Show & Tell - Dope, an interview with Edsel

SHOW & TELL ON DOPE

an interview with edsel dope, 09.19.04

I admit it. I like Dope.

I know, I know… Everything nu is old and the genre’s on life support and you think it’s cliché and derivative and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Whatever.

It’s not brain surgery, it’s rock music. It’s catchy and hook-laden and it sticks in your teeth like popcorn from last Sunday’s matinee.

It’s okay, you don’t have to admit it… I know you dig ‘em too.

We caught some time with Edsel Dope just before his band left to headline the American Apathy Tour. Here’s how that went…

Edsel: Hey Scott, it's Edsel from Dope.

S&T: Hey Edsel from Dope.

E: How you doing, man?

S&T: I’m doing pretty good. How ‘bout yourself?

E: Hanging in there.

S&T: Where are you? New York?

E: No. Actually right now I'm in Florida. I just got back from LA. I was out there mixing and had to mix some stuff in Ft. Lauderdale and now my parents live up here so I came to see them for a couple of days and then I shoot back up to Chicago where my studio’s at. I’ll be there tomorrow and then we start the tour in 2 weeks.

S&T: Yeah, it’s going to come up quick.

E: Yeah man, it'll be here before I know it.

S&T: Your parents alright? Everything cool with the hurricanes?

E: Yeah. Yeah. That was the wonderful thing. I’m like, “Yeah Pop, I’ll come up and hang with you for a couple of days.” I get here and it’s like, “Alright son, here’s a rake and a shovel. See all this crap everywhere? We have to get it to the front of the house.” I’m looking at my Dad and I’m like what I am going to do, I can’t say fucking no… So I had to put up a fence and carry a bunch of shrubbery out. I’m all sunburn dude. It’s pretty fucking lame.

S&T: It’s all so very Rock n Roll.

E: Yeah. Very Rock n Roll.

S&T: So last time we ran into you you were out with Twisted Method and Mushroomhead at the Starland…

E: Right, at The Starland. I was really drunk that day. I started drinking beer at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Some kids were in the parking lot and were like “Edsel, man, what are you doing?” I’m like “I’m just doing my thing” and they go “Man, we got beer.’ So I’m like “Alright. Let’s start. Let’s do this.”

S&T: And it beats the shit out of a rake and shovel.

E: Yeah, no doubt, right [laughs].

S&T: I get that you like to party but I also get, and I might be wrong, that you’re a stone cold serious businessman too.

E: I am serious about anything I care about, you know. So yeah, I take care of business. I work really fucking hard but I am in a band called Dope known for being debaucherous and insane and having a lot of fun so I at least need to live up to that. But yeah, man, I do my thing, take care of business and get it on once in awhile.

S&T: So you can balance the two?

E: Yeah, I do a good job at that actually. I think that is probably one of my good character traits. I know when to let loose but I know when I have to wake up early and take care of shit.

S&T: How DIY are you?

E: Dude, I do everything. There is very, very little that I don’t have a hand in. In some ways it’s a blessing but in some was it’s like, “Fuck!!!” When I do find competent people who can take care of things that I value their opinion and trust them I'm so excited about it ‘cause it's one less thing I have to do, but yeah, man, I am pretty hands-on with everything.

S&T: It’s a pretty big machine you have to keep moving; once you hit the road I’d imagine its hard to keep everything in order.

E: Yeah, well, I have my cell phone, my laptop and Pro Tools rig right in the back lounge (of the tour bus) so I’m always making records and always on the phone and making deals and taking care of business. I think it’s a good example of where we are right now. We could be in a better position or we could be in a worse position but the reality of the position that we’re in is that we’re putting out another record a year later; we’re out on tour as always. It’s like we just keep doing it and I think, at the end of the day with where music is at and the economic reality of the music business right now, that is a testament to our band. We’re still making records. We‘re still doing what our fans want, which is putting out music, and I think that’s going to become a way of survival in the future for other bands; to put albums out quicker. Unless you’re on a major label and you’re selling lots of records and putting out a record every 2 or 3 years it’s just not going to cut it anymore. I’m excited by that. Thinking that we just put a record out a year ago and we are about to put out another one is making me go, “Well, I guess I am challenged again to do this next year.”

S&T: Right. I was a big fan of the last record.

E: Thank you very much.

S&T: I wrote, “It’s unlikely you will be a changed person for having listened to Dope’s latest release, Group Therapy, it is likewise doubtful you will be inspired to plant a garden, build a shed or paint a sunset and chances are the album wont make you want to learn a new language, write a book or knit a sweater. You may, however, find yourself at the corner store picking up rolling papers, a six pack and Jenna Jamison’s latest cinematic masterpiece. Group Therapy is like a party in your stereo. Pure fun; no excuses!”

