VMP Interview with Diarrhea Planet

picture via Noisey

We had a chance to sit down and chat with Evan Bird from our artist of the month, Diarrhea Planet, and ask him a few questions about DP’s live shows, influences, and an impending music festival called “Diarrhrea-roo.” Read on, my friends.

VMP: You’ve quickly become known as not just a band on the rise, but more specifically, a band with over-the-top live shows. What are some moments from live shows thus far that stand out to you as defining moments for the band, i.e. the stories you’ll tell your grandkids someday to convince them you were cool once?

DP: Thankfully we’ve had plenty of ridiculous moments in our live shows of which plenty of people have taken video, so when my grand kids are running around with their Google Glass I’ll tell them to YouTube it before telling them how to mock Brent’s grand kids. Not to mention the tattoos- my grand kids will take one look at my tattoos and be like “oh snap!”

VMP: The first time I listened to your album I immediately went back to listen to Weezer’s Pinkerton. It wasn’t the sound as much as the feeling of a volcano about to erupt. What albums/bands did you grow up listening to? Which band made you want to start a punk band?

DP: I think one of our biggest strengths as a band is that so many of our individual influences past and current cover a lot of different (but not necessarily conflicting) bases. At the core, we all have an appreciation for pop music from all eras, and so it that brings everything together. For me specifically, Weezer, Children Of Bodom, Bad Religion, The Living End, The Darkness, and Avenged Sevenfold are the influences that are the most directly related to DP.

VMP: While I was standing in line to see you at SXSW this year I overheard someone say the day prior Melissa Ethridge had joined you on stage….please explain.

DP: We played a showcase put on by the Austin punk legends and personal heroes of ours The Midgetmen again this year, and they were responsible for making that happen. They had been talking to each other over Twitter and challenged her to join them and us onstage and it ended up happening. Even I wasn’t sure it was actually going to happen until I bumped into on the way to the stage. She is an unbelievable talent, and so comfortable onstage and so professional. It was an honor to share a stage with her and totally unreal!

VMP: I’m going to go out on a limb and guess your music stood out a bit at Belmont (University)…how much of your early music was a response or even rebellion toward the status quo music culture going on at the school at the time?

DP: Well, the band was started sort of as a joke and certainly in response to a lot of the contemporary Christian and crossover country that is prevalent at Belmont. All of us have a respect for those kinds of music, but I’m not sure we could actually play that kind of music. It definitely stood out while we were there.

VMP: We’re a vinyl club, so we have to ask – are you vinyl collectors/fans? If so, what the first album you remember buying on vinyl? Most recent?

DP: We are all fans/collectors of vinyl. The first vinyl record I remember buying is No Control by Bad Religion.

VMP: You have a 3-day music festival to curate called “Diarrhea-roo” – which artists, dead or alive, do you have play?

DP: The Apache Relay, Kool Keith, Thin Lizzy, Jimi, Katy Perry, The Darkness, Buddy Guy, UFO, Rammstein, Muse, Slayer, Jeff The Brotherhood, +60 Other Artists

VMP: Is time a flat circle?

DP: Enough with the self-improvement-penance-hand-wringing shit. Let’s go to work.

VMP: Which albums should we consider for our next Vinyl Me, Please album of the month?

DP: The next Jeff The Brotherhood album, The Apache Relay by The Apache Relay (available April 22nd!), Little Brother by No Regrets Coyote, anything by Blank Range, or Steel wound by Ben Frost.

VMP: When should we expect the next DP album?

DP: Soon, and for the rest of your life!