In 2 albums, DILUTE became the master of strange pop in the vein of bands like STORM & STRESS or GASTR DEL SOL ! Strange atmospheres, marvelous voice, complex structures... interview with one of the stars of the great 54°40 or Fight ! Records !
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In 2 albums, DILUTE became the master of strange pop in the vein of bands like STORM & STRESS or GASTR DEL SOL ! Strange atmospheres, marvelous voice, complex structures... interview with one of the stars of the great 54°40 or Fight ! Records ! |
Jay Pellicci - Drums Ian Pellicci - Guitar Marty Anderson - Guitar, voice Craig Colla - Bass
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DISCOGRAPHIE
dilute | Polk003 The Gypsy Valentine Curve
dilute | Polk004 Grape Blueprints Pour Spinach Olive Grape
Natural DREAMERS - "s/t" (Frenetic)
31KNOTS - "" (54°40 or fight!)
THE HOUSE OF DILUTE !
FRENETIC RECORDS |
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Jay Pellicci: I'm 25 years old and live in Oakland, California. I grew up in a middle class family, but now I'd be considered "poor." Marty, Ian and I have been playing music together since the first day we picked up our instruments. That was when we were in high school. After high school I got a job at a bookstore, which is where I met Craig-he was my boss. Dilute was formed shortly after that, and it's always been the same four people. In all honesty, I don't remember why we decided on the band name. In part it was because we liked the meaning of the word, though I think a big reason was that it was the only name the four of us didn't hate. Craig Colla: 30 years old. Jay and Ian are brothers and they played with Marty. The three of them played in a band with another person. That band ended and they formed dilute. I worked at a bookstore with Jay. He asked if I wanted to play with them. That was 7 years ago. What was the music you listened to as a child ? Craig: My parents subjected me to a strong dose of Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow when I grew up. I didn't start getting interested in music until high school. I started listening to Pussy Galore, Big Black, and the Jesus Lizard and realizing that there was "good" music out there. I'm not interested in a lot of current indie music anymore. I mainly listen to jazz. Jay: Oh God, when I was a kid I listened to Phil Collins, Van Halen, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney and the Wings, the Beatles, Guns N' Roses, Run DMC, Motley Crue, the Chipmunks, and some children's records. I mean, that's most of the stuff I can remember listening to between the ages of 5 and 12. Oh, I can't forget the glam rock. I liked Glam rock, I'm embarrassed to admit. I actually still enjoy most of it to some degree (not the glam rock, though!). The more "classic" music I got into because my parents owned those records, but the other stuff I got into thanks to MTV. It's true…. I really like Storm & Stress. Gastr del Sol I like, too but not as much. Have you learn yr instrument alone or ....??? What is a musician for you ? Craig: I learn music as I go along. Trying to keep up with Marty, Jay, and Ian have been my biggest lessons in playing music. Jay: I started off teaching myself how to play drums, then a year or so after that I took lessons for about a year then quit. I learned mainly though playing with Craig, Ian and Marty. I've never really thought about what a musician is to me. I guess if I was to make something up now, I'd say that it's not someone who is necessarily technically skilled at playing an instrument, so much as someone that knows how to make or complement good sounds. Ugh…. How do you meet with 54°40' or Fight!? Which kind of relationships you've got with the other bands of the label ? Jay: We met up with 54º40' or Fight! through Craig. He sent Steve one of our cds for him to review in his magazine, Copper Press. He ended up emailing me back saying that he liked the record and was going to print a review of it. I think I found out about 54 40 a day or two after that and asked him if he'd be interested in releasing our cd. To our surprise, he said yes. Of the other 54 40 bands, the only ones we really know are Caesura, 31 Knots (now I play drums in this band, too!), and Eyes of Autumn, and we're good friends with them. I think Ed from Gorge Trio is now playing in Sic Bay, which is really exciting. Craig: I sent a CD to Copper Press to get it reviewed. Jay followed up on it. I think Jay just asked Steve if he would release it on his new label. Steve agreed. Caesura, 31Knots, and Eyes of Autumn are really friendly guys (I think Jay in 31Knots touched me in my sleep when we were staying in Portland with him). All three bands are fun to do shows with. They are all really good live bands. I would love to know how DILUTE proceeds & how long it takes for releasing only one song ? Craig: We take a really long time to write music. Marty usually comes up with a framework for a piece. He then introduces it to Jay so he won't be totally lost when we all learn to play it. Then they show the piece to Ian and I and we work on it from there. There is a lot of rearranging and working on parts individually. I don't know if any of our songs are complete. Even after they are recorded when we play them live they become something else. The length of time to write one song depends on the length of the song and complexity. 