Interview by Brooke Gibbs.

FMM: Thank you so much for joining me. How are you feeling about the upcoming Australian tour?

Dick Valentine: Oh, feeling great, because we're going to have a good five weeks between tours, so there'll be no excuses once we get to Australia. We'll be well rested. Five weeks worth of rest and exercise, sleeping and taking care of ourselves, so when we get to Brisbane, there will be no excuses.

FMM: Sounds great. Your tour last year was completely sold out, so how do you plan to build on that success for the upcoming tour?

Dick Valentine: I guess you look at last year and then you say to yourself, it's gotta be like that. And anything short of that will be a monumental failure.

FMM: It's the greatest hits tour and your music has spanned decades, so how do you decide which songs are gonna make the set list?

Dick Valentine: Well, you know that there's a couple that have to be in the set list. You know what those songs are, so we're going to put those in there, and then we've got a bunch of live staples that we've done for, you know, for years. And then we have a new album out called Turquoise. We have a new album that we play at least eight, nine songs off of. So you're gonna hear stuff off the new album and then you're gonna hear live staples from the years, like Down at McDonaldz and I Buy The Drugs. Then, you're gonna hear the big three off of Fire, and then maybe a couple songs of grab bag, if you will; songs you might not be expecting to hear based on fan opinion at that time. And then that comprises the set. And then we all go home.

FMM: Yeah, it sounds like the perfect mix. And you mentioned there's some gaps, too. Do you have much time to explore while you're here or will you be busy with rehearsals and sound checks?

Dick Valentine: Oh, yeah. I mean, it just depends on the schedule. If there's a day off after a show, then I definitely explore the city. Also fortunate to have a lot of friends in these places, so touring is a great way to see people you haven't seen in a while, but you just always take the day as it comes. And if you have to be on an airplane into the next city in the morning, so be it. But eventually you do get some time off and then I generally do try to explore places and get to know them.

FMM: Following on from your experience with lat year’s tour, is there anything that you'll do differently for the upcoming tour?

Dick Valentine: We won't go to the Gold Coast and we will go to Wellington, New Zealand. I think those are the two things we'll be doing differently. Other than that, it's the same band, just one year older now, one year closer to death, and we're just trying to stave off death by doing the same thing over and over again.

FMM: Wellington is beautiful, so it's good that you've got that on your list.

Dick Valentine: One of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. I'm ecstatic to be returning.

FMM: And what I love about your live shows is it's not only music. You also combine theatre. How do you combine all those elements into the one show?

Dick Valentine: I'm not sure what you're talking about. Maybe you're, like, basing it off of our music videos, but when we do a live show, we're just basically a live rock band. There's not a lot of theatre, per se, not that I'm opposed to it. It's just we're dirt poor and a lot of times at the end of the interview, I'll probably be crowdfunding you personally to buy me a sandwich. That's how little budget we have for theatre. But if this tour goes well, maybe we can start taking some of that money and putting it towards dancers.

FMM: Yeah, I was basing it off music videos. What I meant was, it doesn't look like just music. It also looks like you're performing, you're having fun, whereas some people just perform and it's purely just music.

Electric Six: Oh, I hear you. We do have fun on stage, but we are just a rock band and not a whole lot of tricks up our sleeves. We have had, at times, we've had a couple tours where we did some multimedia stuff, had some screens behind us, but, you know, then everybody started doing that. So, we decided to buck that trend by doing absolutely nothing other than just playing songs.

FMM: You've got songs such as Gay Bar and Danger!, High Voltage, which seem to never lose popularity, which is great.

Dick Valentine: It is great. Yeah, it's really great.

FMM: How does that fit into the broader narrative of your evolution and where your band wants to end up?

Dick Valentine: We want to end up on top just like any band, but that doesn't seem to be happening, so if you can't end up on top, then, you know, you're just spending. It's a great career, but you're spending your career just trying to get to the top, you know, waiting and, you're being pulled down by your past and things you've done poorly. So, you just keep putting out albums, hoping that this one is the one that's going to get us back to where we were. But then, each new album is actually more like an anchor that pulls us further and further from the top, so it is a purgatory. It's a wonderful purgatory, but nonetheless, we are under no illusion that we are on top, and that's what keeps us going.

