PCM's Kristyn spent some time chatting
with Freddy Wexler from the band Freddy and the Dials. Freddy
shared insight about how the band got their start to where they
are headed in the future. Read on to enter Freddy's world...
KC: So how are finals going?
F: They're going well, ya know. I really tried to get a lot of
stuff done early because I've had a lot of writing recently. I've
had a lot of writing sessions and it's extremely hard to balance
with school so I tried to get a lot of this stuff done awhile
ago and now I have only two left. But one, surprisingly is in
photography which I took as an easy 'A' and it's definitely the
hardest class I've ever taken. You know the thing is, the way
I've been able to manage school is I'm an English major and I
can write all my papers and stuff from the road, in the studio
- it doesn't matter, I just email them in. In photography, you
have to be in the dark room and it takes so long.
KC: And they're not doing digital photography with you?
F: nope - film.
KC: oh wow well that's pretty cool though, because most of
them have switched over to digital now - we got a choice when
I was in school. We could learn the darkroom or go digital.
F: Right. Here if you want to do digital you have
to do the basics first
KC: That's good - I think it should be a requirement
anyway.
F: Yea. I've actually grown to really like it - it's really fun
but it's taxing. But it'll all be over on Friday.
KC: chuckle Well that's good. Are you doing anything to celebrate?
F: Well, it's my best friend's birthday on Saturday, so we'll
probably have a little soiree.
KC: Sounds like fun. Okay, let me jump into some questions
I have for you . . . Can you tell our readers a little history
behind Freddy and the Dials, like how did you get your start and
where are you guys from originally?
F: Sure. I'm Freddy and I'm from New York City and basically,
I started writing - I've been a musician my whole life. I started
writing, really writing, when I was 16-17. When I was a freshman
in college, I made a demo and I sent it to this site called PureVolume.com
KC: OK
F: And they featured it and it's actually a really
fun story, and I won't go into why they featured it, but anyway
- they did. And it became, miraculously, the number one downloaded
thing or played band on the site for about a month. It was like
Freddy (the Dials came later) and then Fall Out Boy and then Panic
At The Disco and it was the craziest thing. So between that and
a couple sold out shows based on that I found myself in an amazing
situation with all these different labels that wanted to sign
me. I ended up going with Virgin and just as I was about to finish
my album, Virgin Records and Capitol Record merged, which was
really bad for any new artist because they couldn't finish records.
Fortunately, Jason Flom who was head of the label, was really
good to me and let me leave with my masters for free. So I found
myself having this amazing record with everyone from Maroon Five,
Good Charlotte to Goldfinger, Buck Cherry to all these producers
- everybody played on it. There's a lot of support in the music
community for the music and I owned it and I was kinda like, what
do I do? So I just went to different music clubs, played different
bands and at one, it was Eileen's Grocery I think, which is a
venue in New York City, I met the Dials which was just four guys
who had really just done the music. We started playing and became
a band. We recorded a bunch of stuff and so it's called Freddy
and the Dials . . . maybe that'll be one of your questions but
that's how we met I was signed and it was sort of in this interim
period that was really just a blessing in disguise. That we were
able to make this record with amazing producers and amazing people
to work with. And I came out owning it, and I met these guys and
we all started playing it together. It was really the first time
I'd heard it played live, like with a band. I'd been in the studio
for like 8 months and . . . I don't know if that answered your
question.
KC: No, it did . . . are you on Indie Label now or are you
record label shopping now?
F: No I am - I'm not on a label. It's been kind of amazing. What
happened was, when I left Virgin, I met these guys and started
playing. In the past . . . 2 or 2 ½ months , just having
leaked a couple songs like on MySpace, the reaction was amazing.
Like on my MySpace page like jumped from I think 350,000 plays
to over 1.6 million.
KC: Wow - do you maintain your own MySpace page?
F: Yes - . . . all fan mail. I really do - or we all do, but I
kind of make sure it happens cuz it's important, ya know?
KC: Oh definitely. Well it makes people feel better so they know
it's not a robot answering their emails.
