New Joey Interview
- Thread starter prime666
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Catharsis70
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- Apr 28, 2005
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GregadetH
ENCYCLOPEDIA SLAYTANICA
When the reunion started you got this feeling that they were using Joey to boost their careers, now it seems like Joey used them to boost his.
I don't know what to think, so I'll make fun of Joey's hair some more. Seriously, what is up with that hair.
I don't know what to think, so I'll make fun of Joey's hair some more. Seriously, what is up with that hair.
MikeyBong
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- Sep 22, 2004
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The truth is that both sides used each other. Nothing really wrong with that, it's just the way it went down.
Why did you quote the number 92?
Was that to emphasis the number of downloads he's sold of his solo work? I don't understand all you Joey faithful of him being back in Anthrax, why you don't support his solo work? I'm sure if John Bush released a solo record a fuck load of Anthrax fans for the past 10 years at least would buy it without hesitation. Sorry Joey, just my honest opinion.
Arg_Hamster
Not quite done yet...
Indeed. Sure, I have seen some Joey-supporters praise his solo work but the majority seems to just dwell on the good old days.
Arg_Hamster
Not quite done yet...
"They asked me to come back and do a reunion. So that’s about all I know. It’s hard for me to really answer anything specific here."
Maybe this is all there is. I can´t remember reading Scott or the Chief saying that Joey and Danny WERE THE ONES they would record a new album with. The old-schoolers who wanted a new album with Dan and Joey probably feel cheated but I can´t remember reading that this line-up would record anything.
Maybe this is all there is. I can´t remember reading Scott or the Chief saying that Joey and Danny WERE THE ONES they would record a new album with. The old-schoolers who wanted a new album with Dan and Joey probably feel cheated but I can´t remember reading that this line-up would record anything.
Yeah, once again I'm a bush guy but I enjoyed Joey's music with the band as well. I think he's a good singer and a good front man. That said....go listen to his solo stuff. Yeah, it's not very good. I don't want to sound like an ass but it's just not very good.
tomass74
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- Apr 4, 2005
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Wow, if this all ends up being true and Joey didn't hear anything about it until that interview.. Than screw Anthrax really.... Everything is a big shady secret with them. They act liek a bunch of highschool kids... Cannot wait to see what Scott has to say Thursday...
tomass74
Member
- Apr 4, 2005
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Rock My Monkey: Okay, so on, I guess Scott Ian has made an announcement saying that basically you guys were preparing to record, they wanted to record a new album, and basically he says that-he doesn’t make any specifics, but he said that you made the decision not to record the album, and not to continue with it.
Joey Belladonna: I haven’t really done anything really, to be honest with you. It’s really not my group so I don’t, I really don’t want to comment on any of that, really, to be honest with you. I think it’s all insane what’s going on. It’s not my band.
Rock My Monkey: But was there talk of recording a new album?
Joey Belladonna: They want to do a record regardless. That’s been the whole plan. They have to have a record sometime. They need a record, right?
Rock My Monkey: Right, right. Absolutely.
Joey Belladonna: Regardless they would do a record sometime. Whether it was with me or somebody, Anthrax was going to do a record, I would assume.
Rock My Monkey: Was there any choice by you, was there any decision by you, or even an offer made to you to record that new album?
Joey Belladonna: I’m sure there’s possibilities for me to do a lot of things. It’s just-there’s always a lot of circumstance that they place when you’re doing it, When you do that stuff. I don’t think that you just make a record, you know? Unless you’re in a situation, you’ve been, you know, it’s a just an ongoing thing, you’ve been doing it for years. Like the old days, you just kind of go in and do one. It’s obviously a little different, because I wasn’t in a band for quite awhile. Likewise thing with same Danny, too. I’m not even the only one to be considered, but I don’t think it’s all about me.
Rock My Monkey: But you’re saying that you would be-would you be excited to record a new Anthrax album?
Joey Belladonna: Oh, absolutely. I would have loved to do one, yeah. I mean, but again, and all due respect, there’s a lot of circumstances that take place to do that kind of stuff. There’s a lot of things involved. Just think about it, you know. You have to have material, you have to have a reason. You have to have everything. You have to have a place to do it, the circumstance. All the basics have to be there. Again, it’s not for me to decide any of that stuff. So I don’t decide it. It’s not my band. And you have to know that I was not there. I wasn’t in that band. They asked me to come back and do a reunion. So that’s about all I know. It’s hard for me to really answer anything specific here.
Rock My Monkey: Actually I thank you very much for what you are answering.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah.
Rock My Monkey: Now, it sounds like, I mean, there’s a communication problem, because you’re sounding like you-it sounds like Scott Ian put out an announcement before everything was really talked over with you. It sounds like you really aren’t aware of this.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah, I mean, regardless of how aware of things I am, if they want to move forward regardless of things in place for them they’re going to do that. They can do whatever they want. Likewise, really. That’s what it boils down to. Again, I really, it’s too hard to make light of everything that needs to be done, and anybody’s case, really, unfortunately.
