Well All! It has been yet another FABULOUS competition for our current Artists of the Month The Roxy Suicide and we are happy to bring you this interview for our Web platform that is connected to their WEB PAGE on our site: www.starlightmusicchronicles.com Please be sure to check the Bands social media links at the end of this article and take a moment to Congratulate them on a job well done as they are our first band/Artists to achieve the highest votes ever in the history of the competition!
*Be sure to watch for stellar photos in the Upcoming SMC Holiday 2015 Magazine launching on December 9th featuring this interview and the band!
With no further adieu, we shall proceed with our interview!
SMC - The Roxy Suicide! Welcome to Starlight Music Chronicles
Magazine! We first met via the December 2015 SMC Artist of the Month
competition and are pretty impressed with your win! Can you tell us a little
bit more what your thoughts are about the event?
Dave: Yeah it’s great ya know? It has been a lot of fun.
Typically, we pretty much have a “no contest” policy, but with Starlight we
made an exception because the magazine has such an amazing reputation.
Roxy Roller: I think that since this event was all fan-based
voting, it allowed us to get to know who our fans truly are and it allowed us
to become a combined force to be reckoned with.
SMC - What positive do you think you walked away with from
the competition?
Dave: I think something like this is a healthy cry to all
our friends to rally around The Roxy Suicide. I don’t like calling people fans ‘cause
I more consider them friends. Especially in this social media driven- white
noise society, it’s reassuring that we could make personal contact to those who
really care about us. This was a test to see if we could do that.
Roxy Roller: It was really nice to see affability between
bands. It was also really gratifying to see our supporters stand behind us as a
band. It encourages us to keep doing what we are doing and reminds us why we
play music in the first place.
Ziggy: All the artists in the competition showed a lot of
respect to each other. There was some good bickering between fans supporting
their favorite band but that made things even more interesting and quite funny
at times!!
SMC - For the sake of introducing you to our fan base, can
you tell us all of your names and which instruments you play?
Dave: Yeah Sure. Dave Mansfield I play Bass and sing
OlieShox: Well, hello there Candice, I play Guitar in The
Roxy Suicide. Name’s Olivia, but feel free to call me Olie or Shox or Olieshox.
Roxy Roller: Roxy Roller or Roxx for short. I play the
synth.
Ziggy Starbux: I play the Drums.
SMC - Can you please tell us about the band itself and how
you all came to be The Roxy Suicide?
Dave: Shox and myself had been playing together for about a
year and a half but at that time she was on Bass and I was just lead singing.
We were probably trying to be a bit like Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers
or Dead Boys. We had a show booked with one of my teenage Idols Michael Monroe
of Hanoi Rocks and our fill in drummer flaked out like a week before the show.
Ziggy SBX contacted me and told me he had just bought a drum set and wanted to
step up and keep us from having to cancel the show. He literally had one
rehearsal with the band and had our set nailed down. I was really kinda bumming
out because even though I have shared the stage with almost every hero of mine
from Billy Idol to L7, Michael Monroe was a very personal and full circle
accomplishment for me. From there I really wanted to solidify the line up with
special people who were talented, looked cool, looked like they belonged in the
same band and eliminate the revolving door of flake-o’s and drunks. It takes a
special kind of person to run on the level that I have grown accustomed to over
the years of touring the world with The Mansfields. So the last piece of the
puzzle came when Roxy had moved over from founding the Pikes Peak Derby Dames
Roller Derby League to buying a Roland synth. We were pretty much screwing
around one day at rehearsal and we tried moving Shox over to guitar and I went
back to Bass as I had in The Mansfields. With Roxy, she had no musical
knowledge at the time but we tried working a song out that I had a riff for and
by the end of rehearsal we had ‘Sex Bomb Babies’ and a new sound. Quite
honestly it sort of came together accidentally, the set up and sound. It’s all
a bit Paul McCartney and Wings with us. Linda McCartney was never a musician
for starters but Paul knew the value of those synthesizer hooks. We utilize the
instrument much the same way as Wings.
SMC - Would you say that your past work as The Mansfields in
acquiring your fan base is what helped with the Fan Votes for this competition
or is it more Roxy Suicide based?
