DINK

by James D. Bonisteel

Seeing Dink live is a great treat for all to see. They have a great light show, they use old projection equipment and make the most out of it. What comes out of all of it is one of the best lighting you'll see for band of that size. But that's not the only reason to see them; they're something you have to see live to really appreciate it fully. They have worked with bands like Dave Ogilvie from Ministry and Sascha from KMFDM, in fact he helped remix "green mind" on Dink's album.

RAD: You are from Kent right?
Dink: Kent, Ohio yes the land of kent
RAD: How long has the band been together?
Dink: It will be two years the end of this month, next week will be the anniversary of our first show, it started out like a studio garage band. I have a MIDI electronic-type-thing-computer-thing at the house and to be honest with you we used smoke a lot of pot and drink a lot of beer and makes tapes on the weekends, but we had never sent a tape to any record company before so like we started sending tapes to labels like Nettwerk and like Sub-Pop and like all these independents you know because that's who we considered we were. And of course we all got rejected by them I mean. I think that radio stations that play local music are great! I mean, that's how we got signed. We had a song called "Green Mind" and it got played on a local Cleveland station called the END (WENZ) which is an alternative station and it got really good response and out of that, majors started calling us. We talked to Island first and then we talked to some other majors and then Capitol came.
RAD: What made you choose Capitol over the rest?
Dink: Our A&R guy is an Englishman named Perry Watts Russell. He's the brother of the guy who owns 4AD. I mean, they are good people I guess in the music industry, but he's truly a guy who likes music and that's pretty cool. It's not a business thing for him and then the president of the company, Gary Kersh. We met him and it kind of helped to make the decision
RAD: Where did the name Dink originate from?
Dink: Well, that was from when I was in elementary school. It's what you would call somebody like asshole or idiot or whatever. So yeah that's where that came from and it's taken lots of new and beautiful meanings since then, small penis being number two on the list.
RAD: Where did that phrase "GO TO HELL" come from anyway?
Dink: That's a local car salesman from Akron. It was taken from some of his commercials on the radio.
RAD: Who usually writes all the music in this band?
Dink: Rob Lightbody and myself (Jer) and another guy in the band named Shaun. Well, Shaun does all the sequence sampling, and he builds a little skeleton to make it look good and looks for samples gives us the tapes. We take them home and beat them around and come up with the guitar parts and vocals and bring it back in and beat it around some more until we get what we want. I mean that's usually how it works. It comes from the other ways, too like sometimes a little guitar riffs come first and then we build machine parts around that. But usually Shaun brings sequences to us.
RAD: If you were going to talk about who has been your biggest influence in your music, who would that be?
Dink: If you asked each of us you would probably get a different answer. I mean we have a real diverse variety, like Jeff, our bass player, is a big metal head, etc.
RAD: Do you ever get people thinking you're somebody like Bon Jovi when you're riding on your tour bus?
Dink: Yeah that's what I think about when I see tour buses. I think it's a lot more fun on a van because you're like five or six or seven of you in a van and you're driving everywhere and you have to go to all these cities.
RAD: I'm sure it's pretty cramped though.
Dink: Actually it is. You get to go to the weirdest places, you get to have pit stops in the middle of the night. I like that kind of stuff.
RAD: Sometimes it seems like when radio stations sponsor these shows also, I have noticed you have to sometimes go through hell to talk to the bands.
Dink: Well here's a perfect example. We're having problems with our second single which is "get on it," and they're playing it here in Salt Lake City and it's getting sporadic air play across the US. But radio programmers are saying that it sounds too much like this White Zombie song "More Human Than Human." Well I like White Zombie, I like them for who they are and I really dig that song just because it has a slide guitar in it. But radio with programmers, we're having a really hard time and it's bullshit. I mean it's so political.

I mean, we had a fairly ok success with "Green Mind" and in certain markets we have been getting this attitude like we're a kiddie band. Like especially in Chicago because it gets pushed on this radio station that's like a top 40 slash alternative station. I mean they try to label you it's not like that at all. We take our music very serious. We're not no damn kiddie band.
RAD: Where did all of you meet at?
Dink: In Kent, Ohio. It is a college town, but we didn't really know each other at school. Through school, we kind of knew each other. We would come there go to school then hung out. There is a really good music scene in Kent. It's a cool, small university town with a fairly good bar scene that allows you to play and that's how we met.
RAD: Who do you think has been one the best bands you have toured with?
Dink: Well so far, Lords Of Acid was really cool because they are a great band. They are a very interesting group of people. They are going to come through here again I guess. You really need to talk to their sound person, his name is Ludo. He is truly a "lord of acid." He's the one who does all the sequencing and does all the production and stuff. Ruthie did the background vocals for the record. The other guys that are in the band on the tour really did not do anything on the album, they were hired musicians for the tour.
RAD: You have a really good light show who does that?
Dink: His name is Mark Hughes. I like to call it "interactive light." We used cheap equipment to do it, actually our whole thing is based on cheap shit...I'm serious. We have done everything ourselves. It's a complete do it yourself thing. We still do the stickers...we still do everything. We're in-between management right now so we're doing management that's fairly unheard of on a major label. They're kind of edgy about it, but oh well. We bought a lot of the lighting equipment at thrift shops. What matters, I guess, is how well it looks. By the way mark used to teach film at kent state so he's good.
RAD: So where are you heading to after your big break?
Dink: It looks like europe for most of the summer.
RAD: So if there is anything you would like to say to all your fans out there what would that be?
Dink: Eat Dink, it's good for you! Well seriously, come out and enjoy the shows. We really enjoy seeing people having a good time and thank you very much for supporting us.