Dope Body Are Not Lifers: An Interview & Their New Video for “Repo Man”

Baltimore’s Dope Body have got it. I don’t mean “it” as in massive popularity, extensive radio play or a dumb iTunes contract where everyone gets their album for free even when that’s the last thing they want. I mean IT: they’ve got the got the snarling, slinking, reptilian spirit of rock ‘n’ roll pumping through their collective veins. This is most apparent in the live setting, as the band’s urgent, scuzzy, post-punk grooves compel frontman Andrew Laumann to contort his skinny, half-naked body into the kind of twisted shapes that would alarm even the most insouciant chiropractor. It’s also evident in their recorded output. Lifer, Dope Body’s second album for Drag City, is another swaggering, middle-finger raising, booger-flicking, spit into the listener’s gaping ear-holes. Yet it’s sound and attitude may not have been purely intentional, it turns out. Because as guitarist/bassist Zachary Utz revealed to me, Dopy Body thought they were writing big hits and classic-rock concept albums all along. They just made a real mess of it. So instead, some guy got stabbed. That’s the curse of having it, I suppose…

Check out the new Theo Anthony directed video for “Repo Man” from their new album Lifer (out now), our interview below, and the band on the road at the dates at the bottom

What does the title, Lifer, mean? What is a lifer?
Lifer is basically anyone who has kind of lost the ability to choose their direction in life. Obviously we can all choose to move in or out of our current situations and therefore the term “lifer” is kind of a cop-out. However, when you think of it, society encourages “lifers”. When you decide to dress a certain way as a statement of lifestyle or whatever, you are welcoming society’s pigeonholing of you into a certain stereotype. That’s only one example but if you have, like, a massive face tattoo then you have committed to a certain lifestyle that is going to limit you in the eyes of others (which is a super ballsy move, even if it is dumb). I think everyone in this band figured out they were lifers early on. We all do art and music and we know it’s a dead-end lucratively and that our parents think we are basically losers and we offer little security to anyone of the opposite sex but we still do it. We almost don’t have the ability to choose to not be it. We always were it and we can’t suppress it.

Lifer begins with a two-minute instrumental called ‘Intro’. And its final track is nearly seven minutes long. Does this indicate an evolution towards prog-rock?
On this record we were trying to be a classic rock band, to an almost comical degree. I feel like we made a fucking concept album with this one. Like how The Who did the ‘Overture’ at the beginning of Tommy to create a sort of table-of-contents for the vibes to follow, we are thinking linearly here like some proto-punk storytellers. For real though, who are we kidding? This album has some kind of an arc to it, I think we were all trying to be conscious of that. It’s like some kind of half-assed epic novel about suburban abandon and caucasian alienation amongst a sea of shaven sheep. We may have crossed the Prog boundary on this one. But no regrets, right?

Did you approach the making of this album differently from last time round?
Yes, we set out to make as close to a live album as we could make under the very controlled circumstances of a legit recording studio. Travis [Harrison], the engineer, was made very aware of that from the beginning. We actually chose to record with him after doing a live-in-studio session for his internet radio station. We were so impressed with his ability to capture us all in the same room (with amps!) and not have it feel removed or like some alien environment that we were stepping into specifically to record. On the last record [Natural History], we were so enamoured by the studio that we let it take us for a joyride. The controls of the studio dictated more of where the music went than the actual musicians feeding it material. Lifer was very much more a peer-oriented record in a way.

Is the band a democracy? Did you have any disagreements making this record?
This band has been a democracy at points. It’s also been sort of a splintered faction of different groups of dudes at points. I won’t go into all the bullshit, but we came close to throwing in the towel around the recording of this record. We have had disagreements constantly, but they are often silent. No one talks about them and therefore nothing gets resolved. Often it’s like a cut that doesn’t get treated and then gets infected and becomes a much bigger problem than it ever would have if we’d just put peroxide on it from the get go. I don’t know if that’s normal among bands. From my experience it is normal in human relationships and therefore must be applicable in some way to group dynamics. That being said, at the end of the day no BIG decisions get made without group consent. But we get into trouble when we start defining what a BIG decision is. Does that make sense? We’re pretty fucked up, eh?

Apparently you all work day jobs because Dope Body doesn’t make any money. Wouldn’t it be easier to hire a big-name producer, record something that sounds like Maroon 5 and never have to work again? Take ‘Hired Gun’, for example. There’s quite a catchy, sing-along chorus nestling in there. Why not lose that peculiar, spiky, disrupting lead guitar part so you can appeal to the Gaslight Anthem demographic? I mean, ‘Echo’ has quite a laid-back, groovy, summery verse before it explodes into that angry, screaming, scuzzbath of a chorus. Couldn’t you get the track streamlined and cleaned up by Pharrell Williams or Unkle Kracker or someone? Escape from LA They Live. What’s so great about integrity anyway? No one paid their mortgage with integrity. I read Steve Turner from Mudhoney explaining that, because he’s got better and better at the guitar over the years, he now has to make a conscious effort to play worse than he can actually play or unlearn what he’s learned to maintain Mudhoney’s punky sound. Do you worry you might become too proficient with your instruments? How might you deal with that? What’s the best thing about living in Baltimore? How important is Baltimore to the band’s sound? How different would Dope Body sound if you were based elsewhere? What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened at a Dope Body show? What are Dope Body offering right now that other bands are not offering?

DOPE BODY on TOUR
10/21/14 Zanzabar Louisville,KY
10/22/14 Strange Matter Richmond,VA
10/24/14 Metro Gallery Baltimore,MD
10/25/14 Johnny Brenda’s Philadelphia,PA
11/7/14 Suckfest Greensboro,NC *
11/8/14 529 Atlanta,GA *
11/9/14 raveface Savannah,GA *
11/10/14 Back to The Garage (Liberty Bar) Tallahassee,FL *
11/11/14 Circle Bar New Orleans,LA*
11/12/14 Mango’s Houston,TX ^
11/13/14 The Mohawk Austin,TX ^
11/14/14 Double Wide Dallas,TX ^
11/15/14 The Lightbulb Fayetteville,NC *
11/16/14 Plush St. Louis,MO*
11/17/14 Pilot Light Knoxville,TN*
*With Roomrunner
^With Roomrunner & Future Death