Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / The Barren Plains Of Dystopia With EAST BAY RAY From DEAD KENNEDYS

Transcript

The Barren Plains Of Dystopia With EAST BAY RAY From DEAD KENNEDYS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, this is East Bay Ray, the guitar player
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for Dead Kennedy's and we're about to kick off a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: tour of Australia, New Zealand.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Fantastic mate, thanks for joining us this morning.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Well, good morning afternoon here.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Though I was bright in one here made at seven thirty,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: my eyes aren't even open.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Oh really okay, So, as you.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Say, bro, Dead Kennedy's returned to this side of the
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: world very shortly for the Giv Me Dystopia or Give
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Me Death tour, which kicks off in Augland on September sixteenth,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: before hitting Wellington the following night and then heading to
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Australia for dates in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. So
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: it's less than a week ago, brother, Are you packed
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: and ready yet?
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Not quite? Not quite getting there though.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: You would have done a lot of traveling over the years, mate.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: So one of three non essential items that you never
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: leave home without.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Well a guitar for one, and my echo unit and
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: my echo unit.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: It yeah right nice. It's you've firsth gome back here
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: in about seven years, mate. So what changed with the
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: band in that time?
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Well, what's the main change is our longtime drummer d
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: H Palegro passed away. You know, I guess about I
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: guess it's about going on two years now. And we
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: weren't we weren't sure if we were going to carry on,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: but we uh, we did some We did some shows
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: that were all previously booked, and people really care about
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the music and the songs and and we're very receptive
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to Klaus and I carrying on. And then of course
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Skip's been with us geez almost twenty years now, I
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: believe Tom Yeah, And and we have a we have
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: drummer Steve Wilson coming along. He he's we've played with
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: him before when d H was sick earlier, he did
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: a couple of tours with us, So so we've continued
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: on with him. And I hear like I said, you know,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: it's about the music basically. And of course you know,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Klaus Florite has his own unique sound as well as
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I have my own unique sound. We don't sound like
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: anybody else.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Not. Indeed, where does the name of the chow give
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: me the Stipe or give Me Death come from?
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Well, we have a record out called, you know, give
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Me Convenience or Give Me Death that it was a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: good collection of B sides and greatest tifts and stuff,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and and given the current state of politics in the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: United States, which is very dystopian, so we just kind
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: of changed that title around to fit the current situation.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what the politics in Australia are,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: but what happens in the United States tends to affect
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the rest of the world.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Hey, Douds, I was actually working with the band once
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: and the guitar he's American, and he said, when America
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: snaz it as the rest of the world catches cold,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I should say, what good kind of story and fans
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: expect from Dad Kennedy's in twenty twenty five?
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Uh, what can we expect? Well, the fact that we're
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: still alive and movie, I guess is a good thing.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, we're you know we uh, I mean one
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: of the things is, you know, back in the day
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of political bands and stuff, and
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: we're still political. But the reason we're still around is
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the music. And if I do say so myself, this
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: is something you should say. I can't I should you know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be saying it, but uh, you know, we really
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: rock out. We're a good rock and roll band and
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: we have you know, very unique unique sound.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Well, it was actually just bad.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I can hear it anyplace else.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: I was about to say that'd be too the words
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: right out of my mouth.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, thank you. The next time, I'll send you the
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: script before the interview.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Make it a bit easier to make it up on
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: the fly. So everyone's got their own favorite did Kennedy
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: song made like more often? The Naught It's Too Drunk,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: the fox Hall Day and came Ba to here California,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: raleighs But what's your personal all time favorite?
