Dandy Brown interview for
Motel.Bazooka Magazine and Lamb Magazine (February 2004)
Questions by Leonardo Calcagno

Q: How are you? (how are you and what have you been doing?)

A: Actually, I am doing well. Busy, but well. As you may or may not know, I am a high school teacher up here in the high desert, and we have finally reached the half-way point of the school year. It has been a great year, with great students, but the work kicks my ass for nine months before I get a break from it. Teaching is a tough gig, no matter what anyone tells you about it. I work ten to fourteen hour days every day for nine months, but at least I get a long summer break.

Q: Orquesta del Desierto has a new album. How different is it from your last one?

A: In a lot of ways it is very easy to compare the two, and in others the entire emotion and what the records mean to me are extremely different. With the first Orquesta release, I feel that in many ways none of us, including myself, were ready to accomplish all the things I hoped to achieve with it. While I love the songs on that record, and it remains a very personal statement of the emotions I felt when I first saw the desert, there is something about the sound of that batch of songs that makes me believe we were trying too hard to find the spirit of that session. We actually rehearsed more for the first release than we did for "Dos," and, to me, the second record sounds more like a practiced band than the first one. On "Dos" I think we threw more caution to the wind, and the groove was just easier to find that way. Sometimes it takes laying back off of something to allow it to come to you. Of course, we had more time to write songs that went along with the original vision of the project, and the ability to reflect on all of the good things we found during that first session, and that probably made the songwriting process come a little more naturally.

Q: Your view on the turmoil in the USA intelligence community, the inadequate intelligence used on the war in Iraq?

A: Jumping right in with a political question! Look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be either a military or political analyst, but since you are providing a forum for my thoughts on this, I'll at least give you my impression. To begin with, let's face the facts that the US had every intension of invading Iraq no matter what sort of validation they were going to attempt to provide for the world. The thing I hate the most about the current US administration is the fact that they attempt to hide under these transparent veils of dissembled and distorted truths, and it's as though they believe they can fool not only the American people but the rest of the world. They are liars, like most politicians, and always operate with this sickening faux dignity and compassion. I would hate their motives still, but I could definitely respect a government that dished out the real reasons a whole hell of a lot more than a bunch of liars who insult me and every American by pretending that we have some claim to a higher moral judgment than anyone else. Fuck that type of rational. If it is the case that we are the moral authority in the world, then we had better be out there striking down "injustice" everywhere it appears . . .not only, by chance, in a country that exists right in the middle of the fuel supplies. Let's face the facts, here, man. If the USA cared so goddamn much about dictators who subject their citizens to cruelty, then there are certainly more than two spots in the world that we could be "colonizing" right now. Weapons of mass destruction? Doesn't a nuclear bomb do more mass destruction than chemical weapons? Doesn't North Korea have a dictator that subjects his people to suffering? How goddamn stupid does George Bush and the rest of his cabinet believe the American people are? Well, I may have an answer to that question in about eight months, right?
Really, though, I can't believe there could possibly be anyone out there that doesn't realize that we have lost hundreds of our citizen's lives over a farce, and the almost blood-thirsty quest we seem to have for remaining dependent upon fossil fuels. Here's where it gets sticky, though, because I don't know the economic numbers on exactly what the turnover cost will be to change our nation to a different fuel source, but I'm sure it's in the trillions upon trillions, and if there is one thing I know about the American people it's that they certainly hate to suffer. In that way, Bush probably believes he is doing the best thing for the USA, having the rational that relieving the future suffering of his people is justification for sending our troops to fight, and die. It's hard to say what goes through the minds of people responsible for such power because I'm not one of them. In the end, though, I do believe that there were hints of evidence that there was some threat posed by Iraq, however thin those hints were, and Bush played upon a nation's fears from the terror in New York from a few years ago to make those hints his opportunity to invade an oil rich nation. It seems to me that it was sort of a gamble in which his administration hoped to find more than they have so far. It just didn't work out in his favor, at least not so far.
I may be totally wrong, though, too. I'm just an English teacher in a small town high school, and a guy that plays in a rock and roll band that has caught your attention. What in the hell do I know?

Q: What do you think the general message of OdD is?

A: While I think there are certainly emotional statements on this record, really those are personal depictions either lyrically or musically that give people a glimpse into what the real moment was. Isn't that the case with all art? Really, there's no "message" that Orquesta is attempting to preach to the world. We're a band . . . that's it. If you are touched by a lyrical or musical moment while listening to the record, if it makes you identify with and have remembrance for a certain moment in your life then I think that's wonderful.

Q: OdD albums bring a lot of Latin-American beats with a great combination of desert rock grooves. Can you take us to your musical state of mind when composing?

A: With Orquesta, it has always been a reflection of the majesty of the Mojave and somehow trying to depict the emotions that the desert gives me. My writing changes, though, in different environments. The Hermano record was written in the heart of a huge American city, rife with racial animosity. The Orquesta collections have all been written while surrounded by the beauty of the San Gorgonio and San Jacinto mountain ranges. Throw in the wide open desert sky, the never-ending layer of sand, and the occasional coyote running through the yard, and maybe you can start to see the process involved in writing music that is an attempt at reflecting the desert.

Q: Is the name Orquesta del Desierto filled with a special meaning?

A: The story is pretty simple, really. When I first thought of how I wanted to put the songs together, I mentioned something to Mike Riley about wanting it to sound orchestral, like an orchestra in the desert. I know, that sounds pretty introspective, maybe too introspective for a rock band, but that's how the name came about. From there, it was simply thinking that the name sounded better in Spanish.

Q: If you were a doughnut, what kind of doughnut would you be?

A: A cruller.

Q: What are you listening to right now?

A: Lately, it's been the new Steve Earle record . . . no, not Steve Earle the country singer, but Steve Earle the drummer from Hermano. Steve has been working on finding time to put this record together for the last four or five years, and he has finally completed it. It sounds amazing, and hopefully it will be available within the next year.

Q: What kind of emotion do you want to project with Orquesta?

A: If there is anything that I hope that will come through in the record, it has to be that sense of awe that the Mojave inspires within everyone who lives or visits here. It's something that is truly impossible to describe, or even present in any kind of art form completely, but the sensations a person carries away from here are unbelievable.

Q: Any last words of wisdom?

A: Get out and see as many live bands as you can, and buy their products directly from them. Really, if you want to support a musician, going out and seeing them live and buying their stuff is the only way to do it.