Rock My Monkey: If this does all pan out to be true, what’s up next for Joey Belladonna?
Joey Belladonna: Just taking my own solo thing, and just keep playing. In fact I’m playing this Saturday with Overkill and Metal Church. This Sunday, actually. Metal Church, Overkill, and Meliah Rage, in B.B. Kings. Three other gigs coming up so far.
Rock My Monkey: That’s as a solo artist?
Joey Belladonna: Excuse me?
Rock My Monkey: That’s as a solo artist?
Joey Belladonna: Yeah. There’s a band, Belladonna. I have the band.
Rock My Monkey: Right, right, right.
Joey Belladonna: Just doing a little music. I got so many tunes. I really like to keep busy anyhow. So I’ll play music as much as I can. I mean, I haven’t really had any time to do any of that anyhow. Just felt like doing it now.
Rock My Monkey: Me as a fan, I know we talked actually right before the reunion happened, and then I saw you play Seattle with the Anthrax reunion just, I mean, god-
Joey Belladonna: Was it Gigantour?
Rock My Monkey: The Gigantour. Yeah.
Joey Belladonna: Right on.
Rock My Monkey: And I got to say that was actually one of the most enjoyable music events that I’ve ever been to in my life.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah. That rocked. It was a really good show. I remember it quite well.
Rock My Monkey: Yeah, it was really great. But one thing I noticed with you was, when I talked to you on the phone before the reunion, and before the reunion was even being planned, I don’t think. And then I saw you onstage with Anthrax again. It was like I saw a whole different man onstage. It was like you had this jolt right up your backside when you were onstage with Anthrax again. It seems like the old Joey was back and in full force. Do you-how can I say this? Do you think you’re going to be able to bring that same excitement, now that the reunion has happened, and maybe you’ve had that closure maybe, do you think you’re going to be able to bring that excitement back into your solo stuff?
Joey Belladonna: I think with the solo stuff, obviously it’s not the same lineup, so you don’t get that partnership, or the company of the other people. I think likewise with those guys. Somehow when we play together we just plug in a different vibe, you know? With me, I mean, I’ve got different players sometimes who the experience takes that different places, the music takes it different places. I mean, obviously I’m playing some different music. Oh, absolutely for me, I’m always going to be plugged in. I’m full of everything when I’m doing it. In fact, when I do it my own self, for some reason I just take on vocally totally even more, because I’m just very much into what I’m doing, as well. So it’s kind of the same thing, but it’s also very different because it’s two different bands, and a lot different people. So there’s no way I can really compare that. Unfortunately it’s hard not to be in a comparison mode whenever you’re doing something, because everybody’s wishing for something that they’re not getting, or they’re getting something completely different that’s not what they thought it was going to be, or they were hoping it would be, or if it’s even better than they thought it would be. It’s a lot of different things that happen. So, hey, it’s all good. I’m glad you dug that, because I thought when we played it was just a natural thing. I mean, there’s nothing that we did was anything different I think than long ago. It’s just at that time I think we were just very, very happy to be together, you know, as far as playing. It was quite great.
Rock My Monkey: I think all the members, all the band members, were grinning to ear to ear pretty much. And that of course was felt by the fans, and made the fans even more excited to see it.
Joey Belladonna: Not a whole lot more you can do than that at times. Because I just don’t know anything different as far as that. As far as the day to day things, that’s a whole ‘nother different ballgame, you know?
Rock My Monkey: Cool. One thing, now, as being a person that heard your album, Three, that you put out, like you said, right before the reunion, one thing I would love to hear is you doing that album live. Basically cover to cover, do the whole album, track by track by track, live, and maybe bring some of that excitement that you have when you play live, and bring that to the album, Three.
Joey Belladonna: Oh, yeah. Like this time around, I’ll do some off that at the show Sunday. And then I’ve got some new arrangements to a couple of tunes, and they got heavier, and they sound so good. I mean, I’m very excited. It’s just now I’ve got the chance to play that. Because those songs weren’t even done as a group. They’re done as two people. And now it’s with a band, and when you put the shit together tight, it sounds really good.
Rock My Monkey: So when you interact, I think maybe that’s part of what the difference that I saw was that you are a person that needs to really interact to get your full moxie out, your full power out.
Joey Belladonna: I think the other difference too is when you’re out soloing yourself, you got a lot of songs that are very unfamiliar to people sometimes. So it takes a little bit of time versus the ones that we played at Anthrax. We hit with all the tunes that you supposedly already know. Just turns into an automatic bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. You just know them all. And it’s so great. But with me, I almost have to pick up all the pieces, and most of the time you can’t force feed it, but you have to kind of slowly get it in there. And you have to do it continuously and more and more, so people can get familiar with it, because my stuff’s not out there that far. It’s definitely not out there that much.
Rock My Monkey: Would there be, for you, is the door always open, is the door always open to return to Anthrax? Did the reunion, did the way that this ended this time, did it put any kind of bad taste in your mouth? Are you always open and excited to return to that microphone?
