ACEY SLADE Interview
jo from experiencemetal.com & Becky from bacstagepass.com
8pm @ The North Star Bar
6/18/04 photo by jo
Becky and I met Murderdolls guitarist, Acey Slade at the Electric Factory on May
28th. A few emails and weeks later, we were sitting with him before his
performance with Trashlight Vision (his new project) at The North Star Bar. I
can't say enough about how great he is! We truly enjoyed the experience. He is
very down to earth and fun to be around. If you could only hear him laugh, it is
contagious. Trashlight Vision was awesome and we are looking forward to seeing
them over and over again! Thanks Acey, you rock!!
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Becky: How did you come up with the name Trashlight Vision?
Acey: Well, it’s a two fold thing. Ah, the way I came up with the term. I was
taking out the trash...in the dark, and the bag ripped and I go "I need a
flashlight, oh, I need a Trashlight", and ah that sounds like a good play on
words you know? And so I wrote it down and then I wrote the word vision after
it, maybe it was like a Sisters of Mercy thing, a vision thing, um I have always
liked that word and I had it written down as a song title and Steve, my guitar
player, he was the first guy to come on board he saw it written down on the song
title. "Trashlight Vision, that sounds like a band title, not a song title." I
was like "yup, alright, there ya go!" Ha Ha, but the deeper meaning to me is
this I wanted to do something that was fun, but yet on the same token like you
know its fun its rock and roll that people can relate to. The Murderdolls is fun
in a campy way, but I wanted to do something that is just fun in a straight
forward way, that people can relate to and maybe give them a little vision to
the trash in life, you know?
Becky: How long has the band been together?
Acey: Well, I started writing all the material when I was on tour with The
Murderdolls. And I always kind of liked the idea, that a lot of my favorite
writers traveled, literary writers did a lot of traveling while they wrote. So
I was traveling and thought it was a really cool idea to write songs here or
there. We were in Berlin
and I wanted to write songs, Iggy Pop style stuff, so I stayed there for like a
week. The band itself has been together for probably three or four months now.
But, I have been preparing for it for a long time.
Becky: You’ve been in several bands, which do you prefer?
Acey: Well, outside of TLV, I would have to say Murderdolls. Amen, I am not a
member of, I was just filling in for them. That was a really gratifying
situation. It was a real intense situation. They are a very intense band and I
was given 2 or 3 days notice and I came in and did a really good job, so I was
really proud of myself! (Ha Ha!)
Becky: How do they differentiate?
Acey: The bands? When I first joined DOPE, it was more like this punk ass goth
industrial band, you know? And I really liked it, and unfortunately I think it
got caught up in the industry game, you know, of like trying to write the hit
single, trying to do this, trying to do that and it didn’t really work too well
for me personally. The Murderdolls, when I showed up, Joey was like…Joey really
doesn’t give a fuck about making record companies happy or making this person or
that person happy. To be honest with you, that is why he is so successful. You
know, it’s like, I remember when people were telling me about Slipknot, they
were saying you know, "oh its 9 guys in masks", and I was like "that is the
dumbest thing that I have ever heard of…no no, something that stupid is never
going to take off". But that is because I was thinking from a corporate point of
view. That is where my head was at at that time. So, um, that is how they are
different. Murderdolls really just don’t give a fuck about anything, except for
being ourselves. We are just really true to ourselves and a free spirited
attitude. Trashlight Vision is one of those things that I kind of had to
reinvent myself because I really love what I do in the Murderdolls. The way I
did that is I am singing in this band, so I had to step away a little bit. I had
to try to find a way to be true to myself and still reinvent myself. I’ve seen
guys like David Bowie do it, so I wasn’t really scared. I looked at it as a
challenge and I am having a great time with this so far.
Becky: Slipknot is on tour right now, so of course Murderdolls are not, are you
going to come back with it?
Acey: Yes!
Becky: Who would you like to tour with?
Acey: I have been pretty lucky. Toured with Amen, toured with Brides of
Destruction. You know Nikki Sixx and Traci Gunns are two of my idols.
Murderdolls – we opened for Guns N Roses, when the smoke cleared it was a very
different thing. God, I don’t know. Playing with the Wildhearts tonight, they
are one of my idols too. I have been pretty lucky to play with people I have
wanted to play with. Most of them, at this point, I would have to have a time
machine, you know, I would love the Motley – the Shout at the Devil era, or Dr.
