Dimitri Manos - Golden Boots / Dr Dog Interview
Are you originally from Tucson, AZ?. What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music and what was it that initially fascinated you about it? Was music relevant around your household growing up?
I moved to Tucson from the East coast in 1999. I met Ryen Eggleston in 2001 and we started Golden Boots within a week of meeting each other. Turned out we were both born in Pennsylvania. Growing up I liked music ok, but I never thought I’d be a musician, or desire to learn an instrument until high school. Then I started playing with a few friends, just noisy kinda ramblings. I really wanted to be in a band that sounded like “In a Car” by Meat Puppets. Still, music was something I listened to more than thought about creating. Ryen had a much more musical experience than me by the time we met, and he really taught me how to play guitar and how to understand song writing.
Do you have any siblings? What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? When and where did you see your first concert that really made an impact on you in your formative years? Who were some of your earliest influences?
While I would play music with my friends, it didn’t happen too often. Most of the time we’d explore in the woods, make VHS movies, or build weird things out of random shit we’d find. The first concert that really had an impact on me was seeing Nirvana, The Breeders, and Half Japanese around ’96. After that show, my friends and I all started looking into more varied music, telling each other about what we found. Hearing releases from Siltbreeze, K, Bulb, and Xpressway (big shout out to Philadelphia Record Exchange for carrying cool shit) ended up being strong early musical influences for me.
Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to Golden Boots? I understand you were a previous member of Dr. Dog as well. How did you initially meet those guys and what led to you joining them? How long were you with those guys before forming Golden Boots and how did this outfit come to be?
As I mentioned before, Golden Boots began early back in 2001. After messing around with friends in high school before that, it really was the first project I got into. . . Though for the first few years I don’t think me and Ryen thought about it as a “musical group” or a “project” at all. We would experiment with acoustic guitar, mandolin, and casio recording on a 4-track. We’d make tons of home recordings and occasionally get a few friends to back us up at a community benefit concert, or open mic. For example, we had a “regular gig” playing live music for a local puppet troupe called Tucson Puppet Works where we’d live score their Sunday shows, and we played music for events at the local bicycle collective, called BICAS. We’d dupe tapes or burn CDs of whatever we had recorded last and give them to friends. Also in those early days, I took over drums for my friend Mark in this awesome, and now defunct, Tucson band called Sugarbush. We recorded two records, and did a tour opening for Calvin Johnson and the Sons of the Soil. That band ended, but Dawn and Kee Copps from Sugarbush have a cool band now called Shooda Shook It. Dr. Dog asked me to join them in 2010 when they needed a fill-in drummer for one tour. Then I moved to percussion, casio, sampler, and whatever sound-effect maker was at hand for about 6 years of recording and touring with them. I had met Scott, Toby, and Zach from Dr. Dog through my high school friend Bradford Trojan. He was going to college with them and I’d see them play occasionally, or we’d hang out and record on their 8-track tape machine. I ended up drumming a track on their 2005 album, Easy Beat. During the years I was with Dr. Dog, Ryen and I continued Golden Boots and did a bunch of recording and playing when I wasn’t out of town. When I left that band, we were able to put more time into Golden Boots.
How did you initially meet the other guys and what were your first impressions of everyone? What were those initial jam/rehearsal sessions like? You guys are pretty tight with Michael Dixon and have released a number of albums on his labels such as PIAPTK and Soild Gold. How did you guys meet him and form a friendship that has lasted for a number of years?
Golden Boots has always been me and Ryen making music. We like to invite others to play live and record with us, and that ebbs and flows and sometimes becomes a full band with, like, 6 people. Ideas usually start with just the 2 of us, and we like playing as a duo, too. We come back to that in cycles over time. We have always been hands-on in releasing our own music, hand-making packaging, screening shirts, etc. I made up the name “Soild Gold” and we put out all our own records under that name from 2001-2005. In addition, Nightpass Handmade Records out of Riverside, CA put out 2 records for us between 2005 and 2007. In 2007, we had an album put out by Park the Van with vinyl by Tucson’s Mudhouse Records, and in 2008, Mike Dixon of PIAPTK put out an album for us for the first time. We met Mike in Olympia while Boots was on tour with Magnolia Electric Co., and he invited us to his house to record a few songs on a 1940's wire recorder. Mike ended up being a big supporter of the band and we made a lot of creative releases through PIAPTK, including cutting records onto pet hospital x-rays and plastic picnic plates, as well as regular cassettes, LPs, etc. We have continued to self-release music at the same time we collaborate with new and various labels over the years.
The band is incredibly prolific and released dozens of records. What are some of your favorite projects/songs and why? What has changed about the band over years since you guys first formed? What would you say has been the overall vision for the band over the years. What do you find yourself expressing the most through the GB vehicle?
My favorite Boots albums are Blunderlust from 2006, and 2016’s HALT, both for their minimal lo-fi playfulness. Me and Ryen recorded them really fast on tape. Also, I love “DBX’n’SPF”, cause it was really fun to record that album on 8-track. The new “Liquid Ranch” is also a favorite of mine, because we had all of 2020 isolation times to slowly work on it… Such a different experience that led to a diverse and lush album. After being in a band together for 20-plus years, a lot has changed but also a lot hasn’t changed. The friends that have played with us over the years all influence the sound and nature of the band, bringing their creativity and personalities. And also, two decades in, me and Ryen are still recording at home on the 4-track over some beers. For me, Golden Boots allows a playful home-recorded & home-spun way of doing music.
What have you guys got in the works as 2023 continues to roll out nearing Spring/Summer? Isthere anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
We’re touring Germany and France this Spring, playing with our friends G.Rag/Zelig Implosion Deluxxe from Munich and Thee Verduns from Metz. We haven’t been over there since 2019, so we’re both so excited to get back and see old friends and play music. Us and Thee Verduns have a new split LP on Kizmiaz Records, and us and G.Rag/Zelig Implosion Deluxxe have a split cassette out now (self-released)
https://www.instagram.com/goldenboots666/
https://goldenboots.bandcamp.com/merch/europe-tour-23-tour-shirt
