PipemanRadio Interviews DAS MOÖSE About Their Debut Album, Moösehenge

0:04 Hey, you have unto censure fore Wow, crazy young ro Wake up of America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man. I'll W four C why dot Com West Pompeas is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. Tratch Mall, don't have dner ruch Malls, don't walk a dog cotton all.

0:44 Right, good church ball kiss. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio. And I'm here with our next guest, who some killer new music. A lot of killer new stuff going on that we're going to talk about. So let's welcome to the show. Adam from Dus Moose, how are you? That's up? Everybody don't want so? I want to start right off the bat. You got a new album coming out, the debut album Moosehenge, and I have that album right behind me. Yes, it is so tell us.

1:28 I'm totally into album covers, okay, because I come from that time, you know, and that's how you picked what albums you bought, Like you know you have on this album. You have Alex playing with you from Tessamon. You know, the only way I know about Tessamon is getting and seeing one of our albums way back in the early age and going, wow, that looks cool. I'm going to take a Greyhound bus from la up to the Frisco area to the Bay Area to go check out a show. That's right, you remember it well well that I also came from that era when albums were the thing. And of course what's great about you have, you know, twelve inches by twelve inches of artwork and you could like open up and look at and learn who was involved with making it and and uh so I got for the album cover before we even talk about like like what's in it, one of the great Bay Area artists who who really was part of the Bay Area thrash scene.

2:30 And his name is Mark Devido, So he's one of those classic artists and and he's gonna uh I got him to do the cover and the back cover and it and it looks like a classic thing. It looks and specifically about this cover, I had the idea, I mean, moose Enge was just like a great title. I said, what's what sounds heavy? Moose Enge? You know it's because I new to get the Stonehenge things put the antlers on it. But where I got that that glow around it was and you'll appreciate this. You remember the Kiss solo albums, right and Faces with the Glow and that one the specific one. I said, I want the color of Ace Frehley because I thought that was the coolest looking one, you know, and it was like blew that he he had and I was like, that's the color I want. And of course Mark Mark the Veto understood it quite well, and that's that's where that came from.

3:24 We were kind of like, yeah, that's that's the look. And it just tells you kind of you know that we're you know what kind of heavier music, but that we also got to sense a humor about ourselves as well, So that's. Good, which also describes Ace Frehley anyway, because great guitarist but also funny guy. You know, that's right, that's right. You know one of my absolute favorites. I mean that you know, defining moment for me was was definitely when I got my hands on that Kiss Alive album. I mean I could burn a hole through it by looking at it, just looking at that picture, you know what I mean, And that back cover just kills me, you. Know, so you know, check this out speaking those. I think everybody has a Kiss story, you know, and like for me, I grew up in Jersey before I moved to LA in nineteen eighty. But my first album I ever owned personally, not one that I stole from my older brothers, but mine I won at the boardwalk in Seaside Heights at one of those Carnie games. I look up and they were all albums and I just saw this album up there with these four dudes, and I thought, look, the coolest ever. And I was a kid, and it was the original Kiss album when it first came out.

4:40 Wow, right, that goes right to the source. Man, that's the beginning. Yeah, I think that prepared me for everything else after that, to be honest. You know, absolutely absolutely. If you can handle that, I mean, you're there, you know, it's like I was. I was. Fortunately I came in about that album Alive and then Rock and Roll over, and I convinced my father, who just show how far apart it is listened to Opera to take me to their concert in nineteen seventy six, and I was the first concert he took me to. This also the last concert he took me to, so he was not interested in what was. Going on there, Although you know, in hindsight I think about it, it's not that far from opera in a certain kind of sense, you know, the theatricality of it.

5:26 But the volume and the pirate technics I think just got him and and so. And by the way, back in those days, you could choke on the marijuana smoke in the room. I mean it was like it was like it was it was like it was like a fog. And yeah, but you know whatever, I saw them, and I was just like, all right, I'm rock and roll for life. I don't care about anything anymore. And uh so, Itz, it's interesting too that you brought that up, because I was just talking about I was just covering After Shock this weekend then, and I was just talking about that with somebody. It's like, it's so cool to me that back in our day, our parents' music was so far from ours, you know, and nowadays our generation is bringing their kids and bringing their Like I brought my sons first mashpit. I brought a couple of my grandkids into their first mosh pit, and like, I'm the cool dead and grandpa because of music opposed to the un cool dad of music.

