Derek Stanton
By Emily Easley
Photos by Matthew Asti & Derek's friends
From The New Yorker: "Awesome Color is a high-energy Detroit-based trio with a fondness for the groundbreaking late-sixties rock of their home town. The group's songs – blasts of potent riffs accompanied by the hot-wired vocal sound Iggy Pop used on the Stooges' Fun House – aren't particulary original, but they are primal, and fun as hell."
You know what else isn't particularly original? Every single music article in The New Yorker. Get some new eardrums, you tone-deaf piece of schlub. Get out of Market Hotel and go back to the Blue Note!
New York just hasn't been the same since Awesome Color left town. But the good news is that Derek Stanton has led a charmed life. Who else gets to have his his rock 'n' roll hero for a babysitter, hang out in the party store with George Clinton, and get arrested for weed in Weed, California? Make sure you read to the end, cos Derek's Roky Erickson story will make your heart cry.
New album, Massa Hypnos, out on Ecstatic Peace April 6th!
EE: You’re from Ann Arbor originally, right? What was it like growing up there?
DS: The best place to grow up. I had an amazing childhood. It’s almost indescribable, the people that I’ve met in passing, the inspiration that I’ve got. My parents.
What are your parents like?
My mom’s a Buddhist. My dad’s a musician, he plays guitar, and that’s how I got into guitar. My favorite band was the Ventures. But my parents were divorced when I was around nine or ten. I lived with my mom, and I’d visit my dad on the weekends.
Then as I grew up – probably around twelve – I kind of had another double life. My best friends moved to Chelsea, a small town a half-hour from me. So that was my second family, all these people in this town. I used to be dropped off there for the weekends, or in the summer for a week or so at a time.
It was through my friends in Chelsea that I met a lot of great people: Nate Young from Wolf Eyes, Greg McKegan who does all the Awesome Color artwork. Me and him and his cousin had our first band together. We’d never played instruments and we all picked what instruments we wanted to play and started a band and learned how to play ‘em together. Me and Greg both picked guitar, haha, and his cousin played drums.
And we all skateboarded and got into crazy trouble, and we’d stay at Greg’s grandmother’s house, which was empty, abandoned.
His grandmother abandoned her house?
It was just an extra house that she owned, that nobody lived in. So it was us, from the ages of thirteen to maybe sixteen years old – when my friend eventually got a car – we went crazy there. We started taking acid a lot, drinking, smoking weed.
Do you have good stories from then?
Too many. We'd steal our friends’ parents’ cars and drive to the gas stations and steal cigarettes and pornos, and just stockpile, and we would terrorize everywhere. We were rotten.
One thing we loved to do was go to fast food restaurants and run from one door to the other with our pants down, doing something crazy. But those were all like, coinciding with our skateboarding trips, into Ann Arbor, into other places where we’d hang out at the closed-down mall, just skate in the back and stuff like that. So we’d have all-night skate-boarding trips, we would get our parents cars back before they got to work and we would stay in this house that was pretty much ours. We called it the Pit House.
Did you ride on top of your friends’ cars? Isn’t that an Awesome Color song?
Yeah, we used to do that. Or if we were in a van we would ride with no seats in the back, just standing up, riding out the windows. All kind of stuff like that.
Were you hanging out with girls?
No, no girls. It was us dudes. And we basically – the house was called the Pit House, and we totally fucked that house up. Like, we drew all over the walls. We had one room called the Pit because you stepped down into it. It was the place where you’d go trip out. It was just completely covered in graffiti.
We would terrorize people who walked by, like we’d have friends waiting in the bushes, and another guy would be walking by and they just run and tackle him in front of people, or we’d wear bags on our head. We had a character named Bag Head. Once I took the stuffing out of a pillow and got naked and just put it over my crotch area and would just –
Were you on acid?
When we did that stuff? No. We just experimented – we were mostly not getting high and just doing super-fun crazy stuff. It was later on in high school and afterwards when we did a lot of that.
Was that like before CKY2K and all that stuff?
Oh, way, way before that. Like ten years before that. But very similar to those type of antics, you know, except we weren’t grown up like that.
You were like fourteen?
Or younger. Yeah. Somewhere around there. It lasted for a long time, like four years, until we finally got kicked out.
