Dustin Diamond is best known for his role as the nerdy, chess-playing character Screech Powers on \Saved by the Bell."" He has since moved on to stand up comedy, movies and professional wrestling. The Daily Cardinal recently talked with Diamond about his latest album , shedding the Screech image and his first kiss with a fan.
What would you tell those people who think this album is merely an attempt for you to shed that Screech image?
Well, I don't really have to tell them anything. They're not people that I would hang out with. I mean, people can be very narrow minded but that's the way of the world. I am shepherd, not a sheep; I am a leader not a follower. There is enough sheep out there and enough followers that I don't really need to explain myself and my method of the way I live my life and the things that I have to do between the things that I want to do. Regardless, whether I want to do it or have to do it, its my calling. It's just stuff that's part of me. I wouldn't do anything that I didn't dig.
Nothing I do in my life is to please anyone else. I don't look for approval from other people. They can bite me. What I do is for me and me alone and if me doing something causes someone to lose sleep at night, they've got issues. I don't need to worry about that. I'm not bitter towards anyone, there is no need to be. ... That may sound strong, but really what it is is its just, if someone says they don't like it, well, they don't like it.
Describe your band's genre of music.
There really is none. People have trouble placing us. They want to call us math-rock as if we're sitting around saying divide by six, add four, minus two-we've got a song! It just doesn't work that way. I play odd time because I naturally hear odd time. We don't do it to purposely create something in seven or something in six. It just happens that way and the type of music I play is the type of music I like to listen to. You know, there is no money in music unless you're at the top. The type of music we're doing is Mr. Bungle meets Frank Zappa-it's all odd time-so obviously we're not going to be the next *Nsync or the next Britney Spears-level band. However, there's going to be people out there who like the band and there's gonna be people out there that just don't get it and that's, I think, what makes it magic.
So let us in on the inside joke. Who or what is Salty the Pocketknife?
Salty the Pocketknife is just something that came out during a practice one day. We were figuring a name for the band and Evan and I couldn't decide on it. The way the band design is meant to be-Evan and I are the core of the project. We are the pulse behind it, you know, the bass and the drums-it makes sense. It's signified by odd time and we are the time signature of the band and so, the idea that music can get old very quickly if not handled right-I mean unless you're just diehard on the band and you're that rare, legendary chemistry status between the idea is to think of music as a book or as a story OK.
It's the same authors delivering you a different story so the idea is that every album and every tour and every project that Evan and I are on, we will incorporate different a guitar player and a different singer. So the color-we'll provide the canvas in the bass and drums and then the color will be added by the guitar and then finally the voice... Finally the singer adds the final variety, the final mix. And because the singer is in the forefront, we're really letting them tell a story and we're providing the canvas on which they're painting, keeping the recognizability of myself and Evan as the bass and drums. The core sound of the band will always remain the same. But that keeps it fresh and new and I think that's what makes Salty tick.
I think that's what makes us work. And I think to have the history of the name just came about in that we were going to call ourselves Salty so we were sitting there doing this first outing, Scott and Rose, our guitar player and singer for this project or this first album, Rose was singing ""Salty the Pocketknife"" as lyrics so we were cracking up. And we stopped during the song and Evan and I just started laughing and we said ""Its going to be Salty,"" Salty is me and Evan, and then Butchy said Salty the Pocketknife and then we cracked up. [Laughs.] So, this becomes Salty [pause] the Pocketknife.
You said this a reflection of you guys and you aren't trying to cater to any specific audience. Are you worried about record sales? Are you concerned with the numbers?
I think if you worry about record sales you are in music for the wrong reason. I mean, I understand all of the pushes and pulls. If you have no record sales that means no one digs your music, but that's not necessarily the truth. I think that people, out of curiosity, are going to check this out because of me. And they have an album with me in it. I think that once people hear the music and the novelty of ""Oh, he's in the band,"" is over, which should be done like the first song. I expect by the first song they'll go, ""Wow, he can actually play, this isn't a joke,""
By the second or third song, they're either going to turn the album off and say, ""I hate this. This is crap, I hate it,"" or they are going to say, 'This is amazing. I have to keep this album and tell people about it.' I think that's the magic lure of it. I don't like music that's wishy-washy, that's so timid and safe and passive that people can say, ""Oh yeah, I guess I could listen to that."" With this, you either love it or hate it. There really is no middle ground.
