Few Mins W/ Dustin Hayes of Walter Etc.
Active members of the West Coast DIY scene are certainly familiar with the work of Dustin Hayes. Hayes made his first splash in the indie scene with 2009’s Every Town a Needs Cowboy, released under the moniker “Walter Mitty and His Makeshift Orchestra.” Between 2009 and 2013, Hayes and his revolving cast of musicians released four collections of songs, created an art collective/label, and toured with the likes of “Modern Baseball” and “Joyce Manor.” With each passing release, Hayes grew as a songwriter and composer while the base of Walter Mitty fans kept pace.
Following a three-year recording hiatus after 2013’s Well Soon, Dustin Hayes has returned with the new, simpler band name: “Walter Etc.” Walter Etc. broke back into the scene in January with the Always Leaving E.P. and released the group’s first full length, Gloom Cruise, in August. Recently, Walter Etc. set out on an ambitious full U.S. tour to support the new L.P.
I caught up with Hayes via a poorly connected cell phone call on the last leg of their tour to talk about the new album, the impetus behind the new band name, and get recommendations on beer.
Hey Dustin! How has the tour been?
It’s been really good. We’ve been on the road for just over two months now. We’ve been working hard playing, like, a ton of shows. We’re really happy about the turn outs coming to each show. We got to play with a bunch of cool bands and play a bunch of different places so it’s been fucking great….We got to play with Mom Jeans on the way out East and Dollar Signs on the way back West. Overall one of our best tours.
Gloom Cruise is an entirely different sound than the any of the Walter Mitty Albums that preceded it. How much of this was a conscious decision?
I got to say that it was like 100 percent conscious…The instrumentation alone is so different from the original Walter Mitty stuff. We definitely knew going into it, before we even started recording, that we were going to do these songs with drums and electric guitars. We’ve done so many acoustic Walter Mitty songs and albums. We just wanted to do something completely different. We had no idea how people would react to it. But for ourselves, we just wanted to make an electric album. It was very conscious to do something very different and go out on a limb.
Was there any concerted effort to make Gloom Cruise more marketable to a wide audience? Was there any thought put into the idea that a studio recorded album would conceivably bring Walter Etc. to a more mainstream audience?
[That] wasn’t the motive. We wanted to do a studio album and have it sound more “normal,” for lack of a better word. The motive was the way we wanted the record to sound. [Anything else] was just a peripheral after thought. Like “oh as a side effect of it sounding more produced it may get a little more spread.” But it definitely wasn’t like we were trying to get more popular by making nice sounding music.
How did working in a studio compare to home recordings?
It was definitely a lot more relaxed. It was a lot easier, I guess, because you’re in the hands of a professional and their gonna make sure it sounds good rather than just spending three days trying to make one tambourine part lock in and sound good. It was way less stressful and probably more fun. But at the same time, we kinda lost a little experimenting and a little bit of having the hands on the wheel of the musical vehicle because at the end of the day it was someone else putting it together. So while working in a studio we kinda sacrificed a little bit of creative control. But overall it just way less stressful.
Do you plan on making another studio album?
That’s a good question that we’ve talked about a lot. I think we want to do a studio record again at least for the next album or two. Cuz it so nice to have something that sounds so great and you can bump it on speakers and it doesn’t sound shitty.
We’re definitely gonna do more studio work in the near future but there will always be home recordings coming out here and there. But I’m pretty sure the next album will be a studio album as well.
How was working with Jeff Rosenstock? What was his biggest contribution?
It was kind of a dream come true for us. We’re big fans of his music, y’know. Like the first few days in the studio, we were a little star struck but that kinda faded away. He was so chill and so helpful and so passionate. I learned so much about my own song writing and putting songs together through him. He’s just a genius, you know.
I think his biggest impact on me was teaching me how to make songs more dynamic. It is something I didn’t think about until someone told me. [He taught me about] layering so many little intricate instruments and parts and bringing songs way up and twisting and turning. He exposed me to the idea that I could be making these songs like way more dynamic than I was planning on.
I also noticed there appears to be a different lyric approach to this album than earlier Walter Mitty releases. Early Walter Mitty was much more direct and blunt while this record appears to rely much more on abstracted metaphors. Was this intentional?
I’m really glad you picked up on that. That was definitely intentional. I kinda figured that since we were changing the musical sound, I wanted to take a new lyrical approach. All the songs I wrote were a lot more abstract and poetic and, like you said, relying on metaphors a lot more than being completely literal. I had a lot of fun writing [Gloom Cruise] lyrics. It’s something I don’t do as much as the other style. But when I think back on it, it was kinda like my start to a new approach of lyricism. I think moving forward I can see how I can really forge the two styles together and further and evolve it all. So it was totally a conscious effort.
