DBC or Dead Brain Cells was a band from Quebec, Canada. They formed back in 1985 and in 1986 Dead Brain Cells opened up for Slayer in front of a couple of thousand of people. On that night the band got a contract with Combat Records. DBC recorded and released two full-length albums Dead Brain Cells in 1987 and Universe in 1989. The band also released an EP in 1995 called Unreleased. I've spoken with DBC's guitarist Eddie Shahini and Vocalist/Bassist Phil Dakin.
Dead Brain Cells
I've heard that you started DBC after hearing Slayer's Show no Mercy?
Phil: Slayer was of course a big influence but to say that we heard the album and said, "We gotta start a band!" wouldn't be accurate. I would say that all of us were brought up on the Rolling Stones, Kiss, The Who, Rush, Black Sabbath, etc, but started listening to Judas Priest, Iron Maiden when we reached an age where we wanted to start a band. Then this music was taken even further with Venom, Raven, Metallica and Slayer. Ed, Gerry and I were all into this music when we met and that's the direction we went. It was new, fast, tough and extreme. We wanted to ride that ragged edge. Ed and Gerry were much more influenced by Slayer than I was but I certainly loved them.
Eddie: Yep, Gerry and I were thinking of starting a metal band, once we heard Slayer we knew the direction we wanted to take. We put out ads to start a band called Final Chapter but never found the right members. So in the meantime we decided to start a joke band with the singer from Vomit & the Zits, Dave Javex. Jeff played drums with him, I played bass, we gave Phil the guitar spot which I switched with him later. DBC was born.
How did you get in contact with Combat Records? I've heard that you got offered a six album contract deal with them.
Phil: My girlfriend at the time, the lovely Sophie Gauthier, met the Combat rep at a concert in Montreal. He was probably quite taken with her and disappointed when she said her boyfriend was in a band and he should see them. So he did come to see a gig and was impressed and we eventually signed a multi album contract. I don't remember how many albums but of course the bottom fell out of the speed metal market and we only did the two.
DBC opened up for Slayer in 1986, how was that gig?
Phil: That gig was of course a blast. Opening for one of your favourite bands is a dream come true. Funny story about that gig: A year or so before we were partying with Voivod and Slayer on a patio on Crescent Street. We were just starting at that point so no one knew us. Jeff Hanneman was hitting on my girlfriend at the time and I said something smart-assed and Hanneman hauled off and punched me in the eye. I remember everyone coming around and Lombardo, obviously used to Hanneman pulling this kind of thing, warned him that I could be in one of the bands opening for them.
We weren't, but the following year we did open for them and met them in a rock bar called L'Etoile on St. Denis the night before the show. I saw Hanneman and asked him if he remembered me and he pulled a slow motion fake punch at me. We had a good laugh. The night of the show, I don't remember seeing Slayer because of all the free beer but I have a vague recollection of getting a lot of shit because our roadie trashed our dressing room. Also getting Dawn Crosby's (the singer for the band Detente) tongue down my throat. Just found out she died a few years ago. Sad. Also I lost my wallet doing back flips into a pile of garbage behind the Palladium. All in all, a very fun night.
Was it positive being signed to Combat? Did they support you enough?
Phil: I thought Combat did a pretty good job. We had good tour support and of course the money to do the two albums. We could have used more exposure to Europe. They treated us well when at Combat in NYC. I don't really remember paying a lot of attention to what was going on. To me it was all about the music and playing. As long as I got to do that I didn't give a fuck about much else.
What inspired the concept-album Universe? It was a bit different lyrically than the debut. As Universe explored the beginnings of cosmos and and the evolving life on earth.
Phil: Both Ed and I were into science and history. We would go to the Dow Planetarium in Montreal almost every Monday night. I read Carl Sagan's Cosmos as well as many other books on astronomy, evolution and history. We were both atheists and this was the kind of message I wanted to get out there. Metal had beaten the shit out of Satanism but no one had really hit upon a historical, scientific subject. It risked being too high brow but I'd grown up on Rush and Iron Maiden who both tackled some pretty lofty subjects and the metal crowd is generally a pretty intelligent group.
I liked the idea of Universe as an album name so I wrote around that. What worked out very well was the song order Ed and I had decided flowed well with the subject matter and really clicked. Genesis Explosion, of course about the big bang, was the perfect song for the topic and Estuary was a metaphor for the human population growth after agriculture and villages came into existence. It later spoke of the horrors of religion, war and unchecked human population growth but we ended with a hopeful note on Infinite Universe that we would surmount these problems and move forward to the stars. In hindsight of 25 years, I think I may have been naïve. Now I see it getting much, much worse before it gets better. If it gets better.
DBC - Dead Brain Cells (1987)
It was almost like two completely different bands on your two albums, the first one being more raw and evil. Straightforward and the second being more mature and intricate. Do you agree with that?
Phil: Yes, I would completely agree with that assessment. I guess the best explanation of the difference between the two albums is evolution. The riffs used on the debut album were written when we were listening more to hardcore like Bad Brains, DRI and simpler metal like Venom and the first Slayer album. But metal was like a drug. It had to get heavier, faster and more complicated which is what led to much of the being written for the second album.
Many of the riffs and arrangements wouldn't start out that way. We would try simpler riffs out together until we knew it well and then (usually after a couple hot knives) we would suggest a timing that was different or add an extra bar or scale, and these riffs would keep building on themselves and evolving. If Ed or I would write an entire song like that and bring it in, we'd probably all just give up. But we built them together as we developed as musicians and composers.
Eddie: I agree, we were more of a crossover speed thrash band on the first album, after playing together for a while we evolved into a more technical metal band, I find ‘Universe’ was ahead of it’s time and still is today! Lol!
