Gerald Scarfe talks about working with Pink Floyd on “The Wall” and “Wish You Were Here”

Gerald Scarfe is a satirical political cartoonist and is known best for working with the band Pink Floyd on two of their albums “The Wall” and “Wish You Were Here”. He also created the animation used in the film “Pink Floyd: The Wall” and worked with Roger Water on his new tour of “The Wall”. Media Mikes got the chance to chat with Gerald about his work and reflect on its impact with fans.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell us about your revisiting the wall with your book “The Making of Pink Floyd: The Wall”?
Gerald Scarfe: What I think think the weird thing about going through the diary of one’s life is that first of all you forget things and misplace the dates. It was like unraveling a piece of memory or putting together a jigsaw puzzle. But overall it was a fantastic experience looking back working on this project, which was some 30 years ago. I really didn’t feel at the time that it was going to be anything really exceptionable. I knew that Pink Floyd were extremely well known at the time. I worked with them for about five years to produce this thing. People have asked me in the past and asked if working on “The Wall” changed my life but for me then it was just another a job that I did. They have said “Well it has definitely changed my life”. So I think it really did strike a nerve in the public at that time. The young of those days are the older generation today and they are still fans and write to me. There is a guy who recently contacted me to tell me that his entire left arm is being tattooed with my illustrations. So it is still relevant today.

MG: Tell us about revisiting “The Wall” after almost 30 years ago with Roger Water’s new tour? What was your involvement?
GS: It was a fantastic experience. Now it is back up and running again. Roger contacted me about two years ago and said he was going to do the show again and would need new material. I re-designed some new things like the puppets and some bits of film here and there. I also did various lettering and writing for the program, which was projected on the wall. What has changed from when we originally did it is that things were not computerized. Where we were using three projectors on the wall back then now there are seven or eight projecting. They can literally pin point an individual brick on the wall using the computer. Even when we first did it I thought it felt like a Roman circus and was just so spectacular.

MG: How do you compare going from working on “Wish You were Here” to “The Wall”?
GS: When they first approached me, they were touring at the time and I did little pieces of animation here and there. I wasn’t really sure what was needed or wanted of me at the time. I was known in Britain and parts of America for being a satirical artist, making fun of society and poking fun at politicians. I think that is why Roger (Waters) and Nick (Mason) needed from me at the time. I didn’t quite get that and I started to make them these surreal images of men tumbling through the stratosphere and crashing through the sky. They were all rather surreal. I think what they were expecting from me was probably something a little more actual about the world itself in a more precise way. I actually started the flowers (from “The Wall”), way back then in the early days of “Wish You Were Here”. The flowers have some much work in them. I think in some places there are about 24 drawings per second in them, in order to most very slowly. Each one of those drawings probably takes 1-2 days and there are thousands of them. It was very labor intensive and expensive also. So that is how it all began. Later when we came to do “The Wall”, we cannibalized some of these pieces for “Wish You Were Here” and used them like the flowers and so forth.

MG: Your animation in “The Wall” was used to portray Waters’ political expression throughout the songs, did you consider that when creating them?
GS: It was Nick that approached me first in the very beginning.Then Roger got more and more involved. Roger came forward bit by bit and I ended up dealing with him primarily. I felt a little awkward at first working with Waters since I felt like I was denying Nick, he is still a very good friend and I had dinner with him just recently. Roger is very insistent and precise. Roger said to me and this is true “When you hire an artist, you don’t interfere with what that artist does or try and push him your way. You get what you get”. So Roger was very happy for me to interpret his lyrics since we were on the same page. I was able to visualize the whole thing for him. He has not only given “The Wall” an audio personality but I’ve given it also a visual personality. We met many times and drank a lot of a special brew of Carlsberg beer, which is very strong, and luckily we have the same dark wit. That developed into a strong relationship that we have today.

MG: Where did you draw inspiration from for the marching hammers, The Judge and the “Empty Spaces” sequence?
GS: First of all my experiences of judges are that the ministry of the law is a tricky business and they always make mistakes, so to me the law was an asshole, so that was that [laughs]. The hammers were suppose to be the forces of repression. What can you think of that is more cruel and relentlessly mindless than a hammer as it smashes down. That is the kind of way I think. When it came to “Empty Spaces”, I believe that was a stream of consciousness. I made a film prior to this where I just rolled from one image to another, which is actually how I ended up meeting Nick and Roger, it was called “A Long Draw Out Trip”, which I made for the BBC. That was really everything about America that I could think of at the time. I had Mickey Mouse, Playboy, Black Power, John Wayne and Frank Sinatra, which were all morphing one into the other. I took that idea when I came to “Empty Spaces”. Interestingly enough, “Empty Spaces” starts with the flowers, which began like we said from “Wish You Were Here”. Then I just kept adding to it all the time. The flowers end up making love and then I thought well what happens when people fall in love, sometimes they hate one another. So then the female ends up devouring the male and flies away. It grew and grew and was unraveling. It was much of a journey for me, adding a page a day to this unrolling adventure.

MG: I’ve read you saw The Wall back in 1980 at Nassau Coliseum, NY, how do you compare “The Wall” from then to today?
GS: It is difficult really since it was in fact a long time ago and one’s memory has blunted. I remember being very excited. I never worked on theater in this size at all. I remember Roger telling me one night, “You know that you are a rock ‘n roll artist now, right?”. I looked and there were thousands of people applauding my flowers and work. I realized that I was pleasing the audience and that was a terrific feeling for me. Being an artist can be a lonely job. You work alone and don’t see the people who are looking at your pictures generally. So to be in an auditorium like that where they are cheering at your work, it is a really great feeling. Over the years, I have grown used to that feeling having done a lot of opera, theatre and my work with Disney on “Hercules”. It is still a thrill though. I went to Madison Square Garden last year to see the show and I had the same kind of thrill still. The guy who wrote to me and told me about him getting the tattoos on his arm said that he was a Gulf War veteran and told me how much my work has helped him through his difficult periods. It is hard for me to imagine that it actually helps people. I guess the music becomes very personal to some people and it stay with them through their life.