Feelgood era. That would have been cool. Refused would have been cool, but a lot
of those bands have splintered off and diminished.
Becky: True. Do you write all the songs with TLV?
Acey: So far yea, initially the way I saw TLV and I don’t want to compare myself
to these people at all, but it is like you know how Foo Fighters has a band
name, but it is Dave Grohl's band and Nine
Inch Nails you know is Trent Reznor, but they are still called NIN? I did not want to
call it Acey Slade. I hate when people call their band name, their name and so
um, initially that was going to be the scenario. But now, I am playing with all
guys that are old friends of mine that I grew up with and we are all writing
together and it is all coming together as a unit. As of right now, I have written
everything. But to be fair to the guys in the band, they wouldn’t sound the way
that they do without their input.
Becky: If you could do any cover of a song, what song would you cover?
Acey: That’s kind of a funny situation. Because, I’m really over the cover song thing,
you know? I’ve done it twice and have been pretty successfully with it and I was kind
of over it the 2nd time. (Ha Ha!) But, in TLV we do a cover...I wanted to do a
cover. So with TLV, it’s like what can we cover that people are not gonna expect.
And, um, I was listening to Daniel Ash, he did “Me And My Shadow,” an old 30's
song and I was like, “Man, we would really fuckin’ rock this out,” so we do a
cover of “Me And My Shadow.”
Becky: Give me one word to describe yourself.
Acey: Committed. Whether I should be committed or I am committed. (We all laugh)
Becky: Fave TV show?
Acey: Fave TV Show? Absolutely! Band of Brothers. The HBO mini series thing. It’s like fucking
crack! You can not watch it too much. To be fair, I don’t watch much TV at all,
but Steve's place where I am staying right now, where we practice and
everything, he's got on demand and I am a huge fan and that series is like
crack, I mean I watch 5 minute intervals.
Jo: Imagine that on my 65 inch TV?
Acey: Have you seen that show at all?
Jo: Band of Brothers? No.
Acey: Have you seen "Saving Private Ryan"? No, ok.
Well it is filmed the same way, that real intense quick cuts, the audio, the
bullets are like whizzing by you and shit, the dirt is like flying past your
head, so I can only imagine.
Becky: If you were a fly, who’s wall would you be on (as in “celebrity”)?
Acey: Ahh, wow! (Silence) Let’s see. I’ve kind of got to be a fly on a wall for
a lot of people. So, uh...Hmmm...I have to think about that for a second. Well,
I think the obvious thing would be Iggy Pop back in the day. I think it’d be
very interesting to see what was going on in that guys head. ‘Cause a guy like
that ...it’s not even the weird shit that he wrote or you hear about, but it’s
probably the weird shit that he was doing when he was by himself. You know what
I mean?
Becky: Oh yeah! (Laughter) Okay, we are trying to figure out if you are in the
video "White Wedding"?
Acey: Oh yeah! “Love At First Strike,” “Love to Say Fuck,” and “White Wedding.”
Becky: What nationality are you?
Acey: German, Irish & Swedish.
Jo: Favorite band/artist right now?
Acey: I don’t really have one. Honestly, at the moment it’s the Wildhearts.
Jo: Really?
Acey: I think they put out the best record. If it doesn’t break in America,
it’ll be the biggest sin in music now. It’s like heavy Metallica type riffs and
Cheap Trick melody. Really good stuff.
Jo: What’s a regular day in the life of Acey Slade?
Acey: Like, right now, I wake up about, um...anywhere between noon and 3 p.m. and I
start working on the band like internet wise...doing the business stuff til like
5 or 6 and then Steve kind of comes too and then we start working on everything
from...like...the website to T-shirt designs to the music, you know. Right now
we kind of have like this compound called The Trash Can which is Steve’s
apartment. It’s over top this hair salon and like in a real industrial area, so
we can make noise all night long. And its got 2...its got 3 bedrooms. He
took...1 room it is completely sound proofed it and made it acoustically correct
and we just drilled holes in the walls and ran the cables through and we
got a G4 in there so we do all the internet stuff in there..we do all the
recording there. We’re doing everything in there. Designing the
T-shirts...everything!
Jo: If you were a cartoon character, who would you be and why?