6:35 She right, who doesn't like it and says it's bad, Right, It's like, yeah, it's amazing and after Shock's a great festival. I was there in twenty twenty one. It was kind of when they got back going after Covid and Metallica headlined over there, and so I was at that one. Nice. It was fun to see some bands that over at that one too. That was that was a nice It was nice to just see anything at that point. I mean, we'd all been I think. That was the year too that had the Bay Area thrash band all playing there. Pretty much. There was a lot of it because they were local and stuff, and you know, traveling was still hard. So yeah, it was really cool to see. But we were like in a bubble. We we had to test into like a bubble and just be there. I had to shoot some interviews and things, so yeah, it was it was kind of still heavy duty at the time.

7:21 You know. We didn't nobody wanted to get anybody sick, especially not the band guys, because you know whatever then like you know, fifty or a hundred of my friends are out of work, you know, all these crew guys, no doubt. So yeah, and we didn't want to shut down again because life without live music is no good at all in my opinion. Yeah, I'm right with you, man. That was it were we were happy to have it, you know, and we were happy to have it back. So yeah, that was good. But it was nice. I did enjoy being up there, and you know, in the like northern California area, checking out that festival is a nice one. Nice. So let's talk about your band. What I love about your band is it combines most everything from my childhood, especially because I'm both from like the New York, New Jersey area and from the LA area, you know, and so it just reminds me of if you just put together everything that I liked as a teenager. That's dos moos.

8:24 Wow, Well, thank you so much. It's you know, what's what's interesting is I kind of rounded up this these these these guys who are you know, like I said, the bonding factors. We all have kids that are fourteen years old. So we met and I was just like, you're you know, we need you and we need you, but everybody comes to it with something, you know what I mean. And and so my other guitar player, singer Joel is he comes to it from a jam band background, and so he kind of brings a more melodic thing and he, you know, his songs have these long tail ends with jam, so you know, he just kind of solos out and everything. Drew, my drummer, Drew has is great drummer. He was professionally did it in Austin, Texas for a bunch of years in the nineties.

9:08 And my bass player, Rock Kassabian, great player, comes from the the Washington DC like kind of hardcore scene and punk scene, and so he's got a real good attack on the you know, on the bass and everything comes. And so what we kind of felt was, you know, as much as we wanted to be like, like really heavy on a lot of stuff, the album as I listened to it now, has a lot of different feels on it. And the thing that reminds me of not that we sound like them at all, but is if you listen to those Great Clash records, by the records by the Clash, they could play like a few different styles of music credibly and and just be great, you know, and just be that. And so they weren't like a just a fast punk band. Maybe their first record was but after that they developed into like this really nicely rounded band, and I always thought, well, that's kind of that's kind of cool. If you can do that, I meane, it makes it very interesting anyway, we enjoy it.

10:06 You know. Well, what I think is cool about it is and especially a lot in music today being like this is you know, back in our day at all the gatekeepers, so you couldn't really combine genres like that. You know, I went to Slayer shows on Friday night and Dead shows on US in Saturday afternoon, and then you know, try to go to punk shows Bows the Long Hair and you'd get your ass beat if you went to punk shows. So like it's kind of cool just combining those worlds. Because I talked about this with somebody over to this weekend. You know, like nobody just likes one genre of music like that that makes no sense. Like if you like music, you like music, shirt or some things you don't like. But for the most part, I think it depends on what you're doing, what your mood is, what all those things that you can kind of change it up. So it's good to have a band that has that diversity, because sometimes there's albums like you don't want to listen to the whole album because every single song is the same song. You know, I'd rather be more diversified so that I want to take the full experience of a full album. You know.

