MONSTER MAGNET’S Dave Wyndorf gets D&M with KNOBROCK’S Lily!

Posted on Jan 6, 2011 / Posted by Ann Allen /

If you like your interviews a little less routine or formulated, this is the one for you.

KR head-honcho Lily, and Mr Spacelord himself, Dave Wyndorf from MONSTER MAGNET, mutually went into this interview with good intentions, but swayed way off topic and indeed formula. But hey, that’s not such a bad thing because what resulted, was in fact an in-depth chat about life – or at least as in-depth as you can possibly get in 15 minutes – leaving both of them feeling a little warm and fuzzy. (Not like that, pervert.)

So, consider this a sort of eaves-drop on a conversation between two people and you’ll get a grasp of what a cool, deep, funny and passionate guy Dave truly is.

Lily calls this her favourite interview to date and says that Dave, is “one of the coolest rockers I’ve ever had the pleasure of chatting to.” And of course, it goes without saying that Dave most likely said the same thing about her.

But enough of me banging on about it, judge for yourself as Lily sits down with one of the big papas of rock n’ roll, Dave Wyndorf…

-A

DAVE:  Hey Lily.

LILY: Hi, how you going?

DAVE: You know, that’s one of my favourite names of all time.

LILY:  Oh, really?

DAVE: Yeah, it’s an awesome name.

LILY: Thank you.  Actually my real name is Elizabeth, but when I was born my sister, Ann, who was three, couldn’t say Elizabeth so she said, “No, her name will be Lily.”

DAVE: Oh, that’s – that’s awesome.

LILY:  We – my sister and I, actually, we have a music website called Knobrock and this is what the interview is for.  And it’s a rock and heavy metal music website, but with a little bit of a [comedic] twist. We love the music, love to poke a little bit of fun and have a few laughs at the same time…. Yeah, it’s everything we love, basically.

DAVE:  That’s what I do.  That’s what my band is about, everything I love.   I just stick everything I love in one place.

LILY: Yep, absolutely.  And, you know, if you’re doing what you love it doesn’t matter how much money you make.  I mean, it helps if you’re making some, but I don’t know, so many people are doing – have careers that they don’t enjoy and…

DAVE: I know, I know.  It’s – I see people like that all the time, just out there running the rat race.  People who really probably could do whatever they want, but they’re doing what they think they should, and sometimes it’s a mistake.  You know, in the end, if you follow your heart you at least won’t be bitterly disappointed if things don’t go, you know, completely 100% because you started with your heart and you end with your heart.  And life is too short to bullshit around, you know?

LILY: Yeah, I totally agree Dave, and I think it applies not just to your career, but every aspect of your life.  If you are motivated by your heart, you can’t go wrong.

DAVE: Yeah, right.  You know, I mean it’s kind of built in – it’s a built in fail safe meaning that you know that you gave it your best, because you loved it.

LILY: Yep.

DAVE: Interesting how the – boy, we live in a weird world where there’s many, many people with great responsibility out there doing things because they think they should, rather than that they feel it, you know?

LILY: I know, and so much more these days, I think gen Y have this so much wanting to keep up with the Jones’, you know, and wanting material things. And they’re just forgetting about the real things in life like people and spirituality or, you know, whatever it is that really hits you, you know, in the chest rather than grabbing on to tangible things.  You know what I mean?

DAVE:  I agree.  You know, modern technology and advertising have a lot to do with what’s going on today.  You know, we set up a – advertising and technology set up a pace and people can’t help but feel a little bit slow compared to the pace that the machines run. And, you know, some of us may be very, very smart, but all of us are pretty much prey to our emotions and I think that keeping up with the Jones’ thing really is kind of a peer pressure, almost like being a little kid again, except for grown ups.

There are these people like, you know, disturbed – it’s a really, really strange thing because the speed of life is really just, you know, as you know it’s just really perception.

You know, it’s just, I mean, it doesn’t have to be that man.  But shit, you know, man makes machines, man tries to catch up with the machines, man drives himself crazy.

LILY: Yes.

DAVE: And that’s what we’re going through now more than ever in history.

LILY: Yep.  Absolutely.  It’s a sad – the world’s a little bit sad at the moment.

DAVE:  It’s just weird.  It’s sad and a little hollow.  At the speed that people are travelling no-one – it seems that people are not forgetting, but they’re missing out on basic pleasures, stuff that will make them stronger as human beings and hope and – you know, happier being around.

LILY:  Yeah.

DAVE: It’s a weird time.  You know, I’m not young, you know, I’m not like super young, I’m like 54 years old.  So I remember a time when it was a lot simpler, you know, and before all this stuff.  And the one thing I can say is from being a kid in the ‘70s and now like an adult in now, it’s like, you know, life is still exactly the same.  The only thing that’s changed, is perception.

