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We’re all stars now...
Interview with Edsel Dope from Dope
By Thomas S. Orwat, Jr.
Conducted on Sept 9,2003
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Edsel Dope is becoming a dominant force in the music industry. As the leader/singer/songwriter of the NYC based agro-metal band Dope, Edsel has gone from writing and recording the first Dope CD “Felons and Revolutionaries” in his bedroom to establishing Dope as one of the most exciting live bands on the face of the earth and now, due to his frustration with has former label, running his own record label-with his long time manager Chip Quigley, Recon Records. In addition to Edsel, Dope consists of Virus -Guitar/ Keys, Sloane “Mosey” Jentry –Bass, Racci Shay -Drums/ Samples. They have developed a rabid cult like following with their sinister sound, cool look and high energy live show.
Originally signed to Flip Records, a Sony records affiliated label, in 2000, the bands first two CD’s on that label “Felons & Revolutionaries” and “Life” have combined sales of over 300,000 units in America. However, it was due to the label’s lack of promotion on the latter release that inspired Edsel to start Recon Records. On October 21, the band will release their third CD and first on this new label “Group Therapy.” On this release, the band kicks it up a notch with tracks such as the sexually charged “Bitch” and the rock radio ready “I Am.” This CD covers much terrain and is the bands most musically diverse, passionate and extreme release. In addition to the 13 songs on the CD, it also contains conceptual videos for all the songs as well. This is a very innovative concept, one which has never been done before, but don’t be surprised if many bands now follow. Fans will also be happy to hear that the CD will list for only $12.99.
Thoughout the bands four year career, they had had their fair share of adversity. First, original lead guitarist Tripp Eisen left the band to help Slipknot member Joey Joridson with his side project, The Murderdolls. Then when Eisen left the Murderdolls for Static X, Jordison cherry-picked another member of Dope, guitarist Acey Slade, to replace him. Edsel, upset and frustrated, posted a one page diatribe criticizing Jordison, Eisen, Slade and his record label. That helped earn him a reputation as being a hothead.
Although many criticize him for his brashness and being a little too opinionated, his behavior is fueled solely by his passion for his art. Say what you want about him, but the truth is that he is a perfectionist and visionary and, most importantly, he truly cares for his fans.
What follows is an interview with the mind behind Dope - Edsel Dope.
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So I hear that it’s a lot of work having your own record label.
I always thought I was one of the hardest working guys in the business and now that I formed my own label, I don’t get to sleep ever now. It’s insane, but it’s all good.
How does your new CD “Group Therapy” compare musically and lyrically to your previous two releases?
I think that if you like the Dope sound and what Dope does then you are going to be happy. I think that if you don’t like the sound of Dope, then don’t waste your time. I think that it has elements of both albums. There are songs on this record that are heavier than anything that we’ve ever recorded. Then there are songs that are a little more experimental and melodic and went to a place that people would have never expected us to go. That began on our second record, “Life.” I think that that record took some people by surprise. The fact that we were willing to go outside the box, that people thought that we were trapped in on the first album. I just think that this record is a natural evolution. We have expanded the sound of what we do.
On your first two releases, you wrote all the music, was it that way again for your new release?
The biggest difference between this record and the others was that I’ve really found a great working relationship with my guitarist Virus. Originally it was me in the studio all by myself doing everything. And that had a lot to do with the fact that I like my particular feel as far as playing guitar or bass. But now, not only do I have a killer guitar player in the band, I have a guy whose style I like. So, I may write a part, but I may still want him to play it. When I’m in the studio recording, I also engineer and producer. So it’s good that he can play because I don’t want to have to do everything. So, it’s become really cool, I get to play as much as I want to on the records, but I also have people who are contributing. And it’s also nice to be in a band with someone like Virus because he can write completed songs on his own and sort of bring them to me and say what do you think and I can bring it in to my world and add my two cents. It gives us that many more choices to choose from. But, I would say that I still generally wrote must of the CD, but I definitely have a team of guys around me that work hard and know what they are doing and help make it better.
How many songs did you end up writing for the record?
I would say probably around 30 – 35 that I could play you a demo of from beginning to end. We actually narrowed it down to 13. Some of them were really good and will most likely be released at sometime in the future.
That’s quite a bit, does songwriting come easy for you?
You know, its pretty easy to write songs, bit it’s time consuming sifting through all the ideas and figuring out which ones are the strongest. We will waste a ton of time in the studio working on a song and changing things with it. It doesn’t cost us money because we own the studio and we know what the hell we are doing. But, we want to try everything. Sometimes it works out and we find something that works and sometimes it doesn’t. But we want to get into a song as deep as we can and see what options we have.
When you guys play out now will you have another guitarist playing besides Virus?
Nope, well o riginally when I introduced Dope to the world, we only had one guitarist. It was then on the second record that I wanted to take more of a two guitarist approach. Plus I didn’t to play guitar live anymore which I did with the first record. So now we just returned back to that. Most of our songs only require one guitar player live. If we really feel that we need a second guitar, I will throw the guitar on and play. I think it’s cool because I miss playing guitar and a lot of fans asked me when I was going to start playing guitar again. I wasn’t going to play guitar with two other guitarists on stage. So now we have just one guitarist and when necessary, I play as well.
