Interviews

Gatsby's American D

Interview with Bobby Darling on Oct 28, 2005 by Archive Bot

Gatsbys American Dream make music that they want to hear. It comes from the very bottom of their hearts. Their songs aren’t always catchy, they don’t have choruses and no one screams or shouts about how the horrible things that girls do to them. There’s just something about this band, something that Punkbands.com’s Katie Ellsweig has been aching to figure out and was finally able to touch upon when she sat down with Guitarist, Bobby Darling in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Bobby spoke about his impenetrable appreciation for art, his drive, his motives and the music that touched his own life. This interview quickly turned into a journey into one man’s life and the struggles of creating music that matters.
 
Katie: In all my writing about this band, I’ve always said that there’s just something I can’t quite put my finger on. Something that’s there hiding in the music that you have to really listen to find. What is that “something?” What is it that makes Gatsbys American Dream so special?
 
Bobby:  I think that our motivation for making music is very clear to people. We’re not writing this stuff to sell records. I think that’s what stands out; we’re hoping to create art and have enough people enjoy it so that we can make a living doing it. We’re not making music as a means to make a living, but we hope that making a living will be a byproduct of our art. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. We’re not going to compromise and that’s why our songs sound the way we do.
 
 
Katie: Lets talk a little about the lyrics on Volcano, because it is your most recent album. “There’s teens cloaked in sheepskin/And we are the wolves at bay.” What are you trying to say here?
 
Bobby:  That song is all about our experiences as Gatsbys American Dream and dealing with record labels and the people that are basically calling the shots and how these people don’t love music and they’re not doing it for the right reasons.  The sheepskins are condoms, you know, and there are these bands whoring themselves out trying to make a buck and that’s just something that we strive against. We see music as art and art is something that you shouldn’t be perverting or ruining or selling because it’s the one good thing we have. I mean, we definitely want to sell records but we want people to buy them because it’s our art and we made it for them to hear not because it’s a product for someone to buy. I could go home and work at a fast food joint or work in retail and then I’m doing something to make money, whereas art is something we actually get to create and we’re not going to let that be ruined.
 
Katie: What is it that people are doing to “pervert” the music industry?
 
Bobby: I think that everybody knows that the music industry is just stupid.  There are people who do it for the right reasons but those people are few and far between, they’re the exception to the rule and not the norm. I don’t know every band; I just know that we’ve had a lot of doors shut in our faces over the years for making art that was different than what was popular. Those labels are looking for bands that sound like bands that are already big and then those bands get signed and things are a lot easier for them then these bands that are trailblazing and trying to do their own thing. But we’ve worked very hard and the labels we talked to were asking us to change our music and put choruses in our songs and do what they expected other bands to do. A lot of bands just play along and cater the product to the labels’ specifications because the label knows how to sell it. But it really is art to us.
 
Katie: Is it frustrating to you to have all these bands getting big so quickly because they go along with what they’re told and they’re getting all this recognition that maybe you deserve?
 
Bobby: It’s an uphill battle. I think that anybody in any walk of life that is an independent thinking person that isn’t all about conformity and wearing the right clothes and fitting in with the right clique at school being part of the right tax bracket feels that struggle. It’s easier in anything to just move with the herd. The people that go against the grain are going to have a bitch of a time, and that’s us. We’ve been a band for five years and we’ve put out five records and we’ve sort of created our own genre of music and carved out our own niche.  We’re proud of that and we’re going to have a legacy when we’re done because we’re fighting the good fight and standing up for what we believe in about life and about for the first time in our careers, I think it does.
 
Katie: Going back to Volcano, the album was a whole contains a lot of repeated metaphors, for example, fire, the devil, nature, smoke and ash. All of these tie into the title, “Volcano.” Can you explain some of these metaphors and how they represent the concept of the album?
 
Bobby: I wrote a song called “Theater.” It’s the first song on the record.  Those lyrics are what got me going towards using the volcano because it was a song where I was trying to tackle my own human nature and find out exactly what it is that I do. You know what I do? I take. That’s just what I am.. I consume and I get what I can get and a lot of time it comes with hurting other people and you know that’s not much different from anybody. We’re all here to get ours and consume and feed ourselves and make money and that’s just how we are. Discovery and exploration and all that stuff is not an interesting process all the time, it’s the rape and pillaging of the natural world and that’s just what we do.  It’s the same thing to other people and as a consequence of my human nature and my wants and desires, I hurt other people. We were really all thinking about human nature and what rotten people we are at the core and what atones for that. Like, if I’m this God awful and this terrible at heart, there’s got to be something that sets that right. The question we ask in a lot of the songs is the idea of salvation and the idea that there’s a way that we can be redeemed. My favorite stories and books and movies are the ones where the character fucks up and somehow by the end they’re able to redeem themselves.
 
Katie: Like the Great Gatsby.
 
