Though the band enjoyed some success and benefited from the backing of ’80s music-industry heavyweight Howie Klein, Translator never quite fit the malleable mold of its new-wave contemporaries. Singer/guitarist Steve Barton, bassist Larry Dekker and drummer Dave Scheff began as a trio in Los Angeles in 1979. Soon after Robert Darlington’s addition on vocals and guitar, Translator relocated to San Francisco, where it was signed to Klein’s Columbia-affiliated 415 label. The band’s 1982 debut, Heartbeats And Triggers, contains its best-known hit, “Everywhere That I’m Not.”
Translator would go on to make three more albums in four years for Columbia. Meanwhile, its punchy, guitar-driven approach grew increasingly out of step with the swoony, synth-focused acts dominating MTV and the college airwaves at the time. Even so, the band had the benefit of working with two great producers: David Kahne (Bangles, Fishbone) and Ed Stasium (Ramones, Talking Heads).
Stasium has since re-established his connection with Translator, mixing two new studio tracks on the digital version of the recently released Beyond Today: Live At The Farm—San Francisco 1986 (Liberation Hall). The members of Translator already knew they were breaking up when they booked a date at the Farm, a beloved agriculturally focused art/performance space, for one last gig in front of their hometown fans. Almost 40 years later, this marks the first time the show has been available as a physical release.
MAGNET’s Hobart Rowland touched base with Darlington to get his thoughts on the band’s ’80s run and the show that effectively brought it to a close.
What are your memories of the 1986 show at the Farm?
It was an incredibly emotional experience for me. I wasn’t looking forward to our demise. I decided that if it was to be our last gig, I wouldn’t hold back anything—and I didn’t. None of us did. We’d just returned from a U.S. tour, and we were deeply in sync as a band, even as we were breaking apart. We played for a long time and even did an acoustic set. We had the large crowd with us, and their energy inspired us. I remember the amazing sounds I got out of my Stratocaster, and the power and energy we put into every song. We later learned that Floyd Solders, our soundman, had made a board cassette recording of the entire night. It’s that same live recording Liberation Hall is now releasing. For many years, I’ve wanted the world to hear these recordings and to see how a night of power and loss decades ago is now leading to the resurrection of our music.
The music industry was a much different beast in the 1980s. What was your relationship like with Howie Klein and 415 Records?
Howie started 415 Records to give a voice to local San Francisco bands who didn’t fit the corporate mold. He eventually signed a distribution deal with Columbia Records. With so much new music, bands were trying to break through the corporate barrier without losing sight of who and what they were, which wasn’t always easy. Whoever controlled the money wanted to control the content.
Howie was—and still is—very astute and observant. Translator signed with 415 based on the public response Howie saw “Everywhere That I’m Not” getting on (San Francisco’s) KUSF radio, where he was a DJ. I’ll always be grateful to him for giving us the chance to make records and tour. The label had great bands with great people, many who are still our friends.
Translator received some airplay on MTV. What were your feelings on music videos at the time?
Translator is in one of the earliest MTV commercials. All four of our videos were shown on MTV, although “Sleeping Snakes” was deemed to be “too political” and dropped. Other stations continued to play it, with its anti-nuke content. We traveled to Mumbai, India, in 1985, and made a video for our song “Come With Me.” I enjoyed making them, though I think much of the power of the medium has been wasted on video being used as a promotional gimmick for songs, rather than a fully artistic medium of its own.
We were pressured to make videos that used stereotypes we didn’t want to use. I’m not sure Columbia liked our videos, but we always figured that pursuing our vision was best for them and for us. I believe “Come With Me” was climbing the MTV charts when it was mysteriously pulled. We tried, as much as we could, to make videos that were not too literal. Working with small budgets, I’m still impressed with what we were able to do.
What was it like working with two influential ’80s producers in David Kahne and Ed Stasium?
They were great to work with, and both are superb engineers. While they’re very different producers, they each brought out great things in our band. Some of the demos we did with David were so good they’re on our first LP, Heartbeats And Triggers—including “Everywhere That I’m Not,” our biggest hit. After two records with David, we wanted to try something new. After several false starts with potential producers, we were finally introduced to Ed, and it was an amazing fit. Recording our eponymously titled third LP was my favorite recording experience. Ed emphasized our guitars and our rock ’n’ roll roots, and his production brought out the very best in the great group of songs we brought to him for the record. He’d already worked with many great bands, yet he was just one of us. We started calling him the “fifth Translator.”
If you could go back 40 years and change one thing, what would it be?
We missed reaching a much larger audience by missing a chance to take our songs around the world. We had people in the U.K. telling us we’d be a huge hit there. We couldn’t afford to send ourselves, and the rep at Columbia who handled foreign tours told us we wouldn’t be popular in Europe, which was ridiculous. I don’t think he’d ever even listened to our music.
I feel we had a disconnect with the corporate music world, yet it was a mixed bag. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to do much of anything, and yet we could’ve done so much more. Nothing that happened to us destroyed our friendship or our band. And how lucky is that 45 years later? It’s easy to second guess the past, but all we could do then was our best in those moments. I have no regrets, but I do wish we’d found the money to tour the world.
