Interview by Rock Sound Spain  - August - 2003

STEVE 'DANDY' BROWN

-What makes the Mojave desert such an inspirational place? I mean, why the desert, and why that desert? What do you prefer, the low or the high desert?

D. Brown: For those who have never lived in the desert, to try to describe the environment is often something that comes across as someplace too harsh for human existence! I am looking out my window right now at the sea of sand and the rise of the mountains off in the distance, and while I have the convenience of air conditioning I know that just beyond my front door the temperatures are hovering right around 110 degrees farenheit and rising. It's ten o'clock in the morning. Last night it dropped to about 97 degrees (convert to centigrade if you wish), and this is just the beginning of the summer. Toward the end of July there won't be a moment in the day or night when the temperature falls below 95. I would think that most people would wonder, "Where in the hell is the inspiration in that?" To begin with, there is something about the punishment of the heat that reaches down into the very core of a person's psyche, and draws out the very essence of desire and despiration . . . every element of romance. Once those elements are exposed, the landscape begins to take effect. Again, outside my window rolls the long stretches of tan sand speckled by the various desert plantlife, cactus, Joshua trees, Yucca trees, and sparce shrubs that dot the landscape. On and on these things pan out to the observation until they reach the lift of the mountains which rise in every direction, so damn majestic and humbling.
At night, the silhouettes of those mountains push against the sky as the stars flicker in outline around them. It's the nights that I love the most. During the day it is nearly impossible to withstand the heat for any kind of long period of time, but at night I find myself drawn to my back porch where I can lose myself in the stars which crest the mountain tops as I strum out a few things on the acoustic or simply listen to a cd or two. I suppose what I'm getting at is that the inspiration comes from the reduction down to the basic and most visceral of all emotions and desires, and the eventual release of these emotions and desires into whatever one wishes to create. I'm not saying it's the same for everyone, but these are thing things which draw me to the Mojave. Perhaps it is the same in every desert, but this is the one I am in.
As for my preference to the high or low desert, there is no doubt in my choice. We spent a few years living in the low desert, and can definitively say that it has been overtaken by the most disgusting elements of human nature. Greed, avarice and narcissism rule down there, and as a result what was once pure and beautiful has been filled with suburbs, industry, and everything you can imagine that goes along with the quest for the all mighty dollar. Hummers, Jaguars, Mercedes, five hundred thousand to ten million dollar homes adorn the Coachella Valley as medals and trophies for those who live their lives in constant hunger for money. It is the worst specimen of what the world considers "the American attitude." I see nothing there except the desire for all that is an illusion. I don't mean to come across as someone who has to see spirituality in everything, as I am far from a spiritual person who has to find "god's" meaning in things. I just find the lack of anything "real" there absolutely disgusting. They get what they deserve, though, as the pollution continues to grow thicker and thicker every day. Eventually, I believe those who live there will either choke on the carcinogens which have made it nearly impossible to see the mountains clearly from the valley floor, or be wiped out by being pelted by the rain of golf balls the gods will shower upon them as ethereal justice for ruining the wonder of the valley with the hundreds of courses the rich and affluent have constructed there.
We have been living in Joshua Tree for the last seven months, and the high desert still remains a place that is sparcely populated and continues to hold the elegance of what the lower desert was perhaps fifty years ago. All the things I described as inspirational are still in existence here. Is there greed here too? Of course, but at least there is plenty of space between my family and those who are consumed by it.

-How do you translate landscapes and environtment into sounds and songs?

