DALI’S LLAMA..Rolling Stoned !
1. What about the title of the band? Any influences from Dali in your way of thought?
The title of a song off of our first cd (Pre Post Now) called “Art and Meditation” probably offers the best explanation. Dali’s Llama is a play on words, referring to the artist Dali and to the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, His Holiness The Dalai Lama. We were practicing mediation and learning a lot about Zen at the time. Art had always been a big focus for both of us, both aural and visual. So the two came together, both as a band name and a band influence.
2. The world is yours…let them know a small bio of the band.
We released our first cd in 1993. “Full On Dunes” is our seventh Dali’s Llama cd. Our earlier cds were more power pop / punk with increasingly more experimental stuff. By the time we got to our 4th cd “The Color of Apples” we had gotten pretty avant garde. After a Dali’s Llama hiatus (a separate band project and a few solo cds in between) we went back to more of our original sound with our 5th cd “Chordata”. Then we just went heavy from there (and then even heavier). See, Dali’s Llama has never been about making the same cd over and over again. Sticking with “one sound” or style. Dali’s Llama flows and changes like life, hopefully. We play what we like, and we are influenced by many different styles of music. That’s why we never really fit into one genre.
Dali’s Llama has always been Zach on guitar / vocals and Erica on bass. We’ve had various drummers and sometimes a second guitar player. We are very happy with our current line up (drummer Jeff Howe and second guitar player Joe Dillon) and we are looking forward already to our next cd.
3. Your music is deeply in the 70s or 90s if we consider the stoner era as a parthenogenesis. Where do you place yourself in musical level and what’s your music goal ?
We’re a tuned down, mid to fast tempo desert rock band. Mix FREE with KILLING JOKE or maybe BLACK SABBATH with BLACK FLAG. Because we always fall between genres we don’t have any illusions of a big record deal or sudden fame. Our music goal is simply start working on the next cd and create something we like and are proud of. I want our next cd to be heavy, with attitude and atmosphere. I’ve written about half of the songs so far. Also as a goal, we would love to play overseas someday.
4. Please let us know about your latest work “Full On Dunes”
I wrote about 15 songs for “Full On Dunes” and then we narrowed it down to 9 songs that we felt were the best songs and sounded good together. It’s a very heavy cd with some good playing on it and I’m very proud of it. Our new drummer, Jeff Howe, definitely added a solid driving rhythm the new songs needed. Scott Reeder (Kyuss, Goatsnake) did an incredible job producing it and he did some awesome bass solos on couple of the songs too. Other guest musicians included: Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man) laid down some amazing guitar on a couple of tunes and he read a spoken word piece I wrote for the song “Desert Dogs”. Capt. Sean Wheeler (Throw Rag, Charley Horse) sang some kick ass background vocals and did some cool ad lib stuff too. Last but not least was Joe Dillon, who added a little bit of everything – electric guitar, electric lap steel and background vocals. Joe added so much to the band’s sound that we asked him to join Dali’s Llama as a second guitar player and backing vocalist. He accepted the invite.
5. What about the lyrics ? Any special concept or hidden meaning?
Lyrics and meaning hey? Well….
On Dunes – Escaping from the city into nature
Can’t Catch Me – Big corporations and “Big Brother” watching and monitoring everything we do
King Platypus – One small amazing monotreme being the king of his little pond
Desert Dogs – Desert rats having a blast
Cheap and Portable – Nasty sex music
Smoke Tree – Ecology / Sex / Drugs
Floating – Young love tested
Full On – Live life to the fullest now, because you’ve got only one life and that’s it
Aqua Fuzz – Primordial forest song
6. How easy or hard is the DIY way?
There is nothing easy about DIY. It’s exactly what it stands for – doing it ALL yourself. Promotion, marketing, booking, business records, accounting, building contacts, communication, mailing lists, press releases, graphic design, etc etc. And added to all of it in the last several years, is increasingly more and more internet opportunities.
The internet has greatly expanded the opportunities of DIY music through obvious sites such as MySpace and Last. fm for exposure, to CD Baby, iTunes, and Amazon for distribution as well as more genre specific sites such as AllThatIsHeavy (StonerRock. com’s online store). There are so many internet sites and blogs and zines it’s impossible for a DIY label of two people to maintain contact and be on all that we should. However those opportunities are there for exposure, unlike 10 or 15 years ago, and we are grateful for it.
With all that said, how much hard work and extremely time consuming it is (with very little financial return), there is one benefit – everything is done EXACTLY the way that you want it. Most importantly the music, but also the art work, the communications, everything. If people don’t like who were are, we’re sorry, but we can’t stand the “rock star” persona.
7. How’s the life for a band in Palm Springs, California? Does the climate have an effect in your music?
The desert scene fluctuates. There is usually only a few of places at a time to play in the desert if you’re playing original music. Bands thrive for a while, then switch members or form new bands and start again. We started Dali’s Llama 15 years ago. We took a hiatus ourselves (Dali’s Llama) for about 7 years to pursue other music projects, and then we started back up again in 2005. We grew up here in the desert and have seen the music “scene” go through many changes. As far as climate, it’s a great place to live most of the year. In the summer it gets pretty hot, sometimes 120 degrees plus. That’s when you head to the mountains to play a show or write a song up there instead. Also, where we live is pretty centrally located. We are only about 2 hours away from Los Angeles or San Diego for out of town gigs.
8. What’s your next music step?
We are currently playing a lot of shows to promote “Full On Dunes”. We’re also filming some videos for a few songs from the cd. We’re done filming the video for “King Platypus”. It’s getting edited now and that video will be out soon. I have also been writing a lot of new tunes for our next cd. Now that we have added a second guitar player again, it gives me a little more freedom in how I write, and offers another dynamic to the songs. So far most will be a little faster tempo and yes, even heavier.
9. Any feedback from the media till now?
Most seem to really like it. It’s hard because we don’t really fall within one genre and some times we’re too punk for one genre or too heavy for another. Some reviewers who really have eclectic musical taste and knowledge find all sorts of influences in our music, some that have influenced me and some who I haven’t heard. It’s cool because it gives me a different perspective on how people interpret our sound.
MYSPACE PROFILE FOR DALI’ S LLAMA: http://www.myspace.com/dalisllama
