Name: The Dwarves
Members: Blag the Ripper, HeWhoCannotBeNamed, Rex Everything, The Fresh Prince of Darkness, Snupac
Interviewee: Blag the Ripper
Nationality: American
Current release: The Dwarves return with Concept Album, out November 17th 2023 via Greedy Media.
Recommendations: Roller Maidens From Outer Space is a great sprawling satirical musical comedy surrealist record by Phil Austin from Firesign Theater. A guaranteed mind fuck for those who can summon the patience to sit down and listen to it.
I also love Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, one of the best American books ever written.

If you enjoyed this The Dwarves interview and would like to keep up to date with the band and their music, visit their official website. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I still like to listen to music. I don’t need videos or pictures, I don’t need the TV going. I don’t need it in the background when I eat or do dishes or fuck. I just like to listen to music all by itself.

Eyes open or shut, it soothes the savage beast. Or sometimes awakens it!

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

I started out playing clarinet which I did poorly, though I still love Benny Goodman and Sidney Bechet records.

I sang in musicals, but only got parts in the chorus, never a speaking role. I started writing songs with titles like ‘Conformity’ and ‘Cock Fight’.

So yeah, it was all pretty bad! Can’t stop, won’t stop!

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music meant to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I was big on 60s garage, rockabilly, punk rock and hardcore then. I saw a lot of shows during that period - Frank Zappa, Ravi Shankar, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Violent Femmes, Cramps, Ramones.



Music meant a lot more to me before I had to deal with the actual music industry, which tends to ruin it for everyone.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

I used to write a lot on the guitar. Then when Pro Tools came in I would write using records. Now I like to write over instrumentals my friends bring to me.

There are a lot of ways to get your songs rolling, whatever works is good.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

I always have lyrical ideas. I like to see what you can do with a common phrase or a new idiom.

How can you bend the words so it means something different, how can you make people see an old phrase as new again.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

That really comes down to the people I play with. When you have talented people with you, anything is possible. And suddenly your sound is an amalgam of all of their sounds. The sum is stronger than all the parts.

Dwarves is a specific kind of approach that is very dense and filled in with every millisecond accounted for. Something like Ralph Champagne has a lot more air in it, room to maneuver.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Working in a factory had a very sad mechanical music to it that I’ve never forgotten. It’s the sound of your life slipping away while you try and survive. It’s very rhythmic, monotonous and oppressive. Kind of like house music.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

Everything happens at the extremes. That’s the only way different genres move forward. Hardcore keeps getting faster and faster, it’s two maybe three times faster than the stuff that seemed super fast in 1980. Slamming is a pretty extreme form of dancing that you can only do to really fast thrash kind of music.

The extremes are where we operate.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

We like a good hook and generally go with pretty traditional song structure. Part of the minimalism of the Dwarves is how we pare away everything that isn’t important in a song. We never repeat things that don’t need to be repeated, never add stuff just to take up more time.

The way we get variety in our overall style is having everybody write songs. That makes for a more interesting record instead of the typical record where the best song is first, second best song is next and everything gets worse from there.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

On the Concept Album we had a couple really productive days in the studio where we got over 20 songs recorded. We still had studio time left so we just made some songs up on the spot that wound up on the record.

One called “Voodoo” was cool because Josh Freese came up with the instrumental right at the session. I took it home and tried to write over it but couldn’t get anything going, so the Fresh Prince of Darkness took it and asked the musical question “What Would Lemmy Do?”

He then went on to write the vocal melody and the lyrics, all I came up with was the title. In this rock game, it takes a village.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Yes, but often it’s limited to me saying, “I wish we had some cool sound during this part”, then it’s up to the players to come up with a cool sound or part.

I have a production partner I work with all the time, Andy Carpenter. Between him and the band there are always enough weird sounds to keep it interesting.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

My go to emotion is anger, the Dwarves is perfect for that. Aggression, angst, animosity, all those ‘A’ words describe the Dwarves.

It’s harder for me to access deeper emotional stuff in my music, I tend to be pretty superficial. Whatever is under the surface scares me.

I think music helps one understand things yes, but those things can’t be expressed in any form other than music. It’s kind of a closed loop for me.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

It’s universal in a way that almost nothing else is. It transcends written words and concepts.

But often ‘mundane’ tasks inspire it. I get ideas driving in the car or taking a walk all the time. Doing mundane things gets you thinking on a deeper level paradoxically.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

I don’t cry a lot when things go badly, but damned if I can make it through “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” or anything by Patsy Cline.



It just skips my brain and goes straight for the tear ducts.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

Musicians need to own their work, and recorded music needs to be classified as art, not machines that make sound as the record companies would have us believe. Every other art form is taken seriously in that way except for music.

And we need a real union, not the joke that passes for a musician’s union. Those pussies haven’t gone on strike since 1945. I guess they figure everything has been really fair to musicians since World War Two.