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Oh? Well, actually, the way I usually answer that question,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: my favorite record we have is the Plastic Surgery Disasters
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: because that kind of combines the the hardcore uh punk
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: rock stuff along with our the psychedelic stuff like Muno
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Marin and stuff, which was something that I guess I
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: brought to the band with my echo units, so to speak.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Ye.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I like Moonover We're In and actually Holiday and
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Gambodi I really enjoy because it's it's very good, cleverly constructed.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: People don't realize how fun it is to play. There's
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: like five different sections, you know, most songs have three,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and that one has five.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, cool, yeah, chuckling back in history, mate, like you
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: helped form Dead Kennedys in San Francisco back in nineteen
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: seventy eight. So what was the musical climate like back
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: then they gave birth to the band, and then what
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: was your early vision for Dead Kennedy's.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Well, the claimate was is there was you know, punk
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: punk rock was big in England and the UK United
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Kingdom and here in the States the record labels decided
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: they didn't want to promote it. So punk rock is
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: very the ground. But we were all like aware of
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: like the sex Pistols and the Ramones and stuff. And
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: originally when I was there was a club here called
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the fab Mab and I went in and saw a
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: band from the LA called the Weirdos of the First
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Generation Bands, and I thought, oh, this is rock and all,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: this is what I want to do. So so I
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: put of added the paper and uh, you know, after
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: a while the offer responded and we wrote some songs
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and then Klaus and then we kept writing songs and
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: got a drummer and played our first show. And my
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: goal back then was, you know, to have the best
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: punk band in in the San Francisco Bay Area and
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: it went a little bit farther than that. You know.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Now we've been all over the world like South America, Bulgaria, Turkey, Indonesia,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Japan and some what's that other you know, upside down country? Oh, Australia, Right.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: That's the one. And we always intended to be sort
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: of politically charged, like you were like, was that a
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: focus going into it or did that just develop?
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Uh? It was what we wanted to do, you know,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: it is what we wanted to do. But it's also
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: but also we have a sense of humor. Yeah, you know,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: we don't want to be I think one of the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: ways to deflate demagogues is one effective ways through humor.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: That's like you know, I mean that's like give me
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: convenience or give me death is kind of a play
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: on the American slogan give me liberty or give me death.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Get debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables is still
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: one of the best and most in points from hardcore
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: albums of all time. Like it was the album that
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: introduced me to this music back in the day of
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: it when you first write and recorded it, did you
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: have complete confidence in the music, Like, was there any
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: inkling that you're on to something special.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Left, I don't think we really had inkling it was
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: something special, but I think everybody, everybody in the band
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: kind of had slightly different musical backgrounds. You know. The
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: off was in the garage rock, and I was more
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: into like Ohio players and Merle Haggard, Oh Scotty Moore
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: with his ech unit, and everybody was talented, and I
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: think it was a situation where two and two equal five,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: where the collaboration really created something bigger. And we actually
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I think the record Cherry Read Records in London, you know,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: financed Fresh Food and they gave us ten thousand dollars
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: to make it, and I suggested to the band and
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: they accepted that, so we each took a thousand dollars
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: fourth so we had so we recorded the record on
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: six thousand dollars and we each took one thousand dollars
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: because we thought that was the last money we were
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: going to see from it. So so it went. It
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: went way farther than we anticipated. It's quite an honor,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: you know, to have it. And the other thing is
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: we've always been on independent record labels and and actually
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: that record has turned gold as has given me convenience
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: in the United States besides, you know, the United Kingdom
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and presumably Australia. We've always been on independent record labels.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I mean there Ramones were on a major Warner Brothers,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Sexpistoles to Class were all on major record labels. So
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting that we've been able to do
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: it diy do it yourself?
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well done, and your bed that you've always wrought
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: your hosts on your slave with the lyrics and your honesty,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: which has inevitably got you into bit of trouble over
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the years. But was there ever a stage where you're
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Scotts pulling things back to stop getting the ships so much?
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Or was that never an issue with you?