MG: Due to the diminishing role of physical packaging due to digital downloads, what do you see for the role of art playing in the world of music in the future?
GS: Well, I don’t see why animation still cannot be used. In my other job, I am the political cartoonist for the London Sunday Times, where I’ve been for like 45 years, I can see a point where newspapers will be phased out. People will be getting the news online, which is much quicker. I personally am not tremendously computer literate but I have people that help me. All of my work is now electronically sent around the world, once it is scanned in. Going back to music, I don’t see why these images cannot be downloaded with the music. It is exactly the same.

 

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WWE Superstar Chris Jericho talks about working with band Fozzy

Fozzy is the hard rock/heavy metal band fronted by WWE superstar Chris Jericho recently released its 5th studio album via Century Media records titled “Sin and Bones”. Media Mikes had a chance to talk with Chris recently about the album and his appearance on the popular ABC television show “Dancing with the Stars”.

Adam Lawton: Can you give us some background info on the new album?
Chris Jericho: After the “Chasing the Grail” album we decided that our approach is a little bit different from the norm. We use really heavy riffs combined with melodic hook filled choruses. Maybe if Journey and Metallica had a bastard child it would sound like Fozzy. We really honed in on that with the last record and when it came time to do “Sin and Bones” we knew that was the direction we wanted to go in. We wanted to make this record like our “Black” album. That Metallica album has a certain tone and feel. Even though the songs on that album are all very diverse they still fit together. We put a lot of time in to the sequencing of the record.

AL: What type of creative process does the band take?
CJ: We do things a little bit backwards. I will generally write the lyrics first. From there I will give them to Rich Ward and he will right the music and the melodies based on the lyrics I give him. A lot of times it’s the other way around. Doing things this way on the last three records has worked out really well. A lot of my lyrics are based on song titles. If I see or phrase or something I find interesting I will put a note of that into my phone. When it comes time to write I will look through those notes and sort of work backwards from the title. Maybe we will experiment with the traditional way of song writing on the next record.

AL: Did the band do a lot of pre-production for the record?
CJ: We took our time. We started working on this album back in November. We did a tour of Europe and brought a recording rig along with us. We just started recording ideas and riffs while we were on the road. When it came time to go into the studio we knew we didn’t want to have to rush. The label actually gave us a deadline of May 2012 but we had already been working on the album since November so we had a good start on things.

AL: What do you think has posed a bigger challenge wrestling, playing music or “Dancing with the Stars”?
CJ: They have all posed challenges. When I was a kid I wanted to be in a rock band. I have been playing music since I was 12 and then I started wrestling at 19. I was always being told that I wouldn’t be able to do those things for various reasons. I learned very early on that you have to eliminate negative people from your world and that if you really want to do something you have to make it happen. As a result of that I have never been afraid to try anything. Especially something that is creative. When “Dancing with the Stars” came up the 3rd time I decided to try it. The first couple times they asked me to be on the show I was busy with “WrestleMania” and the other time I was doing a Fozzy tour. That show was probably the biggest challenge. Music and wrestling I had been doing for a majority of my life. I had never danced before. The first time I danced was in front of 25 million people. There ended up being a lot of similarities between the three. You have to feel the music and be on top of the beat and like in wrestling you have to remember the choreography while being light on your feet. Once I got that first performance under my belt I got addicted to it. When I got eliminated from the show I had withdraws almost. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was glad that I could prove to myself that I was able to do that.

AL: Do you ever find critiques are quick to write the band off due to your wrestling background?
CJ: They have in the past but we just keep coming back. People have been hearing about the band for years but until they really listen to the music do they understand what they have been missing. I think we have had to work a little harder to get past that but in 2010 I started to really notice a shift. People still knew me from wrestling but they started to pay more attention to the band and not what I have been associated with in the past. When I go see Iron Maiden I don’t say “there’s the airline pilot’s band”. Those are two separate things. You just have to prove to people that you are real and passionate. This is part of who I am and it is never going to go away.

AL: What made Fozzy abandon the idea of having alter-ego’s and go in a different direction?
CJ: We were originally signed as a cover band by Megaforce Records. They were really into what we were doing so we decided to come up with alter-ego’s to make what we were doing a little different as just playing covers was a bit boring. After playing together for awhile we realized we liked what we were doing and we had some good chemistry. We decided to take it to the next step and start playing our own tunes. I compare our band a lot to Pantera. There were two version of that band. When they first came out they were a glam-metal band with big hair and makeup. It makes no since that they changed everything about themselves and turned in to the band we all love. Fozzy was pretty similar. There were two versions of the band under one name. Our original name as a cover band was Fozzy Osbourne so we shortened it and now we are on version 2 of the band.

AL: What are the bands plans for the rest of the year?
CJ: After the “Uproar Tour” ends we have a short tour of the states in October and then we head over to Europe. From there we will be heading to Australia as part of the Sound Wave Festival with Metallica. Those dates were all booked prior to the album release so we will be plugging some holes here and there with other dates as well.

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Filed Under: Interviews, Music Interviews Tagged With: band, chris, fozzy, jericho, superstar, talks, ...

