PipemanRadio Interviews The Dwarves About Punk Rock Bowling XXIV

0:04 Hey, you have unto y censure? Wow crazy you whycoume America. It's time for the Adventures of pipe Man on W four c Y dot com. West Pompeas is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. He's already Puddy out there. He's already Poddy out there when I'm so lone, so low. Hey, anybody out there, He's already Poddy out there when I'm so long with So this is the pipe Man here on the Adventures of pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm extreaming say it about our next guest because I got to be at their killer club show at Punk Rock Bowling and it was It was a killer show. What a great venue too where they played. So let's welcome to the show, Black from the Dwarves. How are you a straight out of Vegas? Right?

1:19 Yeah? That was a fun time with FYP and the queers that we have to spend all weekend with the queers. It was great. We had some fun and Fyp always always legendary. Yes, and that you know, I've been going to Vegas since I'm twelve years old and I never even knew about that container park where you guys played. That was pretty cool, way great venue. Yeah, yeah, it was a pretty neat place, that outdoor thing and they had that weird sculpture out front that blew fire and stuff. Yeah, totally. I thought it was pretty pretty cool. And it was nice and open too for a punk gig, you know, like there was plenty of room to make a circle pit and you know, and to not be all hot and sweaty as it was in Vegas anyway. Right, But you guys, you guys killed it. I always like, my hat's always off to artists like you that have been playing live shows forever, you know, and still bring it like you're like fifteen years old. Yeah, I mean, there's just no other way to do it, right, I Mean, when I'm out there and playing punk rock, it's just let's do this, you know it. All the production value goes out the window, all of the scruples go out the window, and it's just rock and roll.

2:51 You know. We never had much of a technical base, you know, it was always just rock and roll. Let's do this, and and still still the same way. So hopefully you know that it will continue like that until we drop dead, you know, because I wanted to go out there and just be a tired old band, like nobody wants to see that, you know, so well, you know it's funny too, like uh, like example, Waddie, he's still killing it, but like I think he's had like two heart attacks on stage and he still goes flow out. You know. Yeah, he's determined to die up there. So it's right, that's that's how they exploited or going out. I don't know. I I I would rather die with some people around me than actually care about me, right, exactly bricks at a rock show, you know, but I know, right, but you know it's funny. You're gonna laugh. Okay, So we were talking before the show about you know, back in the eighties I was, I was a metal head and a punk, but I love hair, so I can show up to one of your shows already exploited, or to Subhumans or Discharge or GBH or any of the other. I got to go to d R because they started that whole crossover thing going on, so they're like they started growing their hair out. I'm like, okay, I could go there and I even had long hair in the punk years.

4:18 Yeah you had to, you know, you never knew when you were gonna get cheap shot at or something was gonna happen, you know, right, but it was you're easier to get laid if you had long hair. Always well, I think so that you know my dad, he would say stuff about these girls I was hanging out with. I'm like, yeah, why you think I'm into metal man exactly. But here's the thing. Now, at this stage, the metal head women they look they look all worn, where the punk women still look hot. In fact, they probably look hotter now than they did then. So yeah, you you would love this story.

5:01 Like there is a place called Posers on Melrose, Okay, famous place to get your spikes, but it was a punk place. So I went with three of my punk friends to this place and they were friends with the owner, so we feared it'd be cool if I can go and get my spikes there. And we're there for like two seconds and my friend walks over to me. He's like, uh, we have to leave now, and like I'm like, why I go I'll tell you outside. We just have to leave right this second. And so like the owners pulled them aside and said you better get him out of here within like ten seconds or we're gonna beat his ass. Yeah. The old rock scene was a little more exclusionary for sure. Right. That's what's cool today though. I think it's like we can all be one big, happy family and all get together always.

5:55 So I was stupid then anyway, because we both the punks and the metal heads were getting the asses kicked by the jocks. Why didn't we band together and kick their ass? Yeah? Yeah, well I don't know. I never had too much problem. I was always a pretty pretty big guy and and made it work. But you never knew back then, like what was gonna jump off? You know, no doubt, no doubt. But yeah, I mean but you guys at Punk Rock Bowling, at that show, I mean, it might as well have been the eighties, the kind of energy and the show you brought there, Like that's that's kind of what I miss. Even these young kids nowadays, they seem like they're tired already at twenty two. You know, we have a young drummer, Snooppack, and we actually met him got to be like thirteen, fourteen years ago at Punk Bowling. You know, he was like twelve years old, singing along to every song I brought him up on stage, he sang a bunch of songs and then years later he came in on drums, you know, so that's cool we've got Yeah, he's got a cool origin story from from Punk Rock Bowling and we've been known there for a long time and making rock happen, So you know, I love it. What a great festival too, Like I do festivals all over the US, UK and Europe, and I think Punk Rock Bowling is one of the coolest festivals because it just like it invades

