Decapitado

Most bands worry about making music to appease and please the masses. Not so with Decapitado. This Milwaukee trio is focusing on originality in an effort to maintain their sanity and produce high quality art. These guys are not newcomers to the music scene by any stretch. Each is currently in at least one other band outside Decapitado and each has been in several others before this as well. Bands like Fuck Face, Custom Grand, Boy Dirt Car, and Die Kruezen to mention a few.

Dan Kubinski (vocals/bass), Andy Keels (guitar) and Charles A. Mayer (drums) are Decapitado. Starting at the top, Andy fills us in about the band name. “The word decapitado appears in a newspaper clipping in the movie “Curdled.” I thought it was such a cool word. My wife said it would be a great band name. I was in three bands at that time, and this one fit the name best. The name symbolizes the world today; a lurching, twitching body, lumbering forward, unable to hear or think or see. It stands for the way too many of us live our lives.”

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Deer Tick

It’s a good thing the band Deer Tick doesn’t spread illness like the woodland arachnids with the same name. Though, their reeling rock ballads that combine smoky vocals with rollicking guitars do infect listeners with urge to dance, shout along or at least bounce their glass to the beat on the bar. The Rhode Island five-piece will play The Majestic Sunday, November 13, supporting their latest album Divine Providence.

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Def Leppard

Of all the places you imagine rock stars go, the dog groomer is probably not one of them. Not so for Def Leppard’s thunder man Rick Allen, who woke up at seven o’clock to take his little cairn terrier, Ricky, to get his hair coiffed and paws manicured.

Then again, Rick Allen is no ordinary rock star. Joining the Leppards as a nineteen-year-old pup himself, Allen rode the effervescent wave of Britain’s heavy-metal renaissance on the brink of the eighties. With their trademark trickling vocals and opulent guitar riffs, the multiplatinum, Union-jack clad lads from Sheffield are one of the biggest-selling bands in the world. But their success did not come at a low price. On New Year’s Eve, 1984, Rick Allen walked away from a lethal auto accident with only one arm—a death knell for the career of a drummer. Two years later, Allen miraculously took the stage again, this time playing on a specially customized electronic drum kit which compensates for his handicap.

The resilient Rick Allen spoke to Maximum Ink, in his ever-cheery English accent, before Def Leppard churns the wheels of their unusually long three-year tour towards Summerfest 2007.

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Default

When Dallas Smith auditioned for drummer Danny Craig and guitarist Jeremy Hora only two years ago, it was a new experience for him.  Before that, Smith’s vocal performances had been limited to singing along with the radio, but a decision that it was time to try it for real lead him to vie for the position of lead singer in Hora and Smith’s band.  It went well.

Today, the three of them, along with bassist Dave Benedict, are collectively known as Default, a Vancouver rock band whose buzz just keeps growing.  When asked if he had any idea back in 1999 that the band would have gained this level of success and notoriety so quickly, Smith replied, “Not even a .1% chance.  It’s like winning the lottery, really.  We can’t believe it.”

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DefineD

The Canadian metal band Defined was formed in 2001. Though it has gone through several members changes over the years they still continue to deliver the hard and heavy sound their fans have some to expect.The current members while all in their early twenties themselves claim a combined stage experience of just over twenty years. Define-D is Jon Rioux (vocals),Steve Laj (drums),Neil Landry (bass), & Dan Levis (guitar), I sat down with the entire band for a chance to bring fans in U.S. up to speed.

Maximum Ink: Are you all originally from Canada?How do you think coming from there has influenced your sound?  Who where some of your earliest influences?
Dan Levis: No…I was born in Pakistan.(laughs)
Steve Laj: Influenced? It hasn’t….. I just listened to a lot of American music.
Jon Rioux: I don’t think being Canadian “influenced” our sound, but it has sculpted our bands personality, and views of the music industry.
Neil Landry: Yeah, Canada isn’t that different from the states…you know, people get killed, people make love, people get high, and we people make music…plus, we are FLOODED with American influences from day one up here.  So, to answer your question, it was all that American content on MuchMusic (Canada’s MTV) that influenced our sound.
SL: Yeah man, I’d say 90% of my CD collection is American music.
JR:  Earliest influences? Steve Tyler. Sad to say, well no, he’s a good singer…Layne Staley, Phil Anselmo, Kurt Cobain,etc…
DL: I used to like the bee gees a lot.(laughs)
SL: Uh, Sepultura, Slipknot, Pantera…used to listen to a lot of Korn…Snot…
JR: Sevendust!
SL: Ya!
JR: Old Incubus, Pantera, Mudvayne…
DL: Talking serious??? Okay, Iron maiden, Judas priest, dimmu borgir, and uhhh fuckin pantera man haha and of course the members of this band.
NL: Fuckin Dan, youngest kid in the band crushing the oldest metal I love it. And I 100% agree with pan’fuckin’tera…RIP dime. White Zombie, Sepultura, Nirvana I guess…and Primus sucks, Claypool is a god.

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The Deftones

An interview with guitarist Stephen Carpenter of The Deftones

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Dessa

Most monocle wearing, high brow music scholars would tell you that rap and hip hop are nothing more than a senseless spat of Thom Foolery. But in Minneapolis, a group of musicians have brought the modern music of the streets to the world of academia, and rightly so. Over the past two decades, no form of music has grown in popularity and influence more than Hip Hop. I also understand that McNally Smith now has the only Hip Hop Diploma Program in the country!

No place but Minneapolis has such a diverse and groundbreaking group of rappers. Not only groundbreaking in their music, but in their actions within the community as well. This is an interview with Dessa Darling, a prominent member or the Doomtree Crew and an instructor at McNally Smith. Dessa has just released her first full length album entitled A Badly Broken Code and is currently on tour with another Minneapolis born rap powerhouse P.O.S. You can check out www.doomtree.net for more dates and info! 

MAXIMUM INK: What is your least favorite interview question?
DESSA DARLING: I like talking about rap. And I don’t mind talking about being a woman. But the question “What’s it like being a woman in hip hop?” is too broad to evoke an interesting answer. It’s like being asked, “What’s it like to be a person on Earth?” I just haven’t been anything else long enough to speak intelligently on how it might compare.

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