Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Bringing The Glam With JEFF BLANDO From SLAUGHTER
Transcript
- 0:00Here's Jeff Blando from the group Slaughter. How y'all doing out there? Jeff,
- 0:06good morning, thanks for joining us. Morning. It is seven o
- 0:12four pm my time. But what is it? What is it there?
- 0:17Oh, Jesus, I don't even know. I think it's ten o'clock.
- 0:19Mate. You got me, got me out of bed before lunchtime, sir.
- 0:22And there's not many people can do that, So well done. All
- 0:25right, she's a slaughter. Going to be making your way to Australia next
- 0:31weekend. Made It's part of Glampest twenty twenty four, starting in Melbourne on
- 0:35February the sixteenth and then hitting Brisbane on the seventeenth and Sydney on the eighteenth.
- 0:39Made like She's not far away now, bro, are you packed and
- 0:42ready to go? I'm close to being pact. I had a little few
- 0:47struggles, but I had the We do a lot of fly dates. So
- 0:52last weekend t say proceeded to I'm guessing I can only guess they dropped my
- 1:03Pelican cases. Probably it had to be literally from the top of the plane
- 1:07and they probably must have fell to the ground because both my amplifiers were in
- 1:12pieces. So I'm bringing another one of those. But and I'm the guy
- 1:23has been trying to get me to go to kemper to stop because I use
- 1:27all old school tube heads. I just to me, you just can't replace
- 1:32that sound. But I'm bringing a kemper and I'm going to give it a
- 1:36shot. So but I'm definitely bringing one head and then if I'm using the
- 1:41kemper and if that camper is not working, right, we're going back to
- 1:44the old school. So you want me to see if the I should be
- 1:49able to get someone in h spending and bringing one down if you need it.
- 1:53Yeah, yeah, we we're we're working on that as we speak.
- 1:57We're almost kind of finalize. But yeah, worst case scenario, they got
- 2:01some j CM nine hundreds. I'll plug into those and put them on ten
- 2:05and it'll be all right, sh this is gonna be slows first avatur of
- 2:13Australia. I like, what what what lines have people being telling you to
- 2:16make sure I didn't come? Might be him? My day sixte is a
- 2:19long time. Yes, uh, I mean I've been myself. Like my
- 2:27wife, she's like, where you want to go on vacation? Where do
- 2:29you want to go? I've always wanted to go to Australia. So I
- 2:35myself am super stoked, desighted about coming to Australia, and I know that
- 2:38the rest of the guys are stoked as well. The band is playing all
- 2:46the hits from the first two records. We are doing a one cover song
- 2:53what's the blood Zepplin tune that we that we put in a set, and
- 2:59we're just looking for coming over there, and you know, the bands,
- 3:04considering our age, we still are moving pretty well, functioning pretty well.
- 3:08So we come out there's still a lot of energy there. I think everyone's
- 3:13going to dig it hopefully we're hoping anyways. So I mean, like,
- 3:19who's those old farts up there jumping around? Like more? As long as
- 3:24you're having fun a dozen matter, you know exactly. It's gonna be a
- 3:30bit of a weird, weird situation for you, mate, because you probably
- 3:31wouldn't come across so much. But you come into a place that you've never
- 3:36played in before. So are you going to get a bit of advice off
- 3:38people that have been here so you know what to expect, or you just
- 3:40sort of got to come over and wing it and see see how it goes
- 3:45and then ask them what they expect so everyone digs it and likes it,
- 3:50and you know, sometimes the band's pretty like. We don't roll a bunch
- 3:54of track and all that stuff like a lot of bands do nowadays. We're
- 3:58pretty, uh, kind of feel the crowds type band, if that makes
- 4:02sense. We kind of feed off the crowd and feed off the energy.
- 4:05So if we feel we're going one way and if it feels a little odd,
- 4:10then we'll look at each other and kind of give us One guy will
- 4:13look at the other guy, and the other guy look at the other guy.
- 4:14Hey, we better put it in reverse and go the other way,
- 4:16take a left turn. You know. But that type of band we are,
- 4:21we're very spontaneous, very loose when it comes to that very very old
- 4:29school we're I guess I'm kind of a good way to put it. You
- 4:33pretty much played. The crowds all over the world might say, what what
- 4:36are you expecting from these drying crowds? Like, we're a bit different everybody
- 4:41else. I we like to drink and we like a potty say, we're
- 4:45all gonna get along. Great, that's the same with us. You know
- 4:49where I grew up, Dana and Mark and the blosso original you know,
- 4:58uh, Carnation of Slaughter grew up on the West Coast where I grew up
- 5:02on the East Coast, where in the West Coast you had to write your
- 5:06own songs uh, and record your own songs and pretty much play for free
- 5:12until you suddenly made it. Where I grew up, you couldn't play original
- 5:16music. You had to go out there play every song that was on the
- 5:20radio, drink with the bar owners and it kind of you know, you
- 5:25had to go out there in this party with everybody and that. So that's
- 5:28kind of the how I was brought up in the music business. So so
- 5:32the so when I first started playing with Slaughter, that go, dude,
- 5:35you're a little terror, aren't you. They So it kind of works out
- 5:40pretty good with with everybody. So I think it's going to be fine and
- 5:45go to Australia. Yea yeah. So Glenfest just an awesome one day festival.
