Guest- Daz Evilhate from UK band LOSER

Rob and Dana Franklin welcome Daz from the UK-based Motorhead tribute band Loser to discuss his unique approach to tribute performances and supporting the local music scene.

• Loser is a relatively new Motorhead tribute band that tours across England, Wales, and Scotland playing mid-sized venues
• Rather than just performing Motorhead covers, Daz creates full evenings of entertainment with a comedian and original bands as opening acts
• Young musicians in the band gain valuable stage experience while helping carry on Motorhead's legacy
• Daz explains his philosophy of using tribute bands to introduce audiences to original music they might not otherwise hear
• Challenges of self-promotion and booking mid-sized venues in today's difficult market for live rock music
• Impressive collection of custom basses including a specially-made Rickenbacker-inspired instrument
• Communication and shared expectations are crucial for band success - musicians must discuss goals upfront
• July 5th streaming event planned featuring multiple local bands each performing Black Sabbath songs

If you enjoy live rock music, please buy advance tickets rather than waiting for the night of the show - it helps ensure venues remain willing to book bands and keeps performances happening.

Chapters

• 0:58 Meeting Daz from Loser
• 4:43 The UK Tour Experience
• 9:33 Creating a Full Evening of Entertainment
• 15:25 Self-Promotion Challenges and Venue Selection
• 23:32 Finding and Managing Young Band Members
• 33:03 Side Projects and Multi-Band Performances
• 40:04 Custom Bass Guitars and Equipment
• 47:43 British Music Scene and Influences

Transcript

Rob: 0:30

Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage podcast. My name is Rob Wardrums Franklin and my co-host is Dana Thunderbase Franklin.

Dana: 0:40

How you doing, man, I'm doing really good. Well with us today. We've got a special guest all the way from the United Kingdom Daz from the band Loser. So how you doing, man?

Daz: 0:52

I'm great. Thank you very much. Good to meet you both.

Dana: 0:54

Good to meet you. Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you on our show and for everybody that's listening. I was looking at a lot of your stuff and it looks like most of your stuff is a Motorhead tribute band. Is that correct?

Daz: 1:09

Yeah, that's what we're going to focus on. We've got Loser is a one-year-old, one-and-a-half-year-old Motorhead tribute. I originally was trying to stick to calling it Motorhead Covers Act, because I look and sound nothing like Lemmy and I'm not trying to wear a wig or anything.

Rob: 1:27

I thought you sounded pretty spot on the shit I've listened to.

Daz: 1:34

I mean I have fun with it's, that's what I'm really after, right. So I mean, um, you gotta lean into it. Motorhead tribute is what we're doing all right, cool.

Rob: 1:40

Uh, my question for you is do you guys play in all four countries of the uk or you pretty much just stick to, uh, the england area?

Daz: 1:48

that's a great question. That is a great question. So northern ireland's out because it's a ferry ride or a flight for us, so we're not going across there. But yeah, the right now we've started this year with England across the kind of midsection, so just north of Manchester and across. We had a great show in Leeds, etc. Across, we had a great show in leeds, etc. Um, this weekend we've got two shows, so saturday and sunday. One of them is in wales, in a town that, let me, used to actually live in, which I can't pronounce, but I'm sure I'll pronounce it a lot better when I get back from there. Um and uh, also in chester. Chester is just on the edge of wales, um, so it's, it's England, but right on the border. And Scotland we're doing in winter. We've got some dates in Scotland we're going to end up with at least six days up there, nice, awesome, awesome.

Dana: 2:47

So tell us a little bit about how you got into music to start with, what age were you and what was your main influence for getting involved in this crazy scene we call music?

Daz: 2:55

great questions. Um and uh, rob on drums and dana on bass. You certainly got an extensive background yourselves and it's great, as siblings, to be able to perform in the same band and write music together. It's really cool. I had my brother pick up guitar when he was 16. I was about 12, and I was the jealous younger brother, so I did want to pick up a guitar because I knew he'd put me to shame immediately. So I picked up the bass and he put me to shame immediately and I've been playing the bass since then. Awesome.

Rob: 3:38

Can you tell us little bit about your shows, cause it looks like you like incorporate other genres with your band when you're playing, which is really cool it's it's kind of unknown around here, so that's kind of cool.

Daz: 3:50

I'm trying, I'm trying my best to first off a full evening of entertainment right, not just one act With a tribute band. Typically you see one tribute that's about it, or two that maybe match together somewhat. I'm trying to create opportunity and create some unique elements to the evening. So first off, I've got a young up and coming standup comedian who's from Scotland. He's from Glasgow and he's joining us on the tour all year. That's cool and he's opening the show and then does kind of like a crowd work in between the acts and just keeps a little changes up the flavor of the night.

