July 05, 2004

Interview with Danny Danzi

The name Danny Danzi the 3^rd is guaranteed to get some attention and so is his second, newly released, solo album; Danziland! From the opening track simply titled Danziland to the final track Danny commands our attention with stunning guitar work and deep, meaningful lyrics. Danny makes it clear that he creates his music for his fans, who mean the world to him; he gives away a little piece of himself in each song and with each note only to have it returned through the comments of his fans.  This interview is a glimpse into a truly artistic mind and a life dedicated to bringing happiness to the world through the gift of music. Not only is Danny a great performer but he’s also a mentor and advocate for musicians of all skill levels. Be sure to check out all the things Danny is involved in at www.dannydanzi.com, enjoy the interview!

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Kathy: Hello Danny, this is Kathy Tozzo

Danny: Hi Kathy, perfect timing!

Kathy: OK, I have the questions all ready – I hope a little different since I don’t want you to have to rehash something you’ve already said in the past.

Danny: I have like six more phone interviews that are coming through this week and at least four email interviews and they all ask the same thing and I am thinking to myself; I’ve never in the past copied and pasted stuff before from other things but they’re  asking the same exact thing, how many different ways can I explain it and use different words?

Kathy: Well I hope my questions are different!

Danny: Well, if they’re similar at least me speaking them could be a little different than how I would type them you know, but I can’t be creative and answer the question twenty ways…

Kathy: Well, lets go with it.  As I’ve been researching I know that you are someone who has been acclaimed for creating his own style so I’m excited to start out the interview and ask you to introduce yourself, Danny Danzi, the man behind the music…a little synopsis of who you are…

Danny: Oh geez, who am I today (laughs), Wow! That’s a tough question, I don’t know how to explain that other than music is my life, it’s all I’ve ever done. When all the guys were out partying and getting girls and stuff like that I stayed in my house and just stuck with playing and wanted to get as good as I could with my instrument; I enjoyed it. I’m an only child so I didn’t have anybody bothering me, God was good to me – gave me all the tools that I needed to express myself and I learned how to use them for the most part. I never wanted to be a solo artist, I never wanted to be a singer; all I wanted to do was get some material together and shop it and say “look mister record label guy this is what I can do on my own, I am sick and tired of leaving fate in the hands of others, too many guys can’t show up, they can’t make practice, they can’t write…you know this is what I can do, just take me and use me as the pig that I am (laughs), I can play drums I can play guitar, piano, bass, I can sing a little bit, I would rather just be a guitar player collaborating with someone and hopefully help to write some good tunes.” I never in a million years expected them to say “wow this material is great, you’re going to be the singer, this is Danny Danzi…” You know I never expected it, I never wanted it and that’s the way it kinda turned out. That’s probably the best way I can describe myself, very passionate about doing the only thing I know how…

Kathy: OK, I’m an only child and took up violin and my parents often joked it was like a built-in baby-sitter (laughs) and I know you started playing the drums at four – brave parents!

Danny: It was funny because when I asked for the drum set and they gave them to me I went down and played them like I had never been off of them, it was really strange. As a matter of fact, my mom started calling people in the family saying you’ve got to see this, this kids never played drums! It just poured out of me, and the good thing about that was my parents were very supportive, all the bands I was in with all the loud noise and the singers that couldn’t sing and feed back and stuff – they knew where there son was…you know I wasn’t out doing drugs and robbing houses and getting into trouble, I was making music and it was a little annoying but they knew where I was at all times. I was a good kid, I always got good grades and stuff like that –

Kathy: That’s shocking … Great!

Danny: (Laughs)

Kathy: OK, You said that your new album Danziland sold more copies in its first six hours than Somewhere Lost In Time (SLIT) did in three years, since then how has the album been doing and what sort of response have you been getting from the fans?