3D Blu-ray Review “The Pirates! Band of Misfits in 3D”

Directors: Jeff Newitt, Peter Lord
Starring: Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton
MPAA Rating: PG
Distributed: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Release Date: August 28, 2012
Running Time: 88 minutes

Film: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3 out of 5 stars

After seeing the trailer for “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” five thousand times over a course of a few months, I grew very disinterested in this film. Though when viewing it at home on 3D Blu-ray, I was very impressed. It is a fun, over-the-top stop-motion animated adventure film that will entertain the entire family. There is colorful characters for the kids and colorful jokes for the adults. The voice cast is also very impressive with Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Salma Hayek and Jeremy Piven. The humor is a little British but still manages to keep you entertained throughout the film feature.  I am not sure how many times I would be interested in revisiting this film but it is definitely game for at least one good viewing.

This film has been released as a three-disc set with two Blu-ray’s (3D and 2D) and a DVD copy of the film. There is also a Ultraviolet digital streaming copy available. The 3D on this film was not the best I have ever seen but overall decent. That doesn’t mean the film doesn’t look stunning on Blu-ray. It’s 1080p video resolution is beautiful and really showcases the animations and its colors. The film also includes a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track and it is also near perfect as well. It works so well with the film’s action scenes and zany antics. Like most 3D films, all of the extras are located on the 2D-only disc. The only extra on the 3D disc are 3D previews.

The special features are decent but nothing out of this world. I just would have loved to seen some 3D features. There is an audio commentary with directors Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt and Editor Justin Krish. Very detailed but overall not that interesting. There is short film included, which runs almost 20 minutes called “So You Want To Be a Pirate!”. “Pirate Disguise Dress-Up Game” is a cute ‘hide-the-pirate’ game for kids. “From Stop to Motion” is my favorite feature which goes into detail on the development process on the animation. “Creating the Bath Chase Sequence” is a specific focus on one of the film’s most complex scenes. Lastly there are two short films from Peter Lord including “Wat’s Pig” and “War Story” both are available with optional director’s commentary.

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Los Angeles based rock band Attaloss talk about their first EP

The Los Angeles based rock band Attaloss released their first EP earlier this year titled “Attaloss”. The band is currently out on tour in support of the release and Media Mikes had the chance to talk with the band about the formation of the group and the making of the EP.

Adam Lawton:  What led to you guys starting the band?
Chris Johansen: The band started about two years ago. We had all came from other projects and each of us knew what we did and didn’t want to do. We really took our time and made sure we had great people who were in it for the right reasons. We took about 6 months getting it all together as we all came from different cities. When we all finally met each other in person we knew we had the right group.

AL: How would you describe the band’s sound? And what makes Attaloss stand out from other bands?
Matt: I would probably put us in the modern rock category. We have a very popular sound (Laughs). Other than our live show which I think is what really sets us apart, I would say our music is fresh and it keeps your attention.

AL: How would you describe the band’s latest release?
Danny Aguiluz: We are extremely excited about this album. We have been on tour now since before its release in March. We have gotten a lot of really great feedback from people who have bought the album which has been cool. We are very proud of how it turned out.

AL: What was the recording process like for the album?
Dakota Clark: We wrote as many songs together as a band as we could. I think we had 30 verse/choruses written. After that we got a hold of our producer and just rapid fired the songs at him. He would tell us what songs he thought would work and which ones didn’t. We would then take the remaining songs and work them really hard. We started out with 5 songs which we worked on for about 2 months in the studio. Once we had those done we thought it would be cool to just do a full length album. We wanted to show people that not only could we play rock music but we could also play acoustic.

AL: Did you find performing the acoustic versions of the songs to be any harder than the electric versions?
CJ: The songs were all originally written on an acoustic guitar. It was almost like taking them back to their birth. During this time we were still a four piece until Matt Geronimo joined us. He added a whole other layer of harmonies and vocals. Those added things really changed how the songs sounded. When we went back to playing them acoustically it opened up an entire new world of sound which we were really excited about.

AL: Are there plans to release a video for any of the songs?
CJ: We have  a video for our first single “Open Door”. We had also planned on doing another single/video release however the director who we worked with on “Open Door” got called out to shoot in China. This guys works all over the world and we had him locked in for about two weeks but then he got called out. Hopefully when we are done with this tour we will be able to work on the video.

AL: How much longer will you be out touring? And what other plans does the band have?
Zo Perea: We are actually going to be out for a couple more months. When we get back we plan to take 6 months off from touring to do some songwriting and hopefully release a new EP.
CJ: This whole year has been about being on the road. We will have been on the road for more than half the year when this tour wraps up. This has been about just getting out there and building up our fan base. We have been lucky enough to get on 27 different radio stations and made our way out to those places that have supported us. We now know a lot more about who we are as a band and I think our next release will be a true 12-14 song album.

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Zac Brown Band Debut Animated Music Video for ‘The Wind’

Check out the new animated music video for Zac Brown Band’s song “The Wind”. It stars an animated, guitar-shredding, big game hunting robot.

If that wasn’t cool enough it is directed by Mike Judge (King of the Hill, Beavis and Butthead) and produced by Titmouse (Metalocalypse, Motorcity, Superjail!, China, IL, Black Dynamite).

Zac Brown Band’s album ‘UNCAGED’ is available in stores and online on July 10th!

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Ghoul’s Digestor talks about new album and touring with Gwar

Digestor is the guitarist/vocalist for the thrash metal band Ghoul. The band hails from Creepsylvania by way of Oakland, California and recently released their 5th full-length studio album titled “Transmission Zero”. Media Mikes had that chance to talk with Digestor briefly about the band and their plans for the coming months.

