Rock Metal Pop Country Blues

BRokEN REcoRDs
New Orleans Jazz Fest page 
51

Issue 2
mAGAziNE

Buddy Guy
Chuck Wicks
Chickenfoot
Disturbed
Jessie James
Fall Out Boy
All American Rejects t ime
o f o u r
Push Play r v i e w and inno v a t o r s
t e
e x c sive in artists
lu f the best
n
A one o
with
Les Paul
1915-2009
ring
 “
People are doing it for the love of money
Features and not for the love of music.
You won’t find a blues guy doing
that.”
-Buddy Guy
In Every Issue
Buzz Bands 62
A Day to Remember, Jessie James,
Parachute and more

Local Spotlight
Crazy Greg aka Pooh Bear
48
and Push Play
26
Show Reviews 51
Gavin Rossdale, In This Moment, Steve
Martin, David Cook, Chickenfoot and
more

CD Reviews
Green Day, Taking Back Sunday, CKY,
Kelly Clarkson, and many more

“I think it’s great therapy

to have a reason to get up and carry on
rather than to lay back, shrivel up, and dry out.”
-Les Paul

Also Inside
Issue Two 2009

Burn Halo........................8 Theory of a Deadman...21 Aiden............................46

Endless Hallway..............8 Safetysuit.......................6 Tiger City......................46
All American Rejects.......9 Disturbed......................32 Thriving Ivory.................11
Eyes Set to Kill................7 Clutch...........................28 RyanStar.......................10
Les Claypool.................12 Coheed and Cambria....47 Katie Armiger..................23
Dope.............................12 Sum 41..........................22 Carters Chord.................23
Static-X.........................20 Cradle of Filth...............40 Chuck Wicks......................24
 JOE TROHMAN F
A
L
L

O
mAGAziNE
U
 T Brian Dawson: Owner/Photographer/
Interviewer/Editor in Chief
B Scott Vollweiler: Owner/Photographer/
O Writer/Interviewer/Editor in Chief
 Y
Candice Rose Wanca: Staff Manager/
16 Photographer/Writer/Interviewer/
Graphic Designer

Ann Reilly: Graphic Designer/Marketing

T
Nicole Seblano:Editor
R
   I Jill M. Bendar: Phographer
V Kristin Tully: Photographer/Writer
   I
Contributers:
  U Michael Musacchio,  Danielle Portera,
Kyra Kverno, Victoria Barone, Adrienne
 M Nardone, Michael Wooldridge, Salvatore
Spurge, Thomas Ferraro, Allie Beth, Alicia
38 Gallagher, Sabina Mamedover, Michael
Marciuliano,Joe Penacchio

From The Owners: Check out our extended digital version at

www.BrokenRecordsOnline.com
America was born on innovation. We knew our limits and pushed the
boundaries; we raised the bar for the next generation. We built airplanes,
automobiles and created the greatest music. In almost every facet of music, This issue’s bonus content includes
we hear an electric guitar. It has become the instrument of choice for many
music fans. Yet we need to realize that it is less than a century old; violins,
interviews with Korn, Funeral for a Friend,
pianos and drums are much older. Many music fans have heard of the Les 3 Doors Down, Third Eye Blind, Coheed and
Paul guitar but most have no idea that it was created by the guitar’s name-
sake. When I was given the opportunity to sit down with the man who basi- Cambria, Sum 41 and more!
cally changed music, I literally jumped out of my chair in excitement. It’s so
rare that you get to speak to someone who is a humble, sweet and genuine
person. Besides being the father of the electric guitar, Les Paul also built the
effects and multi-track recording platforms for which the entire recording All photos and logos depicted in this magazine
industry is built upon.In this issue we try to focus on artists who have suc- are the sole porperty of the designated artist
ceeded in being innovators in their genres. These innovators include blues and/or their respective record label/promotion-
legend, Buddy Guy; metal band, Trivium; pop band, Fallout Boy; and a fes- al company, unless otherwise noted.
tival that is known around the world as the greatest jazz festival, Jazz Fest.
 A Day Off In Nashville By Anne Reilly
“It’s our first day off in about two months,” states Jeremy Hen-
shaw, bassist for SafetySuit. He’s in a really good mood, enjoying
a day off in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, with the other
members of SafetySuit, Doug Brown (guitar and vocals), Dave
Garofalo (lead guitar), and Tate Cunningham (drums). For the
past two months, they’ve been on tour with Hinder, then Seether
and Hoobastank. “It’s was a lot of fun, it’s the first set of arena
tours for SafetySuit. Every site is really cool in its own way. The
big arenas are incredible, the ten thousand seaters, you get a really
big stage with lots of room to go crazy and jump around and have
a good time. The smaller sites are really cool too, like the Hard
Rock Live and the House of Blues, because everyone is packed
in there real tight and close, the energy is just through the roof.”
This past Fall (2008) SafetySuit also toured with Puddle of
Mud, RED, Seether, and Theory of a DeadMan. “Yeah, we’ve
been hitting the road really hard this past year,” commented Jer-
emy. I laughed and told him “You’ve been hooking up with a lot
of my favorite bands lately, it’s one of the reasons I wanted to do
this interview.” Jeremy agrees, “That’s so cool, it’s cool for us too.
We’ve gotten to play with a lot of bands that we’ve been fans of
for a long really time. We all rocked out to “Kryptonite” in high
school with our friends, and now we find ourselves backstage in a
greenroom hanging out with 3 Doors Down, it’s just so surreal.”
Jeremy, Doug, Dave, and Tate have been friends for eight years
or more, they’re like brothers, and everybody’s a prankster, always
playing jokes on each other. Jeremy told me about a recent one,
the video clip is on their Myspace page, called The Scare. “Doug
and our tour manager, Mark DiChico, hid out in the bathtub of my
hotel room for four hours waiting for me to come to the room and
fall asleep. Then they army crawled out of the bathroom towards
my bed. Doug was making monkey grunting noises, and Chico
was moaning. I woke up screaming. I’ve never been more scared
in my entire life.” I checked out the video, it’s hilarious, and ends
with “So lesson be learned, check your bathtubs before you go
to sleep, SafetySuit may be hiding there.” It’s the real moments,
those raw moments, that always make things more interesting.
Besides all the touring, SafetySuit has also been on VH1’s Top 20
Countdown for their video “Someone Like You”, they were show-
cased as a Billboard Featured Artist in the Fall of 2008, they’ve
had multiple songs featured as soundtracks for the hit MTV show
“The Hills,” which has also lead to SafetySuit’s continuously col-
lecting votes on MTV’s Soundtrack.MTV.com, where MTV fans
can vote for their favorite MTV show’s soundtracks, in this case,
“The Hills” (you can cast your vote at http://soundtrack.mtv.com/
profile/safetysuit).
Since the band’s inception in 2002, Myspace has been huge in
building their fan base, especially in the Nashville area. Myspace
also helped the major label Universal Motown Records to take
notice and sign the band. “We stay in touch with all of our fans
through Myspace, Facebook, and we’re all on Twitter now. We
use every avenue possible so we’re able to stay in touch with our
fans because that’s who we’re making the music for. They’re the
reason that we have the ability to stay out there, doing what we’re
doing, writing more music, and we owe our success on the road to
them. Anything we can do to show that we appreciate our fans and
give them access to our daily lives, we’ll gladly do it. We want
them to experience more than just a song, more than just an album.”
The band’s a huge fan of Bono and U2, and Jeremy has a mes-
sage for Bono: “I just want to shake Bono’s hand and say ‘Thank
you for what you’ve done for my life and for the rest of the world.
On behalf of the world, Bono, thank you.’”
E yes S et t o K ill
BRM: How did you first get into music
did anybody in particular influence
you?
Alexia Rodriguez: When I was eleven, I
was into a lot of pop music I really wanted
to be a singer. I just loved singing. As I went
through junior high and high school I start-
ed listening to darker music because I was
going through a tough time and my parents
were getting divorced and my friends...you
know how it is in school sometimes people
decide to not be your friends anymore be-
cause they’re just dumb and they have the
cliques and stuff. I got into darker music
because it meant more than just dancing.
BRM: Do you guys write when you’re
on tour?
AR: Everything I wrote for Reach was real-
ly easy cause we already had songs that we
took from the EP, that we put onto Reach
and then the rest of the tracks we wrote
when I was at home and having problems,
it’s easier to write when you have problems
to write about. For this album, we were on
tour the whole time, so we’re on the road
partying and having a good time and it was
hard to write. I write songs about stories
about our friends and problems that other
people are going through. We have mon-
ster stories too, one is about a werewolf.
It sounds kind of funny but it’s about how
everyone doesn’t accept the person that
he is, people can relate to that. You really
have to read into the lyrics to tell what the
song is about. I wrote most of the stuff on
Reach but this time we collaborated. I’m
kind of a control freak I would get upset if
anyone started writing a song without me
but this time I let that happen and it made
this second album a lot better than Reach.
BRM: Have the new songs been getting
a good crowd reaction?
AR: Oh yeah, it’s pretty funny when any
Interview by Candice Wanca
band plays a new song the crowd goes cra-
zy but then they’ll stop a little bit because
they don’t know how the song goes or when
it ends. It’s funny when they keep dancing
and the songs done. But I think they like
it a lot. The new songs are on Myspace.
BRM: Speaking of which, I heard you
guys booked your first tour through
Myspace. Since your popularity has
grown do you guys still take on that do
it yourself approach or did you sit back
a bit? Do you still try to interact person-
ally with your fans on the site?
AR: We try to but its really hard when your
on tour. Even though we have laptops with
us now. Sometimes we’ll lose a cable, like
Caleb just got a laptop and he already lost
his power cable. We really try when were
home to talk to everybody cause when we
were younger and we wanted to talk to
bands and we got a response sometimes
you could tell its not even the band. I think
we’re going to do more video tour updates
on Youtube so we can stay in contact with
our fans because it’s getting hard to keep
up with people on Myspace. I get those
messages where it’s like ‘you guys don’t
talk to us anymore’ but it’s really hard.
BRM: The music videos you guys have
made, did you have any part in the con-
cept? didn’t want me to and I was like ‘I can’t do
AR: They asked me what I wanted to
do, my own interpretation of the song. I
couldn’t really think of anything except
what I want the colors to be. I couldn’t
think of a story line cause when I think
of story line, I think of a huge dramatic
thing where there’s no way for us to be
able to pay for it. When I listen to my
ipod and I close my eyes, I think way too
much into it and I forget we have a limit.
I can’t wait until we can just go all out. It
kind of makes me sad that we can’t portray
exactly what’s in my mind. Artists should
have a say in what their doing and what they
want people to see when they hear their song.
BRM: Do you guys have any pre show
rituals or warm ups before you go on
stage?
AR: I keep trying to get everyone to do
one, I always see bands do it, if you have a
sh*tty day or if you just broke up with your
boyfriend or girlfriend, sometimes you
don’t even want to go on stage and I think
that’s why we have a ritual. That way we
can focus our energy together and walk on
stage with that. It sucks when you’re play-
ing and they’re there for you and you want
to put on a good show but you’re just think-
ing about how your grandma yelled at you.
BRM: What has your biggest obstacle
been so far as a musician?
AR: When we were writing our last album
I had writers block for the first time, really
bad, I felt like I needed to get out of the
state or something because I couldn’t think
of anything I was totally frustrated then our
manager wanted me to write with a friend.
It was a totally poppy song and the whole
time I was thinking ‘oh my god, this is not
going to work’. He came up with this vo-
cal melody and I was trying to change it
to make it more like my own stuff and he
this’ and I felt so bad after and I apologized.
We were recording at ?? and Brandon was
playing piano and it was really pretty like a
concert piece and then I just started writing,
it was really weird I was writing about how
people are trying to make me be something
I don’t want to be and all this stuff came
out of me that I didn’t even know that I
had in me. So even though it was the worst
experience it turned into the best because
it’s now what’s going to be our first single.

Photo by Scott Vollweiler
Interview by Candice Wanca we wrote songs as a band somewhat.
Broken Records Magazine: How was burn
halo formed?
James Hart: Basically when Eighteen Visions
split up in 2007 I was given a record deal after guitars and drums, it didn’t make, what I feel,
a meeting with Zack Maloy (formerly of the
band the Nixons). I wrote and recorded the al-
bum from May of ‘07 until June ’08. Originally songwriters there’s going to be compromises.
I was going to do this thing as a solo artist but You’re going to have to give up some of your
the more the songs grew, the more featured in-
strumental parts were added, I felt it was more
something band would release. The type of
players I had record on the record, they’re all
members of different bands; Daniel Adair from wanted to build everything around the vocals. I
Nickelback, Chris Chaney from Jane’s Addic-
WALKING THE
Photo and interview
by Kristin Tully
tion, Neil who’s playing with
David Cook, Synyster Gates
from Avenged Sevenfold. It
just felt like more of a band
effort. I met our bass player Aaron
when I was in Tulsa making the
record. I met our guitar players Joey
and Allen through a mutual friend.
Our drummer I met through another
friend so that’s pretty much how our
band came together. We shot a video
back in October, our first tour started
in December. We have a couple
months under our belt.
BRM: How can you compare
being the front man in Eighteen
Visions to Burn Halo? Do you have
more creative freedom now?
JH: As a songwriter I have complete
creative freedom, it’s great. Before,
It was more like I was handed bits of
music that were completely finished,
with very little wiggle room for vocals. So I
was basically building all the vocals around
for the best vocal production on records. But
when you’re in a band and you have three main
ideas, people are going to have to deal with the
fact that you’re not going to completely get
what you want out of every song. With that in
mind, when I started to sing(for burn halo) I
wanted them to be first and foremost and then
BRM: Tell me
about the name
Endless Hallway
Ryan Jackson:
It’s really more of
a visual. I wanted
people to get a
picture in their mind
when they heard it
and it just sounded
cool. It’s this kind of infinite on go-
ing space and I’m an artist so I wanted
something that conceptualized our goals
as a group.
BRM: The progression of the songs
on the album is really interesting, was
that something organic or premedi-
tated?
RJ: That was definitely planned. As a
visual artist I like everything to have
a meaning and to physically fit in a
certain place. So, when we were writing
I think with each song we tried to make
it almost like a story. I tried to take what
I heard in my head and materialize that
build the guitar bass and drums around that. I
was able to do that this time around, build the
songs from the ground up on acoustic guitars.
I wrote fifty percent of just about every song
with Zack. It’s just a much better experience
for me as a songwriter. I feel like this has a
much more natural and organic feel to it on
stage. In Eighteen Visions sometimes I felt we
were trying to create this image that would
appeal to a certain fan base and that was one
of the aspects of the band I wasn’t completely
stoked on. I wanted something that had a more
raw, natural feel to it. I learned a lot from Eigh-
teen Visions and it was definitely a big part of
my life and it taught me a lot about being in a
band and the music industry and I made a lot of
great friends and had a great time making those
records and touring but I just feel like this is a
better representation of who I am and what I
want to do musically.
BRM: I see your former band mate Keith
(Barney) is featured on the record but he is
not an official member.
JH: I maintained a friendship with all the guys
in the band(Eighteen Visions). You’re referring
to the song “Falling Faster” which I wrote with
him. I love the entire progression of the song.
Keith came to a crossroads in his life where he
felt like he wanted to do music and he loved
playing shows but he wasn’t totally satisfied
with being on tour. It got rough for all of us and
I think he’s much happier being home and be-
ing able to write. He was definitely the creative
flame in the band.
and hopefully when you listen you get a
picture of how it all works as an album.
BRM: Well if you could have a free day
to do what you wanted on this tour,
what would you do?
RJ: I’d definitely like to explore more of
our culture within the U.S. That’s one
thing we really haven’t been able to do.
We’ve been through a bunch of cities but
I’d like to be able to really see the culture
and history in different States.
BRM: So what’s next for Endless Hall-
way?
RJ: Hopefully we’ll just keep moving
forward and achieving a higher level as
artists, keep pushing ourselves and hope-
fully we’d love to be a part of those bands
that have made it past disposable rock,
bands like Metallica, U2, Motley Crue
have endured. All those bands are influ-
ences to us and if we could be considered
in their company one day that would be
amazing!
THE ALL AMERICAN REJECTS
It has been almost seven years since the All-American Rejects’ burst onto the music scene with their infectious hit single “Swing,
Swing.” That same year AAR celebrated the release of their self-titled debut album. According to guitarist Mike Kennerty,
the All-American Rejects’ demo almost did not make it to production. “Doghouse had seen the demo and thrown it away. The
fourteen-year old sister-in-law of the guy who owned the label would take home all the thrown away demos and she really liked
that one and brought it back to them.” Even after that fairytale scenario, the band’s album did not fare as well as the band had
hoped. “Swing, Swing” was moderately successful but the record garnered no other hit singles for them. The All-American Re-
jects found themselves back in the studio and ready to prove themselves to their label once more.

