Dirty Lyle Interview

By Simon N

Following the newly released debut album "Threw it all Away" by Dirty Lyle I thought an interview with these local stoner trucker punks was in order. The album was financed by the band themselves and recorded over a year ago. Their metal-fuelled, stoner-induced, up-tempo rock'n'roll has a sound very much their own but fans of Motörhead, Nine Pound Hammer, early Nashville Pussy and Dozer should take notice. The fact that they weren't kicking it at 120 here with Nine Pound Hammer when they played here on the 21st of May is quite nearly a scandal. Anyway, the new album is out on the otherwise hippie orientated label Ohm Records, based around the nationally legendary bar Fedtebrødet…locally better known as Fedten. The bar, located here in Aalborg, was closed down last year for selling dope in the bar, which is illegal in Denmark. Here's the dope on one of the most rocking new bunch of spliff friendly losers currently attempting to make a career out of loud guitars and stupid behaviour. Members are: Anders Pedersen (vocals), Thomas Snuden Christensen (Lead Guitar), Jesper Georgsen (Rhythm Guitar) and Ronny Bo Jensen (Drums). Present Anders and Ronny Bo.

?: Let's just start with the beginning. When did the band form?

A: I think that's about 3 years ago…the summer 2002. That's when you started out; You, Jesper, Thomas and Karsten and then I joined in September that same year.
R: When Anders joined we pretty much started from scratch. We got the idea about three years ago and we have now played with the actual band for about 2 years and a half.

?: Who's Karsten?

RB: Wasn't he Unity Squad (local punk band from the 80s-ed.)?
A: Yes, he was in Unity Squad.

?: But he's not in the band now or…?

RB: No, he was the front man in the…well, it wasn't really a band, we were just trying to play some music really and we found out that Karsten wasn't the right man. For him it was just a spare time thing and the rest of us found out that we liked playing together and we wanted more.
A: Wasn't there rehearsals he never attended?
RB: Yes, actually he didn't really turn out too often so…and then we found out that we needed someone else and then we asked Anders. He then turned up to the first rehearsal with finished lyrics for a song and we had a riff and then we made our first song at the first rehearsal. The song "Dirty Lyle"…the second song on the album…
A: …total paranoia for me…
RB: …but it was a good first time rehearsal so he was pretty much in the band like that.

?: So the idea with the band is totally serious. I mean records and gigs and stuff.

RB: Yes.
A: The goal definitely is to get out and play some more concerts. When we started out the goal was to make enough songs of our own to play gigs locally, so that was pretty much what we were aiming at and then we have taken it from there…of course we wanna play some more concerts.

?: You have been playing a lot locally.

A: Yes it has been quite a few and it would be really cool to get out of town with our stuff.
RB: We have been in Århus once and that's about it…and Hjørring (Hometown of Lars von don Krogh actually!!! Damn fine place for hillbilly rock!-ed.). But of course it would be nice to go to the Capital…
A: Yes, a gig in Copenhagen would be cool.

?: Do you actually do anything about it…or is it just a plan?

RB: Well, we have a lot of plans but the actual working on the plans that's when the projects often kinda gets to a halt.
A: You can say that we do work on the plans but it moves incredibly slowly. I think it has to do with the fact that we all have other things to take care of as well, but we have to admit that we aren't too disciplined and that of course is a problem for us.

?: With so many bands around you have to be on your toes.

RB: Thomas is studying and…there are of lot of things. But then again when we started from scratch a bit over two years ago and until now I think things have been going pretty fast. We already have songs enough for the next record, but this time, instead of going into the studio with 10 songs and recording all of them, this time we wanna go there with 25 songs and come home with 10 songs…recording 20 or 25 songs and then picking out the best ones.
A: Pick out the songs that are gonna make the best album.
RB: With the first album we thought we were going to record 3 songs. We had been rehearsing 3 songs. Then when we came there we recorded 10 songs on the first day.

?: Where did you record it?

A: At Tue Madsen's place (famous Danish heavy metal producer and musician-ed.). Antfarm studio in Århus. The contact had been established through Brian from Mnemic who Thomas and I worked with back then. They had had some really good experiences recording with Tue and he's not too expensive. At the time we recorded with him he was quite inexpensive and he was very quick to catch on to what kind of stuff we play. We put up our equipment and then he heard one song and then he got up and picked up "The Action is Go" by Fu-Manchu and said that he thought that the sound should be something like that, and we actually had been discussing that album for a reference so he was quick to find out what we wanted. He immediately told us to record it live in the studio and then put on the vocals later.
RB: You could call us a punk version of Fu-Manchu…we don't play stoner rock as such…

A: …no, but there is a certain touch of that.

?: I remember describing it as trucker stoner punk…what were your initial plans about the style? Did you have any specific sound you went for?

RB: No not really and we still don't. If there's a song we all think is good then it's a Dirty Lyle song and then it's not really important which box you can put it into.

A: Whether it's a punk rock song or a stoner rock song or something that's kinda metal isn't really that important. Some might accuse us of being a bit style-confused but does it rock? That's really what's important in the end and if we agree on that, then we play it.

?: How do make the songs?

A: In most cases Jesper produces a riff and if we agree that it's good we try to put a formula to it and that's typically Ronny and Jesper who takes care of that. Thomas try to run along and getting the lead guitar worked out. I hear it a few times and start thinking about subjects to make lyrics about. The vocal is almost always what's finished last cuz I have to know the song before I can write the lyrics.

?: What are the lyrics about?

