With their new single, “Casual Sex,” on a fast climb toward the top of the charts, My Darkest Days had minimal downtime since the whirlwind of 2011. Only weeks away from the release of their sophomore album, a run of headline dates and a support slot on Nickelback’s U.S. tour, the band — vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Matt Walst, guitarist Sal Costa, bassist/vocalist Brendan McMillan, drummer/vocalist Doug Oliver and keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Reid Henry —went from road to studio to video shoot before going back into rehearsals for another year of touring.
MDD’s meteoric rise and ongoing success are unusual, given the state of the music industry and the many artists vying for a moment in the spotlight. The components lined up for the Canadian band: powerhouse producers Chad Kroeger and Joey Moi, the high-ranking industry team at Chief Music Management (Hinder, The Veer Union, Daniel Wesley), label support, fan support and a group of musicians willing to do as much work as needed to generate fan loyalty and create quality music. The combined efforts paid off.
Sal Costa took some time during a rare day at home to talk about what lies ahead for My Darkest Days, the story behind “Casual Sex,” the Road Eatz series, and his goals for the new year.
How much time off did you have? It seems like you were on tour forever.
The tour wrapped up at the end of September, and we started writing sessions and working on a new record. We had some one-off dates, so we were still playing until Christmas, but it was a little more of a chilled atmosphere. We weren’t on the road. We wrote like crazy on the road. Not that a lot of the songs ended up making the record, but we started getting in the mindset of writing so that we were in the groove, and that never slowed down. When we got back from tour we were writing individually and as a group. Everyone was putting together ideas. We agreed on the songs we felt best fit the record, and we’re almost done.
How long were you in the studio this time?
It was very different. This time around, we had absolutely no time to get stuff done. The last record, we started working with Chad and Joey before we were signed, so there were a few years of working on that album. Even before I joined the band, the guys had started working on it. This time, we literally had a few months. We were notified when we got off the road that there was a good chance that Nickelback was going out on tour. The label said that we had to have a reason to be on that tour: "We need a record, we need a good record and we only have a few months." So we were scrambling and getting stuff together. We all have home studios now, so we can pass ideas back and forth from our homes. If Matt’s out west in the studio, working on some vocals, and they need a guitar part, I can add something to it and send it back. It was a different process, but we had to do everything much quicker this time.
How did you keep the band vibe while working with files?
Being in a band today is a little bit different than it was in the past. My favorite bands, like Led Zeppelin — they’d get into the studio, the four of them in a room, there would be a few mics, they’d do a couple of passes of a song, choose the best pass, and if there’s a few mistakes, they’re on the record. Now it’s more about getting the best songs and production. It’s a digital era and it’s just the way the music business has gone. As a musician, you have to adjust to it because you can’t fight it. Even working with other artists — for example, myself and Phil Collen from Def Leppard recently did feature guitars on Bret Michaels’ new record. Bret called and asked if I wanted to play guitar on the first single, Phil is going to be on it, and the first thing you think is, Yeah, let’s all go in the studio together and record this! In reality, Phil is in the U.K., Bret’s on the road, I’m at my house and everyone is sending files to each other.
Bret Michaels, Zakk Wylde, Ludacris, Phil Collen — you’re keeping some company these days!
I know! I met Bret two years ago. We opened for his solo band at a Halloween show, and maybe a year later, Poison and Motley Crue were on tour together and they were playing at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto. I happened to be home for two days while they were here, and Bret called me. I was in my pajamas in a music store near my house, and he said, “Hey dude, what’s going on?” I said, “Not much.” I’m thinking, I haven’t even talked to him in … it was a year and a half at that point. He said, “I’m in Toronto and it would be really cool if you came up tonight and played guitar with Poison.” It’s 2:30 p.m., I’m in the music store and I’m like, “Wow, OK, are we going to soundcheck or rehearse?” He said, “No, I’m not even in Toronto yet. I’m stuck at the border. I’ll probably make it just before the show. I want to bring you out for the encore. Go on YouTube, just see what we do, bring your guitar and don’t worry about anything. No soundcheck, no rehearsal, I’m just going to bring you onstage and plug you in.” That’s literally what he did. I showed up, he took me on his tour bus, we had a chat and he said, “Just do your thing.” We did “Nothin' But A Good Time,” and from there that’s where we go back to him calling me to do some stuff on his new record.
