ROCKNATION ISSUE 24 Cover Issue 24 | Page 22

PAGE 22 ANGELS IN VEIN ROCKNATION ISSUE 24 Hello Chris and welcome to Rocknation. You just dropped a new track a cover of Don’t You (Forget About Me). How did you pick that cover to record? Thanks Tom, Love the magazine! It’s actually the strangest thing, sort of a great minds think a like scenario. I’d been thinking about covering something by a different artist for quite a while but it’s a really tricky balance. You have to stay true to the original artists vision for the song while being able to bring something new to the table. Otherwise there’s just no point. Just like everybody else, I’ve been hearing that song on the radio for years and it would resonate with me. Still, while I was listening I’d think. What if they did this or changed that? That’s when it hit me. This was a perfect song to cover! I called up Taz and told him what I was thinking and he just laughed. At first, I figured he thought I was crazy but it turned out the reason he was laughing is because he had just worked up a rough version of that exact song. To tell you the truth I was pretty stunned! I mean seriously, what are the chances? He sent me what he had been working on the same day and we went from there. I know that I’m biased but I think we nailed it! It’s one of my favorite things we’ve ever done. Your band shot a couple videos at Danny Koker’s - Desert Moon Productions Danny is famously known for the Counting Cars TV show. How did you line up that? Actually, using Danny’s place was originally Stacey Blades idea. Danny has a rehearsal studio here in Vegas that’s kind of a catch all. It serves as a rehearsal room, recording studio and a large green room for shooting video. It’s actually part of the same facility where Danny has his car museum and shoots a lot of the show. Since I was paying for it Stacey put me in touch with Stoney Curtis. Stoney not only runs the facility but he’s also a brilliant guitarist. that plays in Count’s 77 which is Danny’s band and is featured regularly on the show. Stoney and I hit it off right away and became friends. In fact, we became friends with all of the guys in the band being as we have a lot in common. All being from Michigan and the surrounding parts. They’re all a great very down to earth bunch of guys. As a band we were there a number of times but the videos you’ve seen we’re all shot simultaneously in a single day. Afterwords I took home the raw footage and handled all the post production myself. I spent so many hours in front of the computer I nearly went blind LOL! Here is a fun fact Danny is from Michigan like you and TAZ, also his bass player Barry Barnes is from Michigan and he was in my 1st cover band out of High School 35 years ago. It is amazing how many musicians are from Michigan do you get a chance to go back very often? That’s so funny man! As a matter of fact Barry and I were talking about this. He told me that he actually took you out for your 21st birthday and got you hammered! Talk about a small world! I think one of the reasons there are so many great musicians coming out of Michigan (and I’m sure you’ll agree) is that with all the winter there’s nothing to do but sit in your room and get good at your instrument. We dream about going to California to make it big but I highly doubt the guys in California dream about going to Michigan to shovel snow... As far as getting back to MI. goes, All my family still lives there so I make a point of going whenever I have a chance. The problem with that is, that I spend so much time on the road that it doesn’t happen near as often as I would like. COUNT’s 77 with Chris and Taz after video shoot.