Leatherwolf: “I’m fully satisfied with this album”
Leatherwolf is a legendary band. Big in the 1980s, disappeared for a while, and now back with a vengeance. Big time. Their latest CD, World Asylum, is metal from start to finish, thanks to new members Wade Black on vocals, Eric Halpern on guitar, Pete Perez on bass and original members Geoff Gayer on guitar and Dean Roberts on drums. I recently spoke with Dean about Leatherwolf’s past, present, and future.
BM: Hello.
DR: Hey, it’s Dean.
BM: Hi, Dean. How are you?
DR: I’m good, how are you?
BM: Doing well. Doing very well. I appreciate your time this evening.
DR: My pleasure.
BM: Let’s chat a little bit about Leatherwolf and the new album, and what audiences can expect from you guys at ProgPower.
DR: What can they expect? Play old songs and new songs, and high-energy Leatherwolf.
BM: Well, tell me about the new album, first of all. It’s fantastic. How has it been received so far?
DR: It’s been positive and negative, but you know, what can you expect when you switch out some members and you switch out the singer? Some people are gonna be happy and some people are gonna be sad.
BM: [laughs]
DR: You know, I mean some people are hooked on “The Calling” and “Hideaway,” and some people are just loving “Behind the Gun” and “King of the Ward,” you know?
BM: Yep.
DR: So, it’s better than I expected.
BM: Well, tell me about the tracks on the album here. If I mention the track titles, can you tell me kinda what’s going on with that song?
DR: In what aspect?
BM: Oh, what it’s about, where the lyrics came from, who came up with the idea or what you remember?
DR: Ok.
BM: Tell me about the opening track, “I Am the Law.”
DR: Ok. “I Am the Law,” Geoff and I wrote that, like, five years ago. Vocals were just kind of thrown together, mainly by him, and then by me. You know, it went through changes over the years. But of all the songs, that one has least of a story line that we followed.
BM: [laughs]
DR: [laughs] You know, ’cause we just got sick of that song.
BM: Really?
DR: Yeah, well it’s been frickin’ five years, so it’s, not that it’s a bad song, we just kinda got over it. It almost didn’t make the cut at the end of the day, but somebody else outside of me and Geoff picked it.
BM: Oh, that’s cool.
DR: ‘Cause we recorded 13 tunes.
BM: Oh yeah. And now there’s 10 on the album, so there’s three hanging around somewhere out there?
DR: There’s actually four, yeah.
BM: Really?
DR: Yeah.
BM: Are they ever gonna see the light of day somewhere?
DR: You never know, dude. It’s all, if the record does well, then we’ve got thousands more songs that we can draw from history. And if it doesn’t, then, you know, what can you do?
BM: Yeah, I hear you. What about track two, “King of the Ward”?
DR: “King of the Ward” was mainly written by a guy named Chris Adams, who was working with that song, you know, like four or five years ago. And Geoff came up with some of the words with him, and he came up with some of the chorus. [sings: I’m not perfect, I confess, I’m no different from the rest.”] But that’s kind of, just like a guy whose kind of sick at it, looking at his life going, “What the heck? What am I doing here?” You know? And then, going back to that line, [sings: “I’m not perfect, I confess, I’m no different from the rest.”] It’s, you know, now it’s time to get out of here, basically. And that was Geoff and Chris mainly that basically did all that song. And that’s just my take on it, but talking to Geoff, I think that’s the message they were trying to convey.
BM: Cool. What about track three, “Behind the Gun”?
DR: Geoff wrote the majority of that, and that’s just about a father and a son having a conflict. And just a bunch of little elements about that. Where somebody dies and the son wonders if the father did it.
BM: [laughs] A song with a mystery, a whodunit metal song.
DR: It’s a whodunit. Who done that?
BM: [laughs] How ’bout track four, “Live or Die”?
