ISSUE 9

EXIT,CHICAGO
we Hear all about
SMOKING POPES
found the highly
anticipated new
LAST SECOND SIGNAL
the album from The
Bangkok Five
THE BOXER REBELLION
hottest HMAS VENDETTA
male CALL THE DOCTOR
alt
model
and
snagged
him
 In This Issue
on the cover special features
Jonathon Hartigan The Boxer Rebellion
Indie Music goes
interview with Lissy Pages
Mainstream Hollywood
6-7 By Lissy MacMillan
Page 5
Interview with HMAS
Vendetta with Shaz
Pages 10-12
Interview with Last
Second Signal
Page 17 regular
Spooky Chicago- Check
out the area’s most columns
haunted places Venue Review- Exit,
Page 19
Chicago Page 4
Spooky Screening-
This season’s top mov-
Cola’s whore-a-scope Page
ies to not watch 9
alone Page 23 Lissy’s Same Old Ten
Interview with Gary with Baz Francis of Magic
Smoking Popes O.Kane Pages 24-26 Eight Ball Page 13
interview Pages 14-16 Emily’s Song- UK Quick Reviews Page 9
The Bangkok Five Based charity, Reunite Nick Files: Call the Doctor
interview Pages 32-37 gets a hand with rais- and With love from hu-
ing some money with
Juliette Lewis this moving story
mans
(Bitter Wigs and The Last Pages 27-28
Page 18
Vegas) The Self-Employed Musi- Generation INCLINATION
Pages 20-21 cian Page 29 recap page 28
Photos from the show Page Interview with Hawthorn
22 Page 30-31 Find us online
Concerts not to miss
this halloween weekend website: www.
page 31 facebook: http
radio: www.blo
http://itunes.a
Myspace: www
Twitter: http:/
http:/
YouTube: http
And on your sm

INCLINATION™ AND GENERATION INCLINATION™ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©

 letter from the editor
Hi everyone,
Summer has ended and fall is upon us. That means visiting graveyards, watching horror movies
under a blanket and lots of Halloween parties! This issue helps take care of all that.
We have a new weekly feature on the website, called “Free Music Monday’s” it’s a way to help
bands get their music heard and what music lover doesn’t like a free tune? Check out inclina-
tiononline.com to find out more.
The radio show is gaining more listners every week, we have guests drop by the studio and we’re
also available on iTunes if you miss the live action.
Some awesome shows coming up... check out our event calendar and also our news page where
we post press releases on tours. You’ll see us at some of them.
Well, I hope you enjoy this issue, we’ve taken our time, making sure it is choc full of quality con-
tent, and already we have work piling up for the next one.
Don’t forget you can send us your comments on facebook or at yoursay@inclinationonline.
com.
Lissy

Contributors to this issue:

Lissy MacMillan - editor in chief, graphics, articles and interviews
Cola - creative director, photography, articles
Shaz Millar - interviews
Nick Giles- interviews and articles
Kevin Branigan - articles.
e: Also thank you to
.inclinationonline.com
Adam McKinstry,
p://www.facebook.com/pages/Chicago-IL/INCLINATION/173128635781 Virgel and Brat Prince
ogtalkradio.com/inclination
apple.com/us/podcast/generation-inclinatioblogid385472522
for their help with
w.myspace.com/inclinationwebzine Generation INCLINA-
//twitter.com/InclinationZine
//twitter.com/GenINCLINATION
TION
p://www.youtube.com/user/LissyMacMillan
martphone by typing our web address into your browser.
 this months venue
' E R E
W A S
COLA
MusiC mayhem
& mixers
A Friday night in Chicago, the streets
bustle with hipsters galore, the bar
doors are open and the drinks are
ready to be poured. What shall I do?
Many of us ask ourselves this ques-
tion as we hope to begin an evening
of the much needed stress relief that
our work week constantly creates
in our lives. I for one have traveled
the endless pubs and clubs in the
windy city for over a decade and a
half and there is one place that still
wets my thirst for a couple drinks,
some great music and a crowd of
people who are all ready for a bit
of the same. This place is “EXIT”
Exit in Chicago has been a staple of
the wilder side of the art community
in Chicago since before I was old
ONGOING EVENTS
PUNK ROCK MONDAYS
DJ COLIN SPINS PUNK ROCK ALL NIGHT
TUESDAYS ATTACK
DJ CONOR PLAYING A MIX OF PUNK,
HARDCORE AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN
NO REGRETS WEDNESDAYS
DJ'S BLAKE AND STAVROS ROCK!
ON THE FIRST FLOOR.
FLABBY HOFFMAN CALVACADE television
variety show
FIRST WEDNESDAYS ON THE SECOND
FLOOR.
LIVE METAL AND ROCK SHOWS
SECOND WEDNESDAYS ON THE SECOND
FLOOR.
THURSDAYS: BONDAGE A GO-GO,
CHICAGO'S LONGEST RUNNING FETISH
EVENT FEATURING MISS MAYA SINSTRESS
AND MIKE SPATULA ON THE SECOND
FLOOR
DJ MICKEY MASSACRE SPINS THE SICKEST
PSYCHOBILLY,
ROCKABILLY, GARAGE, TRASH, AND PUNK
ROCK ON THE FIRST FLOOR.
SATURDAYS: DJ RODNEY SPINS
YOUR FAVORITES ON THE FIRST FLOOR.
DJ JEFF MOYER SPINS INDUSTRIAL
ON THE SECOND FLOOR AND DANCE
enough to plop my rosy red, Russian FLOOR OPEN.
behind down onto a barstool. Keep VAUDEZILLA'S BROADZILLA
ing up with the times and still serv- LAST FRIDAYS ON THE SECOND FLOOR.
ing reasonably priced beverages, SUNDAYS: THE CHICAGO METAL
Exit is a memorable way to spend FACTORY'S METAL SUNDAYS HOSTED BY
your night off. Beyond the super RODNEY, EVERY SUNDAY ON THE FIRST
decadent decor, packed with vintage FLOOR.
posters, biker props, (including a
cycle out on the floor) bricked walls,
deep reds , dark blacks, and light- sweep you off to. The tra-
ing fit for a dungeon playground, dition
of life in thee
Exit boasts two stories of pure fast lane keeps pumping out of the
rock and roll fury. (Thanks Brody) speakers as the drinks flow at this
The staff is friendly and knows hallmark Punk Rock venue that is
their way around the wild crowd just a hop, skip a and a jump out-
that they draw. A night at Exit is side of lovely of Wicker Park.
a sure l fire way to clear your head
of any grime that has accumu-
lated over the week, bringing one Cola gives Exit a big fat thumbs
to that special place of bliss where up. Cheers to Exit, keep the wild
only a cocktail, beer or a few shots alive in our city that is windy.
of whatever floats your boat, can
 INDIE MUSIC GOES MAINSTREAM HOLLYWOOD
ARTICLE & IPHONE PICTURES BY LISSY MACMILLAN
Not since “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Play- They are coming back to the US for
list” have we seen such a cool soundtrack a full North American tour in a few
on a Box Office hit, but this movie was weeks. Here are the dates:
about New York’s indie scene so it would
be strange if Lady Gaga and U2 were on it. September 21: Johnny Brenda’s,
Philadelphia, PA
“Going the Distance” featuring Drew Bar-
rymore, Justin Long, Christina Applegate September 22: The Middle East,
and other recognizables is about a couple Cambridge, MA
making long distance love work while on
opposite sides of the country. Why am I September 23: The Bowery
so excited about this movie? Because The Ballroom, New York, NY
Boxer Rebellion, a band I interviewed and
love happen to be in the movie playing a September 24: Black Cat,
couple of their songs. One of my favorites Washington DC
“Spitting Fire” from their album “Union” and a song specially written for
September 25: The Bell House,
the movie called “If You Run”. I went and saw The Boxer Rebellion play
Brooklyn, NY
at the Debonair Social club while they were doing a mini tour promot-
ing the movie, and I asked them how it was that an unsigned band from September 27: Horseshoe Tavern,
London, England landed a gig on a Hollywood movie alongside Drew Bar- Toronto, ON
rymore. Todd Howe, their guitarist told me that they had been playing
a show at The Troubadour in California when they were approached by September 28: iLounge @ Clutch Cargo’s,
someone from New Line who had been there watching. They were later Pontiac, MI
on asked to not only write a song but to also be a part of the movie and
play on camera, which after seeing them play was a very smart move September 29: The Empty Bottle,
on the Director’s part. Debonair is a rather Chicago, IL
intimate venue, and I love going to shows
Sept 30: Annex, Madison, WI
like that as it makes me feel like the band
is playing to me, not a room full of people October 1: 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis,
so I’m glad my first experience of seeing MN
them live was in that atmosphere. Their
sound is big but articulate, their virtuos- October 5: Berbati’s Pan, Portland, OR
ity is compelling and I was mesmerized
by their performance, I couldn’t believe October 7- 10: Culture Collide Festival,
they had played nine songs for us; time Los Angeles, CA
had flown by so quickly.
October 7: Popscene,
San Francisco, CA
Set List:
These Walls Are Thin
Evacuate
Semi Automatic
We Have This Place Surrounded
Step Out Of The Car! (new song)
If You Run
The Runner
Forces
Watermelon
 male
alternative
model
jonathon hartigan
interview by Lissy MacMillan
Lissy: Did you always want to be a model growing up?

I never thought about modeling until I was around 17 or 18. I have worked on
shoots with the same photographer that did my initial shoot ever since.

Lissy: Who’s your favorite photographer to work with and why?

Her name is Alison Visona. I feel extremely comfortable with her. She
just gets me. I believe that is due to the fact that we have worked to-
gether for so long. She feels the same about me as well. We both are
able to explore freely our artist sides without any rules or boundaries.

Lissy: There seem to be millions of female models, are

there many male models, and how hard is it to get work?

I guess it depends on what kind of work a male model is looking to do. I

prefer to do rather “edgy” work, so I think it may be easier for me to find
photographers that I can shoot with. Also, the subculture that I am in allows
me to find work that I prefer. I do not know any male models personally.

Lissy: If you were to direct a shoot, money’s no object, what would you do?

Cyberpunk prison shoot. Super sexy female prison guards in la-

tex. Very realistic looking weapons and hardware. I am go-
ing to try and do this anyways. On a limited to no budget. :)

Lissy: Do you have a “day job”? If so, what is it?

I do have a day job. I work as an inside salesman for an electrical dis-

tribution company. I make everyone at my job uneasy and I love it.

Lissy: How many tattoos do you have? Have they been

an asset to your modeling career or a hindrance?

9 right now. Very soon I will have my right arm half sleeve. I believe
they are an asset for me. Again, I pre- Lissy: As a Chicagoan, if someone my photos. Nothing really crazy though. Dur-
fer to do “alt” modeling, so it works. If from out of town was to ask you where ing a 1 week period I had 3 people come up
I wanted to do runway or high fash- to go on the weekend for some good to me and say I look like Christopher Walken,
ion then it would be a detriment for sure. nightlife where would you suggest? which I found rather amusing because I do not
believe I look anything like him. “I gotta fever,
Lissy: What kind of music are you in to? Neo if they wanted to cut a rug. Liars and the only prescription is more cowbell”
Club if they wanted to get shit ham-
I am very much in to electronic music. In- mered and hear good, random music. Lissy: What was your favorite sub-
dustrial, EBM, Synthpop, Electro. At a Cobra Lounge is another place I enjoy. ject in school, were you a good student?
very young age I was introduced to De-
peche Mode, Nitzer Ebb, New Order, etc. Lissy: What do you like to do in your free time? History and English were my favorite subjects.
This kind of music heavily influenced who I I find war history extremely fascinating. And I
am today. I would not have it any other way. In my free time I enjoy working out, writing, lis- enjoy reading and writing very much. Ha-ha. I
tening to music, watching movies, and hanging was NOT a good student. I believe when you
Lissy: Do you have a favorite Chi- out with my good friends. Music and friends are go to school, you should want to go on your own
cago band, current or past? so vitally important to me. I do not know what time and money. I was not ready for school
I would do without those 2 aspects of my life. when I was younger. Since, I have gone to
Hmmm. Most of the bands I am in to are school on loans and my own dime and excelled.
from Europe. Chicago used to be a hot bed Lissy: Do you get a lot of cra-
for industrial music. Unfortunately, that is not zy fan mail, and what’s the funni- Lissy: What kind of movies do you like, and
the case any longer. There are a lot of good est thing someone has said to you? what’s your favorite quote from a movie?
noise bands in Chicago right now. Nude Sun-
rise comes to mind as one of my favorites. Ha-ha. I do receive pleasant comments on I love film. The horror genre being my fa-
vorite since I was a lad. I also enjoy sci-fi,
comedy, and drama. Favorite quote “I want
more life, fucker”. This is from Blade Runner when Roy Batty
meets his maker for the 1st time. Blade Runner is my favorite film.

Lissy: What has been your biggest achievement in your life so far?

I do not base great achievements on money, jobs, or sta-

tus. I will give you 2. Not marrying my ex-fiance who stunt-
ed my artistic growth. And traveling to Virgin Gorda in the
British Virgin Islands. The most amazing place on earth.

Lissy: Where would you like to see yourself in five years from now?

5 years from now I would like to see myself as a stronger person

emotionally and spiritually. Personal growth is vastly important to
me. And it wouldn’t hurt if I owned my movie theater as well. :)

Lissy: If someone wanted to contact you for business reasons,

how can they get in touch with you?

The best way to contact me is via email or Facebook. My email is

thewerewolf7@yahoo.com and you can find me via Facebook by
typing in my name.

