Bonus Q&A for Dramarama's new album 'Color TV'

photo by Amy Martin, courtesy of Pasadena Records

Here are more excerpts from my interviews with founding Dramarama members John Easdale and Mark Englert that didn't make it into my main feature (see elsewhere on this blog)...

Question: How have you been managing everything during this pandemic?
John Easdale: I’ve actually had to learn how to use my computer in ways [I hadn’t before]. I was pretty much forced to learn some stuff that I’ve avoided learning [like] video conferencing and doing stuff with the camera. I’ve just never been one to do those sorts of things.

Q: Are you anxious for concerts to eventually start up again after COVID-19 is more under control?
JE: Yeah. Over the last few years, we’ve gone wherever we could go. Wherever people invited us. We’ll see what happens. We had stuff scheduled over the summer and it’s all cancelled. We’ll go anywhere they invite us. We’ve done the '80s shows in a lot of cities where Dramarama was really unknown. It’s a way for us to introduce the band to new audiences. We’ll go anywhere. Have guitars, will travel.

Q: I enjoyed the band's recent quarantine performance and thought it turned out well. Maybe you can do more of those in the future to tide the fans over.

JE: We’re working on a few more of those. We’ll see what happens. It’s weird what’s going on. It’s a very strange time to put a record out. In a way, we’ve been very fortunate in that people are listening, writing about it and putting stuff up online and saying nice things.

Q: I was pleased to see the classic Dramarama logo back on the new album "Color TV." What prompted that decision?

JE: It’s just something that has become 'a thing.' It was on our first couple albums. It’s something that’s uniquely ours.

Q: After appearing on VH1’s "Bands Reunited" in January 2004 (which was recorded in August 2003) with the original lineup of you, Mark "Mr. E. Boy" Englert, Peter Wood, Chris Carter and Jesse Farbman, you went back to using the Dramarama name. Then Pete became a regular presence in the band again. Would you say that program was instrumental in giving the band a second life?

JE: Oh, big time! Absolutely. Dramarama, for all intents and purposes was over and done with before that. We went onto play KROQ's Inland Invasion 3 [alongside The Cure, Duran Duran, Echo & the Bunnymen and others at Hyundai Pavilion in Devore, California]. We thought that was going to be a one-off thing. We weren’t planning on making a comeback or whatever. We were doing that one show, one and done, and get back to our lives.

But that [concert], more than the TV experience I think, made us realize that there was still an audience out there for Dramarama, that wanted to see and hear us. That name and legacy lived on. Obviously it always meant something to us and we were delighted and thrilled to be asked to be part of that television show.

Quite frankly, in the big picture, we never had any top 40 hits, we were never on the Billboard [Hot 100 or mainstream] charts. Because of the nature of modern rock commercial radio in the '80s, there were only a handful of stations around the country that played that kind of music before Pearl Jam and Nirvana came along and alternative radio took off.

We were very limited and regional. In L.A., we could play concerts and fill nightclubs and theaters, but it wasn’t necessarily the case all over the country. In parts of the country, we were virtually unknown. After 'Bands Reunited,' there was a thread on the internet that said, ‘Who is this band? I’ve never heard of them. I think they’re a fake band. I know everything about the ‘80s and I’ve never heard of these guys.’

Q: You’re a regular presence at charity shows for the Light of Day Foundation (Parkinson's Disease) in New Jersey and the Wild Honey Foundation (Autism) in Los Angeles. What has it been like to play alongside superstars like Bruce Springsteen or more recently, the Lovin Spoonful?

JE: I’m a music fan first and foremost. I grew up loving the Lovin' Spoonful. You name it, there have been guys at those Wild Honey shows like Micky Dolenz I met and shared the stage with him. That’s rock royalty as far as I'm concerned.

Q: Do you ever pinch yourself about performing at those concerts?

JE: A little bit. You try to be cool and everything, but inside, I’m like, ‘It’s Micky!’ To have John Sebastian playing harmonica with me the last time was mind blowing. The child that listened to records in his bedroom still geeks out about that.

Q: You've done some tracks with the Reckless Drifters, which is in the Americana realm. I read recently in another interview that you did where you talked about listening to a lot of old country music. What kind of stuff?

JE: 1950s, '40s and some '60s. But by then, it started getting a little slick. I still like Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Buck Owens, but even some of the slick Nashville sound - Tammy Wynette and stuff, I like that. George Jones. I've been going back and enjoying finding out where this all came from.

Q: Did you see Ken Burns' excellent "Country Music" documentary last year on PBS

JE: I thought it was great. There’s no way you can give everybody that deserves it full attention and you have to touch base here and there. Johnny Cash was a theme that went through it all with the Carter Family, so there was a lot more Johnny Cash, than say Merle or Buck. He really did a good job at trying to touch on everything. There were a couple artists that I had no idea who they were.

Q: Mark, how does it feel it have a new band album out now after 15 years?

Mark Englert: Many times, I thought nothing was going to happen. Ultimately, when the record came out during the pandemic, I felt like it needed to be out at [this] time...I think it’s amazing just to have a record out, period. Especially one that you did at Village Recorders. Another miracle in itself there.

Q: While making the album, did you use any vintage equipment?

ME: Nah, I used my stuff. I wanted that crappy element to my guitar. I like the junkiness of my equipment. Actually, I knew it was such an amazing place to record that whenever the band said, ‘We’re ready to record,’ I was [right] down there.

Q: Did the studio versions of songs like "It’s Only Money" and "Swamp Song" change dramatically from the live versions you’d been playing so long?

ME: To me, 'It's Only Money' was a little more radically changed. That’s because Peter and I work as a team. He had some ideas he wanted to throw out there. I might have borrowed an idea or two from other guitar players over the years in terms of playing. Sometimes you’re not even aware you borrowed something...'It's Only Money' was more of a cut and paste deal. 'Swamp Song' was lot more live to me. The solo was the same as the demo but it wasn’t double and triple octaves.