The Seattle music scene is a strange one. It's a fractured community consistently being overshadowed by labels, bands, and landmarks of the past. This city has been commodified and combed clean, time and time again, of any creative spirit that isn't willing to play the game, and crossover into the dark side of the empire. There are a LOT of 30-40 something musicians in this city not willing to let go of the 90's, their beer bellies, and drug habits, so they sit in sonic limbo- haunting dirty studios, playing heavy dark music, reminiscing over names and places that no longer exist.
And then there is Dude York, Seattle's next great sonic hope. Dude York is a band full of pure creative intrigue. Dispatching loose spontaneous passion, by way of their refreshing batch of sonic escapades, on their latest release Gangs of Dude York. If you haven't heard the new album yet click HERE to download it for free. See for yourself why FYM's Art Director has been going H.A.M. about this band over the past couple of weeks, when they play live this Tuesday June 14th, at the Comet Tavern in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle Washington.
Hanging on the Ave in Seattle's U-District, FYM sat down with the members of Dude York Thursday night, to try and discover who these guys were, and why they are so good. The long story short- Dude York is a group of friends who met in college, started a band, recorded a brilliant record in 3 weeks, already have enough material for another new record, who want to play live as much as possible, they believe in the elimination of genre and labels in music, a group who exudes joy and charming magnetism in person, and will win you over with their infectious new record Gangs of Dude York.
Editors Note: The following is a written transmission of the conversation FYM's J Thomas Codling, and the members of Dude York had Thursday evening. Cheers, FYM.
CONVERSATIONS WITH DUDE YORK
BY: J THOMAS CODLING
J Thomas: Start off by telling me who you are, and what you play.
Andrew: My name is Andrew, I play the percussive instruments, mostly the drums.
Peter: My name is Peter, I do guitar and sing
Alex: And my name is Alex and I play the bass guitar.
THE HISTORY OF DUDE YORK
J Thomas: Will you tell me a little bit about the origins of the band, and the band name?
Peter: So one night at Whitman College where the three of us went to school, we were thinking band names, and somebody thought of the band name dude york.
Andrew: It was Me.
Peter: Pretty sure it was me.
Andrew: Pretty sure it was me.
J Thomas: So what's the story behind the band name though?
Andrew: It was the worst name I could think of... I'm really good at naming things and it's always first thought best thought when it comes to names so.. Peter and I were living in a house a couple years ago, and I say, what are we going to call the house? My first thought, Boner Mountain.
J Thomas: Amazing..
Andrew: Done.
Peter: And where it really started is when Andrew and I came back to school to study for our oral and written exams, senior year, and instead of studying we started a band.. and I would say Andrew this is kinda how you play drums, and we just kinda went from there.
Andrew: Yeah, I had never played drums before..
J Thomas: Did you have a previous music background before Dude York?
Andrew: Yeah, I played the piano growing up.
J Thomas: And you're a theatre major right, Peter?
Peter: I doubled in theatre and english.
Andrew: I'm the english part not the theatre part.
Alex: And I'm just the theatre part so.. Peters the..
Peter: I'm the middle man, equal parts both.
THE RECORD: GANGS OF DUDE YORK
J Thomas: Talk to me a little bit about the record Gangs of Dude York.
Peter: It kinda of came out of... We had another bassist who traumatically left the band, and um, from there we're like... felt kinda fucked, so we just decided to make a record. And at that time Alex, somehow he kinda had freeness enter his schedule, and he was polite enough to oblige us to join. And then he decided to stick around, which was the best thing that has happened yet. It's all will, the only thing that keeps us playing together is wanting to play together.
J Thomas: So are you the main songwriter in the band lyrically Peter?
Peter: That's a good question. The lyrics are pretty ever changing, are ever changing... cause, I can never remember the lyrics.
THE INFAMOUS ALBUM COVER
J Thomas: I've noticed there's a big theme in Dude York's tunes... there has to be a beautiful woman in your life! Some sort of inspiration to write those kind of songs.. So is there a girl?
Peter: Definitely, Definitely my girlfriend Isabel Blue who did most of the artwork for Gangs of Dude York. She did the cover.
J Thomas: The cover with the drawing of a topless female on her back..