Thanks, Jonathon!
 ROCKTOBER
HORRORSCOPE
by the evil queen cola
LIBRA
Watch your back as you ride your bike through the city streets. The wind will carry you,
but there is a chill of darkness swirling from within it, you shall reap what you have sewn.
SCORPIO
That crime you have committed hasn’t
disappeared. Expect the victim to come
for revenge.
SAGITTARIUS
The ghost of your old friend will visit you
in a dream, head their advise. It may save
your soul.
CAPRICORN
Don’t worry, your house isn’t haunted…
it’s far to messy for a ghost to want to
stick around. Clean!
AQUARIUS
There is unfinished business in the spiri-
tual realm, and as All Hallow’s Eve ap-
proaches, the headless (doesn’t get head)
whore’s man will come for you.
PISCES
You will be forced to confront your fears
as your “good” buddies take you to a
haunted house. It’s you own!
ARIES
The ghosts are more afraid of you. That
haircut and ridiculous choice of ward-
robe that is suited for a 20 something
carnival worker will protect you from the
spirits….even ghosts have standards.
TAURUS
Stay away from fortune tellers,
they’ll take your money and give
your poor advice.
GEMINI
Make your famous pumpkin pie, but
leave out the eggs this time…they’re
not bloody or damned, just possibly
diseased.
CANCER
Ghost don’t have any money to give
you, so you generally don’t care.
LEO
You will have sex with a ghost. It
will be the best orgasm you’ve ever
had….that didn’t require AA batter-
ies.
VIRGO
If the spirits of the unknown and
curious realm want to be bored to
death by your trite small talk and self
absorbed bullshit, they’ll visit you…
.I think you’re fairly safe. Maybe Billy Mayes will
drop off some Oxy Clean for the shit stains on
your face.
 By Lissy MacMillan
Q TAMARYN- LOVE FADE
Tamaryn is a musician from San Francisco via New York, and this song comes from her debut album

U Waves that she collaborated on with Producer, Rex John Shelverton. Tamaryn’s vocals work with the
music in a way to create an ethereal sound that’s both beautiful and haunting. I can find myself get-
ting totally lost in this album if Love Fade is a good example of what to expect with the other eight
tracks.

I Find out more about Tamaryn at http://www.myspace.com/imagesmusic

And download this track for free at http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Tamaryn/track/Love_Fade

A MILLION YEARS- HOLY GHOST TOWN

C
Holy Ghost Town is from the album “Mischief Maker” by the Brooklyn band, A Million Years. Holy
Batman! This song picked me right up on this Monday morning, something even my coffee wasn’t
managing to do. They reminded me a little of Rooney without the California precociousness. Shan-
non Ferguson (Longwave) produced this album that came out recently after releasing an EP last year.
Their Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/amillionyearsmusic

K Download this track for free: http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/A_Million_Years/music

THE LIKE- FAIR GAME

This is one that I’ve just recently purchased. I heard Fair Game and instantly fell in love with
their retro pop sound. Then came He’s Not A Boy and Release Me. The rest of the album didn’t
disappoint me either, if you like that sixties throwback sound, The Like is for you. The Like
are four ladies showing the world how it’s done and are currently touring the UK.
Check them out http://www.myspace.com/thelike
Download Fair Game for free: http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/The_Like/music

R TEAM GHOST- SIGNS AND WONDERS

Team Ghost is the creation of M83’s Nicolas Fromageau based in Paris, France, and
Signs and Wonders is from their new EP “Celebrate What You Can’t See” which is

E available on 10” vinyl and digital dl. The cover is very risqué, with a picture of a
topless woman smoking a cigarette, hmmm how French… With beautiful in-
strumentation and soothing vocals, those clever peeps at NME came up with a
brand new genre for Team Ghost, calling them “Cold-gaze”

V Have a gander at http://www.myspace.com/teamghostmusic

Download the song http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Team_Ghost/track/Signs__
Wonders

THE BOXER REBELLION- EVACUATE

I I can’t say enough good things about this band, but I shall save all that
for another article. Evacuate is from their album “Union” which is,
in its entirety an audial pleasure and recorded and produced com-
pletely unsigned. Although this album has been out for a while

E and done extraordinarily well, expect to see a lot more of it and

them as two tracks from Union are on Drew Barrymore’s new
movie “Going The Distance” they even make an appearance
as themselves performing. They’ll be heading to the US

W for their first North American tour mid-September,

I can’t wait to see them again!
http://www.myspace.com/theboxerrebellion
Download Evacuate for free- http://rcrdlbl.

S com/artists/The_Boxer_Rebellion/track/
Evacuate

Named after a ship in the scrap
iron flotilla” that served in the
Australian Navy in WWII, HMAS
Vendetta is a Powermetal band
that sings songs about Austra-
lian History. The early convicts,
explorers, ANZACs and Aboriginal
warriors have gone but their sto-
ries of triumph and tragedy will
live on, as glorious and immortal
as heavy metal itself. Vocalist
and pianist William James Smith
founded HMAS Vendetta after he
returned from living in Britain
in 2007. The inspiration for the
band came when William saw Euro-
vision winners Lordi live in Lon-
don on Halloween 2006. The sup-
port band was Turisas, a Finnish
theatrical battle-metal band with
violin and accordion in their
line-up who sing about Viking vic-
tories. Feeling homesick William
realized that he could adapt this
hitherto European genre of music
to tell the story of battles that
Australians had fought and won.
Within weeks he bought a ticket
to Melbourne and headed home to
carry out this mission. Over time
HMAS Vendetta was joined by Zac
Johnston the virtuoso of acous-
tic metal violin, Neale Graham on
guitar, Rory “Convict” O’Donnell
on drums and Austen “Ozz” Kosasih
on bass. Together they play a
Interview with
H.M.A.S. VENDETTA
By Shaz
distinctly Australian style
of Powermetal that is fast,
furious and, above all else,
fun. To date HMAS Vendetta
has played the Hi-Fi Bar,
The Tote, Dong Dong, Noise
Bar, Barley Corn and DV8 in
Melbourne, and the Barwon
Club in Geelong. With crowd
participation, costumes and
comedy as part of the show,
few bands create such a bond
with their audience as HMAS
Vendetta. Their patriotic
rock anthems will stir the
ANZAC spirit in even the
wimpiest indie-rock ponce.
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
“HMAS Vendetta sounds like
a cross between Cold Chis-
el, the Pogues and Hellow-
een all drinking at your lo-
cal pub. Enlist TODAY” - Tom
“Tango” Valcanis on Facebook.
Today I would like to take
the Time to say Welcome To
a Band from Australia...
H.M.A.S.VENDETTA. Welcome
on Behalf Of Inclination...
Will: Thanks, Shaz. It’s a
pleasure to be here. To all
your metal readers, Hail!
Shaz: Firstly could you please
introduce your band and members?
Will: G’Day Shaz. I’m William
James Smith, vocalist and pi-
ano player for HMAS Vendetta.
Zac: Hello! My name is Zac
Johnston and I’m the fid-
dle player for the band.
Rory: G’Day, Rory O’Donnell
is my name and I play the
drums, meaning I’m the Rear
Admiral of HMAS Vendetta, as
strange as that sounds... was
that a bad choice of words?
Shaz: Could you tell me how
you got your name and why?
Will: We are named after a ship
that first served in the Austra-
lian Navy in WWII. HMAS Vendetta
was part of the scrap iron flo-
tilla” which was a group of ships
commissioned after WWI but be-
cause of the depression Australia
had not updated them when WWII
broke out in 1939. So these rust
buckets, HMAS Vendetta, Vampire,
Voyager and Waterhen (affection-
ately known as The Chook”) set
off for the Mediterranean to sup-
port the British Navy, and later
came back to support the Ameri-
cans in the Pacific. Like Aus-
tralia the scrap iron flotilla
were the underdogs amongst the
allies but they punched above
their weight, doing their duty
in daring runs under enemy fire
and covering themselves in glo-
ry. We are proud to carry on
their name. (**Sob sob**gets
all choked up with pride**)
Shaz: What are your musical back-
grounds...(Who are you and your
band members? Tell your story.)
Will: I’ve been singing and writ-
ing songs in bands for a while
now. I started in Perth and even-
tually headed to London to rock
out. That was fun - being part of
the rock scene that produced The
Darkness - but while I was living
in Britain I got homesick and de-
cided to head home and start this
band that deals with Aussie his-
tory. And I started playing piano
again, which I had not taken se-
riously since high school. Best
musical decision I ever made.
Zac: I’ve been playing violin
professionally for around 12
years. I’m classical trained but
have been mucking around in the
folk scene for a long time, do-
ing heaps of festivals, sessions,
and just jamming on whatever
anyone gives me. Apart from folk
I also specialize in new clas-
sical music – that weird music
that often sounds like cats dy-
ing. Will approached me mid 2009
and asked whether I would be
keen to try my hand at metal us-
ing the violin. I’d never heard
metal fiddle before so I took
it as a challenge. I haven’t
looked back since! If there’s
one thing I love it’s shredding,
and now I have a challenge to
shred faster than ever before
… I’ve now listened to more,
Rory: I’d like to say that I am
a classically trained drummer,
well I have listened to some Yn-
gwie Malmsteen and Europe does
that count? I played guitar in
some metal bands for many years
and have only been playing drums
in bands for about 4 years. I
switched to drums to have some
fun and I haven’t looked back.
Shaz: Where have you per-
formed? What are your favor-
ite and least favorite venues?
Do you have any upcoming shows?
Will: We have played around
Melbourne mostly: at the Hi-Fi
bar, The Tote, Ding Dong, Noise
Bar, DV8 etc. The funnest gig
we’ve played to date was the
Barwon club in Geelong, the in-
dustrial heartland to the west
of Melbourne. They are true-
blue Aussie bogans out there
who love their rock. They went
berko. Geelong, we salute you!
Shaz: What genre of music do you
consider your work to be and
who are your major influences?
Will: You could call us a Melod-
ic Powermetal band, or we could
be called an Operatic Rock band.
Either way we are in the tradi-
tion of Iron Maiden and Queen,
and more recent bands like Drag-
onForce and Sonata Arctica.
It’s all about melody! We draw
in classical composers as well,
like Tchaikovsky and Beethoven.
Rory: I like a heap of 70s
rock bands such as Thin Lizzy,
Judas Priest, AC/DC, Buf-
falo, Black Sabbath to name
a few, and 80s proto-thrash
bands like Anvil and Exciter
up to modern extreme metal.
Zac: Being from quite an
eclectic musical background
I’ve got so many people I
draw from it’s not funny. The
first time Will played me the
rough demos I was hooked and
immediately saw the technical
prowess behind many of the
riffs. I’d not really lis-
tened to much metal – Dream
Theatre, Metallica and the
odd Iron Maiden tune – but
I can certainly reference
Maiden and Sonata Arctica.
Shaz: How has your music
evolved since you first be-
gan playing music together?
Will: Well since we’ve start-
ed playing I’ve got better at
the powermetal style of vo-
cals. And I learned the pow-
ermetal rule: higher = bet-
ter. If a singing line is
not jumping out of the mix,
just raise the pitch, and go
“Aaaaaahhhh” with some vi-
brato. Problem solved. Also
there was a point were we de-
cided to speed up the music
so that we could compete with
DragonForce and the other gi-
ants of Powermetal. Rory’s
bitchin’ double-kick drums
were a big help there. But
I’d say the main change that
has happened to us is the ad-
dition of Zac on Violin. It
was always the plan to get
violin from the very begin-
ning, but only when we heard
Zac’s virtuosity did we real-
ize just how much the violin
can do in a rock band from
fast baroque-infused techni-
cal riffs, to mellow melo-
dies to rough raspy rhythm
playing. We are basically a
violin backing-group now.
Zac: Like any self-respect-
ing violinist I know that I’m
the most important part of
the band… although I suppose
it helps to have some drums.
And a singer. And some keys.
And a guitarist to work off.
And a bass… er…If there’s one
thing I love is fitting into
a harmony. It’s all very well
to wail over the top, but to
flesh out these epic harmo-
nies whilst Will is singing
over a driving rhythmic riff
just makes the whole band take
off. I still have no idea how
Rory can double kick that fast.
Shaz: What are your songs
about? (What specif-
ic themes do they cover?)
Will: Our songs are mostly about
Australian History. We want to
immortalize the stories of the
great people that have gone be-
fore us and made Australia the
great country it is today. His-
tory is not always pretty; there
is tragedy as well as triumph,
but that all makes for a good
story. A lot of it is about mili-
tary history. We sing about the
ANZACs, we honor The Lighthorse-
men, General Monash and Captain
Reg Saunders, our most famous
Aboriginal soldier. We are not
always gun-ho though. We have a
song called Tommy’s Last Waltz,
sung from the female perspec-
tive, about the loss of loved
ones in wartime. We also have
songs about explorers, convicts,
and bushrangers. Basically, if
we don’t write about it, it ain’t
Australian. Having said that our
first single BOGANHEART is not
historical. It tells the story
of our struggle to rock in the
face of the wimpiness of modern
culture. Check it out on-line
at myspace.com/hmasvendetta.
Shaz: What has been your big-
gest challenge as a band?
Will: The never-ending drip-
drip-drip of people saying that
rock/metal is finished. People
have been saying that since it
was invented. It’s lasted this
long, rock ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Rock/metal gives you a victori-
ous and joyous feeling like win-
ning a sporting match. You can’t
get these feelings from any other
form of music. Metal is IMMORTAL!!
Zac: as a fiddle player in a
guitarists world, my personal
challenge is to not sound like
a guitar! It’s too easy to rip
off some of those great guitar
ports our troops 100%. The men Will: I’d say Iron Maid-
solos, but then you’ve just
and women of the armed forces en. Dead. Set. Legends.
got a funny lookin’ guitar un-
put their arses on the line
der your chin and playing it
for all our sakes and they Zac: What he said.
like Hendrix. I want violinis-
deserve our gratitude. We try
tic solos that make guitarists
to back them up by telling the Rory: A reformed Van Halen with
scratch their heads in AWE.
stories of the ANZACs through David Lee Roth on Vocals, and
Shaz: Are you a member of
rock music, so that people we get the same rider as they
any music organizations?
will better appreciate the do! Snowflake’s chance in Hell!
Will: We are a part of Global
sacrifices the soldiers made
Thunda Network. A volunteer-
to give us the freedoms we Shaz: How Big a part has the
run internet radio organiza-
have today. What I’d really internet played in promot-
tion that do amazing things
love to do is play for the ing you as a band and get-
for unsigned Aussie and Kiwi
troops in Afghanistan, even ting your music out there?
acts. We’d like to thank Donna
if it means extreme physical
and the other folks at GTN for
danger to myself and my oth- Will: Apart from word-of-mouth
bringing us much-needed expo-
er band members. Did I men- it’s been the only way. Our mys-
sure at home and overseas, and
tion that before guys? Guys? pace page (myspace.com/hmasv-
just for rocking out to Aussie
music. Oi! Oi! Oi! endetta) is the main
way for the industry
Shaz: Who han- and the fans to hear
dles your daily our stuff and see what
business activi- we are up to. The web
ties? (Bookings, has changed the mu-
promotions etc.) sic biz for good. It
looked at first like
Will: Rory and my- independent artists
self mainly, but we would do well because
are now getting some anyone could put their
help now from Canadi- music out there. But
an promotional pow- then of course every-
erhouse Willy For- one put their music
rest aka The Beast. out there. So how the
Hail to Canada! Your heck is the consum-
country is almost er supposed to find
as awesome as ours. our band amongst all
the others? I think
Shaz: Do you have any endorse- now that the internet has
Shaz: What are your long-term
ments? If so, what companies? been in full swing for over 10
career goals?
years new models for promot-
Will: We would welcome an en- ing bands are coming through.
Will: Jeepers. I find it’s bet-
dorsement from CUB and/or KFC. Global Thunda Network foremost
ter to only plan for the next
half-hour or so. But, if you among them. They pool talent
Shaz: If you could play mu- and bridge the gap between the
twist my arm, I would like to set
sic in front of a large au- artists and the listeners.
HMAS up as a permanent part of
dience where would that be? Shaz: Is there anything you would
the Australian cultural land-
scape, and then mentor other mu- like to add, Guys for your fans?
Will: Bugger Wembly Stadi- Will: I’d just like to say that
sicians and artists who are not
um, I wanna play THE MCG!! if you want to be a fan of
ashamed to love their country.
Shaz: Do you have any HMAS Vendetta you must first
Shaz: What type of media ex- renounce any prior admiration
major tour plans?
posure has the band received? for John Butler and his ter-
Will: I am working on set- rible trio. Stinking hippies!
Will: It’s been mostly inter- Shaz: Thank you so much guys
ting up a gig for the troops.
views up to now. Actually, for this chance to get to know
We want to play the base;
it’s only been this interview you all and for taking the
I think it’s near Wagga.
;) That’s not quite true. We time out to do this with us...
get radio play on PBS FM Mel- Will: You’re most welcome.
Zac: Playing on the Vendet-
bourne and of course GTN. Shaz. It’s been a plea-
ta itself would be awesome.
sure talking rock with your
Shaz: If you could tour good self. We wish you suc-
Will: Totally. At this point I
with another band who cess in all you do and hope
should say HMAS Vendetta sup-
would that be and why? to see you on tour soon...
Lissys
Same Old Ten
with... Baz Francis of
Magic eight ball
4. If you had one day left to live, what would
1. What was the last concert you went to? you do?

