#8 Interview with the Realistics: The Realistics are Dennis (vocals,
guitar), Dave (drums), Mike (bass), and Will (keys). They hail
from NYC and play the music that you should know about... very cool
stuff, and great guys as well. This interview's hot.
1. Can you provide some band background for those who don’t know much about the band?
Da: We’ve been together for three years, and we’ve all known each other from being in different bands and stuff in the same area. so three years ago, Will kinda got us all together and... the history isn’t terribly exciting, it’s kind of typical of other bands.
2. When or how did you first become interested in music and performing?
W: I’ve been playing since I can remember, but I really think it was when my parents brought me to my first James Taylor concert when I was like, "that guy knows how to do it, and I need to be doing that".
Da: And it turned you off so much that you realized you needed to play rock music instead?
W: Exactly. That and one time in the first grade, I walked up on stage in front of grades 1 - 8 thinking I had won the prize in the candy sale and they had called my name but they didn’t. Consequently the whole school laughed at me. I’m in it 80 % for revenge, 20 % for the music.
3. Now have you been playing keys the whole time? Is that what you were trained to do?
W: Yeah. That’s what they programmed me to do when I was uh, constructed.
4. Who was the first artist that turned you on to rock and roll?
W: Loudon Jesus and the Octopus 5. Not a lot of people know about him, but he’s been around for years. He’s actually in hiding, and he’ll be back pretty soon, but that’s one of my main inspirations.
Da: Yeah, he’s got albums with and without the Octopus 5. If you see anything, definitely try to check it out.
5. What was the first album that you bought?
M: Police Synchronicity. Or Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. I don’t know.
W: The first album I bought was actually an LP single; it was Poison by Bel Biv Devoe. Changed my life.
Da: First record I ever spent my own money on was the first Houdini album. It’s nothing I’d ever really go back to today. The first cd I ever bought was a used copy of Motley Crue’s Girls Girls Girls. I’m a big Tommy Lee fan, I’ll admit.
6. What other musical forms have influenced you, whether it’s expressed through your music or not?
Da: Gregorian chants...
W: Sometimes I become mesmerized by the sound of my printer as it’s printing, or uh, construction work going on outside.
Da: The blinker in our van actually is at about 120 bpm, and you can tap along with that...
7. Was it a challenge to set yourselves apart in NY in order to gain exposure?
M: Not at all. When we first started playing, there wasn’t anyone doing anything like this. Maybe the Mooney Suzuki and Radio Four, which are different styles. There was really nothing like that going on. It’s really been in the last two years that all of these bands have been coming out of the woodwork. We went out and played trying to find bands to play with.
Me: Is that how you got together with the Moonies, because they had a similar sound?
M: Well we had know them from one of our earlier bands.
W: We used to go to see them all the time at all these bars. I don’t know... I don’t think there’s a distinct sound coming out of NY; everything sounds completely different to me.
8. You’ve had the opportunity to play with some influential artists, most notably, Joe Strummer- how did the opportunity come about?
M: We were asked to play. I think they presented him with a few bands that they liked and he picked the bands he liked.
Da: Yeah, there were like 40 bands in the pool, and he played 5 shows in NY.
M: And it was so cool. We met Joe Strummer and Mick Jones.
De: We went back stage, and it was nuts. It was surreal.
Da: He [Joe Strummer] had like a little private room upstairs, and we got let in after the show, and it was impossible to- we felt like a bunch of jerk-offs, like "oh my god, there’s so much musical history in this room right now".
W: They were totally cool though, made us feel comfortable, it was great. We’ve played with a lot of bands around, and they totally suck and they’re total jerks but they think they’re the bees knees and all. And Joe Strummer, the one guy who actually has the right to come across like that and be a jerk, was the coolest guy.
10. The "garage / mod / experimental" sound has been becoming more integrated into the mainstream; what are your thoughts on this?
W: We were just talking about how we’re not really "garage rock"- how we’re more like "alternate side of the street parking rock" or "driveway rock".
De: I wouldn’t lump us into that category, because it’s a little more of a different sound. I don’t want to sound like a dick, but it’s a little more listenable. You can listen to the album and everything sounds a little bit different, there’s no specific sound. It’s got the energy of garage...but to get back to the original question, there are "mini-movements" going on, and of course there are going to be bands that survive it and go on. Just like the explosion in the 60’s with the British Invasion. It’s not as strong or as big as that, but I think that it has some force. There’s some bands that will die out and some bands that will stay.
