ONLY SON
THE DROP TO THE TOP

It’s a bit of a mystery to think a guy like Jack Dishel could remain so unassuming considering his auspicious past. Dishel, a former internationally-known underground graffiti artist and one time guitarist for anti-folk heroes The Moldy Peaches, will release his debut solo album, THE DROP TO THE TOP, on Cassette Recordings this fall. Going under the moniker Only Son, he sings along to a backing band courtesy of an iPod and has inspired the BBC to proclaim him a “future headliner without a doubt”.  Beginning January 2007, he’ll be touring Europe and North America with Regina Spektor.

Jack wasn’t always Jack. At the age of three, Dishel moved to the United States from Russia with the name Yevgeny - Yevgeny Leonidovich Dishel to be exact. Family legend has it that he screamed so much as a child that they began calling him Jack The Ripper;  the name stuck and Yevgeny became Jack.  This would be the first of many transformations for him.  Around the age of 12, Dishel would become absolutely enamored with heavy metal after seeing Motley Crue’s video for “Wildside” for the first time. Wishing he could spin over a crowd while hitting the skins like Tommy Lee, Dishel bought a ramshackle drum kit, some black concert T-shirts, and rocked a mullet in order to please both his parents and his inner desire to head bang with the best of the long-haired metal gods.

A few years later, a song called “Fuck The Police” would play over and over on his friend’s stereo, forever changing Dishel. As quickly as Yevgeny became Jack the Metal Head, Jack became an anonymous phantom of the subway tracks, tagging a trail wherever he went. “All of a sudden my pants were sagging and my hair was buzzed - all I did was listen to hip-hop, play handball, and most importantly, write graffiti”, says Dishel.  He put music on the back burner entirely and spent the next few years running around along elevated train tracks painting walls, tunnels and subway cars.  By the end of his teens he’d become an underground celebrity, and had his work featured in multiple graffiti magazines and videos.  With numerous escapes from the police and hundreds of pieces all over the city, Dishel felt satisfied and called it a day.  To date he still keeps his alter ego closely guarded.

During his college days at SUNY Purchase, Dishel rediscovered music. Introduced to artists like Elliott Smith, Built To Spill and Blonde Redhead, Dishel took up guitar and spent hours upon hours soaking in new sounds. “There were all these different kinds of people that I’d never come in contact with before.  They were thinkers.  Outsiders.  It was a huge relief from what I’d known.”

After graduating with both a college degree and a few lessons on life, Dishel moved to New York City and began fronting a band named Stipplicon.  Their wildly energetic shows won them a fan-base that included many Lower East Side musicians, among them Adam Green and Kimya Dawson, who would soon ask Jack to play guitar for their band, The Moldy Peaches.  The once phantom graffiti artist soon found himself conspicuously dressed up in costumes, playing guitar in front of thousands of people. Dishel went from small clubs in alphabet city to playing arenas throughout Europe, opening for bands like The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  In 2002 The Moldy Peaches went on an indefinite hiatus, leaving Jack to make yet another transformation into his current incarnation, Only Son.

After taking a much-needed break, Dishel began working on a batch of new songs that were more delicate and melodic than the powerhouse anthems of his previous band Stipplicon. The end result was THE DROP TO THE TOP, an album full of imaginative melancholic lyrics tempered with skipping drums and layered vocal harmonies. Produced by Scott Hackwith (The Ramones, Dig) and Justin Asher (Johnny Dowd, Firewater), copies of the record began to circulate and soon Dishel was asked to open for Regina Spektor on her sold out UK, European and American tours. When he’s not on the East Coast playing with his full five-piece band, Dishel plays alone with just a guitar and backup in the form of an iPod.  It’s in this setting that his name, Only Son, truly makes sense.  The spectacle has prompted many to ask, “Who is that guy behind the mic?” 

The answer, it seems, is more complex than one might think.