By Jason Sendaula
Photo by Mike Dillon
Formed in the late 1980s in Eugene, Oregon the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies have gone through very different sounds and line-ups in their more than 20 years of touring and recording. Through all of it the band’s front man Steve Perry has been one of the few constants. He spoke with us before a recent show at the North Star Bar in Philadelphia.
When the band was first starting out they ran into controversy for their live shows (which spot lighted go-go dancers and the “Dildorado”: a converted riding mower built to resemble an erect penis that shot out liquid soup and other objects into the crowd.) Steve says, “There is always someone but not really as much as it was in the beginning. It was a different time. When we got started it was the late 80s, early 90s, and that was when all of the politically correct speech stuff started. That was the zenith of that.”
As far as the stage show itself, we’re sad to say “Dildorado” won’t be coming back anytime soon. “We were all very influenced at that time by a little more Zappa in our stage show and it was like that because we lived in one place where you couldn’t take what you used to do all the time on the road. We were like a mad scientist rock band. So we had the music and we had these motorized things that we could drive around and shoot stuff. It was kind of our deal to be an inventor rock band in the beginning. But that couldn’t continue. In fact, most people outside of the Northwest, the Seattle-to-Eugene corridor, we’ve even done that. We’ve talked about doing a show where we do our old records the way we used to do them. I think there would be a lot of people who would want to see it. It’s not a lot like what we’re known for now.”
Following the release of their 1996 album, Kids in the Street, a primarily ska-influenced record, the band had six cross-country tours. The swing revival then found the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies a new audience. After their re-issued compilation of their swing songs Zoot Suit Riot: The Swingin’ Hits of the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies hit big in 1997, the band added to its hectic touring schedule performing over 300 shows between 1998 and 1999. After the release of Soul Caddy in late 2000, the group went on hiatus, not performing in 2001. As Steve says, “We actually didn’t break up at all, ever. We didn’t call it that. People would call us up and ask ‘Do you want to play this festival?’ so I would call everybody up and ask them if they could play. They would be like ‘yes, no, I can’t do that’ and if we could all do it we would play.”
During this time Steve completed his BA in Molecular Biology from the University of Oregon, the same place at which he’d met one of the band’s original co-founders Dan Schmid years earlier. “It was something that was undone that I had always wanted to do and my mom always wanted me to go to college. There were some other mitigating factors as well. I just needed a little bit of a break.” Whereas molecular biology might not seem the most relaxing for most, after so many years of constant touring, he explains, “I really wanted that quiet time for deep thought, I longed for it. I mean, it’s not relaxing but in a way it is because it takes your mind away from the thing, the stress, and takes your mind in a separate direction that you’re really interested in. It wasn’t like I needed it or needed the money. I did it because I was interested in it.”
Steve doesn’t think that the degree in sciences has affected his approach to music. “I am pretty analytical in my approach to the concept of a record, the way we make records is probably way too thought out. But the way I write songs is really intuitive. In fact when I’m trying to write a song in a certain genre I don’t listen to anything in that genre for a long time because I don’t want to rip it off, I want it to sound like it. I want it to be my own. I want it to all come out of my harmonic sensibility.”
CPD is currently touring in support of their latest album Skaboy JFK: The Skankin’ Hits of the Cherry Poppin Daddies, a collection of new and old ska songs from the band. “Twelve years ago we’d have a record come out and tour for a year straight but we haven’t been doing that. What we’re doing now is no more than 10 gigs at a shot. I’m 46 now and I just had a daughter and we don’t want to be away from our families as much, but still want to tour,” Steve says. “The albums are for us, the shows are for the fans.”
