Pimp E-Zine Interviews Dexter

Question: Starting out, what bands influenced your music the most?
Answer: When we started out, I was really into a lot of the Orange County punk bands of the time like The Adolescents, The Vandals, Social Distortion. I like the Dead Kennedys a lot, too. Those are the bands that pretty much inspired me to start a band.

Q: Early on, did you do more covers, or write original material?
A: We never seriously did covers. We might learn an Adolescent's or Dead Kennedy's song or something like that. You know, you go to these bars and you see these cover bands. I always thought that was like the gayest thing. I couldn't imagine myself in there playing fuckin' Metallica covers. I was always way more interested in writing our own stuff even if it was terrible. We really concentrated on just doing our own stuff.

Q: Back then, did you expect to be where you are today?
A:Never. I was kinda doing that on the side. I didn't really expect the band thing to pan out as to making a living off of it. It was fun and I didn't want to give it up. We were kinda doing it for fun. When we went to Epitaph and actually saw people making a living off of it, we thought maybe we could do as good as NOFX one day.

Q: Can you compare the Smash and Ixnay tours?
A: Well, it was different and it differed from city to city. You know, we could have a great show in LA and then have a lame show in Kentucky. We had good shows in Austin but Houston and Dallas kinda sucked for us. We try to book the right sized venues. I'd much rather play a little place that sells out than play a big place that's only half full. As long as it was full, that's what makes it cool. The Smash thing was a pretty amazing thing and there were a lot of people into it and that was great. The Ixnay record didn't do as well and I didn't expect it to.

Q: What do you have to say about those who say Ixnay was overproduced?
A: Well....whatever. I don't know. I wanted to make a really good sounding record and we've always done our best. You can make a hard record, it doesn't have to be slick but it can still sound good. I never wanted to have a real underproduced record. Whether people say it was overproduced or not, it was what we were going for. I think that a lot of the slack that we had gotten as a band had happened before Ixnay came out. All the people that were calling us sellouts stopped being fans of ours way back during Smash. So overall, the people that were still there that were receptive towards us as a band, I think the record went over well.

Q: What can be expected on the new album?
A: Something in between Smash and Ixnay. I'm gonna listen back to both records and try to listen to the songs that I think worked and sounded the best and pick the ones out of that.

Q: What do you think of all this "sellout" bullshit? A band has one hit single and they're labeled as "sellouts."
A: I think that's ridiculous. I can't think of one band that doesn't want to further themselves except for maybe Fugazi or something. They're probably the only ones. Basically, they're trying to get their music out to people. If a radio station decides to pick up on it, it's really not their fault. The thing that bugs me is, especially about punk, is that it's supposed to be about not conforming and doing your own thing and doing whatever you feel like and not liking or disliking something just because someone else thought something. So a lot of these people don't like a song once it gets on the radio and the reason they don't like it is because "people" like it. Or especially other people that they think are dorks. It's like, "Oh I can't like it now because all the trendy peoplelike it. All the jocks and the cheerleaders like it so now I hate this band." It's dumb. That wasn't what it was supposed to be about.

Q: What's your take on the new-wave ska "boom?"
A: I don't know. It's kind of almost weird that it got so popular all of the sudden now. It's perceived as kind of this new thing but it isn't new at all. The Specials and all that stuff was way back in the 80s even with bands like Operation Ivy. That records's like nine years old. We did a ska song on SMASH back in '94 and we thought everyone was gonna be like, "Oh, they're doing the ska thing like everybody else." We thought it was getting overblown even then. Then all of the sudden it really exploded with bands like No Doubt and Reel Big Fish and Save Ferris. It's a different style and people are kind of really diggin' it. It's not my favorite kind of music I guess.

Q: Why did you cut your braids?
A: I just did it at that time cause no one else was doing it. It really stood out to people as a different thing I guess. Then I started seeing kids at the concerts doing it more and more. Then they got younger and younger. Now you see this kid in Hanson, the drummer, he's got them. Once it goes that far, then it's time to get a new hairstyle.

Q: What is the greatest adversity you have ever overcome?
A: Oh boy. (Laughs). I have a tough time with questions like these. Those questions start to sound like really inspirational like, "Did I ever tell you that you're my hero?" I don't know. Not that we're a great band now, but we were pretty bad when we started and we did get better. It wasn't like we could just pick up guitars and just start playing. I mean it was almost ten years before SMASH, the first one that did really well. We stuck with it though, and that's what it's all about, sticking with what you like.

Q: What was the worst show you have ever played?
A: One time we played in New Jersey with a local band. They insisted on playing before us and we wanted them to play after us cause we were the ones from out of town. The place was packed and when they got done, everyone left. I counted the people in the room and there were six. We played for six people.

Q: Do crowdsurfers piss you off?
A: Oh, not even. I want people to go off at the shows. I think that's the dumbest thing when you get a bunch of kids at a show and then you preach at them to behave during the show. Well, what the fuck? If they wanted to behave, they'd go to school.

Q: Can we expect you all to come back to Austin?
A: I'm sure we will. I don't know when. The last thing was that weird MTV thing.

Q: How did you like that?
A:It was all right. We had to go on pretty early and it was kind of a weird atmosphere. It would have been better at night.

Q: Finally, are you a punk?
A: (Laughs). If I said yes, then everyone would say that I'm full of shit. It depends on how you define "punk." I mean jeez, look at every fucking Maximum Rock and Roll for the last ten years and all they do in the letters section is argue about what's punk and what's not. I love it for the energy in the music and usually the message in the music. That's what we try to capture, the energy and hopefully some kind of message through the music. And to me, I consider that punk rock and that's the kind of stuff we try to make. Whether or not you consider me punk, probably not according to most people's definition of punk.

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