Dwayne - Chris Fogal on his new project with Andy Tanner (New Noise Magazine #14 -Dec 2014) - Damian Burford: Freelance Writer/Podcaster from Denver, CO & Napa, Ca

Dwayne – Chris Fogal on his new project with Andy Tanner (New Noise Magazine #14 -Dec 2014)

Editor’s Note: This is the raw draft of the interview published by New Noise Magazine. This draft has not been seen by an editor. There will be errors.

Chris Fogal must not like his haircut, because this is a man of many hats. He’s the lead guitarist and vocalist for the vastly underrated pop-punk band The Gamits, and the lead guitarist for TaunTaun, now a Denver metal institution. On top of those two bands, Fogal owns and operates one of Denver’s premier recording studios, Black And Bluhm. It’s there that we chat with Fogal about his newest project, Dwayne with Andy Tanner from Laymen Terms, Andy Thomas from Tin Horn Prayer and Switzerland’s Michael Marti from Goodbye Fairbanks.

Fogal, you already have The Gamits and TaunTaun. What do you get out of starting another band?

Well, TaunTaun doesn’t do much anymore and the Gamits had just finished a bunch of touring overseas so it seemed like the perfect time to do the Dwayne thing. I really needed to write some stuff that had nothing to do with either of the other bands. I also have a new band from Switzerland called Midrake in which I play the drums so I’m up to 4! In January it looks like I might be in 5 bands!

You’ve known both Andy’s for years with Tanner being from Laymen Terms and Thomas from Only Thunder and Tin Horn Prayer, how did Michael Marti come into the mix of things?
Michael is our Swiss friend that I have been touring with for about 13 years on and off. We are super tight and even go on vacations together and stuff. We always talked about doing a band together so it was him and I that started Dwayne. Originally it was gonna be the two of us with acoustics so we could just have an excuse to get in a car and drive all over Europe eating food and partying. It became a whole band later when the songs started coming together. That’s when I called on the Andy’s to join the party.

Recording technology has advanced so far and so drastically over the last few years, you can do almost anything without being in the same room. You own your own studio with Denver’s Black in Bluhm, What stops you from having more Frankenstein projects such as this one?Well nothing really. Right now I’m beginning collaboration with a couple buddies. I shouldn’t spill the beans until it actually happens but one of them is in the middle east and one is in California so yeah, there are no limits these days!

With your other bands having such exciting and memorable names, why did you drop the ball with Dwayne?

I never thought the Gamits was a very good name but at the time we came up with Dwayne I was pretty drunk and I wanted a name that raised no expectations and was not serious in any way. I asked my friend Dan something like ” what’s a stupid name from the 70’s or 80’s?” and the first thing he said was Dwayne! I don’t know why but I thought it was super funny and out of the whole list of potential names it just stuck.

What are the future plans for Dwayne? How are you going to pull off double duty on a Gamits/Dwayne tour?

We just got some great news on the label front and the tour front so in November we do a short midwest tour with both bands, then it looks like the album won’t be out until January so we will do some more USA shows after that. Then we head to Europe for Greotzrock and at least three weeks of tour over there. That’s not until May so there are no plans past that. I’d like to record more soon. Oh, we will also have a flexi vinyl record in November with a B side not on the album and a couple downloads that are on the album so there’s that.

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BoySetsFire’s Nathan Gray on While A Nation Sleeps (New Noise Magazine #02 – May 2013)