E: Sweet man, I like it! With that review I think you'll like the new record even better.

S&T: Yeah?

E: Yeah. ‘Cause the one thing me and my guitarist Virus had been really, really driven within our own minds to do on the last couple Dope records it to really try and stretch the boundaries of what people think we are capable of and I think we got really melodic on the last record. We had some songs on that last record that were so far out of the realm of what people thought we could do and then, of course, we had some stuff that was really heavy and more of that definitive Dope sound, but it was really important to us as artists and individuals to continue to branch out and show people that, unlike most bands out there, our sound is really broad. On this record it was kind of the exact opposite. It was like, “Okay, we proved that, we’ve done that. Now let’s make a record that every song on the record is like a live tune.” We want to go out there and play live as opposed to the three or four or five songs off of each record that you would normally play and the other ones are more like your radio… the songs you listen to on the stereo in your car.

S&T: Right.

E: This record you put it in and from top to bottom these are songs that you can see this band play and they are crowd participatory and they will kick you in the ass and it was exciting. They came together really quick and we didn’t expect and didn’t know we were going to be putting out another record this fast. We were looking at each other going this is the kind of record we want to make right now and it feels really good… It’s all sort of snowballed and here we are and the tour is kicking and it’s going to be a good year.

S&T: Very good. How many new songs do you think you'll be playing on this tour?

E: I think it depends on how quickly everybody in the band gets tight on them. I think we'll start off probably playing two or three and then as the tour continues we'll switch them out and I’d like to be playing five or six by the end of the tour. And we have four albums, which we have to play material from each record. Another cool thing about this records is we're going to have some bonus tracks. I think there are going to be 17 or 18 tracks on this record.

S&T: Really?

E: Yeah, there is going to be a live “Die Mother Fucker Die” that we've been waiting to put out and there's a new 2004 version of “Fuck the Police” which has always been a big fan favorite and a remix of one of our tunes from the first album called “Sick” and another cover tune or two. There's just so much stuff that we're trying to put together to make this record really interesting. I think there will be a remix of our song “Bitch” and a different version of “Motivation”. Just a lot of cool stuff and then 12 brand new tracks as well.

S&T: Now the new tracks are done? Is that what you were mixing?

E: Yeah. There are a couple more that have to be mixed but for the most part everything is done but I wouldn’t be surprised if when I get back to Chicago that in the next two weeks we write and record another one because we have that ability and because the record doesn’t have to be turned in for another month or so, there's no telling. Right now the body of work we're looking at and that we're listening to I think is a killer Dope record. It'll be the first Dope record since the debut record that's going to be released worldwide so it'll be over in Europe and Japan and I think it’s a good record for us to be putting out in those places too and it’s looking like we'll be going over there for the first time as odd as that might seem that this band has never gone to Japan. This record is going to give the world a good idea of what Dope is all about.

S&T: Tell me a little bit about this tour and about putting it together with these particular bands. I just talked to (Twisted Method front man) Tripp and he said to tell you, “Suck it!”

E: [laughing] Tell him I taught him, “Suck It”! Love that kid, man. Those guys were a shoe-in for the tour and I’ve been like brothers with those guys since we did that Mushroomhead tour. I don’t know if Tripp told you but I'm producing their new record.

S&T: He did. We talked a little about that. He’s very excited.

E: The stuff has been going great so I knew they were going to be on the tour just because that band is awesome and I love their live show and just love their energy and what they’re about. Then Motograter was a band that I have been trying to put stuff together with for quite awhile now. Big fan of them and I love the fact that they’re a visually entertaining band and they built their following on Ozzfest and touring and they’re sort of from the same mold as Dope. So that’s the band I'm really excited about and then our agent had the crazy idea to reach out to Adema and Adema was going to come on and do a bunch of dates but I guess their singer left the band or some silliness so they're out of the picture and that gave Motogrator the option to do the entire tour which they opted to do.

S&T: So they were going to split the tour?

E: Yes, so now Motograter is going to do the whole thing. I love the guys in Adema that I know so it’s a bummer that I'm not going to get to hang out with them but from the show stand point I love Motograter on the whole tour. I think they're going to kick ass and rip it up every night and the shows are going to be that much more brutal so that excites me. If you keep checking the web site we have a few more surprises coming. We started reaching out to some of our other friends and there are a few select markets where we have other bands coming in to co-headline the show.

S&T: Yeah, I saw a couple of them.

E: Yeah, so we have (Powerman 5000) coming in for a couple of shows and Mushroomhead for a couple of shows and who knows what we'll pull out of our hat but from start to finish this tour is going to be great… just a killer tour. I'm looking forward to the first show which isn’t actually part of the tour but the first show we do is us with Ministry and Thrill Kill Kult so that’s the most killer way to start things off.

