top of page
FISTFIGHTS AND HUG-OUTS
Dick Jr. on the band's sophomore album
OK, let’s talk the 2nd Dick Jr. & The Volunteers record. Which is technically the 3rd, because there’s an abandoned EP of mainly covers that didn’t see the light of day. Do you see this as just an extension of that recording? Or does that feel like a whole other lifetime, being pre-pandemic?
I don’t count the EP in the album count because it wasn’t new recordings - it was holdovers from the first album. This album is a completely different animal - new recording sessions, new approach, new producer, and largely original music.
One thing that is unchanged from the planned EP is the title - is there a story behind “FistFights and Hug-Outs”?
The songs on this album are very much a product of Covid. I wrote the songs during the pandemic years, mainly when I was stuck by myself in hotels. I was in a motel in Lebanon, TN, for the shooting of the movie “Old Henry,” and then there were my 28 days in lockdown (in 14 day blocks) in Vancouver for the show “Kung Fu.” And at least one was written in Oregon when my family and I went there to escape the city. To me, the title ‘Fistfights and Hug-Outs’ fits that time perfectly. Everyone everywhere suddenly found themselves holed up with family and/or friends or on their own for LONG blocks of time. A lot of emotions came out during all that. Tempers flared, bonds were strengthened or weakened, relationships were started or severed… And the title ‘Fistfights and Hug-Outs’ boils it all down - it sums up what was happening politically and socially across the globe - and in my head with my own internal struggles to manage both my family and my sanity during that time.
The vinyl edition of “The Dance and How to Do It” was shelved due to the pandemic. Does that mean we’ll get *this* album as an LP?
I hope so. It’s being discussed for sure.
From what you’ve said previously, “Copperhead Road” will be the only non-original featured on the album. Will the other covers ever be see the light of day?
Yes. In fact, I decided to put another song from those original sessions on this album, and it is a cover song. The last remaining cover song will find a home at some point, as well. Not sure where or when, but it will.
Jason Manns was, of course, instrumental in you even considering the first Dick Jr. album, but this album sees Billy Moran coming in as producer. Was that purely a question of logistics and other commitments, or did you just have a different approach in mind this time around?
It was a Jason Manns suggestion, based on both logistics, and fondness for Billy and his talents. Once Billy and I had a conversation about it and he heard and responded to the demos I’d been making, it all made sense. And it was a great call. Early on, Billy understood what I was going for and has worked his tail off to elevate every song every step of the way.
The first album carries influences both of your Dad’s record collection, and of the bands you loved in your youth. I had the image of you arriving to the studio with a stack of records (or an iTunes playlist, at least), to play around with what songs would work for you, and what sounds you wanted to emulate. Is that anywhere close?
For album one, yes - the playlist version. Jason already knew where my head was at the time, so he and I crafted examples for the other guys. This album was different because we reassembled same gang (Billy, Rob Humphreys, Zach Ross, Cooper Appelt with Zack Darling engineering and mixing) for the initial sessions, so the conversation was much easier. Plus, I had recorded fairly detailed demos of all the songs while writing them which gave me a ready-made sample to play for each song. Plus Billy had drawn up chord charts for each song as a guide for everyone, so we had those going in. Doesn’t mean we didn’t veer from the original ideas into something else - we did - but all that gave us a more solid starting point.
What did you learn from that first album - did you have a finished sound in your mind when you went into the studio for this record?
These recording sessions were very different than the first time around. I knew the players and had spent a lot of time working on the songs so I felt way more comfortable and in control. The sessions for the first album had the vibe of, “So…what do we do?” This time around, there was no guess work. Billy and I had a game plan and knew exactly what we wanted to do so were able to hit the ground running.
When Billboard reviewed Steve Earle’s ‘Copperhead Road’ album, the reviewer coined the term ‘power twang’. With your cover of the title track on the album, and with you citing Earle as someone the 2nd record is comparable to, would that be a fair definition of *your* sound? Do you have a term you prefer?
Sure, that works. Another term I’ve heard that makes me laugh and feels appropriate is “Y’all-ternative.” And back in the day, they called bands like Walk the West and Jason and the Scorchers “Cow Punk.” Not exactly my sound but a fun label nonetheless.
In lockdown, we talked a lot about the toll the pandemic took on our creativity, yet you found yourself getting into song-writing more heavily than ever before. Was it simply just having that downtime, finally?
Having the time coupled with forced solitude. Without the hotel lockdowns away from my family, I doubt I would have written as many songs or have demoed them with as much detail.
And on the subject of writing, do you start with a lyric, or with a riff, or chord progression? Or does it vary? Do you keep a folder of potential lines on your phone next to the band names?
Both. Sometimes a phrase sticks with me and I’ll explore that as a title or key lyric. Other times, I’m noodling around on the guitar and stumble across a lick, run, or chord progression that ignites an idea. And I do keep a list of lyrics and titles that come to me.
Of course, post-lockdown, you’ve had the opportunity to get back to playing long sets of covers, sitting in with The Matt Harshman Band in Oregon. How’s it been, getting back to that kind of dive-bar band thing after so long? Has that influenced your approach to the new album at all?
