Intervju - Janis Tanaka, Fireball Ministry So what´s up with Fireball Ministry? Are you touring for the moment? We´re not touring right now. We just went on a little two week westcoast tour, because we´re just getting a booking agent. We´re waiting for aour tour across the US and then for Europe I hope. We´ve got one set up for Germany for two weeks opening for... Blue Oyster Cult and Uriah Heep...! Yeah! Which will be really fun. Two really cool bands! I know! I´m really excited about that. We´re kind of just waiting since we just got our booking agent. About the new album? When did you start writing the new album and how long did it take and did it turn out the way you wanted it to be? The new album has a lot of older songs that has been around...and they´re actually on an ep. We kind of pulled those because they fit with the sound of the other songs. We have some new songs and we didn´t really want to put them altogether, because it wouldn´t be one whole record. So we pulled those to make it more of a whole thing. So you can listen to it from beginning to end. I´m really happy about the production and I don´t remember how long it took to record it, but it sounds really good. Nick Raskulinecz is really fantastic. Have you worked with him before? Yeah, he´s been workig with us for a long time. He´s super nice! Who came up with the title for the album? I guess Jim and Emily did. I didn´t ha, ha, ha! It goes with the whole rock evangelistic theme that we have going. Who´s the main writer in the band? Is it a group effort or...? Well, Jim and Emily start out with the riffs and sometimes they write the songs completely and they come in with riffs or songs and as a group we´ll arrange them and talk about them and put things together. About the art work for the album? This guy Dan Brenton, did you have an idea or did you give him total freedom to come up with something? We got hold of him...he´s one of Jim´s favorite comic artists and Jim was bidding on Ebay on one of his items and there was only one other guy bidding for this thing that Jim really wanted. At the end Jim won it and the guy e-mailed back and said "Oh, I figured you´re a fan so I figured you´d be tickled to know that you´re bidding against me" and Jim went "oh my God" and they started talking back and forth and then after he realised the guy was really nice, he kind of got the courage to "Would you be interested in doing a record cover?" and the guy said "Well, I´ve done one of those for some big rock band" and Jim sent him some music and he liked it. We actually posed in the positions and sent him photos and he did it pretty realistic and sent back a painting in two days. It was shocking how fat he did it. The tour of Germany, is that it? Are you going to tour there and then go back to the States or do you have plans for the rest of Europe? We have plans for the rest of Europe but we don´t have anything in place yet. We´re sort of waiting around. But we want to come back and go through all of Europe. Have you guys played in Sweden? No, Fireball Ministry has not come out in the US, so we´re really excited to actually get over to Europe and we want to play Sweden and every place. But I´ve been to Stockholm! With L7? Yeah, with L7 and Backyard Babies took me out drinking ha, ha, ha. Nice! I actually interviewed them a couple of weeks ago. They´re nice guys! Awesome! They´re really nice guys. About L7? They´re not around anymore are they? Well, when we came back I was in it for two years and we were touring and they wanted to take a break and they´ve just been on a permanent break. That was a really hard tour, the one I was on and I guess they just got tired ha, ha, ha. It was difficult and it was a little bit disappointing. I´m not sure! Are you still in touch with any of the other members in L7? Donita´s working on a solo record and I went to put some bass lines on it and Suzy...I´ve been trying to get ahold of her because I´m moving down to LA this week and today I´m taking a break from packing and packing the van up. When I get down there I´m hoping I could have a little metal band with Suzy, just for fun. We used to talk about it when we were on tour. Seems like every American you talk to is always on the move. They´re always moving around. You know what, we really do! Actually I´ve been in San Francisco for twenty years and I´m really sad to be moving. I´m from southern California and I don´t really like it so much because I grew up there. I think the nice thing is that there´s so many different places in the south like if you want to do...say if you´re in music you go to different places and you have different opportunities. The reason I´m moving is because my only band left now is in LA and for the last five years I´ve had two bands in LA and three up here. It´s four hundred miles away and it´s kind of retarded ha, ha, ha!!! Especially since I don´t make my entire living off of music so I have to have a job and that´s kind of the reason