Interviews: Dan Potthast
Redwood City raconteur Dante3000 recently had the chance to sit down and chat with MU330 front man, and solo artist
href="http://www.punknews.org/bands/danpotthast">Dan Potthast. The two
talked about everything from playing solo, to the meaning of songs and even
awesome amusement parks. Dan even drops some knowledge about a new label being started by Streetlight Manifesto brainchild Tomas Kalnoky, big news indeed.
The full audio of the interview, plus some of Dan's solo music, can be found
here. The
end of the audio interview also contains directions on how to enter to win
an Asian Man prize pack
featuring both of Dan Potthast's CD's (Sweets and Meats and
Eyeballs), The Lawrence Arm's Cocktails and Dreams, the
re-release of Alkaline Trio's goddamnit and other Asian Man swag.
First I want to thank you for taking the time to talk with us.
No problem, thanks for asking me to do the interview.
So, I guess the first thing is that you have a pretty long musical
history, if you could just give us a brief rundown of that.
Yeah, sure. Okay, well I started playing music my freshman year in High
School with some of my best friends. That's the band I started called
MU330. We still play. We're still playing shows and writing and recording.
Our first show was in 1988.
Oh wow.
(Laughs) Yeah we were a band in the 80's, which is pretty hard to wrap my
own brain around. But, We played all over with that band. We played in the
United States. We've been to Europe a bunch and Japan and Korea and Russia.
Alaska. Hawaii. All over the place. That band's taking me all kinds of
crazy places.
I also have solo albums out and I play in a couple of different bands
besides MU330, when I'm not on tour with them.
So when did you start working on your own solo stuff?
Uhmâ¦Now, probably about eight years ago. I just had a handful of songs that
didn't quite fit with the MU330 stuff and I went in and recorded it with a
friend who worked at a studio. So, I had these new songs recorded and Mike,
from Asian Man Records, just offered to put it out. I never intended to
release it and I thought, "Really, you'll put that out?". So he put out an
album, before I knew it I had an album and I thought, "I guess I should play
solo shows now". (laughs) That's just kind of how it started. I never
intended like, "I'm going solo" kind of thing. It just sort of happened.
MU330 is a pretty large band, is it weird going from that to just
yourself on stage?
Yeah, it's a lot different. I do miss having the full, loud rock n' roll
behind me. If I drop a line or screw up they got my back. I know when we
walk into a club and we rock out as a band we're gonna kick butt. Solo it
could go either way (laughs) and any blunders are painfully evident. It's
good for me, I think. I feel like if you can carry a show by yourself, when
you get up with a band it's just that much easier. So, I think it's helped
with my shows with MU330.
Yeah we were a band in the 80's, which is pretty hard to wrap my own brain around.
So we mentioned [before the interview] that you moved from Saint
Louisto Santa
Cruz. Now, was that your first move of that size?
Yeah, I grew up and lived in Saint Louis my whole life. I traveled with my
band. I knew I was ready for a change and ready for something different and
I loved Northern California. I met some awesome people out here. Some of
the guys I met like in Slow
Gherkin, Mike, from
Asian Man Records, he lives in Northern California and we were really
tight. So, it just made sense to move there. Plus in Santa Cruz it's
almost selfish we have these beautiful redwood trees and ocean. It's like
the best of so many worlds.
And a theme park. You ever go to the Boardwalk?
Absolutely. The Giant Dipper, all the way.
I'm a big fan of the carousel with getting
the rings in the clowns mouth.
Me too. You wouldn't thinkâ¦I never thought, "Oh that carousel man", but
when there's something to do it's like a video game, there's a
challenge. Like,
"I'm gonna get it in that damn clowns nose, or whatever". (laughs)
Well get you to play on the big stage, where they have the free shows with like The Beach
Boys.
The Beach Boys? I wish they had the Beach Boys. They get like Eddie Money
and Tiffany. (laughs) Actually, she was amazing.
You saw her play there?
Twice. (laughs) Yeah, I'm a big fan of the free Friday night concert
series at the Boardwalk. Last year they got the English Beat to play and
they were amazing.
I think they're starting to do the free concert circuit because they
just played Music in
the Park over in San Joseâ¦and I missed them there.
Well, you can go to Las Vegas on September 8 and see MU330 play with the
English Beat.
That's right, during the Ska Circus.
The Ska Circus (laughs). That's got to be the funniest name for a show
ever. It's gonna be a circus let me tell you.
Do you know who all is playing?
I know some of the people. I know Mustard Plug is playingâ¦uhm, Pietasters I
think Voodoo Glow Skulls, ourselves, Toasters, English Beat and I think,
maybe Westbound Train and a handful of other bands.
It's got to be pretty awesome to play with the English Beat.
Yeah, there one of the two-tone bands that I haven't had the chance to play
with yet. So, I'm pretty excited to play with some heroes.
So, in August of last year you mentioned you were working on a handful
of recordings and you were hoping to have an album out around December, so
what happened to all that.
(laughs) Uh-oh. Okay, wellâ¦did I mean last December or this coming
December?
I believe it was last December, 2006.
