Nothing Wrong With Liking A Flashy Man: An Interview With Dick Valentine

Interviewed by Christian Lipski

From the bouncy warning “Danger! High Voltage!”, through the metallic invitation to a “Gay Bar,” to the recent clarinet-laden declaration, “It’s Showtime,” Electric Six has been a band you can count on for high-energy music in a patchwork quilt of styles. Their new album, Flashy, is more of the same only in the sense that it’s utterly rocking. Lead singer Dick Valentine and band have put together a new collection of songs that span the gamut from the upstroke ska of “Your Heat Is Rising” to the electronic vocoder of “Making Progress.” Valentine took time out from the recording of E6’s new CD to talk with Popshifter‘s Christan Lipski about carbon footprints, the music industry, and the worst places in America.

Popshifter: Hi, this is Christian Lipski from Popshifter.

Dick Valentine: Hey, how’re you doing?

Popshifter: I’m fine. Thank you for taking the time.

Dick Valentine, sushi chef
Photo © Alicia Gbur

Dick Valentine: Oh, no worries. Are you calling from Portland?

Popshifter: Yes, that’s right!

Dick Valentine: Oh, that’s a great town.

Popshifter: I love Portland. You were here on your solo tour.

Dick Valentine: Well, it wasn’t a tour, I was in town, so I decided to play a show.

Popshifter: That’s awesome. Yeah, my brother and I went.

Dick Valentine: Yeah, I was drinking the white wine spritzers.

Popshifter: You invited everyone on stage to sing with you a couple times.

Dick Valentine: Yeah, it was a good night.

Popshifter: We were wondering why you were on the other side of the country [from the other show in Michigan].

Dick Valentine: My friend, who works for Weiden+Kennedy, an ad agency there for Nike, they had their annual party and they hired me to be some sort of emcee, I guess. So, I got paid to go there and walk around and make their employees do stupid things for money.

Popshifter: Schmooze for hire.

Dick Valentine: Kind of, yeah. It was a unique opportunity, and it was an excuse to go to Portland, so. . .

Popshifter: Yeah, so you might as well take the opportunity to play some music as well.

Dick Valentine: Exactly.

Popshifter: That’s awesome.

Dick Valentine: It was good times.

Popshifter: Are you in New York right now?

Dick Valentine: Yeah.

Popshifter: I have a friend in Detroit who said that school was closed yesterday because of dangerous wind chill.

Dick Valentine: Yeah, we’re not getting it as bad here. It could be a lot worse, like in Chicago or Detroit, but it’s still kind of cold here. In Michigan, it’s like, three below there.

Popshifter: That’s crazy. How can humans live there?

Dick Valentine: I don’t know. They keep saying it’s gonna get warmer any time now, but we’ll see.

Photo © Alicia Gbur

Click to read more from Dick Valentine on. . .

Touring and bad reviews
Vocoder and marketing music
Current lineup and Alexyss K. Tylor
“Heavy Woman” and Larry Craig
Sheffield and Austin
Alternative music and honesty
Florida and Election Day
The new album and “the heart of a lion”

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