I´m moving because I´m down there a week and I´m up here a week and I can´t go and apply for jobs and saying "Well, I´m only here every other week and I can´t tell you when, but I work really hard!" So I´m gonna go live some place so I can actually get a job ha, ha, ha! What´s LA like these days? Is that still the place to be when it comes to music and stuff, compared to the heydays in the 80´s with Motley Crue and all those bands? Well, it´s kind of everywhere, I don´t know everywhere in the US, but at least in California a lot of the smaller venues are having a harder time getting by, for rock music anyway. So it´s harder to have a smaller band anywhere and LA is still the place if you want to get a record deal. There´s not a huge scene anywhere that I know of, besides music that I don´t really enjoy. And for the music I like there´s just very small pockets of scenes. It´s not humungous like in the 80´s. And what about those clubs? I know that Whiskey A Go Go and those places are still around. The Whiskey´s there, Rainbow´s there, Club Lingerie which has been there forever...let´s see...what else is around? The Rainbow´s great and they have good food. If you want to eat that place is good to eat at. Ok! About your bass playing? When did you start playing the bass and I always wonder about bass players, why do you choose bass and not regular guitar? Well, actually when I started my first band I played regular guitar and I wasn´t very good at it and then my band broke up. I found a flyer with a band looking for a musician and their influences were the same things that I like and they needed a bass player and a drummer. At the time I could barely play guitar anyway, so I called them and said that I could play bass and drums ha, ha, ha. And they said "Well, we just got a drummer, so come and try it on bass!". So I borrowed my friends bass and I played on it for like tree days and went and tried out and I really had a lot more fun playing bass than guitar and I kind of had an immediate knack for how to play bass, which I didn´t have for guitar. So I´ve been playing bass ever since.I mean, I could´ve been a drummer if they had had a bass player. It was an accident for me! Did you have any favorite bass players when you started playing and that influenced you? Yeah, I really liked the bass player in The Faces (Ronnie Lane). I liked him a lot. And there was a bass player that I used to go and see...there were a couple of local bands like The Afflicted. I´d go see Frankie Lennon from The Afflicted, Mikey from Sister Double Happiness. They had Gary Floyd from The Dicks in it. A bunch of local bands and their bass players. I like to go because then you can see exactly where they´re putting their fingers and memorize it and go home and play that. Who came up with the name Fireball Ministry? That´s Jim and Emily as well. It´s from a TV-show from when they were going to college and they met. There was an evangelistic TV-show called Fireball Ministry ha, ha, ha. They lifted the name and thought it was really fun. Ok! I read that Iann Robinson from MTV has been really hyping you up and playing you all the time and I also read that you´ve been called the saviours of rock! That has to feel good? Yeah, it feels great! I mean, the music that we play...someone said to me "You´re playing like back to basics rock!" It´s defenitely back to basics rock! And on your website you list a bunch of bands that you´ve been influenced by and among them, Grand Funk Railroad. Do you listen to them yourself? Yeah, I do actually! And it seems like they were and sometimes are gone and forgotten and they were a really big band and a great band! Yeah, they´re the kind of band that...I mean, Uriah Heep must still be pretty big in Europe and in the States people will know they´re songs because they were so very big here. A big influence without really being recognised. Have you seen them live? They´re out touring with Bruce Kulick now! Ha, ha, ha! No I haven´t seen them. I haven´t gone to a huge show...I mostly go to little shows. I spend my life in the dive bars, so all the bands I´ve been seeing for years and years, nobody knows about them unless live in that scene ha, ha, ha! Have you seen any cool bands lately? Let´s see! Well actually I did see a big show, I saw King Crimson and they played with this band that I used to play with a while ago called The Pygmy Love Circus and both bands were...well, King Crimson was amazing and The Pygmy Love Circus was still really fun and amazing. I hadn´t seen them for maybe ten years or so. They´re from LA! Yeah, that was a really fun show! Is King Crimson all original members? Robert Fripp is still in there, right? Yeah! They had one drummer and he wasn´t an original. Well, they´re a cool band! What do you think of the music scene over all? There´s a lot of so called nu metal in the States, even though a lot of people think they´ve had their fifteen minutes of fame! On the other hand there´s been an