Apart from my own, Guns N’ Roses at
Reading Festival last Friday. He may have
been late, he may have been booed, he may
have a bunch of session musicians in the
band now...but boy has Axle still got it.
Kiss a few people and punch a few people.
5. Who would you say is the most underrat-
ed musician in the History of Rock N’ Roll?
there someday. Just last week I was offered
potential gigs in Iceland though so that would
be useful in striking one of those countries
from my list!

Donnie Vie of Enuff Z’Nuff; one of my

2. Who would you most like to record a song
with?
Brian May. Hands down with not a doubt in
my mind.
3. What are you reading right now?
E-mails and between the lines.
favourite singers in the world, but also one
of the finest songwriters with a great feel
for the guitar. Most rock fans only know him
for the band’s early glam hits, but Chip and
Donnie have provided the world with more
classics than almost anyone else in Rock N’
Roll. The world is just taking its sweet time
finding that out though.
6. What’s your favorite meal?
Beans on toast with Marmite and cheese
that someone else has made for me. Some-
thing with vanilla in it for afters and a nice
cuppa tea to follow. Bliss.
8. What was the last song you listened to?
‘Repeat’ by Manic Street Preachers from a
really old live bootleg my friend just sent me
in the post.
9. If you could be someone else for 24 hours,
who would it be and why?
Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, so that every
time I open my mouth I would be impossibly
attractive to anyone with a pulse and a good
taste in music.

10. What has been your biggest fashion faux

7. Where in the world would you most like to pas?
visit?
1981 to present.
I’m dying to go back to Los Angeles (West
Hollywood in particular) and New York, but
I’ve never been to Argentina, Uruguay, Slo- INCLINATION™ Copyright
venia, Japan or Iceland and I’d like to go ©2010

Smoking Popes is one of our favorite
bands from Chicago so we were very
excited when they agreed to meet with
us for a chat before they played at
Penny Road Pub this summer. They’ll
be playing at this year’s Riot Fest,
so make sure you go and see them.
Inclination: So, we have to know…where
did you come up with the band name,
we’ve read a few different things and
wanted to hear it straight from you two.
Matt: I believe it was Josh’s idea,
The Pope of Greenwich Village.
Josh: It was? Yeah, I guess it was.
Inclination: We’d read a bunch of
stuff on Wikipedia that seemed in-
teresting, like a reference to the John
Lennon song, “The Pope Smoke
Dope”, any connection there?
Matt: Yeah, they also have us listed as
touring with the band “ELO”, which
would be awesome if we opened up
for “ELO”, somebody put on there that
we opened for them, they never toured
when we were touring…so yeah…no…
none of that is true. I think we need to
get in there and change a few things.
Green Day and their management.
Inclination: Who has been your fa-
vorite band that you’ve opened
for? Would that be Green Day?
Matt: Well, they’re great, but a lot of
who we love to open for a lot of peo-
ple in America have probably never
heard of. We recently opened for
someone cool, right? (Look at Josh)
Josh: We usually don’t open for bands
anymore. We opened for Cheap Trick
like three times, and that was a lot of
Inclination: Electric Light Orchestra? fun. They’re really cool guys, which is
Haha. Whoa! nice to have around when playing out.
Morrissey, those were great shows.
Josh: In an alternate uni-
verse, we use John Len-
non’s songs, and open for
Electric Light Orches-
tra…that’s a great con-
cept for a movie, where
everything that is written
about you on Wikipedia
comes true. (Laughter)
Inclination: You could
do a mockumentary on
it, based on The Smok-
ing Popes of Wikipedia.
Matt: Yeah, funny.
Inclination: Anyone can
write anything on that
site and that’s the prob-
lem with it, you can’t
believe any of the stuff you read on it.
interview w
Inclination: So, when and how
did you guys get discovered? photos
Josh: We were discovered really by
Green Day, back in late 94/95. I re-
member that right before they got re-
ally big they requested that we open
for their Chicago show. So we met
them and after that their manager was
trying to start a record label or some-
thing, so they called us and after that a
bunch of labels started calling us and
we got settled in with Capitol, so ba-
sically that’s what got us started was
 Inclination: Going back to Mor-
rissey, he said about “Destination
Failure”, that, “It’s extraordinary,
the most lovable thing I’ve heard
in years.” How did that make you
feel, having him say that about
your album?
Josh: Well I actually didn’t believe
that, when I had heard that he had
said that. It was months after tha,
when I had accepted the truth of
that statement. So…utter disbelief.
Inclination: When you guys came back
from hiatus, you not only sold out the
Metro in Chicago, but the tickets also
with lissy
by cola
sold in 36 minutes! What was that
show like, and what’s it like to know
that you’re so loved by your fans?
Josh: Well, it’s very affirming, it’s a
lot different than this show’s gonna
be tonight...When we play Clearwa-
ter, we usually do a few hundred peo-
ple over there, but I guess that some
people don’t do the drive from Chi-
cago to out here. I remember drink-
ing at this place a few years ago; any-
ways it was obviously very different.
Matt: You were talking
about the reunion show
(Metro), it seemed to go
by really quick, the whole
thing seemed so surreal
because we hadn’t expect-
ed to get back together.
Josh: We just sort of did
it, so it seemed weird to us
that we were making mu-
sic again. So, before we
knew it, we had just played
23 songs in front of peo-
ple and then it was over.
Inclination: Did you guys
know for certain that you
were going to get back to-
gether after that show, or
was that just kind of a re-
union show and let’s see what happens?
Josh: Yeah, it was let’s see what
happens, let’s test out the waters,
and the water was pretty nice.
Inclination: Aside from the US,
where else have you toured?
Where else do you like to go?
Josh: We’re likening to Elvis’s
touring policy, which is MADE
IN AMERICA, but we have made
it over to Hawaii and the UK. This
time around we’re going to adhere
even more strictly to Elvis’s regiment.
Inclination: Where did
you guys play in the UK?
Matt: Where you’d expect, this
that and the other….Wales….
Birmingham…you know..
Josh: We played in Manchester also.
Matt: yeah…played in London, I
never remember any of the clubs.
Inclination: Do you do all your
recordings here in Chicago?
Josh: We’re recording right
now with Matt Elison, so yes.
Inclination: Are you working on
material for another album then?
Josh: Yes.
Inclination: Well, we know that you guys
have to get ready to gear up and rock, so
two quick questions about Riot Fest, Are
you guys excited about it, and do you
know which venue you’ll be playing at?
Josh: Yes, we’re thrilled. We’re
playing Metro and I think it’s gon-
na be us opening for Captain Jazz,
which is cool, because that’s a bill
that we did in the 90’s for sure, us
and Captain Jazz, probably around
1994 I would say. We’re looking
forward to Riot Fest, it should be fun.
Inclination: In your opin-
ion, is Chicago a leading city
for American punk bands?
Josh: I would say that Chicago
is one of the best music towns
in general. I think that the Chicago
Punk Sound is unique and distinct and
the best. It’s better than the coasts.
Inclination: So how did it feel going
from Capitol to Victory?
Matt: Pretty good.
Inclination: So do you prefer the
indie labels to the big giants?
Josh: Well, the big gi-
ants are where the money is.
creative freedom in the world!
We’ve been working on our
new album for Asian Man, and
he hasn’t asked us any ques-
tions about any of the songs or
come to the studio…he just said,
“Send it to us when you’re done.”
Now that is creative freedom.
Inclination: That’s good, that’s the
way a label should be. You guys
are the artists and artists need their
freedom to grow and to thrive. So
personally, for your own enjoy-
Inclination: Well, where did you feel ment which kind of punk do you
like you had more creative freedom? enjoy, the classics, hardcore, new stuff?
Josh: Capitol. Josh & Matt: The classics, The Ramones,
The Clash…. all that good stuff….The
Inclination: REALLY? Undertones, Black Flag….Stooges….
Stooges, huge, they’re coming and we’ll
Josh: I don’t know, I just say that because be there to see them. (August 29th)
it’s the answer nobody expects to hear.
Josh: It will be the 6th time that
Inclination: So, where I’ve seen Iggy pop in concert.
can we buy your music?
Inclination: Awesome, so thank you
Josh: www.asianmanrecords.com. guys so much, it’s been great fun!
We’ve been releasing a lot of our cat-
alogue on Asian Man. Tell you the Josh & Matt: Thank you ladiesstairs.
truth, that’s where you get the most
We went to Penny Road Pub to interview Lissy: So did you take little trips
Smoking Popes and Bob Cozza from JBC out there or do it in one shot?
asked us to interview this band called Last
Second Signal as well. He spoke very highly LSS: Yeah we took little trips.
of them and told us they are going to go very About three or four times
far. Well, I trust Bob’s judgment and we were
happy to have a chat with these lads. When Lissy: Where else have you played shows?
we saw them play later on, I saw what Bob
meant, Last Second Signal are born to be on LSS: We’ve played at The Rave in Mil-
the stage performing music, their shows are waukee, Elbo room in Chicago, Mad
high energy and the crowd loved them! They Maggies and Penny Road pub, here.
had a solid following there that night, as it was
obvious everyone in the place knew who they Lissy: Are you local to here?
were and their songs. Yes, this band deserves By Lissy macmillan
to make it. If you’re not familiar with them, LSS: Yeah we live about
check them out at: Myspace.com/lastsecond- done any studio recordings? ten minutes from here.
signal You can also find them on Facebook,
twitter and youtube. Go to http://www.
LSS: Yes, actually we have a CD coming out Lissy: Who would you say is the big-
purevolume.com/LastSecondSignal26716
next month called “Love Like Violence” gest band you’ve played with so far?
to check out and download their demo.
it’s eleven tracks, should be out soon…
LSS: The Academy is. Cute is What We
Lissy: Who am I sit- Lissy: Cool, did you bring Aim For and We’re the Kings, we had
ting down with here today? any demos with you? some fun at those shows, good times.

Kevin, I play drums. LSS: Yes and we got on the warped Lissy: If you could play with
Chris, I sing and play guitar. tour compilation disc and we brought anybody, who would it be?
My names Hiro and I play guitar and sing a bunch of that stuff with us too. When
and Curt who’s not here is out bassist. are you gonna be at Warped tour? LSS: Blink 182
We’ll be playing on the 29th. Absolutely
Lissy: How long have you guys been
together? Cola: Do you know AM Taxi? Lissy: Then where? What venue?

LSS: Three and a half years LSS: No but we’ve trying to book a LSS: Congress, Congress would be
show with them, we love AM Taxi. nice and anywhere in California.
Lissy: How would you describe your
music? Lissy: How did you get on the Warped Tour? Lissy: California in February when every-
one else here is freezing their asses off ?
LSS: Like genre-wise? LSS: Actually it was a magazine that we
just sort of found and we started talk- LSS: Exactly!
Lissy: Well you don’t ing to someone from the magazine,
have to define by genre… they work real closely with warped tour Lissy: Do you have any pro-
and they try and help out local bands fessionally made videos?
LSS: High energy shows, pop punk and stuff by passing on demos to get
music, very melodic like Blink 182 their music heard. Got hooked up. LSS: We are about to have
one made, a music video.
Lissy: Do you write your Lissy: Who did your recording for you?
own original material? Lissy: Thank you very much,
LSS: We’re on the fidelity entertainment it was great meeting you guys.
LSS: Yes we do, everything we play is group; they handle all of our recordings
original. and stuff so we just use their studio. In a LSS: Thank you.
little town in Ohio, Plain City little town in
Lissy: That’s cool, have you Ohio, Plain City.
 n i c k f i l e s
t h e
call the doctor
Call The Doctor are a highly energetic female fronted four piece band working
hard around their home town of Bristol UK while also playing many gigs in London.
The love of quirkily raunchy and upbeat, driven guitar music insipired the bands
formation back in the summer of 2008. Call The Doctor write and play together
creating such a slick, creatively unmistakeable and punchy form of popular rock
music that short, snappy and catchy songs just flow from them. The band consists
of vocalist Patti Aberhart from New Zealand who also adds little guitar work.
Her band are Robert Hallworth on guitar, Chris Davis on bass and John Raftery
on drums. The bands dismay at the current music scene helped to inspire the cre-
ativity and raucous live shows in a very successful effort to make gigs fun again.
Call The Doctor released a self titled album back in May this year on Glass-
tone Records and is widely available through Amazon, HMV and Play.
com, a free download of their song ‘For Your Leisure’ is available through
http://www.myspace.com/ctdoctor
Their sound has been likened to a cross between Patti Smith and Elastica and this is a perfect description. I saw Call
The Doctor play at the same music festival where I also saw With Love From Humans. Even though John Raf-
tery was not able to be with them for the day and a friend stood in to beat those skins a perfect set was per-
formed, if the band had not informed us in the crowd of this change we probably would not have noticed. Call The
Doctor play a slickly driven tight and punchy set. I recommend them highly and advise all to check them out.