Do you have any typical child-star complaints or regrets? Do you think that your fame has hurt you or will help you with the new album?
I'm proud of all my work, I'm proud of what I've done. I mean, hey, I was on a sitcom that was the number one sitcom for kids all over the world and still is shown to this day 10-16 times a week in 106 countries. I think, in the success area, I have proven that I have what it takes to make an impact on the world. That was one outing ... other people see... It's kind of like the method of the crowd, the crowd thinks, ""Wow. Well he did that. That means this is either going to sink or swim .. .He's aiming for it to be just as big or its going to fail horribly.""
This album could do a thousand sales, it could do a hundred sales, it could do ten sales, it could do a million sales, it doesn't matter. The music is put out there because there are other people like me out there that look for interesting music to absorb and to play and to listen to and to be hipped to and I'm one of those people and I know there are others like me out there because I met my band members. I meet people all the time that are such interesting people and they have a love for this and just like some people liked the show, some people didn't, its the same with music. There's a lot of people out there who didn't like the show, but there's a lot of people that did. And there was enough people that did to make it a success and make my name a household word. Will that happen with music, who knows?
But I'm not doing the music for fame or fortune. I'm doing the music because it's in me, I have to do it. Because it's more than just a band-you've got your manager, your tour manager, your road manager, your marketing people. You've got your roadies, you've got your crew, you've got all these people that are really attached to the project because they dig it. They either like you or they like the music and it becomes an impactual thing in their life to where later in their life, they'll hear these songs or stumble across it when they have kids later on or whatever else, and say 20 or 30 years from now they play it back, they remember.
Was there ever a point in your 11-year run on ""Saved By the Bell"" when you just wanted to get out?
Oh yeah. You get sick of doing the same thing for so long. But then again, the series is your bread and butter. When you've got pay checks coming in and you're making good money and you know the job so well because you've been doing it for so long, why are you going to quit? Why are you going to walk away from that? It's that balance-if I walk away I may not get pigeon-holed then, but I may not ever work again or I may become huge. But for me, shoot, you may never get another chance at this so you've got a series and you've got a run, I don't want to end up like the chick on ""Star Trek"" that played Tasha Yan that left the show because she wanted to become bigger and better and have you ever seen her in anything else, ever? Nope. [Laughs.] She left ""Star Trek,"" which has a built-in fan base of hundreds of millions of people, mistake. I'm not worried it. Just because I played a character so long on a TV show, what are people going to bag on me for? ""You're a loser.""
""Why?""
""Because you were on a number one rated show for 10 years. What a loser.""
I mean, that's just stupid. With the people that I worked with and with my work and with the crew and with everyone that made it come together, I think we did a fairly decent job.
One thing I've always wanted to know, how did you manage to fit in those lockers or in that tiny filing cabinet in Belding's office?
Ahhh, that's your special effects crew. Yanking walls out from behind the scenes. The locker was a real locker. They just pulled the hooks out and sanded down the metal edges so it was soft and padded inside and widened. They took all the drawers and pulleys and things out so that it was just a shell for the filing cabinet. Its a funny optical illusion but it's just an illusion.
So was your first kiss on screen?
Ummm... No. My first kiss was off screen. I don't really remember my first kiss.
Oh no! That's terrible!
I mean I do, but it's not like a vivid memory. I know who it was with. I met a girl when I was 12, she was 15. She had written a fan letter to the show and then we went to Disneyland together and we ended up kissing on one of the rides. But there are so many other firsts that were way more memorable than that, that took precedence over that way more.
I'm sure you get recognized all the time. What's the craziest thing a fan has ever done for you?
Ummm ... Can't talk about it!
Oh, god.
I'm sure you'll see me wandering around. You'll probably run into me-I mean, I live in Milwaukee.