FMM: Yeah, that's the main thing. You’ve got to have that one thing that keeps you going, and obviously the fans love it. Your tours are sold out. People want more.

Dick Valentine: We're trying so hard. Nobody can accuse us of not trying.

FMM: Your Australian tour promises to be an ultimate audio visual experience. Can you elaborate more on that and what people can expect?

Dick Valentine: Sure. We're gonna be a rock and roll band up there. There's five of us on the Australian tour. We're now well into our forties and fifties. We look like your uncles. We are your drunk uncles up there with musical instruments and a great deal of power. We'll be playing some of the big hits and then songs off of some of the other albums. And then everybody applauds for us. We leave the stage, we wave to the crowd, and then everybody goes home.

FMM: You mentioned before that your end goal is to stay on top, and that it is very hard. Do you have any advice for younger bands that are trying to break through the scene at the moment?

Dick Valentine: My blanket advice to anyone starting a band is just do it because you enjoy it. How we started or, you know, I started, I did not think that I would or that this would ever be a career. I never started the band thinking this is gonna make me money. I thought I did it because I enjoyed music. That's my two cents. Just do it because you like it, do it because you have fun doing it and you like to write songs and perform them, but as far as strategies on how you're gonna make it to the top, I have no advice for anybody, including myself.

FMM: I appreciate the honesty. Do you find you have to balance between what you enjoy and what's going to make a great hit and bring the money in?

Dick Valentine: We haven't thought about having a hit in maybe 20 years. Once we had the hits Danger!, High Voltage and Gay Bar, we were told by very powerful people that you will never, ever have another hit again. So in that sense, we just began making music that we liked. And so 17 albums later, we have 17 albums of music we like, and we're going to work on some more. And that's the great thing about our band, is we are under no illusion that we're going to be a hit machine ever again. We just make the music for ourselves and it seems to resonate with 500 to 800 people in every city we go to.

FMM: So in saying that, what do you think it was about Danger, High Voltage and Gay Bar that did do so well?

Dick Valentine: Well, I think they're catchy songs. They had the sound of that time, 2003, and you know, they're also quirky and entertaining and kind of funny and didn't sound like anything else at the time, so they were unique. And again, the purpose of Electric Six is just for people to have a good time and not overthink anything and not be too serious, so that's what we provide for you. I think those songs are a good example of it.

FMM: And what I love is, as you said, you keep trying. I love that you guys are still in the scene, you're still touring, you're still doing it because it's purely what you guys enjoy.

Dick Valentine: Exactly. That's a great job, and for an American to go to Australia every year and play shows, I mean, start there, it's pretty incredible.

FMM: What do you guys enjoy most about touring? Australia and New Zealand.

Dick Valentine: Yeah, it's cool. Flying everywhere. That's the only… you know, when you do Europe or the United Kingdom or the United States, you know, you're driving every day, whereas in Australia, you're flying, and it's kind of a unique way to tour. And then also because you're flying, you get to the venue and all your stuff's already there, it's already set up for you by the venue, so we don't have to load in any gear. We just kind of turn up and play. That's pretty awesome.

FMM: That's really handy and gives you more time. because otherwise, you'd be running around stressed if you had to do everything yourself.

Dick Valentine: Exactly. It’s a great way to tour and we're pretty fortunate we get to do it.

FMM: Obviously, you've got the tour, but looking ahead, what do you have in store? Do you guys have more music, more tours? Where are you going after this?

Dick Valentine: Yeah, we always do. November, December, we kind of do Europe in the UK. A lot of the same venues year after year, and it's just kind of tradition. I'm working on a new solo album myself. I have a couple solo shows I've announced in the Republic of Georgia, and those are my only solo shows of the year, I think.

No, actually, I played some in April in the States, but, yeah, I'll be doing that. And then, that's the year for us. And we're in negotiations to start thinking about talking about doing a new Electric Six record, but, you know, we haven't started it yet.

FMM: That's pretty much all my questions. Do you have anything else you want people to know about your upcoming tour or about any future projects that you want to share?

Dick Valentine: You just gotta come see Electric Six if you haven't done so already. We are a band that I feel is a good investment of your time and money. I think you get back what you put into it. We try to make you feel good about yourself and about where you're going and what you're doing.