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It seems like I've been seeing Free Moral Agents around town a whole lot these past couple months. I did a review on their show with LBPP.net back in December and I keep running into Dennis at local events. So much so that I brought up the idea of interviewing him for Dank Radio. I always wanted to know how he got involved with the band and how many projects he's involved with and how he keeps them all in order. Not only were my questions answered but he even shared some info on how their upcoming show with Yann Tiersen at The Luckman Fine Arts Complex came to be...
Nativity: First off, a big thank you for taking the time to do this for us Dennis. You and I met not too long ago at a local show where you were spinning some really great non-conventional [in a good way of course] records. And later down the line I discovered you played bass in Free Moral Agents and you also work at the local record shop Fingerprints. Can you please shed some light on who you are to our readers? How did you become involved with Ikey[The Mars Volta] and his project Free Moral Agents? And more importantly how do you keep track of all of your projects?
Dennis: Looks like you already got some of the basics covered! In addition to what you just mentioned, I also promote and deejay a night here in Long Beach called The Good Foot. It happens every 2nd Friday of the month at a club called Que Sera. I also promote and deejay a night called Space Is The Place Rollerdisco. It's every 4th Saturday of the month at a venue called World On Wheels in L.A. I started playing in Free Moral Agents back in May of 2004. Ikey called me up one day and asked me if I wanted to jam with him and the rest is history. How do I keep track of everything? Um.....I guess I have a good memory! It's not that difficult, really.
Nativity: Sounds like a lot of time management skills are necessary. Speaking of time. Free Moral Agents just finished up a week of amazing local shows. Spanning the home of Low End Theory at The Airliner, to local intimate saloon The Prospector, and to the latest underground venue to make itself known on Pine ave, The Blue Cafe. How has the reception been? Are you guys seeing an increasing growth of attendees? Do you see more and more people singing along to the songs?
Dennis: The reception at our recent local shows was great! It seems like more people are getting into what we're doing.
Nativity: Great performance at The Blue Cafe by the way! All of us here at Dank Radio play a varying range of instruments and we're all total gear heads. What's your preferred baby for performance and what do you have going on in your bass rig?
Dennis: My set up is very basic. I play a Fender Squire from the '80's (don't know the specific year) fitted with custom-made pickups made by Don Mare, who is a local musician who hand crafts excellent pickups for guitar and bass (www.donmare.com). I use an Ampeg SVT Pro 4 head and a Gallien-Krueger 410MBX 4 X 10" bass cabinet. I use a simple Boss distortion pedal and that's about it. I'm keeping things simple for right now.
Nativity: Steering things back to FMA. The album Control This [Purchase @ Amazon | iTunes] has been out for a bit and you guys have shared some personal videos through youtube about the making of. I'm starting see posts on Facebook about another release being worked on. Can we expect another album by the years end?
Dennis: I hope so.
Nativity: With or without a new release for 2011 one thing we all can expect is more shows. On Jan 29th you guys are performing with Yann Tiersen at The Luckman Fine Arts Complex. For our readers out there Yann Tiersen composed the soundtrack for Amélie [one of my favorite movies] and other amazing works of musical expression. How did that show come about? Are you guys going to perform with a full on string section? What can we expect?
Dennis: Someone from the Luckman Fine Arts Complex asked us to play. Last year, we toured with Sage Francis as an opening act and his backing band. Yann Tiersen wrote a song called "Best Of Times" on Sage's last album and, when the tour hit L.A., Yann happened to be in town, so he came to the show and played violin with us on "Best Of Times" with us. It was the highlight on the show for me.
More Info
Nativity: FMA is set to leave in less than a month for a EU tour with Subtitle. How did the tour come into fruition? Was this something that has been in the works for a while? Any specific cities on the tour that you're looking forward to the most?
Dennis: We met the right people and they made it happen. I've never been to the EU, so I'm just looking forward to the overall experience of going to a bunch of places that I've never been to before.
Nativity: You all went on a US national tour last year and now with the upcoming EU tour coming up, Is there anything you're doing differently to prepare? Is the approach with song selection and maybe set order different for the overseas audience?
Dennis: I don't think we're going to do anything different to prepare for this tour.
Nativity: Thanks again for taking the time to do the interview Dennis. Is there anything else you'd like to add. Any messages to the fans and friends of Free Moral Agents?
Dennis: Thanks for the interview. :-)
Tour Dates:
1/29 The Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Cal State University Los Angeles, CA | More Info
2/16 Vera in Groningen, NL
2/17 Winston in Amsterdam, NL
2/18 Ouvre Boite in Beauvais, FR*
2/19 PMA | La Poudriere in Belfort, FR*
2/20 Usine | KAB in Geneva, CH*
2/23 Spazio 21 in Torino, IT*
2/24 Circolo Degli Artisti in Rome, IT*
2/25 Unwound in Padova, IT*
2/26 Mikk in Murska Subota, SL*
2/28 Kset in Zageb, HR*
3/02 Klub Re in Krakow, PL*
3/03 TBA in Pozn, PL*
3/04 Hafenklang in Hamburg, GER*
3/05 Zorro in Leipzig, GER*
3/08 Madame Moustache in Bruxelles, BE
3/09 Vooruit in Gent, BE
*w/ Subtitle
<->Nativity<->
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