Name: Jonnie Dog & the Dingos

Genre: Beach-based Power Twang / Barrier Island Surf/Pop

Geographical Area: New Jersey - Central & Shoreline

Interview with: Jonnie Dog & Von Zipper by email on 11/29/07

1. What is the current line-up of your band?
 

Jonnie Dog (Jon Nielsen) - guitar; picking and howling

Dingo Doug (Doug Tomchuk) - guitar; strumming and yelling

Von Zipper (Joe Gillies) - drums; smacking and rolling

Dingo Dan (Dan Clark) - bass; slapping and screaming

 

2. How and when did you get started with your band?

JD: We formed to play a single party in the early 80's, writing a few  tunes in the week we had to prepare. We ended up with a lot of instrumentals, due to a combination of my  love of the genre and a lack of basic PA equipment. We had a good time, so we kept a thread going by playing two parties a  year, one in winter and one in summer, scheduling around that fact that the band members were enrolled in different colleges in different states.

Once we were all mostly in New Jersey again, we ramped up and started doing the indie bar scene. We are originally out of the New Brunswick college indie rock scene of the 80's, with bands like 'The Wooden Soldiers', 'The Masterbeats' and 'The Smithereens'. There was a thriving original music scene, fed by a young Matt Pinfield through the local college radio station.

Matt and I went to High School together. We never quite fit into the nihlistic-art-rock vogue of that time, but we did manage a following and lots of recognition as we stood out like a sore thumb. To this day, club owners and sound men of the time still remember us as the weirdos in shorts with the funny 'un-cool' name.

We ended up playing a lot of themed gigs, 'beach' nights at various clubs and a multitude of private parties up and down the jersey shore. We played a sampling of frat-rock styled early 60s vocals, along with classic instrumentals and always a good serving of original tunes mixed in. We were doing three-set nights back then, and with most songs clocking in at a little over 2 minutes, that is a lot of songs.....


3. What bands or music have influenced you most?
 

JD: As a band we were collecting what little existed of the 2nd wave of surf: Jon and the Nightriders, The Halibuts, etc. I was really into The Raybeats. Musically, we were a bunch of new-wavers doing instros. so there was a lot of: B-52s, Devo, Clash, Ramones, etc. Later we tied into the skate-punk scene a bit; Dead Kennedys, Agent Orange, the Dickies. Guitar and melody styles for me: Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Duane Eddy, and Marshall Crenshaw. Von Zipper brings a heavy-rock drum style to the mix.


4. What is the breakdown of cover vs. original material in your live shows and/or recordings?
 

JD: It would depend on the audience, the event and the amount of time we had to play. A full three-set night at a 'normal' club, would probably be about one-third originals. At a 'showcase' one set club, we'd do about 90% originals, a surf  themed night maybe about 75% originals. It all depends on what the audience wants, we try to break it up a bit.
 

5. What recording have you done?
 

VZ: We will be putting down the basic tracks for the first full length Dingos CD Thanksgiving weekend if all goes as planned.  (Update: we've got a good start on the full-length CD, with about 10 original tunes mostly canned, more to come.)

JD: We've been to the studio a few times for some short demo runs over the years - mid-80s we put down some tracks for the local radio stations; mid-90s we recorded a few things including a background music bed for a friend's Surf Shop radio commercials (Wavejammer Surf Shop, Toms River, NJ). In the 2000s we've been hacking away in various basement studios on a bunch of tracks. We've made it onto a few compilations over the years, various
 soundtracks, etc.

 

6. What kind of gear do you use?
 

VZ: 1972 Ludwig Classics
 

JD: We were pretty purist for a while; Doug's got a mid 60's Jag, a couple of Showmen amps (including a beautiful blonde '61). Dan uses a 60's Vox teardrop bass (Bill Wyman model). I've got a '61 Jazzmaster that I used to use a lot. Nowadays we're mostly using modern equipment for the reliability. My main guitar these days is a Reverend Slingshot. They make great vintage sounding stuff.

 

7. What is your band’s favorite food/beverage?

VZ: Uh....Beer?

JD: Beer and pizza.
 

8. How do you get gigs?

VZ: Gigs?!? You mean we're supposed to play live?
 

JD: Heh, yeah, we haven't been doing a lot of that lately. We get a lot of work from our website - we've been included on some videos, corporate sponsorship one year. Other than that, when we do play out, we tend to get invited to other gigs/parties/events, and we do a lot of charity work, playing at non-profit fundraisers.




9. What are the difficulties you find playing your kind of music in your area?
 

JD: Difficulties? Hey, its all a trade off. You can play what the people want and get lots of jobs, or play only what -you- want and play in your basement. We vary back and forth between these a bit, but mostly we are doing what we like, because we like it. Jamming our format into the showcase club format these days doesn't make  sense for any of us. We have no desire to play in between two teenager thrash bands for $10 a night. We've been fortunate enough to tap into the local festival lineup for a while and had a few corporate sponsored events.



10. What positive attributes does your band have that sets you apart from other bands (of any genre)?

JD: no egos, and we are actually having fun out there (or we wouldn't be doing it).

 

11. What have you found to be the single most effective promotional tool you’ve used to further your band’s musical path?
 

JD: Signature pens. Dan once made a small run of pens and other promo items about 20 years ago with our name on them. But seriously, I'd say the website and giving away our songs. We will most likely release the new CD contents under the Creative Commons license to promote distribution.

 

12. What’s the most interesting performance experience you’ve had?
 

VZ: Well, the Seafood Festival in Belmar playing with no cymbals bears a mention. For that matter, so does playing The Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton. Alright, so it was only the hallway.

JD: Yeah, the Seafood Festival years were a trip. We had some great times in New Brunswick in the early years, at the Court Tavern and such. We had a pretty good following back then. I also liked the Twin Fin Wine east coast sales release party we played. It turned out we knew about half the sales people from our days in Seaside Heights. Lots of fun that day.

 

13. What do you hope to get out of being a NESMA member?
 

JD: Mostly getting a feel for the current state of East Coast instrumental music. It seems to be a much bigger network than the old days, but the issues seem to remain the same.

 

14. Anything else?