Kenny Hickey - Sun Dont Shine/Type O Negative - Interview

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00:00:00.000 No text
00:00:00.160 Welcome to [ __ ] Talk Reviews. My name is
00:00:01.839 John. Derek is in the room and we are
00:00:03.600 very fortunate today to have Kenny
00:00:05.520 Hickey with us from Sun Don't Shine, of
00:00:07.680 course, Typo Negative Fame. How are you,
00:00:09.840 man? Thanks for coming.
00:00:10.880 I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having
00:00:12.240 me.
00:00:12.639 Absolutely. Where uh where on the planet
00:00:14.320 do we find you today?
00:00:15.360 I'm in Staten Island, my my home studio
00:00:17.680 in my house.
00:00:18.320 It's a good place to be. Now, didn't you
00:00:20.960 renovate? Wasn't there some social posts
00:00:23.119 about you renovating and making that
00:00:24.960 studio? Yeah. How long did that take? It
00:00:27.599 was a pandemic down the rabbit hole
00:00:29.920 passion, you know, pandemic hit. I had
00:00:33.120 just well, I just got out of rehab and
00:00:36.480 helped me get sober, you know. I dove
00:00:39.520 delved in deep, you know, studied on all
00:00:41.840 the uh mechanics of Sonics and and
00:00:45.040 everything and uh I built it from
00:00:46.480 scratch. It came out that looks like
00:00:49.840 Yeah. Yeah, it looks badass. John's in
00:00:52.879 the studio, too. Maybe you need to talk
00:00:54.879 some uh some shop here on studio
00:00:57.120 gadgets.
00:00:57.840 I'm telling you, I would bore I would
00:00:59.600 bore people all day long talking about
00:01:01.680 gear and equipment. I love it.
00:01:03.359 It wouldn't bore me.
00:01:04.640 All right, Derek, feel free to check out
00:01:06.000 whenever you want. Kenny and I got stuff
00:01:07.360 to discuss.
00:01:08.240 Yeah. Okay, see you later. Uh so, so
00:01:11.280 rehab, how much of I got to tell you,
00:01:14.560 man, you were you're very passionate in
00:01:16.880 the videos of the material for Sun Don't
00:01:19.520 Shine. Painfully so. I mean, you can see
00:01:22.159 it, feel it. How much of rehab is going
00:01:24.720 into some of the material that that is
00:01:26.720 in Sun Don't Shine?
00:01:28.240 That's a really good question. I haven't
00:01:30.479 really thought about that. My other
00:01:32.240 band, Silver Tomb, deals a lot with
00:01:34.159 addiction and stuff. This this band, not
00:01:37.200 as much. I feel like um uh I'm springing
00:01:40.400 off to a new, you know, I'm taking off
00:01:41.759 on a new springboard and trying to get
00:01:43.200 away from
00:01:44.240 a lot of that darkness. though it does
00:01:46.079 study some darker points of life and and
00:01:48.240 and uh human behavior, but we haven't
00:01:51.280 really gotten too deep into um
00:01:54.560 addiction. However, the song Cryptonisia
00:01:56.880 is kind of like me. It's about me
00:01:59.280 basically being pissed off at my younger
00:02:01.439 self.
00:02:02.640 [ __ ] life, you know? That's the gist of
00:02:05.840 that song. So, but not not any direct
00:02:08.399 references
00:02:10.560 to alcoholism or or whatnot. How do you
00:02:13.120 find the safe space between like sharing
00:02:15.599 that those you know personal and
00:02:18.400 emotional and and physical trials
00:02:20.720 through lyrics especially with like
00:02:22.319 Silver Tomb? How do you find that safe
00:02:24.239 space between being open and vulnerable
00:02:26.720 and talking about that and still keeping
00:02:29.040 it private or are you just one of those
00:02:30.800 cats you're you're fine to share it with
00:02:32.959 people?
00:02:33.519 Well, it's pretty you know I mean typo
00:02:35.599 every always made everything pretty much
00:02:37.680 public knowledge. You know we were
00:02:38.959 always honest about everything but I
00:02:40.800 don't think there is a safe space. I
00:02:42.160 think if you're going to be willing to
00:02:44.000 share intimate things like that, then
00:02:46.080 you have to be strong enough to expose
00:02:48.800 yourself and be vulnerable.
00:02:50.720 But I have the ultimate the ultimate
00:02:53.599 card in my pocket where all of you are
00:02:55.760 equally as vulnerable. You're just not
00:02:57.360 voicing it.
