13 QUESTIONS WITH EDSEL DOPE OF DOPE

If you surf around the 'net and check out the hard rock websites, you know who Edsel Dope is. He's the frontman/mastermind of the band DOPE, who first gained recognition with their disc, Felons and Revolutionaries, and then hit the ground with a big wet slap when they released Life in 2001. After moving the band to Chicago, Edsel began carving out his own record label, and what has become Dope's latest effort, Group Therapy Edsel has a very specific vision for his band, and is known for ruling them with an iron fist. He also has a penchant for verbal abuse directed at his former bandmates while being interviewed (which helped somewhat when researching for this piece). I read about twenty interviews that Edsel had done with other sites, and TRIED desperately to come up with 13 questions he's never answered before. I think I came up with about four or five good ones. Maybe more. You be the judge. He was really mellow with this interview. Far more so than I've seen him with others. I should have asked him if he's on the Zoloft..

SteveC: Group Therapy sounds like a natural evolution for DOPE; you have a lot of the grit from Felons and Revolutionaries combined with the melody and hooks from Life. Given that you've rid yourself of major label opinion and scrutiny, how was the writing process for this disc different than the previous two efforts?

Edsel Dope: I have always written by myself in the past. On this record I really found a great writing partner in my guitarest Virus. He's the only guy I ever worked with that looks at songs the same way I do. We would break shit down and then build it up again for hours and hours trying to make the songs best they could be.

SC: DOPE's second disc, Life laid a turd commercially and you've said in past interviews that you weren't concerned with sales as long as it got out to the die-hard DOPE fans (even if it was downloaded). However, the music-business is like any other business; it's sustained by revenue. What's your next move if Group Therapy doesn't strike a nerve with the music-buying public?

ED: Ouch!!! I know a lot of bands that would have loved to sell the records we sold. However, I get your point. One thing people don’t get about the cash flow in this business is that artists really don’t make much money on record sales. Not unless you really hit it big. Most of the money that actually trickles down into our pocket is from touring. Really, That’s all anyone in this band wants out of this… Make records and tour the world playing Loud Dope Shows every night. That being said, you don’t have to sell millions of records to do that. You just have to connect with your audience and then continue to follow through for them on tour and in the studio. We are also taking a new path:
We've left the major label game and started our own. Its called Recon Records. We partnered up Recon with Danny Goldberg and Artimus Records. We are 100% in control. We are deciding our own content and setting our own prices.
Our new CD features an enhanced CD with full length videos for every song. You can pop our new CD in your computer and WATCH the entire album front to back. We could have never done something like this before...in the old world. We know how to give the kids way more for way less money.
13 songs, 13 videos, for 13 bucks. How's THAT?! (Actually, that's pretty fucking good when you think about it. And I DID know that artists don't make that much on record sales, but it's a good thing he said it anyway. However, what Edsel isn't mentioning is that when you DON'T sell CD's, your label people don't make any money, and they usually don't want to give you any cash to go out on the road and/or to promote your music.)

SC: You guys moved yourselves to Chicago to write and record Group Therapy... Which Chicago cuisines are you most fond of (deep-dish pizza, bratwurst, etc), and which ones send you sprinting to the nearest stall?

ED: I wish I was around someone in my band right now. They could tell you better than me. I lived in the studio and ate the same crappy Chinese food or McDonalds every day.

SC: Roughly around the same time that DOPE's first album was released, record companies began scooping up every nu-metal act they could find and promoting the hell out of them. How much life do you think this nu-metal beast has left in it, and where do you see hard rock/metal moving in the coming years?

ED: I have no idea!!!
If I did, I would know exactly what to sign to my new label.
I don’t want to be New Metal and I don’t think we are. Dope started turning away from that scene the minute we fealt like we were being lumped into it. That was the whole premise behind the Life record and songs like "Now or Never" or" What About" Our sound has grown way outside of that box in my opinion. Even more so on Group Therapy

SC: Former DOPE bandmates have gone on to what could be considered more profitable careers, or "greener pastures" (ie; STATIC-X and MURDERDOLLS. We're not going to mention PRIMER 55, well...because they're not around anymore and that doesn't qualify as a "greener pasture"). If you could move on to a more profitable career, or "greener pasture", what would it be?

ED: I don’t mean this with any disrespect, But, I would debate the higher profit value of the Murderdolls. A platinum act like Static X ,okay, it is definatly more financially profitable. But give me a little credit here.
When I decide to hang up fronting my band, I will always work in music. I’ve been doing a lot of music for video games lately. I’ve also had allot of fun doing X-Games themes and WWF stuff. I’m looking to produce other bands as soon as I have time. I want to write with other bands and work on other peoples shit instead of always working on my own. I would love to not bring my work home me 24 hours a day 7 days a week. But I still have a little more work to do from my current posision..

