"Dredg: What the El?" by Charles Sullivan (emergentpatterns@excite.com) For The Lowdown Magazine 2002 has been a big year for Los Gatos, California based band, Dredg. They went from being a predominately underground California band, to one of the biggest underground buzzes throughout the nation. From their 1997 Debut, "Orph EP," to their smash underground conceptual "Leitmotif," Dredg has hit the masses yet again with another masterpiece in the form of "El Cielo." Spanish for "The Sky," El Cielo is a breath of fresh air for those of us who thought that music was on an irreversible downfall. The Lowdown recently had the opportunity to catch up with band guitarist Mark Engles to chat about touring, the new album, and even a bit about TRL. --What's your take on the current music scene in general, as a whole? We don't really play in the pop world, we don't listen to much radio. Of course you hear the radio and you see the mtv. Our whole thing is kind of a little more underground, like the bands we know. I mean some of the bands that we know are kind of popular I guess, but it's not really something that we care too much about. I mean mainstream will always be just exactly that...Mainstream. --Do you think music is more artistic than it was in other eras, such as the 60's or 70's? I think that there will always be artistic music, you just have to look for it. I think that artistic music was more well received awhile ago, in the 60's and 70's. On the mainstream level it was more received. It's definitely still there, the abundance of it today, you just have to know where to look, you know? --Some say that music and art go hand in hand. Do you agree with this? Yeah, I mean it can, if you know what you're looking for. I mean the word "music" is so huge in general. If you want to just have a great time and party, then obviously I don't think you're going to be thinking about art..you're going to be thinking about 2 Live Crew or something. But if you want music that'll move you and actually take you somewhere and inspire you to do other things in life, then I think art is a huge deal. --What were some of the personal inspirations that you discovered during the making of "El Cielo?" It took a long time to make. It was really fun, a lot of work involved. We got to..we lived in this house, kinda isolated ourselves and wrote, which was a big help. Just working in different studios across the country was also another help of inspiration...different Ideas. We worked in california and we worked in massachusetts. Just a different environment. --It been said on the EPK (preview trailer for "El Cielo") that there is a definite theme running through "El Cielo." Is this theme ever going to be publically revealed? I think when you see the album altogether, with the artwork and everything, it'll be pretty clear. For us, it's just a state. I mean we don't really have a direct message. We don't try to preach anything. For us, it's more like the listener gets to interpret how they want. When you buy the album you'll see. I think a lot of people have early versions of the album...there's no artwork right now; it becomes clear with the artwork. --Has stepping up to a major label at all effected the band's creative process? Creative process...no. If anything it just gives us more resource. We can be on the road, which is what we're doing right now as we speak. The creative process is definitely intact. Keep on our toes and make sure that nothing happens. I mean, we're still in control completely. As long as we're aware what's going on...nothing is going on without us knowing, then everything is good. Interscope has been good about that. Just artistic control, creative control. -- How would you personally compare "Leitmotif" to "El Cielo"? It's shorter, and there's a 3 or 4 year gap. It's just the same band writing newer music. We explored more areas. There's more diversity on the record in the sense of instruments and searching where we can go with the song structure. I think it's definitely more complete of an album. --How do you view the whole labeling fiasco going on in the music world right now? (nu metal, art rock, prog rock, etc.) Well yeah, It is what it is. It's only human that you have to do that. when someone says "oh, you hear this band?" and your friend says "what's it like?," then you have to be able to describe it somehow. But, at the same time you pigeon-hole yourself and you can go wrong with labelling, it's nuts how detailed it becomes. You don't want to lump certain bands into certain areas just because you want to label them. But, you have to do it, you know? It doesn't really worry us too much. --Does success frighten you or interest you more? It's probably a little of everything. Of course, it's something that will be strange if it ever does happen. It matters what level, but for us, I guess we like to take our time with no rush. I'm sure it could be frightening. You hear accounts of how