After releasing two albums and giving us this decade's best dance-punk-New Wave mash-up—""Danger! High Voltage""—years before those kinds of songs became trendy, Electric Six are back with their stellar new album, Switzerland. Dick Valentine spoke with The Daily Cardinal recently in anticipation of the Electric Six's show tonight at the Annex.
The Daily Cardinal: You guys have a very unique sound. What are your influences?
Dick Valentine: Well, I suppose I grew up listening to a lot of the Talking Heads and Devo and Wall of Voodoo and Wire and anything kind of nervous and spastic and New Wave-y; anything from the '70s and '80s.
DC: Who do you listen to today?
DV: Nickelback.
DC: Nickelback?
DV: Nothing but Nickelback. That's all there is. That's all the radio gives us.
DC: Do you have any feelings about that?
DV: Well, I don't even listen to the radio that much, nor do I listen to Nickelback. I don't really know about bands anymore. I was in a car today and apparently the Killers have a new CD. That was news to me.
DC: How important is it for you guys to maintain a unique sound as opposed to simply being entertaining?
DV: It's very important because once we lose that we've got nothing. We've got nothing left at that point. Then we'll pack it up and go back to whatever it was we've been doing before.
DC: Do you guys think highly of the sound you've created?
DV: I don't know that it's really that tremendously different from anything else. I don't know that we sound that much different from other bands. I just think other bands don't really drink from the same fountains we do, or the same wells. I don't know that I'd compare ourselves to other bands. I don't listen to a lot of other bands. I don't know where anyone else is at besides myself.
DC: The lineup of your band has changed pretty significantly since when you first started out. You want to talk about that?
DV: We were a local band in Detroit for five years and I think that previous lineup got used to doing things that way. We were playing one show a month and not really hanging out too much together. Then, when we got a record deal we were forced to play six shows a week and go all over the world. We kind of realized at that time that we didn't really like each other, and people kind of took themselves out of the equation one by one.
DC: How hard was it to find guys who were serious about being the Electric Six?
DV: Not hard at all. We basically targeted who we wanted and made the phone calls and they all said yes within 10 seconds.
DC: In terms of touring, how hard is it for you guys to maintain the same level of energy at every show?
DV: It's not hard when you realize the stakes involved and also when there's a certain amount of trucker speed.
DC: Do you think that if you cease to be entertaining on stage, you're done?
DV: I do. I think that's our bread and butter, our live show. That's why we bring it every damn night. Never phone it in. Never phone it in.
DC: Do you guys still wear the leisure suits?
DV: Yeah, but we're venturing into more of a... I've got more of a leisure suit/cowboy thing going on now. It's because I've earned a lot of money and now I'm starting to lose my mind.
DC: That's why you're going for the cowboy look?
DV: Yeah, once you earn a certain amount of money and begin to become addicted to pills, a lot of entertainers believe that they're cowboys or start to believe that they're doing something. In my case, I'm starting to believe I'm a cowboy. Once you earn a certain amount of money and start taking enough pills, you can believe whatever you want to believe.
DC: That's a fair answer. Why should people come see the Electric Six?
DV: It's at the Annex, right? Well, I think the Annex has the best Bloody Marys of any place in America, to tell you the truth. I really look forward to it. It's a long drive for us from Kansas City, but there's a big smile on everyone's faces when they know that at the end of the night it's Bloody Mary time.
