Sonya Sutherland / Schwegweb.com

Edsel Dope is a self-proclaimed asshole. His music is loud and in your face, he as a person is not. SO, before his show at the machine shop and before his excursion to the strip bars, Edsel sat down with us and answered a few questions concerning himself and what the hell happened to Dope.

Schwegweb: Why do you write music?
Edsel Dope: I don't know. No the truth is I write music because it's what I've always done. But right now I'm going to drink beer cuz I could care less. Its not that I don't want to talk to you, ill talk to you for an hour. I just don't know what to talk about I don't want to talk about rock and roll.

The last cd you did was Life what are you doing now?
We have a cd coming out this summer.

What is it called?
We don't know yet.

What's the sound like?
I don't know its Dope. It's loud. It's a bit more melodic a little smarter.

What kind of emotions do you bring into it?
A little less relationship feelings and a little more me against the world.

You know the songs "Die Motherfucker Die" and "Thanks for Nothing." Is the new album in line with that sound?
Virus: It's got some "Die Motherfucker Die" tunes on it. Which are our Dope specialties. Thanks for Nothing, that song is electronic so we go back to that on this album.

Do you get lost easily?
Yes, if I'm not concentrating. I'm actually not an idiot unless I'm not concentrating, then I'm an idiot because I smoke a lot of pot but usually I concentrate so

How do you like playing the machine shop?
I wish the stage was a little bigger. I wish it was all ages. I really hate that kids cant get in here. Most of our fans are kids. Its more like a bar show as opposed to a really crazy rock show. I just like all ages, I like the kids fucking bouncing off the walls.

Do you only like hard rock?
No I like everything.

Five cds from the eighties for the future?
Rebel yell from Billy Idol, the first Jane's Addiction Nothing Shocking, Shout Out The Devil. Duran Duran. NO kill Billy Idol for Prince.

Are you doing on any tours this summer?
We are going to do the Jagermister tour coming up.

You said record labels were a necessary evil, what makes it necessary what makes it evil.
Its not just money, its distribution.

What about the internet?
The internet is good if you are trying to get noticed. But if you have already been noticed and you are trying to supply your fans with your new music and you don't want to do it for absolutely free. Like to support at least your band while doing it. The internet is the internet but you need records in stores. I like the idea of buying a record and having a piece of art work with it. And I like records. I like being able to take my DVDs and line them up and look at them. Or my cds.

Are you visually artistic as well?
I don't know kind of I guess. I mean you can look at my band and figure out that we are somewhat visually artistic.

I don't know, there is a difference. Some bands may look really cool, but it doesn't come from them. It's a manipulation. They are imitating a look and it is successful so they keep imitating it.
I'm definitely different than that. I feel very imitated actually in the modern day we live musically there are a lot of bands since my band came along that sound like us and look like us.