Joey Belladonna: Well, I always will. I mean, god, it didn’t take me five minutes to say yes to something. It’s just, when you’re doing that type of thing, it takes a lot of people to put it all together, I think. It’s not just me. There’s other people involved, and they have to enjoy the circumstances, and have to know they want to go ahead. I think when they first started, I think they were trying to be real careful, of doing it how much they were going to do it, and how long it was going to take place. And I think, with all due respect, I think we did a good run. Eighteen months was a nice chunk of run. It was pretty lengthy. Some bands maybe would have done two months, and then they end it. They do that one run, and that was cool. Then again, it’s not a problem. I just can’t predict anybody’s path and what they want to do, and how they want to do it, and whom they want to do it with, you know? It goes with anybody’s band, I think.
Rock My Monkey: When you were, like I said, before the reunion, when you did the album Three, you did that totally independently with no record company whatsoever. And a lot of bands actually are starting to do-hello?
Joey Belladonna: Mmm-hmm.
Rock My Monkey: Okay. A lot of bands are starting to do the independent release and bypassing the record company entirely. Do you think that’s something that’s going to return, going to continue with you?
Joey Belladonna: Well, I guess, you get to the point you’re hanging out at home for a while, and you’re going, okay, I did another now. So where it’s going to go? Who’s going to take it? Who’s going to take it? Sony going to take it? If they’re not going to take it, so how do you want to do it? Do you want to do it ourselves? Do you want to get somebody in? You want to put it out on the internet? You kind of go with it. I think it was nice to be able to get it out. I finished a song this afternoon. It’s a really cool song. We buttoned it up. I could put it out today. This afternoon I could put it out. And if you wanted it, you could have it, right away. Which is cool. I don’t have to sit down and go ask George at the fucking higher up to see if he’ll sign it, and when he gets it, did he listen to it yet? And all that shit that takes place. Which, I wouldn’t mind doing that, but obviously that’s why a lot of times you don’t hear from me for a while. I’m holding onto something for so long. Right now I’m just happy to be able to actually rehearse songs that I’ve never even played before as a band, and that are really turning into some cool songs, which I’m excited about. But if I could put them on a cd soon, that would be nice. It’s too bad with this Anthrax thing, because I don’t want anybody getting expectations that couldn’t be met. Or if I’m original guy that likes to play his own stuff, but doesn’t want to do the Anthrax stuff. None of that kind of thing. Of course, I’m not doing it because I have to do this, and I don’t want to do that. I’m just doing whatever I can just to play. I like to play. I just like to perform. I don’t want to sit around. I’d rather do something.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. So basically as far as the record company thing goes with your solo stuff, that’s not necessarily the preferred path that you’d like to go. You would actually like to sign with a label. Just nobody made a decent offer that you couldn’t beat yourself?
Joey Belladonna: At the moment I haven’t shopped anything, so I haven’t really-I attempted to shop, even on Three, I didn’t even put it on the table for anybody. I suppose I could have. The demos that I put out, I didn’t even try to do that either. Some of them actually came out on the first record, but they’re different cuts. I wouldn’t mind doing something like that, but the process will be a little bit lengthy, because obviously until somebody gets back to you after they heard it, or if you got it to the right person, and then by the time they hear it, if they don’t want it… Sometimes they don’t even call you back if they don’t want it. Then you’re just still thinking, well, they might call me today, right? Maybe not. So then you have to go bother them. Then if you do get some paperwork, you got to wait and look it over, and figure out if you want to be bound to do that, or do you really want to do it with them? Are they going to do the right thing for you? I’ve been on labels that just really haven’t taken me anywhere. That first label I just never got anywhere with them guys, or the second one to put it that way. So it was kind of a disappointment.
Rock My Monkey: One of the things-I actually think that people like you that are already established and already have a fan base, personally I think that the traditional record company is kind of a horse and buggy. They’re kind of being phased out for companies like the Apples I Tunes.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah, it’s a scary proposition, there’s no doubt. But what do you do? You start really wondering what you should do, and how you should do it.
Rock My Monkey: What about selling your music with one of the online distributors like E-music or iTunes?
Joey Belladonna: Yeah, I guess that would definitely be an option. I’ve never explored those avenues. When I do my own stuff it’s Paypal and all that kind of shit. It’s not a worldwide announcement. Unless you go to my site you wouldn’t even know I have band or I’m even playing anymore.
Rock My Monkey: Basically, what, personally what I tell artists to do, and this is more-most of the artists I deal with as far as consulting goes are independent artists that are not near as established as you. But what I say is just hire one of the small independent press agents, or just sent out the email yourself. Let Blabbermouth pick it up. They’re really great about posting stuff. Put it out through iTunes, and put it out through E-Music. Those guys can, because they’re digital, there’s not really near the negotiating that there is with a traditional label.
Joey Belladonna: Because they sell it for you, right?
Rock My Monkey: They sell it for you. They do the Paypal. It’s not even Paypal. They do everything for you.
