Presidents of The USA
3/3/97

Q: So, how's it going? How's the tour going?

Dave: It's going well -- we're only like five or six shows into it. It's good, were having a good time. We're in the part of the country that I like the best, besides home, so...

Q: Where's home?

Dave: Seattle.

Q: Right On.

Dave: Right Arm.

Q: You and Chris have known each other a long time.

Dave: Yeah, since high school. I'm 32 now and he's 31, but we didn't start playing music together until were both like, 21 maybe. We went to the same junior high and high school together, a small private school, but we didn't hang out together. Chris was actually pretty good friends with my younger sister in high school; we didn't hang out really. We saw each other after we had been going to school for a few years, University and, uh, and we were both like 'yeah, I'm going to school but mostly I just play a bunch of music,' and I said, 'Oh? Me too.' So we kind of hit it off, and started playing lots of music together.

Q: So I would think that when you first started, you probably weren't doing the same kind of music that you are now.

Dave: Ummmm, it was actually in feel and spirit quite similar, and in fact some of the same songs. 'Naked and Famous' from the first record and 'Tiki God' from the second record are both almost, like, ten years old.

Q: Really?

Dave: Yeah, those songs are 8 or 10 years old, some are brand new, but yeah, I mean, same energy. We're just a lot better at it now.

Q: Did you use more strings then?

Dave: Yeah, we used to both play acoustic guitars, 6 string, steel string guitars. I'm actually playing 6 string guitar on this tour -- for a change of pace, to relieve the boredom.

Q: So you guys are bussing it this trip?

Dave: Yeah, it's all right. It has its advantages and disadvantages. Being in a van is great, 'cause you can drive yourself and take whatever route you want to take and you have a vehicle when you get to the town that your in. But the bus is great because, you know, 'cause you usually get to the venue at 2:00 in the afternoon to load in and do sound check. And then basically you're just kind of hanging out for anywhere from nine to twelve hours from the time you do sound check to the show. Well, a lot of times when you're hanging out in a part of town and you're too far from the hotel to go back, or there's nothing to do there, if you don't have a bus you're hanging out in some shitty, stinky, smoky back stage. But if you have the Bus (he sounds all a-glow), you're on the bus, your watching TV or playing a video game, drinking your tea with honey, chillin' like Bob Dylan.

Q: Nice. So now Jason got integrated when? In the eighty's?

Dave: Umm, no, we've only been playing with Jason for three years. The first show he played with us was at the start of December, 1994, I think. So yeah, three years ago.

Q: So were you a two-piece prior to that?

Dave: Yeah, actually, we played around quite a bit in Seattle. I mean, we've played in many configurations over the years, but we played with the two and three stringed instruments. We played a lot of the songs that are on the first record around Seattle as a duo.

Q: I have to admit that there are two songs on the new album that are my all time favorites of you guys.

Dave: What are they?

Q: 'Lunatic to Love'.

Dave: Uh huh.

Q: Which I think is just the bomb song, and I'm wondering where that came from?

Dave: I don't have any Idea.

Q: And 'Twig.'

Dave: Yeah, that's a good song. I like that song - that song's about Beck. Chris wrote that one. He toured with Beck on his first album as bassist, and it's sort of about watching Beck deal with the whole 'Loser' one-hit; being a pop culture phenomenon. Yeah, he was a 'twig in the wind.'

Q: Yeah! So you guys did a World Tour already?

Dave: Ah, many world tours. Yeah, well, we toured the U.S. like two and a half times. We went to Europe like, six times; we went to Japan for about 10 dates; and we went to Australia for about a month or so. We really did it up last year.

Q: Ok then, so at what point do you say 'Get outta my face Jason or Chris?'

Dave: We try to respect each other's space, but that sort of happens in small ways every day and then, of course, when we're home we don't really hang out together that much. We're doing different things. So we have our time to ourselves.

Q: So what about new material. Do you work on that on the road?

Dave: Yeah, um, Chris and I both have four-tracks with us, that we take into our hotel rooms and scheme up things on.

Q: This is just the beginning. You guys have a couple of months ahead of you now on the road.

Dave: We've got a good month and a half of the U.S., and then we'll take some months off and maybe either do the U.S. again, and definitely go to Australia. Probably not go to Europe this time, 'cause it's not that fun for us.

Q: Why's that?

Dave: Uh, it's a huge time difference from Seattle to Europe, it's eight and nine hours and it's really hard going. I don't know if you've traveled a lot overseas, but going from West to East is really difficult. Going from East to West isn't that hard but from the West it's a nightmare. So pretty much we get there and I'm basically wiped out for like two weeks. You know, the first two weeks we're there it takes me to adjust -- it's just really strenuous. Plus we're not gonna tour very much this year and we have to pick and choose ... can't do everything. We tried to do everything in the last year and a half and it was a big mistake. We learned.

Q: You just get burnt?

Dave: Yeah.

Q: So, do you have families back home?

Dave: Uh, I'm married, and Chris is married and he's about to have a baby, actually.

Q: Is that gonna put a damper on things in the future?

Dave: I hope so! I think it will slow us down a little bit, yeah. Definitely. I mean, ah, Chris' wife is due April 21st. I mean, if my wife were due April 21st, I wouldn't even be on tour right now. But we're old, you know; we can't go on tour for 11 months out of the year ever again, it's just no fun. Playing music becomes a chore. And that's hard because it is our job now and you do anything to go on tour and deliver the goods, and hear what you can do. But by the same token, its not about that, its about being inspired and having it be fresh and believing in what you're doing. It just gets harder and harder as you play more and more shows, you tend to be away from the things that inspire you. I mean, I'm not inspired by being away from home, living the rock 'n roll lifestyle. If you're in a rock band and you like to get loaded and chase whores and do drugs and drink, you know, then its great because you can keep doing it and stay inspired. But I'm inspired by like, you know, spending time with my wife, spending time with my dog, and my other family members. Going golfing, going skiing, going climbing and hiking and stuff, and it's really hard to do that stuff on tour.

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