Interview by Danielle Portera

Photos by Scott Vollweiler

Broken Records Magazine: Your third
album just was released in Decem-
ber. Could you tell me a little bit about
that one, what was the creative process
around that record?
Mike Kennerty: This one it was for When
the World Comes Down. We didn’t have
the pressure that we felt from the label last
time with “Move Along” cause they were
all still so excited about how well “Move
Along” did and they kind of just like you
‘guys are gonna do great whatever you do
it’s gonna be fine.’ So we were coming up
with these songs and like having to write
way quicker cause we’d taken a longer
time touring and there was the pressure to
get something out cause it was going to be
like another year if we didn’t work really
fast. We were kind of just getting songs
done and not really seeing them through
to the finish product but just kind of get-
ting the skeletons together and going on to
the next thing. We weren’t sure what we
were coming up with was any good. We
were kind of freaking ourselves out cause
we had this batch of songs and we even
started doing them in the studio and still
not feeling a hundred percent about them.
We kind of drove ourselves insane a little
bit. And working with Eric Valentine who
is an amazing producer, he helped us a lot
and at the same time the way he works it’s
almost like a solo effort so it takes a lot lon-
ger to record. And we recorded a bunch of
it on tape rather than digitally and so the
process was longer which gave us more
time to think ‘is this any good’ and drive
ourselves even more insane. So by the end
of the process, literally up until the last day
of mixing, we were kind of unsure about
the record. So we’ve since had a little bit
of time to step away and now were like,
‘Alright we’re stoked by the way it turned
out.’ It needed all this process and all this
stuff to get to where it was. But, definitely
this was the most maddening record for us.
BRM: Well, I think the madness kind of
paid off because you guys got a number
one hit with “Gives You Hell”.
MK: Yea, that’s sort of blowing our minds.
We can’t believe that.
BRM: How do you guys feel about that.
It’s your first number one am I correct?
MK: Yea, I don’t know if any of us even
thought we’d be a band after seven years
of doing this let alone like still reaching a
new height with our band. It’s just amaz-
ing. We’re loving it; just enjoying it.
BRM: Where were you when you found
out?
MK: We were in Australia I believe. And
we weren’t going back to the States for an-
other two weeks. So we found this out and
we weren’t even home to enjoy our first
U.S. #1.
Broken Records Magazine: What artist
alive or dead would you like to collabo-
rate with?
MK: Well I know collectively as a band
there’s very few bands that all of us ap-
preciate. But, one of them is Queen so we
would love to do anything, I mean obvious-
ly Freddy Mercury is gone but we respect
everyone in that band so Queen definitely
would be incredible.
BRM: What are you currently listening
to? What are you liking these days?
MK: There’s this band called The Para-
sites that I’ve listened to since I was like
thirteen, fourteen They’re this pop-punk
band that I used to love and then they’ve
kind of gone away for like ten years and
then suddenly just put out a new album and
I happened to see it the other day in the
store and was like “that’s weird.” And I got
it and it’s fantastic, one of the best things
they’ve ever done. So, I was pleasantly sur-
prised by that, it’s called Solitaire.
 By Danielle Portera
Photos By Scott Vollweiler
If there is one artist who has taken 2009 by storm and claimed it as his own, it is definitely Ryan Star. R.Star,
as he’s also known by fans, kicked off the year by joining David Cook on the road for the Declaration Tour. Coming on the heels of
the tour, which has stops at major universities all over the United States, is Ryan’s highly anticipated album appropriately titled 11:59.
Time is a central theme for the album which includes tracks named “Right Now” and “This Could Be the Year.” Another single off the
album, “Brand New Day” is now the theme song to Fox’s new hit series “Lie To Me.” “This Could Be theYear” has also been featured
in spots promoting the NFL and the NBC series “Kings.” Also, new single “Last Train Home” has been garnering considerable radio
airplay.
Ryan Star, born and raised in Long Island, New York, had a passion for music at an early age. At just fourteen years old, a young
Ryan formed the band Stage with three of his childhood friends. While its members were still in high school, Stage performed at clubs
all over New York City including the legendary CBGB’s. After Stage dissipated amicably, Ryan decided to find his voice as a solo
artist. Ryan explains that he “sat at a piano and just started playing.” The end result was his 2005 self-release Songs from the Eye of an
Elephant. Staying true to himself, Ryan decided to keep all twenty tracks recorded for the album. He titled the work Songs from the
Eye of an Elephant due to his belief in the animal’s wisdom. Soon after the release, Star became a contestant on the CBS television
show “Rock Star: Supernova,” which was produced by Tommy Lee. Star quickly became a fan favorite and was dubbed “The Dark-
horse” by Dave Navarro. Ryan ultimately did not win the competition but looks back fondly on his time with the show and feels that
the outcome “was for the best.”
Ryan’s passion for music and love for his fans gives him the ability to connect with his audience at every live show. Star keeps
his fans updated on his career and day-to-day life by blogging on his official website www.rstar.net. He documents everything from
exciting tour stories to a routine dentist’s appointment further allowing his fans to enjoy the journey with him. Living in the present
moment and the ever-evolving journey are two things Ryan Star seems to relish almost as much as he does making music.
 uTHRIVING
uIVORY
v v
Broken Records Magazine: How did
you get into music?
Drew Cribley: My brother actually got
me playing music when I was twelve. I
started playing bass and we started play-
ing in a band together, so I have him to
thank. I was really into hard rock, that’s
what I got into when I first started playing.
BRM: Where does the band name orig-
inate from?
Drew: The band name originated from
brainstorming. Scott and Clayton were
trying to come up with a name, they were
writing down a bunch of words.
BRM: It’s a cool name, I figured it was
a reference to pianos.
Drew: I think it did. It comes from de-
scribing the sound.
BRM: I read that you guys got radio
airplay before you were signed. How
did that come about?
Drew: It was a DJ here in our hometown,
San Francisco, who had been sent a demo
of “Angels on the Moon” by our manag-
ers and he just flipped out over it which is
really awesome. The next week at a meet-
ing they decided to put it in full rotation
and we didn’t even have an album at the
time so we really started busting a** try-
ing to put together a CD.
BRM:You guys had an album you re-
corded on your own before the one re-
leased on Wind Up Records, were any
of the tracks re recorded for the newer
album?
Drew: We ended up doing the whole al-
q
bum at my house. The producer Chris
manning brought his stuff over here and
everything on the album is from that ex-
cept “Hey Lady” and “Alien”. A few of
the tracks when we got signed were re-
mixed.
BRM: How can you describe the writ-
ing process?
Drew: It was written over five years,.
Scott is the main writer. The rhythm typi-
cally is that he will work on stuff on his
own, we work on the chord progressions
and lyrics and then we bring it to Clayton
and have him sing it and make a demo at
home. Then he sends it to the rest of us
to hear. I have a studio setup here, so I
start recording my parts to it and then we
play it live. When we first started wed get
in a room together and jam and figure out
where our parts went but I guess we’ve
gotten a little more sophisticated about it.
BRM: Thriving Ivory was number
one on Billboard Heatseekers, you
were featured On Yahoo music “Who’s
Next”, VH1’s You Oughta Know. Hav-
ing all these acknowledgments, is there
a goal you want to reach next?
Drew: I would love to attend the Gram-
mys, much less be nominated, just to be
surrounded by people you’ve looked up
to for so long. I guess that’d be one. The
long term goal is to be able to do this as
a career not necessarily to be rich but bc
this is what I want to do with my life.
BRM: What do you feel is your greatest
achievement so far?
Drew: The greatest achievements as a
band that we’re really proud of being in
the Top 40. It’s kind of a big deal because
you’re next to people you admired. It
seems like they’re from another world so
it’s kind of cool to be in that. There have
also been shows that felt like crowning
achievements. We did the Jimmy Kimmel
show and to me doing a late show is like a
stepping stone that we’re on the way. We
played in Salt Lake City, it was the first
time we went there and it was a sold out
show thanks to a DJ who’s really into our
music and it was twelve hundred people
and you could tell a lot of people had the
album. To have an audience like that in
a place we never played before, singing
along and getting really into it was an
amazing experience.
BRM: Do you have a favorite song to
play live or a song that seems to get the
best audience response?
Drew: One of my favorites to play is
“Long Hallway” because it’s got really
high energy and it gets my blood rushing
and audience response most is “Angels
on the Moon”. “Hey Lady and “Twilight”
seem to be favorites too.
BRM: Is there a band you hope to tour
with in the future?
Drew: There are a lot of them. The typical
answers would be U2 and Coldplay be-
cause they were huge influences, but even
on a smaller scale, I’ve always wanted to
tour with the band Aqualung. We all love
their music and I think they’d be a cool
band to play with; Maroon 5 would also
be amazing.
Something about “The bass just so
happens to be the
creative outlet that I
chose to use to pick
out of the box. If I
played a guitar, it
would be similar to
the sounds I make on
bass, just with differ-
Les Claypool
ent timbres.”
In less than thirty
words, Les Claypool
sums up the one of
the golden realiza-
tions of creating
By Sabina Mamedova music: you are what
you are. The world
renowned bass player and the various outfits he has gowned over
the past two decades – including Primus (which, as has been
revealed “…has no current plans for activity.”), The Flying Frog
Brigade, and his newer solo efforts – have always seemed to ap-
peal to dead head leftovers, stoners, school rejects, and users of
hallucinogenic mushrooms. Not to corner one of the pioneering
post-grunge rock groups, but there is more in connection with
their fan-base than some obvious prejudices.
On Les Claypool’s new album Of Fungi and Foe, released
this past March, the often off-kilter and slap happy sounds are
in full effect, this time bowing exclusively to the elusive cow-
shit crops of wonder. Selections from the record were origi-
nally intended for a mushroom related videogame and a hor-
ror movie about marijuana field guarding pig; the title of the
record is a subtle but obvious reference to the original works.
Similar to the way the drugs affect their users “I feel like I’m con-
stantly growing as a musician, and that doesn’t always apply to the
bass…I feel like I’m growing as a vocalist, engineer, producer,” said
Les Claypool in an exclusive interview for our decorated publication.
He’s obviously learned a lot about himself as a musician and
the musicians around him through his experiences on tour. When
asked about a jazz tribute gig recently, Les Claypool mentions the
musicians’ appearance onstage. “As soon as he touched the keys,
you just knew it was the right experience coming out of his fin-
gers.” Being the monstrous touring musician that he is, it’s really
hard to not learn things at a quick pace, and only a true veteran
should be able to hear out when something is working or not.
Les Claypool also has a sweet tooth for all kinds of jazz. Just in
case it isn’t obvious, “I never had any lessons; pretty much self
taught. I got into a lot of jazz bands when I was a kid and learned
a lot of traditional methods, but by the time someone had told me
‘You know, you’re holding your hand incorrectly,’ I was like ‘Dude,
it’s a little too late for that… I spent a long time trying to play it.”
The kids seem to be joining in on the fun as well. Claypool states
“My son plays slide on the new record. He’d come into the studio and
I ask him to do different things and his slide track made the record. To
them it’s like helping dad work on the tractor or something.” Some
would beg to differ, but when your someone like Les Claypool, the
relationships you tend to make with things are most often askew.
Let’s just hope they don’t pick up on the drug references too early.
One Dope Mother...
Frontman Edsel Dope
is a self proclaimed “
jack of many trades.”
Originally playing the
role of the drummer, he
decided that he had to
rely on too many people
from that standpoint. He
tells me a little bit about
himself, “I’m kind of a
motivated guy and I like
to get stuff done and I re-
alized I’d have to put too
much faith in other peo-
ple to make sh*t happen.
Fortunately enough I was
blessed with enough of
the ability to get the job
done.”
Motivation is key
if you’re going to leave
By Candice Wanca
home as a teenager to
pursue a life in the music business. “I was never afraid of hard
work. I was never afraid of long hours and saving my money
and using that to promote my band or using it for my rehearsal
space. It was always a priority and making money was the num-
ber one thing to do, but all the money I made went into the band
and I think it all kind of wrote itself.”
I asked how he felt about one of the bands more popular
songs “Die Motherf***er, Die” being used by the U.S. mili-
tary to interrogate Iraqi POW. “It’s pretty f***ing nutty, right?”
he asks me. “…It’s like, you get your boots, your dog tag, and
you get a copy of “Die Motherf***er, Die”. I can’t even imag-
ine being in those guys shoes but then I later learned there was
a study done and how they were using music to interrogate
POWs and that was one of the songs and I was very surprised
to learn that my voice was being used to extract information
from people. I never thought I’d have that kind of an effect.”
Edsel explains that the bands fifth and latest album No Regrets
builds upon the sound that built their fan base. “I think the one
key thing we tried to do was focus on the musicianship a little bit
more…let the guitar player really rip on this record…while keep-
ing the simplicity of the hooks and those kinds of things together. I
think every album you set a goal and that was the goal on this one,
to keep the sound but smarten it up.” The band definitely reached
their goal as No Regrets is the best selling Dope album to date.
He shows off another one of his talents as a producer for the
record (which he has done for every album except for 2001’s
Life.) “It would be exciting to find a producer that would have
the same passion or would put the same pressure on it that I
would. I just haven’t met that guy yet. I’m the one who’s nev-
er satisfied and I feel like that’s the job of the producer. Any
producer I’ve ever worked with was happy far before I was.”
What is it that keeps Dope fans coming back for more? “I
think our live show is extremely entertaining. People love to
get away from their normal life and get away and party with us
and have a good time. I think that’s the number one thing that’s
kept us alive and I think the records are solid and people dig it.”
Green River Ordinan
Broken Records Magazine: I hear you guys became musicians
at a young age. Who or what exactly got you into music? Was
there a particular person, event, or artists that influenced
you?
Green River Ordinance: Well you see, all of us got separated
from our parents when we were babies. After being in a foster
home for years, we escaped and starting living on the street. In
order to make ends meet, we became street performers for our ac-
cepting, yet militant boss, nicknamed “Wizard.” Fleeing from the
Wizard, we ran to find hiding in a local church. We were quick-
ly accepted as they noticed our love for music. They urged us to
start attending Julliard. Following their guidance, we went to the
prestigious music school as young children, therefore expand-
ing our music influences before composing our first rhapsody to
be played in Central Park. Little did we know, this is where we
would meet our biological mothers and fathers for the first time,
as we were all joined by following the music. No, haha. We did
all play at early ages. I started out playing drums because my
dad does. Josh started playing country music because his dad
does. Geoff and Jamey’s dad was a “Dead Head” and plays har-
monica. They both started playing together at thirteen and fif-
teen. Denton, well he was just born to play the drums. So our
families have played a huge part! They have all been very in-
fluential and extremely supportive of our decision to play music.
BRM: How did you end up opening for Bon Jovi in 2006?
You played in front of a huge crowd of about 20,000 people.
Was that your first experience in front of such a group? Was it
nerve wracking?
GRO: It was all part of a contest that Mix 102.9, a local radio sta-
tion, was putting on. We submitted into the competition and after
lots of people voting, we ended up winning. It was definitely our
biggest show to date by far. When we got there, the sound team
was blaring Lyle Lovett to test the system. We just stood in the
middle of the 20,000 capacity room and got a bit nervous. It was
a great show though; Bon Jovi fans rule!
BRM: Do you have a favorite band that you toured with so
far?
GRO: Wideawake was the first band to take us on tour when we
were younger and we love those guys! Also, we went on our tour
with Collective Soul, which was awesome! That’s another group
nce Interview by Candice Wanca
Photos by Lindsay Shapiro
of great dudes that we’re big fans of.
BRM:Any bands you haven’t toured with that you’d like to in
the future?
GRO: Hm, let’s see U2, Tom Petty, Third Eye Blind. Can it be
anyone? Sigur Ros, Matchbox 20.
BRM: Why the name Green River Ordinance? Where you guys
bothered by unsolicited salesmen at your door that frequently?
GRO: Haha, well the name was conceived at an early age. There
was a sign in a garage where the guys practiced at the band’s
start. It said “Green River Ordinance Enforced.” No one knew
what it meant, but thought it sounded cool.
BRM: Your new album was released in February, how do you
compare it to 2005’s The Beauty of Letting Go and what do
you anticipate as far as album sales what with the condition of
today’s music industry and our economy?
GRO: Well, “The Beauty of Letting Go” was done whenever we
were in high school. We had a lot more time devoted to writing for
this record and we’re really proud of the songs. As far as sales and
the economy go, we’re really hoping that people just don’t buy gas
or medical insurance and buy our CD instead.
BRM: Any crazy or funny tour stories you’d like to share?
GRO: Yes, so we use priceline.com to book our hotels. (William
Shatner, we love you.) Anyway, when you book a hotel on pric-
eline you have no idea what to expect. I happened to book the ma-
jority of the hotels on this past tour. However, we found that pric-
eline happens to like strange conventions of sorts. When we were
in Vienna, VA we stayed at a hotel that was hosting a cheerleading
competition. There were probably three hundred girls from the
ages of eight to eighteen and we were the only young guys staying
at the hotel. So when we walked into the lobby it felt a bit like we
were prey walking into a lions den. Equally as frightening was our
hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. We rolled into the parking lot and
saw little dog bumper stickers on all of the cars. We also saw lots
of vanity license plates with dog references. When we got into the
lobby, we realized that hotel was full of Westie show dogs. Noth-
ing against show dogs, or people who show them, but I couldn’t
help thinking of the movie “Best In Show.” Did I reach my quota
of priceline mentions? When do I get my check?
 FA L L o u t B O Y
Broken Records Magazine: When did
you start playing guitar?
Joe Trohman: I started when I was ten. I’m
twenty four now and I guess at the time,
some of the first songs I learned were parts
of Jimmy Hendrix songs. I thought the gui-
tar was cool and I learned from there. It’s
weird, my influences then, some are the
same like Metallica and Guns N’ Roses but
I think I went through alot of different pe-
riods where I respected different guitarists;
everyone from Billie Joe Armstrong to Greg
Ginn from Black Flag. There’s so many
different guitar players I try to pull licks
from. I love Tony Iommi and Brian May.
BRM: I heard you’re the founder of the
band, is that correct? How did the band
form?
JT: I was a fill in member in a hard core
band that Pete fronted and after that band
was in the midst of disbanding I was trying
to start my own heavy band and it wasn’t
working out. I don’t think I knew what the
f*ck I was doing as a musician or about
starting a band. I was like sixteen,seventeen
years old at the time and me and Pete were
noticing the hard core scene in Chicago
was crappy at the time. It went from being
a positive environment to being a negative,
thuggish environment and it wasn’t speak-
ing to us anymore and we were shooting
Interview by Candice Wanca
the sh*t and talking about bands like The
Descendants that we really loved and how
fun it would be to play in a pop punk band.
Patrick, I met by chance and I heard some
music he did and I was like ‘this guy can
sing’, but he didn’t want to sing, he wanted
to play anything else. Andy we knew for
a long time but he was doing three bands
at once and we went through thirty drum-
mers until we begged him to at least play
on tour. We did one practice and it just
felt right and he decided to join the band.
BRM: You have a Washburn signature
guitar, what made you choose them and
what makes that model yours compared
to the others that they have?
JT: I was playing a lot of guitars, Gibson
and Fender and whatnot and Washburn was
the first company that hit us up in a tran-
sitional period where we were becoming
a well known band but not so well known
that guitar companies were just giving us
gear. Washburn was like ‘hey we like you
and your band and we’d love to give you
a signature guitar’ and I jumped at the
idea. I felt like I didn’t deserve a signa-
ture guitar but how could I pass this up?
I wanted to design a barebones guitar that
looked nice, kind of like my two favorite
guitars that I own. They’re these custom
Les Paul and a black beauty Les Paul. I
wanted to make something that sounds re-
ally good straight off the shelf, has good
hardware and is kind of indestructible. I
used to break a lot of guitars. I think now
as I’m getting older and were experiment-
ing with different things I’m getting into
experimenting with other guitars but I re-
ally like my signature guitar. It’s got some
good tones and I really like playing it.
BRM: Did you have complete creative
freedom?
JT: They gave me a lot of freedom. I guess
it’s because it was my first time design-
ing a guitar I didn’t really know what to
do, so I went with something simple and
classic and I wanted to offer something that
wasn’t that expensive because I know our
fans want to get into the things that we do.
I wanted to offer something under five hun-
dred. I wanted for them to make a solid nec-
tar guitar but that usually costs more than a
breakaway, but I think it sounds better usu-
ally. I was able to make that and keep it rel-
atively cheap. I’m playing the same thing
on stage that people are able to go and buy.
BRM: The latest release, Folie a Deux…
am I saying that right y the way?
JT: Yea actually none of us in the band
can pronounce it.
BRM: It means a psychotic delusion
shared by two people?
JT: It’s basically the term that was created
to describe, for instance, what Romeo and
Juliet were. Crazy separately and together
creating an even greater madness that was
their own. We use that kind of in a meta-
phoric way. This record has a lot of social
commentary on America’s unhealthy rela-
tionship with material possessions. We’re
kind of trying to use a lot of the concepts
within the record to hold up a mirror to
society so they can maybe use it to re-
evaluate the things that are more important
than the biggest most bada** car out there.
BRM: I read that Pete is the main lyri-
cist but I’m sure everybody including
you has their own role in the bands song-
writing. Could you describe what the
writing process was like for that album?
JT: This was actually one of the most col-
laborative that we’ve done in a long time.
BRM: I see you worked with a lot of dif-
ferent musicians.
JT: Well actually it was collaborative
within the band. I’ll get to the guest stuff
in a second because that’s something that
created more tension than we meant it to
Within the band, Pete will write his lyr-
ics in a book and Patrick will take them to
get inspiration to create music to surround
those lyrics. He fits them into a melody,
he’ll give the music to me and I’ll write my
ideas over them and shape the song even
more. I give Patrick a lot of stuff I write
to work into the music as well. Then we
bring it to Andy after that and he’ll fill in
rhythm percussion wise. Everyone puts
their own stamp on the song. As far as the
guests go, the big ones that people focus
on are Elvis Costello and Debbie Harry. We
have these lyrics that we felt needed more
authority. They needed somebody to sing
them with an authority we couldn’t give to
the lyrics. Who better than icons like Elvis
Costello or Debbie Harry? The song that
Elvis was on “What a Catch Donnie,” at
the end we have this kind of we are the
world recalling of old songs, friends from
other bands that have been with us from
the beginning until now, sung those lyrics
BRM: I totally love how you guys did
that by the way, that throwback to older
songs, it’s one of my favorite songs on
the album.
JT: Thank you very much, it’s one of our
favorites too. When we started putting it to-
gether it really felt right, it was cool and fun
to do. We had Little Wayne do the bridge
on ”Tiffany Blews.” We really like what he
does. It’s more of us as a fan of him, asking
him to lend his ideas to that bridge, because
we had the bridge written and all those
parts. Patrick would record the way they’re
supposed to be sung and then we’d give
them to the people that we would like to
sing them and they’d lend their own style.
Little Wayne took that a capella part and he
did what little Wayne does which we were
very happy with. The only true collabora-
tion on the record was the song “w.a.m.s.,”
where we got to work with Pharrell. He’s
a genius and he’s a veritable textbook of
music knowledge. It was a different ex-
perience, very laid back and we came up
with one of the more out of the box songs
that we’ve ever gotten a chance to make
and I don’t think we would’ve been able
to make it without working with him on it.
BRM: Was he also the producer of the
album?
JT: Just on that song otherwise it was
Neil. (Avron)
BRM: With all those artists you collabo-
rated with is there anyone you’d like to
work with in the future?
JT: There’s always a list and ideas to work
with people come up as were in the studio.
Personally there are people I’d like to work
with but I don’t think it would be appro-
priate to do within Fallout Boy, so I’d like
to do it outside the band. I’ve been doing
side stuff on my own just for fun but I think
there’s so much focus that gets put on us be-
ing collaborators. We’ve always had friends
and other artists on the records, since we
made the album Take This to Your Grave.
I think to an extent it takes away from the
fact that we get together and make songs as
a band. People focus so much on that they
keep asking who we’re going to collaborate
with next because we do these remixes and
everything. Every time we make a new re-
cord we look forward to collaborating with
each other because each one of us is get-
ting better and as a band it makes us better.
BRM: Obviously there’s a lot of great
things about making it big in the music
business but there’s a downside as well,
how do you deal with your life being in
the public eye?
JT: Well, personally I don’t get it as much.
Patrick gets it more because he’s the sing-
er but he doesn’t even get it as much as
Pete does. As far as his take on it, you’d
have to ask him. For me I guess, the thing
that’s kind of weird, ever since I’ve been
seventeen, I’ve been in bands that people
somewhat paid attention to so I’ve always
been in a position of scrutiny and I’m kind
of an insecure guy (laughs). Sometimes
it can be rough to deal with but as I get
older I’ve learned what’s worth ignoring
and what’s worth paying attention to. The
older you get, hopefully, you lose your in-
securities and be happy with who you are.
BRM: Why did you guys start the re-
cord label Decaydance?
JT: Again that’s something Pete started
He wanted to put out somebody’s re-
cord. It’s not something that we do as a
band, we support each others endeav-
ors but Decaydance is something Pete
started that’s his thing. Patrick is very
interested in producing and he’s pro-
duced some of the bands on Decaydance.
BRM: Can you tell me about the Invis-
ible Children foundation you guys sup-
port?
JT: Invisible Children raises money to build
schools and put back into the future of chil-
dren who are- this is going to sound cliché`-
who are the future of the people of Uganda.
They help the community and I think it’s
really wonderful. They do a lot of filming
to bring attention to people who are not
aware of what’s going on.(Check out http://
www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php)
BRM: You guys had wanted to break
a Guinness world record and play on
all seven continents but unfortunately
the weather in Antarctica didn’t permit
it. Ever think you’ll try a shot at that
again?
JT: It’s one of those things where so much
focus got put on it, especially after we
kind of failed at it (laughs). We realized it
was a cool thing to do at the time and if it
worked it would’ve been fun and it kind of
put some focus on the band but it’s not re-
ally what being in a band is about. I think
if a cool opportunity comes up we might
jump on it but we don’t have our hearts
set on going for that again. It was the right
place and the right time. It was just like
guess what if you can go play in Antarc-
tica you’ll be the first band ever to play all
seven continents in less than nine months
and we figured it would be a legacy but it
didn’t work out. Maybe we can get a re-
cord for attempt at most hilarious failure.
 3
D oors  d own
 Brad Arnold, from 3 Doors Down, attributes his band’s massive
world success to the fact that they have not forgotten where they are
from. In our interview together Brad states that, “I thank God every
day that I can consider this as my real job and that I can consider
myself blessed to do music for a living. It is truly amazing how a
band can work together, especially after all the years that we have
been a band and have been together. We have somehow managed to
maintain the same lineup for fifteen years now and all of us in the
band have known each other for around twenty-five years.”
Looking back now on their success, 3 Doors Down attri-
butes their glorious music career to the fact they grew up in a small
town. Brad states, “We are all glad that we have our roots in one
spot. It doesn’t take long to realize that we can’t party forever, you
know? I mean we’ve been touring for six or seven years and now
we wanted to make a new record. We were very hungry and ready to
start writing a new record, so we took a year off from our touring. All
together it was a year process in putting the new record together and
it was a really enjoyable experience. After all we recorded it in my
house because the studio was too expensive and my house is much
more convenient than any studio. I mean I believe it’s a more gain-
ing experience and of course it is a lot cheaper.” However, not many
bands have had much crossover success like the boys from 3 Doors
Down. They have had two or three singles on the radio at the same
time. “Which single becomes a single gets decided by other people.
We just write the music and like what we write. I’m so thankful that
we’ve been able to do the whole crossover thing, because we really
try not to rule anyone out. Like why would I want to just be a main-
stream band, for example, a mother and daughter can go to a show
and both of them enjoy it. We don’t cuss on stage, so a mother or
father won’t have to worry about that kind of thing. I mean when do
you see that a parent and their kid can go to a show and both enjoy
the show?”
Their new album contains such songs as “Citizen Soldier”
which was written with the military in mind, the National Guard in
specific. “Well I wrote that song for a video,” says Arnold, “They ap-
proached us with an idea when we were writing the new record, and
they wanted an ad to put in the movie theatres. We just jumped at the
chance because we love to support our military in any way possible
and we just wanted to say thanks. We wanted to show the future of
the National Guard. I got on the phone with the colonel and he said
what he wanted to hit on in the song. In retrospect, it came so natu-
ral, and was much easier to write that way. Sometimes the hardest
thing about writing a song is finding something to write about. What
is also funny about the song is that it is used music from another
project from years ago and we just developed the idea. It turned out
to be a great project and went very well. I am truly proud of it.”
w ay n e ’ s
orld
Los Angeles metal quartet, Static X, has pulled out all the
stops and went back to the basics on their new album, Cult of
Static. The album gets its name from their loyal fan base and
how it is seemingly like a cult at times. It has been ten years
and counting since the band released their first album, Wis-
consin Death Trip, and nearly fifteen years since the band was
formed. The band likes to state, “It’s been a decade of evil disco!”
Static X has had to overcome many lineup changes, includ-
ing a former guitarist being arrested for kidnapping and sexu-
ally assaulting an underage girl. When asked how he has dealt
with line up changes over the history of his band, vocalist and
guitarist, Wayne Static, states, “Its really not as big of a deal as
people make it. I mean I do 99.9% of all the writing myself any-
way. It’s really like my project. It’s kind of like Al Jourgensen
is Ministry. He’s had numerous band members, and every tour
it changes, but its still Ministry, still sounds like Ministry. It’s
just the same thing with us but it just so happens that the band
members that we do have all have great stage presences and
personalities, so it definitely looks like a real band rather than
one guy and a bunch of back up players. Really though, chang-
ing out players is not a big deal for me. Tony (Campos, Bass)
is the only guy that if I lost him I think it would change our
sound because his voice is such a big part of the band as well.”
Cult of Static was released on March 17th and debut at num-
ber 16 on the Billboard 200. This marked the highest charting
by the band since 2001’s Machine. “I wanted longer songs on
this album,” says Static. “More keyboards, more build-ups and
breakdowns because we haven’t done a lot of that since our first
album. I got into my studio in January of 2008 and eventually
finished the recording the album around November of the same
year. As far as the writing process, I just sit here in my studio
and start out with the drum machine, then I lay down the gui-
tars and a few programs and build the song. I’ve always writ-
ten by myself, it just seems to work out better that way.”
Oh, and metal fans, Dave Mustaine makes a guest appearance on
the album. He recorded a solo on the track “Lunatic” after touring
together throughout Australia. Wayne figured that it would be cool,
“surreal” is how he describes the whole process. Wayne says that
“Twenty years ago I was listening to Megadeth in my basement
and now Dave is playing on my album. It’s pretty cool.” Along
with that, Wayne just got an endorsement deal with ESP on a cus-
tom electric guitar called the Static 600. It is his second signature
model and has a very distinct Flying V shape compared to the first
model’s Explorer appearance. Wayne then continues to say, “It’s
the same guitar I play on stage and its a f***ing awesome guitar.”
You can check out the lead single off the album, “Stingwray” on
their Myspace. The song was inspired by the classic Corvette Sting-
ray Wayne bought for his wife, former adult movie star, Tera Wray.