Daz: 4:28

Very first night we did it. We weren't sure none of us were sure if it would work and we all walked away with a giant smile on our faces because what had really happened is that the crowd suddenly became more open to us. So when you get up and you're facing that brick wall of an audience and the comedian has already kind of knocked the wall down a little bit, there's this you learn about them, you learn about what they're doing, you've all laughed together. And now you're up there and you've got that banter between songs where you can kind of lean into yeah, we're all right. So that's been good fun.

Daz: 5:04

But I'll disclose at this point that my opening acts are original music and there's the intent that uh, someone who would be willing to pay money to see songs they know live isn't always someone willing to pay money to see songs they don't know live. So if I can bring uh, so if I could bring along musicians that are writing their own material to play to an audience who are willing to hear live music but won't necessarily take a bet on their music, I think that makes the tribute worthwhile. I think that's why I can lean into a tribute instead of the covers band. The karma balances. I'm bringing along several opening acts and I'm giving them the opportunity to play to an audience that wouldn't have bought their ticket.

Dana: 5:52

Nice, cool, um. So we're trying to maybe you can describe the difference of what you think is in the British scene over there as opposed to the American scene here, cause I mean, over here we got, you know, a lot of country and pop and that seems to be the big and rap. Of course you know know, it's just so hard for rock and metal bands to, you know, to break into anything anymore and it seems like it's more open to that over there in the uk. How do you feel about that?

Daz: 6:23

well, first off, the other thing to lean into. Just so you're aware, you probably detect that this isn't a british accent yeah, I was gonna ask you about that actually actually, yeah, I find it funny because my family back in the northeast of the US they always say I sound British.

Daz: 6:39

They say you sound American. So I'm a man with no country at the moment, but I've been living here since 2010 and got my British citizenship in 2017. And I just love it over here. I absolutely love it over here, bar the fact that I citizenship in 2017 and, uh, I just love it over here, absolutely love it over here, but, um, bar the fact that I'm happy to be here and it did attract me and I wanted to be here.

Daz: 7:02

There is something to the old adage that the grass is always greener, that I think it is a global thing. I think rock is struggling. I think guitar music I would, I would phrase it as guitar music, live music as we remember it, live music as we know it. Right, the Jimi Hendrix moment, the live performance it doesn't hold the weight and the value it used to. The talent that is required to make that music on stage isn't appreciated anymore, in my humble opinion. So the scene here is struggling in the same way. Right, guitar music is not as successful on a live venue and a live environment as it once was.

Rob: 7:46

Okay, Are you self-promoted or do you guys work with a management company?

Daz: 7:52

We are desperate to get some promotions going on, which?

Rob: 7:55

is why.

Daz: 7:57

I'm reaching out from across the pond. Yeah, we definitely need some additional help and support for the reason we were just saying. Right, it's a struggle. And so we're fully self-promoted. We're booking directly with the venues, which is a massive risk factor. I would much rather have a local promoter who know the scene, know the market, know the people who are going to come out and can help fill those seats. Everything that you do when you're booking is risk-reward balance. So I'm taking the greatest risk because I'm self-promoting. I'm also potentially getting the greatest reward, but in this market I'd much rather someone else was getting that reward if they were able to successfully put people into the venues. I've just had to cancel one show from this weekend. We were supposed to play on Friday.

Daz: 8:46

We just didn't have the pre-sales. It's unfortunate, right. I mean, it's like we're just talking about right. And I've got another show, the 11th of May. That also was cancelled. That one I can forgive a little bit more, because that one is a venue that doesn't normally open on a Sunday. We had asked them to make an exception and open on a Sunday for us. So it's getting a bit tight, it's getting a bit close. We're going to cancel that one and postpone the Friday show. So Friday would have been another show in Wales in excess, Wrexham, and we're going to push that back about six months.

Rob: 9:23

How difficult is it to book venues there, and what size venues do you kind of like aim for?

Daz: 9:31

So good question, rob. Um it's. I find there are people who really struggle um to to to book. You don't normally get the contact back, et cetera. Um, I think again, this is universal. You got to have the best possible press kit you can. You've got to have a really good uh EPK. You have to have something about what you're offering that people are going to take notice of. And even then you're not guaranteed to get a response because there are 250 other people in line all sending high quality EPKs, who all want that opportunity. So one of the things that I have been really pushing my guys.

Daz: 10:12

By the way, I've renamed us from the UK's premier Motorhead Act because there's a lot of Motorhead Acts out here and they're really really good. I love them to death. We hang out together. They're all really good Motor Headache's amazing Motor Beard's great Motor Wreck played Bloodstock a bunch of times. There's a bunch of bands here and um, I don't, I don't want to as the the newest ones on the scene. I don't want to be throwing around big words. You know the, the marketing words and that type of thing. So I changed it to uh, the uk's youngest motorhead act, because I'm actually the old man in the band and all my others are under 20. So I thought that would be quite cute and it's nice. In my opinion, you got that multi-generational thing on stage as well in the audience. Motorhead always drew a multi-generational audience and, yeah, they love it. They're absolutely enjoying it. I got sidetracked and I need a reminder of the question.

