Photo by O

THE DISTILLERS

Here are two of four conversations I’ve had with Brody Dalle. The first is from 2002 just after the release of Sing Sing Death House and the other is from 2003 while on tour in Australia for the Coral Fang record (it was one of their last interviews as the Distillers). A lot sure can change in a year…

In the song City Of Angels you tend to paint a pretty dark picture of LA, is it really that bad?

It’s more the extremes that are shocking. America in general especially when viewed through Australian eyes is like sometimes really attractive and sometimes really vulgar. There’s the sort of deprivation that you see hear that you don’t see in Australia. I feel that the more I see it the more terrifying it is. These people are addicted to their addictions, they can never break that barrier down and their instinct to survive is still there obviously because they’re still living but they’re in these horrid conditions. It’s like a third world country, downtown LA. It’s really horrible.

What one thing that living in LA has really taught you?

Not to take anything for granted and that you have to stay true to yourself you know. Friends and family are really important and it’s like nothing is that serious.

LA is dubbed the City Of Angels, do you believe in Angels? Or are you spiritual in anyway?

Yeah, in some form. I’m not religious, when I grew up I went to a Catholic girls school, which was mortifying for me because I wasn’t baptised. By their standards I wasn’t a child of God so… (laughs) …so you know I could never take the communion or anything like that and if I did I’d be in trouble. So with my views I’m pro-choice so being a pro-choice teenager and going to an all-girl Catholic school back in the early 90’s was something that was kind of disgraceful. I am spiritual, I believe in something…I don’t know what it is but I believe that something makes the fucking world spin and the clock tick, maybe it’s just time or whatever but yeah there’s something there’s just so many coincidences.

You originally moved to LA to be with Tim, didn’t you guys meet at the Summersault Festival in Australia?

Yeah.

Do you think that you guys are soulmates?

Me and Tim, absolutely. There were a lot of coincidences. It was kind of my destination leading up to it you know what I mean?

People compare you guys to Kurt and Courtney and Sid and Nancy, one journalist put it that you and Tim are carrying the punk rock torch into the 21st century. How do comments and comparisons like that sit with you?

As far as the comparisons, everyone’s individual and of course we’re going to get pigeonholed. I don’t really ever think about it or dwell on it you know but it’s nice that I make music and that my partner makes music and we get to do it together and that we’ve built this little empire that’s ours. I love that fact about it definitely but with those comparisons I never really thought about it. I’d have to think about it a little more I guess.

Will we ever see a Tim and Brody duet?

We sing together on a Transplants song. It’s [The Transplants album] the best fucking shit I’ve ever heard in like years. We do stuff all the time together but I don’t know if it will ever see the light of day. Maybe one day.

Wether you like it or not your becoming a role model for girls everywhere, how does that sit with you?

I’ve had to make a lot of individual choices and a lot of sacrifices and do things a certain way which in this industry is sometimes really hard. I never really dealt with sexism in this industry up until recently like the bigger my band gets the more sexism I encounter. Usually I turn a deaf ear or just ignore it, you just go through it. I think that if I can do it, me a little girl from Melbourne can do it then I think anyone can do it. If anything, I could send a message out there that you can do it that would pretty much be my goal as far as that’s concerned.

Distillers are going on tour with No Doubt and Garbage in the fall, are you excited? Do you think it’ll do something for the women in music cause? Do you think it could empower young girls to get out there and give it a go?

Yeah, I hope so. It’s been a long time since there’s really been any sort of infiltration of females on the radio especially here since like the ’90s, since Courtney Love was on the radio and Hole were playing, there was that whole movement. I’ve never been on a tour with girls, which is disgusting (laughs) it’s outrageous. It’s just a shame that there’s not more girls out there doing it for the fact that they want to play music not for the fact that they are female and they are doing it, that’s great to but if you love playing music and you want to do it you should just go out and do. I’m really excited.

