Interview with Evan Dando by Peter Galvin & Lance
Acord
Photos by Bruce Weber
From Interview Magazine February 1993
The way the story usually
goes, oranges and lemons are shipped from Florida to colder parts up
north. But we want to tell you about the time citrus was imported to
Miami Beach. Florida grows some of the juiciest, tartest, sweetest lemons,
but it has nothing that quite compares to the tang of Evan Dando of
the Lemonheads. A friendly, garrulous, opinionated, slightly hippie-dippy
dude, Dando had been on tour with his band for almost six months when
he took a brief winter break from his grueling schedule to bask in the
Florida sun. His skin a little pasty from being in too many dark, smoke-filled
clubs, his voice a little hoarse from singing at the top of his lungs
too many nights in a row, Dando was a creature transformed when his
feet hit the Miami Beach sand. As you can see from the Bruce Weber photographs
here, Dando looked almost merman-like after a few hours lolling about
in the surf.
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and Dando had a tour to finish.
But we caught up with him again in San Francisco a few days later to
talk about his Florida sojourn and what it's like to be an up-and-coming
rock star. Since Dando formed the Lemonheads after graduating from Boston's
Commonwealth School in the mid-'80s, the group's popularity has grown
steadily, reaching new heights with the release of their latest album,
It's a Shame About Ray (Atlantic). Less hard-con; and more upbeat than
their previous releases, Ray showcases Dando as a craftsman of sublime
power-pop in songs that combine the urgency of punk with the irresistible
ease of Top 40. Joining me on the phone call with Dando was Lemonhead
fan Lance Acord, an assistant of photographer Bruce Weber. Acord was
on the beach when Dando was kicking up his fins. P.G.
PETER GALVIN: Hi. Who's this?
EVAN DANDO: It's Evan Dando talking.
LANCE ACORD: Hey, Evan, how are you doing?
ED: I'm doing really well, man.
LA: Cool. So let's talk a little bit about when you were in Florida
for your rendezvous with Interview. You said that when you got down
there, you could barely open your eyes when you got out of the car.
You looked like you hadn't seen daylight for about a month. Where had
you been before Miami?
ED: Well, I'd been in all of these backstage rooms with lots of fluorescent
lights and obscene drawings all over the walls. It was just, like, a
necklace of days spent in fluorescently lit rooms. We had to play rock
shows every night, and you just end up hanging out backstage. That was
why I was so happy to be suddenly on the beach.
LA: I remember when you went through your bags and practically wore
everything you had in the ocean.
ED: I just opened my bag and showed Bruce [Weber] all of the rubble
and started picking through it, trying to express myself and describe
myself to him. And I got to go swimming in the water in Florida, which
was the best thing. And then they put seaweed and shells in my hair,
and I felt at one with the ocean. It was a real boost-I needed to go
to Florida, man. It was too cold up north. I've still got sand in my
bag.
LA: What happened to all those clothes that you stuffed into that plastic
bag after the shoot?
ED: I went to Boulder the next day. There was snow everywhere. We played
a show – clothes still wet. We finished the show--clothes still
wet. I woke up the next morning-clothes still wet. I got on a plane
to L.A, clothes still wet. I got to the Hollywood Roosevelt, went to
my room, and hung them around. And now I'm wearing the pants, even though
I haven't put them in a washer or dryer. They've got salt in them. It
feels good.
LA: Remember when you were singing while Bruce was taking photographs?
ED: In the water?
LA: Yeah. You were singing this Billie Holiday song. What's the name
of it?
ED: "Jim"? I sing a bunch of those. [sings] "Jim doesn't
ever bring a pretty flower. Jim doesn't try to cheer my-"
LA: No, it was the one about
ED: [singing] "Be sure it's true when you say I love you."
LA: No, it went [sings] "Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na."
ED: Oh, that's "Gloomy Sunday." I sing that song a lot, in
the street and stuff, just walking around.
LA: It was weird hearing those words on the beach in Miami.
