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CINDY WASSERMAN
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DEAD ROCK WEST
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THE BITTER AND THE
SWEET (PART ONE)
FRANK LEE DRENNEN OF DEAD ROCK WEST
TALKS TO ROCKWIRED
ABOUT 'HONEY AND SALT'
TOURING WITH JOHN DOE
AND GETTING THE MUSIC OUT THERE
INTERVIEWED BY BRIAN LUSH
Few
bands successfully walk that delicate line between loud, gritty
four-to-the-floor rock n roll and the sweet, plaintive sounds of
country
as the Los Angeles-based DEAD ROCK WEST. Fronted by lead singers, FRANK
LEE DRENNEN and CINDY WASSERMAN, the band is getting numerous
comparisons to that other L.A. based band X, fronted by that legendary
team of JOHN DOE and EXENE CERVENKA. "It's
funny. We've been getting the EXENE CERVENKA/JOHN DOE comparison a lot
and I find it kind of curious because when I started the band I was
thinking more along the lines of EMMYLOU HARRIS and GRAM PARSONS." says
singer/guitarist FRANK LEE DRENNEN. " I
just find it curious how people relate to things. I know how I come
at it but that doesn't mean that that is going to be a
listeners
experience." FRANK LEE DRENNEN OF DEAD ROCK WEST
TALKS TO ROCKWIRED
ABOUT 'HONEY AND SALT'
TOURING WITH JOHN DOE
AND GETTING THE MUSIC OUT THERE
INTERVIEWED BY BRIAN LUSH
It should come as no surprise that during the summer of 2007, DEAD ROCK WEST toured the country, opening for JOHN DOE. "It's been so amazing. It's been running so smoothly." exclaims CINDY WASSERMAN. "It's such a joy to play with JOHN DOE. For me it's great because I get to open with my own band and I get to sing with JOHN DOE all night and I can't really dream of anything better than that."
The bands debut CD HONEY AND SALT is a testament to the bands innate ability to add a little country sweetness to it's hard-rocking edge. Just give tracks like the mesmerizing opener HIGHWAY ONE, the smashing ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT and a countrified spin on the 1985 X track BURNING HOUSE OF LOVE a listen. This disk is worth the repeated listens. "We wanted to make a record that was hip. I'm very proud of this record and my focus right now is to get that out to people and get them to hear it." says DRENNEN. "I feel like it's got something to say. I think a good test for a song is if you're not sick of doing it after performing it night after night after night."
ROCKWIRED spoke with FRANK LEE DRENNEN during a spirited game of softball in the parking lot of a MOTEL 6 outside of Pittsburgh. Here is how it went.
How are the shows going with JOHN DOE?
They 're going great actually. His audience has been really receptive. Right now, I think we just lost a baseball. a precious commoditiy of which to relieve the bordeom as we're booking a room.
Where are you guys right now?
We are just outside of Pittsburgh right now.
So you really are in the middle of something.
Yeah. We're about a month and a week into the tour right now. We've got eight weeks left to complete.
I'm not tying you up from trying to find a room am I?
Not at all. As a matter of fact, I just found the baseball. We're rocking and rolling! So yes, the tour has been going great and JOHN DOE is nothing but a joy to tour with. His audiences have been more than welcoming to us.
It sort of makes sense that his fans embrace you guys. You guys are almost branches from the same tree.
It's funny. We've been getting the EXENE CERVENKA/JOHN DOE comparison a lot and I find it kind of curious because when I started the band I was thinking more along the lines of EMMYLOU HARRIS and GRAM PARSONS. I just find it curious how people relate to things. I know how I come at it but that doesn't mean that that is going to be a listeners experience.
HONEY AND SALT is a great CD. What brought everyone together? How did it all get started with this band?
Very organically. It started out with CINDY and I getting together. We had our own bands at the time. For quite a while we just got together and played songs together. I was playing in a band with DAVID J CARPENTER at the time so he came along and was playing double bass and we started playing as a trio. I was playing acoustic guitar. Another mutual friend of ours, BRIAN HEAD came into the picture and started playing drums with us. As this was going on, we were sort of cassually doing gigs. Nothing serious. We were just enjoying ourselves and followingthe music.
What do you think that each of the members sort of brings to the table that makes this thing work. Creatively or personality wise.
The whole spark for the band is CINDY. She has the most special voice of anyone that I have personally sung with. It's almost sympatico in the way she's able to follow phrasing. She has an amazing ear for arranging vocals. As far as DAVE and BRIAN go, DAVE brings a similar kind of energy that CINDY does in that he's very musical and is very capable of melding in to whatever vibe is happening. As far a myself and BRIAN, we're more aggressive in how we approach music so it gives it that push. Instantly there is sort of a paradox that happens within the band and a sfar as PHIL on the piano, he is the wild card. We're never sure what he's going to play, and that's always good to have.
Now that the album is sout there for everyone to hear, How do you feel about it?