11:21 I think it's a great point. I mean, certain bands have have thrived, I guess doing you know, for whatever reason, they're just you know, they just want to do I mean, ac DC, you want an ac DC record, you know what I mean, it just is it just is what they are, and it's what you want to It's what you want to hear from them and to say. And they can vary it slightly, but ever so slightly. And other bands just have a little more freedom to to you know, to. Play around and expand. And I just think, you know, for us who are not set yet, I think we're like the kind of sorry, there's just some noise in the record hall here.

12:02 They they. I think some bands that are that are not like you know, like set in Stone. Yet in so so many ways, we just want to like just do what we want to do and like it was natural if we feel it, you know what I mean, if we feel like playing it, we're doing it. I think we felt like we can do it. What's interesting is you play these songs out live and they work, and that's as good a you know, barometer for what's good as anything else, you know what I mean. You just, yeah, just go out there and play it live, and if your audience is receptive and you can feel the crowd, you can feel when they're when they're feeling this, then then it's like it's good, you know what I mean, We're we're on track, and. That that is a big key because for me, some of my favorite bands are because I saw them live.

12:48 You know, Like there's a lot of bands I saw back in the eighties that I saw live before I ever saw an album because either they didn't have an album yet or you didn't know when an album sounded like so you bought it. So it was actually cheaper to go to the show first and then by the album. Remember that it was risky to risk your those bucks on like an LP, and you do it sometimes usually based on the artwork, but you kind of wanted to know something about them and live show is a great way to find out, it really. Was, And I think the energy and the feeling you get a live show is what makes you like a band. Like there's bands that I did not like before seeing their live show, and then I was like, wow, that's great.

13:33 And even certain things that I totally did not get, you know, like certain types of genres, I'm like, yeah, no, that's not me, and then you see it live and you're like, oh, I get it now. Right right. I definitely have that conversion. I've seen live bands that I just I never thought about, so I never like either downloaded them or got a record or whatever, and then you know, I go see it live and I'm. Like, oh, yeah, okay, exactly is something. And sometimes it doesn't live up to live experience. You know, sometimes the best thing a band does is live. You mentioned the Grateful Dead, and that's maybe the best example, you know, yeah, something about that collective energy and what those guys were able to do with it. I was not a Dead fan when I was younger, although I was fortunate to attend the show, and now I value them.

14:22 I think they're terrific. I'd listen to much more of it, you know. Well, you know, it's funny you should say that too, because that's kind of who I am. Like, the live Dead show is just the experience and them jamming the way they did. And there's some songs I like to listen to there on the albums, but I'm not that deadhead that can sit there and listen to them twenty four to seven, you know, studio especially. You know, it's like you got to be there experience it, and you know, because every experience was different was the key, you know. And then there's some songs that just they play live better, you know, no matter what.

15:02 Yes, yeah, it's just that collective experience. There's no getting around it. And you know whatever I mean. I just came back from Mexico City. I saw Metallica play live, and it's just like that's one of my favorite places to see them, Mexico City because the audience is just next level off the hook, and it was just like the greatest live experience, you know, to just to be there collectively and feel what's. Going on there. You know, it's just so powerful. So that's you know, great live shows, a great live show. It's a funny thing we were at and we kind of reenact a little of this in the music video. We're Me and the band. We're all fans of Jane's addiction. We just we just like that.

15:42 You know, we're just fans of it, so we bought tickets. We went as a group. It's one of the only things I think we went as a group as and we went to what I guess turns out to be the last live show, full show of Jane's addiction. We were at the show before the show where the fight breaks out and that's the end of them. So it was and they were great, by the way, I'll say. The night we saw them, they were terrific. We drove home going like, oh my god, that was great and we love seeing them. So we kind of reenact that in the music video. We put on Lucia door masks like wrestling Mexican wrestling masks and and like reenact Perry Feral Dave Navarro fight, you know. So but we we love those guys. It's not against them.

