Originally published in Excommunication issue #1

First, the basic questions. Can you give me a little background info on Billy Music? Who’s in the band, and how did you guys form? Are all original members still in the band?
Billy Music formed in June of 1998 with Dave on guitar and vox, Mike on guitar and vox, Billy on drums, and James on bass. The lineup has remained the same ever since.

Tell me about your band’s name controversy. Once upon a time, you were known simply as “Billy.” Why the change? Was there a lawsuit involved?
About two months before the release of our most recent full-length, Midwest Index, we got word from another band named “Billy” that if we used the name for our upcoming release that we would face legal action. Apparently, they own the trademark for the word “Billy.” So we considered changing the name altogether, but we’ve been touring the country for the past three years with name Billy and have established ourselves in many different scenes, however large or small. Plus, there were already ads out in zines and on the Internet promoting the new CD with the name “Billy.” So we added “Music” to it to make the distinction clear. The name was a joke to begin with and we always kind of knew it would come back to get us. The timing was really bad for it, but we think we made the right decision about the matter.

What would you like to say to those other Billy bastards who made you change your name?
Give us our name, damnit! They don’t even have anyone named “Billy” in the band. What is up with that?

So what’s it like in South Dakota? Does South Dakota boast any indie rock scene to speak of?
South Dakota is pretty low-key, especially on our end of the state. Things get mad crazy every August in the Black Hills when the Sturgis Motorcycle rally is on. But that’s on the west end of South Dakota. We live on the east side of the Missouri River, where there is a lot more farming and a lot less culture. The scene in our hometown of Sioux Falls is a very close-knit community of musicians, artists, and music “geeks” like myself. The scene there mainly consists of hardcore and metal bands, with a few funk bands and jam bands and even hip-hop is coming up there too. Most of the acts from Sioux Falls operate on an underground level.

How important is it to have an indie/punk rock scene? Recently, MCA bought out part of Victory Records; Dreamwork Records has snatched up both AFI and The Faint…it’s as though the underground is slowly merging with mainstream. Are there any big benefits of working with the “big guys?”
It is very important that an independent rock scene exists mainly because there is very little compromise involved with creating music on an independent level. It’s seems that when most indie bands go mainstream they sacrifice a certain amount of control over their affairs or some facet of their existence is perverted, and they end up getting screwed one way or another.

As a listener, I really don’t make distinctions between major and indie label bands. If it’s enjoyable to listen to then friggin’ listen to it. But the only incentive that may exist for working with the “big wigs” is the possibility of reaching a much larger audience. For some bands that actually happens, but timing has a lot to do with that also, and more times than not you see good bands get hosed by a very unstable and often times crooked music business.

In many cases, it seems that the resentment for bands who “sell out” to larger labels is simply because fans of underground music are very “possessive” of the bands that they “heard first” — it goes no deeper than a resentment for their success and the opportunity they receive to make a living from their music. Do you think that there are other reasons for the underground backlash successful bands who emerge from the indie rock scene endure?
I agree that bands may lose some loyal fans because they decided they’d try to make a living working through a major label, but if the music is good why be disloyal? If you sign a major deal you’re also not guaranteed to make a living out of it either. Sure the possibility of reaching a larger audience exists on a major, but it comes at a very large price and many different sections of the industry take a cut of a bands hard-earned revenue. It seems that there are just too many risk factors involved with dealing with major labels. I believe that it is equally as possible to make a living on an indie label as it is on a major. It just takes more work to make it happen on an independent label.

As a listener, though, I feel some resentment towards bands that lend their sounds to corporate advertising. I think bands lose a great deal of credibility when they make their music commercially viable. Some rock fans feel kind of cheated when they hear one of their favorite bands on a beer commercial or something.

Is playing in Billy Music a hobby or a career aspiration?
Without a doubt it is a career aspiration, and that was the idea when we started it. To make a living out of writing, recording and touring.

How did you come to work with Ross at Law of Inertia? He’s a good guy, eh?
We got acquainted with Ross through our friends in The 65 Film Show and Under a Dying Sun. LOI put out a record for the Film Show and after playing some shows with those guys, they recommended we talk to Ross about putting out our record. And when we hit up California for the first time in 2000, we met the kids in Under a Dying Sun and they told us of a zine that wanted to interview us; we didn’t realize at the time that it was LOI. So pretty much we got the ball rolling through mutual friendships, and that’s kind of the way we’ve always operated. Ross is a super good guy, and he has done great job with our record and getting it to distributors and promoting it and stuff. A lot of other labels could learn some lessons from Ross.

I have this dream of playing a wiffle ball game with only me on one team and Billy Music and Ross Siegel on the other. Do you think I’d win? I’m pretty good.
I think you’d be dead in the water, I can throw a wicked knuckle-curveball.

Billy Music’s sound is very melodic, kinda “emo,” but it seems to transcend that labeling rhetoric. How would you classify or describe your music to someone who’d never heard you before?
We don’t like to use brand names for our music, but melodic is a good descriptive word for our sound. We usually tell people that it’s our own version of rock and roll, but when that’s too vague we tell folks that it’s heavy/melodic rock.

What are your major influences? You must have known I’d ask this eventually.
Our influences individually are very widespread, but as a whole I’d say that the major ones would be Sunny Day Real Estate, Sense Field, Quicksand, Hum, and Into Another.

Have you guys started your tour with Bane and The Grey AM yet?
Well we don’t have plans as of now to tour with Bane, but it’s something that we would love to do. And we just finished up a two week midwest tour with Grey AM.

How did that go?
The Grey AM tour did pretty well for the most part. Those guys rock it so loud and hard live. It was a blast to see fireballs and stuff every night.

How did you manage to hook up with these bands?
The Grey AM has played in our hometown quite a bit throughout the past four to five years, and they became really good friends with some of the folks in our scene. We’ve also played their area a couple times too, plus they also have a record out on LOI. So we thought it would be worthwhile to do some touring together. Hopefully we’ll do it again sometime. We played with Bane on our first tour back in ’99 and we had been playing quite a few hardcore shows on that tour and at home too, hardcore shows are what we’re mainly used to playing since we have such a strong hardcore scene in South Dakota. But we actually played with them in Tennessee, and we really enjoyed each other’s music and live shows, so it really stems from meeting them on our first tour. And now every time we hit the road we almost always run into them or play a couple show with them. Their guitar player Aaron Dalbec has also released one of our cd’s on his label, The Life Recording Company.

What are Billy Music’s plans for the next year?
For 2003, you can probably expect a new recording — probably another full-length — and more touring. It’s still kinda hard to tell what the time frame will be for a new record, but you can bet that if it isn’t wintertime in South Dakota that we’ll be out on the road playing shows and having a good time doing it.

How can the kids get ahold of you?
Our website is www.Billymusic.com and it has all kinds of info including tour dates, mp3s, a message board, merchandise, and all the contact info you can handle.

Thanks a lot for your time! Best of luck to you.
Thanks for reaching us. Peace!