By Mike Marciuliano Photos by Scott Vollweiler

T
    I
n    S BRM: How has it been touring with
H t  C
Motley and Hinder? Any crazy, some-
what legal stories that you can think of?
 
E
O
e  O TC: Well all of their groupies are all under
aged. So I can't. No but seriously, it’s all
r
R v  T been pretty cool. Nothing crazy happen-
ing. Tommy is next door he has his un-
  
Y  i  T dressing room. He brings chicks and they
e come in and take off a piece of clothing.
O
  w
V
It’s been terrific really. No crazy antics.

  
F BRM: How have your fans been react-
a O ing, and have you been gaining a lot of
n
A
   d
   L new fans from the tour?
TC: Oh yeah, I mean normally we play
  W in front of a really large audience. Which
 
D p  E
means it's a really large demographic,
and also people who wouldn't normally
 
E h
   I come out to see us. Maybe Motley Crue
  
A o because they have a lot of their hardcore
 
D t  L fans coming up to the shows like girls
and guys in their fourties and fifties. You
 
M o  L know they come to see them and they see
  
A b  E us first and they get a taste of our mu-
sic, and they're like ‘I like these guys!’
 
N y  R
BRM: The new album is much tighter BRM: Where did the title of the record BRM: Compared to something like
and much more polished then the previ- come from? (Scars and Souvenirs) last night, you guys played Starland
ous two albums. How did you approach TC: I don't really know, I came up with Ballroom. It's small, intimate, it holds
the recording and the actual writing of it at home. We were trying to figure out about 1,400 people compared to MSG.
the new album? the name of the record and I just came What do you prefer to play what are
Tyler Connolly: Much the same as the up with it and texted it to the guys. The your pros and cons for both?
other ones, we just spent more time on lyr- scars represent the bad, the break up TC: The cons to playing the big stuff is
ics and made them the best we could. Par- songs and souvenirs being the good there's a disconnection with the crowd,
ticularly we've learned from our mistakes. memories which was all an afterthought. because it's so big.You hear them but you
Our previous producers wouldn't let us go can’t see them with those spot lights on
into the studio until all the songs are ready BRM: So far in the U.S. the album your face the whole time, so you pretty
to go, whereas some producers would go reached number one in the hard rock much just force yourself to just get into
in there with their bands and one or two charts. “Bad Girlfriend” is number one the show. The pro's are of course play-
singles and they’re like “okay”, and the in the modern rock charts. How does it ing for the large audience, and the amaz-
rest of the album is just a "do over." We just feel to have number ones? ing sound. The smaller crowds are great
made sure that we had every song on the TC: Pretty awesome. This is the first re- because you can see the crowd, you can
record ready to go and that it sounded great cord we had that has American number hear them, hear them singing along, you
so there was really not much left once we ones. We love what we do, but we didn't can see them sweating. That can really
got into the studio. We recorded fourteen make the record and say ‘oh, this is go- get your adrenaline pumping and make
songs and there are thirteen on the record. ing to be a number one’. We don't really a great show sometimes. So there's a to-
have that outlook. The song “Bad Girl- tal connection with the smaller clubs.
BRM: Did you guys have to do any spe- friend”, we thought it might not even
cial tricks on the record? Any special wind up on the record. I sang it last, we BRM: How did you react the first time
instruments that you leaned towards recorded the music and at first we were you heard fans singing back your songs?
rather than others? kind of like, ‘ya know we really didn't TC: Pretty awesome. You have the whole
TC: It was all really straight forward. record this song, we’re pretty much just stereotypical reason that guys start bands
We screwed around a lot with the guitars, jamming out on a riff, but we wound to pick up chicks-but it was never about
different effects on the guitars, and stuff up putting it on the record because we that. It was about making music and hav-
like that. Howard was really the only one, were all in love with the song. Then we ing people love it and the best compli-
he plays the keyboard, he was the only started getting all this feedback on the ment to that is playing a song and having
one with the most experimental stuff. record and the next thing you know that it sung back to you. It’s the best feeling.
was our single, and it all kind of blew up.
S UM 41

July 19th marked the last tour date of 2009 for

Canada’s Sum41. It was nearly two years since
their last studio release, Underclass Hero, when
Broken Records Magazinne got the chance to have
a chat with front man and rhythm guitarist Deryck
Whibley. With intentions of writing an EP, the band
came up with a surplus of material that will now be
an LP instead. Deryck tells me, “I like these songs
too much, they’re too good to not put out there.”
With already over a dozen songs written, the band
will continue to work on the new album, but as far
as a release date, Deryck didn’t have an exact date
for me. They are still fine tuning the material they
have come up with. “I’d rather not do a record than
repeat a bunch of stuff we’ve done”, he explains.
I’m in my home studio. We’ve gone to this studio
a couple times in LA but were kind of doing demo
stuff, it’s not ready for the record yet In the mean-
time, they have released their first greatest hits
CD, All the Good Sh*t:The Best of Sum 41 which
encompasses the bands eight year career.

By Candice Wanca Photo by Kristin Tully


All in the Family
By Scott Vollweiler
On a “cold” Nashville day, Johanna,
Emily and Becky Robertson, also known
as Carters Chord, called us. As the spawn
of Barny and Carter Robertson, mem-
bers of the legendary Waylon Jennings
band, they harmonious trio were al-
most destined to be Country music elite.
After just one listen of Carters Chord’s
self-titled debut album, you may hear in-
fluences by Dixie Chicks, BB Kings style
Blues, maybe even a little Carrie Under-
wood; that’s how great and diverse the re-
cord is. “We are inspired by so many styles
of music,” Emily Robertson, middle sis-
ter of the trio, tells us. When asked about
their main influences, of course their par-
ents were listed but so were Black Crowes
and Eric Clapton by Emily, Fiona Apple
and other singer/songwriters by Johanna,
the youngest sister, and the oldest sis-
ter, Becky is into more “traditional coun-
try,” like Randy Travis and Dolly Parton.
“I always felt we were doomed, but in
Up and coming teen country musician,
Katie Armiger, has been pretty busy
as of late. She just announced a tour of
shopping malls, just like eighties teen
pop star Tiffany. We caught up with
Katie while she was out looking for a
tour bus.
BRM: How has it been being an inde-
pendent artist rather than being signed
to a major?
KA: Well there are definitely pluses and
minuses being an indie. I have much more
creative control over the music I release. I
can get music out much quicker too. On the
other hand, I may not get on the big tours or
get as much radio play.
BRM: Your album is very diverse sound-
ing. I can hear influences by Taylor Swift,
Martina McBride and Miranda Lam-
bert, especially on your single “Trail Of
Lies.” Who were your influences?
KA: I did definitely listen to a lot of Mar-
a good way, that we were going to make
music our career,” Emily jokes. “We didn’t
know if we would make music individually
or as a group but we’re very happy that it
turned out this way.” Being sisters on the
road must be fun, but do they bicker on the
bus? “Of course not,” they trio jokingly
exclaimed. “This past summer we opened
for Toby Keith on his tour, so there was
eleven of us on one bus. Although we’ve
grown up together our whole lives, it’s dif-
ferent when your living together in such
close proximity. There are definitely times
where we need our space.” (All laughing).
While the group is super talented, and
quite good looking, they can also thank
Toby Keith for their success. Toby signed
the group to his Show Dog Nashville record
label. Emily told us that “a few years back
we had recorded a twelve song demo, al-
most a few album, and we passed around to
anyone that would be willing to listen to it.
One day it fell into the hands of someone at
tina growing up. Also, Linda Ronstadt, and
Patsy Cline. I’m really an eclectic person.
The ultimate goal writing the record was to
be diverse. We didn’t want to have one di-
rect theme.
BRM: So tell me the story behind “Trail
Of Lies” and how you guys wrote the
song.
KA: I went into the session with the line
“Trail Of Lies” in my head. I don’t think
I’ve ever been cheated on, but I’ve been on
some really interesting and bad dates. I do
have some friends that have been cheated
on though. So we decided we wanted to
write a song about cheating but it had to be
empowering where we go after the guy and
knock him down a few pegs.
BRM: Thanks a lot!
KA: (Laughing) Sorry! Guys have been
scared after hearing that song. I don’t think
I’ve been on a date since I released it!
Toby’s agency who then passed it to Toby’s
agent. Next thing I know, we’re getting a
phone call saying that Toby Keith wanted to
see us in a showcase. We were like ‘What!’
It was nothing that we expected. He came
to see us play in this little bar in downtown
Nashville one night and the rest is kind of
history. We basically got off stage and he
offered us a record deal right on the spot.”
“We’ve all written our whole lives,”
Becky tells us about the writing process.
“Sometimes we will all get in the studio
and maybe Johanna is sitting at the Piano
and comes up with a melody or Emily will
come up with a hook. It’s cool, being sisters,
we are all like minded. We can sit there and
go line by line and say who would sound
good here and who would sing which har-
mony.” Emily added, “The album that we
released last summer digitally, Toby and
our father both produced it but our father
did the vocal side of things. While we will
create our own harmonies, it was fun hav-
ing our father in there working with us.”
While each song on the album has a
character of its own, “Summer, Early 60’s”
is the biggest standout track on the disc.
“The song was written by our mother. It
is auto-biographical. We were looking to
add one more song on the album and mom
pulled the song out. Originally, it was only
a piece of art…it didn’t even have a cho-
rus. When we were in the studio, Toby
would call the song the ‘Witch Song’.”
By Scott Vollweiler
  Chuck

Photo by Joe Hardwick

Da n c i n g W i t h
  W icks
Before he was a household name on the
dance floor, Chuck Wicks was just a great
Country music singer/songwriter. The
Delaware born musician had been watch-
ing his singles, “Stealing Cinderella” and
“All I Ever Wanted” rise up the Country
music charts. His latest single, “Man of
the House,” had just been released. Chuck
had watched his stardom rise by touring the
entire country opening for one of Country
music’s biggest stars, Brad Paisley, on his
Paisley Party Tour. Chuck was also an-
nounced to be apart of a new campaign
for Dr. Pepper. If that wasn’t enough, the
newly crowned ACM’s “Best New Art-
ist”, Julianne Hough (his dancing partner
on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars), is his
girlfriend. Prior to the announcement that
he was “Dancing With the Stars,” Broken
Records had a candid conversation with
singer. While it was a very personal and fun
conversation, an annoying GPS wouldn’t
shut up and Chuck “lies” to us about his
time with “Jules.”
It’s eleven A.M. on a Tuesday morn-
ing, and my phone rings. On the other side
of the phone is Country music star Chuck
Wicks.
BRM: Hey Chuck. What’s going on?
Chuck Wicks: I just got out of a video
shoot for Best Buy. It was great. It was
all about being fifteen years old. It was
for a campaign that they’re doing called
“ACT15.” But listen to this. I couldn't fig-
ure out how to get my GPS to work. For
Christmas Julianne (Hough) got me a GPS
for my truck, and I couldn't get it to work.
I was putting in the addresses while I was
driving…see the problem is, it lets you put
it in, but it wont go through. Now I have to
park to let it go through.
BRM: Okay well first off, I absolutely
love the album. And out of all of the al-
bums that I have heard recently, yours
is definitely in the top five! How was the
experience recoding the album?
CW: Fun. Stressful. It was a learning ex-
perience you know? It was great working
a c o u n t ry S ta r
By Scot t
with my best friends as co-writers. It was
fun because I got to see the songs that I had
written years ago acoustically, turn into
such a produced song (GPS goes off: turn
left) and then to see it all come together
was just amazing. But it took me forever
because I have hundreds of songs that I had
written over the years.
BRM: I noticed that you have an album
full of all the songs that you yourself co-
wrote except for one of the songs. How
does it feel to know that you had your
hand in most of those songs? I mean
most albums, ( left turn ahead) labels
want big name song writers to write it.
CW: Let me turn this thing off. I finally get
it to work and now it wont shut up. Work-
ing with the best song writers in the world,
(GPS: take the second left) Oh man this is
annoying! I don't even know how to turn it
down! Okay, I got it. Working with the best
song writers in the world and getting them
to be apart of it isn’t where I came from. I
wrote everything from country, pop, rock
and R&B. I was just all over the map as a
song writer because I wrote what I was feel-
ing at the time. I mean really just listening
is where I found out who I was as a writer.
After singing with these people I found out
who I really was as an artist. Some of these
guys helped me out a lot. I mean I would
be thinking ‘yeah, I would say that’ or ‘I
wouldn’t say that.’ All of these trial and er-
ror periods is where I found out who I was
as an artist. Now its all these songs that I
thought were great are now on the album
and that’s what helped me get this record.
BRM: Have you started writing for the
second album?
CW: I have. Lately I've been really heavy
in the song writing and I've been with the
same guys that I've been with for years. I
started writing some pretty cool with Rich-
ard Marx. Writing with other artists is a
pretty cool thing because a singer/song
writer, artist song writer is cool because we
think in a different way. We think about a
good song, good lyrics and we also think
what's going to make people jump up and
down. That’s what an artists/song writer
really thinks about. They're thinking more
along the lines of this is what people are
going to like, this is what the radio will
V o l lw e i l e r
play or people will really like this in a
live atmosphere. Its very cool writing with
Brian McKnight or Richard Marx someone
who has had hits on the radio.
BRM: I had read that you were writing
over a hundred songs per year. How does
writing come so easy for you? How do
you approach each song? Music or lyr-
ics first?
CW: The creative process is a funny thing.
It comes and goes. I just try and be ready
for when it appears. I might be right there
on the street, and it'll just pop up and I just
have to record it on the phone. I’ll just start
with whatever comes naturally to me. It
may be a guitar riff or an opening line or a
melody, or an idea. Someone might tell you
a story that sparks an interest or you might
go see a movie and you think that’s kind of
cool. I might write a song about it. I'm not
the kind of guy that says the melody comes
first. It just pops into my head and I just
have to be prepared for whatever comes
out.
BRM: You've had a highly publicized
relationship. How do you make it work
when your on the road?
CW: Being in the same industry we under-
stand if we have to go some place at the
drop of the hat or if we have a meeting in
the middle of dinner. We both understand
the work ethic that it takes to make it in this
business. She's gone for very long periods
of time and so am I. But if either of us have
time off, we definitely make the effort to be
with each other. Actually, Jules is with me
right now.
BRM: What should we expect from you
in 2009?
CW: In 2008 we did over two hundred
shows. In 2009 we’re going to try to come
close or even do the same thing. “Man of
the house” is hopefully going to be knock-
ing at the charts. There's going to be a lot of
places were going to get to as far as touring
wise that we didn't get to go to as far as last
year. We’ll get more fans and all that. We’ll
get to play for an hour and a half rather than
the twenty minutes we had last year. We’re
going to improve our live act by start add-
ing some staging. Behind the scenes, we’re
going to be gearing up for the next record.
L es P aul

I NTERVIEW  B Y  S COTT  V OLLWEILER

 It’s not everyday you get to sit down and talk to a legend. But earlier this year, I got to sit down and talk to Les Paul one on
one before his weekly Monday night sets at the Iridium night club in New York City. In my years going to concerts and meet-
ing my favorite musicians, rarely do I get star-struck. Les Paul is not only an icon but the man who single-handedly changed
music; his invention of the solid body electric guitar has been a staple of rock bands since. Not only is the Gibson Les Paul one
of the most popular guitars sold, it is also a prized possession on the vintage guitar market.
On June 8th, Les Paul turned ninety four years young. His live show still sells out, every week, every set. In this exclusive
interview, Les Paul tells us about his take on the current music industry, how the world almost had a Fender Les Paul and his
long line of famous friends.

Broken Records Magazine: What do you
think of the music industry today?
Les Paul: I think they’re making progress,
well the musicians are making progress,
but I don’t think the music itself is making
the same kind of progress. The business is
kind of messed up because of the changes
with the advancement of technology. So
things change. Radio went out, television
came in, and now television is going out
and ipod in. We used to work like hell to
make a great sound. The kind that we could
make with an amplifier and speakers. Now
we hand it to an ipod, and here it is with
a worse sound, just great distortion. When
everything is wrong, it’s perfect for them
to run down the street, and it’s a bummer.”
BRM: How was the celebration that was
held in your honor at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame? I heard that Slash said
that he had a hard time keeping up with
you during your jam session.
LP: (Laughs) Well...that’s a nice compli-
ment but I don’t think that’s true. I think
he was just saying that to be nice. It was a
pleasure. He’s a good friend. The celebra-
tion went great.
BRM: Going back to the "Log Guitar,"
the original guitar, is there a story? What
gave you the initiative to put a guitar to-
gether?
LP: It goes back to the very beginning
when I was just a young kid. I’d take my
mother’s radio and turn it into a PA system,
with a battery charger and I'd sing into a
telephone, build my own PA system and I
was playing my harmonica singing country
songs. And finally I was riding in the rum-
ble seat of a car, and someone gave some-
thing to the car hop to give to me. A note,
that said: "Red (what they used to call me)
your harmonica is fine, your voice is okay,
and your guitar is not loud enough. And I
went home and I said to my mother, I’ve
got to do something about the guitar, I’ve
gotta make the guitar louder. So I took a
piece of railroad track and put a string on it,
took the receiver part of the telephone, and I
took the string, and put it through the radio,
and lo and behold it made sound. And I said
I wonder what happened if you do this with
a piece of soft wood. And the soft wood
was pretty bad, so I said to my mother, the
railroad track is the answer. She said to me
‘can you picture a cowboy riding a horse
with a traintrack in his hands?’ And so she
shot that down, so I had fooled around with
wood because I knew that most everybody
liked wood over plastic or metal. So I made
the guitar out of wood, and I knew it had to
be hardwood and it had to be dense, and it
was a matter of going down that road, and I
finally found that the best one was a four by
four log and started that one up without the
sides on it. It didn’t look like a guitar, it was
just a four by four, and I played the four by
four in a night club, it didn’t go over. And
I said to them, ‘I’m going to put wings on
this thing.’ Go back to sand club and see
what happens, and it stopped the show. I
was playing the same song, on the same
guitar with the wings on it, and it looks
like a four by four, so the people could hear
with there with their eyes. How can you
make this very personal. I had to design my
guitar to be something to cherish. Some-
thing you couldn't wait to get home, throw
on some old clothes and just relate.
BRM: How did you develop a relation-
ship with Gibson?
LP: Well I went to them, and presented the
log to them, and they laughed at it. They
asked me where the pickups are. They
thought it was a joke. Ten years went by,
finally they called me and said, ‘would
you mind bringing that thing in again?’ So
I went in, and they said ‘what do you think
should happen?’ I told them what I think
should happen and we made an agreement
to split it fifty fifty and make this into a
solid body electric guitar. First thing they
asked me was 'what’s the color', so I said,
‘metallic gold’. They then asked me, before
you run off, what’s another color you want,
and I immediately said black, because you
can see your hands flying over the guitar.
They were unusual colors and very differ-
ent too.
BRM: How does it feel to have musicians
young and old, beginner to advanced
playing the guitar with your name on it?
LP: “It was quite a nice feeling, I person-
ally was completely in favor of the guitar
but I was anxious to see what the other gui-
tar player liked and he's an important part
of building a guitar. It's not what I liked,
it's what he likes. So it happened….beyond
any dream. Its very rewarding to have your
dream come true. It’s all about the musi-
cians. And I thank all those players who
play my guitar becuase if they hadn’t liked
the sound, it wouldn’t have happened, and
if the design wasn't right, it would't have
happened.
BRM: So what was your initial reac-
tion to Gibson redesigning the Les Paul
Model? (Gibson decided to create the
Les Paul 2, which was later renamed the
SG model.)
LP: Well I was like you can use it as a bow
and arrow. You can change the pitch by
bending the neck. I told them you should
strengthen the neck a lot. They were like
“we want to leave it that way.” So I told
them they can have it. Just don’t put my
name on something I don’t believe it. I nev-
er felt those sharp points were good if you
were flying up and down the neck.
BRM: You’ve also been credited with the
recording technology and effects. What
made you get involved with that?
LP: Well, way back at the beginning, if you
play something your mother or friends say
to you, how nice or ugly it sounds. You’re
playing it, and you’re not hearing it back
like they’re hearing it back. And so I says,
I’m going to have to build a recording de-
vice so that I can hear it like you can hear it.
And I want to hear it like a layman would
hear it. Because it is vibrating in your hands
and you are busy holding it, and so you’re
not as good a judge as you are if you listen
back to it. And so I got into recording heav-
ily, and then the sound effects kept com-
ing on. My mother made a comment, she
was visiting me at the theater in Chicago,
she said I heard you last night on the radio,

Broken Records Magazine: How did you
guys hook up with Per Weiberg from
Opeth on El Rojo?
Jean Paul Gaster: We’ve known him for a
few years. Clutch did a tour with Spiritual
Beggars in 2001 and that’s another band
that Pert was playing with at the time. We
struck up a friendship, he likes good mu-
sic and good beer and we do too. He and I
actually did a project together called King
Hobo.
BRM: Cool , how did Bakerton Group
get started? Why did you start a side
band as opposed to playing those songs
as Clutch?
JPG: We started the Bakerton Group when
we were still living in West Virginia. We
had some down time between records at the
time we were just trying to experiment. A
lot of stuff we would do back then would
actually be covers. We would do maybe
Allman Brothers, Coltrane, Miles Davis
stuff. More than anything it was an experi-
ment to try different types of feels, stuff we
normally wouldn’t do as Clutch . It really
took hold when we made our own record
label, Weathermaker.
BRM: That’s interesting because that
actually ties into another question I
wanted to ask you. Does the new label
Weathermaker mark the end of the old
label River Road and will you be signing
other bands to Weathermaker or will it
strictly be you guys?
JPG: I think Weathermaker is a more pro-
fessional version of River Road. We started
that back in the ninties and we would re-
cord things exclusively for internet release,
only it was something we did on our own.
Interview by Michael Musacchio
We literally packed the packages ourselves,
took the orders, took the stuff to the post
office. We quickly realized although it’s
pretty kick ass to have your own label.
BRM: Will you guys be playing double
sets as Bakerton Group and Clutch in
one show?
JPG: That’s the idea for the next tour com-
ing up. That’s nothing new for us, we’ve
done that before. It’s a great way to get
warmed up for a Clutch set. Bakerton’s
stuff is less aggressive.
BRM: You guys haven’t used digital
recording since the Elephant Riders.
Why’d you switch to tape?
JPG: Well that’s not entirely true. We have
done records on both tape and digital. On
From Beale Street to Oblivion we went
back to tape machine. Tape is a great me-
dium. It’s inexpensive and it’s something
we’d def like to do more of.
BRM: Do you guys get a better sound form
it you think or is it just easier to work with?
JPG: I think it’s a different sound. I’m not
sure I would call it better. It’s more of a
color, more of a dynamic thing than it is
a fidelity thing. it’s a natural kind of pro-
gression. There’s going to be natural dis-
tortion. Digital recording is a completely
different thing. You’re taking tiny slices
of sound and documenting those. There’s
some great digital recording out that there
too. Certainly if we had the opportunity
to make all of our records on tape and
then put it into Protools, like we did on
Beale Street, we would probably do that.
BRM: What’s the Clutch drink of choice
when you’re out on tour?
JPG: Beer. I think we all have an apprecia-
tion for a good beer, myself especially I’m
a beer enthusiast. I recently started getting
into Belgium beers.
BRM: Who or what inspired you to get
into music?
JPG: I think we all started listening to
rock and roll early on, bands like Black
Sabbath, Iron Maiden, AC/DC. Myself, I
really learned to play drums listening to
those records. Eventually I got into more
into hardcore and metal. Bad Brains made
a huge impression on all of us.
BRM: All your songs are very random
but tell a story, what’s your writing pro-
cess like?
JPG: Well Neil thankfully writes all the
lyrics. We are blessed to have somebody
like him in the band. He’s great at putting
words together. He conjures up crazy im-
ages. He says ‘you can sing anything you
want just as long as you do it with convic-
tion.’ No one does it like him. He makes a
lot of the riffs in Clutch too. It’s a pretty
communal thing. We get together and start
jamming things out. A lot of Clutch stuff
is just little sketches of things we put to-
gether in the last couple years that we put
together in between tours. We’ll get togeth-
er couple times a week get a couple ideas
together. Get one riff and if that’s good we
get another one and we kind of put them
in a little arrangement and we’ll just call it
something and put it away and not listen to
it for a year, so then you have a bunch of
snippets of things and you go through all
the pieces and find the real best stuff and
put those together.

