Legendary Dwarves frontman Blag Dahlia has recently released his new album, ‘Introducing Ralph Champagne’.

Whereas the Dwarves have long been revered for in-your-face, defiantly non-PC punk rock and garage trash, Ralph Champagne introduces an infectious brand of Retro-Americana and Outlaw Country style. ‘Ralph Champagne’ embodies the lovably shady crooner, serving up catchy melodies and off color lyrics with a rakish smile and ad libs worthy of the late late show.

“I’m punk rock until I die!”

It’s fantastic to have you. Have you found the isolation creatively challenging or freeing?

Blag Dahlia: Thanks for asking. I managed to be super productive during the pandemic. Musically, I adopted a new alter ego and with some friends’ help made a different kind of a record than I’ve ever attempted and it’s actually in print now. On the literary front, I wrote a transgressive, dirty novel called Highland Falls that is also now in print. On top of that, the Dwarves recorded 27 songs and are looking at what might be our first double LP. So yeah, it’s been a super creative time. On the other hand, like everybody else, I’ve lost my fucking mind several times during this period and my fellow humans seem intent on destroying each other and the planet. So there’s that…

How did you first get interested in Outlaw Country and what are some artists that inspired the making of your latest album, ‘Ralph Champagne’?

I love old country records and bluegrass records so there were a bunch of songs in that vein that wouldn’t work in a punk band like the Dwarves. There was also a backlog of other kinds of novelty songs, duets, comedy songs, lounge songs, all kinds of stuff I’d written that weren’t getting recorded. So that’s how this ‘Ralph Champagne’ record came about. My favorite country artists tend to be the really old mountain music kind of stuff, Bill Monroe, Jimmie Rodgers, Earl Johnson and the Clodhoppers, ancient stuff. But I also love that golden age of country from Hank Williams through George Jones and Dwight Yoakam. It’s more “produced” sounding, but still seems authentic. I’m not a country guy, so I stuck to lyrical themes I could pull off. The single is ‘Contraband,’ a song about trucking, and I’ve spent so much of my life on the road with the Dwarves I thought I could pull a driving song off.

How did you approach songwriting?

For this record, I reached back into a lot of stuff I’ve already written. But there were some newer surprises and some co-writes with Andy Carpenter, my producing partner. These days I like to use other folks chord progressions or start from a sample I like and build out from there. I don’t just generate them from scratch as much anymore. I never got much of a handle on anything but major and minor chords, I start to run out of new places to go sometimes unless I introduce a variable into the songwriting process.

How did you transcend your past in punk with the music you’re creating today?

I’ll never transcend it, I’m punk rock until I die! Still love the Dwarves and knocking out head banging brutal rock & roll, the whole bit. But the Dwarves have evolved in so many different styles of hard rock that we’re pretty hard to pigeonhole at this point. I thought it was time to expand into some completely different genres and see where that took me for a while. Also, rockabilly girls tend to be a bit more hygienic than their punk rock counterparts.

You recently released your new novel. Tell us about Highland Falls? How would you describe the character of Nina West?

Highland Falls is the follow up to my previous novel Nina, the continuing adventures of a teenage suburban trickster, sociopath and nymphomaniac. Nina is a very instinctual kind of a person who always does as she pleases. This one kind of expands on the original premise and introduces some characters from the town where she grew up. It’s got a lot of sex, drugs, violence and death in it, so hopefully they’ll make a dirty movie out of it someday! The brave folks at Rare Bird are putting it out and reissuing Nina and my first dirty book Armed to the Teeth With Lipstick.

You are planning Dwarves reissues coming in 2023? Would you like to share some further words about what we can expect?

I’m really stoked that all of the Dwarves output is soon going to be in print again, remastered with bonus tracks and additional art. Classics like ‘Blood, Guts & Pussy’ and ‘Thank Heaven for Little Girls’ as well as stuff from the more eclectic genre hopping days like ‘Come Clean’ and ‘Radio Free Dwarves’. I’m just proud that so many young miscreants will have a chance to masturbate to my album covers and ignore the music, just like their parents did back in the day.

If we were to visit your teenage room, what kind of records, books and fanzines would we find?

Lots of 60’s garage records like the Chocolate Watchband and 13th Floor Elevators; lots of rockabilly, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Johnny Burnett; all the Frank Zappa records; punk records like Ramones, Cramps, Gang of Four, Black Flag. I liked surreal fiction like Kafka, or funny stuff like Confederacy of Dunces. I really liked the old National Lampoon magazine, and those cool homemade zines people used to stitch together were good for a laugh, too. All kinds of weird shite!.

Did you attend a lot of local shows back in Chicago in the mid-1980s?

I didn’t know how good I had it! Saw Misfits, Black Flag, Minor Threat, MDC, Ramones, Cramps, Spinal Tap, PiL, Replacements, Violent Femmes, Gang of Four, Minutemen, Frank Zappa. My brother took me to jazz clubs on the Southside and concerts with Ravi Shankar, John McLaughlin, Stan Getz, Maynard Ferguson, Art Ensemble of Chicago. My folks took me to musicals, Guys and Dolls, Chorus Line, the Mikado. I saw tons of cool shit before turning 20!

Would you like to share what led you to form Dwarves?

I always loved music, but I wasn’t that talented. I didn’t know what to do. Then I heard the Ramones. That was it! I could do that!

“There is something cool about that way of making records”

I would love it if you can share some memories from working and recording albums like ‘Horror Stories’, ‘Blood Guts & Pussy’, ‘Thank Heaven for Little Girls’. What are some of the highlights for you thinking back?

‘Horror Stories’ were recorded and mixed in two days. It was always like that, we never had the time to really get stuff right, it was just go go go. There is something cool about that way of making records. I try to hang onto that vibe in the initial sessions to this day. Get the whole band in the room, play together, knock it out, go hard. It’s just that now, after we do that initial thing, I go off and finger fuck it for six months because I love to play around with songs until they’re right where they need to be.

‘Blood Guts & Pussy’ was fun to do with Jack Endino and that early Seattle vibe. For ‘Thank Heaven for Little Girls’ they said we were going to do a record at Butch Vig’s studio so we were all excited. When we got there, he was out of town and it wasn’t quite the production breakthrough we thought it was going to be. I wish we’d had the time or money to have wild drugged out times in the studio, but like I said, it was always just go go go! There was always some weed and booze around, and after the 90’s hit we often had coke in there. I do remember taking one of our roadie’s girlfriends back to the studio and fucking her while the band was overdubbing downstairs one time, that was kind of fun in a cruel sort of way!

What would be the sickest gig ever for the Dwarves?

The next one we do!

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

I like the Service, they are amazing live, I haven’t heard the record yet, but I bet it’ll be great. Also enjoying a young punk band from LA called Sik Sik Sicks, they have funny lyrics. I did a duet with their singer Madd that’s going to be on the next record. My tastes are all over the place. The song I’m really enjoying now is Telepatia by Kali Uchis, check it out!