Rough and tough at times, but modest when they need to be – that’s how this group with a long story to tell presents itself. The result: surprisingly excellent guitar-driven rock, with a healthy dose of garage and a touch of happy pop. They always know when to pump it up and when to let their sweet harmonious melodies reign. Ingenious songs, carefully crafted, full of surprises, and enthusiastically performed – nothing better for when you want to have a good time.

 These five guys didn't look for themselves, they found each other. Different musical backgrounds crash together here and fuse into power and magic. They've all been making music for as long as they can remember. When they make music together as THE DALLES, they are a perfect blend of QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE and THE BEATLES, of TRAVIS and THE CLASH, of THE COOPER TEMPLE CLAUSE and THE STONE ROSES... Indierock with sixties influences. Garagerock touches Britpop, but... THE DALLES sound like the DALLES. “All goes down” is just a hymn.

 In May 2005 THE DALLES showed these qualities in the Berlin Magnet Club and were chosen by the jury of Projekt Demo as the band to be promoted in 2005. So THE DALLES were playing not only with PHOENIX, MAXÏMO PARK, TOCOTRONIC, BLOC PARTY, and others at the MELT Festival, but also with bands such as THE CURE, OASIS, NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS, ATHLETE, DINOSAUR JR., LEMONHEADS, and many others at the XI Festival Internacional de BENICÁSSIM in Spain in August.

 THE DALLES are...
  Pese: Voz
  Tobi: Guitarra
  Chris: Bajo
  Sebastian: Batería
  Oli: Guitarra, FX
 

 We interviewed Pese, their singer...

1. Who are THE DALLES? Members, what you play in the band,... Where are you from? and how old is the band? when was it born?
 Alright, here we go: there`s Sebastian on drums, Tobias on guitar, Chris on bass, Oli on guitar and me doing the vocals. We`re from different parts of Germany: Sebastian and me from the south (Munich) and the rest from the western midth of germany (Frankfurt / Wiesbaden). The band exists for about one and a half year now, we started off with a different drummer and basically even without me. There were those four guys from Frankfurt and around to start the band but they couldn`t find a singer, so someday, a mutual friend of ours made up the connection and soon afterwards, I found myself being the singer of THE DALLES. That`s how it started, later we had to find a new drummer and found Sebastian. He happens to be the drummer of my Munich-based band CRASH TOKIO. Family business...

2. Why the name of THE DALLES?
 Because it sounds beautiful and looks nice. And we found out that it`s a name of a town in the U.S., spelled with article. We thought that`s quite interesting. Then we found out the german meaning of "being in dalles": it means to have no money for an undefinite period of time. Now we thought that`s perfect.

3. Who writes the songs? Which things make you write those beautiful songs? What are the lyrics about?
 Well, basically Oli comes up with different ideas on guitar, sometimes he even has good vocal lines to it as well. Then we all try to make a good pop song out of it. Everyone takes care of his instrument and we all decide what`s good and what`s not. Most of the time, the songs have a lot of energy which automatically happens to be in the air when we start playing... but we like it sad and melancholic as well, so we add some nice and sad vocal line and I write words about those everyday things that happen to everybody. Sometimes it`s quite clear what the song is about, maybe the blessing or curse of growing older, sometimes I don`t know myself where it`s pointing at, but I like those very much as well. Sometimes I just write down thoughts and words that come from a book I´ve read or movie I`ve seen, and I go on making up my own story. I like the idea of supporting a song with melody and words more than to put `heavy` meaning in every song. I am no native speaker and I don`t like to make a fool of myself....

