Culture :: Interviews
DARRYL SHEPARD
September 26, 1998 |
| Darryl Shepard |
DARRYL: Good. How are you doing?
BAZOOKA JOE: Oh, pretty good! How was your summer?
DARRYL: It was good. It was mellow. You know?
BAZOOKA JOE: Anything special happen?
DARRYL: Nope. Sat around, watched a lot of Simpsons and drank a lot of beer.
BAZOOKA JOE: What did you do for the fourth of July?
DARRYL: Fourth of July? I watched the Simpsons and drank beer.
BAZOOKA JOE: It's fall now and it's going to be Halloween. Do you have any plans for Halloween?
DARRYL: No.
BAZOOKA JOE: What did you do last Halloween?
DARRYL: I think I watched the Simpsons. Might have drank some wine.
BAZOOKA JOE: Lots of Simpsons but you broke it up with some variation with the wine?
DARRYL: Last year I don't even remember, man.
BAZOOKA JOE: It's a drunken, drunken haze of Simpsons.
DARRYL: I was hanging out with Homer or something.
BAZOOKA JOE: Oddly enough, I'm supposed to go to this Halloween party in Seattle with my friend Diana. My idea is that would we go as Mr. Burns and Smithers.
DARRYL: Wow! Does Diana live out there?.
BAZOOKA JOE: She lives in Seattle.
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| Darryl Shepard |
BAZOOKA JOE: Um, no, no. She lived in Jersey. She lived in Boston for a while.
DARRYL: Different Diana. I know a Diana that just moved out there.
BAZOOKA JOE: Nope, wrong Diana. She's been out there for quite a while.
DARRYL: Don't tell her I said hi, then.
BAZOOKA JOE: Diana, he's not saying "hi". I want to explain something to the listening audience. Darryl is a figure in rock and roll history in Boston. Firmly entrenched. You've been in Roadsaw, Supahead, Slapshot, Slaughter Shack, and Deslok. Currently you're doing this solo acoustic thing which worked out nicely.
DARRYL: Yeah, just something different to do. You know, I've loved acoustic music for a long time but I never felt that I was good enough at it at all to even try to do anything. It was something different to try.
BAZOOKA JOE: What made you decide to make that leap?
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| Darryl Shepard |
BAZOOKA JOE: That's a common dilemma for a rock musician. So, you're on a hiatus from Roadsaw?
DARRYL: Yeah, I think that might be ending soon. Hopefully. This summer I wanted to take some time off, take the summer off. Just chill. I think that's done, though. Hopefully we're going to get back together and take over.
BAZOOKA JOE: How'd you get into playing guitar? Did you start off with another instrument or did you go straight to guitar?
DARRYL: I played the trumpet since fourth grade. I originally wanted to play saxophone but they were out of saxophones so I took a trumpet because it was all they had. So I started to play the trumpet in the fourth grade.Then I wanted drums but I didn't have any room for a drum set so I played guitar, probably when I was thirteen. I'm not sure if it was Black Sabbath, AC/DC or Van Halen that did it but in was one of those three that made me think "Wow, man, that's fucking cool!"
BAZOOKA JOE: Really? My dad was a hippy type and he was in a band before I was born so I was always exposed to music. I got him into the Sex Pistols and he turned me on to the Pogues. Thanks, Dad!
DARRYL: I was always into music but it wasn't till I heard something like that that I wanted to play music.
BAZOOKA JOE: So now you're doing open mics. How does it feel be there by yourself strumming away?
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| Darryl Shepard |
BAZOOKA JOE: Do you still get nervous when you're playing in a rock band?
DARRYL: Sometimes, but I'm a lot more secure because there's other people on stage and it's very loud. You can screw up and it sounds good.
