Lagwagon - Rise up

Poor old Dave Raun. Sure, he gets to travel all over the world playing with Lagwagon (among other bands), but he’s the butt of never-ending drummer jokes, and after arriving home from Europe a day earlier has to plunge straight into interviews for their trip out here. His speech is laboured and measured – partly thanks to his drawl, but also partly due to being jetlagged and “not all there yet”. I can tell the poor guy has to think very hard about every word he’s saying. (Of course, that might just be due to the fact that drummers are irrefutably slower than the rest of us.)

Lagwagon are touring to support their ninth studio album, Resolve, somewhat a requiem for ex-drummer Derrick Ploude, who was with them for their first few albums and recently committed suicide. Dave described Resolve as “the most honest album” Lagwagon have recorded to date.

"It came together the fastest – it [was] basically therapy to do the album. Lyrically, it’s incredible. Joey wrote pretty heartfelt, close to home lyrics. We demoed the album and pretty much came up with the majority of songs in the shortest amount of time – not by really trying, they just kind of came out. And then we got everyone involved and Leon (one of our guitarists) wrote a couple more songs. We were all on the same page surrounding the recent death and it just all kind of fell into place. We didn’t waste any time – we just got it down and didn’t try to screw around with it," Raun.

Out of respect for the band and Derrick, I didn’t want to ask too much about Dave’s feelings about the death – obviously, everything that needed to be said is said on the album. Instead, I asked him about the change of style on Resolve – a lot of people have proclaimed it’s a return to Lagwagon’s old school roots. Dave didn’t really agree.

“A lot of the album is definitely more straight-forward. There’s some stuff on it that we have never done, which I was stoked about - I’d have to say that was probably my influence. It’s a little more hardcore, punk-hardcore, metal. A lot of anger. We weren’t really trying to do anything – we didn’t waste any time trying to get back to any style. Songs just kinda came out and they fit the way they fit and that was that, we didn’t try to mould them into anything. They might sound a lot more rock than a lot of our older albums, just cos that’s where they were at, and we wanted to leave them as untouched as possible. [It’s] more of a DC thing than a California hardcore thing. Bad Brains were a big influence for me, in styles of drumming, you know? So that just kinda came in there,” he says.

Resolve, centered around Derrick’s death, has a very clear theme. Do Lagwagon albums usually have a common theme?

“Just what’s going on at that moment – obviously the Derrick thing was going on then. Whatever might be firing Joey up or what might be firing the rest of us up at the moment, that’s pretty much what’s going to make the latest album.

“On the last album [2003‘s Blaze] there was some stuff talking about the state of affairs with our country and somewhat of our current administration and on [Resolve] it’s all pretty much about Derrick but we definitely feel strongly about what’s goin’ on here. We can’t get this current president out of office fast enough, that’s for sure.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get him out after the first four [years], but we’ll get him out after this one, hopefully before he does any more damage.”

After so much serious talk about deaths and a certain world leader who just won’t fuck off, it was time for an even more serious question: if Lagwagon albums were a family – and it’d be a pretty big family – what member would Resolve be? I posited it would be the older brother, more mature than its siblings.

“Well, it would be the baby. It’s the latest. It’s the newest, so it would have to be the baby. It would have to be a very mature baby. A very wise baby. It’s a Yoda baby – very strong with the force.”

Does it have a lightsaber?

“It better fuckin’ have a lightsaber! Yoda baby had better be choppin’ shit up with the lightsaber, it better be kickin’ some ass!”

With the mood somewhat lightened, I asked Dave about his memories of past tours in Australia. Who are his favourite Aussie bands to play with?

“Last time I played in Australia I think we played with Gazoonga Attack. Mindsnare, they’re awesome – Gordy and Nigel. Nigel’s actually going to be our tour manager on our upcoming Australian tour, and I used Gordy’s drum kit last time we came out there. He’s fuckin’ mad. Fuckin’ love Frenzal, those guys are the fuckin’ shit. Don’t Jay and Lindsay have the Morning Show? That shit’s wicked.”

What about favourite moments from last time Lagwagon came out?

“I came over with the Gimme Gimmes and then came over with Lagwagon not long after, so it’s hard to actually differentiate! We played some shows with The Bronx, and that was a lot of fun. We had an off-day and we went and saw the Bronx play – it was a great show, and I was really drunk. They’re one of my favourite bands.”

Come on, what about the filthy rock and roll stories? Where’s my debauchery-filled article-carrying confession?!

“I got nothin’ right now. Oh, God, there’s definitely been some… Most would be chalked up to drunken idiocy.”

Well, I couldn’t really plug him for more information. After all, he’d only just arrived home, he must have been tired as hell. And he is a drummer."

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