USA TOUR 2013 COMPLETE

Post tour afterthoughts 2013 North America

First thing and foremost, right off the bat, Thanks to all the true USA/CANADA DB fans that came out to support us.  We will keep growing, experiment with new sounds/ ideas and keep living life with engagement, and evolve and progress. Thank you Austin, SF, SD and LA for your amazing mexican food and all 4 sold out shows in a row.  I got my fill of lengua and am a happy man now, was a pleasure to play for y'all.  Thank you NYC for coming out to support us when Ariel Pink and Suicide were playing on the same night.  Those were two names that I was compared to before, and I'm happy we have our own following to be able to pack in Bowery ballroom with such a crazy competition and that people think of us as a group thats evolving into our own terms, with our own identity.

Sometimes touring makes you feel like your doing the same shit over and over again and some people just shit on all your hard work, but its precisely times like this when a real genuine fan comes out and tells you how much they appreciate your work and evolution, and that they too, are evolving as individuals and listeners.  Our work then becomes the soundtrack of their lives, at least, for this part of their lives, until they move on.  But this particular period in time now, will be remembered forever.  As it did with my life in my early twenties with the music that soundtracked those years.  Those days will forever be embalmed in my memory.  To even think or know that we can be capable of achieving this for other people, is an honor.

Turning 33 was weird, but I'm ready to go back home to Berlin to digest this crazy year.  We are gonna take some time off this winter and record and realize some new ideas we have been DYING to work on, and to slow down and be human again, to buy groceries, cook for family and friends, to pay rent and taxes, and to not participate in the rat race in terms of music industry standards.  We are gonna go at our own pace, and slowly build brick by brick our own identity.  I don't want to hear Suicide comparisons anymore when I'm dropping piano instrumental EPs and Waterpark OST.  Need time to distance myself from BADLANDS and retrieve all the music and identity I had prior to that one album and bring the last 10 years of music I wrote full circle and grow.  I got lucky with writing an album(badlands) thats essentially an homage to my dad and all things I loved, conceptually, and musically, and copy and pasted a conceptual character study of songs that stole and borrowed heavily from the past and injected stories of my own personal struggle on the DIY scene and tour circuit.  All that dead end, doomsday mentality went into that Rockabilly character.  At most, to me personally it was a triumph, conceptually.  Musically, not so much... Nothing frustrates the creator more, when they will be forever typecast for ONE THING they did in their entire career.  Which is why the destruction of this character and image is very essential and vital to me and it took me past two years to figure my shit out and to build courage to come out and play as myself instead of hiding behind a character with a pompadour.    Theres a lot of new music coming for 2014, and I can't wait to release them and share them all with everyone.

Lastly, a salute to DB Co-captain Shub Roy, homies Carlo Dellamotta, Michael Farsky, Pierre Guerineau, Sherry Leblanc and Kevin for housing us in their lovely home in Austin, ELL V GORE, Chasms, Sisu for being true homies /tour buds.  Thank you Sandy, Nat, Cups, Javi, Brent (the best fucking driver I know) and Jules for letting us crash at their sweet home in LA, my lil sis Jess Labs in SF, so proud of you, Dean Hurley for helping me record a track over at David Lynch's studio, Uncle Mike Watt for taking me to Bukowski's grave in San Pedro, and everyone else that helped us overcome the hardships of this past year.  Truly, Thank you.   Viva La Familia.  Nothing else matters other than your family and friends.

"Keep your powder dry!" - Uncle Mike


Yours truly,

Pacific boy.
Montreal, Oct 2013