(This Interview First Appeared in Upstage Magazine in September 2005)
In the summer of 2003, Dick Valentine and the Electric Six released Fire, a collection of bar rock infused with dance beats and humor containing two mega hits in England: Danger! High Voltage and Gay Bar. Intense touring ensued. Now, two years later, the Electric Six has gone through line-up changes, record label disputes, and a new album, leaving Dick Valentine with lots to say.
Well spoken and quick-witted, Dick answered a series of questions that revealed much exciting information, provided great insight, and dispelled several rumors that have been following the band around the world.
My first question: What was it like making the transition from Detroit to England?
It was easy… a very easy transition. The English welcome you with open arms. They are there to make you feel better about what you’re doing.
When should we expect to see Senor Smoke released in America?
We’re workin’ on that right now. It’s been kind of a long process in that the label we were signed to was a worldwide deal and they didn’t really seem to play ball with us in America, so we’ve finally gotten free of them…so we’re just kinda lookin’ to put the finishing touches on everything here in America and I guess…when I really feel the best time for them to put it out, but it should be within the next six months. Finally.
Is the new record label treating you well?
Well, we haven’t really signed with them. Actually, we got free of Warner this week, basically. We’re kind of in transition now. But I can’t really say until it’s official.
For the music video ‘Radio Ga-Ga’ you looked and danced quite a bit like Freddy Mercury. How did you prepare for this role?
Sort of. They gave me a DVD of Queen performances and videos to kind of study and I have adult ADD so it was pretty hard for me to pay attention. And, really, I just winged it. It was an all-day video shoot and you just wanna get out of there. You just really give it your all every take and the sooner you get all the takes done, the sooner you can go home.
This is also, it seems, the second time in one of your videos where you’ve had to deal with the fake moustache.
Yeah, and then there’s a fake beard as well. And, yeah, it’s interesting when it comes time to eat. I’m not used to having facial hair and you got glue all over your face. And it is interesting, especially, when the dinner bell sounds.
Do you ever considering just going out and about with a fake moustache?
No. Not really, it’s not that fun. It’s not really that rewarding. And I found that when I had a fake mustache, my first instinct was to rip it off.
Now, you have a very unique vocal style. How did you develop that?
I don’t know. I mean I think that the first couple times I tried and I was just horrified by what I heard. And I was tired of horrifying myself. I wanted really to stand up and be assertive. I think it was more of an assertive kind of voice. And I try to assert myself. I really lack self-confidence, but I think I can fool a lot of people singing like this.
Is Fire a concept album? ‘Cause I’ve read that it tells the tale of the Dance Commander and his desire to dance, which, like fire, consumes until it destroys.
It’s certainly not a concept. Like I said I certainly don’t have that much of an attention span. I mean, we had all those songs on the record and somebody noticed that pretty much every song has the word fire in it and that was just a coincidence. Like I’ve already said I’m not obsessed with fire; I just think that fire makes things more exciting and makes people think that this band is more interesting than it really is. I can’t tell you how many times MTV wanted to get on our butts and see the wacky Electric Six. And they wanna see dead bodies and piles of cocaine and they just saw a bunch of soy milk.
And who came up with the album cover for Fire? How did that come about?
That was a concept within the band. The photographer, a guy named Peter Ranhattam, and we just actually shot it on a dance floor in Detroit. That’s me on the cover and they retouched it. It’s a great album cover. We all really like it.
Was it difficult to write a follow-up to Fire?
I mean…it was…We were dealing with pretty much a completely new band from the first record and so it was kind of a fresh start for us and a lot of the songs were brand new, and a lot of ‘em were kinda old. Jimmy Carter, Taxi to Nowhere were pretty much old songs. I think the first lineup didn’t want those songs on there. Now that those guys have left the band, we kind of had an agreement to use them on the new record. And songs like Rock and Roll Evacuation, Devil Nights, Future is in the Future, and Future Boys are all new songs. I mean we’ve always wanted the songs – it’s just a matter of picking which ones we’re gonna use for any given record.
With all of these lineup changes that Electric Six have gone through, it makes one think: ‘Is Dick Valentine the Electric Six?’
No. I mean I have been in both lineups and it’s always been a situation where I write a lot of the songs and material, but I’ve always left the door open for other people to write. You wouldn’t have songs like The Future is in the Future or Danger High Voltage. I guess it could be a solo project but it never really has been.
Now, I read on your website that you had done a solo acoustic night?
Yeah – I did that in Manchester. We had a night off and nothing to do for a long time. I definitely wanna get back to doing that more. I’d like to do a full-on tour if I can. I think if I get like a little break, I’ll probably go out by myself at some point. It’s a lot of fun. I wanna do more of that for sure.
How would people know that you’re gonna do that – is that something you would announce on your site?
The earliest it would be would be 2006. 2005′s pretty much booked up for us now.
