DISPATCH has sold more albums and has played larger venues than any unsigned band in rock history. Sadly Chad Stokes, Pete Francis, and Brad Corrigan don’t get together and play very often. Since the band broke up it’s about once every 4 years. Luckily for their fans DISPATCH has decided to come out of retirement once again for a summer tour that has been dubbed DISPATCH 2011. The tour will travel across the nation with performances in Chicago, LA, Atlanta, and Boston among other cities. 50 cents of every ticket sold will go towards benefiting Amplifying Education, an organization that tries to better the quality of America’s public schools. In addition to this tour DISPATCH has entered the studio to work on their first album since 2000. This comeback is the biggest since the band’s original breakup in 2002 and judging by the incredible reception they have received, and the number of dates they have sold-out it is obvious their legions of fans are still loyal. Lead singer/guitarist/bassist Chad Stokes recently talked to the Mass Media about the most anticipated tour of the year.
Why Now? Were you just apart long enough and you wanted to raise some more money?
It’s one year before the world ends, 4 years since our last show, the band’s astrologist thought now was a good time.
How did you decide on education as the cause?
It was something the three of us could agree on, Pete was working as a TA for the last year in Connecticut, I think Brad and I both felt that through the different things we were involved education is a way of bettering tomorrow. We just think thought by educating children truly good things could come out of it.
What was your thought process when you were deciding what cities to tour? Are you happy with the venues?
We just wanted to hit different parts of the country; we were pretty hands on with selecting the locations. The last few times we’ve played, we played only two or three shows, and we wanted to be road ready so we thought we might as well make it a mini tour. We wanted to cover as much of the country as possible.
How many times have you seen each other since you decided to do this?
We have seen each other 5 or 6 days a month since December.
Is that when you decided to play the shows?
Actually, we decided around October 2010, we all felt like the time was right to get back, State Radio (Chad’s other project) was out of Dispatch’s shadow and working as it’s own band so we were comfortable with getting back together.
Talk about your album. Where did you record? Is it completed? Have you thought about a release date? A title?
We recorded at Water Street Music in Hoboken, New Jersey and Bridgeport, Connecticut. It’s not done yet; we’ll probably have 5 or 6 songs ready to play on the tour. It will probably be finished for a late fall release.
How does it feel to finally make some money through DISPATCH for once?
It feels good; we’re trying to keep prices as low as possible. A lot of the money that gets made just goes back into the project, like State Radio or my solo album. It’ll be good to finally see a good amount of money coming through but I’m not expecting lifestyle changes.
What do you have planned for the tour? Have you talked about set lists?
Wimpy (the band’s famous and celebrated van) will be at every show, we are thinking about making it into a big piggybank that you can throw donations into. We’re going to do some covers which we haven’t done in a while, Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and Grand Funk Railroad to name a few. We might dust off deeper cuts from past albums such as Hey Hey and The Way It Goes.
Is it weird to play smaller venues such as Lupo’s and the House Of Blues with State Radio and then a month later sell out the TD Garden three nights in a row with DISPATCH?
It’s just kind of surreal, your mind can wrap around venues of a certain size but when it gets above 4000 people it gets crazy, you might as well be playing in front of triceratops or something crazy like that.
Are you concerned about the toll it will take on you being a part of State Radio, DISPATCH, and working on your solo album?
You get bunt out a little bit, hopefully you just bust your ass now so you have recharging time in the future, sometimes when it rains it pours. You have to ride out the storm and you’ll be rewarded.
Will there be a live album from the tour like there was for your last two shows?
I don’t know, it seems like there’s got to be something coming out of it, we haven’t talked about it yet.
What are your plans for when it’s over?
Were going to mellow out in July and then start getting ready to do some traveling or get back on the train. Maybe get the Chadwick Stokes band on tour in support of my solo record.
Break the news to me…Are you guys back? Is this more consistent than Zimbabwe or The Last DISPATCH?
We won’t tour like State Radio does but we’re going to be more of a band, we’ll play. The album kind of indicated, to an extent, that we’re back in the game.
Limited tickets are still on sale for the Band’s June 26th show at the TD Garden, to purchase tickets or for more information you can go to www.dispatchmusic.com.