D. Brown: This is something that has just come naturally to me ever since I began playing music. Songwriting has always come easiest when it is a reflection of the events and environment around me. I have found that most of the time a riff will come to me when I am outside slapping around on the acoustic or the bass and simply gazing off into the landscape. I have never sat down with an instrument and thought, "There is the ocean," or, "There are the mountains," or, "Here is the city," and then sat out with a conscious effort to translate them into music. Those things just come in unconciously, and when I listen back to something I've recorded I see those environmental factors again.
For instance, a few years ago when I wrote the riffs for the Hermano sessions I was operating in an environment of racial prejudice and antimosity, Cincinnati, Ohio. Check out the news reports about that city from the last twenty years to see just how divided that region of the United States still is. For years I had operated a recording studio there where dozens upon dozens of various musicians would come in and in some way reflect in their music these same images. Walking out into the city I would see the anger, the mistrust between the races as they passed each other on the sidewalk, and eventually these elements of rage and apprehension filtered into the heavy blues of the Hermano record.
In essence, this is the same type of thing that happened when I first moved to the Mojave. Day after day my mind and emotions were drawn into the insanity of the heat and beauty of the desert until, finally, those things began to be reflected in the music I was creating.

-Did you write the new songs while in the desert?

D. Brown: To tell you the truth, I didn't actually know if there would be another Orquesta del Desierto record. Going back a bit, after spending a few years in the desert, my family and I got the itch to move on to another part of the United States. Not to take anything away from the desert, but I've always been the kind of person who believes that life is too short to spend it all in one place. Over the last twenty years, I don't think I've spent more than a few years in the same location. After finishing the first Orquesta release, my wife and I decided to drive across the US in search of another place to live. I was actually pretty burned out on production, and needed a break from the studio for a while. After a few weeks of driving, we ended up in southern Florida, where I used the time to refresh my thoughts and re-energize my desire to step into the studio again. It was there that I began piecing together another batch of material, mostly while living a few minutes from the beach and the Atlantic. It wasn't until I brought those songs back west that they developed some desert flavor to them, so I suppose it would be best to say that the material I wrote for this Orquesta session is a mixture of the east coast of the US and the desert.
As for the rest of the material for the record, after writing the majority of the songs for the first release I made up my mind that it would be best to make this record more of a collaborative effort. Country Mark Engel and Mike Riley are great songwriters, and to not have some of their creativity appear on this record would have been just plain ignorant. After weeks of correspondence and mailing ideas back and forth from Florida to California, it became extremely obvious that those guys had written material that would have to appear on this record. It was just too great to leave off. The problem arose when we realized that between us we had written close to twenty five songs for the record, and that it would be difficult to choose which ten or eleven we would want to use in the sessions. At least we already have material ready for the next record if the opportunity arises.

-What does a place like Joshua Tree mean for you?

D. Brown: It would be easy to romaticize Joshua Tree for those who have never been here before. I first came to Joshua Tree about three years ago when I first started dating my wife, and with that trip alone it became a very special place. We rode the motorcycle up here right around the middle of March, and what you have to imagine is that while the summers here are brutally hot, Joshua Tree does sit on top of a mountain, about 3500 feet above sea level (convert to meters if you wish). During the winter months, it does get cold, and we happened to arrive during an extremely cold snap. Bundled up in every stich of winter gear we could find in our desert wardrobe, we spent a few days cruising all through this little town. It was an absolutely amazing trip, though, capped with my wife writing I LOVE STEVE in fifteen foot letters in the sand just outside of our hotel room. What a way to wake up!
Remember, too, that people come here from all over the world to see the beauty of the Joshua Tree National Park. That place is filled with some of the most fantastic rock formations in the world, things that are simply mind blowing to observe. We rode the bike through the park on that trip, occasionally having a coyote trot across our path, and finally made it out to a place called Key's View which rises right around 5200 feet above the Coachella Valley and offers a view all the way to the Mexican border. Amazing. I should be working for the goddamn J-Tree visitor's center!
Anyway, after that trip we kept Joshua Tree in our thoughts for the next few years, thinking that one day we would like to live here for a while. It's a small town, man, the kind of place we have been hungry for ever since we met. For the last twenty years, I don't think I've lived in a city with less than half a million people . . . other than the few years I spent living in Zutphen, the Netherlands. To come to Joshua Tree and only have a little over 8000 people living in the town, well, time sure does move a little more slowly. I often have people ask, "Doesn't it get boring with nothing to do?" My response is always, "What in the fuck is wrong with a little boredom every once and a while?"

-Could the Rancho be in any other place?