16:25 We really we really enjoyed the show. Well it was. It definitely had to be a bad night because like I didn't really imagine. I know, I know there's tension, but I never imagined Perry Farrell of all people to like do that, like, so you know, there's there's stuff we don't know. So for all the haters out there, like you don't know what's going on in somebody's life or behind the scenes to judge them. You know, there's always tension in bands, especially the longer you've been a band together, like you know, especially people you know, start off as high school bands, Like how many of us can really get along with our high school friends at this stage of life.

17:06 That's all right, so we you know, it's a great point. So that takes me back when I was I was in the studio, I filmed Metallica for many many times. But you know what I looked for was like these moments where because also in that tension is where the the creative you know, engine often lies. And and so you know, we saw the whole world got to look at it when they released this footage, when when the when the Beatles put that get Back footage out there, right, you could see it right there, and not that they were always fighting, but there was tension, and even when they're getting along, it was like still there's there's a there's a power to it. But when I you know, my personal experience was you know, Metallica, and there's there's a moment that I always remember of Lars where he was trying to get something complicated, a drum thing, and he couldn't get it, and he took the the drumstick and he stabs it through the snare. And over the years now I put that out. That came out thirty two years ago, and it's like, I can't tell you how many times I've talked to musicians, particularly drummers, but not always and they've said, yeah, that you caught it on film. I've done that, but you caught that on film, And right there is the creative tension. You're trying to get something and you're working at it so hard and you can hear it in your head but you can't get it down, and that comes out and it's one of those moments that's I think it causes you to

18:38 get better because I think you come back in and you figure out a way to conquer that, and you know, the world gets a song like Enter Sandman out of it, you know, And that's what's amazing about that. And that seems to be a story quite often too, So it's not like it's a unique story. You know, those things happen because listen siblings where they have sibling rivalry when you're in a band. You're like siblings and you're together twenty four seven. How could there not be tension? You know? Yeah, no, it's true. It breeds it. Now if we're getting to our record we're we're not that kind of We're not in it that much. It's it's, you know, we're we got a long fine. I mean, the guys we actually have a lot of fun. We're friends. We could go out for drinks just as well as do you know, do the music or play a live show. So it's been an entertaining thing. But again there's not The reason is because there's.

19:36 Not the pressure on us. We're not doing it night after night and doing it at a certain high achieving level, which is amazing. I mean, I watch friends in various bands. You mentioned Alex Colnick in testament. I saw them the other night and I just was like, I'm amazed. I watch what two guitar players Alex Alex Click and Eric Peterson do, and they the way they lock it in together, and it's it's magnificent. It's just amazing. Now do that night after night while traveling around the country. It's it's hard, it's hard, and you know, and then do it for years and it's amazing those guys are just you know, all these guys who were doing it and gals who were doing it, it just knocks me out. So yeah, it's something to definitely strive for and to admire, you know.

20:19 Yeah, and I think it should be fun. So I'm glad you guys are having fun with it. And just the fact that you did the whole Jane's addiction thing just tells me you're having fun. Listen. Yeah, if you're not having fun in this business, it could be not fun, like seriously not fun. Right, So that was kind of the fun thing about getting these guys together to play because I kind of, you know, I've just looked at it as like I've known so many people in so many bands, and like there's usually I mean, we were all younger than and like the pressure was on you had to make it, you know, and by make it, that meant make money and get fame and you know, be able to do this full time and all that. And it was interesting put it together this band that was just like, Okay, money, we're not going to make any that's out the window. Fame, yeah, we're probably not gonna get that either. That's out the window. Now, are you having fun playing music? And if the answer to that is yes, then you're in the right place.

21:14 Now let's just play and it's nice and then you know, other things can happen from that. Of course, we were able to, you know, we just kept playing. So we had some great shows and you know, made this record and I'm talking to you and that's that's really cool, and make a music video. Part of that's going to be with a movie. I mean, that's all great stuff that happens because I guess I guess we're kind of just in it in the right place. You know, we're just having fun, you know. Yeah, and even like okay, so you have Alex in you know, the song that's in the movie and in the movie trailer, and and he creates an alter ego in yes. So that's a proof of having fun. You know.

