Built to Last: Dennis Diken on the Legacy of the Smithereens, Vinyl, and the Lifeblood of Rock and Roll | The Sharp Notes Interview

For over four decades, Dennis Diken has embodied the enduring spirit of American rock and roll as the drummer and co-founder of The Smithereens. In this wide-ranging conversation, Diken reflects on the band’s legacy while underscoring the urgency and relevance of their music in 2025. As the industry shifts toward streaming and fragmented attention, Diken and his bandmates continue to value the full-album experience, recently reissuing 2011 on vinyl—a record originally created as both homage and evolution of their earlier work. Recorded with producer Don Dixon and at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium studio, the album offers a vivid snapshot of a group still energized by collaboration, memory, and craft.

Diken speaks with clarity and affection about the band’s late singer, Pat DiNizio, whose presence remains central to their existence. He also addresses the band’s deep New Jersey roots and blue-collar ethos, where directness and commitment shaped both sound and identity. Throughout the interview, a throughline emerges: the notion that music, when rooted in authenticity and executed with intention, doesn’t age—it resonates.

Whether reminiscing about their musical influences, navigating the business realities of the 21st century, or highlighting emerging rock bands that echo their passion, Diken offers thoughtful insight into the persistence of the band format in a rapidly changing landscape. The result is less a look back than a testament to rock and roll’s lasting vitality—and a reminder that, for some, playing music isn’t a phase. It’s a lifelong calling.

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ezt: Folks know where they live behind me in the stacks there. I'll just show you what we got here. We've got that. We have, of course-- and these are things that I've been grabbing since I was a kid. This one, in fact, was really one of the first-- It was definitely the first record I got from you guys. I remember this record being significant in my record-collecting journey, Green Thoughts.

It was the first record that I purchased that was kind of close to being new-ish when I found it. It wasn't that old. [chuckles] I was like, "This is like a new record." Then, of course, this is a great. I love the art. Jack Davis did this?

dd: Yes. I guess it was one of his last. Jack, for the folks who don't know it there, he was a staff artist at Mad Magazine. That's how we knew about him growing up. He did so much great work for them. He did a number of album covers, including Best of the Cowsills. I can't remember just offhand, but he did just a handful of LP covers, so we were very happy to be in that rarefied air.

ezt: What a great package this is. Of course, you still have your bobblehead somewhere, I'm sure.

dd: We never made the bobbleheads.

ezt: Oh, they're fake bobbleheads?

dd: Yes.

ezt: They fooled me.

dd: [chuckles] That's the mission.

ezt: Then, of course, a bittersweet release here. This is not something you see every day on vinyl.

dd: That's right. They did come out in vinyl, didn't it?

ezt: Yes. Probably in pretty small numbers. There probably aren't too many of them going around, but I'm pleased to have this in my collection. Of course, it's an interesting segue. This came out, I believe, in 2012, and we're here to talk about 2011, which you finally put back on vinyl. That was your last Smithereen's record, and this, I guess, was one of Pat DiNizio's last disc recordings, I suppose.

dd: I guess.

ezt: Why don't you bring us back to 2011 or that phase there and explain how come we're revisiting it here in 2025?

dd: 2011, if you look at the graphics on the front, it's a take off on our 11 album, which came out in 1989. That's the album that had "Girl Like You", one of our most recognized tunes, I guess. The graphics on that were to take off on Oceans 11. Not the current series of that film but the one that came out, I guess in-- I don't know if it was '62 or '61. We appropriated some of the artwork from there. Then, in the year 2011, when we were making an album, it just seemed like, "Oh, let's have some fun and just revisit that and call it 2011 as the kind of thing is art as our wants."

That was a great period. We were all collaborating on the music and coming up with some great songs. We still probably still do have a lot of energy. If you see us live, somehow, we transform into teenagers when we hit the stage. We're far from being teenagers these days, but we really do feel like it when we're on stage. Anyway, so we have these songs. We got back with Don Dixon, who produced our first album and also produced Green Thoughts, and later, produced A Date with The Smithereens.

