W.A.S.P

W.A.S.P. "30 Years Of Thunder" - Part Thirteen

Missed last months? no problem click HERE to read - W.A.S.P. - "30 Years of Thunder" Parts 1-12

“ALRIGHT LUKE…TIME TO GET IN THE BOX”

The “Neon God” records had left a bad taste in my mouth. There were some very good songs on both of those records but in my effort to try and better The Crimson Idol I made the story too long and too complicated. It rambled in parts and was incredibly painful to make. There were times I’d even find myself getting lost in the story. So when it was over I told myself NO MATTER WHAT, I’m just going to RELAX and whatever happens on the next record, well, then that’s what will happen….good or not!!!...

I refused to beat myself up making records anymore. And astonishingly because of my mind set it came easy. Funny how sometimes when you just get totally fed up with struggling it starts to get easier. That’s what happened with what would become “Dominator”. Duda and I were now the core of the Band and the first thing we needed was a drummer. We met Mike Dupke from the guitarist of Kill Devil Hill, Mark Zavon. We auditioned Mike and the first thing I wanted to hear him do was “The Real Me”. We had auditioned several drummers, many that are now in big name bands and none of them could really play that song. It has a high degree of difficulty and not many can play it. We watched him carefully that night and I knew within the first 2 minutes he was the guy for us. As a rhythm section he and Duda were a perfect fit for each other, both musically and personally.

“Mikey” as we call him, came from a formal background in music. Properly trained and schooled not only in drums but in many forms of classically oriented music. Not since Frankie (Banali) had I worked with a drummer that had his level of understanding not just drums, but music in general. His contributions would prove to be invaluable in the records we would make. After the audition I asked him if he had a job or anything that would prevent him from touring with us. He said, “well I do have a crappy day job right now”. I said, ‘Friday will have to be your last day of work’!!

I then asked Doug (Blair) if he was available. As many of you know he had done the “Crimson Idol” tour with us in 92”. Doug has one the greatest senses of melody of any guitar player I know. He’s a good singer so that’s a lot of what gives him that sense of being able to construct memorable and melodic leads. I told David Gilmore once that he was my favorite guitar player and I asked him how he constructed his leads. He said, “I’m a singer, I think like a singer, so the guitar in that sense is really an extension of my voice”. It made perfect sense to me !!

If you listen to the leads Doug has played on “Dominator” and “Babylon” I would say there is not one guitarist in our genre of music that has out performed him on records.

As you probably know, Mike Duda has been in W.A.S.P. longer than anyone except myself. There’s a reason for that. When he first came in the Band he was there mainly for his live performance and his bass playing was excellent. For many musicians the recording studio is another animal altogether. They may be great on stage but cannot develop a true sense of identity in the studio. In other words, find their true style, something that makes them uniquely their own. It took me years to do it. Nobody and I mean NOBODY needs to tell Duda how to perform live….he’s a natural!!

But like myself it took him time to find himself in the studio. He has grown in the studio and I would now put him in the category with anybody working in recording studios today. He also has this great gift of being able to tell me immediately if an idea for a song I’ve come up with is any good or not. He instinctively knows!! But honestly, when we make records now, I will occasionally walk in the studio and see what he’s doing but I basically leave him alone cause I know he knows what he wants to do. Makes life a whole lot easier for me !!!

Now I’ve told you how great they all are (which they are!!)…on to “Dominator”.

If you look closely at what I’ve written here about these guys as musicians you can clearly tell. This is a TRUE BAND. Complete with their own ideas of how to construct their parts. I would say, without a doubt, neither “Dominator” or “Babylon” would have come close to being the records they are without the contributions of every single one of us. Never in my career has this been the case before….EVER!!!

One thing you will notice on the liner notes on “Dominator” is something we give special thanks to called ‘Luke’s Box”. I’m sure many of you in the last few years may have wondered what is “Luke’s Box”. We were making the recording an old abandoned storage container on the property where I was living in at the time. It was in the summer of 06’ and we were having a record setting heat wave in Southern California. It had NO air conditioning and was unbelievably hot in this “steel oven” we were making the record in.

To make things worse, I had to be isolated from the rest of the studio when I was doing vocals so there would be no sound leaking into the vocal tracks. This meant we had to build a box inside another box. Guess who’s in that box…that’s right…ME!!!! There was an old Paul Newman movie called “Cool Hand Luke”. It was about and old prison camp “chain gang” in Florida in the 1960’s. When any of the prisoners got out of line they put them in the “box’. Paul Newman was “Luke”. He got put in the box so much they started calling it ‘Luke’s Box”!!

That’s how I felt every time I had to go in that Hell hole and start singing. Hot doesn’t even begin to describe it!! It was absolute MISERY!! After 5 minutes in the “box” I would come out completely soaked from head to toe!! Hence the name “Luke’s Box”!!!

It’s funny now, I go from rehearsing in a freezing meat locker in 82’ to singing inside of a pizza oven. Something in the middle would have been nice!!!

All in all it was one of the greatest times of my life…oh, and the record turned out pretty good too!!!

And for this Band, I say here and now, unapologetically, they are one of the greatest Bands in the World….PERIOD!!!

More Next Month B. L.

