The Metal Web - Bronx Casket Co. Interview

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: In knowing you throughout the years with Overkill, though good, Hellectric is not what I expected out of DD Verni. I was expecting to hear this thundering thrashy bass riff right out of the gate with double bass and it was the total opposite of that. Is that the kind of reaction that you’ve been getting?

DD Verni: (Laughs) A lot of people do side projects that sound similar to what they do and I guess they have their reasons for doing that. But, for me the fun of doing something outside of Overkill was to do something that I don’t usually get to do. Working with orchestrations, a lot of piano stuff, then singing some, and playing guitar some, doing a little bit of everything and trying out all kinds of different stuff, that’s kind of what appealed to me about doing this kind of project. The people from Overkill, I don’t know what they expected. At a lot of the Overkill shows I have people coming up to me with Bronx Casket records all the time, having me sign them and saying we love this and we love that. It’ll probably throw them for a loop. For the first time they hear it maybe their expecting something real heavy or real thrashy. But, once they get past that, then generally everybody seems like their pretty good with it.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Definitely! I’m more along the lines with the thrash stuff and when I first heard it, it took me back. Again, I was expecting to hear exactly that. But, after that, I actually dug a couple songs. Can’t Stop the Rain, I really liked that song.

DD Verni: That’s cool! Hey, as long as you can pick a few.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Little Dead Girl has a real catchy hook!

DD Verni: That one we actually just did a video for.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: We’ll get to that! I cover all bases. (Laughs)

DD Verni: Ok! (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I hate putting labels on bands but would you consider Bronx Casket along the Goth genre?

DD Verni: Yeah, I would think so. I’m always fine with putting labels on bands just as long as their accurate. If you call Overkill a thrash band or a metal band or speed metal, that’s fine with me because that’s what we are. We’re all of those and I don’t have a problem with that. This is a little harder to kind of put your finger on because I don’t know that much about the Goth world quite frankly. I don’t listen to Goth music particularly.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Really? You like Type-O and they have that Gothy type feel to it.

DD Verni: I like Type-O a lot but that’s more metal to me. I guess we kind of fit in there, Goth/Metal. There’s some of that Goth stuff in there I guess because it’s kind of that horror theme and it’s definitely dark and dreary at points. So, I guess it’s got a little bit of that but there’s some metal in there too. But, the whole “real” Goth scene, I’m trying to get up to speed on a little bit just because people keep asking me about it all the time because I don’t know any of these bands.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: The kids love it!

DD Verni: I don’t know any of them. So, I’ll go listen to some of it now so I can have an opinion next time somebody asks me. (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: The first thing that came to mind when hearing the disk is that the music would be great as a soundtrack for a vampire/horror flick and then a few days later I hear that you actually just finished doing such which is pretty ironic. How did that come about?

DD Verni: A while ago, this director Nick Palumbo contacted me and he had done a short film called “Nut Bag” which is an independent thing that was kind of a portrait of the serial killer. It was the first thing he did. He was in the process of raising money to do this new movie called “Murder Set Pieces” that he did. He had stumbled onto our website from a friend of his, he heard a couple of the MP3’s, and he thought just as you did. He said, man, this would be perfect in my movie. So he sent me a treatment and told me the basic premise of the movie and he wanted to make sure that it wasn’t too gory for me. I was like, oh my god, you’ve got to be kidding me! (Laughs) So, he sent me over that and we talked back and forth and worked out a deal. He picked three songs off the last record and put them in the film, which I still have not seen.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I was going to ask you if people could buy it.

DD Verni: Yeah, it is available now. It might even be a rental right now.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: It’s a BMovie I’m assuming.

DD Verni: Yeah, it’s a slasher, old school, blood bath type movie. Although, this one is not as much so like that. There’s some psychological part to it too. It’s not just slash and burn, which I like too. We may wind up doing more things in the future too that’s not just songs taking off the record but where maybe I’ll write some songs specifically or I’ll do some sound track work for the film. We’ll see. We will have an ongoing working relationship.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I actually know Mike, sorry I know him as Mike not Spy... (Laughs)

DD Verni: I never call him Spy either. (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: And Jack from years ago. Mike actually was a DJ for Goth night at Connections…

DD Verni: Right, he still might do that.

DawnTheMetalWeb.com: Are you serious? He’s been doing that forever and Jack I’ve known since the late 80’s when he played guitar in a band called Ritual and I was dating their roadie. (Laughs) Do you remember Ritual from back then?

DD Verni: (Laughs) I don’t know. I guess I don’t know him from that far back.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I know both you and Bobby are good friends with Jack but how did you find Mike and approach him to be the vocalist? He’s definitely a perfect fit!