- 5:50My like feature on yourself says, well, Incham John of God and
- 5:55I hate jet Boy and Penny Mold, But is there any of the international
- 5:58banks on the build that you have played with before? Mmm? We we
- 6:03pretty much play with everybody. We played with so many, so many people
- 6:06here over in the States, a lot of the the eighties bands, obviously
- 6:14from Queenswright to uh h, what's the other Great White We play with them,
- 6:23a lot of Vixen. We played with a lot of the a lot
- 6:25of the eighties bands for the most part. Once in a blue moon.
- 6:30Uh, look, we will go and do some dates we've done with the
- 6:33Scorpions and stuff like that. But for the most part, we play a
- 6:38lot of the eighties genre bands over here in the States. But but once
- 6:42again, this is our first time coming there, so we don't play with
- 6:46a lot of the European bands and uh, you know that type of stuff.
- 6:50So what's the general mood like backstage? It's something like this may like
- 6:58it'll almost be like a school reunion, is want of like just be a
- 7:00growing from Mike's coming back together in a different country and a new excuse to
- 7:04hit the piss it is. It's like it's like George, you know,
- 7:09George Lunch texts me a couple of days ago and he goes, hey,
- 7:11Man's so looking forward to doing the Australian dates with you guys, And I
- 7:16said, likewise, you know everyone's looking forward to it. Uh And George
- 7:20and I. We do a lot of things together. On the side,
- 7:24I play guitar and sing a lot with George. We do this thing called
- 7:27music Mob and uh to where we bring different artists and like I'll do a
- 7:36show and it'll have George Lynch on guitar, myself, will Hunt the drummer
- 7:42from Evan Essence, and we'll bring in Jesse James to Pree from Jackal,
- 7:46We'll bring in Billy Gibbons's Easy Top, Sammy hagarh we brought in Joel Holst
- 7:53show. You know, we do a lot of cool things like that.
- 7:55It's a lot of fun. But uh but normally, when like with Slaughter,
- 7:59when we go you know, our pre show thing and address room before
- 8:01we go out on stage, as we all we all have to get there
- 8:05at least an hour and a half to two hours early, sit on a
- 8:09cocktail, you know, turn on some you know, the Blue Tooth and
- 8:13start listening some jam and kind of get fired up, you know, before
- 8:15we go out there. It's well, we all have a lot of fun.
- 8:16All the guys and our band get along really good, really great.
- 8:22You know. I always always hear a lot of horror stories where I won't
- 8:26name the bands, but you know, the singer and the guitar player,
- 8:30they don't even talk to each other. And it's like, we're not about
- 8:33that. We all get along great. We all look forward to seeing each
- 8:37other, we all look for forward to playing with each other. We goof
- 8:41around with each other, you know, we just we just go out there
- 8:43and have a good time. And and I think that's why a lot of
- 8:46the crowd, you know, gets into a lot of the performance, because
- 8:50they see that we're having a good time. And for the most part,
- 8:52you know, they get it. They have a good time as well.
- 8:58Plan faces O faces used to astraying bands such as Shutdown, Mistress, Sister's
- 9:01Doll, across On, Rag Donald, Wicked, Smile Mane. So I
- 9:05think, so this d do you listen to the local bands before you come
- 9:07over here to do a bit of research on what do you expect or do
- 9:09you sort of prefer to find out? I haven't done any research. So
- 9:13we've been really extremely busy touring. I mean, we barely have enough time.
- 9:22I said, I'm an awful sleeper on the plane and that's my only
- 9:26time I can do any research of anything is and normally on the flights.
