Dramarama: The 1991 Gavin Convention Provides A Perfect Opportunity To Interview The Band

Originally published in American Music Press (1991) 
By Devorah Ostrov

Dramarama (publicity photo)

The name Dramarama always makes me think of a pretentious English synth band. And if there's one thing I hate, it's pretentious English synth bands. "Not so!" their publicist assures me when he calls with an offer to interview the group. Apparently, they just happen to be in San Francisco promoting Vinyl (their new CD on Chameleon Records) during the Gavin convention.

The publicist also notes that although they're LA-based these days, the guys originally hail from New Jersey and that "their sound can be compared to the Replacements and the Beatles." Now there's a helluva claim to live up to!

Vinyl (Chameleon Records - 1991)

It's Dramarama's affable John Easdale who greets me and my friend Michelle at the hotel.

"So, what do you do?" asks Michelle, as Easdale settles himself on the bed and lights a cigarette.

"I sing, I play a little guitar, I write the songs..."

"That make the whole world sing," mumbles Michelle. This is why I always bring her along to interviews!

The Dramarama story began several years ago when Easdale, bassist Chris Carter and guitarists Mark Englert and Peter Wood were attending high school in Wayne, New Jersey.

"We all grew up together," reflects Easdale, "and we started the band after high school. We weren't all gonna be college graduates, so we decided to become a band instead. First, we put out a 45 ["You Drive Me" b/w "A Fine Example" and a cover of "Femme Fatale"] and a 12-inch five-song EP ["Comedy"] on our own Questionmark Records. We got reviewed in Trouser Press and started corresponding with a French DJ who read the review. The record got to be No. 1 on this guy's radio show, and through that, we got a contract with [French indie label] New Rose Records for our first album [Cinéma Vérité]."

Dramarama pose in front of the Gem Spa à la the New York Dolls.

Back cover photo of the "Anything, Anything" 45 (New Rose - 1989) 

Legendary Los Angeles DJ Rodney Bingenheimer gave the group its big break in America and turned their song "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)" into something of a hit.

Easdale resumes the story: "Rodney started playing it — it had a picture of Edie Sedgwick on the cover, I guess that's why he picked it up. So, he played it a lot. He said we were from France. He pronounced our name, Dream-a-rama."

"Rodney's coming," interrupts Wood, who had entered the room a short time earlier and stood shyly against a wall. "I think he was on the plane behind us."

Before I can ask about "Anything, Anything" being used in one of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Chris Carter — all black hair and shades — bursts through the door. Someone's told him about our mutual love of old Creem magazines (really good publicist!), and he drops a dozen issues sealed in plastic on the bed.

Dramarama at the time of this interview

with drummer Clem Burke in the center (publicity photo)

"I didn't know how much of a collection you guys had," he offers. "So, I just brought some interesting ones."

I motion for Easdale to continue talking while Michelle and I try to discretely remove the protective plastic from issues featuring Kiss comics and Alice Cooper beer recipes. However, the singer has become distracted and is also making a grab at the magazines.

Easdale: I didn't see that. What's that one?

Carter: Kordosh [J. Kordosh, former Creem editor] gave it to me. I was gonna bring my Boy Howdy! beer can...

Cinéma Vérité (New Rose - 1985)

Easdale: He has a Boy Howdy! can. Plus, he has the actual sticker on the sheet so you can make your own can of Boy Howdy! But it doesn't work on today's cans. Back then, beer cans were bigger, and they had that bar down the side.

The liner notes to Vinyl pay further tribute to the group's fave magazine (and throw any chance of a favorable record review from the current edition out the window): Creem's old issues are listed under special thanks, while capital letters proclaim "NEW CREEM SUCKS!"

The liner notes also mention two guest artists of some renown. One is keyboardist Benmont Tench from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, who dropped by to play on a couple of tracks and stayed for a total of five. "A magnificently amazing musician like that guy — everything he does adds something to the record," states Easdale. "So, if he wants to do it, I mean, geez..."

The other name that stands out is guitarist Mick Taylor who lends slide to the anti-classic rock radio treatise "Classic Rot." How did the ex-Rolling Stone get involved with Dramarama, I wonder? "We went to see the Replacements," explains Easdale, "and they said, 'Do you have any songs on your new album that Mick Taylor could play on?'"

Dramarama

Photo: David Perry

Having only had a chance to listen to Vinyl a couple of times prior to the interview, I compliment the one tune that has been stuck in my head all day and make a faux pas by referring to "What Are We Gonna Do?" as the "Earth Day song."

"It's not really an Earth Day song," points out Easdale with such exasperation I'm guessing I'm not the first one to call it that. "We were playing at the 20th anniversary of Earth Day up here, out at Golden Gate Park. And I was thinking about the irony of it being the 20th anniversary, but the 17th and the 15th and the 13th anniversaries had gone pretty much unnoticed — at least where I was living at the time. I don't know how it was in the Bay Area, but there was none of this ecological jazz going on from 1970-1990. All of a sudden, it's the 20th anniversary and it's like, 'Wake up! It's Earth Day again!' That's what the song is about."

Meanwhile, Michelle has been glancing at the press release for Vinyl. "You do 'Memo from Turner.' That's a good choice for a cover," she tells the band.

The (not-so-helpful as it turns out) press release also describes the song "Train Going Backwards" as being "Neil Young and Crazy Horse inspired."

"Everyone says that," grumbles Easdale.

Perhaps, it's suggested, everyone says it because it's written in the press release.

"What Are We Gonna Do?" CD single
 (Chameleon - 1991)

"I never listened to Neil Young while I was growing up," he insists. "I hated him! He was a hippie! There were all these flannel-shirted hippies in my school, all these burnouts. They sat on the lawn and sang Neil Young songs with their acoustic guitars. I never even heard Neil Young sing half of these songs, but I just knew them. Songs like [whines] 'Old man...'"

"Down by the river..." whines Wood. "They played that one for years."

So, you might ask (as I did), what was Easdale listening to in the '70s?

"T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Beatles solo albums... I know there was one summer where I listened to Yes and ELP, which I sometimes forget."

"He doesn't like to talk about that," laughs Wood.

"And then punk — some of it anyway. The Clash and the Sex Pistols were all right. I had a couple of Stranglers' records... Patti Smith... Dictators always! I saw a show where Styx opened for the Dictators and BeBop Deluxe!"

Advert for the "Anything, Anything" single

As luck would have it, Dramarama have their own strangely-billed gig to talk about — and it even involves a pretentious English synth band!

"We opened for Erasure," says Easdale. "It was the most ridiculous show I've ever seen. They gave us the space of about the width of this [twin] bed to set up in, and the rest of the stage behind us was all these gigantic..."

"...mushrooms and snails," fills in Wood. "And they had a chorus line of men wearing sequined G-strings. It was like..."

But wait! Easdale never finished telling us about Dramarama's history. We know about high school, the French record label, and Rodney Bingenheimer picked up their record because it had Edie on the cover... Then what?

"We'd heard of Rodney, so we said, 'Let's go to LA for a vacation.' And we just ended up staying. So, we moved here and made albums and we've had a million drummers."

Which brings us more or less up to date. Ex-Blondie drummer Clem Burke is the latest addition to Dramarama's lineup (although he was too late to play on Vinyl, that honor goes to Wire Train's Brian MacLeod). How did they secure his services?

"Rodney hooked us up with Clem," says Easdale. "At first, we were kind of nervous because it was Clem Burke. But we got over it. Just the fact that he was interested in the band at all was pretty flattering. He's the best drummer in the world!"

Two posters for recent Dramarama shows featuring 

Gerard Malanga's iconic photo of Edie Sedgwick