19 August 10-16, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents “I didn’t even have posters on my wall when I was a kid, blank canvas,” he says. “I just never idolized people and, and I under- stand that that’s like a big part of humanity, you know, like people look up to others and they take after them and maybe I do subcon- sciously in some way. (...) But Frank was one person where I was like, I’m gonna go fuck- ing stand in a field with a bunch of strangers and I’m gonna like, show love to this person who changed my life. And then I sort of un- derstood why people would come and see it. And maybe I’ve touched people in the same way, you know?” This raises the question of whether Fike could see why someone might get his face tattooed on their hand, as he did with Frus- ciante’s. “Yeah, I guess so,” he says with a laugh. “Look at me saying I don’t idolize people with the John tat — were you waiting for that? Were you waiting to give me shit with that?” Fike hasn’t heard from his idol directly, but he did get his approval in a way that mat- tered most to him. “No, I haven’t heard from John Frus- ciante,” he says. “One thing that I admire about him is he likes to keep to himself, you know, and I don’t wanna meet him because if I do have to shake his hand with his face on my hand, I just can’t imagine how odd that would be. “But I’m obviously a huge fan of him and the closest I ever got to John Frusciante was when I interpolated Anthony Kiedis’ and probably John’s lyrics from [RHCP’s] ‘Scar Tissue’ on my most recent album. ... We ac- tually had to reach out to Anthony to get permission to use this shit, and they granted me the permission, which was just like, that’s all I really needed and that’s … ac- knowledgement this kid exists. That’s cool. ‘Yeah, he can use the shit,’ and just to know that they are like-minded with me.” Generally, Fike is not in favor of artists safeguarding their music from other artists. He notes that he’s been borrowing works since he first started, and remembers using lyrics from a Strokes song for one of his raps. “I think we should share lyrics,” he says. “I think we should share melodies and we should be able to interpolate, because if you truly are that precious about some shit and you’re scared that this is all you got and you can’t come up with some new shit, then get out of music. Like, we should be fucking shar- ing music because no one’s made anything new since fucking like the 1400s, let’s be real ... except for maybe like Justin Vernon.” In Season 2 of Euphoria, there were many obvious parallels between Fike and his char- acter Elliot. He may be “exactly like” Elliott as he’s said, but Fike holds his own as an ac- tor and is exquisitely natural even next to a heavyweight Emmy-winning performance by Zendaya. But Fike is more interested in talking about Sam Levinson’s other recent HBO show (“Let’s talk about The Idol! he inter- jects) which has more controversies than viewers. Before it was even released, the show made headlines for its messy produc- tion and “torture porn.” After its release, Abel “The Weekend” Tesfaye, who stars on the show, was criti- cized for his “cringe” sex scenes. “That’s all I hear from anybody, though, like, I didn’t watch it. I just read that it was bad,” Fike says of The Idol. “But I watched it. It was kinda cool.” Fike brings up his own recent quote about Levinson: “I remember I said in an in- terview — because I don’t even remember half the shit I say, I’m just word-vomiting — but I was like, if it’s from Sam Levinson, it’s probably misunderstood. That’s true. If you’ve ever met the guy … I just see all the shit people say about him on Twitter. Like, dude, he’s the nicest fucking guy. He’s the coolest guy.” Although Levinson was born into Holly- wood via his director father, Barry, Fike finds some common ground with Levinson, who gave him his first acting job. “We come from similar backgrounds, not that he was, like, raised the way I was — he was obviously Barry Levinson’s son, but just his relationship to his vices, we share that in the same, with the same intensity, and I could see that in his eyes when I met him,” Fike says. “ … I think Sam is a great person and I think he’s a genius and I think there’s always something to be learned from his work. So whether it be The Idol, Euphoria or one of his crazy contributions to some slasher flick, I think his view and perspec- tive is needed and admired more than the people that tear him down.” In true Fike fashion he adds as an aside: “Anyway, that’s me sucking Sam Levinson’s dick for two minutes. You can put that up there in that article right there.” There are many other types of expression we’ve yet to see from Fike as an artist, he says. “Oh, hell yeah, oh absolutely,” he says. “That was my second official album. And I will release many over the next couple of de- cades. I plan to have a prolific career, whether people are listening to it or not, whether people are engaged or not. I plan to keep evolving and experimenting and changing the scape of music and hopefully inspiring other people to do the same. So, yeah, there’s a lot of shit. I wanna go make a folk album. I wanna go make a metal album. I wanna go make … not a bossa nova album because I’m not an idiot … but a lot of shit, I wanna go make a lot of shit.” When time comes to break Fike’s absti- nence, there is only one way to make it to his next tattoo. “The reason I’m kind of abstinent right now is because casual sex sort of makes me feel empty and I’m constantly looking for connection,” he says. “When I share a physi- cally intimate moment with someone I’ll turn over and be like, ‘So what’s your whole thing?’ And if it doesn’t live up to the expec- tation, I get sort of sad and I get let down and I feel like kind of a piece of shit.” Shared experience is important to Fike, he says, which is why he normally dates people in his field of work. “I think it just has to be like, written, it has to be, like, meant for me, you know? Oth- erwise there’s no point in pursuing it,” he says. ”I like love. I’m like a real … I don’t wanna say romantic, but I believe in … I like to be monogamous. I love relationships. I love sharing things with just one person. I like the idea of having one person that I can share everything with. I like having a secret language with someone. I miss it. I think my favorite thing about humanity is that we get that, that one person.” He also loves the planet, which is why Fike does his share to keep landfills from pil- ing on any more “mass-produced bullshit” by shopping at vintage shops in Middle America, which he finds “less curated” and “less corny” than those in LA. The road to sobriety, he says, has been full of realizations. “I was raised different,” he says. “... I just had an early introduction to drugs and drug abuse and it was very normal to me. So it took me a little bit longer. I had to hit many rock bottoms. It wasn’t just one instance, and I haven’t been to rehab just one time and I haven’t had relationships fall apart just once. It took many times. I’m a slow learner, to be honest with you.” One thought that stuck with him was a quote from Nietzsche from the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. His memory from the movie, however, is as fuzzy as Jim Carrey’s character’s. But he wants to get it right, and is intent on finding it. “Kirsten Dunst says it and she says something about the forgetful,” he says, while typing. “Let me look it up. ‘Eternal … Sunshine … of the Spotless Mind … quote.” Look at that. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, there it is. It’s about forgetting: ‘How happy is the blameless vessel.’ What? No, that’s not it ... ‘Kirsten Dunst’ ... I’m getting there. You know what? Oh, there it is: ‘Blessed are the forgetful for they get the better even of their blunders.’” The irony of his forgetting the quote and then forgetting what he’s looking for is lost on Fike’s uncynical mind. “I thought that was so beautiful when she said that because it’s like, I wish I was for- getful of all the shit that I fucking did,” he says. “I wish I could forget it but I can’t. And therefore I remember the whole of my childhood, the entire addiction, not just the good parts of them, you know, I don’t get the better even of my blunders.” “But, yeah, I’m abstinent right now. I don’t know how long it’s been, but I’m sexless. There’s no use for my sexual organs other than urination, other than defecation in your nation. I am abstinent as it gets.” –DOMINIC FIKE Hand built not bougHt. 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