Danny: So far it’s been excellent, we’ve really sold well in Japan, it’s kinda slowing down a bit now, but things are really looking good. The fans are loving it! There have been a few reviews that I thought could have been a bit better, I wasn’t too crazy about the review I got in Burrn magazine I thought comparing it to my first album I would expect the score to be a lot higher. I mean I love my first album, I thought the songs were great, I thought the performance was very well done but the production was a bit of an issue at that time, but this album completely blows it away I think in every aspect. I feel very strongly about that, I went above and beyond the call of duty to blow away my first attempt. Everything from the cover art, to the production and songs, to the lyrics themselves… The first album was very common, a lot of basic rhyming that were done before, cliché is the word they use. For what it was it was great though I thought as a first attempt for one man doing every single thing. It was the best I could do at that time. I totally think I’ve blown that away…

Kathy: and maybe learned from that album

Danny: Definitely! Definitely learned from it, the lyrics are more intelligent, the arrangements are better, the art work is great, the production is excellent and it’s the best guitar and singing that I have ever done – it’s so good in fact I don’t think I can top it! Which is kind of scary – I don’t mean that egotistically, I mean that as I poured every ounce of being into this album – everything that I had went into it.

Kathy: This album has been a long time in the coming due to various road blocks and the politics of music which I am sure you have had to explain a few times over… what I would like to ask is what have been the positive experiences; what is the motivation to keep pushing on through the hard times?

Danny: Well, you can sometimes get inspired by bad things that go on in your life and they make for usually the best songs that you have ever written, there are several hits if we go back in time so and so fathers died or this happened or that happened and they come up with great songs. Traumatizing events usually bring the best out of us, because we’re sitting here beating ourselves up depressed about it and you say Lets let this out, lets let this anger out and put it to a song – where for me when I am happy, most of my album was very upbeat and sunny; happy – for the most part it doesn’t get too dark. I’m a very happy person so I like to express that, I never wake up in a bad mood. The only dark things on my records are usually past relationships; I have a very tough time at relationships, it’s always been a bad spot for me. So the darkness is usually expressed that way. But, as far as positives, my whole thing Kathy was to completely blow Somewhere Lost in Time away regardless of what was going on in the industry and my record deals and all that stuff. I felt that my first album did very well for a debut album, it really did well. I had to give the fans something that would blow that away; and kind of like thank them for taking a shot at me. Taking a chance on me as an artist, they didn’t know anything about me, so I used all that, I used the fan support.  I thought of the gigs that I played, some of the touring I did in Europe and I used all that as a weapon or a vehicle so to speak to say OK, we are going to give them something that they are absolutely going to love! Other than that it was really a rough road between trying out band members, going through that whole mess, it was more mess than was positive things - really wasn’t anything positive other than I know when I get done with this I am doing it for the fans. I mean sure I’m doing it for myself but, fans are a part of you; you can’t shut them off. Anyone that denies them is missing the boat; you’re nobody without them so I always do everything thinking of them in the back of my mind, you know, is this something that one of my fans would enjoy, or one of my friends would enjoy? And, I use that positive as, Ok, I know they’ll like this.

Kathy: Great and thank you! You can be quoted that saying an album is never really done, it just reaches its deadline and you have to let it go; I personally feel that the album sounds great, what are your thoughts on the final production? I think you’ve touched a little bit on that…

Danny: Personally, I wouldn’t have done anything different, well I don’t know, if I was fully in control I probably would have made it a little more wet, some of it is very dry… When I say dry I mean lack of reverbs on the vocals and stuff like that. I would have liked to have wetted things up and produced things a little bit more – the problem there is when you’re working within your own material you get too close to it, and, I had told the engineer that worked with me that I wanted him to make a lot of the calls, that I don’t want to be so close to the material that I’m making something sound like the ‘80’s. So what we had decided to do was - in the ‘80’s days they used lots of effects and crazy stuff on the voices and most things sounded like they were coming out of a tunnel because of all the screaming and reverberation and echoes and stuff like that, to where they called it anthem rock or stadium rock because all these effects were used. And, my engineer said “Dan this is the 2000’s man, if we can get a sound of today yet write tunes along the lines of how we were inspired we should be in good shape. So, if we make this album a little bit more raw, a little drier then what your ears are used to hearing, we might be in good shape.” So that’s what we shot for, we shot for going with a now sound with something familiar. We didn’t want to go crazy with the production, but me personally, I would have probably produced it a little more wet, it’s a little dry for my personal taste, but for today it’s a perfect album.

Kathy: Yes it is!  Is there any one song in particular on Danziland that you could tell us about and how it came to be; where the inspiration for it came from, what it was like recording it and why it is special to you?