00:02:58.000 That's true. I I recently saw a video of
00:03:01.200 you also working out. Is this also an
00:03:04.000 endeavor that you're getting into going
00:03:05.920 to the gym? And you know, is this a full
00:03:08.319 resculpt of one Kenny Hickey? You know,
00:03:10.720 that's a weird thing because like I I
00:03:12.959 always said I would never put a workout
00:03:14.720 video on because I think it's like so
00:03:16.319 self-indulgent,
00:03:17.680 right?
00:03:18.400 But I I did it once and it got amazing
00:03:21.200 response. I'm like people love it. I'm
00:03:22.879 like what the this this dumbest things,
00:03:25.360 you know, and those
00:03:27.120 that people love. But no, it's very
00:03:29.120 integral part of my sobriety and how
00:03:31.920 I've turned my life around. You know,
00:03:33.680 you you don't when you give up a
00:03:36.239 substance or alcohol or whatever, you
00:03:38.000 don't give up the obsessive personality.
00:03:39.760 It's still I'm personality. So whether
00:03:41.680 I'm obsessing about music or building a
00:03:43.360 studio, I have to I have to put my my
00:03:47.200 OCD into something. So yeah, working
00:03:49.840 very important part of it and eating
00:03:52.159 clean and um just feeling good about
00:03:54.799 myself in life, you know, waking up in
00:03:56.480 the morning and not, you know, feeling
00:03:58.080 like [ __ ]
00:03:59.439 Eating eating right and eating clean is
00:04:01.360 tough under the best of circumstances.
00:04:03.760 How do you uh plan on facing that when
00:04:06.000 you're not in the comfort of your own
00:04:07.439 home with your own kitchen? Uh, I found
00:04:09.840 there's always a good choice you can
00:04:11.760 make. Even if you're, I guess, you know,
00:04:13.599 on the road and dumped in a fast food
00:04:15.840 spot, you can get a chicken sandwich.
00:04:17.199 You know, you could there's there's
00:04:18.320 always there's always an option.
00:04:20.478 Yeah.
00:04:20.798 But want to want to see it or not or
00:04:22.479 you're in denial about it or not, but to
00:04:24.400 eat something
00:04:26.160 better. Not totally
00:04:28.000 obviously, you know, you can't you can't
00:04:30.639 control it like like I can now. I mean,
00:04:32.560 I'll I'll actually, you know, cook a
00:04:34.800 bunch of chicken breast at the beginning
00:04:35.919 of the week and, you know, I'll go cook
00:04:37.360 my week's food on a Monday or on a
00:04:40.080 Tuesday. You know, it's way easier to
00:04:41.360 control. I mean, you know, there are
00:04:43.360 ways though. There are ways to clean as
00:04:45.440 possible.
00:04:46.000 How was the food in in Belgium? You guys
00:04:48.639 were over there for Grass Pop.
00:04:50.000 We didn't do that. No, we backed out of
00:04:52.479 Grasshopper.
00:04:53.440 Oh, I got bad info. Well, we'll slice
00:04:55.360 that out then. We we actually we yeah we
00:04:57.000 No text
00:04:58.560 we uh ended up not going to Europe and
00:05:01.120 opted to finish the record add three
00:05:04.960 more songs so that we can actually
00:05:06.400 release an LP instead of an EP. So we
00:05:08.880 took that month we would have been there
00:05:10.479 I went to New Orleans Johnny went to New
00:05:13.600 We all met in New Orleans and we all
00:05:15.440 just concentrated on recording three
00:05:18.960 more songs.
00:05:19.919 And of those three songs is there
00:05:22.080 anything you can reveal to us about
00:05:23.759 those three?
00:05:24.720 They're great. I mean, it's like super
00:05:27.039 it's it's it's just another level. I
00:05:29.039 think the band is really beginning to
00:05:31.120 find its sound. You know, it's darker,
00:05:33.840 heavier, more versatile sound got out of
00:05:36.560 these three songs. And I feel like
00:05:39.440 really we just locked ourselves in a
00:05:42.080 studio for almost a month and basically
00:05:44.800 concentrated on music and jamming
00:05:46.639 together and and developing them. That's
00:05:48.479 definitely just a next level up from the
00:05:51.440 previous stuff that we've done. You hear
00:05:53.360 these three songs. I mean, they're just
00:05:54.960 really explosive, very powerful.
00:05:57.440 When might we get to hear the full
00:05:59.360 album?
00:05:59.759 Uh, it looks like beginning of the year,
00:06:02.000 2026, it's going to be released. We have
00:06:04.880 a number of singles going to be released
00:06:06.800 still up until then. So, like four more
00:06:09.840 singles. We actually when we were in New
00:06:11.440 Orleans, not only did we record, but we
00:06:13.120 also we also shot three new videos. So,
00:06:15.759 we shot one which has a theme to it in
00:06:18.400 the Airbnb we're in staying in. And then
00:06:20.560 we shot two other live ones that two of
00:06:23.280 the new songs that we worked on. So we
00:06:25.120 got a lot done over there. Um very
00:06:27.840 Yeah.
