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I interviewed Tony Duggins of The Tossers on their old style tour bus on September 19. Due to either business or laziness (probably the latter), I had no questions prepared, but everything turned out pretty well. Duggins has a lot of interesting things to say, as this interview touches on songwriting, punk rock being a phase, both Irish and American folk music, and a brief mention of Al Capone.
PL: State something interesting about yourself.
TD: Thats a hard question, but I'm in a band-my name is Tony Duggins, and I'm in a band called The Tossers. We do half way to Irish folk music and half way to rock and roll, and thats what I think is the most interesting about me. Thats a hard question to ask because not many people think of themselves as all that interesting. Probably GG Allin did. He probably thought he was really interesting.
PL: Does the dynamic of your band or approach to songwriting change from album to album?
TD: Yeah, I think so. With me, it does because I'm always either finding new ways to write songs, lyrically or musically. Or else, I'll find things that I was doing awhile ago that I forgot about, so I'll reincorporate old stuff. So, I'm always looking for new ways to write a song, and it does change the writing of the record. It changes from song to song, in fact.
PL: Do you listen to your old stuff while writing new stuff?
TD: No, never. Never, because when the new stuff comes out, I listen to it quite a bit to try and memorize it all, especially the lyrics. I like listening to our stuff, so I listen to it a lot when it first comes out, but I'll put it away, and it is what it is. I'll go over it if I need to, for the band or whatever, but it doesn't influence my writing.
PL: Do you guys write songs together?
TD: Yeah, I usually come up with the lyrics and our bassist will come up with a melody line, and the band will flush it out musically, and once we're in the studio, we'll write it together.
PL: Is that hard writing music with so many people?
TD: No, its actually pretty simple because we're kind of on the same wave length and we all have a type of appreciation for the type of music we do. We chose to do the music or the music choose us, whichever way you want to look at it. The type of music that we do, it has a frame work about it that I stick to when I write, and everybody understands it and understands the music. Its easy for us to all work together because we enjoy the music.
PL: Do you ever get burned out on music at all? Either your own or just listening to it?
TD: Yeah, because I'll pick something up and listen to it until I'm sick of it. Thats what I do with everything, no matter what it is. Its kind of like songwriting. I'm looking for new stuff all the time, but only after I'm sick of something, but then I'll go back to the old stuff. I'll go back to Motorhead or something like that, or Bob Marley, and it'll be fun all over again until I get sick of that.
PL: Do you go through different phases of genre of music?
TD: Totally. Absolutely because I get burned out on stuff, and I'll be totally looking for something absolutely new. It took me forever to get into Le Tigre, which was odd because I was a big fan of Bikini Kill, but they're my favorite current band. I mostly go from something to Irish folk music to something to Irish folk music. Thats basically what I always go back to.
PL: Do you think a lot of people think punk rock is a phase?
TD: For a lot of people, yeah, it could be. There's a good percentage of people like that. I think there are a lot of folks-even if they don't behave or dress the way they did when they were younger, they still have a lot of the same convictions and are basically the same people as they were when they were younger, plus a few changes along the way. I think for most people, it sticks with them, just because its the people that they are, but there's definitely plenty of people where its just a phase. A lot of people, when they're that young, they don't have an identity yet, so a lot of guys I've seen will become punks, then they'll become hippies. So there's a lot of searching for it, and its a phase for some people, but a lot of people are just as attracted to it; its just the people that they are. Everybody is trying to define the identity that they are going to have for the rest of their lives, and it sticks with about half of them.
PL: How is Irish folk music different from American folk music?
TD: The people are actually Irish and Americans are American. Its an American interpretation of Irish folk music, and most people think its the implantation of Irish people in other countries, because a lot of different countries have these scenes coming out with people from Irish heritage. So the biggest thing is that one is more of a migrant's interpretation of it and the other is an indigious interpretation of it. Australia is basically the same thing. There's a real popular country singer from Australia. Maybe he had some heritage in him, or maybe he just liked the music.
PL: Whats one movie everyone should see?
TD: "Leon, the Professional." Thats one of my favorites.
PL: Whats a little known fact about Chicago?
TD: Probably that our mayor is really trying to make it a green city. He's planting rooftop gardens and stuff. He's doing more things that I'm probably not going to remember off the top of my head right now. We have beautiful lake fronts. The town is beautiful and the architecture is beautiful, and the people, contrary to popular belief from Al Capone, the people are really nice. Its an industrial city, but the attitude has never changed.
PL: Name one album, besides your own, you think all people should have in their collection.
TD: Family Sweepstakes by Le Tigre. Thats my new favorite record. Its totally amazing. It absolutely defines the genre, if you can call feminism a genre.
PL: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
TD: We're trying to get around and see people as much as we can. We haven't been around a lot. We haven't been touring a lot, but we've really been trying to get out to as many cities as we can. We want to go to as many cities as we can and meet people and build up a following and really make this work and really.put out good music out there, because we believe in what we're doing. We're happy to be doing it and excited about it. Look out for us because we'll always be there.