“It’s always sunny in San Diego.”
While it’s pouring buckets here in Sydney, Slightly Stoopid’s co-founder certainly brings down those Southern California vibes. With two sets at Bluesfest on the April horizon, and headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne for good measure, Miles Doughty feels stoked to be heading back to Australia.
“We were in Byron and there was a whole strip with just bars everywhere,” he begins, recalling his first time in Australia, “and we ran through all of them over the course of a 36-hour period, having as much fun as we could with the locals. It reminded me of Newport Avenue and Ocean Beach. Everybody treated us good, and we’re looking forward to coming back and playing some music.”
The multi-instrumentalist’s certainly got heaps to be keen about, and he can’t wait to catch New Orleans jammers Dumpstaphunk and Zac Brown from Atlanta.
In Byron there was a whole strip with just bars everywhere, and we ran through all of them over the course of a 36-hour period
After double checking whether the legendary Jimmy Buffet is indeed set to also play at the fest, he adds enthusiastically, “I’m looking forward to being a music geek for a minute and watching all the other bands after our set. It really goes by so fast, and it’s such a long trip to get over there, so I want to take everything in.”
The musician’s first grasp of blues culture came from playing guitar with the locals from his neighbourhood. Yet that also stems from his friendship with Philly bluesman G. Love (and his band Special Sauce), and as Doughty describes fondly, “He just rips the blues like crazy.”
“It’s something that inspires you to always want to play. There’s always a walk you can take when you’re playing the blues, and it’s stuff like John Lee Hooker that everybody can listen to.”
Reflecting on guitar players, it’s also pretty fitting that the ‘Experience Jimmy Hendrix’ local line-up is hitting Bluesfest, featuring the likes of Badloves co-founder Jak Housden and Dai Pritchard (who played with Rose Tattoo). Hendrix was a childhood icon for Doughty, and here he immerses us in listening to one of his favourite Hendrix songs.
“One of my favourite songs is ‘Castles Made of Sand’,” (he pauses to sing the main riff) “and when you hear it everything just drops. You can just close your eyes and wish you were at the concert, and unfortunately I’m not old enough to have been able to watch him live. So all I can do is close my eyes, picture myself there, and watch the old videos.
“Just in general, we (Slightly Stoopid) play so many different styles of music, from blues to reggae, rock and metal. So for us, that kind of guitar playing incorporates into everything. We try to infuse all of our styles together, and we’re back in the studio again, recording. We’re excited.”
It’s The Lab, the collective’s personal recording hub, which has served as their “own place away from home” while off the road. Doughty relates. “Yeah, just having the studio at your accessibility all the time makes such a huge difference. Whenever you’re feeling creative, you just go down the street. You can flip the ‘on’ switch and start your jam.”
While the singer confesses that the band prefer to leave their crazy studio stories “behind closed doors”, he passionately reflects on their ‘jamdowns’, a mainstay on every tour.
“At the end of the night, we have all the bands come up on a song together. So we have this 14 to 15 person band on a certain jam… Anyone can rip solos and verses. I think fans, when they see a tour, love to see the camaraderie between all the bands, and that we’re not just names on a piece of paper. We’re all hanging out and having a good time.”
The problem is that the cost of those hash vinyls is pretty insane, so it’s not going to appeal to the higher, chronic smokers…
The guys also had an awesome time making a smokeable vinyl record out of hash over the year so far, a release celebrating the instrumental opener ‘Dabbington’ off eighth album Meanwhile… Back at the Lab. After being asked to confirm whether it’s the very first one in the world, Doughty chuckles, “Yeah it is, it’s pretty incredible.”
“Our manager Jon Phillips really got everything started on that, and it was a pretty genius idea. It’s playable – before you use it!” he laughs. “But we’re stoked on the way [the song ‘Dabbington’] turned out. It was a really good way to start the record, and the fact that it’s on the first hash one ever made is a cool thing. The problem is that the cost of those hash vinyls is pretty insane, so it’s not going to appeal to the higher, chronic smokers.”
While the record’s a celebration of a musical turning point, what’s even more important though is the further light it casts on legalising weed, and why it’s beneficial for the planet in many ways.
“It’s silly that they list it as a Category One drug up there with the hardest stuff on the planet,” Doughty says, bringing in his American experience before casting the net out wider.
“A lot of the time, it’s just for expanding your mind and getting in the groove with music, and it helps so many patients that need it for medical use. Back in the day, the presidents used to say that the biggest product you can have is hemp, because you can build all these things like clothes and paper from it, and we’re not using it because they have the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) that rule the world.
“If they can’t control it, they don’t want to push it you know, but every commercial is like a drug one saying, ‘Side effects if you take this pill.’ Take it and you might have stomach ulcers and bleeding out your butt and all this other stupid stuff.”
While speaking from his American context, he also wisely relates this to his personal experience of using marijuana, asserting, “It comes from the earth. I’ve been doing it all my life and I’ve never had any gateway to harder stuff. It’s just propaganda that everyone’s trying to force down your throat.
“Across the board, it can generate so much money tax-wise that it’s a no-brainer. They write in these new ways to charge you more when they have this opportunity to create billions of extra tax revenue. Instead of cutting education, law enforcement and fire departments.”
More funding could certainly go into helping individuals and families deal with hardships such as disease. It was more than a sign of respect when the band sent out tributes honouring Trucker Dukes, a young boy who battled a particularly aggressive neuroblastoma for three years before passing away just a few weeks ago – and who Doughty believes would have benefited from the use of medical marijuana.
Doughty’s stance is firm as he says, “Children are the future, and we try to be involved in stuff that’s going to help them. Too many people don’t use that opportunity.”
“All these billionaires that are looking for ways to spend their money… Why not help all these kids out, and their families that have to deal with these things. A healthy child or person is a gift, and a lot of people just take that for granted, you know? Ten fingers and ten toes. You have to appreciate life and what you have, and just look out for everyone around you.
“I have three daughters, and I can’t imagine it if anything was to happen to them. That’s your life at this point, and you’ve just got to enjoy the people around you and your family.
“It really goes by so fast, so breathe it in and do the best you can to make your mark on the world and humanity.”
Slightly Stoopid are heading to Australia next month to play two massive sets at Byron Bay’s Bluesfest, but you’ll also be able to catch them when they head to Sydney’s Manning Bar on April 13 and Melbourne’s Prince Bandroom on April 14.