SC: You've enlisted the always-classy adult starlet Jasmin St. Claire (of course, by 'classy' we mean, "willing to rectally insert a butane torch and shoot ass fire"...we have the video...) to help out with the album cover and some audio with Group Therapy. How did you two hook up?

ED: Ya know, Boy meets girl, Girl fucks the whole football team. Wait a second, that’s a different story entirely. I met her a while back. I have always incorporated sex in some way with Dope's imagery. Our sound has that primal sexual groove to it and its important for me to see it as well as hear it. The skit on that CD you heard was just for a laugh. Its not part of the actual album though. I'm as serious as you can be about my band and our music, but we also have a sense of humor sometimes. (Sense of humor, eh? Alright. Well, if you really want to laugh, you should listen to Jasmin stumble her way through the tiny amounts of dialogue on the disc. I mean, you can picture her eyes moving left to right across a cue card as she's saying this stuff)

SC: Hypothetical situation: You're walking down a busy New York City street near the financial district one day, and a twenty-something year-old guy in a suit rolls up to you in his new BMW and says "Hey Edsel, I just downloaded the new DOPE disc. You guys ROCK!"... What's your reaction to this guy (someone who can obviously afford to buy a CD downloading the music you worked hard to create)?

ED: I would say thanks man, now gimme 13 bucks or I’m beating the shit out of you.
No just kidding. I don’t know. It depends on how the guy struck me. Its all in the delivery. (My money's on Edsel trouncing the guy for being a cheapskate)

SC: Track 7 of the Group Therapy sampler features some fairly authentic-sounding clips of Jasmin giving "Johnny Big Dick" a blow job. Are they in fact, authentic, and if not, what WAS she sucking on?

ED: Shes a pro (Now, does he mean "PRO" as in "PROfessional" or "PRO" as in "PROstitute"...Hmmm, well she does have sex for money... on video, of course. Oh man, we may never know the answer to this timeless question)

SC: Now that they haven't been in the band for a while, if you could write songs dedicated to Tripp Eisen, Acey Slade, and Preston Nash, what would the title(s) be?

ED: "Who Cares", "Who Cares" and um lets mix it up a bit, "I Don’t Care." (Someone let Tripp, Acey and Preston know he said that. Then when they fire back, let's see what his answer is)

SC: What cities/venues have you enjoyed playing the most, and what made them so enjoyable (ie; good crowd, cute groupies)?

ED: Chicago, House Of Blues. Detroit, Columbus, The most insane kids are in the mid west. I like the girls in the South the best

SC: OK, now what cities/venues were so utterly miserable that you would sooner have them demolished with a neutron bomb than play gigs there again?

ED: We played some burned down garage in Reno once. Our 808 sounded like a tennis ball bouncing off a wall.

SC: Hypothetical situation #2: You're approached by a private investor and HUGE Dope fan who wants to bankroll your next release. There's enough money to spend two years writing, recording, and when it's all done you can pay off all of the radio and television programmers you can find to get your music played. The only catch is this: In order to get the cash, you have to be the featured performer in a series of German fisting videos, and you WILL be billed as "Edsel Dope of DOPE". Do you take the cash (and the fists up the butt), or do you tell this guy to go screw?

ED: Dude, that is a fucked up funny fucking question. My answer:

I start my own record label..

SC: If another hard rock band surfaces with dreadlocked mohawks, army boots and ripped jeans, are you going pursue them legally or just take it as a form of flattery?

ED: What do you mean "if"?
Actually my jeans aren’t ripped man

SC: After all of the drug-dealing, infighting with other members, and other assorted trauma throughout the history of DOPE, which mistake(s) would you most like to rectify, and why?

ED: I would have made this my first album. (Really? I was kind of fishing for the "I wouldn't have sold drugs to further my musical career" answer, but that's OK. Plugging the new disc is just as good. Right?)

(Well, there you have it, kids. I really should have asked him if he was on the Zoloft. Edsel seemed a lot more mellow, and he was definitely able to hang with us for the duration. Although I WISH he would have gone a little more in-depth about Jasmin, but that's OK. That's why God gave us right hands and made lube!)

CLICK HERE FOR DOPE'S OFFICIAL SITE

CLICK HERE FOR GROUP THERAPY, DOPE's NEW DISC