By Danielle Portera
With super hits such as “Hey Man, Nice
Shot” and “Take a Picture,” the band
Filter has solidified its place as an iconic
rock band of the ‘90s. New bassist, John
Spiker, recently took some time to chat
with us about Filter’s upcoming Euro-
pean tour, playing for the troops, the re-
lease of their greatest hits album, and the
making of a brand new Filter record set
to release this fall.
Broken Records Magazine: How do you
guys feel about going out and hitting Eu-
rope? I know you guys were supposed to
go last year with POD but it didn’t wind
up happening.
Yea, P.O.D. was having a couple of issues
and it just kind of disintegrated. We’re
stoked to go back to Europe, especially
Germany. Everyone’s always really great
to us there. Last year we went through Ger-
many doing a couple of festivals there and
Photo by Scott Vollweiler
it was incredible. We are always excited to
get back to Europe. They love the music
over there.
BRM: Do you have any crazy tour sto-
ries you can share?
Filter: Actually, about a month and a half
ago we were in Kuwait and Iraq doing
shows for the troops. We went into Iraq
and played at a few different bases there
specifically one called Kirkuk. We had
finished playing a show and were signing
autographs, meeting the guys who were
incredible and all of a sudden we hear
somebody yell “Incoming! Incoming!” and
like all 500 guys and girls who are stand-
ing around this big open circle area go face
down on the ground with their hands over
their necks. And we’re right there with
them. We’re lying on the ground just wait-
ing for a mortar to hit. Then the sirens came
on. They went into code red and we kind
of scurried off into bunkers where we hung
out for a little under an hour and waited for
the whole thing to pass. It was pretty un-
believable. It’s definitely one of those tour
stories to me that’s just a lot more meaning-
ful than, “Oh man we had this really drunk
girl on our bus and she wouldn’t leave, it
was hilarious.”
BRM: How was it playing for the troops?
It was awesome. It just really gave me the
most incredible sort of perspective and it
made me really appreciate guys who are
over there doing that. It definitely gave me
a whole new outlook on the military and
what’s going on over there and stuff. We’ve
never had a more amped up, crazy crowd.
They were insane.
BRM: You’re fairly new to the band, so I
just wanted to ask you how your experi-
ences have been so far?
It’s been incredible. I was certainly a fan of
the band before I joined which that always
makes things a lot more fun and easy when
you’re playing music that you’ve listened
to before and playing with the guys who
you looked up to. So that’s always a trip for
sure. Rich is a really great guy and we all
sort of just meshed right away.
BRM: So you guys are working on the
new one right now. How’s the creative
process going?
I think a lot of people are going to be sur-
prised by this new record we’re working on
right now. We’re kind of taking it back to
Short Bus kind of early Filter records that
were a lot harder with more of an edge. I
think that’s kind of where this is coming
from.
BRM: That’s great. When should Filter
fans be looking out for that new release?
Hard to say right now but we’re hoping
maybe in the Fall sometime. Right now Fil-
ter fans can be looking out for the greatest
hits records coming out in March.
BRM: Will there be any new songs on it
or any revamping of the old hits?
There isn’t any brand new material on
there, but there are some remixes that were
put on that record. And there’s some really
cool packaging. I totally urge people to go
out and actually buy the CD as opposed to
grabbing it on iTunes, just because it’s a
pretty incredible package they put together.
There’s some great history of the band and
some great photos and stuff.
B a c kAn intervitew wioth KornB’s Fiealdy s i c s
Broken Records Magazine: You guys
are working on a new album and you’re
not using any Protools. Why go back to
analog?
Fieldy: We’ve been working on the new
album for a few months. We’re taking it
down to stripped down and raw. We’re ac-
tually doing it in my garage at my house;
me, Munky, Jonathan and Ray Luzier, our
drummer for a couple years now. Russ
Robinson (producer) is bringing it back
to old school so we went back to tapes
instead of Protools. We’re going back to
the sixteen track board. It’s coming out
amazing. It’s been so long, it just feels like
were a bunch of kids, jamming in a garage
trying to give it our best without anything
else.
BRM: Are any songs completed? Have
you played any new tracks on the tour?
Fieldy: We would love to but they’re not
ready. I wish man.
BRM: Any theme? I heard it was mostly
about organized religion.
Fieldy: Jonathan always picks what he’s
going to write about. I’m not really sure
exactly what he’s doing.
BRM: Any idea when the album will be
released?
Fieldy: I’d say give it a year.
BRM: Are you guys still in contact with
Head or Dave?
Fieldy: We haven’t talked to Head at all.
I’d like to and say what’s up but I don’t
know where he’s at.
BRM: Your back up band used to wear
masks or face paint but no longer do.
Any particular reason why?
Fieldy: When we went out with the
backup band we wanted to do something
different and big. It was fun for a minute
and now we’re just getting back to taking
it raw. No stage props just rocking out.
by Candice Wanca
BRM: How did you decide to write a
’
memoir? Was it something you wanted
to do for a long time?
Fieldy: After changing my life and real-
izing how much time I spent sitting around
in hotel rooms and planes and busses, I
just really started thinking a lot and getting
an idea of putting this out. The book is
called “Got The Life: My Journey of Ad-
diction, Faith, Recovery and Korn.” I talk
about my life its real, honest and personal.
It’s behind the scenes with things I went
through.
BRM: Would you say it’s more about
your experience with the band or more
personal than that?
Fieldy: There’s some about the band too,
it’s a major part of my life. I spent a lot of
time with those guys. It’s all the way down
to where I put letters to the band mem-
bers in there, personal letters of apology.
They’re not that long but they took me a
long time to write.
BRM: Did writing the book come as
easily to you as writing a song?
Fieldy: It was a lot of work writing a
book. There’s a lot of detail little things
like making sure the stories are right and
digging up all the pictures I put in the
book. The hardest part, once the book was
released, was doing the interviews because
most of them were at six AM. The morn-
ing shows...you know the book world is
different (than the music world). The most
difficult thing was having to get up at five,
six in the morning.
BRM: You guys have been conquering
the music scene for over a decade. Do
you see yourself slowing down any time
soon?
Fieldy: As of today were still full force,
heavier than we’ve ever been, tighter than
we’ve ever been. I’d say we’re on top of
our game. This is what Korn is supposed
to sound like and it’s amazing
BRM: Of all the songs you guys have,
do you have a favorite?
Fieldy: My favorite Korn song which I
love playing live is “Here to Stay.”
BRM: Your side project, why did it
change from “Fieldy’s Dreams” to
“Fieldy’s Nightmare”?
Fieldy: I haven’t done much with that but
my side band that I have going on is called
Stillwell. We’ve been working on it for
almost two years and the album is almost
finished now. It’s called Surrounded by
Liars.
BRM: That was actually my next ques-
tion, so you’re not working on the Sobri-
ety album?
Fieldy: No, I really put that on the side.
BRM: What’s going on with the Imman-
uel One Twenty Three clothing line?
Fieldy: I started to get into that and I put
about 10,000 into it and really started get-
ting into it and came up with some de-
signs. I was talking to other people in the
merchandise world and they were like
‘You have to drop anywhere from a mil-
lion to three million to get it rolling.’ I’m
not there, I’m not ready. I don’t know if I
have enough passion for that. If something
comes up maybe an investor...
BRM: Can you share any crazy tour sto-
ries?
Fieldy: When we played Woodstock in
1999 we were looking out into the crowd
and we started with “Blind” and you see all
those people hopping all the way back. It
was just like a sea, like a wave. You could
see the music wasn’t reaching people (in
the back) ‘til later so the wave was off. It
looked like the ocean out there. We came
off stage and we were all crying and hug-
ging each other. It was a highlight in my
career.
 Interview by Tom Ferarro | Show review by Sal Spurge

Broken Records Magazine: You guys
have done a lot of tours, like Ozzfest,
where you aren’t the headliner, but Mu-
sic as a Weapon is Disturbed’s signature
tour, so it has to be more exciting than
other tours. Is that true?
DD: Oh yea, it’s our baby. We have a special
fondness and appreciation for our own blood.
BRM: Are we going to see anything new
on this tour?
DD: Definitely. It is the largest scale
production we ever attempted. We’re
definitely going to have a whole bunch
of surprises for people. We are go-
ing back to that theatricality that’s been
missing from the show for awhile.
BRM: Do you guys have any pre-show
rituals or anything that you do before
you go out on stage?
DD: Well the guys usually just stretch out,
and warm up in the dressing room, listen-
ing to the old school metal stuff. We always
got the all metal iPod over there. I try to
loosen up as much as I can. I warm up for
an hour prior to the set, I do a little bit of Tai
Chi, that helps me center my energy, then I
head into the dressing room and join them.
BRM: I see that you had Killswitch En-
gage opening on this tour with you, what
made you choose them?
DD: Well, they’re fantastic. We’ve toured
with them before on Ozzfest. We definitely
value what they bring to the table. They are
definitely worthy of being a main support
band. We are definitely excited to have them
on board. All three of the opening bands on
the main stage (Killswitch Engage, Lacuna
Coil, Chimaira) are worthy of recognition
and make us wanna step up our game as well.
BRM: You guys have toured with so
many bands, are there any bands that
you’ve enjoyed touring with the most?
DD: Well we get along really well with
everyone. I don’t know that we can pick a
favorite. We’re cool to hang with anyone as
long as people are cool to hang with (laughs).
BRM: Sort of in the same direction, is
there anyone you haven’t toured with
that you would really like to tour with?
DD: Well there’s several. I’d love to do a
tour with Iron Maiden. Never done an actual
tour with Metallica, even though we’ve done
some single shows. Love to tour with Rage
Against the Machine, if they get back to-
gether. I’d love to do something with (Judas)
Priest. There’s definitely more on the list.
BRM: The new CD Indestructible is great.
Do you guys enjoy playing the new songs
live?
DD: Very much, and they are getting huge
crowd reactions.
BRM: How do you guys decide which
songs to play live?
DD: Well we do have to respect the clas-
sics. We’ve been blessed with eight num-
ber one singles so far. We have to play the
fan favorites and then we try to introduce
as much as the new stuff as possible. It’s a
delicate balance. But we’re definitely going
into the vault on this tour.
BRM: I know you guys are always keep-
ing busy, are you gonna be writing any
music while on this tour? I know you do
that sometimes.
DD: Probably not. Danny is always stor-
ing riff ideas, but nothing gets put into song
form yet, that takes place once we are off
the road.
BRM: Is there any crazy or memorable
tour experience you would like to share?
DD: Well this was pretty crazy- not too
long ago, we had a fan throw human ash
up on stage. It was one of their buddy’s last
wishes to have them be with us, so they
threw up a bag of his human remains. It had
a little ribbon and a note attached to it. It
was really eerie and freaky.