I feel extremely proud that we made this album ourselves. We made the decision to record it on tape and to not use pitch correcting effects or anything like that. We tracked live the first three days to get that feel of a band and I feel very proud of it. It's made to be an album that pulls you in slowly and once it's got you, it's worth repeated listens. We wanted to make a record that was hip. I'm very proud of this record and my focus right now is to get that out to people and get them to hear it. I feel like it's got something to say. I think a good test for a song is if you're not sick of doing it after performing it night after night after night.
What all goes into writing a song in this band?
The really great thing that I love about this band is that stylistically, we don't feel like we're not locked into being a folk,country, pop, rock band. We want to write good songs. The creative process is to simply write and not worry about a target audience or anything like that. For me writing is often times a reactionary thing. If something is happening in my life, I react to it by writing. Usually, the stuff that stays for me is the stuff where I've reacted emotionally to something or somebody. That's rock n roll, isn't it?
The CD has a curious title in HONEY AND SALT. Would you like to talk about it?
It's an arty-farty kind of title. I took all of the photos that are on the CD except for the band shots. As the songs began to come together, I started to realize that the theme of this album was beauty and loss. HONEY AND SALT. It's finding love, losing love, and wondering why it went away. The questions that everyone asks themselves. I'm a huge fan of CARL SANDBURG. He is hands down my favorite American poet. He has a poem called HONEY AND SALT and I thought that poem represented what the record is.
Now that I know you did the artwork for the CD, do you think you would ever use this eye for making videos for this band?
I would very much like to. I draw and I take photographs and write and for me it all lends itself into one thing. I'm not a musician that only feeds off of his music. I think the world around me is something to express in one form or another and I would love that opportunity one day.
You guys have agreat label in POPULUXE RECORDS. Would you like to talk about them?
POPULUXE is record label that's not the traditional label where they find you and offer you money and bankroll your tour. It's a label that's composed of artists who are on the label. We don't support each other financailly however we support each other through any way we can. For instance, THE TRUCKEEBROTHERS who are also on that label, I just recently did all of the photgraphs for their new record. PEAT TRUCKEE from that band also does the design and layout. He also did the layout for our record which was inspired by THE WHO's QUADROPHENIA.
Really?
Yeah. I love how everyone is talking about how the CD is on the way out and that everyone is going to download everything. Fine! If everyone wants to download our music, I'm totallly down with it. I feel like part of the responsibility has to lie of the artists. So many artists these days, are putting out artwork that looks like it's Pepsi-Cola Can Land. It's not creative, it doesn't represent the artist, it's all some fancy-schmancy guy with a computer pushing buttons and making it happen. Our goal at POULUXE is to make artwork that gives people a reason to want to own the actual thing. QUADROPHENIA makes me feel like I'm experiencing the music through the pictures inside. I think with this whole digital society which is coming down on us real fast, is going to create a need for fans of the music that actually has a human touch to it. My friend TIM CLARK hand drew a Summer Tour 2007 JOHN DOE - DEAD ROCK WEST Poster and were screen printed by hand and signed by the artists. We made 200 of them and they are selling like hotcakes. The response from people is tremendous and it's encouraging. That was why I got into music because it makes that personal honest human connection.
Growing up, what music got to you?
I was a late bloomer. I really didn't start playing until I was about sixteen or seventeen. The first artists that really nailed me to the wall was a guy named BRUCE COBURN and a guy named LARRY NORMAN, and then U2. When I first heard U2, I was living in North Carolina I didn't know that rock n roll could be so personal. Their alhbum WAR just nailed me to the wall.
What would you like for someone to come away with after hearing this CD?
I don't want to impose on people what I want them to hear in our music but I love to feel when I leave from a show or leave from listening to a great record is feeling empowered and thinking, "I can do that!" Sometimes, if I don't feel that, I'll feel like 'I have someone who says something that I want to say but I never knew how to.' I don't want to say that something like that has been lost but rock n roll has moved into place where it's all about the big fancy video and the big fat record deal. Rock n roll started as a movement of the people. Rock n roll belongs in the hands fo the people and not to some executive. Hopefully DEAD ROCK WEST can bring some of that back because it never really went away. It's always there.
Sometimes I don't think it's even about a record contract or a video. it's all about pushing beer.
Are you a fan of the LAST DJ
Yes.
There is that one song where he talks about the beer commercial. It's a tough thing because musicians can't make music if they're not making money.
Music is backed into a corner a little more now than it was before.
The thing is, when I start to deal with those things like, I've got something that's owed to me, it's so easy to go there and rail against the music industry and to point out how fucked up things are, I'm reminded of the fact that being an artist of any kind through out the ages has never been easy and it's a privelege. That sense of entitlement will do absolutely nothing for my music. And as I struggle to make ends meet, hoping for even a small break that will pay the bills for a year (laughs) I keep in mind that it is a privilege because there are so many places in the world where you aren't even allowed to play muisc.
Since you and CINDY are a team, at least the musc press makes you out that way, could I interview her as well?
Sure.