July 20, 2022 No Comments

Editor’s Note: This is the raw draft of the interview published by New Noise Magazine. This draft has not been seen by an editor. There will be errors. BoySetsFire have ended their radio silence and returned to unleash upon us While a Nation Sleeps. This is the band’s first release in seven years, although vocalist Nathan Gray is quick to mention that he has been busy with other projects during that downtime such as I AM HEARSAY and THE CASTING OUT. While not playing music, Nathan has formerly worked as an employment consultant for people with disabilities. At the moment he is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) representative on a Coast Guard yard, “watching people work.” It was there on the Coast Guard yard on his lunch break that Nathan stopped to talk about the upcoming record. In a press release you spoke that “We didn’t want to do this record, we had to do it. Something inside us still ached and we needed to share it with you.” Some writers describe themselves as conduits for the universe at large. So for this record, are you a conduit or does this come from another place within you? I’m not a big fan of hocus pocus. I don’t believe the universe is doing this to me. I believe that my own dysfunction does this to me. I believe that’s what it is for all musicians and artists is their own feeble dysfunctions, which others can see as very cool. [Laughter] I believe that a lot of musicians and artists were pushed by a dark force, to an extent, that is inside us. That’s why we do it. It’s to let out those demons. I feel that most artists and musicians, if they do not do that, they will end up killing themselves or somebody else in the process. That is our psychology couch. I go to music. I go to what we do with BoySetsFire and with my other bands, to get out what I need to get out and be a well adjusted person. Or at least as well adjusted as humanly possible. I think for us it is more desperation that being a conduit. Listening to the new record, I’ve found that the new album is both angrier and mellower than the older albums. Does it feel that way to you? I do think it is mellow and angry all at once. That is just sort of who we are. We have a maturing process. I find that at the same time that as you mature and get older, you don’t always completely mellow out on some things. You almost get more pissed as you get older. “Really? It’s 2013 and this shit is still going on?!?” [Laughs] It’s bizarre how certain topics and things can be relevant for SO. FUCKING. LONG. You just look around and there is hysteria and stupidity everywhere. At the same time with a lot of things, there is a mellowing out, that I especially feel with our more melodic songs, that’s more of us fitting into our style. That’s what we became in a lot of ways with our more melodic sound. That IS BoySetsFire’s melodic sound. I don’t think we’ll ever refine our heavy style. With every album the heavier songs sound different from every album to album. As with the more melodic songs, seem to follow a certain path. I’m not quite sure why that is. It does seem to be working that way. I guess we have found our way for the more melodic songs and it just comes naturally and our heavy songs come naturally, but in this weird schizophrentic way. They are always different, all the fucking time, and every fucking album. Does the anger ever go away? It comes and goes, ebbs and flows. It is what it is. If it didn’t, I would be psychotic. [Laughter] If you’re always angry or always happy, there is always something wrong with you. [Laughter] I think that’s why BoySetsFire comes off so schizophrentic at times. It’s so up and down and up and down and happy and sad and angry and glad. That’s why it comes off that way. I really enjoyed the Charlie Chaplin quotes from the film The Great Dictator used in the album. In particular the quote: “You must speak.” “I Can’t.” “That is our only hope.” With BoySetsFire you have ultimately become a speaker for the speechless. You’ve spoken that BoySetsFire has saved your life though the voice that it has given you. What attracts you to being that voice? I don’t know if I could even tell you. It’s not natural. I think a lot of times self preservation is a lot more natural than to speak out. At the same time, You have to think that in some ways, speaking out and speaking for others is in a way self serving. It works for some people and it doesn’t work for others. Some people, it gives them a good feeling and makes them feel like they are accomplishing something. That in some way they are preserving their own freedoms by helping others with theirs. I feel like that is where my empathy comes from, to an extent. I do feel empathy for people. It’s a natural thing that comes about, while at the same time there is this knowledge that that empathy comes from a very natural place. It’s not some kind of artistic, fancy cosmic thing. It’s something that some people just have. You have it in you and it’s this driving force, just like self preservation. They are connected. When you fight for other people’s freedoms, when you reach out and touch someone else’s life. Well, in a lot of ways that comes back for you and the society you live in. How does the gratitude of a listener who has been helped by your music effect you? Of course if effects me positivity. It’s an honor.

Vintage Interviews: A Wilhelm Scream/Smackin’ Isaiah interview from circa 2005. Black Sheep. Colorado Springs.