21:56 That's the amazing thing about him. I mean, he is you know, he's he's immensely talented, and of course, besides his heavy metal work, he has his his jazz band stuff, so I mean his talent is beyond but he's still got a sense of humor enough that he could horse around in a video like ours and He plays keyboards on that particular song, Traction Park Massacre, which is appropriate because Alex is also doing the score to the movie. So it's and I think he's going to, you know, again, amaze all of us with his talent, but in another direction, because he already did. We put out a teaser for the movie some months ago, and Alex did the score, and if it's reminiscent of anything, I would say it's it sounds kind of like John Carpenter's scores that he did for his movies back in the eighties, which, of course Stranger Things did a did a pretty incredible job of imitating and taking it to another level and what they were doing, and you know, me and my co director Douglas just kind of said, we wanted to have that eighties feel. Can you do something like this and you know, true to form Alex Alex was able to do that. So yeah, we're happy to you know, be working with him, and it's always great fun to to have him in our music video.

23:14 He starts it off like one of those horror hosts, you know, those high guys that host like a horror movie, and Alex plays an alter ego Count Von skoletour, so he's uh, he kicks off the music video in that way. So it's great that we can you know, horse around like that too. Absolutely, And I think it's pretty cool as far as you go, like crossing different industries that are similar, like doing your filmmaking and being involved in music at the same time. To me, like everybody likes to say to artists or whatever, oh you're living to dream life and some respects people are, some they're not. You don't know about the behind the scenes. But to me, the dream life is to be able to just be creative like that, whatever industry it is, be able to go into different arenas like you do and be able to create.

24:06 Yeah. Absolutely, Dean, It's it's just such a gift. And we you know, I mean, look, I've I've I've never stopped working. I was I was always working towards like making films and at a certain point, you know, making music and that that was fun and you know, whatever else came my way, and working with different different kind of talent, working with comedians because I found I found music in that also, you know, the rhythm of the jokes is basically music, and I just I just felt and everything. So it's kind of nice. This wasn't planned so much. It just planned like, let's go a horror movie, and and it came out quite well. And then I was like, well, I would really love to have like music to this horror movie, and I'd love to have a Ramones type song because that's what it felt like it wanted to have, that's the vibe of it. And so I just said, let's let's just create something, you know, a complete homage to the to the Ramones, but make it have like a feel that's that's like and fits with our movie.

25:10 So we did. Alex contributed keyboards, and then we were like, okay, let's shoot a music video, and you know, Alex was good enough to be in it, and and let's just keep going, you know what I mean. It's like, let's let's and and it just so happens. All this stuff's coming together. This was not planned, but it is coming together with the release of the UH the record and the music video and of course this great UH trailer you know preview that we're gonna do with this panel tomorrow at New York Comic Con. So it's sort of a nice you know, hey, you know your art in many different forms coming together, and I. Think that's the way. It's really cool. Like Evan, I was watching the show recently, Lady Gaga was on and she was talking about being Harley Quinn and she talked about she made an album. She said, it's not the soundtrack to the album, but it's something to go a soundtrack to the movie. It's something to go with the movie.

26:08 It's like it just all goes hand in hand, and I think what you're doing is kind of a similar scenario. That's what it reminded me of. Yeah, exactly, and that's you know it. It planned out like mapped out on a table, like Okay, we'll, you know, have these things coming out all at the same time. It was just sort of like making the movie inspired to I knew what the end wanted to be, so I was like, let me make the song that I feel like I'm hearing that I want where you know the lyrics are, it would be different. I'm just licensing a Ramone song. I mean, not that we have the money to do it, but what I'm saying is like, if you just license the Ramones, it'd be great because it's them, but it would have no reference point to the movie. It's not like what they did for pet Cemetery, which is what I'm thinking in my head, you know, And yeah, I wanted it to be like referential to the movie. So I was like, all right, let's just go create that. You know, we have a band, we can do that. And so it's kind of it's it's fun in that way, you know, we just we just it all kind of came together in some crazy That's the.

