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First of all, who is Evil Dick? Is it just you or is it a band?
"Evil Dick is my pseudonym. I don't have a band at the moment because I need a special brand of
musician that's short on supply. Dick is short for Richard but I don't like being called Dick or
Evil Richard. I ran a search on the internet the other day. I typed in Evil Dick and hit the "go
find" button. It came back with a number of porn sites...and there's another Evil Dick musician who
lives in the USA Actually, the name is nothing to with my penis, or even how evil it is... the story
behind the name is so boring I won't bother telling you. Let your readers use there imagination."
When did you start playing music?
"I had the usual piano lessons from about the age of 7 to 10 with a grey haired old lady, and to
be honest my heart wasn't in it. I hated the repertoire! All those pointless "happy" tunes, I
thought, "is this music"? From the age of 12 to 17 I studied drums, and I became increasingly
interested in composition. I went to college and read a degree in Contemporary Music but actually
I did whatever I wanted. I was kind of hard to control and the lecturers just gave me space to get
on with my own thing. Musical freedom is important to me. I was lucky because my late granddad was
a musician and from early on he showed me that you could make up the rules to music yourself. He
played the electronic organ and sometimes he sang...sometimes he just coughed. I listened to one of
his tapes not so long ago and it was really sad music, completely mournful. He lost his ability to
speak in a car accident and instead made noises that became a source of much humour in my family. I
think the comedy element in my music comes from his shining example. He was convinced that he wrote
the Chariots Of Fire theme music and that Vangelis had stolen it from him. Obviously, that's not
something anyone would seriously admit to!"
After listening to several of your MP3s, I honestly couldn't come up with a
description of your music. Can you explain to the readers what music you
make?
"My music is simply the music I want to hear. It doesn't belong anywhere because I don't belong
anywhere - or at least I've always been a bit of a outsider. One way of describing part of what I do
is the use of modern classical music techniques in popular music but I also use free improvisation in
composition. I don't think about genre - I think solely about I want to hear and how I can achieve
it. This way I can combine a dance track with the elements of an avant garde composer like Conlon
Nancarrow, or the thing I'm working on at the moment where punk meets pastoral. It's pretty stupid
but hopefully quite funny. My sense of humour gets really sick because I spend too much time by
myself. I wrote a song recently called "Carpet Muncher" about a man who likes to date lesbians
because they treat him like shit. It's got some really rude lines in it which I think are funny...
after all, only a stupid man would believe he's attractive to a lesbian."
You mentioned Frank Zappa as an influence. How did he influence your music?
"Frank and I go back a long way. I started listening to him when I was about 15. His influence
is pretty resounding. I love his music - even the 80s stuff. It's just such an important body of
work and to think that today's teenage generation haven't even heard of him! He made so many
brilliant records - shame on them with their fashionable drugs and their herd mentality. Everyone
should own 200 Motels. I'm a freak - and proud of it."
For me, humour seems a very important factor in some of Zappa's music. Does
it play a role in your music as well? And if so, how?
"Humour is important in my music but I'm not always sure people get my jokes. The problem
with musical humour is that the listener needs to be familiar with the music that's having the
piss taken out of it. Most kids today will only listen to things that are cool so they will have
trouble with Evil Dick because their listening is so narrow. In terms of lyrics...I write dumb ones
because they seem to make as many enemies as they do allies."
Any other idols that motivated you to make music?
"Well, obviously Captain Beefheart, Talking Heads, Chilli Peppers... more recently Beck, Mr
Bungle have become sort of an influence. I used to think Queen's 70's records were great.
More recently still, Eugene Chadbourne, Culturcide...never really liked The Beatles much, although
I think it's so funny that Lennon's "Imagine" keeps getting released at Christmas when it's a song
about attaining a communist utopia!"
You work for a dance-label. Now I would never expect you to be
working for a dance-label. Have you learned anything from this scene?
"The dance scene is important because it serves the human fundamental desire to jump up
and down. I think the way to approach the dance scene in a positive way is that, at its cutting
edge, there are interesting things happening. The pop stuff is largely rubbish but listening to
Black R'n'B, drum'n'bass and hip-hop is to me a real learning experience. I think there have been
some major developments in these fields. Just because it's dance doesn't mean it's trash. It's
just that a lot of dance IS trash. Wheat from chaff."
Parody seems to be an important element in your music. You have made songs
in every genre so I noticed. How do you go about it? Do you sit down and
try to copy an artist?
"No, I don't really copy anyone. We live in a culture where media pumps out all kinds of
music out 24/7. You can't get away from the stuff! I just write whatever I want to write and if
it happens to be classical or punk or dance or improvised...it's just music. I guess it's a Zappa
thing. He was also great at avoiding easy categorisation. And it's also educational to get a record
that has jazz, blues, rock, avant garde on one side and a cheesy cartoon musical on the other... or
whatever. I like to think I give good entertainment value per second!!! You just never know what's
going to happen next - a bit like a horror film!!!"
When mentioning Evil Dick to a friend, he simply replied:"What a name...".
Did you pick the name to get a certain effect across?
"No. The name Evil Dick has been my nickname for about 10 years. Incidentally, the initials
E.D. also stand for 'e'rectile 'd'ysfunction. Not that I'm impotent or anything!"
Okay what's up with your Polemic Music label?
"Polemic Music is a bedroom label. The "who" is me. I use Polemic Music for business
purposes, I release my CDR's on it and place adverts in magazines under it. It's a way of making
the general public think that Evil Dick has been signed by a record company when in fact he hasn't
at all, he just pretends. Although owning my own label means I'm my own boss, I'm such a useless
business man I could really do with a proper record contract and a proper boss...at least, someone
who's good with money."
Apart from having been a webdesigner, you also have your own Evil Dick
site. How much does internet play a role in your music?
"The internet is so huge these days that to get noticed on it is increasingly difficult. I only have a website because it doesn't cost anything! I don't think I've sold many CDs because of my site. One thing that it's good for is posting additional information about recordings. On my site there is quite a bit of extra info that doesn't come with the CDs. Also, if I want to let someone know about me all I have to do is send them my website address in an email and they can follow it up and have a browse. It's quick! In terms of marketing Evil Dick my site is really an electronic press pack."
http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/evil-dick/evil-dick/433/
Meer Evil Dick op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/evil-dick
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