July 2nd 2009
I found out about Dazzler's show at UCLA's Hammer Museum exactly a week prior to the event. I was on Facebook when Dazzler's guitarist, Andy Marlow, posted a status update about the show, and I promptly called my friend asking if she wanted to go. It was then that I realized I had the perfect opportunity to ask for an interview, and so, I very unprofessionally sent Andy a Facebook message asking if he would be interested in speaking with me. Luckily for me he obliged, and I managed to confirm the interview the same day I asked for it (which is an incredible feat, as any journalist will tell you). Not only did I get to interview Andy, but all five members of Dazzler (Neil Schuh, Adam Villacin, Andy Marlow, Michael Gold, and Tyler Thacker) graciously sat down with me after their set, proving just how awesome this band really is. Here's how it went:
Eszter: So, I want to start off by talking about Dazzler TV. I saw the promo and I thought it looked really cool. Where did that idea come from?
Adam (vocoder, percussion): So, a couple months back Neil got jumped outside of a Burrito King and got his jaw broken, so we couldn’t play any shows for a few months. We decided to fill in our spare time by writing new songs, but also filming some weird videos. We all went to art school and thought that we would try our hand at performance and video stuff.
Eszter: Are these just going to be skits?
Tyler (drums): Oh no, well we’ve already made a whole season so we’re releasing teasers for full length episodes to come.
Eszter: Is it more like a show and not to do really with your music?
Tyler: Well, it’s all scored. Neil scored the first ones, and the teasers, and it’s all music by the band.
Neil (vocals, keytar): We’ve written the majority of the episodes ourselves but we do have outside collaborators.
Eszter: Is this something you’re hoping will get fans to connect with you better and get to know you aside from your music?
Tyler: I suppose. I mean, I don’t think we have any expectations. I think we’re all just trying to keep each other engaged creatively however we can, and in times of adversity we’ll be able to forge through and continue making art.
Eszter: Yeah, I like the idea a lot.
Andy (guitar): Dazzler has always been a very visual band and one of our biggest influences is Devo, and they’re very visual. They had all these videos and stuff like that. We’re kind of in that same multi-media aspect.
Neil: We’re more than just A BAND.
Andy: Right, and in this age, in the YouTube age, it’s so much more accessible and easier to actually have an impact.
Tyler: We also did it to keep a sense of camaraderie in the band alive. People need to associate that with images, and for people who haven’t been able to see us play live or anything, obviously we go a lot beyond just being musicians. It’s a way to engage people that haven’t been to our shows visually. In the digital age, it reaffirms that there are still groups of people working together and making singular products.
Eszter: How did all of you meet and when did you realize you had chemistry as a band?
Tyler: Um, it’s been a long story and there’s been a lot of evolution. It started off as Totally Radd and then we brought on new members. Andy’s been with us for a long time and Michael joined up before Andy did, well actually Andy had played a show with us, and Filip Nikolic (Dazzler's current touring bassist) and Andy both played in Ima Robot. There have been a lot of different incantations of the band.
Neil: This is my favorite incantation of the band. [laughs]
Andy: Incarnation.
Tyler: Incarnations?
Michael (keyboards): Enchantations.
Adam: We did try to summon the ghost of Frank Zappa one night.
Eszter: [laughs] did you really?
Neil: WE DID!!!
Tyler: We did, with magic wands. [all laugh]
Adam: We made them, also.
Eszter: That’s awesome. No Ouija board involved?
Tyler: No.
Eszter: Aww, you should have gotten one.
Adam: It was at Frank Zappa’s old house in Laurel Canyon.
Neil: Across from Houdini’s mansion.
Tyler: And sure enough, instead of finding Frank Zappa’s ghost we found the mistress of Houdini’s secret passageway across Laurel Canyon.
Neil: With magic!
Eszter: Wow.
Andy: It’s also where, uh, Adam first constructed his dream catcher. He’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for constructing the world’s largest dream catcher.
Eszter: Wait, what?! You have the world’s largest dream catcher? I was obsessed with dream catchers when I was a kid.
