|
article by jennifer kelly. photos by jen.knee.
Most musicians make a choice -- or have one made for them -- between popularity and autonomy. That is, if you're going to travel all around Europe, playing to fanatical admirers, hitting the big US clubs, you are probably not going to make deeply personal, not-too-commercial home recordings in your spare time. It's one or the other.
Dave DeCastro is an exception. He just might be the Kevin Bacon of the music world, the center of a spider's web of connections to punk, alt-country and rock and roll luminaries. The bass player of choice for musicians including Steve Wynn, Jim Mastro, Amy Rigby and Marty Willson-Piper, he is always off on one important tour or another. A few months ago, he emailed me to say that he was up for a big reunion tour, not able to say which, but "I hope it's Foghat." He was kidding, I think, but not by much.
At the same time, he also makes incredibly beautiful, intimately-scaled self-recordings that almost no one hears. He plays all the instruments, sings, produces, puts them in sleeves and sends them off to the people lucky or smart enough to visit his web site. He is also the nicest, most down to earth guy you can imagine, and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to him recently about his brushes with the great and near-great, the perils of being a one-man band, New Jersey home prices, and the trade-offs between success and doing exactly what you want to do.
· · · · · · ·
Splendid: So tell me about yourself. How'd you get started in music?
Dave DeCastro: I started like most everybody else, playing in a cover band. My first real step to doing original music, where I had my own songs and I was, at the time, really into the Minutemen and the Replacements -- I had a band called Train Wreck. It went on for a bit. We made a couple of cassettes and went around to CB's and Brownies and all the local joints in the city. It was actually pretty cool when I think back on it. This was at the time when the Replacements were pretty happening, even early Soul Asylum. We were sort of doing Hank Williams... it was pretty much, I wouldn't say it was the first band, but we were incorporating the country with the punk.
So we were into that whole thing, the whole downtown city gigs, and that went on for a few years. Around that time, though, we were playing all those gigs and met a lot of people, and particularly Jim Mastro, of the Health and Happiness Show. They were a band, at the time they were doing, not really straight country, but more like acoustic country. They had a fiddle...
Splendid: What time period was this?
Dave DeCastro: This was probably 1994 or 1995, when Train Wreck ended and I started doing Jim Mastro's thing.
Splendid: So this was, like, at the height of grunge, you guys were doing an acoustic country thing?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah. We were rocking, too. Punk and country. I wasn't really country punk, or cowpunk; it was more like a mix of guitars with a country thing. We'd get mellow and acoustic. I've always been into the acoustic thing, but then, I like to rock, too.
Splendid: Were you writing songs for them?
Dave DeCastro: At that time, yeah. With Train Wreck. But then with Jim Mastro, when he got Richard Lloyd in the Health and Happiness Show, they started to get more rocking. They were drifting away from the country. I got a call out of the blue -- they said, we're going on tour. And this guy Richard Lloyd is in the band, and we're also going to be playing with this guy Butch Hancock (Flatlanders, Joe Ely), a songwriter from Texas. We'd like you to be part of the band, but you also have to learn Butch Hancock's songs. And I was playing with Butch. They were talking to me like I didn't know him, but I was like, "I know Butch, I know Richard Lloyd. Cool."
But it was a really quick thing. We were leaving in two weeks, so they were like, here's our songs, here's our CD, and here's Butch's songs. It was a combined tour where we were going to be doing our set and then playing Butch Hancock's set as his backing band. So I was like, great, I'd go on the road for a few months, a month or two, whatever it was originally. It ended up being a year and a half -- the whole tour. But it started out as about two months with Butch, going around America, with all the great gigs, the Bottom Lines in every major city. It was great, amazing as my first touring experience with all these great people. You know, Jim Mastro of the Bongos, Butch Hancock as songwriter and Richard Lloyd as guitar player. Vinnie DeNunzio (Richard Hell, the Feelies) as the drummer. I was like the little guy with all these big guys.
It ended up being the greatest time ever. My first experience touring around with a band, it was unbelievable. That went off for a year and a half. We ended with Butch, then we went out with Wilco for a few weeks, then the Blasters, the Beat Farmers, the Scorchers. We opened up for Johnny Cash.