I read an interview that was done with you before your first headlining club tour of America and you were really nervous and you said that you only expected like five people to turn up, how is it going from something like that to playing huge venues?

It’s pretty nerve racking I get flying birds when I think about it, in my belly. It’s almost like I don’t want to say it being to crass but like performing in front of that many people, we just did it on Saturday like 10,000 people at the Inland Invasion was like your being tested but in a really good way. I’m sure we’ll learn a lot from this. There’s no other feeling like standing in front of that many people and having a space to express yourself like that. It’s completely different atmosphere than a regular punk show. The vibe is still there just on a mush more colossal scale.

In reviews of read of Distillers shows, I’ve read that at times you seemed detached from your audience? Do you put up a wall to the audience when you go on stage?

I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I would say that I’ve been getting better; I’ve started interacting with the crowd. I’m pretty shy. I like interacting with them though ‘cause I get something back. It’s hard to get up in front of a bunch of people and do what we do. I don’t want to be a pussy about it ‘cause it’s totally fun and rad and you feed off the crowd’s energy obviously but for me being a shy person I’ve had to overcome a lot of those fucking boundaries.

Being from Australia how did you hook up with the people to make the first Distillers line-up?

Through Epitaph, there was a couple of people there and friends like Brad Logan from F-Minus help me find people and then we played with The Nerve Agents, which was our first all-ages show were I met Andy two and a half/three years ago. And me and Andy and The Nerve Agents just became really good friends and when we needed…when Kim and Matt were dissolved from the Distillers and I needed a bass player and drummer it was still me and Rose at that point I called Eric from the Nerve Agents and asked if I could use his drummer and as it turned out The Nerve Agents broke up ‘cause they were having so scheduling problems, people going to school and it wasn’t matching up so Andy joined The Distillers. I met Ryan through Axis Records.

Speaking of Axis, which is a record, comic and collectable toy store. Do you collect anything like that?

I collect…this friend of ours at Bounty Hunter from Japan makes these really great toys, so yeah we collect some of that stuff.

I have to ask, why did Casper leave the band?

She quit in England because (Brody carefully chooses her words) she didn’t like touring anymore and she preferred to be at home with her boyfriend at the time.

Was that really hard for you?

Yeah it was really hard for me ‘cause we’ve been through a lot together, she was like my best friend (Brody says a little melancholy). It was hard but she’s making decisions that can control her life, that make her feel good for a lack of better words so that she can…she’s doing good, she’s not as stressed out as she was back then and I think she just wants to live an inconspicuous life. She loves music and she’s really talented so I hope she does something. I don’t think she really wanted to be in the position she was in in the first place; it took her a long time to figure that out. She’s still bopping around.

Do you have plans to get another guitarist?

Right now playing as a three-piece is making me a better guitar player. I’m really enjoying it right now and also bringing in another guitarist, a fourth party right now… it’s kind of difficult to be honest, to incorporate another personality into a well-oiled machine. It takes a lot of attention to do that and right now we feel that it’s too much for us to take on so it may be later on down the road that we do that. I definitely have a girl that I want to bring in to do it and stuff but she has school and stuff. We’re basically just waiting a while to see what happens.

On Sing Sing Death House there’s a few songs that touch on dysfunctional families and I’ve read interviews that everyone in the band has had a kind of dysfunctional family do you think that a lot of kids that are into punk have that in common? Do feel that there’s a lot of pain and anger from that that’s fuelling punk?

Absolutely. We all assimilate for certain reasons and I’m sure that’s definitely one of them. Every single person I know in the punk rock scene either comes from abusive or dysfunctional families, everyone has a story to tell. The first time I heard Discharge it was like ‘dude that’s exactly how I feel’ even though it’s more political it was the music was what spoke to me, so fuck yeah.

You’ve had a lot to deal with in your life going to a Catholic school, you lived on the street for a while, and you had your band Sourpuss and did all that stuff you’ve had in a way a hard life up until now, was it all worth the struggle to make you who you are today?