“My Brothers, my sisters, my blood...are you with me?!”, said frontman David Draiman of Disturbed Sunday night, as a sold out crowd
cheered with admiration at the House of Blues in Atlantic City. Draiman went back to his roots and rocked his Hannibal Lecter-esque
entrance to the stage and then went right into their hit song “Insanity.” You couldn’t keep the crowd silent the entire night. After each
song, the crowd screamed louder and louder for the band they so much love. Draiman seemed very poised and was very much on point
vocally. You would literally think that you were listening to one of their four albums. They continued to please the fans throughout the
hour and twenty minute performance by playing many of their hits like “Stupify”, “Prayer”, “The Game and their rendition of “Land of
Confusion”. As he slowly raised his extended arms, all 2,300 of Draiman’s closest friends in New Jersey raised their voices for him. Fans
were given what they asked for when Disturbed came out for a three song encore beginning with the hit single “Inside the Fire” off their
certified gold album “Indestructible”, the Guitar Hero Three friendly “Stricken”, followed by drummer Mike Wengren’s two minute ear
pleasing solo, and closed with the pit happy “Down With The Sickness.” I have been fortunate enough to see them live numerous times
and just like the other times, they did not disappoint their fans. “Are you with me?” Yes David, we certainly are.
From left to right :Ryan Richards,
Gavin Burrough, Kris Coombs-Roberts,
Matthew Davies-Kreye and Darran
Smith
 Interview by Candice Wanca and Danielle Portera
We got the pleasure of having a long chat with two very nice chaps from Whales’ Funeral for a Friend, guitarist Kris and
vocalist Matthew at New Yorks’ Irving Plaza. The boys were more than happy to hang out and answer our barrage of ques-
tions despite partying a bit too much the night before. FFAF will soon be releasing a greatest hits album entitled Your History
is Mine.
Broken Records Magazine: Memory because it’s nice. It’s always warm, that’s a that allow you to get to fans like Myspace,
and Humanity was supposed to be an EP plus. One of our favorites places is in Vir- Facebook, and Youtube. It’s a lot of fun for
what made you turn it into an LP? ginia called The Nova which has an amaz- us as well, because a lot of people only see
Matthew Davies-Kreye: Just because we ing backstage area, it has a hot tub. There’s a certain side to the band where there’s so
wrote way too many songs (laughs). We very few of them. much more to us. I think they want to see
said you know what, let’s just keep on writ- KCR: I wouldn’t dare use it. and we want our fans to know that we’re
ing. It was one of those situations where MDK: They have a basketball court as just human, we’re approachable. We don’t
we were thinking we were going to write well upstairs. mind hanging out and chatting. I think it’s
an EP but we had about six or seven songs KCR: And Double Dragon. more difficult for us to do in the U.K., giv-
within a month and we liked how the work MDK: And a pool table and table tennis, en the level of the band there.
ethic was going and we felt too limited on it’s pretty sweet. KCR: It’s changed the music industry
an EP where if we put an LP out we could KCR: I really like playing in New York to massively. You used to have to play places
do a more extensive touring cycle. If we be honest because we have friends here and get people interested in you, to get a record
had put the EP out last year and then the we usually have a day off before or after we label interested in you. Now it’s like soon
album this year it’d be too long of a wait play a show. as you record your music you can put it up
for fans to see us. I think were in a situation on your Myspace and show it to everybody
where if we want to write an EP with some BRM: Any places in the city you like go- in the world. It’s so much easier for bands
extra songs we could. ing to? now so it’s an amazing thing definitely.
MDK: We wandered around a bit yester- MDK: We like to transcend that (sharing
BRM: What made you guys start the re- day. There was an awesome Asian veg- things with fans) to our releases, bring
cord label Join Us? etarian place on Eighth Avenue which was in extra content. We did a book version
Kris Coombs-Roberts: Basically we were amazing, and Union square, shopping for of ?/humanity in the U.K, with tour pho-
weighing our options and looking at what stuff I can’t get in the U.K. tos and things like that that came with the
would be the best move forward for us and KCR: I really don’t know where I was. CD. When you see stuff like that you kind
we had an option of doing a fourth album MDK: We found him in a karaoke bar of wish that more of your favorite bands
with ?/ but the way industry is, there’s a where they had one of our songs but the would do something like that. I think alot
lot of three-sixty deals and they take from words weren’t right. of people who are obsessed with music and
merch sales…we sailed away on the ocean invest themselves emotionally in bands ca-
of independence. BRM: How can you guys compare U.K. reers, want to discover every facet. I like
MDK: That’s the beauty of having owning fans to American fans? to do linear notes in the lyrics in the songs.
your own material…we own everything MDK: Not that we’re not taken seriously Hopefully now that we have more control
nobody’s holding us down. back home, but there’s more of a serious- over our work we can work on that element,
KCR: The best part owns your own re- ness (in the states) to the audience. especially with the labels were hooked up
cordings. When you’re on a major label KCR: I think the difference is when we with in different territories. I hope we get
they own the recordings. play in the U.K., people like to show their to do a tour edition with more expanded
fan optimism by shouting for your b-sides. material, I know a lot of people think when
BRM: Any other bands on the label or But there’s a reason why there b-sides, bands do that they want to cash in but we
just you guys? you’re not going to play a song you didn’t want to add more to the package to make it
MDK: Just us for the time being. really like in the first place but they want worthwhile for people to invest in the ma-
KCR: It’s one thing to screw your own ca- to show their loyalty to you and constantly terial. That’s why we add to it like DVDs,
reer up… shout for them through the entire set. In different packaging and vinyl.
MDK: You don’t want to take anyone else America they’re just happy to watch you KCR: I think it’s sort of a strange thing that
down with you! (laughs) play. you can download music in an instant. You
go online and either you buy it or you steal
BRM: Are there any bands you’d like to BRM: Did that ever work? Did you ever it you get it instantly, but there’s no con-
tour with that you haven’t? play a song you didn’t have on the set list nection I feel with music anymore. Some
MDK: There’s tons, mostly with bands because someone requested it? people really love having the CD and hav-
that have members who aren’t alive any- MDK: Once where the dude started sing- ing the album artwork. Most people are just
more like The Beatles. ing in between songs. It wasn’t a very big happy to go to your website and download
KCR: Queen. show maybe a hundred and fifty people in it and have nothing that goes with it, I think
there in Luxemburg, and just for the sake the romantism people had with bands is
BRM: That’d definitely be a concert I’d of it we played the song and had him come completely lost. When I was younger I had
like to see up and sing the intro and we realized he to work unbelievably hard to find the bands
MDK: There’s probably loads of bands couldn’t sing at all. He kind of jumped back that I loved. I’d get magazines, I’d read
we’d like to take on tour, we’ve been quite off stage cause I think somebody threw a about bands, I’d go out to record stores and
privileged to tour with a few of them in the beer at him. get them to order the album and I’d try and
past. get everything I could find by the band.
BRM: You guys utilize Myspace a lot. MDK: The thing that I’ve noticed when I
BRM: Any albums you can’t live with- How do you feel that it benefits artists to used to get a hold of those records I’d lis-
out? have sites like that? ten to them non-stop for weeks and really
MDK: Anything by a band called Quick- MDK: There’s very few, if any, barriers be- know them inside and out. Now it’s like
sand. tween us and our audience. We know what kids get a couple of songs and that’s why
KCR: As long as I can play music I’m fine. it’s like to be a fan of a band we love, so we careers of bands are so difficult to main-
think of it from that perspective. We update tain, because no one is willing to invest that
BRM: Any places you always try to in- and keep people involved in what we do, kind of time and feeling, I want to bring
corporate in your tour? kind of make them feel like family. I think that back.
MDK: We always try to go to Australia just it’s very important to use those methods
T 
R  
I  
V Photos and interview
Broken Records Magazine: A lot of critics said that The Crusade
was substantially different than the previous album Ascen-
dancy. How do you feel Shogun stacks up against those previous
releases?
Corey Beaulieu: After Ascendancy we wanted to try something dif-
ferent and expand upon what we can do and keep it fun. That was the
right thing to do at the right time for us. We wanted to write a record
that took everything we’ve done on the previous albums and I guess
define our sound and mold it to one thing; the Ascendancy stuff and the
crusade stuff and blend it together. Everyone was super pumped about
writing a new album and we wanted to write best record we could, we
put really positive energy into it and we had a new guy who worked on
it so that kind of changed the way we worked a little bit. Shogun has a
lot more musicality to it, more technical stuff, vocally f*cking around
really. Matt tried different ways of doing songs. The clean normal sing-
ing that we did on The Crusade didn’t sound right so we tried scream-
ing and decided we’re not going to limit ourselves. We were going to
use everything at our disposal to create the best songs we could. Look-
ing back on it, we were able to take everything we’ve done and kind
of define our sound. I think it stacks up as a good reference point for
everything we’ve done, it’s got the different styles from both records.
BRM: Other than classical metal influences, who are some con-
temporary or up and coming bands you guys are fans of?
Corey: Let’s see, Machinehead, God Forbid; we’re good friends with
them. I got their new record, it’s killer. We like Lamb of God, Kills-
witch Engage is really cool, Bodom, As I Lay Dying. There’s a lot of
really good bands, quality bands, too many to name but there’s tons of
killer bands out there.
BRM: How was it working with the new producer?
Corey: Yea were still friends with Jason(Suecof). He did everything
previously. I think it was good for us at this point in our career to
shake things up. He(Nick Raskulinecz) definitely brought in a differ-
ent perspective of how to record things and accomplish what we were
looking to do with the sound and the tones and his personality, he fit
right in with everybody and with writing the songs he pushed us. It
was like heavy metal boot camp. “The Calamity” was the first song
we started working on, the original arrangement was a lot different,
he was an outside ear, he kind of rearranged the puzzle. He made
us play the song like fifty times in a row. After working with him
that first week we were kind of like ‘alright now we can do it on our
own’. We dissected the songs. He opened up a way for us to analyze
our own music. We became a better band and everyone individually
as players(became better) because he really pushed us. He was fun
to work with hopefully he’ll be available to work with for the next
album.
BRM: Where’d you guys find influence for the album?
Corey: Our worldly travels, a lot of stuff was written on tour. Matt
and I were writing “Into The Mouth Of Hell We March”, in a sh*tty
dressing room in Germany. He had a couple riffs and I was writing
the melody parts. I was in this little dressing room, crammed in the
doorway with my guitar writing a melody. “Of Prometheus And The
Crucifix” was written in a dressing room in Switzerland. I was hum-
ming riffs and he would take what I hummed and try to write riffs.
A lot of things were written like that where we were just bored in a
dressing room. It’s written over time instead of trying to write fifteen
songs in a month, we get inspiration as we go along so by time you get
in there (the studio) it’s like alright well we got some riffs to start with.
BRM: “Like Callisto To A Star In Heaven”, one of my favorites,
it’s a long song but it seems like two minutes when you listen to
it, it seems to hit every emotion. How did you guys come up with
it and do you feel that having a long song was taking a chance
that people might get bored?
V 
I  
U M by Brian Dawson
Corey: Pretty much that song the way it is on the album is the way
we had written it. The first time we wrote it that’s how it went. W e
didn’t change any of the structure, maybe one little part where we
moved the chorus closer so you didn’t have to wait so much. Only
part of that song that we had trouble deciding on what to do with
it, was the middle section. (We were) like ‘is it too long’ but once
we got to the studio and started adding different layers, you knew
something was building up to something, it built up as an emotional
song. That song was pretty easy to put together, its just a long song.
If you can make a long song seem not long you did a pretty good job.
BRM: “Torn Between Scylla And Charybdis”, there’s two bass
solos. When I heard it I was shocked at how it fit in. Bass solos are
basically non existent anymore, how did you guys add them in?
Corey: “Becoming the Dragon”(The Crusade) had a bass solo, we
always thought that was cool because Paolo Gregoletto is a slam-
ming bass player and most bands don’t have bass players that can
do that they just follow the chords and play simple backing stuff .
He definitely adds a lot to the sound with his bass playing. That song
just kind of fit, we were just messing around. Some people didn’t
even realize it(the bass solo) was distorted. Some people thought
it was a key horn. Hopefully next album well fit a few more in.
BRM: Where did the band name originate?
Corey: It’s Latin. It means a three way intersection and it’s also the
three schools of learning, back in old English times, it was the three
things everyone was taught(grammar, logic, and rhetoric). The name
came from the original singer of the band. He came up with the name,
he was in the band for a week or two and left to play with another band.
BRM: What’s the coolest venue you’ve played?
Corey: For comfort and fun factor, we were headlining shows at the
Norva in Norfolk Virginia and they have another venue, the same peo-
ple that own that, in Richmond. I can’t remember the name of the club
but their dressing room has a million showers and a hot tub and the other
rooms got a pool table and arcade games and foosball n they have real-
ly awesome catering, TVs everywhere there’s a lot of things to do. As
far as cool factor, we got to play legendary places like Madison Square
Garden and Apollo in London. It’s cool to play places that have history
to them and a lot bands you looked up to went through there. It’s fun to
stand on stage and be like yea f*ckin James Hettfield was here in ‘88.
BRM: Do you have any advice for up and coming bands?
Corey: First and foremost is write the best songs you can and stand
out from the crowd and work on that. It’s all about getting your
name out there and spend the time to promote yourself and play
some shows. The last couple years it’s blown up, using Myspace
,you can get your name out to a sh*tload of people for nothing. In-
stead of putting a flyer around town, you can use the internet to your
advantage. It’s an easy way for a lot of people to hear your music.
Write some cool tunes and record a good quality demo and push your
stuff and good things will happen if you have something to offer.
BRM: What kind of stuff is on your rider?
Corey: Well random things mysteriously show up(laughs). We got
our beer, water, vodka, wine, the normal liquid intake; soda, stuff
like that. For some reason everyday we keep getting f*cking jars
of honey. You can put it in your tea and it helps your throat but it’s
like one bottle(is enough). We got like a years supply of honey. Ev-
eryone likes to eat healthy so there’s nuts and berries and stuff like
that; triscuits, those go quick. We try to get what we need and eat
healthy cause you don’t want to get sick or feel gross on tour so
we keep it relatively healthy just sandwich meat, fruit trays, veg-
etable trays, stuff like that so no one gets all fat and bloated eat-
ing McDonalds everyday. It’s definitely an essential to survive
on tour to booze all night and drink water and eat healthy all day.
BRM: What are some bands that have
influenced you?
Dani Filth: In the past, all kinds re-
ally. Originally death metal was a big
thing like the first The Gathering album,
Paradise Lost, Edge of Sanity, the first
Dismember albums, music like Sisters
of Mercy, Misfits, even eighties smash
metal, new age British heavy metal
soundtracks, I could go on forever really.
When we grew up, we were into all dif-
ferent things. A lot of people would be
surprised to learn that some of us were
into New York hardcore, Gorilla Biscuits,
Youth of Today, as well as the darker stuff.
BRM: You have great background
vocals on tracks like “Her Ghost in the
Fog” and “Nymphetamine.” Where do
you find your background singers?
DF: Well for “Nymphetamine” it was a
woman from Leaves Eyes, for “Tempta-
tion” it was Dirty Harry, and usually we
have a singer Sarah Jezebel Deva who is
no longer working with us. Our key-
boardist Rosie does the female parts now
and she does them really well. It enables
us to hone what we’re doing because
she’s also the keyboards so it makes it
more finely tuned, and that’s hard to
describe, but six people on stage is a lot
easier than seven for a start.
BRM: When you signed with Roadrun-
ner, did they put any pressure on you
to censor your lyrics or the change the
content of your music?
DF: No, the only censorship that has
ever happened is with something on the
cover of Thornography, which was really
pathetic. It was the length of the wom-
an’s dress, and you wouldn’t be able to
tell the difference between the two. It’s
probably someone at Wal-Mart wanting
to have their say in something and they
feel better for it. They see the band and
although they can’t actually say that this
is a satanic band, some of the references
go over the lines sometimes so they need
to do something about it however silly
just to say ‘hey, look we’ve done our bit’
so that was the only censorship we’ve
ever had.
BRM: What do you have to say about
New Zealand fans being fined and fac-
ing count appearances because of wear-
Photo by Brian Dawson
ing your t-shirts?
DF: Well I’ve always maintained that our
fans are intelligent people and if some-
body is to wear a “Jesus is a ****” shirt in
a shopping mall parading in front of law
enforcement without sounding nasty, they
deserve what they get. You wouldn’t be
in court and been sentenced and called a
judge a ****, would you? It’s just logic
really. We’ll defend the shirt. That shirt
is ironically literally older than the band
but it has had a **** resurgence recently
because of people like this, but I can’t
condone it and I can’t justify it really. It’s
up to the individual so if they want to do
something like that then on their head be it.
BRM: Why did you base your latest al-
bum around Gilles de Rais and is the
CD from his point of view?
DF: It’s a story about him. It suited our
mood. We’ve turned it into a dark fairy
tale. We hadn’t concentrated just on the
sadistic side of it. We had the whole part,
Joan of Arc as kind of a catalyst while he
turned into this metaphorical Bluebeard
character. Having come back from the
Viva La Bands tour, we were very fired up
and had loads of ideas. When we sepa-
rated for Christmas, we had the skeleton
of about half the album written. I know a
bit about Gilles de Rais but at the moment
we had just finished a book with Gavin
Baddeley who is an occult historian. I
rang him up and he was able to steer me in
the right direction between shit books and
good books.
BRM: Considering your experience be-
ing on several labels, what would you
most like to change about the music in-
dustry?
DF: Well it annoys me somewhat that you
buy a DVD and you have to sit through
all that shit in the beginning about piracy,
and they never spend money on defending
the music industry like that at all. That’s
the one thing that gets in my tits. Admit-
tedly, if I like a band I’ll go and visit the
Myspace page and check out a few songs
and then buy the record. Then people
might argue that’s because I’ve got a lot
of money, but I did that when I didn’t have
any money. That and the fact that the re-
cord companies also follow each other.
Nowadays it seems no one wants to take
any risks. We enjoyed our time on Sony
        I nterview by Adrienne Nardone
because they threw money at us. We spent
about a hundred grand on our album be-
cause we wanted to have a one hundred
piece orchestra, and it worked. They just
don’t take risks anymore and then when
one band is successful everybody’s sign-
ing up bands that sound just like them so
immediately it destroys the scene.
BRM: Do you have a hand in the concept
of album art or the band’s music videos?
DF: Yes we do. We worked very closely
with Alex Chandon, who did “From the
Cradle to Enslave”, Cradle of Fear the film,
“Her Ghost in the Fog”, and “Scorched
Earth Erotica.” For this album for ex-
ample we worked for about three months
solidly with the artist, David Ho, closely
to try and replicate the style of medieval.
We wanted to do something completely
different but also make it a walk through
so that it compliments the lyrics. Also
Samuel Araya who worked on Thornog-
raphy is illustrating a poetry book which
we’re bringing out after Gospel of Filth.
BRM: Whose idea was it to collaborate
with Ville Vallo for the song “Byronic
Man?”
DF: Strangely enough it was like a two
sided prong attack on that. I just care-
lessly mentioned it before we broke up
for Christmas maybe the end of 2005.
We were in the studio, and they did this
roadrunner 25th anniversary thing. Ville
was there and so was our producer who
was Rob Caggiano from Anthrax. He had
mentioned it to him because I had said I
wanted to bring someone else in but I
wanted someone who was reminiscent of
a modern day Lord Byron. I jokingly said
Ville would be great because I knew him
anyway and he just agreed to it.
BRM: What are some of your plans for
this year?
DF: Well we’ve got this tour. Then we’ve
got the second leg of the European tour,
six dates in Australia, summer festivals,
and as far as I know a South American
tour later in the year. Gospel of Filth the
book is coming out on Easter, but it will
be preceded by a special version limited to
twenty thousand copies on our website. In
between all that, we are going to start writ-
ing some more material. We will be busy.
When Jeremy Dawson and Chad Petree formed Shiny Toy Guns in 2002, they knew they were taking a chance with a whole new
sound. The band fused elements of rock and electronica and even added a female vocalist to the mix. Jeremy adequately sums
up the band in four simple words, “male, female, rock, and dance.” This groundbreaking band has reached incredible heights
while enduring some heavy blows. The Grammy-nominated first album We Are Pilots is a delicious balance of rock, synth pop,
electronica, and dance. After a terrible split with their female singer Carah Faye, STG added Sisely Treasure to their line-up. In
2008, the band’s sophomore album Season of Poison was released featuring Sisely on vocals and a darker sound that leaned more
towards their rock element. Broken Records was privileged to speak with Jeremy, keyboardist and bassist, about the band’s
journey, their US tour, and what’s in store next for the Guns. by Danielle Portera
Broken Records Magazine: You guys are on tour right now.
How’s that going?
Shiny Toy Guns: It’s good. We’re out on tour with the All Ameri-
can Rejects playing huge four to five thousand seat venues. It’s
pretty crazy.
BRM: How about a favorite moment on this tour?
STG: On this tour probably last night at the Rejects after-party in
Chicago where their entire band and crew began getting naked in
the middle of a bar for no reason.
BRM: Do you guys have any pre-show ritual type things you
like to do? Anything that just gets you pumped before you get
on stage?
STG: Yea, we slap, kick, and spit on each other for ten minutes.
It’s an Oklahoma thing I guess.
BRM: What made you decide to have a female vocalist?
STG: Because there are certain songs that we were writing that
needed to be approached from a female perspective and not only
from a male perspective, because it’s going to feel different. If you
have everything at your fingertips to be creative with, then you can
reach a more diverse audience.
BRM: Yea, I agree. Could you talk a little bit about your split
with Carah and why that happened and how it’s been since
then?
STG: What happened basically was once we got everything to-
gether we decided to take a stance. We’re going to pretend that
there’s no record companies, there’s no attorneys, there’s no man-
agers and all there is, are people and us and our music. We’re going
to reach people with our music. So, we rented out a van and went
on tour in like 2003 and then again in 2004 and 2005. Then we
signed to Universal records and we record the album in 2006, 2007.
That’s four years. We were stuck together for that many years on
the road, seventeen countries, all over the world. It gets to a point
where you just start not being able to stand each other because
you’re around each other twenty four hours a day. It happens in
families, it happens with best friends. And a lot of things were said
on our side and a lot of things were said on her side that we didn’t
really mean. We were just all exhausted. We needed to go home.
So we never were able to reconcile why we were not communicat-
ing properly. What we should have done really is gone to therapy.
So many bands do it. It’s not like go to a psychiatrist and get pills,
but go sit down with someone, it can even be a really close friend,
and talk things out, find out what’s wrong, the source and the root
of what’s wrong. We didn’t do that. Instead we left the road four
years later. She moved to Sweden and we went back to the studio.
And we didn’t speak for months. Chad and I got to the point where
we were like ya know what, she’s probably not coming back and
if she does we’re just gonna fight all day and the whole band can
fall apart. We were terrified that was going to happen, so in order
to protect the band we said this girl doesn’t want to be in our band
and we went and found someone who did want to be in our band.
However, later on down the road after we did finally talk, we all
realized that we didn’t really mean half as much that we had said.
We just needed time off. That’s kind of where we are today.
BRM: So you guys have a better relationship now then you
did then?
STG: We do. Yea, we’re talking.
BRM: How did the fans respond to the change in singers?
STG: They don’t like it at all. They really just don’t understand
why. You try to explain to people, one by one by one, but this
a personal thing that happened between Carah and us that we’re
dealing with and working on.
BRM: It’s a hard thing for the fans to understand. But, could
you tell me about the making of your first album We Are Pilots
and where you guys were, creatively at the time?
STG: We were excited, scared, worried. We Are Pilots had a very
unique feel to it because the music we were doing at the time no-
body else was doing. There was no MGMT. There was no Lady
Gaga. There was no Veronicas. There was no Metro Station. None
of this existed. We started a sound. We created sort of a sound and
now five years later all these great bands have a similar color to it.
So that was really exciting and we were of course nervous because
when you do something that’s totally different and new you’re tak-
ing a risk. We wanted to push the envelope and take that risk.
BRM: How does it feel looking back now that you guys were
kind of the pioneers of this kind of music, this sound?
STG: We’re really proud of it and really excited that it took hold
and people are loving this music. It’s really awesome.
BRM: That’s really cool. Could you tell me a little bit about
your new record Season of Poison and how you think it’s dif-
ferent from We Are Pilots?
STG: Poison is different because we got off the road stressed, con-
fused, tired. We had a lot of situations happen. One of us had a
parent die, one of us had a baby. All these dynamic huge life things
that are going to happen to you and happen to everyone else, hap-
pened on top of everything else. So, we sort of channeled all of
this into an album and this album is a little darker, a little edgier, a
little harder. That’s kind of why it sounds different. That’s what an
artist does when they make a record. It’s a reflection of how they
feel and what’s going on in their head. And that’s what Season of
Poison was. That was what was going through Chad and my head
in the summer of 2008.
BRM: Could you maybe just tell me a funny or embarrassing
thing about one of your bandmates?
STG: Well, our guitar player likes to poop on a plate and stick it
in your bunk in the bus. When you wake up there’s a plate of poop
near your head. You have to watch yourself at night.
BRM: How do you see Shiny Toy Guns evolving as a band and
what’s next for you guys?
STG: Something really crazy and really bad a**. We’re building
a whole new thing right now. It’s going to come out this year; a
whole new palette of music.
BRM: I don’t want you to give too much away but could you
just tease the fans a little bit?
STG: If you like the song “You Are the One” then you are going
to sh** your pants when you hear this new music. Yea, it’s “You
Are the One” with a fuel injection into it. It’s a screaming, dreamy,
Manchestery.
 Third Eye Blinds’

Major Return

to the Music Scene

After nearly six years of musical silence from the 90’s alt-rock pow-
erhouse Third Eye Blind, the bandhas recently released their fourth
major studio album Ursa Major on August 18, 2009. The long wait
between releases has been attributed to front man Stephen Jenkins’
writer’s block. Third Eye Blind’s career started with a bang when
they released their self-titled first album best known for its mega-hits
“Semi-Charmed Life”, “How’s it Going to Be”, and “Jumper.” The
band went on to release two more records Blue (1999) and Out of the
Vein (2003).
Last year, the band released an EP titled Red Star, which served to
get fans excited about the release of Major. The band’s guitarist Tony
Fredianelli explained the thought process behind Red Star in a recent
interview with us. “Our fans were starting to come to the very edge of
their breaking point. We needed to give them something to tide them
over. What we came up with was to release this thing online, go that
route and not promote it fully. Just kind of stick it out there and let it
be for the fans.” Their single “Non-Dairy Creamer” wound up shoot-
ing up the charts and into the Top 20 Alternative.
Fredianelli calls the five-year process of creating Ursa Major, “kind
of like going to the dentist a little bit.” But, when asked if all the hard
work and stress paid off the guitarist answered confidently, “Defi-
nitely. This record is a gem. And there’s a follow up called Ursa Mi-
nor. So we really got two records coming out which is a blessing.”
The band’s decision to tour in advance of their record kicked off this
spring and will continue through the summer.
Tony also spoke about his upcoming solo endeavors. “I’m pro-
ducing two records. One’s called Mindfield, which is a psychedelic
Beatles record. And the other is called Diablo Joe which, is kind of a
70’s influence psychedelic Steve Miller band type of record.” He will
also be creating a solo record after the release of Ursa Minor. How-
ever, at the current moment he continues to be focused on Third Eye
Blind, the two new records, and the tour. by Adrienne Nardone
Telling on Trixie by Danielle Portera
On April 18, 2009 Broken Records Magazine was fortunate enough to witness NYU’s Relay for Life. The charity event in
held at universities across the US benefiting the American Cancer Society. According to the event’s website, “Relay for Life is a
fun-filled, overnight event that empowers everyone to help fight cancer by raising money and awareness to support the Ameri-
can Cancer Society’s lifesaving mission.” Teams of people camp out at schools, parks, and universities across the country and
take turns walking around a track or path. The Relay has three main goals: to celebrate the lives of those who battled cancer, to
remember those lost in their battle with cancer, and to fight back against this disease. This year NYU’s Relay for Life has over
1,300 participants and raised $164,267.
When surveying the scene at the Jerome S. Coles Sports & Recreation Center, I noticed tables set up with signs identifying
what team they belonged to. A lot of teams consisted of clubs, service organizations, fraternities, and sororities at NYU. There
were also many booths set up selling food and other refreshments to support the cause. Surrounding the tables were bags placed
on the ground with the names of the loved ones lost to cancer. The culmination of the event is the Luminaria service where the
bags are illuminated to celebrate the life of someone who survived or honor the memory of a loved one that has passed. During
the Luminaria ceremony many cancer survivors tell their stories of determination, and of hope.
Another highlight of the event was the performance by the band Telling on Trixie. This was their second time performing at
Relay for Life. Lead singer Derek Nicoletto explained that the cause is a personal one for the band. Every member has had a
family member or close friend affected by cancer. The band decided to take action against this disease and called the American
Cancer Society to see how they could make a difference. The band formed a team of their own and raised $1,000. This is the
second year they are performing at the event. Their single “The Deepest Dive” from their album Ugly, Broke & Sober was written
for the event. Telling on Trixie is donating $1.00 for every download of the inspirational song. When speaking with Nicoletto at
the event, it was obvious to how passionate he was about this cause. But, it is no surprise since Telling on Trixie carries that same
attitude with their music.
Telling on Trixie’ inventive and unorthodox approach to making their record has taken Internet marketing to a whole new level.
The band’s fans helped fund the record and provide input through their website “A Band With A Plan.” The album’s edgy power-
pop, catchy lyrics, and powerful vocals from Nicoletto have garnered significant radio play and a positive response from critics
and fans alike. When asked about the song writing process Nicoletto explains, “All the lyrics came from me except for the song
Your Silence which came from me and Brian. Tommy will record something or Brad will record something and I will wake up
and he sent me something. I’ll think about it for a couple days. Either it will immediately remind me of something I wrote in my
journal and I’ll expand upon it and just get back to him on it. Or I’ll make something up. I’ll create a fiction, which I love to do.
Or I’ll discard it. Sometimes he pushes it. We pitch to each other a little bit. A lot of times I come up with melodies and basically
sing it into Brad’s answering machine.”

