Title: Dagwood
Author: Jennifer Pollock
Date: July 2000
Volume: 3
Issue: 7

In case you haven't noticed, the music scene is
currently being Bombarded by candy-coated pop
stars and talentless products packaged for mass
consumption. But one Austin band has talent hidden
beneath the glitter and has concealed charisma
under carefully crafted hairdos and rock star
personas.
With determination along with a blood, sweat and,
tears mentality, Dagwood is a rock band preparing to
conquer the world, or at least, for now, Austin. The
band's own bass player works relentlessly to book
the band at local venues, especially at Lucy's on Sixth
Street where they share the stage with friends and
pour their hearts out for friends in the audience. The
band produced their own six-song album, which has
nearly sold out since its original print in March, and
was named one of the top 8 college bands in the
country by IUMA and Music-O-Mania after a narrow
(it was only twovotes!) defeat in the final round.
Dagwood is a success story waiting to happen.
I sat down for an interview with the members of
Dagwood, who were open and honest enough to
provide me with enough information for a tell-all book
or an episode of Behind the Music.

PAPER ROCK SCISSORS:
Dagwood is a young band, both in longevity and age.
How did everyone find a way into music?
Craig Milliken (lead vocals and rhythm guitar): I started
playing four and a half years ago in this cruddy little
cover band back in high school in West Texas. I
started playing on a whim but got Stephen interested
in it. I came to Austin and hooked up with these great
guys.
Stephen Lopez (lead guitar): Right, I started playing
about three years ago all because of Craig.
Darrell Moran (drums): I grew up around rock and roll.
My dad ran a club when I was baby. My mom worked
in music promotion. So from the time I can remember,
I was always around musical instruments-beating on
one or smashing another. So I guess it was natural that
I started playing drums.
Claire Ashton (bass): My mom gave me a guitar when
I was in the seventh grade. When I met these guys, we
kind of did a paper, rock, scissors for who had to play
bass. And I got the shaft.
Craig: What did you pick? Rock? You picked rock, didn't you?
Darrell: Yeah, well you rock the bass. You rock.
Craig: It was amazing how fast we went from joking
around to being a serious band, but the minute we
got a show it was all business.
Darrell: You mean, once Claire got the lights in her eyes?

KIDS WANNA ROCK:
How do you define the Dagwood sound?
Darrell: Pop rock?
Craig: You think?
Darrell: Or maybe modern pop rock.
Claire: Pop alternative.
Darrell: It's definitely edgy, but those are all generic terms.
Pop. Rock. Alternative.
Craig: Pop is an all encompassing term, but we like
to rock that's for sure. We like it loud. We write catchy
little tunes.
Claire: Definitely not anything like jamming. It's very structured.
Darrell: It's definitely a pop, three to five minute structure.
Stephen: How about just pop rock? I mean, that is what
we've been calling ourselves for the past two years.
Claire: Pop rock alternative. That's only three huge genres
of music. Right? We've got it all.

GIRL POWER:
Claire, tell us about being a girl in a rock band.
Claire: I was trying to think of an answer to this
question, because I knew it was coming. I like being
in a band with these guys. You don't argue the same
way with guys as you do with girls. Girls in an all
girl band would get mad and give each other the
silent treatment and sulk. When we get in an
argument, we tear into each other. But they're also
really protective. It's kind of hard. I get the raw end of
the deal a lot. I don't know. How would you explain it?
Craig: It's like a girl going to a car mechanic. A girl
takes her car into a mechanic and they try to screw
you over, pretend like you don't exist or know
anything about it.
Darrell: On the other hand, there's always a drink
waiting for her. Doors open that would never even
exist for a guy in rock and roll. There's a balance to it.
Claire: Booking wise it really does help. There aren't
many girl managers in this town. It just has ups and
downs. I wouldn't want to be a guy. I love being a girl,
especially in this band.
Darrell: More recently I've noticed guys being more
complimentary to Claire, where they used to be
chauvinistic and pig-like. We've become a better
band, I think it's starting to show. She gets a lot of
compliments.
Craig: Musicians appreciate her. Claire's a good
bass player.
Claire: If my image were different, I'd probably get
walked on a lot more. I feel a little concerned
because I know people stare at me while I'm playing
to see if I'm as good as the guys are or they say,
"She rocks for a chick."

