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GERALD LAURENCE: Give us the five-minute career update on Zak Daniels and the One Eyed Snakes.
ZAK DANIELS: You've probably heard this before, but after being treated like we're some sort of rock 'n' roll maiden head in a few cities around the country where the album has been getting air play, we come back to our hometown of L.A., and it's still: "Who the hell are you?"
GL: So you try to spend a lot time on the road to build from the success of those markets?
ZD: Besides the obvious business sense of servicing those markets where we're getting a lot of air play, it's a hell of a lot of fun to play a town where the audience is familiar with your music and have come to the show because they dig it. It's a rush to drive across the dessert and hear your music on the radio 40 miles before you even get to the town where you're playing that night. That air play makes all the difference. In L.A., it's a problem drawing a crowd if you don't have radio support or eleven zillion dollars for a marketing campaign. You have to have a mailing list and send out flyers as well as advertise and make a few hundred calls, faxes and E-mail notes. When we play a town where we've been receiving air play, the kids stand in line to make sure they get in to see us and stand in line afterwards to have us sign their posters and CD's. The best part is: We don't have to send out one friggin flyer. Your music sailing on the airwaves is the only flyer you need. It's a great feeling when your art is appreciated and a joy to play to an audience who came to hear the music.
GL: With the sweaty hard rocking sounds of The Snakes, I would think some Midwest and Southern cities would go crazy for the band.
ZD: That's true. We have been receiving quite a few spins from those areas and as of late we're starting to get air play in most of the other states. As soon as you get out of L.A., you realize that the rest of the world still digs straight ahead kick ass rock. The air play is growing and it's very encouraging. As of last weeks air play report, we have stations spinning us from Honolulu to Maine with most of the states in-between represented as well. Many of the markets are small to medium, but the number of stations continues to grow every week. It's a slow process, but faster than going door to door.
GL: Tell me a little about the guys in The Snakes.
ZD: Well, aside from the intense musical genius and benevolent dictator who fronts the band... Seriously, there is something magical about the way Kat (Jim "Kat" Katsikides, lead guitar) and Doug (Lavery, drums) communicate with each other during a song. It's not just speed, And it's not just power, although they can be a blast furnace if that's what's needed. It's the way they feed off each other's energy and flow with the ebb and tide of the vocals that is a true high to experience either in the audience or playing on stage with them. When you add the warm pounding anchor of Billy Russo's bass, there are some intense magical moments.
GL: You guys are probably the tightest-sounding group that keeps things rocking without getting into prog-rock.
ZD: That's it exactly. Progressive rock is cool, but it's often a little cerebral. My lyrics might be tickling a few brain cells or triggering an emotional rush, but the sonic smart bombs (especially live) are being aimed at your hips your chest, your gut and your crotch, not at your head.
GL: Tell me some weird stuff from going out on the road with a band with the dirty, filthy name of The One Eyed Snakes.
ZD: Not everyone picks up on that name thing. By today's standards, I feel it's actually quite tame. I did a sound track for a porno movie some years back and when I finished the project the producers asked me to pick a fictitious name for the credits. I thought the One Eyed Snakes was kind of appropriate for the genre in which I was working. The producers turned the name down because they thought it was too raunchy. I couldn't believe it! It was a triple X hard-core film. I knew right then and there what the name of my band was going to be. Rock and Phallus have been intertwined from the birth of this art form. Like yin and yang, Sex and Rock are inseparable. I'm fond of saying that the name ( the ONE EYED SNAKES) is not quite as blatant as "The Sex Pistols" yet less secretive than "Steely Dan."
