|
(Fall 2005) by George Dionne
What a difference a year makes. The last time I spoke with Joey Belladonna
was last summer (Read it here).
We talked about how things didn't work out with the last Anthrax reunion
attempt, we talked about the old times,
and we talked about the bickering that followed the break-up. Joey always
took the high road and said he enjoyed just being part of it. He understood
that the group did what was best for them as the musical climate was changing.
Here we are one year later and the original members of Anthrax have come
back together to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. To honor the occasion,
the group has set out on a world tour (photos),
issued a double disc CD compilation of their greatest hits (read
CD review) as well as a
DVD (read DVD review)chronicling
the videos of that particular time period. If that's not enough, they've
released a live CD from the current reunion
tour.
Is
that
enough Anthrax for ya? RIL: If I knew absolutely nothing about Anthrax how would you
describe the band’s music to me?
JB: Pretty slamming. It’s tight, it’s
fast, precise, and it has a fun element about it.
RIL: How’s the reunion tour going so far?
JB: Everything we have going right now is what you
would hope for. As far as where we are going and the longevity of it; things
are going the way
they should be going, we just take it step by step. You can’t really
go too fast.
RIL: Is it just like old times, or are you guys taking separate buses?
JB: No, we don’t take separate buses. We’re
trying to be conscious of not spending foolish money, if we even have it
to spend.
RIL: Is anything different this time around that was not there twenty years
ago?
JB: Obviously we went through a lineup change, that’s one of the big
things. At the same time I think we’re tighter, heavier, stronger,
you know that kind of thing. That’s about the most efficient thing
that I can say. Everyone is a little more concious about the economics and
business part of it all. We’re just very efficient. Over the years
you learn what to do and what not to do.
RIL: Is the band rebuilding friendships with one another or is the reunion
more a business thing?
JB: I think we are building friendships a little bit
more. I think we try, if it’s at all possible. There are days that we just don’t have
time to discuss anything more than you can afford during the day. You just
have so many things going on that people are all running around doing stuff.
You don’t have enough time to bond. We’ve been playing a lot,
but I still think if it’s just a business thing, then it becomes stale.
RIL: Did you always think in the back of your mind that this tour (reunion)
would happen?
JB: Yeah, I thought we could get back together. I didn’t know when
and if for sure, but I thought there was a good chance. I thought maybe these
guys were at a point where they would say, maybe we should try that again?
It wasn’t that bad, and we had moments of good there, so why not revisit
it? I use the term ‘why not’, but there’s no way of me
answering that. I just kept an eye on what they were doing incase there might
be a chance.
RIL: How were you contacted about the idea of the reunion?
JB: Charlie called me and brought the idea to my attention about getting
together again. Management called and arranged for Frankie and Danny to
get on board. All that took time to happen; and it just took its course
from there.
RIL: Were you apprehensive about it at first? In the past you and the band
have not always been in agreement?
JB: I wasn’t apprehensive.
RIL: Let me put it another way, they have taken some jabs at you in the
past.
JB: You know what? I don’t worry about that shit because that’s
just an opinion. What are you going to do with that kind of stuff? You can
only do what you can do, and hope for the best. You try to be conscious and
do the best you can, and hopefully it’s good enough for other people.
Again, you can’t please everybody. I was totally into playing. I wasn’t
into that stuff. It didn’t even enter my mind. I suppose if something
was really bad before like I got into fist fights with people, or I did something
dishonest to someone else, everybody’s going to be looking at me going, ‘I
don’t know about this guy’, that would be a little more of a
problem. If someone did something to me, then that would be a little harder
coming in I suppose. Nothing really happened in that context with me. It’s
more of a, ‘let’s get someone new in here and do something different’ for
what ever reason.
RIL: Has the band discussed and new song or record?
JB: There hasn’t been any discussions about any new songs or recording.
In passing you hear talk of possibilities of that stuff, but that’s
just kind of up in the air. To be specific, no one has sat around a table
and said we want to do it for sure. As it gets closer, as time goes on, it’s
a possibility. There’s really nothing definite. It still takes time
to do it, and if your going to do it and do it right and you’ve got
everything to do it right, you know when everyone’s feeling good about
doing it. It doesn’t just get handed to you. You have to get in and
start thinking about it.
RIL: Maybe the band can do a John Bush cover album and call it
The Lesser of Two Evils?
JB: The Lesser of Two Evils? Yeah, that would be very interesting. That would
be something. I would not be looking forward to it. For some reason I think
it was cool that they did some of the old stuff [with John]. There are some
really great songs there. I don’t know why, and at the same time, I
guess I shouldn’t say I wouldn’t do anything, but I would much
rather do a brand new record, instead of covering the stuff they had done
with John. It’s kind of hard for each of us to cop each other with
that kind of shit. That’s how it ends up being sometimes. I don’t
know how people end up looking at it you know.
RIL: Has the response to the tour and the catalog releases met the bands
expectations?
JB: I have no idea about that kind of thing. Are you talking about the very
new release?
RIL: Yes, the No Hit Wonders CD & DVD and the Alive
2 releases.
JB: I don’t even …just at the show you‘ve got people saying
they like it, but I don’t have a large consensus of people’s
opinions. I don’t even know what peoples views are. I’m sure
it’s pretty cool to have some stuff you know from us. At this point
of course, the live thing and remasters are not bad things to get.
