Princes of the Underground
by the Night Breed
The floods and heavy rains have kept me from doing a lot of things this week, but one very important event: the Astro Vamps' first gig. The floods trapped me. Enprisoned by the weather, I was unable to see their first show. But anyhow, I met up with Daniel and Eyajo early the next evening at this eerie and peaceful graveyard in east L.A. Armed with only my tape recorder, I ventured to the plot of ground where they wanted to meet me. I arrived there and out from behind these two tombstones walked Daniel and Eyajo. The moon was full, so everything was quite well lit. "We're here" Daniel said, while sitting down and making himself comfortable on a tombstone. "Oh, what a witching night it is, wouldn't you say?" Eyajo asked, standing with his arms crossed in an "X" and leaning up against a tombstone. I began the interview by pushing record on my tape recorder. "Here we are with the 'Princes of the Underground', Daniel and Eyajo of the Astro Vamps" I said into the tape recorder, then set it down at my side with the microphone facing Daniel and Eyajo. I continued; "Well, first I'm curious, Eyajo, I just noticed you and Daniel are carrying daggers. Would you like to comment on why?" "It's Hollywood! There's no other comment necessary" Eyajo said, pulling out the dagger, showing it's cold, shining blade under the blue haze of the moon. "It's for protection then?" "Yes, but we don't take them everywhere" Daniel answered. "It's weird but the daggers seem to fit your outfits, as if there's another reason for them." "It's for drinking blood" Eyajo said with a laugh, then added "Just kidding. The dagger is the ultimate symbol of our character and the type of character you have depends on what you do with the knife. Will you take a life or give one? It's up to the individual soul." Eyajo slid the knife back into the sheath. "I think Eyajo and I would have fit in well during the dark ages, you know, the time of the Celtic realm, Crusades and King Arthur" Daniel said, sharpening his dagger on the side of the tombstone. "Back then we didn't have to explain why we carried a dagger" whispered Eyajo. I resumed the interview. "So what do you think of L.A.'s music scene right now?" Daniel replied "Well, it's pretty sad. People are doing the same old thing and as soon as something gets popular they'll start doing that, too." "The A&R people tell you to 'do your own thing', because that's what they want originally, but then they turn their backs and sign what seems to be 'in'. They just don't want to take a chance. My advice is don't listen to A&R people" Eyajo added. "Do you think all the music is bad?" "No, I didn't mean bad, just same old same old. But the L.A. underground scene is pretty good. Actually there are quite a few of these underground bands that I like" Eyajo said. Daniel added "We don't even really look at the rock papers anymore because all we see is 'pay me money and you can play my club'. It's just ridiculous all the bands that do that. Just because you've played the Whiskey doesn't mean Warner Brothers is going to be knocking down your door". "Do you guys get ridiculed for your image and 'lone wolf' type of attitude?" Oh, God, yes!" Daniel replied, standing up and sheathing his dagger. "Where should we begin? We just had a writeup done about our album in a popular local music magazine and this so called critic attacked our look saying it was a gimmick and that our album was recorded poorly." "We appreciate constructive criticism of any kind, good or bad, but to attack us as people, well, that's unprofessional and cowardly, and I hope the moon is full the night he walks through a dark alley" Eyajo said while looking up at the full moon with a fixed gaze. "Are you making a threat, Eyajo?" "No, it's just Karma. Witches know this. For every action there's an equal reaction, so if you keep attacking someone, eventually you will become the victim" Eyajo said, removing a little black velvet bag from around his neck. "Besides, with a pen-name like 'Bart Mann' how can he accuse someone else of using a gimmick?" Daniel said. "I hear that you guys are working on your second album already." Yes, that's right. We've got about nine or ten songs for it already" Daniel replied. Eyajo continued "We are planning to release I on Halloween of this year." "But right now we're playing live shows until April. That's when our drummer leaves again for England. Then we'll finish up the writing in July or August we'll start recording again" Daniel said. "We don't care what labels do or what people think about our ways, but we plan to release an album a year until we decide otherwise. We're not forcing anyone to buy them" Eyajo said. "Why do you want to record an album a year?" "Because we have a lot of songs and Eyajo and I want to see them all recorded. It's our legacy, even if it just stays underground" Daniel said, taking the black bag from Eyajo and putting it around his own neck. "If it takes us ten years then we're going to have more than one demo to show for all those struggling years" Eyajo said, getting up and walking over to me. "Are you guys ready to leave?" "Yes, we're going to take off now. Thanks for talking with us" Eyajo said, handing me a small black stone. "Call us. We'd love to talk with you again" Daniel said, walking behind Eyajo through the thick forest of tombstones that covered the graveyard grounds. I didn't ask about the black stone. Some things shouldn't be questioned, but just taken on faith.
~ Back ~
©1999 
This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page