Dolour rock! Just plain and simple; rock. After  saw them for the first
time I was so full of energy I nearly tackled Pat and my buddy Davey
(and if you know Davey you know that is no small task). Sure they’re a
pop band but who said pop can’t rock? Hot on the release of their first
full-length Waiting For A World War (put out by the ever-excellent local 
Seattle label Sonic Boom Recordings) the band seem poised to take their 
big bag of harmony and hooks on the road and show the world (or at least the 
west coast for now) that pop can be just as exciting as any other form of music.

But, of course, there is no band. The only real member of Dolour is 
Shane Tutmarc. We went out to the mall and talked about what we’re all
about: music, musicals, vinyl, The Beach Boys, and why Dolour is the
best band you’re never heard.


The Chaos Bakery: Where are we Shane?

Shane Tutmarc: We’re at the Bellevue Square Mall. Eatin'’ some World
Wrapps and we just hung out at the local theatre and saw “Moulin Rouge“.

TCB: What did you think of “Moulin Rouge“?

ST: Not enough Nicole Kidman nudity, but I’m all about the genre of
Musicals making a comeback.

TCB: Yeah and you can just get your Nicole Kidman nudity from “Eyes Wide
Shut.”

ST: I haven’t seen that yet.

TCB: You haven’t seen that?

ST: I’m all about Stanley Kubrick but...

TCB:  They added all this digital furniture, like floating lamps and
stuff, to cover up the nudity.

ST: I’m not down with that.

TCB: So, okay, maybe you should state your name position and title for
the people at home.

ST: Hi, my name is Shane Tutmarc and for the past year Dolour has,
basically, been just me. We’ve had lots of different line up switches. 
I think we’re on, like, our fifth line up now (laughs) so I think I’m
basically Dolour now. We had a record come out last month and I’m in 
the process of working on the next one.

TCB: This mall is like mall of the future. It has all these superfluous
sky bridges in-between the different “areas”. We have great shops like
the Pottery Barn, and the Sunglass Hut, and the Track and Trail.

ST: Don’t forget Motherhood.

TCB: Yeah, they have Motherhood in case you get a girl pregnant. It’s
all here at the Bell Square Mall. You can meet her here, get her
pregnant here, and buy her maternity clothes here. Mall of the Future!

ST: Wine her and dine her and...(Laughs)

TCB: I’m not too down with the Bellevue girls though. But it is just
kinda dead in here today.

ST: Yeah, I don’t know where all the ladies are. I think we need to find some ladies.

TCB: Well usually this would be the place to go but...I guess we didn’t
send out the message that you were going to be here so...

ST: Right...

TCB: Last time I was here with my buddies it was wall-to-wall girls.
Like a single boy’s dream or something. But today there’s like a
fifty-year-old woman and some fat guys.

ST: I think you have to know which days to come. What is today...Thursday?

TCB: Maybe they have a schedule at the high school or something. Like
you sign up for a certain day...

ST: They’re all waiting for Friday dude.

TCB: What do you think of The Chaos Bakery?

ST: I’m all about it! I didn’t know anything about it until I got this
anonymous email that said “Go check out this site”. And it turned out 
to be the radio program too, Sour Grapes. And we were album of the week 
and I was pretty excited about it. That was my first experience with it. 
So, I’m down.

TCB: It was totally anonymous then? Did you think “Oh no, it’s gonna be
porno”?

ST: (laughs)

TCB: Yeah, The Chaos Bakery is down with girls but not with porn!

ST: Right on! So are you guys gonna turn this thing into a real zine
or...?

TCB: I don’t know. I think that would be really cool but...we’ll see.

ST: So is Pat moving back out here or are you gonna mix like the Seattle and the Boston scene?

TCB: We’re gonna mix it all into on giant baked confection of some sort.

ST: Rad! So what’s the Boston scene all about?

TCB: I don’t really know. Sweep the Leg Johnny! and Cave In are a big
deal over there. I guess Pat just went and saw Tortoise.

ST: How where they?

