Zach Lupetin of Dustbowl Revival on Limber Minivans and Keeping Expectations in Check

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

Tell us about your tour vehicle.

We are big fans of good old fashioned minivans. We fly into a region and rent two vans, and go from there. We had a sprinter van once that we had to abandon down the street from my house in a snow bank because it could move no farther in that blizzard in Chicago. Minivans more limber!

How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?

It’s hard to always eat healthy, but finding local cafes and not fast food is key. Sometimes you fall in love with a spot so much you remember it for next time you roll through. Whole Foods salad bars are also the best.

How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?

Connor will break a few fiddle strings a year – same with my guitar. Probably $50 to $100 a year in new strings sounds right. When it breaks in the middle of a show, that’s no fun.

Where do you rehearse?

We now just meet up at our drummer Josh’s apartment in East LA. It kind of looks like a strange small castle and has a dangerous long stairway winding up – not great for gear – but it’s free and has lots of lovely light.

What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?

I wrote a punk rock song called “What Made Jane Break Down” with my high school rock band Iconoclast in Chicago that was very dramatic. I had a dark sense of humor even back then apparently.

Describe your first gig.

Dustbowl’s first gig was at the legendary, and now long gone, Brown Derby back room in LA. We didn’t have an official name yet in 2008 or so, and I asked the audience what we should be called.

What was your favorite day job?

Favorite job was working at a hot dog shop in college in Ann Arbor Michigan called Red Hot Lovers. Those cheese fries were legendary.

How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?

The hope is always that you can tour a bit less, and enough support and interest will come your way that you’ll make more – but it’s not quite that simple. Live shows still sustain us. Maybe we will be famous in ten years and have our music in movies and all will be gravy! But you never know.

What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?

Keep your expectations in check. It’s great to be ambitious and proud of what you create, but making music is a long game. Enjoy the journey, not the end result.

Dustbowl Revival’s story started humbly. Nearly 12 years ago Z. Lupetin – a Chicago native who attended college in Michigan came to L.A. to be a playwright and screenwriter, grew disillusioned with his job in advertising, and placed a hopeful ad on Craigslist. He sought to find fellow musicians who shared his roving love of Louis Armstrong, Bob Wills, Old Crow Medicine Show, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin and the brass bands of New Orleans, but also wanted to write songs like Americana pioneers Wilco, Lucinda Williams and even Bruce Springsteen. There are still players in the group who responded to that initial odd quest.

Dustbowl Revival has always been about pushing the boundaries of what American roots music can be. In many ways, they could have continued creating joyful, booty-shaking songs and cut-to-heart folk-rock ballads that lift up their transcendent live shows – and mining new energetic material from the place where folk music, funk and soul meet.

The band’s newest album, Is It You, Is It Me, coming January 31 via their own Medium Expectations label and Nashvilleâ€™s Thirty Tigers, is something different entirely. Produced by Sam Kassirer [Lake Street Dive, Josh Ritter, David Ramirez] and engineered by Brian Joseph [Bon Iver, Local Natives, Sufjan Stevens], it represents the latest stage in a band that never stops evolving and refuses to stand still.

Connect with the band online and on the road.