INTERVIEW WITH VERVE PIPE FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES
DM) It seemed that with the popularity of the song, Freshmen, the media focused on nothing else about the band. What was your feeling on it?
DB) I think the media did overblow it, but they have the tendency to do things like that. It doesn't matter what band it is--they'll do it with any artist or whichever. If an artist is hot, you're going to see that artist everywhere. We understood that, and we accepted that and we moved on. Which is why Villains was our fourth single. Just because we are a rock and roll band, and Freshman and Villains are different sides of us, we wanted people to know that. Because if they're going to be paying attention to the band, it's best to let them know the whole story.
DM) You've done a new album, the song on Clay Pigeons (1229 Sheffield) and a song on the Great Expectations soundtrack.
DB) The Great Expectations thing was... I'm trying to think of what song that was...
DM) Hood ornament?
DB) Yeah, that was a song that Brian [Vander Ark] was asked to write about the movie. They told him that they wanted a song that sounded like this, and so that was just us trying to play a song like they wanted.
The Clay Pigeons thing is a great tune. I like that song a lot. it's got an Elvis Costello rib in it.
DM) And Blow You Away was on the Avengers soundtrack.
DB) Blow You Away was written with Andy Partridge from XTC. That's one of the thrills Brian has had that not everybody else in the band has had...
DM) Do I sense a little sibling rivalry?
DB) Yeah... a bit.
DM) You admit it, though, at least!
DB) Yeah, I don't know many songwriters who don't appreciate Andy Partridge. To think that you're a songwriter, and your lead singer is a songwriter, and our guitarist is a songwriter, and Brian is the one who goes and works with Andy. It's like, "S---, I would love to have worked on that. I would love to have just spent a little time with him and picked his brain."
DM) Is there any direction you've been trying to push your own career then?
DB) My career is firmly entrenched in the Verve Pipe right now. I love to write songs, but not many people have the conduit that I do. They don't have a really good lead singer. They don't have somebody who can sing the s--- out of stuff. They don't have a guitarist who can make a mountain out of a mole hill, and a good bass player and a good keyboardist who come up with a lot of really solid melodic ideas... so I like where I'm at.
DM) That was something else that struck me... You did some of the writing on the album. It's generally considered a horrible stereotype, but it's not often for the drummer to do the songwriting. Why do you think there's that stereotype?
DB) I don't know. There's different bands for everything. Probably my favorite REM song was written by Bill Barry, the drummer.
DM) What was the song?
DB) It's a song called, Perfect Circle. It's on their first album. I think it's the last song.
DM) What instrument do you write songs on?
DB) I play guitar. I usually write on guitar, but I'll write on anything I can get my hands on. I'll write on piano if I have it.
DM) When did you start on the drums?
DB) Forever ago! (laughs) I've never been really serious about drumming. And I'm thinking now I'm going to get more serious about it because I'm being moved by it a bit more. I've always been much more moved by songs.
DM) That seems a little surprising when you're in a band with a platinum-selling album...
DB) You've got to understand, I went to Michigan State in 1989, and there were guys there who had a pair of sticks in their hand and were clicking on every bucking thing in sight. I would be glad to play drums and work on something but I always wanted to hear a piece of music.
DM) So what is your passion then? The writing?
DB) My passion is the music as a whole. I'm constantly looking. And I'll ask you, too. I want to know what you've heard lately that's worth a damn!
DM) Well, I do get a lot of music to review every week. One of my favorite bands has been Jackopierce.
DB) I know Caky and Jack (of Jackopierce). I met them on the AWARE tour and in Jack's current tour with American Horse and Cares solo set. We were planning in Athens, and they were in that theater in town, playing to a huge soldout show. What else do you listen to?
DM) Well, there's a lot of bands I listen to that aren't often on the top-40 charts.
DB) So you're a Vertical Horizon fan!
DM) How did you know?
DB) Vertical Horizon, to me, was kind of a take-off of Jackopierce. They're new album is much more rock. Anyone else you listen to in that style?
DM) There's a few female artists I listen to like that.Colleen Coadic is one. I just interviewed her last year. She's a great singer/songwriter.
DB) Colleen Coadic?
DM) She sounds a little like that Jackopierce sound.
DB) Like Shannon Worrell?
DM) Yep! A little similar style. I did an interview with her a while ago, too.
DB) Who else, Dominick?
DM) A lot in the Dave Matthews Band genre.
DB) You ever hear of Luca Bloom? That's much more driven by Irish-ness. I'm trying to think of more singer-songwriters like that. Who's in your CD player now?
DM) Actually... Urge Overkill.
DB) Which Urge album?
DM) Ummm.... Saturation.
DB) That's their best album as far as production, too.
DM) I was also always into the U2 B-sides.
DB) Have you gotten the live U2 Christmas album they released to their fans?
DM) No, I haven't yet.
DB) A friend of mine belongs to their fan club/mailing. I'll get everything about U2's list. He gave me this thing, it's like all their own remixes of their own stuff. It's called Melon. It went out as a Christmas gift to all he people who had been with U2 for years. I went and saw the Pop Mart tour, and I got a chance to go backstage with Smash Mouth. Smash Mouth was opening for them. Smash Mouth came on, and their sound was just awful. We toured with Smash Mouth a week and a half ago, and they're a different band. They really totally have changed.
DM) Do they know that you thought they were awful at one point?
DB) No, they don't know. I thought they were awful, but they do know I thought they were a different band. They're a much different band, and they're really smart the way they play to the crowd.
DM) Who else do you like?
DB) I love the new Ben Folds Five record.
DM) Out of all of these bands, is there anybody you'd love to be playing with for fun right now?
DB) Well, I can tell you this. I was very heartbroken when Jeff Buckley died, because I think that was a guy who could have developed song writing as an art into the new millennium. I'm really sad when Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) puts out an album, and it's really disappointing. I'm really sad when these guys who have made music in the past, like Paul Simon and Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne for instance. release albums like they have.