K: Hey everyone, I’m here with Dusty Watson from Agent Orange

D: Hey!

K: So dusty, what are ya workin on these days?

D: Right now I'm workin on getting some rest! Along with that I am learning some songs for a couple gigs coming up. One is with Chris Murphy who is a violin player that plays a 5 string electric fiddle with a bank of effects, samplers, sequencers etc. very eclectic and pretty spaced out shit. His material goes from standard Greek or Italian folk songs you've all heard at weddings : to full on rocked out sonic youth meets Pink Floyd. The biggest challenge with that gig is figuring out what to hang off my kit to get the vibe on the different sounds he needs. The other gig is with an old band mate of mine from Legs Diamond who plays bass in a Cream tribute band called Whipped Cream. I'm filling in for a show at the Knitting Factory here in Hollywood and I am stoked to do this one! I've been jamming Ginger into my head for a week or so and man, that guy played some of the craziest stuff. I am familiar with most of their stuff (or so I thought!) but getting into it shows me how much I was missing. Turning beats around (who needs the ONE anyway?) and great kick drum work. I am putting together a double bass kit for this one something I haven't done since playing with Lita Ford in the 80's!

K: Wow that sounds crazy! So how do you practice this stuff? Do you have a studio or do you set up your kit in your house or what

D: Fuck I wish! I'm an apartment dweller so no drumming going on here. I just listen over and over and try to drill every nuance into my head. Take notes : cheat sheets sometimes, depending. Usually if I chart something it will have all the measures counted out in a column alongside vs, chorus, lead, bridge blah blah. If there is a pertinent riff or accent I will write that out. Pretty much A B C stuff. Then depending on the gig I will rent a drum room for a few hours and take an ipod or cd plug it into the system and blast thru the tunes a few times til I'm comfortable with them then just show up at the gig. Both of these gigs there will be a band rehearsal so I will be good to go. I fucking HATE rehearsals and never rehearse with Agent Orange or Slacktone but for one offs, its good to get together to see where the band "puts the one" as I like to say.

K: What do you mean by that? Puts the one

D: I'm referring to the 'feel' that the band has. Bands will tend to have an overall placement of 1. Like they like to hold back just a fraction here and there or keep that pocket big and fat. Some bands like to stay out in front of it, do a lot of “and of 4" hits kind of let the song take off once in a while. I'm talking about feel more so than actual tempo changes.

K: Hmmm. So how would you say Agent Orange does that?

D: Way out in front! When I first joined the band, the bass player then, Sam Bolle (Slacktone, Dick Dale) told me "don't worry about tempo. There is no tempo really. Just let it go". So I've been counting in at one tempo, start the song then give it a little push, fill out of the intro into the verse and kick it up, kick it up 2 or 3 times throughout the song, keeping the spin cycle going out in the pit ya know. It's fuckin fun as shit!

K: What’s on your IPOD/ in your stereo right now?

D: Right now I have some homework in there. A disc of classic rock leftover from my Superlark show. 2 discs of Cream for an upcoming gig. The other 2 discs are a Ricky Nelson burn and the latest Bob Marley release. WTF? Where's the fuckin punk rock dude???

K: What are some of your favorite tours you have done?

D: Wow. Last year out with The Supersuckers was a total rippin good time. Prolly the best one of that bunch was the Canada tour we did with Pearl Jam. 20,000 seat hockey arenas sound like shit but fun to feel the drums slap back around the room a few times. Like fuckin Godzilla ya know? The PJ guys were so cool to us. Eddie came out and sang The Ramones' I Believe in Miracles with us every night during our set. That kicked ass. The last show we all came up during their set and played Neil Young's Rockin in the Free world (yeah kinda corny but you get caught up in the goodness of it all I swear!) They let us use one of their tour buses and after spending most of my life in the back of a van, that was a cool reminder of how it can be on the road sometimes. Agent Orange has had a bunch of fun tours : one stand out was with Cletus as support when their singer Johnny Puke got us all kicked out of the new 930 club in Washington DC for pissing on the stairwell. touring in Europe with boo yaa tribe and having them try to teach me some street stuff i knew nothing about (even tho I think I'm so fucking hard ya know : HA!) all the Sugartooth tours were great cuz we played on tons of morning radio shows promoting the record and all 3 of us totally believed we were really doing something.
i will never forget Amsterdam with those guys for as long as I live!

K: Alright guys, ya heard it from the man himself. Must be nice traveling round’ the world playing drums for a living.

For more information on this crazy, cool, cat, go check him out at: www.DustyWatson.com
He might just be playing in a town near. =)