"LIVING DANGEROUSLY"

The Danger Danger E-Zine

"For the Fans, By the Fans"

Volume 1- Issue 8

May 13, 1999

HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU...

It's about that time again....time for me to flood you with useless boring information. (I took that line directly from some fan mail of mine...hey..what can I say...I aim to please....=]) We have some great stuff this issue that will hopefully amuse even the toughest of crowds. (If not..I've been holding out on my party tricks just for occasions like this...) The guys have been putting their time to good use in the studio and we have lots of details on that. Plus we're bringing you the first portion of the interview that Dave conducted with Paul....aside from that you'll find the usual odds n ends.

The Return of the Great Gildersleeves....

Okay....I'm sure you all want proof that they REALLY are working on the album and not just sipping drinks with cute lil umbrellas in them on some deserted island. (With Lovey and Mr. Howell...) So...here's the play by play...song by song...in the words of our very own Monsieur Ravel......

1. GRIND
It's a midtempo rocker in the classic D2 "80s" vein. You might even call it the sequel to "Naughty Naughty"

2. DEAD DOG
This song, originally written in 1995 for the "DAWN" album was given a facelift and some big ole breasticules. (Breasticules Bruno?...Hey kids..I don't ask questions..I just type this stuff....) It's heavy, dark, yet catchy. It has the same feel as maybe "Sick Little Twisted Mind". An eerie vibe. This song is one of my fave songs.

3. SHE'S GONE
This is a "mature" ballad alla "Don't Walk Away". I say this because when someone says "ballad" you usually think of a song like "I Still Think About You" or Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing", etc... "Don't Walk Away" is not a ballad to me, yet everyone says it is and it DOES appear on "Monster Ballads" , so what do I know? NOTHING! (AYE AYE AYE..Did he HAVE to mention that the music I adore has been reduced to a bad infomercial compilation? =]) Anyway..."She's Gone" is very mature for us..I guess we're getting older. There's a bluesy "Clapton-esque" solo courtesy of Tony Bruno that rips so get out of your wheelchairs ladies and gents...w'ere headed for an old age home...NOT! =]

4. DEAD DRUNK & WASTED
My favorite track on the CD...a catchy uptempo rocker with some cool lyrics. Paul sang the hell outta this one.

5. CHERRY CHERRY
Okay..start laughing. Bruno makes his lead vocal debut! A cool lil ditty about growing up in the late 70s/early 80s. It's where we came up with the title for the album...more to come.

6. WHEN SHE'S GOOD SHE'S GOOD (When She's Bad She's Better)
The only re-recored COCKROACH track to make the cut...Mr. Andy Timmons revives his role as lead guitarist extaordinaire. NUFF said!

7. WALK IT LIKE YOU TALK IT
The only thing that's the same about this previously recorded track are the lyrics. It's now a steamroller. Heavy and pumping...a good set opener.

8. MY SECRET
A Paul Laine penned ballad...need I say more? It has a very "folky" feel to it...Acouistic Guitars and Strings and BRUSHES! More old age home stuff...OUCH! A great tune.

9. GET IN THE RING
A real "Fuck Yeah" kinda song. Heavy Catchy and filled with BALLS. I love it. Reminds me of the great arena rock tracks from "the day"...

10. I DO
D2 at it's best...doing what we do best....VERY 80's. and catchy...you'll love this one.

11. 6 MILLION DOLLAR MAN
Great catchy song. This one has more of a 90's feel ala "JADED". It figures...Mr. Laine wrote it. It's in his blood..or his coffee!

That's it for previews. The record is in the home stretch. It'll be done in a few weeks. The early review is...BETTER THAN "4"!!!!!

And the Survey Says..

This is an interview that was conducted with Paul Laine a few months back. I thought it was too good to get away so I'm going to put bits and pieces of it in the next few issues. (It's quite a monster of an interview...) Big ole thanks to our buddy Dave for sharing. There's a link to his and his wife Dawn's D2 site down below. Check it out..they do a kickass job. We're SOOO not worthy!

(David) Hi Paul. You just recently turned 31 on October 12, so you've been in the music business for awhile. At what age did you start considering music as a career?

Paul) Well, I dropped out of high school when I was 15, I got a job and rented a place of my own in Vancouver. I really worked hard to get into studios and start recording when I was around 15 and 16, and of course, I was playing clubs, too. A friend of mine that ran this logging company and another friend noticed me and the fact that I was working so hard and they said you kinda need a management thing to happen. So the three of us formed this company together and I said, "OK. I will do the creative stuff, but I need some sort of representation!" It was total bullshit in the sense that neither of us knew what we were really doing, but with that company I was able to pull it off and land a record deal.