Joey Belladonna: You’re talking iTunes strictly. Just stick with iTunes, right?
Rock My Monkey: iTunes. There’s actually a company that I like better personally, called E-Music.
Joey Belladonna: E-Music?
Rock My Monkey: Right. I like them better than iTunes, because they have a reputation for paying the artist a little bit more than iTunes does. As well as they don’t have what’s called DRM, which is Digital Rights Management, which is something that definitely scares a lot of fans away. I highly recommend E-Music. Just sell it through there. They give the artist a bigger cut. The fans are left with more freedom of what to do with the music once they buy it from you.
Joey Belladonna: How do they display it? How much do you get to hear when you want-like if you went on there and saw one of my songs, how much do they display the song?
Rock My Monkey: I think that depends upon how many people are actually downloading it, and how many people-or if it’s maybe one of the brand new-I don’t know.
Joey Belladonna: How do you get to hear it? Like if you went there today, and you saw somebody you wanted to buy some of, how much do you get to hear of it? Do you get to hear a little bit of it? Like, how are the samples? Like the overall samples?
Rock My Monkey: I don’t know, actually.
Joey Belladonna: I think that’s obviously something you’d want to know. Like my site you get to test, try any of the songs. You can get a free minute of the song, get an idea of what it’s about, how fast, slow, clean, vocals, that kind of stuff. And then you say I like that one, I’ll buy that one. If I like the whole thing, I can get the whole thing.
Rock My Monkey: I’m sure they have some kind of a preview.
Joey Belladonna: They’ve got to have some kind of preview, right?
Rock My Monkey: Honestly, I’ve never-because of the fact that I’m a journalist, I get sent the music.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah, you get all the shit anyway.
Rock My Monkey: Right. (laughs) But I know that from talking with different music fans, and people on my board, I know that they enjoy the different services that E-Music offers more, like I said, because of the lack of DRM. iTunes, obviously they have their own Digital Rights Management on there.
Joey Belladonna: E-Music you like, right?
Rock My Monkey: Right. E-Music. Basically, they’re just like iTunes. You buy the music online. People are able to put it on their mobile phone, or their iTunes, or whatever.
Joey Belladonna: They’ve got a better media for their stuff, too, probably? Advertising is probably better? More so than me. Like if I had it on my site? it’s on E-Music, it’s probably way bigger publicity, right? You would think?
Rock My Monkey: Like I said, they’re not really a record label. So because they’re not really a record label, all they are, they’re just like, say if you went down to your local, say you had copies of your album, Three, and you went down to your local independent mom and pop cd store, and you wanted to put your cd into the store yourself.
Joey Belladonna: Consignment.
Rock My Monkey: They give you kind of a consignment deal, of like, okay, you get a certain percentage. That store, obviously that mom and pop store is not going to do pay for publicity for you.
Joey Belladonna: But these people do publicity for you, don’t they?
Rock My Monkey: No. That’s why they’re able to give you a better cut.
Joey Belladonna: What’s the difference of them than my site, when I’m doing everything myself, and I’m doing everything myself, except for Paypal taking a little bit of percentage because they’re taking care of the actual computer end as far as the actual payments of it, but that’s about it. What other advertising do they do than me?
Rock My Monkey: The difference is number one, a lot of people are actually uncomfortable with Paypal. If you’re not really, if you’re not extremely net savvy, some people are uncomfortable with that. Also it’s brand recognition, so people that are really into E-Music will surf around E-Music and look for what’s hot, what’s new in E-Music, and then your name comes up on the menu. Plus it’s that brand recognition of E-Music or iTunes. It’s the comfortability, it’s the fan being comfortable using that service.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah. I guess it’s a little more media savvy, I guess.
Rock My Monkey: And ease of use. Making it easier for the user to do. And plus, also, you’re paying a cut to Paypal. You’re either going to pay a percentage to Paypal, or you’re going to pay a percentage to E-Music. Either way a percentage comes out.
Joey Belladonna: I guess the hardest part now is like, the best thing you want to find is someone that’s really going to push the shit out of it, versus like letting it sit dormant on a site. Unless you don’t look up my name. If you see it through someone else, somehow, like I’m some kind of link to a company, or like a guitar company, you might not even know. I’ve had people-I had people come up to me-I had one guy, an Anthrax fan, he goes ‘dude, you got music out right now? You got a website?’ I’m like, yeah. I was like, wow, have you even gone to the Anthrax site? It’s funny, because you can’t assume anybody really has any kind of clue what’s going on. Yeah, I would love to get it connected. I’m probably the least into all that stuff, as far as knowing how to go about doing it. Even though I have people around me that can, that are really plugged into that, but just going through the whole process, I suppose this time around I might take it a little bit further. But again, the labels, that’s a lot of tossing over what you’re going to be able to get out of it in the end, and are they going to do it for you? I would love to have something new. Obviously I haven’t even gone that far yet. But just playing live is fun. Just to be able to play out, take some shows on, and just dim the lights down and plug in. Fucking go for it.