RIL: Can you settle the rumor that Anthrax was contacted to play
at Ozzfest this past summer or not?
JB: I don’t know anything about Ozzfest. I know more the rumor than
anything you know. I didn’t have any discussions with anyone in particular
about it. There’s so much politics involved, it’s so hard to
tell if there was anything going on, what it was, and if at all anything
worth going into conversation about. I sounded real good after a while, so
the buzz was so big we thought we might be [on the tour]. You can’t
hold your breath on that kind of stuff. Although things would be cool if
we were on it.
RIL: You did five dates on Gigantour with Megadeth and now you’re
out with Judas Preist, have you had a chance to hang out with any of the
bands?
JB: Oh yeah. Every band on Gigantour was in our rooms
playing. They were playing cards, dice, and talking music. It was quite the
gathering. We only
did five shows, so we really didn’t get a chance to do a whole lot,
but we’re always together and everybody seemed to be bonding real well.
On the Priest tour; every once and a while you would catch someone and start
talking backstage, or during their show, or our show, or the at catering
area. We didn’t all get together as a group or a party or anything.
RIL: Do you have any interesting stories about the current tour?
JB: Funny funny stories. Hmmm. I guess there was a
brawl on the tour bus, but I was sleeping though it all so I don’t know. I couldn’t
even tell the story. Some people got hurt last night over some hot wings
if you know what I mean. I don’t know if that is funny or more like
gross.
RIL: As long as they didn’t take a #2 on the bus right?
JB: Yeah, no number #2’s on the bus. Although
there was a suspicion that someone had gotten through; either a guest or
someone that had just
forgot.
RIL: What are the touring plans after the Judas Preist tour?
JB: We‘ve got a couple of months off coming up now, and it looks like
we have a couple of gigs coming in January. I don’t know when it starts
and I don’t know when they end. We have one or two bands, and us headlining.
At that point we need to take a little time and figure what we should do,
and that is a little too far for me to speculate. We defiantly have some
ideas, but nothing is on the table yet.
RIL: Are there any newer or hard rock bands that have made an impact on
you musically?
JB: I like quite a bit of the new stuff that’s come out. I mean, new
is like old to you guys cause I’ve been out for a while. I like Sevendust,
Dark New Day, and the Foo Fighters. There are quite a few new bands that
are cool, that I dig. I like a lot of old shit too. I’m still picking
up a lot of old back catalog albums that I need cd’s of; old LP’s
that I need. I can play them on our turntables and burn them to the system
and make a cd of the album so it sounds pretty cool.
RIL: A lot of people dig the LP format.
JB: Yeah, it’s a little lower in the volume,
but I can jack it up.
RIL: I just don’t remember record player costing a hundred
bucks or more back in the day.
JB: I don’t even remember what records use
to cost!
RIL: Records were probably $7.99-$8.99.
JB: What were turntables like $79.00?
RIL: There not that price today. I think there’s a big underground
movement with records still. Do you see any bands around today that will
have the longevity that Anthrax has had? Twenty years, that’s a long
time.
JB: I don’t know man, that is a long time. I’m
not sure that’s
possible.
RIL: Not with the record industry these days?
JB: It’s so hard. I don’t really think it’s possible. I
hope there’s someone that would try to do that, because staying together
is great; it kind of sucks when you’re going from band to band to band.
RIL: So you think it’s tougher for bands to stay together?
JB: Its hard. Some people take for granted just being
in a band. I’ve
played with people so long that you can’t even stay put. They think
there is greener grass somewhere else. It’s like when you have chemistry
together, you have to roll with it. You know you have to kind of bite your
tongue, and take what you can to do it right.
RIL: When the reunion tour ends and the band decides to go separate ways,
what are your plans?
JB: I don’t know, but worse case scenario, I
will just keep plugging along writing and keep writing. I’ve got this
whole shitload of songs. It’s just putting the lineups together is
sometimes a little tricky. I’m cool with this, if we can keep it like
it is; a team effort. It’s
fun doing it. Joining another band really doesn’t thrill me right now.
I never really wanted to, even when I left.
RIL: You have an album on your website…
JB: I have three, and I have a forth & fifth one that are all demos.
They were done in my basement, which is really raw and cool, you know. I
have my first, second ,third, and those two. I’ll have them all up
on the site.
RIL: The latest one you have is an archive release that kind of goes back
to the first Belladonna record, correct?
JB: Exactly. Those two demo CDs are about twenty-six
songs that me and Paulie did. There’s another batch of fifteen or so
that I have that could be released.
RIL: Are they all songs from the first Belladonna record?
JB: Yes everything from that time, except for three
songs. It’s eight
track cassette. I like the whole session we did.
RIL: Are you redoing the demos or just releasing them as is?
JB: They are the demos, but they don’t sound like demos. I’m
not saying they sound like a million bucks, but they really sound better
than just your average demo. I thought people would be cool with it just
getting a little glimpse of what we did.
RIL: I loved the first Belladonna record.
JB: Yeah, and that was done in the studio with some
other cats. I’m
just giving another look at those sessions with the demos. It’s the
same songs, but they sound completely different in there own way, because
of the different playing. The writing was original from that point in time.
Previous Page |
JOEY
BELLADONNA
