Rockezine.com interview with Hermano on Jul 14, 2002

with Steve ‘Dandy’ Brown, Dave Angstrom, Steve Earle on Jul 14, 2002

About an hour after their gig Hermano and company take it easy on the edge of a soccer field a little secluded from the festival fuss. They’ve been driving all night and morning to make it in time for their early slot in the festival program. And as they’re traveling in vans they were unable to catch some sleep. No rest for the wicked I guess. Still bassist Dandy Brown and later on guitarist Dave Angstrom willingly take some time to talk to Rockezine. Every now and then drummer Steve Earle joins in while John Garcia excuses himself and retreats to a quieter spot.
		In spite of the lack of sleep the band had, the show went well. Dandy: You kind of hit a wall of course every time you come out and do something like this. We’ve been going non stop for a while but I think we played well. I think we’ve had a great time. The tour is going great man. It’s just mind blowing that for two years I haven’t played a note of music with these guys. And they come in and get about four hours of rehearsal and then they hit it and start playing. It’s been bizarre.
		Steve Earle walks up to us. He’s also feeling the effects of skipping a night’s sleep. Steve Earle: I don’t know if he told you we’ve had no sleep. Drive here, play at twelve thirty, sound’s totally weird. You know, he [points at Dandy] put it best when he said that it’s like we’re watching a movie and someone else is moving. We’re just like… Wow! What the fuck! Dandy continues: After spending that much time away from each other just coming together and trying to put it together this quickly I think it’s been amazing. And the response has been amazing. The clubs have been very hospitable. Steve: Everybody’s been incredibly… people are having such a good time at our shows. Everybody’s totally getting into it. Dandy: Yeah. I think that at this festival [Dynamo Open Air] a lot of people didn’t know what to expect. And a lot of people didn’t know who the fuck we were. I think some people stood back, took a listen. Hopefully they liked it. We had a good time. I think some people really got into it. You can’t ask for any more in a show.
		The album …Only A Suggestion was recorded in 1999 and 2000. Due to various circumstances it’s only just been released. Though it’s been on the shelf for almost three years it hasn’t lost its eloquence. Dandy: Everything I heard [about the album] has been positive. From the day we recorded it, from the day that we did the first song and I let some friends hear it. It’s been positive since then. There’s never been a negative moment with this band, really. Other than the couple of years we had to sit on it.
		Having to wait for so long wasn’t easy but Dandy’s not letting the frustration get the upper hand. Dandy: I don’t waste my time on that shit man. It’s all water under the bridge. I could sit here and rail on some people and I can talk about how frustrating it is to have to sit on something you love for a couple of years. But all that shit, that’s all gone now. The record sounds as good now as it did two years ago. And it’s out now, it’s great.
		All members of Hermano play or used to play in different bands among which Kyuss, Afghan Whigs and Supafuzz. Nonetheless Hermano is regarded by them as a band, not a project. Dandy and Steve explain how the band works. Dandy: I keep reading ‘Dandy Brown the mastermind’ or ‘Dandy Brown’s brainchild’ or … Steve: Puppeteer!? Puppeteer!? He’s the puppet master! Ha ha ha. Dandy: That is so far from the truth. I sat in the living room writing riffs, just started to sing out. They were a kind of reflection of my life at the time. I’d owned a recording studio and I’d done a bunch of work with R&B and hip hop and folk, country, punk rock and hard rock and every genre you can think of. Steve: We jammed with each other for years. I left the [Afghan] Whigs and I had a lot of time on my hands; and I wanted to play some music so… Dandy: Even though I came up with these initial riffs everybody brought something to it. From the first session when we all walked in. We’ve been passing these riffs for maybe seven months before but fifty percent of that record was written in those seven hours we were together in the studio. We tracked this thing in about 80 hours of actual studio time and mixing time. The way it came together was… it was spontaneous, it was magical. It was a moment I think that record defines.
