Dada focuses first on their music, fan base
After being on hiatus for more than three years, California trio Dada is touring once again.
But guitarist Michael Gurley does not consider it a reunion tour.
“I think everybody just needed a little time off to do their own thing,” he said. “I don’t know if you would call it a reunion so much. It’s not like we haven’t been together for 20 years. It was just the right time to get back together.”
Michael Gurley
Dada will perform May 31 at the Arcada Theatre, 105 E. Main St., St. Charles.
Local bands Cool Factor Crusade and Randall will open for the group.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15, available through the Arcada Box office at (630) 845-8900 or on the Internet at www.tickets.com.
Dada was first signed to I.R.S. Records, releasing 1992′s “Puzzle.” That album spawned the hit “DizzKneeLand.”
After that label folded, Dada signed with MCA Records in 1997 and released its self-titled fourth CD. But plans for a 1999 tour were put on hold as MCA’s parent company, Seagram’s was bought by Vivendi. Dada was dropped from the label.
“The end of the MCA days is a little gray for us,” Gurley said. “It just seemed like big business was getting in the way of our music, and maybe we were letting it. We need a break from that, I think.”
During the hiatus, members kept busy working on solo projects. Singer Joie Calio released his own album and Gurley and drummer Phil Leavitt formed a new band, Butterfly Jones, which released the album “Napalm Springs.”
With Dada now back together, Gurley said the band has a clearer version of what it wants to do.
“What we’ve always wanted is to just make good music first, and everything else will hopefully come into place after that,” Gurley said. “Right now, we are not concerned with record labels or radio play or anything like that.
“It is very freeing, you know. We are just concerned with making music, and it is fun to play the old tunes again.”
Although the music industry might think of Dada as being a one-hit wonder, Gurley said their fans know better.
“We put out four records and we toured for five years. That’s not a one-hit wonder,” Gurley said. “We have only had one radio hit, but we’ve got eight years of music that we made for our fans, and they appreciate that. For most of them, ‘DizzKneeLand’ wasn’t even their favorite song.”
Dada plans to release two new albums in the coming months. One will be a CD of previously unreleased tracks from the MCA sessions, and the second will be a live CD.
“The last MCA record could have been a double record,” Gurley said. “We had a lot of tunes we recorded for that, 28 or something like that. These are tracks we are proud of. I think we have picked the best tunes and it does sound like a new Dada record.”
The new CD will probably feature 11 tracks and be released on the band’s own label, he said. This will be the first CD Dada has released on its own label.
Gurley is also working on a new Butterfly Jones CD.
For now, though, the members of Dada are enjoying being back on the road.
“I forgot what it is like to play in front of really dedicated fans, people who just get it,” Gurley said. “It’s amazing the energy you get from these people. They are still here. They haven’t gone anywhere.”
- Eric Schelkopf
Source: The Kane County Chronicle – Geneva, IL