Dope has quite a reputation for being a great live band. Do you have any plans to release a live DVD in the near future?
Umm (pauses) I would really love to. Not only just a DVD, but just start releasing live songs. Even sonically, I get a lot of kids coming up to me and saying that they love to song on the record, but then telling me how much more they like the way we performed it live, how it has a different energy, a different vibe to it. And I think that we want to capture that.
I don’t know if you remember this, but Ted Nugent released an album in the early 80’s called “Intensities in Ten Cities.” The record was all new songs, but they were performed live. I think a concept like that would be perfect for Dope.
Wow!!! (pauses) That could be pretty great. You might be on to something there.
Cool, I’ll glad that I mentioned that to you. As far as your career, you kind of did things a little backwards. You were signed to a major label for your first two releases and now you’re on your own independent label?
Well, I think that the reality is that if this was ten years ago we would still be on a major label. I guess that the state of the record business in this marketplace benefited us as much as it killed us. I’m psyched to be doing this at all right now. I really feel that with the exception of a couple other bands that came out around the same time, very very few of them are still around. And whether we are on a major or on our own label, it’s still a huge accomplishment. Just to be able to put out three records nowadays is retarded. I’m super happy to have this situation that we’ve created around ourselves and to have the awareness level about us that we have. And the relationships that we’ve build. I‘ve learned a lot from my major label experience. I learned a lot of the right things to do and now I’m just going to try to apply that to everything that we are doing now. In a way, I really wish that this was our first record and that nobody knew who we were. Because I think that we could really come on and be a real breath of fresh air. Where as right now, even people who like Dope or who may not like Dope either way, they’re already aware of us so we really have to stick it in there faces because they already know what it is.
That’s a good point because you see so many bands that have that stigma of being washed up or has beens and release a Great CD and nobody gives them their due just because of who they are. I’m convinced that if Warrant or Dokken wrote the greatest record ever, it would still sell less than 100,000 and radio wouldn’t touch it and that’s just not right.
Sure. I hope that we’re not that far yet, I hope we’re not in the washed up category. But, we’ll find out. But it’s very apparent in even the way people buy records. I ran into a kid that was an obvious Dope fan. He had a Dope shirt on and was at a Dope concert. They tell you how much they love your band and listen to it everyday, the first record and you ask them if they have the second record and they say no, but he said that he loved some of the songs on it, but didn’t buy the record yet. And you say shit how come this kid is such a big fan and didn’t buy it. So I started talking to kids to try to learn why they didn’t buy the second CD. What I started to learn was that, especially when record companies are putting out CD’s for 18 bucks and kids can go on the internet and get access to the songs they want, a lot of times and I don’t blame them one bit, once kids buy a CD from one they are already in the club so they might by a CD from a new band because they’re not in the club yet because they can’t buy both because they don’t have the money. So they are more willing to buy a CD from a new band then a band they already have a CD of. So that’s a little misconception that was a little funny for me to deal with for the last few years. Some people were saying the reason that our second CD didn’t sell as well as our first was because nobody cared. Well they didn’t go to our concerts because you don’t realize that there are a lot of people out there that still love the band and don’t necessarily have to buy the record to love the band. They can just crank the first record all day long.
Do you think that in this day of the internet and downloading that major labels are not as important as they once were?
It’s very interesting because I think that in the very near future, in a matter of a few years that distribution isn’t going to be necessary anymore. I don’t know if people will actually have to go into a store and buy music. When that happens, the reason that major labels are major labels is distribution and not any other reason. So, I think it’s going to be interesting to see were the power shifts to once distribution isn’t a huge factor anymore.
Yeah, it really does seem like record stores are going to be a thing of the past.
With everything that you see right now, there are going to be able to monitor music and deliver it to you over the internet. Pretty soon I think that everyone will be on the net. My 75 year old grandmother goes on the internet, that tells you that it’s getting to everyone. I think that record stores need to lower their prices too.
Your first record listed at $9.99 when it first came out.
Well, this time with our new CD we have upped the stakes. The new Dope record is 13 songs with 13 videos. The idea is that you can watch the CD from beginning to end. You can watch the videos on your computer and the retail price is only $12.99. We are giving the kids 13 songs and 13 videos and we only want 12.99 for it. Where on a major label, you would be lucky to get a link to your website and some extra songs for $18.99. I definitely think that I learned, and not just learned, I just want to do what I want to do as well. I’ve always been a visually stimulated person. I’ve always tried to make Dope the same way. If you could sit there and watch a record, occupy your mind as well as your ears and still be able to pop the CD out of your computer and put it into your car, which to me is the ultimate experience of being into a band. That’s why you see bands live. That’s why you look at the artwork. This is the next step. It doesn’t have to be a DVD so we don’t have to charge $20.00.