DBC recorded a music video for the song "The Genesis Explosion". Tell us about the recording of the video, where was it filmed and did it get a lot of airtime?
Phil: The video wasn't planned as far as I remember. We had a good friend Johnny Zee who worked at Music Plus arranged to have our show at the Montreal Spectrum recorded and then to our surprise he put an edit together as we were thrilled. You can really get a good feel for the show: Good sweaty metal with some laughs and good friends. Its still the best quality footage we have of those days. Now every Tom, Dick and Jean Guy has a better video system on their fucking phones now.
DBC -The Genesis Explosion (Music Video)
Why did Dead Brain Cells disband?
Phil: As far as I'm concerned we never really disbanded. I will admit I was getting tired of the genre at the time and becoming a little disillusioned with the whole thing. People seemed to be turning to grunge at that time too. At some point I moved to Toronto which may have been the end of playing for a while but what really cut the heart out of the band was when Gerry died. I had no interest in music and didn't touch an instrument for many years. Years later, we realized that people were still listening to the music and I know I became nostalgic.
We met a fan names Jason Quinn who not only had a DBC tattoo but sent us three DBC songs in which he played all the instruments. We were so impressed that it sounded better that our albums that we told him that if we ever played again, he was taking Gerry's place. A few years later we did and he's fantastic. We couldn't have found a better replacement and Quinn does Gerry justice.
Will DBC record any new material? or are you just gigging on and off?
Phil: Our main problem with making new material is that I don't live in Montreal. My job tends to move me around and I don't have access to an instrument to write anything. Ed is the opposite. He has two kids and still manages to write music and play in a band. There is a good chance I will be returning to Montreal for a while in the near future. Maybe Ed and I can break to old hot knife kit out and see what happens. My musical taste has changed a lot. I don't really listen to thrash anymore. I've gone back to my metal roots. Sabbath and Maiden.
Eddie: If Phil moves back to Montreal for a while I will twist his arm until he agrees to record a three track EP with me!
You have played e a few shows lately together with Canadian thrash legends Razor, it must be fun to play with them. Did you ever gig together back in the eighties?
Phil: We played with them in Toronto a few years ago and I'm pretty sure we've opened for them back in the eighties but I don't actually remember talking to them or even knowing who they are until they get on stage. Then again I don't remember a lot from those days.
DBC - Universe (1989)
You have a new band now called Kill of Rights and you released your debut album Sign of the Crimes just a few weeks ago. Tell me a little bit about the band and your new album. Is it a permanent band or a side-project?
Eddie: After doing a few shows every 2 years with DBC I realized I had a lot of music written that was never released, since we couldn’t get DBC back together I realized I had to do it on my own and went through the toughest challenge of getting musicians to play and record with. The work was well worth it, we released a 13 song, over 50 minutes worth of music, I’m very happy the way ‘Sign of the Crimes’ turned out.
It’s the direction I would have taken DBC so it is a continuation in my musical writing. For now we have to play as many shows to sell the CD’s we made, get known in Montreal and see where it takes us. For now it’s a love of playing music, just like when I started DBC!
What bands had the biggest influence on you as a musician?
Phil: In hindsight I would to say that Rush was a bigger influence on me that I would have admitted back in the 80s. Iron Maiden was a huge influence, although at that time I probably wasn't listening to them that much. These are bands along with AC/DC, The Who, Van Halen were what I listened to when I was learning my instrument so they were all very formative. I'm back into Maiden with a vengeance. Such intricate classical arrangements and melodies. But for getting me into heavy rock at the right age, I'm going to say Kiss was also a huge influence on my life.
Eddie: I liked and listened to a lot of music, from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones, but once metal started my life changed. I got into Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Ozzy with Randy Rhoades, then once Slayer & Metallica came along it was time to start a band.
What's the highlight of your career?
Phil: Well I think just getting some music out there on an album was a huge highlight but I'd also have to say that opening for Bad Brains in Long Island was right up there. Flying to LA to remix Universe with G-G-Garth Richardson was also a huge thrill. Getting to play CBGBs was another huge honour.
Eddie: I would say backing up Slayer at the Palladium, getting signed the next night, recording and touring the US twice!
Do you think that the thrash metal scene has changed during all these years?
Phil: Amazingly, when it comes to thrash I think it was done in the mid eighties, early 90s and only those bands are still needed. I don't know, and I frankly don't really care if anyone is writing new thrash. If I wanna listen to thrash, I just go back to a huge library of the original stuff.
Eddie: I find it has changed, the 80’s sound is still around but I do like the sound of some new bands like Slipknot & Killswitch Engage, they took what we started and pushed it into there own thing.
What's your plans for the near future?
Phil: Musically I have no plans. I'd love to get a few more DBC shows in over the next couple of years. Maybe a festival or two. I would have thought we would have been invited to Heavy Montreal but we haven't yet. Maybe next year?
Eddie: hopefully play Heavy Montreal with DBC or Kill of Rights, then I could quit!
Have you got any funny story to tell, if anything weird has happened while touring or so?
Phil: Well, we have so many stories, especially on tour. Having our driver/roadie get so pissed off at us in Texas that he threatened to beat us up with a table leg and then dumped our U-Haul trailer and took off back to Canada. We had to finish the tour with an old lady and her 1975 Dodge van. I saw Pantera with Jason Newsted on Bass in Houston and got so drunk and left with a hot chick that was the bar owner's girlfriend and he sent a couple bouncers out to beat the shit out of me but we hopped in a cab and took off before they got to me.
I was sticking my middle finger out through the rear window. Scary when I thought about it afterwards. There was another time where.... you know what? The really good stories aren't ones I'm not comfortable saying in this venue. Maybe over a beer sometime.
No comments:
Post a Comment