Being a young band is one thing, but try going through what the boys from Drop Dead, Gorgeous did on their way to the top…three of their five band members weren’t even out of high school while touring in support of their first full length, In Vogue. 

After a few lineup changes, one of the founding members’ departure (Aaron Rothe), and touring in support of some of the greats, Danny, Danny, and Jake were kind enough to take a few minutes to talk with Shout!

S!: You’re classified as “post-hardcore” on Wikipedia.  What does the term mean to you, and do you think it applies to DDG?

Danny Cooper (Drums): I would consider us more hardcore/experimental than post-hardcore…I don’t even know what post-hardcore means!  Just because we try to do something a little different than all the kiddies…if I knew what it meant, I could answer that!

S!: Yeah, that’s why I wanted to ask, because no one seems to really know what it means!

Cooper: I don’t think we’re even hardcore…

[Danny Stills (Vocals) mumbles explanation of some sort]

Cooper: Oh.  Well then I guess that is us maybe.  So yes!  We are that!

S!: You started out on Rise Records, but have moved on to Suretone/Geffen.  What was the transition like for you?

Jake Hansen (Bass): We had never toured or anything before we were moved to Suretone, you know, so there’s generally just a lot more money and it’s just a more experienced label. It wasn’t really a change for us, other than dealing with more money, and more of the business, I guess. But we had never really broken into it that much, because we weren’t on Rise for very long.  So we didn’t really have much experience with anything, so we can’t really judge how different it is.

S!: Do think there are pros and cons to indie labels v. major ones?

Stills: I don’t know, I think that you could be on a major label (or any label) and either not have creative control or have creative control.  I wouldn’t say that just because you’re on a major, you have no control over your music or what you do.  You could have less control on an indie label, to be honest!  So I don’t know…I support both of them.

S!: Age-wise, DDG is a young band.  Some of you were still in high school during the tour for the first full length!  Do you feel that your ages make it tougher to be taken seriously as musicians?

Cooper: I don’t know if people think that, but hopefully not!

Jake: Maybe, I’d never thought about that before…

Cooper: Yeah, neither did I, actually…

Jake: It does seem possible, actually!

Cooper: It is entirely possible!  But if you think that, then you’re just an idiot!

S!: How big a role do you feel sites like MySpace have played in your success?

Cooper: We actually would probably not be anywhere close to where we are… well, I can’t say that, but obviously, it helped us get signed to Rise Records, and Ross Robinson found us on MySpace as well and got us signed to Suretone.  So it’s really helped us out a lot.  It kinda sucks because now there’s just an overexposure of music…that’s the only bad thing about that kind of stuff.  But it’s been great for us!

S!: Do you think it’s good for the music industry as a whole?  Is it opening it up, or just flooding it?

Cooper: I think it DID open it up at first, but now I think it honestly is way too much.  There’s just way too much of the same…crap.

S!: The second album, Worse Than a Fairy Tale, was leaked online before release.  Did that affect your plans at all?

Cooper: Well, every record gets leaked.  Ours actually did pretty good with not leaking, almost! Most of them leak about 2 weeks before.  Ours only leaked a week before, but that’s kinda just expected, because when it goes into production people steal it off the production lines and stuff.  So it’s kinda impossible to avoid that.  It kinda just happens.

S!: If you could talk to the person who leaked it to begin with, what would you say?

Cooper: Uhhh…”S” my “D”?  [laughs] 

Jake: Well we did almost know someone who was gonna leak it, but we already didn’t like the person, so we would just say mean things.  But I don’t know…if I was put in that situation, I don’t know what would happen.  It depends if the person is a jerk.  I don’t know the person…what if it’s like a 14 year old kid?  I can’t do anything about it.  If it’s like some 40 year old big dude who sits on his computer and plays Warcraft all day then…maybe, I don’t know.  Who knows! 

S!: Any last words you’d like to leave us with?

Cooper: Buy our record!

S!:  Which one?!

Cooper: All of them!

Jake: Just the same old…thank you to all of our fans, you guys are awesome…I don’t know…any words of wisdom we could say?  [looks to Stills and Cooper]

S!: You could tell us something no one else knows?

Jake: Duck [keys] wears underwear that are pretty close to a man thong!

Cooper: Yeah, they’re man thongs.