explosion of really cool bands like The Strokes, BRMC, The Warlocks and Mooney Suzuki. I thought The Strokes were from outside of the US? No, they´re from New York! Rich New York kids! Ahhh! Well, they sound like a lot of the bands from Wellington. Yeah, we have bands like that too. That´s kind of a scene that´s...it´s a pretty big scene around the world. That sound! It´s been going on for a few years now. But I like bands like that. I kind of think they´re later forms of Zeke and bands like that. I love Zeke! The other stuff I don´t really listen to so much, so I don´t really know anything about that whole nu metal scene. No, I don´t know anything ha, ha, ha! Doesn´t matter! It´s crap music anyway! Well, I just never pay attention to it, so I couldn´t tell you. I don´t even know what it sounds like. Speaking of music! Do you know of any Swedish bands? Well, I know the Backyard Babies. Let´s see...which black metal bands are Swedish? I love Pildedriver (Canada) ha, ha, ha! Entombed is from Stockholm, right? Do you know The Hellacopters? Oh yeah! The Hellacopters are amazing! Nicke is one of my favorite musicians in the world. Just one of those geniouses and then there´s some black metal bands in Sweden that I like. There´s tons of black metal bands and there´s a lot of them coming out of Norway. I know, but there´s a couple of them from Sweden. Three or four that I like that come out of Sweden. Do you listen to a lot of black metal? Because that´s one of the few kinds of music that I haven´t been able to take to the heart yet. Oh yeah! Well, that´s the thing with black metal. You either like it or you don´t. What kind of music do you like? I like anything from Minstry to Depeche Mode, the whole glam scene in the 80´s, Black Sabbath, Grand Funk, KISS. Huge KISS fan! And then jazz and classical music as well. As long as it is good! The most accessible black metal, like where the perfectionism is smooth and glossy...I think the most accessible would be Dimmu Borgir, Emperor and Cradle of Filth. Those are the most accessible ones, because they have really good songs and production. Have you heard of Opeth? Oh yeah! I love Opeth! I went to see them actually and not too long ago and it was actually really, really good. Awesome! They´re doing very well in the States. I heard that they sold t-shirts for more than a hundred thousand dollars on their last US tour. Just everyone I know likes them! That scene is pretty big here. The biggest and the most fun scene is the sort of underground metal, black metal, death metal scene. For me anyway. That´s what I like ha, ha, ha! I usually ask musicians what their view on the internet is . You´ve got a website and you put up songs there and you can interact with the fans. What´s your take on downloading music and such? What do you think will happen in the foreseeable future? I´m not sure! It all depends, because I think all the big companies were taken by surprise by the internet because they´re so square. They just weren´t on top of it and they don´t understand what it´s about and they don´t understand people that do any of that. And the way they´ve gone about changing...creating laws and stuff is just so...they´re starting to sue the kids that have been downloading for years. I really don´t se downloading as being such a big problem. I guess if you haven´t an ok´d it as a band , it´s not good but with my band Firebal Ministry...we all believe that the people that download are the same people that spend the most money on music. If you go to anyone´s record collection, the people that are downloading are probably the ones that have the hugest record collection that´s the most up to date. And, I mean, they´ll go and download it and a percentage of them will actually spend the money on getting the real copy. So in a lot of ways I don´t see anything wrong with it, because that´s more how you choose what you want to buy, that´s how you share music etc etc. It´s the same with tape trading. That´s the way music gets around. All the metal heads they trade tapes, but you buy all the stuff that come out. You don´t just rely on your tapes, you want to have the real thing. That´s how I feel about it! Like they´re being a little over the top with the suing. I don´t know what´s gonna happen in the future. It´ll probably come down a little bit, like once in a while you have certain groups you have to pay a certain amount to get to and then you have other ones that are more accessable. It´ll be interesting to see what the future holds. I really hope to see you guys in Sweden soon so we´ll be able to catch you live. I hope so too! Really nice talking to you and I wish you all the best with the album and future touring and so on! Thank you! Nice talking to you and good luck with the winter! Oh thank you! It´s on its way. It´s just around the corner, so to speak. Wow! Well thank you so much and take care! Fireball Ministry - Official website

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