METALSHRINE - Intervjuer

Intervju - Greg Strzempka, Backdraft / Raging Slab

Firts of all! How the hell did you end up in cold Sweden singing lead vocals for Backdraft? You toured together didn´t you?

No! We were supposed to tour together and that´s how I knew about them. They sent me records and stuff like that. A number of things happened. My band, Raging Slab, is having some internal problems ha, ha, ha! To be honest with you, when I first heard the Backdraft thing I kind of felt like "man, these guys rock" except I think, and all respect to Jonas, I could be a better singer for these guys. It´s more in the ball park, but then again they reminded in a little way of a certain period of Raging Slab that I kind of miss. Skynyrdy guitar leads and all that. I got really, really bored sitting on my farm in Pennsylvania and e-mailed Mats and somebody, I think it was Eric from Five Horse Johnson, said "you know they´re kicking their singer out?" and I was like "really?". I thought that was a good idea six months ago ha, ha, ha! You know, opportunity knocks and that´s their thing. I had nothing to do with Jonas and it happened way before. I actually hung out with Jonas the other night and we had a good time.

Are you living in Sweden now or are you going back and forth?

No, I come back and forth right now.

That´s kind of hectic isn´t it?

You know, at the moment but I´m thinking of moving here so...

It´s cold here!

It´s cold where I live too so...It snowed three weeks before I got here and Nick, when it snowed the other day, Nick was just like "fuck, fuck I hate the fucking first snow!" And we had like half a meter back home a month ago. I don´t think it´s cold and the best thing about Sweden is...I was sitting on the subway today and Deep Purple was on the cover of Metro magazine. That´s what I love about this country ha, ha, ha!

I guess you´re working on new material now and how´s that going? Are you bringing in stuff as well?

It´s going good! The way these guys work it´s like someone gets an idea and they just pile stuff on top of it. Everybody´s got a big opinion, but if there´s something everybody likes they work like maniacs. I´ve got one we´re playing tonight called "Money talks" and they were like "we´ve been trying to do a song like this!". It´s our big "Freebird" sort of. But like I said, I think there´s a few songs that they tried with Jonas and that was when stuff was falling apart. But most of the stuff is new material and Mats e-mails me stuff that they do on boomboxes and I sit on the farm and sing on it and e-mail it back.

The new age of technology! That´s got to be really cool, with the internet and everything?

Yeah! Being able just to that period! Otherwise it would´ve been absolutely ridiculous. There´s no communication and a million dollars in phone bills. As far as that goes we´re doing it pretty low tech. Works really good actually.

Do you have any idea when the album is coming out?

Before festival season I think.

Is this the first gig you´re playing with Backdraft?

Well, this is the first kind of real gig. We did a gig where we played a mix of Backdraft and Raging Slab stuff, but this is the real first gig.

You said you´re living on a farm. Is that the same farm you bought with Raging Slab?

Yeah, same farm!

So Raging Slab is kind of hanging loose these days?

Yeah, at this point...we did some festivals in the States, but it´s not like...if they offer us enough money we´ll play. It´s just a matter of hitting the wall. It´s more fun moving on.

I´m wondering about the early days. I read that Kory Clarke was the first drummer and you started in New York back in ´85. Were you born in New York?

Yeah, he was the first drummer! No, I wasn´t born there I was born on an army base. My family moved around a lot. I basically lived in shitholes and it was like, ok graduation day I´m out of here! But I moved from a little tiny town to New York city. All I ever wanted to do was play in bands. Actually where I grew up was an amazing place. Hey had lots and lots of musicians and lots of bands, from bluegrass to blues, country rock and whatever. Most of the bands I played in were basic kind of bar rock. I cut my teeth, you know! But you kind of have to do a little of everything. Somebody wants to hear a Led Zeppelin tune or a Buck Owens tune and you better know how to fucking play them or you get a beer can in your head ha, ha, ha! But it was a good place to learn and it gave me a slightly twisted view, like when I moved to a big city. You know, starting a southern rock band in New York city in 1985 was probably not the smartest thing. We couldn´t get gigs and they were like "get out of town!" And we were like constantly getting into fights with people.