00:06:28.160 Yeah. You're more productive than our
00:06:29.840 lazy asses. Holy [ __ ]
00:06:32.319 That's not a high bar to meet.
00:06:34.240 No. No.
00:06:35.039 A lot of it is Andrew Spalding. You
00:06:37.440 know, he's he's he this was like his
00:06:39.759 idea was to get us all together in the
00:06:42.400 first place. It was one of his dream
00:06:44.000 things. and you know he started Corpse
00:06:45.520 Paint Records and he's very motivated
00:06:47.919 and he's he's very he's really the
00:06:49.759 energy behind Get It Done in this band.
00:06:52.400 Interestingly, we we were actually had
00:06:54.800 notes about Andrew um and he seemed like
00:06:57.440 the glue. Is that a fair assessment of
00:07:00.000 who Andrew is to you guys and and the
00:07:02.160 future of the band?
00:07:03.360 I think he's more like the uh natural
00:07:06.319 glycerin, you know, and I I think
00:07:08.960 probably Kirk's the glue.
00:07:11.280 Yeah. I wanted to ask along the lines
00:07:13.360 like what's the division of labor within
00:07:15.599 the band is first off going back to
00:07:18.080 Andrew what what capacity are you
00:07:19.840 working with? Is he serving sort of as a
00:07:21.360 producer for you guys or just an outer
00:07:24.240 guiding hand or what?
00:07:25.520 He's just he is the entrepreneur. He's
00:07:29.360 in he's got an investor for us and he
00:07:32.160 started the label for us. So he's the
00:07:34.080 one he's like the label you know kind of
00:07:36.560 manager you know because we don't we
00:07:38.240 don't have any direct management thus
00:07:40.319 far. So, and then as far as the music,
00:07:43.520 you know, um it's it's like all like
00:07:46.000 these last three songs, for example, I
00:07:47.840 came up with in my studio, I came up
00:07:50.319 with a verse and a chorus, killer verse,
00:07:52.400 chorus for all three songs, didn't
00:07:54.240 finish the song, stopped it there again,
00:07:56.319 brought it down to Kirk and the guys,
00:07:58.240 and we developed the rest of the song
00:08:00.240 from there. Kirk wrote like bridges and
00:08:03.120 and other lyrics and stuff like so we
00:08:05.280 finished completed the songs and
00:08:07.039 arranged them together. So pretty
00:08:08.560 collaborative effort then to to put put
00:08:10.560 your stuff together.
00:08:11.599 As a longtime typo Negative fan, I love
00:08:14.800 this material. I mean, you can hear
00:08:16.639 obviously the influences of Black
00:08:18.240 Sabbath and and the Beatles has I think
00:08:20.400 Jamie Roberts probably wrote your bio
00:08:22.240 for you, but I heard a lot of Sound
00:08:24.319 Garden in there and and especially from
00:08:26.800 you like a Chris Cornell aura and uh I
00:08:30.080 love it.
00:08:30.720 Don't be
00:08:32.479 What's that?
00:08:33.120 No, absolutely. I mean uh I love Chris
00:08:35.279 Cornell. I love Sound Garden,
00:08:36.958 but I mean we are basing the core of the
00:08:40.159 music on our favorite 70s hard rock
00:08:42.399 bands too. So
00:08:43.919 there was definitely a lot of crossover.
00:08:45.680 Yeah, I heard a little kiss
00:08:47.279 in there as well. Yeah.
00:08:48.399 So I hear like especially in my voice,
00:08:51.279 you know, I hear a lot of Aussie and I
00:08:53.200 hear a lot of B too. So
00:08:56.160 So it's like kind of a fusion of all
00:08:58.080 three of those guys which some of my
00:08:59.680 favorite.
00:09:00.320 Yeah, I know. As Dererick said, you've
00:09:01.760 cited the Beatles as an influence.
00:09:03.920 Musical styles aside, what is it that
00:09:07.279 that you've drawn from the Beatles and
00:09:09.040 that you still, you know, hang on to
00:09:11.200 when you're writing
00:09:12.560 composition and like if you listen to
00:09:15.440 even the songs we put out, every one of
00:09:17.279 them, they all modulate. They change
00:09:19.120 keys, you know, on the middle eight,
00:09:21.279 just like a And not only they change
00:09:23.200 keys, they change timing signatures and
00:09:25.440 sometimes they even change tempo.
00:09:27.279 Yes. Yeah. all and and modes will also
00:09:30.800 go into modal changes like suddenly drop
00:09:33.760 into something chromatic which is very
00:09:35.519 beatles. So all those elements are very
00:09:38.880 Beatlesque. All those elements that the
00:09:41.040 Beatles use to write their music and
00:09:42.399 that's why they even till this day.
