The Dagons
Interview by Christine Dunleavy

Dreams of lovers gone awry reverberating through the truest heart strings you’ll ever hear. Melodies fluttering with a harsh discord. Echoey sitar sounds being pumped out with a sincere, lo-fi primal energy. The perfect combination that leaves you feeling as if you’re floating in air, or at times drowning in a vast, deep sea. Music that will intoxicate and speak to the soul. The Dagons are Carry Jacobson and Drew Kowalski, and they truly are like nothing you’ve heard before.

1. What inspired you guys to combine such harsh discord with such whimsical beauty in your music, often at the same time?
  
Drew: We like extremes. We like a lot of heavy and exotic sounds and we like stories that are bizarre and unpredictable.
  
2. For all of us not well versed in Philistine mythology (it is from Philistine mythology, right?), what exactly does " Dagon" mean or what is a " Dagon" ?
  
Karie: Philistine or Phoenician. It was a half-man, half-fish god who came out of the sea and taught people about music, sailing, building, and so on. H.P. Lovecraft also used the name for his own fishy god. The Dagon-worshipping people in his stories gradually get more fish-like as they get older until finally they go live at the bottom of the ocean.
  
3. I heard that music runs in both of your families, what is some background history on that and how did it help shape both of your musical pursuits?
  
Karie: My grandparents were musicians who ran a dance hall in the 1930's and 40's. Grandma played accordion, and Grandpa played baritone sax. Grandma's parents were also musicians- her dad played the fiddle in Barnum & Bailey's Circus. She and her brothers and sisters all sang and played instruments and would have performances at their little red schoolhouse around the turn of the (19th) century. She knew all kinds of amazing Victorian parlour ballads and Appalachian folk songs. My dad carried on the tradition - he was a really good fingerpicking guitarist who could play cool old Delta blues and folk songs. He also wrote his own songs. When some big event would happen in his life, he would write a song about it. So that's what I grew up around. When I was a kid we'd all play music together and harmonize.
  
Drew: My mother is from Hungary and virtually everyone I'm related to on her side is a musician. Mostly classical. A lot of them are teachers. She was a pianist who studied under Zoltan Kodaly. She mostly liked to play Romani (Hungarian gypsy) tunes and was too shy to become a performer and chose to play only for herself. She would rip it up when she thought no one was listening. I would hide nearby to listen to her. My family listened mostly to Romani records around the house when I was growing up, rock was forbidden.
  

  
4. What made you decide to incorporate sitar in your music? It isn' t the most conventional of instruments, yet it fits so wonderfully with your sound. Drew, what inspired you to learn to play such an instrument? Once when I saw you guys play I witnessed you smash your sitar, which was probably one of the craziest and awesome things I' ve ever seen at a show!
  
Drew: I started playing sitar because I love the sound and it was something I could do late at night at home or in a hotel room because its pretty quiet -at least when I'm not amplifying it. Sometimes when I would come up with a riff, Karie would come in and say she had something to sing over it.

  
5. How long have you guys been playing together? Have there been or are there any other musical projects, together or separate?
  
Drew: The Dagons played their first show in March of 1997. Karie: Drew's recorded a lot of instrument music on his own -- weird soundscapes, sitar music, etc.  

6. Do you play any other instruments?
  
Drew: Karie plays the organ the best I've ever heard. I can play guitar, bass, and a little bit of ukele and banjo. Karie: I do play it on a couple of songs on our first two albums -- Air, and Julia Pastrana.        
  
  
7. What are some plans for the future for you guys? Any plans of tours or new albums?
  
We're releasing a 16-song album in January 2011. Also, Drew now has a full-service recording studio that offers tracking, mixing, mastering, and editing to other bands. So that's been a dream come true for Drew. And, this fall, we will be putting out a podcast for an English radio station. There's some new songs in there, and also new arrangements of some older songs.
  
  
8. Do you have a website? Where' s the best place for us to hear and purchase your music?
  
itunes, pandora or our website www.dagons.net

 

Dagon's Myspace
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