Acey: Probably Jack Skellington, but I don’t consider him a cartoon character. I
can really relate to him. You know, normal everyday people see him and there
like “Oh there's that creepy thing,” you know? It couldn't be further from the
truth and I can really relate to that feeling of being an outcast, but not necessarily a dangerous outcast. You know?
Jo: Favorite Actor or Actress?
Acey: Probably Gary Oldman..
Becky & Jo: Wow, really?
Acey: Yea, he's been Dracula and Sid Vicious.
I don't think you can get much cooler than that?
Jo: Fave movie?
Acey: Exorcist maybe...um, Office Space.
Jo: Who’d been most supportive of your career?
Acey: ME! (Ha Ha!) Um...My mom is like always supportive in a spectacle way. My
dad basically...it wasn't the reason why but, part of the reason why I don't speak to him
anymore...When I was growing up I was like this fat little pimple face kid. I
couldn’t get any girls. And so...
Becky: I can’t see you fat. You must show us pictures! (Laughter)
Acey: I got to find them. I have some up in NY and I keep meaning to pull them
out. I have a picture of me in this Motley Crue shirt. I wanted to show it to
Nikki Sixx. I have to try and find it. But I’m like this big (spreads hands
wide) in front of a birthday cake. I probably ate the whole cake. (Laughter) The
funny thing, I started growing my hair. I got into music...I’m not going to lie,
to meet girls. ‘Cause I saw my sister, right...she was like getting into these
bands and my mom’s like, “look at these guys. They're ugly.” And she liked them
because they had long hair. So I'm like "long hair, that's it!" and started
growing my hair. And then my dad is like, “only faggots play music.” I’m like,
“I’m doing this to get chicks.” (Ha Ha!) You know? And now you’re calling me a
faggot?? You know? So he’d always call me a fag and I was like, “you know what,
fuck off!” There were a bunch of other reasons as well, but he was not
supportive AT ALL!
Becky: Since we are somewhat on the topic of girls...at what age did you lose your virginity?
Acey: I lost my virginity at about 16. Um...it was a terrible experience. For
both parties. It was her first time and my first time. You know, I saw a lot of
porn mags and I thought it’s as easy as you know, um, some pipefitting. It’s not
that easy as I found out. (Laughter) And uh, she dumped me the next day. (Ha Ha
Ha!) The second time was much better. The second time was with a girl that went
on to be the TV news morning news girl..she does like traffic and weather for
FOX TV. Which is really trippy.
Jo: What’s the best part about being a rock star?
Acey: You know, it’s like a ying-yang thing. There’s days where, um, seeing
people go into work everyday and every single one of them has a white or blue
Sedan and you know I’ll see them in line in the morning... grabbing a cup of
coffee...which I’m going to bed. And they seem so content of their lives and
part of me in a way..it’s like..I mean..I stress out.. I have so much stress
going on in this business and I think to myself, could I be content just like doing that? You
know? And the answer is, No Fucking Way, but you know the best part about it is
that I can have tattoos, I can look this way and, um, I just love playing music.
I love entertaining people. I don’t care about being the best singer, best
guitar player. I just like entertaining people, you know? I’ve gotten to go
around the world several times. I’ve given up on the money thing. I’ve got to hang out with people that are my idols. I’ve gotten to have really
memorable and personable conversations with Nikki Sixx, you know? And I’ve had
him come up to me and say, “Dude, you’re awesome on stage. Where’d you get those
moves?” And I’m like, “Where do you think??” (Ha Ha!) And to me, it’s like,
well, alright...well if I never see a dime in this, big deal. How many people
can say they had experiences like that? I got to open for G N’ R in Japan...I
got to hang out with Hanoi Rocks. I get to play with Ginger (Wildhearts) tonight
and I wrote ½ of these songs on his guitar in London. That’s a kick ass fucking
life, you know! (Laughter) So that guy may have a nice car, nice house, and a
nice wife, but I don’t give a shit about that. There’s sacrifices. I can’t have
a girlfriend right now and I wish I did. I come home from tour and its lonely. You know,
people always think that there’s tons of money to be made, but there’s not. I
mean there can be, but, you know what? I don’t care. It’s like, I’ll sleep on
floors...I have slept on floors. And then there’s the other side where I have
had money and been on tour buses and jets flying around and had shit like that. It’s just a matter of
comfort. It’s all the same thing now. I’m still on stage playing guitar.
