Jason McMaster | Dangerous Toys | Broken Teeth | April 2001 |
This month I'm covering one of the hardest working guys in the business..
He's in more bands then Red Hot Chili Peppers have changed guitarists..
And it's all great kick ass rock n roll!
Half of the bands are not even listed in this interview.. so make sure you check out all his webpages!
I give you.... Jason McMaster...
J-First off lets go wayyy back to the beginning..
How did you hook up with Dangerous Toys?
J.M-I was in a band called WATCHTOWER from 1982 to 1987,A sort of technical RUSH meets Metallica, thrash band. Watchtower had released an album (there were no cds yet) and had dome very well in the underground metal community and had sold a few thousand copies in EUROPE alone with no major label support at all. Oct. 87 came around, and guitarist Tim Trembley from a band then called ONYXX, who had fired their singer, and called to ask me to fill in for fun, things sorta took off from there, we changed the name to DANGEROUS TOYS .We got together to play covers in a local bar, it was a lot of fun, ended up writing a few songs, "Teasn' Pleasn'" and "Outlaw", "Sportn' a Woody", "Here Comes Trouble", mainly songs that ended up on the first Dtoys cd, we played the SXSW (South by South West Music Conference), and someone offered us a publishing deal, and we ended up getting a deal thru all that went down with them and a management co. all in about 6 months after the band had first gotten together. We lost an original member, guitarist Tim Trembley by the time we started recording, so we did the first cd as a four piece band, me on vox, Mike Watson bass, Scott Dalhover-guitar, and Mark Geary drums.
J-How long were you guys together before you got signed?
J.M.-Only 6 months, I had to quit my long time band Watchtower to contractually join Dangerous Toys. that was hard on me, but we had no idea was was to come of this new band Dangerous Toys. its been an experience.
J-How did everyone get along?
J.M.-We got along great all the time, fun stuff, the songs portray all of that, we really did live those songs, maybe not to the "T", but we really did love the road!!
J-What was your favorite tour you guys went on. .and why?
J.M.-All of it was an experience to remember. The guys in the CULT were so cool, really enjoyed our
company as well as watched our set almost every night, that's rare on the road, for the headliners to really give a shit about the support bands. also, the tour with Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, Metal Church and Motorhead was cool just because we we were touring with friends, as well as idols. Really a great time.
J-What was the craziest thing a fan has ever done to meet you?
J.M.-Driven over a thousand miles, actually had quite a few fans drive from Wisconsin, and Minnesota to meet us in Texas. As well as tattoos of our clown that dorns our cd jackets is tattooed all over fans bodies in all parts of the world as well. That's crazy, but I love that. There are photos of these tattoos on our website (www.dangeroustoys.net)
J-What's the biggest crowd you have ever played for? and where?
J.M.-20,000 in Chicago, the World Music Theater. (oh, what a feeling, like Toyota commercials!)
J-How important was the look back in the "80's hair days"?
J.M.-The look, we say never is important, but it may not have been important to some of us, myself included, I had a personal revelation early on, that you end up "dressing up" more for the fans and the show and the photographer, than for yourself, and that's not fair to yourself. I can remember when I stopped wearing jewelry, and whatever else, that was uncomfortable, just to look like I was "somebody" who needed to be onstage, and meanwhile, I was doing laundry. too funny! I had long hair, spiked hair, colored hair, all thru the 80s, by the time Dtoys came around, I was done with all that. Shaved my head in 96, and its now long again, so, go figure, its all just for fun anyway.
J-Do you ever look back and say "what the hell was I thinking"
J.M.-..Ha ha, all the time, some of the spandex I wore back in my Watchtower days is way more silly
than the stuff I had in Dtoys days. I was definitely into the bullet belt, combat boot, Slayer meets Hanoi Rocks, sorta punk, then I was the Poison look.
J-Out of all the songs you recorded.. What were some of your favorites?
J.M.-"Bones in the Gutter", "Scared", "Here Comes Trouble", "Illustrated Man", Line em' Up", "Screamin' for More", "Words on the Wall", "Cure the Sane" to name a few.
J-And least favorites..?
J.M.-About half of the Hellacious Acres release.
J-At one point you took over on bass.. why?
J.M.-Mike Watson, original Dtoys bassist, took a leave of absence after the recording of the PISSED cd in 94, So, we had a friend fill in for a 200 date tour of the states, in 94-95,upon our tours end, we took a small break, Paul and I started writing songs together, with me on bass, etc.. .we didn't have a bassist and we didn't want to hire one. Auditions are such a drag, like pulling teeth. Plus I was already writing on bass and guitar for the cd, "The rtist 4 merly known as Dtoys", so, it was already a thing we had. we didn't skip a beat.
