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| Hint: Have a band you'd like to see interviewed? Tell us. | | | The Dopamines will release Vices this week and we caught up with singer/guitarist Jon Lewis to talk about the new record and the band's future. Thanks to the users who helped come up with some of the questions:
Did you have any specific goals in mind when you started writing Vices?
No, not really. How most Dopamines material works, well I guess with how Expect the Worst was done and typically what happens. You’ll have the material and then ages later it’s out for everyone to hear, so by that time the material is old for me and Jon and Michael. When Expect the Worst came out, we had already written “10 Stories,” which is the last track on Vices. We had written that song probably 2-3 weeks after Expect the Worst came out. There’s no set goal or themes. We just write and when there’s a collection of them over the course of however long we just throw them all together. We keep what’s good and scrap what’s not.
So I’m guessing the recording process was fairly quick then?
Yeah, for us it is. We spend as much time as we feel appropriate to prepare for it. We’re not the type of band that goes into the studio and writes and records. We spend as much time writing and practicing as possible beforehand, just because we don’t have a ton of money to go and sit in a studio for a month. We usually spend a week, I don’t think we’ve spent more than 14 days. This record came together pretty quickly.
How would you say this record varies from Expect the Worst?
It’s just mostly the lyrics. The music varies slightly, I think the transition between all of our material has just been adding elements of other influences sparingly, but lyrically things definitely change. It’s still self deprecating, which has always been our shtick if you want to call it that. But I think the different life experiences over the course of the five years have definitely affected the lyrics. Graduating college, trying to get everyone off my back about a degree and job, that was the first record. The second record was accomplishing all those things and then having the rug pulled out from underneath for being laid off from my desk job. And now all the lyrics are about finding steady ground and observing everything that has happened over the past five years. I think that’s the biggest difference. Expect the Worst was a lot of hate for what everyone expected me to do and then Vices was more about having my feet on the ground, having a fresh perspective and looking back. And finding new things to hate I guess. It’s easier to write about negative things than positive things.
Why?
I guess it just goes back to that analogy where you for every great thing that happens, you remember 8 things that are bad. Plus it’s easier and more fun to go to a darker place. Because in general I’m a fairly happy dude and I’m not that aggressive or angry, I have a very passive personality. I don’t like confrontation so lyrically it’s fun for me to dive into that. But if someone put me in a situation that was full of confrontation I’d just crawl into a ball. I pretty much avoid the things that I write about.
Why'd you choose Vices as the title?
It all came from the lyrics. Originally we were going to call it Guided by Vices, as a play on the band Guided by Voices. We also recorded a Guided by Voices cover for Vices, which we didn’t put on the record just because we didn’t want to put covers on the record. But the album title, a friend also had that name for a band and we asked him if we could take it and he said no so we figured Vices was appropriate, more than a joke title. None of our other records had joke titles so it made sense. Of course the lyrical content helped too. A lot of the songs are a reflection on the vices that we all have or are trying to get away from, like drugs and alcohol. The artwork is a little cryptic, but the plants on the album cover. There’s a cocoa plant for cocaine, a barley stock for beer and the other plant is an aphrodisiac. Sex, drugs, booze, our lyrics tend to be about that stuff anyway so it made sense.
Did you draw the artwork?
Yes, I did everything from the ground up. Same with the rest of our material. The first record was a photo, but I did the layout and for Expect the Worst I drew and coloured everything as well. When I can I’ll do everything. It was more of a necessity back in the day, we couldn’t afford to pay an artist to do something for us, something that we were shooting for. It was easier to bullshit my way through something that could be considered acceptable and over the last six years I’ve kind of honed into what I’m good at bullshitting as far as art is concerned.
Do you do a lot of art otherwise?
Yeah. Right now I’m doing a series of paintings for my son’s nursery and I just finished donating some graffiti pieces I did on canvas for charity. They raised a bunch of money, which was pretty flattering. Usually other than Dopamines records no one ever sees the art that I produce. I’m my own worst critic.
Moving back to covers, someone actually submitted a question asking about bonus covers.
Cool, yeah. It would have been “Quality of Armor,” which is off of Guided by Voices’ record Propeller. We just prefer to do covers live, but we’ve recorded a few that we’ve put in the world for free. That Guided by Voices cover it’s just sitting in the vault for now, we don’t know what we’re doing with it. We started doing a cover of a cover live. “I Am the Walrus” by Gray Matter, which is originally by The Beatles.
What’s your favourite track on Vices and why?