Becky: True.
Jo: Do you prefer bass or guitar?
Acey: I prefer singing. I should rephrase that. I’ve actually always been a
singer and when I joined Dope, that was the first time I ever played bass and
then when I played guitar in Dope. I kind of dabbled in guitar, but I was never a
guitar player. I never had the aspiration to be a guitar player or a bass
player. My aspiration was just always to be a singer. And just to always be in a
band, period. So it’s been a little stressful right now getting back into
singing again. It’s been such a long time. Singing and playing guitar and stuff
like that. Playing guitar in the Murderdolls is a fucking blast. But in the
aspect of writing lyrics, coming up with my melodies and all that shit singing with Trashlight...living a little.
Jo: Are you going to do a CD?
Acey: Oh yeah yeah! This is my band right now. I’ve always been a writer. I’ve
always been a singer. I’ve always been doing my own thing up until I joined Dope
and I miss that. I miss that sooo much. It’s like coming up with a logo, you know? Doing all that
stuff. I got lucky with the Murderdolls because the Murderdolls when I quit Dope
the first time...I quit to do my own thing, and when the Murderdolls came up, I
was like this is pretty much what I would do, so...plus, I knew Wednesday,
he is a
good friend...I knew Joey, he is a good friend, kind of a no brainer...this is my focus
now. The unfortunate side is the Murderdolls may not be recording a new album
for 2 years. I know that we all want to do it and we’re all focused on doing it.
Record company wants us to do it. I talk to Joey and Wednesday at least once a
week. I talk to Ben and Eric at least once a week. So everybody wants to do it,
it’s just a matter of timing. So I just can’t count on it. It’s what we all wanna
do. We all know it’s going to happen. We just don’t know when. But as of right
now I can’t sit around twiddling my thumbs, you know?
Jo: Right! You’re going over seas next month right?
Acey: Uh, 2 weeks, actually.
Jo: 2 weeks?
Acey: July 1.
Jo: Are you going to come back and play?
Acey: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve committed myself to do, um, Japanese dates with Amen when
I get back in July. But they have another tour coming up and I’m trying to
figure out how I’m going to juggle everything, but I...the Amen thing...I’ve
got offered a lot of sideman gigs and I’ve turned them all down. Amen was the
only band where I was like why? These guys kill! They’re in it for the right
reasons. I love their music. Casey is the true Rock Guy. All the guys are true
rock guys. That is the only reason why I took this. These are people I know
who are on the right page. And I can lay my head on my pillow at night knowing
that I’m playing with people that I believe in. Anything else, I got offered
some big money gigs...It’s like, you know what..yeah I’ll get to tour with this
band and that band and I’ll be making a paycheck in the meantime, but I’ve done
all that already. I got to do my own thing right now.
Jo: If you could collaborate with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
Acey: I never want to collaborate with Dead or Alive. (Laughter) Although we did
cover "Spin Me", that is probably the closest I have ever come. I’d love to
collaborate with Ginger from the Wildhearts. Um, probably him, um..he’s the
only person that comes to mind right now. I’m looking forward to writing the
next Murderdolls record with Joey and Wednesday.
Jo: Your favorite Trashlight Vision song?
Acey: It changes from day to day. But we got a song called “Chemical Girl” right
now I really like, um, I like “Chemical Girl” a lot. You know, it’s very
important to me that every song that I wrote had some sort of meaning or had
some sort of personal connection. You know, I’ve been in bands where we wrote
for the sake of writing and we’re like alright this is going to be the hit single and
the one thing that I learned from working with Joey is that you have to put all
that shit out the window. ‘Cause if you’re in a band that sell 3 or 400,000
records and you’re expected to sell 10 million, that’s a huge disappointment.
But if you’re writing just for yourself...to make yourself happy and you sell
50,000, that’s an accomplishment, you know? So it’s hard for me to say. ‘Cause
I, made a real point to make sure that every single song that I wrote had a
personal connection to it, whether it was where I wrote it, whether I wrote it
in Berlin, whether I wrote it in London on Ginger’s guitar, when I was DJ’ing or whether it’s about someone I
dated or relationship, or whatever.
Jo: Cool. Favorite place to perform?