TOURDATES:

SEPTEMBER 21ST 2012 ENGLAND LONDON THE FORUM
SEPTEMBER 22ND 2012 SCOTLAND EDINBURGH HMV PICTURE HOUSE
SEPTEMBER 23RD 2012 ENGLAND NEWCASTLE ACADEMY
SEPTEMBER 24TH 2012 N. IRELEAND BELFAST ULSTER HALL
SEPTEMBER 25TH 2012 IRELAND DUBLIN VICAR STREET S
EPTEMBER 27TH 2012 ENGLAND MANCHESTER HMV RITZ
SEPTEMBER 28TH 2012 ENGLAND LEEDS ACADEMY
SEPTEMBER 29TH 2012 ENGLAND NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY
SEPTEMBER 30TH 2012 ENGLAND NORWICH WATERFRONT
OCTOBER 1ST 2012 ENGLAND WOLVERHAMPTON WOLFRUN HALL
OCTOBER 3RD 2012 WALES CARDIF THE GREAT HALL
OCTOBER 4TH 2012 ENGLAND BRISTOL ACADEMY
OCTOBER 6TH 2012 SWEDEN VARBERG ARENAN 
OCTOBER 7TH 2012 SWEDEN LINKÖPING CUPOLEN 
OCTOBER 9TH 2012 SWEDEN UPPSALA KATALIN  
OCTOBER 10TH 2012 SWEDEN HÄSSLEHOLM QPOOLEN
OCTOBER 11TH 2012 SWEDEN TROLLHÄTAN ÄLVHÖGSBOR
OCTOBER 12TH 2012 SWEDEN SUNDSVALL SPEGELSALEN, STADSHUSET
OCTOBER 13TH 2012 SWEDEN ÖREBRÖ KONGRESS
OCTOBER 14TH 2012 SWEDEN ESKILSTUNA LOKOMOTIVET
OCTOBER 16TH 2012 ESTONIA TALLIN ROCK CAFE
OCTOBER 17TH 2012 FINLAND HELSINKI THE CIRCUS
OCTOBER 18TH 2012 FINLAND TAMPERE TAMPERE HALL
OCTOBER 19TH 2012 FINLAND TURKU LOGOMO
OCTOBER 20TH 2012 FINLAND SEINÄJOKI RYTMIKORJAAMO
OCTOBER 21ST 2012 SWEDEN LULEÅ KULTURENSHUS
OCTOBER 23RD 2012 NORWAY BO KROA
OCTOBER 24TH 2012 NORWAY OSLO ROCKEFELLER
OCTOBER 25TH 2012 SWEDEN HUSKVARNA TEATERLADAN  
OCTOBER 26TH 2012 SWEDEN STOCKHOLM ROCKKLASSIKER KRYSNINGEN
OCTOBER 27TH 2012 SWEDEN KARLSTAD NOJEFABRIKEN
OCTOBER 30TH 2012 GERMANY KÖLN LIVE MUSIC HALL 
OCTOBER 31ST 2012 GERMANY BOCHUM ZECHE 
NOVEMBER 2ND 2012 NETHERLANDS TILBURG 0 13
NOVEMBER 3RD 2012 BELGIUM ANTWERP TRIX
NOVEMBER 4TH 2012 FRANCE LILLE LE SPLENDID
NOVEMBER 5TH 2012 FRANCE PARIS LE BATACLAN
NOVEMBER 6TH 2012 FRANCE TOULOUSE BIKINI
NOVEMBER 7TH 2012 SPAIN BARAKALDO ROCKSTAR LIVE  N
OVEMBER 8TH 2012 SPAIN SANTIAGO SALA CAPITOL 
NOVEMBER 9TH 2012 SPAIN MADRID LA RIVIERA 
NOVEMBER 10TH 2012 PORTUGAL LISBON CAMPO PEQUENO
NOVEMBER 12TH 2012 SPAIN CARTAGENA LA MATRIZ CREATIVA 
NOVEMBER 13TH 2012 SPAIN BARCELONA RAZZMATAZZ 2 
NOVEMBER 14TH 2012 FRANCE ST. ETIENNE LE FIL
NOVEMBER 15TH 2012 FRANCE STRASBOURG LA LAITERIE
NOVEMBER 16TH 2012 GERMANY MÜNCHEN BACKSTAGE WERK 
NOVEMBER 17TH 2012 GERMANY STUTTGART LKA LONGHORN
NOVEMBER 19TH 2012 AUSTRIA LINZ POSTHOF
NOVEMBER 20TH 2012 ITALY TREVISO NEW AGE
NOVEMBER 21ST 2012 ITALY BOLOGNA ESTRAGON
NOVEMBER 23RD 2012 GREECE ATHENS FUZZ CLUB
NOVEMBER 24TH 2012 GREECE THESSALONIKI MYLOS APOTHEKE CLUB
NOVEMBER 25TH 2012 TURKEY ISTANBUL KUCUKCIFTLIK PARK
NOVEMBER 27TH 2012 HUNGARY BUDAPEST CLUB 202
NOVEMBER 28TH 2012 AUSTRIA VIENNA SZENE        
NOVEMBER 30TH 2012 GERMANY NÜRNBERG ROCKFABRIK 
DECEMBER 2TH 2012 GERMANY HAMBURG MARKTHALLE
DECEMBER 3RD 2012 GERMANY NEU ISENBURG HUGENOTTENHALLE
DECEMBER 5TH 2012 GERMANY OSNABRÜCK ROSENHOF
DECEMBER 6TH 2012 GERMANY MEMINGEN KAMINWERK
DECEMBER 7TH 2012 SWITZERLAND PRATTELN Z7

Quelle: W.A.S.P.