Daz: 11:13

That's horrible.

Dana: 11:17

What was your question? What?

Rob: 11:20

size venues do you try to book? I mean, what's your optimal venue size?

Daz: 11:28

So two 300s. Which yeah, two, three hundred is what we are after. It's larger than what we should be hitting at our age. Right A year and a half in. We should be playing pubs, we should be playing 50 venues with 50, et cetera. But the problem with that is it's Motorhead and it can't really turn down. So in a club for 50, I'm I'm gonna hurt people you're gonna be blasting yeah, and I really don't want to do that.

Daz: 11:58

So, um, two, three hundred is what we've been hitting. We've had some really nice nights, we've had some uh, good turnouts and some really lovely experiences and we've had some whiffs. That's the industry, that's what happens. But in a club that's two, three hundred, when you whip and you've got 20 people in the door, it feels like you've got no one and that drags the energy down for the musicians. You know you want to keep that energy up. You're touring, you're going to be out there all year long, but at the same time, the thing we always remind ourselves of again, my guys are young, right, they're getting this, this experience. The stage time is a big new thing for them and just trying to remind them constantly, if there's one person in the audience, you have to play the show as if you were playing the 200 they paid they're in there.

Dana: 12:44

We've said, right, yes, so true, yeah, so, um, with your band being so new, you know, like I said, a year, year and a half old what was the process like of getting these guys together and auditioning and forming the banks. You know our show is basically centered around, you know, new musicians trying to form bands together and and go, you know, from garage to stage. So explain that process of what it was like for you and how many headaches they were involved great question.

Daz: 13:12

Um, you know the, uh, the, the is. We've had one massive lineup change already. It started off as a three-piece and the drummer went to university which is a fantastic thing, so good for him and the guitar player had been overcommitted. You know, he was a guitar teacher. He's in like four different acts, he taking on another thing, etc. Um, it didn't quite feel right and that's unfortunate, but you walk away, you know, each saying okay, good, good that you can recognize that, um, the in creating the second round of them. That's why I have young guys, right, what they want is they want stage time. What they want is they want to to get the experience. So there's less pressure on me.

Daz: 14:01

When I have someone my age who's a music instructor and both people who are in my band all three of us, you know, self-employed uh, falling on the self-employed side of things, it's difficult to build a brand and get something from the ground up. When there's an expectation immediately this needs to start paying for me. So, for something like a tribute band, people assume oh, tribute band, immediately you can start charging money. No, you're not. You need to prove yourself. You need to get out there and show what you're capable of that you actually can draw a crowd, that there is money in it for the promoter, for the venue, etc. So you still need to build that brand.

Daz: 14:40

So bringing in the younger guys and having that upfront, honest, earnest discussion. You know, here's what I'm trying to do. Here's where I want to be able to take this. I'd love you to come along for it. And what will you get out of it? What would you like to get out of it?

Daz: 14:57

It's difficult to do. I think in the music industry everybody thinks of themselves as just being chummy and pals. They're hanging around, they're having a beer or whatever it is they're doing, and when you're in that situation where you're being mates, you're hanging around, just good buddies, the kind of business side of it sideswipes you. So in my humble opinion, it's very important early to establish what do you want from this. What are you trying to achieve? If it's original music, usually it's just I want to be artistic and creative and we'll see where it goes and not having that discussion up front means you're leaving yourself wide open to get sideswiped right. If it's something like a tribute or playing cover music or something that's maybe a bit less personally creative, then it's a little easier to have that discussion up front, right? I want to do this because I want this type of return, and if everyone's able to get the return that they're looking for, you can keep it moving forward. Does that make any sense?

Rob: 15:58

Yeah, makes perfect sense. Are you involved in any other side projects? Are you strictly involved with the band Loser?

Daz: 16:08

So maybe you've been reading.

Rob: 16:11

A little bit.

Daz: 16:14

Yeah. So Ego Trip, who I hope you'll have an opportunity to talk to as a unit they are a couple of. There are three young lads. These three young lads didn't have a bass player for the longest time. At one point they had a bass player for a couple of months and they got a bass player for a couple of months and they got a phone call they would get offered some pretty nice gigs because what they're doing is really quite nice. It's a real throwback to 90s grunge, it's very interesting music and they're getting some good attention in the local area. And they got a phone call to play last August at a place called Kendall Calling, a festival in Penrith up here in the north of England. And Kendall Calling last year sold 45,000 tickets. So these guys, these young kids, were asked can you come play one of the stages? You know, not the big stage, noel.