Have you kept in touch with Kory? I actually interviewed him some time ago. He played with a Swedish band.

Does he live here?

No I don´t think so. He just hooked up with this band (The Lovebanks). He told some fun stories about Glenn Danzig.

Yeah, Kory´s got some funny stories! They´re about the same height ha, ha, ha!

Before Raging Slab, were you in any other bands or...?

Yeah! I used to be in a punk rock band. Hard core!

Kind of different compared to Raging Slab!

Well, that´s kind of why we did Raging Slab. I basically grew up listening to hard rock. Ramones and Television were my two favorite bands and all of a sudden it was like "what´s this?" I was the right age, but yeah, I played in a DC hard core band called Youthbrigade and I had another band in Washington DC called REM. The I got sick of it! I thought the best thing about punk rock at that time wasthat it didn´t have any rules and just fucking crazy stuff and all of a sudden, within two or three years, a bunch of people standing around going like "you can´t do that, man" and DC hard core was the worst. "You can´t drink, you can´t smoke, you can´t fuck! You can´t do nothing! Straight edge, man!" And I was like "Look brother, if you think I came here to drink some beer and fuck some chicks, you´re out of your mind!" I don´t think this is for me ha, ha, ha!

You had the song "Don´t dog me" which was a bit of a hit on MTV. What was that like?

Cool! I mean, we´re Raging Slab and we toured with lots and lots of bands.

Yeah! I read that you toured with RHCP, The Ramones, Alice In Chains and you even opened up for Warrant of all bands! That´s one crappy band!

You know, we had been on the road with RHCP. They weren´t really friends of ours, they just heard our record and they were starting the "Mother milk tour". All of a sudden we get a phone call saying "do you want to open for the Chilli Peppers?" and we´re like "that´s odd?". We´re a kind of heavy southern rock band and I think I talked to Flea and he was like "no man, you guys are funky. We don´t want another RHCP opening up for us". But opening for that band was like...I mean at that time it was just like four fucking sticks of dynamite going off every minute. People just going completely crazy. It really helped us with what Slab became. It made us into this insane heavy southern rock band, yelling and screaming! I mean we were better than we´ve ever been. And then we got off the Chilli Peppers tour and the record company called and said "you probably won´t like this, but I got you these opening slots for Warrant and they´re starting to sell records" and we were just like "they´re fucking awful!". You can imagine what we must´ve felt like. Guys in matching white leather suits and kneeling down at the same time on stage. It was as corny as it got.

When was this?

This was probably 199...it was before ""Cherry pie" and after "Down boys" or whatever. They were at the height of their thing. And it was all like fourteen year old girls. Fourteen year old bimbo chicks waiting to see Jani Lane and the first day they were there...we were there at the soundcheck and it was all secret and they had all these vocals and shit on tape and basically doing this choreography stuff and we were just like "man, this is gonna suck so bad!". We were just like "we go out and do it" and they kind of gave us half the stage, half the sound system and it was weird because even fourteen year old girls knows the difference between bullshit and...you know...and it was amazing because we´d get out there and just slaughter their crowd. We were used to kind of compete with the Chilli Peppers and on our first day, we did five days with them, and the first night it was like a forty minute set and the second night we got thirty minutes and by the third day it was twenty minutes and we were like off the tour ha, ha, ha...because they couldn´t get on stage and they didn´t know how to deal with it. I´m not saying it´s a big achievment to blow Warrant off the stage, but it was very funny and going from the Chilli Peppers to Warrant was just like "what do we do, same thing?".

Sounds like they got what they deserved!

Well, eventually they did ha, ha, ha!!!

You also opened up for Guns´n´Roses. What were they like?

Yeah, that was the everlasting "Use your illusion tour".

Did you hang out with the guys?

Yeah! Well, Axl was in his own world even at that time, but Slash and Duff were like the tightest guys with our band. We could party with the big boys ha, ha, ha! Those were funny shows and it was just like watching the biggest rock stars in the world falling apart and that´s when they really started doing that. Sometimes it was hilarious and sometimes it was just like...you know. We would drive to some show and Axl decides that he´s got diarrhoea and can´t go on and like "no show tonight!". It teaches you a lesson on how to behave and how not to behave. I will never let myself get to this point ha, ha, ha!