4. Do you play in other bands now? or did you use to play in other bands before?
 Well, you know about CRASH TOKIO already; Chris used to play in a great pop band called READYMADE. They stopped working 2 years ago, but they haven`t really split up. Maybe there`s a chance to see him again with READYMADE. Oli used to play in different bands, the most successful maybe was SEESAW. I don`t remember all other names, but there was one really weird one, called BUGMAN, like the BLUR song, but the singer sounded more Liam than Damon Albarn. Tobi's former band is called THE MONOCHORDS, a -surprise!- sixties-garage-band. He played some shows I Spain, I think; oh, and another one called REDONDO BEAT. I'm not sure if he was a full-time member. So you see, we`ve been busy doing music all our lifetimes.

5. How was your experience in Spain, at Benicassim Festival? Was that the first time in Spain?
 Yes, the first DALLES show in Spain. it was fantastic, we`ve been overwhelmed by this festival. All the organisation was amazing, everybody was really nice, the backstage area was impressing and all those bands, not one heavy metal-prog-rock-funk-party-shite-band as you`ll often find playing at german festivals.

6. Which differences do you find between the german audience and the spanish audience?
 Well, I don`t really think I can judge: there were A LOT of germans watching our show, I found myself talking english to them but most of them were germans, I believe. But I am sure, that the german audience is much more critical towards bands. First of all towards german bands of course. Sometimes that`s fine because when they like you, they`re really into your music. The spanish audience however is more open-minded, I think. They don`t care so much about style and what shoes I wear, you know? they like it or not, no matter what kind of music you do. And they liked us, so we liked them...

7. Which other bands did you see at Benicassim Festival? Which were your favourite bands?
 I saw OASIS, which was a really good show for me. I saw NICK CAVE who was cool as fuck. I saw KASABIAN, still I can`t decide if they´re one of the greatest bands around or just having success by accident. Maybe someone can tell me. At least, I liked their show. I think I must have seen more bands than these, but I can`t remember right now.

8. Which bands influence the sound of THE DALLES?
 TRAIL OF DEAD for sure. Oli likes them a lot, me too.They don`t care about classical song structures, it`s all about energy and these special changes in chords and moods. They have different songs in one song without being confusing. And we all like OASIS for their attitude. If you`ve seen Tobi playing live, you know what I mean. I like so many different bands, contemporary ones as well as older ones, and many of them have influence on me.

9. Any plans to release an album? Any labels interested?
 We might release an full length album in autumn 2006. So far, we have a 7" vinyl single out. It`s got “All goes down” and a new song “A light will shine” on it. We released on an austrian label, but we don`t know yet which label will release the album. There are different possiblities.

10. What do you usually do in a normal day?
 For me, I`ll soon go working in a club. I am a bartender, but I work in a second hand record store as well. Sometimes I work for a booking agency and I go on tour with other bands, as a musician or backliner. Oli`s got a record studio. Sebastian works as a bartender as well and Chris studies economies. He`ll soon be finished and be the only one to earn real money. Tobias is a trainee for a big booking and promotion company.

11. Any other interesting bands in your city?
 Definitely. To name a few, there`s: GOOD HEART BOUTIQUE, LOW 500, CAMPUS, MONTA and many more I might not recall right now.

12. Do you know any other bands from Spain? Which ones?
 Oh, it was a big thing in the Benicassim Newspaper that I wore an IT´S NOT NOT shirt at the show. I like them a lot. I`ve seen TOKIO SEX DESTRUCTION, a related band from Barcelona as well. And I know DOVER, but that`s not the kind of music I like.

13. What music do you usually listen to? which are you favourite bands?
 I love PHOENIX, I love the SCISSOR SISTERS, I love MY MORNING JACKET, I think the latest STROKES album is amazing, I always loved CAKE, WHEAT, SOPHIA, BEN FOLDS FIVE is one of my all-time favourites, THE CURE and THE SMITHS, OASIS (maybe half of all their songs), THE LEMONHEADS which reminds me of having seen Evan Dando at the Benicassim. He`s the best.

14. Your plans for this year 2006?
 I quit making plans at the beginning of the year, I dissappointed myself too many times. Most likely, I`ll release two albums this year and I`ll be on tour a lot, that`s enough for me to know. And it´s a lot of work as well.