(David) So tell me how you were able to land your first record deal?

(Paul) Well, that's kind of a long story, but let me make it short. I shopped for a record deal just like everybody else. With the help of my two friends and business partners, our company was able raise $50,000 in investment capital when I was only 17 years old. I used part of the money to buy studio time in which I recorded my own demos, and the rest of the money was used for traveling expenses, mainly flying back and fourth between Vancouver and Los Angeles where I was shopping for record deals. I hooked up with an entertainment lawyer in LA by the name of Rolph Schwartz ...

(David) No relation to Sherwood Schwartz who produced the TV comedies like the Brady Bunch?

(Paul) Actually, believe it or not Sherwood was his father ... the guy that created Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch. So yeah, I hooked up with the son of Sherwood Schwartz and he got a deal with CBS for me and I said, "Like you finalize the deal" In the meantime, I flew back to Canada and recorded three more songs, which included Dorianna, and I shopped them. I basically sent them out one week and the following week, I got offers from two other record labels. One offer was from Elektra, with Bruce Allen as my manager, and the other offer was from A&M. So I had three record deals by the time I was 19 years old: Elektra, A&M, and CBS.

(David) So you chose to go with Bruce Allen and Elektra?

(Paul) Right! That's when I started working on the Stick It In Your Ear album. Bruce Fairbairn produced it and it turned out to be a very good record.

(David) I'm sure it was indeed an honor to have Bruce Fairbairn produce your very first album. Along with Mutt Lange, Bruce was one of the most prolific rock n' roll producer in the 80's. Here you were a young pup, still wet behind the ears, and you are starting out amongst the rock n' roll heavy weights.

(Paul) Yes, I remember the day I signed the contract for my very first record deal, Stick It In Your Ear It was Billy Duffy's (The Cult) birthday party. Not only did I get invited but I went to the party with all of the guys from Aerosmith, all of the guys from Bon Jovi, all of the guys from Skid Row, all of which Bruce was producing at the time. I remember thinking "I'm nothing but a little fly in this room!"

(David) Obviously, Bruce Fairbairn was really impressed with your talent. In addition, since Bruce almost exclusively used Little Mountain Studio as his home base, along with the fact that you lived in Vancouver, you became one of his favorite studio musicians. When you think of Bruce what memories do you have that come to mind?

(Paul) The greatest thing about Bruce was all the work that he gave me after he produced my first solo album. Yeah, Bruce was really cool and I hooked up with him at a great time. When he was working on my debut album, he was also in the process of making Pump with Aerosmith. Yeah, working with Bruce was a very cool time and a great experience for me.

(David) So what stage of the Aerosmith production was going on at the time?

(Paul) They were mixing then. The guys in Aerosmith are really nice guys, really hard working guys. Steven Tyler is like .... he's the shit man, ... he is that band ... that guy works so hard.

(David) One of the jobs that Bruce landed you was the primary background vocalist on an album he was working on called "Face The Heat" which was recorded by the German superstars The Scorpions, eh?

(Paul) That was like a huge thing for me because I loved the Scorpions and it was great working with them. Bruce also fixed me up with Poison where I also did all of the background vocals on their album Flesh and Blood. Just the whole time period was great ... even if I wasn't working on a particular project, I still got to hang out with a lot of huge acts which included the Bon Jovi guys, The Cult, and Motley Crue ... it seems like. everybody was in Vancouver at that time and they were recording at Little Mountain Studio. Bruce was producing some of the biggest bands in rock n' roll and Bob Rock, who is also a famous producer and engineer, was his understudy. Bruce and Bob were huge ...

(David) Another act that we've yet to mention that was also a big success in part to Bruce Fairbairn was the band Loverboy. Loverboy was from Vancouver, too. Didn't you have some involvement with them, also?

(Paul) Paul Dean (who was the guitarist, one of the principle songwriters, and the leader for Loverboy) was being managed by my manager, Bruce Allen, also. So Bruce Allen was the person that was responsible for hooking Paul Dean and myself up. The deal was that we would start working on a record together where I would be singer as well as co-writer with Paul. Basically, things didn't pan out that way though. Instead, I found myself just singing on a record that consisted of nothing but Paul Dean songs. I just got fed up and told Paul, "Fuck this! I don't want to be involved anymore because the deal was we would be writing songs together and all you seem to want is to have me sing all of your tunes."

(David) So this was right after Loverboy broke up ....

