By Ryan
Sparks
After your
ears receive some heavy exposure to the latest album Cheat
The Gallows from doom / prog rockers Bigelf, you might finds
yourself wondering if you’ve been transported back in time or
more specifically to the early 70’s heyday of Progressive Rock.
With Cheat The Gallows the band has finally broken out of
their underground / cult level status and into a universe that
finds them sharing stages around the world in the opening slot
on Dream Theater’s 2009 Progressive Nation Tour. Led by top hat
wearing, Hammond organ pumping front man Damon Fox and his three
bearded band mates, Bigelf’s unique mix of heavy progressive
rock, Beatle-esque harmonies and psychedelic undertones has been
quietly percolating just below the reach of rock’s mainstream
audience since the mid 90’s. Cheat The Gallows is further
proof that Fox and co. are determined to wave their freak flag
loud and proud for music that is not only eclectic but timeless
as well. If the sonic sludge of early Black Sabbath and Atomic
Rooster are up your alley then you’re going to flat out love
what Bigelf are doing.
Ryan:
You’re currently between the North American and European legs of
the Progressive Nation Tour. The North American leg I think
provided the band with some much needed exposure as well it
probably gave fans that might not have heard Bigelf a chance to
see what the band is all about. I understand that you got a
pretty favorable response every evening as well. Looking back
are you happy with how it all went down?
Damon:
Absolutely. It was some much needed exposure to a larger
progressive rock audience. When you play theaters, sheds and
arenas, it’s just a mathematical equation at that point because
you’re going to get more fans. We’re enough in the category of
progressive rock where I think certain people no matter what are
going to get it. But Bigelf is different enough and we push the
envelope enough to where people aren’t going to get it as well.
I think the US side of the Prog Nation is a little less on the
hard rock side and the European side is a lot more metal but
with prog elements.
Ryan:
Especially with a band like Opeth.
Damon:
Yeah, and Dream Theater will definitely play on their heavier
side in Europe. We have a larger following in Europe so we’re
just going to more or less be ourselves [laughs]. But on the US
side with Zappa Plays Zappa it was more about the finesse, the
technical side of things which was fantastic as well, so we
definitely had to try to play more on our progressive side to
try to turn on those fans. Bigelf is about twenty different
genres in one band so it’s pretty easy for us to change, but we
like it when we can do our “own” thing.
Ryan:
Speaking of being yourselves a bit more was there more pressure
playing for the North American audiences as opposed to playing
in markets over in Europe that are practically like home for the
band?
Damon: You
know any time you play in front of an audience that doesn’t know
you, especially the Zappa / Dream Theater combination, honestly
you’re getting judged every single night. It isn’t like you’re
going out there every single night and you’re rockin’. You’re
definitely performing to change people’s minds. It’s not like
the old days where you’d go to a show and you’d be like “Hey
who’s opening? Oh it’s some band called Bigelf, I’ve never heard
of them”. Nowadays everybody has done their homework, well not
everyone, but people are on the internet checking out your
videos and your album. They can make their decision right there
as to if it’s something they like, or they might not like my top
hat, who knows what it is. So it’s definitely a challenge to try
to change their minds and get them into the band, which I’d say
we did about eighty percent of the time. With that kind of
volume as an audience every night we were signing autographs for
an hour after every show, so it was a good time. We definitely
have a stronger fan base over in Europe and having Opeth playing
after us is going to open up more of a heavier side to the whole
show.
Ryan:
For those people who haven’t done their homework and are not
only seeing you guys for the first time but hearing you for the
first time as well…
Damon: Yeah
we got a lot of those.
Ryan: I
mean Bigelf has been around since the early 90’s but a lot of
people in North America were probably walking away from these
live performances completely blown away and thinking where have
these guys been all this time?
Damon:
Yeah.
Ryan:
You have so much great material to draw from. In your slot you
had about thirty minutes to put forth the music that best
represents the band. How did you go about choosing the material
to play, did you stick mostly to the songs off the new album
Cheat The Gallows?
Damon: We
had about thirty minutes but by the third show we were already
squeezing an extra seven out because we were setting up about
ten minutes early. We did a little bit of everything and that’s
the thing about Bigelf is that there’s so many different styles
in the music, and we’re certainly not playing to our fans. So
you’re selling the style and the sound of the band versus the
new album, and like I said we leaned on the progressive
overtones heavily. When you’re talking about Zappa and Dream
Theater you’re talking about fifty thousand notes per set so we
had to put in at least five thousand, but it’s a potent five
thousand though [laughs].
Ryan:
Well it’s not the quantity it’s the quality right?