What was it about that town that fostered…
Well it’s all just a part of the whole magical story of growing up around there. And all the people I met – all the amazing musicians and artists that have come out of our small circle of friends – there’s something in the water that makes people pretty creative. I mean, you can say that about Southeastern Michigan – like a fifty, hundred mile radius around Detroit is just everybody plays music, does art, and does crazy stuff.
Were you aware of like the Stooges?
I was actually good friends with the drummer of the Stooges. See, my friends’ Simon and Aaron that moved to Chelsea, their stepfather was the drummer of the Stooges – he was like my babysitter, Scott Asheton.
Wow. That’s crazy. What was it like having Scott Asheton babysit you?
Well – I wouldn’t say babysat, cos babysitting is like, under ten, but more like we’d be dropped off at their house and they’re the only adults around, you know? We were maybe thirteen, or even younger. Sometimes we would drink the orange-juice that was in the fridge, and it tasted like it was stale, but it was vodka – it was like a pitcher of vodka and orange juice.
He told us so many stories. He told us about “Lake Mummies.” He lived on a lake, North Lake in Chelsea, and Lake Mummies came out after dark, and they were half human, half frog – they had webbed feet. They were kind of like the The Swamp Thing. But they’re also wrapped like mummies, and if you got too close to the water after dark, they would pull you in. Especially kids.
There was also, if you went into the woods late at night – he would tell us about the Wild D-O-G’s, and the Wild D-O-G’s were like giant dog-like werewolves. So basically he tried to scare us not to go out into the lake or the woods at night.
But the biggest thing I remember is once – well his brother, Ron Asheton, was REALLY into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Scott put on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for us and we were way too young. We sat down on the couch and we were watching it, and like, the first scene where Leatherface comes out with the chainsaw, Scott came from downstairs with a mask on and a chainsaw, and as soon as Leatherface came out, he stood behind the couch, and turned the chainsaw on, and just totally freaked us out.
Oh my God. Why did he have a chainsaw?
To scare the fuck out of us.
But otherwise?
Well, it was a wood-stove-heated house, so for chopping wood for the fire. But basically he would just scare us into being obedient and not going by the lake and not going around the woods. But also he told us so many stories about all kinds of stuff and really just changed my life.
Sounds like a good babysitter.
The best.
What do you think he taught you about music?
He said to never used the words "rock and roll" in a rock and roll song. And he and my friend’s mom had a sweet record collection. They had all the Stooges records, Ramones. They had great 4th of July parties, where I would meet crazy people like Iggy Pop or Cheetah Chrome.
How old were you when you were going 4th of July parties with Cheetah Chrome?
From the ages of ten to sixteen. Around that period, people like Dee Dee Ramone and other people lived in Ann Arbor, and were around. So Scott Asheton, through his record collection, got me into the Michigan punk. And he encouraged me and Greg’s first band, and our second band.
We used to jam together. Eventually my father moved out in the same neck of the woods and me and Scott would meet at my dad’s house when nobody was there and jam. That’s way before he got back together with the Stooges, and he wasn’t doing much, just keeping his chops up, you know.
So through him I’ve met a lot of people, and through just living in Michigan – like, people who were my heroes, and I don’t know how to describe it but like, somehow it seems kind of magical. I used to live near George Clinton from P-Funk, and I eventually got to know him from the party store, which was near my house.
He would hang out at the party store? That’s perfect!
He’d hang out at the party store. This was before cell phones, so he’d come in there to use the phone. When I first met him he was on the phone. He was like, friends with them, and would stop there on the way to Detroit, because he lived in a country house out by where I lived. He was on the phone and I was like, “What the fuck? Is that George Clinton?” And then right behind him on the wall –
Could you hear what he was saying?
Who knows! I can’t understand him, he’s got a deep accent – Michigan, Detroit slang. But there was a picture of him on the wall, right next to him, and I was like, “That is George Clinton!” So I talked to him, and I went back to the car. My friend’s in the car, so I was like, “Go in there, buy something, George Clinton’s in there.”
I would see him up around there pretty often. We got to know each other. He would bring me records and leave them at the local record store.
How come he would bring them to you?
He knew I’m his biggest fan. I’m the biggest P-Funk fan. It’s my religion. And he would sign them, there would be posters just waiting for me at that record store. He knew I went to that record store because the second time I met him, I was buying a Sly and the Family Stone record, and this really deep voice says, “That’s a good record, man.” And I turn around and it’s George Clinton.
