Keith Morris, Dimitri Coats, OFF!

0:10HostWelcome to Interceptor Beyond Podcast. My name is Arthur and today, as you already read in the titles, we have off. I talked to Keith and Dimitri. They're super nice and fun people. Recorded at Arena in Vienna, Austria, backstage in the green room. As usual, before we dive into our conversation, I'd like to remind you about our upcoming show, the Interceptor Beyond show, which takes place once a month at Arena Basel. And the next show is on September 9th, 9-9. It is a late night talk show recorded in front of the live audience. A conversation with music industry pros, we have trivia games, we have prizes for our audience, and we also have music after the show. There are episodes online on YouTube and Spotify, so watch it. Be there on September 9th. That's 9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9. Be there. Don't forget to follow our podcast on any platform of your choice. Leave a rating and follow the podcast on Instagram at Interceptor Beyond. Alright, let's talk to Keith and Dimitri.

1:17OFF!Hello everyone. My name is Dimitri, and I am the guitarist in the band Off. I'm Keith Morris. I'm the vocalist.

1:26HostNice. Guys, nice to meet you. How the tour is going so far? You had one gig yesterday so far.

1:32OFF!Yes, we played in Poland at a festival called Off Festival. It was nice of them to name the festival after us. It's always been a personal dream of mine to play Poland because my mother was born and raised in Warszawa, so I got to cross one off the bucket list.

1:49HostOh, I didn't know. I mean, there's not much info regarding that online, so I didn't know, for example, that your mother...

1:55OFF!I'm revealing it here first.

1:58?Exclusive, as usual. Yes. How was it for you, Keith?

2:00OFF!Well, tonight is the second night, and both of us have been here before. Dimitri came along when flag played right across the way in the, I guess, one of the smaller, the room that holds like 200 people. And the weather was great, that everybody had a great time, and I expect the same thing tonight.

2:26HostThe only thing is just the weather is a little bit down.

2:28OFF!Yeah, but the thing is, is once you get a bunch of people in the room, the room warms up.

2:34HostPlus, you play such music that, I mean, it's hard not to warm up.

2:39?I want to talk about...

2:40HostBut wait, but how was yesterday? You didn't answer the question. How was yesterday?

2:44OFF!The site was beautiful, the food was really good, and they need to bump up the way they treat bands. We got through playing, and they said, scram, like, just go hang out. And I said, hey, you know, I think it's pretty cool that you're off festival, and we're off, and I would love a medium t-shirt. And they handed me a map and said, well, here's where you can go buy one.

3:15HostOh, a little bit, okay. I mean, I mean...

3:19OFF!But the kids in the crowd were going crazy. They were smashing into each other and jumping up and down. So the show was fun, and that's really all we care about.

3:30HostI saw some social media posts from yesterday. It was amazing. I hope it's going to be, like, at least like this today, and...

3:39?It's not.

3:40OFF!Don't expect what we did yesterday to happen tonight. Not going to happen.

3:47?It's going to be greater.

3:48OFF!We're going to turn the volume down. We are going to ask that there's no lights on stage. And we're all going to stand around with... They're all going to stand around with their cell phones flashing in their faces. I don't have a cell phone, so I don't get to do that.

4:08HostSo you're going to play an acoustic set?

4:10OFF!Yes. Yes, I love acoustic music. It's all I listen to.

4:14HostAnd maybe some disco music acoustic version?

4:17?No.

4:18HostKeith, I know you like disco music.

4:20OFF!No, I don't. I'm being very serious about acoustic music. I mean, it's pretty much all I listen to these days. Like what? I really like Sun Kill Moon. I have been listening to a lot of weird kind of downer, loner, outsider folk kind of people like Bob Desper. I don't know. Sybil Bayer. You know, stuff that's in the realm of Neil Young, Elliot Smith, Nick Drake, that sort of thing. I really, really like singer-songwriters who can finger pick and have skills on an acoustic guitar. That speaks to me more than anything else right now.

4:58?All right.

4:59OFF!Yeah.

