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Interview by Kevin Rossi and Melanie Ferris.

In front of me are two stylish Americans, Dave on guitar and vocals and his silent partner Joseph on the skins. Dave is from Dayton, Ohio, and Joseph is from Philedelphia. You would never expect a little man like Dave to have such a large presence. But he does. He controls every mind and body in the sweaty room, and there are more bodies clambering to get through the front door. Dave Doughman "exist(s) to make music" and you can tell.

I wanted to know more about this prolific musician that is Swearing at Motorists, so I asked him to have a little chat with me. I met Dave the previous night at the Rivoli. He wasn't hard to find in a crowd. His stylin' fashion sense gives him away (he has a subscription to Jane magazine, man). We decided to meet the next morning for breakfast.

Breakfast, for Dave Doughman and his entourage, starts at three in the afternoon. The duo ordered heuvos rancheros and lemonade (no alcohol, they don't start drinking until after breakfast) and shared their thoughts with me. Actually, it was more like Dave shared his thoughts with me, as Joseph was extremely quiet. That's okay, he's a mild-mannered Pisces. Exactly what Dave was needed for success.

Swearing at Motorists began in Dayton when Dave made a fake flyer for a band called "Swearing at Motorists". He had been recording some of his tunes on four-track, and when he gave them to his friend joking "Here is Swearing at Motorists' first album", he decided that the songs were actually pretty good and he liked the band name. And that's how the band was born.

The Travelling Road Show: Swearing at Motorists

Since then, Dave has gone onto record a total of five albums. Most of them were recorded with former drummer Don (whose details escape me), until Don left the band in 2000. The day after Don left, Dave played a show solo in Philadelphia where he met Joseph, who had previously played with the Trouble with Sweeney. When Dave learned that Joseph plays the drums, he said, "Okay, get in the band". Joseph listened and the two have been touring ever since.

Having been perfect strangers, it is surprising how well Dave and Joseph get along. Dave says that it's easy for the two to get along, "a two man band is really easy because if you get sick of the other guy, it's really easy to get out of the van and walk somewhere. That never really happens because we have the same interests, but we have a lot of different interests and we pursue those interests. Like, I love to smoke marijuana, Joseph doesn't. So when I'm trying to score weed, he's got plenty of time to do whatever he wants. Now, on the other hand, I'm not a junkie," he laughs. It's obvious that the two have a good rapport. But don't they ever fight? After all, they have been touring non-stop for six months! Dave says, "Every once in awhile Joseph will tell me, 'I'm sorry I snapped at you', and I'm like, 'What? You snapped at me?'".



I become suspicious that Dave dominates Joseph, since he hasn't said much. Joseph admits that while he's a quiet person, "Dave's actually a pretty quiet guy too." I'm surprised. Dave responds, "Yeah...I'm actually really a pretty shy person and I'm just, I think that my stage persona, my outwardness at times is just really just making up for how I really feel, which is kinda meek, y'know? So I mean, yeah, I'm chatty and everything, but I do my share of quiet."

While it's hard to believe that Dave is a quiet guy, I ask about life on the road. Swearing at Motorists are infamous for their never-ending tour. How does that affect one's life? We encourage Joseph to take part in the interview. "Oh, it's difficult at times. I mean, it's tiring. Some other times it's exhilirating, but you know, it's up and down....my house is falling apart, it's hard to pay bills all the time, but there's nothing I'd rather be doing, and I think Dave feels exactly the same way, so that's why, the way that we do it. We feel we're doing something worthwhile," he states.

Dave agrees with his drummer, and while he explains that he exists for music, he says, "It's definitely a lot less glamouress than everyone thinks. You drive from anywhere from three to six hours, load in at 5:30, have a soundcheck, and maybe get fed. In the States it's not like Europe. Some places don't treat you that well, even if you're making the bar lots of money, even if the club is sold out...it's a lot of fun, but it's tiring."

One of the common complaints about touring is the fact that most bands can't even break even. So what about Swearing at Motorists? Dave says, "It's certainly not about the money. We're lucky to even break even on tour. On the last few tours we've just started makin money, before that, we lost money." But if you're always on the road, how can you afford to lose money? "You sell merchandise," Dave continues," There's a fine line between being broke and being able to continue. We're fortunate that we've got five record out but we've only been touring for two records. There's a lot of people who still don't know about the first three records, so when we're at shows the people that have the last two records, they're like 'Oh, I didn't even know you had three other records,' so they buy them and we have the money...but now we're at the point where we're getting better money at doors."

Besides barely making enough money to be self-sufficient, Swearing at Motorists encounter other problems on the road. Dave reveals that "the hardest part for me, besides being away from my girlfriend, is not having a place of my own. Not have a place to, at night, if I want to, just being able to disappear, listen to music....a lot of times I want silence...having your own space and your own time." Having one's own space is related to well-being, both mentally and physically. What happens if the body just shuts down from too much stress? "You keep playin'. I've been sick. Well, the first tour I had sprained my ankle three times....at the end of the European tour, I had layngitis for the last week. You just have to do it because there's no calling it in. It takes three, four months to set these shows up. The booking agent starts sending things out and then the label tries to promote it. So just because I'm sick, you know, doesn't mean we can not play. I'd have to be like, dying, not to play a show. My whole life revolves around 45 minutes every night. And I'll pull it together because it's 45 minutes, I may be hating it. I mean, I've gone onstage puking afterwards, but I was there for 45 minutes. We have kids showing up (ed note: very true, I sold some cds to one kid in Toronto who drove all the way from Detroit to see this band) at some of these shows that drove five hours man! What are you going to do? Sorry, I have a headache. Sorry, my stomach aches. Oh, I've got diarrhea? No. You suck it up," laughs Dave.

Swearing at Motorists have been on tour for months. While the issue of physical sickness has an easy answer, what about the musician's mental health? Dave continues, "I'm coming unglued. This is the end. Definitely, the end of July, it's over for awhile because I'm getting to a point where I'm getting neurotic. I feel displaced."



All of these negative aspects of touring obviously happen because Swearing at Motorists are dedicated to what they're doing, to playing live music. But what is the point to all of this madness? Dave makes it all sound worthwhile when he says, "The whole idea is to make something that makes you go 'yeah', and that's my, if I were to say I had a goal, it would to be somebody's favourite bands.
I want to make music that people hear and go, 'Man, I hate you. I've been humming your song all day'. We have no political agenda, I'm not trying to make any statement. There's not any Swearing at Motorists manifesto."