PG: What else did you do while you were in Miami? ED: I stupidly wandered
off down that main street later that night, until five in the morning.
I was so impressed with something about that street. It's called Ocean
something.
PG: Ocean Drive?
ED: Yeah. It's like a festive Melrose Avenue. It has the same kind of
vibe as Melrose: "I'm not gonna say hello to you if I don't know
you're cool already." But I finally did find some really nice people
I said hi to, and they didn't totally snub me. We hung out and danced
to Madonna and stuff. It was fun.
PG: Did you ever go to Florida when you were a kid?
ED: Not really. I went to the Denny's in Miami once on the way down
to Costa Rica. l ordered a trout special.
PG: What were you doing in Costa Rica?
ED: My parents were surfers. I went there three times when I was a kid.
We used to go to Biarritz every other summer, too.
LA: Wow. Did you surf with them when you went to Costa Rica?
ED: No, I was too little. I just got bitten by crabs on the beach, until
I was nine, and then I got into surfing. It's a good time to learn to
surf, because you're not scared of much and you can adapt and learn.
PG: All right, let's talk about music.
ED: Go, man.
PG: What did you like when you were a kid?
ED: I loved the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, and AI Green, and Eddie Kendricks
from the Temptations-all the stuff my parents played all the time. Mostly
soul. And Neil Young.
PG: When you were making your first record, your music was hard-edged.
Why the jump from soul to rock 'n' roll?
ED: Around 1983, when I was in high school, I started realizing that
rock 'n' roll wasn't dead. I didn't have to listen to just old stuff.
There were things coming out, like Minor Threat and the Angry Samoans
and the Replacements and Husker Du and the Ramones, that got me thinking
about just rock 'n' roll. I used to see the Replacements every time
they came to town. They really inspired me because they clearly were
just a bunch of guys up there playing songs they liked and songs they
had written. And that made me think, yeah, I can get up there and do
that, too.
PG: Did anger have anything to do with your choosing rock 'n' roll as
the music you wanted to play?
ED: Yeah, it was a lot about anger, but my disappointment in human nature
was probably the foundation of why I started playing really loud guitar
and screaming.
PG: But you were only, what, eighteen when you started? Why were you
so disappointed?
ED: I got a really unfortunate head start on being disappointed, when
my dad left my mom when I was eleven. What happened was my mom and sister
would cuddle up in bed and talk about it every night, and I was down
at the other end of the hall all alone, and it really freaked me right
out, you know? That experience made me a very angry kid in high school.
I wasn't violent; I just had a very sharp tongue.
PG: But now the music is…
ED: More happy.
PG: Right. I don't know if you like this word, but it's "infectious."
ED: That's all right. A couple of years ago, I started thinking, I would
love to make people happy with my music. That would be the best thing.
PG: I read a quote by you in a newspaper that said. "Fun is the
most important thing. I'm glad we haven't been real successful, because
it seems like whenever you get successful you start to suck."
ED: Scary, man. That's true. I just always have to remember I'm playing
music to have a good time, to comfort myself by writing songs and trying
to figure out problems. Singing just makes me real happy. I'm going
to really give it a go not to become despicable and strange and pretentious.
I just really want to stay on the street level, like when I play for
the scalpers before a show.
PG: Do you do that often?
ED: Yeah. I often go outside before a show, when people are just starting
to line up, and I play a song for them. It's cool, man. It helps me
remember why the hell I'm doing this thing.
LA: I love your version of "Mrs. Robinson."
ED: Thanks. At first, we felt like the record company was making us
do that song, but then I got to thinking how much I love the movie The
Graduate. We had sampled Katharine Ross on "Alison's Starting to
Happen," so it seemed somehow comically correct that we should
cover "Mrs. Robinson."
PG: In the song "My Drug Buddy," you explore the issue of
drugs. How do you feel about drugs?