F: No we totally answer. We really appreciate fans and the MySpace
crowd, especially a lot of the ones in England, they have been
amazing in promoting the band and we totally appreciate that stuff
and try to give stuff away. So that happened with MySpace. Whoopi
Goldberg heard the story about how Ivy League Kid Turned Rock
Star - huge deal with Virgin Records and that falls apart and
he decides to still do it on his own and she loves it so she has
us on her show. Then after that, SIRIUS radio, actually Hits1,
which is their Top40 channel heard about us and they started breaking
one of our songs called "Something About that Girl",
and that's the latest thing that's been happening. So all of that
is rolling along by itself. A lot of people that the support is
coming from, also like the GAP is playing one of our songs across
the country and so is Old Navy and we're talking to Urban Outfitters
about doing something with them, so its like a lot of these people
are into the idea of a pop band breaking independently of a label
- rock bands to that all the time,but there's really no history
of a pop band can truly break on their own other than like Lisa
Loeb who goes through a movie and then ultimately signs a deal,
so as a really long round about way of answering your question,
right now we are unsigned but kind of by choice. Because the support
we are getting as an unsigned band is amazing. That being said,
the new year is coming up and I think we'll definately explore
the interest from within the label community that we've been getting
and, if the fit is right then probably do that.
KC: Ya know, you guys don't seem to be doing too bad right now,
so . . .
F: Yea so either way. I just really want to get the music out
to as many people as possible. I was saying to a friend - another
band - All I really want is a chance to let people say if they
like this music or not. I genuinely believe the music is universal
and uplifting and whatever, but that's what I really want. Whoever
can make that happen, no make us sell records that make us money,
but just make it so people can hear it. There's only so much we
can do ourselves through MySpace or whatever, but I just want
people to "oh yea, I've heard that band and they suck"
or "yea I've heard that band and they're great". I just
want people to hear it.
KC: Right. I noticed a lot of your songs have a like - I almost
want to say an 80s pop vibe, kind of - at least that's my opinion.
F: Yea, they are definitely different. I would say its more of
a British, like a 60s British thing than 80s, because when I'm
thinking 80s, I'm thinking more like Duran Duran and certain bands
that I absolutely love, but I have more . . well first of all
you have the album. So I'm trying to - these people are going
to probably looking at the EP - it's a little confusing. It's
a little of a centi groove. But we've released an EP - like a
five song kind of sampler on ITunes. Compared to what we were
doing which was exclusively digital EP so we didn't have anything
- Apex Exposure didn't have anything to send to you except the
hard copy. So I told them they could send you the album which
is really kind of crazy. You're the only person probably in the
world other than me and my band who has the album - not even any
labels, so whatever the people who read this are going to hear
are just the songs that are on ITunes. That, they are gonna bite
on and buy the album. And of those songs, yes I think there is
definitely a session called "Perfect Wall" or I should
say "Free Rabbit" which was the song that originally
got me signed. It was inspired by kind of a Motown Shuffle., like
"You Can't Hurry Love" it's kind of like its too far
. . . don't quote me on those numbers, I might be wrong and that
would be embarrassing. It's a shuffle and it's like Motown. There's
another song called "Perfect Wall" that's also like
British Invasion. To me it's more the influence - I don't care.
I love the 80s. If you hear an 80s influence that's fine. That's
what I would say.
KC: No I can agree, I can see that. I think 80s if the first
thing that popped in my head. I was kinda, "oh look, I kind
of bounce around to this", ya know.
F: Right and ya know that's totally funny. That's exactly what
I wanted to do. I love the sound of music and its funny because
I write for different artists, I write different stuff for myself
and the friends that know that I can do that are like, "come
on why aren't you do more stuff like that" and its almost
like they think that's cooler. To me it's exactly what I wanted
to do with this record - make you bounce around, tap your foot,
kind of smile. It's funny, you know, as amazing as it was being
19 years old and getting a pretty crazy record deal, moving to
LA, the works . . it was very isolating process because I didn't
have a band. It was just me. So as cool as it was to go to the
Grammy's and sit next to SteveO, if you're by yourself and there's
no one to share it with . . . or even worse, when you're down
because your whoever doesn't like that vocal change or whatever
- there's no one to share that with sucks. So the actual process
of making the record in the beginning was like a little depressing.