Let’s go back to something you said: “Now it’s about getting the best songs and production.” Is that because people buy singles more than they buy albums?
That’s exactly what it is. Easy access to music made people essentially not want to wait to listen to other songs on the record. They want to get to the best song they can. Record companies know that, radio stations know that, so it’s about trying to produce the best songs because that’s your best chance for gaining fans nowadays. People used to listen to records and search for the songs they liked. They would listen to the whole record. When I bought CDs, I would listen to the whole thing, and my favorite songs would usually not be the singles. It was a whole experience of opening up a record and listening to it. Now it’s about beating the next band on the charts, because if you don’t, you’re not going to be on the radio. If you’re not on the radio, you won’t have fans. If you don’t have fans, you don’t have a career. If you don’t have a career, you’re not going to tour. It’s changed. The fans have changed since the digital era of music erupted.
You strive to get the best production and then they listen to it on phones and with earbuds.
Absolutely. Literally everybody is so into buying iPods and MP3 players. They’re cool, but honestly, I was the last person I know to get an iPod, and I didn’t even buy it. I got it as a gift and I felt I had to use it. I just finished buying an old turntable from the mid-’70s, and some speakers, and I’m buying my favorite records on vinyl. To me, that’s what music is. Sonically, everything is warmer and crisper. There’s just something weird to me about having music as a file that you can download. I understand that it’s the way music goes now, but as an artist and a musician, when I listen to something, I like to listen to it in its most organic form. To me, that’s still vinyl.
Bands from the 1970s and 1980s are so popular, still and again. Are there times when you wish you’d been part of that era?
Yes. Not that I wish My Darkest Days had come out then; I think this is a great era for us because we’re doing great, but as a musician, I would have loved to grow up in the ’70s and ’80s. There was something more organic about it in general. When I listen to old Led Zeppelin records, it’s so incredible —you can hear four guys in a room, and when John Bonham is playing his drums, you can hear the nuts and bolts on his bass drum pedal. You can hear those rattling around. That would be edited out today; it would be, “That doesn’t sound good.” To me, it’s awesome. You can hear the timing of the whole band shifting back and forth, and it’s real. I think that would have been a very cool time to be a musician. Now, again, it’s about putting together the best songs and production and trying to beat the next guy, really.
Phil Collen and Zakk Wylde are two of the most respected guitarists in the industry. When you work with musicians of their caliber, whether in person or with files, what do you learn?
I’ve had Def Leppard records forever, so I was very familiar with Phil's epic guitar solos and with him as a player. Bret called me first and I laid all my guitar parts down first, which was weird, because I expected Phil to do his parts first and me work around him. Instead, he filled in the empty spaces in the song, and it was really cool that he took what was mine and worked with it. There are some parts where I’m playing slide guitar and a breakdown, and when I sent it off to Bret and he sent it back with Phil’s part, he harmonized that and that was my part! I created that part and Phil Collen is playing harmony guitar with that part! So it was a really cool experience to see him work on something I had already worked on. I learned a lot just by listening to what he did. With Zakk, obviously, he’s such a different player than I am. I was always more into Jimmy Page, John Frusciante, Slash and Dave Navarro, so it’s cool to work with someone like Zakk, who’s a metal guy and has those kinds of chops, and to see him do his thing. I learned a lot from him just studying his playing. Zakk is a super-nice guy. We’ve played with Black Label Society many times on the festival circuit and he’s just a giant teddy bear. You see him and give him a big hug. He’s a really down-to-earth guy. He’s a great person. And honestly, I can’t tell you how cool Bret Michaels is. He always makes you feel welcome and he’s good company. When I played with him in Toronto, he took me on his bus and it’s like we had been hanging out for years. It’s cool to see him with the fans, too. He did the meet-and-greets on his bus and I was thinking, How many years has this guy been in the music industry; you would think he’d be jaded as hell by now. But he took as many pictures as the fans wanted — “Are you happy with your picture?” “Do you want to take it again?” “Hold on, I have an acoustic guitar in one of the bunks. Let me get it so you can hold it for the picture.” There’s a line of people and I’m thinking, Wow, you would expect 30 years into his career that he would be like, “Jesus, I just want to get this meet-and-greet over with," but he was sitting there and talking to everyone. What impressed me the most about Bret was how genuine he was. I learned from him that at the end of the day, it comes down to the fans, and you’ve got to be cool like that.