August 27, 2021 No Comments

Originally published in Mostly Harmless Magazine #0 & reprinted for Mostly Harmless Magazine #1. This interview has also been published as a Mostly Harmless Podcast episode. This is a Vintage interview with A Wilhelm Scream circa 2005. This interview took place in Colorado Springs at the building that would eventually become the home to THE BLACK SHEEP. The interview was one of the first interviews, where I was finding my footing. Learning to banter and jump back and forth. I look back at this interview and it reads like AWS were such assholes, and years later I reconnected with their touring guitarist Curtis Lopez and it turns out the guys were huge dicks at this early point in their career, but who wasn’t a huge dick in their 20’s? But what I remember of that night, was being madly in love with this little band since their previous adventures in Colorado Springs with Pinhead Circus a few years earlier, when the band was still touring as Smackin’ Isaiah. AWS showing up in Colorado Springs during this particular summer was just what I needed to jump back into my hobby of interviewing bands, after a few years of depression inspired sabbatical. I loved this interview. I had so much fun bantering with the fellas. I had so much fun being shit talked by Nuno to ask questions faster! I was hanging out with my heroes. This interview was published on Myspace before becoming the center piece of Mostly Harmless Magazine Issue #0, before being reprinted in Mostly Harmless Magazine Issue #1 in 2005. While on Myspace, I took the audio from this interview and turned it into what would be a prototype for the eventual Mostly Harmless podcast, in fact the very first Mostly Harmless Podcast episode is this interview, along with an interview with THE ERGS, to show people what I was going for with Mostly Harmless. Thank you to Nuno Pereira, Christopher Levesque & Curtis Lopez for taking the time to talk with an awkward 24 year old kid as he was just discovering his love of PBR and harassing bands with questions. This interview helped my life take off into the direction to the place that I am today. I will be forever grateful to AWS for this night, the memories and all the great shows I’ve witnessed them at in the last 20 years. Want to listen to the audio of this interview? Download the Mostly Harmless Podcast preview episode from: https://mostlyharmlesspodcast.com/flashback-episode-1-w-a-wilhelm-scream-the-ergs/ Thank you to Nuno Pereira, Christopher Levesque & Curtis Lopez for taking the time to talk with an awkward 24 year old kid as he was just discovering his love of PBR and harassing bands with questions. This interview helped my life take off into the direction to the place that I am today. I will be forever grateful to AWS for this night, the memories and all the great shows I’ve witnessed them at in the last 20 years. Want to listen to the audio of this interview? Download the Mostly Harmless Podcast preview episode from: https://mostlyharmlesspodcast.com/flashback-episode-1-w-a-wilhelm-scream-the-ergs/ —————— “The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect first recorded in 1951 for the movie Distant Drums. It has been featured in dozens of movies since. …It is probably the most well-known cinematic sound cliché.” -Answers.comThere is nothing “stock” sounding about the unconventional band known to the world as A Wilhelm Scream. With their gripping melodies and invigorating guitar parts of punk, metal and jazz, AWS burst onto the scene in 2002 as Smackin’ Isaiah, with their release, “Benefits of Thinking Out Loud,” on Jump Start records. Shortly after, CHRIS LEVESQUE joined the band and that’s when everything, including their name, changed. They signed up with Nitro Records and recorded “MUTE PRINT” in 2004 with the Blasting Room crew of Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore. After years of relentless touring, June 2005 found the band back in Colorado Springs, supporting The Lawrence Arms. The following interview transpired after several, SEVERAL alcoholic beverages … (thanks to Willow for editing this for me…) Nuno: Check. Check. One. Two. Nuno Pereira. Lets go. Fucking do this shit. Drink beers.That’s Nuno. Who are you?Chris: I’m Chris, dawg.Cobra: Cobra.Chris: AKA Rabbit, AKA Rookie of the Year.Cobra: Or just Curtis.Chris: AKA Tiffany. Cobra, how long you been in the band. You’re new, huh?Cobra: 3 months? You don’t know any of the songs off of … Umm …Chris: “Benefits Of Thinking Out Loud.”Cobra: No, No, and if I knew I was going to be getting so much shit every day… I would have fucking learned the whole thing.Nuno: It was a tough regiment …Chris: When I joined the band, everyone wanted to hear shit off of “A Way to A Girl’s Heart is Though Her Boyfriend’s Stomach.” So I know exactly how you feel.Cobra: I will learn it, I promise.Chris: They were all like “Play ‘Bowling.’” and I don’t know that shit. I know why you guys changed your name, but why did you guys change your name?Chris: Because Smackin’ Isaiah was a SHITTY name.Nuno: You heard it here first. Chris is fucking correct. It was a terrible name. Thank you Chris for joining the band and giving us a fresh start.Cobra: When I first heard of the band …Chris: Nobody liked the idea of A Wilhelm Scream. And I pushed that shit, so hard, until other people liked it.Nuno: And he always pushes hard, by the way, ladies.Chris: Yeah. Really hard.Nuno: Next question, next question. Next question.Cobra: Wait, wait, wa …Nuno: No!Chris: No waiting!Nuno: Next Question!Cobra: I thought it was a ska band when I first heard the name.Nuno: SHUT UP FUCKING ROOKIE!Chris: Ease up, Rabbit So what kind of confusion did you guys run into? ‘Cause when I was looking for Smackin’ Isaiah, I fell in love with you guys. Last time you were here, I was looking for Smackin’ Isaiah. And I was wondering what the fuck happened to you guys… Now you are A Wilhelm Scream…Nuno: We tour

Facebook Archives: I started Zoloft and So Can You.

April 25, 2023 No Comments

I just wanted to put this out there for those who struggle in silence, so that those can know they are not alone and if this buffoon here can work to make himself a better person, so can you.