Dick Valentine Interview Transcript

JS: That is a very good song. David, do you have any?

DF: My current favorite is Escape from Ohio, um, I really enjoy that track. So in preparation for this we've been watching other interviews and things of that nature, and somehow we gleaned the information that you are a U of M alum. Can you confirm this?

DV: Yeah I am, I graduated in '94.

DF: Would you say that college was worth it?

DV: I mean in terms of, I mean, I got an English degree from LS&A, so it didn't really prepare me for anything, really. But that having been said, after four years at Berkely High School it was nice on a social level to be at U of M and, you know, experience life where you're not getting beat up by stoners every day, and so it was good for me in that realm. Also, I worked a lot, I drove the bus, you know the campus buses. I learned how to multitask. I took 16 credits and worked 40 hours a week. You know, I had to have a work ethic and learn how to survive on not a lot of sleep at that time.

DF: I can tell you that as an English major, your story is inspiring, truly.

DV: Yeah, you know it was really tough. My parents and my parents friends at the time, they were kind of stuck in this bygone era, all you've got to do is get sheet from U of M and you can write your own ticket, you know, and I was led to believe that all you had to do was get that diploma from U of M and then I'd be running a Fortune 500 company or something. Uh, and there was a real, real stark reality when I graduated. My first job was washing dishes at a bagel café, and I was like where's my ticket. So yeah, if I have kids and send them to school I would strongly urge them to go into something tangible like engineering or computer programming rather than something like English, or film, or something like that. Because then you know you can do all that stuff on your own.

DV: Alright, well I'll pop that along to our staff who are largely English or film majors, although Joe here is in engineering.

DV: No, no, I hear you, I understand, but yeah, I think you're in for a rude awakening. I mean, I love the study of it, I had a great time doing it, but um, I felt like really once I got out of there, it either leads to more school or doing something that had nothing to do with what you studied. 

DF: I understand that's the case with most degrees, that you end up in something completely unrelated. Which in some cases is probably for the best, I guess. So you did come to U of M and Gargoyle is a U of M publication. Have you ever heard of it during your tenure there?

DV: Yeah, I have heard of it, I'm just expecting a radio interview as well, I was just confusing the two.

DF: That's good. Would you be willing to admit that you have actually read the Gargoyle?

DV: I think I have, yeah. I've read and picked up a lot of things so I mean I believe I've spent some time [with it].

DF: Excellent. Very cool.

JS: This summer we heard you play at the Blind Pig, this summer. I said that twice didn't I?

DV: Yeah, we've played at the Blind Pig.

JS: So do you prefer large or small venues for shows?

DV: Oh it depends, I mean some small places are a great places to play, you have a great time. It more depends on um, actually the back stage arrangements rather than front of house. You know, we've had experiences when we played for like a thousand people and backstage they give you like a six-pack of Miller Lite and expect you to have a good time with that. And then other time you play at a small venue and they bring in like Martha Stewart catering or something you know so we kind of look at it from a catering perspective.

JS: That's an interesting way to look at it I guess. So I also understand that the Electric Six has played at weddings recently.

DV: We did, yeah. We've done a few. That's a fun thing to do. It's very low pressure you get paid very well, and you have a built in audience, they're paying to have you there more than a regular gig would. So it's a fun time, and it's a great opportunity.

JS: So are you going to be doing this for a few more years or should I really start working on getting you to play at my wedding, assuming that that's ever going to happen and that I have enough money to pay for it?

DV: If you want to do it and you have a wedding coming up, you know where to find me now.

JS: Alright. Oh, so this is point of contention we've had at our office, because a lot of us actually do listen to your music: is it "The Electric Six" or "Electric Six?"

DV: I believe it is Electric Six, though I am guilty of saying the Electric Six every now and then myself. I'm not going to take you to court for saying it one way or the other.

JS: That's very good to hear.

DV: Do you want to go to court? I'll take you to court if you want.

JS: I'd prefer not, I can't afford to have you play at my wedding either, so...

DV: I thought you might like abuse. I'm a people pleaser, if you want me to abuse you, I'll abuse you.

JS: I think there are few better things that I could ask for than being abused by the Electric Six, especially Dick Valentine.

DV & DF: (laughter)

DF: So we've seen you on Red Eye doing interviews, I mean that's really the only reason we'd watch the show. What was it like being on FOX?

DV: Um, it's interesting. You are right there in the nerve center, you know, all those shows that you know from FOX are taped right there in the same area. Greg the host of Red Eye, I have to say is a really nice guy off camera you know, so  begrudge him no ill will despite whatever machine he is part of. It's a very weird phenomenon, the FOX phenomenon.

DF: It is certainly interesting. I mean after watching a couple interviews, he does certainly enjoy yelling. I have to wonder how familiar he is, truly, with the music, though I guess he did have you on there so...

