Eleventh Dream Day

Interviewed april 1997 by phone

'If you have done this band thing long enough, you eventually accept the fact succes isn't going to come.' Rick Rizzo of Eleventh Dream Day doesn't sound very unhappy when he says this. On the contrary, he sounds quite pleased. Rick: 'Eleventh Dream Day has now become more like a hobbyproject, and I make records whenever I feel like it.'

Still the band once set out with a lot more ambition. Rick started the band in 1983 and after their first record they struck a deal with Atlantic Records in the United States. On that label they released record after record whithout ever becoming truly popular. Rick: 'At the hight of our success we sold about thirty thousand copies of one record. In the independent music business that's quite a lot, but to Atlantic it was nothing. Oh well, we just didn't catch on with the majority of the public, and that probably says more about the public than about us. Atlantic didn't really know what to do with us. I still think we had the best chances on success in Europe, but East/West blew that one.' Since they are no longer signed to a major label, Rick isn't worrying about it too much. Rick: 'Together with Douglas McCombs (also bassplayer with Tortoise - JV) and my wife Janet Beveridge Bean (also with Freakwater - JV) I sometimes go into the studio. I once thought about going solo, but that just didn't feel right: "Rick Rizzo and Band". I just have a lot of respect for what Janet and Doug do in this band, they play my songs better than anyone, besides that they are very good at re-arranging my songs.' On this eighth record - it isn't called "eighth" for nothing you know - you can easily hear Eleventh Dream Day has become hobby. Every songs is so different from the other. Rick: 'Yeah, lots of people hear a strong Tortoise influence. Especially the songs Douglas wrote give that feeling. Also I have asked John (McEntire, the engineer and main man in Tortoise - JV) to play some keyboards on this record. I haven't introduced electronic instruments into my music before.' Because of Rick's decision Eleventh Dream Day has become one of the many "projects" in the Chicago scene. Rick: 'Everyone from outside Chicago keeps seeing it as a scene, but from the inside it doesn't feel like that at all. Everyone is playing music and sometimes join other people in certain projects. Everything is just as important. I find that a healthy way of making music.' Recently Rick was asked himself to join a project. Rick: 'The boys of Gastr Del Sol asked me to work on the soundtrack of "Dutch Harbor", it's a documentary about the sea and islands east of Alaska. A beautiful movie which we're going to take on the road through Europe.' It's not strange Rick has decided that Eleventh Dream Day is no longer the dayly pastime it once was, he has become forty and with wife and kid he thought it was high time that he found himself a respectable job. A respectable job as a teacher. Rick: 'I'm still at school. I want to teach in primary school, grade five or six.' Can you compare playing to an audience with keeping a group of children quiet and learning them something? Rick: 'Hm... I haven't had much experience yet, but playing live isn't the least bit scary compared to teaching. I can easily play to a group of four thousand people without getting nervous, but if I have to teach five kids I get very scared.'