John Dwyer: of Thee Oh Sees

BY JOHN BACCIGALUPPI, LARRY CRANE

John Dwyer is certainly prolific. His main band, Thee Oh Sees, have released 18 studio albums since 1997. His side project, Damaged Bug, has two albums out. He co-owns Castle Face Records, where most of his output has been released. He tours frequently, and Thee Oh Sees are legendary for their energetic live shows. I met John about ten years ago through our mutual friend, and his main engineer for the past decade, Chris Woodhouse. Since then I've had the pleasure of going out for sushi runs and cooking a few dinners at the studio with John. He's a fun hang with a great combo of in your face dry wit and a razor sharp intelligence. He's one of the smartest, savviest independent musicians I've met. Since forming Castle Face and self releasing his albums, all of Thee Oh Sees records have hit the #1 spot on the CMJ charts. He could teach a master class in how to survive, and even thrive, as a muscian, while so many other music business folks moan about how terrible the business is. Maybe his secret is that he works his ass off. When he's not touring, he's recording, and before the rest of the musicians in the studio have even woken up, John's run several miles and is on his laptop taking care of business, even though he worked later, and probably partied harder, than everyone else the night before. Last time Larry and I were in Los Angeles, we dropped by John's new house to see his home studio and talk about making records. -JB & LC