J-What led to the break up of the band?
J.M.-Well, even though Dtoys never broke up, we sorta took a long hiatus for the regular reasons, work, life, it all happens, after " the rtist 4merly known as dtoys" came out in 95, we sorta had no deal (the label folded, we drained them!) and just started writing, but mostly seemed to be heavier things I was leaning towards, just naturally. Not that Dtoys wasn't heavy, but there are some dark songs Paul and I were writing in 95-96 that are real cool, but no one else seemed to get it, isn't that always the case. So there were a couple of years of downtime after the 4th studio release, and then, we did this new live cd for Deadline/Cleopatra records,. so, there's a little activity, as well as open for Alice Cooper in Oct. 99 as a reunion show for us, since we hadn't played live in almost 3 years til then. and this year,2001 we just did three shows in Tokyo Japan, with a warm up show in Texas that was quite successful, alot of fun...so, you just don't know what lies ahead for us as Dtoys.
J-After the Toys.. you were in Broken Teeth..tell us how that came about.
J.M.-A friend of ours has a small label here in Texas, he and a producer friend of ours were talking about new projects, and me and Paul Lidel from Dtoys/Dirty Looks/Broken Teeth, were also scheming, they wanted a sort of AC/DC style tribute thing, well, long story short, Paul and I wrote an albums worth of material in a week, and recorded it all in a week with a drummer friend of ours, I played bass, sang, wrote all the words, and even did a little bit of guitar, Paul did all the guitar work, and Bruce Rivers is the drummer. the cd came out so cool, and started to sell at a fast pace, we hadn't planned on doing live shows at all, ,but, we almost had to now!! so, I called up Dangerous Toys bassist Mike Watson, and friend Jared Tuten from Pariah/SSIK, for the second guitar spot, and BOOM, we had a killer live band. the cd has sold almost 3,000 copies worldwide, and we are working on the new cd as we speak.
J-Do they have any cd's out?
J.M.-Yes, a self titled, BROKEN TEETH. on Perris Records (www.perrisrecords.com, or www.brokenteeth.com)
J-How is that band now? still together?
J.M.-Hell yes, rockin the south, AC/DC style, its so much fun, please check out the website.
J-What led to you putting the Toys back together? and what members are in the band?
J.M.-As far as I am concerned I tell people that it is all original, and it is, but technically, Paul Lidel joined in 94, Danny Aaron too original guitarists, Tim Trembleys, place in 89, when Danny left in 92, Kevin Fowler joined for about 9 months, and Paul joined in Jan. 94, so, Paul has been in
the band longer in years combined of all three of his predecessors. Confused??
J-Any recording plans?
J.M.-None. but who knows, people keep bringing that one up.
J-Any touring plans?
J.M.-We just did Japan, we cant wait to go back. I wish some U.S. promoters would do that sorta deal with us, fly us to a region, transport us and rental gear to a few shows, and fly us home, all expenses paid, what a way to tour, it was amazing. Great for the fans.
J-What do you see in the future for Jason in the next year?
J.M.-More releases from Watchtower, Spastik Ink (see the Watchtower links on the Watchtower site - www.marathoncd.com/watchtower ) Broken Teeth, and Gahdzilla Motor company. As well as more stuff coming out on tribute cd's as well, I just did a song on a Steve Vai/Joe Satriani tribute cd.
J-Do you have a website people can keep up with what your doing?
J.M.-Here is the list...
J-How do you feel the internet has helped promote new bands..compaired to theold days..?
J.M.-Its so much faster to get news to fans and to press than it was
before, even than by telephone, promoting your band is easier now, emails, and posters, even songs are being produced over the web as we speak, songs are being written by emails. amazing. definitely a plus.
J-How do you feel about Napster?
J.M.-I am unthreatened by it, if I was in fear of losing alot of money because I would not get paid for fans downloading, when I was by law to be paid as such, I might have a problem with it. But, as far as being part of the underground movement of music, as I consider myself, its not a threat, it is an asset, and should be used as such, as a tool to promote your bands music and theme.
J-Well thats about it..anything you wanna say to your fans reading this?
J.M.-To you, who waited forever for me to send this interview, I apologize, but my
tour to Japan, as well as my schedule wouldn't allow, I should be ashamed of myself. but hey, I am busy doing what I love to do, I will not apologize for that!!!! Turn up the music, buy cd's and music videos, don't rely on television and radio to play your favorite artists, if they're your favorites, then you should own the cd or the video, don't call the stations to request it, go to your stereo and press PLAY!!!!!!! DON'T BE SPOONFED MUSIC AND ART,!!!
