Dirty Little Rabbits (USA)

ARTISTS

Go ahead, go down the rabbit hole. You just might find something you like. Iowa’s Dirty Little Rabbits, for example. You may not be able to put your finger on just what it is about the Dirty Little Rabbits that you’re drawn to, but drawn you will be—drawn down, down, down that rabbit hole until you’re enveloped in their eerie, mystical world of soulful drums, haunting organs, shimmering guitars, limber bass lines, and vocals that really get inside your head.

“The beautiful thing about the Rabbits is that everybody in the band sings with their art. And I don’t just mean vocally, I mean musically,” explains band mastermind Shawn Crahan. “That’s one of the reasons we’re so unique, because everybody in the band is able to bring their palette with their colors on it and it uniquely fits together. Most people listen to our music and can’t really describe it or put it in a genre other than Dirty Little Rabbits because we’re basically five singers who are all singing our own voice, and painting our own color and at the end it’s dubbed a song and there it is hanging up.”

Things haven’t always worked so naturally for Crahan, however. “Over the last five years I’ve been honing in on my ability to be a songwriter,” says Crahan. And that’s no trifling fact, because Crahan isn’t the band’s guitarist or keyboard player—he’s the drummer. “I’ve been playing drums since I was about eight years of age, but prior that I was a pot-and-pan kid. When my parents were out I would pull out all the pots and pans in the house and stick ‘em in front of my mom and dad’s vinyl player.”

Crahan grew up on the music of the ‘70s-- Jimi Hendrix, Three Dog Night, Pink Floyd. But the two bands that made a real lasting impression were the Doors and the Beatles. And it wasn’t just music that inspired him—his mother bought him kids’ books on Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Cezanne.

“And I was a huge Dr. Seuss fan,” continues Crahan. “You couldn’t read me one of those books without me going absolutely apeshit. All of Dr. Seuss’s short stories—‘The Dizziest Dog Ever,’ ‘The Alphabet Book,’ ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,’—all are just so brilliant and genius and I loved them because they had a distinctive look and sound, and there was a rhythm to it, and it was tricky. It was way beyond the rest of the fluff that kids get.

Crahan had an aggressive temper when he was younger, but his mother refused to put him on medication. So at the doctor’s suggestion she asked him if he might be interested in playing a musical instrument. “I had never put it together that I could be one of those people on those records that I would listen to and play along with until that day. It was an epiphany.”

Fast forward to 2007. “I was very down on my art at the time. I hadn’t really been playing drums much, but a friend of mine had been bugging me to come over and lay down some drums on one of his tracks. My wife encouraged me, so against my wishes I went over and recorded this song and it turned out to be very rewarding. So the next day I was riding a high and my friend called me back up and said, ‘Hey, you should come back down tonight. I got this guy here you gotta meet, his name is Michael.’ And that was Michael Pfaff, who ended up being the keyboard player for the Rabbits.

“So with Michael on a Hammond B3 organ and myself on drums, we started jamming and I knew instantly I had met someone that could be my musical partner.” Later, Crahan was producing a band called Murder of Crows and he was intrigued by their guitarist, Ty Fyhrie. ”He had the color that I love in a guitar player,” says Crahan. I wasn’t sure whether or not he was gonna work for the Rabbits, because I didn’t want to just take him out of his band-- I don’t believe in that. But Ty wanted give it a shot and when we jammed it worked perfectly.”
Pfaff then suggested a bassist—Jeff Karnowski. “He throws shapes like no one I’ve ever seen on bass,” says Crahan, “and I knew instantly he was the right guy.

Over the next several months, Crahan and Pfaff tried out many singers with no luck. “Then I realized that the right person was under our noses the whole time,” explains Crahan. “Stella Katsoudas is like a sister to me and she shares the exact same pain as I do when it comes to performing—she’s one of the most talented and creative singers I’ve ever been able to work with.”

Katsoudas, better known as Stella Soleil, is the perfect voice for Dirty Little Rabbits. The charismatic and energetic former pop star has just the right personality to front such a unique ensemble.

“When she came in and did her songs, Michael and I just fell in love and that was it—that was the Dirty Little Rabbits,” says Crahan.

The next step for the band was finding a home. “The End understands our art, and deciding to sign with them was a no-brainer,” says Crahan. “This band is what I’ve been waiting to do my whole life. I know I’ll always be true to what I do with art and I know that everyone at The End thinks that way too. I love a lot of bands on The End. It’s a perfect family and a perfect situation.”

Dirty Little Rabbits’ debut for The End Records will be an EP entitled ‘Simon,’ due out January 20, 2009. ‘Simon’ will be followed by the release of Dirty Little Rabbits’ debut full-length, the title and release date which have yet to be determined.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 January 2009 13:19

Dirty Little Rabbits