Culture
The Used’s Dan Whitesides talks about first joining the band and their latest album ‘Toxic Positivity,’ addressing some underrated gems and an ever-evolving creative process along the way
By: Nicholas Kobe
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The Used performs in Cuyahoga Falls at the Blossom Music Center (1145 W Steels Corners Rd.) Saturday and in Cincinnati at the Andrew J. Brady Music Center (25 Race St.) Wednesday, June 21. WOUB’s Nicholas Kobe spoke to drummer Dan Whitesides ahead of their performance.
Find a transcript of the conversation below. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
First question I have for you is how would you describe The Used in one sentence?
Dan Whitesides:
One sentence? We are versatile and timeless.
Nicholas Kobe:
What makes you say that in particular?
Dan Whitesides:
Well, I feel like we can write any single song, doesn’t matter. We’re not genre specific. We can write a super melodic acoustic song or the heaviest song or, super poppy, kind of electronic sounding song, so I feel like we just do what we want and it sounds like The Used, because that’s what we’ve always done.
Nicholas Kobe:
So going all the way back to, when you joined the band back in 2006, what was that experience like?
Dan Whitesides:
It was the craziest time of my life, and I’ll never forget it. I was asked to come out and, not everybody in the band at the time knew that I was coming out, but I was asked to come out and, I came into the studio, Quinn [Allman] and I had already written a few songs together before they started working on Lies for the Liars. I came in about halfway through Lies for the Liars, and it was just like a whole new world for me as far as that type of studio and that type of budget and where those guys were at. So I was super scared and I wanted to leave. I wanted to go back home, but I didn’t <laugh>.
Nicholas Kobe:
What kept you staying there?
Dan Whitesides:
I don’t know. I think I talked to Quinn a little bit and he’s just like, “dude, just chill, just, follow my lead and so on”. I made a bunch of albums in Salt Lake City with local bands, and sometimes we recorded to a click, but most of the time we didn’t. We never used Pro Tools. We’re up in this big mansion at John Feldman’s and I just was used to DIY and so it was just a culture shock. Obviously Quinn and Bret and Jeff at the time, they’re still the same guys. They always were. So it wasn’t those guys. It was just that situation of like, “holy sh*t, this is professional”. It was crazy.
Nicholas Kobe:
Zero to 60 really quick.
Dan Whitesides:
Exactly, man. I had stopped smoking at the time, and then right when I landed I’m like, oh man, I’m, where’s a cigarette? I need to smoke.
Nicholas Kobe:
So a question about your newest record. What was your vision going into Toxic Positivity compared to all your other albums?
Dan Whitesides:
Well, it’s kind of similar, it’s just however we’re feeling. A lot of these songs were written when we got to the studio, we would all sit in a room and kind of have a little therapy session. Usually it started with Bret and how he was feeling and what he kind of wanted to go with that day and start there. By the end of the day we had this pretty kickass song. It hasn’t always been like that, but I’d say the last two albums, that’s how it’s been.
Nicholas Kobe:
What made you change that approach to writing for these last two albums?
Dan Whitesides:
It just sort of happened. Look, we don’t really plan anything. Sometimes we do, but we’re meeting up at the studio and you never really know what’s gonna happen. Every day I would go in there, I didn’t know if I was gonna play drums at first, at the end, in the middle. John is just like, “Okay, once we’ve got the vocals and the melody down, then we go to the drums.” On some albums we would go in with full songs and then work on it that way. With these ones, we kind of discuss “all right, we’re just gonna go in and see what happens.” I guess that kind of comes back to the versatile part of us. We can do whatever. We can sit in a room and write a song together if we want. For example, on our album, The Canyon, that’s what we did. Then we did like two weeks of pre-production and then two weeks on drums. Artwork was the same, we went in and did it that way. We can just do whatever. John could even just be like, “Hey dude, sit down and play a beat, and then we’ll wrap our mind around that.” It keeps it interesting.
Nicholas Kobe:
What has kept you guys coming back, and kept you guys going?
Dan Whitesides:
We still love it. We love to tour, we love to be in the studio. We love small shows. We love big shows, we love festivals. We just love it all. It’s what we do. I mean this is our job, but it’s a job that we all love and we’re fortunate. We just got back from Australia, we’re about to hit the road with Pierce the Veil and we just love what we do. We’re rehearsing right now and I’m down here two hours before everybody, going over these songs by myself. Joey comes in an hour, he is going over the songs by himself. We love to do what we do no matter where we’re at and what part of the process we’re in.
Nicholas Kobe:
So speaking of, your guys’ tour with Pierce the Veil, what’s your guys’ history with that band and what do you think it’s gonna be like touring with them?
Dan Whitesides:
I mean, we know of Pierce the Veil and we’ve met ’em and we’ve toured with ’em on Warped Tour and things like that. They’re all really sweet dudes. Every single one of ’em, Lonnie, their drummer is a good friend of everybody. He’s been in Letlive and we’ve been around each other, but never really did a tour. Those guys are awesome, man. It’s cool, our fans have a good crossover, so it’s gonna be a great tour for both of us. For people who haven’t heard us, give them an opportunity to, to see if they like us or not. Same for our fans with Pierce the Veil. At this point in everybody’s career, there’s no attitude, and cockiness. We all just wanna go out and have fun and play music and give the fans a great show. We have a lot of cool things going on in our show. Something that our fans have never seen before, playing a lot of songs that we haven’t played in a while. The stage set up, what we have as far as like, process stuff is ridiculous. People are gonna be pumped on it.
