Upon the release of IS IT UNWISE, Suzi decided to interview herself for the hell of it. It actually turned out pretty good, so I decided to use it. Here is the transcript of this Interview.
Interview with Suzi Dimock (recording artist/songwriter with TOO TALL TOM) by Suzi Dimock
Q: You are married to musician Too Tall Tom?
A: Yes, for 28 years now, and together for 33. Hard to believe.
Q. Where did you meet him?
A: At a party I helped throw, and then again at the Brighton Bar in Long Branch, New Jersey. I was going out with his keyboard player at the time.
Q: So he wasn’t your first musician boyfriend?
A: Not by any means. I’ve always known musicians.
Q: And I understand you’ve been a music critic and also wrote articles about music for several papers and underground ‘Zines?
A: Yes, and hung out with other music press people. Although I can’t play a single instrument with any level of competence, I’ve always been part of the music business in one way or another. I managed a recording studio for several years and worked in a rehearsal studio for several more and have met and hung out with all sorts of people including actual rock stars, but even so, they’re just normal people to me. Or as normal as musicians can be. (laughs)
Q: Okay, about the new album you and Too Tall Tom just released, IS IT UNWISE?. It’s album number twelve, right?
A: Yes, twelve, but the first two I had nothing to do with, and the third I only offered suggestions and the fourth I actually wrote some of the music parts for. By the fifth album it was obvious both Tom and I had to start singing, because we’d moved to North Carolina and didn’t know any singers and we were writing all this music with lyrics, so that album - Steel Cowboys - was the genesis of our vocal careers. So to speak.
Q: You don’t seem to stick to any one genre on your cds. Why is that?
A: Sticking to one genre bores me. It bores Tom. It probably bores most people. I remember when FM radio played all sorts of stuff. There might be a King Crimson song followed by an Elvis Presley song followed by a Perry Como song followed by a Stones song. Stuff like that opened people’s minds and made music interesting. Now there are a million radio stations and digital music stations, most of which are geared towards a single genre and you never get to hear all the other stuff out there that you might just like if you were exposed to it. Take Blues, for instance. Not a lot of innovation or difference in Blues. Once in a great while you might hear something that is slightly different and it will grab your attention. But for the most part, it’s all interchangeable.
Q. You don’t like Blues?
A. Not a steady diet of Blues, no. Mix it up with some Rock and some Jazz and maybe some Pop or Hip Hop and then I like Blues just fine, but a diet consisting of any one kind of food to the exclusion of others is boring, be it Blues or all Rock, or all Jazz or whatever. As far as Blues is concerned, I like Mississippi Blues the best.
Q. What’s your music background?
A: I grew up listening to my grandfather’s favorites - old black spirituals and also opera. He would sing opera. Caruso. Stuff like that. He would play opera records - Mario Lanza and the like. And he liked classical, and I was allowed to use his record player to play his classical records and 78 RPM recordings of black spirituals. My parents were into show tunes. My older sisters listened to stuff like Johnny Ray’s “Cry” and songs like “How Much Is That Doggy In The Window.” I was nine when I first heard Bill Haley and the Comets, and then of course there came Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. My parents wouldn’t let me listen to Little Richard (They called it ‘Nigger music”) or Chuck Berry, but I did anyway. I grew up on black music. Why was it now so evil? I didn’t get it then and I still don’t. I loved stuff like “Old Black Joe” and “Old Man River.” I loved “Good Golly Miss Molly” and all those Little Richard songs. Show tunes? Porgy and Bess is my favorite.
Q: So your background was just as eclectic as your own music?
A: Yeah. I guess that has something to do with why I like being different when it comes to songwriting. Tom, too. He also had varied influences, although when I met him he was stuck in the Southern Rock/Blues slide guitar rut. Thank God he got into a few oldies bands and some R & B and Funk bands. And of course I influenced him with all the weird shit I was listening to, like Patsy Cline, Miles Davis, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Nirvana and Tool and Ripping Corpse and Grand Funk and Seether and on and on. So it’s likely that Tom will write a funk tune one day and a jazzy tune the next and a Blues tune the following day and a weird, cross-genre tune the next. He’s broken out of the box and the stuff he does on guitar is NEVER boring.