7:25 downtown Las Vegas, and I think I think when I was talking to Dick from the sub Humans, he's the one that said, yeah, the punk rockers overtaking downtown Vegas is making it look normal. The punks are more normal than what's normally there. And the clod shows lots of fake tits and bad Hamburgers, you know exactly. I like to go to Vegas when I'm getting paid for it. I have a good time there, you know. But if I have to go there for my amusements, it's usually a little rougher. Yeah. Well, if I go there for my amusement, it's I call it. It's like my bank that I can only make deposits that I never withdraw, Like, thank god I was busy at the festival because as I'm walking by the crap table and it's calling my name, I'm like, no, I gotta go do interviews. But what I mean all those club shows, the festival, the bowling, like the whole thing. What a concept, because you know, you play a lot of festivals. Some it's just like, hey, you know, you play and it's cool festival and all that, but this has this like different flavor to it. Yeah, I know, and I sometimes I raally play acoustic, but I'll do it at punk Bowling. And I've done these long kind of marathon lounge shows and stuff, so I'll stretch out and do stuff I don't normally do nice just

8:56 because it's punk Bowling and you know, it's a good set up. You know, people are real diehard fans and I love going out there, so I love it. So being a musician this may years, having this band for this many years, what's the secret sauce that keeps you going? What is it about you that loves doing this every day? You know? I always just wanted to make a great record and play a great show, you know, And I think along the way, you get a little warped, and you know, you want to make a living, and you want to get respected, and you want to do some things that people doing other jobs, and you know, it's a very elusive goal. So I think when you just get back to working on what's important, which is making a great record, playing a great show, you know, you can go on forever.

9:54 You got to have the right people around you and the right attitude. I think if you want it to be like a career, or you want to get your management work in, or you want to get this or that, then it's going to be a lot more difficult and a lot more right for frustration. So the best thing to do is to really bear down on what's important. You know, make a great record, play great show. You know, if you can get be satisfied by that, I think you're way ahead of the game. If you can't be satisfied by that, you should really get into a different line of work that's more where the rewards are more in line with the actual work that you do. You know, you know, I say that all the time. It's like, you know, this industry, if you're not having fun, it's the wrong industry. Like, yeah, absolutely. A lot of people are not having fun, and I don't understand them. I mean, I'd do it for the same reason I did it when I was sixteen. But it was hard to get there.

11:01 You got to go, you got to go all the way around and figure it out, and it's not easy. But at a certain point you realize, wow, you know, I got into this because I like making a good record, playing a good show, or listening to a good record and going to see a good show, and so you know, it's not much more complicated than that. But when you make it more complicated and there's more people involved that got their beaks in there to get their piece, you know, then it's more and more difficult. And so what would you say in all these years, if there were one story, good, bad, wild, crazy, whatever it is that would first come to the top of your head over all these years in this journey in music, what would it be? Oh? Boy? I mean yeah, the part that really made me happy was when it all kind of came around and I could get good piece people to play with me. I always had some talented friends and some people around, but at a certain point when I started meeting you know, guys like producers like Eric Valentine or Andy Carpenter, or just players like Josh Freezer, Nick OLIVERI or these different people, you know. And I started realizing that I can make the record that I wanted to make, you know, without being affiliated with some big label or having a lot of money behind

12:31 it. I just just by being me and having done what I had done, I could talk to people and you know, get some make even better records and have even cooler shit happen. And that was really important to me. That it took a while to get there, and you know, once I got there, that was great for me, you know. I mean, the drugs and sexes are great and fun and they keep your rolling, you know, but to be able to make these records for year after year, decade after decade and feel like, wow, this is a great record.

13:11 I really like this. I don't feel like we're losing it or losing a step or can't quite do it. You know. To be able to do that deep into your fifties is a great feeling, you know. And then a couple of years ago, I in my solo record, the introducing Ralph Champagne, and so I kind of made a new character and played different kind of music, more kind of retro or country ish or loungeish kind of more listenable American music. And again, you know, just being able to have these big switches late in your life and make a cool record and do something that you believe in. You know, there's really no substitute for it.

13:56 I think people get older and they care less and less about what they're doing, even if they get paid for it. And so to really enjoy making those records and to go in there and look forward to it, and you know, that's really the where the fun is for me. And I love too hearing stuff like what you were talking about with your solo record, because you know, people have this concept that aren't familiar with punk of punk. But just because you're into punk doesn't mean you're not into other things. If you're a musician, I would think you would always want to experiment with no matter what it is. It doesn't have to be one specific way.

