Danko Jones goes darker
You would be very hard-pressed
to find someone in Canada that hasn't
heard of Danko Jones, who
returned to London to play Call
The Office on May 13 to support
Below The Belt, their newlyreleased
fifth studio LP. A flurry of
emails with their publicists landed
me an exclusive interview while
the band were here in town, so I
stopped by CTO to meet them
while they set up for the gig.
If you've done your homework, you'll know that Danko Jones is named for its singer/guitarist; their first full-length LP was 2002's Born A Lion (though they had a few minor releases before it); and that despite being based out of Toronto is the one place that they're the least appreciated.
There are things you can't prepare for, though; despite landing the interview with the band, it was only bassist JC (a.k.a. John Calabrese) who came out to speak to me. And though we did have an interesting conversation, he seemed somewhat less than enthusiastic about our meeting, which may be just a part of being in a successful rock band — perhaps by the time you've reached your fifth record, surviving the kind of ebb and flow the music industry has gone through over time, you've earned the right to have an ego.
I asked JC about whether or not he agreed with critics in referring to Below The Belt as a “return to form” for the band.
“That makes no sense, right? Because we've been around for 14 years,” he said. “It's just that the last record that we put out had more of a ‘classic rock' feel, and this record here is more kind of stripped down, bare bones ... it's just a heavy Danko record, that's it.”
But beyond being heavy, the record is dynamic and energetic in ways previous releases were not; I posited that perhaps Below The Belt could only have been achieved as a sum of their experience so far.
“Yeah, definitely without the experience of Never Too Loud, [which] was a really good album to make because we did a lot of work with Nick Raskulinecz,” said JC. “Nick really pushed Danko into singing a lot more than he did in the previous records, so what you get [on Below The Belt] is a balance of the melodies in Never Too Loud and the screaming elements of We Sweat Blood and Sleep Is The Enemy.”
The band teamed up once again with long-time friend and producer Matt DeMatteo, who has worked with the band in some form or function on every other album they've released. “It felt right, and he's a good friend, more than anything, so that helps in the studio.”
I'm not sure if our senses of humour really meshed, so it's hard to tell whether he was being glib or sincere, but it would seem as though the band is over their spat with the Canadian media; though they've traversed the world, the band never gained a lot of attention here in their home country, much to their early chagrin.
“Nah, I don't care dude, I get to play all over the world. That's what you do - it don't matter if you play in front of 50 people or 500,000. That's it, we just play music and I get to travel all over the world and it's great.”
And by the sounds of Below The Belt, the band is going to continue to be successful for years to come - this album is electric and loaded with the kind of riffs that guitar players everywhere just love to play. Like a Nickelback song, though in this case those guitarists would probably admit it.
“Yeah, it's my new favourite record, it's going to be great, man. Everybody should just check out our website, dankojones.com, there's a video for the new single out there, Full Of Regret.”
As success in the music industry has many parallels to success along most any career path, it seems almost appropriate to approach the boys in Danko Jones for career advice. But JC recommends simply that you stay in school.
“Don't do what I do,” he says, a ghost of a smile on his face.
And if I could hazard some advice, it would be to try to keep things in perspective. Sure, things like worldwide success and a decent album will take you a long way, but the way you act around and treat people are far more indicative of the kind of person you are; to be blunt, don't treat the kid from his school paper like, well, a kid from his school paper.
Thanks to Kim Juneja in Danko's camp, and Tony Lima here at Call The Office for helping to make this interview happen.
If you've done your homework, you'll know that Danko Jones is named for its singer/guitarist; their first full-length LP was 2002's Born A Lion (though they had a few minor releases before it); and that despite being based out of Toronto is the one place that they're the least appreciated.
There are things you can't prepare for, though; despite landing the interview with the band, it was only bassist JC (a.k.a. John Calabrese) who came out to speak to me. And though we did have an interesting conversation, he seemed somewhat less than enthusiastic about our meeting, which may be just a part of being in a successful rock band — perhaps by the time you've reached your fifth record, surviving the kind of ebb and flow the music industry has gone through over time, you've earned the right to have an ego.
I asked JC about whether or not he agreed with critics in referring to Below The Belt as a “return to form” for the band.
“That makes no sense, right? Because we've been around for 14 years,” he said. “It's just that the last record that we put out had more of a ‘classic rock' feel, and this record here is more kind of stripped down, bare bones ... it's just a heavy Danko record, that's it.”
But beyond being heavy, the record is dynamic and energetic in ways previous releases were not; I posited that perhaps Below The Belt could only have been achieved as a sum of their experience so far.
“Yeah, definitely without the experience of Never Too Loud, [which] was a really good album to make because we did a lot of work with Nick Raskulinecz,” said JC. “Nick really pushed Danko into singing a lot more than he did in the previous records, so what you get [on Below The Belt] is a balance of the melodies in Never Too Loud and the screaming elements of We Sweat Blood and Sleep Is The Enemy.”
The band teamed up once again with long-time friend and producer Matt DeMatteo, who has worked with the band in some form or function on every other album they've released. “It felt right, and he's a good friend, more than anything, so that helps in the studio.”
I'm not sure if our senses of humour really meshed, so it's hard to tell whether he was being glib or sincere, but it would seem as though the band is over their spat with the Canadian media; though they've traversed the world, the band never gained a lot of attention here in their home country, much to their early chagrin.
“Nah, I don't care dude, I get to play all over the world. That's what you do - it don't matter if you play in front of 50 people or 500,000. That's it, we just play music and I get to travel all over the world and it's great.”
And by the sounds of Below The Belt, the band is going to continue to be successful for years to come - this album is electric and loaded with the kind of riffs that guitar players everywhere just love to play. Like a Nickelback song, though in this case those guitarists would probably admit it.
“Yeah, it's my new favourite record, it's going to be great, man. Everybody should just check out our website, dankojones.com, there's a video for the new single out there, Full Of Regret.”
As success in the music industry has many parallels to success along most any career path, it seems almost appropriate to approach the boys in Danko Jones for career advice. But JC recommends simply that you stay in school.
“Don't do what I do,” he says, a ghost of a smile on his face.
And if I could hazard some advice, it would be to try to keep things in perspective. Sure, things like worldwide success and a decent album will take you a long way, but the way you act around and treat people are far more indicative of the kind of person you are; to be blunt, don't treat the kid from his school paper like, well, a kid from his school paper.
Thanks to Kim Juneja in Danko's camp, and Tony Lima here at Call The Office for helping to make this interview happen.