Oh gosh, yeah I missed it. Well, I do have an album out that's been out for
a few months. An album called Eat the Planet that's a solo one and I
have a new album with a new band coming out in October or November, sometime
around there. A band called The Stitch Up. That's coming out on a label
thatâ¦Streetlight Manifesto, the guy Thomas, is starting a new label and one
of the first albums he's going to release is The Stitch Up. Then we're
going on tour with Streetlight Manifesto in the Winter. That's the big
announcement that no one knows, except you guys. You got the inside scoop.
So that's exciting. We're going to have a new album out and be on a big
tour, so that's big for me. Then September we have a handful of shows with
MU330 and Mustard Plug around the Midwest.
Then when you go on tour with Streetlight Manifesto you can get on
Thomas about when their new album is going to be out.
Well it's going to be out. It's supposed to be out for that tour, that's
the plan. That's what I hear.
I know when you recorded Eat the Planet you had mentioned
possibly re-recording it in a more professional studio, do you still see
that happening?
Yesâ¦Uhmâ¦Possibly. I'm not sure because I have about five or six other
albums written of other things, that it almost seems to make more sense to
keep moving along. Get new songs recorded. I'd like to. My original idea
was to re-record Eat the Planet in LA and get as many guests from the
ska world as I could. Get all my friends that I've toured with that are
around the LA area. So, that still sounds really fun to me but I just don't
have the time. I'm trying to get this album out for the Streetlight tour
and it's all that I can do to get that finished. So, we'll see about
re-releasing Eat the Planet. That might have been wishful thinking.
Is it ever hard to differentiate songs as you write them? Like, this
could be for MU330 or my solo album?
Not usually. Like the songs just seem to fit. Usually when I write I have
a project in mind, so I've gotten kind of used to that [process].
I know you had Sweets and Meats and Eyeballs got put out
as a double LP in the UK with two unreleased songs, can you tell me what
those were?
Those are two songs, that are on Eat the Planet, from the Eat the
Planet sessions. So they got tacked on to the UK becase, Eat the
Planet in not available in the UK.
So where can people get Eat the Planet?
They can order it
href="http://www.mu330.com/danpotthast/merch.html">on-line,
from me. Evidently, the Paypal button, I did something wrong. It was
working for a little while and now people are e-mailing me like, "It doesn't
work".
It's charging like $8,000.
Yeahâ¦haha, trust me, maybe eight cents is more like it, with my PayPal
sales.
Sound Guy Nariman: Hurry up and get it now.
(laughs) I actually think nothing happens when you click the button but if
you e-mail me we can work out a plan.
Then at the end of the day you look back like, "that didn't even exist when I woke up". That feels so good and that's the rush that keeps me playing music.
I have to ask, one of the first [solo] songs of your that really
disturbed me was "Perryville". For those who may not know it's about
[Dan's] brothers going, with their grandparents, to see girl who was
petrified. Is that an actual story?
True story. Absolutely. Perryville, Missouri, there was a church there
that below the alter, it's all kinda in the song. But, the story goes she
was on her way up to receive her first communion and her father did not
approve. So, he shot her as she was on her way to receive her first
communion. But, rather than her bleeding to death and dying and rotting
like most people would, it was a miracle. As soon as he shot her she turned
to stone. She was petrified. So this church had this petrified girl that
they kept in glass, below the alter. You could go and check this out.
I know in the song it was your brothers but have you had a chance to
check this out?
No, I have never seen it. They moved her at some point. The last I heard
she was moved to some convent somewhere in Saint Louis. I don't know. I'd
like to get a look at it.
And your grandparents took them? Were they like really religious or was
it just like a sideshow to them?
I think, you know, it was just kind of a different time. (laughs) It was a
while ago. That was the thing they told me this story and it just seemed so
unbelievableâ¦I asked my brother about it and my mom and they both confirmed
it. It was just so strange to me I just had to write a song about it.
You just thought, "that's the kind of thing I need to sing about".
Yeah, that's the kind of thing I need to confuse people (laughs). And then
talk about for a long time in an interview. (laughs)
So do you have plans to do new solo material anytime soon? I know you
have a million things coming up.
Yes. Uhmâ¦Well I've got this new band (The Stitch Up) is kind of like my new
solo thing. I got that, I also have plansâ¦I play in a band called
Spitzer in Santa
Cruz, with my fiancé and my buddy Greg. We have an albums worth of stuff
that I'd like to record. I also play in a band with my friend Matt Porter
who used to play in Slow Gherkin, we play all surf, ska, guitar stuff that's
mostly instrumental. That's a project I'd like to get recorded. Yeah, I
have so much stuff.
Basically you can spend the next 8 years in the studio.
Yeah, and I still wouldn't have it all recorded.
There's a lot of people who have side projects or solo projects and it's
just a side deal. You seem like the creativity is just pouring out of you.
Well, it's always why I've been in a band and why I do what I do. I love
music and I love to play it and write it. That feeling of creating a new
songâ¦and then at the end of the day you look back like, "that didn't even
exist when I woke up". That feels so good and that's the rush that keeps
me playing music.
At least it's not money or something.
(laughs) Certainly, that is not what has kept me in the game. Maybe once I
learn to work those PayPal buttons.