Drifting on the Dial Interviews Dressy Bessy

Drifting on the Dial’s Joey Soares interviews Tammy Ealom from Dressy Bessy ahead of their Betty Boop’s Birthday Bash for a Cause performance.

Okay, first off, how are you doing?

Good, I’m doing well. We’re in a heat wave, just like the rest of the country, so we’re just trying to navigate all this heat.

Starting with questions about the event, how did you guys become involved with Saturday Morning Cartoons United?

Well, they approached us about this Betty Boop benefit bash and it was kind of a no-brainer, ‘cause I’ve been a Betty Boop fan all my life, you know? In junior high school, I wore big, oversized sweatshirts with her image on it, all colorful. They just invited us to play, and we’re like heck yeah! When we found out it was a benefit, it just made it even more up our alley.

I think of you guys as part of the indiepop world affiliated with cartoons, mainly because of the Powerpuff Girls album. How did you guys get into that CD — did [Powerpuff Girls creator] Craig McCracken ask you guys to be on that?

He did! There’s kind of an interesting story — he approached us to do a cover of a ‘60s song by a group called the Free Design. “Bubbles” was initially by the Free Design. Yeah, love them! Yeah, I love them too. When he approached us, he said that he had approached someone else as well. And we were like, “oh, okay,” so we hustled and covered it within two days and sent it back and we got it in before this other artist. So we were like, “yes, yes, yes!” and he liked our version of it, so we made the soundtrack. We come to find out later — the other artist was Sean Lennon & Yoko Ono! No way, that’s crazy! I know! I wonder if they actually did the cover. Yeah, I don’t know if they ever recorded it or not, but they were also asked to do it. We didn’t know it was them, but we just knew we had to be on the soundtrack because we loved Powerpuff Girls.

While I’m asking questions like ‘who reached out to you to be in things,’ who reached out to you to be in But I’m a Cheerleader?

That was the writer/director, Jamie Babbitt! Apparently, there was an intern on the set who, in between scenes, had a mixtape that they were playing. When they were wrapping the movie, it was already kind of built-in as the soundtrack, our two songs. She reached out, and back then it was via phone call. So she called us personally and asked — we were like “Yeah!” As soon as she told us it was RuPaul and Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall, we were like “yes. yes. yes!” Still one of the most iconic, most beautifully-shot, beautiful love stories ever. It gets funnier every time, it’s so timeless, just so ridiculous, the whole concept. And it’s still as relevant as it ever was, unfortunately.

I revisited the Endless Endless book, and I saw that your guys’ first show was New Years’ Eve 1996. There’s got to be a story there — was it a New Years’ Eve party, what was the venue, what was it like?

It was a house party, and we started as a three-piece. It was the original drummer, Darren Albert, and original bass player Rob Green. They had gotten stranded in Colorado on a road trip. Their van broke down, so they were staying with an old friend who lived in Colorado. That’s how I met them, but long story short, after we started the band (it was just three of us), we had six songs, and so we set up and played the party. We played every song three times. And this was before John was in the band? Yeah, before John was in the band. John joined after we decided we needed a lead guitar player and he was just like “uhh… I’ll do it,” I think just because he was my boyfriend, too, and he didn’t want me to get some other hot guitar player in the band. But it’s the best, because we complement each other so well. Yeah, absolutely! 

Funnier question now: who’s Henry in “Just Like Henry?” Who is Henry? Can I ask this?

He’s a friend who thought he was the best artist in the whole world and he was mean to everyone else and he blew it. He lost some good friendships, and that’s all I’m gonna say. Aw. Henry is anyone you want him to be. Most of my songs, especially in the early days, derive from heartache, like someone’s “ugh,” being ticked off and it’s my kind of way to get quiet revenge. All of my songs are open for interpretation, but they come from a place of like, “ugh, gosh, I’m so frustrated,” and they come out like “dee-da-doo, doo-doo-doo!” and then haha, I win the argument, even though they don’t know I did.

The bonus track at the end of Pink Hearts Yellow Moons — it’s a “A Day in the Life” reference, right, with all the laughing? I’m curious, were there any fun stories with the session?

You know, I don’t remember. I honestly don’t remember. The whole album was so fun to make and it was all fresh and new to us. We were figuring out who we were and what we had to say and what our sound was. I have no idea, I don’t think there’s anything specific that I can remember. Those early days were just like “Weee! We rule!” We knew we had chemistry and there’s something to be said for a group of people who, when they come together, create a sound, and you know — that’s what was happening. You guys all gel together very well. Very excited to see you guys soon. Thank you, so excited!

What inspired you to put out a solo record? I heard it a week ago, it’s so good!

Oh, thank you so much! I just started writing, like a lot of artists, after the pandemic. Dressy Bessy’s last record came out in 2019, it’s called Fast Faster Disaster. And it came out in June of 2019, and we were able to tour for those eight months until the pandemic hit. We were one of those bands where we had the whole next year, 2020, we were planning on a bunch of touring and television appearances, and it was just *woosh!* gone. So, I came home like, ‘oh my gosh,’ you know, once you start rolling out a record and playing lots of shows, it’s just like this electric feeling. It was so disappointing to come home and it was just, that’s it. It’s kind of like the end of the album cycle, too. I just started writing and I couldn’t get together with the band for that first year, for sure. Nobody was sure what was going on, yadda yadda. I just started writing and demoing songs, which I’ve always done. But I’ve always had in mind, ‘oh, this’ll become a Dressy Bessy song,’ which means I’ll demo it and bring it to the band. If they can come up with better parts than I did, that’s it, they’ll write their little part (or big part! I didn’t mean little part! You know what I mean.) But this time, the recordings were so good, I thought, maybe this is just something else. I mean, a lot of people do it, you know? A lot of people write songs for one band and they’ve just got something else in them. That’s what this was. For me, it was kind of like, well, if I want to go out and play some shows, it’s just me and my guitar. I can throw it in the trunk of my car and go by myself, so that’s kind of what I’ve been doing. Dressy Bessy has a new permanent bass player, his name is Mike King, who you will meet. He’s so cute! But anyway, I’ve convinced him to join in, and he plays the bass with me live now when he’s available. So it’s bass, and I have a drum pedal, so I operate the drums too. I’ll be back around to you, I’ll come through. And guitar and vocals, and it’s awesome, I love it! It’s just something different. It keeps me busy, too, when Dressy Bessy is not doing anything. I’ve still gotta rehearse these songs and it’s just something else. Nice. It’s good stuff! Yeah, thank you so much. I’m super proud of it. It’s the first record that I mixed by myself, which I don’t think I’ll do again. The EQ curve is something I’ve learned a lot but it’s not something I want to retain. I think I’ll leave it to the professionals. It sounds good, it sounds good. I’m going to leave that space for other things, but yeah. I’m glad you took a listen.

Do you guys have any other material you’ve been working on as Dressy Bessy?

Well, we have a ton of backlog songs that are demoed. We could do a couple albums. For now, we’re going to start reissuing our past albums, starting with Pink Hearts, February 27th, on Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records. We’re going to roll all of that out then see what happens, just kinda rolling with it. We have so much, there’s so much. We’re one of those bands where everywhere we go, we’ve been around for almost thirty years, and people are like “oh, I’ve heard your name, but I’ve never heard you!” There’s a lot of that, and I’m like “okay, it’s never too late. Give us a listen!” So we’re just gonna keep on trucking ‘cause we’re lifers. Yeah!

Betty Boop’s Birthday Bash for a Cause will be at The Alex Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, August 8, 2026. More information available at: https://www.cartoonsunited.com/events/betty-boop-birthday-bash