Yeah. What they say is what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I believe in that. I know it sounds so cliché, but I do. If you live through all that shit you can just find a place were your comfortable and you work from there. (thinking about the question again Brody emphasizes) Yeah definitely.

Other songs on Sing Sing are about heroin use, is that from personal experience or friends’ experiences?

It’s a bit of both. I know a lot of people that have really struggled with it; it wasn’t really that big of a struggle for me, not that certain drug. It was just drugs and alcohol in general. But that’s definitely were it comes from. (Analysing the question Brody adds) A lot of people always assume that I’m always singing from an autobiographical perspective and it’s not true. I sing about a lot of different people and stories, a lot of stuff inspires me to write, it’s not always about me.

The Distillers seemed to get slammed a lot out in the public arena. What’s one of the stupidest things you’ve ever heard about The Distillers?

Let me see. I feel that it’s mostly just a bunch of people who don’t have anything better to do and are really unhappy with their own lives. Obviously if you’re in the public arena you have people project certain ideals or fantasies on you and some of it can be scathing and mean and horrible. I don’t pay attention to it…people call me a ‘crackwhore’ and I’m like ‘yeah yeah I’m a crackwhore but I can pay for my own crack now’. You take it with a grain of salt, with two fingers in the air, like who gives a fuck.

Why do you think people target you?

I figured this out today actually with a girlfriend of mine, that it’s probably because I’m female. There’s a lot of girls that do the shit talking not necessarily the guys, ‘cause guys don’t talk like that, it’s not the way they operate. I feel it’s just a bunch of insecure girls that like to project on me and make assumptions about my life that are absolutely untrue and unfounded. There’s these misconceptions about me like I’m this big bitch, you know what? Maybe I am a bitch, but not really I do what I want to do and if that makes me a bitch then, whatever.

The Distillers were together about a year before the press caught on that you were Tim’s wife, how did that change things?

People just assumed that I’d gotten everything through that and that relationship. That’s just the way it goes, I knew that that was what was going to happen. My husband’s career is very fruitful and they [Rancid] are as far as I’m concerned are one of the most prolific bands that I know; they’ve influenced thousands of fucking punk kids from Operation Ivy to Rancid they’ve probably had more of an impact on the punk scene since they’ve came out then any other punk band.

Do feel now that you’re coming into your own right?

Yeah definitely. I think people mouth off and they talk shit and then when they see the band and see what we do and they see it as a product they understand that we stand on our own feet. We do work our arse of, we’ve done like twelve American tours and two European tours and that we promote ourselves and we’re out there all the time. We work our arses off we don’t sit on our arses and do nothing.

Blondie made a shirt that said ‘Blondie is a band’ do you ever feel like making a shirt that says ‘The Distillers is a band’?

[laughs] I would but it’s already been done. It gets really frustrating sometimes.

I read in an interview that something that inspired you to dye your hair black was because of an actress you saw in the French movie ‘Betty Blue’?

Definitely.

What do you think makes a girl/women beautiful?

I think it’s many things, it’s more of a self perception and the way that you carry yourself and it’s the confidence to get what you want in life. That’s what’s important, not necessarily physical beauty. I find women who some people may say are ugly physically attractive. But that’s just my taste. It’s definitely how you carry yourself and the fact that you don’t give a fuck about what other people think.

Is there anyone’s personal style you admire?

Yeah there’s a lot. Back in the day as far as women I do love Debbie Harry with all my heart. She was fucking awesome, a lot of people give her shit for just being this blonde singer but she was really smart and really talented. So there’s Debbie, Poly Styrene was really huge for me, Siouxsie Sioux was great, I love dark haired women there’s just something about them.