Do you think the new Guns´n´Roses album will ever come out?

I still try to have some compassion because he´s a confused human being. Actually my friend...this band from New York that are really good friends of ours, Circus of Power, I still talk to those guys and their old guitar player Gary was giving Axl guitar lessons because Axl six months ago decided that he can´t work with another guitarist and he´s (Gary) really the best lead guitar player, so that´s where Axl is right now. "I´m now going to be the lead singer AND the lead guitarist and I don´t really know how to play the guitar!". There´s no way...how can you put a record like that out at this point? I said "Gary, what´s the stuff like? And he was like "I really don´t know how to describe it!" My prediction is that they´ll all smarten up in like five years and get together. Basically when the bank account runs dry ha, ha, ha! It´s kind of like "KISS reunion? Will it happen?". People do get smart sooner or later. That´s my prediction and they´ll maybe make a new record. You can´t argue with that first album! It´s a classic!

I also found out from your website that John Paul Jones actually played on an album of yours, "Dynamite monster boogie concert". What was that like? He´s a legend!

Oh yeah! He´s kind of a shy guy. The record company was trying to get all these people with cameras and all the shit in the studio. When it comes down to it, it´s our budget and our studio and we just want to hang out with John Paul Jones and have a good time and not make him feel like uncomfortable like he´s there as something other than maybe a potential friend of ours. And we think he really, really appreciated it. I think when he finally realised it he was like "there´s no record company jerks here" and no one´s gonna be going like "hey, everybody line up against the wall!" ha, ha, ha!!! I mean, we didn´t bring cameras! But he wrote whole string arrangements and stuff. After a while people started drinking a bit and he started telling...our producer at the time, Brendan O´Brien, he´s a really funny guy and one of the best things was John Paul Jones would go, after he cut all his stuff, he would start telling stories about THE BAND! And that´s what he would refer to it as "you know, when I was in the band" or in " a band". He wouldn´t say Zeppelin. No one´s names and finally Brendan was just like "what band?" ha, ha, ha!!! It was like a whole day of that. "What band are you talking about?" ha, ha, ha!!! And not like we all didn´t have "Hammer of the Gods" and when is he coming to the "fish story" ha, ha, ha!!!

He seems like a really nice guy from interviews I´ve sen and so on!

Actually he has a farm in England and lot of the time we were talking about tractors ha, ha, ha! A lot of farm talk!

What about your farm? Do you have animals and grow stuff there?

No, I grow hair ha, ha, ha! Music and hair!

But you have a studio there, right? Do other people use it to record stuff or...?

Well, Five Horse Johnson did their second record there. I really only do bands that I like and there´s not that many of them left. Music and people, becuase it´s my house and you couldn´t really pay me enough to hang out with jerks. It´s not worth it. These guys are the perfect band because they drink as much as I do and smoke as much as I do and they play heavy boogie music. Nothing to argue about!

And now you´re stuck in Sweden!

I´m not stuck ha, ha, ha! I´ve been here for two and a half weeks.

Where do you live? Do you stay with Mats (Backdraft) or...?

Sometimes with Mats. Wherever I end up ha, ha, ha!

So you really don´t know anything about the future of Raging Slab?

We´ll see! Our bassplayer´s got health problems and there´s just a whole lot of personal shit. It´s not good! And when relatively young people get nasty diseases it kind of fucks them up. They´re my oldest and dearest friends in the world and sometimes you have to let people sort their shit up. I´d do anything for any of those people and we´ll just see what happens. I got to keep rocking and to be honest with you all these guys (Backdraft) need is me ha, ha, ha! I just knew this would work. It´s a different thing than Raging Slab and I get to stand up there and wonder if I´m gonna be like Robert Plant or Paul Rodgers ha, ha, ha!

Thanks a lot and great talking to you! Great stories!

Thank you!

Backdraft - Official website

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