INTERVIEW: Jake Dilley & The Color Pharmacy With Adelyn Rose Tonight At The 331 Club

Photo credit: Katie Essick
[MFR Presents]

Tonight the always pleasant local dudes from The Color Pharmacy will rock at the 331 Club along with Eau Claire-based Adelyn Rose! Founded by Iowa native Jake Dilley, The Color Pharmacy began as a senior project to complete an alternate soundtrack/video project to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Years later, they’re still hard at it and welcoming a new bass player to the party.

MFR spoke with Jake Dilley about the new album and how superb summer is in Minneapolis. His thoughts are below.

At SXSW this year you performed a little ditty before Billy Corgan spoke— you’ve had the opportunity to meet some fun people in similar ways over the past couple years. What are some highlights for you?
Playing before Corgan spoke was probably my favorite one. We also opened for Tom Morello and the Street Sweeper [Social Club], and that was really cool too. It was fun to hang out with those guys. [In this business] you meet a number of cool people.

We got to open for The Duke Spirit after getting a last minute call [last Sunday]. I went to the beach with some friends and got a call from Mark Schwandt (Usonia, White Light Riot) while they were in Omaha recording. Varsity Theater had contacted both Mark and George Hadfield (Usonia, ReadyGoes, The Farewell Circuit) looking for bands and they gave out our band information. Varsity wanted an opener, they checked us out, and wanted us. We knew about it about two hours before we had to load-in. For a Sunday night at the Triple Rock, during a monsoon, there was about 60 or 70 people there.

The Duke Spirit are sweet; they are awesome.

What’s cookin’ with The Color Pharmacy right now— new album?
We’re getting ready to record a new album in August, pre-production right now. We are going to be recording at The Pearl Studio in Minneapolis. We started working with a new bass player (Dan Larsen of White Light Riot). We’re going to do the record in four days— a 10 or 11 song album. That’s why we’re going so in-depth on pre-production stuff. We’ve never tried anything like that. All on tape, keeping it analog. We’ll put out vinyl for sure, cassettes maybe, but it’s all in the early stages.

We are going to try and incorporate some video elements in with the band; we haven’t done that in years. Now we’re trying to put together something that will allow us to manipulate a live video so we can perform with it and have some kind of video collection in addition to the album. It would be cool to involve a whole crew of people to make videos for each song.

I certainly don’t think it’s the most original thing, [but] it’s a great way to incorporate people we know to get their artwork out there too. Hopefully it will affect people. So many people are involved in the creation process that it only seems appropriate to have them directly involved.

Also, playing a bunch of stuff this summer.

A lot of outdoor shows?
Yeah, a decent amount. July has three or four festival type shows.

It’s summertime in Minneapolis— what’s your jam?
It’s the reason everyone decides to keep staying. Winter hits and it’s like “ahh I’m leaving,” spring hits and it’s like “ahh I’m staying for another year.” I’ve been playing a lot of tennis and basketball with friends and going to the beach a lot. I love Uptown in the summer too. Good patio season.

Favorite patio?
Depends on the time of day. If it’s later and the sun is about to set Galactic Pizza is good. I like going to Green Mill a lot too because I have a lot of friends that work and hang out there. Good people watching.

Worst summer song for you?
“The Sound of Sunshine” by Michael Franti. [It’s] not bad, you just can’t keep playing it.

What is your idea of the perfect evening meal?
We played a show in Omaha a couple years ago and the owners of that venue owned a restaurant called The Flat Iron Steakhouse. Our band and The Sudden Lovelys (who we were with on tour) went to a tasting dinner there where we passed it all around family style. Fried duck, lamb, lobster bisque. I ate so much I think I might have set myself back a couple years in lifespan but it was worth it. All we could drink too! Going back there to eat for free, that’s my perfect meal.

How has the band had fun lately?
We went as a group to the trampoline park the other day and that was incredible. All the floors and walls are trampolines. It would have been awesome if there were some older people there (laughs).

It’s called Zero Gravity. I’m totally considering having my next birthday pizza party there.

You can catch The Color Pharmacy tonight with Adelynn Rose at the 331 Club.

Friday, June 15 2012
10pm // 21+ // FREE
331 Club

Posted 11 months ago