DD Verni: Well Jack use to work at my studio. This is like 10 years ago when I first opened up the studio in Jersey and we became friends. He did this before he had Seven Witches, before he was in Savatage, before any of that stuff. I told him I had all this material put aside and that someday I’m going to do a project that’s like this doom/Sabbath kind of thing. He said, “That sounds great! I’d love to do that.” Tim from Overkill was there too, and he said, “I’d love to do that too.” I said, ok that’s guitar, bass and drums and that’s kind of the foundation, let me start pulling some stuff together. I wrote a couple tunes, kind of pulled them together, stuff that had been sitting around. I knew I needed some keyboards and Jack knew the guy Charlie. So, I met with him and gave him a demo. He liked it a lot and then he came on board too. I looked around for a singer for a while because I wanted a certain kind of person. Jack happened to mention a guy who was in Empire Hideous that was a local band that looked kind of cool and would maybe be ok because I told him I don’t want some “metal” guy. I want some “crooner” kind of guy. I sent Mike the demo and he was into it. We went into the studio up in Connecticut and we demoed up four tunes and sent it to a bunch of labels. We got offers and we kind of just went on from there.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Well, he definitely has that great vampire-ish voice to him! Pefect fit!

DD Verni: Yeah, it was!

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Speaking of members, before Tim left Overkill he was contributing to the Bronx Casket Co. Now that the albums completed, will you continue working with him and will he be performing in any of the up-coming shows?

DD Verni: No, for the same reasons he can’t be a part of Overkill anymore is many of the same reasons he can’t really be part of this either. He has a business that he runs, a house and he has employees and his priorities have just shifted more towards that, which is totally cool, but because it is like that, he’s got less time for playing in a rock band.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Well at least he finished his obligations with Bronx Casket.

DD Verni: Well, we finished this record so long ago.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Really, I thought it was in the summer.

DD Verni: We finished this record last January. It’s just being released now, but we finished it a long time ago and it’s just that Overkill was so busy over the last year with touring just kind of went on and on and on and it’s still not done. We have another run in February, April and then we’re talking about going out on that Gigantour next summer.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Cool because I remember Bobby said he didn’t know last time I spoke to him about that.

DD Verni: We talked to Dave a bunch about it last time and we had so many commitments in Europe it was just like, I don’t know if this is going to happen at all. This year we are wide open. We were out in LA and we met with Dave and his management people and talked over what their ideas were. Hopefully, something will come out of it but it’s just kind of ongoing. The label had the Bronx Casket record because it’s the same label for Europe as Overkill is so we just kept pushing it a little further because I said, I just don’t know how I’m going to find time to do this. But now Overkill’s had October, November and December off so that works out good and we just targeted and said you know what, if we’ve waited this long, let’s just put it out close to Halloween. It just seemed to made sense.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Being the sole songwriter and lyricist for the band how did you come up with the concept for the album because it almost seems as if you had a story in mind that you wanted to unfold as the album progressed.

DD Verni: Jeez, does it really seem that way? (Laughs) People told me that on the last record too and on this one. They asked me if there is a concept for the record or a running theme through it. I’m not seeing it. It all came from one person so maybe there is a thread somehow that connects it all that other people can see that I can’t see as clearly. But, it wasn’t conscious. I had a lot of material sitting around and there was a lot of different things that I knew I wanted to try and touch on. Even from the first two records that I did, I found the stuff that I liked the best and some of the stuff that I liked was when the music was grooving and still pretty heavy but the vocal was real hooky. So, I was definitely concentrating on that more because that was what I liked on the last two records. Lyrically, the songs are all over the map. I don’t know that there was definitely no connection on my part.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Who’s Sherimoon? (Laughs)

DD Verni: That song in general is about winning over a crowd.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I saw the girls name Sheri. (Laughs)

DD Verni: The girl Sherimoon is a girl that dances in all the White Zombie videos. She’s kind of like a go-go dancer. The play on words there is “I wanna see you move like Sherimoon” is just the way she dances to the groove of the song is the way I want to see the crowd. It’s trying to win the crowd over.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: When thinking of the cover art, did you give the title to artist Geri Nible when you commissioned him to do the work or did he simply do his own thing and how important is cover art and visuals to Bronx Casket Co.? His artwork definitely portrays the album nicely! He really brought the album to life.

DD Verni: I’ve been working with him for a long time. He does a ton of stuff. He’s done a ton of t-shirts for Overkill. He did the art on the first two Bronx Casket records. I don’t even know how we connect. He’s like this guy who lives out in Kansas. He’s a mid-western guy and I’m always breaking his balls. We’re about the same age. We grew up listening to the same kind of stuff. The same kind of things we get a kick out of, humor wise. The dark edge stuff with the tongue in cheek. He is just an extension of me if somebody can draw. When I send him sketches of what I want, he’s like, “oh, no not the sketches”. But, for this record, I knew for sure I wanted to do some scrollwork, wrought iron scrollwork on the front. I didn’t want the cover to be real “metal” looking. I wanted it to be a little bit blander and have a feel of what was inside. I actually had a bunch of different album titles so I knew too that I didn’t want the cover art specifically connected to the title. I wanted to be able to slap whatever title I wanted on there and still have the cover work. So, he came up with that.