Danny: I think the most powerful one for me would be Just a Matter of Time, because that song basically explains how a song comes to me and then what I do with it after. The opening lyrics are: Is it real, is it rude basically I am asking is this song going to be about something real, is it going to be about something fictitious? Is it going to be something aggressive and obscene? I hear voices in my head and I don’t mean that as I need to see a doctor voices, but I hear instrumentation voices, I’ll hear a complete symphony, I’ll hear a complete song, and it’s up to me to extract those out of my head, so that’s pretty much what that song is about and the chorus of Just a Matter Time, means it’s just a matter of time ‘til this song comes out of my mind; ‘til I piece everything together and that’s what all the lyrics are about. You know, me extracting this information.

Kathy: I’ve read that before that you hear whole choruses and whole lyrics – it’s wild and amazing!

Danny: Sometimes I’ll get up and I’ll lay something down and just log it; I’ll lie down something in my little studio and I’ll just log it to work on later so I don’t lose the idea. But, imagine listing to one of my songs and picture hearing that in your head – you know when you sing a song and you kinda hear it in your head when you’re walking around; that’s what I hear when I actually go to write a song. I’ll hear that complete thing going on and it’s difficult to extract each part.

Kathy: Such genius!

Danny: Well, that’s what my Mom says but she’s biased; you know, it’s just a gift that comes to me, I just hear things and the hard part is I hum what I hear, sometimes I’m on the road and I’ll call my answering machine and I’ll (humming), I’m humming or I’m singing a lyric or I’m humming a riff or a drum beat or something like that. And, you just try to take it a step further each time…

Kathy: Wow, what a craft!

Danny: It sounds like something difficult but when you have that gift it just comes out of nowhere. It’s just there; it’s almost like a premonition.

Kathy: How are these questions; you doing OK?

Danny: Beautiful!

Kathy: Now that Danziland is out and the pressures off what are you doing to recover from the stresses of the album production, what are you doing to “Strike A Balance” in your life?

Danny: Well right now I have been doing absolutely nothing and I’m loving it. I’m set on a course to be the world’s fattest human being!  I would like to be buried in a piano case coffin - like the one Robert Earl Hughes was buried in the Guinness Book of World Records. I enjoy eating, all I do is eat and do absolutely nothing and I am still 135 pounds wet, go figure. I am a little guy, but I train 3 to 4 days a week in the gym and I am really into racing cars and stuff. I bought a Corvette recently, a new one and worked it a little bit.  I take it to the track and I ride dirt bikes. I am doing a lot of stuff that makes me happy right now because I don’t have any other stresses in my life right now.  I’m not married, no kids, no girlfriend – nobody wants my sorry ass (laughs) so I am enjoying my life the best I can.

Kathy: Hanging with friends...?

Danny: I don’t even really do that, it’s very rare for me to hang out with friends.  I have lots of acquaintances but very few friends and I kinda like to keep to myself, I am a loner, maybe it’s the only child thing…I don’t know.

Kathy: I hear ya…

Danny: You know how it is, I am one of those guys that if I got married or met somebody special right now I would probably bag the entire music career for the simple fact that this is what gets me through everything in life. I have nothing else and that’s why I put so much into it.  I mean other than being very close to my mother and father there is really nothing else for me. I think I would probably choose a significant other that could be forever over something that could be over in five years and no one knows who I am. I do it because it’s something I enjoy for right now and there is nothing that I would rather do.

Kathy: You are doing what makes you happy for now...

Danny: For now; I live for today because tomorrow might never come.

Kathy: That’s a good motto. You said with this album you wanted more of a “band” feeling than that of Somewhere Lost In Time, where you created most of the songs on your own. What do you have to say about the teamwork and self sacrifice put into this project by yourself, the band, and the others involved in the production?

Danny: The guys were phenomenal with this, they come from all over the place to be here.  My keyboard player would drive almost two hours to get here, my guitarist is an hour away and they have busy lives. As I’ve said in a few interviews my guys have incredible careers where they don’t need Danny Danzi or they don’t need the writing.  They are big time career guys that don’t need this and they put their lives on hold to come down here and basically help me out and bail me out in this entire endeavor. They have been great; they helped to write just about every song. Andy, my guitarist wrote Time Passes By all by himself, that’s totally his baby. For the most part it’s me, I am the momentum in this project because it’s my name on the album so, I’ll start with most of the riffs or I’ll come up with the chorus or something that’s really catchy or memorable and we build on it. I try not to finish songs all by myself because then it starts to sound one dimensional and I don’t want that.

