Detonations

Detonations are: John Henry: Telecaster Guitar-Bass Hybrid Julien Fried: Lead Guitar Keith: Drums Photo by T. Campbell Howling with an electrostatic pulse from the center of New Orleans, Detonations (D)evolved from the primitive roots of band-kind, notably Sex Hunter and The Drags. The sonic progeny is a duct-taped nuclear reactor crunching garage, glam, and punk rock particles into an atomic residue that mutates the listener's DNA but feels real nice. The ionic fusion of sound and libido is accelerated by dangerous amounts of thump, fuzz and treble. Frontman John Henry plays a Fender Telecaster with some replacement bass strings filtered through a tricky bi-amp system that spews a viscious sludge leaving you glowing and satisfied. I was able to do the following interview with him in March 2005 through e-mail. - BL *******************************

RRP: I've read that on your last album you recorded all the songs in one day to keep from over-thinking the music. Do you think that too many bands get bogged down in the amount of technology and options that they have in even a cheap studio these days, and therefore spend too much time manipulating the music? What do you think gets lost when this happens? JH: Too much processing is obnoxious. I prefer boom box tapes, but it's difficult to get someone to put out your tape deck recordings. Digital has it's place, but it's hard to capture rock-n-roll on a hard drive: there's no breathing room, no life. Jerry Teel's studio was somewhere in-between. RRP: I know that you don’t want to be lumped into any retro-rock scene. What bothers you about it? Do you think too many bands target a certain scene and its crowd, rather than just making music: almost as if they aim to be uncreative from the outset? JH: I don't know what other bands are aiming for it's not what I'm thinking about. They can do what they want and have fun with it. I just don't see where we fit. I guess because Kieth was in The Drags everyone assumes that its garagerock, but from what I've heard they thought they where mislabeled as well. RRP: What was Sex Hunter like? I read that someone got stabbed at the first show you ever played. What happened? JH: Sex Hunter was a spacerock-n-roll explosion taking in alot of different musical influences, not to unlike Detonations, but now keith adds a more dance rock-n-roll beat that brings it more down to earth. Julien was the drummer for Sex Hunter and he was more of a spazz. Yeah some one got stabbed at the first show, it was ugly, and yeah alot of shit got broken at all of our shows and the power turned off on us, but the music was great. RRP: I read that you don't write lyrics, but instead turn off all the light and scream into a microphone and then play it back and write down what you think you may have said. Is that true, or were you just being facetious? If it is true, it is a very interesting way of working. What are the benefits or philosophies behind doing it that way, if any? JH: It's true in most cases, I'm not a fucking poet or anything like that. I'm into tapping into the Id. I change alot of things once we all play them together as well. You get better Ideas when you remove yourself from it. Sitting down with pen and paper sounds like a snoozefest. Oh yeah, and driving and walking works too. RRP: Living in New Orleans, a city romanticized by voodoo folklore, Cajun cooking, jazz and zydeco music, and colossal Marti Gras celebrations, how does the real city measure up? Did you grow up there, and has the city changed much over the years? JH: None of us grew up in New Orleans but Julien and I have been here for 10 years. There's a very commercial side to Mardi Gras and VooDoo and all that but mostly in the French Quarter, the nieghborhoods are where you see the real N.O.it can be a little dodgey in some parts a lot like Detroit and Cleveland, there's just alot of poor folk down here but we don't need money to have fun in N.O. we just throw alot of shows and partys and believe it or not there are alot of great bands down here. Photo by T. Campbell RRP: Where were you when Hurricane Ivan hit? What was that experience like? JH: We had a hurricane party at Quintrons house and got drunk.The past few hurricanes have been pretty boring. I wanna see cars and bodies flying down the street. RRP: I know the storm surge from the hurricane threatened to wash away New Orleans, which is below sea level to begin with. How prevalent is that concern? You know, scientists with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest there's a roughly one in six chance that a killer hurricane will strike New Orleans over the next 50 years. Does that worry you, living there in your vulnerable little basin as the raging ocean grumbles at your door with mounting discontent? JH: I have insurance, fuck it. We have huge pumps that pump the water to other places if it floods. I think someone got drunk and forgot to turn them on once and a section of the city flooded. RRP: If you were to found your own 510(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization, what would be your mission statement? JH: Drugs and Sex for children fund, to help kids get over the hang-ups they'll have about them when they get older. This would be mostly for white kids though. Micheal Jackson would perform on our telethon. RRP: What is something you've done while drunk that you woke up the next day regretting? JH: You can't regret what you can't remember. RRP: Do you believe in God, Love, or Aliens? JH: If there's a God he's certainly indifferent to the suffering of humans, and he definitely does'nt give a shit about anti-abortion or any of the other rightwing nutjob ideas out there. As for aliens, if there are any, they're probably running the world through these formentioned nutjobs and looking to abduct/convert the rest of us to there white washed version of what God may or may not be. RRP: What other sorts of interests do you have outside of music? JH: I've been doing alot of graphics lately. I just did the Cover for our new 7" Spy You In A Magazine on Big Neck Records and alot of our flyers as well, but mostly I do music. I have a couple of other bands I play in as well. RRP: What are your biggest vices? JH: I have my moments of overindulgence as well as everyone else in the band, but it's not an every day thing for me. I keep it to parties and shows. You can get pretty stupid in N.O. with the 24 hour drinking and drugging and I've seen a number of people go downhill. I see them out at all hours getting fucked up, but I'd rather be playing music. RRP: What's next for Detonations, and how do you want to be remembered in the history of rock-n-roll? JH: We're writing new songs at the moment and getting ready to tour in the spring and summer. Hopefully a new record before fall. As far as the history of rock-n-roll we'll just see what happens. RRP: What do you see yourselves doing during you golden retirement years? JH: Hopefully I'll die before they hook me up to the Ironlung.

Detonations Web Site