On the back, there’s the pin-up girl and that was done by a guy named Rion Vernon . He’s got a website called pinuptunes.com and he’s just unbelievable! He does the coolest, kind of Goth pin-up girls. A friend of mine turned me on to that site and as soon as I saw that, I got in touch with him immediately and said we’ve got to do something. I’d love to have something like that on the record. Visuals and artwork is a big part of it being fun for me. I absolutely love that stuff. Half the time before I even had songs written, I had the title, logo, graphics because that’s the stuff that’s so much fun for me. The songwriting is fun too but it takes a lot more work. You can’t just get stuff out.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Who was the female vocalist on the track Morticians Lullaby and will she be joining you on stage as part of the live set? Her voice is so angelic, really pretty!

DD Verni: Yeah, she’s great! Her name’s Mary Jacobson and she sang on the first two records too on some bits and pieces. This is the first one where she did a whole song. But, she does the female parts in Sherimoon and Can’t Stop the Rain, there’s a few things. There are a handful of songs where there’s some background vocal parts. On that specific song, I had done it and I was going to sing that one, going back and forth. Then it kind of felt to me, especially when we got the orchestra stuff on it, this would be great with Mary. So I said, let her have a shot at it and it turned out great! I thought within the context of the whole record, it kind of was another twist and another thing in there that made it interesting. I know some people that say, I don’t even understand why that ones on there.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Why? I think it adds to the record.

DD Verni: People have asked in other interviews too, looking for some kind of motivation and secret this and secret that and I’m like, I just do what I think sounds cool. I know it’s probably kind of boring. But, that’s what I’ve listened to for twenty years. If it looks cool and sounds cool to me, I go with it. That’s it! (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Speaking of singing, you sang on a couple of tracks as well as wrote a good portion of the lyrics. I know you sing back ups with Overkill but to be the lead vocalist is quite different and Bobby normally handles all the lyrical content. Did you find it difficult or strange at first to be doing such or did you find it to be an easy transition for both?

DD Verni: Lyrically, that's not much of a problem or even an issue. The formula for Overkill is Bobby has always done that and that's part of what the Overkill sound is. But if you can write a song, you can write a song musically and lyrically and it's also a lot of fun to do. It's nice when the music and the lyrics can kind of really go together and I think that was fun in doing that too. But, I didn't find that part so weird. Doing the singing part was a little bit of a learning process. But I do a lot of stuff with Overkill background wise and then even on the last Overkill record; I was doing a little bit more singing in a couple songs. But, because I'm writing the melodies for all these songs too... when I send a demo out to everybody in the band and say, ok, here's the new record and learn these songs, the songs are completely done. I've done the drums, guitars, the bass, the keyboards and all the vocals on every song. So, I've sang through all of them. So, it wasn't that weird to go for it on a real take as opposed to just a demo and just concentrating a little more on pitch and a couple little things.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I didn't know you had it in you! (Laughs)

DD Verni: (Laughs) I've had a handful of people say that too.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I don't mean it in a bad way. Don't get me wrong. (Laughs)

DD Verni: I think the same thing when I see somebody that I'm not use to seeing sing and all of a sudden their singing, I say, wow, I didn't know they could that. I remember the first time I saw Type-O, I had no idea Kenny sang. We did a show with them and I thought this is going to be great, I've never seen them before, I'll just sit on the side of the stage and watch Type-O and all of a sudden, I see Kenny singing. I was like, whoa, what the hell is this, he sings? He sounds like Pete. Like a little bit of a different version of him, which is cool. That's why on the Bronx record I put who sang what because I had a lot of people asking, who's singing, is that you or Mike because our vocals aren't that far away from each other. So, that's why I labeled them this time so people know what's what. I think it's like that almost with Kenny and Pete sometimes too. Their voices are close. Their reflections are the same. Their similar even though their different, their similar.

Dawn./TheMetalWeb.com: Yeah, I thought that was you on Can't Stop the Rain until I looked. Whose idea was it to cover “Free Bird”?

DD Verni: Well, that was mine. I love doing cover tunes! It’s fun to do. I had a handful of different one’s that I was playing with, some different ideas…

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: That were...

DD Verni: There were a couple of U2 songs that I was playing around with; there was a Colt song I was playing around with. Then one song I was pretty close to going with and that was Purple Rain. I had a really cool version of that and that might still get done at one point. The Skynrd one appealed to me because it seemed like blasphemy to have a shock band do a southern rock classic, especially with what we did to it. (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Dave played guitar.