Kathy: - and you want that team work…

Danny: I do and that worked out good.  Unfortunately when we went to record this stuff the band was very tied up with their lives and I had to perform most of it myself. The drummer played on every song, the bass player on every song, our keyboard player played on a few songs, our guitarist actually did not play at all on it, I played all the guitars and did all the lead guitars and did all the lead vocals and I did all the backing vocals and I wrote some of the key board parts also so it was a little tougher than I thought it would be because I thought the guys in the band would be contributing to that aspect of it, but it didn’t work out that way and I’m happy with the overall product – but they worked very hard to write the songs, they helped with arrangements if they didn’t write the material, they helped with lyrics, they helped with everything.

Kathy: You put years of your life into this album and it is barely out on the market, but yet everyone will be asking what is next for Danny Danzi, you have hinted at a co-operative effort with Johnny Lima, any news on that?

Danny: I would like to play as often as possible with my band, doing this material doing the material of Somewhere Lost in Time, maybe throwing in what we call Spirit Jams where we just go off and say lets lay down a groove and just play over top of it. I want to play with my band ultimately because this is where I put most of the work in.  If the album does well and we can target a few areas and go and play that would be wonderful. I don’t need a huge world tour – though it would be great!  If I could get up on the leg of someone’s tour and open for them it would be an honor to blow them of the stage, ‘cause that’s what I am going to do – when I’m there it’s my stage, it’s my show and if you don’t know who I am you definitely will by the time I am done and I put my all into everything I do. The ego stays on the stage and when I am off I am just this little guy and I go thank you very much and it’s the truth, I’m not better than anybody but when I am on the stage I am going to try and make you think that I am the man. “I am the man! You came to see a show? You are going to see one!” So ultimately that’s what I would like to do.  As far as the Johnny Lima thing we’ve talked about it a several times and as a matter of fact Johnny sent me an e-mail last week saying that he was going to start submitting some material to me. I’m looking forward to working with him, I don’t know how it will work out, because the way we go about writing is a little bit different; I went and hung out with Johnny for almost a month I guess two years ago and when I tried to sit him down to write with me it was a little difficult; I guess he didn’t like to be put on the spot to say hey lets mess around with a few ideas here. Maybe he has to be inspired and say Danny I came up with this what can you do with it, but I don’t want it to sound forced and maybe Johnny wasn’t feeling comfortable with that particular atmosphere, but me all you have to do is sing to me and I’ll play over top of it. Or, I’ll sing something and I can play over top of it, that’s when I am at my best, if he says, you know, “I have a melody man, what do you have to say about this…” I would rather Johnny sing something to me, than come up with a riff while him playing a guitar and singing to me because then once when I hear what he’s doing it may corrupt what I might have heard. If I am going to play guitar on the album which I probably will, I would like to have that spontaneity to just say “Johnny, sing to me man, let me see what I got going on.” If he comes up with something and he says “Danny I have a melody, I have this guitar part that I have, take it a step further –that’s good too! So what ever makes him feel comfortable, you know I’ll give it a shot. But, I am looking forward to that definitely, I also had spoken to Ted Polley about doing something and we both got kind of busy so I would like to pursue that at some time also.

Kathy: You’ve got a lot of things going on …

Danny: So far -  

Kathy: After you relax for a while …

Danny: - Yeah I definitely have to charge my batteries for a while.

Kathy: Would you tell me a little bit about Guitarwar.com and what it is and how you got involved, and what you think it does for the artist, the fans and the music itself?

Danny: Sure, that’s a great question! Guitarwar is an awesome, awesome, awesome site! It’s probably my favorite site of all time for competition guitar, were you actually sign on to the site and you create a small little instrumental song with your guitar skills and you post it against another player. The people that are members of the site vote on the song and they pick which guy they thought had the better tune in that particular scenario and they comment on it and they have all different styles of war. They have beginners, they have intermediate, they have the advance and what they call Pro War which is the professional guys who get on there. It’s a really great site, there are incredible players on there that actually will teach you and they are only an email away! There were a few signed artists that were on there; they don’t take part to often, but there is a lot to learn there and they have audio chat rooms to where you can actually play live and say to someone “Hey check this out what do you think?” – you can jam with somebody; you can’t do it at the same time, it’s kinda like the walkie talkie thing. It’s really awesome and they supply what they call guitar tabs of the actual stuff that they’re playing so you can actually learn from these guys and they’re incredible, they are mind blowing. It’s a great site and the guys are incredible human beings, you would think a site with five thousand guitar players would be a bunch of egotistical idiots and it’s not. They are very well grounded, they know they’re good, they don’t have to talk smack or anything – so when you hear the name guitarwar right away you’re thinking oh war – everyone is bashing each other, where it is nothing like that; it’s an awesome community and anyone regardless of their level can excel and become better on that site just because of the personalities that frequent there.