Adam Lawton: Can you tell us how the concept for the band came about?
Digestor: It seemed natural. We are hooded cannibals with limited musical ability who lived beneath a fog-enshrouded graveyard.

AL: Can you tell us about the bands line-up
Digestor: I, Digestor, play guitar and sing, Cremator plays bass and sings, Dissector plays guitar and sings, and Fermentor plays drums. We are also joined by Killbot, Mr. Fang, Baron Samedi, Destructor, and our loyal and idiotic Numbskull. Each of these guys spend most of their time tripping over our cables and unplugging us while spurting various liquids into the slack jawed faces of our fans.

AL: How would you describe the band’s sound?
Digestor: Splatterthrash!

AL: What are the plans for the next Ghoul album?
Digestor: We just put the newest album out about six months ago! Hold your horses, buddy!

AL: The band just finished up a tour run with Gwar and Municipal Waste. What are the bands plans for the rest of the year?
Digestor: At the end of May we will be in Maryland playing the Maryland Death Fest and after that we go to Texas for Chaos in Tejas. We also have a few select dates with Occultist and then Toxic Holocaust!

 

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Anthrax’s Dan Spitz talks about new band Red Lamb with Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine

Dan Spitz is best known as one of the founding member of the thrash metal group Anthrax. Together with Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Dan has put together a new band called Red Lamb. The band is set to release a new video in the coming months and Media Mikes had the chance recently to talk with Dan about the project and the premise behind it.

Adam Lawton: Can you tell us about your new band Red Lamb?
Dan Spitz: Red Lamb is the first thing I have ever done full bore outside of Anthrax. I am charging forward with this project the same way I did with Anthrax. We are trying to break new ground as there is a purpose behind this band. Because of that purpose the music its self took a long time to create and get its sound. This music is different from my past but still reminiscent of me. This was a fresh start for me. This is a collaborative effort between me and Dave Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. He came in one day to hear what I was doing and really took hold of it. This is I think the first thing he has ever done outside of Megadeth. He really wanted to be a band member more than a co-producer or co-lyricist. Dave known’s my family so he has sort of a personal stake in this material. He knows the purpose of the band.

AL: Can you elaborate more on the purpose behind the band?
DS: Around the world we have a problem with Autism. Previous generations saw Autism however it wasn’t in every neighborhood. It’s now infiltrating everywhere. My wife and I have identical twin boys who are both Autistic. There is a song on the album titled “Puzzle Box” which will be are next release that we just finished a video for. I hope to change the world through music by bringing awareness around the world that this is a serious problem. We aren’t asking for people to send us money to give to a certain charity. We want to just bring awareness around the world. The CDC just released a statistic that 1 in 56 boys born with have autism. That is crazy! What will we do when everyone grows up and can’t function in a normal job? We pull no punches and I am living this hear every day with my kids. That’s what Red Lamb is here to do. Once the machine roles we will be doing something on a permanent basis.

AL: What will be the actual premise of the video?
DS: The “Puzzle Box” video is really going to be like a mini movie. Our singer Donny is a video producer so I was kind of blessed to have him in the band. He was able to take my idea and show what we live each day as a family. We are going to show to the world what it is like to live with Autism. My family are all in this video. We also filmed at the Autism Speaks walk. We filmed all kinds of important people and things that will be included in the video. I am not here preaching but everyone needs to just wake up. If you look on Facebook people are writing in about how they are affected by Autism. It’s a really moving video. There are people in the movie and sports industry that have been standing up for Autism for years but there has never been anyone in music that has done anything. People often wonder why it has taken me so long after leaving Anthrax to do something new. Now people will get to see what goes on in my house on a regular basis. Every 30 seconds there is a crisis going on. To write and record is very difficult. Eventually I had to leave and live at Dave’s studio to be able to finish work on this project. Things are that hard where I had to completely remove myself. It’s time everyone see’s what’s going on.

AL: What can you tell us about your work on the film “Goat”?
DS: That film has some really cool people in it. Ice-T is the film and it’s funny because he used to be a huge Anthrax fan. A friend of mine is making this film and it is now completed. The song “One Shell in the Chamber” which will appear on the Red Lamb album made it into thefilm. We started writing stuff and decided that parts of that song fit really well. There is some other stuff in the can for other movies my friend has made also. The High School I went to produced quite a few people who have gone on to do things that have really changed the world. We were either friends or we played against them in battle of the bands contests. We all hung out. The guy who did this film is one of those people. Some of the other people I hung out with now put on some of the biggest shows on Broadway. I have had beers with some pretty cool people. (Laughs)

AL: What other stuff do you have going on right now?
DS: At this point I do plan on doing a bunch of things. Red Lamb is taking up most of my time right now. Once this video is done and out then the object is to go out and play. It will be time. We started a little while ago putting things together so I can get back on the stage. I have been away for awhile so it will be great to get back to where I belong. I took some time off from music to clear my head and during that time I realized what I was here to do. I’m back doing it and I don’t plan to stop. I also am currently working of some stuff with Chris Vrenna from Marilyn Manson which is turning out really cool.

 

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Filed Under: Interviews, Music Interviews Tagged With: anthraxs, band, dan, dave, lamb, megadeths, ...