Daz: 17:10

Gallagher was the next night on the big stage. But, um, you know, they, they, they had this opportunity. It was great. Uh, and they called me, they knew me and they basically said we've been told we can play this show, but only if we have a bass player. So can you play bass? And I thought I'll help my friends out. These, these guys, you know they're, they're um, they've been nothing but good to me, they're nice and I like what they do. So we had two rehearsals and then we went up, embarrassed ourselves in front of a tent full of people and had a good time. We just enjoyed ourselves. And um, they basically said, can you stick around? And I said I'll be your permanent temporary bass player. So when we tour um ego trip, play, usually play, usually second support. So we tried to bring a local act as main support because we want to. If we're touring around, you put the band before the headliner. That is local, that's going to draw a local crowd. That's what you're trying to achieve.

Rob: 18:07

I saw that and I really appreciate that you guys are doing that. That's very cool.

Daz: 18:12

And they've been. The folks we have played with so far have simply been amazing. They're appreciative for the opportunity, their music is great, they've got the right attitude and they have the best time slot of the night. So it's been really lovely and that gives each night a unique flavor which, if you remind me of that, I'll come back to unique flavor. But Ego Trip play before them and I get up and I play bass with Ego Trip and we do some grunge tune. They have a seven-song album coming out. It's all recorded with my bass on it and we do two or three Alice in Chains-style covers. And also there's another band which happens to be Losers' guitar player and drummer, and they already had a band called Bay of Pigs, so I offered to play bass on that as well. So basically every evening I'm playing three or four hours of music, nice Along with.

Rob: 19:39

That's awesome. That shows your versatility. That's killer.

Daz: 19:44

Oh yeah, it's a good point. Bay of Pigs is thrash. So you start with a thrash band that's doing like you know, just just creeping Metallica or Anthrax songs, and then you know some originals, and then grunge, and then whatever our local is, which is typically a rock oriented metal, you know metal band, and then straight into Motorhead, which is, depending on the curfew, we'll play for two hours, so an hour to two hours.

Dana: 20:14

That's a long night for you. That's awesome. So when you do these shows, do you have a dedicated sound guy and a light guy? Or is that per venue or are you just kind?

Rob: 20:25

of crossing your fingers every show.

Daz: 20:28

Yeah, definitely garage the stage there. You know there is a very important member of a band that not every band gets right. None of my three have gotten it right. The very important fifth silent member is the sound man.

Dana: 20:41

Oh, hell yeah.

Rob: 20:42

Yes, yes.

Daz: 20:44

If you can get it, if you can do that, if you can have a sound man who travels with you, wow, wow, you will have some amazing evenings. We haven't gotten that lucky. We haven't managed to make it work. There's a financial pressure, obviously, as I discussed right, I mean we have only so many seats in the van and we you know there's various parts of it, but we would love to do that, that sometimes with a spare seat. I mean we've got, obviously, the comedian who comes along, but we have exactly one spare seat.

Daz: 21:17

So sometimes we bring a photographer and he comes with us and that's great because he gets to take photos of the band that he's never met before and they usually end up using his photos as their promo material. From that point forward, we're trying to just give back and do as much as we can with the whole thing. I bring along our in-ear monitor system, which happens to be a mobile recording studio. So I bring my own mics and I set the whole back line up. So we bring the back line and all of our mics. We multi-track record the whole entire evening, which means that I can offer the main support band a recorded version of their live set.

Rob: 21:53

Oh, very cool Okay.

Daz: 21:56

Yeah, so yeah, we don't bring them along. It's usually depending upon the house. Sunday we're playing this weird place, this kind of a wedding venue. It's an events venue and they don't have their own PA, so we've had to rent a PA and the sound man that is bad, that's a financial thing, yeah, yeah.

Rob: 22:16

Well, I see an extensive collection of bases back there. What is your, what is your favorite base and basically your equipment that you typically play with live?

Daz: 22:28

Oh, um, so, uh, I, I would. I would give two answers and everything behind me here is based on those answers. These are my versions of, uh, my answer. Um, so hold on, let me go over here. Nice, so from a motorhead perspective, it has to be a Rick.

Dana: 22:50

There you go, there you go. I saw that in the videos and I was jealous.

Daz: 22:54

Yeah, I mean that would be the real deal, Um, but because I uh like custom things I don't and I don't typically take the real deal with me, Um, this is, uh, UK made knockoff, so that is made by a luthier in the UK. It weighs about half as much as the rick itself, Neck through and customized with my initials, and it really plays beautifully, absolutely beautifully. So I love that one and then this one. This took me four years to make and involved people from about three different continents to make happen. I had a factory in China that does these CNC bits, so I ordered just the wood. And then I had a Luther here in the UK take the wooden body and finish it off. So he ripped off the fretboard that had come with it, put a fretboard on, put my own custom inlays into it, finished the body.

