Dressy Bessy never broke up.







They just went dormant for a little while as they metamorphosed into their stronger, current incarnation.







The band recently re-emerged with “Kingsized,” their first album in seven years.







Dressy Bessy will play Club Cafe on March 8 where they will hope to count on Pittsburgh’s mayor being in attendance.







“(Pittsbugh) has the coolest mayor in the country I have to say,” Tammy Ealom (vocals/guitar) said. Bill Peduto is a big fan. We will see you at Club Cafe with the mayor. He is a big fan.”







The Swerve Magazine recently talked with Ealom about “Kingsized,” the financial crisis of 2008 that took the band off the road and the generations of fans that support Dressy Bessy as they enter into their 20th year as a band.







The Swerve Magazine: So, the album is now out, that has to feel good.







Tammy Ealom: It feels pretty great. It was a long time coming obviously. We are stoked to be back on the scene and rocking across the country.







SM: Rocking across the county you are with this album. It seems to have a bit more of a rocking vibe to it.







TE: We have always considered ourselves a rock band. I think this album has captured our live sound. I think we got it.







SM: This is the first album and tour in quite a few years for the band.







TE: Since about 2008, at that point we had been around 10 years and put out several albums and done tons of touring. (The last album) came out during the 2008 election season and the housing crash. We were literally competing with Sarah Palin coming on the scene and speaking on TV and us playing up the street. It was such a strange awful time for putting out an album, but you can’t predicate those things.







And here we are again with another album in another election cycle, so we are gluttons for punishment I think.







With that, the housing crash and all, our touring suffered. The turnouts were very good. We didn’t have a lot of publicity behind the album unlike we do this time. After we came off of weeks of touring, we didn’t make any money. We, actually, lost some money, which is not good. Gas was so expensive. We decided not to do anything else with it touring wise. I made a video for every song off of that album. I learned a video program and stop-motion videos. We didn’t let the album go.









SM: 2008 destroyed a lot of things that the band survived is a testament to the band and its fans.





TE: About two years ago, we lost our original bass player of 17 years. He exited the band and little did I know that he had been talking about exiting the band years back. That caused some negative energy that was bubbling underneath that I didn’t even know was there. More, I knew something was there, I just didn’t know what it was. This album came about because he was being a little more vocal about being unhappy. And that is how some of the songs came about. We had no hard feelings. I did at first, because why didn’t he just say something years ago. Everything happens for a reason, I’m a firm believer in that and just move on from that. We have a much more solid group right now. Everyone is 100 percent in it to rock out and just have fun.







SM: Not knowing that and having it kept from you by letting it just ride that is horrible. If you’re not into, have the courage to man up and say it. otherwise, it is like wasting their time and everyone else’s







TE: And that is where the anger comes from, it was wasting time and so many people’s feeling were hurt. I am so into (the band and music) and John (Hill, guitar) is into a 1000 percent and just the thought of someone not being into it is, kind of, ‘Whoa, what it doesn’t make any sense?’ But it does, we don’t make a ton of money doing this. It is physically and emotionally challenging. It is definitely not a career choice for everyone. It is all good. It has all worked out.







This album wouldn’t be what it is either because with him leaving, it left it open. We don’t have a bass player. He already played on a couple of songs. I went through and did what I was considering a scratch bass. John and I were thinking that we have all of these kick-ass friends, let’s call them up and see if they will lend their talents to a track or two. We did and nobody turned us down. It all worked out for the better that way too. Some of these songs were shaped and brought to the peak by the likes of Andy Shernoff (of The Dictators) playing on the song ‘Honeybee.’ Scott McCaughey plays keyboard on a few songs. It was the first time that we had done that where we turned a song over and let someone else see what they came up with. They were open to suggestions.







It was just great.







SM: You seem almost more at ease or comfortable on “Kingsized” and some of the songs, like “Lady Liberty,” have a political undertone to them.







TE: Of course you are after so many years. You are going to be more comfortable with your art. My songs have always been born out of some sort of conflict. They always have. A lot of times, I’m not exactly sure what that conflict is, but later on, I’ll look back and realize they came about because of this or that person. I don’t think that it is intentionally political. I can see how it could be read that way.







SM: Hey, you survived the financial crisis of 2008 that is a big thing, maybe it is subconscious at work in the lyrics?







TE: Maybe subconsciously it all ties in.







SM: So how as the tour been so far, this time, out.







TE: We are finding that our fans, they’ve been around forever. They are very, very loyal and protective of us. It has just been awesome. So far, the crowd as been mostly just die-hard, loyal fans. It has been great. Our fans run from age three to age 70. It is such a wide range of generations that have been introduced to our music. I think it was 2001 or 2002 that we had a song come out on the ‘Powerpuff Girls’ soundtrack and that got into the hands of some little kids that are now in their early 20s. They are still fans from back then.







We had some songs in “I’m a Cheerleader’ that movie is never going away. The movie has struck a nerve with so many people and the music had a huge part in that. The movie is, also, being shown at a lot of art houses across the country now, which is cool. We watch it when it comes on cable.







SM: That movie is a great movie to be forever associated with.







TE: There hasn’t been any movie like it since. It is one of the things I am most proud of as far as the success of our band.