The Marshall Tucker Band Keeps on Rockin’ – Live Concert News in Orlando FL

The Marshall Tucker Band Keeps on Rockin’
Live Concert
Friday, April 13 at 8 p.m.
Intersection of SR 436 and 17-92 in the Orlando Jai-Alai Fronton
Tickets Start at $45; On Sale Now at www.OrlandoLiveEvents.com or 407.339.6221 x 100

Featuring a definitive blend of rock, rhythm & blues, jazz, country and gospel, The Marshall Tucker Band is proving to a new generation of fans that good music knows no boundaries. With hit singles like “Heard It In a Love Song,” “Fire On The Mountain,” “Can’t You See,” and “Take The Highway,” the band earned seven gold and three platinum albums as a Capricorn Records artist. Marshall Tucker Band’s debut album spawned numerous hits. Their latest CD, “Way Out West!”- Live from San Francisco 1973, is a time capsule from that period.

Still led by founding member and lead singer Doug Gray, The Marshall Tucker Band represents a time and place in music that will never be duplicated. Current members also include slide guitarist Stuart Swanlund, the highly respected drummer B.B. Borden, multi instrumentalist Marcus Henderson who also contributes lead and background vocals, Pat Elwood on bass guitar, and Rick Willis on lead guitar and vocals. Together, they present a powerful stage presence as they continue to tour the country and serve as a powerful force in the world of music.

Today, the band records new material on its own RAMBLIN’ RECORDS Label which is distributed by SONY by way of a joint venture with SHOUT! FACTORY.

The Marshall Tucker Band plays live on April 13, 2012 in the Orlando Jai-Alai Fronton, which offers free parking, spacious stadium seating, and dynamic sound for a unique and convenient entertainment experience in the heart of Seminole County.

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CD Review: Andy Timmons “Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt. Pepper”

Andy Timmons
“Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt. Pepper”
Label: Favored Nations Entertainment
Running Time: 48 minutes
14 Tracks

Our Score: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is definitely one of the best albums ever released. It has been redone many times by various bands. This re-imagination by guitarist Andy Timmons is a fresh take and done all-instrumental. Andy Timmons is no joke on that guitar and really perfects this album. He also sheds a real amazing new light on the already perfect tracks. This isn’t just an overnight album either supposedly it took two years to complete. Of course the original The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is still the best…this is a very true and honorable cover.

Every song on this album is just so strong and vibrant. Supposedly when working on this album, Andy Timmons did it all from memory and never once referenced the original album. Andy’s guitar work is stunning and totally jaw-dropping especially on tracks like “Within You Without You” and “The Benefit of Mr. Kite”. Usually when you have cover albums it is never true to the original but this one tracks along side the original and adds a new level of greatness.

What is also very cool as well is that Andy included the track “Strawberry Fields Forever”, which was original meant to be released on “Sgt. Pepper”. That rendition of the song is just breathtaking. If you are a fan of amazing guitar work or Beatles fan this is must. A MUST!

Track list:
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help From My Friends
3. Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. She’s Leaving Home
7. Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
8. Within You, Without You
9. When I’m Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning, Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. A Day In the Life
14. Strawberry Fields Forever

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Interview with Richard Band

Richard Band is known best for scoring the film “Re-Animator”, which is one of my favorite horror scores. Richard has worked a lot in his career with his brother Charles Band specifically with scoring the “Puppet Master” series. Movie Mikes had a chance to chat with Richard about his scores, his favorites and what he has planning upcoming.

Mike Gencarelli: What is your process like when starting to compose for a film?
Richard Band: What I like to do is look at the film numerous times. In the old days I would sit and watch the film in a screening room around four or five times. Now with the invention of quick time and computerized digitalization I will sit and watch a film as many times as it takes to get an idea for what the movie calls for. It has to kind of speak to me in a way so that it passes from my head down to my heart. A lot of times a film has a deeper context and that’s really what I look to bring out with music. I really like to use music to bring out that underlying momentum or meaning of the film or characters.

MG: Have you ever worked on a score prior to seeing a scene or film?
RB: It happens now and then. When you’re working on a musical you have to have the music completed before they start filming. I haven’t done any musicals per say but I have done some work where a song or music was required for the scene to be shot. In that case you have to get familiar with the scene and talk with the director and producer. I try to use a similar process as when I am able to see the project that way everyone is on the same page.

MG: “Re-Animator” is one of the best scores in horror history and also one of my personal favorites. Can you tell us what your inspiration was for that score?
RB: After watching the film quite a few times the thing that came to me very early on was Herbert West’s mania. This character is clearly a genius but at the same time he is totally nuts. This was a main driving force. This combined with the fact that the film was so out there and crazy for it’s time. If the film was treated on a serious level people would probably walk out in a second as it would be too much to believe on any level. I decided the music had to have a type of humor to it that was quirky and a touch off. I began thinking about different movies that the audience could immediately relate to and at the same time exemplify just how nuts and crazy the main character is. “Psycho” came into my mind and I knew it was a film that everyone would recognize. I used some of the motifs’ and or orchestrations from “Psycho” but I added my own original theme and a quirky drum that would give it my own signature but also give it something people could relate back to.

MG: You worked on all/most the films in the “Puppet Master” series, how do you differentiate when working on each score?
RB: In the case of the “Puppet Master” series when it started out no one knew it was going to become a franchise. I think an important ingredient in any film is there has to be a very identifiable theme that could go across that film and be strong enough for people to identify with. On the sequels there was no question that the main theme had to be a driving force in the subsequent scores. The theme its self has an element of sadness combined with a circus type element that shows that no matter how bad the puppets are in their deeds the puppets are actually the good guys.