Anyway, so we traveled down to North Carolina to Mitch Easter's Fidelitorium Studio. Great place. Mitch Easter, of course, is a legendary producer. Worked with Don Dixon producing early R.E.M. records and Mitch, countless just dB's, I believe. Mitch had his own band called Let's Active. Anyway, we were looking forward to recording with him for many years, so that was a good opportunity to do that. Then, we took the tracks, Dixon had his little magic digital box. Put all the tracks in there, and we did all the overdubs and vocals at Pat's house in Scotch Plains.

We look back on that period fondly. There's a lot of other personal memories attached to. Folks and musicians in the New York area might remember a funky little rehearsal place down in Avenue B called Tu Casa. We rehearsed there back in '86 and '87, and we went back there to practice for this album there, and it's no longer there. I'm going off on tangents.

ezt: That's all right. That's what we do.

dd: I'm trying to hit the points of what I flash on when I think of that album. We were happy with the way it turned out. It was out of print for a long time. I think the rights were reverted back to us, so it never appeared on vinyl, so we said, "Let's do it." People are digging it. We're glad it's out there.

ezt: As you said, of course, you've got 20,000 records. Do you feel differently about this being on vinyl at all? Does it do anything about the timeless nature of it or anything like that? Where are you at? Again, obviously, you have a large vinyl collection, so you're a vinyl guy. Have you straddled the line between digital and vinyl nowadays?

dd: To answer the first part of your question, I'm glad to see that this came out on vinyl, just so it's more tangible. It's a 12 by 12 cover, and you can hold it and behold it, and read without a magnifying glass the copious liner notes on it. To me, that's always more of an entity when it's-- That's what I grew up with anyway, rather than just a little item. To have something that's a piece of art. In many cases, just the graphics and the whole totality of it is something more substantial.

To answer the second part of your question, [chuckles] I do most of my listening these days on my little Bose speaker, flitting around the house, doing various tasks. I would never get to listen to as much as I'd like to because I don't sit down in one place too much. To listen to vinyl is a luxury for me right now. If I have a chunk of time, I'm going to be doing e-mails or something like that, and sitting in one place. I'll put a record on, but I'm doing whatever I do all over the place, listening to podcasts, listening to music, listening to the radio, mostly digitally.

I do still totally respect what an LP and a 45 or 78 is. I still think 78s in some cases are the best way to hear certain kind of music. I don't do that. I don't play 78s. I have some, but when I get the opportunity to hear them-- I don't know if you've had much experience with 78s, but the bottom you can get from-- because the revolutions, the faster the speeds.

ezt: Moving fast, yes.

dd: The fidelity is just incredible. Old rock and roll is the best on 78s.

ezt: Hard to find that stuff on 78s. Funny, I found a bunch the other day, in fact, when I was digging around and they were all, of course, broken. You could feel from the-- because they're so prone to be. You can really smash one of those 78s and get it to shatter all over the place.

dd: Doesn't take much to break the 78s. It's amazing so many have survived, actually.

ezt: It's true. Back to the record. It's interesting. Now, before you'd recorded that final album, you did have a bit of a length of time there before you got back. Could you talk about that in-between area there between your last album and this one?

dd: I guess that was the period when we were doing a bunch of tribute records. It was coming up on, I think, an anniversary of the release of Meet the Beatles. We got the idea to do our own take on it, which I thought was a fun idea. I thought, "It'll be funny. It's just a little stopgap until we do another record." It turned out, there was this big media blitz that surrounded it. We got a review on the New York Times, and we got all these bookings out of it. Okay, cool. [chuckles] We said, "Let's do a few others." We did The Beatles B-Sides record.