Acey: I’d have to say Scotland. Scotland’s definitely my favorite place to
perform. People there are insa-a-a-ane! Drunkest place on the planet. Yep! You
roll up in the bus at like 9 in the morning and you’re about to close your eyes to
go to sleep and you look out and there’s like 13 year old kids popping beers
waiting in line (laughter) for the show. (Laughter) And they are like that all fuckin’ day! (Laughter) And they go into the front row of the show and they
kill, they are
insane there, they’re great.
Jo: Where did you say you wanted to go? Germany?
Becky: Yeah for that head banger’s metal thing.
Acey: It’s all relative too...like German true metal fans...like over in Europe,
bands like Helloween are still huge...Iron Maiden...or like Metallica over there..they are
like a very serious band...so that true metal stuff is huge there. Watching
Maiden some nights like when people would sing along, it would just put a chill down
your spine and it was for like the 3rd song which blew me away so much. Here..yeah..everybody will sing along to “Run to the Hills",
but nobody gives a rats ass about "Wickerman" but over there "Wickerman" is the
hit song. For Germany, yeah,
real true metal is big there, but the Murderdolls in the UK are huge. So, London
too, you know...that was like one of the first times that I actually sat back and said,
“I’m a rock star today!” (Laughter) We sold out the night at Brixton Academy,
stayed in a nice hotel, looking out at the sold out 5,000 seat venue, line
around the block every kid in red and black..and um I am a pretty humble person,
you know, but it was like "I'm a rock star". (laughter)
Becky: What about Japan?
Acey: Japan?
Becky: Yeah.
Acey: Japan is pretty cool, it’s weird. It’s just weird. ‘Cause, the fans are
insane, but yet, while they’re watching the show, their polite. So it’s like,
when you get done with the song (claps twice). (Laughter)
Jo: Really?
Becky: Wow!
Acey: They’re really quiet. They really want to hear what they’re going to say.
So it’s not like the same “Yeeeeeah!” (screams)
Becky: Like here.
Acey: They do that during the song and then they die down real quick and they’re
so polite! So it’s weird. Not only that but, it’s really like being on a double
planet. Can’t read any of the signs, can’t understand a word anyone says. You’re
taller than everybody there. (Laughter)
Jo: Taller. (Laughter)
Acey: It’s really a whole different thing there, you know? It’s..it’s..just
different. It’s cool..it’s cool as fuck, but I don’t know if it’s my favorite,
but it’s cool as fuck! (Laughter) It’s definitely one of my favorite places to
visit. But to play there, it’s just like odd, you know?
Becky: Message for your fans.
Acey: Thanks so much for everything. Hope they dig Trashlight, you know...it’s
going to be a little different..it’s probably my least, um, gimmicky band, you
know...it’s like, Dope had a gimmick and Murderdolls have a gimmick, but with
this band...I don’t mean that in a bad way, but with this band like I just want
to be a true fuckin’ rock band like Guns N’ Roses and Refused. I just
like...we’re going to be ourselves, we’re going to look cool, we’re going to
play cool, we’re going to dress cool, but there’s no dread locks, there’s no red
and black, it’s just straight ahead no bullshit rock n’ roll. That’s kind of
like the conclusion I came to. How am I going to be myself, not be a Murderdoll,
but still be myself, you know? It’s like alright, well be myself! With the guys,
there’s no...well you need to dye your hair, you need to this or this or that,
it’s like you’re an old friend of mine and you’re a friend of mine ‘cause you
look cool and we like the same bands so you’re the right guy. There’s a lot of
people I could have gotten from NY and all that, but it’s like, nope, I gotta
stick with my friends.
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What an interview!! Immediately after Acey left us, I looked over at Becky and
said "He is so fuckin' nice, what if we don't like their music?"!! Well, we did
like Trashlight Vision, in fact, we loved them (and not just because Acey is so
nice!). Check out my review on the concert reviews page for a detailed account
of the show!
Trashlight Vision:
Acey Slade - lead vocals & guitar
Steve Haley - guitar
Roger Segal - bass
Lenny Thomas - drums
Stay on top of all things TLV at their
Official Website
and be sure to listen to their demo song "Horns & Halos". Trashlight Vision just
returned from the UK and will be touring the US.
~jo~
jo, Acey & Josi 7/15/04 jo & Acey 6/18/04
