Interview with Doug Dulgarian of TAGABOW

BY NEW MEDIA DIRECTOR · APRIL 18, 2023

Interviewed by Zack Rodick and Bella Lardin

D: Douglas Dulgarian
Z: Zack Rodick
B: Bella Lardin

B: Our first question is super basic.. We love the band name, how’d you come up with it?

D: First of all, I had a dream about it, and then I saw it as a tattoo on somebody, so that was just kinda how that started.

Z: Somebody had the tattoo that said “They Are Gutting A Body of Water?”

D: Yeah, it was like a stick-and-poke.

Z: That’s awesome.

B: You just released your album “lucky styles” (or ‘s’, as listed on Spotify) plus “An Insult To The Sport”, last year’s split with A Country Western. On both of those, I noticed a really heavy influence from the rest of the Philly shoegaze scene, in particular Blue Smiley. Which of your peers would you consider to be your biggest influences and where do you think that shines through in your music?

D: Certainly full body 2, they’re a huge one. But also I’ve been really getting more into bands like MENU and Fib and Family Vision, that kind of sound like Women, it’s this jangly, kind of angular sound. I’ve been getting more into that recently, so that’s kind of what I’ve been writing now. But also, spellbinder is a huge one, and has always been this mystical creature of a band for me, SPIRIT (note: SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE), I love SPIRIT, Alex (note: Alex G), I love Alex so much. There’s just so many bands in Philly, it’s like, stupid. Everybody’s a whole, realistically. There’s some shows I go to where I realize during the show that there’s something happening that’s just, really f—ing cool, you know what I mean? Feeble Little Horse, which is from here, they’re sick as f—, I really love them, A Country Western…There’s so many, it’s like, stupid.

B: That actually leads pretty well into my next question, which is how do you select the bands for Julias War? (If anyone doesn’t know, Doug also runs a label, Julias War, out of Philly.) Because we’ve noticed a lot of those bands have had really really good success after releasing their tapes on the label initially, MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Feeble Little Horse just got signed to Saddle Creek. And there’s a lot of different genres but it still feels like one cohesive sound, so how do you pick those bands?

D: You know what’s weird, is that I never really reach out. And I think that’s the thing that I’m trying to change now. It feels pretty insular, you know, it very much started on the East Coast, and very much my friends hearing about having this label and being like, “Hey I want to put out a tape through you”, and I already love their music. Number one, the big thing is, is it good. Bottom line is, good music is good music, whatever it is. So, is it good is the first question. And then secondly, it’s typically people reaching out to me and being like, “Yo, can I put out a tape?”, but now I’m starting to get into deeper waters where I’m reaching out to people, bands that I really love and I’m really excited about, and that’s been cool to kind of branch out. But it still feels like one thing, which is cool. I still feel like I’m trying to curate it in a way where it still feels like I’m maintaining a sense of these artists being connected in some way.

B: I know Julias War XMas was the big event of last year, Fib, Them Airs, Noah Kesey, a couple others on that bill, crazy bill. Are you guys planning any other big events like that?

D: Yeah, we’re doing Julias War Fest 2, in April, and it’s nuts. It’s wild. The lineup is really cool. It’s really f—ing cool. I’m very proud of it. I think it’ll be really cool. We did Julias War Fest last year and that was really successful, it was really fun. And just cool because you’re seeing your friends from around the country, in your backyard.

Z: Do you have any bands other than the ones you’ve already mentioned that you’ve been listening to right now?

D: Yes, I’ve always liked that band Body Meat a lot, I think they’re really good. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Lilys and a lot of Swirlies of course. I always listen to a lot of Brian Eno, like a lot. Because it’s something that’s more than music, it’s something that centers you. A band kind of either gets you going or bums you out, but Brian Eno brings me to this place where I’m just like… (note: he just trails off here). A lot of Odball, a lot of Philip Glass. That’s pretty much it.

Z: What are your pedals?

D: Fuzz and chorus. That’s all I use. On recordings, I use other stuff, whatever the studio has, or whatever other stuff I have, but when I play live it’s just two pedals. And a tuner, too, but I don’t think that counts.

Z: If you had to choose one pedal, ever, that you’d play with for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

D: Yeah probably a Big Mug, just fuzz. I just love the dynamic between it being quiet or being loud, or fully blaring that s—, and making it super load and crazy. There’s no feeling like a fuzz guitar, it’s just a very specific thing, and you can do so much with it, too.

B: One thing that always made me have special interest in TAGABOW is Baby Gap. What inspired you to start hosting shows?

D: So when I moved in there three or four years ago, Ben, the drummer, was living there already, and they were already there hosting shows. Ethan Mitchell, who does Couple Ghouls booking in Philly, was living there too. I played at Baby Gap before I even lived there, but I’m the person who’s lived there longest at this point who’s still there. But they were already doing shows at that point when I moved it, I just don’t think it was to the degree that we’re currently doing shows. They would do one every few months or something like that, and it was strictly a living room thing, and now we’ll do them in the basement. Most shows are fun but it’s f—ing stressful to have a show in your own house, it’s terrible.

B: Is there anything you’ve learned from running Baby Gap as a venue or from running Julias War as a label that you didn’t know just from playing in your own band?