I started working on Gloom Cruise as a follow up to an electric album I did back in 2013 called Psalms From Rainy Day Land under the name “Day Dream Dystopia.” Gloom Cruise was initially gonna be the follow up to that album. I was gonna [release it] under “Day Dream Dystopia” and not really care. But, I started to really like the songs. And as it became apparent that the “Walter” band was gonna change a bit, I decided that this should be the first “Walter Etc.” electric album--instead of burying this under a fake name. That’s why the approach was more metaphorical and the music was more gloomy and electric cuz it was supposed to be Day Dream Dystopia.
Why did the transition between Walter Mitty and Walter Etc. happen?
Well it was kinda a lot of little reasons that added up. There was just an atmosphere of change in the band. Like “Milk” wasn’t gonna be able to play anymore. Jake Lee, who was playing bass at the time, wasn’t gonna be able to play anymore. And we also kinda knew we wanted to make an electric album because we were playing electric live. We also just wanted to abbreviate the band name because it wasn’t really legally “ok” for us to use the name “Walter Mitty,” which became apparent after the movie came out. But we didn’t wanna change our name either so we decided to just do “Walter Etc.” at the same time we made this electric album. It was kinda like a Pokémon that evolves to the next level but its still a Pokémon.
Do you think the name change set you back at all?
Yea. I definitely know there are people out there who have no idea that Walter Etc. is a band. But that’s just gonna subside overtime. And we’re just kinda doing this for ourselves and anyone else who wants to follow along will follow along. I mean any band with a name change is gonna [have] a hard [time] for a year or two. And then as you get the momentum going, it evens out. We’re definitely starting to see that now. Like the first year was kinda hard to convey to people the fact that we are the same band.
Unrelated to the new album: If you had to rate all the Walter Mitty/Walter Etc. releases what would you put as number one?
[laughs] Naturally I hate that question. I’d have to put the first album, Every Town Needs a Cowboy, at number one. It may not be my best songs, and it definitely doesn’t sound the best but I think its so fucking pure. That was just straight up in the bed room, never expected anyone to hear it. It was just super fun. It will probably always be number one, at least in my heart. I could see how it would not be [number one] in other people’s.
Do you know why Every Town Needs a Cowboy, and all of “Walter Mitty’s” early stuff took off? Do you know the steps of how it gained its cult following?
From my perspective it’s been a combination of things. A lot of bands get posted on reddit and the blowup overnight or they get signed to a label and go from nobodies to somebodies overnight. But our band has been this total grassroots-slow-steady-crawl. And there are a couple factors. Obviously, us playing colleges in California while we were all going to school was a big thing, because that spread the music word of mouth quickly to people who were our same age. And the internet in general. Like it is kinda a cop out [to say that], but we would be no where without the internet cuz we never had a label.
I feel like you can divide successful indie/diy bands to two categories. There are bands that get “big” then there are band that get “Bandcamp big.” I have always felt that you guys were the archetypal example of band that got huge in the underground Bandcamp world solely on word of mouth and grassroots support.
Yea the Bandcamp route is like totally a new thing. It’s a new path that bands can take. They can just put things online and do it yourself rather than needing to get a record deal.
Since you come from this grassroots Bandcamp world of support, do you have any reservations about streaming services like Spotify?
I’m pretty pro Spotify. I do wish that artists would get a larger cut of the pie. But its now super cheap to get on Spotify. If anyone does listen to it you do end up getting money. And its almost like free money. Spotify has also been hugely helpful to us too. Just knowing that we can make an album in our bedroom and get it up on [spotify] for everyone to listen to has been huge for our band. I can totally see why record labels and certain bands hate Spotify, but for us it really works.
What are some of your current favorite Bandcamp finds that are kicking around in the underground but are still unknown to most people?
Oh that’s a good question. I haven’t really been deep in the Bandcamp game the last six months. But I have some older ones: There is this one really cool folk artist called “Field Medic.” That was something I stumbled upon on Bandcamp and was like, “who the fuck is this.” It’s a small world: the bassist to our band grew up with him and we just discovered this on our tour.
Last Question: Current Favorite Beer?
[laughs] Topa Topa in Santa Barbara
Gloom Cruise is out via through a split release between Lauren Records and Lame-o Records. You can also find the album on all major streaming platforms. Give the record a listen and come support these great dudes next time they’re in your town.