So I finally decided then and there that I wanted to try to make
it really happy and it makes you happy. So that's what happened.
To me, when I think of tapping my foot, I think more like Motown/British
Invasion, but if its 80s for you then its 80s. There is one song
that we recorded, it's called "Too Much" and that's
total 80s so you should hear that.
KC: okay - let's hear a little bit of the story behind your
official site.
F: The thing with the site was, I was an intern before I started
trying to become a rock star and I was an intern for Sony Music.
I interned there. My job there was in A&R, particularly the
online A&R. I noticed a lot of the other scouts would spend
time on the same sites every day and I remember one day asking
this girl, Liz,' that band must be really great, you're always
checking them out'. She said 'no, it's just a fun website'. So
I realized if I ever had made it, I better have a cool website.
So when I finally quit my job and wanted to do it myself, I found
this guy named Dante, who's this Italian creative wizard that
one of my engineers recommended and I told him that I had an idea
for . . (aside: I'm sorry I can not help you) my roommate just
lost his midterm. . . . anyway so I told him I wanted to do something
cool so we were just brainstorming and New York, oh it's not NY
City, anyway it was first about NY City because NY is about really
who I am and what I'm about. So we go the idea of a virtual or
video game walking around where you can control me. and after
we looked at the album and there's so much weird stuff that was
really perfect, sometimes I hear little noises, sometimes I see
things when there is nothing there. And of course as I close my
eyes and see a silver screen and moving picture of me, I close
my ears of hear a symphony and I think they're playing for me.
it's all about the inner workings of my mind and so we decided
to make a site where it's like you're walking around in my mind,
where there's flying fish and aliens and bathtubs and windmills
and balloons and I don't know, various stuff. And so that's kind
of how the site started.
KC: So how did the videos tie in - you click
the billboards and the videos come up.
F: Are you saying when were those videos made or
how they fit or?
KC: yea like how do they tie in to everything?
F: I guess they do in the fact that they don't. How much of a
bullsh*t answer is that? (chuckling) The video, actually is a
really funny story, we were gonna make a really low budget Indie
music video, and it was really ambitious. We were trying to shoot
in 22 locations in 2 days. Obviously we weren't people who had
made a video. It didn't work. And we were left with a bunch of
great footage, but no story. So we sat around for weeks, trying
to edit stuff together to see what could we do, and we ended up
deciding to make an ETK or a string ETK that was kind of a day
in the life of Freddy making this EP. So that's what the video
really is. It's a true story that happened but it sort of tied
together with music video minettes. So the things are like transitional
parts of music videos are five to seven seconds segments of what
a music video could look like for that song, but it's really just
a trippy take on a day in the life of Freddy making this EP. It
is based on a true story when this one time I broke a keyboard,
my keyboard broke down in the studio, and I had not idea who .
. I needed to get the same exact keyboard and it was so heavy
and I couldn't fit it in a cab and I'm thinking who's car can
I borrow. Nobody I knew was home, everyone was at college; my
parents weren't home. So I called my dad's heart doctor, his cardiologist
and asked, hey, do you think I can borrow your car? And he's like,
oh 'who is this?' And I'm like, 'this if Freddy, you know, Freddy
Wexler'. And he's like, 'how are you?' 'Everything's good, I was
just, umm have a little bit of a problem. I have this keyboard
and . . . ' anyway, he let me borrow his car. It's a brand new
car and I'm driving, and I know it sounds so nervy, but like I
was in a desperate situation. So I'm driving the car and I swear
I did not get into an accident, this is really what happened!
