Slave to the System Interview

With Slave To The System set to unleash their self-titled debut effort featuring outstanding tracks like the dreamy, mellow rocker "Live This Life", the edgy and aggressive title cut and the relentless album opener and riveting first single "Stigmata" in a matter of days, anticipation runs high.

In the following exclusive interview with The Gauntlet, vocalist Damon Johnson sounds off about sounding like himself. The singer, most well-known for his role in Brother Cane has recently been a member of The Alice Cooper Band but sees Slave To The System as a large priority in 2006. The group, comprised of both Johnson and Roman Glick of Brother Cane, Scott Rockenfield and Kelly Gray of Queensryche and Scott Heard will issue their twelve track debut in February 2006.

The Gauntlet: How did you get the group together to make this fantastic new album?

Damon Johnson: Well the whole thing really started when Kelly Gray produced the Brother Cane album in 1997. We really had a special chemistry and it started right away. After going through that process with him, we stayed in touch while the band was on the road. We subsequently went on tour with Queensryche. He had become friends with, I think he had went to school with Geoff Tate. So, they brought him in the fold and he and I were talking one day and he said "Listen, man I was talking to Rockenfield and maybe we could get together and make some noise and see what happens." And it literally started that, kind of organically, I guess. The two and a half, three weeks that we spent together is what's shown up on this record. We're as surprised as anyone else is, that it turned out like that. I think the songs are really special and the performances are great and most importantly, we had a great time doing it.

The Gauntlet: The material on the album is fairly diverse, where there some things that you had been wanting to get out of your system when getting together for this record?

Damon Johnson: Well, I guess that you could probably relate that just to all of the different influences in the band. Each person is very expressive in creating in their other projects, so to have everybody come together�Scott has been the leader of his own band at some point. You would have thought that it would have been a trickier situation to be productive in. Everybody's just got a good a vibe, Erin. Everybody's real easy to work with. I think just through the process of saying "Hey, I've got an idea for this verse,", Kelly throws his influence in there, or Roman or Scott Rock. Even though we're all obviously rock musicians, you and I both know that there is such a ridiculous variety of genres that make up rock in 2005. So it's just pieces coming from different places. And when you add up the fact that those guys are natives of the Northwest and I'm sure that Roman and I have lived in the South for most of our lives, I'm sure that played a part in it as well.

The Gauntlet: For myself, "Live This Life" displays those Southern influences in the band's music and it puts those nuances into a really solid rock structure�

Damon Johnson: Wow, man, I really appreciate that, I'll have to pass that on to Roman. "Live This Life" and I think, just one other song were the only ones that were kind of pre-written. I felt really good about that song. You're one of the first persons I have talked to about it, this is the one of the first significant interviews I have done about this, so it is really fun for me to talk about the record. That was a song that I had felt really strongly about and when Kelly and Scott heard it, they got really excited. My whole life, the Southern influence has been inescapable. It has been frustrating for me at times to be in situations where people really don't want that to be pronounced. Even in Brother Cane, I was working with a producer and he was saying to the guys in the band "Well, let's not sound too Southern" and I'm like, "I don't give a fuck what we sound like, we've just gotta sound like ourselves." I can't escape the music that was such a huge influence on me growing up, while most other kids were really immersed in Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, I was listening to more straight-up, blues-based rock. Even old classic blues and Southern music and gospel, I've just been around it my whole life. To have chosen Rock N' Roll as my genre of choice, I think it gives me a kind of unique slant to have those other influences. I know that's something that Scott and Kelly have both talked about, that they really enjoy what we're doing because it sounds nothing like what they had done themselves.

The Gauntlet: With the album set to be released in February, is there a chance that we're going to see Slave To The System hitting concert stages in 2006?

Damon Johnson: You can call me if I'm wrong and point your finger at me, but we have to play. We've gotta get out and play. We love to play these songs. We have a little bit of a challenge, because some of us have other commitments, you know? Especially Scott, as a full-time member of Queensryche, as he has been for almost twenty years now. Those guys stay fairly busy over the course of the year and I'm playing in the Alice Cooper Band. But our goal is to hit the road pretty hard in March and April with Slave To The System. Get out and visit some radio stations and get face to face with the fans and to get people exposed to the new record. That's what's fun for us, is that this thing was wrapped up two or three years ago. So it's sort of old news for us and other than people that discovered it through our own personal websites, it's a brand new record to the rest of the world. So, this cool reaction that we're getting to it is a lot of fun for us.

The Gauntlet: Are you looking toward being a support act when you head out or will the band be headlining smaller venues?

Damon Johnson: No, I definitely think it would be important for us to go out with someone else. As much as we'd like to go out on our own, I think we could maximize our potential by getting in front of some bigger crowds. I think we can definitely do a run of shows on our own. It would take some of the pressure off. These days, I think it is so critical to work with the promoters and agents and try and leave a good taste in everybody's mouth. I think with other bands and artists knowing who we are, I think we could use some of those relationships to our advantage and get on a good bill, play some bigger venues and get in front of some bigger crowds.