		The two years between the recording and the release weren’t wasted. Steve: I met and fell in love with my wife. Got married, had a baby and I’ve had no time to play. I’m finally starting to be able to play again. And I’ve been working. I paint houses to make a living. I love it so much, after not playing so long, it’s like I never took a break. I feel just as strong as I ever did. Dandy: I finished the recording of the Hermano record in Cincinnati and I had just had it with that town. I’d been stuck there for quite a few years and I just felt burnt by it. I can’t stay in one place for too long without starting to feel itchy. After the recording of the Hermano record John lured me into coming out to the desert. With the beauty of the mountains, the sand and … I just went out there to master it [the Hermano record] and it was everything he lured me out there with. The majesty of these mountains circling this huge valley of sand and the insanity of the heat. And when I got out there I got thrown into this great group of desert musicians. With legends like Mario Lalli and Alfredo Hernandez and Pete Stahl. We started playing just jams with these guys and finally it’s like: ‘Hey, you know, maybe we could do something with this.’ And that album got recorded and mixed in less than two weeks. By that time I was in the desert for about a year and a half and the heat just started beating on me. You’ve got weeks at a time in the summer when the daytime temperature is always a 120 degrees Fahrenheit. And then at night time at 3 a.m. it’s a 105. You get no relief and it just plays on your mind. Steve: Your mind got sucked up way before you got to the desert. He’s trying to play it off with ‘The desert fucked my head up’. Dandy: Ha ha ha! You know the desert… There are many romantic places and the desert is romantic. And you can see how it inspires those people who live there. If you’re in that heat it twists your mind somehow.
		Both the members of Hermano and Orquesto del Desierto play in other bands as well. Therefore it’s hard to plan the future. Dandy Brown is pragmatic about it. Dandy: To expect from John Garcia or Dave Angstrom or Pete Stahl or Alfredo Hernandez or any of those guys to devote all of their time to one of my projects is totally unreasonable. I have no expectations on that. If you start pulling expectations and pressure into the situation it ruins the vibe of it. Orquesta del Desierto may never even play out live. I don’t know. We talked about it but the window just hasn’t opened wide enough to do it. We’re really talking about the [new] Hermano record now and there’s a whole batch of riffs waiting for that. John’s been working on them for the past few months. We’d love to do it before the winter’s out. I don’t know. It [the members playing in different bands] interferes but it also brings a whole new life to the music. People that limit themselves, people that only define themselves by one genre, people that choose not to have their eyes open to the world… you know, I don’t really have time for those fuckers. If I went out and wrote another Hermano record and, say, it had a lot more acoustic folky kind of feel to it along with the same blues feel that Hermano has there are going to be those fuckers out there that are like: ‘This is not like the first record! I hate it!’ That’s because they’re blind, man. They can’t see that people evolve and things change. And they can’t see beyond one way of defining themselves. They’re trying to define themselves and get into a certain group. They want to feel like they belong. There’s something great about togetherness and everybody believing in something but often that leads to people shutting everything out except for that one thing. For the sheer fear of not being accepted by that group.
		Surprisingly Dandy has lived in the Netherlands for a year. Dandy: I spent a lot of time over here in the early nineties which is probably one of the defining moments in my life. I lived in Zutphen, probably for about a year. Great city. Totally conservative but it’s really an awesome place I think.
		Dave Angstrom joins us and as it starts to rain the conversation continues in the van. He’s also pretty beat by missing a night’s sleep but he speaks about playing in his three bands (Supafuzz, Devil May Care and Hermano) enthusiastically. Dave: I stay busy. I love it. I take different emotions and feelings from each project. I never wanted to be in a situation where I did that but it seems the last three years I rolled into three really kick ass bands at the same time. And man, it’s a pleasure. I tour mostly with Supafuzz. That’s the numero uno, that’s the main band. With Devil May Care we do shows in the weekend. We usually play two or three times a month only. Just for fun around where we live. We drive about 8 hours, do a show and go back. And Hermano only takes time when we’re doing it. It’s so rare that it’s no sweat.