I'm in the meat packing district and there's like a wind tunnel
on 13th or 14th and 9th - I don't remember, and I open the door
and a gust of wind, must have been 40 miles and hour, just takes
the door off! Not l off but bent the door back, you could tell
it was broken. I'm like 'Holy Shit!' and it was just crazy. Incidentally,
I'm with Dante who did the website, and did the video and we were
doing a photo shoot and he's like, 'come on, let's go inside'
and I just looked at him frozen and I was like - 'get back in
the car - we need to find a Jeep dealership' or a Mercedes dealership
or whatever kind of car it was, I don't remember. But, I don't
know - so that's what it was based on. I ended up fixing the car
so no one knew, but I did tell him. (KC: well they do now!) yea
he was like, dude you could have told me.
KC: So the whole ihatefreddy.com - is that a
part of the true story, too?
F: Not really, a lot of my humor is self deprecating, tongue in
cheek, whatever, and I know that I love pop music. I love music
that makes you smile, makes you laugh, whatever. And a lot of
people kind of put that music down. Although when you listen to
this album it's definitely, I think it has a depth to it and not
really just associated with pop music. But third, I like the idea
of embracing people who are gonna hate me and the band and pop
music. I built the site for them - they can just tell me how they
feel. And they can - cuz I think it's really funny. I think it's
funny when people spend their time doing that. People who like
it can go to one of 10 freddy sites and people who don't can go
to ihatefreddy or f**kfreddy, there's a bunch of ones that I made
that are really funny that actually fans go to and just make up
story because they think its funny, too.
KC: It is. It's hysterical! It's great especially for press and
getting your name out there. I was really intrigued by everything
- I just kept clicking on this and that, going 'oh wow, look at
all this stuff!'
F: Totally, and you know it's so ridiculous how many sites we've
made and just had fun with. Like I was just telling you about
the doctor just now and in the video the doctor's name is Doctor
Pettigrul, Leon Pettigrul and I think it's about toilet plungers
if you unscramble the word, so we have a site called plungerart.com,
we have a site called leonpettigrul.com which is in fact devoted
to the doctor in the video. We have the dailyfreddy.com which
is the daily news; we have freddyspace.com which is like a MySpace;
we have freddyteddy.com which is just a joke about illegally transporting
drugs through Teddy Bears - we don't say "drugs" we
say "contraband". We have all these sites. The crazy
thing is if you watch the video, if you go to, ideally you go
to freddyandthedials.com and look on the billboard, but if you
want to top that you go to ashowcalledfreddy.com - if you go to
that it brings you to the video right away. And as you watch,
you can click on things and it ends up bringing you to those micro
sites I just described.
KC: I found the whole Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles . . .
F: all sorts of crazy things.
KC: So do you have any tour plans coming up or anything?
F: Ya know, we just got finished doing a bunch of shows, we did
a big show on CMJ on Saturday night, CMJ in New York which was
great. We are in the process of putting some dates together now,
it's just a bunch of promotion stuff that we're doing, first,
it's kind of dead this month. Just everything, you know. People,
most of the fan base we have is either going on break or having
finals. But it's a good time we have to strategize for the new
year. We're putting dates together and they should be posted on
our site in the next month or so. We're also putting together
a radio campaign of different places we're going to go and do
radio shows starting early 2008.
KC: Definitely if you're in the Philly area we want to come
check you out.
F: That'd be great.
KC: So back to what we were saying about saving lives with
plungers, heroic actions with the doctor . . . just for fun, who
is your favorite super hero?
F: My favorite super hero? Oh, man. Let me think for a minute
. . . Does it have to be a super hero or can it be a fictional
character?
KC: A fictional character will work.
F: Because I'm thinking cartoons and stuff - I'm not like a fan
. . I wouldn't say Batman, I would say either Robin Hood or I
like some Tom and Jerry, which one's the mouse, Tom?
KC: No, Jerry.
F: Jerry's the mouse? Oh sh*t, definitely Jerry - Robin Hood and
Jerry.
KC: Why?
F: Jerry I just like because I've always loved that cartoon, it
always makes me happy no matter what. He's like a very clever
dude - he's very clever, he's always outsmarting people, or cats.
Robin Hood I like, obviously, he's the guy for the common man.
KC: Steal from the rich and give to the poor.