ED: My take on drugs is that I would never in a million years condone
them for someone else, because I hate the idea of that. So many times
I thought to myself, man, I never want to do drugs again. But I would
never sacrifice any experience I've ever had on them, and I am not remorseful
that I've done them. I would like to get more and more away from drugs.
I'm worried about the fact that the reason I do them is because, as
the song "My Drug Buddy" goes, "I'm too much with myself/
I want to be someone else."
LA: You said on the shoot that you've been going down to Australia a
lot and that you wrote your last album there. You're going back soon,
aren't you?
ED: Yeah, I'm going for Christmas.
LA: What is it about Australia that you like so much?
ED: I met all of these amazing people down there who inspired me and
kind of saved my life. Also, there are a lot of nice beaches. You gotta
wear a hat, but that’s all right. It’s just a very relaxing
kind of place with a lot of unspoiled coastline.
PG: You grew up in Boston?
ED: Yeah, Back Bay kind of scene. We moved there when I was nine, and
I took off on my skateboard to discover cover the city, which was fun
for me because I had been in the countryside - Essex, Massachusetts.
PG: How do you feel about your image as a major heartthrob? Sassy magazine
thinks you're "foxy," referring to you as "His Beautiful
Blond Sadness."
ED: That kind of stuff is unfortunate, but what am I going to do? It's
just this weird way for people to find out about the band. I don't think
it's a particularly pure way, but it's a way, and I have to accept it.
PG: It's tough, because a lot of what you do is about how you look.
You're a good-looking guy who plays music, and you can't do anything
about what happens because of that. If people say, "He's cute.
I'm going to go buy his album," hopefully they'll like the music,
too.
ED: That's part of the freezer burn that television and all the media
culture is perpetrating on America. It's like singers have to be pretty,
which is stupid.
PG: I know this is a cliche, but do you have women throwing themselves
at you?
ED: I'm afraid it's starting to happen. It's really weird.
PG: What is it like?
ED: It's like you gotta catch 'em. [laughs] But then you gotta say,
"Hold on a minute." And then you gotta place them.
PG: Place them and run away?
ED: No, I usually just hug 'em and say, "Peace, baby." I'm
making a real effort not to be promiscuous. I've never been very promiscuous,
except early in high school I was with a lot of women. Now I just can't
hack it.
PG: It can be such a mental drain. It's like giving away pieces of yourself.
It depends on the person, of course.
ED: It depends on the pieces, too. [laughs] It's nice to hold on to
something-yourself, I guess-so you can really give it away someday.
Besides, you don't have to have sex to ...what was that really bad song?
[sings] "You don't have to take your clothes off to have a good
time." Anyway, I realized I certainly don't have to sleep with
all of these girls. They're usually fifteen, so I don't want to go to
jail, and I don't want to mess them over -they probably couldn't deal
with it.
PG: Are you going to make another Lemonheads album?
ED: Yeah. Me and Dave [Ryan, drummer] and Nic [Dalton,bassist] are going
to make an album together. I already have about five songs I think are
better than the last album, so I'm really excited.
PG: And then will you go solo?
ED: I don't know what's going to happen. I see one more Lemonheads album.
There's no reason for us all to look past the next album, because we're
so busy right now.
PG: But whether the Lemonheads go on or not, you like to perform solo
anyway, right?
ED: I like to do it whenever I can-I know so many songs. I'm like a
walking karaoke torture machine. [laughs]
PG: You're like a rock 'n' roll cabaret singer. It's like you have this
knowledge that you just want to share.
ED: Yeah, but I don't think of it as knowledge. It's really just a love
I want to share. I really didn't study any music. I just picked it up
real quick.
PG: How do you feel about touring - is it fun or a drag?
ED: It's the best. It's an ideal combination: I get to see the world
and try to make people happy. I'm very much of a wandering spirit, if
you'll pardon the expression.
PG: Do you think you'll always be making music?
ED: Forever. I'd like to do it my whole life - although I also love
words and want to write short stories. But right now, my songs are kind
of my short stories.
More photos to accompany this article, in our photo pages.