Daz: 24:05

This is a Seymour Duncan custom shop pickup, Lemmy signature. And at NAMM when they announced these, they pointed out that Lemmy loved to hack around with his bases and the one that they had taken the pickups apart in order to figure out exactly how it was getting the growl it got. He had cut the bridge pickup out. He had cut the bridge pickup out. So even though the bass had neck and bridge pickups, the bridge pickup was never wired in. He had literally disconnected the wiring for it. So I bought just the neck pickup and I had it put in the neck position in order to create something that is intentionally unique, and I want someone looking at that and saying, oh, he's trying to pass it off as a Rickenbacker.

Daz: 24:52

It looks a little bit like a Rickenbacker, but there's no way someone's going to look at this beast and think, oh yeah, that's actually a Rick. Right, that's clearly a knockoff. That's clearly my thing. That's not attempting to look like it came out of a factory and has some problems. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun and I had my own little custom strap Nice.

Daz: 25:21

And then excuse me, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to cough, that's all right. It's terrible On the other side of the fence for the other bands of the evening. My preference is um plus whatever you decide fender pj.

Daz: 25:37

So that's a jazz bass special right. Um, this is the duff mckagan version, um, the duff mckagan signature, which has the beautiful hip shot. Love gear, absolutely love gear, anyway. So that is my preference. And then, because I love them so much, because everything has to be custom, I had these made by the same luthier who fixed the non-rick, the wooden thing, right. So that is made by John Shuker, and again it has my initials on the inlay and the head. Very nice, very nice, and it's also got a hip shot. But this is strung bead, so that allows me to drop A instead of drop D. Nice, good fun. Oh yeah, thanks for the questions. It's Good fun. Oh yeah, thanks for the questions. It's always fun just talking about that.

Rob: 26:34

Thanks for showing us your accent.

Dana: 26:35

Oh yeah, that's a beautiful instrument. I'm severely jealous just by looking in the background there. So I mean we can't talk to you. Know a UK band without talking about you? Know the version of the British invasion? I mean, you know, I don't know where your influences came from, but mine and I'm sure Rob's to some sense, is mostly the late 70s, early 80s, of course, starting with Led Zeppelin, but you've got the Black Sabbath, iron Maiden and of course Motorhead and then even earlier bands like the Beatles and the Kinks and Zombies and some of them. But how do you, do you have any influence from? I mean, I guess because you actually just moved there. Well, not not just move there, but you've been a part of the States also. What kind of influence did you get from that or from the from the US side of it?

Daz: 27:27

That's great, and I guess that's why the evening works so well for me in being uh kind of mixed up right, because the the younger folks who are bringing their original music are influenced by things that came out of the us.

Daz: 27:40

but those things that came out of the us were influenced by the new wave of freedom exactly everything's kind of circular, yeah and and there's definitely an attraction to being in the UK where so much great music came from right, and you can feel it right and you go into some of the clubs that you play and you realize you know this club. Iron Maiden played on their first tour or you know Motorhead were here in this space in 1983 or whatever it is.

Daz: 28:08

You just have that lovely sense. You feel it in the States too, right, when you're traveling around, when you're touring in the States, when you're in different venues and there are British fans who've come through, who've played that venue. That's quite inspiring as well, because it was good enough for them to book on a tour when they're outside of their country and making their way around. So yeah, heavily influenced by everything you're talking about Definitely Iron Maiden, black Sabbath, etc. Our intent is to do July 5th, which is a Saturday, in all-day streaming. If you don't mind, I'll kind of go on another little rant, of course.

Daz: 28:53

We're in Carlisle. Carlisle is a city in the north. It's a rather large city in the north. There's over 150,000 inhabitants. Our next motorway exit north is Scotland.

Daz: 29:05

So we're on the Scottish-English border and here in the city there's quite a lot of wonderful talent. There's a lot of folk who are doing great stuff and I'm a transplant, so I'm here and I see it happening and I'm becoming a part of that music scene and I really want to help celebrate it, because all these great folks around me who are doing these amazing things but they don't tend to get out of the city as much. So running a tour like this and bringing that original music with me is my way of giving back to the area I've adopted and I've moved into. I'm bringing that music that I hear here a lot and taking it out and sharing it with others down the road. So in the same sense, I want to share it even wider.

Daz: 29:50

So on July 5th we're going to do a streaming, an all-day streaming session, and the Carlyle bands that I've participated with, that I've interacted with, that I rehearse across the hall from, etc. We're all going to do a half-hour set and because July 5th is also Black Sabbath's last show, that only a handful of people will get to go to. We're going to make sure we do one Black Sabbath song, so every single band that plays will do a Black Sabbath song all night.

Rob: 30:19

Have you decided on which one yet?