TCB: He didn’t say. But we did run into Nick from Death Cab, 
and we were harassing him for a while, and he said he went.

ST: What’d he say?

TCB: He said that when he goes to concerts he always watches bass
players. And when you go to a concert like that you want to see
something that makes you say “how did he do that!” But I guess he was
like “Shit yo, I can do all this!”

ST: That’s too bad...

TCB: Yeah, and I guess the opening band was just two guys 
on their power-book computers clickin’ and draggin’ their mice.

ST: That’s so weird!

TCB: Apparently there were like three or four kids in the front who 
were just tweekin’ out like it was the best thing ever!

ST: Yeah I read a review that said they were just like the Japanese
Tortoise. It was probably just like a lazy review or something.

TCB: What are you down with musically? What are your key influences?

ST: Whoa...that’s a tough question.... um...that’s so hard because I
like so many things that seem to contradict each other. The things that
have influenced the music the most over the past year are like Elvis
Costello. He’s...yeah...I don’t know. The Beach Boys. Totally The Beach
Boys! It’s so hard because there’s always like just these little things
that get into the songs. Like Bjork, or even OutKast came in on a recent recording.

TCB: Which OutKast song?

ST: Dude, Miss Jackson! It came in on the bridge of “The Ballad”.
The (upcoming) 7” was totally inspired by OutKast! (Laughs)

TCB: Is it going to go like (sings, oh God) “I’m sorry Miss Jackson.
Ohhhh!”

ST: (Laughs) No, no it was a little more like (sings the melody, on
key).

TCB: Oh, I see.

ST: So...yeah. I’m down with everything I guess.

TCB: So how old is the record, because I know those recordings aren’t
exactly new?

ST: That recording was like a long journey. We finished the recordings
in September, but we started it in July. The thing was, we basically
recreated our whole sound through July, August, and September. So we
went from this quirky-little-indie-rock-thing that was trying to be a
pop band to taking our first real steps towards trying to write real 
pop songs. Well, at least pop structures, or the best we could figure 
out at the time. I think it turned out really cool, because it ended 
up not being obnoxiously pop. But I think that’s just because we didn’t 
know really what we were doing (laughs). So it was kind of a nice 
combination of two things. And I think Blake (Wescott, producer 
of Waiting For A World War) was the right guy to work with because 
I learned a lot from him and he was totally difficult because he knew 
where we needed to be and we weren’t there yet. And I think he 
helped me grow up a lot.

TCB: What do you think of the really positive sort of reaction that the
record is getting?

ST: I’m really surprised because to me the record doesn’t seem
outstanding. A lot of things about it seem kind of marginal. There are
demos that I made for that record that I think are a little more
ambitious and I think the record ended up sounding a little
conservative. I wanted it to be a little more like “what the fuck,” or
something. Songs like “Ride the Black Stallion” were a lot crazier in
the demo phase.

TCB: Are there any songs in particular that you think came together
well?

ST: I think, the disco part at the end of “Low Flying Planes” came out
real well. That’s surprising because that’s just something Blake and I
came up with sitting around my house. We were listening to some Floyd
and we just thought “Let’s throw a disco beat on the top of that” and 
it turned out really well. “Now You’re On Your Own” is one of my favorite 
songs on the record because I think it came out like it was the first time 
I ever played it. I mean, it doesn’t sound like tired at all or too rushed 
like I think some of the others might. “(No) Ordinary People” was written 
the day before it was recorded so I think, instrumentation wise we could 
have done a bit more with it if we had had more than a day.

TCB: I don’t know. The first time I ever saw you guys you played it with
just the keyboard and I think it really let the song shine. It’s a good
song so it’s kinda cool the way it’s not bogged down with excesses or
something.

ST: Stripped down.

TCB: The record came out on Sonic Boom Recordings. How’d that come
about?