S&T: That’s just great and I'd assume that you're just a big fan of Ministry.

E: Yes, Ministry and NIN is really where Dope’s sound kind of started. The irony is that we really don’t have a lot of industrial in our sound anymore but when we first started out that was what we were all about.

S&T: Do you know Al (Jourgensen of Ministry)? Have you met him?

E: No, I have not met Al and I'm actually looking forward to it and I'm hoping that the timing is right.

S&T: Your tour is pretty fucking insane. You guys start on the 8th of October and run though the 19th of December and there are no dates off. I think there are two dates off.

E: I think for where we're at and what we're trying to accomplish. a day off is pointless and as long as I’ve been touring the days off are like, "Oh man, I can't wait 'til Thursday 'cause we have Thursday off," then Thursday rolls around and about 5 in the afternoon everyone’s like what the fuck are we supposed to do? So it’s really hard on the crew guys and you got to take your hat off to those guys for going out and busting their ass every day but they are down for it and have all signed on. If we're not playing shows, man, we're not making progress. We get to hit 11 extra cities on this tour by not having those days off and that how I look at it. Eleven more markets we're going to hit.

S&T: And the reality is if you're not playing, you're not getting paid.

E: Well yeah, of course. Your costs are the same everyday, show day or not, and you take that into consideration as well.

S&T: Tripp said those guys are going to be on the bus with you?

E: Yeh, yeh, yeh. We’re sharing a bus with them so we can continue working on their album, like non-stop we’ll be cranking away on the record.

S&T: So you’ve got a whole Pro Tools rig in the back?

E: Yeh, everything, man. The whole shebang.

S&T: And how’s that stuff comin’? The first record was a couple years of material that they’d basically started writing when they were sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. Now they’re in their early 20s, what’s this stuff like as compared to the first one?

E: The thing I noticed about that band right away was that they had so much more to offer than what that record sounded like… So that was the big focus for me, was to make sure I really exploited the strengths that that band has. Most importantly is the fact Tripp sings his ass off and I think most people look at the band and listen to the band on that first record and you really didn’t gather that because so much of the impetus was put on the heavy side of the band? So the record’s gonna rock and there’s gonna be heavy stuff, don’t kid yourself, but at the same time I want people to realize how good that kid can sing. As far as song-writing, y’know, they have great ideas and it’s just a matter of honing those ideas and getting each guy in the band to bounce off the other one and that’s my job as a producer to say, “Okay, listen to this killer riff that Andy’s got and now Tripp, here’s what we gotta do, we’ve gotta bring this to this part and let’s open it up and think about this or write this,” or kick ‘em in the ass and make ‘em wake up and make ‘em work and I’m the slave driver that did that and it works out good. Y’know, and it’s also great when you have me around who also can write and my guitar player who lives in the same house that can come in and go, “Hey, man, I’ve got an idea for a part for your song, let’s do this,” and it makes it that much better.

Those kids have got a tremendous, tremendous amount of talent and I think their record will be far, far better than the last record that they made.

S&T: For me, they’re like the perfect opening act… I’ve seen them in clubs where nobody knew who they were, never heard their music and watched them just infect people row by row…

E: I met Tripp, the first day I met them and the first time I saw his band, he just reminded me of me, reminded me of a little me. This kid goes out there and grabs the crowd, just rocks it, you don’t have to know who he is, he’s gonna own it.

S&T: That’s my exact point… That tour that you did with Soil coming on after you guys? Twisted Method would come on and get everybody worked up. You guys would come on and actually build on that and then Soil would come out and it would be like flat…

E: The funny part is that the tour (before that one) was Twisted Method, 40 Below Summer (and Dope). So it was like Twisted Method went out, kicked your ass, 40 Below Summer came out there, a little more known, good live band, kicked your ass, Dope came on, took it to the next level, Mushroomhead came on and killed it. That tour had perfect, perfect momentum, it was great.

The second leg of that tour with Soil on it, it was what it was. I guess their singer just quit their band so there’s another band that just fell apart. Whatever, man, shit happens.

S&T: For me, when I saw this tour and saw Adema on the bill, no disrespect to those guys but I’ve seen them live and it’s not the same kind of energy. This lineup works.

E: The thing that made Adema inviting was because their sound is different and their show is different it meant that they were gonna bring different people to the table. Which could have made some of the shows bigger which I was excited about but it is what it is. They’re not gonna be here. Maybe Motograter in some places isn’t as big as them in some places but like you said, I think the continuity is gonna be a better show.

S&T: Edsel, thanks for your time, bro.

E: Thank you, man. We’ll see you in NYC?

S&T: I think we’re gonna hit Philly and BB King’s.

E: Cool, man. We'll see you.

interview by scott sisti