REVIEWS / INTERVIEWS:
Dead Slow For Hell
by Daniel Gannaway, 2006-02-15
When I interviewed Phonoss in April of last year for ProMusicNews I predicted the awakening of a prodigious and newly evolving solo talent.
Inside of a year, and here he is delivering Dead Slow for Hell, his rocking sophomore effort.
DS4H clocks in at just over 24 minutes and is chock full of short, chugging rock songs with a dirty, indie bent. Darker and grittier than the more acoustic indie/folk/rock of debut ELIMINATOR, DS4H is packed with huge singable chorus/bridge combinations, and showcases an artist pushing his creative boundaries to great success. Without further adieu, time for a quick catch up with Phonoss:
DG - Hey P, where you at man?
P - Hey man, I'm in Pilsen in the Czech Republic.
DG - Just got your new album, Dead Slow for Hell. Turned out great!
P - Excellent, thanks man, Im glad to hear ya like it. Im real happy with it.
DG - It's heavier than your solo debut ELIMINATOR, was that the aim?
P - Yeah, I wanted to take everything up a couple of notches and get into some heavy guitars etc. More like the last track "This is for you" on the first album. I had a bunch of ideas when I was in London, that at the time I thought would probably be along the lines of the ELIMINATOR album, but once I started laying down some rough tracks I realised they were a whole bunch better played loud. So I decided to stick to the darker heavier angle on DS4H.
DG - What was different about this album in terms of recording?
P - This time I recorded nearly the whole album in Protools and took a whole lot longer doin it. I spent about 6 months on DS4H. Most of the album was recorded on trips to my family bach just north of Auckland, which made the process really relaxed (nice having the sea at ya doorstep).
DG - But you wrote some of this material in London, right?
P - Probably half of the songs were roughed out here in Europe, and in London. I didn't have any recording gear with me at the time so they were really dodgy tracks recorded to my laptop using the external microphone (real shit).
DG - Still, it seems like a good place for you creatively, you wrote some of the ELIMINATOR up there too?
P - Yeah, that was the last trip. I really like London. So much goin on up there compared to being back home. So much history, and living in the east side is so diverse culturally, its great.
DG - You're pushing your vocal range on this album too?
P - Because I had more time to spend in recording this album it gave me a chance to experiment a bit more rather than just goin with the first initial version of the song. I tried out a lot more backing vox ideas as well, layering stuff.
DG - There's a lot of chug happening with the guitars, what did you play this time?
P - I used a Les Paul Custom (thanks Wazman), an N2 (thanks Jeff) and a really cool Fender Bronco (thanks Mark) and a bunch of old school pedals I've got. I never actually used my own electric guitar.
DG - Did the owners contribute?
P - The Wazman [Wazman Ferrari] provided the Les Paul and the great guitar riff on Dead Slow For Hell, and helped me get the electric gat sounds I was after. Jeff (The Stung) Brown helped me out with some gat work and lent me the N2. Stan Leboy helped out with drums loops and samples. You helped out with recording, vocals, some little gat licks, and of course, nursery rhymes.
DG - You interpret some of these songs differently with Jeff for an upcoming the Stung ep right?
P - Yeah, we've recorded 3 Phonoss tracks for the debut The Stung ep. Heaps more along the lines of my old band The Feds, heavy and dirty stoner rockish something....haven't quite labelled the sound. It'll be out on Powertool Records soon.
DG - Your DS4H cover art has got some real religious imagery going on?
P - I've always been interested in the whole religion thing. I find it amazing so many people can believe in something that they have never had any physical proof of, but do it because for some reason it makes them feel safe. The "As long as you pray afterwards, its ok" mentality is not for me. Watch Bush next time he's sending troops off to war, he sends his prayers... what a great guy. Really though, I just wanted to have some darkish artwork to go with the overall sound of the album and to fit nicely with the title "Dead Slow For Hell".
DG - Where did the album title come from?