Splendid: What was that like? Did you get to meet him?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah. It was like meeting the president. It was in DC. You almost get shook down, and they take you to a room, and then another room, and then it's like, okay, you're going to meet Johnny now. We were only the opening band, so he was in a separate room. In other cases where we were openers, we had free range of everything, hanging out with whoever, we became friends with whoever we opened for. With Johnny it was a different story. Because he was Johnny. He was standing in the room. They were having a little dinner, and it was so beautiful and they were both so nice. Both of them were saying, you know, we love your band. You guys are great. That was the only time where I was like, can I have your autograph? There aren't a lot of people that I would ask for an autograph. I've asked Ringo and McCartney and Johnny Cash.
Splendid: Did you get them all?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah.
Splendid: What did you do with them?
Dave DeCastro: The autographs? They're over there, in the corner. When I get a house, I'll put them up. They're framed and beautiful. It's really neat, right?
Splendid: Yeah.
Dave DeCastro: Maybe Dylan...though if I met Dylan, I'd probably be too scared to ask him for an autograph.
Splendid: Yeah, but nobody meets Dylan anymore.
Dave DeCastro: I know, really.
Splendid: He's off in a cave somewhere... So anyway, you're touring with the Health and Happiness Show, and what happens then?
Dave DeCastro: That went on until 1995 or 1996. A long time ago. Seems like yesterday. But we did another record after we finished up the tour. That record didn't involve a tour, but we did a lot of local shows. Boston, New York gigs. That record was great. I still listen to it. I was so happy with that record. And, too bad, no one said, "Let's do another tour, whoo-hoo!" But everyone gets to a certain age -- not so much myself at the time, but the other people -- they get a little older and it's not as much of a possibility to tour. I'm like, why aren't we all 28?
We did that record, and in the process of doing that record, I got involved in another band with my friend Neal Casal, a singer/songwriter, who used to live in Jersey but has moved to California. He does a lot of alt-country sessions. So I did a tour with him in Europe, which was cool because I was going to Europe. Little did I know I'd be back every following year with Steve Wynn...
Splendid: That's right, you guys go there a lot.
Dave DeCastro: And at the same time, I had started my solo thing. Plunking out, doing these solo acoustic songs.
Splendid: When did the solo stuff start?
Dave DeCastro: Really, about the same time that Health and Happiness began, about 1996.
Splendid: Was that because you had songs that weren't going to work for Health and Happiness?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, I guess so. There was a period where there was some down time, and I said, I've got to do something. I might as well try to put a CD together. But the band thing, those kinds of opportunities were always getting in the way. Then after the Neal Casal tour...he does very well in Europe, especially the UK.
Splendid: It's weird, all these bands that do well in Europe but not here. You'd think they'd have really good radio in Europe, but you try to get a station over there and it's all Madonna and stuff.
Dave DeCastro: Isn't that the truth?
Splendid: Why is that?
Dave DeCastro: I don't know. There may be a few radio stations, but they're not radio stations that you'd actually find. And the radio that's there is the worst.
Splendid: Yeah, 'cos I was in Spain, and everyone says Spain is such a cool place, and I figured they'd have decent radio, but it was horrible.
Dave DeCastro: If you just turn on the radio, forget it. You have to know specific times. There's Bob Harris, the DJ in England, he has a great show. It's sort of scattered. John Peel. There's a couple of shows...you know I send my CDs over there and they play them. It's not like here where if you send a CD out, there's only a few that will play it. Who's going to look at a CD of mine and, without knowing who I am or what I do, and play it? But over there, they'll listen, and if they like it, they'll play it, and I'm amazed. Big time DJs in England and Germany. They play my record... and I'm like, "whoo-hoo". Here there are a scattered few that will play anything but the biggest records.
Splendid: Maybe because it's not so corporate in Europe?
Dave DeCastro: Exactly. It's great to have ... the only stations that are going to play my music and anyone else's are the ones where the DJs decide what to play themselves. None of these bands that you hear of -- that are great -- none of them are getting played on the radio.