ST: Jason had been a fan for like, a year because we would always give
him little demos that we had made and he was always down and really
supportive about it. I would just drop by Sonic Boom (the record store)
and just say “Here’s you new demo,” and he was always excited. Then I
was kind of talking to him off and on for a while about doing a record
and he was still waiting to get some money back off the Polecat record.
What happened was, about the time he decided he wanted to put out the
E.P. (“Boy Racer Loves Heart Breaker, recorded in January 2000), I’d kind 
of changed my vision about what I wanted Dolour to be. So we ended up 
with Waiting For A World War which is like 100 percent different 
than the E.P. It caught him by surprise a bit but he was really cool about it. 

TCB: Would you want to do another record with him?

ST: Yeah, I think it would be tight to do another record with him. But
we have a 7” recorded that will be released in late- August.  We made 
some recordings a few months ago and 3 songs from that session will be on the 7”. 

TCB: Yeah. Your band’s line-up is always changing, so what sort of line
-up do you like and maybe what sort of line-up has worked in the past?

ST: The band started out as an already existing band and I joined up as
their singer. We went though a prog phase, a spacey phase. I mean,
originally we were an “emo” band, hence the name. As time went by people 
started dropping out of the band because of school of different
commitments and eventually it came to the point where I was writing 
most of the stuff. So when we came to record this record it was basically 
like a solo thing. Joe, who was an original member, was still in the band 
but he had switched to being more of a supporting member, just playing 
the bass and supporting what I was doing. But by the time the record 
came out he had been out of the band for a while and doing his own thing.

TCB: Do you ever feel like you’re cutting good songs out because of the
line-up changes?  It must be hard because there’s never been one line-up 
who has known all the songs.

ST: I really wish that we could support this record more. Like we could
go out there and play Waiting For A World War and have it sound as cool
as the record. But we usually only play the more guitar-based ones, because 
they are easier to pull off live. Like we play “Cleopatra Eyes” and 
we’re going to be playing “Rocker Chixxx Dig Us” pretty soon but for 
the most part we end up playing stuff that is going to be on the next record. 
Like the more rockin’, Weezer kind of stuff.

TCB: So the next record, are you recording it now, or...

ST: Well, we have that 7” coming out soon that has a few songs from the 
next record that we are going to re-record for the next record.  I hope 
it will be recorded in-between our tours because we’ll be touring the 
last part of July and the first part of September. But if not we’ll 
get it done in like October or something.

TCB: Are you going to record in Stone Gossard’s studio again, with the
big antique bong?

ST: Dude, I hope so (laughs). They had this like, 1975 porn there. I
stole one because it had this John Lennon interview in it. I just read
it for the articles (laughs).

TCB: So is the next record gonna be all keyboard rockin’ or is it going
to be more straight up rockin’?

ST: For the past six months we’ve just been playin’ these “rock n’ roll” shows. 
But I think the next album is going to be a bit of a mix because I’m always 
still writing some piano stuff at home. I think it will be kind of a 
surprise, even to me, how it will end up turning out.

TCB: You’ve been in the band for a long time now so what is “the vision
for the future of Dolour?”

ST: Well I think that Dolour is just kinda the name that I use for
whatever I’m into at the moment. I think that that bugs people
sometimes, and it bugs me sometimes. There’s just like, no consistency
as far as a “band sound.” Sometimes you can pick up a band’s record and
just kinda know what it’s going to sound like. I don’t think our records 
are ever going to be like that as long as it’s just me in the band. As soon 
as I’m into something new, I soak it up like a sponge, you know?  So depending 
on what kind of mood I’m in when I’m recording the record is going to effect 
how the record is going to turn out. Kind of a temperamental artist thing.

TCB: So do you always feel bit dissatisfied with your stuff? 
Because you re-record songs a lot and...

ST: I think the thing is, I hate anything when it’s brand new. So when
the record came out about six months after it was recorded, I was ready
and I could think “That’s pretty good for being 18,” you know? And now
I'm ready to do what’s good for being 19. So I do hate everything I do,
until I can give it enough space that I can say it’s not me anymore.

TCB: Do you ever feel like the local music press kind of gives you the
cold shoulder? I think the only thing I’ve ever read about you guys is
the review in The Stranger.

