We first interviewed Denver's Dressy Bessy back in 1999, when we were just getting back into the swing of interviewing people. Since that time, a lot has happened; we've gotten our shit together interviewing-wise, and Dressy Bessy have released an EP, California, an impressive sophomore long-player, Sound Go Round, and have enjoyed an impressive upswing in overall notoriety. Accordingly, we figured it was time for us to talk to them again.

On this particular day in April, Dressy Bessy vocalist/guitarist Tammy Ealom was decidedly under the weather -- although whether from illness or overindulgence, we're not entirely sure, as illness seems to be a recurring part of Ealom's tour experiences. Fortunately, she seemed determined to press onward, so we hunkered down in the oddly comfy basement of Chicago's Empty Bottle and talked about touring, videos and the challenge of being a rock band on a twee-pop record label. Read on.

Splendid: So where are you in the current tour schedule?

Tammy Ealom: We have five shows to go, and we've done thirty-two. With three days off.

Splendid: My God.

Tammy Ealom: Yeah. And we got sick -- well, I got really sick. I had allergy problems in the south. Pollen was real high, and I started having problems... It's been good, though. We're just about home, so I can hang.

Splendid: Relax a little bit more?

Tammy Ealom: Yeah.

Splendid: Those are the things that nobody thinks about for bands on tour -- like how do you go to the doctor...

Tammy Ealom: Right. There's no time.

Splendid: You can't stop for a couple of hours like anyone else; you just get to be miserable.

Tammy Ealom: In England they say "Keep your pecker up" -- which means keep your chin up there.

Splendid: Or so they claim, when they realize they've said it in front of a lady.

Tammy Ealom: You gotta watch who you say that to around here, I guess... But yeah, we've been keepin' our peckers up. (She laughs)

Splendid: So tell me about the new record, Sound Go Round. Let's start there. I've heard it maybe seven times today --

Tammy Ealom: Wow, that's great!

Splendid: Anything different in your approach this time around?

Tammy Ealom: Well, the big difference is that we completely recorded it ourselves, and mixed it ourselves. We've always had outside help in the past. This record is more of a representation of what we sound like as a band, 'cos we've definitely become a band. We always have been a band, of course, but...

Splendid: There was always that "side project" stigma (due, in case you didn't know, to the presence of the Apples in Stereo's John Hill -- Ed.) at first?

Tammy Ealom: Exactly, and I think we've shaken that finally. It took a lot of work.

Splendid: Well, this album has your "rock" sound down more overtly.

Tammy Ealom: We've always been about rock. Rock became a dirty word for a few years, I guess because it was abused by groups like Korn, and that sound became rock. And then there was "pop". Now there are all these different terms and I don't know what's going on, but we definitely consider ourselves a rock 'n' roll band, so we tried to make a rock 'n' roll record. I think we did pretty well.

Splendid: Well, you've always been a very loud band, I know that. I think you must surprise a lot of people who see you for the first time and are expecting -- well, not to dis your labelmates, but a twee-pop thing and not a band capable of making any robust noise. And you're definitely a "make sure you have earplugs" band.

Tammy Ealom: Yup. Exactly. We try to tell people that... I wear earplugs. I think everyone should. Our volume, too, just has a lot to do with our energy. The volume -- my amp, the way I have it set now, if I go any lower volume-wise, I lose a lot of the tone, a lot of the "grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr". And that's what gets me going. It gets my feet moving.

Splendid: That punchy kind of sound.

Tammy Ealom: Exactly. That edge.

Splendid: I remember after the first time I saw you guys, at Lounge Ax a few years ago, I didn't have any plugs...and that buzzing in my head didn't go away for something like a day and a half, so you're definitely among the record-holders.

Tammy Ealom: Sweet.

Splendid: Do you encounter people -- fans -- who've bought into the twee-pop aesthetic and are a bit scared by the amount of noise you guys make?

Tammy Ealom: I don't think so. I think a lot of people may come expecting something else, but they get something that's better, I think, than they thought it could be. I don't know.

Splendid: And the flip side of the coin, which was something you and I were talking about a little bit before your soundcheck, is that this sort of a tour, where you're booked with an improbable mix of acts (Shannon Wright, Deathray Davies, Kaito), must expose you to a lot of very different audiences. How are they taking to you? Are they surprised?

Tammy Ealom: Everybody seems to love it. We're just like, "Whoa!" The response has been pretty amazing. We're very excited by this tour. It's been a great experience.

Splendid: Are there lots of people who know your songs?

Tammy Ealom: Oh yeah! There were some shows when we were coming up the east coast, where I'd just about completely lost my voice and couldn't do a couple of the a capella parts, so I didn't -- and the crowd did them.

Splendid: That's pretty cool.

Tammy Ealom: Oh yeah, that's cool. I was shocked.

Splendid: That's a good sign.

Tammy Ealom: It's a great sign.

Splendid: As you get to the point where you're playing longer sets, because you're taking on more of a headliner role -- and I gather that you've been headlining a lot more --

Tammy Ealom: Yeah.

