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| w/DAN LORENZO |
| Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Why the name "The Cursed"? In knowing Bobby, I'm willing to bet he had something to do with it! (Laughs)
Dan Lorenzo: Bobby who? (Laughs) Yeah, it was Blitz who thought of it. Fucking impossible to come up with a name, you know. I would put two words together, thinking I thought of something original, then I would "Google" it and there would be a band with that name already! Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: What made the band decide to take The Cursed from being a side project to a signed act? Especially, when the band on different occasions have been quoted as saying that The Cursed is basically a garage band, and it left the impression from what I read that there was no intension of pursuing things beyond the album. Dan Lorenzo: Well, often your intentions change as you go along. When I was thirty years old, I told my mom I would never get married. I believed myself! Four years later, I had my first girlfriend since high school, and later married her. The Cursed is fun for us. It came together reasonably easy. If it wasn't fun and easy, we would stop. When you start writing songs and they develop into something cool, you want to show the world. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: What was the writing sessions like for Room Full of Sinners, as the album is quite different musically from what any of the members have done in past or current projects? Dan Lorenzo: I initially mailed Blitz a few riffs/song ideas from my home recording unit. He came cover to my home to show me what he had in December of 2005 and I was floored by what he wrote to All's Right and One Time. He knew exactly where the vocals should go. All music is opinion, but in my opinion, there are "right" spots to put the vocals. Jerry Cantrell is one of my favorite songwriters, but he writes chord progressions, which are much easier to write over. I write riffs. I think they are much harder to write over, but Blitz doesn't seem to have a problem with it. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: You recorded the album at Crystal Studios with Mike Koenig. What were the recording sessions like, especially being that both you and Bobby are used to producing most of your music in your other projects? Were there compromises? Dan Lorenzo: None. We did whatever Blitz said and then we spoke bad about him behind his back! (Laughs) Not really "compromises". More like, different ideas/interpretations. Sometimes Blitz would give me an idea on guitar that I wouldn't have thought of, maybe I would tell him the chorus to Native Tongue works better if I stop playing guitar here. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: When thinking of a concept for the album, where or should I say, "who" was the inspiration? (Laughs) Dan Lorenzo: It's not a concept album. If you mean stylistically, Blitz told me we should be less diverse than my solo stuff. We wanted more of a hard rock, bluesy, metal vibe. We had this one song, Luicifiction, that was actually one of my wife’s favorites, but Blitz thought it was a little too "metal". I think in my mind, we were going for something that sounded like Sabbath meeting old Aerosmith, like the first 4 Aerosmith CD’s. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Room Full of Sinners seems to have more of an album-oriented song arrangement as opposed to a collection of songs on the same disc. Was the flow of the album intentional? Dan Lorenzo: That's hard for me to be objective about. But, yes, I think it may work better as an eleven song entity of music. Thanks! Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Can you tell us about the video for Evil, in the Bag that was recently shot and when can fans expect to see the release? I know there were talks on having it shown on MTV2's Headbanger's Ball. Dan Lorenzo: No, I'd have to kill you. (Laughs) I can't say at this time, sorry. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I'll get it out of Bobby, no problem! Your secrets aren't safe! (Laughs) As far as shows, The Cursed will be playing at the Highline Ballroom in NY on May 20th and is being billed as "the first and possibly only live show" but that was said with the last show. So, will this be the "last" show for The Cursed or can fans expect more dates? Dan Lorenzo: In 1989, I said Hades would never perform together again. The music business, things happen. It's a fucking yo-yo, which I hate. However, you never know. I just know we made a great CD that I will crank in my car for a long time. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Where do you foresee The Cursed in the future? Dan Lorenzo: Impossible question to answer. Either people will buy it, and we'll do another CD or people will download it for free illegally or reject it and I'll go back to playing basketball after work. Either way, I'm happy. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Besides The Cursed, are you working on any new material for your solo stuff? Dan Lorenzo: I always have riffs and song ideas. I hope to release a "best of" with my three solo CD’s. I recorded a new song recently called What I Like. It has Scottie LePage age 13 playing all the guitars. His dad Scott LePage played on the first Hades CD Resisting Success. They live in Dallas now. I go visit them every year. I was amazed the last time I saw Scottie play. I invited them up to Crystal Studios back In January. My wife just had bought me a harmonica for my birthday two days prior. You know I had to sneak it into my newest song. The bass player from the Amish Outlaws played bass on the song, and I just sang. I used an electronic drum machine. It came out cool! Hopefully, I'll land a deal for my "best of" CD. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Danny, thanks for the interview. Good stuff! With that said, do you have any final words for The Metal Web!? Dan Lorenzo: Yeah, don't you want to ask any questions about Mike Cristi or Job The Raver? Let me say this, Job The Raver said no to drugs but drugs wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Mike Cristi has a new project called Nolenz Volenz. Mike is really talented and Job, he's a “really” good guy (Laughs). OFFICIAL SITE "THE CURSED": http://www.the-cursed.net or http://www.danlorenzo.net HOME |