(Paul) Right. In fact, what really happened was Loverboy had just broken up and I had just came out with my record. I was told that Paul Dean wanted to come and play guitar with me on my stuff. I was like, "He's too old, but I'll do some writing with him." But like I said, things didn't happen that way. Now later, I did do some writing with Mike Reno (lead singer and the other principle songwriter for Loverboy) and that was fun, but the songs we did together were just demos and nothing ever happened with them.

(David) I know a lot of people are desperately searching for a copy of the Stick It In Your Ear CD. Do you have plans to re-release it?

(Paul) I did with a company called Long Island Records, a few years ago. I was gonna start producing it myself which I still may do. I've been getting orders in from fans wanting the CD.

(David) You should seriously consider re-releasing it again. From what I hear it is one of the most sought after CD's on the market. I've found that out firsthand from my own searching. All of the used record dealers as well as most of the specialty record distributors on the web know who you are and have a list of people who want a copy of Stick It In Your Ear.

(Paul) Yeah! I hear there is a demand and it is extremely hard to get! What I was doing, I was making a deal with WEA, they have 300 copies left in a warehouse here in Vancouver of the original CD's. I have ownership of the album, but they have ownership of the product. So basically, I'm trying to buy what they've got and sell them.

(David) Now is that the European version or the American version? The European version had more songs, didn't it?

(Paul) Yeah. The American release only had 9 songs and the European had four additional songs, 13 total. The CD's I'm referring to are the American version. Depending upon what happens with this deal, I may looking into re-releasing the European version.

(David) Not only is their still a demand for the CD great in the United States and Canada, you seem to still have quite a following in Europe, too. In fact, for the 1990 year, I was impressed when I found out that Stick It In Your Ear was the #4 best selling album hard rock album in the United Kingdom. You even edged out Alice Cooper and AC/DC.

(Paul) Yeah. I'm always surprised to hear that I've still got a following. I certainly signed a lot of Paul Laine albums when I was on the road with D2 in Europe last year.

David) As far as North America goes how did you gauge its success.

(Paul) I was really big in Canada. Stick It was just starting to take off in the States, and more stations began playing my songs about the time the shit hit the fan between my in management and my record label. We had hired individual promoters to figure out what cities I was doing best in. At one time I had a top 10 single in 20 different stations (in 20 different cities). So we started making some noise. I was doing exceptionally well in Ohio and even got to headline an event there.

(David) So what were some of your hits? Obviously Dorianna ...

(Paul) "Dorianna" was a smash hit in several countries and was my first big hit. Some of the radio stations on the east coast started playing "We Are The Young" and were getting tons of calls. The record company went as far to ship out CD singles of "We Are The Young" only to pull them back. They decided that "Is It Love" would be my next single since it was the heavy rock ballad that often did so well on the charts. So we shot a video for "Is It Love" it was a definite video hit in Canada.

(David) Which leads to another question ... In Europe you had a second solo album called Can't Get Enuff ... although that one is not listed "out of print" like Stick It is, Can't Get Enuff is also extremely hard to find. I know that I had deposits down on it in two different stores, but finally got refunds after waiting six months and getting no bites. Why was that album available only as an import?

(Paul) The Can't Get Enuff album was never released in North America. Basically, I had done a deal with this label for what they called this Past Masters Series thing. The label had also done a similar deal with Bon Jovi so I thought it would be cool. The Past Masters Series was like a series of albums of various artists which featured demos and such that these artists had done before they ever had their first release on a major label. Can't Get Enuff was supposed to be a past master thing since it was like demos of stuff I had done when I was a teenager before Stick It In Your Ear was released. But the record label released it as a new record and I freaked out.

(David) Yeah! I remember looking it up on the Internet and that was what I was led to believe to ... that Can't Get Enuff was like your second solo album. Until now, I didn't know that it was like your pre-debut album.

(Paul) I wish that record had never seen the light of day, but hey, whatever. If you don't have it, you're not missing much.

(David) So when Little Mountain Studio closed around 1991 was that when you joined Danger Danger?

(Paul) That's right ... it all happened around the same time. My solo career was starting to take off and I was touring all over the United States. "Dorianna" had become a smash hit. "We Are The Young" was getting some airplay. "Is It Love" was a video hit in Canada. Things were just beginning to take off in the US and as I said earlier, "The shit hit the fan". Basically, what happened was there was a lawsuit between my manager Bruce Allen (who was also managing Bryan Adams) and my record label. So I left Bruce ...

(David) I was wondering why you never had a follow up record deal ... but I should have guessed LAWSUIT. So I guess that put your career on hold and even halted the success of Stick It In Your Ear and that album was still climbing?