Splendid: Yeah, it's very discouraging. Sometimes the college stations will play good stuff.
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, and college radio. They're like the hippest stuff going, really, but they won't play my stuff because it's not the hippest thing in Mojo and all the great magazines. They're playing magazine rock. All the cool college kids...the college kids all want to be the coolest anyway.
Splendid: So anyway, you started doing your solo stuff?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, and then I was playing with Amy Rigby for a while. The songwriter. The time when I was playing with her, we did a lot of gigs. We did a tour with Billy Bragg and Wilco, the Mermaid Avenue Tour, which was cool. They were big gigs, playing with great musicians. At the time, she was living in New York. Now she's in Nashville. She's started playing solo, and now she puts together these three-piece combos, keyboard, herself and a drummer. She always wants to experiment with bands. So it's never a permanent situation with Amy. She may have the same guitar player, but she's always changing her mind. That went on for quite a bit. We did a lot of great shows. And I like her stuff. But doing that bass player thing, that's what it's all about. You're lucky to ... it's who you know and you're lucky to have any kind of gigs. I liked playing with these people who put out records and did these great gigs. I was lucky. But it's all stepping stones. One thing leads to another. Especially living in the New York area.
Splendid: I think your career is sort of interesting, because you do these high profile things as a bass player for hire, and then you have this very independent, self-released, self-produced solo stuff.
Dave DeCastro: I think you're right. I never really analyzed what I'm doing day to day. I'm just trying to get on with my life, you know? But I do record my tunes every day, recording and recording without any calculated effort to do anything with it, except just to do it. But then to send it out to get it reviewed or played on the radio, that would be great, but I don't really aspire...I don't know. It is what it is, and I don't expect to be real famous for the stuff that I do.
Splendid: Do you think about your audience at all? Do you have a picture of what kinds of people listen to your stuff or should listen to it?
Dave DeCastro: Good question. It does occasionally occur to me. You get to this age where -- I'm almost 40 -- and I'm still, I want to appeal...I'm still playing music that's like, at least in my mind, indie rock. I'm not appealing to the WFUV crowd for sure. WFUV is a New York radio station, which has all the music you don't hear on major radio stations. It's a good station, in a way. They play, I don't know, Richard Thompson, all these adult songs. And then there's like Richard Shindell and Dar Williams. All that stuff. That's where the 40-something people go...and I like a lot of that stuff. I look at that because of where I live and there's only about three stations I can listen. That one and then there's WFMU, which is like a whole other planet.
Splendid: It's a great station.
Dave DeCastro: I like to think of myself as fitting in more with the WFMU crowd, with bands from 20 to 60.
Splendid: What I think is cool about those people at WFMU -- and I listen to that station all the time on my computer -- is that they don't seem to care about what's hot or popular. They're just looking for music they want to listen to. Which I think a lot of people want. I've met a bunch of people who are my age and quite a bit older who have recently gotten iPods and they're just so excited about music again. They've been completely alienated by the radio and everything else, and all the sudden, they hook up their iPod and get on iTunes and get all this stuff. I know this guy who hasn't listened to new music in 15 years, and now he's into the Shins and Beulah. I think it's cool that the radio is losing its stranglehold on popular taste.
Dave DeCastro: That's right, there are all these bands like the Shins and Beulah that are great, and most people aren't aware of them.
Splendid: Yeah, and why wouldn't people like them? Why aren't they commercial? Who decided that?
Dave DeCastro: I could take any band and put the song on the radio and it would be huge. Any band, right?
Splendid: Well...most bands.
Dave DeCastro: Bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, they're great. They have their whole thing going. But there are a lot of bands that do. I don't know...I like to think that anyone could listen to the music that I'm doing.
Splendid: I really like your -- the three of your CDs that you sent. Is that all you have?
Dave DeCastro: I have a couple more, and another new one. This new one, I'm expecting people to say, "What the hell is that?" It's got more of these instrumentals. I don't want to do too many.
Splendid: What are you doing on those instrumental songs? It sounds like you're bowing.