F: Yes. And besides that and it's a cheesy reason for choosing
him. He's always, in every portrayal of Robin Hood, Robin Hood
is always like an A-Typical hero. He's very charming and he always
has the prettiest, like in the cartoon he always had the prettiest
fox, not slang for a woman but an actual fox. I always liked it.
And there's a snake in the cartoon of Robin Hood.
KC: In the Disney one . . .
F: I think the one you see on TV, it probably is
the Disney one. The snake looks exactly like a friend of mine,
it's so weird! Seriously, when I see this friend it's like, 'oh
my god, it's the snake from Robin Hood'.
KC: I can't even remember the name of that character.
I do know what you're talking about though.
F: Yea, it's a very distinct look.
KC: So can you tell our readers any interesting
tidbits about Freddy and the Dials that we may not already know?
F: Interesting tidbits? Well, there's the Kiyanu
who is our lead guitarist. He toured with, he was Gwen Stefani's
main touring guitarist for awhile. Kind of cool.
KC: Definitely.
F: He's really, really amazing. Random things .
. . I don't know - help me.
KC: Let's see - has there been any crazy fan
experiences or anything like that? Anybody have any weird habits?
F. What's the age group of this magazine?
KC: We run anywhere from the teenage all the
way up to adults, so it's everything in the spectrum.
F: You tell me if this is inappropriate or not -
I'll just tell you a funny story.
KC: Okay - I'll make a determination when I'm
transcribing.
F: if you go to MySpace page, there is a photo which
has been banned. In front is a table with a fish on it, a dead
fish. Instead of a fish, I've used three half naked webgirls.
So we decided to do a photo shoot at a place in the city, in New
York City - a place called Big Daddy's Diner. It's a really cool
hip place, the place is colorful and lot's of famous black and
white 8x10's on wall. The photographer at the time the true New
Yorker or New Jerseyer or what ever the noun part of that is,
he looked over at the waitresses and it was just us there and
he was like, 'hey you guys want to be in the photo?' and they
said 'sure'. And the was like, ' how do you feel about taking
off your clothes?' and we immediately, the band none of us like
them-they're sleazy, I don't want to say sleazy because if the
guy reads this, it'll make him feel like I thought it was sleazy,
but anyway. We're like, 'no, no we were just kidding!' and before
we can say that they were basically naked!
KC: Oh My God!
F: So this is New York City at like a diner that
everybody goes to! They were just like, so do we get the CD playing?
And these were the . . .
KC: Waitresses, right?
F: Waitresses, just random waitresses at the place.
KC: Sounds like they had a little freaky side,
don't they?
F: Absolutely! It was incredible. So we have that
photo and whoever reads this will appreciate that and whoever
doesn't will just not understand why we have that photo.
KC: Very True. So my final question is what can
we expect in the future from you guys?
F: Well, besides us taking over the world, you can
hopefully expect an album out in 2008 - we'll definitely have
an album out in 2008 and just hopefully some great, uplifting
songs, cool songs. You can't expect another band that sounds unlike
anything you've ever heard in your entire life.
KC: I'll be sure to quote you on that one. Is
there any final message or comment you'd like to make?
F: Let me say I'm absolutely positively responsible
on MySpace, I guess the message we do - we love our fans and we
hope people will check us out and think we offer a lot of really
cool content to keep interested and more than just songs. We hope
people will take the time to look at it.
KC: I definitely did and I hope a lot of people
will follow along with that. I'll definitely add some links to
the interview coverage.
F; That would be great. I say British Invasion/60's
Pop.
KC: Okay
F: okay - where are you from originally?
KC: Delaware
F: Awesome
KC: I'll send you a message when this goes live,
bear with me we're really backed up these days so I'll get it
up as soon as possible
F: I really appreciate it, I 'm sorry I was kind
of all over the place.
KC: It was great. Thank you so much for talking
to us.
F: okay, take it easy - thanks Kristyn.
KC: you're welcome, bye bye.
For more information about this truly unique band
check out the following websites:
Myspace - -
FreddyandtheDials.com
- - Ashowcalledfreddy.com
- - leonpettigrul.com
plungerart.com
- - ihatefreddy.com
- - freddyteddy.com
