Posted by: Stephen White
Matt Davis and Dean Micetich are the publishers of legendary motorcycle culture magazine DicE. I managed to track down the latter and persuaded him to answer the following questions for a huge fee: ...
Dr W - What the hell are you doing in L.A?

DM - I’m living out the American dream, riding Choppers, driving Hot Rods and playing Rock n' Roll. It’s basically just an excuse for me not to live in the real world and have a sensible job…plus you and I both know that I am extremely lazy, so a real job would never work.

Dr W - Did you find the wigs? I left them by your bed last time we hung out, I miss those wigs.

DM - Yes. I’m wearing the jazzy one right now. The Shirley Bassey number with the tight perm. You can have the braided one back, it reminds me of lots of little cheerio’s glued together. Weird.

Dr W - Why did you launch DicE Magazine?

DM - Matt and I started the magazine because we wanted to do something we both truly loved, to escape reality…then people started buying it…so we dropped everything and decided to give it a shot. As Hunter S said… “We’d be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way to the end.” Additionally, Matt and I didn’t feel like there was a magazine around at the time which incorporated everything we loved, so we made our own. We are still very true to that in the way that all of the cars and bikes we incorporate are machines we ourselves would love to own! This is very important and it keeps things fun for us and the reader. If we don’t like it, it doesn’t make it on to the pages…unless you bribe us with beer or little dogs…then we learn to like it.

Dr W - Did you have a formula or was the process more of a make it up as you go along type approach?

DM - We had absolutely no idea whatsoever and we kind of still don’t. Everyone told us to buy Quark or InDesign when we initially started on our path down the magazine publishing road. Of course we completely ignored that when our mate ‘Hong Kong Danny’ said he had a knocked off copy of a shit Russian publishing program called Serif for 30 quid. We jumped at the chance and it has made our lives hell ever since…yes…we still use it.

Dr W - What are you trying to achieve by publishing DicE, do you perceive it to be a document of modern motorcycling times or more of a fanzine?

DM - We are just trying to capture a moment in time whilst documenting how fantastic it all is. It’s a very special and exciting time to be alive right now and there is a fantastic underground bike scene worldwide, we are super hyped to be a part of it. It's not solely just about the machines either, its everything creative that goes along with it, it’s a very close knit family.



Dr W - DicE was launched in London, why did you move it to the U.S you total traitor?

DM - Everything was just a lot harder to get done in London and way more expensive. Plus Eastenders had peaked big time when Dirty Den finally came back, so as soon as he was killed off again I thought, forget it.

Dr W - One of my favorite articles was an interview with legendary motorcycle builder and artist Johnny Morales, how did you meet him?

DM - Matt has known Johnny a little longer than I have. They had a tight crew of guys that used to ride around London called ‘The Mean Fuckers’, a group of like minded guys who loved having a good time and riding old bikes. They didn‘t really buy into the whole ‘tough biker’ thing so they kept it family style. I met Johnny in London one night about 15 years ago when he rode up to the ‘Boston Arms’ in Camden on a 40’s style bobbed ‘45 Harley…I remember thinking, holy shit that guy has the best style ever and I still feel the same way about him all these years later! He just has that special eye and knows what looks good. He also has some killer bikes…a couple of Vincent Black Shadows, a Knucklehead, a Shovelhead, plus various British and Japanese bikes. Once he gave me grass so strong that I thought my cheeks were flowers.

Dr W - DicE has few corporate advertisers, is that the way you want it to stay? I heard a rumor that Harley Davidson were interested in advertising not so long ago?

DM - Again we like to stay integral to what the magazine is all about. It’s not about brand new Harleys. We like our advertisers to fit with the magazine and offer our reader something cool and useful. Not a lot of our readers like the new street bob thing by Harley Davidson and that’s because its total shit and whoever designed it should have their eyeballs poked…not too hard though because that could be dangerous…but just enough where he’s like, “ouch that really hurt!” then I’m all like…“yeah well that’s because your bike is rubbish“…and then he’s all like…“fair enough”. Erm....,the answer to that question by the way is yes they did want to advertise and we said no way.

Dr W - You also have quite an extensive musical repertoire, tell me about the album you recently worked on with Polecats founder Boz Boorer?

DM - The album I just did with Boz is a tribute album to one of the greatest English Teddy Boy Rock n' Roll bands from the 1970’s…'Crazy Cavan & The Rhythm Rockers'…we basically just went into a studio in Hollywood, drank beer and recorded live with no rehearsal. We pulled in some good friends too to make it happen, like Tim Polecat, Levi Dexter, Bill Bateman from the Blasters, Slim Jim from the Stray Cats…to name but a few! It was one of the best studio experiences ever and we all had a great time. My new band ‘The Black Tibetans’ is out and out blow your ears off Rock n Roll! We are currently working in the studio with Gilby Clarke from Guns N' Roses and MC5 and should have something out very soon! We are kind of like Rick Astley meets Bros.

Dr W - Is there anything that you regret so far?

DM - Buying the new Jonas Brothers album…it sucks…but they look awesome in their little outfits so that kind of cancels it out I suppose. So…no, I don’t regret anything.

Dr W - Do you still like Sushi? DM - Are you kidding? I hate Sushi. I used to like it but in this town you need to keep up with what’s hot and what’s not. Its all about fruit smoothies and wheat grass shots now. Plus with my extreme Pilate regime sushi is murder on the hips.

Dr W - Where's my new issue, I took out a new subscription two weeks ago you utter bastard?

DM - You do know the magazine comes out once every 2 months right? Plus I already cashed that cheque and paid that bar tab at the ‘Burgundy Room’ you skipped out on you douche.

Dr W - Yeah I forgot about that, thanks...

www.DicEmagazine.com
www.TheBlackTibetans.com

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