|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Interviews
Mike
Clancey:
- What a joke that thing is. You know that 50% or more of the bands at
that thing pay $1000 to play. So imagine what I had to sit through before
our time came to play (if you have an extra $1000 sitting around spend
it on music lessons, and you won't have to pay to play.), and what makes
these bands even worse is the fact that they have no sound check, so it's
just start playing and we'll try to figure out where each microphone is
placed while you're playing, so when you're watching these bands all you
can hear is each separate instrument getting louder and quieter, it's
just an unorganized mess, but hey if you don't run it like that, Jack
Koshick might have to work this year, yep, time is money. Anyway, So I'm
not taking notice that everyone is using the same gear on stage, so our
time comes to play and we empty our whole trailer full of gear (roughly
3500 pounds of equipment) up to the stage door. The "Stage Manager"
comes out and says, "you can't bring all that in here." What????
You mean I got up at 5:something AM to come out here to play through some
Line 6 amplifiers and a nine piece super metal drum kit. No! A lot of
people went to bat for us to try to ask Jack to let us use our own stuff
but it wasn't going to make him any money and the "Stage Manager"
might have had to get up off his ass and stop eating for a few minutes.
Fuck that thing, We all went through a lot to collect all the gear we
have, it's a big part of what Dragon Green is and I'm not compromising
that for anything, if I had know that we were using anyone else's equipment
I wouldn't have even been there, all was not lost though I got to see
great sets by 5ive and Bongzilla, I just stood real close to the stage
so I didn't have to hear the PA destroy it. That guy has no interest in
anything but money and how much of it he can make. You know what he did
to... uh... it was either Blitzkrieg or Diamond Head or maybe both, he
was supposed to arrange accommodations for these guys while they were
there and I guess he was like getting them around and stuff while they
were here. Well, once the show was over he just decided well I'm done
here and he just left them stranded at Asbury Park convention center.
Manowar wouldn't even take a check from him, they demanded cash before
they played, I guess they know already. Hellride Music: Your new CD "Emissions from the Green Sessions" is doing pretty damn well. Congrats. What's more amazing is that it's doing well and there's no friggin' vocals on the thing! What's the story behind that? Mike:
Thanks. Well, we never found a vocalist and we weren't going to sit around
and wait for one so we just started playing without one. Hellride Music: Tell us about the vocalist you just hired. He's from Stillwater right? The band from Almost Famous? Keep him away from the acid. Mike:
The vocalist that we just hired and then immediately quit? Not that Stillwater,
him and I had another band before this called Stillwater, but he flaked
out of that band too, no big deal though, we've done it for along time
without vocals and it's worked, we really don't feel like going through
the hassle of trying find anyone else anymore. We work well together the
way it is and we're used to it that way, you'll start hearing our voices
on the Dragon Green stuff once we get comfortable with it. But we be keeping
vocals very subtle, here and there, I want the main focus to be on the
music. Hellride Music: I've also heard that you guys will be recording soon with the new vocalist...will any of the tunes on "Emissions..." make it on there, but with vocals added? Mike:
Some of the songs will most likely be re-recorded again and those will
definitely have vocals on them. Hellride Music: Your live show is said to be exceptional. You've got a multi-media thing going on in addition to the action on the stage. Whose idea was this and who developed this? Tell us a bit about it? Mike: I've wanted to have a visual element to the band mainly because we're fat and ugly and no one wants to look at us. This way we can hide in the shadows. I think it adds to whole idea of the band just another way to mess with your head. Mike Ireton is the guy who actually is responsible for running all the films and does all the developing of the whole visual end of things. We hunt down old films and he cuts them all up and makes reels out of them, it's a few layers thick with slides on top of film, there's a lot going on. I couldn't think of a way to explain it, you really have to see it.
Mike:
Aerosmith definitely had some rocking tunes in the early days, I guess
I don't have much of an opinion on it, I don't really listen to it so
if they're happy still doing it and there's obviously a market for it
then rock
Mike: Sure have. I delivered pizzas for a while when I was in High School (like 10 years ago.wow) I was delivering one time and I went in this house and there's these kids sitting around the TV laughing at some guy trying to screw a chicken. So at some point it got to a chick trying to stick an eel in her, I think it was dead though. Hellride Music: What kind of gear do you guys use anyway? Mike: Matamp, Sunn, Mesa Boogie, Ampeg, Gibson.
Mike:
I met Ed when I was back in Stillwater. He's helped us out A LOT. The
Emissions from Green CD was just something that we had recorded
really quickly before we went to play Emissions 2. He really liked it
and wanted to put it out, so he did and it has been doing a lot for us.
Have to credit Mick too, he's the other guy at Infernal Racket, he's done
a great deal for us too. Hellride Music: What's coming up for the band in 2002? Mike:
Recording a song next week for an Echo Relations compilation called Tripping
The Light Fantastic Vol.1 . "Turning Stones", the first
song off the CD is being used in some Western "?" movie being
made in New Mexico. Hellride Music: Cool! Thanks for the interview... anything else you'd like to say to finish this off? Mike:
Thanks for letting me babble. You can check out Dragon Green online at
www.dragongreen.com
Sorry if you actually read all this.
|
Fans
of the heavy riff "we don't need no stinkin' vocalist" approach
of bands such as Karma to Burn (RIP) or Hostile Apostle will bust a nut
over the ultra tight, sledgehammer jams of Allentown, PA's Dragon Green.
Add the success of their Emissions from the Green Sessions CD and
their reputation for raging, multimedia live shows, the 'Green is not
to be missed. Hellride Music's Chris Barnes talks to guitarist Mike Clancey.