Now – have the other two singles from the album been chosen yet?
Se?or Smoke? There aren’t gonna be any more singles. The situation with our whole record label pretty much killed it. We like all the songs on the record, but you can’t really put a single out unless your record company backs you up. So that’s pretty much all we have.
What direction are you going to be going with on the new record?
We’re not entirely sure. We have about 20 songs written and we won’t be recording until about November so we have two months to keep writing. I think it’ll be kind of a combination of getting even dancier and getting more mellow. I think we’re gonna have maybe three or four songs like Jimmy Carter and the rest of them will be completely explosive dance numbers. So maybe you’d see, at least for a little while, the last of songs like She’s White cause I think the arena rock will kinda be put to bed.
What inspires you to write your music?
I dunno – I don’t even know if it’s inspiration. It’s just something that I can hold on to and I enjoy doing. I’ve tried to quit and I can’t. That kind of keeps me going.
And what would you cite as your influences?
I would say Talking Heads, Devo, Captain Beefheart. Those are the big three.
Is it okay if we go down the track listing of Se?or Smoke and you give us a little bit of insight on each of the tracks?
Sure.
Ok, then. Rock and Roll Evacuation.
Basically this song was inspired by some seventeen-year-old kid when we played in Scotland. I had made some sort of comment on stage about Bush and I never really take any of that seriously when I do it or anyone else. A lot of people are actually trying to use the rock and roll platform to get their message out. I’ve always been kinda defeatist about that. If Bruce Springsteen can’t stop George W. Bush then I don’t know how Electric Six or anybody’s gonna do it. So, anyway, this kid comes up to me and he was like “I like what you said about the president and you have to take a stand, man. You have to fight ‘im. You know, Rage Against the Machine is gonna stop this war, man.”
I had to break it to him that they’re not gonna stop the war, and they’re also called Audioslave now. It’s just funny…this kid. So, anyway, that’s what that song is about. It’s about the futility of rock and roll trying to save the world.
And Devil Nights?
Devil Nights? Devil Nights is a very complicated mix of instruments coming together to create probably the most absurd song we’ve ever done.
It sounds a bit like it’s about a pimp. Is it?
Nah. It’s not really about anything. There’s a lot of songs we’ve written where we look back and just think, “That is literally about absolutely nothing.” And Gay Bar is about nothing and Devil Nights is about nothing.
Bite Me.
It’s kind of an older song that got resurrected and, again it’s not really about anything. I like the second verse a lot – I think those are some of our strongest lyrics.
Jimmy Carter.
It’s basically a song about pop culture and the end of the world. It’s one of my favorite songs and I’m glad to really get it out, finally.
Pleasing Interlude Number 1
We talked about doing a bunch of interludes on this record and only two of ‘em did actually end up getting used. That one was something I recorded in 1992 and I found it like last year and just threw it on the record.
Dance Epidemic.
That is a song that should have been on Fire, but it just kinda got voted off. It’s just a prime example of that old lineup being gone and now that was a clear song to use..so…yeah – that is probably…I think that song shoulda been on Fire. It’s a good song to play live – we open with it a lot. It’s a good one.
Future Boys.
That’s my favorite song in the record, actually I think that musically and lyrically, it’s about as strong as it gets. It’s a song about, if you’ve ever seen American Psycho, those kinds of people.
Dance-A-Thon 2005?
I like playin’ that one live. I think, on a whole that might be one of the weaker tracks on the record. I mean and fortunately we only have to play it this year and then as of New Year’s. We probably won’t touch it again. It’s more a celebration of this year.
Be My Dark Angel.
That’s a great song. I think to me that’s just a really good pop rock song. Everything about it is kind of catchy and I feel like I’m in the Flaming Lips or something when I’m doin’ that. To me, that’s one of the stronger parts of the record.
Vibrator.
The next two songs on the record, Vibrator and Boy or Girl, are more heavily influenced by the guy who signed us. I don’t know that either of them would have made the record if it wasn’t for him. They’re not bad songs, but, I think that we had some stronger stuff that we could have and should have used. I can’t look at a song like Vibrator and say, “Wow those are some great lyrics.” It was just me tryin’ to be Devo and not really measuring up.
Boy or Girl.
Kind of the same thing. It’s not bad. I think Warner was kind of into it ’cause it sounded the most like Danger: High Voltage. And they wanna keep striking the same iron, but I don’t hate it.
Pleasing interlude Number 2.
It’s about 20 seconds long and maybe that’s too long.
Radio Ga-Ga.
We kind of just did it to get it over with It was inevitable that it was gonna come out someday just because it was such a big part of our live set in the UK and was always our closer. Both the record companies we were with were like, “ You gotta put this out,” and we never really wanted to. Just like a lot of Senor Smoke, while there’s a lot of good stuff on it, a lot of it was stuff to shut people up and I think Radio Ga-Ga falls in that category.