ST: The thing is, we’ve never had anything to do with any scenes.
That’s why I’m really excited now because there is sort of a scene
blossoming. But as long as we’ve been around there’s never been a scene
that’s embraced us, or we haven’t really embraced a scene. You sort of
have like the hardcore scene and the punk scene or whatever, then you
have the “pop bands”. I don’t associate myself with bands like Peter
Parker even though I know we share fans. But now with bands like The
Prom or Seldom or Wonderful, I think it’s pretty exciting. I’m excited
about local music. But The Stranger needs to associate itself with
things that are a bit “popular” or what they feel is a scene and I don’t 
think we’ve given them that yet. I’m kind of anxious to see what comes 
out of the local pop scene in the next year.

TCB: So you think that’s the next big thing, pop music?

ST: Dude, I think it’s just obvious. Even with just Dolour, I’ve been
able to steal some of the hardcore kids who are just tired of doing
that. I think that the scene has been going so long with the hardcore
thing that I think it’s refreshing hear like, a melody or something
catchy or something to dance to. That’s totally what I’m all about.

TCB: The booty shakin’ grooves!

ST: Totally!

TCB: What do you do with all those songs that don’t get recorded or put
on an album?

ST: I think all my ex-girlfriends have them. It’s like; “here are the
songs I wrote for you, baby.” (Laughs) So if I wanted them back I think
I’d have to mend a few broken hearts. That’s not going to happen any
time soon so...

TCB: When you write, what sort of process do you have?

ST:  It’s gone through so many changes. In the beginning it was like
“oh, here’s a cool part, now let’s put another cool part next to it.”
More of a collage approach. But lately, since working with Blake on the
last album, I’ve gotten into really studying song structures. This is
really dorky but lately, I’ll actually just write out the arrangement
for a Beach Boys song or a Weezer song or whatever. Just to see what
works for them and what would work for me. I've learned so much from
just studying other writers and applying it to what I’m into.

TCB: That’s a cool way to do things. But with lyrics, are they always
like your personal heartfelt lyrics or do you use some degree of fiction
when writing?

ST: I’m surprised, because with Waiting For A World War I’ve read
reviews that say like “These lyrics are straight out of Shane’s journal.  
And it was a personal record, but I think in some 
ways (the new songs are) either a reaction to that or just me being 
tired about talking about myself, because they are more just stories. 
Like “Ménage A Trois” (a new song), there’s a truth to it somewhere, but 
I just took a story and put enough of a twist to it to hide the fact that 
they are about close friends (laughs). One girl called me up the other day 
and found out that one of the songs was about her and she was like “I just 
found out that song’s about me. It’s pretty obvious if you just look at 
the lyrics. But you ended up killing my character.” So yeah, the 
songwriting thing is like the biggest thing right now. I kind of look 
at Dolour as kind of my songwriting project. I always look at it 
like “As soon as I get my stuff together I can actually do a real band.” 
Hopefully after a record or two more I can actually have a real band, you know? 
I would love to have a real band where it’s like, everyone can have his or her 
say and everyone can contribute. But right now it’s just; I feel like I have 
a lot to learn before that can happen.

TCB: So if you had a band like that would everyone write songs?

ST: The thing is I think I’d have to find someone who shares a vision
with me. A lot of times, in a band, people have different intentions and 
that’s what breaks it all up. There are only a few people who can stand 
there and support someone else’s vision; so I think it’s important for 
someone else to share that vision. You just need to find the right people.

TCB: Are you all about the vinyl? The Chaos Bakery is...

ST: Oh yeah! But it’s like a weird time right now because vinyl costs
more than CD’s. It used to be the punk thing to do; put out a seven
inch. It’s not that way anymore because even 7”’s are like, an
investment for a label. There are still kids who are willing to do it
though. I’m always down for the analog.

TCB: So you’re going to see Brian Wilson in concert next week. Are you
going to throw your underwear at him?

ST: Dude, I should just bring a few extra pairs to toss.

TCB: Anything else to add?

ST: Just basically check out thedolour.tripod.com and girls email me at
dolour@hotmail.com (laughs).