Taking Dawn recently made a stop in Minneapolis with Theory of a Deadman in support of their new album, Time to Burn. With a sound strongly rooted in 80’s metal it is a flash back to great bands of the past with a modern twist. The album is in stores today and is definitely worth checking out. Front man Chris Babbitt took some time to chat with me about the new album and everything else that was on his mind. Check the interview out below.
As an up and coming band can you give us a little background on Taking Dawn for those who may not be familiar with you?
Yeah, you mean like everybody cause we’re brand new! No, we actually have a lot of people who found us before we got signed which was a couple of years ago. We’ve pretty much been signing the whole time. Now that record is done, well the record has been done for about a year. I’ve been sitting on this record going “what?” We are from Vegas, we are a four piece ,we play blistering rock and roll. Its good, we’ve been on all kinds of tours this last year from rap metal to hard core to power metal to rock to just whatever. Everybody’s just really diggin’ it so I am really excited. Its catchy, aggressive, fun music with badass solos. A little bit of something for everybody.
You have an album coming out on Jan 26th and I’ve read a few reviews comparing you to some of the 80’s hair metal bands do you feel this is a fair comparison?For anybody who might listen to this 80’s. Awesome! If you have an 80’s reference it’s some of the best music ever recorded. You throw glam or hair metal in there I start to get a little upset because I … well I’ve been told I’m not allowed to repeat some of my comments refer to bands in specific. I should f***ing repeat them anyway. It’s not glam; well I guess it’s your definition. If Guns N Roses and Skid Row is glam to you then f*** yea its glam. This s***isn’t glam, David Bowie and T-Rex is what glam is supposed to be. Vixen and Bang Tango are what f***ed it up. They are still good bands but we have energetic fun aggressive songs. We have Slayer fans coming up digging it ya know. When we went out with All the Remains all these death metal fans were digging it and were still catchy as f*** but just not … queer. Nothing against those who enjoy balls in their mouth cause I’m all about it. 80’s for sure; Ozzy, Skid Row, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi heavy Def Leppard when they signed. Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden come on if those are bad words to you you probably don’t want to check this s***out. Everybody loves that s***. Avenged Sevenfold doesn’t exist without that but we don’t sound like Avenged Sevenfold but I dig it.
You do a really good remake of Fleetwood Mac’s classic “The Chain” what made you guys decide to do this song? We originally; which is funny since we go “not glam not glam not glam.” We originally were going to do a W.A.S.P. cover cause they not glam but they dress like jerk offs, which is great. F*** like a Beast is what we were going to do but it was only going to be allowed to be released in Japan and all this s***. It’s the best song on their first record and nobody has got to hear it. We were like “s*** we are going to do this we do a righteous cover it.” But our produce, who is Mr. 80’s he loves all of that awesome guitar rock from the 80’s big arena rock, wasn’t digging it. We were like “really?” he’s all about scorpions all about the Ozzy area. He was just not digging on this one so we were just going through the iTunes. I didn’t want to use one of the other songs that we had that we were saving for the second record … that’s very presumptuous. Mike was like right away how about “The Chain.” Everybody loves all kinds of music cannibal corpse fans get down to Fleetwood Mac every bit as much as Fleetwood Mac fans get down to DIO. Everybody’s all over the place we rock Eminem and Lady Gaga all day long. Good music is good music. S*** music can sometimes be great music too.
Which do you prefer more the recording process or getting out their and touring?
All of it?! We just did two more tracks over the break. We had a short break from touring before this is our first show in like a month and a half. Everybody here feels rusty shakin’ the dust off. We did a KISS Black Diamond cover and rocked the s***out of it. Then we did a new original for God of War III. So I love being in the studio we get to do all kinds of s*** you’re not prepared for, you’re just there to rock it out. Live is the same kind of experience but to a different degree. Always a different place so you get to do something fun. It’s easier to record when your on the road your busting your ass .. We have no crew. We do everything. We have a sound guy thank god. We ‘re tired and then they are like ”you wanna party?” and I’m like “Yeah in my bed in the van.”
What’s your take on the current state of rock & roll?