		The future may be hard to plan, but touring creates a demand for the next record. Because Hermano is half band, half project they refuse to let that kind of pressure come into play. Dandy: Like I said before, the vibe of this project and band at this point is that we do it when the window opens wide enough. We’re not 22 year old musicians. I have a wife, I have a daughter, have a baby on the way. Dave has two kids, he has a wife, he has a job. Steve has a kid and a job. John has a baby on the way and has a job. We do this because we love to play music. We get together because we love to get together and love playing together. We’ve been asked when the next record comes out and that’s a great question! We’re very honored for that question being asked. Dave: I don’t know when’s the next time I get to make love to my wife but I can’t wait for it. I ask a lot and every once in a while BAM! I get it. Same thing with this band. It’s just fun. It totally is about friends, growth of relationships. It’s a garden that’s bloomed out of all these totally different individuals. We wrote a song in a freakin’ dressing room the other day. That’s the way it works. We’re not going to worry about it. And it means so much to come over here and play for these great crowds. It’s incredible man. Best time of my life. Dandy: But I’m not gonna put pressure on those people that I dig you know. When everybody says: ‘Now is the time’, and that time will come, we will all clear our schedules and we’ll jump back in and it will be a blast again. The first time around is too much fun to only do it once.
		Playing in Hermano made quite an impact on the members of the band. As it was a different experience than with every one’s other bands. Dave: In our situation, we’ve all pushed so hard try and take other bands to a nationally or internationally known level that with this thing it was a vacation. It’s like doing the same thing and loving your job. You know, being a carpenter or a plumber, whatever it is that you’re passionate about but then you get to go jet skiing for a week. Naked. With eight bikini chicks… I’m going! It’s just fun and it totally is a break. When we go back to our other projects our heads are clear. Dandy: We go back influenced by different musicians again and then your whole vitality as an artist is revived. It expands your life. And that’s the beauty of Hermano. It goes so far beyond the record. It’s influenced our lives, increased our lives a hundredfold in so many emotional and personal ways. Dave: In talking and trying to answer questions and make it make sense. We never put any of this in the thought of it. We just made a record! We got together and never thought about why we were doing it and how we were going to get out of it and how we felt about our other projects. We we’re just friends and we got together to purely have fun.
		A project like Hermano can never work without the aid of others. Dave and Dandy are well aware of that. Dave: The people that have been involved in this project have all been great. Even the labels that made offers that we didn’t go with. Because they’re all labels that support and nurture originality. Dandy: Everybody that stepped up and wanted to help out with the Hermano record we appreciate dearly. They offered us an opportunity to do this and even though some didn’t go all the way through with it everybody helped one step of the way. It’s been beautiful. Dave: We didn’t know we were coming to Europe man. We got a call about a month and a half ago. Then we find out that we can’t go because of everybody’s jobs and then two or three weeks before we flew here we found out we were going. Ferdy and Suzy at Three Ignition touring, they kick ass. Tony at Tee Pee, Dale at Tee Pee, they kick ass. They worked all this stuff up. We wouldn’t be over here without those people. You know, Cargo… A band can’t survive without the industry around it. And we’re fortunate that this band has found an industry of great hearted people who love music.
		Hermano (Spanish for brother) seems to be the perfect name for this band. Dandy: I think the feeling that we got when we walked into the studio… I mean, five guys who had never played a note together before, and instantaneously feel the magic. And the personal relationships that grew between some people that had never even met each other before. From the moment they meet they’re hugging each other, feeling this creativity together… There was never any other name for it. It was totally inevitable that it would deal with some sort of brotherhood. That’s the passion in the band, that’s the passion behind the songs, behind the way the record sounds. It’s all about that moment and the beauty of that moment and only a suggestion of what’s coming next. Only a suggestion of what it created beyond the record.
(Walter de Korver)