Nicholas Kobe:
The stage production of all of it. You guys are cranking that through the roof this time around?
Dan Whitesides:
Absolutely. It’s something we’ve never done before. I don’t wanna give anything away, other than it’s, it’s really cool and people are gonna be blown away by it.
Nicholas Kobe:
That’s awesome. Going back kind of to the new record, is there any moment on that album that you’re particularly really proud of?
Dan Whitesides:
I’m proud of it all. I think when we’re done and we’re all on the same page, I’m always proud of that. We made it through it and there was no like, “we cannot do this, this is not The Used”. I also enjoy when I’m in the studio and just when I’m able to get in there and just flow and play what I want and it gets used and everybody’s into it. I love when I’m behind the drums and everybody’s in the control room and they’re just shouting out ideas and I’m able to play those ideas for them, and lock it in. I’m proud of the final product because we’d all had such a great time, even the disagreements, like, “oh, you’re right, man, that, that was terrible.” Or going back and listening to something like, “yeah, we should do it your way instead of my way.”
Nicholas Kobe:
I know that you guys are not as much locked down to a genre in particular, but as this 2000’s rock sound is reentering the mainstream, how do you guys feel about that?
Dan Whitesides:
I mean, it’s cool. A lot of bands are getting back together and things like that. And the cool part about that is we never broke up. We never went anywhere. We’ve been doing this nonstop since before I was in the band, 2000, whatever till now. We’ve just been going and our fans never went anywhere. So we’ve been playing these amazing shows for the past 20 something years. It’s exciting that, When We Were Young and that was out here in Vegas and just seeing all the bands like Taking Back Sundays and the AFI and Jimmy Eat World. All those bands that never went anywhere and they’ve just been going, and their fans and all our fans have just been so amazing. We’ve kind of made it a point to kind of keep up with what’s going on around us and not stay the same. I feel like if you’re that type of band, you probably won’t go very far. You gotta venture out and keep with the times, but yet stick to your roots. That’s what I feel like we’ve done.
Nicholas Kobe:
What do you think in The Used’s history was kind of the biggest moment of you guys having to keep up with the times?
Dan Whitesides:
I don’t know. I feel like fortunately the first four albums came out like, before the internet was like taking over. We’re one of those bands that people got to sit with and listen to the album. It’s not just a TikTok thing or a 30 second, I can’t keep my attention span going. I feel like with The Used, before I was in the band, the first album blew up and it changed everything for that type of music at that time. I think for The Used, those first two albums were absolutely like the biggest thing that has helped The Used even stick around. After that, Lies for Liars is such a change, with production and all that. Every album is just so different. We don’t go into it going, “alright, who’s doing what?” We’re just down to do anything. If it’s keyboard, poppy, synths, programmed drums with some amazing lyrics and melody, then we’re like “that’s it.” Live, it’ll be a different story, obviously. I think we’re even better live. We’re fortunate that those first few albums were groundbreaking in my opinion.
Nicholas Kobe:
It definitely speaks as a testament to that no matter what direction you guys go in, the fans have kept coming around.
Dan Whitesides:
Yeah, we’re not one of those bands that’s like, “oh, we’re not playing that song because it’s 20 whatever years old”. We’re always gonna play “The Taste of Ink”. We’re always gonna play “All That I’ve Got”, we’re always gonna play “I Caught Fire”. We’re always gonna play those songs because we love them. “I Caught Fire” is probably one of my favorite songs to play and that song’s 20 whatever years old. We’re always gonna play those songs and then we’ll sprinkle in the new songs like “Numb” and “F**k You.” We’re just gonna try to give everybody what they want.
Nicholas Kobe:
Going back to “F**k You” and there was the other single, “People are Vomit” that didn’t actually appear on the track list for Toxic Positivity. What kind of made you guys go, “okay, these songs are gonna be standalone and then these songs are, these other songs are gonna be on the album?”
Dan Whitesides:
I don’t even know. We kind of talked about that after we made that decision and we don’t really know why we did that. It doesn’t really matter anyway. Those songs are out there. If you want ’em, you can go get ’em. We have more songs that aren’t on that record either, that will see the light of day someday as well. It was just one of those things where it’s a group message. “Send me your list of songs you want on the album.” Everybody’s list is different. So you just gotta kind of go, “all right, well, we have 20 whatever songs we need to pick 11.” Whatever makes it, makes it whatever doesn’t, doesn’t. I love all the songs. So, Feldman, who produces our album, has a lot of say in it too, and we all look up to him and he’s like a fifth member of the band. So if he’s like, “dude, these songs, these gotta go on, these are my favorite.” We listen to that.
Nicholas Kobe:
How long has he been working with you guys?