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL:
Let's talk about image.
Craig: Oh, the image. I knew you were going to bring
this up.
Darrell: Yes, let's talk about image.
Claire: Let's all yell at me. Let's all fight before every
show.
Well, image does appear to be important to Dagwood.
Darrell: It's a collective decision that one thing that we
want to do is be entertainers. We want this band to
be part of the glamour that is rock and roll. We all dig
bands that have that glamorous side from Bowie to
KISS. Even bands that don't dress the part but put on
great shows, like the Counting Crows.
Stephen: We don't want to look like the other bands
in town.
Claire: It's good to be recognized. Can I tell a story?
The first time we were recognized, we were all sitting
at Kinko's when this kid came up to us and said,
"Hey, you're Dagwood, right?"
Craig: How does it feel to be a star?? Pretty damn
good.
Claire: We enjoy being different. I like it because it's
like Halloween everyday. We get to play dress up.
How did the look come around?
Craig: We've taken our own individual styles and put
them under a magnifying glass. On stage we all have
our personas.
Claire: We have this really cool friend who's always
out finding stuff for us, whatever is new, crazy or
trendy. She scouts out the cool stuff and brings it to
us. She's the one who created Craig's hairdo.
Craig: She's our research and development team. It's
about looking goodÉand having fun. Obviously,
image is really important-to us and any band that's
starting out.
Claire: If we play a show with three other bands and
we look different, if they don't remember us for our
music, at least they'll remember us for the way we
look.
Craig: These guys are very hard working. It's not just
about putting on make-up and spiking your hair just to
play some slop. We focus even harder on song
writing, song crafting, rehearsing, practicing
individually, booking and management, even making
fliers and taking it to the streets. It gives you such a
sense of accomplishment when you play a really big
show to a lot of kids. It's a combination of all the
efforts from everybody putting in their creativity, spare
time and sleepless nights, and heavy lifting. Well,
except for Claire. She left that out as a perk of being
a girl in a band.

WE ARE FAMILY:
Since you've already mentioned arguing, what is it
like being in Dagwood?
Claire: There's no tension as far as being friends.
Darrell: There's tension in every band. Being in a
band is like having multiple partners.
Claire: It's like a family.
Craig: Just a little more dysfunctional.
Claire: You can fight with your family, but you still love
them the next day.
Craig: I think it's good though. I think that friction
makes bands work. It makes them critical of
themselves. It makes them better.
Darrell: There's good dialogue in this band. We all
dish out criticism and take it pretty well.
Stephen: We don't take any of that criticism
personally though. It's completely professional when it
comes to making the band better. If Claire calls me
and tells me that I suck, I'm not gonna get mad. I'm
just gonna say thank you and practice more.

WILL ROCK FOR FANS:

Dagwood seems to be really appreciative of their
friends and fans.
Claire: We have this team of really great people.
They do everything for us. They load our gear. Run
our lights. Hang our backdrops. Hand out fliers. Make
phone calls. It's hard when you do that all yourself.
This team of people really works with us, just
because they love the music. They don't get money.
They don't get anything other than the love of the
music. I have to thank those people. They work every
show and bust their butts. They know who they are.
We don't just stand up there and play. It's about fun,
we put on a show. We do random stuff like beat up
pi–atas, it's always like a big party.
Darrell: It's entertainment. It's not just seeing a live
band, it's having a good time. We put on a show so
come out and have fun.
Claire: We're really close to our fans. Anyone who
comes to our show is always free to contact us. We
don't just play and leave, we try to be accessible to
everyone.
How do people react to Dagwood's music?
Darrell: Our audiences like the high energy.
Craig: They like to sing along. They like to come up
after the show and buy you seven drinks.
Claire: I think we're a band that people from all age
groups can appreciate.
Craig: I talked to my Grandma on the phone. She has
our CD. She paid me the best compliment she could,
"Sometimes I put on the CD and I can listen to it. I
can." Thanks for tolerating our music, Grandma.
Claire: Yeah, my mom is always like, "I like that silly
goodbye song." It's "Stupid Goodbye Song," Mom.

REACH OUT AND TOUCH DAGWOOD:
You can visit Dagwood on line at
http://surf.to/dagwood. Or at Lucy's on Thursday, July
13 at the Headbanger's Ball. Check local listings and
the Dagwood web page for additional show dates.