Live Interview with ASKA by Neon Blonde

August 18, 2005

At Don Pablo’s in Bedford, Texas

(The first part of the interview we are just sitting around talking with long time friend, Jimmy Cassidy, and the guys are reminiscing about their trip to Panama and the hard time they gave Jason.  Actually they told him some things to say to the waiter in Spanish and well it wasn’t actually what he thought he was saying!  And they actually enjoyed giving our waitress a hard time, too!  )

Hey everyone this is Neon Blonde and I’m here with all the guys in ASKA!  That’s right!  (Cheering and applause)   Here is George Call!  (Cheering), Keith Knight (cheering), Daryl Norton (cheering), and Jason (cheering), Jason Sweatt!  Thanks you guys for being here!

Q:  Since Avenger received such accolades and critical acclaim do you guys feel any pressure in the new cd taking you guys to that level and beyond?

 A:  Who do you want to answer that?

NB:  Anyone can answer.

KK:  I say no because of the actual set back on this album I would have to say no.

GC:  There’s no pressure?

KK:  No.  It’s just a natural progression that we make from one album to the next anyhow.  We get better and we have more talented musicians working on this album…

GC:  (cat-call whistling)

DN:  I tend to agree.  It’s a whole new line up and we’ve put a lot of hard work into this album and we’ve had to overcome some pretty big hurdles but we’re totally committed to this project and we’re excited about it coming out.

JS:  Anytime you’ve worked on a project for a while the anticipation just builds really high.

Q:  Was there any musical differences in this cd and your prior work?

 KK:  Musical differences?

NB:  Yeah.  Did ya’ll attack it from more of a technical point or melodic or a little of both?

JS:  Well I don’t know I just remember when we decided to go in a heavier direction it just seems like we haven’t turned back.  Avenger was the product of that and we’ve progressed in such a way that we just haven’t turned back. 

GC:  I agree.  The band has gotten a little heavier…

DN:  I agree.

KK:  The band is just advancing as musicians and getting better as we do it.  It shows in the music side of it. 

DN: During the writing we all seemed to be on the same page, I mean we have our little nuisances but we’re all on the same page.

GC:  Yeah, exactly and I’ll add something to what he just said.   The writing process is smoother now than it’s ever been in the history of the band.  I mean we get in there and everyone is on the same page and there’s no major disagreements, Oh let’s do this, let’s do that, type thing.  It’s like supercharged and it takes us a fraction of the time to deliver or try something new then what it used to.

DN:  Yes and I think that affords us more opportunities to try.

GC:  Right!   

JS:  Well when Daryl came around I think that made it easier for George to get his ideas across whereas with Darren it wasn’t always easy to disagree. 

GC:  Well before in the past it just seemed like it took us a while to work out harmonies, this that and the other and timing…

KK:  It just all flows.  We all convey an idea and it comes across really quick.

GC:  Yeah if I say hey I’ve got a guitar part and play it for Daryl he’s got it thirty seconds later.  He’s willing to try things.  Whereas before…

DN:  If it doesn’t work we move on.  It’s that compatibility that allows us to try multiple things and ideas. 

GC:  And I think the songs have benefited from that.  I mean the music that’s coming, I know it’s taken a long time, but it’s been written, and I think it’s the best stuff we’ve written and recorded to date! 

KK:  Hey!  Quite back there! (talking to kitchen staff. everyone laughing)

GC:  (laughing) We just need to get it out. 

JS:  The songs are getting longer and more complex, I mean they’ve gotten more complex since I’ve rejoined…

GC:  Yea, no more Jane’s Goin Away!  (laughing)

NB:  Well that’s great to hear!  Because I come into contact with a lot of people that want to know when the new ASKA cd is coming out and I’m like just be patient I promise you won’t be disappointed!  It’ll be worth waiting for!  Good things are coming and if you’ll just be patient you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  Everybody wants it right now…

KK:  Well we want it right now!

NB:  I know! 

DN:  We want this more than anyone else.  Obviously!

JS:  We’ve had some major hurdles to overcome…

GC:  Yeah Jimmy Cassidy moved away!  (everyone laughing)  That’s one of the biggest hurdles!  Lol

DN:  But this band perseveres it always has and it will continue to do so.   And that’s what’s so good about being a part of this project. 