D. Brown: I truly believe that whatever Fred Drake left in that studio before he died is the true substance behind the magic that has been made there. Could he have taken his gear and attitude to another little city in the desert and made it work? I think so. It seems to me that people should look to the man as the foundation behind Rancho, not the building or the location. The people who have taken over the operations of the studio remain dedicated to the same kind of vision Fred had for the studio, to providing a place where creativity can flow easily, and that is what makes Rancho de la Luna special.

-Is there a Rancho sound? If so, how would you describe it?

D. Brown: OK, now you want to talk production values, not romance! The only way to completely describe the sound of the place is to offer the example picking up as much material as you can that has been recorded there, listen to the things you find similar on those recordings, and then compare them to something recorded in another studio. To put it in words as best as I can, though, I would have to say that the rooms in Rancho de la Luna seem to add this low midrange (250 - 400 Hz) sheen and warmth that's difficult to find in other studios. It's a wonderful thing to walk away from a session with control over those frequencies, and makes the production that much easier of a job. The rooms also keep the higher frequencies (10 KHz and up) crisp but without the break-up that often makes cymbals and guitars clash in the mix. Damn, I'm sounding like a tech now. Really, though, the only way to know the "sound" of the place is to experience it with the purchase of something that has been recorded there. For producers, engineers and bands that are thinking about working there, I suggest checking out the Rancho web site to see the configuration of the rooms, the type of gear, and the overall layout of the studio to get a sense of what makes that place so special, both sonicly and psychologically.

-How did you get to know the Rancho? Why did you want to record the new album there?

D. Brown: My first encounter with Rancho came through the recordings I heard from there. Listening to the Kyuss, earthlings?, and Queens of the Stoneage recordings that came out of there, I could definitely hear something in the texture of those records that was placed there by the studio itself. It's funny how a lot of people think recording a record is just a matter of hooking up microphones to a tape machine or computer and then letting the rest take care of itself! I've worked in dozens upon dozens of studios on all types of music, and in the end the studio itself really does make a difference to the final product of any recording session.
There are all different types of philosophies on how to set up a studio, and, honestly, if any certain record was recorded at another location you would certainly hear a difference. Part of it is the type of gear. Another part is the configuration of the rooms . . . the materials used in the construction, and the actual angles of the walls, ceiling, and the type of flooring. Then there is the overall sensation the artist takes from being in the studio, the type of vibe that is created by the surroundings and the type of people who operate the studio. Rancho's "sound" certainly comes from a combination of all of these things, with an emphasis on the "vibe" part.
Anyway, once I began thinking about putting together another Orquesta del Desierto record, I had a number of options open to me as far as where to record it. At first, because I was living in Florida at the time, I thought of splitting the session between The A Room in Atlanta, and the Green Room in Palm Springs. The A Room is a fantastic place, and certainly would have been a great location to begin the record, but as circumstances turned out my business interests lay in California and it became obvious that doing the entire record here was going to be way more convenient.
At that point, I considered doing the entire thing at the Green Room, but the limitation of that studio is the fact that there is no analogue machine on location and I was looking at extreme prices for rental on one for the time I would need it. Anyone who owns the first Orquesta release knows that we tracked the entire album there, and in hindsight I regret doing that album in digital format only. I don't care what any producer, engineer, or artist says, the digital world still has not conquered the beauty of analogue sound! I believe that the first Orquesta suffered sonically from being done in digital format, and had decided at the beginning of putting the new sessions together that all of the initial tracking would be done in analogue. I'm sounding like a fucking tech again!!
After talking with Pete Stahl about where to begin the production on this record, he was the one who convinced me that Rancho was the place to track. I already knew the sounds that had come out of Rancho, and my first stop upon moving to Joshua Tree was there. I instantly fell in love with the location, and knew that we could turn out something special in that studio.

-How was recording the new album there? Very different from the experience of the first album, though that one was also in a desert town (but bigger) like Palm Springs?

