{"id":24624,"date":"2015-02-13T07:30:47","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T20:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=24624"},"modified":"2019-04-14T18:14:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T08:14:01","slug":"danko-jones-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2015\/02\/danko-jones-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Danko Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201cOver the years I\u2019ve gained a little more confidence, so the songs have more melody and more singing in them, the lyrics are pretty much the same as usual, that\u2019s one thing that kind of hasn\u2019t changed *laughs*.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Bio: Eighteen years. Twelve albums. Two Gold Records. Thirty-plus transatlantic treks. Fifteen Top 40 singles. Arena tours across 11 countries with Guns N Roses. A video trilogy starring Elijah Wood and Ralph Macchio. A feature-length documentary. An oral-history biography. Personal invites from Lemmy to join Mot\u00f6rhead on the road (and on water, for the 2014 Mot\u00f6rboat cruise). For most bands, that would amount to a hell of a career. For Toronto trio Danko Jones, it\u2019s called \u201cwarming up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling in from Toronto we chatted to Danko Jones about new album \u2018Fire Music\u2019, new drummers, WWE, Australia and much more\u2026<\/p>\n

So the album is called ‘Fire Music’ tell us why this was the right choice for the album name and what the title represents to you?<\/strong>
\nWell you know it kind of matches what we thought was the energy in the songs and how the songs were kind of high energy and up and aggressive and angry, so \u2018Fire Music\u2019 seemed to be the logical title, and yeah, I think we bounced it off a few people and they seemed to like it after we\u2019d already bounced twenty five other shitty titles, that was the one that finally got them *laughs*.<\/p>\n

This being your seventh album, how if in any way does the creative process differ now compared to your earlier releases?<\/strong>
\nWell you know when we first started we were just kind of like we knew how to play the instruments enough to not be laughed off the stage, and over the years we\u2019ve kind of gotten better at playing the instruments, writing the songs, incorporating bridges and knowing how to arrange a song which is more JC\u2019s department, our bass player, but that\u2019s kind of how we\u2019ve grown. In terms of the lyrics and the melody and the singing, I\u2019ve gotten a little more confident with my voice, I don\u2019t just scream and bark like I used to\u2026 I used to equate melody with a singing voice and as much as I listen to a lot of it, I couldn\u2019t pull it off to save my life. Over the years I\u2019ve gained a little more confidence, so the songs have more melody and more singing in them, the lyrics are pretty much the same as usual, that\u2019s one thing that kind of hasn\u2019t changed *laughs*.<\/p>\n

You seem to have had more drummers than Spinal Tap some through the ranks, but now have Rich Knox behind the kit, what has he brought to the band that you felt may have been missing previously?<\/strong>
\nA good positive attitude, a good pro-active attitude and no rack tom\u2026 all the drummers that \u2018ve had have never played with a rack tom, but our last drummer Adam Willard when he joined the band I said \u2018Listen, hey Adam, we don\u2019t usually have a rack tom on the drum kit, it\u2019s usually just a three piece, kick, floor and snare\u2019 and he said \u2018well that\u2019s just not going to happen\u2019 so that kind of set the tone for his stay in the band *laughs* and us trying to be welcoming, we just let it go but it always kind of irked me that our drummer had a rack tom because the whole point of the band is minimal set up, maximum volume you know? You look cooler as a drummer if you play this loud, bombastic music with such a bare kit, it makes you look cooler. So the first order of business for Rich when he joined out band, and it\u2019s almost coming up on two years was he wanted to get rid of the rack tom and go back to how it used to be, and that was such a relief for me to hear and I was like \u2018Oh thanks God, we\u2019re back to normal now\u2019 and then he was just really proactive\u2026 the song that has now become the single off the album \u2018Do You Wanna Rock\u2019 and we were just talking and like \u2018you know what, it would be great if we had another song with a cowbell in it\u2019 because we\u2019ve had other songs in the past, like \u2018Full of Regret\u2019 was a single for us, and \u2018Sugar High\u2019, \u2018Mango Kid\u2019, we always try to incorporate like a cowbell in the songs and without telling us, he went back to our rehearsal space, recorded two drum patterns and sent it to us, this is something that drummer in our band has ever done who has been this proactive. Then we used one of the drum patterns for \u2018Do You Wanna Rock\u2019 that basically laid the foundation for that song, once we sped up his drum pattern which is his original drum pattern only slightly sped up, the song wrote itself in about twenty minutes.<\/p>\n

