Our crazy Canuck interviewer Angie Lalonde recently had a chat with all five young gentlemen who comprise the band Death By Stereo. Click READ MORE to read about just how mild and well-mannered these gents are, and click here to read a review of their latest album.
Angie-So you guys have a new record out
Efrem- Yes, itâs called âInto The Valley of Deathââ¦
A-And the response so far?
E- Itâs been great; yeah weâve been getting free hookers and booze everywhere we go
A-So all the kids can get this record worldwide
E- yeah itâs distributed everywhere
Tito- Theyâre all singing along already, itâs great
A-I heard youâre record release show was pretty crazy
E- It was fucking insane
T- Somebody took a piss in the moshpit
E- Yeah pee in the pit
T- so everybody was slipping around and falling in piss, thatâs pretty good.
(Meanwhile Efrem was getting his leg bandaged up by Holmes the physiotherapist in Downway)
A-So Efrem why did you shave your legs so gracefully right now?
E- Because I rolled my ankle pretty hard at a show, you know I do a cabaret every night, I am part of a burlesque theater and I want to look good so heâs taping up my leg right now and then heâs going to start with the body-paint.
Todd- Holmes doesnât even get time off when heâs on the roadâ¦
E- Holmes is being fucking super cool in helping me out
A-So Downwayâs been great to tour with?
E- Fucking amazing
Holmes-downway- If you get hurt all the time yeah⦠I need to learn eye-surgery to keep up with everything
A-Your new record was being streamed on the internet before it was released
T- Of course it wasâ¦
A-Whatâs DBS take on this?
Dan- The thing about that was, we mixed it and mastered it a certain way and that version got on the internet first
E- And thatâs not the right oneâ¦
Dan- Yeah itâs not the true representation of how we wanted the record to come out and thatâs where it kind of screws us, we want peoples first listen to the record to be the final product and when itâs not we donât know if it will turn people offâ¦
A-Do you care that it was out there?
E- Yeah to a certain degree, like the other night there was some kid at the merch table trying to actually write the song titles down from the new record and we get a tone of emails about why donât we post lyrics on the website and they think weâre dicks when we donât when itâs like dude weâre not rich. In some aspects though itâs really cool cause some kids in parts of the world that honestly canât afford a Death By Stereo CD, like Portugalâ¦
T- Yeah totallyâ¦
E- Exactly and thatâs fine, but if we were ever to go there and play theyâre the kind of kids who would try their best to try and buy it or buy a shirt.
Dan- The thing is also I think if they hear the record off the internet they may not be buying the record but hopefully theyâll come to the show and maybe buy a T-shirtâ¦
E- Support us in someway, a lot of kids now when we donât come to their town donât understand why we canât come, we just canât come to your town cause you didnât buy the record.
Dan- Buy it and let us know you want us to comeâ¦
A- So I heard you just bought a new van, or should I say home, what happened to the old lagwagon?â¦
Dan- The transmission went outâ¦
Todd- It became Bad Astronautâ¦
E- No it used to be called they (Downway) have the Ferrar-RV and we had the Van-Borghini. Yeah but the Van-Bourghini finally called it quits our transmission decided it didnât want to live another day.
Dan- This happened at home though, we were doing a U-turn on the way out right before a Bad Religion show and it just went out, it still goes in reverse though.
A-I heard you guys wanted to go on tour with Nicotine again
E- This tour was offered to us as the Nicotine, / Downway tour, we were asked âdo you want to do it?â Yeah!
A-You guys did Sno-Jam with Nicotine, this isnât your first tour right?
E- No and we did some of Warped.
A-You guys have been said to be a band obsessed with touring, would you say thatâs right?
Dan- Yes
E- I would say thatâs true. Yeah going home totally sucksâ¦
Todd- All your problems stack up and you get home to it when you get home.
E- Real life is a bitch. Thatâs why you get into a punk band because your life fucking sucks and you need a way cause when everythingâs gone, you know your girlfriend dumps you or something your guitar is still there.
(Holmes from Downway comes back to hurt Efrem some more taping his leg up)
Todd- Man, Beans leg looks like a hockey stick now
T- Can I sign your cast dude.
