July 17th, 2014 
Brian Leak 
Immediately upon its announcement back in May, Dikembe‘s upcoming album, Mediumship, jumped to the top of many of our most anticipated albums lists for 2014. As we’ve had the opportunity to listen to it in its entirety several times over the past couple of weeks, we can assure you that the anticipation was worth it and warranted.
As we await the album’s official release next month (and for our vinyl to come in), we decided to have a little fun and pick guitarist Ryan Willems’ brain about a lot of silly subjects and a little about the new album. As we know the Dikembe guys are big fans of Magic: The Gathering, we ran with that, along with some questions about ’90s R&B, Drake, and their go-to items to purchase at their beloved Sheetz gas station.
Read through the break for a little bit of ridiculousness and some info about Mediumship from Gainesville, Florida’s Dikembe.
Do you bring Magic: The Gathering decks with you on the road or only play at home?
We brought around 6 of our personal decks for quick games. We also roll with our own 6 person cube so we can draft when we have the time.
Do other bands ever play with you?
I don’t think we’ve played with any other bands yet but I’m pretty sure we sold Free Throw on MTG when we toured with them. A couple of the Weatherbox guys play but we haven’t had a chance to duel yet.
Who’s the best Magic player in Dikembe?
Definitely Steven. He’s the only one that plays competitively, and he also runs an MTG club at his school so he gets to play quite a bit more than the rest of us.
If you could be any creature, wizard, or other character that’s been featured throughout all of MTG, who would you be and why?
Steven would be True-name Nemesis because “fuck everything.” Randy would be a Guttersnipe because he wouldn’t have to lift a finger and he feels most at home in gutters.
Did you ever play Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh!?
Naaaah.
Are there any ’90s/early ’00s R&B songs you know every word to?
I think I could karaoke “Nice and Slow” without having to check the monitor. And while I don’t know every word, “Untitled” is the greatest song of all time.
Best ’90s/early ’00s R&B track to make love to?
“Untitled.” No question.
If you could choose one currently-defunct band or artist from any era to reunite and make new music who would it be?
Metallica with Cliff Burton.
Favorite television show of all time?
I think collectively, The Office is the only show we all love.
If you were to have one night to hang out with Drake, how do you think it’d go?
Terribly.
Take me through your time with Drizzy.
I am vomiting from social anxiety, repeatedly. Randy is trying to figure out who Drake is. Steven is having a meaningful conversation about his music. David is drinking all of the drinks Drake is buying us. Drake thinks we are super lame. We tell him we don’t think it’s okay to go swangin’.
Best and worst ETID album?
Ex-Lives is probably what I listen to most these days. I pretty much never listen to The Big Dirty or New Junk Aesthetic.
Favorite show or cartoon from when you were a kid?
I was pretty into the original Power Rangers.
One thing you always wanted to do when you were a kid that you never got the chance to?
Go to space.
Do you still watch a lot of Jackie Chan movies?
[Laughs] That title is actually a quote from a movie. I haven’t seen a boat load of his movies but Drunken Master was pretty good.
You’re in some weird situation where you’re forced to choose either Keanu Reeves’ hair from Point Break or Patrick Swayze’s as the hair you’ll have for the rest of your life and the hair that all of your children will have as well. Which do you choose?
Keanu has a great ‘do in that film. There’s no way I’d allow my kids to become Swayze-headed lepers.
I don’t know…Swayze’s hair’s pretty fuckin’ sweet.
Top 5 things to pick up on a Sheetz run?
Fried mac ‘n’ cheese bites. Breakfast sandwich with a pretzel bun. Mozzarella stick cheeseburger. A tasty beverage. Fried apple bites with icing sauce.
Let’s talk about the album a bit because it’s only right. First off, the artwork is fantastic. Who’s the artist and why did you choose to go with that image?
The art was done by a friend of ours named Josiah Lloyd. We just gave him the record for inspiration, and that’s what he came back with. We all obviously liked it a lot. He was nice enough to do all of the art including the record labels and inside of the gatefold. He totally knocked it out of the park. We love it.
I’ve been listening to the album pretty much non-stop for the past couple of weeks now. I think it’s safe to say that you guys have progressed tremendously since Broad Shoulders. What would you say has changed for you guys in the past two years that led to your growth and the outcome of Mediumship? Any specific influences or experiences?
Um, I think a lot of it was just having more confidence as a band to do anything we wanted to do. The record is admittedly heavily influenced by records we loved in our more formative years by Brand New and Manchester Orchestra. The lyrics to the first song on the album actually sort of touch on how listeners expect bands to establish a totally unique voice before they will humor them with more heavy-handed influences, which seems a little backwards to me. But yeah, in general we just felt like we were in a place where we could do anything we wanted to without being written off. We also had no desire to rehash what we had already done. I think that rewriting “Donuts In A Six Speed” was really cool because you can pretty much quantify the differences between our old stuff and new stuff.
What’s a ‘Mediumship’ and how would you say the title relates to the content throughout the album?
It stemmed from an idea Steven brought up. We just mused on how much we value and cherish making music, touring, and the community surrounding it, and how much it all means to everyone else involved, yet many of those on the outside looking in think it’s a bogus waste of time. It just made him, and us, think about other outsider communities like psychics, and how it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks if those involved can get some sort of intrinsic value out of it.
With the album set to release next month, what are the next big steps for Dikembe?
We’re on tour with Weatherbox right now. After that we are going to be focusing on our personal lives for a bit so catch us now in our prime or hate yourself forever. Steven goes back to teaching the day we get home, David is getting married in March, and my wife and I are having a baby. We’ve never had huge plans for the band but have just been really lucky to receive enough support to do pretty much everything we’ve set out to do. Balancing out band life and personal life is always tough but I think we are doing all right.
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