Psychotic Waltz Interviews

New Interview from Argentina, 'June '99

* This is a recent interview with Dan from a fan in Argentina.  (June '99)

1) To begin with this interview I have to ask you, with tears in my eyes, why, oh why did Psychotic Waltz break up? When did it happen?
 ====It happened after the last Europe tour back in "97.  Why?..well, it was a long time we were together, and people wanted to explore different paths in thier lives.  Things change over time, this is the one thing that is unchangeable.

2)What are the rest of you ex bandmates doing nowadays, do they have any projects?
 =====Well,  Buddy is Missing in action somewhere in Austria now, moved there with his wife.  Brian is doing music in his home studio, and Norm has a band with Steve now called Tea Bag, very heavy metal stuff.

3)From what I heard and read you were getting well known in Europe, especially after the release of "Bleeding". Did that success reached your country? Did you have any news about the level of popularity of Psychotic Waltz in the rest of the world?
 ======no it did not, it is only now, post humous, that we begin to see our popularity in the states, and even that is very minimal, it just isn't hip over here.

4)Please tell me what is your favorite Psychotic Waltz song
 ======oh man.... so many to choose from, realy depends on my mood, and again, that changes.... some of my favs are, Into the Everflow, Ashes, Halo of Thorns, Morbid, Haze One, Drift,

5)Let's move on to your present. I know you have a project called Darkstar. please tell me: what does it sound like?(I haven´t been able to listen to it. As with  Psychotic Waltz records, it's not easy to find); How much does Darkstar differ from Pychotic Waltz?
 ====aha... well, you can visit my website at http://members.aol.com/X1Darkstar
 where you can download some wav files, soon I will redo it and include MP3's & real streaming audio.
You can also order the cd's directly from me on there too.
  The sound is kinda like dark heavy atmospheric ambient sci-fi instumental metal... yeah, thats it.
  It differs in the fact that it is more like a heavy soundtrack, you can close your eyes and imagine a really cool space movie going on.

6)How good/bad have been so far the reactions of the fans and press to your new project? 
=====Darkstar has gotten really good reviews since it came out actually.  In rockhard & metal hammer from germany it was in the top 10.  Others have said it's packaging alone is worth 10 times the cost of a normal CD!!!
 
7) Will you be touring with Darkstar?
 ====unfortunately, no. there are no plans as of yet.

8) Please tell me what are the bands that had a strong influence in your songwriting, and what bands you are listening to these days.
 ====Influences= Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queensryche, metallica, danny elfman,
current favs= Stabbing Westward, Filter, Korn,

9)Do you know any Argentinian bands?
 ======ummmmm.....no, not really.

10)Let me ask some non music-related subjects. Please tell me your opinion about
     _the NATO bombings in Yugoslavia
     _your country's government
     _drug legalization
     _what kind of literature you like and your favorite writers.
====
wow, that could take all day man!.... let me be brief...
nato= i think it's fucked we have to bomb anybody, but i think it's fucked  he's giving us a reason to.
US Government= hell, what can i say? they are corrupt as the mexican police, but they do some wonderful things too, like housing & food shelters, medicare...and a lotta bullshit too, like over taxing, illegal search & seizure, world policing...
drugs= well, in amsterdam it seems to work ok, but i tell you, i've been there, and the sreets are crawling with drug pushers & addicts, it's kinda messed up actually.  I think if they lighten up on pot, the drug war would get more respect, cuz pot isn't as bad as they think it is.  I choose not to smoke now, because i feel like it, i might have felt like it sooner, had they no 'told" me i "couldn't".
Literature= hmm, i really dont have time to read anything but instruction manuals now! But i really liked Mark twains stuff, and Ster Trek novels, a few comics....

11)So that's it.If there's anything you want to say to your fans in Argentina or if  you want to say something about whatever the hell you wish, please do it...
 =ok, i wish to thank the few fans down there that know about me and Darkstar and Psychotic Waltz.  Sorry we were never able to come down & tour for you people, but we just couldn't find a way.  The music is still there though, find the cd's.
 