Dave: It’s all relative right? I mean if the fan base was
that big we would have had 10 times the number of votes right? Surprisingly,
The Mansfields fan base doesn’t necessarily automatically love The Roxy
Suicide. The Mansfields do a different thing musically and The Mansfields fans love
The Mansfields for what they do. The Roxy Suicide has had to establish itself
on its own accord. The music is just different…the aesthetic is completely
different. Completely.
SMC - Loving the band name! Tell us a little more about
that?
Roxy Roller: It’s a little bit glam and a little bit punk,
which is what The Roxy Suicide is all about. There is a little bit of
perversity lurking behind the glitter-pop shell that is The Roxy Suicide, which
I think is nicely played out in the name.
Dave: I just wanted a classic kind of name like Rolling
Stones or Motley Crue. Something that flowed with the right syllables. Plus I
have always wanted to use the umlauts ever since I was a kid doodling Motley
Crue Logos on my Biology notebook. If you look at our logo it was designed with
a very similar look to the Too Fast For Love Logo.
SMC - I know it was mentioned a few times in the duration of
the voting that you are an 'established' band, but in what ways do you feel you
are unique as a band?
Roxy Roller: As a band that is currently working on a debut
album, I would hardly call us established. We have seen some radio play, but we
are still a new band. I think what makes The Roxy Suicide unique is the fact
that we are not afraid of blending all of our influences together to create an
original sound. I think we are pushing boundaries that need to be pushed, all
while still writing fast, energetic 3 chord songs similar to those bands we all
grew up with and love. There is a simplicity to our music that I think makes it
sound effortless.
Dave: I agree with Roxy on the established tag. To me, and
mind you this is just me, but a band that has yet to produce a debut full
length album just can’t be an “established” band. We are known for sure but I
feel like we are in the process of establishing this band.
SMC - Are there any things that set you apart from the other
bands competing?
Dave: Every band in this competition was unique to one
another. I thought every single artist in this competition was fabulous.
SMC - We also saw that you are being spun buy KROQ's Rodney
Bingenheimer in Los Angeles, which is fantastic! Can you tell us a little about
the reception you have gotten from that by fans?
Dave: Rodney has been absolutely incredible with his
support. He was, is and will always be the Mayor of the Sunset Strip. Anyone
who has not seen the film made about Rodney needs to see it immediately. If you
are a fan of music, history and pop culture, you will be blown away by Rodney’s
life experiences. So with that said, his impact has been enormous. There is not
a day that goes by that I don’t think of Rodney at least a time or two, that’s
how much he has meant to me. I am proud to call him a friend. He is my friend.
SMC - What do you feel you lend to your music that makes The
Roxy Suicide 'Special' and 'Unique'?
OlieShox: We all share the same love for the variety of
music that influenced us to begin The Roxy Suicide. We all have different
backgrounds in different genres, from punk rock and rockabilly, to alternative
and acoustic. However, I don’t feel that
it’s me, necessarily lending a certain talent or style to the music as an
individual, rather than getting to create wonderful sounds with some of my best
pals. We all pull in our own personalities, which is what makes this project so
unique.
Roxy Roller: The Roxy Suicide does not have a lead guitar
sound. We incorporate the synth as a “lead” instrument, which I think gives the
band a distinctive flavor.
Dave: The members of the group are what make it unique. I
grew up looking at groups like Hanoi Rocks, Ramones, Motley, Sex Pistols. The
idea that when these bands were gonna come to your city to play a concert, you
were excited mostly because you were gonna get to share an hour in their presence. An hour of breathing
the same air. But most importantly, you knew who you were gonna be spending
that hour with. The members are what mattered. That, and the amazing music. I
would like to see more bands with special characters in them quite frankly.
SMC - Do you have any plans to perform anywhere for New
Years?
Dave: No. Never been a big fan of playing on New Years.
SMC - What does the next six months look like for the band?
Roxy Roller: The next 6 months will be full of a lot of
writing, recording, mixing and rehearsing. Right now, our primary focus is on
finishing our album. We are very excited to get our debut full length out into
the world.
SMC - What does the next six months look like for live
performances?
Roxy Roller: We play the Whiskey a Go-Go in L.A in February.
We are very thrilled to be sharing the stage with Michael Monroe again. Michael
and Hanoi Rocks is a major influence in both style and music.
SMC - What is your favorite 'Go-to' music?
Roxy Roller: Hooks, it’s all about good hooks. I am a huge
fan of 80s new wave and 70s glitter rock.
