Hey there! We're Dopapod. We consist of Rob Compa on guitar, Eli Winderman on keyboards, Chuck Jones on bass, and Patty O'Furniture on the drums. 

What are you most looking forward to this summer?

 

I'm most excited to record a new album this summer. We're really excited about the new material, and can't wait to really polish it in the studio and get it to sound as close as we can to what we're hearing in our heads. 

What have you been up to? It’s been a while since you’ve been on tour or played any shows.

 

After about 5 years of more or less constant touring, we were pretty fried and needed to recharge and write new music. We spent some time at home to have something of a normal life for awhile, as well as taking some side gigs here and there. Playing with other people every now and again is a pretty necessary source of new inspiration and ideas, and it helps you appreciate the band you're in once you go back to it. After taking some time for that stuff, we rehearsed a few days a week for about a month and a half to work on new material up in Woodstock. We walked away with 5 finished songs, and about 4 or 5 more that are still works in progress. We're all extremely psyched for the new tunes, and it feels good to have the newest stuff be the songs we're the most excited to play every night. 

Why is time off important for a touring band? Does a work/life balance exist for you guys?

 

When we were 22, we were able to completely dedicate %100 of our lives to Dopapod, but the older you get, the less you can't have your entire life just be being in a band. At this point, we're all in relationships, which is just as important as the band. We definitely needed time at home to do all that stuff. As far as life/work balance, it's tough to say because playing music is such a big part of our lives that they bleed together a lot. When I'm not on tour I wake up every morning (usually, atleast) and practice guitar. And I know Eli is essentially a writing machine and that's basically what he does all day when he's home. So I guess it's more of a touring/life dilemma. As far as that is concerned, the touring was outweighing the life side heavily, hence us needing the time off. And contrary to logic, being on tour and playing every night actually results in basically no time at all to write songs and practice. Time and privacy are super important for that stuff, so trying to rehearse or write during a 30 minute soundcheck with people watching is not a very conducive environment for getting new material and becoming a better band. 

Does where you’re playing change how you play?

 

I think so. We always write a setlist, but we also almost always ignore it atleast to some degree, because we'll read the audience and play whatever style of songs seem to get them having the best time. As far as improv/jamming is concerned, it can go either way. If a crowd doesn't seem that invested in what we're doing, it could go one of two ways; A- we'll get self conscious and take less chances. or B- We just say "fuck it. they're not paying attention anyway" and we'll just do whatever the hell we want, which is when the really good stuff happens. And when the crowd is completely on the trip with us and rooting for us, that's my favorite time. I feel like we could get away with murder on stage, which leads to some wild creativity for us. Ideally, I'd like to not worry about the crowd at all and always do whatever we want.

I’ll be at the Philadelphia shows. What can we look forward to?

 

I don't know! We've had some good collaborations with Moon Hooch before, so there might be some of that. Also, I think Yahoo is broadcasting the whole show over the internet, so there'll probably be cameramen everywhere hooking us up into the information superhighway.