Q. How do you feel about the state of music today, in general?
A. As long as music retains creativity and musicians and songwriters keep inventing, it’s great. Stagnating and falling into well-worn ruts is a trap that 99% of musicians fall into and they use excuses such as, “It’s what sells,” or “It’s what people want to hear.” The way I see it, someone is making new and creative stuff or else music would just cease to grow and rock music in general would die. I fear that’s what’s happening in a way, because it’s so much easier to copy than to invent. Less risk, too. Rock used to be all about taking risks.
Q: What do you think of rap, or Hip Hop?
A. Some of it I like, but the ghetto gangsta bullshit is played out. They just keep recycling the same ideas, the same beats, the same samples, the same bullshit words and it’s now a lot less less biting social commentary, and a lot more commercial pap done by losers with stars in their eyes and flash in the pan money in their pockets. It happens in all genres. Star today, gone tomorrow, and the only way to stay on top seems to be tied to how outrageous you act or look, and even that is old hat. And a lot of it is less about musician - if you can call them that - and more about producer. But, the Hip Hop artists who have artistic credibility are the ones who are most musically creative and not afraid to try new stuff or to change direction now and then. They’re less reliant on production and more reliant on their own talent.
Q: And the music business in general?
A: It sucks. Music is corporate business now. Corporations decide the who, what, where, when, how and why. If you don’t mind sucking corporate dick and being dictated to by some no talent businessman with the bottom line being most important, then it may seem like the way to go, but it’s no longer a comfortable fit for the true artist, or for people with something of value to say, because that isn’t gonna bring in the bucks for the powers that be. A lot of stupid musicians think when they get that advance, they’re getting rewarded for their talent, but they neglect to realize that every penny must be repaid before the recording artist or touring band makes a cent. All of it, from recording studio to tour per diem, must be repaid. There are no gifts. You are a product designed to make the record company money, and any semblance of art can go fuck itself until or unless it brings in the big bucks. Maybe after two or three money-making albums under your belt they might allow you to vary from the formula, but not always, and therein comes the rut. The company expects a certain product, the fans expect it, and after awhile you cease to know anything outside of that box. You know why the Beatles are still so huge? Because they broke out of the box and weren’t afraid to do stuff they heard in their heads. But, the industry was different back then. In the sixties music and the world in general was going through a revolutionary, transformational era, but the minute those corporate CEOs got a taste of super wealth, creativity went to hell in a hand basket, save for a few still innovative bands. Generally, if you want to hear really great music, don’t look for it in record stores or on corporate radio, look for it online, look for it in indie bands, look for it in future CBGBs type hole-in-the-wall clubs, but not on radio. Even college radio is rapidly going corporate.
Q: So, with all that negativity, why do you even bother to make music?
A: Because we can and because we have the luxury of having the equipment and Tom’s recording expertise, and mostly because we can do what we want without having to please anyone but ourselves. We can write deep songs, or silly tunes, or do an instrumental, or whatever. We can do all the instruments and vocals ourselves or bring people in if need be. It’s nice when people like our stuff, but mostly it’s fun to write, record, and produce new stuff, whatever the genre, whatever the situation, whatever the subject matter, and regardless of what other people think. And it’s always interesting to hear what people like and what they don’t like. People you think would hate a song wind up loving it and the songs you would think they would love turn out to be so-so to them. It’s one big adventure and always a learning experience. We like to make people think once in awhile, but other times we only want them to groove. Some of our lyrics are political or pointed, some are absolute nonsense, but what does it matter, as long as people have fun listening?
Q: You don’t consider yourself a musician. You’ve said that many times.