Dave: Stuff that never fails me includes ABBA, Beatles,
Ramones. I love a lot of Pop Music from the 70’s and 80’s.
Ziggy: I listen to a wide range of music, but of course New
York Dolls and Ramones would top that list. Hanoi Rocks is another, Razzle was
such a great drummer. Also Michael Monroe's last 3 solo albums are flat out
amazing! I'm also a huge Oasis fan. They may not be considered a punk band but
in shear attitude, Noel and Liam are far more punk than people realize. And the
songs, my God, the songs!!!
SMC - Have you ever had any cool fan experiences?
Ziggy: Anytime I hear positive feedback from a fan is a cool
experience for me! Whether it's someone saying "hey great set" after
a show or telling us they play our music all the time at home or in the car,
whatever, that's what it's about, we made someone happy with our music and that
makes me smile.
Roxy Roller: yeah, like we played a record store once in Denver
(Black and Read) and some very young boys got to see us play. They were super
excited and wanted all of our stickers to put on their skate boards. We took
pictures and signed a bunch of promos for them. You could feel the vivacity and
fervor radiating from them, which was refreshing to see. I think they were only
about 8 or 10. It was awesome.
Dave: I have had so many amazing experiences over the years
but there is one that I always think of. I was on tour in Europe in 2004 with
The Mansfields. We were playing in Berlin at Wild at Heart. The place was
beyond capacity and the dressing room is at one end of the venue and stage at
the other so moving around in there was impossible. So we are in the dressing
room when a guy from the venue comes in and says that there is a guy out here
who knows us from Colorado. So I asked the guy to bring him in and it turned
out to be a German kid from Berlin who had been coming to our local shows in
Colorado the previous year. He was an exchange student experiencing his first
punk Rock shows in the US and was now back home in Berlin. He said he was
waiting months for our show. What a small world this really is.
SMC - Have you ever had any weird fan experiences?
Roxy Roller: Nothing a little “block” couldn’t fix.
Dave: I have a weird fan experience at least once a week.
Sometimes it really freaks me out.
SMC - Tell us a little about your thoughts on album
releases. We are finding that Artists are seeing it more and more beneficial to
release one song as a 'single' prior to their big album releases as opposed to
years ago when it was the other way around. Do you also adopt that in place
with your releases?
Roxy Roller: I think that releasing one or two singles before
a major album is released is helpful. It primes the pump so to speak.
Especially as a new band, I think it allows people to get a taste for the band
and the direction that the music is going. I think it also generates interest
and gets people excited about the album release.
Dave: We have been applying the “every song on our debut album
should be a single” theory. We started releasing singles in June 2014. I think
we have put out 6 so far. Not all of them are going on the album, and the ones
that are have been re-recorded or re-mixed. It has been a super good strategy
because unlike releasing an album where maybe one or two songs will get played
at radio, every one of those singles have been played and all of them have made
their debut on Rodney on the ROQ, Rodney Bingenheimer’s legendary radio show on
KROQ Los Angeles. Not bad for a little band from Denver.
SMC - What demographic (age/country) is your loyal fan base
so far?
Dave: Man who knows? It’s hard to tell. I’d always like to
see more kids at the shows. I’d like to think there is a generation of kids who
are connecting with something real, honest and exciting. Loud guitars and high
energy never really go out of style.
SMC - Where would be your 'perfect' venue to perform in?
Roxy Roller: I like the Gothic Theatre in Denver. I am not
big on playing outdoors or during the day. I like my rock n roll a little
darker and dirtier than that.
Dave: Doesn’t matter to me if it’s the stadiums of the world
or a Tuff Shed in Medford, Oregon where The Mansfields once had one of the most
amazing nights ever. As long as there’s enough people to have a party “we’ll
bring the jams” as Spicoli would say.
SMC - Last question: What would you say to the next
generation of Recording Artists as words of advice about the industry?
Roxy Roller: I am new to playing music and I’m still learning
about the industry myself. My advice would be to play music because you love it
first, the rest is just icing on the cake, and a lot of it is out of your
control.
Ziggy: Just do what you do. Stick to your guns and don't try
to jump on some musical trend.
Dave: Keep the rights to it, get it on the radio and don’t
fucking stop. You can’t win it if you ain’t
in it. Mansfield out!
__________________
The Roxy Suicide Social Media Platforms (simply click on these and it will take you there)
No comments:
Post a Comment