It hasn’t influenced me as much as freed me up to jam in the consequence free environment of a dive bar. I came up the ropes playing in cover bands and love it. Matt Harshman (of ‘The Matt Harshman Band’ - also called ‘Matt & The Harshmen’ by me!) is a fantastic front man/lead guitarist. And a great guy! We met when he and his band played my wedding. Back twenty years ago in Joseph, Oregon, you didn’t hire a band, you hired *the* band. There was only one. And it was Matt’s. So this many years later to get to play with those guys is really a kick in the pants. When I eventually move to Joseph - or at least get to spend considerably more time there - my goal is for ‘Matt & The Harshmen’ to become the weekly house band at our go-to local dive bar (someone recently bought it and changed the name to The Rusty Spur, but it will always be The Hydrant in my heart)
Last year, of course, found you playing live with some of your Supernatural family, on the PB&Jr. tour. Can you share how that experience was for you? Was it your first music tour?
It was great. Hope to do it again. The o.g. gang of Jason Manns, Billy Moran, Paul Carella, Hayden Lee, and Briana Buckmaster were very welcoming to the new guy. Lots of laughs (TONS, actually) and lots of really fun shows at cool, interesting bars/venues. My first such tour and one I would definitely do again.
Those shows gave your fans their first taste of a good proportion of the new album, albeit in stripped-down versions. Which inevitably meant that for those of us who couldn’t make the tour, our first time hearing the songs was on a fan’s phone uploaded on YouTube. Did you get at all precious about that? Or did you look at it as a way to road-test the material?
If you don’t want your music, art, or whatever on the internet, then you’d better keep it to yourself. Once you take it out in public and put it on display, its open season. Whether I like that or not is immaterial. It is the way of the world. There is no changing that. On top of that, getting to play the songs live, even if only acoustically (with the Exit/In show in Nashville being the obvious exception), was a great exercise and informed a lot of what Billy and I did with the songs when we returned to working on them.
The tour stops echoed pretty closely the American South tour wish-list you gave me in November 2021. Day-job allowing, do you feel that a full band tour might still happen for Dick Jr. & The Volunteers one day?
I hope so. There are a lot of logistics and financial concerns involved in getting even a small full-band tour up and running, but it is for sure a goal of mine. Stay tuned.
While we’re talking live Dick Jr. & The Volunteers, I have to touch on the Exit/In. You spoke a little about that night for our “Nashville, the FanWorld Way” piece back in December, and it’s clear the venue is one that played an important part in your formative years. Do you have any memories you can share of playing back in those days?
My favorite Exit/In memory is probably seeing The Snakes (formerly the Kingsnakes) play there on New Year’s Eve back when I was 25. I even have a bootleg cassette to prove it. Actually, my favorite moment there might be a tie between that night and any time I saw Walk the West play there. They always blew the doors off the joint. Being front and center to watch them kick off their show with “Sheriff of Love” was next level. After witnessing all those amazing moments from the floor, finally being up on that stage to play when I was barely in my 20’s was very heady for me. I played there with both The Distortion Hawgs and with Inspector 12. And then, to be able to return to that stage decades later after I was SURE the Exit/In was going to get torn down was beyond fantastic. I look forward to doing it again.
How old were you when you first picked up a guitar, and what prompted it? You’ve talked about your Dad and sisters’ taste in music influencing you; was it purely through record collections, or did anyone else in your family play?
No one in my family played music. They listened to a ton of it, though. My best friend Ben Tate started learning guitar when we were 13 and was getting good fast, so I figured if I was going to be able to be in a band with him (which was a goal), I’d better get on it - and I’d better learn something other than guitar because he had that locked up. So I took up the bass.
You played in bands for fun from high-school until your early days as a father, but you were also in a band that recorded an album. How serious was that for you? Would you ever have quit acting should Fugitive Pope have taken off?
Oh sure, I would have quit acting had it taken off, but I never made the band my sole focus. I wasn’t in the headspace of living out of a van on the road to play crap bars trying to ‘make it.’ To me, playing music and being in bands has always been been an outlet of sorts. Social, artistic… all of it. There is so much pressure, self-applied and otherwise, to succeed in the TV and film business that I had zero desire to attach that pressure to music. It was fun, and I wanted it to stay that way. Now, had the band taken off, that would have been a very unexpected and awesome surprise. I am sure I would have enjoyed the ride.
We’ve now heard 6 original songs from “Fist Fights and Hug-Outs”. Does the album still have any surprises for us?
Yep.
Considering the band managed to make a really fun video for “Goin’ Straight” while the country was in lockdown, can we expect videos for any of the songs on album two? (“Your Whiskey on My Lips” is surely a movie waiting to happen..)
Sure hope so. Again, time + money are the keys to that. But most likely, I will find a way to get something out there at some point.
Finally, is there anything we haven’t touched on that you’re itching to share about the new record?
Only that I am excited to get this album out there. I am proud of what we’ve accomplished and hope the music finds an audience and entertains folks, maybe even enough to inspire them to share it.
Credit to: Jenna Perry (photography ref)
bottom of page