Beberlei at 00:15, 9 August 2008

2008-08-09T00:15:44Z

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Eponymous at 10:41, 6 November 2007

2007-11-06T10:41:38Z

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Beberlei at 22:04, 7 December 2006

2006-12-07T22:04:08Z

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This is an interview sent to me by Guillermo which comes from the July/August 2001 issue of TRIBU Magazine which is written in spanish. He was nice enough to translate it, he said that there may be some confusion of the ideas but you should get the gist of it.

*Interview to Dale Crover
*TRIBU Magazine July / August 2001
*Por Ivan Daguer
*Transribed by MiMo (Thanks to Adrian)

The legendary band it’s more alive than ever. Proof of that, it’s
the prolific creative moment they’re living now, releasing two excellent
records in less than 3 months. During the beginning of their north american
tour we decided to talk with the drummer of the band Dale Crover who talked
for quite a while with Tribu, touching different subjects. Well, here’s
an extract of what the old cassette could hold.

You guys are recently arriving from a tour in Europe promoting Electroretard…
Tell me a little bit about the tour… I understand that you played without
any band opening for you, is that true?

Dale Crover: We did all the shows without openers. We wanted to give a long
show and that’s what we tried to do. At the end of the tour a couple of
bands joined us. It was kind of unexpected but it was ok, they were good bands…

Are those bands joining the north american tour?

No, we are going to play with the same bands we played last night. (The folk
implosion, Skeleton key) By the way, the european tour was great. We did some
shows in Netherland, Spain, Germany and Italy. In this last country was where
we had the best time. The people were very effusive, lots of young people…
everything went great.

Well, you haven’t gone to south america yet. Do you have any
ideas about going to South America?

We’d love to go there, but nobody has offered us anything. Last year
we had a chance to play there but nothing happened. Maybe you guys can do something
in order to play there, that’d be great.

A couple of months ago Electroretard was released and yesterday I found
out that you also released a new record (Colossus of destiny) Why releasing
two records in such a short time if there’s still many people looking
for electroretard?

This is not the first time we’ve done something like this. We released
in 1999 a trilogy of records very different one from another. A experimental,
a trippy and a heavy one. Lots of friends were involved, people from Jesus Lizard,
Brutal truth, Skeleton key, among others.

Colossus of destiny is a pretty weird record a 53 minute song a another
of 2…

If you listen to the record and you see the list of tracks you’ll notice
that are 6. 10 minutes passes and the cd player’s timer goes backward
y and everything starts all over again… You have to listen to it again!

Yes, definitely. Today I listened to it, I bought it last night after
the show

This record is a show that we did some time ago and the intro or the first
part of the show is what we recorded in the album. The record’s last song
is the first song of the second part of the show. We think that it was ok for
putting it on a CD and well…we did (laughs) We like it and I think that
it’s a great record to listen laying on the sofa and having a nice trip.

Electroretard was released by Man’s ruin, Colossus by Ipecac
and many of your records are on different indepedent labels. Do you feel comfortable
working on these kind of labels or you’d like to go back to a major label
like Atlantic?

We don’t want to go back to a major label. We were in Atlantic and it’s
very poor the way in which it works. That people is not interested in one’s
work… It was weird, we didn’t have commercial hits or were a commercial
band at all… Besides, we never had any illusions about working for atlantic.
If it didn’t work, we were going to be back on an independent label and
it was there when Patton’s band (fantomas) and us didn’t have label
contracts. So, we came with the idea that Jello Biafra suggested us. I remember
that by that time the butthole surfers also had an independent label…
so it was the chaos of independent labels! (laughs). So we decided it and founded
Ipecac.

With man’s ruin, we just release Electroretard and a vinyl Ep that had
a pink floyd song on it. That vinyl, Frank (Kozic) wanted it on CD with some
others covers that we’ve had done, but it never happened. With Frank we
are very good friends and he helped me to release my side-project Altamont.
There are some labels that fucked us but Man’s ruin and ipecac things
work very well.

You mentioned some covers… I know you are fans of bands like
Kiss, Rush, Pink floyd. On electroretard you covered “Interstellar overdrive”
from Pink floyd, I see that Syd Barrett is a big influence on you guys.

Definitely, I like better the first Pink floyd’s period and some stuff
post-Barrett. But my influences don’t revolve around the bands you just
said. I got more than a thousand records and I guess they are not all of the
same style.

I can’t help asking you about your collaboration with Nirvana.
What did they represent to you after all the conmotion they created? How do
you see that after ten years? I don’t know if you wanna talk about this…

Don’t worry... They were an important band for a generation as the Sex
pistols in the late seventies. Remember at that time there were a lot of shit
like Poison, Warrant, etc. And then nirvana suddenly took over breaking all
the rules. Sadly, we are back to the same. There are bands like Backstreet boys
ruling everywhere but lucky for us there’s a Radiohead on the charts and
that fixes something at least.

Do you think that the Melvins are more famous because of Nirvana’s
success and the constant references that Cobain used to do than the own band’s
merits?

Absolutely. If Kurt Cobain wouldn’t have talked about us, probably today
we’d be an unknown band and maybe we wouldn’t have signed for a
major label.

Let’s talk about Altamont, your side project…

Unlike Melvins Altamont is more straight forward oriented rock. I guess that
Melvins’ fans will like it. It’s not that different from the Melvins
but definitely it’s something else. Besides I wouldn’t do in another
band something that I’ve already done with my main band.

Any new band you’d like to recommend?

There are many bands that I enjoy but I know that they are not gonna be popular.
I like Skeleton key, the band that opened for us last night but I don’t
think they’ll be famous… well perhaps they can get famous (laughs)
Also I’ve been listening the Descendents, they are a thousand times better
than Green day.

Time ago you produced “La ciudad de Brahman” from the argentinian
band “Natas”. Was it your first experience as a producer?

Working with them was pretty easy, they were really decided in what they want
and that helped a lot. Also the drummer is amazing. We almost never made two
takes, the only thing that we discussed was some issues about the mixing, they
are a “stoner rock” band and I wanted them to sound different in
order to get a higher status inside the style. It was a very good experience
and if they ask me to work again with them, I’d do it gladly.

I’d like to produce more bands, but it’s hard to find time. Besides,
it’s also hard that the people in the band give me total control, specially
when they are young bands. For example if I produce Natas again I’d like
to have more control. When I assumed the production in Altamont I took control
of everything, but I let the engineer do his work too. The idea is that everyone
put their own talents in the search of an appropiate sound for the band.

Well Dale, that’s all. Thanks for your time

Thanks to you guys. I hope that we can go to South America soon and be in Chile
giving a long show.

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TRIBU Magazine Dale interview - Revision history

Beberlei at 00:15, 9 August 2008

Eponymous at 10:41, 6 November 2007

Beberlei at 22:04, 7 December 2006