- 9:30The internet's not so crazy, but no, we like to get there early
- 9:35and check out the local talent and watch, you know, kind of get
- 9:37a vibele what's going on and a lot of every every city we go to
- 9:41really like to see what's what's you know, they were the bands that are
- 9:46looking over there sort of been a band for just starting with thirty five years
- 9:50mate, and like a band throw a lot, he's a saying a lot
- 9:52in the music. Yeah there, I'm sorry you out a second. Slowa
- 10:03has been a band for just started thirty five years now. But I didn't
- 10:05like you're saying to hey, but you you've done pretty much everything but that
- 10:09as a band. What what sorts of things do you still think Slodan's going
- 10:13to achieve musically? Well, one thing and we get asked a lot about,
- 10:20is when you guys got to put out some new music. So I
- 10:24think the bands really do. And we owe it to the fans that have
- 10:28been stuck with us all this time, because believe it or not, it's
- 10:35you know, we we pinch ourselves every every show that we play because it
- 10:41seems like we're playing to more people now than we did. You know,
- 10:50I wasn't back. I wasn't in the band back in those days, you
- 10:52know, when Tim Kelly was here with us. But Dan and Mark say,
- 10:56you know, the band's doing better now than it did a lot,
- 11:01you know, back in the heyday. So I think we owe to the
- 11:07fans to put out some new music and uh because a lot of a lot
- 11:09of a lot of people ask when you know the new music's coming out,
- 11:13and you know, there was a point when we got together and did about
- 11:16you know, twenty nine thirty ideas and riffs that we have sitting on the
- 11:20table. But the band has been so busy touring other than you know,
- 11:26when COVID happened, unfortunately, but as soon as the gates open back up
- 11:33sort of say it, the band has been more busier now than we've ever
- 11:35been. So we're looking forward to, you know, I think putting together
- 11:41some new material for the people, because a lot of the fans have been
- 11:45asking for so I think that's one thing that we really want to try to
- 11:48do and achieve. It's a bit of a catch trying to say situation our
- 11:52intere life, you goes your back catalog is that good that you don't really
- 11:56need their out any new music, you know, like you can survive by
- 11:58what you've caught, and then if you did go out and make a new
- 12:01album, everyone's kind of still want to hit the old stuff anyway, and
- 12:03not even gonna want to hear any stuff. You damned if you don't,
- 12:07damned if you dine. I am, oh, yeah, well that that
- 12:11happened, you know when we did Back to Reality. But when we did
- 12:15Back to rally coming out with it not you know, the record label at
- 12:18that time when that record was put out, pretty much the record label was
- 12:22done before the record came out. So it's one of those things, you
- 12:26know, we went to the listening party and you're like, oh man,
- 12:28this the record's great. We love it. It's a good news. The
- 12:31bad news is we're folding the label. But we went out there and we
- 12:35played a few songs and a lot of the diehard fans really love those songs.
- 12:39And I have a hear a lot of people say that, you know,
- 12:43stick It to You is my favorite record. Back to Reality is my
- 12:45second favorite record, and some fans are kind of vice versa, which you
- 12:50know, it makes me feel proud to hear that. But you just gotta
- 12:54go out there and you can't force feed it, if you know, when
- 12:58we were to do new music, we may be do a song or two
- 13:00and kind of see where it goes. But yeah, everyone wants to hear
- 13:03the songs they grew up with, and you know, especially that you know,
- 13:07our age, a lot of people are reliving their memories when they hear
- 13:11those songs. You know, people say, you know, I ah,
- 13:18I did this is my I did this the first time when this song came
- 13:24out with this special person or this you know, or I got married to
- 13:26this song or you know, or you know, unfortunately fly to the angels.
- 13:31A lot of people we hear say, you know, I lost my
- 13:35my spouse, or I lost my mother or father and this song always,
- 13:41you know, reminded me. You know, they play that song, we
- 13:43played that, you know, my father's funeral or whatever. You know,
- 13:48people have their own stories and they relived through those songs. A lot of
- 13:52times that brings back to a lot of memories, you know, which you
- 13:54know, if that makes sense, you can't you can't go out there and
- 14:00play a bunch of songs people don't want to hear. That's right, all
- 14:05right, Jeff, Well, thanks very much, for your time today.
- 14:07May It's been a pleasure speaking with the slaughter. Will be in Australia for
- 14:09the very first time ever next weekend from February sixty playing Melbourne, Brisbane and
- 14:16Sydney, and I have a strong feeling I'll be seeing you at the bar,
- 14:18my friend. Yeah, are you coming right? I'll be at the
- 14:20Brisbane mate, So I'll pop in and I'll say la. I will definitely
- 14:26do that the first round, maybe the actually first ten rounds around me.
- 14:28I know the manager of that venue made. I'll make sure he's got something
- 14:31special there for us. All right, man, to turn me onto you
- 14:37have to turn me onto the local cocktail, right I made? I'll get
- 14:41him to make one. I watch what sort of stuff do you like in
- 14:43it? You like Milki? You one? Or do you like her?
- 14:46Yeah? I'm all about what you like. You tell me what's the favorite?
- 14:50What's yours? And that's where will That's where the road will travel.
- 14:54All I have, my friend, I shall have one sitting there waiting for
- 14:56you when I see you next Saturday. All right, man, I appreciate
- 15:00it. Thank you say that