DV: I've never seen him yell. I don't know, I mean, one thing I will say about that show is he does a really, really good job of getting musicians of our level on TV. You know we've never been on Conan O'Brien or even Jimmy Kimmel or anything like that, but he's gone out of his way to find people like us so you know, eve going as far back as the Melvins, you ... was on there quite a bit. So you know, it is what is, and I'm glad to go in there and see how it works, and I'm looking forward to maybe going on there again.

DF: Well, I mean, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

DV: No, you know. I do get the downside of it, I do, and there is a part of me that doesn't like being a part of that, that doesn't like being a part of that, of FOX, it's a horrible... thing. At the same time I'm also very curious, and I also think that it serves you better. You might say I'm not going to go on FOX, I'm going to boycott them or what not, but that doesn't do anything. I'd be better served to have a meltdown on the air or punch Bill O'Reilly in the face, or something. You just have to pick your spots.

DF: That's my next question. You know, you were in that nerve center, did you ever get close to That Man?

DV: No, Red Eye tapes at 9pm so I think, you know, some of them might be around at that time, I don't know how it works. The only person I've actually seen is kind of a minor guy, who is on some round table discussions. He looks like kind of an extra from the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He sort of skinny had glasses and laughs like a baboon any time  they start ripping on Nancy Pelosi, or something like that, I've seen him on TV, and I was going into the bathroom and he was coming out. That's the only FOX personality that I've seen other than Greg Gutfield.

DF: Alright.

DV: You know the thing about those shows, is it's like massive. It's like the same thing, it's like "Boy aren't you glad you aren't Barney Frank," you know. It's so predictable. It's funny to watch it in action.

DF: They're almost self-satirizing, so I'll tell you what, that makes our job a hell of a lot easier.

DV: It's true, it is, and you know the way it is, it's more fascinating to go in and see it every day. I'm not there everyday, but you know what I mean.

Dick Valentine has been on Red Eye three or four times now. I think that he was on there again pretty recently judging from post on Electric Six's website, but I'll be damned if I can find it. This was definitely my favorite part of the interview. I mean, Dick Valentine referred to someone on FOX News as a Nazi extra from an Indiana Jones movie and talked about punching Bill O'Reilly for publicity. I can't bring myself to call him Dick, or Mr. Valentine. 

DV: So I was looking at the album art for KILL and it seems that you have, I guess, how did we describe it? Sort of like a molding meat sculpture.

JS: Right, it looks like lunchmeat that is molding and is cut in designs. It's, uh, kind of odd. Who comes up with the ideas for your album art?

DV: We outsource that an artist, I guess. When it first as proposed I actually thought we were going to using processed lunch meat like in the packaging, and I thought that might be kind of difficult to do that on a mass scale, then I found out it was just a drawing.

JS: It's a drawing? Wow.

DV: Yeah. I mean. You know, it definitely makes a statement when you use processed meat.

JS: Right. Some kind of consumerist statement, I guess.

DF: In a similar vein then, do you come up with the ideas for your music videos yourselves as a band or do you go to a director?

DV: It depends on the video. Like the "Formula 409" video and the "McDonnelzzz" video were kind of band generated ideas and then the majority of them were kind of in line with the particular director.

DF: I think the question that is basically on everybody's mind who is kind of aware of the Electric Six is the "Gay Bar" music video. First how on earth did that ever happen, and secondly, how much fun was that to make?

DV: The Gay Bar video? It actually wasn't a lot of fun to make. We did it at the tail end of a six week US tour and I just had nothing left in the tank. There were a lot of shots packed into a 24 hour period, I mean it was a very, very, busy time, and a lot of costume changes, and no real breaks in there. And it was literally a 24 hour shoot, because, you know union stipulations, the crew could work only in a 24 hour period otherwise you had to pay them double, so it was kind of like cramming in all these shots, basically shooting  from like 6am to 6am. So it was like a long drawn out process, and it was probably like the closest thing I've ever had to a nervous breakdown during that video shoot.

DF: I'm sorry to hear that.

DV: The video worked out great.

DF: I would have to say that it's probably one of the best known videos.

DV: No, you know, that's the thing. When you're on set doing the video you have no idea how it's going to be perceived, and so forth. You know I remember seeing a documentary about the making of Star Wars, like the crew in London were laughing every time they yelled action. They couldn't believe that someone was making this movie. And it's like, you don't realize it while you're doing it, but what you're doing is actually going to turn out good sometimes.

DF: I guess, yeah, you suffer for your art.

DV: Right, but I mean the videos we've done with Tom... have all turned out to be really, really good.

JS: In an attempt to improve our credibility recently, as a magazine we've been interviewing people. This issue or the next issue rather, has turned into the Interview Issue. We waned to know, since we interviewed OK Go recently, do you think that Electric Six could take them in a fight?