5:00HostI thought acoustic plus vocals, but you mean like instrumentals?

5:04OFF!No, no. I mean people who, like to me, nothing is more impressive than someone who can walk on a stage with an acoustic guitar and play their songs, you know?

5:16HostIn quietness. Yeah.

5:18OFF!I prefer if there's vocals, but I can also listen to John Fahey all day or Robbie Basho, but he does sing. To me, it's the equivalent of like stand-up comedy, you know? Speaking of comedy, when it comes to the acoustic guitar, there was a certain point in my life where there's a scene in Animal House where the guy is playing acoustic guitar and John Belushi comes down the stairs, grabs the acoustic guitar from him. He wanted to bash it over the guy's head, but he was a little bit more considerate than that. He just smashed it on the stairs.

6:00HostSo something like that happened to you?

6:01OFF!Um, no, it could, or somebody might need to create a fire in their fireplace or a campfire and they need more wood for the fire.

6:16HostWhich brand of guitars is the best for the fire?

6:19OFF!Um, the most expensive one. Whatever the most expensive acoustic guitar is.

6:25HostDimitri, we need your input on the guitars that burn the best.

6:29OFF!The last gift that Keith gave me was a Roy Harper record. Yeah. So he's encouraging me along that path. And you also gave me a live Neil Young solo acoustic record.

6:41?Yeah. Oh, that's nice.

6:43OFF!Was that from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion? No, you gave me Young Shakespeare. Okay. Which was, I don't remember where that was, but... Well, he's releasing all of his live records now. It's so, it's so great to be a Neil Young fan right now. It's like every few months he's, he's throwing down something from the vaults. And a lot of... And he just played those shows in LA. He played what, like seven or eight shows? Yeah, but the reason I didn't go is because he was only playing live material songs he'd never played before, which means no hits whatsoever. And that's fine. I think he played a couple to just please the crowd. I don't know. I don't think so. And the ticket prices were high. So, you know.

7:31HostHow high? I mean, I don't know what's...

7:33OFF!Oh, hundreds of dollars. In the high, in the high hundreds. Like Taylor Swift. Like $101. We were on tour in the States a couple months ago and we went through Nashville and Taylor Swift was playing the big giant Megadome. And our hotel rooms were so expensive because everybody had descended upon the city. And even though we made reservations in advance, it was outrageous. The hotel rooms were 10 times the price.

8:05HostI think we need to start because she's coming here, I think. Do you know? Gina, do you... Gina, do you...

8:10?Gina, do you...

8:12OFF!Will you play over there on the roof of the Ibis hotel?

8:16HostIf she does, I will respect you for... Oh, no, no, no. I will not. No, no, no, no, no. We should start making bootleg t-shirts to sell it because she's coming here. We need to, like, get some cash.

8:26OFF!You know what? She just tipped all of the truck drivers that are driving all of her... all of the parts to the show, the lights and all of the gear that the band plays and the staging. There were 15 trucks and she paid each truck driver. She gave them a $100,000 tip. It's not to have... That's the kind of money she's making on her tour. Well, yeah, definitely.

8:55HostStay worth it. But she doesn't want to get in trouble with the union of the truck drivers? Because if it goes south, the whole tour is out.

9:03OFF!She was selling anywhere between $8 and $12 million worth of merchandise to all those screaming girls every night. There were a few screaming boys in the crowd, too. Yeah.

9:18HostI know that here it went, like, crazy when the sales go up. I mean, the ticket sales. And everybody was trying to buy tickets. And it's, like, 300 euros, 400 euros. I don't know. Something crazy.

9:30OFF!That's way more than that. Yeah.

9:32HostI don't know. Okay. I don't know. I'm not a... I mean, respect as a music... Whatever. As an icon or a pop icon, maybe. But I don't listen to the music. But, okay. I want to ask... Actually, one of the reasons why I want to talk to you... I want to talk to you about the movie. The movie that you directed, Dimitri, right? So, what's the status on the movie right now?