14:37 And as you've been doing it for so many years, like you do, kind of want to do more things as you get better at your craft or as things change in life, and you don't want to make the same exact song record that you did twenty thirty forty years ago. Yeah, well, I mean a lot of times in music, you know, there's gold in the middle of the road, right, you do what you've already done or what people expect, and it's initially easier and it's just easier to pull off and easier for people to swallow and digest, you know. But again, we were always a little in your face and disturbing to people. And so when you disturb them one way, you know, then they expect you to continue disturbing them the same way. You know, we're going to keep screaming fuck and have the nudity and whatever. But we sort of kept that element and up the production, and you know, then people would say, well, you know, you're you're making too nice sounding a record, or it's too pop in the song structure, and then then we'd turn around and make something even nastier. And so it's some hardcore song right next to a pop song and right next to a garage song, right next to a rock and roll song. And so you know, you you you always want to confound people's expectations and come up with something that's different that nobody's expecting. And again,

16:10 it depends what pend rewards you're looking for. The reward I'm looking for is to make another cool record that's different than the last one. But yeah, you know, you know, but if you're looking for just to have your old fans still like you and everything hang on the way it is, then you just keep making the same record over and over. And in punk they do that a lot, you know, the w which is funny because what you were just said describing before, to me sounds more punk than that, right exactly. I mean, you know, the Beatles were a great punk band in my mind because they never stopped making an interesting record, and they always kept throwing in new elements every time you thought you knew what they sounded like. You know, when they went psychedelic, everybody thought it was going to be the death of their career. And then they kind of went more kind of Laurel Kenyon acoustic e and everybody thought that was going to be the end. And you know it, if you have to try and do every new division, well you know, you got to. You know, it's not enough to just go, well, now I got an acoustic guitar and a hat on, so I guess I'm country or whatever. It's important that you kind of suspend your disbelief and really try and make not just a different kind of record, but a great record, and not just a different kind of a show, but a great show, you know, and you know you could sort of try and deliver that as best you can, you know. But yeah, punk can be very reactionary and can just hang on

17:42 to its same thing. And that never interested me, you know, I never I don't come from California. Punk was never you know, the popular thing. You know, I came from Illinois. People would throw shit at you if you look that way or if you were walking down the street. I mean, there was no there was you know a lot of a lot of these bands. It was still bigger in the punk scene. It was like punk was the biggest thing when they went to high school and they just kind of kept going. You know, it's like that, I don't know that world at all. It's all to me. You just find your own way. You know, you're your own manager, you're your own producer, you're your own songwriter, and you figure stuff out. And then, you know, along the way, more and more good people started coming into the orbit and we could do more and more interesting stuff. You know, I love it. Tell everybody how they can reach out to you guys on the web on socials, get all your merch shows, all that could do.

18:44 Yeah, well, if you go to the Dwarves dot com, then you know you went. You can't go to Dwarves dot com because that brings you like elves and wizards and ship. But if you go to thedwarves dot com, you get us. So there's all kinds of nudity and all kinds of cool shit, and you can order records and you know, all kinds of merch and all that stuff. You just go to the Dwarves dot com and you'll find our social media. You know, we're up on Instagram and they're always warning us about this or that, you know, but we're up on Facebook, Twitter and whatever whatever they got. Love it And so is there anything else you have upcoming that you want the listeners know about before we go?

19:26 Well, yeah, there's a you know, the Dwarves concept album came out in November and that was quite successful. People liked it a lot. In it it was really you know, kind of a return to the you know, Dwarves must Die here. Lots of weird production, lots of weird, different genres, lots of guests, lots of different people, and so we got an EP coming out, seven brand new songs and then a couple of things remixes from the concept album. So that's called The Dwarves Keep It Real. And of course it's got a great cover, beautiful Girl and all this kind of stuff. So that's coming out in late June, so you want to look for to Keep It Real Mini LP. And then you know, we'll be in Europe in July and August. We'll be supposed to be in Australia in November. That should be fun. And so yeah, there's a few things on the horizon and some cool records. Another really cool one is that we went back and got you know, Blood Guts and Pussy was our first sort of notorious record from nineteen ninety. We went back and got the recordings that we made right before that. We went into the studio and just did a lot of the material that became Blood Guts. We just performed it live in the studio, no overdubs, and so that stuff is finally going to get released now something like, you know, close to forty years later. So that's going to be meat it's coming out as Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows, so that should be out next year. So yeah, I

20:59 always finding cool stuff in the vault and doing new stuff. Well, I love hearing stuff like this because man, you're just keeping it alive and still bringing great art to us. And thanks for doing it. Thanks for being at Punk Rock Bowling, and thanks for being on the Adventures Pipemin. Well, thanks for talking to me. We will talk to you. Pipe Man, pipe On, hit that pipe you got it. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin. I'm w for CUI Radio. Your tune to the Sounds of the Pipe Man a W four cy Radio. This is blagged a ripper representing the Dwarves rock Legends