DR: That was mainly mine and Geoff’s melody. Geoff mainly came up with the melodies. I started to try to dick around with that one, and I just couldn’t come up with nothing, really. I came up with some pieces. But then Geoff and I sat down, Geoff already had melodies for it and he already had words for it, so we mainly did that. And I had some verses for it that kinda migrated their way in there. And Wade even had a couple of words for Geoff’s melodies. So that song was just thrown together in like two hours. And that one’s kind of about like a kingdom that was gonna rebel against the king and take over power. That’s what we started talking about as we started writing those words.
BM: What about “Disconnect”?
DR: “Disconnect.” You’re gonna have to ask Geoff about that, ’cause he wrote that whole deal from beginning to end. And my take on it was it’s about kids and computer games, and there’s just something evil in the computer that they’re battling against. You know, everyone’s gonna have a different take on it.
BM: [laughs] Yeah.
DR: I know talking to Geoff, that’s what he said, you know, when we just did an interview the other day, he was talking along those lines about that particular tune.
BM: Cool. What about “Dr. Wicked”?
DR: That’s another one that’s Geoff. I had a couple lines in there, but he wrote that about Kevorkian.
BM: Oh yeah, yep.
DR: And then, and I just threw in the one line at the very end, where it says, “Torn from the heart we are all super sick.” I tried to add something a little positive in there, about something that is not so negative.
BM: [laughs]
DR: You know, misery–I get sick of misery and hopelessness, you know?
BM: Well, yeah.
DR: But this song said to me, “There’s gotta be a reason. Why?” [laughs]
BM: Why. [laughs] Yeah, why.
DR: It basically goes, “I stepped away from my love and that’s why I’m in hell.”
BM: Yeah. [laughs] What about “Institutions”?
DR: That’s another one by Geoff, but that song’s been, you know, that song’s a good five, six years old too. And it was always the same up to the, you know where it turns into that [sings guitar riff], that came up at the end, right during the finishing of the other song, Geoff came up with that idea. And then he added all of his guitar stuff and he added his verses for the end. And that middle section was, me and him sat down, and he had some stuff that his dad had written down. That first line is something his father wrote about a story, which maybe Geoff would have a better idea what it was, I couldn’t get a grip on what it was. But it was something about something not being right in the world.
BM: Oh, you could write a lot of songs about that. [laughs]
DR: Well, there’s always a lot of that going on, but it is the way it is, man. So there must be something right about it.
BM: Yeah. True. [laughs] How ’bout “Derailed”?
DR: That’s one that Geoff came up with everything. He came up with the chorus, and he had different verses written for it, and then you know, Wade stepped in after everything was already done, and he came up with an idea just for the melodies. And so we thought, “Hey, you know, it could go either way. So we let him, “Hey, that’s good, you write the melodies.” And he wrote some of the words, Geoff wrote the chorus, I wrote some of the words, and we just pieced it together, you know, like on the spot.
BM: Yeah. Let’s see, “The Grail,” is it?
DR: Yeah, “The Grail.” That’s another song that’s, the melodies were already written. Jeff Martin from Rex Records sang it once. And but mainly, Geoff had wrote the first words, all the melodies, and then after that didn’t work out with Jeff Martin, we sat down and we changed some of the melodies. And Geoff wrote the first, the intro verses, and then I wrote the words for the rest of the song. And I kinda wrote it around the Holy Grail, just the story. You know, the hero’s adventure, and I was kind of trying to piece it together, just like The Fisher King with Robin Williams.
BM: Oh yeah, it’s a great movie.
DR: Yeah, so I was trying to you know, revolve it around that story in those particular timeframe, you know? And this was my first time actually writing words, trying to fit a story into a structure that’s already done.
BM: [laughs]
DR: So it was a little tricky, you know?
BM: Well, yeah.
DR: So that’s like one of my favorite songs, because I kinda like the, you know, the six minute songs that have tons of different part and have killer leads, like “Rise or Fall” or “Gypsies and Thieves.”
BM: Oh yeah.
DR: That’s one of my type of songs. I’m kinda glad that I got to, my story kinda stuck, it didn’t get canned.
BM: [laughs] How ’bout the last track, “Never Again.”