Daz: 30:22

So I've got a list. I've started to make a list. I don't. So basically, the two opening acts for my tour, they've chosen a song which I know I need to learn and for the Motorhead act I haven't chosen a song. I'm holding back because I want to allow everybody else to choose and then take one rather than try to get in early. But there has been a little bit of infighting. Several of the bands have wanted the same song and.

Daz: 30:48

I won't let it happen. So yeah, it should be good fun. Keep an eye out for it.

Rob: 30:56

So you brought up something I actually want to ask you about rehearsal spots. What is it like there finding rehearsal spots, and is it I mean cost effective, I mean for starting bands?

Daz: 31:09

So it depends where you are, and I think it's the same there, right? So it depends where you are and I think it's the same there, right?

Rob: 31:20

So if I was in New York trying, to find a rehearsal spot, versus if I was in, say, the great state of Maine.

Daz: 31:26

It's free in your garage in Maine because, you've got a big enough house because everyone lives in a house, because there's a million inhabitants in a state the size of the rest of New England, whereas when you're in Manhattan and real estate is at a premium and noise levels are a really big deal, you struggle. So, like in London, forget it. You have to find a studio. You have to rent space in a studio, and you have to find a studio. You have to rent space in a studio and there are some really nice lockups.

Daz: 32:00

There are some really great places around the UK where you can rent at a reasonable fee. Most of them are kind of either a digital code or a combo, so you just kind of get the combo on the way into the building and then you get a combo to the door that you have for a period of time and then get kicked out. But they kind of run themselves and they're in industrial areas, if they can be, so that you don't have to worry about the noise. For us here in Carlisle we have a really lovely spot that is done in an industrial area. That's basically storage, but the storage place has a separate floor which is musician lockups, so we're able to go there and rehearse and not really bother anyone, which is lovely. So, yeah, we've been quite lucky about that one. But I would say everywhere that you have the risk of too much noise for the neighbors.

Rob: 32:59

Well, and climate control, to protect your instruments as well, is an important factor.

Daz: 33:05

This is definitely true and a big risk here, a big difficulty here. So typically you end up with this, which is you can control it in your own house. So your instruments come home and your lockup is where you leave the stuff that maybe is a little bit more rugged.

Dana: 33:24

Yeah, we know that one. So, speaking of rehearsals and practices because of the theme of our show people starting out and practices because of the theme of our show people starting out there's always that inclusion in practices of drugs, sex and rock and roll. I mean, that's what everybody thinks rock bands are about right, but in reality, when you're trying to do a serious project, how much give do you take with other members of the band as far as drinking and drugs and stuff like that in your practices? I mean, where, where do you draw the line?

Daz: 34:00

Good question. That's a really really good question, definitely, um, I will also use the opportunity to plug my YouTube channel. So loser band has its own YouTube channel, which I think you're going to link on your site.

Rob: 34:13

We'll link everything you have available.

Daz: 34:16

Love it On my YouTube channel. I also do interviews. So I've interviewed Nigel Sanders, author of a book about Filthy Animal Taylor the first, you know, the drummer for the first albums from Motorhead that were released Not the first drummer of Motorhead, but the first one with the albums that were released. And recently I've published, or I'm in the middle of publishing, a series of interviews with Opus Christian Lawrence and Dave Sharp, and the two of them are touring musicians with Cro-Mags and I basically asked them the same question. So there's an exchange with the three of us. That's very much in this line. But in general, if you're going to be in a van with these folks and get on the road and be out of the house overnight sleeping somewhere, you want to get along with those people Exactly. So remember when I was saying saying when you're starting up, when you're establishing what it is that you want to do, it's really important also to kind of establish how do you want to do it right.

Daz: 35:25

If there's someone in the band who is very anti-drink and everyone else in the band drinks all the time, there's going to be a problem down the road. It's not guaranteed to happen, it's likely to happen right, and when it does. That's a personality conflict around expectations. So setting those expectations early is really, really important. And if you're willing to accept okay, well, this person is into imbibing too much of whatever it is, and that isn't a problem for me, even though I don't then that's something you have to take on yourself. For you, you're the one who said no, but I can handle it. I can deal with the fact that he's going to turn up late, or he's not going to be as motivated as I am, or he's just. You know that type of thing. So it definitely comes down to communication and setting expectations.

Rob: 36:23

Very good. That's exactly what we've discussed with our bandmates and and other interviews we've had on the on the podcast. So hey, got a question for you. Have you ever been?

Daz: 36:35

to the Troubadour and sat where Lemmy sat. No.

Rob: 36:39

I wish. I heard that they erected a statue of him outside that club, which is so cool because he was such a frequent visitor to the Troubadour.

Daz: 36:49

Oh, I'm sorry You're thinking about the rainbow.

Rob: 36:51

Oh the rainbow. Yes, I'm sorry, I thought it about the rainbow. Oh the rainbow, yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I thought it was a cheaper name, los.