00:09:44.880 It's very refreshing cuz my kids are in
00:09:45.000 No text
00:09:47.040 the other room and you know you listen
00:09:48.560 to Billy Isish mumbling all the time and
00:09:51.040 there's this very narrow, you know,
00:09:53.360 pitch and sound and then you go and flip
00:09:55.600 over to to your material and it's
00:09:57.920 there's a lot to hear. AI actually just
00:10:00.399 did something. They studied the varies
00:10:03.279 in pitches and it's gotten as narrow as
00:10:05.519 it's ever been in the recent years. Did
00:10:07.839 you know that?
00:10:08.640 Yes. And um I think what's going on a
00:10:11.519 lot is, you know, that there that a lot
00:10:13.839 of this stuff is being especially the
00:10:15.040 pop is being written by by um a stream
00:10:17.440 of producers and writers, you know,
00:10:20.480 all sticking to, you know, what's
00:10:22.480 guaranteed, you know, and uh like the
00:10:24.560 songs, they don't vary. I mean, they'll
00:10:26.880 stay major throughout the entire song
00:10:29.440 and never change, you know, and that's
00:10:31.760 very much what's been going on now. I
00:10:33.440 mean, everything changes, you know,
00:10:35.279 trends change. Sooner or later, that
00:10:36.800 bubble's going to bust, you know, and I
00:10:38.720 do Billy Eyish stuff and her brother. I
00:10:40.959 think they're very talented. They're one
00:10:42.320 of the very few pop artists out there
00:10:43.920 actually writing music as far as
00:10:45.760 Yeah. that don't have a 20 producer list
00:10:47.680 with
00:10:48.320 Right. Yeah.
00:10:49.040 Yeah.
00:10:49.680 It's real and it's from their heart, you
00:10:51.200 know, and they're imagin it's
00:10:52.560 imaginative, you know. It's dark and I
00:10:55.040 like that. to kind of put a bow tie on
00:10:57.920 Sun Don't Shine. Is there an opportunity
00:11:00.720 in 2020 between Kirk with Crowbar and
00:11:05.120 Down and Down putting out an album to
00:11:07.600 tour? Is there a chance to do that?
00:11:09.839 Yeah, I think. Yeah, we're going to make
00:11:11.360 the chance. It's definitely going to
00:11:12.560 happen. And we have some good stuff
00:11:14.480 coming up in the beginning of the year,
00:11:15.760 too, in January. So, yes, the answer is
00:11:18.720 yes.
00:11:19.440 Yeah, you guys, every one of you has got
00:11:21.760 all kinds of stuff happening. Yeah.
00:11:23.600 Yeah.
00:11:23.920 None of you are resting on your laurels.
00:11:26.240 This is what we do, you know. So, you
00:11:27.920 know, we're gonna find the time and
00:11:29.200 we're gonna do it. We're gonna make it
00:11:30.000 No text
00:11:30.399 happen.
00:11:31.040 Yeah. So, I have a number of listeners
00:11:33.120 that are typo fans and I they'd probably
00:11:35.360 murder me if I didn't ask some of the
00:11:37.040 questions, but I put it out to them and
00:11:39.600 one of the questions that was pretty
00:11:42.160 pretty front and center is with Peter
00:11:44.480 Steel being gone for a while now and the
00:11:47.600 sting of that has passed and you guys
00:11:50.240 are have all moved on. If Peter was if
00:11:52.880 you could say anything to him, what
00:11:54.800 would you say to him?
00:11:56.320 I told you you'd be worth more dead than
00:11:57.920 alive.
00:12:01.519 I don't know, man. What would I say to
00:12:03.040 him? You [ __ ] up. I told you to clean
00:12:05.920 your act up, you know.
00:12:07.600 Now, is that is that the Kenny Hickey of
00:12:09.600 today talking?
00:12:10.480 Yeah, that's me of today. You know, I
00:12:12.880 happen to be probably due to mostly luck
00:12:15.200 that I'm still here, you know, and you
00:12:17.440 know, also my beautiful wife and my
00:12:19.519 family, they really dragged me through.
00:12:21.120 I had some I had extra motivation to
00:12:24.720 survive.
00:12:25.680 Yeah,
00:12:27.680 women are very powerful beings. cuz they
00:12:29.440 can they can really bring you back to
00:12:31.040 life.
00:12:31.600 Yeah. And Yeah. And children, too. Kids,
00:12:33.760 too.