Thankfully, which yielded us that Jack Davis artwork we talked about. Then, Pat had the idea that we should celebrate the, I think it was 40th anniversary in '09 of the Who's Tommy, another seemingly-- It's a creative idea, it's out there, but we did. We actually got together. I guess I could say we had the audacity to tackle the better portion of the Who's Tommy. It was another item that got a lot of attention. I guess that's what we were doing. We were touring, and then it was time for a new album. We did it.

ezt: The Who timeline is so weird right now, isn't it, with this whole thing with Zak Starkey and Pete and Roger. What's going on with those guys?

dd: You know what, I'm surprised--I guess I shouldn't say I'm surprised, but it's something that they're still out there doing it. At that age, that kind of hard-hitting loud music, it could take its toll on you. Just your hearing-- Pete's been having hearing problems forever, I guess. I don't know what goes on behind closed doors. I hear some stories about that situation, but I'm not at liberty to speak about it. I guess there are reasons why Zak is no longer with them. How long was he with them, 25 years?

ezt: A long time. Since whenever what's-his-name left, I guess.

dd: Simon Phillips?

ezt: Oh, maybe he-- I'm not really a Who expert. He took over after the other guy. The other guy took over for the other guy.

dd: [laughs] When Keith died, they brought in Kenney Jones from Faces.

ezt: Right, Kenney Jones was his name.

dd: That was a few years and then they had a couple of farewell tours. I know on one of those, Simon Phillips was the drummer. I lost interest in what they were doing after Keith died. Grew up a huge Who fan. It just didn't mean that much to me anymore after he passed away. I can't say I really know the answer to what the succession of drummers was at that point either.

ezt: We'll find out all the gritty details one of these days, I'm sure.

dd: Yes.

ezt: Back to the British Invasion, it's interesting, and we're talking New Jersey here, too. You guys kind of fused this British Invasion with this sort of New Jersey, maybe New York City rock and roll sound, which is really interesting. You guys created a really compelling sound. What would you say? Do you think that's something that's still happening nowadays? Do you think people are really being influenced by their roots? You know what I mean? What do you think about this sort of musical stew that you see out on the musical landscape?

Maybe you could just weigh in about how you guys found your sound in those early days.

dd: I think any musician, anybody, and what they do is certainly influenced by their surroundings and their culture that they're submersed in. There's the question is there a Jersey sound? I think that if you looked at Bruce Springsteen, Four Seasons, Frank Sinatra, Smithereens, the Rascals are partly New Jersey, there was a certain edge, I guess you could say that's common to all of those groups and those singers. People from this neck of the woods tend to be very direct. I don't like to use the word blunt but that directness, that no BS kind of thing. It's inherent--

ezt: We're blunt. I mean, I grew up in Paterson, I'm going to be blunt with you, Dennis. You know what I mean?

dd: I think we don't pull any punches. It's meat and potatoes, and it's like a seasoning. I can't help but think, I mean, speaking for myself, I grew up listening to New York radio, WABC and WMCA. I just soaked it all in. I'm sure you could say the same for yourself growing up, you just listen to everything that you can get your hands on as a musician and as a fan. You couldn't help but be influenced and enriched by where your passions lie. I mentioned the Four Seasons before. I knew they were from the Newark area even as a kid, and I was born in Newark.

I felt a certain kinship with them. I could talk for hours about the Four Seasons. Although it's hard to put into words, there's a certain angular quality to their vocals that you don't hear a lot in other-- and then attitude. It's really attitude. I think in all the things in these artists that we're talking about, that I think is somehow influenced by living in this neck of the woods and perhaps whatever's in the water.

ezt: It's funny. When I think about them, I think about a little melodrama. Like a TV Guiding Light, some kind of soap opera. Everybody in New Jersey, there's a little in the musical water, I always find an interesting dramatic edge there. Whether it's Springsteen or all those people that you just mentioned. There's definitely a seriousness, an earnestness with which New Jersey musicians tackle what they're doing. That's the way I've thought about it.

dd: Blue collar. Get the job done. Let's have fun. Let's be serious about what we're doing, but let's not take ourselves too seriously.

