Diarrhea Planet might seem like a jokey name for a band, and that’s because it is. While the band is not shy about liking a good laugh and a good riff, they’re one of the more dedicated and hard working bands you’ll find in the scene today. Not only known to put on a fantastic live show, the band is slowly building a large dedicated following with it. This Nashville group is no stranger to playing Richmond, and will once again showcase their own brand of melodic rock (featuring four guitars) this Friday at Strange Matter.
Diarrhea Planet might seem like a jokey name for a band, and that’s because it is. While the band is not shy about liking a good laugh and a good riff, they’re one of the more dedicated and hard working bands you’ll find in the scene today. Not only known to put on a fantastic live show, the band is slowly building a large dedicated following with it. This Nashville group is no stranger to playing Richmond, and will once again showcase their own brand of melodic rock (featuring four guitars) this Friday at Strange Matter. Singer/guitarist Jordan Smith was nice enough to talk to RVAmag. We discussed what life on the road can be, when signing to a major label makes sense, ghosts with boners, and Avril Lavigne’s Japanese influences.
What’s a typical day for you guys when you have a day off?
It just depends on where we’re at. If we’re in Nashville, like at home, a lot of times we do things during the day and our friends have to work or school or something. For me a typical day off is spent doing a little songwriting, taking care of day-to-day stuff with the band, or we kind of go out with all of our friends. Like, hang out on porches, go to parties, go to Broadway or something, go to the honky-tonk bars there, go do karaoke stuff. We rehearse a lot and work on new songs and stuff.
If we’re on the road, it depends on how far we are [from the next show]. If we’re close, we’ll just hang out at a hotel for most of the day and relax. If there’ s a place with a lot of cool nature or a cool park, we might go do that. It just depends where we at. Like if there’s something of interest we want to go see, we’ll go do that. A lot of our time off is spent killing time, if that makes sense.
Is that how you would describe being in a rock band in the present day?
Yeah. I always kind of joke about it; being a professional time-killer, because you spend a lot of time waiting to play a gig or whatever. If we’re off or at home, we write a lot, but outside of that, you just kind of do whatever you want to do all the time. You’ve kind of got to figure out what [you’re] going to do with all of this time.
Is it sort of like a free pass, since tomorrow you’ll be somewhere else?
It’s a life pass.
Do you guys try to follow a traditional path as a band? How do you approach being a band with your business decisions, music decisions, etc?
Well you know, the model seems like it’s changing, like the last couple of years especially. The pattern seems to be a lot of bands will work with a smaller indie that gives them a lot more freedom, and it seems like a lot more bands are staying with those small indies a little bit longer than they used to. A lot of bands are staying with an indie and then [moving] upstream to a major eventually. But in that regard, we’re a little bit different than a lot of bands in how we deal with contractual things. We try to license music and not sign masters away.
Now, a lot of bands will essentially do a licensing deal where the label will own the rights to the record, and can press the record with unlimited quantities for a certain number of years until the rights revert back to the band and the label has to choose [whether] to license the record further or what. I know our stuff is a little non-traditional in that regard, but at the same time it’s what a lot of bands are moving toward; trying to get a lot of licensing things and publishing deal type things where movies and television are getting songs. It’s probably not the most unorthodox approach that we take to business stuff, but it’s definitely a newer model than a lot of younger bands are starting to follow. It’s so many bands with an oversaturated market that your main concern is making sure you don’t get shelved or put on the backburner somewhere, where your career kind of gets taken out from under you and you’re tied up in a bunch of legal red tape and unable to continue playing and put out records. That’s the main thing we’re trying to not have happen. That’s what happens to so many great bands.
Yeah, you hear so many horror stories about bands signing to major labels. How do you feel about signing to major labels? Do you think it’s even worth it?
It really depends on where you’re at in your career. I think it’s definitely worth signing to a major, [if] you’ve been a band that’s been around for a decent amount of time and have a good following, and will have enough momentum to cause the majors to want to work for you to keep that momentum moving forward. Whereas [you might not want to] if you’re a very young band, just moving up, and you haven’t built up a following or a fan base to really establish yourself and your identity.
