Here's a handful of interviews with some of my all-time greatest musical influences, conducted for the now-defunct Music Vice. (Kindly ignore the rather vulgar double-spacing in the interviews: I'm of that age group, and didn't realise at the time that everything I'd been taught as a young'un had become null-and-avoid in the internet age!)
The last linked interview, cheekily enough, is for a band I myself was briefly in...the benefits of using silly stage names, eh? (I'm merely the one interviewing, though, not the interviewee; though I am the "Wank Williams" being referred to in some of the answers!) And as a final dubious bonus, have an interview conducted way-back-when with Yours Truly as the subject, in regard to my old band The Dalai Dahmers (the page it was published on, Silver Wake 180, has long since gone the way of the Dodo like most things Myspace, so I've provided a transcript and resisted every temptation to edit it retrospectively)!
https://web.archive.org/web/20110824185243/http://www.musicvice.com/interviews/root-interview-220610
(NB: If any of the Music Vice interviews don't load up first time, try hitting the "GO" button at the very top/middle. That seems to get past the Wayback Machine's shortcomings, sometimes!)
DALAI DAHMERS INTERVIEW (FOR SILVER WAKE 180)
Your name: Michael Bowser
Your band name: The Dalai Dahmers
Could you introduce yourself and say something totally random about you?
My name is Michael: I do vocals as well as this, that and the other (within the band), and I like Giant Squids (outside of the band).
What made the band decide to make music together?
I decided to put out ads looking to form a band when I realised that, while there were a few quality bands out there doing the whole post-Mr. Bungle thing (SOAD and Brisbane's own Headkase, for example), all of them seemed to place the emphasis firmly on the more "metal" aspects of the "schizo-music" sub-genre...I wanted to create a "schizo" band which was more genuinely varied and cross-genred, more genuinely unpredictable, with metal being just one of our many musical palettes to dip into.
When writing, what inspires you to write the lyrics so they fit perfectly with the music?
Well, trying to match up lyrics with music is definitely not a very "pure" science, ha ha. My approach is mostly one of trial and error...if it fits, be it rhythmically, tonally or whatever...then great! If not...then try something else! Obviously, some lyrics simply cry out for a particular musical accompaniment; while others are more "open" to interpretation, so to speak. In any case, I'm fortunately a bit of a hack, so I'm never short of unused lyrics just lying around, waiting for a home...
What comes first, the music or the lyrics? And also, does the whole group partake in the process?
Well, more often than not the lyrics exist, on paper, long before the music is ever written, and then it's just a case of which lyrics fit what music. Sometimes, though, other approaches to songwriting come into play: with our 35-minute epic "Screen Siren", for example, the words and music were written more or less simultaneously, feeding off each other. So while sometimes music is inspired by lyrics, occasionally it's the other way 'round. I find that approaching the actual process of songwriting in different ways keeps things fresh and interesting anyway, so I honestly feel no need to "pin" any kind of formula down...
Do you think that bands should change their sound with each EP/LP/CD that they create, or should they stick with what they know and not experiment?
"Experimentation" is a very large part of what the Dahmers are all about...! I have no desire to repeat ourselves, though the whole "band evolution" concept is an interesting one: I personally feel that individual EPs or albums should have a certain "feel" that's fairly cohesive within themselves; that each CD release should have a distinctive "character" all their own. I honestly see no sense in artists simply remaking the same album over and over again...though I guess from a commercial standpoint, there might be some logic, ha ha...
If one member suddenly decided to quit what would the rest of the group ultimately do?
Funny you should ask that...! In recent months we've lost a bassist and a guitarist...the drummer and myself have decided to continue recording together, but as for how soon we might get another live line-up together, well, that remains to be seen...no immediate plans, to be sure. Got way too much other band business to attend to right now, like writing our first album! Look, to me the Dalai Dahmers is a "concept" more than anything, a philosophy of songwriting, so line-up changes if anything just allow the band to go places it ain't never gone before...which is always a good thing in my book!
When was your most memorable gig you've played at?