ezt: Right, let's mean it, let's do this thing for real.

dd: What you're going to do, you get up on stage and you do your job, man, and we play a long show. We believe in giving your value for money, and because we did grow up in Carteret, New Jersey, a very blue-collar town. I think that work ethic was in our DNA. My dad worked in a factory, and they were hardworking people. Our parents were hardworking people. I think, if anything, that is common to a lot of the Jersey artists, it's just the work ethic. Same thing when we go in the studio, let's not muck about, let's get this done while the energy is still good. I think it's all valid.

ezt: Back to the record, as you were going through the audio of this and putting it together and listening to it as it was progressing and maybe going through some test pressings and stuff like that, was there anything that surprised you revisiting this album in your history? Anything that jumped out at you that you weren't expecting? A memory, or just maybe a song that you'd forgotten about?

dd: I do think it holds up pretty well. I think the album holds up just fine, and we're playing our hearts out, and Pat's voice is great. We all got a chance to sing a bit on it and--

ezt: Is there a tune on there that you really-- if you had a key, Dennis's key tracks?

dd: Yes, there is actually. We only played it live a couple times, but I think it's one of our best songs, and it's called "Nobody Lives Forever". I think it's just a great song. Matter of fact, I'm going to suggest we do play that. I just think it's one of the best Smithereens songs. Jimmy's tune, "One Look At You" is quite good. Sorry is the one we've been playing, that was the single, but yes, "Nobody Lives Forever" is-- Just give a listen to see what you think, but I believe that's one of our best songs.

ezt: How about Pat's memory, and of course, you guys continue on. I've had Marshall Crenshaw on the show a few times, actually. I've had the chance to speak with him, but just thinking about him in the context with this record, and of course with just these years of him not being around, do you have some reflections, thoughts that you've had since his passing?

dd: Yes. I still feel he's still with us in a certain sense. I think that we're keeping his music, our music alive. I think every time we hit the stage, we're keeping his memory alive. We're keeping his spirit going, and the songs deserve to live on, and they still resonate with our audience. Also, as an aside, we could never do this without our audience. We're grateful that after 45 years of doing this, there still is a very loyal and dedicated fan base that come out to our shows. That's from the bottom of our hearts. Pat was a trooper.

He wasn't in great health towards the end, and I always remember him talking about there was a band leader, you probably heard of Stan Kenton.

ezt: Sure, he's over here somewhere...

dd: We were huge fans of Stan Kenton and then Ernest Tubb. The country artist, Ernest Tubb, they both, not literally, died on the road, but they went as far as they possibly could in their careers into their older age, just touring, and playing, and making music. I think that was Pat's attitude. It's really all of our attitudes, this is what we do. Some people work at the post office. Some people are painters, do creative endeavors, and that's what we do. It's our gig to play. We're going to do this as long as people want to hear us, there's no reason not to, because it's all we know how to do. [chuckles]

ezt: As the data shows now, retirement can be a pretty dangerous thing, too.

dd: That and also, retirement is an abstract concept to me because, like I said, I'm just going to keep playing. Officially retire, I don't see that for a long time. There's always something to do. Even if I couldn't play anymore, I'd find something creative to do.

ezt: How about your audience? Of course, I came to your music a little later in life, and you've got your folks that have known you for 45 years, but have you seen a-- I think a lot of younger people gravitate towards what you guys are doing. Have you seen that in your audience? Has it been apparent in live shows, anything like that?

dd: We have. There's a few folks in particular, young people in their 20s that have discovered us and keep coming back. They're really passionate about our music, and that speaks well to the quality of the music, I think. It's not the current flavor by any means, but the songs and our performance, I got to say, I'm not tooting my own horn, but Jimmy and I, in particular, when we hit the stage, we've known each other since we're teenagers. We met in the first day of high school. We really revert to that spirit. We somehow get in a time machine, and we really play like we're teenagers.