Q:  Well going along those same lines how do you guys individually or collectively feel that this cd is going to be received after such a long wait?

 KK:  I think it will be happily received!  They’ll think “Well Jesus it’s about time!”  And then they’ll be like “wow!  I don’t see what the hold ups been!”

GC:  Yea I think it’ll go over well.  Just because of the style we’re playing, which is obviously not what you hear being played on the radio in America I don’t think it’s going to make us a top ten hit or anything but we’ve got some good stuff and some of the songs could potentially stand to do something.  But certainly among the metal fans it will be an extremely well received record.  There will not be anyone complaining!  Except they’ll be like “shit I hope we don’t have to wait that long for the next one!” 

DN:  Right and if I could just interject something…

GC:  NO!  (laughing)

DN:  This has been, obviously the first endeavor in the studio with these guys and they’ve pulled stuff out of me that I didn’t know I had in me!  Which is a testament to this band…

GC:  Those rubbers!  (everyone laughing)

DN:  Well I had something really cool to say but…

GC:  Naw man go ahead!

DN:  Which is a testament to this band’s attention to detail and putting out a quality product!  Absolutely thrilled to be a part of it!  Can’t wait for it to come out and I understand that as soon as it does come out people are gonna want more.  And so do we!

GC:  Go ahead Jason, what were you gonna say?

JS:  Just that this band pushes you to do things that you didn’t know you could do! 

DN:  Absolutely!  And that’s a good thing!

Q:  How does this cd compare with Avenger in regards to how it was written/recorded/produced?

 GC:  Okay, the way it was written we started the initial writing process with Darren and Jason.  Darren left the band and Jason left shortly thereafter, about two months after, and Daryl stepped in quickly and it didn’t take us that long to replace Darren but it took us a long time to replace Jason!  A suitable replacement!  I mean we could’ve replaced him over night but his drumming and musicianship was of such a high caliber that it was extremely hard to find someone to fill his shoes!  It took us like nine months…

KK:  No like fourteen months! 

GC:  Yeah it took a long time to do that but nevertheless the entire time we continued writing and I think we talked about it earlier but the writing process was smooth.   Extremely easy, we had a lot of ideas, everyone on the same page, everybody contributing, the musicianship in the band was probably as good as, better than it had ever been, and ah…what was the rest of the question? 

NB:  Recording and how it was produced.

GC:  Recording, all of our other endeavors were recorded in other people’s studios, again that’s an expensive process and I was thinking man this band’s been together for over a decade and we’ll probably be doing it for a long time to come and instead of throwing money out on studios and you don’t get to complete the album and you’re always fighting with an engineer or some produces or somebody else that doesn’t have a complete grip on your music, we’re like man let’s do this ourselves!  No one has a better understanding of our music than we do and no time like now to get that under our belt and I talked to the guys and Keith and I were like no time like the present so we invested in some studio gear and started the lengthy process of how to operate this gear and basically record it ourselves.  We knew the writing process, the playing the music but there was a learning curve with the machinery and recording and the miking techniques and the mixing tricks and this that and the other.  And that’s what has been taking us so long.  And as a good move, it was certainly a minimal investment…

KK:  It cost us more time than it did money.

GC:  It costs us a third to a quarter less than to go into a studio.

DN:  The bottom line is it’s at our own disposal.

JS:  It was as difficult as writing a song, learning that equipment and becoming proficient at it. 

GC:  Right.  Now what we’re looking at is someone has an extra skill and we’re becoming better at engineering.

*Interview was being paused to meet and greet with some new fans!*

Q:  How do you guys feel you’ve grown as musicians, since you’ve been able to work together and you’re as compatible as you are?

 JS:  Actually I think me and George have been on the same page since the last album, probably the album before that, but when we lost Darren after Damon the brotherhood left the band.  And now it’s just more like friends and we’re more compatible and we don’t have that brotherhood-sibling kind of rivalry going on, friends from adults perspective and it just works better. 

KK:  It was like two brothers going at it all the time. 

DN:  I can give my testimony to that question; I felt that I was an up-to-par player and I wasn’t no virtuoso and I alluded to this earlier…

GC:  Yeah he’s a metal dog…I mean god!  (laughing)

DN:  It has increased me, who knows, 75%..

