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(Winter 2005) by George Dionne
Allele was formed in 2002 by vocalist Wally Wood and guitarist Lane Maverick.
A chance meeting led to the recruitment of ex-Cold guitarist Kelly Hayes.
It wasn't long before Allele found themselves in the recording studio working
on their debut album Point of Origin (read
CD review).
The album was released in late 2005, and Allele has been on tour ever since.
RIL: If I knew absolutely nothing about Allele, how would you describe
the band’s music to me?
WW: Well, we have to be political. We can’t call it a fat lady in a
cocktail dress, so we are just…we’ll describe the music as being
very…it has a lot of the typical things in it. It’s has melody,
it has speed, and it has riffs and all that, but the best way to describe
it is just real just rock. Everyone asks that question. I could just ramble
on for hours. I’m really tongue tied right now.
RIL: What style would you consider your music to be then? Would
you say it’s metal or hard rock?
WW: I would just consider it hard rock; just hard rock with little taste
of metal. You know what I mean?
RIL: How and when did the band form?
WW: It was 2002, Lane and I were in a previous band before this, and broke
off from the band and started Allele. We just jammed for a few years, just
going through people and playing shows just to get the name out there.
We were with our previous drummer and bass player for two years, and then
a little over a year ago we changed the members. We got a new bass player
and new drummer a year ago.
RIL: Allele have been together for three years or so, how did the opportunity
to record your first album Point of Origin come about?
WW: We decided to pick up and move to Long Beach for
a few months. Len played with Billy Carver and he lives out there, so we
hung out with Billy and checked
out what was going on. We were at the Rainbow out there and ran into Thom
Hazaert one night. Kelly was with us that night, and Thom used to work with
Cold a few years back. We just let him know what was going on, and Thom had
just started a new label with a couple bands on it. [Kelly] introduced us,
and despite everything else that was going on, we liked what Tom had to offer,
so we went with it.
RIL: What was it about Corporate Punishment Records that attracted you?
WW: It’s a lot of the personal attention that
you get, a lot of the creative freedom, and the ability for marketing. Obviously
the royalties
that we are getting on the record are incredible.
RIL: Did you shop the material to other labels or was this it?
WW: We shopped it to a couple of people. [A few of
them] said that we were looking at a year and a half of just demo-ing, plus
the label would be
picking what songs were to be on the record. We didn’t want to sit
around for a year and a half just playing in a sand box. What [Thom] was
offering was so much better.
RIL: Do you think that Kelly Hayes brought a lot of the Cold sound
into the group’s music?
WW: Cold’s sound?
RIL: Yes, you know that Cold has a particular sound.
WW: As far as that particular sound that Cold has,
Kelly gave it to them. It was just Kelly. Do you know what I’m saying? The drummer and myself
don’t sound anything like them, and Kelly is not going to change
his particular style of guitar playing because he’s in another band.
He actually had to play a lot more guitar than he normally does. Cold never
really had all these leads and things. He’s really able to expand
more than when he was in Cold I think.
RIL: Did everyone contribute to the song writing or did everyone
just bring in ideas?
WW: Everybody brings in ideas, but primarily Lane
or myself do most of the idea presenting. Everyone just throws their parts
into it. We don’t
write the drum part, we don’t write the bass part, we don’t tell
each other what to play. We just project the idea of the song and we all
click to what he and I are usually saying. The way that we bring it to them,
we all click and everyone gets it. It usually comes out the way that we thought.
RIL: Are there any songs that you had to leave off the new album?
WW: Yes there was one that we did record, "Covered
in Anger," which I really wish we could have put on the record, but I think
we’ll
get it out on the next one. We play it out live.
RIL: Have you considered putting it on your website?
WW: We’re starting to be on the web a lot now,
so it will probably end up happening. It would be cool to do some kind of
bonus track on [Point
of Origin] when they print some more. Hopefully on the next print we can
add a few things to it.
RIL: Like a special edition?
WW: We would want to put the video on there too. That was the original plan;
the video, an acoustic song, and that track. We planned on putting them
on there originally, but time got a little short. It will give us something
to do with the next batch.
RIL: Which song do you do acoustically?
WW: It’s just a matter of us picking one.
RIL: So you pretty much have done them all acoustically?
WW: Yeah, we have so many songs.
RIL: Do you ever do any covers?
WW: No, no covers. We were thinking of doing one just for the fun of it,
but we enjoy playing what we actually write.
RIL: You’ve been touring the U.S. in support of the album since its
release. You’re almost always paired up with other Corporate Punishment
artists. Why is that?
WW: It just the matter of relationships. You wouldn’t want to go out
with someone that you’ve never met when you could go out with guys
that you have long friendships with, and are on your label, and play great
music.
RIL: Wouldn’t it be more in the labels interest to put all
of their artist out on one particular tour, so they can keep costs down?
WW: I’m not sure. I have no idea about that.
I just think it would be easier to put two or three bands from your label
out together because
it just gels better. There are no jealous attitudes or anything like that.
In fact, the other bands with us right now are in the same vehicle. Everyone
gets along great.
RIL: Do you plan on touring overseas at all?
WW: We would love to, believe me. We would drop what
we are doing in a heartbeat. We are trying to work on that, but it’s
a matter of making the right connections and getting it done. We have a lot
of fans in Germany, Australia,
the UK, and Spain.
RIL: They’re rabid rock fans over there.
WW: No kidding! We would love to go over there, and
if we get the opportunity, we’re gone.
RIL: What did you do before Allele?
WW: You name it; salesman, mechanic, office worker; sitting in a cubical
all day training people everyday. That was horrible.
RIL: Does Allele make it possible for you to not have to work a day job?
WW: It’s one of those things that you have to cut certain things and
jump right into it, and that’s what we’re doing. Our goal is
to not be home long enough to even get a job. We’re trying to do this
the smart way and work as hard as possible, so we don’t have to do
that. That’s what everyone wants to do.
RIL: You mentioned a special edition of Point of Origin earlier,
but are you writing material for a new album?
WW: No, we’re just concentrating on spilling
our guts out on tour. If we needed to, we would have more than enough material
to fill another
album.
RIL: Left over from the first album sessions?
WW: We’ve probably got thirty to forty songs
that are written. Writing is very, very easy for this band.
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WALLY
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