Possum Dixon are full of stories

Rip It Up, Issue 200, 1 April 1994, Page 18

Possum Dixon are full of stories

Story #1: The Name Rob Zabrecky was watching America's Most Wanted when someone rang him about a band name. The item on telly was about a fugitive called James “Possum" Dixon. Dixon was never caught. “That's what we're waiting for. ‘Cos if they do catch him, we'll probably get a lot of press. I don't know if he knows about us. We 're getting pretty big in the States but I don't know how big a rock n' roll fan he is.” . . Story #2: The Practice Rooms Before they were signed to Interscope last year, the members of Possum Dixon all held lowly clerical jobs in mailrooms and offices. They couldn’t afford rehearsal space so they duplicated a key, cracked a security code and practised at night in a warehouse where Rob used to work. They were never caught. “We had to do that. And what happened was Interscope came along and a couple of weeks after we quit our jobs, the company I worked for folded, so I got out just in the nick of time. But yeah it's all true. You beg and borrow and steal until you get what you want." Story #3: The Album After releasing a couple of singles on their own Surf Detective label, the band signed a two album deal with Interscope Records last year. The self-titled debut, with a Pixies meets Violent Femmes sound, is the culmination of over five years together. A lot of the lyrics on the album are about shitty jobs in mailrooms and so on. Now the band’s your main thing, are you writing'differently? “I’m just lying and saying I'm in a mailroom. Nah, well there’s all types of different things out there to write about. It’s a new phase, you know, there's people we’re meeting on the road — happy, sad, scary and weird things. ” You can tell thejumpfrom mailroom to music hall has meant plenty to Rob. He sounds excited about everything that’s going on around him, even though he’s been touring with the band for four and a half months.

“We never thought of music as a job. It’s something we love to do. When we were working tentwelve hour days and we went to practice or made a video or played shows a couple of times a week, it was always like an escape for all of us. And now we're doing it every night. But I feel what I'm doing is right. I love to sing I love to perform. ” You’ve been playing some of the songs on the album for a couple of years, like the single ‘Watch That Girl Destroy Me’. Which are the new ones? “I don't think there are any brand new ones. Like ‘lnvisible' is newer, thatwas about a year ago. We've been playing these songs for a long time, but they were never released on an album or anything like that."

So it’s almost like a Possum Dixon greatest hits... “Yeah, now we can retire. Go to Paris and OD or something.” If you get to see the video for ‘Watch The Girl

Destroy Me’ or if you open out the CD cover you’ll get an idea of their frantic gigs. Rob jumps around with a double bass or bashes at the piano. Celso Chavez on guitar jumps and squirms around like a clicker beetle on speed. Have you had any accidents in the shows? “Yeah, our guitar player broke his ankle and I've had a gun pulled on me." . Someone pulled a gun on you on stage? “It was right afterwards. Someone wasn’t happy with the way our show was going. There’s a part of our show where I put down my bass and do a Madonna medley. You know, shake my ass and have a bit of fun. " And the guy didn’t like that... “No, not at all. And then I was egging him on like he looked like a KKK member without his hood on. I was calling him a faggot and stuff like that. " \ So did security sort him out or something? “I was terrified of calling security in case he came back later to murder me..." Sounds like good material for a song. “Yeah, but I'm so damn terrified of it I'd just like to forget it. ” Some of Possum Dixon’s most interesting songs come from ordinary ideas. ‘Nerves’ is about a sleepy day in the mailroom. ‘Elevators’ is about the ride down from the office to go home. And then there’s ‘We’re All Happy’... - - - ; , ■ ‘“We’re All Happy’ is a fun song. There’s a lot of irony in it. The lyrical content hits home to a lot of our fans. There a house near where I live and a lot of bands would move in there and there's this girl who used to use a vibrator a lot and the house would be shaking. It’s a satire on being happy but not being happy, and artificial stimulation I guess. " Are you guys happy now? “People get this idea that as a band we’re this jaunty jovial group and every time we get up on stage we want to jump around and have a good time and all that crap. And we do that in good spirit. But sometimes we 're angry with each other or something's gone wrong at home. Sometimes I can be as pissed off as Henry Rollins. But I guess the best gigs are when everyone in good spirits. " It would suck having to get angry before every gig. “And angry's no gift. Angry bands you know — I just can't relate to 'em. Like why are these guys so pissed off all the time? They’re my age, they’re playing big venues, they could probably any chick they wanted. " How’s the rock n’ roll lifestyle for you guys? ' “It suits me just fine. I have no complaints at all. You live in hotel rooms and eat shitty food — I can live with that. You exercise when you can, you get ■drunk a couple of times a week and if you wanted to get loaded on drugs they're there too. There's girls, there's fun people to talk to, you're constantly surrounded by music and you get to travel, it's great. ”

JOHN TAITE