Interview: Blag from The Dwarves
Dwarves interview
Pouzza 2015
At Pouzza Fest in Montreal this year I had a last minute opportunity to interview Blag from the Dwarves. I tried to hide how drunk I was and I thought I was successful until I later watched the video and saw my flask was in my hand through out the entire conversation. I think it went well though, later that night at another bar Blag offered my friend and I some Nerds to eat. That’s a good sign, right?
Here is the interview:
So is this your first Pouzza fest?
Blag:
Actually it is our second Pouzza Fest. Last time we played with The Meatmen, so Pouzza Fest is a good time.
You like Montreal?
Blag:
I love Montreal, walking around this neighbourhood is pretty fucked up, you know? Just a bunch of Freaks
I heard you’re a big Cab Calloway fan, is that true?
Blag:
I love Cab, I love Cab Calloway, I got back to those records over and over again. Just great fun to listen to.
I was talking to an animator years ago who worked on Corpse Bride with Tim Burton and he told me that the Skeleton scene in the bar was inspired by Cab Calloway’s Minnie the Moocher
Blag:
I believe it. There’s this great old carton called Bosko. If you get a chance go back and check out Bosko. It a character of this black cartoon and they would do parodies of Louie Armstrong and Cab Calloway and it’s great. If you get a chance go back and check out Bosko.
Yeah, Minnie the Moocher has an intro with Cab Calloway and that’s how I got to know him, through that.
Blag:
Yeah well Minnie the Moocher was a character that was introduced in a song called “Kicking the Gong Around”. Then they made a bunch of versions of songs off that. There’s one called “Minnie the Moochers Wedding Day” yeah there’s a whole bunch of them about Minnie the Moocher. I can’t even remember the one country guy who started it called “Kicking the Gong Around” I think and Cab Calloway did it and it spawned this whole Minnie the Moocher thing. Then it ended up in that Blues Brothers movie which is weird in it self
SO you have traveled the world, toured a lot. Is there one thing you have found in the scene that connects everyone, the thing we all have in common?
Blag:
Genitals. Everyone has genitals.
All over the world we’re all the same
Blag:
No they are wildly different, some of them you wouldn’t even want to get near
Other than that is there anything that connects the scene through out the world?
Blag:
The Dwarves have rocked them all
That’s true, it is pretty unique
Blag:
Yeah every scene is united in their love for the Dwarves
You guys started in Chicago and moved too California, why the move?
Blag:
That’s right I grew up outside of Chicago and you know in the 80s Chicago was a place that you left. But by the 90s it became a destination, people started going there, when you grew up there it was a place you wanted to leave. But I love Chicago and I love going back but I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago
I love Chicago, I love California, I don’t know how you could choose.
Blag:
Well you don’t have to, you can go to both.
I know you’ve been asked this a lot, but that hacker group that took over your website, how do you feel about what they posted? Did you feel violated when that happened?
Blag:
Yeah I felt angry. I don’t know about violated. Our shit is all hanging out in the open, you know? It’s a pain in the ass, it costs lots of money, it’s a waste of time. I did get to write a good article about it in thoughtcatalog.com. You can read about Islamic bullshit and that people in America think that people everywhere have some kind of bullshit PC attitude that every culture is equal, every idea is equal but it’s not. I love punk rock and violence and nudity and fun, and they’re against all that so I’m against them.
Why do you think you were targeted?
Blag:
I think it’s because it was right when “Sluts of the USA” came out and it was premiered on Noisy and they were profiled on Noisy.com so I think just randomly saw us. But it could be somebody was hip to us for whatever reasons no one ever explained it. They just took credit for it. But it’s like if I could negate the masturbation fantasies of a bunch of Islamic guys then I’m glad I was able to do that with the dirty pictures on my site, they need it