Art by Populacexinxtwo

Bloody But Unbowed – The Distillers Fight the Good Fight

“Punk started out as art and free thinkers, people who wanted to do something different,” Andy Granelli drummer for The Distillers has been known to proclaim. In that sense are and will, The Distillers always be a punk rock band? “By those standards, yes. That’s what it started out as. It wasn’t all Mohawks and safety pins. That was only one person’s interpretations and, it happened to be the most popular,” Granelli tells Bianca Valentino.

The Distillers are a band. Having read countless interviews and features on ‘the band’ in the past months as the stars have grown brighter for the quartet following the release of their major label debut, Coral Fang for Sire/Warner, you’d be forgiven for thinking that The Distillers were a one-woman show. Headlines proclaiming ‘Brody Dalle: The New Queen of Punk’, ‘Brody to the Max’, ‘Dalle Parts’, ‘The Brody Bunch’ and simply ‘Brody’ have popped up in countless publications worldwide. Sitting backstage in a small room tucked away in the depths of the Brisbane Convention Centre on the eve of the band’s first Australian show supporting Queens Of The Stone Age, they reflect on all the media attention shined Dalle’s way. “We don’t read that stuff,” Dalle clarifies getting straight to the point squirming to get comfortable in her seat.

For today’s meeting Brody is clad in dark three-quarter pants, bright blue midriff top adorned with simple Hawaiian style palm trees and sunset. Completing the outfit are red banded, clear-heeled pumps, the kind you’d find at your local sex shop or on the feet of an exotic dancer. Heavyset, tattooed drummer, Andy Granelli is fitted out in the rock musician norm – plain black shirt, denim jeans, cap and sneakers while newly rusty-haired bassist, Ryan Sinn also wears the obligatory sneakers, pants and black tee printed with one of his favourite bands’ insignias. A bevy of tattoos including a scene depicting a pirate with cannon and palm tree peeks from beneath.

Exploring the subject further – questioning if there is ever any resentment among the group resulting from the media’s fascination with Dalle and her much publicised love life? – Granelli without even having to contemplate the question replies, “No, I think we resent the bullshit that fucking comes out of it though. We don’t resent her, it’s not her fault.” Nodding in agreement, Sinn offers, “It’s never like ‘why is she getting all the attention?’ It’s like ‘what’s the fascination with something that has no relevance to anybody else’s life?” Granelli echoes in further defense of his whiskey-voiced band mate “It’s like, why do so many people have to talk shit about our friend when they don’t even know her?” Newest addition to the band, guitarist Tony Bradley is currently missing in action. It turns out he’s downstairs nibbling away on a sprawling catered feed before sound check. Had he been in attendance one would assume he’d share his fellow comrades’ sentiments.

In using the word ‘comrades’ it risks approximating an understatement where it concerns this tight-knit group. The US based foursome is thicker than thieves, perhaps in part, due to their similar upbringing as members of dysfunctional families. “I think it would make sense why we gravitated towards each other”, Dalle states, her voice trailing off. “It gives us something in common,” Granelli suggests. “If that’s the whole energy of your family, it also gives you something to break. A cycle to break,” says Dalle thoughtfully. Granelli, Sinn and Dalle concur that the band has become a second family to them. To honor their impermeable bond, the group went under the (tattoo) gun getting a tiny black heart emblazoned on their right hand just above their thumbs as a testament to their enduring friendship whilst on tour in Japan last March or, ‘Smarch’ as Dalle and Granelli put it.