AUDIO: Recovering the Past
Dave DeCastro: Most of those are bass on loops. I get these loops going, and I have a million of them. A lot of them turn into tunes. If I feel a certain rhythm in a loop, where it's in my head at the time...all of the songs that I've recorded have been put down spontaneously. With some lyrics to fill it out, but musically it's what's at the moment it's recorded. It's done. I'm not going to change it. It's what happened at that moment. Sometimes it's bad -- most of the time, it's good, but sometimes it's bad.
Splendid: Do you throw a lot of stuff out?
Dave DeCastro: I wouldn't say throw it out. I just have so much stuff that I can't ... my whole thing is, how much stuff can I put out on CD? I like short CDs and I lean toward short songs. I rarely listen to whole records. I listen to the first six tunes and then I'm off to do something else. I go out or whatever. I really like short songs and short albums. Otherwise, I'd probably have, like, 30 records out.
Also, it's easy to do this, having my own little studio here. You know, in my room, I can flick around the television and come into my room and record a song. If I become inspired...
Splendid: Do you play everything?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah.
Splendid: And there's no other vocals or anything?
Dave DeCastro: Right. And that's one of the benefits or drawbacks, drawback probably mostly, of having your own studio. Because you end up doing everything. Except on the Sparkle CD where Linda Pittman plays drums, Steve Wynn's drummer.
Splendid: I was wondering about that... that maybe it would be easier to do some of the mellower songs by yourself, but the rocking ones, you almost need a band.
Dave DeCastro: You do. But on that CD, I had Linda. On the other CDs, I have a drum set in my attic. I mic it up there. The recording process is just sort of lay down the rhythm and vocal live, so that I get a good mix of the rhythm vocal on one track. Then I go up and put the drums on, obviously, if it's appropriate for the song. If it's a drum song, I'll put the drums on. Then I add bass and background vocals and whatever other instruments are required. Piano or whatever.
Splendid: Is there accordion, or maybe harmonica sometimes?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, harmonica, sometimes concertina. I do have a small keyboard that I get wacky on.
Splendid: So when you play live, what do you do?
Dave DeCastro: Live I just do the acoustic harmonica.
Splendid: You don't try to do all the instruments?
Dave DeCastro: It's not like a folk gig. It's rocking. I also have some stuff in my loop pedal. I'll loop it and get some crazy sound out of the harmonica.
Splendid: Would you like to have a band?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah. I have a lot of new tunes. The other ones I could change. It would be great. And Jim Mastro mentions this to me all the time. He says, hey, Dave, when are you going to get your band together? He wants to be in my band. I wouldn't have a shortage of members. But I kind of like -- it's great to have a band in rock, but I still would need to do more -- I still like to do those solo acoustic gigs, where you can really focus on the vocal. For years I've been rocking and it's funny because one of the reasons I wanted to do solo gigs is because I was with Train Wreck for a long time, and we were heavy rocking. And I really wanted to concentrate on being quiet and listening really hard to -- not so much the lyrics, but listening to myself sing. So I kept on going from there. And once I started to do, playing solo, I sort of got restricted to playing gigs that could accommodate that. A lot do.
Splendid: Which would be smaller?
Dave DeCastro: Smaller gigs. Occasionally Maxwell's, I'd have a solo show. But I did a solo show in Germany for a few weeks, and that went great. It was small places. Anyplace...there's always 30 percent in the back of wherever you're playing that are just chatting away, any solo acoustic gig. Even the huge famous guys, Richard Thomas or Beck, there's always people in the back.
Splendid: Almost more so with the really famous people. At SXSW, for instance, you get these very hot shows where a lot of people go because they want to network, and they don't really have any interest in the people that are actually playing...
I wanted to ask you about "One Fine Day" which is on two of your albums and it's a really pretty song. Why two versions?
