E-mail: Neon
DESECRATOR INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST, TONY PIAZZA
INTERVIEWED BY: NEON
BLONDE
My first introduction to
Desecrator was one long night ago I was on the endless search to see if there
was Heavy Metal life out there. I
found that life in a band from Jamestown, New York. The song I found was “March Of The Metal
Soldiers” off “Death After Death” on MP3.com Check out their music, it’s
worth a listen!
Q: I wanted to ask you what was the ideal behind “March Of The Metal Soldiers”? It’s a perfect metal anthem!
Q: I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Swedish metal band Falconer but they are a 3-piece band also. They’re awesome and they have proven that it can be done. Despite things they’ve been told. You guys have been through some trying times. How hard has it been for you, Chris, and Erik to carry the load?
Q: The decision to remove Jeremy Funk from
the band was this decision made over time or did things just come to a head and
enough was enough?
A: Jeremy was a great lyricist first off
(he wrote the words to March). His
vocal abilities were just not up to our standards. When we started out, we were very
young. I was 15, Chris was 18, Rob
was 16. We grew up together
musically. For a while, Jeremy was
a “good enough” vocalist. As we got
better, however, we sort of outgrew his style. It was purely a musical decision. We remained friends and have jammed
together on occasion.
Q: How hard was it on Chris and Rob to
share the vocals?
A: When Funk was let go, Rob and Chris took
on vocal duties out of necessity.
They slowly grew into the role of co-vocalists. Whenever a new song was written, they
would decide who would sing. I’ve
always felt the dual vocalist approach added an interesting sound to
Desecrator. Both of them, however,
would have preferred a full time vocalist so they could focus on the guitar
playing. We’ve just never found the
right singer.
Q: You had to go through two drummers
finally Mike Brentley brought what was needed and the band was rolling
again. Not too long after the March
demo was recorded Mike Brentley decided the differences in the musical tastes
couldn’t be rectified. What were
those differences?
A: Yeah, Mike was our third drummer. Once again, we had managed to outgrow
our first two drummers musically.
Mike was really solid and made us a much tighter musical unit. The problem was that he came from a
different musical background. We
were raised on Maiden, Helstar, Jag Panzer, Satan, Anacrusis and other true
metal bands. He came from Motley
Crue, White Zombie and Nu-Metal. He
eventually lost interest in our power/thrash/prog style and wanted to pursue
music that he liked playing. At the
same time, we felt that he would be unable to play some of our newer
material. Once again, he is a great
guy and there are no hard feelings.
Q: In the fall of 1998 you guys did a
Maiden cover, “Trooper” for the “Beyond the Seven Doors of Death”. What was that like for you, as the bass
player, knowing how much you like Iron Maiden?
A: When we finished “Beyond…”, we had about
five extra minutes left on the reel.
We just decided in the studio to do “The Trooper”. We all love Maiden and we had been
playing the song a lot at the time.
I love playing Maiden… Steve Harris is my biggest bass influence. It was a lot of fun to record, and we
still put “The Trooper” and “Aces High” into our live set quite frequently.
Q: Tell me about “Consumed By Evil”. Was this a demo?
A: “Consumed…” was a three song demo done
in the spring of 1998. It was our
first recording with Mike Brentley on drums. At the time of this demo, our style was
a little more on the death/thrash side.
We used mainly death vocals.
It was a unique chapter in our career. They were great songs, but Consumed was
more of an experiment in expanding our style.
Q: Tell me what contribution Erik McCray
has brought to the band. He seems
to be the compatible “brother” you guys needed to get the band moving forward
again.
A: Erik is great. He’s been behind the drum kit since
January 2000. He came from a more
prog-metal background (Rush, Dream Theater, etc.). He is a truly gifted musician and has
contributed greatly to our sound and to the band as a whole. We live in a small city (under 35,00
people). We were amazed that such a
great drummer lived right in our back yard.
Q: I noticed on your website a picture of
Jag Panzer guitarist Mark Briody.
Have you guys played with Jag Panzer?
A: We talked with Mark online a couple
years before Jag Panzer reunited and did “The Fourth Judgment”. We were huge fans of their
groundbreaking “Ample Destruction”.
In 95-96, Jag Panzer was not known by many people, but we were heavily
influenced by their early work.
Mark became an online buddy, and our guitarist Rob was thanked in “The
Fourth Judgment”. When they went on
tour with Iced Earth in 1999, we hung out with Mark and the rest of Jag Panzer
in Cleveland. We gave Mark a shirt
and a CD. That pic is of Mark
wearing our shirt.
They’re
supposed to be coming to Dallas in May to open for ICED EARTH. Can’t wait for that show!!
Tony: Yeah, I’m going
to see that tour in Cleveland next month.
As a side note, we opened for Iced Earth in 1998. They are great guys and a kick ass
band.