With Love From Humans

With Love From Humans is a young band from Bath, UK. Their style is an uplifting indie/pop sound.
Their tracks “Bottle it Up” and “16” have been played on BBC Radio 6 and “16” was featured on the sta-
tion’s “Tracks of 2009”. They were also played in the BBC’s Fresh on the Net festival on the 22nd No-
vember of the same year and have been spreading their love through many gigs this summer.
I have seen this band live a couple of times this year and their sound and musical ethos works so well. The first time that I
saw them was at Moles Club in Bath, UK. At this gig their guitarist was unable to join them so to fill the void a friend was on
stage with a tambourine, later to be accompanied by audience members. The feel-good
party atmosphere which this created was just so much fun. I did get to see them play
at a local music festival with a full line up and this was a fantastic set, within minutes the
whole marquee was either dancing in full swing or just gently jigging along to the music
as they stood watching whilst holding their drinks. With Love From Humans have got
a sound, which is so unique to them. I am not alone in my opinion here, Tom Robin-
son of BBC 6 Music described them as “Unmistakable, Joyous and Uplifting” (30.11.09)
They’ve had the pleasure of supporting Laura Marling, Kill It Kid, Kid British and played with
the Mystery Jets and Friendly Fires.Their second EP has just been completed at Miloco Stu-
dios with James Barr, who has also worked with Kelly Rowland and Yann Tiersen, and mas-
tered by Jon Astley who has also worked with The Who, KT Tunstall and the Stereophonics.
This new EP is an amazingly upbeat and scintillating offering. It is full of funky sweetly driven
rhythms harmonies and choruses that entice you into the mood of the music. This great
young band has created a sound full of summer magic that will keep you going all year around.
Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/withlovefromhumans
SPOOKY CHICAGO, WHERE TO FEEL A FRIGHT
Archer Woods Cemetery - The
gates of this cemetery don’t ever seem
to be locked, so explore away! As you
walk in, if you were to follow a circu-
lar path, when you leave, rumor has it
that ghostly beings hover around the
trees right by the cemetery gates. Leg-
end of a sobbing woman’s wails can
be heard…The bizarre thing is that
you are only able to see this female
ghost when you leave, but not when
you stroll through the entrance. A cir-
cle of horror if you ask me….
Bachelor’s Grove Cem-
etery - Over the years people
claim to have spotted glow-
ing lights, phantom cars,
and many, many ghosts.
“The Ghost Research Soci-
ety had seen a young wom-
an dressed in old-fashioned
clothes and perched on a tomb-
stone on August 10,1991. But
even though she seemed to be
almost transparent, a camera
caught her image pretty clear-
ly. If she was a ghost that pic-
ture will prove that ghost are
real to people don’t believe in
them.” - work cited -The Ghost
Research Society of Chicago
Biograph Theater - Gun-
slinger / Bank Robber and Chica-
go legend, John Dillinger’s ghostly
spirit is said to have been spotted
many times in the alley behind the
building where he was shot down.
The Dome Room - A nightclub
that is UBER haunted. It was built in
the 20’s, so who knows who and why
spirits are haunting anout. Before it
was a ballroom, it was a warehouse,
but there seems to be no known his-
tory of this mysterious warehouse….
perhaps a place where mobsters such
as infamous Al Capone took their
foes to meet their untimely demises?
Garet Durson Mental Hospital
- Flashing lights, people screaching ,
and a white robe wearing woman whom
roams the stairways seemingly running
away from something in the stairways.
The Givins Castle - Chicago’s
Southside neighborhood of Beverlyis
home to a castle where an Irish man
named Givins had built it for his wife
when she over in Ireland, awaiting her
voyage to the new world. She died on the
ship bringing her to the castle that love
made. Her ghost is said to reside there
now and at times is caught skipping on
the hill over by the castle’s entranceway.
Harpo Inc. - Haunted by victims of
the Great Chicago Fire. It is now Oprah
Winfrey’s Harpo Inc. main studios.
People refuse to stay in the building
after dark because of the ghosts. Febru-
ary 2005 - Harpo is haunted by victims
of the Eastland ship wreck disaster. It
was the armory at the time and was
used as the Morgue. It was not around
in 1871, in fact, it would have been in
part of the city that not developed yet.-
February 2005 update/Correction: The
true story is that Harpo is haunted
by the victim of the Eastland Ship
Disaster of 1915 on the Chicago Riv-
er. Harpo Studio was used at the time
as an Armory and was also a tem-
porary morgue for 830 dead people.
Oprah talks freely of the ghost in the
building and shows no fear of them.
Monks Castle - It was said to be
a religious order that if one were to
trespass on the land, they’d have been
chased off. One story tells of
children sneaking around
in the late hours of the eve-
ning (around 1983 - 1985),
they had claimed that they
witnessed something in the
woods, a creature with glow-
ing red eyes. It is rumored that
one of the girls sat down by
the street light, where alleg-
edly a monk snatched her. She
was never heard from again.
Red Lion Pub - Across the
street from the also haunted
Biograph Theater, if you talk
to some of the patrons about
the noises, footsteps and voic-
es that they’ve heard there on
a regular basis, it’s spooky.
The Congress Hotel -
Cold spots galore within the old hotel.
Televisions and lights switiching on
and off without reason during the night
hours. Plenty of spooky and “haunted”
occurrences reported, as well as doors
opening and shutting without help from
guests. Bad “vibes”, general feelings
of death walking about certain old hall-
ways of this historic hotel in Chicago.
By Cola
I’ll tell you exactly why you should make
a point of going out to see Juliette Lewis
perform her musical magic. As Lissy
and I had to jump through hoops to
get our press access to her show at Reg-
gie’s in Chicago, we were made fully
aware of just how popular and high
profile, Juliette Lewis had become in
the world of music. Reggie’s and Vito
over at MP Shows were so kind as to
allow us press and photo access to a
show that blew both of our minds.
The handpicked openers for Miss
Juliette and The Licks, were oh so tal-
ented and did the Chicago music scene
justice. Notably, Bitter Wigs and Last
Vegas, two bands that fired up the grill
for an evening of white-hot entertain-
ment. We were never close to bored
while we sat up in the VIP lounge await-
ing Juliette’s grand entrance on the stage.
Juliette, blue haired and pigeon feather
boa-ed up, in her fitted black bell bot-
toms and halter to match, looked like
a comic book heroine as she began her
set seated at the drum kit, rocking out
the beats and showing us all that she
is far more than a typical “Hollywood
Musician”. She is truly talented in ev-
ery aspect of her performance. After
WHEREFORE ART
her drum solo, she and
“The Licks” began their
takeover of the adorned
Reggie’s stage. If I had
to compare Juliette’s vo-
cal styling to that of any oth-
er prominent female songstress, I
would have to go with the late but always
great Janis Joplin. Though her blues
rock feel shined through in her attack,
she also throws in a few punk rock
screams here and there, reminding us of
exactly how diverse she and her sing-
ing ability truly are.Juliette trounced
about the stage like a wild animal,
leaning into the crowd with mi-
crophone in hand, encourag-
ing her crazed fans to join in
on the fun. Continually
having conversation with
all of us, she aroused
the folks at Reg-
gie’s Rock Room
to the point of
me becoming
practically
crushed
against the stage, Nikon in hand,
fighting to have to lean back to get
my shots. It was a wild night when
Miss Juliette got her groove on.
Juliette is a huge fan of roller derby, and
gave plenty of shout outs to our lovely
and tough ladies of the Chicago flat
track roller derby: The Windy City Roll-
ers. They all adore her and came out
to show their support. The room was
filled with derby gals, Chicago punks of
all ages, indie rockers, metal enthusiasts,
blues fans and Lissy and I, the only le-
gitimate press present! Needless to say
we got the scoop and the best photos.
Before Juliette and The Licks went
on stage, I was lucky
enough to share a few
BY COLA A
cigarettes and some gui-
tar nerd conversation
PHOTOS
with the lovely Shirley
To, bassist for Juliette and The Licks,
as well as noted model and actress. She
was super sweet, intelligent, charismatic
and talked to me about her love for her
basses, which she endearingly referred to
as “her babies”. Ever since Shirley had a
negative experience with an airline, she
has been forced to gig/travel with her
less expensive equipment, but this fact
had absolutely zero effect on her ability
to rock the stage hard. Her technique
and style of playing along with massive
skill held up the rhythm section of The
Licks, driving intricate bass lines that
grooved along to the talents of the gui-
tarists and rock solid drummer. Juliette
is lucky to have such great musicians be
the driving force behind her melodic vo-
cals, which complete the package. The
music was tremendously moving, the
performances were eye catching and I
found it hard to stay focused on the job
at hand (photographing the band) due to
the fact that I just wanted to ROCK too!
With the release of Juliette’s new album,
we believe will come new fans galore.
 you…this is far from being Juliette and her band play was mesmer-
the case . If I had never izing and I think the crowd was the
heard of Juliette and had most diverse I have ever seen at a show.
randomly caught one of
her shows, I would still
have been 100% into the
music. She is no passing
fancy. I see great things
in the future for Juliette
as far as her music goes,
it can only get better
from here, as I believe
that Omar’s influence
has made it better than
her last release. Like all
musicians, she is not ex-
empt from the evolution

THOU JULIETTE?
AND LISSY Produced by Legend-
ary guitarist of both
BY COLA “At the Drive-in” and
“Mars Volta” Omar
Rodriguez Lopez, there
is newfangled rough edged flow that
carries an undertone of meaningful
composition as well as wild chord pro-
gressions and fun blues out solo mo-
ments. Fans of Omar’s work are certain
to recognize his influence. I believe
that this release has taken Juliette’s mu-
sic to entirely new level, boosting her
talent, showing off her diversity and
opening up the door for more folks to
enjoy the songs and must see shows.
As an actress, Juliette doesn’t leave that
part of herself behind, while on stage.
The difference in my mind is that she
hones her ability to use
her body language and
facial expressions to con-
vey her mindset while in
the songs she is giving us.
The stage allows her to
give fans of her music the
full picture. Now I know
there may be some of you
out there that are think-
ing, “She’s just another
Hollywood star gone
musician”, I can assure
within her own songwriting, and per-
formance style. Girl can sing…girl can
move…girl designs her own wardrobe
and does her own make up for stage.
She is a one-woman powerhouse, whom
needs no help from Hollywood, she’s
got what it takes to grace the stages of
the best of venues all over the world,
as she has been and will continue to.
-Cola
Well, I am supposed to add my two-
cents to Cola’s editorial and I think she
nailed my sentiments about Juliette and
her performance perfectly. She is defi-
nitely a musician and artist in her own
right and belongs on the stage. Watch-
I feel privileged to have seen her rock out
Reggies and look forward to her coming
through Chicago again. Bitter Wigs, hav-
ing recently released their first EP, were a
last minute add to the playbill and drew
the crowd, already of a formidable size,
into their rock n roll style music and en-
ergetic set. People were shouting out re-
quests and singing along with the songs,
with this much electricity in the room
for the first band of the night, you knew
this was going to be one hell of a show.
Anyone who has already seen The Last
Vegas knows that they are entertainers
as well as musicians, the whole package
you receive from them leaves you ful-
filled and feeling like you’ve just seen
some major stars rock an auditorium.
The small stage at Reggies just wasn’t big
enough for the Rock’N’Rollers as Chad
Cherry strutted around stage and the
two guitarists and bass player tried not
to knock into each other. Although they
have played with Motley Crue, ACDC,
Papa Roach, Buckcherry, New York
Dolls, The Last Vegas rule the stage.
-Lissy
 Juliette at
Reggies Rock Club
Photos By Cola
spooky screenings: Dawn of the Dead- Zack
Snyder (2004)
I don’t know why I haven’t
lissy’s top 20 seen the original, but I’ve seen
this version and these zombies
KICK. ASS! There’s nothing
horror flicks like waking up to hell on earth.

What’s my favorite thing about this time of
year? It’s not wearing hoodies and drinking
that non-alcoholic apple juice you folks call
“Cider”, it’s sitting up all night and watch-
ing every single horror movie available to
me. I love vampires and dislike chainsaw-
wielding psychos, and if I’m too scared to
go pee in the middle of the movie then it’s a
hit. Here’s my top 20 in no particular order:
The Last Man On Earth-
Ubaldo Ragona (1964)
The last man on earth tries to stay alive
after a virus turns everyone into zombies.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (dream
warriors)- Chuck Russell (1987)
Probably not a good idea to watch this when
you’re 13, but I still think Freddy’s gonna get
me while I’m sitting on the toilet late at night.
calls BOOBS “Dirty Pillows”? This is
what happens when you don’t know how
to raise your kids right- be warned parents.
Black Sunday- Mario Bava (1960)
Brrrrrr…. Witches and body snatchings.
So gothic, so beautiful, so bloody scary!

M- Fritz Lang (1931)
Subtitled but engrossing as you watch a compul-
sive child murdering serial killer terrorizing citi-
zens that decide to take the law in their own hands.
The Mist – Frank Darabont (2007) Bram Stokers Dracula- Francis Ford
Stephen King successfully turns harmless
mist into a terrifying experience by trapping
Coppola (1992)
Excellent cast and well made. It’s the whole roman-
people in a supermarket while “something”
tic idea of being a vampire that makes it brilliant
in the mist is gruesomely killing people.
and horrific. Do you hate him, fear him or pity him?

