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Glam rock may trace back to Slade, T. Rex and David Bowie, but some American bands have also turned it into an art form. The latest appears to be Cleveland's vanityCrash, who released their ten cut, self-titled disc on the world awhile back. OhioOnline music correspondent Peanuts had an electronic exchange with the band's lead vocalist Dan Folino about vanity Crash's music, which is as elevated as their collective platform shoes. |
| OO: |
Who gets the credit for sparking your musical interest? |
| DF: |
"I've always been interested in music, both playing and listening to it. I suppose the one person would be my Mom's ex-boy friend, Tom Wang. No, he isn't Chinese, by the way. He would make me mix tapes while he worked as a disc jockey at a local radio station. Frank Zappa, David Bowie, the Pretenders, AC/DC, James Brown, the Cure, Lou Reed. He really opened a lot of doors for me at a very young age." |
| OO: |
Should I guess which one of those artists influenced you? |
| DF: |
"I'm heavily influenced by David Bowie. I've 'borrowed' a lot of chord progressions from him throughout the years. Lyrically, I'm most influenced by Nick Cave. I've always loved the way that his words are so brutal and descriptive. Very adjective heavy." |
| OO: |
So describe vanityCrash's music. |
| DF: |
"Start with five cups of rock and roll. Add two cups of riff driven ruckus, one cup of glam, a half cup of unpredictability and a half cup of theatricality. Place a small cluster of pain and self loathing in the center and then frost with an awful lot of self assurance, ego and primal sexual perversion." |
| OO: |
Sounds like Iggy Pop on the Food Network. What national band would you match up with? |
| DF: |
"I think we would do well with Aerosmith. We're very visual in our live shows, everybody has an alter ego up there on stage. I've seen a few Aerosmith concerts and we put on a show similar to them." |
| OO: |
Any bands from Ohio you'd like to play with? |
| DF: |
"There really aren't an awful lot of bands that we match up well with. You really can't blame the club owners. There is a Bowie cover band by the name of the Diamond Dogs that I would love to do a show with. That would hit our market." |
| OO: |
As for the disc, where did you cut it? |
| DF: |
"In the basement turned recording studio of one of our guitar players, Brian Hager. Brian and our other guitar player, Dennis Yurich, tweaked the room and got an unbelievably clean sound. They handled all the mixing and mastering as well. Everyone was very comfortable there. That was incredibly beneficial because we weren't rushing to get stuff done. We could take our time and get it to sound exactly how we wanted. |
| OO: |
Favorite venue in Ohio? |
| DF: |
"The Hi Fi Club in Lakewood, the first place we played. The staff there is fantastic and it's one of the few clubs we've played that the lighting is rock and roll lighting." |
| OO: |
How did the band's name happen? |
| DF: |
"Not easily. We must have gone through two hundred names before we settled on vanityCrash. We knew we wanted a name that hinted at both the super self absorbed side of who we are as well as the self hating side." |
| OO: |
Final thoughts? |
| DF: |
"Currently, I'm working on a new disc that will incorporate not only vanityCrash, but the talents of theatrical performers and fifteen piece orchestra. Not an easy undertaking at all, but, when it's finished and up on stage, it's truly going to be something that people will be talking about. My advice to the reading audience is go see live shows. Even if you don't know anyone on the bill, just go to the club and see a show. As a musician, it's hard to spend so much time writing a song to perform it to a sparse crowd of your friends. The best compliments we've gotten have come from strangers in the audience." |