(Paul) That definitely put my career on hold. So I left Bruce and I was floundering. I was traveling back and forth between Vancouver and Los Angeles trying to get deals. Danger Danger called me and at that point I said, "What the fuck! I've got to change my life .... I've got to keep going." So I flew out to meet the band and thought if I like these guys I'll do it. So I met Steve and Bruno and I thought "These guys are great! I'll do it! I'll try it and see what happens ... I'm like OK .... it's really not where I'm at musically, but I thought all of the guys were great musicians and Steve and Bruno were great songwriters and we would be able to do much more in the future."

MORE TO COME NEXT ISSUE....

OY VAY E-BAAAAAAAAAAY!!

I know I've mentioned it in the past..but..I wanted to say it again. If anyone is looking for collectible D2 merchandise that you think you can't find anywhere...check out Ebay. There's some great finds there. In fact..I wanted to send out a very special thanks to my friend Sky for outbidding the competition and sending me a few D2 singles..thanks hon!!!

YOU ASKED....THEY ANSWERED...

Q: I had a question for Paul, the track Jaded on Four the Hard Way, says was co-written by S. Brown. I was wondering if that was Steve Brown from the band Trixter???

A: Nope!..That's SCOTT Brown...sometimes touring bassist for D2!

Q: Was bruno in the band 'Sweet Pain' or not? I know he was thanked on it, as was steve (for their baseball abilities! What's up with that? are they great baseball players in their spare time?) but I think Bruno was the bassist of "Sweet Pain" after Kelly Nickels (of LAG) left to join another band and moved to LA. (BTW I have the "Sweet Pain" LP which thanks Bruno and Steve...great music!

A: I was never "in" Sweet Pain. Corky Gunn and I have been close friends since High School, and we shared an apt for 3 years. During those 3 years, Corky formed Sweet Pain, and would often ask me for advice. When their 2nd bassist (Victor) bailed on them right before a showcase, I filled in for one show. That was it.

Q: Hi can you guys tell me when 4 The Hard Way will be released in US stores??

A: As of Today, it is officially released, and should be available at all stores. If they don't have it in stock, MAKE THEM GET IT!

Q: To Bruno, Steve and Paul: What is the routine in the Studio? From the writing to the release and what do you in times of stress in there? Do you argue and wish you could give up?

A: The routine is long, yet relatively stress free nowadays. We all write seperately, have many phone conversations, and then we get to work recording everything. As for giving up?...There's nothing to give up. The band is a release for us....We're not doing this to get rich or famous. Those days are long over. We do it for our fans, and to have fun.

TOUR TOUR TOUR...Did SOMEONE say TOUR????

Probably the question we're asked most is WHEN the band is going to tour...well...this is the latest..straight from the bassist's mouth. "As of today, our manager (God Bless Him) is full throttle booking a tour for the U.S/Canada for July/Aug.....Don't get too pumped just yet, but it's looking like it juuust might happen. It'll be clubs....maybe another band, we'll see how it develops.

As always...you'll be the first to know....I expect to see as many of you as possible out there as I'm trekking my butt to as many shows as I can!!!

SHED YOUR BRAINSTORMS ON ME...

With the new album fastly approaching, I've been trying to think of ideas to get the word out. I bump into people on the net on almost a daily basis who were once fans of the band but lost touch with their going-ons over the years and are very passionate about finding out more about their current endeavors. So..to me I think the biggest thing is really just letting people know that the band is still VERY much alive. I'd like to see this album do great..but..I'm going to need your help. So....think about it and let me hear your bright ideas. =]

PICKs O' Da WEEK:

Mary: I've been vacationing in HAWAII for the week so I didnt fit in many movies or music....I caught Message in a Bottle on the flight over. Very..ah..romantic...
Music...last CDs I bought were Blessid Union of Souls, Selena's Greatest Hits, and Orgy...I have weird tastes...what can I say.

Bruno: Movie: The Matrix....I have to say, it was pretty damn good!
CD: Black Crowes-By your Side
Nice to hear someone ROCKING these days...
TV Show: Ally McBeal....LOVE IT..I always tape it and watch it when I get the chance...Funny as hell.

Steve and Paul...ah....HELLO?

Til next time.....over n Stout...(that was for you Missy...)

Where and how to find us:

Bruno Ravel: Bass~~~Bruno@dangerdanger.com

Steve West: Drums~~~Steve@dangerdanger.com

Paul Laine: Vocals ~~~Paul@dangerdanger.com

Mary Mary~~~DngerDnger@aol.com