Q: Do you know how far Desecrator reaches
out with their music? I mean do you
guys have fans overseas, etc.?
A: We’ve gotten letters and emails from all
over the world. It’s really cool to
see people from different nations and different cultures who dig our music. I guess it just proves that the Metal
Brotherhood and Sisterhood is a truly universal force.
Q: Tell us about HRL. Whose idea was it, why it was done, and
how long it lasted.
A: Hard Rock Life was a rock/metal cover
band that all five Desecrator members started in early 2001. Its main goal was to make money in the
local music scene. We played
everything from Maiden to Kansas to Heart.
The only rule was that we only played songs that we liked and that we
felt were musically strong. It was
a good way to pay the bills. We
still plan on having some sort of cover project on the side, but at the moment,
it is on hold.
Q: I know Chris Wilson stepped aside as
keyboardist but continued on behind the scenes. Why did he step aside?
A: Chris was a long-time friend of the
band. He had dabbled in keys and
when we decided to add keys to our sound in 1998, he officially joined the
band. He basically learned the
instrument for Desecrator. Chris is
a professional sound man and is a technical/sound equipment wizard. He just never really had time to
dedicate to his instrument. He
decided it would be better for him and for the band do just be our tech/sound
man.
Q: How could there possibly be any
justification in how Chris Wilson and Rob Fiasco left the band?
A: I honestly don’t know. They left at the same time by removing
their equipment from our practice space and leaving a note that read “Sorry
guys, we’re out”. They both left
for different reasons though. Chris
had been slowly reducing his role in the band, and made it clear that it just
wasn’t fun anymore. Rob caught the
Nu-Metal bug. He began playing in a
cover band with our ex-drummer Mike.
His personality had been changing slowly and he began to work at Old
Navy! He used to be as “True Metal”
as they came, but I guess he just sold out. We were extremely displeased with the
way they left. We felt it was
unprofessional and it destroyed a six year musical brotherhood.
Q: You said that there were musical
shortcomings. Is this something you
would care to comment on?
A: With Wilson, he admitted that his keys
skills were not up to our standards and we respected his admission of this
fact. With Rob, it was
different. He never practiced
enough, but was never willing to vacate the role of co-lead player. In the studio, his leads were awful, and
Chris Lee had to cover for him. We
felt strongly that he would have had SERIOUS difficulties playing our new
material. His departure was, in
retrospect, a good thing for Desecrator.
We can now seek a strong guitarist to fill his place.
Q: I wanna go back a little and talk about
“Negative Progress”. Tell us about
the conception, making, recording, etc. of this record.
A: We recorded NP, our first full length,
in the fall of 2000. I feel that it
contains our strongest and most musically complex material to date. It highlights a more progressive musical
direction, but maintains a strong power/thrash foundation. The title refers to the fact that we are
making strong musical progress, while at the same time, we seem to be getting
farther away from success, record deals, etc. We recorded it locally on a VERY small
budget. We were unhappy with the
sound and felt that the engineer overstated his abilities to achieve what we
wanted to achieve. Despite the
production, I feel that it is a quite strong metal album, with great drums and
guitars, our best vocals to date and some quite skilled song-writing.
Q: What’s happening with Desecrator
now?
A: Aside from seeking a new guitarist and
keyboardist, we are mainly focusing on new material. We have ten new songs written, as well
as a full length concept album that is ready to be recorded. We want to learn this material inside
and out, and make a killer demo out of the best songs. We feel that if need be, we could record
as a three piece, where Chris Lee would handle all guitars and vocals. We want to save up and get the best
sounding recording possible. We
still have the desire to get signed and get our music out to as many people as
possible.
Q: Tony, who are some of you’re
influences? Be it individual or
group or whatever.
A: Personally, it’s Steve Harris all the
way for me. As a group, over time,
here is a partial list: Maiden,
Priest, the NWOBHM, Jag Panzer, Satan, Helstar, Carcass, Dream Theater, Rush,
Kansas, Fates Warning, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, early Anthrax, early
Megadeth, Yes, Styx, Helloween, Annihilator, the classical masters (Bach,
Beethoven, Paganini), Yngwie, Anacrusis, Iced Earth, Swedish death metal,
Riot.
The list
goes on and on. We basically
incorporate whatever we are listening to into our music.
Q: What CD do you have in your personal CD
player right now?
A: The last CD was Helloween- “Better Than
Raw” and the last tape in my car was Annihilator-“Never, Neverland”.
Q: How have you guys been received in the
clubs, MP3 responses, from fans, other bands, etc?
A: We have always gotten good responses
live. In a small area like this, it
is hard to get a good metal crowd.
We manage to always get good crossover responses from metal and non-metal
fans alike. Our biggest live
favorite is usually our speed/power metal cover of “Dust In the Wind” by
Kansas. Online responses are
usually positive and supportive.
