MPR’s Chris Roberts interviews Minneapolis songwriter Dylan Hicks. Hicks has always relied on his zany sense of humor to draw attention to himself and his music, but on his CD "Poughkeepsie" he is presenting a more serious side, and critics are responding favorably.

Segment includes various music clips.

Transcript:

(00:00:00) Dylan Hicks is a funny guy and he's not afraid to let the world know his press packet include stationary headed a note from the enormous oak desk of Dylan Hicks in the liner notes of his new CD. He thanks fans for making his group. One of the two thousand biggest drawing bands in the Upper Midwest. He was once pictured on the front of the now-defunct Twin Cities reader in an Uncle Sam outfit holding up a glass of milk announcing his intention to run for Hennepin. Tea milk commissioner governor of fun a song from Hicks last CD became his unofficial title, but he never wanted his sense of humor to Define his work and I'm Poughkeepsie. It's deliberately steers away from his goofball side.
(00:00:45) Connor would be okay right by the holiday, and then I'll guess snack. I'll take a cab to Monterey. So I'll be too far. You to want me back if that's what
(00:01:25) rock music should be fun. It should in turn entertain and not take itself too seriously and At the same time you I would like to be thought of as more of a more of a songwriter and less of a huckster my stuff in the past has been like me at a party with four or five people surrounding me and me telling jokes and then going home and feeling kind of lonely like, you know, I didn't make any connections there. I just I just told jokes and this is more like, you know, I'm more fun party where you find yourself a little groups and you're actually talking about each other and what your beliefs are and, you know not to get really sentimental but you know where you actually feel like you're making some connections in your really
(00:02:00) You
(00:02:00) know interacting with people on a on a level that you know, maybe it's more
(00:02:03) satisfying put me on a dc9 from United Airlines and call it a day.
(00:02:12) But Gypsy is kind of a strange name for a collection of songs written by a Minnesotan as Hicks tells the story he and his band were on an East Coast tour and had a day off so they tried to hustle a gig at a bar in Poughkeepsie, but they had no idea where it was. So we're trying to find this club. Bob and we ask this guy if he knew where it was and he didn't seem like a very likely candidate to know where this Rock Club was and he just kind of hopped from vocab see, you know, and so that became the running joke for the rest of the tour, you know, if we couldn't find anything, you know, you know, you know where my bag is. I'm not from Poughkeepsie. So the word kind of stuck him. So I thought it would work for the for the record because I thought the record was kind of amusing me depressing like the day was so anyway. Yeah, but I'm not from Poughkeepsie was kind of it was kind of clumsy and cumbersome to sing. I changed the to I'm not from around here plus easier to
(00:03:02) run stores are empty boarded up and everybody asks you for a buck. There's a Polka Band at the Taco Stand playing so long Charley. You're out of luck.
(00:03:30) Hicks takes a more experimental approach on the kip see using samples and funky keyboards to give the music a new dimension is humor is not forsaken in these songs the main character in the tune Claude Debussy is somewhat of an oath who discovers and is bowled over by the Beautiful music of the French impressionist composer and the Crusty old rocker in the song. the longhorn days wistfully recalls late 1970s Minneapolis specifically the longhorn bar where punk rock took root in the Upper Midwest people would talk about the longhorn days and it was sort of like, you know, the Greco Roman era, you know are the Renaissance, you know, it's sort of this, you know mythological period you know, and and so I thought it'd be funny to write a song with that title and I didn't really know what perspective it would come from and I don't know. I think it came out. Yeah, it does kind of poke fun at Nostalgia and Also, I just thought it'd be funny to write it because I would know you know, I wasn't there I wasn't old enough. So I you know, I thought I'd be kind of a I'd be an unlikely candidate to write the song and maybe something interesting with come out of it as a
(00:04:34) result things were really happening. Well, I've been on the Sunset Strip far as a New York. Of course I go back to the
(00:05:20) for pops on the ultimate goal is to is to write something. That does grab you right away and then still, you know provides, you know, pleasure for years later pop music will let you know if it's done successfully will generally Captivate you the first two or three two or three times the challenges if it happened after the 50th time, you're still care
(00:05:39) about it some sort and pay your bills. Don't spend all your earnings you better. Time management skills on your shirts and try not to flirt with your best friend. Why be on time don't lose your mind and get out I've got things to do. This is a strange time for pop music because the ease of which you can record music and put it
(00:06:30) out, you know is like never before when I was 14, which really isn't that long ago in this. Grand scheme of pop music. It was pretty unusual for people to put out their own music and for you know, it was a lot fewer records that came out, you know, and so it's pretty easy to keep track of most everything in the particular areas that you were interested him. And now I think it's you know impossible. So it's pretty challenging to you know to actually sell the records, you know, and a lot of times when I'm driving around in the van going to some gig that I know probably won't be all that well attended or Ever that. I think this is really an absurd business and I you know, you know, I should have listened to my parents, you know and stayed in college, but you know, I just can't help but I can't stop doing it and I try to remind myself that even if it doesn't result in any Financial rewards that it's still worth doing and that, you know, I'll be glad that I did it, you know for Hicks the Integrity of the songs out the kip see bolster his hope that he can keep making music into his 40s and 50s without feeling silly or absurd his ambition is to become a cult favorite. I'll probably be perceived as a failure to somebody and you know a small success to a lot of people and that's kind of what I'm that's what I'm going for. You can check Dylan Hicks cult status when he holds a release party for his new CD Poughkeepsie tomorrow night at the 7th Street entry in Minneapolis. This is Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio.
(00:07:58) Sit down on the couch sit down and shut your mouth sit down. Let the music play. Clock roll on the floor sound and color from klaviyo. I don't think ever. Klaus I read about him all night long those famous French guys turn but I
(00:09:36) did you say.
(00:09:48) That's it. There's no what did you expect? I ain't got nothing to say about Clark.