A: That’s right. And vocally, at best I’m a hack. I enjoy singing and I can invent musical themes on keys or on one string on a guitar, but my real enjoyment comes in producing. I hear things that Tom sometimes doesn’t hear, and I look at each song as a journey, not just a static location in time. I want songs to travel, not to stand still, and I know where I want them to go more times than not. But, that said, there are times when I have no clue about a song, and that’s when I rely upon Tom’s vision. I’m not a lyricist. I like writing stories and novels and commentary, but I’m new to songwriting. Tom is by far a better lyricist, but he doesn’t much like writing lyrics. His whole thing is in music composition. He knows music theory. I don’t. In fact, we’ve had arguments over music theory because I feel it limits invention. My favorite phrase for many years was, “Fuck music theory!” Which would upset Tom because he was so reliant upon music theory. And harmonies - I hear stuff that violates music theory and we would argue about that, but most of the time I would win and he slowly began to open his mind to the possibilities. Now he’s used to it, but in the beginning, when we first started working together as a team, we fought almost every time we sat down in that studio. We’ve both learned to bend, and I’ve personally learned that to break away from music theory I first have to understand what Tom’s trying to tell me about music theory and that a lot of the time he’s right. But theory is just theory, not fact. Scientifically speaking.
Q: Interesting. Okay, we know about your early influences, but what music do you listen to most often now?
A: Our own. But also to friends of ours who have recorded their own stuff. Occasionally I listen to more popular bands. I have a large music collection, but now that I’m writing and recording, I’m much more interested in stuff people I know have done - and our own music - than those glossy corporate productions. Probably because I know what’s behind them. (laughs) I do like some of the original stuff I’ve heard on television shows, though. Themes, like on True Detective or some of the music on CSI that plays when people are doing their CSI lab stuff. You know, different, sometimes even weird shit.
Q: How hard is it working with your spouse?
A. In the beginning, extremely hard. Now, a lot easier.
Q: Okay, tell me about the songs on this CD. Any favorites?
A: Well, everyone loves Bigfoot. It’s a fun song. But there are a lot of pretty good songs, including stuff like “Firestorm”, which highlights Tom’s slide playing. And “Is It Unwise?”, where he plays in an Arabic tuning. And “Downtown” where Tom channels Jim Morrison. Well, just a little bit. “Feel It Coming On” rocks pretty good. Then there’s “Winter Sky” which was inspired by a photo posted on Facebook by Tom’s fellow guitarist from New Jersey, Billy Ryan, of his cabin up in Vermont, and also by Tom himself, who lives here in North Carolina on a mountain where he plays guitar all day. “Smoke and Mirrors” is about how certain musicians feel about fans who put them on pedestals and the idolatry lavished upon musicians in general. And I kinda like the weird vocals and bass solos in “Seen By The Eye.” And the others are pretty cool, too, but I really don’t have a favorite. If I do, it changes day to day, depending upon my mood.
Q: Yes, your music tends to be moody and dark at times, and at other times upbeat. A lot of it is heavy on message or imagery.
A: Yeah, to all of the above. And then there’s “Bigfoot.”
Q: Yes, then there’s “Bigfoot,” Hahahaha. Okay, final question. Why have you chosen to interview yourself?
A: Because most interviewers ask stupid stuff, like what’s your favorite band, favorite color, fill in the blank, or else they start talking about shows they’ve seen and try to tie it into our stuff, which is silly because as far as I know, no one’s doing this stuff, and not only that, we don’t do live shows. We’re strictly a recording entity. Comparisons do not exist. Sure, you can say that ‘this song’ reminds you of say, Patti Smith, or ‘that song’ reminds you of Jim Morrison or Allman Brothers or Leonard Cohen or some other rock star, but really, at that point you’re cheating both them and us. They did their thing, we do ours. So, I’m interviewing myself because I’ve often thought that most interviewers are more into their own desires than the actual meat of the music and the thoughts of the musicians. And, having known a few besides myself, they also tend to be bored to death and their interviews show it. I’ve been on both sides of interviews. A good interview will lead you to places no one else has gone. A lousy interview is one with a format, and formats are boring. I don’t like boring.
Q: That all makes sense, in a strangely confusing way. Thank you for explaining and for consenting to this interview. Where is the new Too Tall Tom music available?
A: You’re quite welcome. You can get the CD through Tom’s website. www.tootalltom.net