“Paid in Full.” I really love that song. I feel bad for my family because a lot of the shit that I write is very scathing. You know when you keep all of your emotions bottled up and don’t really tell people how you feel about their opinions on what you’re doing? Like the song “Heads Up Dusters!” which was also on our split with Dear Landlord. That song is literally about my family and my wife wanting me to be on medicine for anxiety, which I didn’t think I needed. I was taken aback by everyone’s collective interests in my well being. But in the case of “Paid In Full,” it was cool because it was just going to be a song for my wife that included specific musical styles and parts that she really enjoys. I wrote that song for her and then Jon heard it and told me it should totally be a Dopamines song. It’s definitely poppy and it sticks out like a sore thumb with the other tracks, but I love that song and it was fun writing it for my wife. It was cool stepping outside of the Dopamines style of writing where it’s all kind of pigeonholed into a certain style and chord structure. It strays a little bit from what we’re known for, but I don’t think anyone is going to pull it out. Everyone has accepted it so far and I love it because of the nice lyrics about my wife.
Would you agree that Vices isn’t as catchy as your other records?
On a whole I can agree to a level. I noticed when the record was done that a lot of songs were just pieces of music. There wasn’t a lot of hooks, like verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, where you’re relying on a hook to get you through a song. A lot of the stuff on Vices is just kind of an arrangement of parts that are songs. Some of them don’t even have a beginning or an ending, it just happens and they’re over. Each song doesn’t have a crazy hook. Expect the Worst had a ton of hooks throughout, but I’d say Vices has some of the individual catchiest songs we’ve written yet. Like “Heads Up Dusters!,” Paid In Full,” “10 Stories.” I know I’m missing a couple, the two songs Jon wrote, “Useless” and “Kitchen Cleaners.”
What was your main motivation for going back with It’s Alive this time around?
I think the thing about Paper + Plastick, I’m not even sure if Vinnie wanted to put it out. I know he heard it, but we never really even talked about it I don’t think. We seldom stay with the same label anyway, we’ve worked with Traffic Street, Cold Feet, It’s Alive, Paper + Plastick, the thing we just did with Adeline. With every record we don’t necessarily commit. Of course like with every record we thought about our dream labels, like Fat, Epitaph, SideOneDummy. But in our heart of hearts we knew it would go to It’s Alive. Adam had really, really wanted to put out Vices. The interest and passion is important. Vinnie had been interested in Expect the Worst from the start through Matt Drastic, our friend who records everything we’ve done. We record in his studio in Nashville and for that one we recorded in Gainesville so Vinnie was aware from the start and wanted to put it out. But with this record it’s not Expect the Worst, it’s a completely different monster. We’re excited to get back with Adam, he’s such a good friend and it just made sense.
Someone was wondering if you had a favourite festival that you’ve played over the years?
That’s hard because there’s so many. I like them all equally, but Insubordination Fest and Gainesville Fest, those are the two we’ve played every year. I like them all equally for the camaraderie, we’ve made a lot of friends in a lot of different states and we don’t get to all those places all the time. In the case of Insubordination Fest, we get to see Adam Alive from our label, we’ve only hung out like four times I think. It’s cool seeing the people you rarely get to so I like them all equally because that’s my favourite part of them. It’s not necessarily what big bands are playing or what reunions are happening. Although Fest, there’s always one night that’s really fuzzy. That one brings out the partier in me more than the others.
Lastly, I know you’re touring with Teenage Bottlerocket next month. What else will The Dopamines be up to in 2012?
The TBR tour and that’s it. I have a son on the way so right now this July tour is the one and only thing aside from Fest in October. Time and money permitting, we’d go somewhere for the weekend if we could break even. Like we were going to do Awesome Fest, but it’s too close to my wife’s due date. We’re doing this TBR tour, we’ve passed a few tours this year and we had to regrettably say no, but Teenage Bottlerocket it worked out. We didn’t really expect it at all either. I heard a rumour, strictly a rumour in the past, but I guess we were going to go out years ago, but someone said we partied too hard and were really fucked up on tour, which can be true, so they passed on us. Like I said, that’s a rumour, I think there were a few missed opportunities and talks in the air, but nothing came into fruition until now. We can’t wait to tour with them, it’s going to be fun.
So family is going to be your main focus from now on?
Yeah. I don’t know, I’m not a father yet so I don’t know what it’s like, but I expect it’s going to take up most of my time. I have to expect that I’m not going to have much time for anything else aside from being a father and working. But that said I’m in a writing frenzy right now. It would be cool for The Dopamines to record sometime early next year or late this fall so it’s not like we won’t be doing things. But as for the rest of this year, we’re not talking about it. After Fest we’ll just let the dust settle on the life changing aspect of becoming a father. But we’re totally excited that this opportunity to go out with TBR fell into a good spot, just before my son comes into the world. |
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02:35 PM on 06/19/12 |
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