DR: There’s one again, Geoff already had the melodies written, and he wrote most if not all the words, and that was kind of like an Ozzy deal. You know, he was gonna do those short liners and put leads in between. But once again, it’s about hopeless and misery and gosh, what the heck, it can never get better, and blah, you know?
BM: [laughs] Gee, you don’t sound real happy about that.
DR: Well, it’s the state of affairs, man.
BM: Yeah.
DR: [laughs]
BM: [laughs] Well tell me about this album as a whole. First of all, Leatherwolf’s been around a long time. And you’re one of the original members, correct?
DR: Well, it’s not really like we’ve been around a long time. We were a band from like ‘80 to ‘89, and then we stopped being a band ’til ‘99. And we only got together for a couple weeks, to record a record and go play a show. And since then, we haven’t really been a band. We tried to get together and make a record, but the majority of the guys have, you know, real jobs. Which, me and Geoff do, but we still said, “Hey, you know, fuck it. We’re gonna finish this record.” And so we’re the only two that actually went in and did it. So it was easy to find, you know, a bass player to play some of the songs, even though Geoff had to replay five of the tunes on the record. It was just tricky finding a singer that could sing in the range we wanted to have the song sing in. And so, you know, that’s one of the reasons that it took so long to, you know, finish it up. ‘Cause Mikey [Olivieri, vocals, guitar] was, during the process Mikey was kind of in and kind of out. But then at the end of the day, he said, “Dudes, this is out of my range and I don’t really want to sing metal.”
BM: Well, yeah, I guess it’s a different sound now. Your early ’80s stuff sounds like the ’80s. It sounds like, I hate to say the phrase “hair band” sound, but it’s got the Motley Crue, Dokken, Ratt kind thing going. Now, this new album is extremely aggressive, very metal, and heavy. So I can see how you’d need a Wade Black sort of guy rather than a Mike Olivieri.
DR: Well, you know, Wade’s more of a metal singer. Mike’s got a little more melody, Mike’s got a little more–he’s a little more, well, he played with us for years and years and years before we even started recording. So you know, he had a better grip on the songs.
BM: Oh yeah.
DR: On how they should have been sang. He didn’t quite have the range, but they were still great. And if you look at our first record, I mean, a majority of it, 90% is just like these songs that we’re. It’s just as we went to Island, we had less time writing, you know, so some of the easier stuff got accepted by the labels, and we let it slide by. You know, “Hideaway,” “The Calling,” you know, “Thunder,” “Street Ready,” stuff like that.
BM: Well, what made you guys come back now? LIke you said, you haven’t really been a band since, what, ‘89 or so? Off and on.
DR: It was more just the determination to finish this record.
BM: Ok.
DR: You know, me and Geoff had started, and we said, “Ok, no matter what, we’re gonna finish it. No matter who’s in it or where it goes, we’re gonna finish it.” So that’s what we did. And what we just didn’t really think about is playing the shows. ‘Cause it’s really hard to learn that style of music with guys that live all over the United States, and have day jobs. You know? So that’s still something me and Geoff are trying to tackle right now, you know?
BM: Well, is this something that–is this a one-off gig for you? Or is Leatherwolf back to stay for a while?
DR: Well, it all depends on the dollar.
BM: [laughs] Yeah.
DR: If we can go play and it not cost money and put a couple pennies in our pockets, then we’re in. But if there is no money, ’cause there is no label, then you know, it’s a done deal.
BM: What does this feel like then, when you play gigs? You’ve played a few gigs here and there, and obviously you’re gonna be at ProgPower. Does this feel like a new chapter for you, or does this feel like, gosh, you’re playing sort of a nostalgia playlist? What does it feel like to be in the band right now.
DR: Oh, it’s a lot of fun, it’s just different getting used to playing with guys that you’ve only played with for two weeks, compared to guys that you played with for, you know, eight years. It’s a different level of playing as a unit compared to playing together for a week and then playing shows. So it’s different in that aspect, but with the new songs, the energy level is good. And Wade, Wade, he’s got a lot of energy in the way he sings and the way he, you know, plays on stage. So I mean, in a nutshell, I would say that we’re still trying to play together enough times to where we feel comfortable playing with each other.
