TGSI : All your productions sound different from one to each other, so it’s quite difficult for us to definite your music, your sound...
Mick : That’s the point !
TGSI : What’s the direction ?
Mick : There’ s no direction, the Dirtbombs are an experimental band. There’s no destination ! Having a destination means a stagnation. And that the thing we don’t want. There’s no scene we’re a part of, we’re just a rock band !
Tom : If the history of music were a giant wall, we don’t want to be “christ” as to be slide on it .
TGSI : Have you got an idea about how will your next production sound ?
Mick : Oh yes the next Dirtbombs record ‘s gonna be a bubble gum record !
TGSI : Suppose tomorrow you’ll have to record only white singers / songs writers covers ?
All together : Ho no it never happens !
TGSI : Try to imagine tomorrow, next album of the Dirtbombs calls : “Ultraglide in white”. What will be the covers ?
Mick : It will be all country records !
Jim : Mick will be dressed as a nation of Islam, with a pitchfork, and horns comming on over his head.
Mick : (about the rest of the band) They’ re all white devils.
TGSI : Could you explain the choice of using 2 bass & 2 drums ?
Mick : I just wanted to hear what it sounded like. There’s no artistic descision behind this choice or something like that.
With Jim Diamonds about the Ghetto recorder studio.
TGSI : What about the history of the Ghetto recorder studio ? How did it start ?
Jim : I was living outside of Detroit, in Austin,Texas, and Lansing, Michigan, a small country town. And then I move back to Detroit in 1995. I was working in a studio, and I hated all the music I have to work for. It was prog. rock and all kind of horrible things. It make me very sad.
Mick : He would go home and cry.
Jim : Yes and now I live in a big space downtown which used to be a chickens killing factory, where they killed the chickens and...
Mick : un abbatoire ( en français )
Jim : And I had a 8 tracks tape machine & a little mixer. And I was friend with Tom from Bantam Roosters; I ‘ ve conviced him, I ‘ve said : “Tom please come on, record with me, don’t go to this other place in Memphis”.
TGSI : You did it for free ?
Jim : Yes I didn’t charge myself. So I did tha record, and then I met Mick, I started to work with him, I started to work with other bands slowly, very slowly. It just happen from that, five years ago I started.
TGSI : Is it also the place where you live ?
Jim : yeah, I live there too.
TGSI : Is it well known now in Detroit ?
Jim : yes, it’s getting more well known. When I go out in town, people say “oh we know your music, we know the things you do !” I go “really ?”
TGSI : Do you have to refuse bands sometime ?
Jim : yes there’ s bands I refuse because I don’t want to work with them.
TGSI : But do you refuse ‘cause you don’t have enough time left to work with some ?
Jim : Sometimes it’ s ‘cause I don’t have the time for, and sometimes it’s ‘cause I don’t want to work with them. ‘cause I don’t like their music and I don’t want my name on it, I don’t want to be assiociate with these bands.
TGSI : Could it even be rock’n’roll bands ?
Jim : Sometimes yes, but it’s just bad roc’n’roll, indie rock you know, crap !
TGSI : Tell us about the most amazing recording session .
Jim : Andre Williams, for “Silky” was pretty amazing. Kim Fowlley was pretty amazing too.
TGSI : Considaring all the good rock’n’roll bands actives in Detroit, we’re very surprise to only know one rock’n’roll label, which is Flying Bomb, in the motor city. How could you explain that ?
Mick : Because most people in Detroit don’t have enough money to put records out. There also a small records label call Italie Rds, and they’re even smaller than Flying Bomb. We just don’t have the money to do that sort of thing you know.
Tom : There’s no smaller records, there’s just smaller wallet.
TGSI : Jim when did you join the Dirtbombs ?
Jim : I recorded the first Dirtbombs records, “Horndog feast”, I didn’t play on it. And then the bass player moved away, & I said “I can play ! “ So that’s how I ...
Mick : Our original bass player, our current bass player at the time, left to take a very nice job and so Jim was available; He said : “ yeah ! I play, I know all the songs”
Jim : We were doing the Andre record, he say :” we need to get Greasy down here to play. This other guy Greasy Carlitsi, we need him to play on Pussy Stank ‘ cause he know how to play tha funky style bass.” I say : “I can do it !” and Mick say : “ oh really ?” .
