October 2000
It is a normal fall afternoon in upstate New York and Dispatch is sound-checking for an opening spot at Clifton Park, NY’s Northern Lights. Though a nondescript bar with a beer advertisement placed behind its stage, Northern Lights is a comfortable halfway house for bands traveling between New York clubs like Wetlands and Boston venues such as the Paradise and, as such, has nabbed a surprising number of bands on the verge of their big breaks. Technically the Samples are billed as the evening’s opening act, but Dispatch draws the crowd with its catchy ability to mix Sublime’s variation on reggae with Dave Matthews Band’s knack for improvisation.
Dispatch arrived on the live music circuit at an interesting era in music history, a time when file sharing was still new and Napster still mattered. After stirring up some interest on the Northeast frat circuit as the semi-acoustic One Fell Swoop, the trio—Chad Urmston, Brad Corrigan and Pete Francis—plugged in and switched its name to Dispatch. Dispatch’s music spread like wildfire on the internet and the group followed up by swiftly barnstorming clubs and colleges throughout the country. Still without a label, bus or real road crew, Dispatch hired a few friends as ad hoc stagehands, but the group is clearly struggling to keep up with the pace. There seems to be some internal conflict too, but the one thing all three members of the band can agree on is that their recent recording sessions [for 2000’s Who Are We Living For?] were incredibly difficult. “We may never record again,” guitarist Urmston admits.
He’s right. By October 2001 the group had started filling ballrooms and by the following summer it had found a few likeminded souls, including Jack Johnson and O.A.R., to supply support duty. But by October 2002, Dispatch was on hiatus and all three members launched solo careers. Dispatch could have, and should have, been the next Dave Matthews Band, but decided to call it quits. The trio reunited for a pair of free farewell shows in July 2004 which drew between fifty to one hundred thousand fans.
While out of the public eye, the group’s music lived on, apparently, while many of its fans joined the music industry in more professional capacities. After volleying the idea for a while, the trio announced a July reunion performance at New York’s Madison Square Garden for charity. Without any paid advertisement, the group’s show sold out in 30 minutes via a MySpace pre-sale. Two additional Garden shows sold out in similar time. In total the group moved 75,000 tickets in 90 minutes without having played to a New York audience of more than 5,000.
Which then begs the question: Who the hell is Dispatch and why are they reuniting for Zimbabwe? Chad Urmston helps shed some light.
January 2007
Like many, I was surprised to hear about your upcoming reunion shows. When did you initially start throwing around the idea?
We started talking about it probably almost a year ago. We just started throwing around the idea and decided we would do it only if it was a 100% benefit. We talked about where we would do it and sort of what it would entail. It was volleyed around for a little while until we solidified it about being about Zimbabwe. We chose New York, then we had to figure out what venue we thought the idea would be most receptive in. The last show we did in New York was [at Central Park SummerStage], so playing the Garden is a little insane. I try not to think about it too much because I just get nervous. It doesn’t do me good to dwell on such things.
Dispatch’s upcoming shows are billed as Zimbabwe benefits. What are you hoping to do with the money you raise?
What we are looking to do is, really, in the next five or six months figure out which organizations to give money to. We like what Mercy Corps (http://www.mercycorps.org/countries/zimbabwe) is doing in Zimbabwe. I was there in ‘94 for five months and I know some people who are trying to start a clinic and need a whole bunch of money for orphanages. But Zimbabwe is on the brink of mass starvation. Its economy is so poor. Because of AIDS you have people in mass exoduses trying to leave the country and people are not able to go to school anymore. It’s not really in the news all too much. We figured because of the connection we have toward it and because the country is really on the brink, we felt it was moving enough to see if we could put a bunch of the money in that direction.
What were you doing in Zimbabwe?
I just didn’t want to go to college and was looking for something to do. I went over with a friend of mine who had lived there for a year when he was about ten years old. Through him we knew a family we could stay with for a little while. We didn’t have any plans other than that. It was a much different place back then. But I was trying to figure out what to do, there was a lot of traveling, hitchhiking, soccer and I actually ended up teaching. We worked in this sugar mill town called Chisumbanje as teachers and coached some soccer.
Did this period influence you musically?
Yeah. “Elias” [from 2000’s Silent Steeples] is the obvious one. It’s about my friend there. I don’t really get into writing love songs as much as the other guys, but “Out Loud” [2000’s Bang Bang] is about that experience. That was one that was sort of more of an individual experience of being away from home for a serious amount of time.
Dispatch’s three reunion shows sold out almost immediately. Does this foreshadow a more extensive reunion?