DV: Um, aren't there like four of them?

JS: Yes.

DV: Yeah, then odds are yes, just by numbers.

JS: Numerical superiority and your Detroit edge.

DV: Yeah, we do have the edge. That's a good way of phrasing it.

JS: How would you feel about being drawn on our front cover, possibly fighting OK Go?

DV: I wouldn't lose sleep over it, but I don't look at this as a competition with bands, especially with a band that I have zero problem with or have never met them. But if you want to do that go ahead, but I don't understand.

DF: I mean, I understand, but that was sort of a humorous idea that we were throwing around in the office, but I can see where you wouldn't want to put forth that image.

DV: I understand, I just don't know why that would be funny.

DF: Well, uh. We'll do better coach. We'll do better next time.

DV: No, you're alright.

DF: So in the "I Buy The Drugs" song, another favorite, you rattle off an address, and I think last year around this time Joe and I actually sent a letter to that address. Um, so is this an actual address, or what happens to these letters? Do they disappear into oblivion?

DV: You're talking about the P.O. box?

DF: Yeah.

DV: Oh um. It's actually one digit away from FOX News, or FOX Broadcasting Corp., but uh, also 90212 rhymes with "send it back to you." It's usually nothing more than trying to get something to rhyme.

JS: Fair enough.

DF: I think another question that our staff has had is where can we find a Chocolate Pope, possibly Switzerland?

 

DV: You could. You can find a lot of chocolate shaped things and sculpture endeavors in Switzerland. I don't know how they feel about the current Pope. We were there recently, and I really didn't have any conversations about it, but I can see, you know the current pope speaks German, and the primary language in Switzerland is German, so there could be that connection.

DF: Very possible. Also, you guys are really popular in the UK. So is that kind of surprising that a Detroit band is crazy popular there and slightly below the radar here, what would you say about that?

DV: It wasn't surprising in that when we did get our first boost of popularity over there, we had seen a couple other bands from Detroit really blow up over there and so when we got our first record deal, Detroit was a real commodity in the UK, in London especially. Like, everyone was crazy about Detroit so we kind of rode the second wave of bands from Detroit being signed over there and by the time we had been over there, Detroit had already been on the map in terms of the UK.

DF: Alright, very cool. So you've said in past interviews that a lot of your music isn't about anything in particular, but just sounds amazing. At the Blind Pig you did comment that the song "Green Building" is about Domino Farms. Was there anything that was really inspiring about it?

DV: Oh yeah. I mean, I drive by that at night all the time, or I used to more frequently, but it's a really impressive building at night and I had always kind of equated it with death, you know. So you know, it's a song about death, but it's also a song about Domino Farms.

DF: I see. That's not a connection that I think a lot of people would make.

DV: Yeah to some degree. I felt like it was very Ann Arbor song. It's got that rotation... 

DF: Yeah, I guess. And as a follow up to that song, who is Randy and how is he so hot tonight?

DV: That has nothing to do with anything. We were just trying to think of the most harmless name that you could think of for someone to be hot tonight. I think Gary came in there as well. It's just about a guy who needed some self confidence.

DF: Well, you know a good friend of mine is named Randy, I'll tell you, it's a very confidence boosting song for him.

DV: I like that name. It's a great name.

DF: I'll let him know. Do you feel that you've really recaptured the sound of Electric Six?

DV: I don't know if there's any one sound per say. I just think that we try to vary the albums; try not to make KILL sound like Flashy, try not to sound like anything we've done before, that's the goal. Anything you go into the studio you try not to repeat what you've already done.

DF: Right, that makes sense. In another interview you said that your were going back in the direction of Fire which is certainly one of my favorite albums of all time, so it was kind of cool to see a little bit of throw-back-iness, but it was very definitely a lot of new material.

DV: Oh well, I mean, I think that we make the correlation to Fire just because there's louder guitars on this record as well, but I don't think the records sound that similar. I think that KILL's a bit more complex, it has a few more things going on, whereas Fire is pretty much the same song over and over again.

DF: But it's a song we like.

DV: Oh no, I get it. I don't dislike Fire, I don't dislike any of the albums.

DF: And you can really, really dance to it, which is good.

DV: I'd like to see that.

DF: I don't think that a lot of people would like to see me dance.

DV: You need a little self confidence.

DF: It's true. Maybe you could write a song for Joe and David or something.

DV: I might be doing that.

DF: Well, um, do you have anymore questions Joe?

I do actually have more questions, and by now in the interview I've become comfortable enough talking to Dick Valentine to ask them, but by this point we had been talking to him for about 25 minutes, and he had another interview to do. I'll spare you the details of the awkward good-byes. Suffice it to say that I'll be trying for another interview with the band when they come back in March.