So yeah, that’s kind of me growing up. At a really young age my influences – my favorite bands – I had actually met them, you know, which is very strange. I see that as a magical, like I don’t know – somehow the stars aligned.
How did your mom being a Buddhist affect you?
Well I was raised vegetarian, even before she became a Buddhist. I’ve never eaten meat in my life.
Wow.
But I don’t know. She tried to get me into it and I was like, “Mom, it’s cool, but I’m not into that.” I believe in Buddhism, I think it’s a great philosophy, but – like, her type of Buddhism, they chant. I can see that as some sort of meditation and soothing type of thing, but I just don’t believe that you have to do that for good luck. Yeah, I’m just not really religious at all.
But you guys got along when you were in high school?
No, of course I was rebellious. I think everybody goes through that phase. But we get along great now. I moved out when I was like seventeen, maybe sixteen.
Where’d you go?
I moved in with a bunch of friends in Ann Arbor, started growing weed, really good weed – our friend’s dad was some sort of really early pioneer in botany and growing some of the strains of weed that are around now and hybriding them, so we had really good seeds.
What year was this?
1993? Then I started playing music and recording music, and I kind of dropped out of school cos I had too much freedom, and I moved to another house as well with more friends and more craziness. I threw parties in my basement, had shows.
That was the time around ’95 in Ann Arbor where it was just amazing music scene and a lot of bands and a lot of house parties and shows going on. A lot of stuff came out of there, like this band the Jacks, which are now that band Celebration. They’re great. Wolf Eyes. Some of the noise stuff that’s around today. A lot of music’s been given birth to in that area, ever since the forties or earlier, but consistently, you know?
When did you move to New York?
I moved to New York in 2003 and I stayed there for about five years. Between dropping out of high school and moving here, I’ve traveled a lot, just on my own. Road trips, in my cars.
Do you have good road trip stories?
I have so many it’s insane. Once – this one’s a pretty crazy one – it was the middle of summer and I was trying to go to Florida and take all back roads, because I didn’t have anything better to do except to go see the country by myself.
I left, and my car was breaking down right away. I had to have the heat on the whole time because it was overheating. My alternator went out, and I actually was rolling down a hill and my car stopped right in front of an Auto Zone, and I just slept there and the next day I got an alternator and borrowed tools and changed it.
It was so hot and my car had to have the heat on that I just got car-sick for the first time. I didn’t eat for about two days. I mean, usually it takes 24 hours to drive to Florida, it took me about three or four days cos it was all back roads.
So I couldn’t eat but I knew I had to, and I didn’t wanna eat anything solid. So I got a milkshake from somewhere. It was strawberry, I remember that. And I’m drinking my strawberry milkshake – it’s amazing, I can handle it, I’m starting to feel a little bit better. And I’m driving, and I look over, and there’s a car full of girls in like a drop-top in a convertible, and they’re waving and smiling at me. And this must’ve been the first and last time that’s ever happened to me.
So I look at them, and I smile too, and as soon as I do I just puke strawberry milkshake ALL over them. And the looks on their faces were just horrifying. They totally just – you could see them and hear them SCREAMING. And I continued driving – I just was like, “Fuck this.” I didn’t clean my car, I didn’t clean myself off.
I was covered in puke – my teeth by the time I got to Florida were stained pink. There was a stain that was unwashable on the side of my white Toyota that was pink. And I showed up and all my friends in Florida – at this house that I used to stay at like every summer – they were like, “What the fuck is up with you?” and I was like, “Dude. Craziness.” But that’s a good one. I’ve had other – one time I got busted for weed in Weed, California.
In Weed, California? Haha.
That was pretty crazy. Me and my friend Dorian, we’d stayed in the back of this same truck. It was like in September, almost the end of the summer. But we woke up and it was fucking snowing, cos it was in the mountains. It was insane. We were freezing, and snow was melting into the back of my cab, and we were lying in like two inches of water.
So it was a horrible morning and we woke up early and we just started driving. And my taillights were broken, my headlight probably, my windshield wiper was broken off – this car was totally fucked up – and we were getting pulled over. And Dorian was like, “Derek, we’re getting pulled over. Don’t look back, take this.” And he gave me the weed, and I put it in my shoe.