Dan Whitesides:
Since the first album, I think we’ve done every album, but two with him. Then we’ve done a few weird little albums, so probably like three albums we’ve done without him. He’s been with us since the very beginning.
Nicholas Kobe:
Awesome, and you guys are just always writing, always making new stuff?
Dan Whitesides:
Yeah. When you go out on tour, we all jam. We have a little traveling studio with us, any ideas that we have, just write ’em down, things like that. But like I said, it’s always different. Sometimes we’ll write out there, sometimes we’ll just play our old stuff just to keep fresh. But yeah, we’re always doing something.
Nicholas Kobe:
What would you say about the touring environment has changed between the time you joined the band to now?
Dan Whitesides:
Well party way less <laugh> I mean we all still have a great time. Like after the show, I love to just sit down in my sweaty clothes, crack an ice cold beer, the best tasting beer I’ve ever had after a hot show. But, we’re all married, we have kids, and we’re not trying to party anymore like that. We hang out, there’s like movies in the front. I love basketball, so I’ll be in the back of the bus watching basketball or whatever. It’s chill, but we still keep it fun. We’re all out here having fun, but from the very beginning we were all a lot younger, so we got a lot more energy and stuff. It’s way better now than it was then. I’ll tell you that.
Nicholas Kobe:
Has the atmosphere of the crowd or the environmental live shows changed any between the years?
Dan Whitesides:
Not really, man. I feel like it’s crazy because you think as you get older, your fans are getting older too, right? So we see, all the fans that have gotten older that used to be in the front row have now been replaced by younger kids. The fans that used to be in the front row are now in the back in the seats drinking beers or whatever, hanging out. So it’s kind of crazy just to see, maybe our fans have gotten older as we have, but yet we’re still seeing those younger kids up front. Then you still have the people that mosh in the middle, it hasn’t really changed that much. The crowds are still amazing. The crowds still like to sing every word. They still like to mosh or whatever, sit down and do a rowboat, whatever the hell they’re doing. We’re very fortunate to be able to do this for so long. Every time you go out, it’s like, “man, I can’t believe that we’re still doing this and this many people still want to see us and hear us and sing along with us.”
Nicholas Kobe:
Absolutely. We’ve talked a decent bit about the new record. Is there any kind of moment in The Used’s back catalog that you’re particularly proud of or things that you kind of feel are underrated?
Dan Whitesides:
I think Artwork is a very underrated album. You talk to some of our fans and, and they’ll say the same thing. That’s a lot of people’s favorite album. I don’t know, I know that some things happened during the making of that album with our label and us. I’m not saying that maybe was part of the reason that it didn’t do as well as some of the ones before. But, then there’s albums like The Canyon that I’m super proud of because we didn’t record a click track. We recorded it on tape. A lot of people don’t like the sound of that album, but that’s what music sounds like when you don’t put it through a computer. It’s also one of those albums where we’d write a four minute song or a five minute song, and nobody’s really doing that right now, or has ever since like the seventies or whatever, but we didn’t care. We went into that album specifically to do exactly what we wanted to do at that time and not think about, “is this gonna be a single?”, “Is this gonna be a hit?” We just went in like, “we’re just gonna do whatever we want and whatever comes out, that’s what it’s gonna be”. Honestly, I’m proud of all of our albums. I feel like if you’re a fan of music, then you could probably get into just about anything that we do, because we have, we pretty much have all the bases covered
Nicholas Kobe:
On your guys’ last album I noticed you did a lot of collaborations. You guys had a feature from Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker. Are there any collaborations that you would, want personally in the future?
Dan Whitesides:
I’m more of a rocker type guy, so I would love to work with Josh Homme from Queens of Stone Age, or John Theodore from Queens of Stone Age. Dave Ghrol would be cool. Obviously I love Travis Barker and, and Mark Hoppus, but just to get in there with somebody who’s a person that’s just like a raw rock guy, would be really cool. Someone along those lines.
Nicholas Kobe:
Speaking of that, what would you say, like other drummers wise, is your biggest influence?
Dan Whitesides:
We were just talking about this yesterday. It’s funny, the list is ridiculously long. I mean, there’s just so many jazz drummers and Dave Wek, Buddy Rich, and, and then there’s rock drummers like Tommy Lee and Alex Van Halen, and John Theodore and Joey Castillo. Then there’s dudes like Greyson Nekrutman. He’s a huge Instagram guy right now. So there’s just so many. I feel it from the album, and then I gotta see it. I gotta see a guy play and then that gets me pumped. If they’re grooving and you could tell that they’re just in another world, that’s what gets me. So, and it doesn’t really matter what genre happens, it is just like, you can feel it.
Nicholas Kobe:
Yeah, absolutely. One more question for you. What would you say is the future of The Used?
Dan Whitesides:
I know a little bit of the future <laugh>, dude, we’re not going anywhere. We all plan on doing this well into our old ages, just like a few bands that are still around out there. We talked about it and our future is going to be very busy. We’re gonna keep doing stuff. We’re gonna be around, we’re going to keep writing music and do what we love to do. It’s all we know and we love it.