Interview With The New Dress
Initially, when you see a band, you probably wouldn’t think it was possible for just two people to conjure up such a passionate, gut-punching amount of raw power and intensity. But that’s what you get with The New Dress when they play their good-for-the-soul-type-folk-punk, filled out with their unique take on political sincerity and pain-ridden love sick laments. Or maybe you would. Maybe you’d be able to tell that these two have got something special going on here. I recently got a chance to see them play for the fourth time, and later on, in the hot New York City night and in the shadow of the Knitting Factory, got to discuss Billy Bragg, being a bonehead, among other things.
State your name and what you do in the band.
Laura: I’m Laura, vocals.
Bill: Bill. I play guitar and sing.
So how’d The New Dress start?
Laura: Bill used to be in a really, really sweet band called The Banned, back in the day and we met in college and had similar musical interests. I sang on a track on a Banned recording and when they broke up, Bill harassed me on a daily basis to do something else.
Bill: I kept telling her that I wanted to be in a band with her that was kinda like Billy Bragg, to sum it up.
Laura: And he would call me up every single day and act like it was a new idea, and I was like “I don’t think so.”
Bill: I’d say “hey, I got this really great idea” which I’d done like 17 times before, to the point where she stopped answering her phone. I was like “you should be in a band with me!” Finally, I played her a song that I wrote and I had the lyrics done and everything, and it ended up being a song that we still play. That kind of convinced Laura, and it kind of took off from there. It started out playing songs on an acoustic guitar in my apartment and that’s how we still practice, except now in Laura’s apartment.