Why was “Casual Sex” chosen as the first single from the new album?
We needed something to trump “Porn Star Dancing” in a way. We became known as that band that had that hit, and the video was so epic. What were we going to do? The concept of “Casual Sex” came up, and the coolest part of the song is the video. It’s kind of like “Porn Star” all over again, but in a more lighthearted way. Ron Jeremy is in the video — I talked to him today, we’ve stayed in touch, and on a side note, he is a super-intelligent guy, very cool. I was blown away by Ron. It was the second time I’d met him. We hung out through the day and he’s a totally awesome guy. It’s a really cool, fun video. I think people who didn’t know us took “Porn Star” as we were trying to be cool or thought we were cool. We don’t want people to have that impression, so we’re making this video lighthearted to show people that we like writing songs that are fun. It’s rock and roll, and that’s what it’s supposed to be about. If people took the song seriously, once they watch the video, they’ll see that we were just being lighthearted.
Were you concerned about airplay?
To be honest, no. I think that’s kind of been the problem with rock in the last little while. It’s all been this whole melodramatic, “You broke my heart, I’m dying, it’s over,” and I think people are getting used to that scene. To stand out, you need something different. Look at Marilyn Manson. We’re obviously not in his vein of writing and music, but he did something that was out of the box and people had a reaction. When we released “Porn Star,” we were told by every single television station that would play a music video that there was no way in hell that they would play this video, that they can’t. It worked to our benefit and ended up being a YouTube hit. I think there’s something like 14 million views on that video with the two versions, and then there’s a bunch of other ones that have hits. It made people have to go and find it and it became taboo. It almost created a niche for us because it stood out, so we needed to do something that was similar but still different. I don’t think we were scared at all. Haters will always hate, but obviously a lot of people like it. "Casual Sex" was just released and went to Number 25 on the Active Rock charts in the U.S. I think it stands out from the rest of the songs because this album is much heavier than the last record. We wanted to bring in that element.
Were Joey and Chad slave drivers again?
They always crack the whip. Chad’s been very busy with Nickelback and doing all their press, so it’s been a lot of work with Joe, whether we were at the studio or at home. Joe pushes you to your limit and that’s a good thing, so it hasn’t really changed. You don’t ever want to get to the level where there’s no one who can tell you to be better. It’s good to have people who don’t care what your skill level is or what level you’re at — to them, you still suck and you can do better. I guess there are situations where bands have some success and think they’re great when really that’s not the case. You should always work to be a better musician, so it’s good to have people who will say, “That sucks,” or “That’s OK, but it’s not great.” Those are the responses you get from Joe.
You have some March dates with The Veer Union and then the Nickelback tour in April.
The Veer Union will be support for us on a little headlining run we’re doing in March. Our first tour date is March 27. The Nickelback tour is going to be very intense. We’ve played with all the bands on that bill except for Nickelback, so we know everybody’s show. We’ve toured with Seether, we’ve played with Bush and we know the Nickelback guys. We’ve seen their show many times and they’re so incredible. We’re going to take it as a learning experience and see how the pro-pro-pro-pro-pro’s do it who have been doing it for that long … and hopefully steal some of their fans along the way!
What’s going on with Road Eatz?