00:12:34.000 Y
00:12:34.800 uh I did have that advantage. So, I had,
00:12:37.920 you know, a very um
00:12:41.200 close family and a lot of love around
00:12:43.760 me. Not that Peter didn't, you know, but
00:12:45.279 he didn't have that, you know, he didn't
00:12:46.399 have a wife. He didn't have a kids to
00:12:47.760 worry about. I I would imagine if I
00:12:49.519 didn't, I probably would have been dead
00:12:52.320 as well.
00:12:54.320 Well, it's it's amazing the wisdom that
00:12:56.079 just age, you know, just making it
00:12:58.320 another year brings. You get smarter and
00:13:00.480 smarter if you're lucky and you've got
00:13:02.399 good people around you
00:13:03.279 and then you you look back at all your
00:13:04.959 mistakes and you're like, "God, what the
00:13:07.279 [ __ ] What an idiot." You know, but you
00:13:09.120 can't like can't dwell on that stuff
00:13:10.880 either. You just got to, you know, the
00:13:12.320 past is what it is. Can't change it.
00:13:14.240 Can't alter it. I just got to move
00:13:15.600 forward
00:13:17.200 with the best energy
00:13:19.600 I I can muster up. Well, I gotta commend
00:13:20.000 No text
00:13:22.160 you and and Johnny for continuing typo
00:13:25.440 negative being um you know, carrying the
00:13:27.519 flag and and still selling the merch. Um
00:13:30.320 you know, how involved in that are you?
00:13:33.040 We okay it, you know what I mean? Or we
00:13:35.040 yay or nay it, you know, people come up
00:13:36.560 with designs and stuff. A lot of it is
00:13:38.079 turned down by us, you know, because
00:13:39.600 it's just not typo. So, but we're not
00:13:42.320 there, you know, creating designs, you
00:13:44.160 know, left and right. We had, you know,
00:13:45.519 Warner, we had a company that does that.
00:13:47.200 Yeah. and that been mostly past images
00:13:50.480 and mixing them up and whatever used
00:13:53.120 when when the band was active, you know.
00:13:55.040 Yeah. I I go buy something once every
00:13:57.199 six months from you. Joey James
00:13:59.120 Hernandez, he did some artwork and it
00:14:01.279 was funny cuz I saw Typo Negative
00:14:03.199 t-shirt with his artwork on it in Hot
00:14:05.120 Topic.
00:14:06.160 Yeah.
00:14:07.360 What's he mean to you guys? I mean, how
00:14:09.120 did you get to know him?
00:14:10.480 Um, we I forget exactly how he came into
00:14:13.360 the fold, but he came in a long time
00:14:14.800 ago. He did uh some artwork and it
00:14:17.120 somehow got into our hands.
00:14:19.120 We loved it right off the bat. We did
00:14:21.279 like cattle trees on us
00:14:23.040 and uh ever since then, you know, he's
00:14:25.120 designed a lot of our stuff. He's even
00:14:26.639 designed stuff for my other bands. So,
00:14:28.320 he's a great artist.
00:14:29.600 He really is. He's fantastic. And, you
00:14:31.760 know, we'll definitely put some of his
00:14:33.279 art up on this podcast and give him a
00:14:35.680 shout out because um he makes some
00:14:38.480 really dark, evil [ __ ] but it's very
00:14:41.600 creative and you know it's his work when
00:14:43.440 you see it. He has a distinct style.
00:14:45.000 No text
00:14:45.600 Yes.
00:14:46.320 I gotta I would be remiss if I didn't
00:14:48.000 ask you about gear. I know you were for
00:14:50.320 a long time. I believe you still are a
00:14:51.600 Shector artist. Is that right?
00:14:52.959 I am. I'm still with Shector. Yes.
00:14:55.360 And give me the rundown. What What is
00:14:57.120 your go-to rig these days? What are you
00:14:59.600 using? I mean, obviously we've you've
00:15:01.360 got the uh the Shector line. And what
00:15:03.839 about amps, pedals, all that fun stuff?
00:15:06.240 My uh my main right here. This my main
00:15:09.600 Mhm.
00:15:10.480 fix. But I kind of like redid all the
00:15:12.959 electronics myself. And And
00:15:14.880 do you I know your old the Shector
00:15:17.279 models came with the sustainiac in the
00:15:18.959 neck. Are you still using one of those?
00:15:20.560 Yes. This is that but in black.
00:15:22.720 Oh, okay. Okay.
00:15:23.839 And then here's the latest. This is the
00:15:26.079 latest of my pedal board. Can you see
00:15:28.639 that?
00:15:29.040 Oh, I can. Yeah.
00:15:30.240 Yeah.
00:15:30.639 So, walk us through. Give us the quick
00:15:32.000 tour on that.