A major label is a lot different than a small indie, in ways you don’t think about. Like, there’s a lot more pressure to perform at a much higher level, to write, and you’ve got to have your stuff together. There is less time. So it’s important for a band to know where they’re at in their career before they make a decision to jump into something big.
It’s also a romantic proposition to get your band on something like Capitol Records…
Yeah. Totally, it’s a really exciting thing to be on a major or a huge famous label or something, like when you’re a band that’s willing to push hard and to work hard.
How many times have you guys played Richmond?
To be honest, I couldn’t tell you. I would have to guess like five to eight times, really. Yeah, I think last year, we played there at least three to four times. We played at Strange Matter a bunch of times. It’s a really nice venue to play, great food, and the staff is really cool. The promoter we work with is a really great guy, and the staff is really fun to hang out with too. You play a bar enough times, you get to know everyone, and [they] become really good friends you enjoy hanging out with.
The arcade isn’t bad either.
Oh yeah, the arcade is pretty cool!
Do you have any particular memories of playing Richmond?
For me, I really enjoyed when we played there with Titus [Andronicus] a few years ago. That was a lot of fun. We’re friends with that band Hot Dolphin. They’re usually on our bill at some point in the show, so it’s always fun hanging out with them. I can’t think of anything off the top of my head, but one of my favorite sandwiches in the United States is at [Strange Matter]. They took if off the menu. They’ll still make it, but it won’t have that one ingredient.
What is it?
I can’t remember what it used to be called but it had a pretzel roll. I think it had turkey, gouda, apples, a mango puree stuff on it, with some kind of honey mustard type sauce.
I think I’ve had that…
Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s a pretty common sandwich but they do a really good version of it there.
I actually caught you on that Titus Andronicus tour and you guys were really tight. How important is the live show to the band?
Well, I think if you’re wanting to go the route of a smaller label and establishing a fan base and going with it that way, I think it’s really important. The live show will always be important because if you’re a really bad band and you get a great deal, and people actually buy your record and they end up seeing you down the road, they’ll see your band for what it really is, you know?
I think the live show is very important because it pushes the band to continue growing and being able to execute songs the best way possible. You write a song and you think it’s great, but you don’t know until you play it live and see how it translates with a live crowd. There’s a lot of things that seem like a great idea when you’re in a practice space, but when you play it live, you go, “You know that really doesn’t work as good as I thought it did…”
Do you think it’s important to play the songs a few times live before you actually record them?
Totally! I totally think so. You can play a song in the practice space all you want, but when you go into the studio, especially if you are going into a high-end studio where it’s extremely clean tracking, you want the band to be very, very tight. So when you play live, you have this pressure to play and get used to having this adrenaline pumping through you. It’s a lot different than playing it your practice space. So you get used to having all of this pressure. [When] you go into the studio, you have this pressure to get it right when you’re in there. I feel like it might ease any kind of anxiety you might have because you’ve played the song a million times. You know where it’s going, the band knows how it should sound, you know what kind of tones you need to dial in and how to deliver it. I’m a big, firm believer you should learn to play songs live before you play them in the studio.
You guys recently re-released the Aloha and Yama-Uba EPs. Could you tell me a little about those, and what is different about the reissued versions?
Yeah, the artwork is different. Both records have new artwork, because they’ve been sold out for a couple of years. They’ve been available only for digital download. It’s not super-different, just different artwork and different vinyl color on the pressing.
Aloha is the EP that contains “Ghost With A Boner,” what I would call the fan favorite…
Oh yeah. Definitely, unfortunately [laughs].
Why do you think that song resonates so much?
I don’t know. I really don’t. The songs that you spend the least amount of time writing always seem to be the ones that people like the most, and the songs you’re most proud of, well… Occasionally, you get a fan that will come up to you and say “I love this song. That’s my favorite song,” and it’s like, “Thank you! I worked really hard on that.” But the general rule that any songwriter will know is that the stupidest work you’ll ever put out always seems to be the work that will be the biggest hit. So I’ve been asking myself for years why people love that song so much and I still have no idea. It’s just fun and really simple, anyone can play it, and they say the sign of a great song is that anyone can hear it and say “I can write that.” If that’s the case, then that’s definitely a song that anybody could have written.