0 vs. 1 and Sickroom each took over a year to be complete enough to play live in their entirety. Other things are completed enough to play live in a month or so and they transform from there. Jay: Most songs take a really long time to complete. Marty writes the core of the songs, and then he and I get together so I can learn them and get an idea for how the structure should be if it hasn't been decided on by that point. Craig and Ian come in after that to learn the song and write their parts, which leads to more re-arranging, and adding/subtracting of parts. We've even worked on some songs over the course of over a year. Do you work ? How lives DILUTE in USA nowadays ? How many dates can DILUTE play in one month... Craig: I work at a university doing a desk job. We are living somewhat uncomfortably in the USA. Current political decisions are worrying me about the US. Lately we haven't played out much. When we do it averages to about once per month. Jay: Yes, I work at a couple of different recording studios in the Bay Area. I'm currently poor, wracking up a large debt on my credit card, and entertaining the thought of someday leaving this country for one that isn't so frightening. What are the ambitions & the future projects of DILUTE ? Do you play in other bands / side projects ? How do you meet with John Dietrich of GORGE TRIO / DEERHOOF... can you talk about Natural Dreamers on frenetic... Jay: For me, future ambitions for the band would be to practice/play more often, as well as tour and make lots of records. Marty and I are sporadically getting together to work on new songs. Things are going very well, though slow for the time being. Because I'm the drummer, I'm the biggest band whore of the four of us. I'm in Natural Dreamers, and just joined the band 31 Knots. I'm also playing with an electronica artist named Chris Willits, and am noodling around with my friends Josh and Carson from Sacramento. We met John through Deerhoof. Marty and I went to see them play a show and gave them one of our cds. We were really excited and surprised when Greg wrote us back telling us they liked it. Shortly after we started playing shows together and that's how we met John and the Deerhoof crew. I'm not really sure there is too much to say about Natural Dreamers being on Frenetic. We sent out some cds to a few labels, but were hoping that Frenetic would want to release it, and lucky for us they did. Duncan, who is one of the owners of the label, is a really great guy and went out of his way to get the cd to look the way we wanted, and get them pressed in an absurdly short period of time. Craig: With dilute, we will keep doing different projects. Our current two full lenghts are being re-released in Japan right now. We are also hoping to do a split with Deerhoof soon. We have a split with Hella in the works. We are working on new material for another full length as well. 8 - On the net, you can find lots of stuffs to download for free ? what does DILUTE think of these softwares ? Do you think that someone steals money from you ? Craig: Free music is good for bands trying to spread their music to a wider area than just a local scene. When you don't make money, there isn't any money to steal. I think free downloads only hurt corporate companies and the products/bands they mass produce. Internet downloads are free advertising. Jay: I'm all for free downloads on the internet. I think it's a good way to make music available to lots of people, and it gives them a chance to listen to things they might not normally find in a lot of stores. Plus it's good promotion for small bands like us. I don't consider it stealing; it's more appalling to me when popular bands who are already making tons of money complain about the money they're losing because of mp3's. This is probably really naïve of me, but I think that if someone really likes a band, they'll go and buy the cd to support them, or at least for the packaging or something like that. 9 - hey, what are you listening to these days ? Jay: This is a tough question… I've been listening to lots of Tom Petty lately. I go through a lot of phases. I've been listening to primarily quiet, mellow music-stuff that's easy to listen to. Some bands like the Places, Cat Power, Tom Waits, Steve Reich "Music for 18 Musicians", Philip Glass "Solo Piano". Then some other stuff like Cheval de Frise, 31 Knots, the Fucking Champs, Deerhoof, Hella, etc, etc. I also like to put together compilations of bad music-not so bad that you can't listen to it, but just enough to make you laugh. My last comp was a random bunch of songs by Elton John, Dio, Bob Seger, Meat Loaf and Joan Jett to name a few. The one I'm working on currently is all lite rock. It's really bringing back a lot of childhood memories of riding around town with my parents. Craig: Franz Koglmann Anthony Braxton Natural Dreamers Matthew Shipp Guillermo Gregorio Eric Dolphy 9.5 - -------------- a playlist / music / cinema / reading Craig: Reading: A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn Focus, Arthur Miller The Wire magazine Looking Backward, Edward Bellamy Jay: Books: Stupid White Men by Michael Moore Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser Cinema: Adaptation Mr. Show (seasons 1 and 2) Army of Darkness 10 - If you have another thing to say... Jay: I've talked too much already!
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