LINCOLNZINE 2  |  MUSIC  |   INTERVIEW

HOME  |  UPCOMING EVENTS  |  MUSIC   : BAND PROFILES : CD REVIEWS  |  GALLERY  | 
FINE ARTS  |  STAGE & SCREEN  |  LINKS  |  FUN & GAMES  |  ARCHIVES  |  ABOUT   |  MESSAGE BOARD

An Interview with Drive-by Honky

By  Michael French 

     The songs on "Goddamn Berlin" were instantly infectious, instantly singable. The lyrics were rich with story and metaphor. The music made you jump up and take notice, made you feel the blood pumping in your veins.

     Drive-by Honky's early lineup included just Dan Jenkins (vocals & guitar) and Tom Cabella (ex Ecorche) on drums, with various fill-in members. With Tom's venture overseas Dan was left to play most of 2000 acoustically as his alter-ego Joe Buck. With the addition of Mike Keeling (ex Self Righteous Brothers and Leafy Green Things) on bass and Tom's return Drive-by has become a full fledged band again.

     The Drive-by Honky boys are notorious for their smart-ass approach to interviewing (showing just how much fame hasn't gone to their heads), but a glimmer of truth may be discerned from this recent e-mail interview about the new album and Rock in general.     

MF:  Where did the name Drive-by Honky come from?

DAN:   Two old roommates and I had a "band" where we were going to trade instruments every song. We set up a show in the basement of our house at 1020 S. 22nd (the green "rock" house). We needed a name and I picked Drive-by Honky. I don’t know exactly why, but I do recall seeing a Melvins album titled Honky a few months prior. I thought it was a funny name for an album. When I told Kent Heine the name of the band, he said it was a great name. Kent Heine’s seal of approval was all I needed.

MF:  Why did Tom leave the band, and why is he back? I’m very happy to see him return to DBH, by the way.

TOM:  Well, to answer your first question. Along with film I am also a German major. I was over in Europe gettin' it on for awhile, hence "Goddamn Berlin". Why am I back? I think that's a rhetorical question Dan keeps asking himself. I appreciate that by the way.

DAN:  There's something inherently European about Tom. He went to Berlin to make German porn films or something. He’s actually a German/film student at UNL and did an exchange program. I was hoping he’d set up some shows for us in Germany or get us a record deal on some industrial rock label, but apparently he just went to Amsterdam and ate brownies for 6 months. I too am happy he returned.

MF:  Mike adds some beautiful "melody" to the songs with his bass playing. How did he hook up with DBH?

DAN:  Mike and I grew up in the same small Nebraska town, although we never knew each other because he’s a few years older and he had moved. I actually debuted "God Damn Berlin" at his apartment on the night we first really met. Then he started caressing my thigh and he said he wanted to join the band. I enjoyed the attention and hired him immediately (actually about 6 months later). Also, we date sisters so I couldn’t really say no. He adds a lot to the band and it's hard for me to imagine playing with anyone other than Mike and Tom. Having a bass player allows me to do more things on the guitar. When I figure out how to do them, I will.

MF:  Does Thrift Americana have a unifying theme? Some words, like "summer", "pigeons", and "bigfoot" are repeated in a few songs. There seems to be a theme of machines and engines, and of anger, disenchantment, and competition or battle running through the album. Also some stuff about children or child like views of the world and innocents. Loss of innocence, disillusionment and loss of trust. It seems as though in Song For The Innocents that the character may want to even explore such territory, rather than just not have the courage to escape it.

DAN:  I don’t think there is a theme that unifies all the songs, but there are some recurring issues, I guess. There are some competition issues, money related issues, like the need for more of it, or at least the illusion that you need more of it. It’s all very American. There are a lot of trust issues too, like knowing who to trust and why, and how you figure it all out for yourself.

     The summer thing mainly comes from the summer of 2000 being a horrible one for me in many ways. It was weird because there were a lot of great things happening to me, but it was also a summer of sickness and death, which pretty much can ruin any season. It really sucked. A lot of the lyrics were written while I was on vacation driving to Minneapolis and back. I was having a great time, but I guess I had a lot of negative things on my mind.

MF: The title "Thrift Americana" makes me think of a Nebraska (or other Midwestern place) ravaged by depression, or sucked dry by corporations, like there isn’t enough money, or soul left to buy anything other than used goods. It also makes me think of independent artists and hipsters in general, perpetually searching for cool knickknacks, records, or instruments at thrift stores. Anything to this? What does it mean?

