Edison Rocket Train

This interview first appeared October 2004 in the French magazine Dig It!
To check it out in French, click here. Oo la la

My first impression of YES! YES!! YES!!! is that I’ve just heard a great Raunch Hands “Lost Album” !
That’s a great compliment! Of course I’m influenced by the Raunch Hands after playing with them for 15 years…What I took to the Raunch Hands I’m taking into the Rocket Train – energy, roots and rhythm. An aggressive attitude. A real desire to be the best at what we do.

So you really don’t want a bassist in the band ?
Our sound is really huge without the bass… no cymbals on the drums means a real fat rhythm on the snare and the floor tom, and the maracas fill everything out. I play a very hard rhythm, there’s no frilly solos. I use super heavy guitar strings and play LOUD. A bass would be redundant.
You even cover two songs that the Raunch Hands did...
Sure. Two of my favorite covers – Storm Warning and What’s the Matter Now (LINK TO MP3 PAGE). It was a logical starting off point. It’s nice when Raunch hands fans recognize that – they know I’m up to my old tricks.
Have you heard the Oblivians’ cover of “What’s The Matter Now” ? They don’t use a bass, either.
That whole record is great! What’s the Matter Now is just such a hot song – when I first heard the Swan Silvertones version, it I knew the Raunch Hands had to do it! I’m pretty sure we did it first. There is no other song that is so intense - When we started doing the new record I searched for a song with the same kick ass spirit and finally had to make up my own.
Besides singing and playing guitars, you’re credited for playing some Diddley Bow. What’s that?
The diddley bow is a one string guitar. I usually play it with a slide. It’s one of the most primitive, early blues instruments. The real African roots of the blues. People would make them from boards and bottles and nails, or a couple of nails stuck in a barn door with some wire. It’s a crazy sound. I just built one with two strings that I’m using now – it sounds like some kind of retarded John Lee Hooker. It’s really wild.
The band has changed since you did YES! YES!! YES!!!

Old New
It was nearly impossible to get them together, and now they’re all gone! They played fucking great though, don’t you think? We have a brand new line up with Ron Salvo, who used to play with Andy G from the Devil Dogs, and Ron’s beautiful girlfriend Miss Carrie on maracas. She’s also a drummer so it’s three drummers working together – it’s a pretty heavy beat!
What was your exact part on “percussions”? It sounds totally “Sharky Beat”.
I had to get with Sweet Joey Valentine and nail that New Orleans-style “sharky beat” thing down. It’s weird playing without cymbals and I’m pretty specific about what I want. I guess I can be pretty hard on drummers, but these guys are excellent musicians. The best thing about Joey, who plays in the Star Spangles, and now Ron, is when we’re playing live and I’m jumping on a table getting crazy and sloppy I can totally trust them to keep the rhythm hot. On the record I do the drum explosion at the very end and I played a lot of the maracas and the tambourines and a cowbell. It’s all about the rhythm.
So you’re more like a singer/guitarist than a drummer these days ?
I love singing – It’s my voice, my songs, my message. I’m just out there, exposed! This is my idea of what blues and rock and roll should sound like... If I win or fail I know it’s my show and I’m going for it. I’m also love being the front man – I mean, how much fun can you have playing rock n roll? The singer gets to be some kind of super hero, like Elvis or Iggy or James Brown or Mick Jagger or Lux Interior. But last week I played drums in a drunken country band and I realized how much I miss it.. if anyone needs a drummer they should call me…
There’s a whole lot of influences on the record. Can you name a few?
The hard rockin’ gospel like What’s the Matter Now , of course, and New Orleans R&B – those big street beats. Delta blues, punk rock, 50s rock n roll. Bo Diddley is huge – who else carried a permanent maracas player? That’s where the idea came from. The Stones are maracas geniuses, but Bo had it on every song. Capt Beefheart, both the vocals and the slide guitar rhythms, too. On the new record we cover the Staple Singers and Lee Dorsey. Jon Spencer is producing and I’d have to say his records and the way he presents his show have also been an influence – they’re my favorite records of the last 10 years for sure.
You wear a cape and a leopard fez on stage. The R’n’B tradition ? (I guess it’s not the President Mobutu’s trad)

Sure! Chuck Willis, Sam the Sham, the great bluesman JB Hutto… Screaming Jay Hawkins… Elvis and James Brown wore capes! Sun Ra had it all, AND he was from outer space! Oh yeah! I’m just throwing a little glitter on a very primitive rock n roll act.
How comes Jon Spencer appears on the record ? You’re friends ?
I’ve known Jon for years, he’s a really great guy, and like I said, I’m also a big fan. When we were working on Yes! Yes!! Yes!!! I started thinking about outer space sounds and rocket sounds, and thought it would be cool to blast some theremin on a song. There was a perfect spot for it, so I gave Jon a call and he came down to do it. I mean, I couldn’t do it myself – it would be like I was copying his act! So I got right to the source. He’s also an old friend of Wharton Tiers, who produced the record with me, so it was a really natural, friendly situation.
You’re currently working on new recordings (LINK “new recordings”) with him, does he produce and play on it ?
Jon was my first choice to produce the next record – I didn’t want to produce myself again, I wanted some outside input, someone who could take it to another place maybe I hadn’t seen yet. He’s great to work with – we’re doing it with Matt Verta-Ray who plays with Speedball Baby and is also working with Jon on a project. It’s like a dream – you could not work with better people. Jon also plays a bit of guitar on the record.
What kind of label is Steel Cage Rds ?
A good old-fashioned punk rock lable run by some hard working mother fuckers who really care. They have a great magazine called Carbon 14, too.
What do you think of heavy blues-duos like The Immortal Lee County Killers and some other Estrus Bands in the same way ?
It’s great – I mean, these bands are better blues bands than the boring old farts who call themselves “blues bands,” you know? The girls from Mr. Airplane Man (LINK www.airplaneman.com) also came by to sing on the new Rocket Train record. Anybody who says they’re not a “legitimate blues band” should have their eyes sucked out of their head and a watermelon shoved up their ass.
How is the NY scene today ? Bands, bars, shows...
There seem to be a lot of bands right now – some of them even pretty good. A lot of young people doing punk rock. I guess it’s cool.
What do you think of that so-called return of Rock’n’Roll ?
Let me put it this way – I’m 38 years old. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’m a better musician, a better showman, than I ever was. I rock a hundred times harder than any twenty year old and I know a thousand times as much ‘cause I’ve been around that much longer. I’ve seen ‘em come and I’ve seen ‘em go and I’m still here doing my thing. Every day I work hard on being a better musician and a better performer. I will never quit, rock n roll is my life. Some of these bands are really great – the Hives sound like a classic Crypt records band. I hope they’re around for a long time. But mostly I see a lot of pretty boys recycling the 70s. And the fans go whichever way the wind is blowing. This week it’s rock n roll. Next week it’ll be the new wave revival or nouveau pansy dance music or some crap. Real rock n roll fans will always be there, but to most of the record buying public, it’s just the “flavor of the week”. Rock n roll is a state of mind. Everything else is just bubblegum.
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