Rock My Monkey: My digital recorder has actually informed me that I have one minute left of space. So real quickly, is there, is there going to be a full solo Joey Belladonna solo tour coming up? What can fans look forward to hearing from you over the next year?
Joey Belladonna: Just right now, I’m just in the beginning stages of doing something. Just carrying on musically. So I’m just going to keep busy as much as I can. I don’t know right now what I’m doing, or what’s happening. I am, there is a band in place, and I am trying to take it on the road for sure. Everything is open. It’s all open.
Rock My Monkey: So there is a possibility this time of doing a full coast to coast Joey Belladonna tour?
Joey Belladonna: Yeah. It would be nice. Anything is possible. I think it’s just a matter of time to see how things progress. Well, thank you for letting me know about this. I wasn’t aware of this.
Rock My Monkey: Wow. That’s frightening.
Joey Belladonna: Hey, if I’m not the one writing it, I wouldn’t know. It’s not that… by the way, we’re going to put something on Blabbermouth. You don’t hear about that shit.
Joey Belladonna: I haven’t really done anything really, to be honest with you. It’s really not my group so I don’t, I really don’t want to comment on any of that, really, to be honest with you. I think it’s all insane what’s going on. It’s not my band.
Rock My Monkey: But was there talk of recording a new album?
Joey Belladonna: They want to do a record regardless. That’s been the whole plan. They have to have a record sometime. They need a record, right?
Rock My Monkey: Right, right. Absolutely.
Joey Belladonna: Regardless they would do a record sometime. Whether it was with me or somebody, Anthrax was going to do a record, I would assume.
Rock My Monkey: Was there any choice by you, was there any decision by you, or even an offer made to you to record that new album?
Joey Belladonna: I’m sure there’s possibilities for me to do a lot of things. It’s just-there’s always a lot of circumstance that they place when you’re doing it, When you do that stuff. I don’t think that you just make a record, you know? Unless you’re in a situation, you’ve been, you know, it’s a just an ongoing thing, you’ve been doing it for years. Like the old days, you just kind of go in and do one. It’s obviously a little different, because I wasn’t in a band for quite awhile. Likewise thing with same Danny, too. I’m not even the only one to be considered, but I don’t think it’s all about me.
Rock My Monkey: But you’re saying that you would be-would you be excited to record a new Anthrax album?
Joey Belladonna: Oh, absolutely. I would have loved to do one, yeah. I mean, but again, and all due respect, there’s a lot of circumstances that take place to do that kind of stuff. There’s a lot of things involved. Just think about it, you know. You have to have material, you have to have a reason. You have to have everything. You have to have a place to do it, the circumstance. All the basics have to be there. Again, it’s not for me to decide any of that stuff. So I don’t decide it. It’s not my band. And you have to know that I was not there. I wasn’t in that band. They asked me to come back and do a reunion. So that’s about all I know. It’s hard for me to really answer anything specific here.
Rock My Monkey: Actually I thank you very much for what you are answering.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah.
Rock My Monkey: Now, it sounds like, I mean, there’s a communication problem, because you’re sounding like you-it sounds like Scott Ian put out an announcement before everything was really talked over with you. It sounds like you really aren’t aware of this.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah, I mean, regardless of how aware of things I am, if they want to move forward regardless of things in place for them they’re going to do that. They can do whatever they want. Likewise, really. That’s what it boils down to. Again, I really, it’s too hard to make light of everything that needs to be done, and anybody’s case, really, unfortunately.
Rock My Monkey: If this does all pan out to be true, what’s up next for Joey Belladonna?
Joey Belladonna: Just taking my own solo thing, and just keep playing. In fact I’m playing this Saturday with Overkill and Metal Church. This Sunday, actually. Metal Church, Overkill, and Meliah Rage, in B.B. Kings. Three other gigs coming up so far.
Rock My Monkey: That’s as a solo artist?
Joey Belladonna: Excuse me?
Rock My Monkey: That’s as a solo artist?
Joey Belladonna: Yeah. There’s a band, Belladonna. I have the band.
Rock My Monkey: Right, right, right.
Joey Belladonna: Just doing a little music. I got so many tunes. I really like to keep busy anyhow. So I’ll play music as much as I can. I mean, I haven’t really had any time to do any of that anyhow. Just felt like doing it now.
Rock My Monkey: Me as a fan, I know we talked actually right before the reunion happened, and then I saw you play Seattle with the Anthrax reunion just, I mean, god-
Joey Belladonna: Was it Gigantour?
Rock My Monkey: The Gigantour. Yeah.
Joey Belladonna: Right on.
Rock My Monkey: And I got to say that was actually one of the most enjoyable music events that I’ve ever been to in my life.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah. That rocked. It was a really good show. I remember it quite well.