Dave DeCastro: I came up with that song in Tucson when I was recording one of Steve Wynn's records. When you're recording, there's a lot of hang time. You're recording maybe the first week, and then after that, you're listening and wondering what to put on the song. So most of the time I'd get to the studio, and it would be like 100 degrees, and I'd get a coffee and before we had fired up the tape to listen to the previous day's recordings, I would always grab one of the instruments. That song just kind of came to me while I was sitting on the couch. Not the lyrics, but the whole melody. Structurally, the core, it's not complicated. I was just sort of playing this song, so I did have the whole "One Fine Day" thing. But then Jason, who is also Steve Wynn's guitar player, was sitting next to me, and he put a little mandolin thing to it, and it was kind of cool. And it was really slow. It was like the slow version that I recorded. Then after sitting on it for a while, after I got home, I thought, I want to record that song. But the mood of that day took it to like a rock song. So I was like, wow, this is cool. So I added drums and bass and keyboards, and it ended up being a rock song. I liked it. But live, I would probably play it somewhere in between. I pick it up half way, between both versions. But I wanted to see if I could record it the mellow way. And I kind of liked that, too. So I had the original and the rocking one, and I kept the two versions. But the meaning is really being oblivious to the chaos around you.
AUDIO: One Fine Day
Splendid: Your songs are very serene and anti-materialist and sort of spiritual. Where does that come from? Are you that kind of person?
Dave DeCastro: I wouldn't say I'm extremely spiritual. I just really want to live a peaceful life. That's my goal in life. I'm tired of being worried about money. I don't want to get caught up with where everyone's going insane -- because I live in New Jersey where everyone is fighting to have the nicest house, and the biggest Lexus and the biggest mini-van.
Splendid: You live right off the train line that goes into Wall Street.
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, I grew up with that. I grew up in a town that's closer in. I grew up in Maplewood, and that's a whole yuppie town, and you can't even afford to live there. But it's tough to leave. People do it. I actually give people credit for just booking to California or whatever. I don't know if I could do that. Although one of the reasons I'm reluctant to settle down and buy a house is that's the end of my dreams. You know, I can't move to Paris. I can't move to London.
Splendid: You could, at some point, sell your very expensive New Jersey house, though, and move to Paris.
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, that's hopefully one of the benefits of buying a house, rather than renting. Even though I could stay where we're renting forever. But being a self-employed person, it's one of the benefits of owning, that hopefully you'll have something by the end of the road to sell and live off. Hopefully it will at least help you exist for another couple of months.
Splendid: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about "The Test" too, which seems like it might be a 9/11 song.
Dave DeCastro: Not really.
Splendid: It's about, sort of, the unreality of things that surround people.
Dave DeCastro: That's true. It is. If you think about it, living our lives, there are so many tests that we deal with, just trying to get on with it. I'm so caught up in trying to hold it together that...not that I don't have it together...but I still feel like I'm 25 and here I am...
Splendid: I think everyone feels like that.
Dave DeCastro: Thank you. Though I see a lot of people that look their age.
Splendid: I just got this record from the band The New Year, and they have this song about being 18 on the inside and remembering how it felt to be 18 on the outside, and feeling exactly the same. And I was like, yeah, I feel like that.
Dave DeCastro: I really like The New Year. Which record was that?
Splendid: It's the new one. (The End is Near, released on May 8th, 2004)
Dave DeCastro: That's great, because I'm good friends with Chris Brokaw (who plays drums for The New Year).
Splendid: Yeah, that's right, because he used to play for Steve Wynn, too.
Dave DeCastro: I talk to Chris all the time.
Splendid: It's a really good album.
Dave DeCastro: He makes me tapes of all his records when he's making them, like The New Year, Pullman. I'm gonna have to call him, and say, come on, give me the new CD, man. Hand it over.
Splendid: Very, sort of edgy and prickly and difficult, but interesting.
Dave DeCastro: Like a low vocal. I like that. It's funny you mentioned it. Chris Brokaw's great, a phenomenal guitar player and singer.
Splendid: Yeah, I've never met him, but I'm a big fan of Consonant, too. He plays guitar in that.
Dave DeCastro: I haven't picked that one up yet either.
Splendid: They're really good, too.
Dave DeCastro: But it's what you said, mostly the tests that you go through throughout our lives, without getting too specific. In most of these songs, and especially that one, there could have been 100 verses, explaining more and more about what kinds of tests there are. There might have been a 9/11-specific verse, too. I'm usually vague, but I hope to get my point across.