LILY:  Yeah.  That’s – yeah, that’s very true.

 

DAVE: It’s the only thing that’s changed, is perception.  There’s more information now, so things seem to move faster, things seem to be more immediate.

LILY:  But I think people want, you know, immediate pleasure, they want things to be quick. And they want – so they can move onto the next thing, the next pleasure, the next pleasure. And have they really enjoyed what they’ve just done, or is it, you know, like a tick off the list?  Or I don’t know, it just – it’s still so -

DAVE:  I know.  I can only speak for myself and, believe me, I went in and I tried to get every goddamn thing, you know, everything.  I wanted – I wanted pleasure and I wanted pleasure all the time and I wanted it and I went from one thing to the next and I got to tell you, the faster you’re going, the more you grab, the less you actually get. It really is true.  It’s like you’ve got to slow down and stop.  But it’s kind of scary to stop.

You know, I think it’s scary for people.  It was scary for me to stop.  I kept thinking like that either I would miss something, you know?  And then but over the years, with a lot of experience, it’s not really about getting older it’s just about being around long enough to gather the experience.  I realise that half the next big things in the world, people go, “This is the next big thing.  You’ve got to get on it.”  And I think more than half of them never pan out.

LILY: I know.  And you know what, Dave?  I think one of the most important things is noticing the experience while it’s happening and really embrace the experience, whether it’s shit or brilliant.

DAVE:  Exactly.  Well you hit on it there.  It’s like whether it’s shit or brilliant.  And life is not all going to be brilliant, it’s going to be shit.

LILY:  Yeah, I – and I have to say, I don’t know, a lot of the time it’s shit.

DAVE: Yeah.  But if you can look at it and say, “All right, here I am, sitting in shit.  What can I get from this?”

LILY: Yes!

DAVE:  “I’m going to examine it and I’m going to see what it is.”  And then, and I know it sounds corny, you’re going to meet somebody who’s going to be in shit and you’re going to go, “Wait a second.  I was there, and this is what I saw, blah, blah, blah.”  Instantly, your shitty time is now valuable time.

LILY:  Yeah.  And it’s not the shit that happens to us that defines us, it’s what we do with it that defines us.

DAVE:  Yeah, absolutely right.  You’re absolutely right.  Maybe people are – you know, advertising has gone crazy and I think people are more, whether they admit it or not, are more affected by what other people think now more than ever before.  They think that people really care about how they react to something or how cool they are or what they’re dressed in or how they should react.  And it’s really it’s a bunch of shit, you know?  And it’s a bunch of crap. You know, like you said, what defines us is how we deal with what’s given us, you know?  I mean it’s truly that vision of cool which was the old version of cool, was like, you know, cool people were like – cool people were actually cool like, “I’m cool.  I’m cool”.  You know, a little bit mellow.  Ready to kick ass if they had to.  They hardly ever had – having – you know… the trick is not to have to kick ass.  You don’t have to.  Something changed in the kind of – in the States especially.

LILY: Oh, that’s so true, isn’t it?  You don’t have to kick ass to be cool.

DAVE: No.  And actually that is the – is – to me, is to define the ultimate cool was the guy that figured out a way to kind of glide through it and not have to exert that kind of energy, you know?

LILY: Yep.  Yeah.

DAVE:  I mean, if he had to, he’d actually come out and do a couple of kung fu moves and wipe everybody off the floor, you know?  But for most of the time he wouldn’t have to move.  That was cool.  Now, and I don’t know, maybe it’s just because the pressure, media pressure, or it’s just – I really don’t know why, but there seems to be a redefinition of what cool is and it seems to be a little bit more rude.

LILY: And contrived.

DAVE:  Yeah, yeah.  You know?  And it’s almost like it doesn’t matter how you get there, just get there.  Whoever has the most, you know, toys wins, that kind of thing, which is kind of disappointing to me because it really, it doesn’t leave you anywhere to go. You know, like that’s it?  You know, that’s it?  That’s – “You win”.  You know?

LILY:  Yep, totally.  I’ve got a few questions to ask you.

DAVE: Sure, Lily

LILY:  I know we’ve – I’ve thoroughly enjoyed talking to you.  I was really looking forward to this interview. Can I just – a quick trip down memory lane.

DAVE:  Okay.

LILY: Was there one particular thing that inspired you to forge a career in music?

DAVE: Let me try and think.  You mean besides working shitty jobs every day of my life?  That was probably the main thing.  I don’t think there was one particular thing, but there was a kind of a moment when I saw the Ramones for the first time and I was like “Holy shit, I think I can do this.”  Because they’re really inspiring.  They were like – you know, these guys didn’t have technical talent, but by the sheer force of will, by their wits alone -

LILY: Oh, but they were… their music was so, you know, up-beat and fun.

