The New Cue #438 November 11: Evan Dando
Hello there,
You join us on this lovely Monday morning as we take a whirlwind trip through the mind of Evan Dando as the US singer-songwriter and Lemonheads frontman gamely takes on our Life & Times questionnaire. And Evan has really does have some life and times to draw on. He is famous for his easy, breezy way with a melody, both as a solo artist and as the frontman of The Lemonheads, the grunge-y power-pop and indie-rock band with whom he made his breakthrough.
He is also famous for spending much of his life mired in drug addiction. But not anymore. He is clean now and has found new hobbies to keep him occupied on the road. When we spoke – hello, Niall here - over Zoom on a sunny Friday afternoon in late October, his hands were caked in paint. That’s his thing these days. A few weeks earlier, he’d showcased his work at an exhibition in London titled Paintings & Drawings and had been fitting in more art between live shows as he embarked on a solo UK and European tour. He was speaking to us from Stoke-on-Trent before a show at the Sugarmill. “This is where Discharge was from, right?” he said in his spacey drawl. “Me and J Mascis have this thing about punk bands and where they came from, we always like to make a fun game out of it.”
The tour was going great, he explained, apart from a few hiccups here and there. “I had a bit of a Tourette’s outburst in Dublin, but that was a good show. I just kind of pissed people off a lot. I thought people were gonna enjoy it more. It’s really pathetic, but I had [The Only Ones guitarist and sometime Lemonhead] John Perry playing with me for eight songs and I thought they weren’t appreciative enough, and I got pissed off.” To make matters worse, he said, he’d also spotted someone yawning. “I was like, ‘You!’ and turned on him. It was silly but I was also apologizing anyway, but the rest of the tour has been great.”
And then it was time for Evan to get stuck into his Life & Times. Remember, this is a free edition but if you’d like to support what we do (we’d like you to support what we do), then you can click Subscribe Now and become a paying subscriber for £5 a month. OK, onto Evan, buckle up!
The Life & Times Of… Evan Dando
What was the first record you loved?
Don’t Mess With Bill by The Marvelettes. That was my first, beautiful melody.
And the last?
The Best Of LUCY, a band by Cooper B. Handy. He’s from western Mass [Western Massachusetts] and he’s really great. He’s in a band called the Taxidermists and they’re a normal rock band with guitars. Then one day I went to their house and his girlfriend, Isabelle, gave me this tape like, ‘Hey, Cooper, wanted me to give you one of these’. It’s, really different, funny, crazy drum machine stuff and some really catchy songs and he dances. He’s great. He’s amazing. I love Cooper. There’s a bunch of people out of western Mass right now, relatively kids, that I really get into.
What’s your earliest memory?
My earliest memory is actually to do with music. I was sitting in the back of a light blue, like vibrant blue, new Mustang - it was my babysitter’s brother’s - and we were sitting in the back of the car, me and Holly, my sister, and Venus by Shocking Blue was on. That’s one of my first memories, for sure. I love that song.
What’s your daily domestic routine?
My routine at home is stark raving, running all over the place. I live in the jungle. It’s great. I get a lot of exercise and eat a lot of good. I live in Brazil in São Paulo, up in the hills and it’s beautiful. I usually make music or noise, or play the drums I’m trying to go fishing. I’ve caught one fish in Brazil since I’ve moved there, one, a snook! And a lot of recording. I really like recording, I have enough for another album.
Who or what is the love of your life?
Antonia [Teixeira], who’s right here. And I love our cats, Silvio and Marc Jacobs. We have two little grey cats. And I love my new family, the Teixeira clan. We have two daughters and a son, and her dad’s great, and I love Brazil.
What’s your worst habit?
Right now, smoking, because I’ve really got to quit. I don’t do drugs anymore.
When were you most creatively satisfied?
Right now. I hated our records for the first couple years. I mean, they were terrible. I didn’t feel like the people I was playing with were at my level so when I finally got the rhythm section of Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson, that’s why I called that album The Lemonheads.
Has anyone you’ve ever met made you feel starstruck?
This is easy. I was walking up the stairs in the Columbia Hotel and I saw Wattie from The Exploited. I fell down the stairs and he said hi to me. I was definitely starstruck.
Who or what is the greatest influence on your work?
Iggy, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Robert Johnson, Gram Parsons, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Elvin Jones, John Coltrane, The dBs, Squeeze…
We were going to do a tour with Squeeze before Covid. It didn’t happen, it was either Covid or it was my hellish performance I did where I realised I had to get off drugs. I saw the tapes - I played at this fucking graveyard, the graveyard where all the stars are buried, a really bad idea. I was so bad, because not only was I on coke and dope but I was doing all these edibles. That’s the completely disgusting picture, what I’ve become. My teeth were all gone, and I was like, ‘Dude…’ and that’s the one and luckily I’m out since then. I was not there at all. I’d play half a song and start laughing. It’s really sad when you see a picture of yourself when you’re on heroin, it’s really sad, every time. And everyone can tell, even on the phone for a second, if you relapse, it’s like there’s this glazed sugar on your voice, or something satanic.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I’m a really good driver! I’ve driven a whole lot and I’ve noticed that people who don’t know me from the real world, they’re like, ‘Are you really getting in the car with Evan driving?’ and someone else always offers. I’m used to it, I’m like, ‘Go ahead, you can drive, I understand’. But I’m a really good driver. That’s the one.
