RC: Rock Circus has come down to the Hard Rock Cafe to
hang with these guys, the Exies. New smoking,
slamming, surreal rock band, I must say. Good job
on the new album. Now you guys are from southern
California, not claiming to be from LA?
Freddy: No we are we're from Los Angeles.
RC: Cool, this is Denny.
Dennis: Hi
RC: This is David.
David: Hey, I am David.
RC: Freddy
Freddy: Yep
RC: And I'm sorry...
Scott: Scott!
RC: I should have done the singer first, this is the man
that sells the albums.
Scott: I sell em', for five bucks.
RC: It's the man with all the incredible good charm.
Dennis is saying bullsh** man.
Dennis: Yeah, no, David's got all the charm. Direct all
your questions to him.
RC: He looks like the rockin' one.
David: How you doing ladies? (in a Don Juan voice)
Teddy: How U doin'?
RC: How did you guys hook up? Were you in a lot of other
bands?
Scott: We knew of eachother playing in other bands. We
got Dennis from a local rag (an add in a local
publication) called the Music Connection.
RC: How many rags are in LA, compared to Pittsburgh?
Dennis: Not as many as you think.
Scott: Music Connection's probably the biggest.
RC: Are you guys getting a lot of press around different
scenes? Is Alternative Press gonna' do anything with
you guys?
Scott: Yeah, Alternative Press is doing something with
us, it comes out in January.
Dennis: I think they're shrink wrapping the single to the
magazine that goes on the newstands.
RC: Oh really, for "My Goddess."
Scott: And then Revolver is doing the same thing, the
shrink wrap.
Freddy: What it is is the two songs with the EPK and
that doesn't have "My Goddess" on it.
Dennis: Sorry about that.
RC: It's alright, we'll forgive you this time.
Dennis: A little misinformation.
RC: Now how many bands did you sing in Scott?
Scott: First band to sing in.
RC: So this is like IT, that's a rush. We're you trained
as a child or was it something where you said, I can
do this.
David: Potty trained.
Scott: I was potty trained, no uhh...
RC: Hopefully you were bed trained.
Freddy: Actually Dennis wrote some songs, he was a
trained singer. What was that first song?
Dennis: It was "I Am the Way." I'm not kidding, I was 12
years old, it was a Jesus song.
David: No it wasn't, it was about Dennis, he was singing
it about himself.
RC: Are you a narcicist man?
Dennis: Jesus is a metaphor for me.
David: "Dennis is the Way" is the new title of the song.
RC: Are you related to Joe Walsch by any chance (turning
to Scott)?
Scott: His last name is Walsch (pointing to David).
David: But he's the one related to Joe Walsch. I don't
know how.
RC: Third cousins, fifth cousins. Now let's talk about
the video that was done by Diane... what's her last
name?
Dennis: Martell
RC: Martell, it's a pretty intense video. You went and
shut down highway two or something?
Freddy: Closed, for about 12 hours. We started off about
5 in the morning and went til'...
David: (teasingly) Because the traffic was lighter then.
Scott: Yeah, we had to shut down the freeway and we had
75 drivers or so. A few of them were proffesional
stunt drivers and the rest were not so it was a
little scary in the beginning.
RC: Did you have some close calls?
Scott: Yeah
RC: Who had the closest call?
Scott: David did.
David: I did, I actually closed my eyes for a second
while I was playing and ended up over my mark. Which
was supposedly keeping me safe, and I opened my eyes
and there was a car coming right for my leg.
RC: It caught your foot or no?
David: No, I still have my foot thank God.
RC: Were you parleted by many labels or was it just
Virgin?
Scott: We've been through a few, we've been through 3
record labels to get this record out?
RC: That sounds like a pretty involved story.
Scott: Yeah, it was very involved. To cut it short we
were on Ultimatum, then Melisma, then Arista, and
now we're here on Virgin.
RC: Was Melisma your label?