BM: Well, I’m looking forward to seeing it live, ’cause it has an awful lot of energy on the disc. Are you finding that translates well to the stage?
DR: Well, the shows that we’ve played, the record wasn’t out, so we mainly played older tunes. And we played like two or three new tunes. So it’s–there are certain songs that are tricky because there are three guitars going on, and we don’t have that right at this particular point. But we are, we’re trying to figure out if we can financially add, get Mikey to come play, and to sing, and to have three guitars.
BM: That would be great. That was your claim to fame back then, wasn’t it? Three guitar assault?
DR: Well, I would say you were right, if I got famous.
BM: [laughs]
DR: But I never got famous, so… I guess it was our reject to fame.
BM: [laughs]
DR: You could put it that way, you could say, “Well, that’s the reason you didn’t. You know, with two guitar players you might have. Maybe if you got rid of that extra guitar tech, you might have actually been somebody.” You know, you could go on for days.
BM: [laughs] Well, how does it feel to you to be playing drums again with the band? Is it like, “Whoa, this is where I belong.” or how does it feel? What is it like?
DR: For me?
BM: Mmhm.
DR: It’s a lot funner, because I’ve been sober for a while, so now I can put 100% of my talents to playing on the record, making the record, and playing live shows. Before, I was a little bit too much of a partier, and didn’t get to be much involved in the making of the songs. You know, I just stepped in and played other people’s music. So for me, and Geoff, with me playing with Geoff and being able to write songs with him, and participate in putting it together, it’s been really exciting for me. Now the rest of the business part has been a frickin’ headache.
BM: [laughs] Oh, I can imagine.
DR: Finding a singer, fronting the shows, all that shows, that’s been kind of a headache. And that’s been the only bummer about it. But see, there’s some other good things. We’re starting to show up on the charts. On one chart, we’re number 14 for record of the year for heavy metal, for all metal, like black metal, or fucking, or frickin’ all kinds of music. In Flames got number one on that particular one. And the only two other metal bands that beat us was Beyond Fear and I forgot what the other heavy metal band was. But that’s pretty good, for, you know, we recorded this ourselves in the garage at my house.
BM: Oh really?
DR: Yeah.
BM: Well, it’s got a great sound, you did a great job. Were you also the engineer for that?
DR: I’m the–Geoff and I were both producers and engineers on this. The only thing we went out of me and him was just mixing. We flew to Denmark and mixed with Jacob Hansen.
BM: Wow. Well, what have you been doing then, between–you must have stayed pretty close to the music scene if you can–
DR: No. I haven’t played drums from ‘98 to ‘99. I didn’t ever play a drum set.
BM: Really? Just for that year, or from ‘99 until now?
DR: From ‘89 to ‘99 I never played a drum set. And from ‘99 to now, I just played drums on a couple of shows. And when me and Geoff did this, put this record together, we just sat in a room and played on a little trigger set to piece the songs together. And then when it came to recording–see, that’s the thing, it’s not like we rehearsed these songs. We just put them together and sat behind a computer, and I figured out what I wanted to play. Then I set up my drums and I recorded them. So that’s how this particular thing went through. It’s just recently I started preparing to play live shows, and frickin’ trying to polish up my drumming ability.
BM: How has it been for you? Is it like riding a bike, it just all comes back?
DR: You pick up where you left off, but you know, it’s changed a lot. You know, there’s a lot more killer drummers out there that know a lot of stuff. I bought some drum videos and just learned some of their techniques, ’cause they’re phenomenal musicians. So I’ve been just–in a way it is like starting over, because when I was younger, I didn’t really take it as seriously as I am now, trying to master my trade, you know?
BM: Had you kept up listening to music over the periods of time after Leatherwolf stopped? What did you do? Did you just quit music entirely?