Andy: How big was your dream catcher that you made?
Adam: It was 26 feet. It’s the largest one in the world.
Eszter: Wow, and you made it yourself?
Adam: Yeah, well I had a little help. Tyler helped and Daniel Renberg, an artist that I went to school with, also worked on it with me, and uh, I mean everyone kind of helped out.
Eszter: Yeah. Where is it now?
Adam: It’s still there. [laughs]
Michael: Is it really still there?
Adam: Yeah, it’s on Laurel and Lookout, chillin’. The house is for sale, it’s like 2.1 million I think.
Andy: It collects the dreams of all of Hollywood. [all laugh]
Eszter: That is amazing. I’d love to know what’s in it.
Adam: Oh and also, a Scientologist is responsible for stealing the feather from it.
Neil: Oh, you found out!
Adam: Yeah, it was at Danny Masterson’s Halloween party. Danny’s a cool guy, but someone he knows stole it.
Eszter: Okay, well I want to ask about Totally Radd. Is Dazzler a completely new project or is it just an evolution of Totally Radd where you changed your band name?
Tyler: It started off as an evolution of Totally Radd but…
Adam: I think it’s a new project now.
Tyler: We built something totally unique for Dazzler, which is ultimately, musically very different. I think it really lends itself to a larger band as well. The music is aimed to be more lush and slightly more organic, but playful obviously, and made for people to have fun to.
Eszter: You guys decided to name your album “Dancing on a Comet’s Tail”. I’m wondering why you chose to call it that as opposed to just calling it Dazzler?
Adam: We wrote Dancing on a Comet’s Tail like four years ago, something like that? Three or four years ago.
Tyler: At this point we’re kind of dancing on our own tail [all laugh]
Adam: In a masculine way.
Tyler: From a male perspective.
Michael: It’s an inside joke.
Eszter: Well, is there anything else you want this idea of Dancing on a Comet’s Tail to represent to your fans?
Tyler: Well, I think it’s…I mean obviously it’s saying—
Andy: It’s not literal. We don’t mean it literally, you know. [all laugh]
Michael: I have never actually danced on a comet’s tail.
Neil: You’d burn your little tootsies off! [all laugh]
Tyler: What we’re trying to do is kind of like a pop music endeavor and a lot of the music can be a tip of the hat to a lot of our favorite artists, and it’s an awareness of a lineage of music.
Adam: Also we can remind people that they can dance to rock and roll.
Andy: And it’s the name of one of our songs, and some bands do that. [all laugh]
Eszter: Well, I know. I just meant like, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you had just called it Dazzler because to me the word Dazzler implies that you’re going to get something amazing. It’s like an active word, I guess you could say.
Andy: That’s why it’s the name of our band.
Neil: You know you’re going to get something!
Eszter: Alright, alright. What makes Dazzler stand out among other bands today?
Andy: A LOT.
Tyler: Besides being the most challenging and ambitious band in all of Los Angeles county [all laugh] it um…
Adam: Wait, hold on, hold on. Brock, answer this question for us.
At this point, a man named Brock walks over to our table and sits down.
Adam: This is our friend Brock. He’s an artist from Los Angeles.
Tyler: He’s an actor.
Brock: Renaissance man.
Eszter: Hi, nice to meet you. Okay, I asked ‘what makes Dazzler stand out among other bands today’?
Brock: Well, um, I think they make everybody in the audience horny. [all laugh]
Tyler: Everyone.
Brock: Everyone.
Neil: Even small children? Animals?
Brock: Well, whatever they can feel…yes.
Andy: ANGELS. DEMONS.
Neil: Spirits?!
Adam: Even Vampires?!
[all laugh]
Brock: The other thing is, you know, you have a rock band that you can also dance to which is a neat thing these days. People don’t feel goofy dancing to Dazzler. They don’t have to be like that straight assed guy that’s sitting there ‘cause he thinks he’s going to look stupid if he dances.
Eszter: Alright, I like that. Your sound is definitely kind of nostalgic, it has sort of a 70s rock feel to it, so were you inspired by that genre of music and if so what about it inspires you?
