Catching Up with the Dirtbombs' Mick Collins on a Carnival Cruise Ship

When I was unexpectedly asked to cover the Bruise Cruise I considered myself lucky. Realizing that the bill was catered to my musical tastes, I agreed to spend a long weekend in February on somewhat of a dream vacation, riding the Carnival Imagination from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas and back.

The Dirtbombs, definitely a selling point for my attendance, were the first band to perform on the cruise. I made it a point to talk to them. Like anyone who’s lived in or near Detroit, or spent time there, the city holds a special place in my heart. Before moving to California, I lived most of my life in Michigan. But Mick Collins, the band’s founding member, lived there much longer.

I approached Collins after his band’s set and an initial bout of sea-induced vertigo. He told me to hang tight and that he’d have time to chat after they broke down their equipment. I hung around, but somehow he evaded me.

I didn’t catch up with him until day three. He was sitting in a cozy looking chair outside one of the ship’s many lounges, wearing those sunglasses he never seems to take off. He seemed transfixed on the soccer match playing on a flat-screen TV. I think Spain was playing somebody.

I interrupted him to ask some questions and, thankfully, he didn't tell me to eff off.

VICE: How’s the Bruise Cruise treating you so far?

MICK COLLINS: It’s been great since we only played the one time. The rest of this has just been cake. We’re on vacation. My girlfriend’s not here so it doesn’t really feel like a vacation for me.

Do you get seasick?

This boat is so big and the seas have been relatively calm, so I haven’t needed Dramamine. Not on this trip anyway. Thank the gods. Just chillin’ now, waiting to see Quintron. His live shows are always great. We stopped having him open for us when we play New Orleans. We open for Quintron.

Motown: 60’s or 70’s? Which era do you prefer?

For me there’s only the one era, from 1958 to 1972, and then after that it stopped being Motown really. When they left Detroit and just stopped being vertically integrated like that, they just became another record label. When they were in Detroit everything was done in house. All the songwriting, all the recording, distribution was done in house. When they went to L.A., all that stuff was outsourced just like any other record label.

How did Motown personally influence you?

Motown in Detroit is all pervasive. You can’t not be influenced by it when you grow up there especially being as old as I am; having grown up while it was still happening. I’m totally influenced by Motown. My songwriting especially was influenced by Motown. When I was a kid, I read Smokey Robinson said that the best piece of advice he ever got from Berry Gordy was, "Don’t just string a bunch of words together that rhyme. Try and tell a story with your songs." And you know, I’ve basically tried to do that too. Now I can’t write any other way. Even at that level of the music I make, there’s always going to be a Motown influence there.

It’s extremely difficult to describe to anybody who doesn’t live there, didn’t live there back in the day, how Motown was. It’s just everywhere. It’s part and parcel of the fabric of Detroit. It’s part of the structure. It’s in everything. As a musician, everything you do is somehow influenced by Motown. Chicago’s the same way. Somehow it’s influenced by electric blues.  You could almost make the argument that we’re still playing Motown music even though the label hasn’t been there in 40 years and 25 or so since they’ve been an actual record label. It’s still there. It’s still in us.

But you don’t even live in Detroit anymore, do you?

No, I moved to Brooklyn for a girl [two years ago]. She used to live in Chicago and she hates winter.

New York winters aren’t as harsh are they?

No. Not by a long shot.

Are there any good record stores there that you go to in Brooklyn?

No. Everything is picked over. Record shopping is impossible in New York.

How do you listen to music? iPod? Strictly vinyl?

These days most new music I hear comes either from a label that sent me something, or I find a lot of stuff on the internet now. I do DJ nights in New York so I hit the DJ sites every couple of weeks or so to find new stuff. I just did a couple of soul nights in New York City. The sets that I played are still on my hard drive. I haven’t wiped them yet.

What influences you now? What have you been listening to?

That’s a difficult question because I’ve always been somebody who’s always listened to everything. I’ve never had one favorite kind of music. When disco was around, disco and punk rock sort of overlapped. I was buying disco and punk-rock records simultaneously because I like both kinds of music. I don’t make any distinctions between the kinds of music I’m listening to or buying, so I let everything influence me equally.

What are you working on now? Forgive me; I don’t even know what your latest release is.

Party Store is the most recent one. We’re recording the next Dirtbombs’ album which will be out sometime in the summer. We’re finally recording the bubblegum album. So we’re going from an album of techno covers to an album of songs that sound like the Archies. It’s not covers. It’s all originals.

Mick’s last words of advice to me while on international waters were to stay away from any cafeteria penne pasta while his shaded gaze sank back into the Spanish soccer match, or should I say futbol?