Rock My Monkey: Yeah, it was really great. But one thing I noticed with you was, when I talked to you on the phone before the reunion, and before the reunion was even being planned, I don’t think. And then I saw you onstage with Anthrax again. It was like I saw a whole different man onstage. It was like you had this jolt right up your backside when you were onstage with Anthrax again. It seems like the old Joey was back and in full force. Do you-how can I say this? Do you think you’re going to be able to bring that same excitement, now that the reunion has happened, and maybe you’ve had that closure maybe, do you think you’re going to be able to bring that excitement back into your solo stuff?
Joey Belladonna: I think with the solo stuff, obviously it’s not the same lineup, so you don’t get that partnership, or the company of the other people. I think likewise with those guys. Somehow when we play together we just plug in a different vibe, you know? With me, I mean, I’ve got different players sometimes who the experience takes that different places, the music takes it different places. I mean, obviously I’m playing some different music. Oh, absolutely for me, I’m always going to be plugged in. I’m full of everything when I’m doing it. In fact, when I do it my own self, for some reason I just take on vocally totally even more, because I’m just very much into what I’m doing, as well. So it’s kind of the same thing, but it’s also very different because it’s two different bands, and a lot different people. So there’s no way I can really compare that. Unfortunately it’s hard not to be in a comparison mode whenever you’re doing something, because everybody’s wishing for something that they’re not getting, or they’re getting something completely different that’s not what they thought it was going to be, or they were hoping it would be, or if it’s even better than they thought it would be. It’s a lot of different things that happen. So, hey, it’s all good. I’m glad you dug that, because I thought when we played it was just a natural thing. I mean, there’s nothing that we did was anything different I think than long ago. It’s just at that time I think we were just very, very happy to be together, you know, as far as playing. It was quite great.
Rock My Monkey: I think all the members, all the band members, were grinning to ear to ear pretty much. And that of course was felt by the fans, and made the fans even more excited to see it.
Joey Belladonna: Not a whole lot more you can do than that at times. Because I just don’t know anything different as far as that. As far as the day to day things, that’s a whole ‘nother different ballgame, you know?
Rock My Monkey: Cool. One thing, now, as being a person that heard your album, Three, that you put out, like you said, right before the reunion, one thing I would love to hear is you doing that album live. Basically cover to cover, do the whole album, track by track by track, live, and maybe bring some of that excitement that you have when you play live, and bring that to the album, Three.
Joey Belladonna: Oh, yeah. Like this time around, I’ll do some off that at the show Sunday. And then I’ve got some new arrangements to a couple of tunes, and they got heavier, and they sound so good. I mean, I’m very excited. It’s just now I’ve got the chance to play that. Because those songs weren’t even done as a group. They’re done as two people. And now it’s with a band, and when you put the shit together tight, it sounds really good.
Rock My Monkey: So when you interact, I think maybe that’s part of what the difference that I saw was that you are a person that needs to really interact to get your full moxie out, your full power out.
Joey Belladonna: I think the other difference too is when you’re out soloing yourself, you got a lot of songs that are very unfamiliar to people sometimes. So it takes a little bit of time versus the ones that we played at Anthrax. We hit with all the tunes that you supposedly already know. Just turns into an automatic bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. You just know them all. And it’s so great. But with me, I almost have to pick up all the pieces, and most of the time you can’t force feed it, but you have to kind of slowly get it in there. And you have to do it continuously and more and more, so people can get familiar with it, because my stuff’s not out there that far. It’s definitely not out there that much.
Rock My Monkey: Would there be, for you, is the door always open, is the door always open to return to Anthrax? Did the reunion, did the way that this ended this time, did it put any kind of bad taste in your mouth? Are you always open and excited to return to that microphone?
Joey Belladonna: Well, I always will. I mean, god, it didn’t take me five minutes to say yes to something. It’s just, when you’re doing that type of thing, it takes a lot of people to put it all together, I think. It’s not just me. There’s other people involved, and they have to enjoy the circumstances, and have to know they want to go ahead. I think when they first started, I think they were trying to be real careful, of doing it how much they were going to do it, and how long it was going to take place. And I think, with all due respect, I think we did a good run. Eighteen months was a nice chunk of run. It was pretty lengthy. Some bands maybe would have done two months, and then they end it. They do that one run, and that was cool. Then again, it’s not a problem. I just can’t predict anybody’s path and what they want to do, and how they want to do it, and whom they want to do it with, you know? It goes with anybody’s band, I think.
Rock My Monkey: When you were, like I said, before the reunion, when you did the album Three, you did that totally independently with no record company whatsoever. And a lot of bands actually are starting to do-hello?
Joey Belladonna: Mmm-hmm.
Rock My Monkey: Okay. A lot of bands are starting to do the independent release and bypassing the record company entirely. Do you think that’s something that’s going to return, going to continue with you?
