Today, Dan Vapid and the Cheats released their fourth full-length, called Escape Velocity. They continue to build upon the groundwork that was laid on their previous album, this time taking it a step further with their willingness to explore new stylistic territory. At the same time, they’re able to do so while still preserving the core sound that fans have come to appreciate. Additionally, singer/guitarist Dan Vapid’s songwriting proficiencies remain in top form, while the other band members, (guitarist/singer Simon Lamb, bassist/singer Dillon Dunnagan, and drummer/singer Gabe Usery) provide significant contributions throughout, which really helps to solidify Escape Velocity as a complete record. We recently spoke with Vapid and talked about the album’s unique recording process and about what inspired its overall concept. We also discussed Vapid’s feelings regarding playing shows during this stage of the pandemic, how the band is already planning on returning to the studio and more.
Bill – I feel that with the band’s third album, there was a noticeable shift in the style of the songs as compared to the first two records. Similarly, Escape Velocity is distinctly different from the previous album, in terms of its influences and the various genres that are incorporated into the writing. What do you think are some of the reasons for this?
Dan – Well, I’ll take you back to the first record, which originally there was a bunch of songs on there that were going to be Riverdales songs or I wanted to try them in The Riverdales. I didn’t know if they were going to make it or not. I had a falling out with Ben Weasel, (Riverdales singer/guitarist) and so I had all these songs. And I just kept writing more. I kind of rode that wave of songwriting on that first album, because I just had an abundance of songs. On the second record, maybe the tides had shifted a little bit, but not by too much. Then we didn’t put out a record for a long time. I moved and had children and a full-time job, a lot of big life things that were in the gap between Two and Three. I always wanted to put out music, it was just very difficult for me to do so for a long time.
So, by the time Three had come around, I always had the philosophy since we started that if there were going to be songs and they were going to maybe sound like The Riverdales, that’s fine. If they sound like The Methadones, that’s fine. If they sound like say Sludgeworth, that’s fine. I just didn’t want there to be any restrictions when it came to the writing. I’m like anybody else, my tastes change too. Where I was coming from for the first album or the records before that first album, I still think those are cool songs. I’ve always liked a lot of different stuff. That goes back many, many years. That goes back to the ‘90s. I’ve never been this guy that’s about this one thing and that’s it. I’ve never felt that way. I think that with a lot of bands that’s kind of their thing. It makes sense because then you can kind of point your finger to what it is. Especially at this stage in my life, I’d get a little bored if I were to write the same album over and over again. Like I said, I’m no different than anybody else. I want to hear different stuff too. We try to retain what we do well and we don’t want to do anything that’s just way off the charts. That said, I kind of like experimenting a little bit and trying out different things and different approaches. I think that’s what makes being a band fun and sound fresh. If it was always the same kind of thing, I think I’d get bored with it and I’d want to do something else. On the other hand, I think there’s a lot bands that I love that they do that one thing. Like Bad Religion, I don’t want them to change it. Or like AC/DC or Motorhead or The Ramones, I like that they stick to what they do. I don’t know if it would work for me. I tend to crave going down other avenues.
Bill – For sure. I think that makes a lot of sense. With the new album, you guys started recording in January of 2020 and had to pause a couple months later due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Then this summer, you began recording again once it was safe to do so. What kind of impact did that break in between sessions have on the record?
Dan – Yeah. How weird, you know? I didn’t see those guys for a whole year. I didn’t see any friends for a whole year. It frickin’ sucked. We did video stuff every once in a while. I did FaceTime with Simon, (guitarist/singer Simon Lamb) a bunch, but in terms of the record, there was a vocal mic that Gabe, (drummer/singer Gabe Usery) was using that I wasn’t kind of keen on. He was using it on other sessions and there’s nothing wrong with it, but I felt like it wasn’t capturing some of the nuances of the lows in my voice. I felt like it was kind of bringing out the higher stuff. I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly. That’s the best way that I can explain it. I don’t know why, but it makes it sound thin to me. He’s like, “I think it still sounds good, but I kind of see what you’re saying.” He mentioned a higher-end mic that I might’ve used with Matt Allison before and I said “Let’s try that one.” We used it for the second session and I was much happier. It’s a very subtle thing, but I think when you’re actually singing and you hear your own voice it can really kind of bother you.
