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An Interview with Dick Valentine of Electric Six
Posted: Sunday, November 23, 2008
By: Eric Pudalov
Writer

There are some artists to whom it is near-impossible to attach a genre, for both fans and critics. They may freely mix styles, image, and lyrical themes to avoid being pigeonholed. Certainly this is true of Detroit's Electric Six and their frontman, Dick Valentine. Even their MySpace bio, which newcomers might expect to be straightforward, begins with a lengthy analogy between showbiz and Communism. There is even a fantastic vignette about a fictitious city named Gorchakovagrad, a supposed "haven" in Mother Russia where people dressed outrageously, men disguised themselves as "neon gods" and women "dressed as lizards." Sounds a bit like Burning Man (or Las Vegas). If it's not exactly a straightforward description of their sound, it at least evokes the same crazy atmosphere as their newest album, Flashy, released last month on Metropolis Records. Featuring 13 tracks of irrepressible rock buoyed by jouncy New Wave keyboards and Valentine's expressive vocal work, Flashy is a worthy successor to last year's evocatively titled I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master.

Valentine himself seems to delight in throwing curve balls to interviewers, particularly those who ask the same tired questions again and again. That, of course, is one of the reasons he's so much fun. Read on, and you just might gain some valuable knowledge about the creative smorgasbord that is Electric Six.

Your music spans so many genres; does that change because of your lineup, or is it a conscious choice when you write songs?

Valentine: It is a conscious choice; it's a matter of making better choices. As you get older, you can't have a lot of the same choices you did when you were younger.

There seem to be a lot of influences on your vocal style; are there singers you can name off the top of your head that have affected your technique?

Valentine: Well, I think the early me...when I was a teenager, a lot of the voices I tried were horrific. I'm kind of tone-deaf; I do a lot of shouting when I sing to compensate, to mask insecurities. I can't think of any specific influences.  

Do you think that if you hadn't signed with a label like Metropolis, you would lose some of the creative freedom you have right now?

Valentine: I agree with that. They've been very nurturing of our creative tendencies.  They want to deregulate the record industry; they're the 'House Republicans.'  

When did you decide on a particular image for yourself – the whole suit, tie and hat getup – or for the band? Was that something that came about naturally?

Valentine: That was when we were younger; there were a lot of shoegazer bands. I wish I were a shoegazer; they get all the girls! I say I'm against labels, but I am as guilty as anybody of putting on stereotypes and labels, and so I'm a hypocrite, but if there's any deviation from my routine, I freak out.

When you were originally called The Wildbunch, did you name yourselves after the 1969 Western, or was it unrelated?

Valentine: The first drummer that I ever played with, Steve Christianson, came up with it when we were a two-piece band. He just said, 'I think we should call ourselves The Wild Bunch,' and that was it.  

Do you listen to other bands or solo artists in your spare time that wildly mix genres, like Mr. Bungle, for instance?

Valentine: I don't listen to Mr. Bungle. You can quote me on that. I listen to whatever people throw at me. I got into Arcade Fire and The New Pornographers two or three years ago. There hasn't been anybody else recently.

Have any of your songs or videos ('Gay Bar,' for instance) been controversial in the USA or in Europe?

Valentine: There was a period where they refused to run 'Gay Bar' in the USA, supposedly because it had the words 'nuclear war' in it. That wasn't the real reason, but that's the reason they gave. The record company dropped the ball in terms of getting that out.

Are there instruments you'd like to incorporate into your sound that you haven't yet?

Valentine: We'd like to do a 'world music' album. We'd like to incorporate a didgeridoo.

In this country, there seems to be a need for people to label a band as this genre or that genre. Have you ever been criticized for experimenting so much?

Valentine: I love that kind of criticism!  I welcome the criticism of being too experimental. I would never be offended by that.

Watching your videos, one might get the sense that you have no shame. Have you always been such a wild performer?

Valentine: I certainly admit to having a high threshold for embarrassment. I am not a fan of standard performance videos. If you are taking the time to make a music video, it should be somewhat of a departure from what you do on stage every night.

Some say that almost every rock band since The Beatles has been influenced by them, or influenced by someone originally inspired by The Beatles.  Do you think this is true of Electric Six?

Valentine: The Beatles were the first band I ever got into, and by that I mean when I was four years old. I listened to The Beatles nonstop between the ages of four and seven, and by the time I was eight, I was sick of them. It wasn't until recently that I've come to appreciate them again, but only the Magical Mystery Tour album.

Electric Six is not influenced by the Beatles in any way.  

Any future ideas for the band you'd like to talk about, or have you gotten that far yet?

Valentine: We hope to one day sing the national anthem at an Atlanta Thrashers game.