Splendid: It's really beautiful, and I think that the fact that your songs are open-ended means that people can take them into their hearts and make them mean what they have to. What are you working on now?
Dave DeCastro: I just finished another CD.
AUDIO: The Test
Splendid: On Ampco -- is that just you?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah. I've made attempts, semi-attempts to do something with it as far as a label. There's a label in Germany that supports my records, and they have talked about doing that, but at the stage I'm at, who's gonna... I don't know what I'm doing.
Splendid: Do you sell enough copies to make it worthwhile for you?
Dave DeCastro: To pay the mortgage?
Splendid: Or to cover the costs of making the records?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, with the help of the airplay I get, and I do get a bunch of emails saying hey, I like your tunes, and the gigs.
Splendid: Do you have to have another job?
Dave DeCastro: Well, I do, just due to the fact that I'm not a lazy person. I can't sit still. It's not like I can sleep all day and wait for the gigs, so I go out and fix people's houses during the day.
Splendid: That seems like that's the big hurdle for most people -- having enough time from working other jobs, so that they can actually do some work.
Dave DeCastro: Yes, and if you get to the point where you could maybe make enough money from playing music to exist and pay your mortgage, you have to have some kind of job that allows you to do music. This job, going out to people's houses, it allows me to tour whenever I want.
Splendid: That will come in handy when you get your own house, too.
Dave DeCastro: You've got that right. I'll never get to sleep. But aside from that, I'm working on my solo stuff, and I've got a gig with Steve Wynn at Tape Ops in New Orleans.
Splendid: Oh, yeah, I think Calexico is doing that.
Dave DeCastro: They are. It should be cool. Those guys are great. We became pretty good friends with them.
Splendid: They were on Here Come the Miracles.
Dave DeCastro: They came in because they lived in Tucson. Down there, it's so cool. People just hang out. There's a lot of musicians. It's a low-key lifestyle. Everyone hangs out in the same places. If I went down to Tucson, I know where to find everyone. I know where to find Joey. But those guys are great. I look forward to doing the gig down there in New Orleans. Hanging out and seeing the great bands who are playing. Plus it'll be a weekend in New Orleans...it's like the big vacation before I move and I'm done for.
Splendid: It sounds like fun.
Dave DeCastro: So, we've been talking about my solo stuff, and I don't know if you want to hear this, but then obviously, I went on to play with Steve Wynn after that Amy Rigby thing. It's been great having a bass gig and all the touring. It's pretty high profile, great gigs. I would never have seen half the world without playing with Steve.
Splendid: And also, in my opinion, it's a really great band.
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, a great band. I love playing...not only with Steve, but with Linda and Jason.
Splendid: It's just really...there's something about it where all the pieces fit together and nothing sticks out. It's just really great.
Dave DeCastro: That's what happened naturally. I've been with Steve for a while, with the two records and a live record and various tours. It's so natural. Steve will come in with a song, and this is like a lot of songwriters with a band. But a lot of songwriters may have more say with their songs, being more specific about do this, do this, do that. Steve doesn't do that. The majority of the time, myself and Jason and Linda will change the song. We'll say, this song is cool, but I'd like to do this. And maybe we'll do two choruses at the end...and he'll be like, oh, yeah, that's cool. It's more like arranging songs. I've rearranged many of his songs, I've got to say. And as far as playing our parts, it's always "come up with your parts." Whatever's appropriate and fits the song. That's the most fun part about being in a band. I don't want to be in a band where someone's going to tell me what to do. I just want to do it. Unless I'm going to be in a band with Dylan and make a lot of money. I'll play with Dylan and he can tell me what to do. But what's the most fun about playing in a band with other people is putting your own -- and obviously, from the songwriter's perspective, the best part about having other musicians is getting their points of view, and perspectives on the songs and parts. So with Steve Wynn, it's so natural and everything is so easy. EVen the recording process, it's effortless...at least for me.
Splendid: And you guys are going to make another album soon?