“Negative Progress” actually got some really good reviews from metal
zines. I only wish we could get
more shows around this area.
Q: What do you like to do for fun?
A: Personally, I like to collect metal
CDs/tapes/LPs and rare horror/exploitation videos (mostly Italian flicks). As a band, we have always enjoyed
playing darts and street hockey.
Unfortunately, with work and college in the way, we just don’t have as
much time to hang out as we did in the early days of the band.
Q: Who did the artwork for “Beyond the
Seven Doors of Death”?
A: The Beyond artwork was done by our good
friend Jim Wirges. He was always
good with computer graphics. The
March artwork was a painting done by Ross Sewage, the bass player for the band
Impaled.
Q: What label is carrying Desecrator?
A: We are currently independent and
unsigned. Our music can be bought
at our website http://www.desecrator.com/ or at http://www.cdstreet.com/ . We have been featured on compilations
from JCM Records (Power From then Underground Vol. 1) and Lifeless Records (2001
Sampler). We are currently shopping
our music around to several labels and hope to be signed soon.
Q: How did you get familiar with ASKA?
A: Rob got acquainted with them online
several years ago. From what I’ve
heard, they are a great band, but I’ve never met them personally. We’ve gotten in touch with several great
bands online over the years.
Gotta
tell ya it’s great having a band of their caliber in my own “backyard”! I go to every show!
Q: How did the concept for “Doubting
Perception” come about? And do you
plan on using more orchestration in future songs?
A: That is one of my favorite songs. It is from “Negative Progress”. The song is lyrically about questioning
reality and your perceptions about reality. It suggests that many people live their
lives believing falsehoods and don’t properly question standard beliefs. Musically, it is classically influenced
power metal. The song is one of our
most complex arrangements, with several counterpoint melodies carried out by the
guitars and keys. This song should
be seen as glimpse of what is to come.
We are never satisfied with standing still musically. We always try to build on our earlier
sound.
Q: On “Negative Progress” I love “Leave The
Past Behind”. Who is playing the
keyboard? Who wrote the
lyrics? The guitar work on this
song is so Dave Murray!
A: Chris Wilson played all of the keys, but
I believe Chris Lee wrote the parts.
The lyrics were written by Rob.
This once again illustrates why the departure of Rob and Chris was a
heavy blow to the band. I think
this song is a great power metal ballad.
The lyrics and vocals match perfectly with the music. Sometimes leaving friends behind can be
extremely painful, but it is occasionally necessary if you want to live your
life for the future.
Q: If there were a band or singer you would
like to work with who would it be and why?
A: I would love to jam with Maiden at least
once before I die! As for
Desecrator, I think we’d love to work with Harry Conklin of Jag Panzer. He is one of the best voices in metal
and a really cool guy.
Q: Where can people go to get your
merchandise?
A: http://www.desecrator.com/ will give
you all the info you need
Q: Do you regret becoming a musician?
A: Never. It has provided more fun in my life than
any other hobby/job imaginable.
Certainly, it is a lot of hard work and personal sacrifice, but it’s all
worth it. The ability to create
music and actually have other people enjoy it is one of the greatest feelings in
the world. I couldn’t imagine just
being a metal fan or listener. I
need to play metal too.
Q: Are there any big name groups that
Desecrator has had opportunity to open for?
A: Iced Earth in 98 and Metal Blade artists
Crisis in 1999. Other than that,
we’ve mainly done regional shows with other unsigned acts. The main problem is that the two closest
cities (Erie, PA and Buffalo, NY) rarely, if ever, get power/thrash acts
anymore. Erie used to have a great
scene and get a lot of cool bands (Iced Earth, Nevermore, Flotsam & Jetsam,
Hades, Exodus), but by the time we started playing out, the scene dried up. Other cities like Cleveland exclusively
book Cleveland bands, so we are out of luck on openers.
Q: Any last thoughts or comments? You have the floor!
A: I’d just like to say that Desecrator has
no intention on giving up. We will
continue to grow musically and sharpen our skills. With or without the support of record
labels, we will continue to write, record and release our material. We have been at it for 6 ˝ year, and
we’ll probably be doing it in another 6 ˝.
I’ve grown up in this band.
It is the only band I’ve ever played in. Chris Lee, Erik McCray and myself have a
musical vision that can not be destroyed by changing lineup shifts or other
hardships. We were once robbed of
over $10,000 worth of equipment, and that did not stop us. The music is just too important for us
to stop.
Thank
you so much for this opportunity to talk about Desecrator. We really appreciate it! Let’s make the metal underground strong
and never give up our dedication to metal.
Tony
Piazza
Desecrator
KEEP ROCKIN'!
If you would like to contact me for interviews or reviews, email me at the link below and I will get back with you as soon as possible.
E-mail: Neon