by Jason

Hey all in DoP.  Introduce yourselves to our readers. Who is in the band and who plays what?

Well we have George, he plays guitar. Doug’s behind the drum kit. Joe’s plays the guitar as well. Erika’s on keys and shares vox duties with Doug, Joe and George. And me, I just play bass.

How did you form?  Where you from?  How long have you been together?

There is a lot of debate about how we formed. I guess the generally excepted answer is that we evolved out of some form of ooze and crawled out of the sea. Sometime later we moved to Brooklyn, NY. And we’ve been an entity for about 3 years now.

You have a new EP coming out.  When will that be released?  Can you tell us a little about the recording of that disc?

The EP’s available now on line. The official release will be June 18^th here in NYC. You should be able to pick up a copy at your local retailer sometime soon after that.

The recording process was mostly facilitated by our producer Rod Sherwood. Rod was a great help in the pre-production process. The result of his genius is evident on the record.

We recorded the EP in much the same way bands with little capital do all across this land. We blew a boat load of cash on a really nice studio for about 2 days.  We we’re only in the studio for as long as it took it get the basic drum and bass tracks down, with a little guitar in the time left over. After that we went digital.  Some of the guitar over dubs and all of the vox, keys, bells, whistles, etc. were all recorded into Pro Tools in a damp basement in Brooklyn. We also called in some major favors. That’s how you get your record mastered at Sterling on a shoestring budget.

How do you, as a band, approach writing a song?  What, to you, makes a good song?

We write as a band. There is no central writing figure. Every member of the band plays a major role in the writing process and ideas are shared freely. It’s very democratic in that sense. That’s a great way of doing things. I’ve been in other bands where there wasn’t an open exchange and people weren’t on the same level. Those situations can lead to a lot of resentment I think. Ideally we’re all writers’ not just players. That makes the process much more creative.

A great hook.

You have been on tour for a little while.  Do you have any good tour stories for us?  What’s been happening on the road?  Have you enjoyed it or is the road a little rough?  Where were some of your favorite places to play?

On tour we discovered that there is no exception to the rule “you get what you pay for”. We bought a $400 dollar van that broke down 3 times on tour.  And it broken into once after it broke down. I also discovered that Arkansas doesn’t have a lot of originality in there naming conventions, but there’s plenty of pride. For example Texarkana and Arkadelphia are the names of two cities.

For the gear heads out there, what equipment do you all use?  Gives us some good pedal board specifics!

George is a crazy gear head and I’m a close second. George uses something like 11 individual Pedals including some real exotic pedals. He has this Death by Audio, Total Sonic Annihilator; it might be the coolest pedal ever. He also has a Zvex, Super Duper Two-in-One, which I’m not even sure what it does but it’s cool! He also uses a small arsenal of more standard pedals like the Tube Screamer, Boss Distortion, DD-6 Delay, RV-3 Reverb, and Tremolo, as well as an Electro-Harmonix Chorus pedal. Those are just the pedals I can member right now. He runs his signal into a vintage Fender Twin and a separate Fender Bassman.

I have fewer pedals then George, only about eight. I play bass but I prefer to use guitar effects for my sound. For the most part I use standard Boss numbers. I use a Boss Bass EQ in conjunction with this amazing Boss Distortion from the early 90’s, it’s called the Hyper Fuzz. It’s a great fuzz sound. It’s a pretty rare pedal too. The Hyper Fuzz was only made for a few years about 10 years ago. I also use a Boss chorus, Boss RV-3 Reverb, DD-5 Delay and another special little Boss pedal called the “Super Feed Backer Distortion”. I can’t really explain what it does but its real fun and crazy. And lastly there is my Zoom 508 Delay. The 508 is this really cheaply made plastic pedal from the late 90’s. It has a lot of great delays. It’s also not made anymore.

Who would you say are your greatest influence?  Are there any authors or poets that inspire your music?

I’m not sure I can name just one.

Personally, I really dig Carl Sagan. Our song Monument was titled that because of a line in Cosmos. “Why are there no monuments to this man”? – Carl Sagan.

What made you all want to make music?  What made you all want to make music together?

I wanted to start playing music just because I felt I couldn’t really appreciate the music I was hearing without understanding how it was made. And then there’s the girl factor. By the way, the girl factor is a myth.

Somehow, despite the fact that I have very little talent, we make pretty good music together.

What have you all been listening to?  What artists are getting the most spin in your players?

I go on these hot and cold music listening sprees. Sometimes I’ll go crazy and buy like 20 cd’s and just listen to music nonstop for a couple of months. And other times I get really into reading and I stop listening to music for a while. For the past couple of months I’ve been in the reading mode. I will admit that I’ve been hooked on a couple of individual songs, Lets Talk About Spaceships by Say Hi To Your Mom and The Girl’s Attractive by Diamond Nights.

What are you hoping will happen with the future of Dirty on Purpose?  Do you do music full time or do you all have other means of making the rent?

I think we’d all like to make music our exclusive focus for a while, make some records, tour the world, and have some success. Maybe even a lot of success.  Music is a big part of all of our lives and I imagine it always will be.  As for me personally I can’t see myself being like the Rolling Stones or something.  I don’t want to be 60 years old and planning another tour.

For the most part we all have real jobs. It’s a blessing and a curse. Our jobs provide the money to financially keep Dirty On Purpose on track but it’s a real draw back as well. It’s difficult working full time and being in a band full time, especially when you’re using all of your vacation to go on tour.

Any other comments?

Stay away from Hairspray, it kills brain cells!