Initially we just planned to do one show and it’s turned into three. I think that is gonna be enough for a while. It might be this kind of thing where every four or five years we come together to do a show. But I can’t really say and I don’t know if it’s gonna be too much beyond that.
How are rehearsals for your upcoming performances progressing?
I don’t know, it depends who you talk to. We want to get together in the next two or three months for a week just to see where everyone is and how everyone is feeling—for four or five days knock around some old tunes, relearn some old songs. I’m sort of wandering around in my daily activities humming some Dispatch songs to get into it and trying to get the words straight.
Do you plan to rework any of your solo work for Dispatch?
I think there will be some of that. There hasn’t been any of that yet. But I think there will be some because everyone is a more accomplished musician than we were four or five years ago. I think everyone will bring new energy to the table and we’ll try and rearrange some tunes so they feel fresh and more current to where the three of us are in our lives right now.
When I interviewed you a few years ago you cited Rage Against the Machine as a primary influence. Do you consider yourself a political musician?
Yes, definitely. I don’t think we try to be overtly political but we write about what moves us and what’s on our minds. Lots of times it’s injustice in this world and in this country, the corruption of authority and overall sort of blind arrogance of our current administration.
You recently toured with another politically active musician, Michael Franti. What did you take from that experience?
It was great touring with them, especially from being a smaller band and seeing how to do this, in terms of how can we be most effective and merge our musical life with one that feels like an effective social conscious. Spearhead did that great as far as having people at the shows and bringing certain issues to light. We talked backstage a couple times about songwriting, about stupid stuff, and about world affairs and Iraq was big on the list. He’s like a big-picture guy too, he’s very committed to positivity and peace in that way and very inspiring, though I tend to focus on more specific issues.
What current global issues have you tackled in your writing?
With State Radio [formed in 2002] we’ve been concentrating on genocide in Sudan so that’s always at the forefront. We have a new song we’re gonna record in a month or so about the situation in Darfur. That’s pretty present and it’s U.S. related obviously, with the Iraq war and all. It’s always a very sad and tragic topic that’s never too far away from our writing process.
Are you working on new songs for Dispatch?
That’s a good question. We haven’t really nailed that down yet, although there have been some calls to do that. I think there will be some representation whether that means the guys from State Radio or the guys from Pete and Brad’s bands coming up and sitting in on a few tunes or Dispatch playing a couple Pete Francis tunes and throwing them in there just for fun and so it is not like we’re some sort of Broadway show or something. There will be something going on and our concern is just not to make it too scattered.
We’re thinking about bringing some friends out that we have been playing with over the years. We used to joke around that we had some songs back in the day that were “arena rock” songs. Interestingly enough they never really worked because we never played arenas! So maybe we’ll dig back to that one tune we used to call our “arena rock” song. It was a song called “Help’s on the Way.” It had a very short life. So, I don’t know what to do about that. We’re gonna practice and we may in some cases have people help us out. But really we hope we can do what we have always done and it sounds alright. We’re not sure if it will. We’re just a trio and we haven’t played together in a long time. So we are a little concerned but hopefully some practice and forethought will help us out.
Since many of your fans are unaware of what is going on in Zimbabwe, do you plan to tailor your new material to talk about the country’s current crisis?
There’s talk about that too. Each guy is coming in with three newer songs which is sort of what we did with the last Dispatch show. So there’s definitely talk about that. Since we started this I have been working on some songs and thinking if it would sound good with Brad and Pete singing on it. But nothing is solidified.
In retrospect, do you think Napster was an important catalyst for Dispatch’s growth?
Yeah, we were just sort of hitting a stride with our touring where the momentum was picking up and that together with the beginnings of Napster. It was a way where independent bands could get to a certain level that was unprecedented. In that way it was great for us.
Do you see any parallels in the music industry today?
I don’t know, I’m terrible. Even Napster seems new to me. I’m not really a computer guy. I guess all the MySpace stuff has been the next chapter in the evolution of the music network. I guess that’s been the more recent Napster.
I feel like reaching out to people on MySpace is really reaching out to the fans and people who have always been in the know about Dispatch. It’s about the connection we have to each other. You know we’re not on the billboards of the Jersey Turnpike or anything. I think that was cool and really just a chance to try and get an indicator as to whether to go ahead with a second show or not. That was [manager Steve Bursky’s] plan in engineering it. It was cool to reach out to people who have been with us and follow Dispatch for no other reason than they like the music and they heard it from a friend of theirs. It seems natural.
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