DR: I just quit music entirely. ‘Cause you know, we kind of had a sour ending to Leatherwolf, and I just sat back and figured out, “What do I want to do? Do I want to play for another band, or do I just want to get a career and make some money?” And I just decided, you know, I’m more the type that likes to just play with one group of guys. And I didn’t really want to get into meeting new guys, playing in a new band as a hired gun, and having to deal with this stuff and saying, “I don’t even like these guys.”
BM: [laughs] Yeah. Wow.
DR: Kinda like that.
BM: So this album then, could be a pivot point for your career and your life, then, couldn’t it? Or is it set up to where if it doesn’t work, it’s no big deal?
DR: Yeah, if it doesn’t work, it’s no big deal. I don’t–I’m a roofer, I have a roofing company, which is aka Professional Tanning. [pause] You missed that, huh?
BM: That’s great, I love that. [laughs]
DR: [laughs] He’s a roofer, he’s a professional tanner. You know, margarita and a frickin’ lounge chair. “Hey go get that row. That row’s crooked. Straighten up there, buddy! Jesus, I’ll have to fire your ass!” So you know, it’s only that through my company where we were able to fund this. And you know, be able to make it happen. Yeah, ‘cause we got no love from the labels, we got no love from anybody. You know, everybody said we were finished and done and over the hill, you know, just live off your history. And me and Geoff said, you know, “Fuck that shit, man. There’s still miles of music left in us. And now we’re a little bit older.” And that was the weird thing for me, we got older and we wrote heavier. That’s weird, you know, I mean, no one does that.
BM: Yeah.
DR: And even people that work with us, they said, “Dude, you’re not gonna be able to top “Rise or Fall,” or frickin’ “Gypsies and Thieves” and you know, “Black Knight” and all that junk.” And they heard the record, and they go, “Dude. This is good.” [laughs] “You guys are good, you proved me wrong. You still got it.”
BM: So how does this feel to have accomplished this? Is this like a big thing for you, or is it just one thing along a string of a whole bunch of them? Do you have a great feeling from this album?
DR: I’m fully satisfied with the song writing, I’m fully satisfied with the performances on the record. I’m still concerned that we can’t rehearse as much as I’d like and get this thing nailed down to where we come to the shows, and we, you know, just kill it. If this thing takes off, we’re going to be able to get into our top performance and be able to smoke.
BM: So, between now and ProgPower in September, are you guys getting together a lot to rehearse?
DR: Yeah, me and Geoff and the bass player are. The guitar player right now lives in Texas and Wade lives in Florida, and we got three shows the weekend before ProgPower. Or I guess two weekends before ProgPower, we’re gonna you know, play together as a band. And then when we come to ProgPower, we’re gonna sit in the studio for a full day and make sure that we can deliver. Work out any problems that we have reproducing what we’re doing.
BM: Well, of the albums, of the groups that are out there right now, do you listen to any of them? Are any of them like inspiration to you, or do you pretty much keep focused on Leatherwolf and don’t listen to other things?
DR: I don’t really listen to that much other kind of music. Geoff does, he’s got his finger on certain bands, like Children of Bodom. He likes the guys that are just phenomenal guitar players, and that write melodies, that are actually good musicians.
BM: Oh yeah.
DR: And that was one, that was up on the top. And there were a couple more that he was saying he really liked. I’m not sure what Wade listens to and what Eric does.
BM: How does–
DR: But even writing these songs, it wasn’t like we were trying to be somebody else or trying to copy some other style. We just sat down and you know, Geoff would come up with a melody, or he would sit in his room for a few days and come up with some melodies, and we would piece them together, I mean a rhythm. And he would sit back and come up with the melodies.
BM: I was gonna ask you something about your earlier albums. At one point on your web site you had them remastered, rereleased, first three CDs. Are those still around anymore? or are they out of print?
DR: No, I got ‘em.
BM: You still have them for sale?
DR: Mmhm.
BM: Do you really? Wow?
DR: Yeah.
BM: How could someone get a hold of them, like myself? How do I get them from, do you have like a web site where you sell them?
DR: You just go to Leatherwolf music [www.leatherwolfmusic.com], and then you e-mail the web master, and then you place the order, and you pay for it, and we send them out to you. We get some random ones. It’s not like a big demand. There’s more of a demand in Europe.