Damon: Yeah
and those guys have both, but Bigelf is a completely different
entity. Zappa is certainly the birth of prog but he was also
very avant-garde most of the time. His style was extremely
offbeat and different, not to mention the humor element inside
his music. Our sound originates from the birth of progressive
rock, the 69’-71’ era. A lot of prog fans these days don’t even
realize that there are many elements in Bigelf that are from the
origins of progressive rock.
Ryan:
You guys along with Scale The Summit were last minute
replacements for Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish. How did you
get the news that Dream Theater wanted you on board and how long
did you have to prepare?
Damon: We
were actually doing a club tour in the US and our management got
a call from Portnoy saying that two bands were going to be
cancelling due to financial issues. I think we were in Minnesota
when we got the news…we were thrilled. When Mike called and
invited us to take part in the European leg…which is all arenas,
we had to pinch ourselves. Then when we got the second call
about the US and he said, “You win the lottery again”.
Ryan: So
you got the European leg first?
Damon: Yeah
we were all set with that and feeling great about it, but there
was some talk that Beardfish and Pain of Salvation were having
some trouble with their label, but when we got the word it was
quite amazing.
Ryan: I
think it was kind of ironic that those bands couldn’t be on the
bill due to the financial problems with their record company. I
mean dealing with record company instability is something I know
you’re more than familiar with.
Damon: Yeah
the whole thing was ironic and I felt for those guys because the
real irony is they’re from Sweden, which was the epicenter of
all that cult level fanaticism that was happening for Bigelf in
the early part of this decade, it was all in Sweden. We’ve had
many triumphs and tragedies in Sweden; we got our first major
record deal in Stockholm. There were pitfalls, the hex on top of
the Hex album, being lost in the shuffle in the label
scene over there. I felt bad for those guys because we’ve
definitely been on that side of the coin and have had tough
breaks before. You realize sometimes that when things aren’t
going your way and you can’t seem to put any sense to it that
sometimes things are just not meant to be. That’s the only way
you can look at it. So this time we were experiencing the
positive side but those guys will get something else and it will
turn around for them.
Ryan:
How did Linda Perry and her label Custard Records enter into the
picture? They re-released Hex and now your most recent
album Cheat The Gallows.
Damon:
Linda and I have been friends and I have done a lot of studio
work for her. She was always a fan of Bigelf and always thought
we were doing something special. She was actually interested
back in 2003 when we released Hex in Europe but the
timing just wasn’t in the cards and funny enough the Cheat
The Gallows thing came before the re-release of Hex.
We were sitting around talking and I was playing her some new
songs and ideas and she just kind of said ‘Let’s do this’. Her
position in the industry has grown and she’s definitely looking
to expand her label empire and work on that side of things,
she’s a conqueror.
Ryan:
She does have an eclectic mix of artists on her roster.
Damon:
Yeah, to have a successful label I think you have to. You have
to have eclectic tastes and cover all kinds of styles. If you
have a metal label that’s strictly metal, I think that’s really
cool. If you have a progressive label that’s strictly
progressive you don’t really have the option of having a pop
band on that label. Maybe that pop band breaks out, it might not
be your personal favorite band on the label, but maybe that band
will bring you more money and everyone will be more thankful. It
just makes the label run better, and I think most labels have
always worked like that in the past. You do a little something
commercial and then you do a little for the soul, you put out
something that’s nutritious [laughs].
Ryan: I
don’t know if this makes any sense but I love that its 2009 and
there’s music like Cheat The Gallows.
Damon: Sure
it means that we’re crazy [laughing].
Ryan: I
don’t want to really use the word retro sounding but I think
it’s great that with all the disposable music and flavors of the
week, that a band like Bigelf can put out an album that
obviously has the progressive elements of the past, the
grandiose orchestrations and Beatle-esque vocal harmonies. I
thought, man have I gone back in a time warp or what?
Damon:
Little voices in my head always tell me to keep going and it
hasn’t been easy. However, there is no other road for Bigelf and
for me in this life. As corny as it sounds I’ve definitely been
put here on this earth for this reason, which is to soldier rock
‘n roll through to the next point. Somebody’s got to do it,
somebody must take the hit and make sure that besides the
classic bands, that it actually moves forward as an art form. I
think that a lot of people have forgotten about rock ‘n roll,
classic rock, retro rock, psychedelic rock or whatever the fuck
you want to call it, I always just call it rock n’ roll. I
consider Rush rock ‘n roll. It’s not Chuck Berry. When you say
the phrase rock n’ roll, some people just think Chuck Berry and
Bo-Diddley, No! I’m talking about Sabbath man. I’m talking about
Van Halen, Cheap Trick, The Beatles, The Stones, Pink Floyd.
More people call it classic rock, but you’ve got bring this art
from forward and show young kids and musicians coming up that
this is an art form.