Joey Belladonna: Well, I guess, you get to the point you’re hanging out at home for a while, and you’re going, okay, I did another now. So where it’s going to go? Who’s going to take it? Who’s going to take it? Sony going to take it? If they’re not going to take it, so how do you want to do it? Do you want to do it ourselves? Do you want to get somebody in? You want to put it out on the internet? You kind of go with it. I think it was nice to be able to get it out. I finished a song this afternoon. It’s a really cool song. We buttoned it up. I could put it out today. This afternoon I could put it out. And if you wanted it, you could have it, right away. Which is cool. I don’t have to sit down and go ask George at the fucking higher up to see if he’ll sign it, and when he gets it, did he listen to it yet? And all that shit that takes place. Which, I wouldn’t mind doing that, but obviously that’s why a lot of times you don’t hear from me for a while. I’m holding onto something for so long. Right now I’m just happy to be able to actually rehearse songs that I’ve never even played before as a band, and that are really turning into some cool songs, which I’m excited about. But if I could put them on a cd soon, that would be nice. It’s too bad with this Anthrax thing, because I don’t want anybody getting expectations that couldn’t be met. Or if I’m original guy that likes to play his own stuff, but doesn’t want to do the Anthrax stuff. None of that kind of thing. Of course, I’m not doing it because I have to do this, and I don’t want to do that. I’m just doing whatever I can just to play. I like to play. I just like to perform. I don’t want to sit around. I’d rather do something.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. So basically as far as the record company thing goes with your solo stuff, that’s not necessarily the preferred path that you’d like to go. You would actually like to sign with a label. Just nobody made a decent offer that you couldn’t beat yourself?
Joey Belladonna: At the moment I haven’t shopped anything, so I haven’t really-I attempted to shop, even on Three, I didn’t even put it on the table for anybody. I suppose I could have. The demos that I put out, I didn’t even try to do that either. Some of them actually came out on the first record, but they’re different cuts. I wouldn’t mind doing something like that, but the process will be a little bit lengthy, because obviously until somebody gets back to you after they heard it, or if you got it to the right person, and then by the time they hear it, if they don’t want it… Sometimes they don’t even call you back if they don’t want it. Then you’re just still thinking, well, they might call me today, right? Maybe not. So then you have to go bother them. Then if you do get some paperwork, you got to wait and look it over, and figure out if you want to be bound to do that, or do you really want to do it with them? Are they going to do the right thing for you? I’ve been on labels that just really haven’t taken me anywhere. That first label I just never got anywhere with them guys, or the second one to put it that way. So it was kind of a disappointment.
Rock My Monkey: One of the things-I actually think that people like you that are already established and already have a fan base, personally I think that the traditional record company is kind of a horse and buggy. They’re kind of being phased out for companies like the Apples I Tunes.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah, it’s a scary proposition, there’s no doubt. But what do you do? You start really wondering what you should do, and how you should do it.
Rock My Monkey: What about selling your music with one of the online distributors like E-music or iTunes?
Joey Belladonna: Yeah, I guess that would definitely be an option. I’ve never explored those avenues. When I do my own stuff it’s Paypal and all that kind of shit. It’s not a worldwide announcement. Unless you go to my site you wouldn’t even know I have band or I’m even playing anymore.
Rock My Monkey: Basically, what, personally what I tell artists to do, and this is more-most of the artists I deal with as far as consulting goes are independent artists that are not near as established as you. But what I say is just hire one of the small independent press agents, or just sent out the email yourself. Let Blabbermouth pick it up. They’re really great about posting stuff. Put it out through iTunes, and put it out through E-Music. Those guys can, because they’re digital, there’s not really near the negotiating that there is with a traditional label.
Joey Belladonna: Because they sell it for you, right?
Rock My Monkey: They sell it for you. They do the Paypal. It’s not even Paypal. They do everything for you.
Joey Belladonna: You’re talking iTunes strictly. Just stick with iTunes, right?
Rock My Monkey: iTunes. There’s actually a company that I like better personally, called E-Music.
Joey Belladonna: E-Music?
Rock My Monkey: Right. I like them better than iTunes, because they have a reputation for paying the artist a little bit more than iTunes does. As well as they don’t have what’s called DRM, which is Digital Rights Management, which is something that definitely scares a lot of fans away. I highly recommend E-Music. Just sell it through there. They give the artist a bigger cut. The fans are left with more freedom of what to do with the music once they buy it from you.
Joey Belladonna: How do they display it? How much do you get to hear when you want-like if you went on there and saw one of my songs, how much do they display the song?
Rock My Monkey: I think that depends upon how many people are actually downloading it, and how many people-or if it’s maybe one of the brand new-I don’t know.
Joey Belladonna: How do you get to hear it? Like if you went there today, and you saw somebody you wanted to buy some of, how much do you get to hear of it? Do you get to hear a little bit of it? Like, how are the samples? Like the overall samples?
Rock My Monkey: I don’t know, actually.
Joey Belladonna: I think that’s obviously something you’d want to know. Like my site you get to test, try any of the songs. You can get a free minute of the song, get an idea of what it’s about, how fast, slow, clean, vocals, that kind of stuff. And then you say I like that one, I’ll buy that one. If I like the whole thing, I can get the whole thing.