27:12 Way it should happen. That's true art right there. You know, art isn't lanned out, you know. It just happens. Agree, That's cool. Yeah, So so tell. Tell everybody how they can reach out to you to check out the new album, check out the movie when it comes to trailer, all the things you got going on. So the album is out today and it's on all the streaming platforms of you know, Apple and Spotify and the many others that are out there, and the other one the the you know, we have our our our Instagram and all that. When the music video comes out, it'll also find its way, you know, certainly to the Instagram account or you know, dots Moose band.

28:02 And then the movie, the movie's. Got its own whole life, which is it's it's Traction Park Massacre, and it is it's got all the social media handles that that go along with that. The the trailer will be out tomorrow night. We do this panel and we're here. It's It's It's Wednesday, October sixteenth. October seventeenth is our panel. It is hosted by Fangoria magazine and Fangoria is going to have the the trailer exclusively for the weekend on their site and then it'll go go wide next week. So if you just if anybody googles Traction Park Massacre, they'll they'll they'll first find the teaser, which has been out for some months, and then they'll find the movie. And uh, the actual film is going to come out next year because we still got a bunch of work to do on the special effects and stuff like that. But it's a really fun ride. If I if I just give a quick little description of it, it's a group of friends, just the way slasher movies go.

29:08 They kind of go up to the woods and they're just gonna hang out along the way. They run a foul of a group of outlaw bikers and all of them wind up on the grounds of it. It's like an old amusement park that burned down many years ago and the twin sons of the owners were thought killed, but they weren't. Of course. They're now like twenty five year old, and they're like feral twins and they like basically hunt anybody who comes onto the land, and so sometimes YouTube people go up there, like make videos and stuff, and that's it for them, and they're sort of and it's a lot of fun, so we use like pieces of the park still are in it, and parts of the Legend of Action parkers in it. But it's it's a really fun ride and it's hard to be sure, but there's a lot of comedy in there. And I think anybody's a fan of some of the old school slasher films and Evil Dead two and Killer Clowns from Outer Space and a lot of a lot of fun slasher movies. I think I think you get a kick out the movies. We're working hard to finish it and you know it'll be out for next year. So that's that's the movie.

30:19 I love it. Is there any last words you want to leave the listeners with that we haven't covered. No, I think that's that's that's pretty great. It was good talking to you, and I appreciate the time. It was nice to uh to do that, unless you want to say hello for one second. So my co director in all this and my co writer, when I told you that we were making films for forty years, it's forty plus years. This is Douglas Demanda. He is my best friend, co director, writer, and we basically cooked this up together. We just said, like, you know, we're getting to be a certain age, let's do the thing we always wanted to do. So this is kind of about following your dreams a little bit. And and we said, what's the most accessible kind of story, and it's it's basically a horror movie. Everybody loves a good horror movie and it doesn't need stars.

31:09 So we were just like bodies, just bodies. Very well put and so we have a nice high kill count for anybody who's who's uh uh you know, keeping track of score of those song yeah, boy. So it's it's actually a lot of fun. So I just think, you know, Doug and I went to the movies for so many years, and I think I think, like Udine, we like crowd pleaser movies. It's just like kind of music. It's the same things, I'm sure and known by the bands that you like. I'll bet we like a lot of the same movies in common. And you probably like going to a movie theater where the audience is into the movie and they're they're cheering for it and they're rooting for it. And that's kind of the the the idea that we set out for to make a film that the audience is going to want to like, get with and love it. Doug and I saw many of these films, you know, in their original screenings and and we just were like, man, let's make a movie that that the audience is at.

32:10 Yeah, I have a good time. Saturday Friday nighty night, man, have a beer, smoke it off, go to the movie, enjoy. There you go. That's the way it should be. Music and movie should both be fun and that for everybody. So I love that, and uh, thanks for giving us some great entertainment. I can't wait for the movie. And definitely the album is badass, So everybody's got to check the album out now today. And uh, you know, thanks a lot for giving us some great entertainment when we probably need it. Most and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. You bet, thank you man, your great interviewer. Thank you appreciate it.

32:52 Thank you appreciate it myself. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Platement on w for c u I Radio. Mm hmm