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“It wasn’t like we thought we were going to get a hit single and be a big MTV buzz band,” says Scott Hackwith, songwriter, guitarist and lead singer for the Los Angeles-based rock band Dig.
“We weren’t even going to do a video.”
Fortunately for the band, it changed that decision. The video Hackwith directed with GraemeJoyce for the song “Believe” became an MTV “Buzz Bin” clip and helped the band draw attention to
its self-titled album and land high-profile gigs. Dig will appear on a bill with Blind Melon on Sunday at the Hollywood Palladium.
As Hackwith tells it, Dig’s history is filled with such serendipity. After moving from San Diego to Los Angeles to work as a production assistant on music videos, Hackwith put together a
band with acquaintances Jon Morris (guitar), Johnny Cornwell (guitar) and Anthony Smedile (drums), and then found bassist Phil Friedmann through a classified advertisement in the Music
Connection.
An A&R; representative at Radioactive who knew Smedile came to see the fledgling band rehearse. Within a few weeks, they had a recording contract.
Hackwith, calling from Kansas City, makes it all sound easy. “I’ll usually sit down with my acoustic (guitar) and mess around with some ideas,” he says.
Some of those ideas became the songs on “Dig,” an album packed with slinky art-rock grooves reminiscent of Jane’s Addiction, as well as distortion and cathartic anger worthy of Alice in
Chains.
What separates Dig from the guitar-rock pack though, is Hackwith’s songwriting and the band’s three-guitar attack. It’s as easy to hear classic rock-style riffs on “Dig” as it is layers of
distortion.
Hackwith, 27, cites a list of guitar influences ranging from Pink Floyd to Swervedriver. “Through the years I’ve gone through everything,” he says. “I moved into San Diego and people my age
were listening to KISS and Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent and stuff like that. Then there was that whole heavy-metal phase, and I met this punk-rock girl right after I got out of high school,
and she got me into everything from Einsturzende Neubauten to Bauhaus.”
The band ended up with three guitarists almost by accident. Morris was brought on board because Hackwith was having trouble singing and playing guitar at the same time. Hackwith eventually
returned to playing guitar, and Morris stayed on.
Hackwith is typically understated about his lyrics, saying they’re just “slice of life stuff.” He says “I’ll Stay High” is about not wanting to grow up, while “Believe” was written after the
L.A. riots. “Everybody was trying to unite and come together,” Hackwith says. “ ‘Believe in your own God’ was (saying) I believe in what I believe in and I just want to be left alone.”
That anonymity may be harder to come by as Dig’s popularity grows and Hackwith spreads his talents. Hackwith recently produced “Acid Eaters,” an album of ‘60s songs for the punk group the
Ramones, and Dig will continue to tour through the summer. “Dig” has already sold about 100,000 copies, according to Karen Malluk, the band’s A&R; representative, and a second single,
“Unlucky Friend,” will be released in early April with a video.
“Enough people know the band from the first single that they’ll be paying attention to the second,” said Sheri Howell, the director of talent relations for MTV.
Despite his laid-back attitude, Hackwith seems pleased with his band’s success. “We wanted to make albums,” he says. “It just happened a lot quicker than we thought.”
* Dig will be on the bill headlined by Blind Melon on Sunday at the Hollywood Palladium, 6250 Sunset Blvd. Mother Tongue and Alice Donut are also scheduled to play. The show will begin at
6:30. Tickets are $16.50. (213) 962-7600.