D. Brown: Bringing Orquesta del Desierto to Joshua Tree has to be the best production decision I've made in years! Really. The first Orquesta sessions for the first release were much different in that there was never a time when more than one or two of the performers were in the studio at the same time. It was kind of a piecemeal operation in which I tracked all of the drums with no one else in the studio except Alfredo, the engineer and me, and then one at a time the other musicians came in to add their parts on different days. I've worked dozens of productions in the same way, but what I have found in those situations is that the input of other people involved in the project becomes minimal.
This time around, as I said earlier, I wanted the record to be more of a collaborative effort, and having nearly everyone in the same studio for the duration of the tracking was the important key to this. Doing the first sessions at Rancho sort of made it impossible for everyone to go home every night after their tracks were finished because everyone, except me, was hours away from home. Honestly, it made the tracking more wide open to the opinions of everyone involved. In the end, I believe that everyone involved felt more of a connection to the songs because we were all there twenty four hours a day for the first week of the production. I think this definitely comes through in the overall "feel" of the songs we tracked.

-Have you produced the album all by yourself?

D. Brown: Yes.

-Are there any special guests?

D. Brown: Well, that's an interesting question that I honestly can't answer at this point. Sometimes, it's best to just hint at what is going on because, as anyone involved in the music industry will tell you, labels and management often become very protective of what thier artists are up to . . . and what kind of cut they are going to get out of the project! It can become a real hassle trying to get permission from a label to have their artist appear on a side project. I learned a very hard lesson from the Hermano project that I never thought I would have to learn. Labels, especially major labels, will threaten every form of litigation if they believe or even suspect that they are somehow being slighted or not getting their lion share of something their artist appears on. For over two years I had to live with the fact that the Hermano record could not be released because of Garcia's involvement with American Records, and I don't want to go through that episode again. Did someone from a major label come in and help with the writing and tracking for this Orquesta record? Yes. Can I tell you who it was at this point? No.

-There's some changes in the line-up, the drums & percussion section is new and the addition of a trumpeter. Why? How has the Orquesta changed with that?

D. Brown: As with any project, things change, directions change, and time comes for progress instead of just remaining the same. Of course, the overall drift of the project changed with the addition of new members. I think, though, that the style of these new performers added a new and different diminsion to the sound of the project, but the new material was written before the line-up was settled, so I would have to say that the new direction of the music came before they were added.

-What about Alfredo Hernandez, why isn't he in the band anymore? What's he doing right now? Oh, and I read and interview where you said Gene Trautman was going to play in the band but that didn't work? What happened?

D. Brown: I have been asked this question a few times now, so I'm going to aproach it exactly the same as I have in other interviews. To begin with, Alfredo Hernandez is one of the most amazing drummers that I have ever worked with. As far as innovation and technique, Alfredo is at the top of the list. Anyone who has ever worked with him will tell you the same thing. In regard to why he is no longer involved in Orquesta, Alfredo and I reached a point of personal and philosophical differences on a number of issues, both in our general outlook on life and business, and in the end it was no longer a musically productive relationship. This is the same reason that the first percussionist, Landetta, is no longer involved in the project. End of story. I haven't spoken with Alfredo in quite a while, but I believe he is still working with a band called Family Butcher out of Palm Springs. I had heard that he was also working with some folks out of Seattle, but haven't heard anything about the progress on that project for a long time. I'm sure, though, that whatever he is involved in will be great. He is a great, great drummer, and I would expect nothing less from whatever he works on.
As for Gene, well, when we first started rehearsals for this Orquesta session he came out to the high desert and sat on a few of those jams. I believe both he and I had high hopes for his appearance on this record, but after a few rehearsals it became extremely obvious that the direction of Orquesta wasn't going to fit into his style of drumming. It didn't take long to realize that his technique just wasn't going to work for this project, and so it was his decision that he shouldn't continue on with it.
If you or other readers are looking for antimosity between me and these drummers, well, you'll just have to look elsewhere or find a rumor mill to feed the flames. I have nothing but respect for both of them, and wish them both nothing but the best in whatever they do in the future. Truly, they are magnificent performers, and I suggest purchasing anything either of them have been a part of.