I think it’s something that everyone can get behind. It’s unifying.
Yeah, totally.
I just saw the music video for “Babyhead” and it’s pretty scary…
[Laughs]
How did you guys make that video and what was the idea behind it, exactly?
Well, we got an email from Robin [Corinsar], who directed the video. He lives in New York. [He] was like, “Hey, I’ve got an idea for one of your vidoes, I’d love to make a music video for you. Here’s some links.” We checked out his videos and had a date in New York where we had a day off. So we showed up and he had put together this montage of clips of his childhood videos from his family’s personal video archive. Basically, we just went through and picked out the scene where each person’s head [would] be, and went in with a green screen, where we would wear green clothes covering everything but our head. So we would look at the screen and match our movement to whatever was going on in the other video, [then] edited it all together. It was an easy video to make. He had everything laid out, very easy to work with on our end of things, and it was a piece of cake.
It reminded me of something akin to Tim and Eric…
Yeah, totally. I like that. That’s a compliment.
…except not as unsettling I suppose.
Yeah, nothing like men lactating in it. [laughs]
I really like your album I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams. Has there been talk of following it up yet?
Yeah, yeah. We’re in the studio right now working on an EP that we’re trying to have out by this year. And then we’re hopefully going back into the studio to work on LP 3, probably around December or January next year. So hopefully we’ll have it recorded by the end of this year or early next year, to have out by spring of 2015.
Same label and everything?
Not sure yet, we’re in the process of talking to a new label and figuring out the process of what we’re going to do in the future right now. Either way it will be a definite step up in recording in a high-end, really nice studio. Just working things out right now and seeing how the next three years will look.
I can’t wait.
Me either, I’m itching to start working on the new record. It’s such a fun process.
Do you think it will be in the vein of your past work, or an expansion?
In a sense it will be. With four guitars, it will always have a big guitar sound. For us, there will be a lot more refinement and making the songs more cohesive. More of an emphasis on writing really great songs, moving away from the lo-fi camp and moving into the higher production.
It’s pretty much going to be the Kid A for you guys?
Yeah! [laughs]
Have you seen the new Avril Lavigne music video for “Hello Kitty”?
No I haven’t. I didn’t even know she had one.
You should definitely check it out. They had to remove it from online because it was so racist… I guess? [Not true! It’s still on Vevo and you can watch it right now!]
Whoa…
It’s not like hardcore racist, but she’s basically running around Japan and… it’s troubling. I’ll just say that.
Does she do any kind of Japanese kind of riffs in it?
Not really, but it’s all supposed to be for her Japanese market. It’s bizarre to say the least.
That’s interesting because it made me think of the last Phoenix album that came out, and it had a lot of Asian-y scales and stuff. I love that band but I thought it was such a strange choice. It reminded me a lot of the records that came out in the 80s.
Like “I’m Turning Japanese”?
Yeah!
Well, we kind of look back on that and say it’s pretty racist, but it’s like good natured racism [??????-ed], so…
Yeah I don’t know what to make of it. I really like Asian music and how Asian scales sound. but it’s really strange when bands start playing these Asian codas…
Thinking about that Phoenix record, I was really confused as to where it came from and how I didn’t see it as them co-opting a culture. I really didn’t know what to make of it.
Yeah, I wondered, “Where did this come from?” You know what I mean? I’m interested in how they thought of it, because I’m a huge fan of that band, I think they’re brilliant pop geniuses. Wolfgang Amadeus was a perfect pop record, and Bankrupt was cool too. I definitely wondered if there would be a wave of bands making weird 80s new-wave Japanese-y sounding things. But I will have to look up that Avril Lavigne video.
—-
Diarrhea Planet will perform at Strange Matter on Friday, May 30, along with Heavy Midgets, Teen Death, and Oxidants. Doors open at 9 PM, admission is $8. Tickets can be purchased here: http://diarrheaplanet.eventbrite.com/ For more info, click here.