Well, that'd be down to two possibilities, methinks. We played an absolutely smashing gig at the "Welcome To The Freakshow" mini-festival we organised at Brisbane's Alley Bar in August last year: good crowd, good vibe, good performances from ourselves and most of the bands that night (including Headkase and Candypain)...scratch that, make that a fucking mind-blowing performance from us, he he...
Then there was the gig we played supporting The Red Paintings earlier in 2006: smaller crowd, not the best of venues (Woombye Pub!), but a good vibe nonetheless. I mean, the Dahmers have faced more than our fair share of bemused (or flat-out unamused) audiences, so while there were still a few baffled faces out there, on the whole I think we went over pretty well. Sold some CDs, shook a few enthusiastic hands afterward, that kinda thing...
How did you come up with the band name, and what does it mean?
Well, we took a while to settle on a name...but the day we did, it was pretty spontaneous. I recall our guitarist, Brett, suggesting "Dick & The Balls" - a good name, but I really didn't feel like being "Dick" for the rest of my life - so I suggested, "How about something & The Dancing Dahmers?" To which Brett said, "How about...The Dalai Dahmers?" And thus, the legend was born! As for what it "means", well...not a lot of folks seem to know about Jeffrey Dahmer these days, but he was an infamous cannibalistic serial killer in the US some years back, and everyone knows who the Dalai Lama is, so...put two and two together and you have the very fucked-up beast that is The Dalai Dahmers.
Is your message in your music the same as when you first started?
Well, ha ha, the Dahmers have never really been about any deep, profound "messages" as such, so apart from a couple of slightly more serious lyrics creeping into the mix of late, I wouldn't say things are gonna change much. The lyrics have always sported a fairly surreal, weirdo vibe more than anything; they're rarely about anything too reality-based, though the well-worn subject of love and its sometimes unpleasant consequences does rear its ugly head upon occasion. More often than not, though, the concern is for the words to suit the fairly "deranged" nature of the music...if there is an overall "message" that the band conveys, perhaps it's just that life is rather insane, and maybe shouldn't be taken too seriously...
What is the best way for someone to promote and show their love for your band?
Send flowers! No, since we won't be gigging anytime in the near future, the answer is quite simple: come make friends with us on Myspace, and please, BUY OUR CDS! It really is that simple! And, of course, SPREAD THE WORD!!
What do your family and friends think of your career choice?
Hmmm...I gave both my mother and father (who are long separated) each a copy of the first Dahmers EP...and neither of them has really said anything, which I take as a slightly dubious sign! But on the whole they're both pretty supportive of - or at the very least sympathetic to - my long-held desire to have a career in the field of the "arts". As for friends, well, pretty much all my friends are pretentious "arty" types like myself, so their view of reality is somewhat clouded...
If someone who had never heard of who you were asked what you did for a living would you tell them the truth or would you lie to them?
I tend to be pretty honest and say: for a "living", I work as a public servant in a hospital; but in terms of my "life's work", I am an artist. Full stop, end of story. If they have a problem with any of that, we can take it out into the carpark (er...joking)!
Justin Timberlake believes that he is "bringing sexy back", but did sexy really go away in the first place?
Ah, I don't think there's much "sexy" left in modern music...I think that mostly died out with Elvis, and maybe Kate Bush. Though Depeche Mode, God bless 'em, still keep things pretty raunchy after all these years...
Songs mean different things to different people. What has been the song that means the most to you and why?
Now that's a hard fuckin' question. Tell you what, I'll give one of the least "metal" answers possible...if I had to, I mean really had to (like, a shotgun-to-my-head kinda scenario), I would say my favourite song of all time is possibly U2's "With Or Without You". Why? Because it's the only song that I've heard hundreds of times that can still move me close to tears, and I think that's a pretty tall order for a song whose lyric, at the end of the day, is just a play on the biggest macho, pub-lovin' cliche of all time: namely, "Women...can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em". Now that's fuckin' poetry...!
(Collage artwork by Michael Bowser.)