-Apart from that, what makes the new one different compared to the first one?

D. Brown: Again, I think what is different about the second Orquesta del Desierto release is the fact that this has been more of a collaborative effort, and a situation I created in which I didn't have to make every creative decision. In that alone, people who pick up the new record are going to hear far more diverse songs created more from a group effort. Doing these sessions at Rancho de la Luna has made the sonic textures of the songs different as well. It seems to me, too, that the songwriting for this release has matured and become more comfortable, and is definitely a step forward.
While I love the songs on the first Orquesta del Desierto release, I believe there was a lot of "testing of the waters" going on there. The experimentation on the first release was a great way to start this project, but, as with any band trying to find their sound, there are a number of uncomfortable moments on the first record, at least in my opinion. I think, and hope, that what the listener will hear this time around is a project that has finally found its direction, and performances that are 100% comfortable in the flow of the music. Keep in mind that Orquesta del Desierto isn't and never has been a band that gets together three or four times a week, or has spent months and months on the road getting comfortable with the direction of the music. Basically, this project has been a product of how the desert inspired me, and trying to find the performers who could help me to present that vision in the studio. It's been a process of waiting for everyone else to fall into that groove, and this time around I think we have achieved it completely.

-Do you consider the Orquesta like a stoner supergroup without the 'stoner' (I mean, the music is not what people would describe as stoner)?

D. Brown: I think that most people want to apply labels to things to make themselves more comfortable with identifying with it, either positively or negatively. I believe that the term "stoner" only applies to Orquesta del Desierto in the sense that the people involved in the group have put out records that have been categorized as such. When the first Orquesta release came out, I think that a lot of people who were fans of the "stoner rock" scene purchased it believing that there were going to be the same kind of distorted guitars and sludge riffs that they had heard from these performers before. For some, I can only imagine the look of disappointment on thier faces when they hit the play button! For others, I think it was probably very interesting to hear something different than what they had grown to expect from these performers. We tried, as hard as we could through promotions, to announce to everyone that Orquesta del Desierto is nothing like what you have come to expect from the previous releases of these artists. I really don't think the message got through, though, until people actually had the release in thier media players!
As for the phrase "super-group," well, that is very humbling to think that anyone would consider me in the category of a performer who the term "super-group" can be applied to. I definitely think that Mario and Pete Stahl are icons in the underground music scene, and, honestly, they are two of the most important influences upon the groups that people consider the "stoner rock" greats of today. I don't need to chart out thier resumes here, and I believe their respective musical histories speak for themselves. I think the term "super-group" is far over blown, though.

-Are you gonna tour Europe with the Orquesta? If so, will Spain be included?

D. Brown: We have been discussing bringing Orquesta over to Europe for quite a while now, and I certainly hope that it happens within the next year. It is difficult to find that open window of opportunity with this group, though, because of all the various projects each of us are involved in. There are only so many hours in a day, week, and year, and sometimes those hours just don't all correspond with each and every member's schedule. If Orquesta does come to Europe, Spain will certainly be at the top of the list.

-Which is more your main band and which is more like a side project for you, Hermano or the Orquesta?

D. Brown: Again, Orquesta del Desierto and Hermano are not groups that get together on a regular rehearsal or tour schedule, so neither of them have ever actually felt like a band in the way that most people think of the term. Both are equally as important to me because of the fact that they offer an opportunity to further explore musical experimentation from two totally different ends of the spectrum. Remember, my background and experience in music is extremely diverse, and while I do admire people who have devoted their musical lives to exploration in the type of sound that drives them artistically, I could never imagine limiting myself to one vision, one direction. I love all types of music (other than modern country-western which I find to have even less integrity than modern pop), and to not explore all of these musical directions either in performance or through recording sessions would make music boring to me. Honestly, I can't think of anything that is more of a turn-off than people who can only see one type of music as "worthy." Every type of music has some element of power and inspiration in it (even modern country-western has Hank Williams III and Steve Earle), and to be stuck in only finding value in one category is amazingly ignorant to me.

