The DGB don’t stand for nothing.
With a sound like a modern take on Led Zeppelin, The Stooges or Black Sabbath, the tunes from the Lindsay, Ontario rockers burn on alcohol and rock alone to create a fusion of everything you want and cutting out the filler.
We got a chance to see them perform at Vern’s Bar in Calgary during their latest tour, and sat down for a pint to talk about the journey.
iM: Who are you people, anyway?
JG: The name’s John Greer – I do some singing, guitar and a bit of bass.
JR: Jamie Robinson – I play drums.
DG: Daniel Greer – I do some of the lead vocals, guitar and bass.
iM: The whole DGB experience.
DG: We are the experience. This is it. The Power Trio.
iM: You guys are from Ontario, right? Do you tour regularly, or are you only out this way once in a while?
DG: This is only our second time out west, actually. We’ve toured; we’ve done Eastern Canada quite a bit, a lot of touring around Ontario – kinda the Toronto-to-Halifax circuit – it’s an easy one to do. It’s a bit more driving to go out west, but we’re having a good time. Glad we decided to make the trek this year.
iM: How many more stops do you have on this tour?
DG: The last show we play on this tour is on December 10th, back in Toronto – I don’t know exactly how many shows we’re playing between now and then – from here we’re going into BC. This tour is a lot longer than any tour we’ve done before, so we’re not actually gigging every night like we have in past tours. We take our time, hit some open mics. Having a chance to experience the cities and really enjoy it.
iM: Is this a CD release tour, or a tour just for the hell of it?
JG: Well, we just released a new album before the tour… so I guess you could call it that.
iM: Did you record in a studio, or just a few microphones in the basement?
DG: This is the first album we did at home since our debut album 10 years ago.
iM: 10 years ago… how long have you guys been playing together?
DG: Well, John and I are brothers. The project OFFICIALLY started in 2001 but it was a lot different than what it is NOW. At the time, we were both very young; we were in high school. It was kind of like an acoustic project at first, then it morphed into what it is now.
iM: So after 10 years of performing, what do people expect from the DGB?
JG: Expect us… to give’r hell!
JR: We put as much energy as we can into every show, no matter how many people are there to see it.
DG: Balls out rock-and-roll. Pretty much it. Give’r hell every night, play every show like it’s our last.
iM: Well, playing on a Wednesday or anytime during the week, do you expect a good crowd?
DG: I’m pretty confidant it’ll be good. We got a good local band with us. We also have some friends in town all promoting it for us and we know we’ve got a group of friends coming out at least. We KNOW we’re gonna have a good time. Everything on top of that is just GRAVY.
iM: Do you guys have any notable tour stories you’d like to share with us?
[Laughter]
DG: There’s one very memorable thing… it kind of overshadows everything, but I don’t know if our drummer wants us telling the story…
JR: No… it’s not a good one…. we must have better ones…
DG: It’s the best one I can think of. It pretty much overshadows everything else.
iM: So I don’t get to hear it?
JR: Well… we were at this bar about an hour-and-a-half from St. Johns. Now, they have these things called ‘mother-in-law doors’, where it’s a door off the second floor, but there’s no staircase off of it, just a big drop off. In this instance, we were at a bar until about 5 a.m. … drinking … cause that’s what they do over there. We were going to sleep on the first floor that night, so I tried to go outside. Opened the door, and didn’t look… Fell about 12 feet straight down.
DG: Into the pitch black dark. Drunk as a skunk! We all had a good chuckle over it.
iM: Let’s talk about writing new material. Is it ever a fight between you, or is it a pretty organic experience?
JG: Sometimes both.
JR: Sometimes we get together, and someone’s got an idea, then we just start jamming and everything just comes together perfectly. Other times we’re screaming at each other.
DG: Generally we all get along pretty well with the songwriting progress. John and I both write a lot of the songs we come up with. In the past there used to be HIS songs and MY songs, but with this new album we put in the effort to collaborate a lot more.
iM: So, one last question, and I only want to ask it because you clearly get it a lot from the looks of your t-shirts (The DGB – Not an anagram, just rock-and-roll) and your drumkit (The DGB don’t stand for nothing), and I’m sure it irritates you at this point, but what does your band name mean?
DG: The meaning has lost relevance. We’ve been doing this for 10 years. The name and where it came from is just not relevant anymore. So we’re just the DBG.
iM: Alright, then. I was just afraid it was something obvious, like the Daniel Greer Band…
DG: Well, yeah, that would be obvious…
JG: WAY too obvious.
DG: But on the other hand, a lot of people can’t seem to put that together… I mean, it’s not too hard to figure out if you’ve got Google. It makes people want to research it, but we don’t go by what it means anymore. We just go by the DGB.
The boys went to set up their merch tables, put up posters and buy a few drinks while the opening bands played, then proceeded to rock the house. With raspy vocals and heavy rock guitars and drums, we got to see a truly raw and unrelenting performance. Forget the labels and definitions: that is what rock bands should stand for.
- Interview by JOSH “SCUD” MILLER
http://www.theindiemachine.com/2011/11/29/io-the-dgb/
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