DD Verni: Dave played some guitar on that. He did some harmony stuff at the end. We had him there in the studio and I told him to get a guitar so he did a little bit of shit on that. I had originally planned for Mike to sing that one and he refused. (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Was that you singing?

DD Verni: Yeah, he refused to sing. He called me up and said, DD, not for nothing, I just can’t sing a Lynyrd Skynrd song. I was like, you know what, you’re too caught up in your whole little Goth world. Just go for it. (Laughs) He said he couldn’t do it so I wound up doing it. That one definitely turned heads and is definitely one where people go, this can’t be and oh, shit it is!

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Yeah, I thought you would have done some Punk thing or something.

DD Verni: Well, we did that too. We are supposed to have a Japanese release later on where we did a cover of Ghouls Night Out. On the first record, we did a cover of Metallica’s Jump in the Fire. You would never recognize it as Jump in the Fire. It’s out there! But, that’s fun and cool to do.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: How did you decide on Living Dead Girl as the first single/video for the album?

DD Verni: It seemed that everybody we played the record for, that was the one that grabbed everybody’s ear quick. When you’re looking for singles or videos, that’s kind of the one that you try to pick off the record. There was a few, we thought Living Dead Girl, Sherimoon and Dream of Angels. That was kind of the consensus on maybe the tracks that we should lead with. Living Dead Girl was to be the one that hooked everybody right away so we wound up going with that one. Then when I wound up hooking up this guy about the video, the whole thing clicked and made sense for what we were doing. We had talked about doing the video but the bands never played a show before. So, we couldn’t do a performance piece, that’s ridiculous. We’ve never played. The first time we’re going to play is in a video where were going to be doing a performance and we’ve never done a show, that’s silly! (Laughs)

There’s a website called Atom Films and a friend of mine told me to check it out because they have a lot of cool little things. I checked it out and there was one short film on there called Day Off the Dead about what dead people do on their day off. It was this skeleton, twisted, dark but humorous too. Which is right up my alley. I loved this guy’s stuff and I wrote him an email and told him we’re the Bronx Casket and we’re doing a video and the budgets small but I love your work. I figured what could it hurt. He got back to me and said he’s been dying to do a music video because he’s only done a lot of short films. We talked back and forth, about what it was I was interested in doing and the theme of the song and little by little, we worked it out that we could make this thing happen. I started to see character sketches. I felt like I was making Shrek! You see characters and three dimensional characters, clothing, backgrounds, scenes coming together and the whole thing was probably a 2 ½ month process, which was good because the record was done so long ago that we had the chance to do all this work for the video. Have you seen the video yet?

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: No, I actually haven’t downloaded it yet. It took to long DD and I’m impatient! (Laughs)

DD Verni: (Laughs) Did it? You should play it!

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I promise I’ll download it when the interviews done and I’ll let you know what I think. As Bobby knows, I’m very honest! (Laughs) I’m only kidding! I will download it when we’re done.

DD Verni: Even if you just watch it, don’t download it. Click and watch!

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I promise I will! A couple of years ago you were working on a comic book to coincide with the Bronx Casket Co, how is that going and what is this about the Bronx Casket Co. musical?

DD Verni: (Laughs) The comic book’s ongoing. We are still in the process of shopping that. I’m talking to a handful of different people about that and we’ll probably have some stuff up on the website about that soon. We’ll have some sample pages, some storylines, a handful of that kind of stuff. We’ve been talking to a few different people about that and now I’m actually talking with another artist about maybe going into a little bit of a different direction so that’s kind of an ongoing project but comic stuff is something I love.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: But, what about this musical thing? Now you know I’m not going to let you get away without talking about it! (Laughs)

DD Verni: (Laughs) The musical has been going on probably about 2 years now.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: But it’s an “actual” musical, like theater wise? Man, you’ve got your hands in all kinds of stuff.

DD Verni: Yeah, a full-blown musical. We have not put it up yet. I’ve been working with a handful of people. It started with this girl who is a playwright who heard the first two records and loved the stuff and thought that she could put a story to the music because she thought that it was themed and it all went together. We kind of took the comic book into it a little bit and came up with a story somewhere between the comic and the lyrics to the songs and came up with a story that a lot of people call, anybody who’s read it or seen it, says that it reminds them of a cross between Phantom and West Side Story. It had that kind of vibe. So, I started working with her and she submitted it to this festival that does all these different works down in the village and they picked it up so we had to get ready for performance. There’s a director that she knew that she had worked with before named Hinton Battle, a three time Tony winner, a major player. I didn’t know the first thing about it at the time because I was not plugged into this at all. He loved the stuff too. We started talking back and forth about what we could do. He came on board and then they asked us to come back and do it again. So, we came back and did it again. Then it grew and he has a theater institute and he wanted to put it up. So, we did it again in another place in the city where we had a lot of producers come. Then we had another producer pick up the show. This guy had this show called Say Good Night Gracie running on Broadway and he got involved and then we did it again at a place called The Beckett Theater in the city for backers and producers again. I’m just coming up to speed on this.