Splendid: -- is it harder to put a set together? What's the total time count on your material? I can't imagine you have much more than an hour and a half to choose from.

Tammy Ealom: We have quite a bit -- more than an hour and a half, anyway. We've been playing for about an hour, and we definitely switch songs out every other night. It's fine. We can do it. Actually, we just cut our set down. At the beginning of the tour we were doing a lot more, and it was (she indicates that it was perhaps a bit much).

Splendid: So you're doing...what? Fifteen songs with a two-song encore now?

Tammy Ealom: Yeah.

Splendid: So that's a tight 45 minutes to an hour.

Tammy Ealom: Yeah, we just plow through and knock 'em down.

Splendid: Where do you think people know you from? What's been your biggest draw?

Tammy Ealom: But I'm A Cheerleader has been tremendous for us. I can't even tell you -- every night, so many people say "I first heard you in..." And now they're just die-hard fans. And the soundtrack to that movie never came out, so these are people who sat and watched the end credits to see who did the songs and then went to try to find the records. That's tremendous. We were just talking about that, because Jamie Babbit (who wrote the original story) has a new movie she's working on now, so we need to get hold of her and send her our new record and thank her. We lucked out with it being such a good movie, too -- the whole soundtrack's just amazing. The Power Puff Girls album does pretty well for us too.

Splendid: I was wondering about that. That record itself is such a weird phenomenon...

Tammy Ealom: It's amazing.

Splendid: You don't know who's buying it or who's listening to it or what, and now there are six year-olds out there with Dressy Bessy records.

Tammy Ealom: Yeah, from, like, four year-olds on up. We've done in-stores and had little teeny kids come in...up to sixty year-olds. Everybody loves the Power Puff Girls.

Splendid: So tell me about the video for "That's Why".

Tammy Ealom: A friend of ours, Pat Mallek, he goes by the name Mighty Fudge, and he's an animator. You can go to MightyFudge.com and check it out. He's an animator. We're fans of his other cartoons, and just in passing one day we said "You should make a video to one of our songs!" And he did it. He picked a song, and we said, "Oh, you go with it," and he did it all himself. It's amazing. He captured us all really well -- it's hysterical.

Splendid: What's happening with the video. Who has it?

Tammy Ealom: It's been sent out. On the first leg of the tour we did the West Coast, and we went up to Vancouver to do an appearance on Canadian MTV, which was weird. The Moldy Peaches were there also. We hadn't met them yet, though we've played with them since. Anyway, it's like a TRL-type show, where there's a little built-in audience, and you go stand up there and talk or whatever...

Splendid: The whole idea of "TRL-type show" plus "Moldy Peaches" -- that right there seems a little odd.

Tammy Ealom: Yeah, it was weird. They're hysterical. After they finished talking...they were just such nutcases, and when we stood up there we were just like "Duhhhh." We were wondering how we were going to top that! I wish I'd have brought a big curly hair-do... But it was fun. We all did really well. Strange, but fun. They'd talk to us a little bit, and then show an N'Sync video, and then come back to us... whatever.

Splendid: Now you have a bunch of new Canadian fans.

Tammy Ealom: Well, hopefully. Our shows were good in Canada. Toronto was good. Hamilton we just did. Ontario was fantastic -- there's a club there called The Raven that's a fantastic place. The owner's mother cooks a home-cooked meal when you get in. She sets a table and you sit around it... and the whole night's like that. They treat you like family. I liked it a lot.

Splendid: So like a more down-home Middle East?

Tammy Ealom: Yeah...

Splendid: Where outside the US have you guys been lately, other than Canada?

Tammy Ealom: We went to Japan two summers ago. That was a trip. And then we did a whole thing in England in the beginning of January -- sixteen shows in the UK, three in Norway, one in France on a boat in Paris...it was amazing. Track and Field is our label over there, and they just licensed Pink Hearts Yellow Moons, so they brought us over to tour behind that.

Splendid: Wow. You hear about British groups coming to the US behind two year-old records, but it doesn't seem to happen the other way 'round all that often.

Tammy Ealom: Yeah. And the response was amazing. The shows were incredible. We had to drive ourselves -- they got us a little van that sort of resembled a milk truck, with the steering wheel on the wrong side... It was a great experience.

Splendid: And Paris.

Tammy Ealom: Yeah, Paris! On a boat! A club called Batofar.

Splendid: Was the weather good?

Tammy Ealom: It was okay. It was wet. Pretty damp, anyway.

Splendid: Was it outdoors?

Tammy Ealom: Oh yeah. It was kind of funny, 'cos we had to catch the ferry from Dover to go to France, and these ferries have restaurants and shops -- they're like big buildings going across the water. Going there was pretty easy, but coming back there was a storm, and the ferry was thrown around like no-one's business. I got pretty seasick, and it stuck with me for the next two days. It was pretty insane.

Splendid: So you can get sick pretty much anywhere, then.

Tammy Ealom: Yeah. I get seasick...airsick... Norway was a trip, too -- lots of snow there.

Splendid: Did you get snowsick?

Tammy Ealom: (Laughs) No. We had to drive ourselves there, too.