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Uh? Well, there was the HR guy your poster issue,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: but that I mean that was originally supposed to be
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the cover, but then after some discussion we realized what
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: would happen is if they got confiscated, we would have
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: all this. We were running running our own record label then.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: And when you made vinyl records, you pin up a
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of covers first because they need to get
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: printed and dried, and then they go to the pressing
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: plant where the records get stubbed into them, so we
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: decided to put that on a poster rather than the cover,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: so it'd be easy to pull out and lo and behold.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: That's what happened, and that's what ended up happening. The
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: other controversy is when DH was arrested in Brisbane. I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: think it was nineteen eighty two. I don't know if
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: you're familiar with that, but we were after the show.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: We were standing on the sidewalk, and of course has
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: been back then. You know. It was in Queensland. It
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: was kind of like being in the South in the fifties,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and I think that at the time the Prime Minister
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Queensland thought averagees shouldn't own the land because they weren't
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: far enough along the evolutionary scale, and so d H
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: got there's we were just talking to some fans and
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: he had a beer and they stopped and arrested him.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: And then I got arrested for asking him what he
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: wanted what they were doing, and spending the night in
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: jail with a couple of There was a couple other
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: fans in the jail that night.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: I would have loved it.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: If if you if you look at my East East
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Bay Rey Instagram account. You can see a picture of
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: the article. Then in a day or two, they promoters
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: held it like a press like a press press conference
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: in like a hotel room with like thirty new with
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: like the main street main street newspapers, you know, the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: regular regular newspaper.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Is right, You guys have only ever released four albums,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: which makes it easy to write a set list. But
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: the four albums were released before the split in eighty six.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Did'st reforming in two thousand and one? Have you ever
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: discussed writing new material?
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Law?
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: He contented to play your existing catalog.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Well, we actually have written new material and we did
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: play it on tour in the United Kingdom and and
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: people just kind of stood there and stared at us.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: So actually that happened back in the day. Actually when
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: when Plastic Surgery was supposed to come, we booked a
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: tour and we were started to tour. The record got
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: delayed for I think there's some artwork issues or something,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and we started playing the Plastic Surgery songs on the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: tour and people just stood there. So we went back
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: to playing the Fresh Fruits material until the record actually
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: came out and heard on the radio. So it's it's
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: kind of it's a bit difficult. People haven't heard on
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: on the radio a couple of times. They're not sure
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: whether they like it or not, which granted you don't
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: want to. You know, just because somebody's playing something live
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's good, right and true.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: I suppose your fans they don't be into the old stuff,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: like a lot of your fans wouldn't embrace change, or
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: they just want to hear what they know, wouldn't they.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Well, I think I think most music fans are like that.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I think most music fans are like that for any band.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: But luckily for us, you know, it's it's it's interesting.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Our songs are fun and interesting to play, so it
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: doesn't get boring for us. Yeah. True.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: So it's been nearly fifty years now since you started, then, Kennedy,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: do you think the hot core punk scenes in a
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: healthier position now to what it was when he started? Oh?
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well here, especially in the United States, Like, uh,
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: we've done a lot of shows with like the Circle
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: Jerks and the Descendants and stuff, and we we actually get.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Bigger audiences now than we did back in the day. Right, Yes, yeah,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: we played with the you know, the buzzcocks and the
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: toy dolls and stuff, and so the music itself is
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: actually doing better. Like I say, part of the reason
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I at least here in the States is the major
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: record labels never promoted it, and and people realizing that
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the music's actually a lot better than what the majors
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: were promoting back then. So it stood the test of time.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: M So, one day in the future, like it's gonna
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: happened that you guys are going to pull up stumps.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: But what do you hope the inscription would be on
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: the Dave Kennedy's musical tombstone when you do decide to retire.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Oh oh, brother, that's a good question. I'll have to
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: think about that and get back to you. Maybe maybe
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: maybe Frank Sinatra, we did it our.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Way, fantastic. That'll do all right, Robo, thanks very much
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: for your time. Dead Candy's will be.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: In very soon.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: The tour is pretty much sought out. I think of
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Sydney and then Adelaide shows how far off. So get
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: out get your tickets now.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess so. I heard two cities were sold out,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: but yeah, it's probably going to be sold out by
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: the time we get there