Interview: Jesse Dayton & Samantha Fish Have a Case of ‘Death Wish Blues’ and They’re Coming to The Wilbur
When two musicians who have similarities and differences get together, oftentimes new creative avenues get explored. Both of what they each do best shine through in a way where it’s a grand sonic fusion with different possibilities becoming apparent. This is the proper description for blues-rock phenom Samantha Fish and Texas rock & roll badass Jesse Dayton making the stellar album Death Wish Blues that came out last year. As part of their “Supadupabad Tour” in support of the record, Fish and Dayton are going to be rolling through The Wilbur located on 246 Tremont Street in Boston’s historic Theater District on March 14. New York rock act Sgt. Splendor are going to be kicking the night off at 8pm.
Dayton and I had a talk ahead of the show about how he made his latest full-length with Samantha Fish, gaining a cult following due to being part of a Rob Zombie film and plans to release a new album later this year.
How did this collaboration with Samantha initially come about?
The first time I met Samantha, she was really young. She had to be 18 years old, and she was opening up for me in Kansas City at a place called Knuckleheads. I was upstairs in the dressing room; I heard her play and I saw that it was this young girl playing guitar. I thought “Wow, that’s a pretty killer guitar player up there”, so I was surprised. We just kept up with each other over the years, then I came through New Orleans on a tour and her manager Rueben Williams and some other associates of hers came out to see me. She was like “Hey, what do you think about doing something together?” and I was like “Sure, let's see if it works.”
What was the experience like making the album with Samantha? Do you feel that your country-influenced brand of rock & roll and her style of electric blues meshed well together?
I don’t think we knew how it was going to work or if it was going to work, but it ended up being a really unique thing for both of us. When we first started writing songs together, I knew before we went into the studio with Jon Spencer in New York that the songs were really different and really cool. They didn’t sound like me or her, they sounded like something new. It would have been really easy for us to spoon-feed the blues community and go in, give them Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar, John Bonham drums and do the same thing, but we used it to take a real risk and I think it paid off.
Yeah, and you can hear that in the single “Riders” off of the album. You both did a music video for it that was shot in various locations while featuring a few classic cars. Who had the idea to shoot the video in this way, where was the filming done and how were you able to get a hold of the cars?
I’m an old Austin guy, so I’ve spent a long time in the vintage motorcycle and vintage car scene. I got people who are fans that are all over the United States who I can call for cars. The ones in the video were from a friend of ours in New Orleans, but I own old cars and old motorcycles. I can look out my back door in my house and I’ll see plenty of them (laughs). The first video we did for “Death Wish” was my buddy’s Cadillac that he owns, and he lives in Hollywood, so that whole scene has embraced me for a long time.
You’ve amassed a prolific discography since the mid-’90s, which includes the 2005 album Banjo & Sullivan: The Ultimate Collection that you did with Lew Temple with both Banjo & Sullivan being characters from the Rob Zombie film The Devil’s Rejects. Do you consider this to be the most unique record you’ve ever done due to how it’s attached to a horror film in a sort of crossover type of way?
It’s bizarre. I did an interview with David Fricke from Rolling Stone right when the record came out and I really didn’t know how to answer the questions. This was supposed to be this found footage record that was discovered in an attic and Rob Zombie had this varied, tumultuous and crazy background on what we were supposed to be. It was really a look into Rob’s mind because he creates a history for all of his characters that aren’t necessarily in the script. I ended up working with Rob on three movies and it really changed my life because Rob was super cool to me, and he gave me 75 percent of the publishing.
That’s amazing.
Martin Scorsese might be a more acclaimed director, but Martin Scorsese hasn’t sold millions of records to rabid rock fans. That helped when those soundtracks came out.
How were you initially pitched with this idea of Banjo & Sullivan and this history of the characters? How did Rob convince you to do it?
Lew Temple called me and he’s one of my best friends in the world. If I got thrown in jail in Bangkok, I’d probably call Lew. We’re both into reading Sam Shepard and stuff like that and Lew was doing theater. This was in Houston when we were starting out, so Lew calls me one day and goes “Hey man, I think Rob Zombie is gonna call you about doing some music for this film. I gave him your number.” Five minutes later, Rob calls me saying “Hey, we’re making the ultimate white trash horror movie, and we think your music would be perfect”, which was kind of a left-handed compliment. I flew out to L.A., checked in to the Chateau Marmont and I started writing these crazy songs with Lew giving me ideas.
The next day, we went into some big studio lot, I started playing the songs for Rob and he literally spit his coffee out all over the place. He was like “Let’s make an entire record of this”, so it was crazy. They still play the song “I’m at Home Getting Hammered (While She’s Out Getting Nailed)” on outlaw country radio like it’s Boston, Journey for Foreigner. They literally play it like five times a day and it’s crazy because people were freaking out over it. This was before that guy from Nashville, who I hear heard that record and it was a big influence on him, but I forgot his name. He does that openly dark country stuff but the thing about Banjo & Sullivan was it more like a Roger Miller thing.
There’s no dirty words in it, you just think you’re hearing dirty words.
That’s an incredible story. Outside of this tour you have going on with Samantha, what are some other things that you have going on this year? Are you going to be doing any other collaborations?
The main focus for 2024 is this brand-new record that I’ve got that Shooter Jennings produced.
Oh, that’s great.
Yeah, I met Shooter when I was playing guitar for his father on one of his father’s last records called Right for the Time. It’s a killer record, Shooter was in ninth grade, and I was around the age of 24 or 25. Since then, Shooter has become this multiple Grammy winning producer working with Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker for her comeback record and all kinds of stuff. I called up Shooter and he immediately said, “I know why you’re calling me, so let’s do it.” I went to Los Angeles to make this record and it’s really more of a blues-rock record, it’s got some country stuff on it, but it’s more about my guitar playing.
We recorded it in 10 days with all the players in the room at the same time and I’m super excited about it.
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