DAVE:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  And I mean, and it was, you know, and 90% of the fun of the Ramones came out of their head.  It wasn’t through like guitar solos or drum solos or technical prowess.

LILY:  Yeah.

DAVE: They just went up there and did it.  And I was like “Holy shit”.  That really made me like go, “Oh my God, I think I can actually do this.  I don’t have to just, you know, stay in my room and dance in front of a mirror anymore.  I can actually do this.”  That was probably the moment.

LILY: Right.  Cool.  There’s plenty of really positive press about you and Monster Magnet, you know, floating around the internet from media and fans.  How do you manage to remain unscathed by the craziness of the music industry?

DAVE: Man, it’s weird.  I try to ignore it as much as I can.  Although, if you ignore it too much, you know, you’ll get broadsided.  I try to laugh as much as possible, you know what I mean?  And realise that it really is Spinal Tap.

LILY:  Isn’t it!

DAVE: The whole thing is Spinal Tap!  Every day.  Every minute.  And  what’s funny is, that’s how I get through, you know?

LILY: It’s so great to hear you say that.

DAVE:  Oh fuck yeah.  I mean I don’t care who it is.  I’ve seen the biggest rock stars, the coolest, artiest guys, the hippest newest guys, as much as they try to like, to live it down, it’s like “Dude, you’re Spinal Tap.”  “No, I’m not.”  “You are.  You just did a Spinal Tap thing.”  “I did not.”  “You did.”  It’s all – you know, it’s funny.

LILY:  I know.  God, and I could go on about that for hours.  Okay, now can I just ask you a quick question, you had a UFO encounter with your mother, or according to Wikipedia.

DAVE:  I did.

LILY:  Yeah, can you tell me a bit about that?

DAVE:  It was really cool.  I was a little kid.  My sister and I went – walked out on the porch in suburban New Jersey, saw – saw a bunch of stars moving around.  Yeah, it was unbelievable.  Like these starts that were sitting up there in the Heavens just started moving around in quick like almost like geometric patterns.  And then a huge light came over the house.  And it was fuckin’ awesome.  And it was – it was really great.  It was fantastic.  And of course my mother came out and she saw the whole thing too, but she was not moved at all.  She was like, “Oh, it’s got to be some house”.  Yeah, she was just like, “Oh yeah, you know, it’s got to be something.”  And my sister and I were just like “Holy fuckin’ shit, this is insane.  Great.”

And of course no-one would listen to us because we were kids, so we just kind of forgot about it.  But we will bring it up.  I bring it up with my sister all the time.

LILY: Oh, I bet.  That’s  a cool story.

DAVE: Great.  It was great.  It was really, really good.  And this is, you know, what’s weird is that a lot of the stuff that was in the movie Close Encounters is very similar to that, but this is way before Close Encounters came out.  I mean I saw a couple of things in Close Encounters when it came out and I was like, “That’s – that’s pretty much what I saw.”

LILY: Was anything on the media about it?

DAVE:  You know, I was so young that I didn’t even think to check.  You know, I think I was like ten years old and I just went to school the next day, and that was it.

LILY:  And, that kind of thing isn’t unusual for a kid.  Well I mean, it’s unusual but it – it’s not significant.

DAVE:  Exactly.  I mean there’s nothing to gauge it against.  I hadn’t been out in the world and, you know, learned about the controversy about flying saucers and people that believe in them.  To me it was just like, “Wow, something new just happened.”  But we knew – we knew how cool it was.  My sister and I both knew how cool it was.  We were like, “This is wild, you know?  This is totally wild.”  I just – I didn’t know – I didn’t know how wild it was.

Not until years later when I’d, you know, read up all this stuff and I started learning more about it.  And it was like, “Wait a second, we saw this.  Man, we were there.”  It was awesome.  I wish you could have seen it.  And every day since – nothing.

LILY: Oh yeah, I would – oh, I’d love a UFO encounter. Yeah.  Now, the Sound Wave festival, which you’re playing at in February/March, oh, how good is the line-up?

DAVE:  It’s about – it’s un-fucking-believably good.  And I couldn’t believe – I was like, “Wow, my God.”  Like it’s incredible.  Like heavy hitter after heavy hitter.

LILY:  I know.  Going through the list I was just like, “Oh my God.  This just gets better and better.”

DAVE: I know.  I – you’ll never be able to see everything.  It’s going to be impossible.

LILY: No.  But, Australia is so excited about it and some of them have actually sold out or near sold out.  And there’s heaps of side wave – they call them side wave shows.

Dave, it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you and I look forward to seeing you next year.

DAVE:  Oh it’s been great, Lily, you’re very easy to talk to and I’ve enjoyed it too.

Catch MONSTER MAGNET on their Australian Tour with SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL in February and March 2011.

Tags: dave wyndorf, interview, knobrock, monster magnet, ramones, soundwave festival