When I was first involved with a musical, I was like, “you’ve got to be kidding me. What the fuck am I doing in a musical? I’m a “metal” guy!” (Laughs) There’s people dancing and singing. We used a few songs from the first couple of records but I wrote a lot of new songs for it too. So, after a while of sitting in script meetings and working with the music director on the show, it’s just a big learning experience. That’s still going on now. From what people are telling me, theater and film is a lengthy process. It could be 5, 6, 7 years before you can get the thing funded correctly and really get it upright. But, we’ll definitely keep at it. I love doing that.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: That’s cool though and to have someone into your stuff like that and to make a musical out of it. That’s amazing! Metal guy or not. (Laughs)

DD Verni: (Laughs) It’s very bizarre to walk into a rehearsal and there’s fifteen people around a piano with the music director and their singing something, and there’s a four part harmony and all these different parts going on. I’m sitting there shaking my head thinking, man, if the guy’s in my band were sitting on the other side of the glass right now, there would be no mercy. They would just be tearing me up! (Laughs) But, I definitely have a great time doing it.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: But you know what, that shows that you’re doing something right. Think of it that way.

DD Verni: That’s true.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I better get a part in this musical too. I could be one of the Goth chicks! (Laughs)

DD Verni: (Laughs) Can you dance?

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Sure, I can dance! (Laughs)

DD Verni: (Laughs) All you have to do is follow the choreography, jump in.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Yeah, you had a girl a while back that was posing on your website, some Goth chick, I could of done a better job and probably have done it for nothing being that I know you! (Laughs) I’m surprised you didn’t even ask me. Well I don’t know if you knew, but throughout the years I’ve done all that. (Laughs)

DD Verni: Oh, really? No, I didn’t know that. That girl Avry…

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Ah, I’m better than her! (Laughs) I’m kidding with you DD.

DD Verni: Yeah, Countess Vladimira, that’s her whatever, her handle she uses…

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I’m just “Dawn”! (Laughs) I’m just kidding with you!

DD Verni: (Laughs) When she came in and did that, that was cool though. That was a fun photo session.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Oh, definitely but I’ve got real green eyes, does she? (Laughs)

DD Verni: Oh, ok! I don’t know whether she does or not, that’s true. There wasn’t a lot about her that was real so! (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: (Laughs) I’m all real and got real green eyes, not contacts! Onto the next question… In speaking of all these things that you do between Overkill, Bronx Casket, comic books, musicals, how do you find the balance when wearing so many hats because I know for myself sometimes I feel overwhelmed and just want to shut down the website and write “on vacation for awhile”? (Laughs) I envy you!

DD Verni: Sometimes, I feel like that too. I say, that’s enough of this!

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: After this interview I’m taking off for two weeks. It becomes too much!

DD Verni: And there’s sometimes that I do that. I just say, that’s it, I’m shutting down. I don’t care. I don’t want to hear about any gig’s. I don’t want to do anything, just fuck off at the house, kick back and watch TV with a football game on. But, then you know what happens?

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: You get that itch.

DD Verni: Yeah! No doubt about it! I don’t like being idle. I have to have my hands in a new project or have something going on that keeps me creative. So, having all these different things, keeps it good because even if it does get crazy like that, it’s not the same thing all the time. It’s like a new project that you can get swamped with for a while, the blinders go on and you really bear down. But, then maybe six months from now, the smoke clears a little bit and you get a little bit of break and then you move on to the next thing. But, when they all pile up together and everything overlaps, that’s when you’re like, I’m just fried! I’m just wandering around my house, talking to myself, completely cooked. (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Earlier on, we spoke about the live shows what other shows besides the Starland on Dec. 16th are in the works? I heard something about some shows overseas being booked.

DD Verni: I’m talking to a lot of different people about a lot of different things. Even on the last record, I’ve got a lot of interest and a lot of calls about the band playing. But it was always somebody that was somehow hooked into Overkill offering me these metal tours and I’m like, have you heard the record? This is not what this is. You can’t send Bronx Casket out with Destruction! It doesn’t go together. So, the right thing hasn’t come along to do that yet. We’re talking with a couple of different people right now about a couple of different ideas and hopefully that will happen or that we’ll get over there and we’ll do some shows. Here in the states besides The Starland show, we don’t have anything else booked but we are talking about a couple different things too. Some of that depends on my Overkill schedule because I know next February I’m busy so I’m working around that a little bit. Plus, January and February is not the greatest time to tour simply because of the weather. For Overkill it’s fine but to run out with this and try and do shows, you could really get hurt. Maybe it’ll wind up waiting until March, although we could be in Europe in January depending on what comes through.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I also wanted to ask you what happened with the Von Helsing gig at The Paramount because I read somewhere that it was cancelled due to Dee’s staff getting involved. What are the facts surrounding what happened because knowing Dee I didn’t think he’d let something like that happen especially when the gig was booked and confirmed?

