Diesel Boy took time out of their busy schedule to answer our questions about their music and their songwriting process.
First off, What’s up with your name? Is there a story behind it?
Yeah, but it’s a pretty dull one and hardly worth sharing. There is no deep meaning. For better or worse, once you land on a moniker, in our case as young men, you’re stuck with it forever, like a tattoo. I never imagined it might still be relevant thirty years after picking it, but here we are.
Tell us about your musical past, would you tell us about your early years?
I got my first guitar at age 13 but it didn’t stick until a few years later when I started to get into metal and took jazz band in high school, which was the only music class offered. It was cool though, and I learned a lot. There were some great players in those classes. All the guitars players would fight over the Peavy amp, which was the only one that had distortion, and our teacher would often lose his cool when the solo sections came up and the thrash metal devotees would kick on the distortion and rip into some sweep picking arpegios.
I had band with a few of those guys too, Punkus Funkus, which was influenced equally by the Ramones and Spinal Tap. We mostly just goofed around. We did play a few gigs though: our high school talent show and a Jewish teen center. At that gig, halfway through our set, the 30 or so kids in attendance decided they wanted to watch a movie instead of listening to our racket, so we never finished the show.
How would you describe your sound?
I try not to, but it’s unavoidable. I usually say pop-punk since most people would at least know Green Day or Blink-182 – even if we don’t sound especially like either of those bands.
Which artists have the biggest influence on your sound?
That’s hard to separate out since there’s forty years of listening all mashed up in my brain. The chords and melodies and song structures are no doubt influenced by all of it. I love The Beatles and James Taylor and Duran Duran and Metallica and Steve Reich and New Pornographers and dozens and dozens and dozens of others – but I couldn’t pick out one that I think had an outsized influence on how I write songs necessarily.
Style-wise, when the band formed, I was working at my college radio station and listening to a lot of punk rock and power pop — bands lilke Bad Religion, NOFX, Descendents, Green Day, Best Kissers in the World, Goo Goo Dolls, Soul Asylum – so all those all factored into our earliest material.
What’s the last song you listened to?
“When We Were Close” by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. It’s a song about the death of his friend Justin Townes Earle.
What’s your source for hearing new music?
I used to do a lot of freelance music writing so I still get a million emails from publicists. Sometimes a press release will catch my eye. Every Friday I try to look at a list of new releases on allmusic.com or Pitchfork and I follow lots of music-related accounts on Instagram.
Who is your dream producer?
Mutt Lange. “Highway to Hell” and “Back in Black” cranked to eleven just hit you over the head. And his production on Def Leppard’s “Pyromania” is meticulous – even more so on “Hysteria,” but I don’t like the songs as much. “Pyromania” is equal amounts heft and melody, which I love. I’m not sure I would enjoy what I imagine is a tedious process of making the record, but I’m pretty sure the end result would be fabulous.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
Not a collaboration, but when we were on Fat, Mike would always come down to the studio when we were starting a record and he’d grab an acoustic guitar and I’d sit with him and show him the songs. He’d make little suggestions – a melody tweak here, a lyrical suggestion there. That was always super satisfying, as I have a lot of respect for his songwriting.
I’ve written with other songwriters occasionally – Marty from Bracket or Jaret from Bowling for Soup and it’s always a really fun process. I’d love to sit down with some of my favorites outside of punk rock — Jason Isbell, Phoebe Bridgers, Ben Gibbard, Kathleen Edwards.
What led you to music, and what motivates you to keep making it?
Music was always just all around me and something I was drawn to from an early age. I would pore over the lyrics and liner notes to the cassette tapes I bought as a kid. My dad had a songbook with the chords from lots of folky stuff from the 1960s and ‘70s, which taught me the basics of songwriting.
What compels me to keep making music is a desire to express myself – to create a mood, to tell a story, to convey a feeling. I get satisfaction from not just the songwriting process itself, but from seeing a song recorded and put out into the world where it can live forever with those who find it has merit.
Tell us about the songwriting process. How does it all come together?
It usually starts with me noodling on the guitar, playing chords until I have a couple of changes that sound nice together. Next, a melody gets added on top, and generally the melody will lead me into the next parts of the song. Lyrics are usually the last thing to be added. Once I have all the parts together, I’ll make a quick demo, which I’ll send around to the other guys and we’ll often refine the arrangement together in rehearsal.
How do you connect with your audience? What is the easiest way for them to connect with you?
In the old days, fans used to write actual letters, which was amazing. I have boxes full of all the snail me we used to get. I treasure them. These days it’s people sliding into our DMs on social media, which is great but a text lacks the warmth and often the personal nature of a physical letter – the envelope, handwriting, stationary choice, etc. We can connect in-person too as we start to play live again, and of course it’s always nice to chat with fans before or after or a show.
Diesel Boy (@_dieselboy) • Instagram photos and videos
Diesel Boy – Punk Rock Since 1993 (diesel-boy.com)
What’s next for you?
We have a short tour of Europe planned plus some select US dates. The plan is to travel when we can, doing festivals and weekend fly-ins a few times a year. We also recorded a couple of extra songs during the “Gets Old” sessions, so we’ll release those as a seven-inch at some point later this year as well.