Ryan: I
wouldn’t go as far as calling your new album Cheat The
Gallows a concept album, but there are re-occurring themes
running through it at least lyrically on tracks like “Gravest
Show On Earth”, “Money, It’s Pure Evil” and “The Evils of Rock
‘n Roll”. Are you approaching these songs kind of tongue in
cheek or are they more autobiographical in nature?
Damon: The
lyrical content is definitely true and it’s all experiences that
we’ve been through. Some of it morphs itself into another kind
of storytelling; it’s not just straight forward of what’s
happened to me. It’s songwriting, its nebulous you know? It’s
just my way of putting it into a universal format. “Money, It’s
Pure Evil” is pretty straightforward and something that people
that read the lyrics can pull direct thoughts and emotions out
of it. That song is about how money changes people right in
front of your eyes. The other songs are much more all over the
place. I don’t always think or plan out what every lyric
entails. Some of them are thoughts and emotions and I’ll just
put them in for fun. Some of it is tongue in cheek, a track
like “Superstar” is like that but that’s also a true story. I
think “Money, It’s Pure Evil” was much more of an interior
feeling. I wasn’t thinking of the economy, I was thinking about
close relationships and the music industry.
Ryan: I
think that’s how I interpreted most of the record as well was
that it dealt with the industry in general.
Damon: Yeah
I’d say most of the conceptual songs on Gallows have some
kind of twist of concept to them. It’s definitely a music
industry thing. One of the things that I believe has kept us
from being successful is the music industry. As you can
see being on a great tour like Progressive Nation is about Mike
Portnoy, not the industry. Granted your label has to pay for it
but the hard part is getting on a big tour. So, having that
connection is so crucial, but Mike is a musician he’s not a
label executive, he’s just like me. There’s a lot of struggle
within the industry, it’s not a healthy place for art. I think
it goes back to you commenting about Cheat The Gallows
exisiting. Is it real? Is it a time warp? That’s part of it.
Ryan:
The title itself is almost a metaphor for what the band has been
through over the years and the fact that you’re still making
music in this crazy business.
Damon:
That’s absolutely it. I saw the title and thought that defines
what we’re going through right now. I won’t be put to death in
this band, I’m going to survive no matter what and pull through.
That might sound really corny and cheesy but on the other side
of the coin I see bands all the time, whether they’re friends or
people we’ve toured with in the past, they hang up their guns
and call it a day. You lose; you’ve quit your dream and your
band. They’ll start a new band and try to follow another dream
and go where the grass is greener. Or they’ll shift to the
latest trend and when it doesn’t click…you start second guessing
yourself. So when you talk about something fundamental like
surviving, keeping your band together and cheating failure, it
is serious. When music is what you love doing and you have ten
plus years in a band, nobody wants to give up. Guys like me, who
are in a band, what are we honestly going to do? This is what I
was put on this earth to do, am I going to go into editing now
or producing and be the Crash Davis of the music world?
[laughing]
Ryan: In
the past you guys have written some pretty epic songs but I
think you took it a step further with this album and I know
every artist usually says their latest record is their best, but
Cheat The Gallows is in my opinion your most ambitious
effort yet. It’s like you threw everything including the kitchen
sink into the mix this time around. Was it a conscious decision
to…
Damon: Go
for broke?
Ryan:
Yeah to put it all out there a little bit more this time around.
Damon: Yeah
and I just said this the other day. I think that “Money It’s
Pure Evil” and “Counting Sheep”, you have possibly the most
commercial moment that Bigelf has ever had, combined with the
most avant-garde, esoteric song in our catalog. Hey man I’m
proud to be in my late thirties and still making relevant music.
It’s easy to make music that is vital and hungry when you’re
twenty-one or twenty-five. (Paul) McCartney made Sgt. Pepper
when he was twenty five not when he was forty five. So yeah, I
definitely felt the clock was ticking. You feel that you have to
make your mark and do something that is going to catch people’s
attention. It wasn’t a conscious effort to go over the top, it
simply was us getting into this carnival-esque attitude and just
feeling that energy.
Ryan: Do
you think you’ll take that ethos or spirit into each recording
going forward as well?
Damon: It’s
hard to say what the next record will be like because every
record so far has had a different atmosphere… they’re just
moments in time. With Cheat The Gallows, there was
definitely a sink or swim feeling. We felt if we didn’t make
something really good that this could be it. But it’s hard to
say because when we were doing Hex I thought that was a
really solid record. At the time I thought that this was it and
that we’d really created something that was worthwhile and was
going to make an imprint somewhere. It lived up to its name
unfortunately, but I don’t remember feeling quite as dire while
recording Hex. Like you said before you always think that
your latest record is the best. I don’t know if Cheat The
Gallows is the best, but I think it is a very well rounded
and representative of Bigelf. The next record will be a
reflection of whatever we’re going through at that time. I would
imagine that when the next record does come, that it will be
darker. No surprise there. [laughing]
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