-What are the plans for Hermano? Will there be a second album?

D. Brown: As a matter of fact, Hermano is just about to launch into pre-production for the second record. We are scheduled to begin recording the new record right around the middle of December. It has taken a while to get this one up and running due to a number of things. When we finished the east coast (US) tour back in November of last year, we had completed about ¾ of the new material for the record, and had planned on going into the studio right around January of this year to begin tracking it. Unfortunately, though, we ran into a bit of trouble with the label who had put out Only a Suggestion . . . TeePee Records. For some reason, they have decided to rip us off and not pay any of our royalties from that record. It has been a real fucking bummer having to deal with those guys. To go into a short rant about labels, there are very few of them that are willing to be honest with their artists. Often, up front a label can appear to be a great situation for a band, but when the money starts rolling in and greed takes over it sometimes gets difficult to pry the band's share loose from the label's hands, even if contractually they are obligated to pay. It becomes a real mess, as things have become with TeePee, because of the distance that divides the two entities. This is especially true in regard to the situation between TeePee and Hermano. They refuse to have any contact with us, have sent reports that do not correlate with sales figures, and are using the profits from our release to continue their business and perhaps lure other bands into the same terrible situation. What happens is a point is reached where the band has to begin the process of auditing the label, suing the label once the audit is finished, and finally paying the attorney and business manager all of the profit they were supposed to be paid in the beginning. With Hermano, this becomes an even more difficult situation because we are all spread out across the United States, and I am a few thousand miles away from the TeePee offices in New York. I can't simply drive over to their offices on the spur of the moment and kick their asses for ripping me and the other guys off! It's a shitty thing to have happen, especially for a record that already had so many road-blocks to go through in order to simply be released. In the end, these things take time to clear up. I have learned, though, to be extremely careful with who I trust in this industry, and can only offer the advice to other bands and artists to research the label thoroughly before signing with them. What seems like a good situation can turn ugly very fast if the label decides to not pay. It's funny, but once it became clear that TeePee wasn't going to stick to their end of the bargain I began to contact other bands on their label, only to find that no one has been paid their royalties. I have kept my mouth shut about this situation for quite a while now, and you are actually the first person I have given an interview to who has heard about it. Weird things have a way of happening, though, and probably I will receive a check from TeePee tomorrow! They will have decided to come clean and stick to the contract we signed with them! Fate has a way of working that way. I doubt it, but maybe.
As for other things happening with Hermano, I know we are going to be doing a festival in Spain on September 12, and then there is a two week tour through Europe happening in October. As bad as things turned out with TeePee, we have found a reputable label to pick up the second release, and will not let the past ruin our optimistic vision for the future of the group.

- Same members? Will John Garcia be on the second Hermano album (if there's so) or is he back in Unida full-time?

D. Brown: Yes, it is the plan to have the same members record the new record. Again, it is a very difficult thing to correlate schedules for a project like this, especially with members who have separate projects going on. The greatest thing about Hermano is that it was never set up as something that would interfere with whatever each of us has going on. John continues to be a part of Unida. Dave Angstrom continues to perform with both Supafuzz and Devil May Care. Mike Callahan stays almost continually on the road with Earshot. All of us, though, are committed to putting together the new Hermano record, and are simply waiting for the studio dates to come up to launch into this material we have been working on and saving since the recording of Only a Suggestion five years ago. There is a lot of built up anxiety, angst, and beauty waiting to be tracked, and I know we are all looking forward to digging our heals back into this once December rolls around.

-Any other future projects?

D. Brown: I suppose it would be a great time to let the cat out of the bag with the news on the production of a record John and I are starting. Over the last few years, Garcia and I have built up a collection of songs that don't fit into Unida, Hermano, or Orquesta del Desierto, and have decided to go ahead and do a record where we can make all of them fit together cohesively. The plan is to start recording sometime toward the middle of August, and to have it ready to bring over with us once we come to Europe in September and October. Visit us at the merchandise booth, and perhaps we'll slip you a copy.