Peter: There's a good story behind this album cover. Kimber Low, a girl I went to high school with, got a buddy of mine fired at the American Apparel in Manhattan. It turns out she was also shtupping Dov Charney (American Apparel founder) and is now suing him for big money... So that's a picture of her having sex with Dov Charney. So there's more to it (the orignal picture) keeps going down, and there's something like.. going into her vagina that he's controlling..
J Thomas: Does this picture really exist?
Peter: Yeah, she (Isabel) drew the album cover from the picture.
J Thomas: So are you guys planning on releasing this album as a physical item?
Peter: Probably not, we just want to keep putting things out. The songs are so short you know?
J Thomas: I spoke with Alex over the phone, and he said you already have enough material for a new album?
Andrew: We have ten to eleven songs, and we are going to put out two every couple of weeks.
Peter: That's kinda what we've been talking about.. release an A-side to a B-side. It will help us in the long run too, if we are not censoring what we are putting out, it's just about how the song feels, rather than what kind of song it is.
NEW MATERIAL
J Thomas: And any specific new material you are working on?
Peter: My favorite new song we are working on is called the Assassination of Kurt Cobain By The Coward Dude York.
J Thomas: Beautiful.
Peter: (laughs) Like that Casey Affleck film... The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford.
Andrew: It's good to put a lot of dated references into a title... that's the tween-wave sound.
Peter: But it's um, Smells Like Teen Spirit verbatim.
J Thomas: But with different lyrics..
Peter: It's um, one of our serial killers songs, I'd say. We've got like three kinds of songs, love songs, serial killer songs, and...
Alex: Drug songs.
INFLUENCES
Peter: Can I say one more thing about our sound, the location.. where it's coming from.
J Thomas: Yeah.
Peter: It's really not coming from a rock and roll place, originally. It's really very much coming from like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. And just like, not being able to physically manufacture those things, but in the process of it, doing something else.
J Thomas: That emotional inspiration...
Peter: So all that yearning all that sexuality, that tension, that push, you are talking about (in Dude York songs) comes from that place. That's all deeply rooted in soul music.
Alex: Yeah, when Peter told me about how the band started playing together, at the beginning he would describe the band as fast soul music.. Cause when he sings he's not spitting at you, he's like please listen, it's not like fuck you-fuck you-fuck-you, it's beautiful.
Andrew: I play drums like that...
THE CURRENT LINEUP
J Thomas: How many shows have you played so far with this current lineup?
Alex: This will be our third show. I've only been in the band a month and a half?- Two months.. It's easy for me A: because I heard the music so much (album came out before Alex joined the band) and B: because these guys, just like, have it.. you know, it's really free it's really loose, these guys know what they are doing. So it's easy for me to kinda jump in.
SEATTLE SOUND
J Thomas: Do you believe grunge is dead?
Peter: Man, I gotta tell you, I fucking hate Nirvana (laughs). Pearl Jam and Nirvana were such a dark cloud while growing up in Seattle, especially in the school I went to, I felt so ostracized, music was a real way of ostracizing people... there was like the clique that would listen to Nirvana.. They were like the cool kids.
J Thomas: Really?
Peter: Yeah, so I never really felt like I could access those bands until a lot later.
Andrew: The shadow of Twin Peaks looms larger over the Seattle music, than just about anything.
Peter: There's this weird hip music scene at Cairo over on Capitol Hill. It's a vintage store/music venue over on Summit and Mercer.
Alex: Very exclusive.
J Thomas: Yeah, my buddy Dillon Rego (Alaskas!) took me there once to get outfitted.
Alex: This Seattle music scene kind of seems to be on the verge of something.
J Thomas: On the verge of Dude York.
Everyone: (Laughs)
Andrew: That'd be cool..
Peter: I think what's really happening, is I want Dude York to be, to show, that genre is no longer an important distinguishing idea for bands. Cause bands are just like people, playing what they like. And as long as it's people enjoying themselves on stage, it's going to be a good bill.
THE FUTURE OF DUDE YORK
J Thomas: What are your goals for the band six months down...
Peter: 9 month goal.. SubPop (laughs). Right now we want it to be as far away from money as possible.
Alex: But we do want to play as much as possible, with a bunch of different bands from Seattle.
Peter: Best case scenario, is what happened to the dude from Bon Iver, happens to Dude York. We release one record, and fucking like, get put on a Kanye record, and never have to work again (laughs). But we just do, what we do.
Andrew: Two words. Tacoma Dome.