DD Verni: They wound up canceling the whole show. First, they just cancelled us and then cancelled the whole show completely. But, the main reason they cancelled us was because that it seemed like the promoter who was working with Dee’s people, which I think was Mark Puma and those guy’s, they knew about us being on the show. The promoter had talked to Mark and Mark had talked to me. I knew about this for a while. We were in all the ad’s and we were on the ads on radio, confirmed and all set to go but Dee had no idea. Apparently, his management and his people never bothered and I can understand that to a point because even on the Overkill shows, I don’t know whose support on any shows, most times. When he found out about it, it wasn’t particular to us, he was just like, this Von Helsing thing is not like a concert. I don’t want it to be anything about a concert. I’m trying to make it this other thing. So, it kind of went back and forth because there was money put out. There was a lot of work getting involved with the show. The label had gotten behind it and advertising was done. It looked bad for us and it looked bad for them. What they said was, why don’t you come play on this Bent Brother show. We’ll put you on that show, it makes more sense. That way you can still keep a good area show and everything’s cool and I said, ok, well that’s great. But, if you’ll notice and look on the advertising for that show, I still don’t see us listed.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Are you kidding? That’s not right.

DD Verni: I don’t. These people with Twisted and their whole organization, very difficult people to get organized with. I don’t know if their just so busy. Which I can understand as well because I know if the support band is calling me about this and about that, I’m like, yeah whatever. (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: What kind of other promotion are they doing? Are you involved in that even?

DD Verni: No. I’ve had almost no contact what so ever with their people. I know Dee went on the Eddie Trunk show and he announced that we were going to be on the show and told them what happened. Then I went on the Eddie Trunk show last weekend and we did a co-host thing and I played a bunch of songs and said we’re going to be at The Starland. But, as far as I know, I’ve not gotten a confirmation from The Starland and I’m still not on the billing. I’m assuming I’m on it but…

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Not good. Promotion is key if you know I mean. I mean, you don’t just go to a gig and play it. Who the hells going to know that your even there.

DD Verni: Yeah, that’s exactly right. If we don’t get on the billing soon, it’s almost like why bother. I mean, just to play a show? I’ve done a lot of shows, I don’t have to “just” play a show. We’ll see. Hopefully, we get it worked out.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Hey Starland! You listening? (Laughs) I wanted to wait until the end of the interview to speak of Overkill because the sole purpose of this interview was to show support for Hellectric. After 20 years, did you ever think that you’d still be involved playing and be as successful as you are and is there anything that Overkill hasn’t accomplished yet that you’d still like to see happen or do you feel as if your goals have been met?

DD Verni: I don’t think anybody could have ever thought that we’d be playing this long.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Jeez, I knew you guy’s back when you were not even signed, hanging out at Rock-n-Roll Heaven and L’amours. Lee (Rat Skates) use to hand me demo’s every time he seen me. I think I still have the “Chaly” demo that you made in my attic.

DD Verni: Wow, that’s pretty scary. But, I don’t think anybody could have really predicted that. It just kind of went from year to year and we just kept at it and before you know it, it was ten years. And then we kept at it and kept at it and your playing and doing this or that and then you look back and it’s twenty. You’re like, damn. There’s still a ton of things that I’d like to accomplish with Overkill. You know what we’ve never done? Not once ever in twenty years of playing have we ever played an arena.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: That’s the same thing Bobby said to me.

DD Verni: We’ve played a lot of big open air festivals. We’ve played a lot of what they would call “arenas”. Ok, here’s an 18,000 seat indoor place, yeah, yeah, yeah… unless a pro US basketball or a pro US hockey team plays in that room, that’s not an arena. That doesn’t count.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: You guy’s deserve it. Look how long you guy’s have been doing this.

DD Verni: Yeah, but we’ve never done one. When I tell people that, their like, oh my god, never?
Not a one.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Why do you think that is, DD? I mean, you guy’s have the back-up, you sell albums and you have fans.