9:50OFF!It is very close to completion. We premiered the film at Slamdance earlier this year, which was a big honor. But when they asked us, we panicked because we weren't done. And so, we put together a special cut because we wanted... We were asked to close the festival. We wanted to do that. Since then, we've been, you know, fine-tuning the sound design, finishing VFX. It's a much better movie now than when we showed it in Park City. It's almost time to find a home for the film. And it's actually a really good time for us to be doing that because Hollywood is pretty much shut down. There's all these strikes happening. I don't know if you heard about it. Of course. But, you know, there's very, very few projects that are...

10:40HostYeah, the continent's not there.

10:41OFF!It's not there. So, we're going to have a highly entertaining feature film, sci-fi comedy with Jack Black in it.

10:51HostYeah, I mean, you probably need to tell...

10:53OFF!David Yao from The Jesus Lizard. And Don Bowles from The Germs. And one of my really good friends, D.H. Pellegro, who is no longer with us. Davey Havoc. Chloe Dijkstra. Chris D. from The Flesh Eaters. James Duvall from Donnie Darko.

11:11HostAnd tell us the plot of the movie. Like this.

11:17?What's the story about? It's about a lot of things. It's about... It's a love story that... You know, it's Keith's journey with this other woman. But it's really, I would say, the backbone of the story is about the band existing between two different dimensions. One where we are in the band off.

11:41OFF!And another one where we don't know each other at all. And we're very, very different people. You know, life threw us a curveball. In that reality, we didn't follow our dreams. And we're very, very different people. And a situation arises where Keith realizes it's very important for the advancement of human consciousness to find the other members of off in this reality where we don't know each other. And convince us that we have to travel to this other dimension with the aid of this drug that he's discovered. Because we have to fight this evil AI species. We have to save humanity.

12:29HostYou know, you gave so many details that are not online. So I'm like, yeah, give me more details regarding the movie. But yeah, I mean, you did it for a long time and it was in development. So right now you're in the distribution phase, right? Like you're trying to find a distribution. I mean, at the moment you're finishing the movie. But you're looking for a distributor at the moment.

12:50OFF!Yeah, I mean, you know, we're going to... We'll talk to everybody. We'll talk to the, you know, the streamers. We'll talk to...

12:56HostDo you know who is Jeff Everett? No, who's that? On YouTube there is a channel called Film Courage. Film Courage. Jeff Everett. He discusses... He is from the distribution part of the... From the distribution part of the filmmaking. And he tells about all the bad stuff that's going on with distribution. Basically, why I'm telling you this is like, if you don't know how the distribution in the movie business works, you should check out that video. At least you will know what's going on. Just what to look out for. You know, like, because right now you're in the distribution phase. It's super important that you don't get screwed over, you know, by the distributors. Because they can put your movie in a package, sell it, and don't give you any percentage or anything. For example.

13:45OFF!Well, you know, we made sure to surround ourselves with people who are veterans in the business. And we're just more on the creative side, you know, so... I feel pretty good about the stuff that's happening behind the curtain. And there's a lot of interest in the movie. We just need to figure out, you know, where the best place for this film is. Because we just want as much... We want as many people to see it as possible.

14:12HostSo, why I'm so passionate about it is because what you did, like, you made a movie with a band, and it's a movie, right? Because I had this idea half a year ago that I want to do... I want to be a filmmaker, I want to make movies, right? So, I thought, like, half a year ago, hey, I should make instead of short movies. Short movies, nobody cares about short movies, right? So, I will do a movie, like, super low budget with a band. Like, for the band, right? And then I found out that you did this. I was like, good, because you're an example that I can show to people that it's possible. But probably your budget is above what I'm thinking. It's, like, more than 10 grand up, the budget for the movie, right? Because you got finances from the studio, from the label, right? Yeah, yeah. But still, that's why I'm so passionate about that your project works out, you know? Well, we had made all these pretty silly music videos

15:08?that became more and more elaborate as we, you know, went from album to album. And there was really nowhere left to go except a feature film. And, you know, it took many years to figure out how to do it. This album and this film were always thought of together as, like, a concept project. And we wanted to, you know, be a part of that short list