That speaks to people. I think maybe people react to that, too. The other thing to add to that is there's people that are maybe not too young but have enjoyed our music for many years, and they're coming out to see us live for the first time. We are having younger fans, some of which are kids or grandkids of the folks that were buying our records back in the '80s and '90s. My dad brought me to the show. I'm really glad he did. There's that thing too. That's rewarding because that means that the music has legs.

ezt: Absolutely. You are always doing so much. I know you're occasionally on the radio, you're doing your stuff. What else are you doing non-Smithereens related? What else are you up to right now?

dd: Working on some tunes. That's always in focus, but on just a purely fun note, I just got back from the UK for a pleasure trip. Jimmy and I met up with a high school friend and went to Liverpool. For the first time, our friend had been there and he was a good tour guide, but being such Beatles fans since we're kids, we finally made it there. It's been so long, we've wanted to all these years. Have you ever been to Liverpool?

ezt: No, I haven't. I've taken a few international trips, but I haven't been to the UK, and I'm like, wow, it's time.

dd: Yes, you should go. If you are a Beatles fan to any degree, it's so cool to go there and geek out. You have to make your appointments with the National Trust if you want to visit John and Paul's homes, which we did. You actually go inside their boyhood homes. It's pretty thrilling and there's a lot of other spots, The Jacaranda Club, where they first played, and the Casbah, where they started playing in 1959 with Pete Best. There's so many things to do in a lot of the pubs, which are nice respite along the way.

We did a lot of walking and stopped at a lot of great pubs, and the Cavern. It's not the original location, it's a couple doors away, but it shares the original stretch of real estate that housed the archway, so you get a sense of what the actual Cavern was all about. That's all pretty thrilling, but what else am I doing? I'm always doing some kind of writing, either just to keep my juices flowing, prose, or journaling, or whatever it is. I did have a radio show that I'm not doing it now, but it was a streaming show on WFMU called Denny's Den.

The archives are still up, so if you go to wfmu.org and look for Denny's Den, you could hear it. I did about 200 shows during lockdown. That was my dream as a kid, was to be a DJ and play drums. Even at a young age, I wanted to do that. When did you start getting the music bug?

ezt: I guess 10, 11 once I started figuring out music. My dad had a record collection, and he did not like rock-- He didn't dislike rock and roll, but he had a classical and jazz collection that got me peaked. Of course, just the radio took me from there. I'd say I started-- It's funny, my son was asking when I started taking guitar lessons, I think I was probably 11, 12, something like that.

dd: It's good to start at a young age like that, because I wish I had taken piano lessons when I was a kid or guitar lessons. I'm self-taught in the drums. It's always been my focus, but when young people ask me, "What kind of advice can you give me if I want to have a career in music?" You start at a young age, get good grounding, and--

ezt: It's too late for you, kid.

dd: [chuckles] It's never too late. I just talked to a fellow who started singing at age 45. It's never too late if you just want to have fun with it, or-- Anyway, the other piece of advice I think is crucial. If you want to be in a band that has any lasting power, find folks that you like to play with, but maybe more importantly, that you like to hang out with, because if you're going to go the distance, man, you're going to be on the bus together. You're going to be in the hotel together, you're going to be eating together, going through promo together.

You're going to be 24/7 together. Make sure that it is really a gift, like what we had is that we're still good friends and we can share everything together in that way. It ain't all beer and Skittles, you really do have to put in your time. I'm not complaining, but it's important, I think, to find that element of it.

ezt: It's a relationship. It's not quite a marriage, but it's certainly a give-and-take relationship that is not easy to navigate all the time. It takes time and effort. I've spoken to, coincidentally, a few bands in the last few months, just rock and roll bands. It's funny, it really hasn't been a lot of bands coming up on my radar, like, bands, and now there are a couple of rock bands. I don't know how tuned in you are to that, but it's just interesting to bring that topic up with you, because you were in a great band and bands for a long time. It wasn't easy to see a band in the mainstream, but they're creeping back, I think.