MG: You have worked throughout the sci-fi/horror genre; do you have a favorite score that you have worked on?
RB: I have done so many different kinds of scores. Of the genre stuff I don’t think I really have a favorite. I did a score that’s not really genre called “Ghost Warrior”. I recorded that with the Royal Philharmonic and it has a very beautiful score. Of the genre stuff “From Beyond” is in the top five. I did a score for Paramount called “Dragon World” which is a really beautiful score that I like a lot. It’s hard to really pin point one favorite.

MG: Do you a have film score that you have not worked on that you really liked?
RB: I have always been a very big fan of Jerry Goldsmith’s work. He has done so many good scores. The score he won an Academy award for in “The Omen” was really incredible. Even going back earlier than Jerry his teacher Nicholas Rosa did some amazing scores as well like “Spartacus”. There have been a lot of great composers through the years. I wish we had more of those types these days. There seems to be a shortage of very lush scores these days due to cost’s.

MG: How do you feel that composing has changed since your first film, if at all?
RB: Scoring has changed since I started. The first 12-15 years I did mostly large orchestral work. My upbringing and training was much more formal even though I had done some electronic work during those years. I started before computers really came into use so the work was much more meticulous back then. We had a music editor who wrote music notes while watching a piece and at the end they would hand me around 500 pages of musical notation broken down to seconds and milliseconds. Everything was done from memory and notes which was much more intimate. A lot of times in those days it was me sitting at a piano with a lot of good pencils, paper and erasers. Today you have to be both a composer and a friggin engineer to work all the gear they have now. In the older days I could put in a good 10 hr. day of writing. These days if I put 10 hrs. of work in maybe half of it is writing and the rest is screwing around with equipment.

MG: Tell us about your upcoming projects?
RB: Right now I am doing a pretty cool 3-D short that I believe will start airing at the end of the month on one of the 3-D channels. Then In a couple weeks I start on a feature titled “Shiver” which is a suspense thriller starring Danielle Harris, Casper Van Dien and a few others.

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Chickenfoot III Debuts Top 10 as Band Announces Tour Dates

(LOS ANGELES, CA) – “CHICKENFOOT III”, the new album from the supergroup featuring guitarist Joe Satriani, drummer Kenny Aronoff, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and frontman Sammy Hagar – debuted on the Billboard album chart at #9. Tickets will be available Friday, October 7th for the recently announced “2011 Road Test Tour.” The new dates will take the the band through San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago and New York in early November. European tour dates will also be announced this month.

The first single, “Big Foot,” debuted at #1 on the Mediabase Classic Rock Chart holding the position for seven weeks and earning over 1.85 million listeners and continues to receive critical acclaim:

“‘Big Foot’ is sinewy, muscular and abundantly familiar – but in a good way. As Hagar sings, ‘that s*** rocks.’” – Billboard Magazine.

“Chickenfoot light a fire under rock ‘n’ roll’s collective ass, setting the pace for the genre as a whole. Chickenfoot III melds monstrous grooves and virtuoso playing in one of the year’s best rock records,” writes Rick Florino of ARTISTdirect.com.

Last week on release day, Chickenfoot offered fans a very special free Live Concert Webcast: Chickenfoot Presents “III,” performing tracks from the new album and hosting a 30-minute Q&A session with the fans. “CHICKENFOOT III”, produced by Mike Fraser, features an elaborately designed 3D package with optical illusions and special codes giving fans a fully immersed creative Chickenfoot experience, creating a spectacle with spectacles. With special “3D optical enhancers,” old-skool 3D glasses that come with each package, the cover and numberous inside photos feature artwork that trick the eye by looking through the two different red and blue lenses of the glasses. A look through the red lens even reveals a very special message on the CD itself.

“CHICKENFOOT III” features 10 tracks with so many moments of epiphany that one can barely take them all in on first listen. Colossal, stadium-shaking riffs abound on earth-movers such as “Alright, Alright,” “Last Temptation” and “Lighten Up.” Tradition meets innovation on the Nashville pop-tinged “Different Devil,” the Delta-blues flavored “Something Going Wrong” and the aching rock ballad “Come Closer.” Special video releases and more can be seen at the band’s webpage , as well as their podcast, YouTube, Facebook and Google+ pages. Chickenfoot III follows the band’s 2009 debut album, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Top 100 and was certified gold for sales of over 500,000 units by the Recording Industry Association of America.

THE 2011 ROAD TEST TOUR DATES:
11/1/11 – San Francisco, CA – Warfield Theatre
11/2/11 – Los Angeles, CA – Avalon Hollywood
11/4/11 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
11/5/11 – Chicago, IL – Metro
11/8/11 – New York, NY – Webster Hall

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Filed Under: Music Headlines Tagged With: 10, announces, band, chickenfoot, dates, debuts, ...

100 Monkeys Band SIGNED CD “Liquid Zoo” Giveaway [ENDED]

100 Monkeys is a funk rock band featuring its members Ben Graupner, Ben Johnson, Jackson Rathbone (“The Twilight Saga”), Jerad Anderson and Lawrence Abrams. Check out our interview with the band, 100 Monkeys here, Media Mikes would like to giveaway ONE COMPLETE BAND SIGNED CD of their latest album “Liquid Zoo”. If you would like to win this amazing prize, please leave us a comment below or send us an email and let us know your favorite 100 Monkeys song. This giveaway will be open until Friday August 26th at Noon, Eastern Time. Only one entry per person, per household; all other entries will be considered invalid. THIS GIVEAWAY IS OPEN WORLDWIDE TO ALL OF 100 MONKEYS FANS!! Once the giveaway ends, Media Mikes will randomly pick out winners and alert the winners via email.

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: 100, band, cd, giveaway, liquid, monkeys, ...