And of course there\u2019s nothing more rock and roll than a cowbell\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah and it\u2019s funny how it\u2019s become this pop culture joke through that Saturday Night Live skit, but the truth of the matter is, the cowbell is a great device when you\u2019re writing a rock song and it sounds fucking great with a rock song. Whether it\u2019s a joke or not, I love it, there is no joke in any cowbell song we incorporate it, it\u2019s only meant to kick ass. So that unto itself, the fact that it became the single to the album and everything, I mean that just established Rich as a real member of the band, and in terms of his chops and skills, the guy is a monster, sometimes we get out of rehearsal and me and JC just go \u2018Holy Fuck, we fuckin\u2019 scored here\u2019 like we got this guy, so we\u2019re very happy. Oh, and the most important thing that a drummer or any member of the band is whether you can hang off stage, hours of driving, days on the road in close quarters, and he\u2019s a good hang, he\u2019s a good guy, nice guy and good character and it\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

Another that stood out was \u2018Getting Into Drugs\u2019 a real no bullshit kind of song, is there a story behind this one?<\/strong>
\nThere kind of is, it\u2019s half true and half made up, true in the fact that yes, I don\u2019t do drugs, but I have\u2026 so it is about someone who hasn\u2019t done drugs and gets into it late in life and realises they like it. My story is, I did drugs when I was younger and then I stopped as I\u2019d gotten everything I wanted out if it, it\u2019s not my thing, and when I say drugs I mean marijuana, just the regular old youth stuff, nothing hard, just everything you\u2019d expect, mushrooms, hash, marijuana… acid *laughs* and I got older and said you know, it\u2019s not for me, I don\u2019t need it. Nothing against anyone who does, I\u2019m pro legalisation of marijuana, but besides that\u2026 so I hadn\u2019t done it in years, but recently\u2026 while we were writing the record I actually did smoke a joint *laughs* so intertwine that with this experience and in order to kind of drive the square peg into the hole, I made it so it\u2019s this guy who\u2019s never done drugs\u2026 so there\u2019s a little bit of truth in there and a little made up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In what I consider awesome, you\u2019ve got your second track to be featured on a WWE pay per view, \u2018Gonna Be A Fight Tonight\u2019 for the Royal Rumble, how did that come about?<\/strong>
\nThey came to us and Royal Rumble was happening and we made it happen and when announced it aired on RAW, social media blew up and everything and it was cool but it happened really quickly. People who don\u2019t know that story people think that because the word rumble is in the song, they think that maybe did they write it for the Royal Rumble? Not at all, because in my head it was The Warriors meets West Side Story, those two movies meshed together trying to like describe an old time gang brawl in some park in the middle of the night with knives and baseball bats and stuff like that. So that was the kind of story that the song was trying to make, but the lyrics and just the title, yeah it\u2019s kind of like a seamless connection to the WWE, so it was easy that they knew that they could use that song, but no, we didn\u2019t write it for the Royal Rumble.<\/p>\n

Now it gets to be etched in history\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah, it seems so you know, it\u2019s a big deal\u2026 when it was announced when we were allowed to announce it, friends of mine on email and texts going \u2018HOLY SHIT MAN!\u2019 *laughs* and I was like, wow, I didn\u2019t know you were in to wrestling and I didn\u2019t know it was this big\u2026 it\u2019s a massive worldwide popular thing.<\/p>\n