GC:  33%!  Lol

DN:  And that goes back to the writing that if we wanna try something and everybody can handle it.  If we wanna go fast and hard right here or slow and melodic or whatever we wanna try to accomplish we can create that with the musicians we have.  It’s a great feeling.

GC:  My take on all of this is, most musicians, working musicians or practicing/playing musicians, you don’t get worse as a musician you’re gonna continue to grow and get better and better at what you do.  We’ve been doing it so long now that we’ve got a grip or a hold on our craft, we know what we’re doing, we can deliver, we can deliver quickly, we know our parts; we can say “hey Jason give me a double bass beat right here or give me this lick right here” or whatever the case may be and everyone can whip it out!  As far as musicians we’re top of the line, an asset to any fucking band out there and goddamn here we are!  The playing level is better than ever, everyone has grown.  If you listen to my vocals record to record you can hear my progression.  You can go back to the first ASKA record and it sounds like a ball less girl (laughing) to Avenger and the stuff I’ve got coming is even better than that.  It’s my most heaviest, aggressive…I think my best vocal performances are yet to come.  (GC knocking on wood)  You know cuz I had this throat surgery which you may ask about later. 

NB:  Yes actually that was my next question.  We discussed this a little bit on the ride over here.   When did you first feel something was wrong?  That you needed to go to the doctor and have it checked out?

 GC:  From this I just had a sore throat and it wasn’t going away.  And I’m like man I need to go to the dr. and see what the fuck is going on.  It felt like something I’d experienced before in 1994 when we were recording Immortal.  My left vocal chord, I’d told them at the time that it felt like there was a rip or a tear but it just hurts.  And then it went away.  Then I got it again, when did Promoter Ray get married?

DN:  You got ill over the winter and never did recover.

GC:  I didn’t know what the fuck it was and then I got ill and never really recovered and my throat started fuckin hurtin and just the combination made me think I’m just gonna go to the doctor.  So he looked and immediately he said ‘Oh my God I think you have cancer!  We don’t know we need to do a biopsy.’  And I’m like what the fuck…I don’t drink I don’t smoke I’ve never abused any illegal substances…

KK:  He just talks a lot!  (laughing)

GC:  I just couldn’t imagine that it was cancer!  So they did a biopsy and didn’t find any cancer but the guy said that the next step should be that I have some kind of surgery because it could turn cancerous and this guy wasn’t a specialist, he didn’t know voice, etc. so he sent me to a second doctor, this guy is Rob Halford’s dr., Ozzy Osbourne, Bruce Dickenson, Motely Crue, Celine Dion, this guy’s been LeAnn Rimes doctor since she was eight years old.  He’s the top dog in the field, one of the top guys in the country and he looked at it and said hey you don’t have cancer but you have an area that could go bad, go cancerous, if left untreated and he’s like don’t play with your life!  Singing’s one thing but I recommend that you get that thing removed!  And so that’s what we did.  And of course this is surgery on my vocal chord, my left vocal chord, and I went in for pain on my right vocal chord.  The guy went in there and they cut out the area and it looks like I’m supposed to recover.  There’s no guarantee that I’ll be back like I was before but I think I will.  I know I’ve still got the range, I can still hit notes; it’s just a matter of will I be able to belt it, will I have power.  We’ll see. 

DN:  Well we appreciate you doing this interview cuz he’s just now talking.

GC:  I wasn’t allowed to talk for a long time. 

DN:  We think it’s all gonna be good.

GC:  For communication we were having me write everything down.

JS:  Its one thing when bands drag their ass, delaying a project just because they’re lazy or whatever but that’s not the case here.  It was something that was out of our hands.

GC:  Right.

JS:  I don’t look at it as a set back.  It’s just something that happens.  We don’t have any control over that but we did have control over how we used our studio time. 

 GC:  Hell no.  I went straight to the guys.  As soon as I found out I said here’s what’s going on fellows.  I’ve complained about my throat acting up well here’s what’s going on.  And very frankly we had a discussion that hey we might need to find a singer.  Cuz I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it. 

KK:  (Pointing to Jason) Finding his replacement was hard enough…

JS:  It went from one extreme to the other.  We were real desperate and worried for a while to it’s going to be okay.  Keith calls me and says we need to talk I need to talk to you.  And I’m like uh-oh I know what that means.  So I called him immediately and I’m like what’s going on?  