15:34OFF!of movies and albums that are joined at the hip. Beatles, Hard Day's Night, Help, Frank Zappa, 200 Motels, Monkey's Head. Pink Floyd, Live at Pompeii. Pink Floyd, The Wall. You know, The Who, Tommy, Quadrophenia. We really didn't want to just, you know, be a band that has a documentary or, you know, and there's a lot of that stuff. But we really wanted to have a narrative and do something that was really bold and challenging and fun and something that would take us creatively out of this box that we were in for the first three records.

16:22HostAnd the latest album is the soundtrack to the movie. Like, the album is, and the movie are, like, tied in together. It's one thing.

16:31OFF!Yeah, I mean, the movie really explains why the album is so important to make, you know, for the band. Yeah, there's a lot of back and forth. You know, the album points to the film and vice versa.

16:45HostWhat was the hardest part of making this movie so far?

16:48OFF!It's always just raising the money. Yeah. That's usual. That's by far the hardest part.

16:55HostAnd probably in L.A. it's even more expensive than anywhere else.

16:58OFF!Yeah, but there's a lot of resources in L.A. and there are a lot of people who live there, you know, a lot of, let's say, you know, famous friends who are willing to do us favors. And since we're in L.A., they're in L.A. And so you can put together a pretty amazing cast, you know, like Dana Gould's in our film. Yeah, it's something we're really proud of. It really, nobody expected it to turn out this good. It is a legitimate movie that can stand on its own apart from the album. And, you know, it was always designed to bring more attention to the band. You know, maybe people will see this and not even realize, oh, my God, like, this is an album I can go buy. This is a band that I can go see. This really exists, you know? So that's our hope, is that it'll bring us a bigger audience.

17:51HostThat's what was my idea also, because this is like a, and you can only make not only one movie. It's only the beginning. If everything works out, I'm pretty sure you can do more movies.

18:02OFF!Yeah, I mean, that's definitely my plan, because, you know, my knee really hurts. I stubbed my toe this morning, so I have two different limps right now when I walk. It's called shuffle. Yeah. But, no, I mean, like, you know what I mean? I love doing, I love playing loud, you know, rock music and all that, but it would be nice to try other things. And I used to be very serious about acting when I was younger. You know, I studied, I went to theater school and...

18:42HostI saw you in the movie Suck, man, and then I realized that when I saw the IMDb, I was like, yeah, that's how I know your face. Of course, I know you're from the band, but I couldn't connect the two.

18:51OFF!So, you know, I was really, at one point I thought I wanted to have a life in the theater. And, you know, so this, you know, making films really brings everything full circle. And if I can just get everybody their money back, then I should have another opportunity to make a second film, you know? And I know Keith has things that he's working on with other people as well that are in that world.

19:17HostSo what's the plan now for the off? Okay, you're touring, you have four more shows. What's going on then?

19:23OFF!Well, we have five more shows. Five more shows. You're counting tonight before we've even played.

19:28HostYou're going to kill it, I know.

19:29OFF!We have more shows coming up. And as Dimitri stated, we have a movie that's basically an advertisement for our record, just like our record is an advertisement for the movie. We have a bunch more shows to play, playing festivals coming over here. We're actually going to be back over here, what, in about a month and a half? Or is it sooner? We come back to play the... Festivals. ...string of shows in the UK and... Oh, yeah.

20:11HostI think it's not announced yet.

20:13OFF!November. It's announced. Yeah, we're doing the UK and Ireland, and then we're doing Primavera Weekender in Spain. And then we go directly from Spain to Mexico City to play Corona Capital, which is the biggest festival in Mexico. And then we're doing all three Primavera festivals in South America. So, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. So, that's going to be a really long run.

20:42HostSo, at the moment, you're focused on two things, touring and the movie, I guess.

20:47?That's it, yeah.

20:47HostAre you planning to write new music, or it's later after the movie?