We saw you in Australia back in 2013 for Soundwave, when do you think we can expect to see you back?<\/strong>
\nHey, the moment anyone from Australia calls, we\u2019re there! It\u2019s just a matter of Soundwave asking us back or promoters in Australia asking us back or people wanting us to come there and a promoter making it happen. It has nothing to do with the fans not wanting to be there, like I loved Soundwave, I had a fucking blast man, the fact that there were four bands all connected to Toronto and we were all there, Fucked Up!, Gallows has Wade MacNeil singing, he\u2019s from Toronto, The Cancer Bats and Billy Talent were there and we were there, so first there\u2019s the Toronto connection so we felt a little bit at home while we were so far away. Then there\u2019s all these bands that I love and then all these bands that we toured with who we\u2019re friends with , I mean it was all just a little overwhelming but it was so much fun.<\/p>\n

I was at your show in Sydney when you played with Loaded, man what a night that was\u2026<\/strong>
\nOh yeah and we ended up touring with Duff\u2019s other band \u2018The Walking Papers\u2019 that same year later on in August and Duff brought me on to sing \u2018You\u2019re Crazy\u2019 for Loaded\u2019s set and stuff, and it was all just a big hang, it was great. I\u2019d love to do it again, man, I seriously would, I would love to.<\/p>\n

You have been here prior to that also, do you have a specific standout memory from an Australian tour besides Soundwave that you can share with us?<\/strong>
\nWell we\u2019ve only been to Australia one time before that, and I had a good time, I thought the crowds were appreciative even though we didn\u2019t have enough time to build up what we were about but I was just glad people showed up. I\u2019ve always heard about the Australian music scene loving rock music\u2026 I mean Rose Tattoo and AC\/DC and of course now Airbourne are obvious ones, but there\u2019s The Saints and The Birthday Party and I\u2019m sure half a dozen other bands I\u2019m forgetting at the moment, but I mean Australia has got such a great history of music that I love, so it\u2019s just cool. Then you see North American bands do really well in Australia to, and we\u2019re from Toronto and The Tea Party we were always told they did well in Australia, like they do well in Canada and Australia, so I always kind of knew that there\u2019s that part of the world that is really receptive to rock.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re heading out again to play some European festivals which is now standard for you, what can fans expect in the way of touring in 2015?<\/strong>
\nAt this point it\u2019s just the songs man, we just come out, play the songs and see what happens\u2026 I mean I\u2019ve got a pretty loud mouth and I like to talk, so it\u2019s all dependant on the audience or whatever I think on the spot. I walk on stage with a blank slate, I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m gonna say and let the chips fly where they may, you shoot yourself in the foot when you think you can prepare for that, that\u2019s just something that you\u2019ve got to get into a zone for. I think the more you think you\u2019re preparing, the more you\u2019re actually psyching yourself out and the only way to do it is if you walk on stage with confidence in yourself to know that look, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen, but something\u2019s gonna happen\u2026 *laughs* some shit is gonna trickle down.<\/p>\n

So in 2015, and eighteen years making music, what’s the biggest thing you’ve learned that you didn’t expect about being in a band?<\/strong>
\nActually there\u2019s a lot of things\u2026 you learn a lot about life and you learn a lot about people that you might not have before. Sometime being in a band depending on how successful you are puts you in these kind of hyper reality situations that you would never go through in any other kind of job and you watch people and how they behave and yeah, I\u2019ve learned a lot about people in general and I can read them better than I could before, maybe that\u2019s what it is that I\u2019ve learned. I think I can say that\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned the most.<\/p>\n

Let’s predict the future, so finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2015, Danko Jones will…<\/strong>
\nBe on tour *laughs* that\u2019s probably a real truth, but a wish version of that would probably be \u201910 million sold!\u2019 *laughs* 10 times platinum\u2026 *laughs*<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Toronto, Canada<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Danko Jones, John Calabrese, Rich Knox<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0https:\/\/www.dankojones.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong>\u00a0Fire Music \u2013 (Out Now \u2013 Cooking Vinyl \/ Dine Alone \/ New Damage records)<\/p>\n