DD Verni: We were never the flavor of the month. Even when we were coming-up through the ranks and we were at our height of our popularity when we had gotten there, we were never like that. We just never were. I remember probably around our fourth record or something like that and it was around Testament’s record too, Testament got a little bit of that. They were on the Judas Priest tour. They were the “hot” kids on the block and the record was doing really well, they were doing some arenas, they got a little bit of that. So did Exodus. I remember Exodus had gotten up there. They got that push from the label. They were on some arena stuff. They were on that Headbangers Ball tour. For whatever reason, we just were never that. We were always more blue collar and kind of went about our things and that’s just kind of the way that it panned out. We haven’t been a support band now in so long that even going out on this Gigantour would seem weird. It’s like, what do you mean, we’re not headlining? (Laughs) It’s like, your going to do 35 minutes. How are we going to do 35 minutes, we have 14 records. But, it would be fun to do. Open airs in the states we’ve never done. We’ve done them through Europe a lot. That’s important to Overkill at this point is that it’s fun because if it‘s like, oh, you guy‘s can grind it out here or you can do this or this is a really tense situation but it’ll be good for you, fuck that, we‘re not doing that. Ok, we‘ve been doing this a 100 years now. It needs to be fun. Before we call it a day, it would great to do one arena. I’d be good with that.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: This next question is something that I’ve asked Bobby in the past as well and he had nothing but nice things to say so I want you to be sincere because I know you, no sarcastic jokes! (Laughs) Alright, you promise?

DD Verni: Then this is going to be difficult! (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: (Laughs) When thinking of Overkill being that Bobby and yourself have been together forever, what do you feel is the main key to the longevity of your friendship? You guy’s are as tight as you were then, now and that’s so unheard of today especially over 20 years later having a friendship let alone sharing a band.

DD Verni: Yeah, that’s true. I don’t know that I know the reason. I think part of it is that we have a similar work ethic. That were both kind of more blue collar kind of guy’s where we look at it like this is our job and always have. We’ll go do in-stores and we’ll go do all these other rock related things but a lot of times we’re looking at each other going, what the fuck are we doing? We’re taking bows for this, this is our job. Does my plumber come over and take a bow, no. So, we’ve always kind of approached because our approaches were both the same and we wanted the same things out of everything too. It’s not like he would hear a riff and say, ah, that wasn’t what I was thinking or he’d send something back to me and I’d say, ah, it’s not what I was thinking. Occasionally, we’ll do that but I would say 95% for whatever reason on most anything, we would agree on it business wise. As far as like two people, me and Blitz couldn’t be more different. We are very different people, in our likes and are dislikes and stuff that we like to do with our time. I think a part of it is too is that we don’t hang out that much.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I know you guy’s use to. You were inseparable back then.

DD Verni: Well, when you’re a younger band a lot of things are different, you’re hanging all the time. We talk everyday. Blitz was just over today. For the most part naturally agreed on stuff. Where as a lot of bands would naturally not agree on stuff. I want to do this, I don’t want to do this. I think that was one of the reasons why Bobby was gone in the earlier part of our career.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: But it wasn’t for long. What was he gone for like a month, not even?

DD Verni: No, Gustaffson.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Oh, that guy! (Laughs) I haven’t seen him in like 20 years.

DD Verni: Yeah me either! But, he was not on the same page as me and Blitz. When it was like ok, you guy’s got this big advance you can take it and go to Florida and do your record there for two months, eat up the whole advance but have a great time or you can go up to Connecticut and do it in four weeks, you have to bust ass but you‘ll put more in your pocket, me and Blitz were always more we’ll bust ass and put a little more in our pocket. Bobby was like, fuck that, we’re going to go out and have some fun. He was just in a different place.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Well, he was a big partier.

DD Verni: Yeah, he was a huge partier. So was Blitz. But, we were more cut from the same cloth on that kind of thing so I think that’s probably what’s contributed to us being together for as long as we have. There’s not a lot of people, especially in this business, that you can trust.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I was just going to say that. Whether it be the media, labels, whatever.

DD Verni: Yeah, no matter what it is. There’s just not a lot.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: (Laughs) What the hell did you call media? I read in interview where you called the media “bottom feeders”. I hope to god in knowing me that you don’t feel that way about me. I’m the total opposite!

DD Verni: (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I respect everybody I interview, whether their friends or whatever. Do you know how many things that I know that I could put out there before people even know about it and I respect people and I don’t do that.

DD Verni: I mean I do hate the media. I loathe them.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Yeah, thanks! (Laughs)

DD Verni: Not all of them.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: But I’m more considered like a friend/media so I don’t count. (Laughs)

DD Verni: It depends. There are some media people to me that don’t fit the mold and those are the people that I have respect for and enjoy.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: God, I knew about Piggy’s (Voivod) death before and when he was sick and that’s not up to me to go posting that like some of the bigger media websites did. That’s up to the band to do that if they want to do that. You’ve got to have respect.

DD Verni: Right, that’s good to have respect. If it wasn’t for the artists and the bands that your reviewing, what would you be doing. Often, when I read a review…

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: A lot of it’s cut-throat.

