Instead of joining the drummer’s party, self-proclaimed “wallflower” Dee Dee Penny of the Dum Dum Girls talks to Mary Boukouvalas about the band’s upcoming Australian tour and their latest album: Only In Dreams.

Are you having a break at home at the moment? Relaxing or working on new material already?

We are in the middle of rehearsals. We start our US tour next week.

Names choices always mystify me. Why Dee Dee Penny and why Dum Dum Girls?

Dum Dum Girls is like a double homage to The Vaselines’ album Dum Dum and the Iggy Pop song Dum Dum Boys. It just seemed like a clever combination of two significant influences. Dee Dee Penny – you know ... why not?

But, of course. When did you first start making music?

I guess it’s been a long time, it’s just been in different capacities. I’ve been singing my whole life since I was a small girl. I played a few instruments as a child, I did voice, I did choir through college. I’ve been writing songs for quite a while as well but not in a very conventional sense. I didn’t play any instruments that facilitated song writing. I didn’t play the piano and I didn’t play the guitar. So it’s a lot harder. Something on say drums or bass or nothing at all so with DUM DUM GIRLS it’s truthfully the first time that I started writing songs for real. So a few years I suppose.

What other bands had you played with before?

I’ve been in bands for probably about five years before but nothing notable. Terrible first band sort of thing. Maybe a good learning experience of what I did not want in bands and which was maybe why I was so specific when I put this band together.

Becoming a solo artist was a brave move to start with. But having had that experience from bands, how did you then go about developing a process to move from a solo project to a group project again?

I was really really burnt on the experience I had been having in the bands I’d been in so I quit everything and finally learnt the guitar and started writing simple songs based on the three chords I had mastered at that point. And that’s really what the Dum Dum Girls grew out of. And I amassed a couple of songs to have some 7” and the fact that people wanted to release anything was to me both shocking and the most flattering form of encouragement for me that I’d made a good choice to basically abandon everything I had done before and start to do what I wanted to do and not have to cater to band mentality. But like I said enough time had passed and I was over it and then eventually Sub Pop came into the mix which was another absolute complete shock, completely surreal scenario and for me it was a very very clear moment where it was like this is the most cerebral opportunity I’ve ever been approached with. It would be so stupid to not take advantage of what this pairing could mean for me. For me what that means is the ability to do what I have always wanted to do basically. It wasn’t like I woke up one day and thought of a clever name and wrote a song and now look what I do I’ve been doing this for ever. This is all I’ve wanted to do. So that said it seemed very necessary to put together a band so that we could tour and also you know kind of warmed up to the idea of a band again especially if it was something I could build on my terms, which consisted of people I respected and enjoyed their company; knew they were respectful people of other people; could trust that the relationship we would have wouldn’t become dramatic and wouldn’t become torturous because you know if you spend a year touring with people you don’t get along with it’s awful, it’s not worth it.

When you say you chose these people, did you do so because they came from the same background, as in influences, music wise? You managed to create such a unique and distinctive sound and it’s great that the band do justice to that. Who has influenced you along the way?

Oh a lot and when I think back to when the band started it really came down to I write these pretty simple pop songs on an acoustic guitar. You know the way that I learned guitar was I learned a Beatles’ song, I learned Bob Dylan song and the Ramones songs. I think a learned a Velvet underground song too. Those are all very different bands but they all have songs and the songs bands love on a guitar. They all chose to record them and produce them in different ways and that’s the direction that the bands are in. For me it was very much like okay I have this song I have this seed and now I can figure out where I want to go with it. So what I did which seemed like the obvious thing for me what do I like hearing in music that I want to hear in my own music that I enjoy listening to and someone else. Well I’ve always thought the recorded drum sound on Motown records as perfect so I wanted drums that sound like a Supremes’ song. I love some fuzz based garage music. I want to have some fuzz in there. I love the noise that Velvet Underground or Jesus & Mary Chain put into their guitars. I love the beauty of the more ethereal textures of later Cure…and a whole bunch of things. It was like let me pick and choose what I would love to hear and see how it fits together.

That’s why I love your music because of all the background I can hear within it. But still it is really cohesive as a piece of music on its own. I Will Be was recorded at home and then produced by Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Go-Go's) in the studio. Only In Dreams was recorded at Josh Homme's Pink Duck Studios. Gottehrer again produced, this time with Sune Rose Wagner from the Raveonettes.
How do you compare the production process with this new album? What was it like for you in the studio this time?