My honest take; It depends what you say my honest take on mod rock is so much different then what you consider rock and roll. I think Shinedown is the s*** they are rock band but what kind of rock. Theory of a Deadman is rockin it out, what kind of rock are they? I am super psyched to be on this tour because Adelitas Way, Halestorm and Theory are all “rock bands” and we have yet to be on a “rock tour” yet. We’ve been on a death metal tour a hard core tour a rap metal tour a new metal tour a pseudo almost rock tour. All these bands we had a chance to go out with from Tribune to Drowning Pool to Saliva. All that Remains, all these different bands we were never playing to an audience that was immediately going to get what we are doing. We had to sell the s*** out of it for them to either respect you or take you seriously. We are super stoked to be on this tour at least it will be rock fans and we’ll be coming from a place that they get. Since Theory is coming off that stint that they did with what was it Motley Crue? From what I’m told they picked up a lot of fans off of that tour. Record sales were good after the tour. So I am hoping a lot of those fans will be digging us and getting it right away. (Editors note: Theory of a Deadman finished up the year touring with Daughtry)
What do you feel are the biggest challenges facing the music industry over the next five years?
Still pirating. People just don’t understand how bad piracy is. It’s just rampant. Especially with the younger age demographic because kids are savvy with computers and they don’t have a lot of money so why wouldn’t they be ripping that s***off. They got to know it makes it (hard) … we got as good of a deal as we could get for a new band. Record labels are taking it real hard so then it falls on the band and we have to work even harder because they have to stay in the black. Don’t f***ing pirate s***. I know pirates are cool with their peg legs and skurvy. I mean if you like our record please buy it at least one of the songs. I kind of feel bad because the only song I have from Halestorm right now is the single, I didn’t buy the record. Sometimes you don’t have the money so at least I bought the single. That’s contributing to something. I’m the guy who is going to crash your computer. I’m talking to ever hacker “can you make a f***ed up virus so every time some pirates some torrent bulls***when they download my stuff their computer explodes?” I want to crash systems so people get all nervous. One of things I thought was cool someone I know tried to download the new Creed (album). The cable company that runs their internet access cut off their access and they didn’t know why. So for a half hour they tried to restore it then they looked at the notes and asked if they tried to download Creed and they were like don’t do that or we are going to shut your service off. That is amazing. I know there is a lot of legislation that would go into to backing a system like that and beauracy behind it and then everything goes to hell. It’s to hard to find people. The fines they have are exuberant and ridiculous. What they should almost do is parking ticket style. But then you have to deal with that and what administration is going to do that. Until film takes that hit no one is going to back it from a music format standpoint. So if cable companies do that, I mean everything you are getting from a bit torrent you know is pretty much illegal. So now that records aren’t selling Target and Walmart are scaling back their s*** when I could have found all the All that Remains record that was just released maybe the next one I wont if they don’t sell “X” amount of records. My record won’t be in Target and Walmart right away; I do have Best Buy, I got Hot Topic, I got FYE but all these others. I can’t get these two huge outlets because if my record doesn’t sell they are holding onto it. Even though retailers don’t really sit on music; It is the only product you can return. You don’t get a batch of apples if they don’t sell you get to return them but you do that with records. It’s a f***ed up industry. Stop stealing! Steal the actual record cause then they don’t get to return it. Get some balls go rip off the f***ing record; the artwork is awesome its totally worth getting. Brent. The artwork. Awesome.
Do you have any other passions besides music?
I masturbate. I’m serious about that. The only I am serious about is comedy. I love music to much my other passion is music. I don’t have time for anything else.
In your opinion, name the top five best album of all times:
Of all time … five Black Sabbath albums. No. S*** that’s hard kind of depends on genre too. Lady Gaga and Black Out from Britney Spears; actually no joke those are two of the best albums to come out over the past three years. F***ing great songs. No joke. All time greatest High & Dry Def Leppard Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath …And Justice for All by Metallica although the Black album is probably the better call since it is so massive. Nickelback’s new one is good and I never liked them before. They had good songs just didn’t scratch that itch. The one they did with Mute Lange, they nailed everything every song is perfect. It’s cheesy but it is the good kind of cheese. That’s not five; let’s say Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden
Other then this tour what can we expect to see from Taking Dawn in the next several months?
I don’t know if we are allowed to say any of it. Awesome awesome stuff check up on the Facebook and the MySpace; which we run its all us just like our stage show. I cant say good big tours overseas. The album is coming out that’s big, that’s huge. When it comes out I hope people actually buy it. We get tons of messages thankfully saying can’t wait to buy it. It’s the best phrase to hear. Pick the s***up I’m telling you.
Purchase Taking Dawn’s Time to Burn on iTunes
Check Taking Dawn out online:
http://www.takingdawn.com
http://www.mypace.com/takingdawn
http://www.facebook.com/takingdawn
Comments
These guys are pretty awesome; hope they do well.
they like Britney's Blackout and Lady Gaga's The Fame! ironic
great taste!! blackout is amazing!!
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