Interview with Eddie of Dead Brain Cells 2007

By Bradley Smith

 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that you guys are rereleasing your old albums.  What lead to the rebirth of DBC and why did you form your own label to release these albums?  How is it going so far?  Why do you feel there is still a demand for your albums after all this time?

In 2005 a guy that worked with Jeff, our drummer, got in touch with him and said he works for an ad agency and they would like to use our song The Genesis Explosion for a commercial for the cell company Fido for a certain amount of money. We could not refuse the cash and agreed, we divided up the  money and put some into re-releasing Universe. We wanted full control of the sales because of the experience we had with record companies, so we released it ourselves. We felt that the music was a head of it’s time and that metal was still big, especially in Quebec, so why not release them again.

 

One of the releases you guys are selling is called Unreleased.  Can you tell me what is this album made up of and how did its existence come to life?

Unreleased was released after Gerry died, I wanted his memory and music to continue. We paid for the 2 demos that make up Unreleased so it belonged to us. We wrote the songs for our 3rd album, which never came to be. They were just sitting there collecting dust so we decided to release it. We thought fans would like to hear where we were going musically.

 

You guys used a differing style from Dead Brain Cells to Universe.  What caused you guys to make such a dramatic change and was the transition easy?  Why did you want to tackle such an enormous task with a concept album of the magnitude of Universe?

The first release ‘Dead Brain Cells’ was a very hardcore, thrash metal album, some of the songs were written the first night we got together. The longer we played together the better we got and the more complex the music got. It was a natural progression for us, more notes and harder to play, so hard that we can’t even play some of the songs today…heh heh. Phil and I talked about the album and I thought of the concept album, Phil liked it and wrote all the lyrics. At that time were into science and astronomy so why not write about it. We didn’t want to write about politics again and we didn’t want to become a Black Metal band, so why not the history of life, the universe and everything.

 

You guys have recently released three DVDs.  Can you tell me a little about what is on each of those DVDs?  Which one do you think is most special to you and why?

The DVD’s we put out are not official release produced by a company; they are home movies I had that I was selling on VHS videos. I bought a machine that converts VHS to digital, so I played with them in iMovie and iDVD on my Mac and made DVD’s. They are for fans who want to see a bit of history to get an idea how we were live. I them all, it’s fun seeing the interviews we did on TV for Musique Plus.

 

It seems that you guys initially got back together to do some shows for fun.  How did these Reunion concerts go?  Have they gone as planned and how has the effect on you been?  How do performances these days differ from when you were much younger?

We decided to play a show together after many years on New Year’s Eve 2003, we got Daniel Mongrain from Martyr to fill in on Gerry’s job. The show went well and the people were positively responsive. We felt it would be fun to get back on stage and haven’t looked back. We were addicted again. In 2005 we played a smaller show in June then in December we played the Montreal Metal Massacre Fest in front of more than 600 people, it was great show and I think we went over well. This show went the way we wanted, a lot of people and lots of fun. The biggest difference in performing today is that we don’t have a lot of hair covering our face and the lights seem brighter…heh heh. We haven’t done a full set in a long time, we’ll see September 1st how that goes off.

 

You guys are going to be playing the 25 years of Quebec Metal concert in September.  Can you tell me about what this concert represents and who you will be playing with?  What do the other bands you will be sharing the stage with bring to the show and are you familiar with all of them?

We will be playing Saturday September 1st at Club Soda in Montreal celebrating 25 years of metal in Quebec. In 1982 Voivod got together and began an era of metal in Quebec. We are headlining the 80’s night, we’re playing with the Affected, Damnation and Soothsayer. On Friday will be bands from the 90’s and Sunday will new bands. Piggy, the guitarist from Voivod who recently passed away will be indoctrinated into the Quebec Metal hall of Fame, the first inductee I presume. We have played with Soothsayer and the Affected before, should be a fun night.

 

There is a lot of talk these days regarding the Canadian Metal scene.  What do you think its lasting affect on the metal world has been?  What are some of the best bands from the Canadian metal scene of old?  Are there are any new bands you would recommend?

While the grunge scene grew in the US and metal went out of fashion, the metal scene never died here, people still have long hair here...heh heh. Not sure why, but I think Quebecers always did there own thing and love hard music. I think there were a lot of great Canadian metal bands, I didn’t listen to much of them except for Voivod and Exciter. The only new band would be Martyr….that I could think of.

 

Why is thrash such a lasting style?  I have seen so many reunions and reformations of old bands these days it astounds me sometimes.  Not to mention all the neo-thrash bands breeding in the underground. 

I think people enjoy the complexity and the speed of the music, plus if you think about it, the people that listened to style of music are going through mid-life crisis and want to relive part of their youth…it’s a theory, ya never know.

 

Fido used Genesis explosion for a commercial.  Can you tell me a little about the product, why they chose your song and how the whole process from consulting you guys all the way to getting it on the air goes?  Also how did you guys feel once you finally saw the commercial?

Fido is a cell company here in Canada, as I mentioned Jeff worked with a guy who worked on the ad, we lucked out that he remembered the song and liked it. There are 2 versions of the commercial, one that was played all across Canada on TV and a racier version that appeared on their site. We were very happy with the commercial, it’s more of a commercial for us than Fido. They mention our name and even showed it written on a cell phone for the TV version. You can see the Fido site version on You Tube, Google videos, and our site.

 

Do you guys still follow the metal scene or have you distanced yourself from it?  What are some of your favourite musicians/bands these days and why?

I don’t really follow the metal scene these days but I recently got back into Slayer and their recent release Christ Illusion, fucking heavy, love it! I listen to Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Metallica, Megadeth, and anything Chris Cornell does.

I think one of the heaviest bands today is Slipknot, great musicians and songs. Slayer has to be the best US band of all time, we played with them once and is our biggest influence, still love’em.

 

Any more upcoming plans?  Is there any possibility of recording new material or possibly a live album based on some of your recent performances?

I think if the next show goes well and the recording sounds good, I would like to release a live CD, we’ll see if we could pull it off or fuck up and suck…we better pull it off! I can’t see us recording a new CD unless we got a great offer, I would love to do a new CD, if I could only find the time…and money.

 

Final Words of Negative Reinforcement are yours.

Thanks for the interview and keep listening to DBC…loud!

METAL!!!!