DAN:  The title is actually something I had for a while. It dates back to when I played with Tom and Mark Wolberg in Sailor Ripley. It just kind of popped up again. I used it as a lyric in "Ask yr. Friends about Lovers and Leaches" and it just seemed appropriate for the album title. There are some very American things on the record. Before we settled on it for a title, we discussed it as a band and decided it works on a lot of levels. "Thrift" usually brings to mind cheap things or saving money, or whatever, but it also refers to healthy and vigorous growth. A lot of people don’t use it that way, but I guess that was on my mind at the time.

MF:  Is the line "Smile you’re in Nebraska" sarcastic or a confirmation that things really are O.K.?

DAN:  Both. It's kind of a smart-ass thing to say, but at the same time Nebraska is a great place to live for a lot of different reasons. I hesitate to say that things really are O.K., but I do know for certain that they aren’t that bad.

MF: How was the recording process for Thrift Americana? Were the songs pretty much completed when you went into the studio? I’d heard a few of them played live before.

DAN:  For the most part they were done, but we did some experimenting while we were in the studio, which I don’t recommend unless you have a lot of cash. We don’t. All of the songs but two had been played live before, so we had a pretty good idea about how most of them were supposed to sound. We did it all really quickly. I ended up keeping my scratch guitar track on all the songs, which was not the plan. 7 of 8 songs have first take vocals, which also wasn’t the plan, but I think it turned out O.K. In retrospect, there are some things I would have done differently, but hey, it’s only rock ‘n roll.

MF:  How do you write songs?

DAN:  Usually, I write them really late at night when I'm on the verge of falling asleep or in the morning before I go to work, which means I’m usually 2 or 3 or sometimes even 4 hours late for work, but for some reason my employers don't seem to care. It’s kind of weird. Now that I think about it, I'm probably going to get fired soon.

     It almost always starts with the music, just me playing my guitar(s). Then I sing some nonsense along with it. And sometimes the nonsense never goes away, I just shape it into something cohesive.

MF:  What inspires you to write songs?

DAN: Usually, just playing guitar is inspiration enough. The songs just kind of happen. Sometimes I’ll go play my guitar after listening to a great album. Listening to good songs makes me want to write good songs.

MF: You don’t often play solos, and when you do they are distorted by that crazy effect you use. This seems to be a Drive-by trademark. How did it come about?

DAN:  That effect is the amazing Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer. It’s actually very flexible with lots of different sounds, but live you have to stick with one because it’s kind of tricky to use. As far as solos go, I feel ridiculous sometimes playing them. I wish more people would feel ridiculous playing them. My favorite guitar solos are things like Neil Young’s "Cinnamon Girl" where he just plays one note the whole time, or Kim Thayil’s playing on "Beyond the Wheel", which just might be the perfect guitar solo.

     I’m not a great soloist. So I step on my wacky box and suddenly it sounds really good. I’m a huge Dinosaur, Jr. fan with J. Mascis and everything. I think he’s a great player and his layers upon layers of guitars make my head spin. With the Micro Synth, I can really fake that wall of guitar sound.

MF:  Your playing style seems reminiscent of Nirvana, because of the simple sounding chords and repeating patterns you use. Was Nirvana ever an influence?

DAN:  I’ve always loved Nirvana and thought they had a lot of great songs. Huge influence. It’s also much easier for me to sing if I’m playing repetitive strumming type things. It’s one of my flaws, the other being that I’m just too gosh darned nice.

MF:  You do an amazing cover of "Riverbottom Nightmare Band" from the Emmett Otter Jugband Christmas. It seems you’re very into folk music, do you have a fetish for Muppets?

DAN:  No I don’t have a Muppet "fetish", but I’ve always enjoyed the genius of the show and it’s movie counterparts. I remember watching Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas every year around the holidays and my favorite part was always when THE NIGHTMARE rocks the house and wins the talent contest. They fuckin’ deserved it, man! As a kid I think it fueled my need to be in a loud rock band.

MF:  Who is "Bernadette"? (From the God Damn Berlin song "Just Like Bernadette".)

DAN: A character in a Charles Bukowski short story. I just took the character in my own direction.

TOM:  Alright, I'm going to let the cat out of the bag... spill the proverbial "beans" if you will. Bernadette is slang for cumming all over somebody, you know like turning Japanese. I think you can deduct just what
"not quite Bernadette" means. We've all had these moments.

MF:  Some people might say Honky sounds commercial. How do you respond to this?