P - The title is just a play on words. Slowing up before ya get to hell. You may as well be dead if you're in a real hell etc. So slow down and enjoy what comes prior to either heaven or hell, if that's your belief.
DG - You've got some giant singable chorus/bridge lines happening throughout the album...
P - I find writing more sort of rock songs comes quite naturally, it's what I've done for ages in other bands. When I wrote the songs on Eliminator it was a whole new ball game, especially with the songs being very acoustic guitar based.
DG - I love how Fools start war turned out. When I first heard it I thought it was 'Full Start War', but the real title is so much more apt given our times...
P - I'm glad you dig it. I've had some great reponse to that song so far which is great. I came up with the riff while taking a break from recording on the forthcoming kidameln album. Right away I had ideas for it lyrically and thought it would be a great end to the album (before Something pretty happened). It's really about how fucked up some people have it in their home countries. People forced to live their whole life everyday, because through no fault of their own they may not get to see tomorrow. It's really a fuck you to Bush, FOX, CNN, religion, terrorism, and everything and everyone that screws with the way people live is basically the message.
DG - Yeah, watching partisan news-tainment on FOX is pretty spooky. Super manipulative. I guess that's what I liked about that song the most, your calling it at the end. Props to ya.
P - Thanks.
DG - So what's on the horizon?
P - On the horizon is the new kidameln album, which we have been recording between all our personal projects over this year. Really looking forward to getting this album out, and The Stung ep which is waiting to be mastered. Hopefully that wont be too far away either. I just scored myself a 2nd hand gat in Pilsen in Czech Republic, so I'm going to start on a few ideas I've got for Phonoss number 3. I finish my travelling around Europe early Jan then move back to London to get stuck into it all. I will be putting Phonoss together as a live band and plan to start playing as soon as possible to try and get some stuff happening for summer 2006. It's gonna be good.
DG - Thanks for taking five to talk.
P - Thanks to you too, a Big Thanks to Andrew at Powertool Records for getting my music out there.
Music for the comedown.
File this one under:
Late Night /Long Drive/On Repeat /Acoustic Slow Rocker/Dawn is already here/Let's keep driving
Phonoss has put out a pretty rad sounding lo-fi mini album of chunky raw textures. It's a deceptively easy listen, this short-player, with solid rock grounding it's somewhat alt-?-folk tendencies.
Speaking of folk, you can hear the influence of indie fok-rocker Daniel Gannaway in the mixing and production. He's done a great job at presenting the obvious song talent that Phonoss has, combined with Stan Leboy's little electronic contributions, the songs fill out nicely.
Not one of these songs sounds conventional in arrangement, but all possess great hooks. Song 3 'sour' [which I note was also on a very recent release by kidameln -the kidamel lo-fi- leading me to wonder: is Phonoss Michael Brennan?], is probably the long player of the album and maybe the most conventional in form, bringing to mind Monster Magnet with it's funeral dirge-like casio tone organ sound floating in the background.
Personal favourite 'trip to the moon' with it's obvious departure leanings and bizarre space talk bridge, closely followed by 'Fine' and the rest of the album. They all rock and roll you along in their own way.
I thought I'd reached the end of the album at 'Waterfall day' ,but a nice little bonus comes in the form of 'this is for you' which launches in a minute later in a very tribute to Queens of the Stone Age fashion. A great stoner rock track care of 'The Stung'. Whoever The Stung are, they rock, at least they do in this Phonoss version.
Ratchet, 4 Drill
Kidameln....the kidameln lo-fi is an eclectic and cool album from way out there on the indie prairie....more >
The Stung....Phonoss covered a Stung song 'For You' on the Eliminator ep, now the Stung have covered 2 Phonoss tracks on the soon to be released ep....more >
The Feds....The long awaited album from The Feds is near completion. The band spent time in Tenvor studio and DS4H Music recording over the last months, a release date will be issued soon....more >
Daniel Gannaway...."Gannaway matches political passion with folk-pop chops and a voice i could listen to singing the phone book".... more >
Truly Independent Music....
©phonoss 2006