There was that and then the other thing was we were kind of messing with the idea of getting a little bit of a cleaner guitar tone. We tried that and it just didn’t quite click. I felt like we just couldn’t dial it in. Gabe said to me, “I think you might just be a big guitar kind of songwriter.” I said, “Well, that’s interesting. Is there a way we could kind of blend the two, so you get a lot of the drive, but you get some of the clarity of the chords that you’re playing?” It’s like if you play a C chord or a G chord, if you use a lot of gain, you’re not going to hear the difference. So, I kind of wanted that balance and I think he got it. So that was cool and I got a new guitar that a fan actually bought me, which was really pretty awesome. It’s a custom guitar made by a guy named Jason Ingrodi and it sounded great. So yeah, I was really excited about that. Other than that, I kind of just stuck to the plan that I had going in. I had 17 songs and I waited till the end to hear them all kind of done and then trimmed it down to 13. Even some of the ones that didn’t make it, I was a little bummed about that, but I couldn’t put 17 songs on an album. So, that left us with the end of the session.
Bill – You kind of touched on this a little bit in your response, but I do feel like this recording captures a lot of subtleties and is very meticulous, but doesn’t sacrifice any of the band’s energy or sound too polished. What are some of the things that you like about how the recording turned out?
Dan – Well, Gabe invested in some new gear. Like I said, there was that vocal mic. I’d used the original vocal mic on Three. I thought Three came out fine, I don’t think anybody else would notice it, but it’s just one of those things. He invested in some other aspects of his studio too. I definitely feel like he stepped up his game in that time between Three and this record. Like I mentioned with the guitar tone, I feel like there’s a good balance with the gain. I also have a lot of acoustic guitars on it to kind of give it a percussive feel. You can kind of hear the strings of the acoustic guitar and it brightens it a little bit. I’ve got tambourines and shakers on a lot of it, because I always kind of liked them. I don’t really know why. When they’re on I just kind of smile and it makes something feel a little bit warmer to me. Just stuff like that.
Bill – I read that the song “Runaway Jane” was inspired by a novel called Rabbit, Run. Was there a particular aspect of the book that encouraged you to write the song?
Dan – Yeah, the protagonist in the book gets in his car and just starts driving. His name is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. In the book it kind of describes the scenery as he’s driving, but he just leaves. He just takes off and he doesn’t come home. He goes and tries to find some woman that he knew many years ago. I thought it was a pretty crazy story. What inspired me is that I live in a really small town now. I’m from Chicago, but now I live in a town of 10,000 people. The surrounding towns are really small too, like 500 to 1,000 people. There’s a lot of farms around here. I thought about a woman who might have been from here and had a kid when she was 20. The kid leaves the house and then by the time she’s about 38 years old, she doesn’t know what the fuck to do anymore. And the husband doesn’t really give a shit. He kind of likes where he’s at, but she doesn’t. And when they try to talk about it, it goes nowhere. I thought about doing this thing where she had reconnected with somebody she knew in a past life and just fled. I came up with the concept, so all the songs are based around the song “Runaway Jane.” It’s a first- and third-person perspective, because I didn’t want everybody to think it was actually me. I want them to know that it’s fiction. It’s told from the point of view of three different people. So, you have Runaway Jane, it’s seen through her eyes. It’s seen through her husband’s eyes and it’s seen through a guy that convinces her she should leave. And they all make good points. And they all make bad points. So, there’s your destabilizing situation. I could see it in my head and I could see where it was going. She gets in her car and she just keeps going west. And I live right by Interstate 70 and it goes a really frickin’ long way. So, I just started thinking about this stuff and I kind of wrote a short story. Once I had it all, the songs just flew out of me. So that’s what that is about.
Bill – That’s interesting, because when you were describing some of the lyrics in that song, that made me think about “Guilt and Relief.” That’s one of my favorite songs on the album and I feel like those lyrics really pinpoint a specific emotion, especially if you’ve ever been in a relationship like that where there’s issues with communication. Did that song come soon after you had the concept of Runaway Jane?