Ok, Dan. Thanks a lot for this interview. I really look forward to listening to Darkstar, and wish you have a lot of luck with it. 
And finally, I wanted to thank you for being a part of one of the most incredibly underrated bands in this world, and for composing such songs as "My Grave" , "Need"( the last part kills me), "Dancing in the Ashes" and many others. This is not ass-kissing, I'm just being honest.
Well, I think that's about it. Hoping you write back soon. 
                                                         see ya
                                                                  Gabriel Herz

Fan Questions

Fan: I wonder how you cope with all the violence in the USA. Do you carry a weapon?
Buddy: "My soul needs no weapon other tban faith, but I have a .45 and a .357 Magnum to protect my ass just in case!"

Fan: Your favorite song lyrics?
Buddy: "My God, and Thick as a Brick, by Jethro Tull, and Axis - Bold as Love, by Hendrix, so beautiful...

"Blue are the life giving waters
Taken for granted
They quietly understand"

- Oh God, Genius!

     Fan: Fav Waltz songs?
     Phil: "My fav lyrics on the ne cd are 'Need'..."Your lips destroy like missles..."
     Fav song over-all is 'A Psychotic Waltz' into 'Only in a Dream'...'There lies a dying sparrow...'

Silent Noise
Japan Fanzine '96

     Kayuri: We haven't gotten any info on PW in Japan for a long time. What happened to Ward?
     Dan: "Wow, we are out of touch with Japan. I really wish they would have released Mosquito over there. Anyway, it was kind of like a divorce. Ward wasn't happy, we weren't happy, we parted company, now everyone is happy."
      Kayuri: Some historical great music was born from a dream, like a demon brought it. But how's your musical connection with your own dreams?
     Dan: "I don't even pretend to understand how or why it happens, but it does. You hear things, thoughts, ideas, melodies... how did they get inside your head? Or how do you generate them? And ( for those who insist on taking credit for all their thoughts)...how do you explain

a melody in your dream?
...There are a few theories about it, but how can you prove them? (Demons, random access, photo recall...)"
     Kayuri: How's your visual member Mike Clift doing?
     Dan: "Mike's doing OK, but yo u won't see his work on our next album. A new friend ( old friend of Norm's) is doing computer artwork that looks so cool. Mike is busy with in other fields. Travis Smith, the successor, will let nobody down, he's cool, he's creative, and very into it.
     Kayuri: Some say they don't listen to outside music because they don't want to get any influence from outside their world, but what do you think about it?
     Dan: "It's sad."

- Kayuri Niwa -

Fan Club Interview
Thorsten, '95

(...in the middle of an interview with Dan & Phil, a Drunk Uninvited Guest (DUG) decides it's a good idea to take part ...)

     Dan: "...It made me sad, cuz I wanted to play more gigs.
     DUG: "Did it happen today?"
     Dan: "No, it happened last year. Actually, '93, long time ago, it's OK man, I'm over it."
     DUG: "Do ya think you're OK man?"
     Dan: "Yeah, I'm OK, It's a long time ago, it's in the past, this tour is better."
     DUG: "With Ward?"
     Dan: "I'm OK with Ward."
     DUG: "What about him then?"
     Dan: "He's over there, in San Diego. He's happy where he's at, I'm happy where I'm at, we're both happy, it's bettr this way."
     DUG: "And yer fuckin' new bass player man, what are you thinking' about the situation?"
     Dan: "The new fucking bass player? I think he's a great guy."
     DUG: (to Phil) "Are you a great fucking bass player?"
     Dan: "He's a great fuckin' guy!"
     Phil: "It's up to you to say it, ya know?"

(I find it pretty amazing how patient these two psychotics are, but I think thats enough to illustrate the situation that turned completely absurd when the usual 'Uninvited Guest' named Dirk gave us a lecture about haircuts!)

