Influencing Other Musicians
Peter Holsapple of The dB's
Cris Cohen: Mike Mills (of REM) has definitely gushed about this particular album (Stands for deciBels) and the influence it had. Last time we talked, you mentioned Drive-By Truckers talking about it. It must be weird to switch from “I'm the person being influenced” to “I'm the person influencing.” How do you appreciate both sides?
Peter Holsapple of The dB's: Growing up, the groups that I really liked ended up being the ones that are now collector's items. They didn't really make a lot of commercial inroads.
And to be perfectly honest, I certainly didn't think that would be the situation with The dB’s. I had no reason to believe that we wouldn't go to the top most of the pop most. It didn't strike any of us that our music was anything less than pretty commercial and accessible. But I guess it turns out it wasn't. What are you going to do?
So for me, having been a fan of various groups and having had interactions with some of those people, some of them were just as sweet and nice as they could be. And some of them didn't want to give you the time of day. They didn't want to talk about it. They didn't care. They changed your life, but so what?
So I've always tried to have time for people that wanted to talk about The dB’s and talk about the music, because it's a real privilege to have felt like an influence in somebody's musical listening.
That doesn't happen for everybody. I can think of a dozen albums that came out in 1981 that are at least as good as The dB’s record, but they fell by the wayside and nobody ever heard them. So where does that leave those guys, you know?
I'm really proud of the effect that The dB’s had for anybody. I'm still thrilled and kind of mystified, but I wear it proudly.
The dB’s website: https://thedbs.com/