Exhuming Dead Republican

by Fredrick Ulysess Kaufman

Vice President of Underground Milhouse

Conceived in 1995, Dead Republican has been delivering his own brand of lo-fi music for over a year. This guy caught our eye with his first release, Primary. I got this opportunity to interview him at our own Underground Milhouse Studios while recording his debut album, Society: Part One.
FK: Describe Dead Republican music.
DR: Basically, it's a hard edged lo-fi music experiment.
FK: Is it a political band?
DR: Not really. I don't want to get too political in my music unless I become politically active. Otherwise, it just comes out sounding like some self-righteous bullshit.
FK: Then why the name Dead Republican? That sounds kind of liberal don't you think?
DR: Yeah. Well I picked Dead Republican because Dead Old White Guys just didn't have that commercial appeal to it. (laughs). But seriously, the name is based on an eye opening experience I had while campaigning for George Bush in 1988.
FK: Care to get into it?
DR: Not really. I'll be covering it in a future release.
FK: Are you really a Republican?
DR: Yes.
FK: Why?
DR: I'll be covering that in a future release too. What the fuck? How did this now become a political discussion?
FK: Sorry. Tell me about your new album, Society.
DR: Society is going to be an ongoing series. This album is part one. The whole Society thing is basically just a bunch of people talking shit. Which is basically what society is all about. I'm just writing about characters we all know or can identify with.
FK: How many of these characters do you identify with?
DR: (long pause) Fuck you. (laughs) I guess in theory, you could say I've identified with all of them at one time or another. I'm sure anyone can say that. That's what so fucking cool about my music.
FK: True. Another thing I noticed about your music is that it's more on the dark side. Why is that?
DR: That's just the way the songs come out. This album was recorded during a very difficult period in my life and I had to hold the album back from a few people who already thought I was going suicidal.
FK: Were you?
DR: Yeah, but I'd never kill myself.
FK: Was the album a result of the difficult times you were experiencing or are you calling it coincidence?
DR: I'd be lying if I said that the album wasn't affected by what I was going through but lyrically, it's purely coincidental. Most of the lyrics were written way before the shit hit the fan. Sonically, however, the album came out angier than I originally envisioned it. In fact, the album being released is the toned down version of the album I recorded. It was originally a double album but there are songs I took out and I toned down "Come and Get Yours".
FK: Do you mean there was a more intense version of that song?
DR: Yep.
FK: What was different about it?
DR: Basically, the delivery. When I first recorded the vocals, I actually tried thinking about the reason I wrote the song and my real feelings came out in that version. I listened to it and it was just so ugly I had to rerecord the vocals.
FK: But if those were your true feelings why not put it on the album?
DR: One, it would have been too alienating and there would have been no reason to have anyone listen to it. Two, it didn't fit into my personal concept of the album.
FK: Which is?
DR: My personal concept of the album. (pauses) There are actually two concepts to the album. The basic concept is Society then the second one is personal. The album is written in such a way that someone else can and will draw a different meaning from the songs than I have.... at least I hope it's written that way.

[Underground Milhouse Studios]