Efrem- Thanks Holmes, thatâs bad ass dude, he really knows what heâs doing.
(Thereâs a few minutes of distractions and talks of buying a High Times, Efrem disappears on the phoneâ¦)
A- So I heard something really horrible happened to one of the Nicotine roadieâs in Winnipeg?
Paul- I guess he went outside and just before we were done playing talking on his cell phone and some kids just rolled up and had a pool ball in a sock and beat him up with it, then they shot him in the face with a pellet-gun and it lodged right in the corner of his eye, and I guess the pellet was lodged against his eyeball so he had to get surgery. Nicotine had to cancel two shows because the guy who got shot hardly speaks any English, so their guitar player who speaks the best English had to stay and translate for him and they didnât end up getting out of the hospital until the next day and they had to fly up to Toronto, they had a rough time. And then the following day when they got in, their singer Howie has really bad glaucoma and couldnât see out of one eye so he had to go to the hospital and Howie didnât end up getting out of the hospital until while we were playing, so they got there late and ended up playing after us, but it was still fun.
A- So how come SARS didnât scare the Death away?
T- No, looking forward to itâ¦
Dan- Weâre more scared of getting trampled by a horse actually
T- Weâre actually more scared of getting puked on by the Dayglo Abortions (Tito actually did get puked on by one of the Dayglos a few days before)
A- So how did you guys pay for you first guitar?
Dan- My first guitar was bought for me on my birthday by my dadâ¦
T- Yeah actually I think someone gave me my first guitar, it was just in a closet or something and given to me. But the actual first one I paid for?â¦
Dan- Prostitutionâ¦
T- Yeah male prostitutionâ¦
D- My first technically paid for guitar I traded for skateboard decks and miscellaneous items, I think a pair of trucks.
T- I canât remember that was a long time ago, thatâs like fucking four decades ago! Probably some shitty job paid for it.
A- What do you think was the worst injury you guys have sustained at one of your shows?
D- Oh, thatâs Efremâ¦
Paul- Efrem in Hanover, Germany while we were playing somehow some guy gave him an upper-cut and made this huge gash in his chin, really big and he didnât realize what was going on at the time, he just realized that he got hit, the guy must have had a ring on or something. So he comes back up on stage and his whole neck and chest were covered in blood. Weâre all like ooohhh damn! Then he finished the song and threw down the mic and we drove to the hospitalâ¦
T- Okay Efremâs just a hypochondriacâ¦
Paul- Like heâll get injured at any point that he can but also once a bunch of kids kind of jumped on top of him and his head got squeezed down on the monitor and he clipped the corner of his ear and maybe that much of the cartilage of his ear was ripped
Dan- That was pretty gross, that was the biggestâ¦
Paul- The one in Germany though he was all scared cause were in Germany, how are you going to fucking pay for it so our was friend was like hereâs my hospital card just go in there and tell them youâre me. Like Efrem looks German,/ oh they knew, but the guy working at the hospital I guess was like do you like metal and started to talk to Efrem about music and then he just took care of him and then he took off. And then last night he sprained his ankle on a mic chord, what a retard, the guy has no coordination whatsoever.
T- Yeah he is pretty prone.
Todd- We need wireless strobe-lights from now onâ¦
A- You guys recently did a feature on MTV with you and Coolio right?
Dan- Yeah that was great hanging out with Coolio all day, it was a show about racism we got to jam with Coolio and hang out, show some kids about racismâ¦
Todd- Showing that actual white and black people get along, some retarded like after-school special type thing, I mean it was really fun for us to get to hang out….
A- So what the weirdest unposted âAsk The Beanâ question asked on your site?
Dan- Oh the weird ones get posted, we always post the weirdest one.
A-Whatâs you favorite?
Dan- What is felching?
A- And what is felching Dan?
Dan- Itâs when you cum in somebodyâs ass and you suck it out with a strawâ¦
A-Okay I didnât know that one yetâ¦
(Dave- Downway jumps in)- Me neither why do you?
Todd- Weâre all felchers, maybe itâs a US thing, I guess people donât felch in Canadaâ¦
Dave-Downway- Yeah weâre pretty clean, we have clean sex in Canada
T- Shit Iâve been felching since way back!