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, we've already started rehearsing. That will be probably late 2005. Summer 2005. It's a ways out. We banged out the last two records, double albums. It's crazy. So I'm saying to Steve, don't rush. Now hopefully with the label saying we have more time, don't get crazy. Concentrate on getting the tunes down.
Splendid: Now I know what that song "Pep Pill" is about. "I try to slow you down, but I end up speeding up." I know what that's about now.
Dave DeCastro: (laughs) I think you might be right about that.
Splendid: You also do some of these pretty high profile bass gigs where people are telling you what to do, right?
Dave DeCastro: Nobody does that.
Splendid: Didn't you tour with Ryan Adams?
Dave DeCastro: Well, we opened for Ryan Adams. I think if I played with Ryan Adams...if I did get that gig, and I talked to his bass player a lot, he would pretty much be telling me what to do. Every note.
Splendid: You'd have to get paid a lot of money for that to be worthwhile.
Dave DeCastro: Yeah. Even in those cases, you could probably take liberties and do your own little thing. You could incorporate your own style into the part. But we're talking bass here, come on...
Splendid: Do you like playing the bass?
Dave DeCastro: I really love being the bass player. Because... there's a few things about it. Playing guitar is great, you know, you're moving around, you're rocking. But playing bass, I'm always moving. Every muscle in my body, arms and legs, is pumping. So I'm rocking with the drummer. We are just constantly in motion, and I love that.
Splendid: It's funny because if you see a band, and only one guy is smiling, it's almost always the bass player.
Dave DeCastro: I know. That's true. I love being the bass player, and I love being an anonymous player up there. No one looks at me. I love the fact that I'm just doing my thing and I don't have to really care about anyone concentrating on me too much. I'm just up there to rock, and most bass players are. They're not in it for the glory. There are only so many bass players you can name, out of a gazillion bands. They're just in it for the rock. They're not in it to be the main man and get major recognition. No way. That's what I like about being the bass player. The pressure's all on the guitar player.
Splendid: My husband just walked in here, and he plays the bass, too, and just wrote this thing on a card that says, "You hear the guitar, but you feel the bass."
Dave DeCastro: Well, that's true. He's right.
Splendid: And you played with Marty Willson-Piper, too?
Dave DeCastro: My god, I failed to mention the best thing.
Splendid: But this was solo stuff, not the Church.
Dave DeCastro: No. Marty has many solo records, which are great. I talked to him the day before yesterday. He put down this record called Hanging Out In Heaven. He got touch with Linda and me. We met him in London when we were doing a gig with Steve. And he was like, yeah, it would be great to get together. So we got back home, and he gave me this record. And it's one of my favorite albums. If you don't have this record, you have to get it, or I'll send it to you. It's called Hanging Out in Heaven and it's a great mix of Marty's Church-y rock with mellow acoustic...with the whole Church, atmospherics. But there's great rock songs. We recorded "13" the Big Star song with him, which came out great. It was a three-piece, because Marty didn't need another guitar player. He's the man. There's always talk of doing another record or gigs, but he's involved in the Church thing, which is still going.
 |
Splendid: I got a record of theirs a year and a half ago. I was just so surprised they were still going, because they were so huge when Starfish came out and then they disappeared. But they're still making really good music.
Dave DeCastro: Yeah, I think maybe once again their European and Australian audiences keep them going. They sell out Bowery Ballroom here, too, but it's not like they're going to get the radio play that they had back then. Like any other band, who's going to play the Church on the radio. They had WNEW and the major New York City station play back then.
Splendid: I've heard that they tried to use that "Under the Milky Way" song, in the Volkswagen ad that eventually got the Nick Drake song, but something happened.
Dave DeCastro: I wouldn't be surprised if that song turned up in a commercial. I saw another commercial with a Nick Drake song recently, "Mayfair Stranger".
Splendid: It's too bad he's dead. He's doing so well these days.
· · · · · · ·
· · · · · · ·
Jennifer Kelly's milkshake brings all of the boys and some of the girls to the yard.
[ graphics credits :: header/pulls - george zahora | photos - jen.knee :: credits graphics ]
| 