Splendid: That'd be pretty scary.

Tammy Ealom: Well, we're from Colorado. We can handle it.

Splendid: That's true.

Tammy Ealom: When we left that day... there was a snowstorm. First of all, we woke up late, and we were all like, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" and gathering our things, and saying "Oh shit, we've gotta get to the airport!" Driving to the airport was about a 30-minute drive. Full-on blizzard, ground was covered, we couldn't see...we figured they'd cancel the flight. So we get to the airport and by then there's about six inches of snow on the ground, and all the Norwegians were like, "No big deal, let's get on the plane." So we boarded the plane, and the plane did a donut trying to get on the runway --

Splendid: Alright, now that's freaking scary.

Tammy Ealom: Yeah! I told everybody goodbye... I thought that was it.

Splendid: It's hard enough to get on any kind of airplane these days -- every little noise can freak you out.

Tammy Ealom: Oh yeah! And this thing...it was some Norwegian economy airline, too, and it was really scary.

Splendid: What, did they have lawn chairs set up inside the plane?

Tammy Ealom: Pretty much. But we made it. They de-iced the wings just before takeoff. After that it was okay.

Splendid: So you guys have been on the road fairly steadily for a long time. This year alone, how much time have you been at home?

Tammy Ealom: Not much. Not much.

Splendid: How does that affect you? Are you at the point now where the band is making enough money that that's it, or do you have jobs that are very understanding?

Tammy Ealom: We still have jobs when we go home. Fortunately we've all been working at the jobs long enough, and we have support from the people we work for, so it's a "We'll be here when you get back" sort of situation. We make enough that when we all get back, we can pay our rent and pay for our rental van.

Splendid: That's good in itself. So many bands get back from a tour and talk about how it cost them eight hundred bucks to live like paupers for three weeks...

Tammy Ealom: Well, we've done that too.

Splendid: A working vacation, basically?

Tammy Ealom: Yeah. That's why we keep doing it, because we truly believe that one day we'll make money doing this.

Splendid: It's clearly getting better and better for you.

Tammy Ealom: We're working our butts off, that's for sure.

Splendid: Okay... I've lost my train of thought here, so I'll go for an old standby. What are you guys listening to in the van these days?

Tammy Ealom: Ummm...Rob (Greene, bassist) snoring... Not much music. We have music every night, so we pretty much just chill in the quiet of the highway. That's enough for me.

Splendid: And after this tour ends -- what next?

Tammy Ealom: Well, we have another week... and then we go out and do the whole thing again in June.

Splendid: Wow.

Tammy Ealom: But with a little space in-between this time instead of doing the whole trip. Then we'll do some festivals in Scandinavia in August. That I'm excited about.

Splendid: Did you ever expect to get to travel as much as you do?

Tammy Ealom: I was hoping to. That's why I started a band.

Splendid: Is Kindercore asking you to go out this much, or is it your decision?

Tammy Ealom: It's ours. Kindercore -- you know Emperor Norton was backing them a little bit. Now The Telegraph Company is doing it -- I don't know if you know Jared...

Splendid: We've known those folks for a while, yeah.

Tammy Ealom: So we don't even work with Dan and Ryan anymore. These guys are the people we contact. Ryan and Dan -- I think they're doing mostly A&R stuff now, and they've got their bands...which is what they always wanted to do. I'm glad that somebody came along and relieved them so they could do that.

Splendid: It seemed like they were at critical mass for a while there.

Tammy Ealom: Kindercore -- I don't know much about it, but we've been hearing about it on the road. I guess there's a new branch of Kindercore that's the hardcore... I don't know where it's coming from, but it's all skull and crossbones. That's Ryan's doing. We don't talk about the label too much. I just don't get it.

Splendid: Well, you're exposed to so many different bands when you're touring... Do you hear a lot of stuff whose popularity you just don't understand?

Tammy Ealom: Oh yes. Oh yes. We don't have the big huge financial backing to buy ads in magazines... you know, to get your record in there, you've gotta give somebody money, and a lot of people do. Know what I mean? A lot of groups definitely have a lot of exposure, and people eventually say "Oh, yeah, I'll check that out," and due to the lack of anything else out there, they latch onto it. There are definitely bands where I just don't know whaaaat's going on...

Splendid: I won't press you to name names...

Tammy Ealom: Trust me, I'm shit-talker extraordinaire.

Splendid: There are so many weird pairings, though, especially in places that don't get bands all that often.

Tammy Ealom: People just don't know. People who book places don't look into it and check out the records...

Splendid: The transition from you guys to Shannon Wright tonight will be interesting.

Tammy Ealom: We try to set up our own groups to tour with, too, because of that. A lot of people think "If you have three different bands, it'll pull three different types of people!"

Splendid: And then they either fight, or they all just leave after the band they wanted to see plays, leaving whoever's up next just holding the bag...

Tammy Ealom: Exactly. They're not exposing people to new things. They're just gonna check out their friends and leave.

Splendid: I'm sure you've had gigs where the local opening act papers the room and then you go on and everyone bails.

Tammy Ealom: Yeah. It's their loss. Their loss.