Da: It feels great to throw on KROCK and hear like the White Stripes and the Strokes as opposed to like, Linkin Park.
W: Everybody does this - as corny as it may sound- because they love it. That’s the whole point, to make money and have fun, you know. If you can do what you love and make money out of it...
M: We’ve never sat down and said that we want to be this style of music. We ended up getting lumped into this whole scene, which is totally fucking cool.
11. Many critics have likened the band to the Jam- how do you feel about the comparison?
M: It’s great.
W: They’ve been ripping us off for years.
M: So has Elvis Costello and XTC and Wire. We get compared to a lot of different bands, and 95% of the time they’re bands we like, so it’s totally cool. Whether we sound like them or not, it’s great.
Da: We do have trillions of influences, and people are probably going to hear something in our show that sounds a little bit familiar.
12. How do you see the band changing /evolving within the next 5 years?
Da: Well, our metabolism’s gonna slow down, we’re gonna lose our hair-
W: And, uh, we’re kicking Dennis out tonite, but we haven’t told him...
De: I hope that we can spend five years and keep making music that’s relevant and that’s music that we like. I just want to keep evolving.
Da: I think it would be totally impossible for us to write songs that we didn’t like. We would not be here right now if we were miserable doing the shit that we’re doing. We just would not put ourselves in that position. We’re going to be having a lot of fun doing what we like. It may sound different five years from now, but it’s all going to be coming from the same shit.
M: We wanna tour the goddamn world.
13. Have you toured overseas before?
M: Overseas, no.
De: Separately we have. Separately we all have I think.
Da: Yeah, in our old bands.
W: Not the one that counts.
Da: We’re actually hoping to spend the next couple of years traveling pretty heavily.
14. College radio has the ability to help artists out immensely; have you marketed towards the college set at all? Do you have interest in doing so?
Da: Desire, yes. Do we have the distribution at the moment; no. We have new stuff coming out pretty soon which is gonna be much more heavily distributed than our first album was. So if our stuff wasn’t in college radio, it will be.
15. When it comes to the writing aspect, do you feel that you write to create and experiment, or do you feel that you write with the intent to perform and reach the live audience?
Da: It’s multi-faceted. We don’t focus on just the live show or just the album. We get satisfaction out of all the layers that people hear.
De: The first record, we kind of just went into it a little blindly. We worked with a good producer- there was a lot of layering. We really weren’t thinking about the live sound as much on that because we were in a beautiful studio with a lot of money. And it’s a learning process. So on the second set of recordings that we just did, we stripped everything down and made it sound like us- not layer the guitars or vocals. We recorded one vocal track, depending on if there were backgrounds, one guitar, the three keyboards, the drums and the bass. It’s very simple and very effective.
Da: It was in a small room, but a really great room in Boston with a great engineer, Matthew Ellard, who works at Q Division in Boston, who was a prince. We got through seven songs in four days and it was cake. Mixed them all in an afternoon. It sounds fantastic.
16. As you know, John Entwistle just passed away...
Da: We’re all big Who fans. One of rock’s greatest rhythm sections is like, done.
M: Going back to that question that you asked upstairs that we never really finished about the first cd’s; before I ever got a record or a tape, my cousin gave me a Who button. I didn’t even know what they sounded like. I used to wear it on my shirt. Grew up with the Who, used to listen to the who. John Entwistle was an incredible bass player, one of the best. Can’t touch him. It really really sucks.
W: It was just kind of shocking. Harrison was going in...
Da: I think everybody is feeling it, anyone who’s a music fan. With Entwistle going, when you’re such a huge part of an influential band, it’s the same as when Joey Ramone died. Everybody was influenced. These guys were in bands that were influential. They’re legendary now until the end the earth. Even if you don’t like those bands, you like bands that like those bands. You’re indirectly influenced by these guys.
17. Do you have any advice for someone who would like to be in a band?
Da: Quit while you’re ahead.
W: Go to school and become director of the music program at your local radio station.
M: Buy Devo "Freedom of Choice".
W: I’m gonna get all mushy and say that if anyone ever has the chance to play with any three of these guys, they should do so because-
De: Because you’re quitting the band tomorrow?
W: Because I’m quitting the band tomorrow and they’re going to be looking for people to play with.
