Dishwalla

Dishwalla

Listen closely to Dishwalla, and you discover there is blood on these tracks.

Twelve years and five albums after the band from Santa Barbara, California made their

debut, Dishwalla endures. Together the group - lead singer JR Richards, guitarist Rodney

Browning, bassist Scot Alexander, keyboardist Jim Wood and drummer Pete Maloney -

have survived record company musical chairs, countless musical trends, and even the

curious challenge of having their very own smash hit right out of the box. Through it all -

the good, the bad and the ugly - Dishwalla have emerged stronger than ever, and in the

process have established themselves as that rock & roll rarity: a real, working band that

stays together to play together.

Fittingly, then, Dishwalla (a self titled CD) is very much an album about survival

and transcendence - an inspired song cycle about rising "Above The Wreckage" to borrow

a phrase from one of the album's numerous standout tracks. Recorded with three diverse

yet distinguished producers - Bill Szymczyk (The Eagles, B.B. King), Sylvia Massy

(Tool, System of a Down) and Ryan Greene (NOFX, Lag Wagon) - the new CD is, in the

words of the group's JR Richards, "very representative of our whole journey."

It's a journey that, for many, began with Dishwalla's 1996 platinum debut Pet

Your Friends that included "Counting Blue Cars," the compelling hit track that would

define the band for its more casual fans. "A hit can be a blessing and a curse in the

making," Richards says with a smile. "We had a song so big that it overshadowed

everything else we came up with for the next few years. You end up competing with

yourself. It's been a mixed blessing but one that's helped us to keep working and keep

going." It's also a song that's led some to wrongly typecast Dishwalla as everything from

a hardcore Christian band to hardcore feminists. For Richards, "It's been interesting

because some people thought we were a Christian band - and yet there'd be Christian

groups protesting outside a club because we used `God' as a feminine pronoun.

Ultimately, what we learned is how that song really connected with so many people on

such a lyrical level."

Dishwalla enjoyed less commercial success with their second album, 1998's And

You Think You Know What's Life About, at least partially the result of record company

downsizing and its resultant turmoil. Leaving their label, A&M Records, the band

proceeded to release the lovely, introspective Opaline on the small Immergent label in

2002. "We were pretty beat up after our first two records and our third record was very

reflective of that," Richards explains. "This new album is really something of a rebirth

because we're still together. It's like we're restating our vows," he grins. "We're still

writing, still excited and the new material reflects that passion. And the new record has a

lot more energy than the last album - a real sense of purpose. It's less an album about

adversity than about overcoming it."

In a very real way, Dishwalla is the album Dishwalla has always wanted to

make;a strong set of songs that brings together the band's extraordinary and wide-ranging

gifts. Dishwalla remains very much a band with each member bringing something distinct

to the party. "On guitar, Rodney brings a lot of style and keeps us contemporary,"

Richard explains. "Let's face it, bands are, in part, about being cool - and Rodney's cool!

Pete is much more into a song than any drummer I know. He's also the conscience of the

band. Everything he does musically is felt and not over thought. And even though I'm a

keyboard player too, Jim comes up with stuff that I could never imagine. He can take

something from sounding standard to something truly unique and exciting. And Scotty is

more than a bass player - he's a great songwriter and musician. As much as we disagree

with each other at times, when we play, it always brings us back together.

Released by The Orphanage - a progressive company founded by manager Leo

Rossi as a nurturing, welcoming home for bands orphaned by the current record company

turmoil - Dishwalla finds the band taking full control of their destinies. "This time

everything was up to us without the second-guessing that's standard fare today for major

record labels these days," Richards says. "Often you get the sense that they don't know

what they want, so you as a band had better know what you want. It was great not to

have that horrible indecision hanging over your head. We are plenty tough on ourselves as

it is, so we don't need a label whose only thought is, 'I'm not sure if I hear the single.' "