Known for their don’t-hold-back attitude and their passion for empowering people worldwide, we had a chat to Dallas Frasca in their middle of their You Are Beautiful national tour.
Hi Dallas Frasca, how are you and what have you been up to at the moment?
Extremely well and busy as usual! The band are still on the same mission and climbing the rungs of the ladder to go as far as we can upwards. We’ve been in the studio on and off a lot of the year working on the new record, ‘Love Army’ (due out 2015), we’ve been visiting Europe a whole lot (about to announce our fifth tour in two years) and are currently in the middle of a national tour to every nook and cranny of the country to promote our brand new single.
You’ve just released the clip for ‘You Are Beautiful’ which is a great track with an even better message. Do you think it’s important to send these sort of messages out into the world?
Thank you!! We are super proud of this release and have an incredibly positive response so far. As songwriters/performers I suppose we understand the powerful and influential role you are in when you stand up in front of a lot of people. It’s your choice and responsibility what sort of art and message you deliver to the world so at this point I suppose we’d prefer to inspire and empower people rather than writing shallow and meaningless crap, but each to their own. At the end of the day, we write about things that mean something to us.
Frustratingly the track got banned even when Redfoo’s misogynistic track wasn’t, does it still annoy you that things like this still happen?
After watching RedFoo’s incredibly offensive and misogynistic clip released this week, it got me thinking – ultimately, what is more harmful for today’s culture, A: visuals and lyrics about shameless sexism or B: restrictions on full frontal nudity that convey a message about powerful body imagery? Okay, so maybe I’m a little fucked off because our video my band just released to, ‘You Are Beautiful’ about body confidence, positivity and empowerment had a restriction placed on it by YouTube (10,000 hits in the first 24 hrs) has something to do with it. RedFoo’s clip is not only degrading to women but exploits woman in such a blatant way it supports a rape culture attitude, yet there’s ZERO restrictions? I mean what are the boundaries between acceptance with Misogynistic Attitude vs Empowerment / Body Confidence in society? It is a confusing time in culture and I felt passionate enough to write a song about it.
‘You Are Beautiful’ is a non-violent and non-sexual visual representation that is promoting a positive body image. Yes there is nudity but really, what’s more offensive? RedFoo, Miley Cyrus (the overt sexualisation swinging naked on a wrecking ball) Nicki Minaj or J.Lo + Iggy Azalea spreading their butts apart, singing, “Give him what he asks for?” What would you rather your kids watch in a PG time slot? I mean, how are these music videos truly shaping the world?
When the women in Red Foo’s clip repeatedly make it clear that they don’t want to engage in certain activities like ‘girl-on-girl action’ or drink tequila, they are harassed and verbally insulted by a group of overpowering men who shout in their faces: ‘Shut the fuck up”. Charming. I suppose you could say I was a little pissed our beautiful and empowering clip got lost in the weird world of censorship.
I read too that Slash gave you a pretty good comment, was that a huge pinch-yourself moment for you guys?
Just over a year ago, the band was invited to open Bob Irwin’s new Wildlife Sanctuary last year with none other than Slash himself. I was holding a crocodile, Slash was holding a huge ass mother of all pythons and there was close to 100 paparazzi in a frenzy, screaming questions in front of us. I’ve had some pretty surreal moments, but that’s up there. We hung out for a bit and he grabbed a copy of our album and was driven off in his tour bus with our record on ten blaring out the windows. About an hour later, he tweeted us saying: “Great vocals, riffs & groove!” Yes, still pinching ourselves.
Thanks again for taking the time out to chat with us, is there anything you’d like to add before we finish up?
We cannot wait to share the new record with everyone next year, I’m almost bursting at the seams to get the record out. We’ve got an exciting collaboration with Whitfield Crane from Ugly Kid Joe and a few other surprises. People can follow our crazy touring adventures on facebook.com/dallasfrasca or twitter.com/dallasfrasca. Make sure you check out our controversial new film clip for ‘You are Beautiful’ http://youtu.be/yRwnAG8qfUc to see what all the fuss is about.
Good luck with the rest of the tour!
Thank you I hope to see you all on the road x
When&Where: Golden Vine Hotel, Bendigo – December 5 & Yah Yah’s – December 12