Q:  That was going to be my next question.  How did you guys feel when you heard, what you were just told?

 DN:  I was devastated.

JS:  Those things are just out of your control. 

KK:  I was like oh shit what are we gonna do now?

DN:  The kicker is the album is pretty much ready for the vocals. 

JS:  I was pretty shook up about it.

NB:  Well I know from a fan’s standpoint and knowing you guys as long as I have the thought of ASKA going on was great to me but then the thought of someone else up there behind the microphone and the possibility of never getting to hear him sing again…I was like I don’t know if I could go to another show again.  It would be just too hard. 

KK:  The music would be the same because we wouldn’t be loosing George’s guitar…

NB:  Right. 

DN:  It’s one thing replacing a drummer, guitarist, or a bassist but it’s a huge difference replacing a vocalist. 

GC:  Everyone’s saying we have that Beatle’s/KISS mentality where everyone would sing and it was later when that wasn’t working or getting us the deal or the attention that we sought we changed directions and decided that I would be the only singer.  We got a lot of flack over that from Darren in particular.  Keith was on board, I was on board obviously, and Jason you were on board weren’t you? 

JS:  I was skeptical but I was on board.

GC:  Darren was because really he wanted to sing so initially I’m thinking that if I couldn’t sing, shit when this band started we were a five piece with a man out front.  You know that was pre everyone at this table.  I mean fuck I love metal it’s in me whether I’m singing or playing.  I mean I’ll play guitar and I’m a well-rounded musician I’m not just about singing.  That way the guys would know right off the bat that if something happened and I couldn’t sing that wouldn’t mean we were gonna end the band or that I’m gonna have an ego problem with someone replacing me as a singer.  I suggested that Keith and Jason sing.  Or we find one; so that was the deal with that. 

 Q:  What does your heart tell you?

 GC:   I think I’ll be fine.  I think I’ll be fine; I don’t think I’ll be 100% but I think I’ll be back about 80%...

JS:  All these setbacks just make us stronger. 

DN:  I think I can speak for everyone here that we’d rather have him at 90% than most people at 100%!

GC:  Here, here!

DN:  We’re gonna be alright! 

JS:  If he couldn’t carry the show in between the songs that’s when I get nervous.  I mean I get nervous when you’re not carrying in between the songs.  I can’t really do that I mean I can play the songs but I can’t get the crowd going.  That’s not my specialty. 

KK:  You have to have a good front guy to carry the crowd.

DN:  Yeah it’s not enough to have a good singer you have to have a well-rounded entertainer. 

JS:  Like when George does it, it works! 

NB:  Right!  There’s the Rob Halford style and there’s the Axel Rose style and we all know how well that style works! 

GC:  Hey you know what else, just to go back to something from earlier it’s like man fate, the whole world has conspired against this new album.  I mean it’s been one set back after the other.  You know initially loosing Darren, then loosing Jason…

JS:  You know I feel like I’m part of the damn problem…

DN:  We got it on tape!  (everyone laughing)

JS:  It’s like man I better pick up the slack and do this right.

GC:  You know then me and having to learn to do the board…

KK:  A lot of catastrophic hurdles we’ve had to overcome.

GC:  The people still come to the shows, people still like the band, we’re still committed and we’re gonna get this record out come hell or high water and we’ve had a lot of hell and high water but we’re still pushing.

DN:  I gotta tell you some of the stuff we’ve endured would have crippled a lot of bands! 

JS:  Yeah it would have ended a lot of bands.  It’s not gonna take this long for the next one.  We know what we’re doing now and it’s almost coming easy now.  I know when I came back in it was like I was relearning the new drummer’s parts and I’m excited to see what I can write with them this time.  I mean even messing around with Her Ghost Remains.

GC:  Even so don’t, not to denigrate anything, but Jason’s playing phenomenally  and mixing his drums gosh we got a little short changed on Avenger, don’t get me wrong Avenger’s a great album but you will hear the drums beat you about the face and tits!  (laughing)

JS:  Being at this stage of where we’re at with this album it already sounds five times as good as what we did five albums ago.  We’re better now also and we weren’t rushed and that could be a bad thing.  Keith felt rushed!