It was very different but it was a very welcome change. It was for me seeing this pet project of mine sort of bloom a little bit. We were like teenagers. I don’t know. It was liberating for me to just kind of sit back and be the singer and though I have very specific visions for want I want for each song, both Richard and Sune and the engineer and the girls were all very much aware and we were all on the same page. You know since I can just enjoy the experience. Something very new for us. It was the first time ever the other girls had been involved in the process and we kind of let Richard and Sune take a bit more traditional producer role. They’re not heavy handed at all - little suggestions here and there; a lot of coaching pep talks that sort of thing. But for me it was enjoyable because I didn’t have to stress out over all of these little things because I could trust they would be taking care of. And it was just nice to work on something musically that I feel represents the band that we’ve turned into over the last year and a half of touring. We recorded the record essential live and I feel like it has that it has the sound that we have live and that is something that is hard to capture on a record unless you do it like that.

It’s definitely important. Do you think the process was different still for your EP that came out earlier this year?

It was but it was sort of a mid-step because it was taking the recording duties off of me was a good thing because I really didn’t know what I was doing. It was a small studio. It was just me and Richard and Sune in a studio in Brooklyn …

… hold on one moment. Sorry I am at my drummer’s house. She’s having a big party …

Well I won’t keep you much longer so you can get to the party.
I loved your Smith’s cover by the way.

Oh, thank you. No don’t worry … I planned it this way. I’m a bit of a wallflower anyway.

The next few questions focus on your lyrics. How do you feel your writing has evolved?

Well I think for me it became unavoidable to write about anything other than what I am caught up in. With the first record, these are my first songs and so I was drawing on my whole life basically and anything and everything was sort of up for grabs in terms of what I wrote about. With this record it felt very much bookended by the time that the first record came out up until recording. I really only drew from that pool of experience. It wasn’t really a choice; it was like I was almost forced into it. I couldn’t not write about that. If I had opted to not write about I don’t know that I could have written anything else.

I really love the new album - Bedroom Eyes is my favourite.

Thank you.

Your lyrics really pull at the heart strings. What do you think is your favourite Dum Dum Girls song? I know it would be hard to choose or maybe one that has the most importance or significance at the moment at this point in time?

I feel like Bedroom Eyes means a lot of me. It was the last song I wrote, a week or two before I started recording. I felt like I really successfully got across exactly what I’d intended and it was sort of a new thing because it was an idea that I had and then to come across a poem randomly that echoed exactly the sentiment I was obsessed with and for it to have been hundreds of years old. It was mind blowing to me. Here I was sharing a thought with someone who was dead at this point. So I do, I feel proud of that song, but on this record, Hold Your Hand, I think that one is the most precious to me. You know it’s sort of the beginning of everything that informed the record. And for whatever reason it’s the song that sticks with me the most.

What about other bands? Who do you enjoy listening to or watching live?

In terms of bands that exist now, I am obviously a very biased but very true believer in my husband’s band, Crocodile. My good friend Alex plays in a band Dirty Beaches – I think he’s really phenomenal. I don’t have a huge group of friends but a lot of them do play music and I respect them legitimately for what they do -Cold Case.
And then in terms of bands I don’t know, I really, really love the new John Mouse record, and I really love the new Deerhunter record that came out this year, and Kurt Vile.

And I read somewhere that you like Nick Cave and Grinderman?

Oh definitely.

If you had to put a festival of bands old and new together who would you include?

It would be … The Stooges, Velvet Underground, Supremes, Boys Next Door and Nancy and Lee.

I can’t end the interview without talking about your style. I love it. It is really individual and refreshing. Like it shouts Rock and Roll and is still feminine. Do you have any favourite items or designers?

I wear a lot of vintage for the most part. Designer-wise I really like classic things that are old. I like Chanel purses. I love the Vivienne Westwood stuff if you want to get technical but that’s not something realistic for me. I’m pretty okay with a pair of vintage boots and a jacket and this sort of weird dress that I found that I just liked.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to seeing you in Australia soon.

Great – thank you.

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Dum Dum Girls play the Pyramid Rock & Peats Ridge Festivals this December.

Handsome Tours have just announced east coast side shows:
Monday 2 January - Oxford Art Factory, SYDNEY
Tuesday 3 January - Corner Hotel, MELBOURNE

Only In Dreams is out now on Sub Pop through Inertia.