00:15:32.959 All right. Uh this is a classic uh
00:15:35.519 script phaser from MXR. This is my uh
00:15:39.760 Santenno uh UA. This is a basically a
00:15:42.240 boost distortion boost. This right here
00:15:44.480 is tremolo and reverb from Stryman. I
00:15:47.440 got a deal from Stryman.
00:15:48.560 Great stuff.
00:15:49.120 Basic electronic delay feedback. That's
00:15:51.040 where I get most my delays from. This is
00:15:52.639 a Morbius. This is a whole bunch of
00:15:54.320 different modulation delays. I I use it
00:15:55.920 for a bunch of different sounds,
00:15:57.279 choruses, stuff like that. And this this
00:15:59.279 Stryman flanger is amazing. Recently got
00:16:02.240 this. This is a Telecon voice live. And
00:16:04.959 I got it
00:16:05.680 to add vocal harmonies live when I'm
00:16:08.639 when I'm singing. And sounds [ __ ]
00:16:11.120 amazing, dude. It sound like if you hear
00:16:13.680 like especially with the Sun Don't Sign
00:16:15.759 Shine stuff, there's a lot of layered
00:16:17.440 harmonies in there.
00:16:18.320 Fantastic harmonies in that.
00:16:20.160 So yeah. So we can't possibly do six
00:16:22.959 layer harmonies, but this will add to
00:16:25.120 Kirk plays the other one. I'm singing
00:16:26.399 the other one. So we're really singing.
00:16:28.000 This is just adding to it.
00:16:30.240 It sounds amazing. It's just another to
00:16:33.040 learn how to perform, you know, play
00:16:34.399 with because I got to hit it. When the
00:16:35.519 harmony's on, you got to hit the button.
00:16:36.800 When it's off, you got to take it off,
00:16:37.920 you know.
00:16:38.399 Yeah.
00:16:38.800 It's still my dual rack.
00:16:40.480 Yeah. That's one of the new ones they
00:16:42.160 sent me. And sounds fantastic. I load it
00:16:45.120 differently, though. I don't I don't
00:16:46.480 have 60 L6s in it. I I load it with the
00:16:50.240 And
00:16:51.759 I I put it through an attenuator. Can
00:16:53.600 you see that to reduce it?
00:16:54.639 I sure can. Yeah.
00:16:56.399 So I don't have to blow my face off. So
00:16:58.399 like, you know, it's really really loud.
00:17:01.279 the amp. So, I'm really driving the
00:17:02.800 EL34s and power tubes, but then I'm
00:17:05.199 crushing the volume with the attenuator.
00:17:07.439 So, I still that beautiful EL34
00:17:09.919 creaminess, but you know,
00:17:12.319 I can at least save my hearing maybe for
00:17:14.319 a few more years. I mean, I'm already
00:17:15.760 done.
00:17:16.000 No text
00:17:16.160 Yeah. So, you've been an endorsed artist
00:17:18.640 for a long, long time, but I have to
00:17:21.439 believe it's still like Christmas Day
00:17:23.839 anytime a new piece of gear shows up at
00:17:25.760 the house. Am I wrong?
00:17:27.039 Oh, man. Yeah. It's my favorite time.
00:17:28.880 It's my favorite time. I can have
00:17:30.880 something. Forget it. Yeah. Absolutely,
00:17:33.039 man. Sweetwater is like Santa Claus for
00:17:34.960 me. That's the north,
00:17:36.480 right?
00:17:37.600 Absolutely.
00:17:38.480 I have a long uh relationship with them,
00:17:40.799 too.
00:17:41.440 Yeah.
00:17:42.320 Who Who's your You want to throw a shout
00:17:43.600 out to your rep there? I know a bunch of
00:17:45.039 the guys at Sweetwater. They're all
00:17:46.559 phenomenal.
00:17:48.080 Matthew, I forget his last name, though.
00:17:50.000 Now, a good kid. He gives me some good
00:17:51.760 deals, you know.
00:17:52.640 Well, that's all right. You'll get an
00:17:53.679 email afterwards. Yeah, I love the guys
00:17:55.840 at Sweetwater. Aaron Smith was my guy
00:17:57.919 there for years and years. He's in the
00:18:00.320 marketing department now. Great great
00:18:02.320 folks there. Yeah, Sweetwater is a is a
00:18:04.400 is a fantastic place to buy gear and
00:18:07.280 everyone who buys from them. It sounds
00:18:09.919 corny, but everybody kind of gets the
00:18:11.360 rockstar treatment, which is really
00:18:13.120 cool.
00:18:14.000 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and where else do
00:18:15.919 you know you can like I don't know, let
00:18:18.160 me order an $8,000 amplifier or 6,000 to
00:18:21.360 try it out. You got 30. You can send it
00:18:22.960 back if you don't like it. I mean
00:18:25.039 Yeah. Yeah. we could turn this into a
00:18:26.640 Sweetwater commercial. I bought uh an
00:18:28.559 interface from them years ago. About a
00:18:30.720 month in, one of the preamps died on it.