BM: Cool. Well, I’ll do that then. I like the downloads here and there, the couple of tracks you feature from each one. It sounds great. I love that sound, by the way. I love the old Leatherwolf sound a lot. I like the new one too, but there’s something about that sound from the ’80s for example, maybe I’m just stuck there, but I love that guitar sound. There’s a tone and a style back then that I really enjoy. So it’d be great–
DR: Well, yeah. Those all, Mike and Carey [Howe, guitarist] got together, it’s just some chemistry, you know? I mean, it’s rare you get guys that have known each other for frickin’, I mean that stay together for the length that they did and you know, write music. I’m sure they got, it’s like a friendship, you’ve got something special.
BM: Do you still keep in touch with the guys?
DR: Yeah. I talk to Mikey all the time, we’re in the middle of trying to make a greatest hits Leatherwolf record, and update the recordings, and just re-record our like, 14 favorite songs. And rerelease a record.
BM: This is looking pretty good then. I like what I’m hearing. It sounds like it could be a turning point musically. If this think keeps going the way it’s going with reviews and sales and everything. How are sales going, by the way?
DR: I’m not sure. It’s only been out for a month so we don’t really know. I see tons of reviews, and there’s tons of good ones and tons of bad ones.
BM: [laughs]
DR: Everyone’s comparing it to the old Leatherwolf. So some of the ones that are stuck in “Hideaway” and “The Calling” days, that was their favorite Leatherwolf song, so they’re kinda not liking the new stuff.
BM: Well, for somebody like me who only heard a little bit of Leatherwolf in the ’80s, I’m hearing this brand new, I’m liking what I’m hearing just for what it is now. I have nothing to compare it to. It sounds as good as or better than anything out there, so if anything ought to make it, it ought to be this.
DR: Well, are there any other records out this year you like, metal wise?
BM: A lot of bands that are going to be at ProgPower have some great albums out. Mercenary’s got a great sound.
DR: Yeah.
BM: Great band.
DR: So where would you put this record compared to their record?
BM: It’s got a different tonality to it. Mikkel Sandager has a great voice. More melodic than Wade’s perhaps. He can do the growly thing or the screaming thing, but he’s got a really nice melodic voice as well. And their guitar tone is considered one of the best in metal.
DR: Yeah.
BM: They have some good arrangements. They’ve been around longer as a band than this incarnation of Leatherwolf, so they’ve got a leg up on ya.
DR: Yeah. Well, see that’s the thing, is Geoff and I wrote and played most everything on that record, except for the singing. And that was all written mainly by Geoff. So it’s not like somebody new came in and wrote stuff. So that’s one of the good things about it. It stayed more close to Leatherwolf’s style. It wasn’t an outside writer coming in adding their flavor. Which might have been better or it might have been worse.
BM: [laughs] Tell me about the cover of this album. I’ll just ask you another question, then I’ll let you get back to life there. But how involved were you with choosing the artwork for the cover?
DR: Geoff and I were both involved, and we just went to a–we had on the internet, we had a couple of guys sending us some stuff. And it was ok. But at the end of the day, we talked to Joe Floyd, the warrior dude who’s our friend who helped mix one of the songs and record some of the vocals. And he turned us on to this guy named Richard. And Richard, we went and sat with him, and we told him what we wanted. We wanted something about good and evil, and it started off with having someone walking a tightrope, and you know, with good on one side and evil on the other side. And then we thought, “Well, “King of the Ward” might be the name of the album.” So someone in an insane asylum, who, he’s gone beyond his own knowledge of how miserable his life is, and he’s actually, he’s the king. And so, we just told him that, and then we came back a week later, and that was the drawing right there. And then you look at his face, and it’s like he’s saying, “I am the king.”
BM: [laughs] Yeah.
DR: [laughs] “I am the king.”
BM: Yeah.
DR: And we go, “Dude, that’s killer. It’s simple, you know, it relates to the record.” So that was the cover. We put the grail on the back, to be, you know, the hopeful side of it.
