Interview - Lee Dorrian
9/28/03
Sam: So, Spitfire
is putting out the new album, but you're switching
over to Century Media?
Lee Dorrian: "Nuclear Blast we just signed to"
Sam: Ok, Nuclear Blast (same difference)
Lee Dorrian: "Spitfire put out the
last album, but that was like in license from our
English label that we're not with anymore so..."
Dawn: Good decision to move on from
the English label?
Lee Dorrian: "Not really...well,
we were on Earache for many, many years, did like 6
albums with us. And I was involved with Earache since
1987 with my old band Napalm (Death) and stuff so...
when we did our album called 'Endtyme' that was our
last one for Earache. We got a new deal with this
company called Dreamcatcher in the U.K. and it started
off really good, and then they didn't pay us and it
got alittle bit weird. So that fell through, Nuclear
Blast offered us a deal and we just signed that."
Sam: Have you guys been on the
road very long?
Lee Dorrian: "There's like this
one, and 2 more shows left so, we started like
September 3rd or 4th, that's not that long, it's like
a month tour or something."
Dawn: Then you go back over?
Lee Dorrian: "Back home on Wednesday"
Dawn: Was it a bitch trying to
get in here with all the visas and stuff now?
Lee Dorrian: "Not really...well,
it's different than it used to be because now you
actually have to go to the American embassy in London
and have an interview before you get your visa. Before,
somebody would just apply for it and get just it, now
you actually have to go there, like first thing in
the morning and wait in a cube and be interviewed and
stuff. They have to see the validity of your case and
that whole shit. Which is kind of weird because it's
like a week before the tour, they give you the
appointment and if you fail the appointment then
you're fucked on the tour which you'd been organizing
for the past few months. There's not much we can do,
it's been a good tour though, it's cool."
Dawn: Where have you guys been?
Lee Dorrian: "We started off in
Long Island and went down by Cleveland, and out to
Denver and California, Texas, Florida...The tours we
used to do lasted like about almost 3 months, we'd
play like everywhere..."
Dawn: Now it's here with the
Presidential primaries and everything, has Tony Blair
gotten shit back in England? They don't do too much
here, it's like very risk focused on alot of stuff...
Lee Dorrian: "Tony Blair is not
really liked at all anymore due to that fact..."
Dawn: Bush said jump and he did...
Lee Dorrian: "Yeah, in a way.
I think he's kind of scared because America is so
powerful. The history, the allegiance with America we
have obviously goes back to the 2nd world war. I
think he'd rather have us be outcast in Europe, than
be independent of you. Still as we know, there is
no justification for that war, because they still
haven't found weapons of mass destruction..."
Sam: They never will.
Lee Dorrian: "So everybody is
just like, not everybody, but, you know, for a start
Tony Blair is supposed to be like left wing, he's
supposed to be like, Labor. And he's turned out to
be more fucking right wing than any kind of right
wing party that's ever existed in power.
Dawn: You don't hear about that
too much over here, the media is so U.S. centered...
Lee Dorrian: "Of course, I noticed
watching the news"
Sam: Unless it involves us in
another country, that country's news doesn't matter,
that's the attitude.
Lee Dorrian: "I've noticed alot
of people really don't like Bush either up here. I
don't think I've spoken to one person who's actually
pro-Bush over here."
Sam: In the media polls his
approval rating is through the roof, but when you
talk to people on the street it's a different story.
Lee Dorrian: "Well, that's the
kind of people we're going to be coming in contact
with, they're not going to be like nazis...well,
occasionally that's happened on tours in the states,
it's been like, fucking extreme white power kids at
the shows thinking that it's like...I donno. The first
time we came over we played in Oregon, there was this
guy, we'd just finished playing, I remember going to
the back of the hall, there was this restroom was.
This guy just came out and appeared, KKK in massive
letters tattooed on his back. And he'd just been
getting into our show, and I'm like...fuck...just
made me feel quite sick. A few incidents like that...
they don't even...the funny thing is, they'd be going
to like Napalm Death shows and stuff like that, these
Nazi skinheads. I mean not all skinheads are nazis,
don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that, definitely
not in England anyway. But it just shows that they've
got no fucking brain, if they're going to go a
Napalm Death show, for the enjoyment of going to
that show, do they have any idea what the lyrics are
about? Good for Barney, the singer in Napalm, he
confronted them every night, told them to fuck off.
What they fail to realize is that skinhead identity
and culture comes from fucking Africa anyways."
Dawn: Really?
Lee Dorrian: "Yeah, it's the
black guys that came over to England in the 60's and
brought ska music over and stuff."
Sam: Are you guys going to go
back into the studio after this tour?
Lee Dorrian: "Probably not until
next year, we've got to write some new stuff, we
haven't even started on that. We all live so far
apart in England, you see, so, we all live in
different cities. It costs us a fortune to get
together and rehearse and we've only just signed the
deal so...I guess when we get back, late October
we'll start working on new stuff."
Dawn: You get the verse first
and then you work from that?
Lee Dorrian: "Pretty much..."
Dawn: Or is it that it paints an
image in your head and then it comes out?
Lee Dorrian: "I have ideas or
think about things all the time but I don't actually
sit down and write a song like that. I wait until I
hear the right riff to go with the idea that I have.
Sometimes I come up with the title first and build
a story around the title."
Dawn: But it's very much story
orientated, for me when I'd listen to it, it's like
taking you on a trip somewhere, especially with The
Ethereal Mirror, some of the shit on there...
Lee Dorrian: "I used to write
kind of outright political lyrics in the early days.
Some of the songs I still write in Cathedral do
actually have some kind of political signifigance
behind them, but I like to kind of not be so outright
and outspoken. I like there to be some kind of mystery,
I like to make a story, build pictures out of those
ideas so you actually see images whilst you're listening
to the music. I like to use those kind of words that
build up a picture, as opposed to just being blatently
political. So you could say it's almost like escapist
politics in a way, which kind of contradicts the
idea. We're a rock n' roll band at the end of the day,
there's no big soap box for us to stand on, the main
thing is the music."