00:18:32.720 I called Aaron, said, "Hey, here's
00:18:34.080 what's going on." And he was like,
00:18:35.120 "Don't worry about it. I'm going to send
00:18:36.320 you another one. You ship your old one
00:18:38.720 back in the box from that. We'll take a
00:18:40.640 peek at it." It was great. You know,
00:18:42.080 it's just they they actually give a [ __ ]
00:18:43.919 about their clients. It's it's kind of
00:18:45.360 unheard of anymore.
00:18:46.480 They really do. I bought a bass kit and
00:18:48.240 I said, "Hey, I want it to sound like
00:18:49.679 Peter Steel." And so they sent me
00:18:51.760 everything that I needed. And then I I
00:18:54.320 sat in my living room and learned Bloody
00:18:56.960 Kisses and just sat there banging on it.
00:18:59.840 Loved it. You know, Black Number One was
00:19:01.600 easy to learn, but they do a really good
00:19:03.840 job. I mean, I said it. He goes, "Oh,
00:19:05.200 yeah. You need this, this, this, and
00:19:06.480 this." And
00:19:07.120 no idea. But they carry my guitar, too.
00:19:09.039 My signature guitar. This does.
00:19:10.720 Yeah. Speak one last question. You're a
00:19:13.200 baritone player. 26 and a half inch
00:19:15.360 scale. Is that right?
00:19:16.400 I am for some songs. Okay.
00:19:19.120 I've used my Gibson for a lot of, you
00:19:21.360 know, the uh I've used my Les Paul for a
00:19:23.679 lot of the Sun Don't Sign Shine stuff.
00:19:25.440 It depends on how I feel and like I I
00:19:28.320 like to if it's tuned down, if it's
00:19:30.559 heavy tuned down in B, I'm using Yes.
00:19:33.360 I'm using my baritone.
00:19:34.880 Yeah.
00:19:35.440 But not all the stuff is. Some of the
00:19:37.039 stuff is is is uh a drop D, you know,
00:19:41.039 which I'm not. I'm using 440. Speaking
00:19:42.000 No text
00:19:43.280 about lead playing, you know, you you
00:19:45.919 describe yourself as not being a
00:19:47.440 shredder when it comes to leads, that
00:19:49.200 your your lead work is more emotionally
00:19:51.280 driven. Can you talk a little bit about
00:19:53.039 the philosophy of a less is more style
00:19:56.400 lead in a metal genre where, you know,
00:19:59.200 people tend to applaud speed and
00:20:00.880 technicality? Yeah, I mean to me, you
00:20:03.120 know, I'm a David Gilmore kind of guy,
00:20:04.799 you know. So, yeah, to me, one band, one
00:20:07.919 of one of David Gilmore's band is worth
00:20:10.640 3,000 mous notes, you know, as far as
00:20:13.440 I'm concerned. I mean, that's that's
00:20:14.720 just my taste, you know. To me, music is
00:20:17.760 not an Olympic event. I mean, when I
00:20:19.679 look at guys that do that, I get no
00:20:21.360 emotionality out of it. I get no feeling
00:20:23.360 out of it. This is all you do. Wow.
00:20:25.760 That's all you can do. So, you know,
00:20:27.360 that doesn't really that's not really my
00:20:29.600 thing. I'll go more for an emotional
00:20:31.440 depth thing and more towards a song guy.
00:20:35.120 I love a great song and it must serve
00:20:36.720 the song. The lead should take the song
00:20:38.480 to another level. I love the guitar work
00:20:40.400 me and Kirk do on the Sun Don't Shine
00:20:42.559 stuff. I mean, all of it is really
00:20:44.400 interesting and all of it takes the song
00:20:45.840 to the next level and it's not overdone,
00:20:48.240 you know. That's more my taste.
00:20:49.600 Yeah. Yeah. To that end, you guys do a
00:20:53.039 lot of long sustained harmony between
00:20:56.000 the two of you. It's really fantastic.
00:20:58.159 Yeah. I mean that's it takes the song to
00:21:00.400 another level, right? So it it brings
00:21:02.400 somewhere else, you know, and that's to
00:21:04.000 me what a lead should do. It should not
00:21:05.760 say look at me, look at me.
00:21:07.360 Yeah.
00:21:07.600 It serve the song.
00:21:08.720 Kind of a Brian May quality with the uh
00:21:11.679 those harmony guitar lines, too.
00:21:13.919 Oh, I love Brian May. Yes, there's
00:21:15.679 definitely Brian May in it. No doubt.
00:21:16.000 No text
00:21:17.280 Yeah.