Taxi to Nowhere.
That’s a really old song and we used to do it guitar, bass, drums and then somewhere along the way like we discovered this piano arrangement of it and everybody liked it. We kind of wanted to just put that towards the end of the album just to give it a different feel.
The Future is in the Future.
We had an idea going on this record that we wanted to be more like the Talking Heads. And for some reason this was the only song that ended up sounding like that and everybody really likes the song; it’s a lot of fun to play live. This, to me, kind of saved the record. But, like I said, getting into Vibrator, Boy or Girl, it just kinda starts to become sort of a mediocre record and then, at the end, it kind of redeems itself.
Have you got a name for this tour?
It’s the, “Get-on-out-there-and-make-twenty-six-hundred-dollars-a-man-tour.”
You’ve traveled the world. Are there any places you’ve yet to play that you would like play?
Yeah! It’s funny you say that because in my apartment I just put up a put pins in all the places so I can physically see where we’re really lacking. And unfortunately, Canada is a place we’ve never been, and we’re about to cross that off the list – we’re going to Edmonton and Toronto and so I’ll get some pins into Canada. Africa would be exciting. I noticed there’s a whole continent there that we’ve yet to stick a pin in and there are all kinds of places. I would love to just see this entire map full of pins.
Eventually you’re gonna have to do a very private show in Antarctica, then.
Yeah, well, we’re not gonna worry about the logistics of Antarctica if we haven’t been to Africa, so we’ll cross Africa off the list at some point and then we’ll look at Antarctica.
When that time eventually comes, do you think you’ll try to incorporate penguins?
Well, they’re easy to incorporate, aren’t they? They’re very malleable, submissive creatures They’ll do whatever they’re told. Did you see that one in Scotland today? There was a penguin in Edinburgh who was being honored in Scotland. He was walking in front of those armed guards, walking down the street in Edinburgh and it was amazing.
I guess this March of the Penguins movie is finally bringing penguins the recognition they deserve.
Morgan Freeman made that whole movie on his laptop.
I read that too. Now, with all the touring you’ve done, you must have quite a bit of crazy adventures. Have you got anything you’d like to share?
Like I told you before: it’s really not that crazy. We played at some guy’s wedding in Prague and we literally played to like ten people. It was him and ten wedding guests and we played for basically 3 hours. They wouldn’t let us off the stage. That was interesting. They flew us all the way to Prague and we thought we’d play as long as we possibly could and we literally played until I couldn’t talk anymore and the guy still wasn’t happy. He felt like I was letting him down.
How would one arrange, if they were, say, having a wedding, or get-together, to book the Electric Six – how would that happen?
Well, we’ve always put the word out there that we’ll play Bar Mitzvahs. We’ll do anything for money. We’re not burdened by any sense of careers or like, being cool. We’ll just take the money.
Do you have any phobias?
I’m not terribly into gum. I’m probably afraid of gum.
Gum? How would you react if someone were to throw gum up at you if you were up on stage?
I’m fine if it’s still in the package. If it’s in my mouth, then I’ll start to become very afraid.
Is there any confusion about the Electric Six that you would like to clear up right now?
We’re not crazy.
Ok. There’s this rumor that I think you should settle once and for all right now: On Danger! High Voltage, does Bill Clinton perform the saxophone solo?
That’s not Bill Clinton
How would such a rumor get started? Did you start that one?
Oh yeah…we started the rumor…but we’ve been exposed and now we have to come clean.
Are there any other rumors that you’re working on?
No, I’m not.
Are you sure?
That’s my rumor for now.
Have you got an idea for a sitcom in which you are the main character?
I wrote an episode of Moesha back in the day. Basically, it was when Moesha goes to college and I wanted myself to play the role of the teaching assistant ’cause I had a big crush on Moesha so I wrote myself into the script. I wanted to make sure that my character hooked up with Moesha. I was a white teaching assistant that she would end up falling for and they become a couple, then when I come home to Moesha’s dad – I’ve never seen Moesha…I don’t even know if she even has a dad- so the dad always pictured Moesha being with somebody who was black so then in order to please the dad, I become some sort of like a Hip-hop guy. They didn’t use it.
Can you compare playing live to something a norm would have experienced?
I do very much enjoy playing live, but I can’t say it’s rush or anything like that. It’s more of not being in a cubicle kind of thing. It’s not like an addictive high or anything like that. It’s just an appreciation that at least for this one night I don’t have to be in a cubicle. And that’s a good feeling.
Would you like to leave our readers with maybe a special recommendation of Dick Valentine of some sort?
These are all people who live in New Jersey?
Yes.
Way to go.
The Electric Six will be playing at Maxwell’s of Hoboken on September 26th. It may be too late to get tickets at this moment, but, if it’s any consolation, I have three. Visit electricsix.com to read more interviews, see music videos, sample songs, and see tour dates.