Scott: Melisma is Matt Serletic's, who produced our
record.
RC: He did the Matchbox 20 stuff, great producer. How
was he hired on this project?
Freddy: We just wanted to find the guy that was the
tallest. The tallest guy we could find he could
produce it.
David: Didn't matter how good you were, the audition
consisted of this (raises his hand in the air) and
you're highered. You're higher than anybody else
and I'm talking about drugs.
Freddy: Nah, he was great.
RC: That's why I was late actually, I was smoking a
blunt.
David: Well dump over that blunt man.
Scott: (singing) Dump over that blunt.
RC: Sorry guys it was a birthday gift.
Scott: Matt, ran Melisma records and he was the one
that signed us and bought us away from Ultimatum.
He also happened to be a producer and when you run
the company and you happen to be a producer you
generally hire yourself to be the producer. Of
course we were fine with that.
Dennis: We were totally fine with that gig. But that's
how it went down, there were no other producers in
contention or consideration.
Freddy: Too Matt's knowledge.
RC: As far as he knows. Did he have much input? Did he
want to bring out a more pop sensability of you
guys? Were you a little more rugged before you went
in to the studio?
Scott: I think we were a little rawer and we did kind of
have some slicker elements on this record. But
that's what he is, he's a little bit more of a
slick producing kind of a guy and we're a little
more of a raw rock band. But I think we got the
marriage pretty good and it was something that he
hadn't done before and then we hadn't done, so it
was well served for both parties.
RC: It did good from what I've heard, good stuff, I'm
really down with it. Now about the name, something
about the mods and the rockers and the 50s and the
60s, you took the name from the Existencial's?
David: You're very correct and now they're called the
New Originals. We left them without a name.
Scott: Yes, it was from the Existencialist movement and
we just... the Beetle's nicknamed the Exies and
that's where we got it.
David: We were gonna call ourselves Gishtoff Therapy but
that wasn't as catchy.
RC: Are you friends with DJ Ashbaugh (former guitarist
from Beautiful Creatures) out there in the West
Coast?
Scott: Yeah, I know that guy. (laughing)
RC: Of course you do.
Freddy: We used to go to different schools together.
Scott: Yeah, we played on rival football teams.
David: He's a brother from a different mother. Is that
alcohol you're drinking right there?
RC: Yes sir, it's my birthday I'm allowed. I drink very
rarely and only in good company so you should take
that as a compliment.
(cheers)
David: Barfday!
RC: No, birfday, sorry that's the city accent in me.
David: I was talking about what it's gonna be like at
midnight for you.
RC: It will actually mellow down as I leave here. Are
you gonna be working on another track, another
video soon?
Scott: This is just getting rolling.
RC: Yeah, cause you're like the premier band for Virgin
records this year.
Freddy: We are realy, wow!
RC: That's what I've been hearing, that's what the
little birdies are saying.
Dennis: Well you have no reason not to believe them so
keep believing them.
RC: You look uncanningly close to George Harrison.
Dennis: The truth is, as far as working on another track
or getting another video going, we're still trying
to get this one going you know, so we're not quite
there yet. But we're getting "My Goddess" going.
RC: I just heard, you're road manager told me today that
it's number 2 on the video charts. Which means
that's a combination of cable access and the big
company.
Scott: We don't even hit MTV2 until the 16th, which is
in a couple of days.
RC: But you're already number 2 due to the cable access,
I guess, has been overwhelming on these guys.
Dennis: Wow, that's great, we didn't know.
RC: Just informed of that right before I talked to you.
Scott: That's good!
Dennis: Great news!
RC: Well I wish you guys continued success. I appreciate
you coming on the show, I've had a great time. This
bar maid better get her loot. We're gonna be
playing cards in a minute, some Spades from our jail
days. Right now we're gonna kick the Exies "My
Goddess", off the CD Inertia.
For More Info Go To www.theexies.com
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