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| Interviews: Ash |
Skacore, the Movies
and More The Bosstones' Dicky Barrett: Lollapalooza 95 my friend hal and i had backstage press passes for lollapalooza. unfortunately, in the midst of talking to pavement, the jesus lizard and elastica, as well as trying to get near hole bassist melissa auf de meur, we forgot to "schedule" an interview with the mighty mighty bosstones. but then we caught sight of singer dicky barrett talking to whfs' johnny riggs, and dicky agreed to spare some time for us. what a guy ... fritz: so, was it yr choice to go on first? dicky: oh god, you don't choose that stuff. we're first every day, but that's because we're the least-known band on the line-up. f: really? i'd think that jesus lizard would be the least known band. d: well, i appreciate you saying that, but, i dunno. i think in certain parts of the country jesus lizard are better known than we are. f: you guys seem to be really big around here. d: thanks, man. i'd like to think so. i hope so. f: so, how'd you guys get to be movie stars? d: aw, come on - don't bust my balls. f: seriously, how'd you guys get the movie? d: we were asked, and we thought about it for about 10 minutes, and we said "What the heck?" We don't take ourselves so seriously that we can't do a stupid movie. The movie was very painless to do, but it was very painful to sit through and watch. but i don't think it was really targeted - demographicly - at me. i think they were targeting a whole different audience. f: teenage girls? d: yeah, not a middle-aged man. f: how's the tour been going, especially going on first? d: pretty cool. dude, i mean, it's not the way bosstones like to do shows. it's not a bosstones show. we'd like to be in a club, where things are a little more personal and intimate, and you can just unleash, and there's not that barrier and distance. but it's a nice and easy fun summer for us. f: every time i've seen you guys, it was in a club - it was dark and smokey and late at night. what's it like going on at two o'clock? d: i'm sober. it's kinda nice. it's different. i've heard the music for the first time - the band is good. nah, it's different. when we started the band, we didn't say we wanted to do one thing and one thing only. we wanted to try new and different things all the time. it's one summer, which aint bad. if you're only doing one summer ... i dunno. we weren't planning on a difficult summer, or a difficult tour. we're gonna do some shows in new england and then go work on our new album. this - going on at 1, talking to the press and then i hang put with my buddies for the rest of the day. it's nice. it's a vacation. f: are you trying harder to win over anybody? d: we're going out there, doing a bosstones show and playing bosstones songs. we're not here to win people over. if you like us, you like us. we're going to be the same way anyway. i think we might win over people naturally, but i'm not doing anything i wouldn't do in a club. f: you're playing fewer songs ... d: we'd like to do more songs. i dunno ... what do you think? do you think we're pandering? f: no. it seemed like the same bosstones show, just on a smaller scale in a bigger place. d: i try my hardest to get personal and i try to get the big group thing going, but it's tough. i'm not trained for this. i don't want to be an arena performer. i don't want to be phil collins or any bullshit like that. i want to play bosstones songs in venues that suit them. this is a different experience. i'm not going to leave it and stomp my foot and say "this isn't the way i like to do things. i'm outta here!" that's quitting, and we're not quitters. instead, we're going to make the best of it. we're out there. there's a number of people there to see us, and a number of people who maybe will like us afterwards, so fuck it, you know? hal: i saw you guys at the academy last year at cmj, and you said something like "where were all you people when we were playing cbgb's?" obviously you want more people to hear your music. d: yeah, but i don't think we've done anything for it. the record company doesn't go "you should write a song" - actually, they do, but we tell them to shove it - "if you write a song like UB40, you'll be huge!" but we don't want to do that. we want to do it on our terms. if people would like us because of that, great. but ... yeah, it's integrity, but i don't know how to do it any other way. this feels right to me - the way we do it, the way we write, the way we perform, the way we look, the way we dress, the way we interact with our audience. it feels right. if people like us because of that, it's accidental. i could think long and hard about it, but i don't. i just do it. if people come around they come around. if they don't i still like what we're doing. and you do, and you do obviously. that means something. f: besides someday i suppose, what's getting the biggest reaction? d: outta all those songs? probably "where'd you go." i dunno. "someday i suppose" is a well-written song, but it wasn't "how do we write a radio hit?" we write songs that sound good to us. if other people ;ike it, that's gravy. f: when it first hit, it took me by surprise, because it didn't sound much different than the early stuff. d: these guys don't know. these guys (gestures toward WHFS jocks) might play it, other stations might play us ... i don't care. i don't pander to radio. i don't give a shit. h: what ska bands do you like these days? d: my favorite all-time american ska band that still exists is bim skala bim. i think they write excellent songs. they're a great band first and a ska band second. there's this band in california called the skeletones who put on a kick-ass live show. i'm excited by the new rancid record. it's not pure ska, but ... i love the pietasters. let's go bowling is another excellent band. i like the bands that have something different to offer - there's unmistakable bowling or unmistakable bim skala bim - and bring something new to it, not just "we're ska, and that's enough." f: sum up the tour in one word. d: easy. none of our tours are backbreaking, mind-bending work, but our tours are more difficult because you spend the whole day thinking about the show at midnight, and the whole tour depends on whether you're good or not. if someone goes and sees a bosstones show and we suck, it's our fault. f: i've never seen you suck. d: thank you. but if we have a bad day at lollapalooza, no one's gonna say "lollapalooza sucked because the bosstones were awful." f: what do you do after the shows? you've got about 10-12 hours to kill. d: these interviews, i call my girlfriend ... i haven't been drinking this summer. it's kinda nice - another new experience. i've been drunk since i was 17. i tried being sober and it's really working for me. i'm doing better interviews. if i don't like it, all start drinking again. but right now, it's fun. f: who makes your suits? d: we get them a lot of places, but the green one ben was wearing today we got from the guy named charles edward ... i can't remember the last name, but he calls himself "the top dog in fashion." actually, he's a butcher. they look good on stage, but if you look up close. they're a mess. |