dd: There's a lot of good bands. My favorite current act is, have you heard the Lemon Twigs?

ezt: Yes. The Long Island guys.

dd: Yes. They're just beyond words. I just love Lemon Twigs. There's a Jersey band called the Ribeye Brothers. Don't know if you know them.

ezt: No.

dd: Great Rock and Roll band from Red Bank. Oh my God, there's so many. Oh, the Corets, the Besnard Lakes. There's so many, actually, and I see them all the time on my playlist and stuff, but when I have to stop and think of it to answer a question like this, I come up blank, but there's a lot of great music out there. It may not be in the mainstream, but if you do a little digging, and I'll say it again, WFMU, freeform station listener-supported, I learned so much from listening to that station, old and new music. I'm amazed how many bands are out there, young bands that are touring and making a gove. In some cases, bands I've never heard of that are selling out Madison Square Garden. They're on a different promo play of sorts. They don't have to have a hit record sometimes if they have a certain following, I guess.

As soon as we hang up, I'll think of 20 bands that I love. There's a great surf band from Russia called Messer Chups. I don't know if you've heard of them.

ezt: No.

dd: They're really remarkable. When you asked before what else am I doing, I have been playing with James Mastro, who's a really talented singer-songwriter who's in the Bongos, Jersey band.

ezt: Actually, I reviewed his last record on the show.

dd: Dawn of a New Error?

ezt: That's right.

dd: We've been playing that album live. I don't play on the record, but we did a slew of shows. James is the best. He's just one of the greatest humans ever, and a lot of fun. Great band too. Tony Shanahan is on bass. Tony plays mostly with Patti Smith and Megan on vocals and Chris Robertson on guitar. Anyway, that's a lot of fun. I always like playing with different people whenever I get the chance to do that. Recently in Los Angeles, I performed in a tribute show to a dear friend who passed away.

A guy called Andy Paley, who was one of my best friends and a super-talented guy. Did a lot of work with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Did music for SpongeBob. Too many things. He worked with Jerry Lee Lewis. He worked with so many great artists, and he was just a guy I could get on the phone with and just geek out about obscure, like, "Who played drums on this Gene Pitney track?" Anyway, there was a great tribute show to him in L.A. in April.

I was just a small part of it, but I played on a bunch of songs and sang a tune. Other artists like Jonathan Richman who is a dear friend. He was in the cartoon and in acting world, too. Tom Kenny, who did the voice of SpongeBob, was there. Anyway, it was a magical night. That was another recent adventure that I was glad to be part of. There's an organization in L.A. called Wild Honey, and it's a autism charity organization, and they do these really wonderful shows, these benefit shows.

Typically, they'll choose an artist or an album to celebrate and do these great, great productions in L.A. A couple years ago, I was really fortunate to be part of the Lovin' Spoonful tribute that they did. You'd have to see the video from these shows to understand the scope of how far they go to get the orchestrations down. They have huge orchestras playing when needed and several different rhythm sections, and it's an organization that needs to be recognized for what they do artistically and for their charity work.

ezt: I'm glad you bring that up. I'm seeing that on some liner notes somewhere. I don't know what it was, but I believe I've heard about it. I wish I could recall exactly where it was I've seen their group type somewhere, but I can't.

dd: They've done a number of shows. They've celebrated several Beatle albums, Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, the Kinks, on and on. It's really a real special group of people and musicians, some of the best players in L.A., and a real wonderful spirit to what they do. It's really great to be a part of that.

ezt: Dennis, often in these interviews, I'm always telling people they're like in the UK or wherever they are, and I say, "I'm in New Jersey," but today it's great to be with a true New Jersey legend. Two New Jerseyans here together. I really appreciate your time and the music that you guys made all these years. Thanks so much for doing this with me today.

dd: Thanks, Evan. I hope that one of these days maybe we'll share a stage together and make some noise together.

ezt: That would be fabulous. Anytime. Let me know.

dd: All right.