Blag Dahlia of rock legends The Dwarves

We’ve lost count of the number of musicians we’ve spoken with, only to discover they don’t really have much to say.
Blag Dahlia, founder of Californian-based rock legends The Dwarves isn’t one of them, as Sammy Jones discovered…

We could have filled a whole Pulse music section with Blag’s thoughts – everything from self-care (“you have to monitor yourself constantly for anger, jealousy, sadness – these are the things that kill us”) to his many epiphanies – the last one developed into his solo Introducing Ralph Champagne record, which pushed a different musical agenda; one where outlaw country and trucker ballads found a home through his retro crooner alter ego.

But we’re here to discuss The Dwarves, and there’s plenty to natter about – starting with the brilliantly hooky Concept Album, which hit the racks last year. It boasted 20 songs that very much ran the gamut of musical styles.

“…every different genre,” Blag picks up, “It had garage stuff and hardcore stuff, thrash stuff, pop-punk stuff and it had everything, right?”
Blag is the driving force here, but make no mistake, there is a band of brilliance at work.

‘’I run the band, but I do it in a very open ended way, because I’m not one of those people that thinks I do everything better than the people around me, and when you got Josh Freese, who is now in the Foo Fighters, on drums you want to let him drum. When you’ve got Rex Everything, aka Nick Oliveri, who came from Kyuss and those bands, you want to let him play bass.

“Nick is such a unique singer and bass player, he is so strong on bass and has got such a great right hand and his voice is so distinctive. He is also underrated as a lyricist and a songwriter – I think his lyrics are very interesting, there is a depth of intelligence to them, which I think has been influenced by The Dwarves. He has a very deep well of musical knowledge.

“Nick doesn’t take a day off – he is a real true rock n roller, more so than me – I get tired of it.
“I just don’t have the energy to do it and I don’t find it interesting after a while. Nick was just born to rock n roll, he’s that guy. He’s amazing.”
With that kind of cool in the ranks – swelled by the guitar greatness of The Fresh Prince of Darkness, aka Marc Diamond and demon drummer Snupac – Blag’s work is made all the easier.

“I don’t sit there and micromanage these guys, or pretend to be able to tell them what to play and where to put it…”
But with so much creativity and variety, not even the band agrees on everything.

“The guy that always gets me is The Fresh Prince of Darkness – he will always come in and go, ‘Ok man, it’s a good record, but I don’t like this song and I don’t like that song’…but with this current record, he actually came in and said, ‘Blag, I like every single song, I wouldn’t get rid of any of them.”

Right before heading off on their European tour The Dwarves were back in the studio, and the band that launched as a 60s stye garage collective back in the 80s, later morphing into hardcore purveyors before delivering slicker releases (“…but we always tried to hang on to the profanity, the nudity, the nastiness and the sticking it in your face,” Blag counters) are on the musical turn again, prompted in part by the rediscovery of old tapes that dated from the era of their seminal Blood, Guts & Pussy delivery.

“I’d forgotten about those tapes for years, but I went back and mixed them, and spoke to the photographers that took part in that stuff and got a bunch of great photos from the Blood, Guts era and I got this totally different record that has a lot of those songs, but done live in the studio, so it’s got a different feel. That’s gonna be the next Dwarves album that comes out, called Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.

“I think that will give people an interesting window into the old punk rock Dwarves, the not so pop Dwarves, with no background vocals and all that kind of stuff and you will see a lot of those alternative photos from the Blood, Guts & Pussy shoot that is so famous, with the naked girls, and the rabbit and the dwarf guy.”

The band is also hoping to have a new release out by next Halloween, “…and it will be more that style – more punk rock, more straightforward, less produced and more, ‘this is what we sound like.’”

With new offerings comes the need to tour ’em – Having coloured up everywhere from Venice to London on their recent European tour, and having smashed out dates stateside, the band is soon off Down Under with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

Blag is well up for this forthcoming stint, while admitting that a life on the road ain’t quite the fun it used to be.
“I’m an old guy so touring is hard, you are tired, you are hungry, you are cranky, the other old guys are complaining.
“Touring makes you tired and sick, it’s really a young guy’s game. When we were kids it was fun.

“But the older you get, every backstage looks the same, every van looks the same…
“I really love touring in terms of being with my friends and playing music for people – it’s the other 23 hours out of the day where you can’t eat and you can’t sleep and you are all f*cked up!”

In today’s world where people get offended even if there’s nothing to be offended about, the notoriously un-PC Dwarves keep ploughing ahead, and they are still the same nasty, uncompromising unit that fans love them for.

But with everyone being censored by the keyboard police, is it harder being The Dwarves in 2024?
“Yes and no, I think it would be harder to start now. But we’d already established this brand with nudity and profanity – it’s not like we’re just doing it now to freak you out.

“It cost us a lot at the beginning,” Blag admits, “Any chance at radio play, any chance at a major label deal…so that was always difficult.
“When I was 20 and writing a song about an underage girl it sorta meant one thing, but to go and sing that song 40 years later, people are like, ‘What is your problem, when you’re an old guy and singing this song?’ My response is, ‘It’s a song,’ he laughs, “It’s not real!

“You have to take it in the spirit in which it was written. Some people say, ‘I’d stay away from that material because it’s not appropriate any more’, but I look at it as, ‘It was never appropriate’, we’re always inappropriate, that’s what we are and I’m not gonna pull back on it now.
“I think it’s just funnier now, but I am sure it has cost me a lot in various ways. Most of what people do to ruin your career is just ignore you and not mention you.”

Blag ain’t concerned: “No. It doesn’t worry me at all, because in order for it to destroy me, it would first have to make me more popular than I am,” he laughs some more, “I am fine with that. You want to throw a whole bunch of sh*t at me, please do!

“I’ve been the same guy pushing the same stuff for a long time, and the idea that it would ruin me is funny to me.

“I haven’t had enough success to fear that, I have always been very ballsy and open minded, and if you are gonna take me on – here I am.”
Right now, this singer-songwriter, author, producer and creative has more work to be done. The Dwarves are gearing up for those live dates, and Ralph Champagne is back – a second album is being put together as you read this.

The man who sees ‘a tremendous amount of blandness’ in music’ and his creative companions are certainly doing their bit to counteract the tedium.

> Get acquainted: thedwarves.com