Interview with 100 Monkeys

100 Monkeys is a funk rock band featuring its members Ben Graupner, Ben Johnson, Jackson Rathbone (“The Twilight Saga”), Jerad Anderson and Lawrence Abrams. What is unique about this band is that they each do not have a set role in the band and each member switches instruments and roles titled the “Monkey Switcheroo”. This band is not like any other band I have ever seen live. They explode with inspiration and experimentation when they perform live. They recently just released their second studio album titled “Liquid Zoo”. Media Mikes got to hang out with the band during their House of Blues Orlando, FL tour stop and chatted with them about their music and their unique concert experience.

Click here for a chance to WIN a SIGNED CD, “Liquid Zoo” from the band!!

Mike Gencarelli: Your first album, Monster De Lux was all improvised, how do you feel that you have evolved in “Liquid Zoo”?
Ben Graupner: Well “Liquid Zoo” is our second studio album like “Grape,” where we went in with a bunch of pre-written songs and really worked them out with a studio style of recording. It has a lot of influence from the Louisiana area because we traveled that album from Van Nuys, California to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So that’s probably responsible for the brass, the gospel choir, and sort of just the general tone of the album. We are always looking to do something new and something crazy.

Patty Gencarell: You’ve been compared to bands such as The Beatles and Iggy Pop, who have you been inspired by musically?
Lawrence Abrams: Each other. I would say, each other.
Jackson Rathbone: Yea, there’s so many different inspirations. We all come from different walks of life, from different areas of the country, from different planets in the solar system [laughs].
PG: Yea, I read Mars, right?
Jerad Anderson: [laughs] Good looking out. Good looking out.
Ben Johnson: Yea, we’ve got Mars over here [motions to Uncle Larry].
JR: I think we carry that with us. Ben Johnson, Ben Graupner and myself all went to high school with an amazing artist named Spencer Bell. Johnson played in a band called, The Stevedores, with Spence. They released one album before Spencer passed away. He’s still, honestly, a really big inspiration for us, especially as song writers. What we do after we write a song is we’ll bring it to the group. We write in really different varied forms. Sometimes one of us will have a song pre-written and bring it to the group and it will change drastically. Or sometimes we’ll just be jamming and then we’ll write a song during a jam and then we’ll perform it that night. It’s very eclectic the way we write our music and how we perform it. At the end of the day, a lot of our song writing is influenced by the song writing of Spencer Bell. If you check out his albums, I think you’ll see it. If you look at his,[asks the group] is it “Live and Wasted” that has “The Monkey Song” on it?
BJ: Yea well “Live and Wasted” and “Live Art Fleetwood” have “The Monkey Song” on them.
JR: And if you look at Spencer’s version of “The Monkey Song” and our version of “The Monkey Song,” it’s very different but it’s kind of like the way we write. We might write a song one way but then, because we all mix up instruments, we might just rearrange the orchestration and just kind of make it 100 Monkeys.
PG: For the track “Ugly Girl”, what or who was your inspiration? Was it a type of person or a specific person?
JR: “Ugly Girl” was definitely inspired by a type of person not one in particular. It was interesting because it was one of those songs that we were kind of like separately writing, while we were in different parts of the world, literally. “LDF,” the song off of “Grape” and “Ugly Girl” were both kind of partially written in London and in Los Angeles. The part of the lyrics that I wrote in London, were really inspired by the different attitudes that I felt whenever I would travel over there and then when I went back to Los Angeles. It was like, ‘Oh, okay, yea that’s definitely one of the vainest cities that I’ve ever been to in my life.’

MG: In your videos for “Wandering Minds” and “Ugly Girl”, you certainly aren’t afraid of getting dirty, do you enjoy the video making process?
BG: Oh yea, definitely, it’s a lot of fun. William Schmidt directed both of those videos so it’s always fun to work with Will. We like to have a goodtime in our videos and we’ve got a new video coming soon that we’re really excited about. I think people are really going to like it.
MG: What song is it for?
BG: It’s for “Modern Times.”
PG: The pink nail polish in the video was a really nice touch.
UL: Well you never want to give monkeys makeup!
BG: You see what happens, it doesn’t work out well. [laughs]
JR:My favorite is still in the “Wandering Minds” video when something hits you for the first time, [motions to Ben Johnson] you just go right thru it and something bangs this object right like ‘bonk’ [laughs] and you just keep going, you just keep playing.

PG: From video making to movie making, Jerad, you produced the film “Girlfriend” co-starring yourself and Jackson and also scored by the band, what is next up for your production company?
JA: We’ve got something in the works that’s a high school wrestling comedy. It’s supposed to shoot October 17, and the band will be scoring that as well. So that’s what’s next on our closest horizon.

MG: Do you guys find a major difference between making music and creating a score?
BG: Yea it’s a totally different process. When you are making a score, I think that the major aspect is trying to make the music disappear rather than have the music stand out on its own. You’re looking for something that you almost don’t notice is there. You can tell when it starts working because the movie and the images pop off the screen. And when you take the music away, they don’t. It’s a night and day difference; two different worlds.

PG: Any possibility about appearing on the “Breaking Dawn Part 1 or 2” soundtrack?
JR: Honestly, we are not allowed to talk about it.

