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Electric Six.
 As I stare out of my window waiting for Dick Valentine's call all I can see is a gloomy sky and rain pissing down. It takes just seconds for the Electric Six singer to take me to a better place. "I'm in Florida at the moment. I'm drinking margaritas and eating cheesecake." What's the time? "It's margarita and cheesecake time!" comes the instant response. "It's 8.45 at night. It's great; we're basically on a night off and we're out as a band, and the purpose of tonight's dinner is to talk about Electric Six and how great it is to be Electric Six."
Valentine is the only band member handling Australian interviews. "My boys, they're all doing interviews on the other five relevant continents. We can talk to all six continents. I got Tait Nucleus [keyboards] dealing with Africa right now. I don't know if he's the answer to all their problems, but he sure makes it a lot more fun."
Is he telling the truth? Does it matter? This is the man whose band announced their arrival with the dancefloor-destroying Danger! High Voltage, and have barely let up since. While multiple line-up changes gave this year's 'Senor Smoke' a slightly more muted vibe, it's still chock full of songs like Dance Epidemic, Dance-A-Thon 2005 and Rock And Roll Evacuation. For all their smarts, Electric Six are more intent on moving booty than brain.
"That's the whole concept of this band. We come across as having dance skills, but we really do not. It's completely unrehearsed; it all comes from the heart." And they often play to people who (like me) couldn't dance to save their lives, but struggle not to when Electric Six are playing. "Oh definitely: our audience is geeks, it's 100% geeks. There's no bones about it but you know, geeks spend money too. Right? At the end of the day, being in a band is all about taking other people's money." And doing it while they dance. "Exactly. People think they're having a good time, but what they're really doing is putting your kids through college."
I guess that's your Electric Plan. "Electric Plan?" he laughs back. "That's the best term I've ever heard!" It's a compliment. "Thanks! Electric Plan... that's too funny," he says, still laughing.
Record label issues have seen 'Senor Smoke' yet to receive a US release, but Valentine is philosophical about it all. "The plan is this February, a year from when it came out in the UK. Sometimes that's the way it goes. We're real lucky, we've toured our asses off and this is the pay-off. Coming to a place like Atlanta where we were the other night, last time we were there, there were like 300 people, and now we got like 500 there. Touring's the one thing you can control."
There's no bitterness about the situation either. "We were doing this for five or six years and never really even leaving Detroit, so the fact we're coming to Australia: that's huge! We haven't become jaded at all. In the last few years we've been all over the world a million times and we're making a living doing it, so you know? We feel really good about where we're at."
We talk about messing with the Polyphonic Spree, the increasing prevalence of fish tacos on restaurant menus, regional accents and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (the fact someone from Toledo - Holmes' hometown - is a genuine celebrity is more amazing to Valentine than the pregnancy). I finally ask him about the unlikely comparisons Electric Six so often attract.
"It's laziness," is his blunt assessment. "People should really, really understand every nuance of this band and not just do a three second review. I'm just talking about our band, because I do that with other bands too, where I compare other bands to Tenacious D and the Crash Test Dummies... I'm just saying with us, you gotta give us a fair shake. At the end of the day, I don't think there are a whole lot of bands that are exactly like us. We just gotta stay on the road and keep going. The Electric Plan will win out!"
And with that I leave Dick Valentine to his fish tacos and a freshly arrived Corona. But you know what? I look out the window and the rain has stopped.
Wade Howland
 | Electric Six play Fowler's Live on Thurs 27 Oct with Pharaohs. |
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