We got pulled over, the cop came to MY window – I wasn’t driving, and he knocked on the window, I put it down. And he just immediately goes into, “What’s wrong with you?” and I was like, “I just woke up, I’m freezing.” He’s like, “Why are you shaking? Are you scared of me?” and I’m like, “No, I’m cold. It’s fucking snowing out and it’s the end of September, you know what I mean?”
And he’s like, “Are you on speed? Where’s the speed, where’s the speed.”
So he called the dogs on us, and the dogs came. And he’s like, “Ya got anything on you, I suggest you give it up now cos the dog will bite you.” And the dog starts coming after me, and I take it out of my shoe and I throw it. They wrote me a ticket, and it said “less than a half ounce of weed in Weed, California.”
They said, “Oh, less than a half ounce of weed, that’s a $120 fine, or a court date.” I was like, “Well, I live in Michigan, I can’t come to court.”
So when I get back to Michigan I’m gonna pay them, and I get a thing in the mail, for my court date, and it says the fine is like $500. And I’m like, “Fuck that, I can’t pay that.” So I never paid it, I’m sure I had a warrant in California for like seven years, but that’s a long time ago, so – yeah, we could go on forever about my road trip stories. I love to travel and that’s why I’m in this band. I think, Awesome Color – our biggest goal is to see how far from home we can play.
Tell me how you guys got together.
We met in Michigan, and were friends through skateboarding and noise music. And one at a time moved to New York, and eventually we started just rehearsing.
Why did you move here?
I moved here to pursue music. I’ve always had a million bands. Like, I can’t say that any of them really traveled much or have had much success. But I’ve written hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of songs. I’ve had many bands and made many great friends, played great places.
But we just started the band here, played here for a few years, and I think we moved back to Michigan because it’s cheaper and we’re on tour so much and we’re not making any money at all.
I think the first time I saw you play was at Rockstar Bar, and some guy got on stage with a saxophone?
Yeah, our friend from Detroit came out and played sax. That’s another thing we used to do, which I’m sure we’ll get back to – we’d play with tons of our friends, just to make the show more interesting. We’ve always had a very loose stage vibe going on. Anything goes.
What about being signed to Ecstatic Peace?
That was a crazy opportunity, another random coincidence, where Thurston Moore basically found us, and wrote us an email, like, “Hey, I’m Thurston Moore, I have a record label called Ecstatic Peace, I’m a big fan of your band would you do a record with me?” We thought it was a practical joke because it’s too perfect. We love Sonic Youth so much that for that kind of opportunity – it was like one of our friends would know that would be the perfect practical joke to play on us.
What did you write back?
Well, we didn’t write back. We took about a month to call. We sat on it for a month cos we were trying to figure out who was playing the joke.
You didn’t just write back, like, “Who is this?”
No. He left his number, and we called about a month later. Honestly, we didn’t think it was real. It’s not like we really didn’t give a fuck, we thought it was amazing. But we weren’t really even a band. We didn’t have the goals we have nowadays, to play everywhere. We didn’t even really have songs. We had played shows around the east coast that we set up ourselves, and God knows how he found out about us.
Do you know what it was that really grabbed him?
He just heard that one song – our song “Free Man,” which was a demo, which is actually the same version that’s on the album.
And you know, it worked out – since then we’ve toured with Sonic Youth twice. We’ve been introduced to so many people – Dinosaur Jr. You name it – somehow, Awesome Color, we’re blessed in this weird way where we’ve played with our favorite bands, that they’ve asked us to play with them. It’s insane. We’ve toured with Radio Birdman, we’ve played with Blue Cheer –
Didn’t you play with Roky Erickson?
Roky? We’ve never played with Roky Erickson, but once – the big moment in my life is – Roky I guess is a big fan of ours, and a friend of his came to our show in Austin, was like, “I was hanging out with Roky earlier, he’s not well enough to come to the show, but I have this record that he wants you to sign.”
So we actually ended up signing a record for Roky. I was like, “To Roky Erickson: You’ve changed my life. I love you. Derek.” Yeah, even thinking about it, I wanna cry right now. It’s amazing. He’s my hero.
And then, a couple days later, his friend called me. He was like, “Well, the next day I gave it to Roky, we were having dinner, and he’s staring at the album, for like fifteen minutes, just STARING at it, and he turns to me, and he says, ‘I think these guys eat too much spaghetti. I think that I know them from somewhere before.’” And that’s what he said.