DD Verni: If your reviewing a record and you don’t like it, ok, fair enough. You could write, I listened to this, this is what the first songs like, I didn’t like this, I don’t like the production, I don’t care for the songs. I can’t recommend the record. I give it a 2 out of 10. Ok, fair enough. That’s fine. But a lot of the ones I read about… and not even with us because we‘ve always been handled pretty well by the press for the most part. Everybody likes our records. We usually get treated pretty well. But I’ll read something about maybe one of the hair bands or something and their doing a record again and it may be something I don’t like or that doesn’t do anything for me, but these are professional musicians. They went into the studio, they made a record and put some songs together. You don’t come out and tear it up like you do.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: That’s right! Even if I don’t necessarily like what your doing, you’ve got to respect the band as professional musicians and obviously they didn’t suck to someone to get to where they are today.

DD Verni: That’s the way I feel. If you want to say you don’t like it and you can’t recommend it, that’s fine. Did you ever read a review where they start it ok, so my friend Bob came over and picked me up first and we were going to go to the show. But on the way we were hungry so we stopped here for a little while and met up with some other friends. Now, I’m already two paragraphs in and I haven’t even gotten to the show yet. This is “their” day that happened. I’m like, who the fuck gives a rats ass about what the fuck happened to you on the way to the goddamn thing. Then last two paragraphs is something about the band and the show.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Yeah, “oh, it was great”. They don’t even go into what was great. (Laughs) That’s why I don’t even do reviews on my site because for me, I have the attitude like this, opinions are like assholes and everybody has one. What makes me an authority to say a band sucks when they could have a great following of people whom think they don’t.

DD Verni: Right! And that’s all you can have is an opinion. I think it’s cool! Even a lot of times you don’t even get that on a review. That’s mostly what I don’t like are reviewers. They don’t even say, this is a mid-tempo song or it starts off with a guitar, there’s none of that. There’s no information. I don’t deal with these people a lot for the most part because eventually, I’ll get worked up and go over and smack them.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: (Laughs) Exactly! Well, that’s probably why I’m so respected by people. I’ve grown up around bands all my life. I use to be in a band. I don’t know if that has something to do with it…

DD Verni: Yeah, probably.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Like Bobby, not only Bobby, a million bands that I’ve interviewed have told me so many things in confidence and I’ve never ever printed anything and that’s why I even asked you if there was anything that you wanted edited. Why print these things, for an extra hit on the website. Get out of here. I don’t need it!

DD Verni: We were in Philly one time and I read this review and this guy just hated our record. The two new guitar players I have sucked, the record sucked and I’m like, ok whatever. You win some. You lost some. What are you going to do. Then, somebody tells me you see that guy standing over there, in the dressing room, drinking beer out of my cooler, that’s the guy that didn’t like the record. I said, what, that’s the guy that wrote this review that doesn’t like it, is standing now in my dressing room drinking beer? I went over and grabbed him by the back of his neck and said, get out! He’s like well, I’m here… I don’t care, you didn’t like the record, you know what, did you pay at the door? Take this guy’s pass away and get him out here. It’s ok if you don’t like it. It’s ok if you like that you don’t like it, but don’t come to my dressing room with a pass on and drink some beers. Get the fuck out of here. (Laughs)

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Well, half of these idiots aren’t even into the music, their just looking for a free show or the best interview of the day or the best hits of the day.

DD Verni: Blitz just laughed when that happened. He said, ah, DD you’re making friends again! I said I can’t help it. (Laughs) It’s either get rid of him or I just smack him.
Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Well, just like these idiots too that cover the shows and I’m not trying to say that I’m the be all end all. I’m sure there’s others like me but if you’ll notice anytime I’m at one of your shows, my ass is still in that press pit, almost getting trampled on at the Starland. I had to sit on top of Dave’s cabinet all night because the barricade broke. The point I’m making is half those photographers that are there, you’ll notice after the 3 songs their gone. My ass is still standing there without the pictures. I’m not just there to get the best shot of the day.

DD Verni: There’s a lot of bands that have that 3 song rule. That’s weird.

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Yeah, but I still stand there in photo pit throughout the whole set! So, that goes to show, who’s really into it and who’s not. I’m not doing this for millions of dollars. (Laughs) DD it was great talking with you and catching up! I’ll let you know when the interview’s been posted. As I told you, we're going to have a contest to coincide with the interview. It should be fun! With that said, do you have any final words for The Metal Web! besides how much you think I rule?

DD Verni: (Laughs) And Dawn is not scum of the earth!

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Thank you, I am not a bottom feeder!

DD Verni: I always say, there’s Lawyers, below that is record company people, and then below that is booking agents, and wayyyy down at the bottom, journalists!

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: And where do I fall?

DD Verni: You’re not part of that!

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Right, I’m not a bottom feeder, I just lay at the bottom looking up. (Laughs)

DD Verni: But, that's ok!

Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: DD great talking to you again. I’ll talk to you soon!

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