Psycho- Alfred Hitchcock (1960 The Silence of the Lambs- Jona-

One of horror’s biggest icons: the knife
coming at Janet Leigh as she show-
ers and her face as she screams and re-
alizes her fate. Poor old Norman Bates.
The Shining- Stanley Kubrick (1980)
“Heeeeere’s Johnny” What is it
about hotels that’s so darn freaky?
Rosemary’s Baby- Roman Polanski
(1968)
Don’t tell me you’ve never wondered about your
neighbours and maybe even looked at your sig-
nificant other and thought about this movie. I do
not recommend watching this while pregnant.
The Birds- Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
Flocks of birds attacking humans, nowhere
is safe as they peck peck peck peck…I’m
forever damaged from watching this one.
The Haunting- Robert Wise (1963)
What a fab idea! Go to a haunted man-
sion and conduct studies on ghosts with
family members and psychics, of course
nothing horrible and freaky will happen.
Hellraiser- Clive Barker (1987)
Clive Barker always brings you into his al-
ternate worlds with magic. This time it’s
a puzzle box that releases sado-masochis-
tic demons that are chasing a zombie who
wants nothing more than to reunite with his
former lover- and get a new skin to wear.
House on Haunted Hill- William Castle
than Demme (1991)
People eating people just isn’t right, es-
(1959)
Interesting theme party goes awry when peo-
pecially when they’re intelligent men
ple start to turn up dead and go missing. Vin-
like Dr Hannibal Lecter, right Clarice?
cent Price is the (handsome) face of horror.
It rubs the lotion on its skin…. Lalala
The Others- Alejandro Amenabar
Night Of The Living Dead- George
(2001)
Is my house haunted? Who are the
Romero (1968)
Man-eating zombies, the best zombie movie
ghosts? Is it the ones I can’t see that are
ever made. They’re coming to get you...again!
thumping around? Is it the weird
housekeepers? Nope it’s you!
Diary Of A Madman- Regi-
nald Le Borg (1963)
A Magistrate becomes pos-
sessed by an evil spirit after
visiting a condemned man and
kills. Vincent Price masterpiece.
Interview with a Vampire-
Neil Jordan (1994)
Even though any Anne Rice
fan knows Lestat is a blonde
and not a brunette you can’t
help but love this movie ver-
sion of the best selling book.
Carrie- Brian De Palma
(1976)
“They’re all gonna laugh at you”
Everyone in that movie got what
they deserved, and who the hell
1983-1986:
Starting out as a drummer, Gary (aged 13) played in a band called Feed-
back with some older guys from school. The only reason Gary was in
the band was that he was quite talented, even without considering his
age. Feedback played classic rock music such as The Rolling Stones,
The Who and The Beatles. And later on, Feedback started writing their
own material continuing in the same genre. Most gigs in Østfold County.
1992-1993:
Jan Ove called to see if Gary wanted to join the hard-rock band
Ammunition. Gary said yes, and the band wrote a bunch of
new material together. Gary was still disappointed from Kane’s
fade-out, and wanted to take on the world one more time. In
the following months the band rehearsed, recorded and per-
formed continuously. But the rest of the band were tired of
struggling and as Jan Ove left the band, Ammunition split up.

1986-1988:
Young Gary was not too happy with Feedback’s “old” music style. He 1993-1996:
wanted to play heavier music, like Kiss or Y&T, and also to sing and Gary went into the Atletic Sound Studio in Halden (initially booked
play his own songs. But Feedback’s singer and songwriter, Magnus for Ammunition) and recorded eleven songs. Using three months, he
Grønneberg, was not very keen on lending the mic to his ambitious had to borrow 70.000 kroner from the bank to see it through. It was
drummer. Therefore, Feedback split up and Gary formed a new band Gary’s biggest attempt to date! He hired top studio musicians and
called Rebel Rousers, with Feedback guitarist Jon Pettersen and bass made huge efforts to make it sound good enough for a record com-
player Jørgen Larsen. With Gary both singing and playing drums the pany to release without having to
trio played a mixture of fast rock-n-roll and hard rock. Mainly their own
material, playing gigs in Østfold and even one in Uddevalla in Sweden.
In this same time period, Gary also played drums in another band
spend too much money on it. The
result was however poor; only
one of the songs, “Everything you
Interview
called Jack Daniels and the Scotchmen. This band played only cover want”, got any interest from the
material and was meant to be just a fun side project for the members
who all had other bands to attend to. However, the band’s party rock
(Georgia Satellites, Status Quo etc.) became quite a hit in the rock
record companies. It was released
in 1994, horribly re-recorded,
on the album “Sound of young
Gary O
clubs, and Jack Daniels ended up doing more gigs than Rebel Rous-
ers, playing in Østfold, Vestfold and Møre og Romsdal counties.
Norway” (Polygram Records).
At this time, the MTV Un-
plugged series was rolling on
from N
1989-1991:
the TV-screen. Everyone wanted
to play “acoustic”, it seemed!
By Sha
Gary was never comfortable with the idea of being both drum-
mer and lead singer. It was difficult to communicate with the audi-
ence, and of course: it looked stupid! Gary decided to break out of
Rebel Rousers and go for a solo career. However, finding new musi-
cians was not easy, so he ended up asking the Rebel Rousers guys to
help him out in the studio. Out of this came a new band, Kane, re-
built on Rebel Rousers’ ruins. With drummer Per Madsen on board
Gary was now lead singer and leader of the pack, “Jon Bon Jovi-
style”. And it was at this stage Geir Olsen became Gary O. Kane!
Gary wanted to make his band Kane world famous! He moved
to Oslo to get closer to the business. Making demo-tapes, tak-
ing photos, driving from one record company to another in his
old, worn out car, he really struggled! A few months he earned
his money from playing on the streets and in the subways.
Some companies blew him off at once, but quite a few, like the
big CBS, showed interest and wanted to hear more. However, as
so many artists sadly come to realize: It wasn’t gonna happen!
Kane played around the southeast of Norway. They had a pop/rock
sound, high hair, many different line-ups and was quite a good band!
In 1991 Kane released the vinyl single “Streets of desire/Without your
love” on their own label. The drummer on this record was Ketil Holme
from the hard-rock band Ammunition. About one later, Kane split up.

1991-1992:
Gary formed a trio with some young and talented guys, called Nas-
tycat. After a few months, he fired the guitarist and as he already had
the studio booked, he had to find a replacement. Jan Ov Olsen, also
from Ammunition, was called in and did the demo-tape (“Women”,
“Hungry heart” and “Candyman”). But Nastycat didn’t get further than
this. They never played live, and the demo-tape didn’t get anywhere.
 Well, Gary and his friend, Roar Hansen, called themselves Des- Shaz: Today I would like to take the Time to say Wel-
perados and hit the pubs with two acoustic guitars. For the first come To An awesome Artist...Gary O Kane....
time in his career Gary earned money! Not having to pay for a Firstly could you Please Introduce Yourself?
big P.A. system, bus, sound engineer, lights Not having to pay
for a big P.A. system, bus, sound engineer, lights and a band, First of all I wanna thank you, Shaz, for your kind-
he had money left in his pocket when he got home! This was ness and interest in my music! Thank you! (-:
a turning point; Gary was now going to do this for many years Well, my name is Gary O. Kane, and I’m a singer/songwriter from Nor-
Desperados split up after a year or so. Gary continued on way, basically just trying to get my music heard, that’s all, hehehe!
his own. However, once in a while he got a little help from
his friend Andreas Bosy, the bass player in Ammunition. Shaz: What is your Musical background?
But the need to play with a band was still there. Gary did some
demo-tapes with his brother’s band, both as a drummer and a I started out playing drums in the school marching band at the age of 7
singer, and later on the two brothers joined the band Playground. or 8. I was actually quite talented, and at the age of 13 I joined my first
rock-band with some older guys. I played drums until I was around 20
or something. By then I had been writing songs for a few years, and I
1996-2000: really wanted to sing them myself. So I became a singer and formed my
Playground was meant to be first own band, called Kane. Since then I have been singing and writing

w with a side project. Gary and his

brother Ole K. Olsen started
playing together with drummer
Terje Sørensen and bass player
songs. That’s basically the only thing I’m any good at, hehe! I also went
to a music school, at “college age” (different school systems here in
Norway), but it was kind of a religious school and the main focus was
classical music and God, so it didn’t do anything for me. I dropped out.

O. Kane Patrick Moe, and as Patrick

had a rehearsal studio, the band
recorded many songs during
And to make a long story short, I’ve been playing in a million unknown
bands, and for the last 17 years I’ve been making a living from playing
covers on request in pubs and bars. Just me and my acoustic guitar.

Norway their four years of existence.

None of these songs were ever Shaz: Your tunes are so Inspiring please tell us what triggers a song?
released. Playground did a few
az Millar gigs around the Østfold County. Thanks for the compliment! I can’t explain how the melodies are made,
cause they’re just “there” all of sudden. Sometimes it pops up in my
head; sometimes I’m just jamming on my guitar or goofing around in the
2000-2005: studio. I always make the music and melody first, and then I go through
During the whole period of Playground, Gary had also played the great pain and agony of writing the lyrics! I hate writing lyrics!
on his own with his acoustic guitar in the pubs. He traveled
over many parts of Norway and some places in Sweden, play- Shaz: Where have you performed? What are your favorite
ing on request. But the constant compromising with him- and least favorite venues? Do you have any upcoming shows?
self, the audience and the cover songs was hard to swallow.
And in 2001 Gary decided he had to make an album with his I’ve played many, many places in Norway. And some gigs in Sweden
own songs! In the spring of 2002 he recorded his first solo al- once in a while. I don’t really have a favourite venue or a venue I dis-
bum and released it on his own label. Sales were not exactly like. To me it all comes down to how the audience and I get along!
sky high, but Gary was very happy with it anyway! After this, Doesn’t matter if it’s a crappy venue if the gig is good! And it doesn’t
it was a little easier to continue the “covers on request” again. help if the venue is fantastic if I can’t get the crowd going, right?
And somewhere in 2004 Jan Ove called again to see if Gary Yes, I have quite a few shows coming up for this fall. But they
wanted a new dose of Ammunition! are all in Norway and all just me and the guitar, unfortunately...

2005-Present day: Shaz: What genre of music do you consid-

Ammunition rehearsing, writing songs, and making dem-
os. But no gigs. Sadly, the members could never agree on
a strategy to get the show on the road. So now the band is
once again on hold, and Gary is back as a solo artist again.
At present Gary is quite busy, writing songs for
such different artists as Ged Roberts and Lars Krist-
offersen, and for the great metal band Mecalimb.
In 2008 he signed with Helping Hand Records and final-
ly released his 2002 album on the Internet. He is also re-
leasing his brand new album “Forever Dreams” due out
soon, and that album will have the biggest budget and
production to date! STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES!!!.
er your work to be and who are your major influences?
I just call it “rock”! It’s very basic, melodic and tradi-
tional stuff. I leave to others to change the world, hehehe!
When I was younger I went through the whole “80s hard-rock”
thing, of course! So that will always be in there somewhere. As I
grew older I started listening to all sorts of music, and now I think
a good song is a good song, regardless if its rock, pop or polka!
I don’t really have any particular influences. But I’m sucker for good
chorus lines, and I like riffing guitars and punchy drums. And as for
singers, Mr. David Coverdale has always been a bright star in my sky!

Shaz: How has your music evolved since you first began playing music?
It hasn’t! Hahahaha!!! (-:
Really, the basic line is still the same: melodic and rocking. But
of course, with experience the songs I write now are a little bit
more “together” than the first songs I wrote when I was fourteen.

Shaz: What has been your biggest challenge as an Artist?

I guess the same as for most musicians: Getting heard!

Shaz: Are you a member of any music organizations?

Yes...hmm...yes! I’m in an organization called TONO. It’s ba-

sically taking care of my rights to my music and make sure I get
paid for radio play and things like that. But in this area I’m a to-
tal idiot, hahaha! So I will recommend you ask my record com-
pany about those matters! If I were smart I would be in a thou-
sand organizations, so that I would get paid for every little thing!
Some “musicians” seem to be more focused on those things
than the music. I care very little about money and that stuff!

Shaz: Who handles your daily business activities? (Bookings, pro-

motions etc.)

Rainbow Booking & Management and Helping Hand Records.

Shaz: What are your long-term career goals?

Make my songs heard, so that they will “get a life”. DISCOGRAPHY:

1985-1989: Feedback, Rebel Rousers (Locally promot-
Shaz: If you could play music in front of a large audience where
would that be? ed demo-tapes)
1990: Kane “Streets of desire/Without your love” Vinyl
Really doesn’t matter, as long as the crowd is happy! (-: single (o.l.)
1993: Gary O. Kane “Everything you want” Local Al-
Shaz: What type of media exposure have you received?
bum Collection
None. Had some things going in the nineties, like 1994: Gary O. Kane “Everything you want” Polygram
TV and music magazines, but nothing recently. Records Collection
2002: Gary O. Kane Self titled album, 8 songs (o.l.)
Shaz: If you could tour with another band who would that be and 2008: Gary O. Kane Single “Easy Love”, Do that
why?
Thing”, “Nuts” (Helping Hand Records)
Here in Norway I would love to go with a band called Stage Dolls! 2009: Back In ‘92 (Helping Hand Records)
They are the best Norwegian rock band! As for international bands...
hmm...would have to be someone quite similar to me of course, BANDS:
so I don’t scare the crowd away... I don’t know...Bryan Adams??? Feedback (1983-1986)
Rebel Rousers/Jack Daniels and the Scotchmen (1986-
Shaz: How big a part has the Internet played in promoting you and
getting your music out there? 1988)
Kane (1989-1991)
For me it has meant pretty much everything! I can present my songs directly Nastycat (1991-1992)
to people, without a lot of business people in the way!That’s awesome!!! (-: Ammunition (1992-1993)
Gary O. Kane solo (1993-1996)
Shaz: Is there anything you would like to add, Gary for your fans?
Thank you sooo much to all of you that have bought my songs and Playground (1996-2000)
sent compliments to me etc!!! I’m truly grateful for your kindness Gary O. Kane solo (2000-2005)
and support, and I would LOVE to come and play for each and Ammunition (2005-2007)
every one of you!!! All my best wishes to you all!
Gary O. Kane solo (2008 -present)
---Thank you Shaz! (-:
A short while ago I received a mes-
sage from Doris Brendel informing
me of a new project that she was
Emilys Song
for the UK- based
starting to put together for a very
worthy cause. This cause is Reunite,
a charity formed in 1986 now rec-
charity Reunite
ognized as the leading UK charity
specializing in international parental
child abduction and the movement
of children across international
borders.
Doris had been in contact with a chap
called Neil who Reunite had been helping
after losing his daughter Emily. I have
been following the progress of this ever
since, Doris has done an incredible job of
pulling this together and with help from
Sam Blue, Dave Beeson, Sparkie Dalton
and Mike Wesson a song has been pro-
duced, aptly titled ‘Emily’. This will soon
be released to raise funds for the Reunite
charity while also highlighting the need.
I recently had a little chat with Neil –
Nick – Could you tell me a little
about how this all started?
Neil - It started with a Mys-
pace conversation about
my TV projects and her
new album. I said I’d
always been a writer
and I’d love nothing
more than to have the skills
to write a song for Emily so
she knows how much I love
her... Doris simply said, let’s
do it then, and I set to work
on the lyrics. The rest really is
down to her, and although I’ve
written lyrics before, it was
never with so much per-
sonal emotion attached, and
never flying blind without
having a melody to work
with and put words to.
I had no idea what it
would sound like,
but she has done
an amazing job, as have all involved.
Special thanks need to go to Sam Blue
for coming on board as well. His vocals
really do make it feel like I am speaking
directly to Emily and all the other children
who have been taken from their parents.
Nick - Could you give us a little informa-
tion about Reunite and its aims/objectives?
Neil - Here is some information Re-
unite gave me, for press releases...
Reunite International Child Abduc-
tion Centre is the leading UK charity
specializing in international parental
child abduction and the movement of
children across international borders.
They operate a 24-hour advice line
and offer practical, impartial advice,
information and support to parents,
family members and guardians whose
children have been abducted or who
fear abduction. The reunite Child
Abduction Prevention Guide pro-
vides clear and concise information and
practical steps to take if a par-
ent fears their child is at risk of
a b d u c t i o n .
Reunite also provides advice and in-
formation to parents who may have
abducted their children, and assists
and advises in international contact
issues and relocation cases.
They also offer a mediation service
to assist parents in making informed
decisions, which are focused on the
best interests of their child and family
as a whole.
For more information about reunite
and the services they offer, go to
http://www.reunite.org
Nick - What is your in-
volvement with Reunite?
Neil - I got involved with Reunite
through a judge giving me their details.
I can’t really say any more on this
because of the legal situation.
Nick - What drew you into working
with Reunite?
Neil - What drew me into getting
involved with them? Well again I
have to be careful what I say, but I
am more of a client than an associate.
In terms of motivation to raise money
for them there was a low point last
December... I can’t really explain every-
thing that was going on, but I was very very
low, far from my usual bullet proof self.
Another Christmas without my daughter
was adding to all this, but one phone call to
Reunite and within a week they had made
some calls and all of a sudden some glim-
mers of hope emerged. You might say it is
an exaggeration to say they saved my life...
I would not.
It was Doris who suggested that money
raised from the song should be used to help
them after I’d praised them so highly. The
song is also an obvious way to raise the
issue of child abduction. Many
parents are in the same posi-
tion, with on-going legal
battles, and so unable to talk
about their children. It may
be called Emily’s Song,
but it is a song for all
these children and their
parents. If we can chart
the song these children
will get a voice... And wait
till you see what the video
will look like. Suddenly
all the lyrics will really
come to life!
Nick - From your experience and
involvement what is the best way
that can people help?
Neil - Reunite is a registered
charity, so they will welcome
any donations to help them
maintain their help line.
They also post on
By Nick Giles
their website fund raising events, such as the sponsored walk I will be
attending this weekend (25th September) on Wimbledon Common.
The simplest thing is to download a copy of Emily’s Song when it
is released. Not only does it raise money for the charity, but also if
we get enough downloads to chart, it will bring these children to the
public eye. And what would you prefer as the Christmas number one,
the X-Factor winner (No offense to the X-Factor contestants, but let’s
have something with a story at number one.), or Sam Blue, Doris and
the band on Top of the Pops as a thank you for putting all this together?
Nick - Have there been many successful re-unifications?
Neil - Yes there have been some happy endings. Reunite work closely
with the child abduction department at the FCO, and together they do a
remarkable job. More and more countries have signed up to the Hague
Convention, which is reducing the complications and removing some
barriers. Again, if we make a big enough noise internationally we can
help. This is where people like me and Emily’s Song raising the issue,
and people downloading to give us a more powerful lobby can help.
Some days I have to put all the photo’s face down because I
want to cry for her. I don’t know what she is doing? If she re-
members me? There is the frustration of feeling totally help-
less, and anger when you feel that people who could help
aren’t. Worst of all there is the guilt. The feeling that somehow
you have let her down. That there might have been something
you could have done differently, and the nightmares I get ev-
ery night without fail about what could be happening to her.
What keeps me going is the tears my mother shed be-
fore she died of cancer, because she never got a chance
to say goodbye to Emily. She gripped my hand and made
me promise not to give up... two days later she was gone.
Please please, show support and click ‘like’ at
And become a fan, also have a listen at
http://www.reverbnation.com/reunitecharitycampaignfea-
turingemilyssongbysamblue

Nick -I may not be a parent myself and can only imag-

ine the pain caused by abduction, how do people cope and
again what is the best form of help support that we can give?
Neil - This is the toughest question to answer, because I have
to be careful what I say... I well up with tears whenever I hear
a child (of a similar age to Emily when I last saw her) cry.
It would be great if you could become a fan of this on Reverbna-
tion, soon you should be able to able to purchase this song (at
a very low cost) and help it along through the charts. This will
not only raise funds and awareness for Reunite but also help to
put out a voice for all those children and a message to Emily.

GENERATION INCLINATION RADIO

As part of our growing enterprise at In-
clination, we are striving to bring you
the best in music and entertainment.
With the launch of our iTunes Podcasts
now available, you can delve deep-
er into our world, cheers and enjoy!
This month Lissy and I took a bit of time
off to focus on launching the iTunes
podcasts, which are now up and live
and ready to be downloaded for FREE!
In August we were able to bring you a
show with quite a bittersweet tone, as
the passing of Chicago’s drumming leg-
end Jason Eickmeier was paid tribute to
in the final weeks of August. We show-
cased all of the music that Jason created
and also had a part in creating through-
out the years, by playing tracks from
his solo album, recorded by Tim Rusin,
and also allowing our listeners to enjoy
the music of his bands over the years.
We began the show with a track off of
AUGUST RE-CAP
ANOTHER MONTH
ON THE AIR
WITH YOU.....
BY COLA
Jason’s solo album, “I’m an Alien”,
and from there launched into a trib-
ute from his former band mate of
The Imperial Spheres and Stutter
and close friend Jason Dreher. We rocked
out to “Crybaby” (with Jason on vocals)
and “Arkansas”, two stellar Stutter tunes.
We also played tributes from his third
project with musicians of “So Far”,
Bob Baumgardner and Robert Eisel.
Two songs, “Meat and Potatoes” (a
favorite of Jason’s) and “Starry Nite”
were jammed along with the words
of his former bandmates and buddies.
His final project, “The Low Repub-
lic” ended the evening off as far as
Jason’s band biography. Myself and
Adam McKinstry put our two cents in
and we gave “Analytical Chemistry”
and “Sweet Sorrow” listens, know-
ing that they were Jason’s master-
pieces for us; as far as his drumming.
One final track, “You Can Do Any-
thing”, Jason’s solo track left us all an
important message. Recorded also by
Tim Rusin, this particular song was the
epitome of Jason’s philosophy on living.
We were fortunate enough to have
received prerecorded messages for
Jason, proving how many people
loved and respected him for his pas-
sion for life and his friendship. He
will not be forgotten, through music
and his antics, he will live on in all of
our hearts. Thanks again to all whom
helped with the show. R.I.P. Jason.
Jason Eickmeier, May you rock and rest in
peace. 10/22/1976 - 8/14/2010
Every now and then, I’ll be
having a conversation with
the
someone and the subject of my
Music Education degree will self-employed
come up. At some point in the
conversation, the other per-
son will encourage me to seek
musician
a music teaching position at a
school and give the usual rea-
sons for doing so: good salary, medi-
cal and retirement benefits, using my
degree to it’s fullest potential, and sim-
ply that I’d make a great music teacher.
My usual response is that all of these
points may be valid, but the most im-
portant element is missing: the fact
that, at this point in my life, I have no
interest in managing classrooms full of
children day after day, and that I love
what I am doing now--which is teaching
private guitar lessons and performing.
It is true that I face certain challenges on
a day-to-day basis that would be absent
if I were employed by a school district;
nonetheless, I have no desire to trade
my freedom for traditional employment.
It took over two decades and many
phases of life to get where I am to-
day. I started working on my music
degree right after high school, back
in the mid-1980s. I went to commu-
nity college for a year, and then De-
Paul School of Music in Chicago for
a year. But my restlessness and need
for freedom got the best of me, and I
didn’t return to DePaul the second
year. The following summer I moved
to California--and the rest is history.
Fast forward fourteen years, and I’m a
single dad living back in Illinois in the
1990s, working low-paying jobs that
required me to act like someone who
I wasn’t. So at age thirty-three, I de-
cided to go back to college to finish my
music degree. At DePaul, my declared
degree was Composition, but as a par-
ent, I felt that I needed to justify my
endeavor with a more practical goal. I
enrolled at Roosevelt University and
chose Music Education as my major.
The Music Ed program expanded my
horizons significantly, both as a mu-
sician and as a general citizen, but I
realized about halfway through the
By Kevin Branigan
program that I was really not com-
fortable as the leader of a classroom.
Most Music Education majors prob-
ably feel that way while they are stu-
dents, but most of them are younger,
have previous experience in music
programs in elementary and/or high
school, and feel a passion to develop
their classroom management skills and
master their vocation. None of these
factors, however, were true for me.
But I knew that this time I had to fin-
ish what I started, so I fulfilled all of
the obligations of the degree, which in-
cluded 100 hours of classroom observa-
tions, sixteen weeks of student teach-
ing, and I even went forward and got
my Illinois teaching certification. It
was a great accomplishment in the end.
After graduation, my plan was to do a
variety of musical things: teach guitar,
perform, and maybe do some substitute
teaching. But while I was applying to
substitute teach in one of my local dis-
tricts, a music position opened up in
a school about a mile from my house.
My heart said no, but my head say yes.
So I took the job...and I dreaded ev-
ery minute of it from the moment I
signed the contract. It felt wrong.
Long story short, I lasted three weeks
at the school until a minor uprising
in one of my classes created an oppor-
tunity for me to resign my position.
Although leaving the job was a major
relief, it was a scary thing to do; first
because of the financial stability I was
giving up, but also because it was just
another occurrence in a long series of
short-lived jobs I had over the years
which led me to going back to school to
finish my music degree in the first place.
So there was some dark irony there.
But a month later, my timing
was perfect and I found a gui-
tar teaching position that was
opening up at Discover Music
in Tinley Park. This was the
beginning of a chain of events
that led me to where I am today.
I eventually moved to Tinley,
where I found numerous musi-
cal opportunities right up the street.
I started going to open mics, where I
polished up my solo acoustic act and
started making musical connections.
I branched out and met up with an
old friend, Rick Lisak, who was run-
ning a jam night in Orland Park.
I eventually joined his band, Jack
and Jill, and this led to regular gig-
ging all over northern Illinois, In-
diana and Wisconsin, and has also
branched out into several side projects.
In a larger sense, however, my tim-
ing has been somewhat tragic. Just
as things started rolling for me a few
years after graduation, the global
economy went downhill. My stu-
dent roster, which had grown to about
thirty students, slipped into the low
twenties. My primary source of in-
come was suddenly on a roller coaster.
But as this was happening, the gigs
started picking up. As a matter of fact,
in the past few months, I've earned al-
most as much gigging as I have teaching.
So there is an old lesson that lies herein.
A working musician must be versatile,
whether it means being able to both teach
and perform, to be a multi-instrumen-
talist, or to have mastery in a variety of
genres. He or she must also be marketing
all of those talents at all times because
when one area slows down, another
may pick up if you've been working it.
The bottom line for me is, regardless
of the financial struggles I've faced,
I have never once considered giving
up my career as a self-employed mu-
sician to find a steady position with
an "employer." So instead of having
a job that I dread going to, my only
dread is ever having to stop doing
what I am doing now, regardless of
the inherent challenges that it brings.
Hawthorn believes in making meaningful
music, to withstand the test of time. It
is culture over trend and the beauty is
in the harmonics running through your
ears as you listen.
The beauty of this music is found in a
combination of folk song and electronic
looping, blended together with a touch
of the sacred medieval and a dollop of
acid. Taking stories from mythology and
fairy tales, and telling them to music.
I was recently fortunate enough to
discover Hawthorn while attending an
acoustic gig held at Cosies Wine Bar
in Bristol. This was a truly enlightening
ethereal experience, which simply spun
me out and won my heart.
I have been lucky enough to have a
little chat with Hawthorn ,Natalie Farr.
Nick: How did Hawthorn originally
form and what shaped and inspired the
music?
Natalie: I started Hawthorn in January
2010, with the aim of creating songs
that were focused around the voice.
I didn't expect at the time that they
would solely consist of vocal harmonies,
independent of other instruments, but
I'm very pleased with the outcome.
The songs I write are based on
legends, folk tales and fairytale. So, the
music style is often based in folk music,
with added electronic effects.
I took the name Hawthorn for its
roots: It's a very old English name,
and according to mythology the Haw-
thorn tree is the entrance to the fairy
kingdom. I wanted the name to reflect
the stories.
Nick: How far would you like your
music to take you, where would you like
to see yourself in say 12 months time?
Natalie: I hope to be able to support
myself because of my music. I'm not
good at real life - music is the only
thing that I feel completely comfortable Nick: Your sound is heavily dependent
doing in this world. on a Kaoss Pad, had you
In 12 months time I want to be ex- tried any other makes or brands of
hausted after performing at a string Loop Station or any other forms of
of festivals! I performed at Shambala sound processors before sticking with
Festival for the first time last week the Kaoss Pad?
and realized that audiences at
music festivals are something
very special. They are completely
open to what you are doing and
can help you create a wonderful
atmosphere.
Nick: What are your highs and
lows to date? Do you have any
amusing or
entertaining moments that you
may care to share?
Natalie: Drunken hecklers are
always a terrible thing. I like to
tell little stories in between songs,
which isn't easy if someone is
yelling over you, or telling to you
get on with it. I try to respond
with wit and try to remember
that I'm the one with the micro-
phone.
Lows include moments of technical
failure. Hawthorns highs to date
include playing at Shambala Fes-
tival, and performing on top of a
boat at the Bristol Harbourside
Festival. It was wonderfully
windy! Oh, and Big Jeff danced
to my music once.
Nick: The ambience that you cre-
ated in Cosies cellar bar in Bristol,
complete with its vaulted ceilings blew
me away, what is you favorite Natalie: I heard a friend using
form of venue? a Kaoss Pad during a
i c k G
By N
concert last year
Natalie: Old buildings like Cosies are and fell in love with
wonderful, as well as churches and cha- the sound then and
pels. Anything that has a bit of history there. I risked it and
to it, and a natural acoustic. bought one without having
tried it out based on that performance.
 Luckily, the Kaoss Pad does everything I
want to do, since it has own effects as
well as loop pedal.
Nick -How has your summer season
been, I know that you have been pretty
I have my first gig in London coming halloween weekend events
up in October. And once the summer
season has has calmed down, I look
forward to recording some new songs Friday October 29th
I have. Shakira @ Allstate Arena
Born Ruffians @ Empty Bottle
Nick: Has your music attracted a Daedelus @ Double Door
typical or specific type ofaudience,
Halloween Fest @ Abbey Pub
following or broad section of
music lovers? Bear In Heaven @ Lincoln Hall
Nevermore @ Reggies
Natalie: It's quite a mix of differ- 7th heaven @ Cubby Bear
ent people who tell me they en- Echo Son @ Elbo Room
joy my music. Some folk lovers, The Rocket Summer @ Beat Kitchen
and some world-music enthusiasts
Queensryche @ HOB
who enjoy my rhythms. I always
enjoy talking to other vocalists.