Bobby: Exactly! The reason that so many people connect to that story is because it’s very human and very real and it could be anybody.  All these characters leave this wake of destruction in the things that they do and want and I’m an optimist so I believe that there’s got to be some redemption.  Volcano is a way of looking at ourselves and saying I am damned, but can I be saved? We’re in this horrible place but we can say that we’re getting on our knees and crawling back to where we belong. I may never get there, I may always be a crappy person but I’m going to do my best.
 
Katie: How do you measure success? What does it mean and where does it come in to play for the band right now?
 
Bobby: Success is being able to do what we want with our music. It’s not success if we’re not proud of it and happy about it. The whole goal all along was to make music that we like and challenge the norm and challenge people to think a little differently and hopefully be able to make a living doing it. The money though, it’s just a means to an end. We’re not doing this with money as a goal; the money is so that we can continue doing this.  How great would it be to hear bands like Gatsbys on the radio and see them on the TV and see that this is what music is about. I mean, not that I was alive in the 60’s or whenever but there were these bands back then that were gigantic that were just doing crazy shit. You’re not allowed to do that anymore.  These people are getting famous now because they look right, and what is right?  Right is just what the major labels say and what songs they think will do well in their market. Bands are making whoppers. We’re making a product to sell to people and they’re wrapping it up nice and pretty to sell to people. Music used to be so much more than that. It was a place where you could create art that people want to buy because it means something to them. It’s being turned into the mass production of shit.
 
Katie: Back on the In The Land Of Lost Monsters EP, you said “When we disappear, you’ll know why.”  How long do you think you’ll ride this band out for? And when it’s over, how should we remember you?
 
Bobby: I think a lot depends on how well our records sell. All of us want to get married and have kids some day and the band at this point is a serious impediment to that with being out on the road, being broke and being away from loved ones, fighting each other, nick farting in the van, and people losing their keys to the van. It all just adds up to some pretty bummed out dudes some times but I think we can all take comfort in each other and the people that our music actually means something to and that keeps us going. A common thing for us now is that people say thank you to us. They thank us for making this music and they know it’s real and that it’s not processed and packaged the way someone else wants it, it just is what it is.  That kind of response is running through us and it’s what keeps us going right now.  I don’t think we can end up doing this forever unless somehow some crazy label wants to get behind us. We are too fiercely stubborn and we are never going to back down and anybody that wants us to change can go fuck themselves. Are we going to be a band in 2006? Yes. Are we going to be a band in 2007? I don’t know, I hope so.
 
Katie: You’ve always made literary allusions in your music.  Do you feel like you gain a more intellectual audience or is it more just a way for you to convey your own personal love for literature or both?
 
Bobby: I write good amount of the lyrics, and for me personally, they’re an expression of where I’m coming from and I came from a pretty mixed up family growing up and books were a big escape for me. Those books that I was escaping into were a place where I could go to get away from my parents fighting and everything else that was going on and they just left a permanent mark on me. I mean, I read reviews and I know I shouldn’t, but I read them and people have said you know “they act like these brainy intellectuals but why are they quoting books like Lord of the Flies and my ninth grade reading list. My teenage years were some of the hardest times of my life and I felt so desperately alone and I turned to my books. They keep showing up in my lyrics and they always will. I didn’t turn to drugs, I turned to reading.
 
Katie: Are you still an avid reader?
 
Bobby: Oh yeah, all the time. Right now I’m reading this book by Michael Crichton, called State of Fear. I’m a big Crichton fan, his books are like popcorn; they read like movies but they’re also intellectually stimulating. He throws in quite a bit of factual information but he stretches it a little bit so it’s very plausible.
 
Katie: You mentioned that you read a lot of reviews and some of them I guess are not so nice.  How does it feel when some stranger rips apart your artwork?
 
Bobby: I don’t mind it at all. I like reading critiques, even when it’s biting. It’s refreshing and it stings and it’s kind of nice because most of your time out on the road, your band is being praised and it’s nice to hear from people that aren’t a fan of your band and have an objective view of your art and can sit there and say well I don’t like this, and this is why. Someone that’s already a fan is going to like whatever we do.  It’s nice to get a view point from someone that doesn’t know me or my music.  What I don’t like are reviewers that think they can read into us as people.  I don’t have any problem with negative criticism but some people are just stupid.  If it’s poorly written, I don’t care if it’s positive or negative, I don’t want to read what they have to say.
 
Katie: My last question is something I try to ask everyone…what is it about music that keeps you going?
 
Bobby: Music saved my life. No kidding. Elliot Smith is my favourite artist. There’s something about his songs that I absolutely connect to on the deepest level and I can really say that his music has been a friend to me. When he passed away, I was devastated and that’s just how much his music means to me.  Music really became my passion when I was a kid; it gave me drive and hope for the future.  It’s easy to come out of a bad situation feeling doomed thinking that because my parents were a certain way that I’m going to be like that too. Faith is a huge part of my life also but I started playing music before I discovered faith or anything like that and it was something I just dove into. It really gave me a framework that helped me survive and make it through.