Photo by Jeff Fasano


interview by Adrienne Nardone
Broken Records Magazine: You guys
have been together since 2003. How do
you feel your music has changed since
the beginning?
Aiden: Well we don't suck as much. It's
kind of just been an evolving process.
When we started as a band, I was really
inexperienced as a song writer and it was
more about putting pieces of songs together
and trying to make a record and now I've
learned how to craft a song and write down
meanings so I think it's just a lot better.
BRM: What was the best show you've
played so far?
Aiden: I can't really say that there's been
a best show. I think there's probably been
a slew of best shows. Download festival
T iger C ity
Photo and story by Kristin Tully
over in England was pretty good. Taste
of Chaos in Australia was awesome. We
played in Mexico last year. It was f***ing
out of control. There's been so many
shows that were so memorable.
BRM: What was the largest crowd
you've played to at one of those festivals?
Aiden: Probably Download, eighty thou-
sand. That's a f**king lot of mother***kers.
BRM: If you could play a show with any
band that you wanted, who would you
choose?
Aiden: Nirvana.
BRM: Any bands that are still around
today?
Aiden: Maybe NOFX. I'm a huge fan and
getting to watch them every night would be
awesome.
BRM: How has playing for the last year
been since Jake's departure? Do you still
talk to him?
Aiden: No we don't talk to him. Actually,
we're in a bitter law suit because he's trying
to sue us. It's been a lot better, I think. The
whole attitude of the band has shifted to
a more positive outlook and everything is
brightened. We've become more focused to
what we want to do as a band. We kicked
him out for a multitude of reasons. One of
the reasons was the fact that he wasn't into
the band for art's sake: he was more into
making money. We're Aiden, we're on Vic-
tory Records and we play in a punk band,
we're not going to make money. We're not
going to be rich millionaire rock stars. We
play in this band because we love to play
music and he just wanted a pay check and
that is just painfully obvious now that we
kicked him out of the band and now he's
trying to sue us for all this money we don't
have. He's just bitter.
Photo by Lisa Johnson
BRM: What are your plans for the rest
of 2009?
Aiden: We're doing the west coast Ticket
to Hell tour in May and then we go over
to England we're doing a few shows over
there, a few shows in Ireland and Scotland
and all over the country and then the Vans
warped tour in June.
With a lead singer who hits a perfect fal-
setto and a bassist harkening hipster Jesus,
Tigercity is not a band easily forgotten. “We
met in a dreamscape…Some dream involv-
ing Bill, with blood written in the sand”,
bass player Joel Ford explains. It’s these
kinds of witty comments that make Tiger-
city’s lineup-Bill Gilliam (vocals), Joel Ford
(bass), Andrew Brady (guitar), and Ayns-
ley Powell (drums)-work so effortlessly.
Culminating their tour April 2nd at High-
line Ballroom in NYC the goofsters muse,
“We’re growing up, drinking less, and start-
ing to focus more on the music,” before
breaking into clouds of laughter admitting
“We had a case of Bushmills in our van”.
But all jokes aside, Tigercity is not
just another Brookyln band, “We’re start-
ing a record label; tentatively titled “Fake
Life.” It’s become part of our theme…driv-
ing around the country pretending we‘re
rich rockstars”. Powell admits “We’re
just trying to live up to our dream life!”
Native New Yorker’s Coheed and Cambria are currently working on their fifth studio album,which will be released this year. The
bands albums are based on singer Claudios comic book series, with this album being a prequel to previous albums events.
Broken Records Magazine: The video and watch what we do. All eyes are on us. MT: All my favorite tour experiences were
for “Feathers” won Kerang’s 2008 best We’re so far away from the audience… when we were touring the first three or four
music video, were any of the band mem- I like them both for different reasons years. There were tiems we were in hotels-
bers responsible for the concept of the . we were drinking a lot at the time.We’d
video? BRM: Will any Shabutie material take all the plants and wed bring them all
Michael Todd: Yeah we wrote it. We resurface? to our room, so when you opened the door
shopped the idea to a couple directors. They MT: Nah, those songs are dead. Shabu- it was like a god damn jungle. You couldn’t
gave us some ideas we gave some back and tie was a three piece, Claudio, my- see the other end of the room. So one time,
that’s where it came from. self and a different drummer. Those I don’t know where I was, Travis was do-
songs were in a special place and time ing this jungalization of the room, he had
BRM: What’s it like getting to play at and we’re going to leave them there. no idea he was being watched by security
places like Madison Square Garden, monitors all night long and they let him
do you prefer the small shows or big BRM: I heard you have a solo project do it and then at five AM, they came to
arenas? you’re working on. his room with a photograph of him drag-
MT: I prefer more intimate gigs but I like MT: I’ve been so busy with the Coheed ging a tree into the elevator and they were
them for different reasons. It’s like the stuff. I’ve done tons of writing, a little bit like ‘that’s really funny, now put them all
difference between being a studio band of recording. I’d like to have at least a five back.’ So at six in the morning he’s walk-
and being a live band…the intimate ones song EP done by the end of the year. ing around in his pajamas putting all these
obviously are more personal. I can look plants back. That was one of our favor-
people in the eye and I feel like I’m part BRM:Do you guys have any particu- ites, we don’t do anything dangerous or
of the crowd. The arena shows are more larly memorable or crazy tour experi- terribly illegal but that was a good one.
like a performance, people stand back ences?
Interview by Michael Musacchio
 Frie
“Hea
ven is nd ly C
hap
lying
at Bu
ddy G
uy’s f
eet w
hile l
isteni
ng to

BUDDY
him p
lay
-Jimi guitar.”
Hend
rix

By Al
ic
GUY
Photo ia Gallaghe
s by K r
yra K
vern o
Broken Records Magazine: From what I
understand you are a Stratocaster man.
What separates the Stratocaster from
any other guitar for you?
Buddy Guy: I’ll be seventy three now,
and you know in the beginning, when
John Lee Hooker and them were playing,
if you dropped a guitar it could crack open
like a baseball bat. People then were play-
ing for the love of making music and not
to make a living. They couldn’t afford
to break the guitar and then buy another
one. The Stratocaster can handle the wear
and tear. You can drop it and won’t shat-
ter like glass. I knew I couldn’t play the
guitar real well, so I had to focus on show-
manship, and so I was really rough on my
guitar. The Fender can suffer the wear and
tear. Now I play the Gibson and Fender.

BRM: How often do you play guitar

outside of performances?
BG: Me and B.B. King were just talking
about that. I don’t rehearse as much as I
should. I know it’s a bad habit and what I
tell young musicians is that it’s never too
late to learn. Don’t feel like you know
everything, there’s always something to
learn. So I like to listen to new music and
find out what’s out there. I play by ear, I
don’t read music. I got a guitar sitting here
in my room right now but I haven’t played
it yet. When I go on stage and I hear my and boil all of the odds and ends and you’ve those two people really liked. I won an
band playing, that’s when I really play. got gumbo. Music for me is like gumbo. I award for Damn Right I’ve Got the Blues.
like everything, even country western. I
BRM: How and when did you first start like to hear what’s out there and try to learn BRM: What do you go home and listen
creating a distorted sound? something new. to?
BG: You know that’s a good question. I BG: I’ve been listening to a lot of spiri-
don’t really know. I came to Chicago and BRM: What do you think about the mu- tual music. I was talking to B.B. and he’s
there were so many good guitarists, that sic industry and the future of music? been listening to a lot of spiritual music
they were all just dancing around me. I BG: It’s kind of scary because technol- too. During the doo-wop times you’d
had to find a way to join the crowd and I ogy is playing a big part. People don’t have people like The Temptations, five
wasn’t a very good guitar player., so I had even sing directly on the track. People or six guys making music with no band.
to find a way to create my own sound. are doing it for the love of money and not Their voices were the instruments; they
for the love of music. You won’t find a were the piano, the guitar, etcetra.
BRM: Do you ever play acoustic guitar blues guy doing that. I remember in the
anymore? 50’s and 60’s deejays would play a track BRM: What is your favorite thing to
BG: Oh yeah, every once in awhile. I’ve and have you come up to the mic and lip eat at Jazz Fest?
got a couple of CDs, I think there’s one with sync. Back in the Chess days I would cut BG: You know I’m from Louisiana and
me and Junior Wells and another called a track, go to the bathroom, come back, well, that’s all people in Louisiana do is
Sweet Tea that are both almost all acoustic. and they’d be playing my track, and I’d eat, to work, sleep, and then, eat again.
be like ‘that don’t even sound like me’. I I love the food. I like things my mama
BRM: Do you have any favorite contem- tried that in the early days, but I just don’t would make; you know red beans and rice,
porary blues guitarists? like to record that way. gumbo or even dark gravy over white rice.
BG: Oh…you know I love them all. We I was telling my sister who still lives in
could end the interview with this question. BRM: Which of your records would Louisiana that when I’m there, I’m like
I listen to all of them. You know I’m from you say is your best or favorite? I’ve got to get out of here, because I’ve
Louisiana and you know about gumbo? BG: I let the public decide that. But I eaten so much. There’s food everywhere.
Well, gumbo is a food where you just throw guess my biggest are Damn Right I’ve Got I’m gonna get so big I won’t be able to
in the scraps, whatever you can fine, and the Blues and It Feels Like Rain, pick up a guitar.
N ew OBrleans J azz a nd H eritage F estival
y Alicia Gallagher photos by kyra kverno
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, widely known as Jazz Fest, is an annual celebration of the music and culture that comes
out of New Orleans, Louisiana. It officially began in 1970 and marked its 40th anniversary this year. It is the oldest music festival in the
United States.It started out at Louis Armstrong Park,which is in the historical Congo Square,and was held there for the first two years
between 1970 and 1972. Because of its rapid growth, itwas soon moved to the New Orleans Fairgrounds and Racetrack. It includes mu-
sicranging from Cajun, blues, zydeco, Afro-Caribbean, bluegrass, R&B, folk music,rock, rap music, Latin, gospel, and both traditional
and contemporary jazz. It is the most unique music festival in the nation, if not in the entire world. Not only is it dedicated to music, but
also to cultural and historical practices that have come out of New Orleans. It’s a seven day festival with twelve stages and is split into
two weekends. This is the first year since Katrina where Thursdays have been added back into the second weekend. Ilike to compare Jazz
Fest to the traditional New Orleans dish Gumbo, It’s a mixture of different types of music, people, history, language, food, and culture.
Headliners this year included, Etta James and the Roots Band, Neil Young, Bonnie Raitt, Bon Jovi, Tony Bennett, The Kings of Leon,
and the Dave Matthews Band. Jazz Fest is an entire experience within and outside of the actual festival, it is a spiritthat encompasses
the days before, during,in between, and a few days after. From thetime of arrival you’ll hear or read “HappyJazz Fest” at shows, while
dining, and onsigns at the liquor store and outside of bars advertising Jazz Fest specials. Everywhereyou go people are talking about
it, askingyou about your festival experience, plans,and expectations. There is also a smaller version called Chazfest which happens on
the Wednesday in between the two weekends which is named after washboard virtuoso, “Washboard Chaz,” Chaz Leary. My Jazz Fest
always begins at Vaughn’s with Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers on Thuraday in the bywater. Even thoughit’s the day before
the festival, it feels like it’s the first day, and Kermit and his bandmake sure of that. I was especially pleasedto discover that Kermit had
opened his own place, Kermit’s Saloon. I now could count on getting a double fix of Kermit! Another must see and must do for me is to
paya visit to The New Orleans Bingo! Show, which is a vaudevillian interactive theatricalcabaret and musical band with drunkenclowns
and live bingo. They are trulyone of the many gems of New Orleans.I made a point to check them out at the Tipitina’s in uptown on the
Thursday beforethe second weekend, where they werejoined by the Fleur de Tease burlesque group and members of the PreservationHall
Jazz Band (Clint Maedgen, Bingo’sfront man and Ron Rona are also a partof the Preservation Hall Jazz Band) and left with bingo and
Jameson on the brain.

Prepare to be a Glutton
New Orleans Bingo Show

Usually I find it a drag to eat at festivals. Everything is usually overpriced and extraordinarily bland. This is not the case at Jazz Fest.
Be prepared to spoil your palette.New Orleanians take pride in their food and have seemed to have taken a vow to not serve “festival
food.” I think this is because food is an accompaniment to the music and culture of New Orleans. Some of the tasty treats offered, but
are not limited to, include: Sweet Potato Chips, Cracklins, Crawfish Strudel, Chicken Tasso over Creole Rice, Pork and Smoked Sau-
sage Jambalaya, Crawfish Monica, Soft-shell Crab Po’Boy, Cochon Au Lait Po’Boy, CreoleHot Tamales, Catfish Almandine, Alligator
Pie, Crawfish Remoulade,Cajun Boudin, Lemon Poundcake, Crawfish Bread, Sausage and Jalapeno Bread, Seafood Au Gratin, Creole
StuffedCrab, Blackberry Cobbler, Andouille Quail Pheasant Gumbo, Crawfish Puff, Fried Popcorn Shrimp, and all kinds of pie (both
sweet and savory).
First Weekend
The first weekend was the calm before thestorm, it was the shorter
weekend. In knowing that thesecond weekend was going to be
busy, Idecided to camp at the Gentilly Stage bothSaturday and
Sunday and could be assuredthat wherever I was there was bound
to begood music. Saturday was afunk filled day, beginning with
Joe Krown,Walter “Wolfman” Washington, and Russel Bautiste.
Washington laughed, howled, and crooned before noon, turning
thecrowd into one animal, bobbing its head,dancing, smoking
reefer, hooting, and hollering.It was a good way to start the day.
Big Sam’s Funky Nation went on next andhad everyone on the
ground with “Shake Yo Thang.” Ivan Neville’s Dumpstafunk kept
it funky, New Orleans style with “Putit in the Dumpster.” Slowly-
but surely hipsters began to invade the stage in bright sunglasses
and skinny jeans readyingthemselves for Galactic and then Wilco.
A high spirited and quirky Jeff Tweedy joked about someone’s
marking pole, “Is that apork chop? It looks like a pork chop. Ohit’s
a mustache. Go and get a pork chop and then you can come back.”
Later onin the set, a shirtless John Holmes dancedon stage 1970’s
style with a cow bell andmullet during Woody Guthrie’s “Hoodoo-
Voodoo.” On Sunday, it was another day at the Gentilly Stage with
a brand new EttaJames to close the day. Etta came on with a sequin
top, a fresh wig, and a whole lot of nasty. She avoided most of
her ballads,and rather than belting out lyrics, she tookon a growl,
while she sat in her throne with her hands searching her body both
above and below the waist. At one point she said, “I’m gonna do
a song for you called ‘if thiswig would stop blowin’ off my head.”
At seventy one years old, Etta has managed to retain her attitude,
sassiness, and sense of humor.
Second Weekend
Thursday was very low key in terms of the turn-out, being mostly
locals, the lines were shorter and the population remained at a tame
size. In the Blues Tent, Little Freddie King went on stage in a loud
Italian suit with orange slacks, a pale yellow Oxford shirt, dark
sunglasses, and a panama hat. He has been playing at Jazz Fest
consecutively since it’s birth. He danced along stage, swinging his
legs, moving his knees in and out, and hopping with his guitar
as though they were one. I later popped in on an interview with
Emmylou Harris with interviewer Ben Sandmel, only to expect
to be swooned by the angelic Emmylou soon after to close the
festival for that day. Due to musical greed, I didn’t stay for the
entire set because I had to get a little bit of Solomon Burke, who
rolled on stage decked in a bright, shiny purple suit, and a white
fur trimmed red cape, and began with “Cry to Me”. The rest of the
weekend became a blur of one long musical journey with diversity
worth mentioning. It went from the Crocodile Gumboot Dancers
of South Africa, to Geno Delafose and French Rockin Boogie, to
an unforgettable Patty Griffin who at one point reminisced about
meeting Mavis Staples. She said, “Some people meet the Dalai
Lama and they’re good. I met Mavis and I’m like I’m good for
the next twenty years.” Through pure luck, I caught the end of
Big Chief Bo Dollis with Marva Wright on stage, and the weight
of emotion that streamed from the stage to the audience was inde-
scribable. Tears were shed. The end to my festival was the ever
impressive showman Buddy Guy in the Blues Tent. It began to
pour, surprisingly, for the first time on the last day of the festival,
right before Buddy Guy was to go on. People happily invaded the
tent drenched and prepared to be devoured by Buddy Guy and the
wonderful distorted sounds that would come from his guitar. All in
all, the festival was an orgy of music that I dare not denounce, time
to start planning for next year.
Eddie Bo and Snooks Eaglin Jazz Funeral
Clockwise from top left: Neil Young, Wilco’s John
Stirratt, Big Chief Bo Dollis and Marva Wright, Allen
Toussaint
 Picture this: Thursday
night, May 28th 2009,
a flood of very eager con-
cert-goers start filing into
the legendary Fillmore at
Irving Plaza in New York
City. The hallway walls
are adorned with pictures
of performers who had
graced the stage over the
past thirty years. Every-
one from Bob Dylan to
Megadeth have played
there, and now, for the
first time, Chickenfoot!
The band takes the
stage around 9:45pm
amidst a cheering,
anxious audience. As
Sammy and the boys
launch in to their first
song, “Avenida Revolu-
tion”, it’s very clear to see that they have great chemistry on stage together. As the show proceeded, they played more songs off of
their self-titled debut album, such as “Soap on a Rope” and “Sexy Little Thing”. Hagar’s voice is flawless and the band’s collective
energy is amazing. Chickenfoot, then, kicks in with their first single “Oh Yeah”. The big chorus of the song has every singing along
and raising their fists in the air.
Throughout the night, drummer Chad Smith and Sammy spoke to the audience, joking about some road stories. At one point, they
mention that Joe Satriani is from New York and they point out his mother, who is sitting in the VIP section. They tell Joe that his mom
is hot and they thanked her for “birthing Joe”.
The band played more selections, including: “Runnin’ Out”, “Get It Up”, “Down the Drain”, and “Bitten by the Wolf”.
For the last two songs of the encore, Chickenfoot played the first song Sammy Hagar had ever written called “Bad Motor Scooter”.
Hagar had come out playing a lap steel guitar slide intro before kicking in to the main riff. Towards the end of the song, Satriani and
Sammy play blistering guitar solos which show that he isn’t just a talented singer. The final song of the night was an incredible ver-
sion of the Deep Purple
classic “Highway Star”.
Overall, the audi-
ence response was great
and the band looked as
though they had a great
time. There were no laser
shows, pyrotechnics, or
crazy antics; there was just
the band, the audience, and
music. Isn’t that all a rock
show needs to be great?
All I have to say to that is,
“Oh Yeah”!

By Joe Penacchio
Photos by
Scott Vollweiler
 David Cook
“If you’re here to see David Archuleta…you’re at the wrong concert,” exclaimed David Cook,
winner of TV’s American Idol’s season seven at his second of two dates at the Borgata Hotel
and Casio in Atlantic City, NJ. Cook’s star has been rising since winning the show and signing
a lucrative recording contract with 19/RCA. His debut album, Declaration has
gone platinum and his shows have been selling out and his Borgata show was
no different.
The packed venue was filled with fans of just about all ages. In the front row

Review and photo by Scott Vollweiler

was a child no older than ten years of age, singing back every lyric. Just down
the row you had a retiree standing and flailing her arms around like a child.
Funny enough, the older woman was wearing a homemade David Cook t-shirt
that listed all the tour dates she had attended around the country. Needless to say,
there were more dates on the shirt than the child’s years
she’d lived.
This was David Cook’s first ever headlining tour
and he definitely knows how to rock. His band consis-
ted of three guitarists (himself included), a bassist, keyboardist
and a drummer. The band ran through tracks “Mr. Sensitive”, “Lie”,
heavy hitting “Bar-Ba-Sol”, and his two singles “Light On” and
“Come Back To Me.” Cook even included a few tracks from his pre-idol album,
which was a number one download on Amazon.com during his “Idol” stint. Since Cook
had become so famous because he could sing covers, he added two crowd pleasers: Alice
In Chains’ “Man In The Box” and Van Halens’ “Hot For Teacher” which they totally nailed.
While the band left the stage, clamoring for the encore, the buzz was which songs
they’d close with that night. The result was, for me unexpected, “A Daily Anthem.”
I left the show wondering, “Where was Time Of Your Life?” I guess you can’t play every song.

Metal’s leading lady, Maria Brink, singer of In This Moment, and the rest of the
band recently played a rare acoustic set at a NYC metal bar for Metal Couture’s latest
fashion show. Although the once rare feat of a hard rock band playing their heavi-
est songs acoustic has become standard practice, In This Moment still kept the tiny
Review and photo by Scott Vollweiler

crowd at the private event captivated. “We had done four songs before but this
was the first we played five songs, as a full band,” Maria tells us.
In This Moment’s sound has a special ingredient in the overall mix. It’s not
only their dual guitar attack playing crushing riffs and ripping solos or their
bass and drums’ in-sync rhythm section, Brink’s vocal styling makes the band
stand out from most other groups of the same genre. Her almost angelic vocals
keep In This Moment a mainstay on rock radio. “We’ve been pretty blessed
with the opportunities that have been handed to us, between radio and the tours
we’ve been offered, things just keep happening.”
With their latest album, The Dream (Century Media), debuting at number
70 on the Billboard 200, In This Moment has gotten closer to seeing the fruits
of their success. “We don’t feel we’ve reached that success yet. We still do the
same things every day.” The band decided this time around to “grow as musi-
cians” and make a “stronger and more grown up record.”
In This Moment is no stranger to summer long rock festivals. After being a
part of the biggest metal festival of all time (Ozzfest), they have been invited
to play the whole Warped Tour. “Warped is a very diverse crowd so it should
open up doors for us. Warped Tour has had everyone from Bad Religion, My Chemical Romance, even Avenged Sevenfold. We are in
a big world and can only hope more fans find us from a tour like this. It seems like most of the bands that play the festival come out on
a different level.”
If you haven’t heard about Maria’s article in the music issue of Playboy, then you have been under a rock and you need to google
it. The non-nude photo of her is causing such a stir on the internet. “Maybe they assume I’m nude, but then they find out I’m not, but
I don’t know. Maybe when they hear the name is attached to Playboy. It was a fun photo-shoot. I like photo-shoots and I don’t mind
being sexy in them. It’s fun. I’m very comfortable with that side of myself. I guess it’s a good thing when people are talking about it.”
 Willie It was a beautiful spring evening in East Brunswick, NJ. People
were out walking around the college town where you will find

Nelson
Rutgers University. Restaurants had tables setup outside for patrons
to eat. Yet there was a very sweet smell in the air. That could only
mean the college students were partying on a Saturday night OR that
Willie Nelson was in town. Luckily for the legion of fans, it was the
latter. The Country music legend was in town, playing the State The-
ater during his latest tour. When arriving to the show, it was easy to
notice the wide age range that has been touched by Willie’s music.
We saw young children singing along and we saw an elderly man
tapping his cane to the music. Never say country music is for the
south; there are plenty of rednecks up in North Jersey.
Willie’s world class bluesy-country kept the sold out crowd on
their feet for the entire hour and a half performance. While many of
his tunes were based on the same blues chord progressions, it was
his constant barrage of hits that kept the crowd singing. Besides his
“rare gems” as Willie called them, he also played some of his most
famous songs, “On The Road Again,” “You Were Always On My
Mind,” and my personal favorite “Georgia On My Mind.”
The seventy-five year old musician still played faster and sweeter
than musicians half his age. With his trusty old classical style guitar,
Willie traded solos with his harmonica player and his sister, the pia-
nist. The entire crowd exploded every time he completed a solo.
Besides one drunken fight between two fans, the show was unforget-
table. It’s not often you get this kind of outlaw country up north.
Willie’s age may be getting higher and higher (well I guess so is he),
but his music is timeless.