Kathy: It sounds like no one really has an ego and they are all there to help and share what they know with someone else.

Danny: Correct; not only that but it gets your instrumental music on the net for free, they’re in guitar magazines advertising the site and you never know what can come out of it.

Kathy: So, would people go there looking for a guitarist for their band?

Danny: Possibly, the only thing there is if you don’t sign up for the site you’re limited as to what you can listen to and what you can do. It’s five dollars a month but the five dollars a month I would put up against any guitar teacher that is teaching somebody and charging twenty or twenty-five dollars an hour. It’s just an unbelievable community of knowledge and it goes beyond just guitar and there are recording techniques and gear reviews and it’s mind blowing, Kathy!

Kathy: If you were not a guitar player could you sign on if you just wanted to –

Danny: Sure - You could be a judge; you could listen to the music and comment; just because you’re a guitar lover. There was this time in the 80’s where all this guitar instrumental music was coming out with Shrapnel Records; guys like Paul Gilbert, you know they used to do instrumental stuff and this is what that site is about. It’s about instrumental guitar player extremes – they have everything from heavy metal to rock to shred guitar, classical finger picking, acoustic, jazz, blues, you name it it’s there.

Kathy: I will need to go in and check it out, maybe do a little voting…

Danny: My name on there is Majic Hands…

Kathy: On your site, www.dannydanzi.com, you have a section in development by the name of the Shred Shed … Now let’s say that five times fast (laughs) …

Danny: I’m afraid to!

Kathy: Would you take a minute to tell us what that’s about and what the motivation behind it is?  It would appear to me like you are promoting your competition or trying to help, be a mentor perhaps?

Danny: Well yeah, kind of both. I get a lot of traffic on my site and what the Shred Shed is basically, extreme guitar – fast playing guitar; they call that shred.  What I wanted to do was have a section of my site that catered to the guitar players. It will have a lot of information about me, it will talk about some of my instrumental projects, it will talk about the gear that I really use in a guitar situation.  Once we get that rolling there will be videos of some of my instrumentals compositions. What I’ll also do is I will showcase some of the greatest guitar players that I have ever heard who are unsigned. I will be interviewing them, just to give them a little plug, because people think that guitar music is dead. If you turn on the radio today there are no guitar solos, there is no guitar solos, there is nothing, it’s all aggression and screaming – “I hate my generation, I hate the world…”, but there are guys that still play incredible guitar and I think the world needs to know about that. The Shred Shed will be all guitar oriented material.

Kathy: When will that be online?

Danny: Actually it should be very soon because my webmistress as I call her, the lady that takes care of my site was away on vacation and I believe she is home now, so I can start feeding her information so I would say it should be maybe a week to two weeks.

Kathy: Well my closing question is usually kind of an open forum where I invite you to give a closing message to your fans, but I have a few questions because you are so well spoken and candid I just wanted to split them into a few more questions.

Danny: Sure, knock your socks off.

Kathy: OK … What message do you have for those individuals who participate in file sharing and CD burning?

Danny: (Growling)

Kathy: Perhaps if they hear it from you, the one it affects the most maybe they will understand more clearly what they are doing…