As far as weird stuff on the road... Well, some of those small town radio contests are very funny. I have a recording of a kid calling into a radio station to win a One Eyed Snakes CD. The DJ says "To win the One Eyed Snakes CD, tell me the name of the John Lennon/Yoko Ono record that pictured the couple nude on its cover. Was it (A) Two Virgins; (B) Too Flabby?; (C) Too Hairy?; or (D) Too Saggy?" Now there's what seems like about 30
seconds of very painful silence. The kid either froze or he had the IQ of a used Duracell. Finally, you hear someone in the background yell the answer to him and he spits out: "Ahhhhgh.... is the answer..uh..Two Virgins?" I was all alone in my hotel room but it busted me up so much that I was LOL. That's "laughing out loud" in Computer Geek Lingo.
GL: What are your listening tastes in music.
ZD: If the music is good, it doesn't matter what genre it's in, I'll most likely enjoy it. In any art form there are many hacks and a few true artists. If music is being written from real inspiration and not because the artist is trying to write a hit for the producer, manager, or record company, then they might have a chance of creating art. Most of what I hear on the air as far as new bands are concerned is what I call Pop Schlock. There are a few new acts that have the spark, but most of them couldn't write their way out of a tampon box.
GL: It has to have soul to be good.
ZD: Exactly. I feel that if you're starting with material that was born in the light of inspiration and the joy of creation, and you continue that feeling through the whole process of live or recorded performance, the work becomes play and the music is art. I still believe that music has, is, can and will change the world. When music is art, it has that power. If it's not busy being art, it can only be annoying Pop Schlock. Of course, that's just my humble opinion. What the hell do I know?
GL: You obviously know how to put a song together to rock out.
ZD: Thanks.
GL: But is there anyone you can name whose work you really enjoy?
ZD: I know we play very hard music, and you'd expect me to name some other rockers, but I'm a major Joni Mitchell fan. Great lyrics, unique structure, wonderful melodies. I could go on for hours about her gifts. Don't worry, I won't. Tory Amos, Beatles, early Dylan. The Byrds, early to mid-period Stones, Buffalo Springfield. Early to middle period Stevie Wonder. David Crosby's first solo album is one of my all time faves. Not too many people have ever heard it or even seem to know of its existence. Two people bought that album, I did and I think his Dad bought one. Those are some of my pop tastes.
I haven't found much country music that does it for me. I like some of the bluegrass and hillbilly kind of authentic country. The stuff that is being pawned off as Today's Country sounds like B or C quality Eagles or Poco clones. If you like that kind of thing you might as well listen to the originals.
I love a lot of the early to late sixties folk and folk-rock: Pentangle, Taj Mahal, Arthur Lee and Love, Jefferson Airplane, Jesse Colin Young, etc. Authentic suburban blues: Mississippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotton, etc. Early urban blues - John Lee Hooker. Early urban jazz-blues-pop there's Billy holiday, Dinah Washington and Satchmo. I dig some classical music if it's in small doses. Some forms of Jazz do it for me now and then, but mostly I'm a sucker for a great Beatles song. They covered a lot of territory and in my opinion, most of it was art. That covers most of my non hard rock tastes. We can get into the hard stuff somewhere down the line. I don't think you'll have enough room for those now.
GL: Is there an agenda to the One Eyed Snakes? Anything you're trying to accomplish other than rocking out?
ZD: The challenge, and it's not an easy one, is to create a piece of art that will induce one to feel or think something that they were not feeling or thinking before the start, duration and afterglow of a three to four and a half minute piece of music. When a song takes someone out of their reality and moves them in and out or up and down through an emotional, physical, sexual, mental or spiritual mini-adventure for a few minutes of their day, that's when a song is art. That's when a song is doing its job. The only agenda I have is to continue creating mini-vacations from reality. The One Eyed Snakes have been my vehicle of choice for getting there. As far as high performance vehicles go, I'd have no problem putting them in a race with any vintage muscle car or some new expensive European model. I'd have no problem betting it all on the Snakes to win. In the studio or live, this car is a joy to drive! When it's ripping at high speed, it takes over and drives you. Kinda like a mega roller coaster without any tracks. Hold on tight and watch your knuckles turn white!
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