TGSI : Did your musical carrer start with the Gories or did you do something else before ?
Mick : I was in 2 bands before the Gories, 2 bands (.........) actually beat/hit stuff.I was in a band called the U. Boat when I (......) I played organs on that band. And after the U. Boat, I was in a band call the Floor Tasters where I played drums. And after the Floor Tasters, I formed the Gories.I was around when the Gories were formed (.......).
TGSI : The Gories gave you the opportunities to come in Europe for the very first time on tour ?
Mick : Yes the Gories was the firts band that toured & also at the same time the Gories were recordind their first LP, I was also recording house music in Detroit .
TGSI : House music ?
Mick : House music, yes ! But it didn’t go anywhere, and people wanted to see the Gories, so I ‘d decided to put the techno music on holding & I did the Gories for a while. That all !
TGSI : So you’ve play with the Gories, Blacktop, King Sound Quartet, The Screw, The Dirtbombs now, what is your view about all this bands ?
Mick : You know they’ are just bands to me. There wasn’t any (.............)
TGSI : I mean there’ s maybe one you’re prouder than the others, or another one you want to forget ? What’s your best memory about all this bands ?
Mick : oh noooo... I’ m not gonna be into that. But the band I’m having the most fun with is the Dirtbombs, without questions. This is the first band I enjoy being on the road with. This is the first band (.......), there’s no stress on the studio, there’s no real problems where we’re on the road. This the most fun I ever had since I’ m a professional musician actually.
TGSI : We’ve been told that you also play some kind of experimental music, could you tell us more about that ?
Mick : What ? You mean the Dirtbombs ?
TGSI : No no we’re thinking, for exemple, about this 2 tracks we can hear on the “Sore Losers” original motion picture soundtrack. It’ s a kind of weird music ....
Mick : There’s another band I’m in, which is not really a rock band. I play in a perfomances art group call the “Allie Sanction”, it’s more than music I think. I don’t have any words to describe it. It’s just very experimental, it’s art completly “ad lib”. We only get together to have a recorder perform. We don’t have any “rehearsal”, everything that we do is completly made up on the spot. We don’t even have name for the songs (.............)
TGSI : Is this just music or is there’s some video / pictures ?
Mick : There’ s a lot & it ‘s very multimedia. we ‘ve done installation at different gallery, we’ve made recording, & we had little graphic things that we did (.........) and some other things. And I means I don’t really know how to describe it exept that it’ s very improvisational, and it’s also very “seed of the pants” as we say in america.
TGSI: What about the 2 tracks on the “Sore losers” soundtrack ?
Mick: No, it wasn’t me alone, there was a band, there was Nick Diablo, who is in “American Death Ray.
I believe just about everybody who plays on the “Sore losers” tracks with me is now in “American Death Ray”. I believe that’s the same band.
This is a music I don’t remember who was in it because I was in a car accident a week before and i hit my head and so there’s a period about 3 weeks I don’t remember very much.
Recording of these songs is part of that period of time.
TGSI: You produced the 1st “Demolition Doll Rods” with Jon Spencer ...
Mick: Yes I did.
TGSI: ... and many other bands (Cheater Slicks, Dirtys ...) who do you want to produce now ?
Mick: Anybody who’s ready to pay me to produce their record i’m ready to do it.
TGSI: Are you expensive ?
Mick: I don’t think I’m really expensive, no.
TGSI: Tell us about your relation wth Larry Hardy from In The Red Rds ?
Mick: For the most part we’re just friend. But for a couple hours each day I’m a recording artist and he’s the record label president. Yes, a couple hours a day once or twice per week, we got together and we actually talkbusiness ...
He wants to know what record it’s gonna be and we never know what’s going to happen
when we turn the tape machine on.
TGSI: He could trust you , now ...
Mick: He does now ! He didn’t before !
But always argue about things like cover ... We argue about the cover of “Horndog feast” quite a bit and we argue about the “ultraglide” cover even more ...
TGSI: He don’t like it ?
Mick: I can’t tell you that. My argument with Larry said that I can not state my feeling on The “Ultraglide” cover till the next album comes out ...