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

Popshifter: That’s really too bad. I think Flashy is the first record you’ve done with the same lineup that you had on the previous one.

Photo © Alicia Gbur

Dick Valentine: That’s correct, and it looks like this next record will be the same lineup, too. Once we got to this point, with this lineup, I mean, it doesn’t seem to me like there’s an odd man out in the band, where there always was before. Always somebody who definitely stood out, like everyone would be talking about them behind that person’s back, you know, like, “How are we going to get this person out?” and so forth. Which leads me to believe that maybe I’m that person now, and I don’t know.

Popshifter: (laughs)

Dick Valentine: This is just a situation where, all six of us can go out to dinner together, and you know, if we’re teaming up, like in a hotel, it’s pretty interchangeable—anyone can room with anybody, there’s no. . .

Popshifter: There’s no cliques, or people to avoid or anything.

Dick Valentine: Yeah, pretty much, it’s running pretty smooth right now.

Popshifter: And The Colonel is producing again?

Dick Valentine: Yeah, yeah, it’s the ultimate home recording experience. We kinda learned with the first record that when you go into a big studio and you fly a big producer over from London, all the money that you’re paying to do that doesn’t necessarily add up to a better record. And I think that even since then, home recording technology had gotten so much better, you know, I feel sorry for any band that doesn’t record at home now.

Popshifter: Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. I do some recording at home, and if you spend enough time on it, you can’t tell the difference.

Dick Valentine: Yeah, I don’t think a lot of bands are. A lot of studios are going out of business, so, that’s the way it is. And I’m all for it.

Popshifter: (laughs) Good, me too. Bring it back to the people, is what I say.

Dick Valentine: I’m telling you. Everyone, stay in your apartment.

Popshifter: (laughs) You can use a webcam, interface with people—

Dick Valentine: Well, it’s better for the environment that way, you know, we’ll reduce our carbon footprint by staying home.

Popshifter: Yeah—

Dick Valentine: By literally reducing our footprints. (laughs)

Popshifter: And if we took our feet off, that would be the next step.

Dick Valentine: Yeah, we’ll stop walking around, no more footprints. Therefore no more carbon footprints.

Popshifter: Exactly. See? This needs to be written down.

Dick Valentine: Yep. (laughs)

Popshifter: How did you happen upon Alexyss Tylor?

Dick Valentine: Oh, my friend, when we were in San Francisco, he said, “You gotta see this,” and just the one video that we used sound from, you know, she’s got a lot of ’em, but I can just watch that thing over and over again because she doesn’t stop, and it’s just clear, like, how nuts she is. She just sits there talking, unabated, for ten minutes at a time. She’s just going on, and it’s just mind-blowing.

Popshifter: I printed out a transcript of that video, and it’s just, like, pages of her, one paragraph.

Dick Valentine: Yeah, it’s really good, like, Dr. Ruth meets Jesse Jackson, that’s how I characterize it.

Popshifter: (laughs) And the next question would be how did you choose the quotes you use? There’s just so much good stuff in there.

Dick Valentine: It’s really rare that I write a song that’s really about something, it’s one of two songs I can think of that are about something real. I just remember we were on one of the tours and watching this thing, and I said, “I’m gonna write a song called ‘Flashy Man,'” and that was it.

Popshifter: Yeah, and the way you deliver that line, through the whole song, is so aggressive, and just. . . you’re in predator mode, I think.

Dick Valentine: (laughs) And it was just one of those things. You know, I usually try not to delve into the real world, but that was just one thing where it kinda laid itself out.

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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