Spending time with the band they really make you feel at home, welcoming you into the fold like a long lost friend. Despite what you’re heard of Dalle’s sometimes alleged ‘ice-queen’ persona and the assumptions you’ve made of her through what you’ve read in the media, she’s a complete doll. The whole band is refreshing candid and genuine, you also grasp the fact that each member is fiercely individual which adds to the overall character of the band, with them all bringing something special to the party. “Andy brings funny,” Dalle laughs. “Yeah I bring the funny,” Granelli agrees. “I brought a hair tie today for Brody,” Sinn enlightens. “Yeah thanks,” Dalle articulates directing her candid gratitude towards her left where Sinn is seated. “We all kind of bring the same thing,” Granelli interjects. “I think we all like to have a good time and we’re all interested in having fun and joking around. I think that’s all pretty important. I guess it’s probably a silly thing to be important but…” “No it’s not dude, you can’t take everything too seriously,” Dalle counters. “We’re like four different personalities of one brain,” Sinn sums up grinning, happy at the conclusion he’s arrived at. Sinn who usually looks as though he’s stepped off the set of Pirates of the Caribbean, confess’ that people regularly tell him that he looks like, well…a pirate. “I get it all the time. I’ve been called many things,” he jokes. “Ryan is definitely a pirate,” Dalle and Granelli say in unison.

While swashbuckling their way through the creation of Coral Fang the band realised that for the first time in their five year career with constant revolving-door lineup, that they finally had the perfect, solid line-up. The making of the album also helped them realise several things about themselves personally and as a band. In a previous interview Sinn had said that ‘making the album saved them’. “Music in general, I think motivates us and pulls us through hard times,” he explains. “On that record just where we were at, at the time, that year and everything going on in each of our lives and everybody’s own personal things – that record got us away from that and got us through it. Being on the road and playing new songs, it’s kind of like a feeling of keeping on. Like when you go through something, but you know where you’re heading and you know what you’re doing and you know why. It’s a good feeling.”

The album, for the most part, was written solo by Australian native, Dalle from late January into February of 2003 in a small Fitzroy, Melbourne hotel room having only her thoughts to keep her company. “I love being by myself, I die for those moments,” she enthuses, her blue-green eyes which are at this rare moment, sans heavy black eyeliner and shadow, light up. “Not in a lonely way, but when you’re writing you have to. You can’t be in a situation with people buzzing around you,” she explains. “You have to isolate yourself. We don’t ever get that much time alone, its quality. It’s something we cherish.”

Following the album’s release you could say that The Distillers have had about zero time for themselves, straight away embarking on the colossal summer US alterna-fest that is Lollapalooza, giving the band a much deserved and welcomed fresh start. Brody confesses that at times on tour she became so nervous before several shows that she simply ‘shook like crazy’. “Nervousness is a good thing I think though, because it’s what drives you,” she explains. “Or it can make you stand there and make you not be able to move or do anything. It can be debilitating or it can be positive.”

During the tour the band gained scores of admirers including musical peer and Jane’s Addiction head honcho, Perry Farrell, who declared Brody ‘the sexist woman in rock’. “It’s really sweet he said that”, Dalle says coyly. “It’s cool, but what about on my ugly days? It was nice of him to say that but I don’t know what it means, really!”

Several months prior to playing the merry-go-round of Lollapalooza shows and recording Coral Fang the band ventured out with super groups, No Doubt and Garbage burning up the road on a two month long tour of the US which also, like Lollapalooza, saw them perform before thousands of people. “It was a good experience,” Dalle assures. “It was really bizarre because we were playing a stadium like twelve to sixteen thousand people and we were playing Sing Sing Death House to like five year olds. All these little Gwenabes, it was so weird.” “It was a lot of those kids’ first concerts,” Granelli remarks. “I think we scared a lot of them. I think a lot of them freaked out. I guess that’s what you’re supposed to do…freak people out.” Laughter encompasses the room.

Freaking others out is one thing, but what of freaking yourself out? In the February 2003 edition of Alternative Press Magazine, Dalle comments that she was ‘driven by fear, fear of – not necessarily success, but of not being good enough’. With the bands steadily mounting success Dalle has somewhat reevaluated her driving fears to come to the conclusion that her fears aren’t quite the same as what they were in the beginning, “Not in all respects of my life anyways, just in some,” she answers carefully. “It’s not fear like it use to be. It’s not healthy I don’t think, to be driven by fear, but everyone has it.” “I think we’re all driven by fear,” Granelli affirms as he taps his fingers on his armchair in time to the sounds of Cyndi Lauper’s Money Changes Everything which is escaping from a neighboring room. “I think the world revolves around fear mostly,” Dalle adds. “And paranoia,” Granelli resolves.