Review and photo by Scott Vollweiler

Jeffrey
At first glance Jeffrey Steele may evoke the image of a silky haired
Billy Ray Cyrus but once Steele opens his mouth it¹s clear he is not

      Steele
just another head of pretty hair. Hitting the stage promptly Wednes-
day night at Joe’s Pub with little more than his acoustic guitar, paino,
and a mic, Jeffrey Steele proved all real talent needs is a stage for it
to shine.
Steele, best known for his songwriting skills rather than his Review and photo by Kristin Tully
career as a solo artist, played an acoustic set of recognizable num-
bers made famous by the likes of Rascal Flatts and Tim McGraw.
“You may know this one from Rascal Flatts”, said Steele, smiling
coyly out at the small audience prefaced. “Me and My Gang”. A
solo Steele on guitar, played other notables such as "My Wish" and
"Once a Cowboy" ³They told me country music has progressed no
one writes songs about cowboys anymore, so I wrote this song.²
Steeled joked.
Intermittently pausing between numbers throughout the night,
Steele kept things light hearted while commanding the crowds atten-
tion, proving his presence as a performer. However, it was his solo
rendition of “What Hurts The Most” on piano that swept an awe of
silence through the room. The sound of each note as Steele¹s hands
slid effortlessly over the keys soaking the air with its sadness, his
voice tinged with heartache and his eyes closed remembering some-
thing the crowd could not see; it was nothing short of captivating.
With each breath of each note Steele made the audience feel the
pain of loneliness, the joy of love, the hurt of missing someone he
makes you believe each word of his sadness. It¹s both powerful and
haunting all at once. It¹s a rarity, a moment most entertainers strive
to achieve; a moment in which Jeffrey Steele proves he¹s not just
another performer. He has true talent.
 Gavin Rossdale
Review and photo by Kristin Tully
Pretty can only take you so far; luckily for Gavin Rossdale
he’s got both looks and talent. On May 5th, the genetically blessed
rocker hit the stage to promote his latest sole release WANDERlust
at The Gramercy Theater in New York City. Backed by a four-piece
band, Rossdale played like a hungry new artist trying to make a
favorable impression on the women-based crowd.
When Rossdale wasn’t anchored behind his guitar, his frenzied
attempt at (one can only assume) dancing- i.e. jumping, twirling,
flailing arms, and kneeling on par with the crowds squealed- was
a bit awkward to say the least. However, the cringe worthy dance
moves seemed to go unnoticed by the female crowd whose saucer-
sized eyes stared eagerly up at the rocker.
Proving their loyalty as fans, the crowd sang along to favorites
from the new album such as “Can’t Stop The World” and “Love
Remains the Same”. While there’s no denying Rossdale’s raspy-
voice is a major part of his appeal, during his cover of Fleetwood
Mac’s “Landslide”, it worked against him. The rocker’s attempt
at creating a sincere, inspiring moment didn’t come off quite as
smoothly as the rest of the ninety minute set. Struggling to hit a few
of the notes the crowd sang along dutifully, erasing any doubt that even a poor choice of song, such as this one, could dethrone the
rockstar.
But it was Rossdale’s revival of the Bush classic “Everything Zen” that really proved Rossdale’s magnetic appeal. Whether he is
playing Bush or his solo stuff, Rossdale has still got it.

Mandy Moore

Review and photo by Scott Vollweiler

“Hey everyone! Thank you all for coming and checking out my new
album!” exclaimed Mandy Moore, the crossover music to movie star.
Miss Moore recently performed at an exclusive and private concert at
New York City’s Highline Ballroom. The hundreds in attendance were
friends, family, record company reps and fans that purchased her newest
album, “Amanda Leigh,” from a local Best Buy store. The album is a
big departure from her previous teenie pop oriented albums. She aban-
doned the pop world for the more indie, singer/songwriter style a la her
husband, Ryan Adams.
Mandy Moore’s just short of an hour performance only performed
songs from the new album. While a good portion of the crowd was able
to sing along, or at least hum along with the songs, a few fans seemed
upset at the fact she didn’t play any older tunes. She explained to the
crowd that the experience making the album was very much like “sum-
mer camp…except in the winter. It was very intense. At the end of the
recording process, I started to cry. It was such a great moment.”
To accompany Mandy onstage was a keyboardist/organist and her
guitarist/co writer of the album, Mike Viola. While the three toyed
around on stage, messing with each other on the intros of tunes, the trio
was quite in sync, with each also singing. The stand out song of the
night was the upbeat, tongue in cheek track, “I Could Break Your Heart
Any Day of the Week”. “I know you all know I’m not a heartbreaker,
can you all pretend I am for this song?” asked Mandy. The singer
seemed a little confused during a repeated section in the refrain. After
the song finished, she asked the Viola if they could do the section again
explaining that she also loved the “crowd participation and sing along”
at the end of a song. So the trio went through the chorus one last time
with the crowd involved.
Steve  Martin
Review and photo by Scott Vollweiler
When you are the world's funniest actor and comedian, life is grand. When you are
also considered to be one of the world's best banjo player, you must be Steve Martin.
The comic legend has recently put out his newest album of Bluegrass music. He has
been making the rounds on almost every morning talk show and even made a musi-
cal appearance on the American Idol finale. With his band in tow, Steve Martin re-
cently performed two sold out shows at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.
Alongside his friends in the Nitty Gritty Band (Fiddle, mandolin, banjo,
acoustic guitar and upright bass), Martin performed for just over an hour. With
his 1927 Gibson banjo in hand, Martin joked, "I used to think, Wow this instru-
ment is old, but it's only a few years older than me!" The group traded solos
with precision; in some tunes, they traded "4's" and in one tune they traded "2's."
The candid Steve Martin performance was just that. In between songs, he
would tune his banjo and tell stories and jokes and the same time. Right before
starting the tune "Turnaround Song," he told the crowd he had written it up in
his house in Aspen. "The idea behind the song was to play really fast and use
a turnaround, which is common practice at the end of a section in Bluegrass.
Well I was stoned, so it seemed like a great idea!" He also joked about the song
"Saga of the Old West." "This would be the spot in the TV show where they
would cut to a commerical," Martin joked. In addition to those tunes, other no-
tables were "Words Unspoken" which took fourty five years for him to complete,
and a rousing rendition of the Bluegrass standard "Orange Blossom Special."
While Bluegrass isn't extremely common in NYC, Steve Martin didn't care, and
neither did the audience. The sold out crowd loved every minute of the show. This
was a rare opportunity to capture a legend in such a intimate venue.

“Who says there’s no rednecks in New York City,” exclaimed country music su-
perstar, Jason Aldean, at his gig at BB King Blues Club in Manhattan on May 6th.
The sold out crowd, which was a mix of New Yorkers and fans around the country
bonded over conversation about previous Jason Aldean performances. One fan
from Louisiana mentioned, “I have seen him eight times and gets better every time.”
Aldean opened the show with the song “Wide Open.” a track from his latest
album with the same name. While he dug deep into his three albums, it was fan
favorites “Johnny Cash,” “Relentless,” “Crazy Town,” and his #1 smash single,
“She’s Country” that had the crowd singing and dancing. Aldean also announced
his next single would be “Big Green Tractor.” He noted, “this song was my funny
attempt at a love song.”
“Before the night’s over, you’ll figure out we’re not a normal country band,”
Aldean then adds, “We’re so influenced by rock, but not this new rock but real
rock and roll from the 70’s.” From there the band kicked into the Tom Petty clas-
sic, “Won’t Back Down.” While this wasn’t the over cover, it was the only one
played normally. The band also included Guns-N-Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine,”
but was played in a really odd key.
While country music shows are rare in New York City, it’s seemingly getting
more popular. The shows are truly becoming a little bit country and little bit rock
and roll!

Review and photos by Scott Vollweiler

Rhythm Brews and By Alicia Gallagher
Photos by Kyra Kverno

while the rest of the crowd had their eyes fixed on the band.
I was drawn to bass player, Scott Sutherland. He was dressed
in all black (as was the rest of the band), and wore a funky hat
with a dark bandanna tied beneath. He did a little jig as he and
the bass moved about the stage. He'd move side to side, while
moving his knees in and out, and every so often he'd crouch down
and pop back back up. I was sure when he turned around there
would be a wind-up key coming out of his back. I then was dis-
tracted by Deanna Bogart, not just sitting at her bench behind the
keyboard, but on her knees, as she violently tossed her head back
and forth while her fingers fiercely danced along the keys. The
crowd was loving every bit of it! Somewhere in the middle of the
first set, Castro apologized to the audience for the whole ticket
mishap. Later Magic Dick stepped out on stage with dark, small,
oval-shaped sunglasses and started to blow away at the harmonica.
He eventually switched his harmonica to what looked like an shiny
blue electric shaver (although I'm pretty sure it wasn't that), and
geared the band into Jimmy Cliff's "Give It To Me". The songs
seemed fluid and seamlessly went from genre to genre, everything
Renowned blues guitarist and vocalist Tommy Castro has
from funk, blues, to ballads. They played "Tell Me Mama", "Hip-
brought together a group of truly talented musicians. Castro
shaker Baby", and "See You Hurt No More".
was just named B.B. King Blues Entertainer of the Year in the
I was reminded of Buddy Guy when Ronnie Baker Brooks
2008 Blues Music Awards, not to mention his album Painkiller
took his guitar into the crowd and played, while stopping to shake
won Contemporary Blues Album of the Year. Magic Dick is best
hands. He worked himself to behind the bar, grabbed a Hennessy
known for his years playing the harmonica in the legendary J.Geils
bottle and used it to play his guitar. He then managed to pour him-
Band. Blues and boogie-woogie pianist and vocalist Deanna Bo-
self a drink, sticking two red cocktail straws into the glass sucked
gart not only has been leading her own band, but has shared the
it down in a matter of seconds.
stage with a variety of musicians, including Ray Charles, Spyro
The band concluded with Albert King's infamous "Everyone
Gyra, Buddy Guy, Leon Russell, Robert Cray, James Brown, They
Wants to Go to Heaven But Nobody Wants to Die", while Brooks
Might Be Giants, Little Feat, Brian Setzer, and many more. Ron-
played Tommy's guitar from behind. The crowd was happy, the
nie Baker Brooks, son of the blues legend Lonnie Brooks, has ob-
band was happy, and everyone seemed to of had a great time. Af-
viously been influenced by guys like Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters,
ter the show, I ended up talking to several fans who had been vic-
and B.B. King and has put his own twist on it. The Legendary
tims of The Blender Theater's price gouging, yet gladly paid the
Rhythm & Blues Revue is a brainchild that is a result of The Blues
price. They were happy to have been there and had no regrets.
Cruise, something Tommy Castro and the gang have been apart of
for several years. They wanted to create that same interactive and
improvisational atmosphere and bring it to land and they did.
I arrived fifteen minutes late and walked into the middle of the
third or fourth song. Everyone seemed to be over fifty. I looked
around the room, it was not full. I wondered if that had anything
to do with The Blender Theater website debacle, something I had
heard Tommy was pretty upset about. I had done a little research
of my own and found out that The Blender Theater website was
being ran by a broker and was not only charging twice as much
for tickets, but was also misrepresenting the show by only listing
Tommy Castro as the featured musician. The Live Nation web-
site was the only place where the tickets were being sold for face
value, as well as properly representing the tour. I was sure that that
had to of had an impact on the turn out.
The room was intimate, with room for standing, as well as a few
rows of fold-out chairs up front. It had red velvet theater seats
ascending fifteen rows or so in the back of the space. I swiftly
moved in and parked myself stage left, conveniently next to the
bar. I noticed that there were already a few free spirits letting loose
 By Nicole Seblano Photos by Scott Vollweiler

Kelly Clarkson

Warm weather has finally arrived, bring on the tank tops, the flip
flops and Zootopia. Wait, Zootopia? Z100, New York's #1 pop music radio
station, had their annual Spring/Summer concert May 16 at New Jersey’s
Izod Center. The shows lineup proved to be as diverse as the people of New York.
Artists included Kelly Clarkson, All American Rejects, Flo Rida, Soulja Boy, Ciara, Jesse
McCartney and headliners The Black Eyed Peas.
Girls of all ages went wild for dreamy pop-star Jesse McCartney, who started off the show,
with hit “Leavin.” And if you think the girls went crazy when they first saw him, the screams
only got louder with “Beautiful Soul”, “How do you Sleep”, and “It’s Over” (which he
declared his favorite song of the album). The former boyband member is out promoting his
latest album, Departure.
Next up was Soulja Boy who got the crowd on their feet with “Turn my Swag On” and
the ultra catchy “Soulja Boy (Crank That)”. The young rapper ran around the stage dancing while his platinum and diamond crested
“Soulja Boy” necklace whipped around his neck. Unfortunately, he only played an abbreviated set. In addition, he seemed too in-
volved with his dancing and crowd participation rather than actually rapping into the microphone; he left most of the vocals to his
hype man and DJ.
Taylor Momsen, star of hit-series, Gossip Girl, was accompanied by the cast of the Elvis Duran and the Z Morning Zoo morning
talk show. The ensemble introduced All American Rejects. Backstage, Momsen had been speaking briefly about her band, The Pretty
Reckless. Prior to the show, Momsen told us that “Music is my life. I’d rather be playing music than acting.” She also added that her
band, who has been the opening support for the Veronicas, is “all about rock and roll.”
The All American Rejects performed “Swing, Swing” from their first album and “Move Along”. They had the crowd on their feet
from beginning to end while ending their set with their number one smash hit “Gives you Hell” and their new single, “The Wind
Blows.” The latter song is a haunting acoustic song, a far cry from any other AAR song released to date. The power trio never ceases
to be a top live band. Their songs are so high energy and catchy that the crowd never gets bored. The girls in the front row almost
made us all go deaf with their high pitch screams.
All decked out in a tight, black jumpsuit, Ciara came out with her dancers and did the booty shake that made her so famous. The
audience cheered and sang along to “Love Sex Magic” while watching Ciara move around the whole stage incorporating splits into
her dance routines. While her set was short, she did play her other singles.
Next up was the original American Idol, Kelly Clarkson. The “Miss Independent” singer jumped around on stage and belted out her
hit songs. By far, Kelly Clarkson had the best vocals of the entire show. She had all the girls and guys in the crowd pumping their fists
to hits like “Walk Away” and “Since you Been Gone.” Kelly’s set was a bit longer than the previous performers but you could tell
the crowd still wanted more of this Texas star and more is what she gave them, performing off the new record “My Life Would Suck
Without You” and “I Do Not Hook Up”. This was Kelly's first NY/NJ appearance since releasing the record. From the screaming and
hollering from the crowd, it seemed the Kelly was the one they were all waiting for and she delivered!
Following Kelly Clarkson should have been a tough task but Flo Rida was ready. The hip hop superstar dropped his hits "Low" and
"Right Round." While his set up was actually really fun to watch, it seemed as if he only performed those two songs, almost as if he
played long, extended versions just to keep the crowd pumped. During the song "Low," Flo Rida pulled on stage four young girls. He
asked them, "How low can you go?" The crowd went crazy and the girls danced and got low. Flo Rida teased the people in the front
rows, asking them if they wanted his heavy diamond jewelry. As he would take the pieces off, he would make a fake attempt to throw
into the crowd. "Yeah right, psych!" he said. To end the set, he played his latest chart topper "Right Round" and he had his whole crew
grab a towel and swing them around in the air.
To close the show, Z100 had the hottest group in the country headline: The Black Eyed Peas. The "Peas" are riding high on their
latest hit single "Boom Boom Pow." The group which consists of members Will.I.Am Api.De.Ap, Taboo, and Fergie, had an elaborate
stage show with LED lights saying "Black Eyed Peas," a two-level stage with the band scattered around, and big inflatable robots
on each side of the stage. The band’s hour long set consisted of hit songs “Let’s Get Retarded” (the radio version is “Let’s Get It
Started”), “Don’t Phunk With My Heart,” “My Humps” and many others. The Black Eyed Peas consistently blend hip hop and pop
with such ease. Lead singer Fergie, who is the most recognizable member of the group, sounded just as great live as she does on her
albums. Each member of the group usually takes a verse during a song, puts their own “flavor” on it and then gets the crowd pumped.
Never have I seen a group’s members be able to be the lead and on the next step just be a hype man/woman and be so good at it.
All in all, Zooptopia proved to be a successful mixture of what NY/NJ music fans want: rock, pop and hip hop.
Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson

will.i.am

Soulja Boy

Flo Rida

The All American Rejects’ Nick Wheeler and Tyson Ritter

 All the Real World’s a Stage
For the boys of Parachute, stepping into the “real world” after college graduation meant stepping onto stages across the nation. The band
that began in high school as Sparky’s Flaw was signed to Mercury records last spring. Lead guitarist and back up vocalist Nate McFar-
land tells Broken Records Magazine that they chose that name because it was “positive and hopeful” and that’s the feeling their music
delivers. He and his band mates, Kit French (saxophone), Alex Hargrave (bass), Johnny Stubblefiled (drums) and Will Anderson (Lead
vocals, guitars and piano) will be touring for their debut LP Losing Sleep with the likes of 3 Doors Down and The Script.
BUZz baNds
Broken Records Magazine: What are
your major influences?
John: Everybody in the band has different
influences. Will does the majority of our
songwriting. Billy Joel, Elton John, Paul
Simon, those guys are really the influences
that got us into music in the first place.
Will: And Ben Folds.
John: We like Coldplay too and The Kill-
ers.
BRM: How did everyone in the band
meet?
Kit: The majority of us went to high
school together. We weren’t really
good (laughs) but we decided to make
a band. We met Nate and Will in col-
lege and once we got him on board,
that’s when we were finally able to take
ourselves seriously (everyone laughs).
BRM: How do you guys work together
when writing material?
Will: Usually I write the songs. Usually
I write in my room, alone. I have a pretty
set writing time. On days where I’m just
lounging around my house so my mind
is clear enough to start writing. Usually I
write the idea on my own and bring the
idea to the band. When Alex and I lived to-
gether I’d play it for Alex. Eventually we
all get together and practice and figure out
what works for us. Sometimes Nate and I
write together in the studio or my parents’
house. It depends on the situation.Then we
play it for the other guys later to work the
kinks out.
BRM: Who did you work with as far as
a producer?
Will: We worked with a lot of different
producers. John Shanks was one of the
first producers I met with but I didn’t know
if he was going to work for us. He’s done
everything from Bon Jovi to Ashley Simp-
son and everything in between. He’s a
great pop producer. We worked with John
Fields who worked with Switchfoot and the
Jonas Brothers; Eric Rosse, who worked
with Sara Bareilles and Tori Amos-great
piano/bass records which I really like. We
also worked with a guy Chris Keup who is
a good friend of ours. We’ve been work-
ing with him for awhile, he’s the one who
before we got signed, helped us out with
demos. He worked with Jason Mraz and
Lifehouse. He was definitely in our genre
but we worked with a plethora of produc-
ers but we learned a lot from each of them.
BRM: How long did it take to record
your debut album Losing Sleep?
Will: The problem, well not problem
so to speak, the total time, which was a
month to a month and a half which is a
pretty normal time for a first album but
we were still in school (last May). We
just kind of had to deal with school and
recording as well so it was spread out
over a year and a half, but I think to-
tal recording was about two months.
BRM: Did you find it difficult being in
school at the same time as having the
band? Were people supportive of you?
Nate: Yeah definitely. On the label side
they were the ones encouraging us to fin-
ish school, which is great. On the school
side, our parents were excited that we
were getting started early with a lucra-
tive career (everyone laughs). Our friends
were understanding that we were gone just
about every weekend.
BRM: How did you guys end up hav-
ing your song “She is Love” on a Nivea
commercial?
Will: Nivea came to us. They really like
the song. They thought it fit well with an
ad campaign they were doing. For us it was
definitely a no brainer, it made sense, the
company was great. They were really sup-
portive of the music and they just thought
it was a great fit and we agreed that it was
classy and did the song justice. In the new
paradigm of the music industry I think it
was an incredible opportunity that were all
very thankful that we got because it really
did get that song out there to an incredible
amount of people. It was a lot bigger than
we would’ve ever imagined.
BRM: That’s pretty sweet, it’s got to be
kind of weird flipping through the chan-
nels and hearing one of your songs on
TV like that.
Will: Yea it was a trip for all of us when
we first heard it, definitely mind blowing.
BRM: How has the tour been going so
far?
Alex: Touring been going great. This is
the actual first year that we got a chance to
really tour, we’re having an amazing time.
We’ve gotten chance to tour with tons of
great people, great musicians. It’s really
surreal to grow up listening to these musi-
cians and then getting the chance to play
with and meet them.
BRM: Any good tour stories?
Johnny: What genre do you want? (All
laugh).We just arrived in New York City
today and were in a rental cargo van
‘cause our noble tour van, is now in the
shop. We’ve tried getting it repaired for
the last three weeks. Every time we take
it to the shop, I don’t think anyone actu-
ally complained that it was broken but
it’s pretty easy to tell (all laughing). The
locks are completely gone from the door
because someone broke into it in Seacau-
cus, New Jersey. (Everybody begins
speaking almost at once, laughter fills the
room again).
And our windows shattered.
The tired blew out.
The trailer fell off the back of the van.
The van stalls out every ten minutes.
And the fuel pump…
BUZz baNds
That was a lot of damage right there.
I think we’re ready to start a reality TV
show about our van.
The van actually fell off the lift too, when
we were jacking it up.
BRM: Now that’s the van you named
Steve Perry correct?
(All laughed and cheer) Yeah!
Will: We named the current cargo van
Prairie Prince, who was the short lived
auxiliary percussionist of the band Jour-
ney. He was the touring guy and they
kicked him out after one summer of tour-
ing because he sucked so bad. We figured
this van is only going to be with us for a
little bit of time so we decided to name it
after him.
BRM: You have plans to write while on
tour or save it for afterwards?
Will: I’m always writing it’s something I
do to pass the time. It’s something I enjoy
doing. I’m always writing and I think it’s
a good thing to stay in that habit.
Nate: I think Will has a lot of material on
the road (inspired) from Alex, our bass
player. He’s been a muse, if you will.
BRM: Do you guys have any pre show
rituals or warm ups?
Hit it! One, two three…
(All break into harmonious singing)
“…before I get too far, you’ll be wishing I
had stayed…”
Interview and photos
by Candice Wanca
 J
E
S
S
I
E
J
A
BUZz baNds

M
E
S WANTED
When you’re twenty years old, drop dead gorgeous and have vocal chops a la Christina Aguilera, life is good. Jes-
sie James, Georgia’s best export since the peach, is riding high with her newest recordings. Her first single, “Wanted”
is riding high on radio and on the net. She has been the video and song of the week on Myspace Music and iTunes
and has been touring the country interviewing on local news outlets.
Jessie’s first single, “Wanted,” was co-written by American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi, David Hodges and former
SR-71 singer, Mitch Allan. “The song was written during my first writing session out in L.A.,” the singer told us.
“The first day we just got together just to get to know each other. The next day we came in and just nailed it.” When
asked about the idea behind the song, Jessie told us that “since my name is really Jessie James, I figured it be cool to
write a song with a play on the name. There was a guy at the time who I just wanted and I was definitely into him.
The next day I called the president of the label and was like I just wrote my first single.”
The bombshell, who considers herself musically bipolar, is very happy about the outcome of the sound on the
album. “I have this really pop edgy side, then the deep organic side. There’s some fun banjo country music with
hip hop beats, which I like to call Hick Hop music. Then there’s the stripped down and beautiful stuff too like me
and guitar in a hotel room.” Being from the south and recording up north with all these pop writers could have been
difficult for the singer but luckily she is a seasoned professional. “I’ve been writing since I was nine,” Jessie says,
“but I’ve been writing with other people since I was fifteen in Nashville. I have written with John Rich from Big and
Rich, who’s ridiculous. I’ve also written with Jamey Johnson who was just up for a Grammy. But when I got my
record deal, they set me up with all these pop writers up in New York. The label tried to make me sing some other
styles of music but everything I sang just had that twang in it. Just finally I was like, let me just sing a pop song with
a country sound.”
Most recently, Jessie shot a spread for Maxim magazine, a magazine notorious for getting celebrities naked. Luck-
ily for her mother, she didn’t bare it all for the world to see. “It was really classy. It wasn’t really sleazy at all. Most
importantly, it was really fun. Of course Maxim is really revealing but I didn’t have to take off my top or anything.
My mother would’ve killed me.”
“I think the thing about me that makes me stand out is that I can actually sing. I have no problem singing on the
spot. Someone can ask me to sing on top of a table in a restaurant and I’ll be fine with it. I was born with this voice.
I’m also a songwriter so I help create the sound; plus I play an instrument. Hopefully a lot of people will know that.
I want people to know that I am a real artist.” By Scott Vollweiler
GLORIANA
Gloriana,
country music’s
overnight sensa-
tion, has hit the big
time. The quartet,
brothers Tom and Mike
Gossin, Rachel Reinhart
One Time at Band Camp and Cheyenne Kimball
  By Scott Vollweiler (yes, the same Cheyenne
that had her own MTV
series) haven’t released a
full length album, yet they
have won a CMT award
and are currently on a national
tour with Taylor Swift. Their first single,
“Wild At Heart,” was released to country