Dan – Yeah, I actually probably wrote those lyrics in like ten minutes. There were two songs where I had the lyrics first, which is another different thing about this album. I never did that before. I always had the music and then the words would kind of come and I would jot things down. With this, I actually wrote the words first and I wrote them really fast. Then one day I was looking at them and I had my guitar and I just put the music to it and it worked. But yeah, it’s the same concept. She’s still on the road, she’s going through rolling hills and there’s mountains in the background. She’s finally seeing things and she’s finally out of that little town, but yet she feels like shit for how she handled it. But if she did it any other way, they would’ve just started arguing more. Every time they tried in the past, nothing happened. So, she just left and got out. In her case, she goes unannounced, kind of like what happens in Rabbit, Run. In small ways I think, myself and friends of mine have gone through stuff like that before. They don’t have to be big events. It doesn’t have to be that a guy is abusive or that a guy is cheating or the guy is mean or whatever. Sometimes shit really kind of falls apart for basic fuckin’ reasons, you know what I mean? But people are good intentioned. I feel like that was kind of what I wanted to get at as well.
Bill – It almost makes it harder when that happens, when both people do have good intentions…
Dan – Right. Exactly. Like in the case of this record, I just called her Jane because I didn’t have a name. The music just came out, but she’s flawed and she’s kind of the hero of the thing as well. She’s also finally living her life. She’s finally breaking out of her shell and all the things that society has put upon her that she has always been told she should follow. It just all blew up in her face and she’s like “Fuck this. I’m leaving.” So “Guilt and Relief” is still one of those in the car, on the road kind of songs. You’ve got a lot of that on this record, where she’s contemplating her decisions in the car.
Bill – “Middle America” is a fairly upbeat song in regards to its music, but the lyrics are very topical and not quite as sunny. Is that kind of a critique of the current state of America or is it more in line with the overall concept that you’ve been describing?
Dan – Yeah, that song is more just about fleeing. It’s funny that you say that, because that did kind of cross my mind as well. But technically speaking, no. It’s just about getting out of middle America.
Bill – Is there a song in particular that you’re most proud of in terms of how it evolved from a demo to the final version?
Dan – Probably the single I think and maybe “Guilt and Relief.” The very last song too is something that I’ve never done. It almost has an alt-country vibe to it. It was one of those things where the guys in the band were a little unsure about it at first, but once it was done everybody liked it and so did I. I really liked how that evolved as well. That was really fun for me because I’d never written a song like that before. A couple of these I’ve never kind of done before. It was just really fun and felt good to do.
Bill – Have you guys discussed playing a record release show or do you have any shows planned in the coming months?
Dan – I’m just not quite there yet. I’ve got three kids that are under 12 and aren’t vaccinated. So, I’m like in this spot where I’m thinking that chances are I’d probably be okay, but there’s always that thing in the back of my mind where I’m questioning what happens if I bring it home to them. I just wouldn’t be able to live with myself. What if they didn’t handle it well? I just don’t know. That’s the problem. I can look at statistics and see how it favors children, but with this Delta variant who the fuck knows? I don’t know. And things change so much, almost by the week. The facts are constantly evolving too, so it just makes things kind of nuts. I want to wait a little bit, but I am really itching to get out there.
Bill – I think that makes total sense. When you think about the future of Dan Vapid and the Cheats, what are some of the things that come to mind?
Dan – A lot more music. I’ve got tons. I’m going back in the studio next week. I started writing Escape Velocity in 2019, so between then and now there’s about two years of material. And then I had some songs even before that that didn’t go on Escape Velocity. So, I’m right back in, trying to figure out the next album. This time around there’s no central theme to it or anything. It’s just going to be a process of trying to find what works best out of a lot of songs. And I’m really, really excited. I’ve got a lot of ideas that are different and then a lot that aren’t, that are just kind of hard-hitting punk rock songs. Again, it’s a mix, kind of like what you just heard on Escape Velocity. I’m just real, real excited to go back into the studio.