Danny: OK … Well let me put it to you this way.  What they have to understand is, they have to put themselves on the artists end. I understand that CD prices are very high and they have to understand that there are stores that are not selling them that high. They have to do the research, that’s the main thing. Supposedly people are stealing because they can’t see paying that much for a little piece of plastic. What they also have to understand is that little piece of plastic will outlast a vinyl album.  People wonder what happened with albums with the great art work that were like a book and told a story … they were  wonderful but those vinyl albums, if you played them sixty times they degrade. You can play a CD forever, let’s face it!  So that price that they’re paying to me is well worth it. I think anything over twenty bucks is ludicrous, I think the stores should be shot. The bad part about stealing is that it destroys a little artist like me for the simple fact that we have quotas per country, there is licensing that goes on and when you fault they lower your quotas – that country won’t license to you any more. When that country doesn’t license to you your sales start to drop off, when your sales start to drop off your record label tells you that you’re outta here, because they can’t move your product anymore.  Most artists think that the file sharing programs like Napster and Bear Share and all those places are helping them get exposure I ask them this, have you ever received a fan mail saying “Dear so and so, I recently heard your material on whatever file sharing site and I think you’re killer, I’ll buy your CD.”  I guarantee no one has ever received an email saying that. It’s destroying the industry, the industry caters to the young kids. The young kinds don’t have jobs; they’re in school. They’re sitting there at computers saying “Ah ha ha” we can steal all this stuff and it’s perfectly legal – it’s not legal. All the stuff about Metallica suing there fans and all that; they have that right, it’s stated in my copy right form it is a $2500 fine for reproduction of my material. You can’t do anything with out my consent – that is my right, I made that song. No one has the right to do that, even burning CDs of all your artists and you give it to your friend you’ve broken the law. You don’t own that CD you bought a license to it, that’s the thing; people have to understand it’s not the artist, it’s not the record labels, we’re not jacking these prices up – we’re just trying to survive. It kills little guys, it kills everyone – I mean look at the music industry right now, that’s happening because of file sharing, I don’t care what anybody tells me. 

Kathy: I agree and hopefully people will read your thoughts and others will keep speaking out and things will change. 

Danny: I just wish that every one that used those things – if they found something they liked that they would go and buy the CD. I think it’s great if it’s controlled, like I said in a recent interview – if you go and buy a gun; you know what guns were made for shooting, killing –whatever…you kill someone with it you’re going to pay a penalty, it’s the same with these file sharing programs, if you’re doing something illegal you should be fined, regardless of who you are.

Kathy: I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve gotten burned CDs sent to me, but if it’s a CD I like I definitely end up buying it.

Danny: See that’s great Kathy … I salute you for that.

Kathy: I want the jewel case, I want the insert, I want the whole thing.

Danny: That’s right and I salute you for doing that, it means a lot it really does. You keep the industry going, -that’s the way it should work. I don’t even have a problem if there was control, Audio Galaxy had the right idea before they got sued or what ever happened to them. They allowed an artist to put a copy right claim in saying I do not want these songs listed in your search engine- that’s wonderful, all I want is control – I’m all for the file sharing. As a matter of fact I would do a file sharing only EP, to give all those people songs that they wouldn’t be able to buy on my album, just to hook them to say now you buy this guys album and he’ll have a whole bunch of different songs on there. I would do that in a heart beat all I ask for is control and I think it could be a wonderful thing.

Kathy: Well like with some of Frontiers records if you buy the CD there is a little video on there now.  They’re trying to give you a little something extra. I think that’s a positive thing.  And personally I like reading the insert, who’s thanking who, who wrote what song and all that little stuff in there.

Danny: Sure, and another problem with that whole thing is, the big record companies are only catering to the younger people, what about the people our age? I mean, if you’re not on the internet you don’t know that half of these bands are still in existence, and they are not reaching out. It’s a no brainer.  If people that like Boston and Styx and Van Halen heard a new group doing that kind of style they’re hopefully going to buy it. These people have jobs, we’re in out thirties, it’s a different situation.  Rather than you’re going to manufacture this band and you’re going to cater to the youth and the youth doesn’t have money … I mean it’s the truth. The ones, the older ones who do buy are stuck buying it because there is nothing else to buy other than “OK, I think I’ll order an old classic Led Zeppelin album that I don’t have…”

Kathy: They’re just not aware.

Danny: Right! That’s it, and when you listen to the radio, the main rock stations are always playing some kind of classic rock – you’ll always hear a Led Zeppelin song or Van Halen or Bon Jovi…

Kathy: Exactly. There’s a popular classic rock station here in New York that plays Styx but you don’t hear any of their new stuff from Cyclorama.  No … You will not hear one song.

Danny: You’re right and that’s another thing that’s very important. Another thing is that the radio is all we have, the radio is actually forming our youth, between radio and television that’s what we have. So, if you’re listening to the radio and you are inspired by a classic rock song and you happen to favor that - more and you start writing that way and you’re 19 years old and you submit material the record company is going to say “Sorry that’s dated now.” Why play it on the radio if it’s not allowed to mold something? Why does it have to be dead, why can’t a new version of that come out? This is what annoys me.