weird it could be if something happened and all of a sudden you can't go shopping or some shit, which wouldn't be good at all. We're not worried about that, we'd just rather slowly have a fan base. Have a fan base that's unbreakable, you know? One that's very firm and we'd be able to tour america and tour europe and have a really good crowd that understands the music and enjoys the albums as wholes, you know? --If you weren't making music, what do you think you'd be doing with your life? I'd be in school, most likely. We were in school and we had jobs before we decided to do a 100% commitment to this. --Does Dredg incorporate any kind of metaphysical material or sacred geometry into its creativeness? I wouldn't say that we're very into that. But, at the same time you can definitely find that in any music that moves you, you know? All 4 of us as individuals have different beliefs and thoughts and that's what we come together to make. --That's probably what makes you more unique than most other bands today. Yeah, definitely. --Prior to the release of your major label debut, what were some of your biggest fears in regards to how sucess might affect you? I don't think we have any fears. I think as long as we're still in control of everything, you know? As long as there's no one trying to dilute our creative process, that's like the only major fear that we have, besides that, to keep doing what we're doing to write new music and to keep going. -- What prompted your decision to choose American Magee of Quake and Quake II fame to direct the "Same Ol' Road" video? It was a little bit of him coming to us at the same time as us looking for someone of his talent. He enjoyed the music, and we were looking to do an animated video, so it worked out perfect. We met up with him, and just casually kinda hung out; had some dinner with him had some drinks and he's amazing. He's a really nice guy and his work's amazing as well. He's trying to get more into videos; we are his first. This is our first video too so it works out perfectly. We kind of wrote it with him, we wrote the screenplay with him, whatever you want to call it; the storyline. It's coming out good, we just checked on it about a week ago. --Do you have any idea when It'll be ready? I think right around the time the album comes out, it'll be ready to go. I don't know if you'll ever actually see it on tv. Hopefully it'll be on M2 or something. They'll play it once late night or something, but yeah, it'll be nice to see, we're excited. --Do you believe that there is a need for online promotion and/or street teams? Yeah, I think that's always great; kids supporting what they enjoy musically is always great. Sometimes I don't like the overkill of it, I don't really like when bands are kind of shoved down your throat. But, word of mouth is definitely the best way to promote a band; it's the most credible way, rather than hearing it on the mass media. Hearing it from your friends it's definitely the number one way, through peers you go to concerts with and stuff, that's the way street teams works,it's nice. --Thus far, you guys have been a part of some very diverse tours, including Alien Ant Farm/Pressure 4-5, Taproot/Deadsy, and Codeseven, In Pieces and This Day Forward. How have the crowds been recieving you on the road so far? Right now we're on the road with onesidezero. It's great, every tour is different and actually every place we go is different. I mean every tour we've done has been nice. I mean of course, when you're with a band like Alien Ant Farm it's going to be a little different because of the MTV crowd. But, we love those guys they're friends of ours so it was fun, it was a great tour. Taproot was great, more underground and friends as well. It's always good when you're friends with the band that you're touring with because it makes it a good time. We go to Germany, I think, in November and then we come back and do that Codeseven Tour, which we're all excited about; we like Codeseven alot. --How did the stint with Codeseven come about? It was actually kind of random; we were in New Jersey and someone gave us their cd and we really enjoyed it and we went from there. We got in contact with them and said that we'd love to tour with them. They came out to our show, or someone did, and we went from there. --It has been rumored that you guys had several offers prior to signing with Interscope. What made you to finally decide to ink with them? I think just the freedom. I mean rumours are rumours, it really was not that big of a deal. We weren't like on the Market Block. It was actually alot more low key than that. We just enjoyed it when we went and met everyone, we felt comfortable. --Seeing as how you guys were still an unsigned band up until not too long ago perhaps you could reccomend us some good bands that remain unsigned today? Codeseven is definitely one of them. A band called Division Day from the bay area is really good.