I'm also told that young children ghpteslaqm

active gigging in the Bristol area?
Giles Natalie: It's been busy and hot
and wonderful. I've been playing
all around Bristol and supported
some wonderful bands. This month
Bristol had it's first Pride event, which
I was honored to play at. Now I'm
starting to get gigs outside of Bristol
respond well to my music!
Several of my friends who are Saturday October 30th
parents have told me that their
The Dandy Warhols @ The Vic
toddler like my songs.
Nick: Finally can you recommend
any acts that you consider to be
worth
watching out for?
Natalie: Keep an eye on Rae,
www.myspace.com/raeonline a
modern world-jazz ensemble,
based in the Bristol/Bath area.
Guaranteed to make you dance
and reconsider your perception
of genres.
Also, the wonderful singer-song-
writer Heg Doughty has recently
moved to Bristol. She's a pianist,
singer and storyteller of history
and fairytales. hegdoughty.com
www.myspace.com/nataliefarr
soundcloud.com/hawthorn
Groovatron @ Martyrs
Voice of Addiction @ Mutiny
Blood Red Shoes @ SubT
Halloween Fest @ Abbey Pub
The Morning Benders @ Lincoln Hall
Bassnectar @ Riviera Theater
Remaindermen @ Beat Kitchen
The Soft Pack @ The Empty Bottle
Cealed Kasket @ Reggies
Montia @ Elbo Room
The Last Vegas @ Double Door
FNR @ Cubby Bear
Exoskeleton @ Beat Kitchen
Deer Tick @ Bottom Lounge
ktuisnmg
October 31st
Supervillains @ SubT
Ghostface Killah @ Abbey Pub
Misfits @ The Vic
The Tubes @ Reggies
The Bangkok Five are a band I first in-
terviewed a few years ago when they
were playing at the long lost Pearl
Room in Mokena. They were fun to
talk to and spectacular to watch, I
certainly have missed them since then
although I cyber stalk them every now
and again to see what’s going on.
Then Nik Frost emailed me asking for
an interview, I knew this meant they
had something new going on and he
was wanting to get the word out. Ex-
cited doesn’t even describe how I was
and when he sent me their new album
to check out, I was very impressed!
There’s something new about this band,
it’s fresh and energizing… After liv-
ing the words of “We love What Kills
Us” for years, The Bangkok Five are
back and ready to take over the world!
Lissy: Hi Nik?
Nik: Hey!
Lissy: It’s Lissy, how have you been?
Nik: Been great! Let me
get my drummer Ray on…
Lissy: Hey Ray, we’re waiting for
you guys to come back to Chicago.
Ray: We’re working on it.
Lissy: So, I hear you have a whole
bunch to tell me…what’s all the news?
Nik: There’s a lot of stuff going on,
there’s a couple of new releases that
have just come out. A new record
coming out soon which is a compi-
lation of all my favorite songs over
time, spanning everything from back
to Billy Idol who is obviously a huge
inspiration as well as Michael Jack-
son, who’s Ray’s favorite artist of all
time. Covered recent songs too, like
Weezer and obviously Lady Gaga. So
we did something really fun that we
thought would be really unexpected
Lissy: Yeah Lady Gaga was very
unexpected; I’d have to say that.
Nik: And that was Ray’s,
I’ll let Ray take that…
Lissy: I love what you guys do
with it; it’s better than her ver-
version. So, why Lady Gaga?
Ray: Well, I love Poker, that’s a good
start. haha. I don’t know, like Frost was
saying, we did a bunch that meant a
lot to us, I don’t think any of us would
go on the line and say that Lady Gaga
means a lot to us, although any art-
ist that can still come out in this day
and have a rock sound, a solid album
sold as pop, probably the best album to
come out in the last four years and have
the success that its had (whatever genre
you’re in) deserves a little bow. She’s
actually pretty badass, a talented artist.
Nik: That’s the first and foremost for
me, is when you see the woman per-
forming alone on her piano, she’s just
as good as she is on stage with the full
band, she really is talented and for us,
that’s what this really is about. It’s about
people that can actually play, people
that can actually sing. In an era when…
we’re in a very interesting time where
we don’t have the things that separate
the women from the boys anymore.
Anyone can grab pro tools, anybody
can make a record, and anybody can
throw it up through tunecore onto
iTunes. So, that and also being able
to play with where that song’s com-
ing from, Ray’s a tournament winning
poker player, like he’s actually on pro-
fessional ground, so that actually had
a lot to do with everything. Also it’s
not about being the perfect woman
anymore, you don’t have to be Jessica
Simpson, it’s about being greatly tal-
ented than looking a certain way, I be-
lieve that’s a huge part of her success,
when she’s all stripped down and sit-
ting by the pool, she’s not a pretty girl.
Lissy: I was watching her on the To-
day show and someone I was talking to
wouldn’t believe it was Lady Gaga be-
cause she didn’t have all the crazy stuff on
. Ray played me this song and I was
Nik: Yeah people use that against
her, that’s the irony, “Well
she’s not that hot” come on….
Lissy: So what! people don’t know
how talented she is, she plays a lot
of instruments and writes her music,
and I don’t think people realize that
. Lost and the character of Charlie but
Nik: Yeah and also the producer on
it, who is a very good friend of ours,
and a hugely influential person in
the world of rock n roll and in music
in general, when he heard that Ray
was tossing around the idea of do-
ing that song, he signed up because…
what were the words he used Ray?
Ray: I don’t want to misquote him…
Nik: Basically, like “That was one of the
best mixes I’ve heard in the last five years.”
Lissy: I wanted to ask, what have the
reactions been so far? Obviously that
was a great one from the producer,
but what have your fans been saying?
Nik: Well the actual record hasn’t come
out yet. We’ve dropped two singles;
we’ve dropped Saved, which isn’t re-
ally a cover. We’re huge fans of the
show Lost and there’s a really cool
episode when Charlie, one of the best-
-loved characters sings a song to his
brother. They’re going through a
bunch of stuff, heroin, drugs invad-
ing their lives, changing the commu-
nications between them, a lot of ten-
sion there, he sings the first couple of
lines to his brother and that’s all you
hear. It’s not even a verse; I think it’s
a verse into a pre-chorus. And every-
body was looking for that song, we
were looking for that song, I think we
found one version and it was terrible
Ray: Basically a girl sang it over
and over, way slower. It sounded
like a dog got ran over by a car.
Nik: So we were at the studio, Sand-
box in Los Angeles, Hollywood and
like “This sounds like you, dude” and
he was like… cause you know Ray
sings as well.. “No it’s this” and he
was playing it on YouTube. So we sat
down and wrote this song. We realized,
it was amazing, it was quite transform-
ing because the song and the character,
I don’t know if you’re familiar with
he’s a heroin addict, he’s a desperate
wonton heroin addict and at the time of
recording I was actually doing a lot of
partying and probably one of the worst
hangovers of my life while singing that
song. So there’s a real cool clarity and
reasoning behind that song and writing
the song. It was very therapeutic and
now hearing the song, I’ve changed
my ways and cleaned up a little bit
and obviously that has a lot to do with
where are at today. Getting off the road
after brutalizing ourselves for the last
five years, when you’re out there and
the only way you can survive with five
grown men in a van sometimes only
being paid $100 a night to stay out
on the road and promote your record,
the only way to survive is to drink and
use drugs and self-medicate, basically.
So when we sat down and wrote that
song, we were kind of at that phase
where we were like “Do we fire every-
body and start from a real perspective
of our art and from where we need to
be as people, or do we continue on this
road of conscious, complete and utter
destruction, throwing all caution to the
wind and being these people that just
stay on the road?” “Stay on the road,
stay on the road, we’re gonna keep
booking you, building your profile” But
in the meantime everything at home is
falling part. Our relationships are fall-
ing apart. The places that we lived don’t
even exist anymore, really just throw
everything into this thing and hope for
the best, hope that they have your back
and know what they’re doing. Obvious-
ly after five years we realized this was
not the case, that they didn’t know what
they were doing, everybody’s trying to
reinvent the music business because as
we know it, it died
four years ago and
there’s a complete
reinvention that’s
taking place. That’s
kind of what’s excit-
ing about what the
band’s doing, where
we’ve been and
what we’ve done
is that we came to
all these different
realizations after
a certain point in
our career. Yeah we
were on a major la-
bel, with one of the
biggest managers,
we had all that stuff.
But in the end, you’d
be number one at a radio station in New
York and you’d show up and your re-
cord wouldn’t be for sale in the stores-
of the town that you’re number one in.
Lissy: That’s crazy!
Nik: Yeah we’d look at each other
and say “there’s something dreadfully
wrong with this equation, there’s some-
thing really wrong with the way this
business is and that was the transfor-
mation. But it’s a transformation you
can’t just jump into, because you’re
programmed a certain way, to be a
certain way and to think a certain way
and to perceive the business a certain
way and so to change that percep-
tion and move in a different direction
it takes time. It’s also a huge leap of
faith to not be those guys anymore
And you’ve got to find people to work
with that are willing to change too, be-
cause there’s so many people in man-
agement that are stuck in the old ways,
and that’s not good for you guys either.
That was what we went through and
what the main transformation was for us
was having the balls to fire everybody.
Literally, we got off a particularly brutal
tour supporting “we love what kills us” –
You remember that- you saw us on that.
Lissy: Yeah totally!
Nik: And I would
say at that point
we became un-
ruly and obnox-
ious towards our
management and
our label and we
started rebelling
and everyone
was like, you
can’t do that. We
were like, fuck
you we can’t do
that! We posted
some really fun-
ny videos online
on youtube that
absolutely in-
censed our agen-
cy, incensed our management and we
were asked to take those videos down
to which we replied “Hell no, Part of
our lives is what we’re doing and if
you’re embarrassed by where you put
us, suck it up and fucking deal with
it. We’re not taking the videos down,
that’s what we live, this is what we are.”
And that point we were still yelling the
rally cry of “We love what kills us”
Lissy: Yeah, you have always been very
honest with who you are through your
music, and the way you interact with
your fans, everything’s very honest.
Nik: Yeah you’re absolutely right. I re-
ally did lead the charge on this thing be-
cause I thought this was a really great
time for us to transform our sound, and
a really great time for us to go from be-
ing this live rock n roll band to embrac-
ing some of the things we could inject
into our music. Instead of coming out
with a new record that was all original
material, it had to be a complete shift,
like what the fuck, there’s synthesizers
on here, there’s drum machines, so lets
do a record like that where you have
to do that to make the material work
Lissy: So this was recorded completely
different from your last album then, cause
that was recorded completely live…
Nik: Yeah pretty much all of our records
up to this one, and what’s ironic is that
some of my livest moments are on this
record. That’s what’s crazy, we would
put in a skeleton beat, then I would sing
live, Ray would sing or play live, then
the guitars would go down live, so a lot
of the stuff went down live. But after-
wards, we were able to go crazy with
the overdubbing like we haven’t with
the other records. Like if we get a take
and we think the guitar kinda sucks,
we’ll just fix that in the over-dubs. But
we’ll leave it sounding for the most part
live. But this record we worked with
some really great friends; Shaun Lopez
of Far, Rick Torres from Supreme Be-
ings and Weezer amazing Los Angeles
band that are just unparallel in the kind
of trip-hop electronica world, so all
these guys that have their influences,
Chris Johnson, who’s done Buckcherry
records, having that guy come in and do
the most rock n roll song of the record,
the rebel yell version. We did a trip-
hop version of rebel yell, like a down
tempo version produced by Rick, and
then we did the rock version produced
by Chris Johnson. We loved them both
so much, they’re both going on the re-
cord. Yeah so kind of a long-winded
response to your question. But with
Saved there was such a market waiting
for it, what’s cool about it, people that
had never heard of our band before are
now fans and interacting with the
band based on this song that we kind
of covered then finished writing.
Lissy: I think it’s really cool that you
took something that lasted less than
a minute and finished it for them.
Nik: Yeah it’s a stunning track. It’s
really beautiful and like I said it kind
of speaks of transformation. I don’t
know….Ray what did you think of the
end of Lost? Did you feel ripped off or
did it end the way you thought it would?
Ray: Haha, I think I was a little disap-
pointed. I’m going to have to go through
and watch it all again to absorb it all,
there’s so much information that was
processed there but I was a little let down.
Nik: Yeah yeah cause the writers over and
over again said, “they’re not in purgato-
ry, they’re not dead” they said that and
then in the end that was the case, right?
Lissy: Yeah… it was almost like at
the end there they rushed it, like “oh
god what are we gonna do? Oh we’ll
just do that” Which was a shame
cause they had this huge fan base
all speculating and they could have
come up with something really cool.
Nik: Well, that’s what I thought, and I
was telling Ray “they don’t know what
they’re doing, this is all being written
on the fly just to be interesting.” Once
again the parallel with this new music
industry and where we’re going and
once again this record really allowed
us to really get down and not only
strip away the sound that we had, but
playing with sounds that have always
been important to me, I come from the
DJ world, I come from the electronic
world, so it was fun for me to put some-
thing together as a set, that was a like
a set of songs I would play at a club.
And for the band to go in there and pull
everything together, nothing is done in
this band with an autocratic rule, it’s all
done in a collaborative democracy, but
I did lead the charge on this because I
I thought that this would be a great place
for us to… kind of like eating that crack-
er between wine-tasting, when you try a
different bottle of wine. Lets just com-
pletely throw out our sound for a record
and just be fucking nuts and have the
only rule be, lets have no fucking rules.
Lissy: Now did you find that easy to do,
or do you find that more challenging?
Nik: When you say, “That’s the rule” in
our band, it’s very easy to follow. Haha
Very early on in the band, back when
Ray joined, we threw out a lot of rules,
we started to fuck around with each
other, it got crazy, the walls started
to come down and I believe that was
a transformation point of so many as-
pects of where we’ve come and learn-
ing also that The Bangkok Five is big-
ger than any one individual. When we
lost Nicky Lucero, I thought it was the
end of the band, but along came Ray
Blanco, Nicky was our first drummer,
the Queens of the Stoneage guy. The
second drummer of our band became
more of a member of our band and an
influence of our sound than Nicky ever
was, you know what I mean? So trans-
formation can take place when rules
are thrown out, we always thought our
last sound was sacrosanct but then we
just threw it out and I gotta tell you
this next record is gonna be without a
doubt some of the best songs that I’ve
ever written, best songs that Ray’s ever
written, best songs’ that Sweeny’s ever
written. We all came to this table with
this fresh perspective and threw out all
