INTERVIEW: THE DARE

DID HARRISON PATRICK SMITH MAKE THE DANCE SINGLE OF THE YEAR?

I played a show with 3OH!3 in the summer of 2007. Even at that stage of their career, it was clear something was happening: something weird. Though there were less than 50 people in the crowd, half of them had on homemade 3OH!3 shirts. Less than a year later, the group would peak at number three on the Billboard charts with the single “Don’t Trust Me.”

As I watched their set, my friend Nick leaned over and said that 3OH!3 sounded like what he had read A.R.E. Weapons sounded like. But he had never actually heard A.R.E. Weapons. Something like that. I can’t completely remember. It was 15 years ago. 

If A.R.E. Weapons had a different record deal, the kind Andrew W.K. had, could they have been as big as 3OH!3? The line between electroclash and The Vans Warped Tour is a lot thinner than you people might think. Never forget that at one point W.K. was a backup dancer for Fischerspooner. 

Anyways. “Girls” by The Dare might be the dance single of the year. It sounds like the perfect combination of Myspace and Friendster. If Nowadays is the new Twilo then “Girls” sounds like it is meant to be played at the 2023 version of Club Luxx. Dear God this blog is already fucking stupid. As it happens, I met Harrison on the train years ago. He tapped my shoulder and introduced himself and then told me he was a fan of Dogs In Ecstasy. What can I say? The guy is a head.

Who are more influential to you: A.R.E. Weapons or 3OH!3?

To be honest, neither. I had never heard of A.R.E. until reading this and looking them up. They seem pretty bad. 3OH!3 rarely cross my mind but at least they knew how to write a hit. I’m much more influenced by you, actually.

How old were you when bloghouse was happening? What kind of MP3s were you downloading back then?

I feel like 2008 is what people call the peak of bloghouse (correct me if I’m wrong), so I would’ve been 12 years old. AKA probably the beginning of my interest in girls. I think at that point in time I was still listening to a lot of pop punk and emo. I do have the memory of a watershed moment occurring at a sleepover where my friend put on “Little Girl” by Death From Above 1979. I set that to play when you opened my Myspace page the day after. I think I'm actually a lot less interested in bloghouse than people think I am. I'm more obsessed with like 2001-2003 stuff, Homework by Daft Punk was 1997! Bloghouse sometimes feels like the downward spiral to Steve Aoki and really, really terrible shit. In general my interest in this era of music isn't based in actual nostalgia--it's my pop music obsession and my feeling that early 2000s New York was the coolest shit in the world. Dancepunk and electroclash just feels like the big "fuck you" that music needs right now.

You do a weekly party at Home Sweet Home, a club that has been around since at least 2007. Take me through it. How do you warm up the room? What songs have been peaking the night lately? Are people sick of techno? So many questions. Maybe I should leave my room sometime.

Yeah! Home Sweet Home is the best. I swear like half the musicians I meet have either had a DJ residency there or religiously attended their legendary “Weird Wednesdays” party back then. I learned how to DJ on the house CDJs after a friend offered me a slot doing Monday nights. As soon as I got bumped up to Thursday I started promoting it as my own party “Freakquencies.”

I typically start the night by playing Primal Scream, Deerhoof, or Gorillaz deep cuts, basically more pop and rock leaning stuff I like around 100bpm. In a way this is usually my favorite part of the night because there’s no pressure to maintain the dancefloor and I can just freely play my favorite songs. Peak time is usually like 1am (it is Thursday, after all), and then I usually go for harder and more obviously danceable stuff like Doss, Sebastian, Soulwax, Marie Davidson.

As far as techno, I think a lot of people love dancing but are put off by the austerity of the Brooklyn scene. Gabber and techno have unfortunately become synonymous to many. I personally gravitate towards dance music that falls between 115-135bpm, and techno that’s sensuous and funny (Detroit Grand Pubahs, Green Velvet, Dopplreffekt). In Manhattan, people now sort of expect DJs to cater to finance bros and bro-ettes so I think there’s a lot less pressure on me to be really serious and precious about my DJing.

Turtlenecked is sick, but I’m excited to hear another one from The Dare. Have you been writing more songs? What is that process like? You said you wrote “Girls” in 30 minutes. 

Yes! I write all the time, constantly, for both projects. I’m really hyped to release more Dare music in order to contextualize the project further. I think Girls only gives people one dimension of what I want to accomplish with The Dare and I’m excited to see how people take it. 

My writing process varies, but typically the best songs happen very quickly (30 minutes to an hour). Some songs I labor over for years but typically it’s the spark that happened in the first 30 minutes that keeps me going back to it. Usually it takes a week or two of attempting to write something I like and failing and feeling very depressed, until lightning strikes and I come out with a new idea. Sometimes it comes top-down with a lyrical concept, and other times I start composing and by accident I do something that feels unusual and fresh.

Describe the experience of playing “Girls” live.

Right now it feels fucking crazy. I’ve never had a “hit” before so it’s crazy having a room of people scream the words you wrote back at you. There’s only been two Dare shows so far, but both have been really sweaty, raucous events. There’s actually a live video of Girls from the second show dropping soon that I think captures the energy of it all.

What are your plans for 2023? Are you going to go to England?

Tour like a maniac probably. And yes.

“Girls” is out now on Open Tab. The Dare on Instagram and Twitter