I want to talk about the record, too. This is the band’s third full-length album?

Yeah, it’s the first full-length recording. We did one EP previously, too.

Is the music on here mostly new ideas or were some of these ideas that have kind of been around since the last time the band was together?

You mean [when we were together] 20 years ago? (Laughs)

I mean, we’d get together once in a while. Brett played in another band. I played in another band with the drummer after Dogstar decided to breakup, which turned into a hibernation, which turned into a reunion, which turned into the present.

I think there was a riff off of [the song] “Lust” that Bret had that we built the song around. Then he had a song, which we called “Dillon Street.” The rest of the songs we all band-written, musically. Bret Domrose, the guitarist and lead singer, writes all the lyrics and sings all the songs. Robert [Mailhouse, drummer] sings some backup.

Between making albums and making films, is there a process that you prefer? Is there a process that you find easier?

They’re both super collaborative art forms, for the most part. A movie, for sure.

The differences are kind of technical. You look at the credits of a film, there are sometimes thousands of people. You look at the end credits of an album, maybe there are 12 names.

For our album, Somewhere the Powerlines and Palm Trees, there’s Dave Trumfio the producer, there’s Rudyard Lee Cullers the engineer, and then the three guys in the band.

I would say, creatively, it’s play. The music, trying to invent a song, a riff, and then that idea of trying to bring it out, crafting it and then going into the studio. The relationship with the band and the producer, how are you shaping the script? The engineer is a kind of cinematographer/production designer, set designer, making sure we’re capturing the sounds. The artists are kind of like the writings and performers, the actors.

It seems like there’s fewer ways an album can go wrong than a movie.

But doesn’t it all come with a vision, with the story you’re trying to tell? And it’s about people being on the same page and collectively coming together on stage with your talent and your craft, your passion.

Is the feeling of completing an album anything like the feeling of completing a film?

Privately, yes. You don’t get a premiere oftentimes with an album; you might get a listening party. But you do have it go out into the world, and just like with a film, you hope people like it.

But the sense of accomplishment, they are very similar in that way. Because like, what did you have to go through to make it? What were all the steps?

Between Dogstar and your film career, there are lots of decades-long threads with you. This album coming 20 years since the last one. The Bill & Ted sequel a few years ago. The latest Matrix film. The latest John Wick. Is it laborious to have these things in the works for a long time — trying to get them made — or is there a sense of security having all of these proverbial balls in the air?

I wouldn’t use laborious anywhere in it. I feel really lucky and grateful. I love working. I love working hard. I love being dedicated. I love the feeling of believing in a vision and wanting to make it happen. The John Wick films I participated in are over 10 years of my life. The Matrix films are over 20 years. Bill & Ted, over 20 years.

They do have similarities. The Matrix and Bill & Ted, they made a couple of films, and then we didn’t work on them for 20 years. You see oftentimes so many things come back and so many things being reinvented, or the story is continuing. It was cool to do John Wick Chapter 3 … ‘Yes, something I love.’ And there is some security, going back into that character. Then the challenge of ‘Okay, well, what the f--- are you going to do? It better be good. It better not f---ing suck!’

And you can’t know that. You can’t know how the audience is going to respond. But you can hope and try your best and follow your passions.

The Woody Show

Join the conversation with Yappa