Dirty Little Secret

Dirty Little Secret is pure energy, not only penetrating space, but surpassing the cosmos and becoming an all-encompassing, pulsing, writhing organism existing by means of sexual vigor, creativity, and various chemical reactions that ultimately reaches the point of critical mass and much like a volcano erupts in an aural orgasm. Contrasts in volume, clarity, feedback, melodic structures, pop and innovation form a collage of sounds. A wide array of emotions and textures fills even the largest expanse.

Dirty Little Secret has shared the stage with Beck, The Bravery, The Walkmen, Peaches, Les Savy Fav, Maximo Park, We Are Scientists, TV on the Radio, and John Cale to name a few. -Mantell Swevson-

We had a chance to catch up with Louis and James before their show at The Detriot Bar in Costa Mesa, CA. It ended with a very informative lecture on why bands should stay away from major labels and do it all themselves.

How has the general response been to Cabin Fever and Dirty Little Secret?
Louis: Not very good obviously. I mean, you know...you don't see my face plastered on billboards around Costa Mesa. To me that's good. I don't know... who knows. I'm glad we did something that we put out. But every time I listen to it, I get a little more bored.

Your music has been featured on a bunch of TV shows, right?
James: Yeah, we got a bunch of placements on entourage and a bunch of MTV shows.

Louis: All those really good MTV shows! Like Next and all those dating shows, always on it! When its like the chic comes out and she's CRAZY, Dirty Little Secret comes on.

Tell me about the song Guns Guns Guns.
Louis: Guns its like a hustler song. Guns is about Guns. About just underworld stuff. I thought it was funny cause I thought its a bummer that only rappers get to talk about all that stuff. I mean, there's also all the other guys that aren't necessarily doing hip hop that have been through the same shit... so that was my response.

Would you ever feud with other bands like rappers do in their lyrics?
Louis: Its dangerous to be in a feud with us, definitely! I wouldn't wanna be in a feud with us. Its a bad idea! And you know, its not like we try to start any trouble with anyone, but if there's trouble we'll definitely solve it. There's real stuff in the world to get into problems with. But music and bands and stuff, there's a lot of catty motherfuckers out there and you gotta smack'em and shut'em up. Its a fact of life, you know? And there's always gonna be those people and hopefully I'm not one of them. That's how I feel about it.

Your new video "Hush Your Lips" has Elizabeth Daily in it, how did you guys put that together?
Louis: This one guy Bradly comes in and he's like "I wanna do your video." We're like "yeah ok... whatever, do it." But we're like "Look, we don't wanna be in the video, that's not what we wanna do, figure something out" so he just figured it out. He got together like a fucking huge sound stage, Snoop Doggs next door, it was fucking madness, man! I was just amazed, cause there's so many fucking bastards...definitely in Los Angeles that say "Oh I'm gonna do this for you and this for you and this and this and this." I love listening to their coked up ramblings. It sounds like cocaine to me, you know? All of it, its like "<sniff sniff sniff> DUDE! <sniff sniff> WE'RE GONNA <sniff sniff> MAKE THIS FUCKING VIDEO <sniff sniff> ITS GONNA BE SICK <sniff sniff> QUINTAIN TARENTINO! <sniff sniff>" but this guy just came in and just made it happen.

In your last band, you were signed to a major. Would you ever do that again with Dirty Little Secret?
Louis: Absolutely not. Its not that we got so screwed over...

James: Its a bad idea.

Louis: Back then the record deals were 150, 250 thousand dollars. That's a lot of money! If that's a couple people, you could live tall for a little while on that, if you put that in the right places. But right now your talking about people going like "Damn dude, I'll sign you for a grand" and its Warner Brothers! That's #1, the moneys too short. #2 I don't wanna deal with those guys. These guys are bastards and its a bastard industry. Then they realize we're not really gonna do what you want, you know. We're not gonna be like best in show, come up and look really great all the time and say the same jokes at every show...

James: Make the record that they want. We're gonna make what we wanna make.

Louis: Yeah! That's what they want! They want things that are valuable to them.

James: Its such a bad idea to sign with a major cause its a failing industry right now.

Louis: Its a great fall. I love watching it!

James: Yeah, and on a business level, like just as a business man, thinking about it like, why would you wanna go sign with a company that is just constantly merging with other companies? It can't stay a float and all these lay offs non stop. Every 2 years there's a huge merger between all the majors!

Louis: Back when we were in our last band, when you see that kinda money, its huge! We're talking over 100 grand, but at that time you still had to get into the studio for $1,000 a day. Now the accessibility is a lot different. Since protools, every kid can work protools. Every kid probably knows more about computers then me and I'm a working producer! That's my job! The problem before was, who's gonna pay $1,000? I can't pay $1,000 a day to be in the studio! I have to go to a major! That's why you needed to. And you came out making as much as a 7 Eleven employee. It was minimum wage. And when we came out of like maybe a $500,000 deal all together, I didn't break 10G's a year!

James: We didn't break 10G's over the whole span of The Hippos and that's based on what the label gave us. We made money off of touring, making merch and stuff that we would sell, but not off the record deal. Everybody thinks "Oh you get signed, your set!" Your still in the poverty level. You don't get shit for the album until you recoup all the money that they put up. You've spent $150,000 to make your record and you gotta sell that many records.

Louis: I've seen better business in the criminal world as far as a percentage. Like how you have to pay someone back. Contractually, just their loan sharking is so obscene that its like getting in a hole your never climbing out of. The only thing that's different is your not gonna get your legs broken. I'd rather get kicked in the balls then have one of those fucking record deals again.

What are you guys up to now?
Louis: We've been scoring lately for movies and television

Is it harder to score music for film then it is to write for a band?
James: No its easy cause its just me and him in there, so we don't have to deal with any egos and band members. There are fights...

Louis: Yeah, but not enough for it to be any kind of end to anything, cause we know. Like I know my career is in his hands just like he knows my careers in his, so we can't let each other down.

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www.myspace.com/dlsecret