Daz: 36:54

Angeles, the rainbow. I have, yes, the rainbow.

Rob: 36:55

Oh, you have Very cool, very cool.

Daz: 36:57

Yeah, so yeah, the rainbow. I lived in Los Angeles for three years in the early 90s and I definitely went to the rainbow.

Rob: 37:10

That was a good time to be there too.

Daz: 37:11

Yeah, it was, it was. It was only just starting the decline. Let's go with that it was. It was still decadent enough, all right.

Dana: 37:24

So what was your um? Your biggest, your biggest or best show that you've had to date?

Daz: 37:31

Uh well, for for loser, which is only a year and a half, this one's easy. Our um locally we have a couple of promoters who are really great brian and scott devlin. They call themselves the dev bros, so the dev bros um have been for about eight years promoting um locally. They bring in tribute acts, they bring in original bands etc. And they put them on in our 300 seat venue and they, at this point, they have a real formula and they never have a show that's not sold out in a 300 seat venue and they do a great job. They're really, really wonderful and they did you know, when I was telling you about July 5, and all the people that I've interacted with and all the local musicians that I really respect, they did a charity show on December 28th last year and they ask it's modeled on a UK TV show called Stars in their Eyes and it's basically when people put on a wig and come out and try to pretend to be a celebrity of some sort. So the dev bros basically said to local bands I know you do original music, but would you do a set of a fake tribute? Would you do a tribute to whoever and play it for 20 minutes? It was 15 or 20 minutes. All the proceeds went to Macmillan Cancer Support and to Eden Minds, which is a local mental health charity, and they posted the check. You know how much went to each one etc. They made a ton of money for a small venue. They did a great job, completely sold out and they asked us to play in headline. So we were the last band on because we're, you know, one of the local. You know we're leaning into a tribute, so we did the longest that we did a half hour or so.

Daz: 39:19

Really lovely night, fantastic show, completely packed right to the very last minute, people really moving and dancing and loving it. But the other bands that had played we had TBK played Creed, so they all came out in white button-up shirts and everyone was Scott Stapp on stage. And then we had Drollman play Faith no More. Really lovely rendition of F&M songs Sounded great. We had Poseidon's Kiss opened it up, doing a Blink-182 set and that was extremely well received. You've got to figure. You know there's like seven, eight bands the whole entire evening, right, and they really were well received. First band on and they basically said we love that so much we're going to insert a bunch of these songs into our set because they're just a lot of fun. So, yeah, that's the answer to your what is our best show so far? December 28th, which was also the nine-year anniversary of Losing Lemming.

Rob: 40:21

Okay, so in closing, can you tell us basically, can you describe what your show entails I mean including all the bands what your fans can expect and for our listeners what they can expect, and any advice you have for new musicians?

Daz: 40:39

Okay, all right. So we have Bay of Pigs, which is only about three original songs they're working on writing more and then some anthrax songs, some some, uh, metallic songs and basically just doing as much thrash as we can. In fact, um, if you're really nice, they play a thrash cover of um smoky and the bandit song, what's the? What's the one that he's bound and down? He's bound and down, yeah, nice thrash version of eastbound. Um, and then, uh, we have ego trip up. Uh, four piece um grunge band. Uh, just think, stone temple pilots, you know that type of thing. Um, then the, the piece I was mentioning earlier. Um, the, the main support so the main support are are from, hopefully, somewhere local. Um, they've been really great bands that we haven't played with before, and so we get up on stage, we share the stage with them, and then Loser Play a wide variety of Motorhead material, including a few surprises, intentional surprises, a little visit to New York, good fun stuff, and we invite the main support to come up and join us. Really.

Daz: 41:51

Oh, very cool, that's awesome so typically the the main support sings one or two of the songs with us, um, and in fact in one of the shows, often him got up and played bass along with me, so we were doing a dual bass on the closing songs. So the the idea there is what are we trying to achieve? A completely, completely unique night. That moment is never going to happen again. These two bands have not practiced together. We have not done anything together. We just said let's make some music together, got up on stage, did something you're never going to hear again. That's what we're after a unique evening. That makes the live experience better than buying a CD. Egotrip will have a seven-song album out very soon. It's fully recorded, being mixed and mastered now. Bay of Pigs will start recording. Next. They're going to do at least a four, probably seven-song album and Loser, believe it or not, the tribute band is going to do some original music in Motorhead style and release that next year.

Dana: 42:51

Very cool.

Dana: 42:51

Oh yeah, cool. Well, every one of our shows, you know, we, we tend to put the, the guests on on spot here and, you know, ask them a question that, um, you know, kind of loosen, loosen things up a little bit and, uh, I'm gonna let my brother actually say what this is. Usually it's me. So what's this moment called? Oh shit, this is, it's a moment where something's happened live or you know, maybe even at practice, something that you're just like oh shit, I can't believe that just fucking happened. And you know, and just whether it's embarrassing or funny. But lay us on one of those moments that happened to you a very good question.