    Thorsten: What about your lyrics? How do you get your ideas? Is it around smoking some weed getting ideas?
     Buddy: "I think them up. It's nothing more, I smoke a lot of weed, but I don't think it has very much to do it. I don't really know, they just come to me. I don't know what they mean sometimes when I write them, but when I'm finished I find a meaning there.   I'm just searching for a sound and all these certain words can make the sound and it just comes to me.
   Sometimes, like 'Haze One', I know what I'm gonna write about and then I just write about it.   When it says 'Burn the candles down, as we're pulling out of town, pass the Haze One around', we DO that every night, believe!"
     Thorsten: "So what happened to your hair?"
     Buddy: " It's very simple, my hair has failed me."
     Thorsten: Is your last album a try to do a thing that might become more popular?
     All: "No no no no no NO!"
     Buddy: "You're thinking like we changed our music style so that we're going to appeal to something and that isn't the case. We did it for us. We didn't do this so that we're gonna get rich, do you see me with any money? NO. We did it because we said, 'you know what? I'm sick of these riffs being so clotted together, I'm sick of it being a live sound like a thick wall of shit. I want to give more space just play some chords and let them ring out'...It's music to us, it's not like, 'Hey, let's see if this will make us rich!'
     ...when I say certain riffs sound like a big wall of shit, I don't mean that on the record. We love the album, but sometimes when we play that music live, it doesn't sound ...you don't hear that riff anymore, and to me, that does nothing.

Another Fan Club Interview
Sandra Kallmeyer - '95

     Sandra: Funny tour story?
     Phil: "We left the bong on the drum riser, and then the concert promoter comes up & thought we were gonna forget it and picked it up..."
     Dan: "He had overcharged a friend for a phone call and then he went to pick up our bong and lifts it over his head. Turns it upside down, and all this nasty bong water spills down his arm. Karma huh?...It'll get ya.
     Sandra: What do you think about the interview with the fanclub members in Hamburg?
     Phil: "It was nice meeting everyone. It was even OK talking to Dirk, remember Dirk?
     Sandra: "The really drunk guy?"
     Phil: "He thought I sucked because I looked like Henry Rollins!"
     Sandra: Some questions were quite strange, like the new album being too commercial.
      Phil: "I think people were curious to know, but I don't think the new album is a sellout or anything like that. If I thought that I wouldn't have joined the band. I can tell by listening to the music that it gives me the same feeling as the last albums did. A feeling of originality, if that wasn't there, I wouldn't be here either.

     Dan: "Some people say we've sold out and are commercial, but still show up to the gigs.
     Sandra: I was wondering why they joined the fanclub if they don't like the album? Thorsten definitely didn't like it.
     Dan: Good point. That's why he joined, to pick on us!
     Sandra: What do you think of the latest developments in popular music?
     Phil: " I don't really keep up with popular music, to tell you the truth. The music I listen to is other San Diego bands, a lot of bands on my level, I'm not really in the pop scene or whatever I guess, I'm more into the underground.
     Sandra: Brian's eyes were lightning last night when you went into an Ozzy song, wouldn't you sometimes rather play party music than your own stuff?
     Dan: "I think he liked it cuz it wasn't part of the set. When Buddy said he was Ozzy, somebody just went into "Over the Mountain". We used to do that song, so we all jumped in and it was fun."
     Phil: "Sometimes things just kinda happen."

