Fun Fun Fun Fest 2015: Ringo Deathstarr Interview

by Troy Burke
KTSW Music Reviewer

During Fun Fun Fun Fest, Ringo Deathstarr sat down with me backstage to talk about the important things in life like having children, opening up for Jane’s Addiction and what they think will happen to Red River in Austin.

 

Troy: A lot of times when I read about you guys, y’all get compared with shoegaze. Shoegaze is just a word that is attached to your name. It’s getting more and more popular. How do you think you fit in with bands like A Sunny Day in Glasgow or How to Dress Well?

Daniel: I don’t know who How to Dress Well is and Sunny Day in Glasgow are nice people but I don’t know anything about their music.

Elliott: I saw a shoegaze band last night. They were called Ride and I see why the press slagged all those bands off and said “oh they’re just gazing at their shoes” because that’s how interesting it was. I don’t think we’re like any of that. Maybe our sound is similar to those bands. We’re from Texas and we don’t just you know, stand there.

T: This question is for you, Elliott. What pedal or what effect do you like using the most on stage? I know a lot of guitarists have a go-to.

E: I’d say my super fuzz. It sounds unlike any other pedal I’ve ever had. The way that when you tune the guitar to a weird tuning and you bend the tremolo arm into that pedal it has a sound that you can’t get from any other pedal I think.

T: What was it like to do the Smashing Pumpkins tribute before Holy Mountain closed?

E: Oh, it was just me that did that. It was kind of silly, I thought, but it was a laugh. Everyone was playing through tiny little amps. I just thought this isn’t Pumpkins you know? It’s not rock enough. It was a bunch of indie rockers trying to play rock but it was fun. I don’t mean to say that to sound mean, it was just funny. Everyone did a really great job because it was such a rotating cast of people singing and stuff. It was not much time to rehearse, it was sort of crazy to rehearse for all of that. It was a good time. The crowd was having fun, it was a good chance to sing along as a crowd and stuff.

T: What do you guys think is going to happen to Red River in the future?

E: It’ll probably wash away.

D: I don’t know, I don’t know. I guess eventually—yeah it will go away eventually.

Alex: Barracuda is opening up there and that seems like—

E: Well, they got a five year lease though.

D: Yeah, I mean that’s not going to last forever.

E: Like Liberty Lunch. People thought that was the end of the world when that closed down. We were all too young. Alex grew up here.

A: I went to Liberty Lunch.

T: I actually saw a Facebook post saying that you’re going to be a dad the other day. How do you think that is going to effect the band? Are you excited?

E: Yeah I’m excited. I don’t think it has to effect the band. We’ll take a little break and during that break, we’ll probably record another album and then we’ll hit it back up again. We’re already trying to write songs for our next album so we’ll do some touring for this album and do all that again. I know a lot of musicians that have had kids over the years, it doesn’t have to change much.

T: I know—they’re from San Antonio—Ume the guitarist, she just had a kid. They’re back playing shows like 11 or 12 months later which is crazy.

E: Yeah.

T: How was opening up for Jane’s Addiction on the road?

D: Super crazy and awesome.

A: It was awesome.

D: We got to see Dave Navarro in real life. He’s really hot, man.

E: Yeah, it’s so cheesy that it was awesome. The shredding, man.

D: Yeah, he’s [really] good. I didn’t know he was such an insane guitar player.

A: The naked girls, the shredding, the outfits—

D: The hats.

A: The whole thing was just so over the top you just had to smile and be like wow this is really awesome. If they sucked it would be a totally different story if they couldn’t even play their instruments. But he’s totally up there not caring and just playing the craziest licks. It was awesome.

T: Alright well thanks for taking some time out of your day to let me ask you some questions.

D: No problem.