical outlet. His songs are about life and the way people live, wrapping stark imagery with rhyme and rhythm. Crooked Fingers is a very hands-on type of band; pardon the pun, but it's true. Their songs, while maintaining a dark and faintly seedy undertone, achieve a balanced quality rarely heard in today's overly-saturated crowd-pleasing market. On the road promoting their new album Red Devil Dawn, I had a chance to sit with Bachmann in San Francisco in between late night surgeries and head-on deer collisions.

What are the kids going to expect when they come to a Crooked Fingers show?

Something different every time, because we don't go out the same way every time. We used to do a three-piece. I went out by myself a bunch. Last tour it was a four-piece. Now there's five of us with Azure Ray. We added a trumpet and piano. When I was in The Archers of Loaf years ago we used to play the songs the same way over and over again for seven or eight years. What happens is you just get really bored playing that way. So I wanted to make sure that when I got back into touring again, with Crooked Fingers, that the band would constantly be a living, breathing entity. It wouldn't be these stale seven-year-old arrangements that we were not excited about anymore; so I am constantly changing that around for better or worse. Sometimes it doesn't work but at least you try.

Do you enjoy producing over touring, or is that something you'll leave to the future?

No, I definitely want to do that more. If I toured all the time--I'm sure this is true with probably anybody--whether it be writing, painting or drag-car racing, you want to mix it up. You want to make sure you don't repeat yourself. I want to do recording and I want to do touring and I want to do producing. I want to do carpentry. I want to go fishing, you know what I mean?

You've recorded music for some films; it seems like that would take lots of time and energy.

It does take a lot of time because you've got to satisfy what is required by the film. But I really love that kind of work because--and I don't want to sound short-sighted--but your options are tremendously reduced when you have to write for something that already exists. You can't write for a specific kind of scene, you can only write a few things. It's really great to work with directors when they have a concrete vision of what they want because it reduces your options, which, actually, saves time in a weird way. I would love to do more of that work; I just love movies so much.

Most of your songs are not political. Are there certain issues you choose to stay away from?

No. I like to write things that are more about human beings, and things about people I like or don't like in relationships. But my favorite books to read are generally on political history and political science. I just got through reading a book by Francois Bizot called The Gate, about this French guy that was a Cambodian war prisoner. It's really good. Or Tom Friedman, I'm really interested in what he has to say about issues in the Middle East. From Beirut to Jerusalem and The Lexus and the Olive Tree, those books are really good. So actually ] have very strong opinions about politics, but music for me isn't a vehicle for that. It's cool that people have something to say, it's good that they say it, but for me, when I work through all these things I am trying to work through--whatever bullshit there is--at a personal level, it's more that I like to write about psychology and people more than I do about politics. But I am certainly interested in it so maybe one day I'd do that. I haven't gotten there yet. I'm only 33.

Are you aware that lots of Archers of Loaf songs have been in skate videos?

Yeah, I know that for sure.

Does that get you stoked?

Well, yeah. Sure. I've never used that word, but if I skated I'd use it. I'd use the hell out of it. One time I heard this guy say to a girl, "I'm so stoked you're on the planet." I thought that was kind of a dumb-shit thing to say.

What's next for Crooked Fingers?

We're finishing the tour with Azure Ray and David Dondero. Then we're really going to take some time and make a record. I kind of want to get Brian Paulsen to do it. I want to go to Alaska and do it, rent a house, and just take the tape machine and a hard drive, amps and whatever, and go there for a month to work with him 'cause I love him so much. But I may not do that at all. I'm not going to tour for about a year, maybe, and sort of get my head on right. I quite smoking three months ago and I'm really trying to focus on not falling back. I've got two weeks left of touring and I am just dying. So I just got to get through this. But right now, if I keep touring. I'11 lose it.