A Conversation with Dallas Good of The Sadies

Puremusic: Hey, Dallas, Frank Goodman, Puremusic.com.

Dallas Good: Hey, Frank, thanks for calling.

PM: You bet, man. How's your day going?

DG: Oh, it's good, actually.

PM: How long you been off the road? You guys just get off?

DG: Yeah. We didn't play last night. That was the exception. We were pretty much--

PM: "But every other night I can think of, we played."

DG: Exactly.

PM: Yeah. [laughs] It's funny, your singing voice is so low, or can be so low, but your speaking voice seems like a normal timbre.

DG: Well, yeah. It all depends on, I guess--

PM: The key I'm in.

DG: Yeah, exactly.

PM: [laughs]

DG: How much fresh air I've had.

PM: Yeah, right. [laughs] So I just got off with Travis. I talked to him first.

DG: Oh, okay.

PM: I like the way Angie set it up. She said, "Okay. You get this guy at 5:30 and this guy at 6:00." I told Travis that I saw you guys open for the Jayhawks in Nashville last year.

DG: That was a fun tour.

PM: That was a great show. In the review of Stories Often Told, I said, in the nicest way I could, that I thought you blew them off the stage.

[laughter]

DG: That's what it's all about.

[laughter]

PM: And that's what it looked like.

DG: I really like those guys, but we've got a job to do. Nothing personal.

PM: And you guys just came out spittin' blood, and that's just how it is.

DG: That's just how it is.

[laughter]

PM: I loved Stories Often Told, but Favourite Colours, come on! I thought Favourite Colours was even better.

DG: Well, it was a fun one. We chipped away at it for a long time, just doing a couple of songs here and there over the months.

PM: That's a great way to do it.

DG: It gave us the chance to really do what we like.

PM: Right. At places where you like.

DG: There's no crunch time. It's just a matter of getting it done professionally.

PM: Yeah, it's not $700 days.

DG: Right.

PM: Instead it's like, yeah, you're at your buddy's farm, or you're down at Wavelab, and doing the nice.

DG: Yeah, exactly.

PM: I was just talking to Travis about "The Iceberg." That's so fantastic.

DG: Oh, wow, thank you very much.

PM: I mean, that's one of my favorite Sadies instrumentals so far. And you guys are really distinguishing yourself as the best of the instrumental bands and all like that, not that there are very many, but I certainly prefer the Sadies' twist on it to anyone's that come to mind.

DG: Man, you saying that right now really means a lot, because of course this record is the first one that doesn't have as large an emphasis on the instrumental music. However, we've been working a lot on soundtrack and scoring music lately, so we've really been working as hard as ever, if not harder, on our instrumental works. And so for you to say that you like that part of what we do, I appreciate you saying it.

PM: You know, that was one of the questions on my mind: are the movies picking up on what an incredible instrumental quartet this is?

DG: We'll see. So far we've completed one documentary and we're working on another one.

PM: Is that the one about Ed Roth?

DG: That's the one we're working on now. The one we've completed is a Canadian film that kind of documents America from a Canadian perspective.

PM: Let's talk about that.

DG: Well, they got Hunter S. Thompson's perspective on it.

[laughter]

PM: He isn't Canadian, is he?

DG: No, but this guy went down into the States to talk to a cross section of people. So it is what it is, the people make the movie. Hunter S. Thompson kind of makes the thesis and conclusion.

[laughter]

PM: As only he could! Oh, that's hella funny.

DG: Yeah.

PM: So what is that film called?

DG: It's still on the working title, I don't think that it would be applicable. But it's a documentary chasing down the America dream. I think that will probably tie it together for anyone who's curious. We own all the music, so we'll end up probably releasing a fully instrumental record.

PM: Oh, great. Now did you score to the film at all, or did you just submit some tunes?

DG: We scored to the film.

PM: Now how did you like that process?

DG: Oh, it was easy.

PM: It was easy!

DG: Yeah.

PM: And were you literally, like, playing off conversations? Like I guy would be soliciting somebody's opinion and you get the vibe of the people involved and spin something off that?

DG: Well, a bit of both. By approaching us, it was implied what music they were looking for. We knew where they were coming from. And there were examples of our existing music, to show what they kind of hoped for.

PM: "Give us something like this."

DG: Right. Whereas with this last documentary, we've actually written what we feel hopefully will be appropriate, and the music that we've submitted so far has been totally approved. So on this stretch of our career we're on the right track.

PM: Unbelievable. And while you're working so hard on that, you turn out an album that's the singing-est.

DG: Exactly.

PM: And the vocals are rockin'.  continue to Dallas

print (pdf)     listen to clips      puremusic home