00:21:17.840 Is uh is it was it hard to record and
00:21:20.960 not go back to your roots? Like I like
00:21:24.159 does like like Kirk is there time where
00:21:25.840 he doesn't he just doesn't he can't
00:21:27.840 can't go back to being crowbar and and
00:21:29.919 writing the slow durge stuff like do you
00:21:32.400 challenge each other to not do that when
00:21:34.159 you're writing together?
00:21:35.200 That's what we've been doing. Yeah. So
00:21:36.960 like
00:21:38.880 trying to not do the same Black Sabbath
00:21:41.919 over and over,
00:21:42.799 right? Yeah.
00:21:44.240 And trying to
00:21:46.559 force ourselves to explore places that
00:21:49.600 we haven't professionally. You know,
00:21:51.440 that's really what we've been trying to
00:21:53.120 do through this. And granted, the three
00:21:55.520 new songs we're working on does go back
00:21:57.600 to some of that really heavy Sabbath
00:21:59.679 riffing stuff. So, there's always going
00:22:01.360 to be that element in what we do.
00:22:02.880 Well, I got to commend you. It seems
00:22:05.200 like you're on just a a journey of
00:22:07.520 evolution physically, mentally,
00:22:09.600 musically, and we're along for the ride.
00:22:12.240 And I've always enjoyed your music.
00:22:14.240 you've written, you know, you and Peter
00:22:16.480 and and Josh and uh Johnny and and S
00:22:19.760 have written the soundtrack to my life
00:22:21.760 and you're continuing to do it. So, I'm
00:22:23.520 I'm glad to hear that you're doing
00:22:24.799 really well. We are loving the music and
00:22:27.120 hopefully we can introduce it to a few
00:22:29.360 more people.
00:22:30.000 No text
00:22:30.159 Thank you. Thank you.
00:22:31.120 Well, we don't we don't want to take up
00:22:32.320 too much more of your time, but a couple
00:22:34.000 uh couple final questions for you. One,
00:22:36.000 who are you listening to these days? Who
00:22:37.679 do you have on your uh on your phone,
00:22:39.600 your MP3 or the CD player, vinyl? What
00:22:42.080 are you listening to? I've just been
00:22:43.600 reliving Tulle, the first three records
00:22:45.679 recently.
00:22:46.159 Great choice
00:22:46.880 over, you know, the first three records
00:22:48.960 and that's a lot to absorb. I remember,
00:22:51.760 you know, the hits back in the 90s and I
00:22:53.760 love Tul.
00:22:54.559 Yeah.
00:22:54.960 But
00:22:55.440 anything else turn anything new that's
00:22:57.360 turning your wheels these days? You
00:22:58.799 mentioned Billy Isish.
00:23:00.080 Oh, yeah. I do love Billy Eyish's stuff.
00:23:02.159 Um, you won't find I don't I'm I'm not
00:23:04.320 like listening to it on a Sure. But
00:23:06.640 there's this really cool Greek band
00:23:08.559 called Acid Mammoth and they're like
00:23:10.320 super stoner like you know if if we're
00:23:12.880 still alive you know right now you know
00:23:14.480 what he would be doing if he was if the
00:23:16.080 Black Sabbath guys got back together.
00:23:17.520 There's some really cool stuff.
00:23:18.000 No text
00:23:18.880 Nice. All right. Well the last thing I
00:23:20.799 got for you I don't know if Derrick has
00:23:22.159 anything else but I've got a series of
00:23:23.840 of quickie questions for you. Just this
00:23:25.840 or that type things. All right. Are you
00:23:27.440 ready?
00:23:28.159 Yeah.
00:23:28.880 All right. Ford or Chevy?
00:23:30.240 Chevy.
00:23:31.120 Pizza or tacos?
00:23:32.480 Pizza.
00:23:33.039 Tube or solid state?
00:23:34.799 Tube. I figured as much. Comedy or
00:23:36.720 suspense?
00:23:37.840 Comedy.
00:23:39.280 Would you rather know the future or
00:23:41.360 change the past?
00:23:42.480 Know the future.
00:23:43.360 Okay. And lastly, would you rather have
00:23:45.440 a life filled with great passion and
00:23:48.640 great suffering or a life of moderate
00:23:51.360 contentment and no suffering at all?
00:23:53.679 Great passion and great suffering, which
00:23:55.520 is what I got.
00:23:56.960 Yeah. Outstanding. Well, thank you so
00:23:59.200 much for joining. Yeah. Really enjoyed
00:24:01.200 this, Kenny.
00:24:01.840 Anytime. This was really enjoyable.
00:24:03.520 Thank you, brother. Appreciate you,
00:24:04.960 Kenny.
00:24:06.370 [Music]