Touching on the fact that The Distillers have become role models for young punks everywhere – whether they like it or not – acknowledging that with role model status comes a certain responsibility Sinn observes, “I think everyone has a responsibility to be themselves.” “And to be nice and not to be an asshole,” Granelli pitches in. “You can’t be an asshole.”

Suddenly out of the blue Sinn wildly cracks up as he happens upon a Dual Plover ad in the issue of 15th Precinct he is flicking through. The ad depicts a child feeding two fornicating kangaroos, which he brings to the attention of fellow band mates. “I want to take them to a kangaroo park,” Dalle informs before asking, “How far is the beach?” After doing my best to explain how to get to the nearest stretch of golden sand and crashing waves Dalle looks at their tour manager Dean and asserts with the fervor of a child, “Dude, I want to go swimming.”

Bathing in the success of a very rewarding year gone by, The Distillers are extremely modest of their achievements to date and their newly, somewhat reluctantly acquired celebrity status. “I don’t think we’re famous, I’m so surprised,” Dalle says dumbfounded as Granelli agrees adding, “We’re certainly not fucking rich, and I associate rich with famous.”

On the topic of rich and famous, the conversation drifts towards a tale of The Distillers being offered an undisclosed sum of money to allow a US sandwich company to use their song, Sick of It All off their 2002 Hellcat released Sing Sing Death House, for a television advertisement for chicken alfredo sandwiches. “Fezolli’s Sandwiches wanted to use Sick Of It All for their ad,” Dalle recounts. “We were like ‘what? Did you listen to the lyrics?’ It was bizarre for a chicken sandwich.” Everyone chuckles. “It’s fucking amazing. It’s fucking funny. We should have done it looking back on it now,” Granelli jokes with sarcastic remorsefulness. “We should go ask ‘em if they still want to do it?” Dalle proposes jestingly. “No one would have known.” “I mean like who the fuck is Mamma Fezolli anyway?” Granelli asks rhetorically. “I’ve never seen any of her ads on tv,” Dalle retorts. “She’s probably a communist,” Granelli casually throws in, which amuses Dalle to no end, encouraging the raven haired punker to giggle profusely.

“Ryan sacrifices chickens before shows,” Granelli jokingly exposes his band mate. “I fucking hate chicken,” Sinn opposes. “Dirty bird, but someone’s got to do it,” Dalle laughs. The trio breaks out in a fit of laughter for the umpteenth time.

In The Distillers camp there is definitely a lot of fun, play and laughter shared between band mates. “Yeah, we kind of joke and relax a lot,” Granelli says sheepishly. “We’re in a constant pursuit of leisure,” swears a beaming Sinn, who later when thanked for time out of the bands busy schedule for the interview replies candidly, “Busy? Yeah, busy sitting on my ass!”

Another source of amusement for Granelli and Sinn seems to be the operation of our lavatories. “It’s cool to come to a place where the toilet flushes in the opposite direction,” tells Granelli. “I haven’t actually seen that yet,” Sinn admits. “Because there’s so much power it just goes whoosh.” “You got to fill the sink and watch it go. I did it,” Andy counsels Ryan in toilet etiquette. “Dude I tried flushing it like four times and I was like, fuck!” he replies.

Toilet humor aside, pardon the pun, The Distillers are an unstoppable tour de force going from strength to strength with no sign of letting up anytime soon. Still reeling from their success and the immensity of the journey so far Brody divulges, “There’s nothing that prepares you for it, there’s no manual. It’s like getting prepared to be struck by lighting, you don’t know what to expect? So when it happens it’s all kind of surreal.” Andy finishes humbly, “I think we’re still definitely going for it.”