PG: Jackson, when you are on stage, how does it compare for you to working on films like “The Twilight Saga”? Do you have a preference?
JR: Do you have parents?
PG: Yes.
JR: Which do you like better? Do you have a favorite?
PG: Um, no. [laughs]
JR: Exactly.
PG: Not in written word. [band laughs] I’m a teacher so you know, ‘we have no favorites.’
UL: That’s exactly what he’s saying.
JR: I think it was the first time I ever got up on stage and I was singing, acting and I was dancing. And it’s just all about entertainment. I think all of us are entertainers, and that’s the greatest feeling in the world to allow someone to escapes for an hour and a half whether it be at a rock show or at a film, and get outside of their own lives. Hopefully, maybe it makes you think about something different. “Girlfriend,” the movie that Jerad produced and we scored, and I also co-produced with my company, PatchMo Entertainment, that’s a really important film for us. That was a really passionate project for us because it stars a young man with Downs Syndrome, an incredible actor by the name of Evan Sneider. And it’s just touched the lives of so many people. A lot of people have this preconceived notion about Downs Syndrome and people with Downs Syndrome. Then you watch that film and you’re like, well this actor is one of the best actors that I’ve ever worked with. Amanda Plummer, a seasoned veteran, said that he’s the best actor she’s ever worked with.His performance has inspired people all around the world and it’s just incredible to be able to have that effect. That’s what entertainment does, it either makes you laugh or makes you cry; makes you think about your life and that’s amazing. The power of any piece of art, it’s what it does.

PG: Jerad, just touching on Downs Syndrome. I’ve worked in special education for the past five years, with Deaf children and children who are hard of hearing.
JA: I understand Sign Language. [Using American Sign Language]
PG: Yes, exactly, I do too.
JR: [They’re speaking in sign language right now.]
PG: Where did you learn ASL?
JA: Actually it was something that I got into and took as a foreign language for school. Then I worked retail and met a bunch of Deaf people while working there and I made friends with them. I sort of struggled and tried to use what I was learning and then it just started becoming a part of me. I ended up having and making good friends with one Deaf person and lived with as a roommate for one year. Then I was a TA (teacher’s assistant), for the Sign Language Department just because I liked it.
PG: I was sort of thrown into it myself, having been excessed to a Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. I loved working in it.
JA: Yea, it’s a different culture. They have their own culture. We actually have Deaf people who come to our shows and have a good time, because they can feel the vibration of the music. They enjoy what we do on stage, the spectacle.

MG: Tell us about performing, what do you like most about touring, getting to improvise every concert and performing the “Monkey Switcheroo”?
JR: There are so many different aspects of touring that really makes us happy. One is the stage show, the switching, that’s just what we do. That’s what makes 100 Monkeys special. However, I think one of the favorite aspects of touring for all of us has been being able to meet new bands. For instance, are y’all local here? (Orlando)
PG & MG: Yea.
JR: If you were able to check out Beebs and Her Money Makers, they were fantastic. And you know, it’s being able to meet new bands like them, that being inspired by them to either up the ante or try something different. When we were in Nashville, Tennessee, we met the bassist for Darius Rucker, this guy named John Mason. He was great, we took him out for a beer afterwards and really just pried into his brain about what about our stage show that maybe even we can perfect. I think that’s what we really love about touring. It’s getting to meet the fans, face to face, and getting to meet new bands that are doing new cool things. We get toys all the time [motioning to the 100 Monkeys’ monkey given to Ben Graupner] which keeps us entertained because we all have ADHD, which really showcases in our music and our instrumentation. [laughs]

PG: Tell us about the Spencer Bell Memorial Project?
JR: It’s one of those things that’s really near and dear to our hearts. We’ve been doing it for a long time.
BG: It’s evolved recently and we now do The Spencer Bell Legacy concerts. The most recent one was put on at Mohawks in Austin, Texas. It wasn’t even put on by one of us or Spencer’s family. It was just a couple of fans of his music who took it upon themselves to contact all the bands and put on the show. We think that’s really cool, that people are inspired by his music. They love his music and his writing. They are just taking it upon themselves to bring people together to celebrate it. Also there has been, what was the name of that drug that they did the research for?
JR: I’m not sure of the exact name of the drug. But due to the money that has been raised by the fans over the course of a couple of years doing the SBLs, they actually changed the adrenal cancer drug for the first time since 1965. Dr. Gary Hammer was finally able to persuade the pharmaceutical companies. Literally the 100 Monkey Effect is about the collective consciousness and about raising an awareness for something. Because we were able to raise such an awareness for it, he finally was able to convince the pharmaceutical companies to create a new drug since 1965, which is extremely, extremely hard to do because there’s no money in it. Pharmaceutical companies only focus on what will make them money. If its orphan cancers like that, there’s not enough people out there with that specific cancer. The interesting thing about adrenal cancer, and other orphan cancers like it that kill a lot of people all over the world, is that it is one mutation of a chromosome. Which hopefully if you can find a cure for that, then you can really get deeper into being able to find a cure for breast cancer which has 30 different mutations and prostate cancer which also has about 30 different mutations. So hopefully if we focus on orphan cancer awareness, we can get doctors to discover what one mutation takes. Because one mutation is what starts it all; and that’s the hardest thing to find and that’s really exactly what we are trying to figure out with orphan cancer.

All photos taken by and are Copyright © Patty Gencarelli

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Filed Under: Music Interviews Tagged With: 100 monkeys, band, breaking dawn, eclipse, interview, jackson, ...

GWAR Band Interview Series

GWAR has always been one of my favorite bands. But it wasn’t always about the music, it was about their costumes and makeup. Something about them separated them from most other bands. This is dating back to 1988, when it was not as common to dress up ala Slipknot or Mushroomhead. GWAR’s sound has always been unique and their concert experiences are one of a kind. Movie Mikes was lucky enough to get a chance to chat with each of the band members from GWAR. You can read each interview below.

GWAR BAND INTERVIEWS:

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: band, gwar, interview, moviemikes, series
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