What are you scared of?
I’m scared of a mouse or a rat. I had rats. In my bad days, I was living with a ski pole in my bed, in my hand all night in case one of the big fuckers came up the hallway, because I was not living right at all, it was thugs, hoarders. It was like, ‘Evan Four, starring John Ritter!’ .
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
I’ve thought about this a lot. I think I might go to Edinburgh when Robert Louis Stevenson was a youngster, just to see him walking down the street, maybe hang out with RLS a little bit in his early days. I was just up there in Edinburgh and I hadn’t been for a while, so I was like, ‘Hey, this is my man’s town’. I love him, man, you know, he was doing Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde way before Freud, he’s so important.
What do you wish the 18-year-old you knew?
Take better care of my teeth. I wish he knew enough to learn how to floss. When you smoke, you got to floss, cos those teeth are going. I’ve got caps. They’re not the same, it’s annoying. Your teeth are so much part of your character, it’s really fucking weird to get used to. I wish I had my teeth.
What’s the secret to a long life?
Not doing shit you don’t want to do and keeping it fucking good, keeping it fun but not obsessive, not over the top. Everything in moderation, including moderation. Because you can take a couple things and go right out on them, right on the tangent. I think you want to stay physical. You want to be burning around, jumping up and down, you’ve got to be active, you’ve got to get the air - and don’t lie, always tell the truth. That’s about what I can recommend, keep it active and do what you like to do, because it’s an insult to everybody and to life itself if you do something that you don’t want to do.
One book would you recommend our readers read?
A beautiful book is, and I’m not gonna get canceled so I’ll say it, fuck it, I love Journey To The End Of The Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. The guy was canceled in the 50s anyway, he was collaborationist, bad guy, but there’s got to be a separation. It’s so funny, it’s so great and he has such insight. It’s way ahead of its time.
What was the home you grew up in like?
Oh, man, it was the best. I go back there a lot. It was a 1820s colonial house with the basement dirt on the bottom. Beautiful, boxy, really old, white house in Essex, Massachusetts, 127 Western Avenue. It was incredibly cool in there... My dad had his music room in the back. He had a bass and guitar. I was always playing the guitar because my dad did it.
Do you mind getting older?
Of course, a little teeny bit, but I’m having way more fun now so I don’t know man. It was so serious back then. I was off the charts, I was just pissed off all time and I’ve learned to fucking let that shit go. When things went a little bit funny in my life, things got fucking hectic and I started doing drugs very early and I was violent. I used to be really bad, breaking shit all the time and being crazy. I was always careful, I never really hurt myself, which is weird, I never broke a bone. I should say this about that - I’m not going to take that stuff, Ayahuasca or whatever it is, DMT, because I want the real experience, the real adventure of life is when you die. So I don’t think it’s smart to take it before.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Tell the truth, it’s easier to remember. My dad said that to me.
What’s the secret to a happy relationship?
Communication, communication, communication.
What’s the worst thing that anyone’s ever said to you?
“Evan Dando, is your butt allergic to plastic?” Although it was funny because it was my bus driver when I was a kid, because I would run around, sort of sit up in the chair. Another one that’s funny is when I was in my bad phase, I played a gig and I was trying to do the Charlie Manson early 80s mullet and I had no teeth and the whole show someone was like, ‘You’re not Evan Dando! You’re not Evan Dando’. He spoke to me outside, ‘You’re not Evan Dando’, then he’s in the corner looking at me, it was like, ‘OK dude, you’re right, I’m not Evan Dando, I’m just filling in for tonight...’.
What’s your favourite film and why?
The Night Of The Hunter, because it’s only movie Charles Laughton ever directed, it’s a great book and they just follow the fucking book, every little thing in the book is in the movie. That’s fucking great. It’s almost Fellini-esque at times.
Can you cook? What’s your signature dish?
I’m a really good cook, I can do it when I need to. I love to cook fish, I’ll catch some fluke and cook it. It’s like a big old piece of bread, toast from the oceans, most delicious. Of course, they’re bottom feeders. I don’t know what the deal is there but they eat a lot of weird stuff. I mean, really weird, because it’s the ocean and it’s the whole bottom, so I don’t fucking know. Something works for me, though, I love it.
What talent would you most like to have?
I want to get better on the piano.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
I don’t like opening cigarette packs, which is a good reason to quit. You also never run out of cigarettes if you quit. But also that fucking beginning part is sketchy, man, what do you do? Yeah, I’ll put it in my pocket and then I can kind of feel it in my pocket, and then you always do this thing, like, ‘I’m so sorry God’, but maybe we were just put on the planet to make plastic, right?
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
It’s funny because it’s Mrs. Robinson-related, which I don’t like, but it was in The Wolf Of Wall Street, a great Scorsese movie. I watched it again last night, and they used it as a featured song at the end, and that’s what he does, music and film. That was a big achievement for me.