Daz: 43:30

I love your oh shit moment. It's an easy one to answer.

Rob: 43:34

We've had a lot.

Daz: 43:37

I bet you've had. Yeah, exactly, I was just talking about Altanim, right? So Altanim's bass player came up and played with us and something happened to my pedal board and I didn't know what. So we played two songs and the beginning of the first song and the end of the last song. You can hear me All the way five, six minutes down the middle. I'm completely missing. My pedal just went to volume zero and I'm strumming along and nothing's going on and I've got it recorded and I've got a multitrack recorded and there's just a flat line is nothing through there, right, um.

Daz: 44:17

But luckily we had two basses on stage so he was filling out the sound. Um, and then you see me, I couldn't figure out what had gone on. So I literally did the guitar nightmare, the sound, the sound man's nightmare. The guitarist touched his amp during the song. We got to the last refrain and I just got sick of it. So I went to the master volume and cranked it and all of a sudden you hear me way too loud. Yeah so yeah, that was an absolute oh shit moment. I was messing up the lyrics on the two songs I mean, that is a unique moment that will never happen with tons of mistakes. I was so distracted, looking around trying to figure out what had happened to my gear.

Rob: 44:55

Okay, advice for new musicians, especially in your area.

Daz: 45:02

What would your advice be.

Daz: 45:06

Boy, I think I've given lots of good tips throughout. Honestly, I think I've given lots of good tips throughout. It has to be talk to each other and know where you're going with things. Don't just go down the path right. Know what you're after and keep an open communication with each other. I mean, learn the fundamentals as best you can. I don't have them, so I have to follow along and beg my bandmates to teach the old man new tricks and all that fun stuff. Uh, I think for younger folk who are getting started would shed it. Get in there and really understand as much as you can. Try to try to dig into the music theory. Try to um do your scales. Uh, try to stay on top of your instrument as best you can, because when you get on stage, you're the one responsible for that right yeah, so true.

Dana: 45:52

I mean, you know back in the day, when you know when we all started out, it's like you know they didn't have no, all the technology to look this shit up. You know it's like you learn a song. You play the tape over and over and over until you thought that you got the right chords and notes, only to find out, oh shit, that tape's really old and it just sounds like that's a different note. Because it's so fucking warm.

Dana: 46:12

So so yeah, but yeah, nowadays there's no excuse for you know musicians to not, you know, to not know what's going on and not do their homework. That's, yeah, we've had some issues with that ourselves and it's. It gets frustrating. But the very good advice, sir, I, I love that, um, and we were even talking on one of our last episodes about you know, like you, like you said, the communication and you know, as far as you know, all the, all the stuff that we used to do in practices and you know nobody ever brought up, you know, mental illness or family life or all the other shit that the members had to deal with outside of the band, that you know affected everybody and it's just. You know it was all done behind closed doors and you know you just go on stage, you know, maybe drink a little bit, do this and pull through and go home and face reality and it's, you know it's a whole different world out there. So good advice, we appreciate it thank you hey uh, there's related to to the um, listening, listening.

Daz: 47:08

So one thing that messes with you when you're listening is a lot of producers back in the day would slow the tape down, right, right. So when you slow the tape down, you change the pitch, and so what you're learning is not what was being played by the musician and you can't figure out why it doesn't look quite right. Yes, but the other fun one is there's actually a really amusing Motorhead anecdote on this one which is early on, when they were recording um, they, they had written all of their songs in e-standard and they recorded on a day when their instruments had actually fallen out of whack. They tuned them by ear and they tuned them a half step low.

Daz: 47:44

So motorhead, all motorhead songs are a half step off wow but at that moment in time, when they went into record and you're paying for the recording and you tuned your guitar, your instruments by ear, a half step low, that's it. That's what you do now.

Rob: 48:01

Hey. Well, that has been an absolute pleasure talking to you and I look forward to future interviews with you and, in closing, what would you like to say to your loyal listeners?

Daz: 48:12

In closing, what would you like to say to your loyal listeners? Thank you very much. Thank you, Rob and Dana. This has been an excellent discussion and for my loyal listeners buy the tickets. Buy advance tickets. Don't just buy on the night. In order to guarantee that the show happens, people need to buy online in advance, so the venue owner knows there's going to be enough people there to make it worthwhile to open the doors.

Rob: 48:39

Really.

Dana: 48:40

Well, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure and we'll be talking with you soon, for sure, and we will include all of your socials and all your bio and everything, and we'll let the world know about you.

Daz: 48:53

Fantastic, it's really lovely to meet you both.

Rob: 48:55

I appreciate it you too. Thank you, bye man, bye now.