Rock My Monkey: I’m sure they have some kind of a preview.
Joey Belladonna: They’ve got to have some kind of preview, right?
Rock My Monkey: Honestly, I’ve never-because of the fact that I’m a journalist, I get sent the music.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah, you get all the shit anyway.
Rock My Monkey: Right. (laughs) But I know that from talking with different music fans, and people on my board, I know that they enjoy the different services that E-Music offers more, like I said, because of the lack of DRM. iTunes, obviously they have their own Digital Rights Management on there.
Joey Belladonna: E-Music you like, right?
Rock My Monkey: Right. E-Music. Basically, they’re just like iTunes. You buy the music online. People are able to put it on their mobile phone, or their iTunes, or whatever.
Joey Belladonna: They’ve got a better media for their stuff, too, probably? Advertising is probably better? More so than me. Like if I had it on my site? it’s on E-Music, it’s probably way bigger publicity, right? You would think?
Rock My Monkey: Like I said, they’re not really a record label. So because they’re not really a record label, all they are, they’re just like, say if you went down to your local, say you had copies of your album, Three, and you went down to your local independent mom and pop cd store, and you wanted to put your cd into the store yourself.
Joey Belladonna: Consignment.
Rock My Monkey: They give you kind of a consignment deal, of like, okay, you get a certain percentage. That store, obviously that mom and pop store is not going to do pay for publicity for you.
Joey Belladonna: But these people do publicity for you, don’t they?
Rock My Monkey: No. That’s why they’re able to give you a better cut.
Joey Belladonna: What’s the difference of them than my site, when I’m doing everything myself, and I’m doing everything myself, except for Paypal taking a little bit of percentage because they’re taking care of the actual computer end as far as the actual payments of it, but that’s about it. What other advertising do they do than me?
Rock My Monkey: The difference is number one, a lot of people are actually uncomfortable with Paypal. If you’re not really, if you’re not extremely net savvy, some people are uncomfortable with that. Also it’s brand recognition, so people that are really into E-Music will surf around E-Music and look for what’s hot, what’s new in E-Music, and then your name comes up on the menu. Plus it’s that brand recognition of E-Music or iTunes. It’s the comfortability, it’s the fan being comfortable using that service.
Joey Belladonna: Yeah. I guess it’s a little more media savvy, I guess.
Rock My Monkey: And ease of use. Making it easier for the user to do. And plus, also, you’re paying a cut to Paypal. You’re either going to pay a percentage to Paypal, or you’re going to pay a percentage to E-Music. Either way a percentage comes out.
Joey Belladonna: I guess the hardest part now is like, the best thing you want to find is someone that’s really going to push the shit out of it, versus like letting it sit dormant on a site. Unless you don’t look up my name. If you see it through someone else, somehow, like I’m some kind of link to a company, or like a guitar company, you might not even know. I’ve had people-I had people come up to me-I had one guy, an Anthrax fan, he goes ‘dude, you got music out right now? You got a website?’ I’m like, yeah. I was like, wow, have you even gone to the Anthrax site? It’s funny, because you can’t assume anybody really has any kind of clue what’s going on. Yeah, I would love to get it connected. I’m probably the least into all that stuff, as far as knowing how to go about doing it. Even though I have people around me that can, that are really plugged into that, but just going through the whole process, I suppose this time around I might take it a little bit further. But again, the labels, that’s a lot of tossing over what you’re going to be able to get out of it in the end, and are they going to do it for you? I would love to have something new. Obviously I haven’t even gone that far yet. But just playing live is fun. Just to be able to play out, take some shows on, and just dim the lights down and plug in. Fucking go for it.
Rock My Monkey: My digital recorder has actually informed me that I have one minute left of space. So real quickly, is there, is there going to be a full solo Joey Belladonna solo tour coming up? What can fans look forward to hearing from you over the next year?
Joey Belladonna: Just right now, I’m just in the beginning stages of doing something. Just carrying on musically. So I’m just going to keep busy as much as I can. I don’t know right now what I’m doing, or what’s happening. I am, there is a band in place, and I am trying to take it on the road for sure. Everything is open. It’s all open.
Rock My Monkey: So there is a possibility this time of doing a full coast to coast Joey Belladonna tour?
Joey Belladonna: Yeah. It would be nice. Anything is possible. I think it’s just a matter of time to see how things progress. Well, thank you for letting me know about this. I wasn’t aware of this.
Rock My Monkey: Wow. That’s frightening.
Joey Belladonna: Hey, if I’m not the one writing it, I wouldn’t know. It’s not that… by the way, we’re going to put something on Blabbermouth. You don’t hear about that shit.
dbluntman
Member
- May 3, 2005
- 407
- 1
- 18
hmm..good question???i was not sure what i was thinking about.."92" i know i was talking about..1992..
MikeyBong
Member
- Sep 22, 2004
- 4,410
- 6
- 38
- 53
I like the first solo CD, I don't have anything else yet, but I just bid on one on E-Bay.