20:51OFF!We're in no hurry. Yeah, I mean, it took us eight years to release, you know, this new record. It's been quite a journey, and there were a lot of, you know, this is my advice to other people who are trying to make films, is to just not give up, because you're going to get a lot of doors slammed in your face. There are going to be times where you're, you know, over and over again, you're going to think, okay, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. I guess it's not going to happen. That was the feeling for six years. You know, there was this one window we had last year where we could film, and it was getting closer and closer, and it was looking once again like it wasn't going to happen. And I was thinking, okay, well, fuck it. We'll just pivot and make music videos, and I guess we won't make the film. And, like, I remember calling Keith up and him just saying, like, okay, well, I guess we'll have some egg on our face, you know, because we've been talking about we're going to make a movie, but, hey, it is what it is. And then suddenly this big chunk of money that we were hoping for came in, and it was like, let's go! And we barely had any time to do pre-production. It was just scrambling and shooting on the fly. We did this very much in, like, a punk rock style. That's why everyone's so amazed at how sophisticated it turned out, you know?

22:22HostIt looks good from what, from the bits of pieces that you can see in things?

22:26OFF!That's not even the coloring that we ended up with. That was just, we had to have music videos. The film wasn't even done. And we were just taking footage and backing them into music videos just so we had something to promote. Because we didn't have any more time or any more money to make stand-alone music videos for those songs. And it's good that we did that because people can, first of all, look back and say, like, oh, like, look at how they started out and look at where the film ended up. It'll be interesting to see the process. But also, it brought anticipation.

23:07OFF!It brought awareness and anticipation that there's a film coming because people could actually see it, you know? Like, holy shit, that they filmed it, you know? That's why it's exciting.

23:19?I mean, you can see the process and the whole story, how it was created.

23:22HostEverything works, like, together. It all comes together. I hope everything works out, cross-fingers.

23:28OFF!Well, it's already worked out. I mean, the film, it's...

23:32HostYou just need to finish it a little bit and then it's done.

23:36OFF!I'm waiting on just three VFX shots. I have one more day of sound, one more day of color, and we're done. I mean, it's really, really... Like, I can see the checkered flag. We're about to cross the finish line and it is something that is... You know, I think people are not going to be expecting this from a band, you know, that we did this. It's the real deal. I mean, you know, it's not Citizen Kane or anything like that, but it's a proper, fun, midnight movie that hits on a lot of different levels. You know, you feel a lot of different things. There's some moving moments. It's super goofy. It's kind of... Has some legit sci-fi at times. It's a little bit scary. There's horror elements. You know, it's... You know, we put a lot into it.

24:28HostSo we can expect the movie probably end of the year or early beginning.

24:32OFF!I would say early next year.

24:33HostEarly next year. Yeah, I think so also with the time and then distribution, promotion stuff. Yeah, yeah. Oh, so cool. That's really cool.

24:41OFF!And we really hope that the movie, and it should, carry the same weight that the record carries because the album was extremely well received in terms of people, you know, applauding our creative efforts to try something really, really different.

25:01HostThe record is awesome. I like the record, like a lot. As a music piece plus as a concept piece plus all the lyrics. I mean, you went a completely different way than you usually do. And that was, I guess, the task and you accomplished it. So I really like the record.

25:14OFF!Well, thank you. And, you know, the movie was really important to the shaping of how that album turned out because we thought of it as a soundtrack and by thinking of it as a soundtrack to us, to this weird sci-fi film that we were making. It completely opened us up creatively and got us to think about how to approach songwriting and production in a different way.

25:42HostAll right, guys. I don't want to bother you too much. You need to prepare for the show. In the end, what off song should I put in the end of the interview? A good introduction to off band.

25:54OFF!War of Los Angeles. I was going to say the same thing. I said that because I knew he was going to say that. That's his, that chorus is his, he seems to think that's the best chorus that we've written. Yeah. What punk rock fan wouldn't want to hear Keith Morris scream war above Los Angeles? I mean, come on. That's classic.

26:20?Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.