The Gauntlet: What's amazing is that for the time you've spent with this record already in the can, it sounds really fresh. It's very current.

Damon Johnson: Well, man I appreciate that and you've really got to give Kelly Gray a lot of credit there. I call him our "spiritual nucleus." He's been so instrumental in getting us together to record it in the first place. We recorded it in the basement of his house, he has spent hours mixing and changing some things and adding a couple of parts. I really can't say enough about Kelly and what a great part of this puzzle he is.

The Gauntlet: What would you most like fans to take from the music that's on this record?

Damon Johnson: The name of the band, the name of the record and obviously, we wrote a song with the title "Slave To The System", that was Kelly's idea and as soon as the words came out of his mouth, I knew that it really represents our motivation for coming together. We've all been in bands and had major label deals and these days, I feel that the musicians are taking the business back and it's been a long time coming. With the Internet and that medium of reaching fans and reaching people and spreading the word, you don't have to sign your life away for ten years to some record company to make records and express yourself. I feel like we're right on the front end of that whole thing and I think it's going to be interesting to see what unfolds in the coming years for the music business in general and bands doing their own business and we think that the songs on the record represent our take on that. I think fans can pick up on that if they listen to the songs. I think that's what we're really all about. If we get to make twenty records together, you can bet that they will all be self-produced and self-arranged. We'll do it ourselves because we've all got experience. I think that it says somewhere in our bio that we've made over twenty-five or thirty albums between the four of us, that's a lot of experience, man. It always feels like I have made my first album last week and now, all of a sudden, it's like we are the elder statesmen. That experience is very valuable and I wouldn't give anything for that so hopefully, we can take advantage of that and pull some fans along with us.

The Gauntlet: Are there plans in the works for a video for the single?

Damon Johnson: No, there are not. I would hope that we could, because it would be a great song to have on video, even if it's just a performance piece. We're all pretty happy with "Stigmata" as being the choice for the first single. As is typical with a lot of our stuff, the lyrics are not your usual, run-of-the-mill thing. We think it's representative of the record overall. It's the first song on the record. It's one of the first songs we wrote together and I definitely think that it would be a good choice for a video. We'll see what happens.

The Gauntlet: Can fans expect that Slave To The System is going to be a band that's going to remain active? Do you consider this band to be more than a one-off project?

Damon Johnson: Absolutely, man, absolutely. In the future, we'll have to see exactly how much we can commit to it. I have always been fascinated with Maynard of Tool. He had his full time band with those guys and then he went and put A Perfect Circle together. We've talked about that often, it's all about being honest and if you have an outlet to get stuff out to the people, to the public, you should take advantage of that. The fact that Roman and Kelly and Scott and I really seem to gel. Not only musically, but on a personal level. Everybody just gets together and there's no drama. We've all had that bullshit with other bands. But it's a drama-free musical experience and that's always one of my favorite kinds. We're really excited about the band itself and the record. Part of the reason that we started our relationship with Spitfire is that we've got a second record in the can already. So if we can have our way about it, we want to get this second record out. It's finished, mixed, mastered. I'm sure what will probably happen is that we will write a few more songs as we are out on tour, the cool thing about that is that it will at least give us more stuff to choose from. You know there are another fifteen, sixteen songs.

The Gauntlet: So theoretically, it's possible that we're going to see another album from the band really soon, maybe later this year?

Damon Johnson: That's what we would like to do, man. Like back in the old days when bands would put out records sometimes every eight or nine months. I had a discussion with a friend the other day and he is a huge Thin Lizzy fan and he said "What's that record that came out in '74" and I'm like, "Which one?" Because they released two albums in 1974. I'd love it. Because between the four of us if we had a month to just sit and write, we could write sixty songs, man. But the more time we spend together as a band, the more our instincts can guide us as to what's the good stuff to pick for the record. I just love being in the same room with those guys. I hope that we can do a lot in '06 for sure.

The Gauntlet: How do you see the debut record as fitting into your complete body of work?

Damon Johnson: I'm as proud of this record as anything I've ever done. I don't put a lot of distance, time-wise between the "Wishpool" Brother Cane album and this record. I was still in a similar place in my personal life. I was recently divorced and really, just making some big changes in my life. When I hear the songs, I'm absolutely taken back to a lot of those situations and I think that we just did a good job of telling these stories. It's like any songwriter always says, "You've got to have something to say when you're
writing" I had a lot going on during that time period and I think I did a reasonable job of getting it off my chest. I definitely believe in music as therapy, in a lot of ways, so it was cool to have these guys, in one room together and me being able to throw these lyrics out there that might have been something more personal. But they got their own interpretation out of it; they got excited about it, so that's a real rewarding thing.