BM: [laughs] Well it is, it’s a striking cover. It’s a little creepy. It reminds me of the Iron Maiden cover, what was it, The X Factor. Something like that. It is an interesting cover.
DR: Well, yeah. I mean, he’s, it’s like you start looking at it and you can’t stop looking at it, you know? It draws you in, and you’re like, “Holy Jesus, I can’t sleep in the same room with that record.”
BM: [laughs]
DR: “I’ve gotta put in somewhere that’s safe or it’s gonna come get me.” [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
DR: You know what I mean?
BM: Yeah.
DR: You’re just going, “Wow, that’s weird.” It’s weird and it’s rare to get a drawing that just, you’re just like, just sucks you right in.
BM: [laughs] Well, do you guys have some more music in you right now? What, whether or not you do another album, are you like energized and creating something right now? Do you have ideas for something else?
DR: We haven’t been sitting down, thinking about the next record. We’re just trying to keep this thing together in case it does take off, so we can actually go out and you know, perform it as it should be performed. And Geoff, he’s a phenomenal songwriter, so he’s got tons of stuff in his bag, you know? So we’re not really worried about coming up with other stuff.
BM: Good.
DR: So we’ve got tons of stuff, if things do work out.
BM: Well let’s hope it does, then. I’d like to see the next album from you guys.
DR: Yeah.
BM: [laughs] And you would too, I bet, huh?
DR: Well, it would be nice to, you know, make money playing music instead of tanning, you know?
BM: [laughs]
DR: ‘Cause there’s always the risk of cancer, you know?
BM: Yeah, well, that’s true.
DR: Yeah. Especially with this weather.
BM: Yeah, wasn’t it hotter than hell out there right now, is that the deal?
DR: Oh, it’s way too hot. I did a job in LA, and it was just frickin’ brutal. You had to keep moving or your feet would burn.
BM: Geeze!
DR: It was just that hot on the roof.
BM: Well, yeah, I don’t envy that. The tanning part would be cool, but, you know, dying in the heat, I’m not into that. [laughs]
DR: Who is? But I got bills to pay.
BM: Yeah, that’s true, that’s true. Well, Dean, I appreciate your time this evening. I’ll transcribe it and put it up on the Notes From the Other Side web site, and let the ProgPower people know on their forum. But…
DR: Hey, did you grab one of the pictures from that web site?
BM: Yeah, I think so. I’ve got them here, I’ve got them in my e-mails right here. I’m going to post them up on the Notes site, if that’s all right with you.
DR: Which picture did you pick?
BM: Well, let me see. I’ve got them right here, let me take a look. There was one you sent me of you guys out looking at a vast audience, a shot from behind you looking out. Where was that taken?
DR: That was Bang Your Head.
BM: Wow, what was it like to play that?
DR: It was just fun, you know. Once again, I wasn’t really thinking about that, I was more concerned about just nailing the songs, you know, playing them good.
BM: [laughs]
DR: ‘Cause it was the first time that band’s ever played in front of a crowd like that. We’d only played two other shows prior, you know? And you know, we rehearsed for a week, played two shows and went to Europe to play that show. So I just was concerned that we played it well, you know?
BM: Well, let me look through those pictures again, I’ll let you know which one looks cool and I’ll put it up.
DR: Yeah, call me, and I’ll give you more. If you need like a 300 dpi, let me know, and I’ll show you where to get them.
BM: That would be great. That’d be really cool, to get some. I’d like to post as many as you have to give me, I’ll put them up on the site.
DR: Well here, let me forward something to you.
BM: Ok. Dean, I appreciate your time.
DR: Yeah, thank you.
BM: Thank you. Bye bye.
DR: Bye.
You can find Leatherwolf CDs by visiting their official web site, which is www.leatherwolfmusic.com, or by visiting Amazon. And, of course, for the real deal, be sure to be at the ProgPowerUSA Pre-Party show put together by the one and only Shane Dubose. Leatherwolf is hungry and ready to kick some major booty!
