An Interview with Ruben Zarate of Dante Elephante
We sat down with Ruben of Dante Elephante to talk Limewire, the best Vietnamese Food in Texas, and more.
Tell us a little about yourself. How did you first get started making music?
I started playing drums when I was 12 years old. Moved on to guitar when I was 15. I’ve been in bands since I was 14. So I haven’t really stopped in 15 years. My grandmother was a self taught musician who showed me a little guitar when I was a kid. But I didn’t take it seriously until I was a teen.
Are you still based in Santa Barbara? How did you meet everyone else in the band?
Yeah, I’m still based in Santa Barbara. I was in Los Angeles from 2015-2018. I had a great time in LA but I was needed back in Santa Barbara. I met the original members of Dante Elephante (Kevin Boutin, Tommy Devoy and Chris Lopez) in Isla Vista. They were all UCSB students and I had a practice space in the neighborhood that I shared with 3 other bands.
I was playing drums for two garage / punk bands at the time. But after a while I wasn’t feeling fulfilled or doing what I wanted to do so I put out a craigslist ad looking for musicians. I met Kevin first, placed a second ad, which led us to our drummer Tommy. We just needed a bass player and Kevin’s old roommate was studying abroad in Mexico at the time. So when he arrived back to Isla Vista from studying abroad, we practiced and played a house party that same night. That was our lineup until 2017.
Everyone went their separate ways and I moved back to Santa Barbara in 2018. I was planning a tour to SXSW and Treefort Fest in Boise. I reached out to the best musicians I knew and luckily they were all available even though they had their own projects and we hit the road. That’s my current lineup now (Jacob Cole on guitar, Rafaell Rozendo on bass, Joey McDermott on drums and either Erich Tomkinson or Zach Wallace on Keys).
"Never Trust a Junkie" popped up in my Discover Weekly and it was the first time I ever heard you guys. Did you ever notice a lift from Spotify shouting you out like that? Tell us a little about that song. Where did it come from? Was there an inspiration behind it?
Yeah, what’s crazy is that we released that song in October of 2015 and “Discover Weekly” was still a very new feature. By the time 2016 came around. We had headlined a west coast tour, opened for The Walters & Summer Salt in SF and LA then a west coast tour with The Orwells. By the end of 2016 is when I noticed “wow this song has a lot of streams all of a sudden” Be it, algorithmic luck or just us putting in the work with touring and support slots. Either way, I’m stoked.
The title “Never Trust A Junkie” came from a string of mishaps that went down in 2008 between some friends I had. I was just a naive kid, fresh outta high school, just wanting to focus on music. But the musician friends I had were addicted to heroin and put me in some bad situations that I shouldn’t have been in. One night I drove past a gas station, where just a few years ago I was sitting in my car, hanging out with them, trying to score drugs. Not for me, but for them. But I was there because I was their “friend” and I had a car.
Either way, I drove past the gas station and said to myself. “Damn, never trust a junkie” and got on the freeway. I wrote down that song title and saved it until I wrote a song that fit the vibe. The actual song is about a girl I was seeing. We were seeing each other for a little bit but I agreed to keep her dog at my house. We eventually stopped seeing each other but I kept the dog and I still have that dog!
Have you been reading or watching anything lately that you'd recommend?
I’m obsessed with the podcast “Your Mom’s House” w/ Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky and “Tigerbelly” with Bobby Lee. I watch those on Youtube every week. My girlfriend got me, “Meat Is For Pussies” by John Joseph, for Christmas last year and I’ve been slowly reading that. That book is crazy haha. It’s about his life and has recipes in the back.
Is there a record you can remember having a big impact on you as a kid? Anyone whose sound you wanted to emulate before you found your own?
I think almost anyone from my generation is going to say The Strokes. “Is This It?” and “Room on Fire” those albums were so big for anyone who wanted to play guitar based pop. Also, my cousin Armando showed me Jeff Buckley when I was 16 and that changed my life. I took singing very seriously after that. I was really bad at singing and just taught myself how to do it by listening to Jeff Buckley on repeat.
Also, Emo was so big in 2005 and I was a sophomore in high school and I absolutely hated it. So that’s when I retreated from MTV and the radio and went deeper into learning about Harry Nilsson and other artists like that. I was never allowed outside my house after 10pm, which makes sense, like where am I going to go? But because of that, I would stay home and watch Time Life “Sounds of the 60s” infomercials and Limewire any song that I thought sounded good. I would do that for the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
If you could recommend one hidden gem anywhere in the country— dive bar, bookstore, etc. what would it be? Why do you love it so much?
Hmmmmm….ok the Carolinas have some of the best record stores in the country. I won’t be naming any names so go support every record store you see. Great soul and R&B 7” sections. I also cleaned up at the Boise Record Exchange. But last time I was there. I didn’t see anything I liked.
Go to Houston, TX and eat Vietnamese food. It’s so good and so cheap. We always stock up before we leave and eat the second half for dinner. Also, I got potato flautas in El Paso that were insane. Motown Monday at Bar Sue in Seattle. One of the funniest / drunkest nights of my life on tour.
Ruben pulled together a playlist of what he's been listening to lately, and we threw in a few of our favorite Dante Elephante tracks too.
"Rare Attractions" feels like it has more complex arrangements than "Anglo-Saxon Summer.” Was "Rare Attractions" the first time you experimented with things like horns and saxophones on a record? Was there anything in particular you were trying to capture sound-wise?
I wrote most of “Anglo” when I was 21/22 years old. Recorded at 23 and it didn’t come out until I was 25. So to me that record has a special place in my heart but I would definitely change things if I could go back in time haha but I can’t so it is what it is.
By the time it came to record Rare Attractions. I just wanted to do something BIGGER. I was listening to Pet Sounds and What’s Going On? by Marvin Gaye. I didn’t want the tracks to blend into each other but definitely wanted them to have a cohesive sound and call backs to tracks before it.
Big differences between the two is that we recorded “Anglo” to tape and only had 12 tracks and 10 days to track vs. Rare Attractions where we had unlimited tracks, we rented a studio for a month and would go in every day until it was done. Sometimes 10am to midnight long sessions. Kevin and I would go into the studio every day and chip away. I still ended up singing the whole album on one long day because we were running out of time.
We added horns, bongos, bought a student level glockenspiel, and Erich Tomkinson brought every keyboard he had. Let us use his laptop the whole time. He was only available on the weekends but he drove up from San Diego every weekend to help. We produced and engineered that record ourselves except for “Call Me (On The Phone)” which we did at Jonathan Rado’s house in 2016. It was just a challenge to myself to do something really big and different.
Do you have a favorite venue in LA? What do you like most about it?
That’s a great question. We opened for Summer Salt at The Fonda and it was sold out. It was insane. One of the greatest shows I’ve ever played. But we just played the Moroccan Lounge and their sound is amazing. Such a great sounding room. Big green room with a pad lock. I’ll throw in The Hi Hat. Living in Highland Park was so fun. I worked at Burgerlords for about a month haha but I got to work inside the Hi Hat which was awesome and Britt is so sweet.
What's next for Dante Elephante?
We are mixing our next album right now. I’m hoping to have a home for it soon and have an idea on when I can release it. Until then, definitely trying to grow our Youtube channel. Started a podcast where I’ve had Paul Cherry, Sam France from Foxygen, and hopefully more! I’ll be on tour soon. Not sure when but definitely will be on the road again in 2020.