D: Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, it’s important to look out for yourself, you have to be asking yourself, you know, “Where do I stand in this?”, you have to look out for you, and that’s important. But I also think it’s important to curate a community, and to take care of that community to the best of your ability, and that’s a lot of work because a lot of people have a lot of feelings. And when I say feelings, I mean people don’t want to play first, or people want their release to be this day and there’s something else going on that day. So you’re juggling everybody’s feelings; it requires a lot of work and a lot of organization, which are skills that I feel like you need in a band to some degree, and if you have them when you’re in a band, you succeed in way better ways when you decide, “Oh, I’m going to look out for my friends in this way.” But community really is power, I think that’s important. Without your friends, you’re nothing. You’re just you, and it’s really hard to do anything alone. But there is sincere power in numbers, and I think that’s what places like Pittsburgh or Philly are really cool for, because it’s just tons of cool people doing tons of cool s—. Even in small towns, there’s power. That one band in a small town, who are friends with each other and hang out all the time, is so important.

B: That’s something I’ve noticed in the Philly scene especially, and even just within Julias War as a label, is how tight-knit the community is. It’s really inspiring.

Z: Yeah, it feels very interwoven, very connected. It’s very inspiring how you all raise each other up, it’s very beautiful.

B: I do want to ask about the future direction of your music. You’ve experimented with some D&B style stuff, some Blue Smiley-esque shoegaze. Is there a particular direction you want to go in the future or is it something that’s just whatever feels right in the moment?

D: It’s constantly whatever feels right in the moment. It’s constantly just like, yeah, this is cool. I feel like I basically just decide what I’m into in the moment. But I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s gonna be the same thing that we’re doing. Lucky styles was one thought, and Destiny XL was one thought, and the next thing is going to be one thought. I have some thoughts and considerations as to how I want it to sound, and as to how we all want it to sound as a band. But I don’t know if I want to disclose that right now. You’ll see. It’s weird. It’ll be wild. It’s slightly different, for sure.

B: You did release a solo rap album. Are you going to continue with that project?

D: Probably not. My homie Zeke Ultra, and a couple of other rappers that I know, I’ve been speaking to them about just producing stuff for them. Because the production side of it is the part that for me is really fun, but not really the rapping part. For me, that’s just the part that you have to do. Creating vocals is just the worst thing in the world, whether you’re singing or rapping or anything. I think that when you listen to music, you are drawn to the human voice, and that’s instinctually what you listen to. So it puts it in this spotlight that is completely blown out of proportion, and then you think about it too much and get all in your head, and you think, “I can’t not hear this mistake, or this mistake”, or whatever it is. So I’d rather just be on the production side of things, and I think that I’ll continue to produce beats for rappers because that’s really fun, and I really enjoy doing it.

Z: What keeps you running Julias War?

D: Again, I think that just comes back to community. I want to be continuously repping s— that I love, and hoping that people get any kind of success from this stupid little label that I have. It’s really not a big deal, it’s just me making tapes. But ultimately I think the cool part about it is that the person has a tape in their hand, and I think that’s empowering, I think that’s really f—ing cool. And it’s also empowering for me to hold the tape in my hand, and be like, “Oh, yeah. We made this. This is cool.” So that keeps me going. And also it’s music I love, and I’m constantly hearing new s—.

Z: What advice do you have for aspiring musicians, people who are just starting to make music? What’s your biggest piece of advice?

D: Pick it up, constantly, and continuously do it to the point where it’s second nature and you don’t think yourself out of the situation. If you’re playing guitar and it becomes second nature to continuously play guitar, you get to this point where you’re not like, “Maybe I’m bad at this.” It’s just something you do, even if you are bad at it. You just continuously do it. And I think that’s really important. And I think getting Airtags in you van is a huge piece of advice I would give to anyone who’s starting to tour. And also, I think that because of the way that society runs now, I think that people are very used to getting things right away, and I think that finding your own voice in music takes a long f—ing time. Like, I’m an oldhead. I’m not in my twenties. And I think it took me a long time to really get to a point where I’m like, “This is good, and I believe in this.” And I think that I always kind of believed in what I was doing, but I think it took me a long time and a lot of just picking it up constantly and playing it and making it second nature to get to a point where I was like, “I really f—ing believe in this.” And I think it’s just a constant, constant thing that you do. It’s like driving or something, eventually it’s automatic. That’s a really bad analogy, playing music’s nothing like driving. But something like that, you know?

B: What advice would you have for someone who wants to get involved with their local scene but is maybe too afraid to make that jump, whether that involves going to shows, or maybe running a venue, or maybe making tapes, or whatever it might be?

D: All of those things are really important. I think here’s a big one- People are super standoffish, and you can’t take that personally. When I moved to Philly, for two years I didn’t have friends, like, real f—ing friends. And that made me feel really bad, but I started continously going to more shows and hosting more things, and eventually people were like, “Alright, this person is deserving of my respect.” And I think that takes a really long time, not feeling so alone. Here’s what’s crazy though: the difference between being alone and not being alone is effort. That’s it. You just reach out. And it’s work to go to a show, it’s work to make a tape, it’s work to start a band, or anything. But if you just put in that effort, then eventually you’ll just start to see…I don’t know, I feel like I’m talking like a weird f—ing capitalist, like “Oh yeah, you’ll see results.” Like I’m a workout guru or something. But that’s not what I mean. You’ll create connections between people that I think is really important and really f—ing cool.

B: How much for pedal pics?

D: Six hundo.

Wanna support TAGABOW? Check out Julia’s War and stream their most recent album on any streaming service, including Bandcamp.