Wow, what a great idea. What kind of videos are they? Are they live performances?
Ther’re videos man, real videos. Each single song has its own concept, performance setting. Each one is different, they are within the realistic and economic measures that we had to create the record. I think that every video is a very good representation of what the song is about. Like I said before, if you’re a fan of Dope, I think that you’ll be very happy with our new CD all the way through.
Dope has developed a very strong and loyal fan base, what do you attribute this to?
It has a lot to do with what I just said. We care about all the facets of entertainment. Dope is a band that plays music that relates to things that means something to us and the kids as well. We also bring a really kick ass show. We try to make the night a real spectacle as opposed to just another concert where some guys get up on stage and look like they just got out of work and want to depress you to death for the next 90 minutes. I want to put on an event and after the show, we generally hang out all night and party with the audience. I didn’t get into this so I could go out on tour and stay in my tour bus all day and be bored all the time and hide from the world and be a recluse. I think we hang out with our fans because they are our friends. They relate to what we do. We are all in this for the same reason.
How popular is the band over in Europe?
That’s a good question, you should ask some bands that have been there because we haven’t. I know that we’ve sold records over there and any person that has ever been affiliated with Dope and has gone over to Europe has been accepted well and that there is a buzz about who we are. But, we actually haven’t gone, that’s one of the reasons that I started this label. One of the things I want to make sure of it that we get over to Europe. I think it’s a very important time for Dope to go over there so people in Europe and in Japan know what we are about.
Yeah, even like the Murderdolls who played very few dates in the States, played quite a few in Europe, especially in the UK.
Yeah, they beat us to the punch.
What type of pre-show rituals do you have?
(pauses) none. I don’t really know how to explain it, but at one point in my career I used to jump around to get ready. But the more I toured, the more that I just like to act normal and when the lights go on it’s time to rock. I feel like I put on a better show when I walk on the stage relaxed and my heart beating at a normal rate instead of exhausting myself before I go on. We drink beer, smoke pot.
That’s cool. Now is it true that you were also the tour manager of your band for a while too?
Well technically no, because I have a sound guy that was the tour manager, but it’s just within my personality to speak up and take care of business. When we are short staffed or short crew like we have been the last couple of tours to keep costs down and ticket prices low, I’ll often at times take on more responsibility. It’s better that having to pay somebody when I don’t need to pay somebody.
You’re a true rock and roll machine.
Yeah, I guess so. I figure that if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.
Yeah. Early last year you were scheduled to play Buffalo, but cancelled at the last second because of the lack of PA and stage room. Does this kind of incompetence happen a lot?
No, it happens very, very infrequently. Especially with this band, we kind of gained a reputation as being a band that will make something out of nothing. We’ve been in situations before where we would get to the show and say that the stage wasn’t going to work and I’ll send people to Home Depot to buy wood and build the stage out. Sometimes you got to do what you got to do to make the show happen. But that particular instance, the agent that I was working with at the time, put together a deal with someone that he shouldn’t have put a deal together with. The place for the most part, had no stage and PA for a guy to dj and karaoke to. It just definitely couldn’t happen.
And you don’t do Karaoke.
No, definitely not. Unless, I’m really drunk and it’s like the Osmonds or something.
Laughs. Let’s talk about your website. When is it going to be fully functional?
Well, we could all start e-mailing the web guy and ask him. He has all the content at this
point and we are looking to have it fully working in a few weeks. Unfortunely, he has been really busy working on other things. He’s the guy who does all my graphic artwork and design. I call him my web guy when I want to insult him, he likes to be referred to as a graphic designer. He’s very talented and doesn’t deserve that, but he’s just been incredibly overwhelmed and just finished doing all the p.o.p. and artwork for the CD. But he promises he’ll get it done in the next few weeks. The reason that it’s been dormant for so long is we had been going thought the process of putting together the new record and what the look of the record was going to be. I didn’t want to re-face the website six months ago, pre-album and re-face it again. I figured it is best to wait and do it right one time.
What are your current tour plans for the CD?
Right now we are doing a few spot dates and then we are going to do a headlining run. We are putting some stuff together for October in out of the way markets which most bands wouldn’t go to. It’s a great way to reach new kids and it’s usually a lot of fun. To my there is nothing more exciting then new fans. We are going to do that and then we are super psyched because we are going to be part of the United Two tour which starts Nov 7 and goes all the through to Christmas. It’s going to be with Pigface and Professional Murder Music and other old school industrial bands. That’s really where our roots are at. I think it’s going to be a great tour and I’m really looking forward to touring with those guys. It’s going to be a really good way to get back to the underground with the music as opposed to touring with a band just because they are on the radio.
It sounds cool, I’ll definitely be checking out one of those shows. Do you have any closing comments for your growing legion of fans?
No, I’m pretty much out of things to say. But, I think that the new record is great, if you like Dope, you will dig it. And don’t take any shit from anyone and stand up for what you believe in.
www.dopearmy.com
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