BUZz baNds
radio early in 2009 and had peaked at #19
on Billboard’s Country chart. The tune is
super catchy and filled with tight harmonies.
“That’s exactly what we were aiming for,”
Tom Gossin told us.
We can expect “some traditional and mod-
ern country and bluegrass kind of stuff,” said
Gossin before adding “and our biggest goal was to
make it good all the way through; we didn’t want to skip
any tracks.” While it seems almost standard play for country
artists to work with outside songwriters, Gloriana went to the
extreme. “We had a writing camp. We took a weekend and got
together with twenty to thirty of the best writers in Nashville. After
a weekend we came up with like sixty songs. We picked the best
thirteen for the album.” Rachel Reinhart then added “it was so
cool to have had the chance to write with these writers and
that these songs were just written for our album.”
Each member of the group is a strong singer
on their own. So I asked them if it was their
intension to have tight four-part harmonies
throughout. Reinhart answers, “We were
very influenced by groups like Fleetwood
Mac and the Eagles; they are groups they
each member can stand on their own as
singers and then come together in the
chorus.” “So four was the lucky num-
ber?” I asked. Gossin responded, “We did
have a specific number in mind. Mike and I
were a group and then we met Rachel. One
day Cheyenne saw us play a show and she
was like ‘I play mandolin and I sing’. So we
gave her an audition and was like, “this fits.”
So how does a group with no album, a brand
new single and just a buzz get on the biggest tour
of the summer? “We were doing the fourteen week
long radio tour and Taylor must have heard the buzz
about us. So she checked out the single and she called
us up. She was like ‘Hey. It’s Taylor Swift.’ We were like
‘What!’ She asked us if we wanted to go on tour with her.
We were kind of blown away. We are just going to go up, just
us four acoustic. We are going to be unique because Kellie
(Pickler) and Taylor are going to be full band after us. It’s go-
ing to show off our musicianship.”
 Leah Renee  Imaginary Pop Princess?
By Scott Vollweiler
Remember being a child and having an imaginary friend?
Canadian born beauty, Leah Renee, will be having tweens
around the country wishing to have someone imaginary. Her
first single off her debut album is “Imaginary Boyfriend” or
“iBF.”
Leah Renee tells us, “I think a lot of girls will really
relate to it. At one point, there’s someone they have a crush
on, and he may be unattainable, but you still daydream
about him.” When asked how true to life the song really is,
Leah Renee responded, “I have had and still do have them! Imaginary Boyfriend was the only track that was submitted to us for
the record and was written by our little group of people.”
Leah Renee is already being compared to Mariah and Rihanna. “I don’t know if really should be compared to them. They are
BUZz baNds

in a league of their own! But I do think I can sing like Mariah in my breathier tones.” With comparisons in hand, Leah Renee is
undoubtedly poised for stardom. Her debut album, which took almost two years to complete, was produced by the well known
duo called The Conglomerate. The duo, which includes Curtis Richardson and Charli Vox, has produced and written songs for
Kelly Clarkson, LL Cool J, Joss Stone and many others. “I met the Conglomerate out in Toronto, which is where I’m from and
I was in the studio singing demos. They were probably like, ‘Who’s this blonde girl’ (laughs). But they asked me to sing on a
demo and we decided to keep working together. I was very nervous. Look at all the artists they have worked with.”
Besides having incredible vocal abilities, Leah Renee also co-wrote every track on the album. “I feel so lucky to have my
hand in the creative part of making the album. Most artists on big labels don’t necessarily get that chance. It feels awesome.”
With no official release date, Leah hopes that it will be out “this summer” but definitely look for it sometime in 2009. “iBF”
has already been released to radio and has been getting massive amount talk on the gossip blogs. “iBF” has also been streamed

Savannah Outen
over seven thousand times on her myspace page as well. There is nothing imaginary about this pop princess.

Broken Records Magazine: Of all routes to promote

yourself, why did you go the Youtube route? Did you
ever think your videos would get as much attention as
they have?
Savanah Outen: It was actually my parents idea to post a
video on youtube. At the time it was just starting to get big,
so my dad video taped me singing “Listen”. I just wanted
to create a little fan base and hear some feedback. I wasn’t
even planning on posting another video. I had no idea that
my videos would get this much attention. I love that people
call me ‘the Youtube girl’.

BRM: "Goodbyes" peaked top five on the Radio Disney charts. How did it feel to have a hit single?
SO: I was excited for “Goodbyes” to even be on the countdown. Then, seeing it climb up every week was so much fun. I was
so excited to see it reach number five. I was surrounded by all of my favorite singers, like Miley and Taylor. My fans did a great
job voting every week and requesting it, so I thank them for that.

BRM: What is the story and inspiration for your latest single "If You Only Knew"?
SO: “If You Only Knew” is about liking this guy who doesn’t know who you are, or doesn’t pay attention to you. For some
girls, it can be about how much they love this certain celebrity. It would be a dream come true for the girl to meet her crush.
That’s the idea we took for the music video. Tony Oller from “As The Bell Rings” on the Disney Channel portrays this huge
celebrity, named “Cas” and I have a big crush on him. I also have posters of Cas all around my room. It’s a fun video and I think
it will appeal to a lot of different people.
Right Time,
Right Place
By John Centorrino
Cockpit consistently delivers authentic
old school upbeat rock and roll. Their de-
but album Mission to Rock (self-released
via indy Pedal to the Metal on July 25,
2008) is currently available for purchase
from their website www.ilovecockpit.
com, and also via iTunes and Rhapsody
Online. The individual tracks from Mis-
sion to Rock can be heard on the band’s
Myspace page www.myspace.com/cock-
pit, and they also maintain a Facebook
page. Cockpit took the next steps in the
‘social networking and self-promotion’
game by setting up an automatic Twitter
feed to Myspace and Facebook. As this

BUZz baNds
all-girl rock sensation automatically posts
multiple daily Twitters on their pages, it’s
obvious that all this cyber-churn has defi-
nitely contributed to Cockpit’s fast-grow-
ing fan base and quickly growing success.

The members of Cockpit came to-
gether during the winter of 2003/2004.
Linda Lou, originally from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, met the drummer Rachael
Rine at a party. Rachael, originally from
Las Vegas, Nevada, had a cover band
that she’d started, named Cockpit.  “Ra-
chael had started a band of her own, they
were doing covers, but she wanted to do
originals, and so did I,” says Linda, “We
were both looking to move to LA, we both
wanted the same things, and I really liked
the name Cockpit, so it just stuck from the
very beginning.” (the first of many ‘right
place, right time’ scenarios for Cockpit.)
A short time later Linda and Rachael
found Cockpit’s bass player, Terrii Kiing
from Orange County, California. Linda
then recalled the odd and unintended
shift in her musical career, “I started out
as the lead guitarist, but in the beginning,
we really needed a singer. I had always
played guitar, but as we got the band to-
gether, we were looking for a singer, but
we weren’t happy, so I started singing
while I was playing guitar, and it seemed
to work out. I became the singer (again,
right place, right time). Finally, about two
years ago, Cockpit found their lead guitar-
ist, Alicia Blü from Sheffield, England.
Cockpit’s major influences come from
very original rock and roll roots, “We like a
lot of the same music, my personal favorite
COCKPIT
is Judas Priest. Rachael loves Motely Crüe
and Aerosmith, Alicia’s really into White
Snake, and Terrii’s a huge country fan.”
Another right place, right time inci-
dent occurred when Cockpit’s Mission to
Rock sold more CDs than any other band
that had played at Houston’s 2008 Rock
the Bayou festival. Additionally, Cock-
pit was one of the few unsigned bands
at last summer’s Rocklahoma 2008 fes-
tival. Linda explained, “We ran into
the Rocklahoma booking agents at The
Whiskey about six months before the
festival. The booking agents were in
LA for a Rocklahoma press conference
the next day. We all hang out that night,
and by the next morning they had asked
us to join Rocklahoma 2008, it was like
twelve hours before the press conference
started.” (right place and time, yet again.)
When I asked Linda to tell me about
one of their craziest or wildest tour mo-
ments, she told me, “It was definitely at
Rocklahoma. We were thigh deep in mud,
and then my guitar got stolen, but I got it
back. Yeah, it’s unheard of, but it worked
out because all of the local sheriffs helped
to find my guitar and get it back to me.”
Cockpit is in the process of writing right
now, and Linda says they will definitely
release this year. “We have a lot of new
material. I’m unsure if we’re releasing a
full length or another EP, but we will be re-
leasing something.” Currently, Cockpit is
booked to play at the LA Calendar Motor-
cycle Show at the Queen Mary Event Park
in Long Beach, California on July 18 and
19. “It would be great to be out on the road
with some good friends of ours like Skid
Row in the future.” Cockpit is booking
for fall/winter 2009, and into spring 2010,
mostly in the south and southwest Cali-
fornia areas. Cockpit is endorsed by GHS
RockTron, Danmar Percussion for drums,
Muscian’s Choice Rehersal Studios (found
throughout USA, mainly California and Ar-
izona), and Gasloline Glamour, “Gasoline
Glamour is one of our really good friends
out of LA that does all of our clothes, jew-
elry, and stuff that we wear all the time.”
 R achel G oodrich
BRM: What is behind the title Tinker Toys?
Rachel Goodrich: Tinker Toys is one of
the tracks off the record, and I thought it
was appropriate because it was my first
record. The next record will be more ar-
ranged, not slow it down but there will
be more ballads that I’ve been writing
over time, but generally more upbeat.

BRM: What do you derive your lyrical

inspiration from?
Rachel: I listen to a lot of German hip
hop. You know they’re very tough and
strong but at the same time they’re like…I
don’t know how to explain it man, I’m
BUZz baNds

so bad at this. I can be walking down the

street or talking to a friend and like even
a stop sign looks interesting. Something
always comes from something else; I don’t
think I’ve ever just sat down to write a
song. I try to live in the moment and let
inspiration find me.

BRM: Walk me through a day in the life

of Rachel Goodrich.
Rachel: Sometimes I get up before my
alarm clock, it’s set for eleven thirty. I
usually get up around nine but I’m a zom-
bie for a couple of hours. I’m always half
awake during the day time, there’s always
a lot of music and a lot of hanging out. The
night time at around two in the morning
is when I start to feel things coming to-
gether. I feel like I write when I first wake
up though, when I’m really still dreaming
and right before bed when I’m delirious.

RM: You said you had spent two years
in your room, “your own little uni-
verse”, before you emerged and began
to make music in full force. What were
those two years like and how did they
prepare you for today?
Rachel: Man, those two years were kind
of strange but I became very acquainted
with my instrument and my record. I went
through a lot of emotions and feelings and
confidence and that kind of stuff. I learned
a lot in those two years. It gave me the
opportunity to write a lot and come up
with my style. I don’t know how it pre-
pared me but it just added to life, I guess
BRM: You have your own record label
Yellow Bear Records. Do you plan on
signing any other bands onto it?
Rachel: Yes, I’d love to pick it up in a
little bit and make it extremely active.
There are a couple of acts down here in
Miami that are great but I don’t know if
they’d want to be on my label you know?
I just love music and I’d love to support it.
BRM: The term shake-a-billy. I know it
must come up a bit but humor me, why
shake-a-billy?
Rachel: I was hanging with a friend and
I recently just moved and he offered to
play up-right base and we were like jam-
ming and stuff on this new song called
“Hit or Miss” and it’s kind of like shaky
and he said this is kind of like rock a
Interview by Victoria Barone
Photo by Kyra Kverno
billy, and I said ‘nah man it’s shake a
billy’ and it just kind of came about. It
was more like shaky than like rocking,
shake a billy has a straight organic feel.
BRM: If you could pick a favorite song
of yours, what would it be and why?
Rachel: I just wrote this song recently and
I feel like it’s my favorite song because I
feel like everyone can relate to it. It’s called
“Hold on/Horn Horn.”  It has a lot of hope.
I just feel like maybe more people can re-
late to it but that’s not why it’s my favorite.
It’s different, the song is mostly in major
and I just like the feel of it. I also like this
song called “Popsicle”, it’s very dreamy.
 THE A.K.A.S
Broken Records Magazine: You’re
sound is unique to say the least and
has been described by yourselves as
“dance hall fight music.” Why?
AKAs: We whole heartedly think that
the description is true but it almost came
BUZz baNds
up as some form of irony because at the
time we dubbed that was because there
was so many goofy sub genres of mu-
sic happening at the time and I felt like
a lot of bands really counted on that for
people to identify with them where as
we really didn’t want to be a part of any
of that stuff because we thought it was
f**king stupid, you know? We’re a band
that’s like as much about ideas as we are
about the music that we’re making, so it’s
important for us to not limit who hears
that so if someone only listens to elec-
tro pop punk emo, screamo or whatever
and then they hear this is this thing I’m
not going to listen to it because I only
Interview by Candice Wanca
Photo by Jayme Muzio
like this one thing. But we’re a band
that’s really eclectic and unique and ap-
peals to people with different musical
interests and those are the people who
wind up gravitating towards us. And
we’ve worked hard to maintain that.
BRM: Josie wasn’t originally part of
the AKA lineup, how did the addition
of her and her keyboard effect the
band?
AKAs: She wasn’t the original keyboard
player but we did have a girl keyboard
player before her so that was part of the
dynamic that we thought was important to
the band. We had a period of time where
we didn’t have just the keyboard player,
we had a second guitarist and it just wasn’t
the same. The thing with Josie was she
had actually only been playing the key-
board for two months when we needed
a keyboard player and sort of demanded
Interview and photo by Kristin Tully
Broken Records Magazine: You’re
on the road with Shinedown and 10
Years. How’s that been, touring with
all guys?
Lzzy: You know, I’ve lived with these
guys [Halestorm] for so long- they’re
my family! It doesn’t phase me…but the
one thing you do learn on the road with
guys is everything can be a sexual innu-
endo, and fart jokes are always welcome!
But really, most of the guys we tour
with they are such gentlemen- opening
doors for me and stuff...it’s pretty nice!
BRM: Being a girl do you feel you
have to prove yourself?
Lzzy: You know it’s funny, because in my
case I think it’s really an advantage. I ac-
tually have a funny story. I was at a show
tuning my guitar- and I think a lot times
you get the people who automatically as-
sume ‘oh she’s the merch girl or oh she’s
some groupie’- and so the guy says to me
Interview by Victoria Barone
that she play so her first show ever was in
front of twelve hundred people and she
had never played with a band before. But
since then she has just been an incredible
force in the band. She’s just a really awe-
some role model for people in general but
especially girls just mainly because she
does so many cool things with the band
and outside of the band, there’s so much
girl power going on that it’s inspiring
you know? In a time where the two main
ways for girls to get attention and respect
was to be a suicide girl or to show their
f**king tits on Myspace, I think it’s real-
ly important for people to see hard work-
ing girls get respect and can do awesome
positive stuff. I don’t know where we’d
be without her she’s completely radical.
And she lifts more shit than any dude
that was ever in the band including my-
self. Gear-wise she carries heavy things
every night to the surprise of everyone.
“Oh I could never get my girlfriend to do
that”. I didn’t correct him or anything. I let
him think what he wanted and later when
I was doing sound check, he saw I was
actually fronting the band- and he was
like “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I totally
didn’t realize you were the band!” And
you know I was like ‘It’s cool!’It catches
peoples attention! I know sex does sell
and potentially any girl could get up their
in a mini skit…but really I don’t want
to be remember like that; I want people
to remember me because I am good!
BRM: Where can we find you on your
free time?
Lzzy: Free time? What’s that? I’m just
kidding…we actually like to camp. We
head over to the camping grounds and
relax, crack open a few beers. It’s funny
though because we always somehow end
up talking about our music anyway. We’re
nerds, we have no life…music is our life!
 Interview by Victoria Barone
Broken Records Magazine: Your they were in and it just kind of worked why?
album just dropped on the twenty out. Ever since then we’ve always been Fireworks: I guess continue to meet new
fourth, what is behind the title and the writing you know we’re best friends so people, make new friends, go new plac-

album art?
Fireworks: Well the record is called All
I have to Offer is My Own Confusion.
Chris and Kyle thought of the idea. We
thought it matched the theme of the re-
cord, confusion, trying to figure things
out, being a kid and doing stupid sh*t.
And I we thought it was kind of a cool
thing. And the theme of the art work is a
mysterious figure, it’s kind of a concep-
tual kind of thing because all the pictures
go along with the songs and what not.
BRM: How did Fireworks come to be,
how did you all find each other?
Fireworks:Well we all worked on the
corner. No, they all grew up together.
I kinda grew up in a different city, so I
moved out the area and we just started
out as friends and I’ve always played
we always just play music just for fun.
BRM: If you had your choice to tour
with any band including bands that are
no longer, who would it be and why?
Fireworks: That’s a really, really tough
one. Me personally, I would like to tour
with Quiet Riot. Spending five months
with Quiet Riot would be the best thing
ever. Also, I’d like to tour with some of our
friend’s bands, that’s always fun. There’s
really so many I can’t really decide.
BRM: What is an absolute tour neces-
sity?
Fireworks: Probably Wawa, they’re like
Seven Eleven but you can order food. It’s
quite amazing. I don’t know…a bunch
of music, a bunch of clothes…water.
BUZz baNds
es. We would really like to see our band
travel overseas and take it to the next
level, keep on releasing records and stuff.
BRM: In the song “Holiday” you say
“The big difference between you and
me is understanding the word "alive.”
What is your understanding exactly?
Fireworks: That’s a really, really good
question actually. “Holiday” is about
somebody who lives a very sheltered
life yet is very judgmental at the same
time. I’ve had people do that to me, it’s
not cool. It’s not fair to justify your hate
for something or if you not like what
someone does if you don’t really know
what they do or you’ve never even seen
the person. So I think being alive is go-
ing through life, going through the ex-
perience, you know going through it all

TV/TV
guitar and stuff and I wanted to be in BRM: If you could associate a goal before you set judgment on someone.
the band, so they let me join the band with your band, what would it be and

What started as a homemade demo on wasn’t a name like “The Coffeetables.”

a laptop in the lower east side became
the debut EP “Something to Get Excit-
ed About”. An EP which found it’s way
into EA’s NHL 09, MTV’s the Hills and
The Real World. TV/TV’s first LP will
be dropping June 30th. You can catch
Josh Ocean, Matt Walczak, Doc Hol-
liday and Killah Cam at this summer’s
Warped Tour.
Broken Records Magazine: Where
does the band name come from?
Josh Ocean: TV/TV was a group of Berke-
ley film students who in the 1970’s got in
the faces of politicians and asked ques-
tions that the mainstream media wouldn’t
ask, so I thought it had a cool meaning
behind it. Plus it was different because it
BRM: Any crazy tour stories you’d
like to share?
JO: One crazy thing was we were
booked in Iowa and we pulled up to this
house and we were like ‘what is this’?
We were touring with another band that
set the show up. The house had no sid-
ing and a broken down car in the front
and we went downstairs and it was just
like this kid’s basement and we decided
‘whatever ,let’s just do it’. We ended
up playing for fifteen kids in this guys
basement. We had a great time and
the people that were there loved it. We
won’t be playing there again though.
Interview by Candice Wanca
Photo by Jayme Muzio

BUZz baNds
Photo by Brian Dawson Interview by Candice Wanca
BRM: You guys have played big shows
like Bamboozle festival and the Warped
tour, do you prefer to play big shows like
that or smaller venues?
Jeremy McKinnon: There’s things that I
like about both. The big shows have better
stages, they have a lot of room for you to
run around, that’s a big part of our show but
then again you don’t have that interaction
with the kids.
BRM: You toured the UK last year,
you’ve played in Australia and Europe.
Now that your back in the states can you
compare playing shows in other coun-
tries to the U.S.?
JM: The response is pretty much the same
but people seem more excited everywhere
else. I guess it makes sense though cause
its harder for American bands to make it
out there so it’s like a special thing and
you can really tell the people really care
that you’re there, unlike in the U.S. where
there’s bands coming through the cities all
the time. It kind of spoils them.
BRM: I guess were jaded out here. Is
there anywhere you haven’t been yet
that you look forward to touring?
JM: Yea I really want to go to Japan this
year were trying to figure that out.
BRM: Are there any particularly mem-
orable tour experiences you’d like to
share?
JM: At the end of the Silverstein tour,
Devil Wears Prada was trying to do some
pranks on us and they got a hold of some
early material before we were a serious
band and they played it on the PA. None
of the kids knew what it was but we did.
It was kind of embarrassing so to get them
back, we changed the sounds on this bass
drum pad they have, we changed it so
you’d hear a cat when it was hit, so that
was pretty funny.
BRM: How was Homesick written? Was
that while you guys were on tour?
JM: We were on the road on Warped
tour. It was definitely a learning experi-
ence we never done anything like that.
BRM: I’m sure it’s harder to write
while on tour as opposed to hanging out
in the studio.
JM: It’s definitely a challenge. You get
pissed off and you can’t relax and get
away. It can get kind of stressful at times,
especially when you’re fighting for your
ideas. But in the end you’re all friends and
it works itself out.
BRM: Is anybody a main songwriter of
the band of does everybody contribute
their input?
JM: With this record. it was fifty fifty. Me
and Tom writing music and then every-
body else in the band would make chang-
es. Me and Tom do the structure for the pop
portion of our music and Neil and Josh are
the big part of the heavy influence in the
band. Everybody is equally important in
the process.
BRM: Do you feel this album differs
from your previous albums?
JM: I definitely think it’s different. I bet a
lot of people will say we haven’t changed
but that’s not true. If you listen to the
last record and this one back to back it’s
completely different. The last record was
more of a metal influence. This one is
poppier but its heavy at the same time. We
were kind of nervous at first that people
woudln’t give it a chance but it’s been go-
ing over really well.