Adam: Well, we’re all music nerds and we all go digging for old records and I think we look more towards stuff that’s been written in the past, in the 70s, rather than more contemporary stuff as influences.
Tyler: I think the 70s were a time of exploitation and I think that we are intrigued by exploitation. A lot of music from the 70s was referential to music from the past in a new way and I find that, personally, intriguing. The 70s is my favorite decade.
Andy: The 70s is my favorite decade!
Neil: As far as, like, recording music goes, the 70s blew everything up. There was so much possible that no one had dreamed of that allowed a lot of new and really interesting music to be made. Granted, we have too many options today, in that, a lot of people get lost in the creative process because they don’t have enough limitation, I think.
Andy: I think also the 70s was also the first time when you saw different musical elements like funk, prog, rock, disco, all these things started coming together for the first time and that’s kind of like what our band is too. So naturally, we look towards that music for inspiration.
Michael: And it was in a way that was more raw and fresh and had a level of excitement that the genre-crossing didn’t really have in later decades as much…so we try to look back to that to obtain a certain kind of fresh sound.
Adam: Something interesting that I just thought of is that, uh, I think knowing the rest of the guys in my band, all of our favorite genres are rooted in the 70s, but are also completely different from each other. I think we all have different influences when we come in and write songs together. We have very, very different musical backgrounds. I think it all just kind of clicked. For lack of a better term I’d say rooting it down to a decade in particular is basically the lowest common denominator for approaching musical influence.
Neil: Parts of the 80s…
Michael: Yeah parts of the 80s.
Neil: We mean like 1970 through 1983, but there’s always exceptions. 80s get a bad rep sometimes.
Eszter: You guys have started to build up a pretty good following and you’re going on a national tour with Anavan, but you’re still an unsigned band. Is being signed to a label something you’re aiming towards or would you rather keep complete creative control of the band yourselves?
Tyler: Both, ideally.
Michael: I think to realize the vision that is this band we do kind of need help, you know?
Adam: Well, we’d just like to get our music out to a broader audience. I’d like to say we’ve done almost as much as we can staying in LA.
Michael: Definitely.
Adam: I’m really excited to get on the road.
Andy: We wouldn’t say no to a good deal, basically.
Adam: Well, we’d like to get our records heard by everyone and not just people in LA.
Eszter: Have you gotten any label offers yet?
Tyler: There’s interest, but we’re just looking for the right deal. I think that we have something really unique to provide and I think we stand out a lot from other bands. We have a really unique voice and I think that the right record label is going to find that really intriguing and want to take us on. And we could absolutely use it because we have a lot of imagination and we’re really ambitious and hard working.
Eszter: Where do you see Dazzler in 5 years and what do you hope to accomplish as a band?
[all laugh]
Tyler: I think we’re just trying to get through the next couple months.
Michael: Tyler’s going to be really fat. [all laugh]
Tyler: I’m going to gain a lot of weight and wear sunglasses all the time in 5 years.
Michael: My personal prediction is that Andy is going to be a full on shameless new age hippie and he’ll do yoga and stuff.
Eszter: [laughs] he’s not already?
Michael: He’s getting there.
Adam: We don’t have any serious answers for this question. I hope we have vintage Ferraris…from the 70s!
Andy: I hope that in five years we’re still together and we’re still making really good music.
Eszter: Okay, moving on. What is one instrument the general public might not be aware of that you think they should know about?
Neil: Not the keytar! [laughs]
Tyler: I’d say…what a waterphone?
Andy: How about the Chinese butterfly harp? Neil plays a Chinese butterfly harp. What’s it called?
Neil: The Yang Qin.
Adam: You’ve got to spell that for her.
Neil: [spells]. It’s also the same thing as the Persian Santur, basically.
Eszter: How did you get into playing that?
Neil: I took a class at a community college actually. It’s a hammered dulcimer. Being a pianist and a multi-instrumentalist, I was able to adapt to it pretty quickly.
Andy: It’s beautiful.
Neil: Get involved with your local community college.
Tyler: Yeah, before California stops funding community college.