I was on tour and I always take pictures of food, I’m a huge foodie, so the idea for Road Eatz came up to follow a musician on the road and all the cool places you discover to eat. When I’m on the road, I wake up and the first thing I think of is, I’m in Louisiana, I’ve never been in this part of the city I’m in before, let me find the coolest place to eat. I’m not talking about the best steakhouse I can find or the most expensive place. I mean the coolest place, a mom-and-pop shop or something like that. I would roam around and find these places. We started thinking it might be a good idea for a television show. The shows are always from the point of view of a chef or a restaurateur, somebody who’s involved in the food industry, but never from a musician’s point of view. You could tell me where you picked the ingredients and how you seared it and how you made it. I can just tell you if it’s good or not, and that’s kind of what we did. We hooked up with a little crew and started developing the idea. We went to Houston and started shooting the pilot. It’s in the works. We’re pitching it to networks and starting to develop it to the next level. There’s a trailer on the Internet, we have a full pilot, and we’re going to develop it a little bit further. It still needs some tweaks. It’s a work in progress. We’re shopping it to some production companies and networks and we’ve got a lot of interest, which is really great, so we just need to choose who we’re going with production-wise and we’ll probably start to film on the road.
Now that you’re hanging out with Bret and Zakk and recording with Phil, are you woodshedding for Eddie Van Halen so you can be ready in case he calls you for a walk-up?
Ohhh! I don’t think you could ever be ready for Eddie Van Halen’s call! I think that’s just … I would keel over with agony because I wouldn’t know what to do! But yeah, you always have to woodshed. I’m always practicing. What I fell in love with about the instrument is how everybody can play differently. That’s what makes it so awesome. I’m not saying you can’t do that with any other instrument; you can, but there’s something about playing the guitar. You can put the same guitar in somebody else’s hands and how they play it is completely different. I’ve spent more time developing my own style, really, and working on that. There are so many areas of my playing that are weak because I focus on what I’m good at, and when I practiced, I worked on developing those weak areas. This time around, I’ve started focusing more on my strengths, and I think at the end of the day, that’s what makes the best players be the best. Like Eddie Van Halen — tapping is his signature, but you would never know what Eddie is weak at because he only shows you what he’s great at. I started to realize that as I played more and went further into my career. When you hear Slash, you hear him all the time, no matter what record he’s playing on. He’s not trying to fit in. He sounds like Slash, just like Eddie Van Halen sounds like Eddie Van Halen. They took what they’re good at to the next level, and that’s what I’m trying to do now.
You spend a lot of time online communicating with your fans, discussing the causes you stand up for and the things you believe in. With all the demands on your time, how will you continue to do this?
Absolutely I will continue. As time has gone on, I’ve gotten more involved with that. I started to realize that being a musician is a really scary life. It really, really is, and it makes you think about … there’s so many ways you can take the success. A lot of people take success to excess and maybe start buying a lot of stuff or start thinking they’re better than everyone else. I want to use whatever I have as a platform for those who don’t have a voice, whether that is a really shy kid or an animal. I can only hope to have more success to help more people or more things that are on the earth, so I don’t think people need to worry about me getting farther away from that. If anything, it’s making me closer to it. I want to be more involved in creating a better place for people, for animals, for the world in general. It’s a pretty sick place and it honestly is getting worse.
Knowing that you’ve been to that dark side, it’s so inspiring to see how you are able to stay focused and positive.
Thank you. I battle with the same things that many people battle with all the time, like anxiety, panic, fear, depression — it’s just human nature. But I think when some people get caught in a moment, they make it last a lifetime and can’t see past the moment, when it’s really just the moment. I think it’s important for people, when they’re in a dark place, to remember that it’s literally just a piece of time and you move on from it. A lot of people see it as endless time that they can’t move from. I don’t want anybody to ever think that I don’t have the same problems they do, because I totally do, and the only reason I can talk about it like I know what I’m talking about is because I go through it all the time. From my experience, the most I’ve ever learned is from people who have gone through the same things I have or felt the same way. Sometimes it’s hard to talk to people; for instance, I’ve had many friends who couldn’t relate to the way I see things or the way I generally feel. People keep their feelings very taboo. They don’t want to express them, they’re scared of what people will think of them, and I want them to know that it’s OK to feel a certain way. I’ve felt that way many times, and there’s always a way to move past it and feel better.
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