the fucking rules cause we had made
that precedent and we accept that prec-
edent that there’s no fucking rules now.
So when people came in to writing on
this upcoming record, which is… how
many songs do we have now? Like
forty? We have such a wealth of mate-
rial to choose from. Our relationships..
That’s the irony; by going away from
the business for about a year and a half
our business is stronger than it’s ever
been. We’re managed by one of the big-
gest companies in the world They have
offices in Montreal, New York, Los An-
geles, London, Copenhagen, we’re
riding with one of the actual award
winning song writers of the year, weve
got these kind of guys working with us
now. It’s really funny, the real success
has been in the reinvention and what
we’re finding out now is throwing out
the rule-book on this last record we’re
getting fans from places we never
thought we’d get fans from. Michael
Jackson fans are discovering our ver-
sion that came out on iTunes, those
fans are finding The Bangkok Five and
they’re Michael Jackson fans! Fans
of the show Lost are finding the band
and when this record drops with all the
diverse artists that we cover it really
is gonna be kind of incredible to see
the discovery that takes place with re-
gard to the new fan base that will be
created with this new record. The way
we stripped our sound away is going
to enable us to come back burly and
gnarly and huge on this next record,
there’s no question in my mind, like I
said I’m writing the best shit I’ve ever
written in my life, so’s Ray. That’s the
other fun thing about this new record
that we’re writing now, members of
the band came to the table with com-
pletely finished songs, and they were
able to produce on their own. So that’s
really really fun, we’ve always written
as a collective and so our sound is go-
ing to really be expanded upon. Ray’s
voice as an artist is really gonna be
heard, he does sing, he does play guitar.
Bobby has brought stuff to the table,
you know when we were on “We Love
What Kills Us” Ray had been with the
band for about two years but Bobby
had just joined us. So Bobby has re-
ally come into his own, it’s so funny
to hear his take on the Bangkok Five,
some of his shit is some of the coolest
shit I’ve ever heard in my life. Obvi-
ously he’s writing for the band, but
it’s so fresh and so funky. It’s so fun
to see the various members of the band
grow within the band watch the band
expand. For me it’s been some of the
most rewarding writing sessions I’ve
had. Ray will come in with a song that
sounds like Ex-Idols or a very early
band they were influenced by greatly,
but Ray’s into hardcore shit. But it’s
really fun, psychedelic and cool and
highly highly rewarding creatively.
Lissy: Now I know you guys are
into Yacht Rock, so why weren’t
there any Kenny Loggins on there?
Nik: HAHAHAHA. I think as much
as I love Steely Dan, as much as I love
that stuff, it’s funny cause my fian-
cée’s father is literally a yacht rocker,
he’s got planes and boats and that’s
his shit, that 70s beautifully played,
perfectly played rock. Ray? Just too
out of style for us to do right now?
Ray: I’d be too cliché. Too obvious.
Lissy: Hahaha we were expecting it…
Ray: Yeah it was too obvious, we pulled
out Lady Gaga and people are ok with it.
Nik: Yeah I think that is a good point;
we wanted to show people where we
came from by playing certain songs.
I was lucky enough when I first got
to LA when I first got back from Eu-
rope in my early 20s I had the ability to
work with Keith Forsey who produced
all those amazing Billy Idol dance rock
songs and was the drummer for Giorgio
Moroder in the seventies when they cre-
ated the template for techno and house
music. A lot of people think that’s drum
programming on those records, it’s not
it’s a drummer by the name of Keith
Forsey. So it was really cool to pay
homage to him by recording – the only
artist that got covered twice was Billy
Idol; we did two versions of Rebel Yell.
You can’t pay homage to Billy Idol
without throwing down some crazy shit
because of the way he changed punk
rock. Techno as we know it wouldn’t
exist if it wasn’t for Keith Forsey and
unfortunately a lot of people see The
Bangkok Five as just this rock n roll
band whereas The Bangkok Five is a lot
more like Primal Scream the only rea-
son its never been expressed on record
is because some of the members who
were involved in earlier incarnations of
the band just wouldn’t accept that kind
of stuff and as we grew and moved for-
ward, a band can either disintegrate or
it can transform itself into perfection
Lissy: Right, evolve
Nik: I believe the journey of The Bang-
kok Five…and everyone knows I’m
never going anywhere, is we’re gonna
get better and better and better, very
much like Primal Scream. Very mush
like Sonic Youth, very much like crys-
tallizing the vision and making it truly
great. That’s why it’s truly inspirational
Lissy: It’s exciting!
Nik: Yeah and to see Bobby come in
and write great Bangkok Five songs
it’s stirring because we have some-
thing that transcends individuals and
I always tell the guys if anything were
to ever happen to me, the band is your
guys’ band, you gotta find somebody.
And they’re always “oh nonono it
wouldn’t be anything without you,
you’re the voice” Like no dude, it re-
ally is its own thing. But it has songs on
this new record that hasn’t even been
recorded yet but it’s like electro-clash
with full-on rock n roll tracks some-
times then some of the gnarliest sad-
dest love songs you’ve ever heard in
your entire life, then other songs are al-
most like fifties do-wop songs, but with
Weezer guitars, you get what I mean?
Lissy: Oh yeah cool! I real-
ly excited about this before even
“Under The Covers” is out!
Nik: There’s only so much a band can
say about a cover’s record, but they
can say a lot about the transforma-
tion that takes place and where they
artistically allow themselves to re-
cord a whole album of covers. Can
you imagine how exhausting that is?
You didn’t actually write those songs,
it’s a hell of a lot of fucking work.
Lissy: Yeah, u have to pay homage to
the original artist, you can’t fuck it up.
Nik: Yeah and it’s not your music, you
didn’t write it, it’s not about your re-
lationships, it’s not about your life.
And I have to say that singing these
cover songs in a way that makes them
sound believable really enabled me to
truly embrace the songs that the other
guys were bringing in for the next re-
cord, which we’re tentatively calling
it.. Here’s a title for you “The Bang-
kok Five Incorporated” and that’s
a play on the transformation we’ve
been through as business people and
obviously one of the greatest books
ever written “Rolling Stones Incorpo-
rated” which ironically brought things
round full-circle which was brought
to my attention by my fiancée’s father.
He said, you absolutly have to read this
book, it’ll change how you feel about
this band, and it totally did. The Roll-
ing Stones actually created the tem-
plate for Kiss. A lot of people don’t
realize that but the first big business
rock n roll band was not Kiss, but the
Rolling Stones. But The Bangkok Five,
as we started to grow and realized who
we needed to become in order to sur-
vive into the next twenty years where
we want to take this thing. We had to
create something that could transform
music and we couldn’t just worry about
the band anymore we really had to
worry about the music business. So we
actually formed a corporation, formed
an entertainment company. When you
talk to most bands about signing to a
major label and ask them if they’d sign
a deal they say “I wouldn’t sign a deal
with a major if you gave me $2 mil-
lion up front. Our art is much more
important than living a certain way and
I know they will cripple my work and
cripple my vision, I’d rather die on my
feet running than live as a slave on my
knees” That is truly where The Bang-
kok Five live now and hence the title
of the next album “The Bangkok Five
Incorporated” and hence us creating
this company “Indiemedia, Inc” it’s the
independent artist coming with a new
voice and creating something way be-
yond what we ever thought we’d ever
do in a band. We always thought we
we were just going to be rock and roll
band, we were gonna go out there, play
the stages, tear it up. Whether we did it
on the scale of Black Flag in a van or
Rolling Stones in busses and jet planes.
In the end it was always going to be
about the most honest rock n roll band
you’ve ever seen in your life giving their
heart and soul no matter where they’re
playing, that’s where we thought we’d
be, we never thought we’d be trans-
formed into true business people where
we interfacing with gigantic artists,
we’re doing things we never thought
we’d be doing. I don’t really want to
get into the details of that, because it’s
not time but when we unveil some of
the things we’ve been working on it’s
gonna be truly transformative for the
industry because no band has had the
perfect storm that this band has had.
Where Nicky would always try and
shut down creative ideas, Ray’s coming
up with the new innovation. Never say-
ing no, and always saying yes that’s en-
abled the band to stretch as a business
and this bands’ gone from being this
struggling entity to actually thriving
and we’re doing really well in our lives
right now, and I think that hiatus, that
transformation that we’ve enabled our-
selves to go on has allowed that. We’ve
stopped living like animals and treating
ourselves like animals to where we’re
valuing our relationships and we’re
valuing our lives and taking the time
to connect to our humanity in a way.
Ray: Meanwhile I’ve taken the last two
years to try and disconnect from humanity
Lissy: Now, you do a lot of work with
Far? Didn’t you go on tour with them?
Ray: Yeah I’ve been with Far for a
looong time. Kind of like a silent fifth
member of the band. I used to tour with
the band many years ago, and then they
took a hiatus. They had a lot of success
with a song called Pony…. My sto-
ry’s no good… I started telling it and
I realized there’s no point to my story.
Nik: There is actually, they came back
after not being a band for, how long Ray?
Ray: Ten-year hiatus.
Nik: The singer and the guitar player
who is a producer and produced songs
on our record Shaun Lopez, and actu-
ally important to note, the singer of Far
Jonah does a funny cameo on Poker
Face, he does the rap in the middle, it’s
bloody brilliant and hilarious! He liter-
ally transforms himself into “Dieter”
from SNL and has this funny voice. But
they did this version of Pony, it took the
fuck off and became number one at K-
Rock one of the most influential radio
stations in the world and they jump-
started their career to a new level. So
yeah it is really a relevant and cool sto-
ry, Ray. Once again, this is a band that
pissed everybody off, woke up in the
middle of the tour and told each other
to fuck off then did something on their
own that was bloody genius and com-
pletely invigorated their career, then
took everything on their own terms and
did everything on their own and really
that is what The Bangkok Five is about.
We’ve got the attorneys waving the op-
portunities in our faces and we wont
take them. We know what we’re doing
now, what we wanna do now, we know
that we’re gonna make more money
than we’ve ever made in our lives and
be more successful than we’ve ever
been. The band has always been one of
those difficult list bands; we’ve always
been “difficult”. When anyone wants to
get involved with The Bangkok Five
and start making the rounds and calling
managers of the past, and the record
labels of the past, the one thing you’ll
always hear is “They’re incredibly
talented but incredibly difficult” And
we always say “Fuck yeah we’re in-
credibly difficult because most of you
guys were more worried about when
would be the next time you were go-
ing to snort cocaine off a stripper’s tit
than when we had to pull off tour and
get home safely” They live in this al-
ternate reality that is left over from the
nineties and they’re still living there.
I’ll talk to managers and I’ll say “Yep,
it’s really tough for you now isn’t it?”
“Yeah it’s really tough” and they think
I’m trying to nuzzle up to them and
be nice and they’ll go “yeah it’s really
I wish it was ten years ago, or just six
years ago, god we’re having a really
hard time making a living” All these
managers and A&R guys are no longer
in the business, trying to sell real es-
tate till the bottom fell out of that and
now they’re trying to reinvigorate the
online world, it’s comical watching
these guys cause they just can’t figure
it out. To have them watch The Bang-
kok Five, the stupid, difficult band, to
watch us figure it out, because they
never had the true passion and under-
standing of the art form, that has been
one of the most satisfying things I’ve
ever encountered in my life. Actually
to see Tim Devine, one of the biggest
A&R guys in the business at a party
and say “I’m doing alternative business
with Sony, I’m doing one-off business
with Sony. Bigger business than any of
the artists you’ve signed in the last five
years, I’m doing all that and you’re not
even in the music business anymore,
buddy” You know how good that feels?
Lissy: You guys are successful where
they’re not because they’re stuck with
the same thought processes and you have
come along and reinvented yourselves.
Nik: We’ll always be relevant, make
relevant music, we’ll always be here
because we are the real deal. Most of
these people, unfortunately, you see
them strip away, you see them fade
away, fall to the wayside. Some guys
would rather fix other people’s gui-
tars than play the guitar. You can’t
change them, you can’t make them
into something else, they just are what
they are and all you can do is tip your
hat to them and keep moving hahaha
Lissy: Don’t worry about that,
you’ve got enough to worry about
Nik: Exactly
Lissy: Greg’s not with you
anymore, am I correct?
Nik: yes you are right; we did include
him on Saved because that was the last
song he worked on with us. The band
was going in a different way, busi-
ness wise from where Greg wanted to
go. Also the bass player he’s been re-
placed with is a bass player that I’ve
been a fan of for over five years, Ray’s
style is very elaborate and we needed
someone to complement that. He’s been
with a band that was on Virgin, Astral-
werks , so he’s from the world that I’m
from so I always felt that Ray, not being
from the world I was from was genius
cause he brought this fresh prospective
to music I wanted to make, but I always
felt that where Greg was coming from
was burying us in the past, and Francis
Ten is someone I respect as a creative
entity. I respected Greg immensely as a
player, but I always wanted a trimmer,
more new wave electro sound. Francis
brings us this new fresh sound. It’s sad
when you’re great friends with some-
one but you’re coming from a different
place, creatively, and one day you real-
ize this and Ray, as it’s ultimately his
decision, this is his partner, had to ac-
cept this, and it was his final decision...
Lissy: So everyone in the band
now shares the same vision?
Nik: Everyone shares the same vision;
we’re on the same page. It is really ex-
citing to have another guy that brings a
50,000 fan base to our band. I always
refer Greg any time I get the chance, I
still love the guy, and the split was ami-
cable. There’s a bond between all of
us, we’re all artists, I’m always going
to fight for Ray, Nicky, Greg, no mat-
ter who or where they are. Ray’s done
some great sweet things for “Hometown
Hero” his former band. I don’t want to
dismiss Greg’s contributions, but we
could not grow like that, we couldn’t
have made Under The Covers with
Greg still in the band, he wasn’t down.
Lissy: OK, while we’ve
been talking, you’ve actual-
ly answered all my questions…
Nik: We’re just starting to do inter-
views, as I told you I had so much
to say and you’ve been so great in
the past I wanted to reach out to you.
When I read what you write about
the band I think it’s spectacular, this
chick gets it, we had a great time with
her, you’re one of us… so I definitely
wanted to touch base with you first, let
you know what we’re doing.
Well thank you… (I shed a little tear)