GC:  Yeah he had two days!  (laughing)  I’ll tell you what, to me Avenger is a great fuckin record!  Awesome performances and certainly tough to beat but I’ll tell you what when everyone hears the new songs comin at them they’re gonna say ‘hey they did it and then some!’

JS:  I was just gonna say that man I mean musically it’s great but production wise it’s a little bit soft compared to what we’ve got comin and it’s got a raw power to it.  It’s talent!  I was worried man what Danny did how you had the drums sounding!  I was like man I can’t even sound like that but I was wrong!  I don’t know what you did to those bass drums but…

GC:  They’re getting better yet!  We gonna run out of tape?

NB:  No.  Avenger was my first exposer to you guys because like I was telling George on the way over here my husband discovered you guys on Hard Radio and went to your web site and then said you’ve got come here!  These guys are in Arlington!  They’re in our own backyard!  So that’s when we decided to come check out the show.  And then he was at CD Warehouse and found Avenger and then it was like you’ve got to hear this song and he put on Crown of Thorns and I was like is the rest of the cd this good?  And from then on it was just constant listening and I had all the songs memorized and I’ve been a fan ever since!  (clapping from the guys)

GC: And now you have a tattoo!

NB:  I have a tattoo!  I’m ASKA scarred for life!  Well you guys thanks so much for doing this interview…

KK:  That’s it?

NB:  Yeah that’s it.  

GC:  Well let’s just keep talking till we run out of tape.   

Q:  Well I know you guys have said that you feel like you’ve had a lot of hurdles and just something was coming against this record did ya’ll ever just say something doesn’t want us to put this record out and we just need to quit for a while?

 KK:  Naw, naw we were just like we’re gonna do it. 

JS:  I guess it’s when you really feel like your backs up against the wall and you start fighting really hard…

DN:  You either sink or swim. 

Q:  Well has it ever bothered you guys having people come up to ya’ll at a show and the first thing they wanna know is when’s the new cd coming out or all the mess on the forum?

 JS:  Well I don’t read the stuff on the forum for one thing…

GC:  We try to stay off there and we check it out every now and then.  The forum is something that we put up there for the fans not for us.  We have plenty of shit to do during our day without checking out the forum, it’s for the fans to get on there and enjoy.  Unfortunately some people get on there and start bashing…you know what I read though, most of the cyber bullying is done by chicks!  It’s not dudes doin it, its girls!  Guys they get that kind of stuff out in person, in real life.  Girls because they’re so sweet you can go and say ‘how do you like my hair?  You’re hair looks great’ and then they’re on there ‘what did she do to her hair?’   They have all the anonymity they can desire on a forum like ours and everyone knows we got more female fans then male but with Avenger now it’s more equal.  It’s a lot of chicks getting on there and back biting each other and you meet them in real life and they’re the sweetest people in the world. 

JS:  As far as people asking us about the cd we enjoy it because it lets us know they’re still interested and I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of that.

GC:  It’ll never bother me. 

DN:  Also I’d like to add since we’re coming down to the last few minutes of tape here ASKA’s got a new studio project going on and Keith Knight might could fill us in on little bit of that.

KK:  Recording/rehearsing studio that ASKA’s gonna be moving into soon and…

GC:  To all the people who think that my singing days are over…la la la la la (fake singing, everyone laughing).

NB:  I’m here to tell you guys he’s gonna be back 100%!  There’s no doubt about it!

(everyone clapping)  Well if you guys wanna close by saying whatever the floor is yours!  Thank you so much!

KK:  Are you gonna stream this or post it?

NB:  I wish I could stream you guys!

DN:  We’ll show ya!

NB:  I’m sure you will!

DN:  Would like to thank Neon for comin out and spending time with us! 

NB:  Yeah it was a blast!

DN:  Thank ya’ll for being patient!  ASKA’s runnin good and strong…

NB:  I’m gonna have to stay and wash dishes, be home later!

JS:  We’ll just stay and hang out with the staff here at Don Pablo’s! 

NB:  I would like to thank the ASKA guys, cus the last time I interviewed the three of them, George, Keith, and Daryl it was 2001 and I interviewed Jason in 2003 so it’s been a while! 

(Clapping and shouting)

NB:  Thank you guys and love ya!