A: The overall criteria for the lyrics is humour! I have to think it's funny and the people I play with have to think it's funny. It's one big mix of internal jokes and references to trash culture generally. We have songs about mullets, we have a song about Mcguyver, Dolph Lundgren and then we have several subjects that refer to trucker movies and trucker clichés. Of course I don't know shit about driving a truck but there are a lot of clichés about it…it might be the result of being a Mr. President (The president for the Danish trucker union who also made a couple of outrageously hilarious and stupid easy-listening trucker song records and had a small hit with "Pedalfri Zone") fan…it's basically baloney from A to Z.

?: Maybe this is a good time to explain from where you got the band name.

RB: That's from the famous 70s movie "Convoy" (1978 to be more precise-ed.). It has this notorious cop who's chasing the truckers. His name is Lyle Wallace and the truckers call him Dirty Lyle.
A: He is one of the most cool film villains you will ever see.

?: Who's playing the part?

A: Ernest Borgnine.
RB: He's totally wild in that movie.

?: I haven't seen that film in 20 years or something like that.

RB: He's amazing…he's totally wild.

?: Maybe I should se it again.

RB: The Duck (played by Kris Kristofferson-ed.) is fucking his wife out of mercy! It's quite fantastic!

?: Sam Peckinpah (the director of "Convoy"-ed.) was drinking himself to death around that time. Well, actually he was doing most of his career.

RB: There is this fantastic scene with this convoy of trucks being chased through the desert by the cops and there is this classical music, ballet like music, and you see these trucks in slow motion with all dust whirling around and it's like a trucker ballet. Fantastic scene!

?: Let's get back to the album. Are you satisfied with it yourselves?

A: It did surprise us a lot what we came back with. We did expect to make a demo with 3 or 4 songs but then suddenly it went really quickly with recording and suddenly we had an entire album instead. I think it's a pretty good result.
RB: What I like is that it's not a metal record it is a garage rock record in a way with a bit of punk rock and a lot of other stuff. It has a touch of metal but I really like that fact that it has a different sound than you're used to with fast punk rock. I kinda miss that in garage rock. I think there are way too many bands that sound alike. Often the sound is trendy…there was this lo-fi hype and now everybody wanna sound like some 60s garage band.

?: Stoner rock bands have the same sound as well. If you hear the first 2 minutes of an album you can't tell whether it's Bongzilla or Fu-Manchu.

RB: Yes, that's true, but it was fun to try and make an album with mostly garage tendencies and about 10% metal and with a more stoner rock sound.

?: I think a lot of you riffs are very much stoner rock riffs.

A: "Killerbeast" is straight out of the Tony Iommi song book.
RB: I think maybe two songs on the album are definable as stoner rock. The rest have got nothing got do with stoner rock.

?: I think even if you play faster a lot of your riffs are stoner rock riffs.

RB: Maybe you're right…I haven't thought of that.

?: What about your new songs? How are they compared to the first album?

A: I think that quality wise everything has become better and I'm quite very excited to hear it once it gets recorded in a studio. The last couple of songs we made are bit more retro rock'n'roll. They have a good dose of Chuck Berry guitar to them.
RB: It's not as frantic as some of the earlier songs…it's more calm.

?: So you're not gonna do a new record sometime soon?

RB: We have enough new songs now, but as we said earlier, we wanna wait until we have a lot of new songs to pick from. Next summer probably.

?: How did you get the album released on Ohm records?

A: That was pretty much like walking in there and ordering a beer in the bar.
RB: It was pretty weird. We had been sending it all around the world and to every small label in Denmark but nothing happened. The we talked to Ronja (local stoner rock outfit-ed) who were recording some stuff at Fedten that was gonna come out on Ohm Records and they wanted some more rock music on the label cuz so far it was only acoustic hippie stuff on the label. So one day me and Jesper went there and talked to Bent (the guy who runs Ohm Records-ed.) and we showed him our promo CD. Then he looked at us and said, "And you want me to release it?" and we said, "Yes" and so he did.
A: In every way Ohm Records is an easy label to work with. Most agreements are quite lose.

?: Where can you buy Ohm Records? Do they have a website?

A: Yes I think so. But you can buy then a few places in Aalborg.

?: What if you're located in Copenhagen and want to check it out?

A: You can order it directly from the label.
RB: Or you can buy it at Christiania. Bent has some contacts there.
A: I think he has some contact with Tømrerclaus (real name Claus Clement Pedersen-ed.) who I think sells some of his records in Copenhagen.

?: Will it be available on vinyl?

A: Not the way things are now. It's something we really want but I think we will have to pay for it ourselves.

?: The album cover, where did you get that?

A: It's made by one of our mates who's working as a camera man at a TV station in Copenhagen. The cover girl was someone we ran into at 1000Fryd (local punk gig venue-ed.) one drunken night, where we were discussing in the bar how funny it was that she was still wearing braces at her age. We got a couple of ideas that weren't quite as presentable as the final result. We went and asked her drunken as we were if she was interested in working with us on the cover and she said yes. Then we took it from there and the more porn inspired stuff got put away. The pictures were taken in the rehearsal room at 1000Fryd.

?: So what is gonna happen now.

A: To write more songs and play more gigs…one of the things we really want is to get out and play.
RB: To make people know our name and to play gigs.
A: We have been sending the record out to magazines. Then we'll probably get a few knocks for it but people will hear about us.
RB: In a way we don't really have any use for reviews as such. It's not so important what they write just as long as they write something…

That's it. To get a hold of their album contact: booking@fedtebroed.dk
See review elsewhere.
Cheers!