Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / BRAD ROBERTS And The Curious Life Of CRASH TEST DUMMIES

Transcript

BRAD ROBERTS And The Curious Life Of CRASH TEST DUMMIES · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, there we are. Hello. Welcome to Heavy Mag.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: You're more than welcome. And it's an absolute treat to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: be speaking with yourself. You're an absolute legend. You're definitely
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a household name. That's for sure. You and your band.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: So do you want to like to tell the good
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: people here at Heavy Mag about what the Crash Test
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Emmys have got coming up for themselves?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Well, we're coming to Australia again, which is big news
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: for us. It's very exciting. We had such a successful
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: tour last time that we booked gigs almost immediately after
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: finishing the ones that we did.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, nice.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So we're very pleased to be going there. And I
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: guess it's... april that we're doing that right yeah yeah.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah and so so how long ago was it that
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: you guys were down.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Under um about a year and a half.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Ago okay nice nice so not too long too long
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: excellent and um so what's been happening in the world
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of crash system is you uh been a definitely a
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: household icon and you guys had number one hits you
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: know back in back in the day so to speak
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: um What have you guys been doing since your peak
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: and up until now?
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Well, we didn't tour for quite some time. And then
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: in around 2016, we got invited to play a folk festival.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: No, not a folk festival. What am I saying? It
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: was a gig with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, nice. Nice.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And it went so well that we thought, why don't
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: we start doing this again? So for about the last
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: 10 years or so, we've been touring again.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, excellent. And is it as enjoyable as it was
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: when you were doing it before?
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is. It's enjoyable and enjoyable in some ways
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: because I don't have to work as hard.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: You can just sit back and just take it easy.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Let your fame and fortune do all the talking for you,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: as they say. Nice way to be. So, um, how
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: you guys are be making some new music or what's been, um,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: on the, it's been happening behind the scenes.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: The most, uh, most recent thing we've put out is
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: a track called sacred alphabet.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Yep. In 2024, I guess.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And, um, You know, it's surprisingly, that song does
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: very well live. I would have thought that people would
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: be kind of squirming in their chairs during an unfamiliar song.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: But we get a really good response from it.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And is it musically different from some of your
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: previous stuff, or is it all that same? Because, you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: your music is quite melodic.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I would say that it is different, but there's a
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: family resemblance.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Nice. Nice. Nice. And so tell us a little
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: bit about what it's like to have number one. How
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: long was your famous song at number one for? It
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: was in many countries, I know, that much.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, it did extremely well. I don't know what the
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: exact numbers are in each country. The only country that
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: didn't play that song was Canada.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Are you sure? Yeah. Wow. So why is that? I mean,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: your home country, it seems.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Well, when we put out our first record, we did
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: very well in Canada. We even won a Juno Award
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: for Best New Band or Band of the Year, something
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And then when we put out our second record, we
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: got eaten by our own country, as it were. Not
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: the fans themselves, per se, but by the music industry.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: The music industry rejected our song, rejected our video, just
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: didn't want to play us. It went up and down
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the charts very quickly, and it didn't get very high.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: But in America, it did much better. Yeah.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: And then it became a worldwide hit and it spread
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: all the way to Australia.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. It was definitely charted at number one for
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: many weeks, I believe. Now I'm going to have a guess.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Was it 1991 or am I off?
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: You're very close. Our first record came out in 1990
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: and our second record came out in 1993, I believe.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, it was... a wee teenager
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: just emerging into those years of my life. But yeah,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: so that's interesting. Was there a reason why Calendar didn't
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: take to it or was it just because you heard
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: other music from yourselves?
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think that we did so well
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: on our first record that that the industry just didn't
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: want us to see us do well again.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: The conspiracies behind the industry. I think it is real there.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: When you're in different scenes and different genres of music,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I think that sort of thing absolutely goes on. But
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: in our world of heavy metal and the heavier scene,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit more embracing and a bit more
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: of community mindset, which is much nicer and inclusiveness. So, um, yeah,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: so definitely be a great to see you guys when
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: you come out again. And, um, so you bring in
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: your music with you come this time with the album
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: that you was at 24. You said you put that out.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Yes. That's the most recent thing that we've, uh, that
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: we've put out.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. And so the, the fans can look
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: forward to hearing, obviously, you know, the old classics as
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: well as the new music, which is, uh, always good
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: to put the mix in between the two and, get
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: everyone remembering back when it's been. How many years has
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: it been now? It's 30 something?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: It's some sort of anniversary.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: We love that. We love anniversary tours. I wouldn't say heated,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: but it was a discussion online the other week about
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: someone who made a comment that anniversary tours aren't the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: aren't the women that, that, you know, we think they are.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, how so? They sell out. They're fantastic.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: They don't, they don't cancel. You know, they just keep,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: there's more and more of them happening. I'm like, how's
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: that not a win? So I'm all for it. And
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: then I also realized that I'm probably sounding old now, middle-aged.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: You know, I, um, I don't, I don't, don't hold back.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I absolutely love that. The best music of the times
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I say is, um, still doing what they do and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: what people, artists like yourself, are able to still tour
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and still bring the goods to everyone, which we love.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: So how many stops on your tour? Obviously Australia. Is
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: New Zealand or Japan usually is what gets incorporated in
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: this side of the world?
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. We're not going to New Zealand this time, just
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: to Australia.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure why that is. Probably has something to
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: do with money. yeah yeah sad to say yeah and
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: no we've never toured in japan okay interesting yeah do
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of australian bands tour.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Japan yeah a lot of them are heavier music they
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: japan loves heavy metal it's a bit of a lifestyle
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: over there so um a lot of our a lot
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: of our bands do do the japan tour it's a
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: bit of a highlight for the bands here if you
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: get to do a japan tour it's kind of like
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: a Next rung in your belt, so to speak. But yeah,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I'm surprised. I feel like they would love Crash Landing
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: on Japan. Well, I would love to.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Go there, but I don't know if they have a
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: following there.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe it's worth looking into. I've not been to Japan,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: but it's definitely one country that I would love to
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: go visit. It's very beautiful in many ways. People, the scenery,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the culture. Yeah. Yeah.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: It's on the bucket list. That's for sure. So how
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: long are you spending down here when you come out?
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: How many shows are you doing?
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure exactly how many, probably six or seven.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. So a fairly big run.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Something like that.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, probably a couple in the capital cities. And usually
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Perth gets missed out, but you probably got them on
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: the agenda by the sounds of that. And any plans
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to spend some free time while you're out here?
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: We do have a couple of days off here and there.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. But
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: I'll figure something out, I'm sure, when I get there.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. There's plenty to do. What would you like to do,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I guess, is the ultimate question. I like going to restaurants.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Good restaurants.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Plenty of those.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: That's one of my favorite things to do on the road.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Food from a different culture. Yeah. We get to
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: enjoy those finer things in life. It's just like, I
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: just like a good meal and an early night. Sometimes
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: it's the best. Yes. For sure. Yeah, yeah. Indeed. Well, look,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming and having a chat
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: with us today and heavy. It's been an absolute treat
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: getting to speak with yourself. As I said, you guys
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: are talking to you. Yeah. You guys are definitely up
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: there in the top shelf of music land and artists
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and definitely a tick on my list of people I've
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: gotten to speak to. So it's been a pleasure and
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I look forward to when you come out in April.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: No worries.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: No worries. Thank you so much. Enjoy. Bye-bye.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Thanks.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Bye.