TOM:  Fuck their asses

DAN: Commercial refers to commerce. Commerce involves money. We have no money. We make no money. Are we commercial because some of our songs are catchy? Are we commercial because people other than our friends come to our shows? What’s funny to me is that these people you refer to live right here in Lincoln and many of them play in bands. Now, are we commercial because we get played on KRNU or KZUM more than their band does, or because we had 25 or 50 more people at our show than they had at their show? Obviously, the answer is yes, we are commercial. We are whores with fat wallets and country houses.

     I know the people of whom you speak. Tell them to fuck off.

MF:  What, that you hear on the radio these days excites you?

DAN:   On commercial radio, nothing. KRNU plays a lot of good new music. I do think that a lot of the music being made today is just as good if not better than in the "good old days". I honestly believe that. If someone wants a list of the bands I’m referring to, I’ll be happy to provide one.

MF:  What is Rock-n-Roll to you and is it dead? Some might say it is dying and being replaced. What should we call this new breed?

DAN:  In the 80’s, people thought synthesizers were going to replace guitars. Then they realized that they were idiots. Rock ‘n Roll is not dead or dying as far as I’m concerned. It never was, never has been. It didn’t even think about it.

TOM:  It's not dead yet but it deserves to die.

MF:  When was the "Golden Age" of music for you?

DAN:   I honestly don’t believe in such a thing. Some people are absolutely convinced that the best rock music ever was recorded in the mid 60’s through the 70’s, which I agree with on some levels. We’re talking about the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, a lot of other bands with "the" in their name and some without, like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan. So in roughly a decade's time you have all those bands and songwriters, plus the Sex Pistols, Neil Young, Television and so many others. That’s a tough time period to beat. You also have jazz music, which I love. It had a period of about 20 years with just absolutely mind-blowing music being made.

     But there's also the mid 80's to early 90's when labels like SST and Sub Pop were just amazing, and I was discovering bands like Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Mudhoney, Nirvana, early Soundgarden, Dinosaur, Jr., The Minutemen, Bad Brains, early Soul Asylum, Jane's Addiction, etc..... That stuff had just as much influence on me as any Beatles or Stones album, probably more so. But I don't know if that makes it better music or not. I just think there has always been great music being made.

MF:  The music on Thrift Americana seems like an extended growth from God Damn Berlin, both marking a very distinct style for you. Have you found your voice, or are you still searching for new ways to express yourself?

DAN:  It’s always changing. I think the songs we’re working on right now, post "Thrift Americana", are the best yet, but I’ll guarantee you that a lot of people won’t think so. And that’s O.K. I like playing music. I like writing songs. Some are good, some aren’t. It really doesn’t matter either way. It’s just something I do. I love everything about it.

MF:  What do you wish the cultural impact of your album to be? What do you think it will be?

TOM:  No less than to bring the system to it's fucking heels.

DAN:  I’m absolutely, 100% positive that it will have no cultural impact at all. Just by putting out CD’s that some people like and by playing shows, we are part of this amazing thing that has happened in Lincoln for many years now. And that is enough.

MF:  I believe Thrift Americana may be one of the greatest albums to come out of Nebraska. How would you feel about Major Label courtship? Would you do it, and how do you think it would affect you?

DAN: As far as major label courtship goes, I'd take them home to meet my parents, but I wouldn't let them fuck me on the first date, know what I mean?

     Major labels suck and they put out a lot of shitty music. I would love to have someone finance recordings and touring and all that jazz, but not a major label. Would I do it? No. But that’s easy for me to say because it hasn’t happened. Don’t tell anyone Michael, but in all honesty I would sign with a major label and spend all my money on drugs and guitars and then I would become bitter and withdrawn and secretly harbor a deep-seated hatred of everyone around me. Basically, it wouldn’t change me at all.

MF:  I believe Tom is a film student. Any plans for a video?

TOM:  No, but did anyone catch the video projection at our CD release show? Pretty cool huh?

DAN:  We have several already, one of which involves nudity. We watch them when we are drunk and alone. It’s the only way.

MF:  What’s in store for Drive-by Honky’s future?

DAN:   More rock, less talk. Boatloads of money and mountains of pills. Scandal. (or my punk rock answer: NO FUTURE!!!!!)

-- Michael French
    2001

LINKS: The Drive-by Honky Band Profile

HOME  |  UPCOMING EVENTS  |  MUSIC   : BAND PROFILES : CD REVIEWS  |  GALLERY  | 
FINE ARTS  |  STAGE & SCREEN  |  LINKS  |  FUN & GAMES  |  ARCHIVES  |  ABOUT   |  MESSAGE BOARD

Copyright 2000/2001 Lincolnzine.com