Metal Prophet
San Diego '90
- Ruche Bermuda Jr. -

     Metal Prophet (MAP)" What's with the name change?
     Brian: "Well, we thought Norm could go on-stage in a cellophane body suit, and Buddy can wear a pink tutu, and we could have a trampoline on-stage and, we'd call ourselves "Psychotic Waltz". Then it just hit, like wait a minute, we CAN call ourselves Psychotic Waltz!"
     MP: Tell us about your philosophy on playing.
     Ward: "Well, we try to make it so you're not burned out on the album in two weeks you know. We want you to , like, a year later still be playing it, and going, "Oh, I never noticed that."
     Norm: "Basically, we try to play as best as we possibly can. Strong musicianship was always the idea since day one. We practiced really hard, we all kinda grew together. I mean, when we first started, we were all pretty crappy."
     Ward: "We were a bunch of hacks!"
     Norm: "Yeah!"
     Dan: "Not me!"
     Norm: Except for dan....ESPECIALLY for dan!"
     Dan: "I was a great hack, I still am a great hack!"

     MP: "Nothing" has a definite spiritual message in it...
     Brian: "It's like a lot of people aren't concerned with their spirit, just their body. We're trying to get people to see the difference there. We're not preachers or anything though."
      Dan: "It's like the bumper sticker that says, 'He who dies with the most toys wins'. It's a pretty basic & stupid attitude to have in life."
     Norm: " 'You have to give back everything you borrowed in this lifetime', is one of the lyrics in the song.
      Brian: "It's like, when you die, you wanna leave something behind for people to remember . You don't want them to remember you for being materialistic, or something people will look down on. You want to leave a positive message with people so they can remember you for that."
     MP: There seems to be a mixed reaction to Buddy's voice?
      DAN: "We're all happy with it. Some people say he's too nasally, and some think he's just the best singer in the world!"

The San Diego Reader
Mani Mir, '89

    "...We're real meticulous songwriters."   Norm wears shorts & a Batman shirt.  "We're tryin' to put every type of feel into a metal groove, ya know? If it's a funk feel, if it's a jazz feel - we even got a samba feel in one of our songs, and waltzes."
    "Hence the name", says Brian.
     "Norm speaks: "When we first started, we were, like, pretty much, you know, bums. All we did was practice."
     "What separates creative people," Dan begins, "is that -"
     Norm interrupts. " I mean, it's not easy being -"
     "Let Dan talk," says Ward.
     "Yeah," Dan looks at Norm, "don't cut me off, dicknose!"
     "I didn't mean to Dan, go ahead."
    "It's kinda like, some people are born with ESP, and you can't really say, well, what is it that separates you, why you have ESP, and why, like, I don't."

    Ward: "Some things are so weird it's just hard to explain them."
     Brian: "I like to read my horoscope"
     Dan: "I got a Time/Life book on powers of the unknown."
     Ward: "We like to watch 'In Search Of'. "
     Norm: "Yeah, everything of the occult, or something eerie."
     Brian: "That there is no explanation for, like Stonehenge."
      Ward: "It's real captivating to your mind."
     Dan says, It has worked for us a couple of times, what we call a 'cosmic unawareness'. Say I would write something like 'Hanging On a String', I write this one part, and Brian wrote this one part totally separate. We got together one day, and it's like, wow, they kinda sound like they were meant to be part of one thing."
     Dan gets up. "I gotta bail now man. I'm gonna check out a band at Rio's."

Dan and Ward slap hands, lock thumbs, wiggle fingers.
     "Who you going with?" Brian asks.
     "Yo mama," says Dan, walking towards the door.
  " Going with your girly?" asks Brian, teasing.
    "Nope, your mama." Dan exits.
    "He's going with his girly," Brian says smugly.
    * "Dan saves all his toenails in a paper cup," says Brian. "Also, he started collecting lint from his belly button- you know, after you wear a T-shirt?"
     "And you know the hairballs that come at the end of a shower," asks Norm, "when you get y our hair out of the drain? He saves all his hairballs."
     "He thinks he's gonna go bald someday," says Ward, " and he'll have his own hair to replace it with."

* See disclaimer below

* Disclaimer: It was a short lived hobby. I no longer collect these things!...really!!!
- Dan Rock

Early Reviews

Bleeding Reviews

New Reviews

Live Reviews

Interviews

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