Kathy: Like you said radio has definitely changed, DJs don’t have any control.

Danny: No they don’t; it’s all radio marketing now –that’s how it works. You hire a radio marketer, $2500 per song, per station to get it into the rotation just into the try or die bin and if you make a stink and it does something there then you have a good shot. But, it’s like any kind of advertising, you know you have to do it 3,4,5, 6 times to keep it going. Not to many people can spare $2500 per song per station, and keep doing that, unless you are a big record company. That’s why they do it in such a wider array, you know, you have a better shot at getting a hit that way. We can’t do that, AOR labels can’t even let us tour unless we are big names. I can’t get a tour.  Let’s say I put out an album of the year this year and I wound up having incredible sales – it’s not going to do anything for me; because still no one knows who I am and they’re never going to know who I am unless someone takes a shot and says “you know what let’s mess with these old has beens;” they keep resigning these old 80’s bands that never really did anything back in the day, seriously it’s the truth. Why not take somebody that’s a little bit younger, has a fresher sound and throw them out there, see what happens? No one takes chance on it though.

Kathy: Well all we can do is try.

Danny: …that’s all we can do, when you give up you’ve already lost.

Kathy: OK … Well I have a few more questions … What message do you have for aspiring artists who are trying to be heard and looking to break in to the industry, and perhaps looking at their first deal or contract?

Danny: Well, I would say don’t quit your day job, unless you are definitely guaranteed an obnoxious amount of money to live and you have things look over by an entertainment lawyer – don’t believe in agents or managers, you don’t need any of them, they are completely useless, unless you get a deal. A record company is going to want to talk to an attorney, they don’t want to talk to you, they don’t want to talk to so and so’s father who thinks he’s this big agent manager those people don’t exist in the real world. They want to talk to an entertainment lawyer, if you’re pursuing an indie label like I did, you better know you’re stuff! You’ve got to go there almost being like an attorney to check out these contracts, always have your stuff looked at by someone who is someone. That’s very important, contracts especially, even if you think you understand what’s going on have someone look at it, there might be something in there that is detrimental to your career for ever. I wouldn’t know what to tell any one to do because I am in the same boat as they are, struggling just hoping to survive. You’ve got to keep writing, keep playing, play for yourself, and always remember if you do get some kind of break, like I was lucky enough to get a break, give the fans what got you there in the first place; don’t try to redefine the face of music because you had a decent selling album because you think you need to be an innovator. Give them a little taste of what they liked about you to open their eyes, sure you want to evolve, you want to build on your musical creations but in the same respect give them a little something that makes them remember why they liked you to begin with.

Kathy: Why they bought that album and why they want to buy the next one!

Danny: That’s right!

Kathy: What message do you have for your loyal fans and for those who are just discovering you?

Danny: Thank you so much for the support, past and present! I am totally sorry that the album took so long to come out but I think it is well worth the weight. We have definitely made up for it.  We kept our word, we kept our promise to give you a better album, better production, better songs, better guitar playing, everything. They also asked for a bonus track.  They asked why does Japan always get a bonus track and we don’t? Well you got your own bonus track, I hope you’re happy! For the new fans, welcome to Danziland and thank you for the support, send me an email, say hello, I always get back to you. And, let us know what you’re thinking hopefully you enjoyed the stuff and if you hate it, Don’t Tell Anybody about it, don’t even tell me about it, I don’t even want to know!(laughs) Any exposure is good exposure, like I said to you earlier in this interview like there were a couple of sites saying some bad things about me – when they stop talking about you is when you have to worry! I am very loyal to my fans, I know that without them I am nothing and I appreciate all their patience and support – their emails, everything, they are just so wonderful. Fansites popping up and playing the stuff on their radio servers, it’s just been wonderful! They make it fantastic; even if you’re not making a whole bunch of money and you’re not this big rock star, it’s great to take care of the little fan base you have and treat them like they are all that matters.

Kathy: You’re such a warm individual, I just hope great things for you.

Danny: Thank you very much, I appreciate that!

Kathy: Well thank you very much!
 

Posted by Kathy at July 5, 2004 11:01 PM