I wish that I had never heard Deadbolt before. I wish that I didn't have all five releases by these suave voodoo snake charmers from San Diego, that I hadn't spent countless hours caught in the demented, murky web of their surf/lounge groove. I wish that I could do it all over again, relive the feeling I got the first time I heard Tiki Man and looking at my wife, asking "what the hell is this?" and being a hopeless fan by the time the CD ended. I want to once again feel the joy of finding Tijuana Hit Squad, Deadbolt's third release, in a grimy record store in London. For all you new fans out there, prepare yourselves for an experience like none you've ever had before. Get ready to ask yourself why the hell you've suddenly been smitten by a band whose songs all sound the same, 'cause truth be told Deadbolt make The Ramones sound like Neil Young when it comes to musical growth and experimentation. But above all else, new fans should prepare themselves for an evil dose of fun, humor and far-out tunes.

Steve and I got the chance to interview Deadbolt this summer in Seattle. I'd heard more than enough stories of Deadbolt's wickedness to be just slightly nervous about talking to them. The first time I heard about Deadbolt was in an interview in Flipside where the band and the interviewer finish the interview by firing a gun into a hotel mattress and fleeing into the night. When I interviewed Speedo from Rocket from the Crypt a few years later, he told me about how Harley Davidson (singer, guitarist, and Deadbolt main man) had shot him in the leg on tour once by accident. Those two tales combined with the fact that Deadbolt have a soft spot for torturing people on their records made getting into their van to do the interview pretty damn spooky. As things turned out, Harley, Tank Williams (drummer) and 3rd Degree Burns (bass) are just about the nicest people you could ever hope to meet--and the only danger we were ever in was of drinking too much of their beer.

Ole Kirk: What's it like recording a Deadbolt album?

Harley Davidson: Laughs; we do the theme albums, so everybody gets into the theme. We do the research, like Voodoo Trucker. Everybody lives like truckers, watches trucker movies, hangs out at sleazy cafés, pays off some truckers, and go a little fast. It is kind of a fun thing. It is different than others, like Sting doing an album. They do the same old shit like write about love, etc...

We've got an outline. A lot of it is one cut. Whatever comes or sounds good. It also depends on the amount of legal and illegal substances in our body.

Ole: You have a lot of extra people in the studio. Are they friends?

Harley: Yeah, yeah, a family thing. I got my brother doing some drum work.

Ole: Is this Tank?

Harley: Tank is the new drummer that replaced Les Vegas. Then my other brother does some sort of producing.

Ole: What happened to Les Vegas?

Harley: He had a nervous breakdown. He got real paranoid and took off, disappeared. He left everything, his drums and his clothes. He left some real nice Hawaiian shirts. We sold them at Buffalo Exchange.

Ole: Do all you guys live together?

Harley: Les and I lived together, now Clay Moore Mines live together at Disgraceland.

Ole: The Deadbolt pad?

Harley: Yeah, it's our practice pad and hangout place.

Ole: Deadbolt is pretty much your life?

Harley: It's a hobby that...

3rd Degree Burns: Snowballed.

Harley: ...that snowballed--we got sick and tired of seeing stupid bands.

Steve Weatherholt: How long have Deadbolt been together?

Harley: Maybe eight to nine years.

Harley: Yeah, we played there a long time ago.

Ole: What was your history before you started putting records out on Cargo Music? Had you been together long?

Harley: We were friends doing kooky shit. There's a counterculture out there, people who like Blue Velvet, weird strange things. We didn't know how many people were out there. You know that was before the Internet, so like there is a lot of fun fucked-up people.

Ole: How well do your records sell?

Harley: Most of our sales are on the road. Otherwise, we have had a few distribution problems, but they do sell pretty well. Most of it is on the road at shows, though.

Ole: Do you have jobs besides Deadbolt?

Harley: Yeah.

3rd Degree Burns: Public phone disinfectant person. [much laughter] Someone has to do it.

Ole: Is Deadbolt still making their "little movies"?

Harley: We haven't for a while, but we are going to start getting back into it. They are too hard to make.

Ole: Do you distribute them somehow or are they just local releases?

Harley: We're going to get them going, they're coming up.

Ole: I interviewed Speedo from Rocket from the Crypt a couple of years ago. I had to ask him about Deadbolt. He was telling me about a movie of someone you know that was taking care of an elderly woman that was dead one day when she showed up. Of course, she called Deadbolt before calling 911?

Harley: Yeah, yeah, something like that.

Ole: Speedo had a lot of good Deadbolt stories. Want to try and get revenge by telling some good Speedo stories?

3rd Degree Burns: Tell the one about how he got the name Speedo.

Harley: No, no... [laughs] We had some good times hanging out.

Ole: Have you shot anybody famous besides Speedo?

Harley: No, just easily disposed of people. People that the world won't miss.

Ole: I think it is time to get out of the van...

Harley: I don't see any piercingings on your face or smelly backpacks. You know, the "gutter punk" types.

Ole: You were talking about living the life of a trucker. Do you have a CB radio on tour with you?

Harley: Yes we do. [pulling curtain away to show us] See it right there.

Harley: We start out with a picture for each record. Just something to get you in the mood. When we make an album we want to take listeners on a little journey. A little mental journey. Something they can pop in when they just broke up with their girlfriend, when they're going to Vegas, pumped up on blow and they got a six-pack. Something they could just get into.

Ole: Looking at your tour site it doesn't look like you play the most obvious places--lots of lounges and bowling alleys like Bert's Lounge?

Harley: Bert's Lounge is a great place. We like the more intimate places so we can mingle with the crowd.

Ole: You drive to all those places. The four of you in the van?

Harley: We usually take three on the road and then one roadie. But otherwise we play the "Wall of Thunder" like the whole Southern California region.

Ole: Do you guys sleep in here?

3rd Degree Burns: If need be. It's feasible.

Ole: How is the fan club going and what can members expect to receive from it?

Harley: I didn't know we had a fan club. When we signed up with Cargo they took it over. They are doing it.

Ole: A friend of mine joined the club and got a certificate saying he had to wear sunglasses all the time.

Harley: Good, so they are getting stuff. I had heard a couple times that there were some problems. I just want to know if I need to kick some ass. Smack some little college kid, around you know.

[Much laughter as Harley imitates threatening the college kid]

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