Adam: Do you think we could get an Ableton sponsorship out of this? Ableton is the instrument everyone should know about. [laughs]
Neil: Ableton Live.
Eszter: Well, we can end it here, or we can end it with a riddle.
Tyler: I’d like to end it with a riddle. I love riddles.
Adam: I got this one guys.
Eszter: I do too! Okay, are you ready?
All: Yes.
Eszter: If the temperature outside today is zero degrees—
Adam: Negative thirty-two degrees.
Eszter: Damn!
All: OHHHHHH.
Eszter: That’s not even fair!!! No, I get to do another one, that’s not even fair.
Andy: You’re the fucking riddler bro.
Eszter: Okay. This one has an open answer. If you—
Neil: Bill Withers? [all laugh]
Andy: We have some good duck jokes.
Eszter: Some good duck jokes? Do you want to tell them?
Neil: Well wait, I want to—
Michael: Let’s hear the riddle.
Eszter: Okay. If you try to fail, and you succeed, which have you done?
[pause]
Michael: Succeed.
Tyler: Both.
Adam: Fail at what?
Eszter: Whatever you want.
Michael: You fail. You fail.
Eszter: But you’ve succeeded at failing, so you’ve succeeded.
Neil: Right so it’s…
Eszter: It’s both, I guess.
Tyler: Well, if you try to fail, and you succeed at failing…
Michael: You succeed at failing, but if you just succeed…
Tyler: One more!
Eszter: One more? Alright, alright.
Adam: That’s not a riddle.
Eszter: I know. It’s an open ended question, I stated that! Alright this is my last one, this is a good one, but it’s complicated
Adam: It’s a paradox. That’s what it’s called.
Eszter: It is…Okay, pretend you’re hanging out with Pinocchio, everyone’s favorite puppet, and he says to you “my nose will grow now”. What happens, because his nose only grows if he lies, so if he says “my nose will grow now” and it grows, then he’s telling the truth and it can’t grow, but if he says that and it doesn’t grow, then he’s lying and it has to grow.
Adam: You ask the one who is guarding the door on the left, what the guy on the right would say if you asked him that same question.
Eszter: What?
[laughs]
Tyler: That didn’t actually make sense though.
Adam: What would the other guy’s answer be if I asked him if he was the one who told the truth?
Tyler: Wait, wait. Okay, so Pinocchio’s nose grows when he lies.
Eszter: Yes, and he says to you “my nose will grow NOW.” So at that instant what happens? Because it only grows when he lies, but if it grows after he says that then it’s the truth.
Adam: These aren’t riddles. These are philosophical questions.
Tyler: It grows, because he’s lying. Unless he says “My nose will grow NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW” as it grows…
Andy: You know what, that’s right. That’s right.
Tyler: Because in terms of quantum physics like…
Eszter: Alright. I want to hear these duck jokes.
Adam: Alright. A duck walks into a bar and he asks the bar tender, “hey have you seen my brother?” The bartender says, “what does he look like?” [laughs]
Andy: What do you get when you cross a duck and a cat?
Michael: What?
Andy: A duck filled platyma….[all laugh] I mean a duck filled fatty puss!
Adam: Okay, I got a good one. How do you turn a duck into a soul singer?
Eszter: A soul singer? I don’t know.
Adam: Put it in the microwave until it’s Bill Withers. Hey think about this, people are reading this.
Eszter: I know, these duck jokes are going to…
Tyler: They’re going to travel.
Eszter: Yeah.
Adam: There’s no delivery! [laughs]
Brock: Okay, a woman walks into a bar with her pet duck. The bartender says “Hey, we don’t allow pigs in here”. She says “It’s not a pig, it’s a duck” and the bartender says “I was talking to you.”
[all laugh]
Michael: That’s not how it goes! It’s “I’m talking to the duck”! I told this in rehearsal the other day.
Tyler: It’s funnier now.
Michael: It is funnier now. “I’m talking to YOU.” [all laugh]
Eszter: Well, that’s it. Thanks guys.
Check out more on Dazzler, including tour dates, at one of their websites:
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