Intervista Saint Vitus (Dave Chandler)

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Hi Dave, how are you doing?

Good, it’s only the second show but everything’s cool, everyone seems to be good.

Right, how was it yesterday?

It was good: small venue, small crowd, but that’s kinda how it is always at that place.
Everybody was cool, everybody got into it.

This tour marks the 40th anniversary of Saint Vitus, how does it feel to reach this achievement?

Strange!
It never ever felt we’ve been doing this for 40 fucking years, so it’s weird thinking…I’m old now! [laughs]

For your 35th anniversary you played “Born Too Late” in its entirety, are you planning something special for this anniversary too?

Well, not really, we called it that because we did our first live show in 1979 and we were just trying to figure out something to call the tour, and I was, “Oh wow, it’s been 40 fucking years!”, there’s the tile right there.
But we are showcasing our new album, which will not be released until May 17, so we’re playing a lot of that, that’s the special thing…and then we got an interesting encore for everybody!

As you mentioned, next month will see the release of your new album, “Saint Vitus”. First of all, your debut is also called “Saint Vitus”, why did you choose this title? Aren’t you afraid it will confuse the fans?

No, not at all because for one thing they look completely different, if you look at the logo they look completely different and the only person that has been confused is the record company!
No one else has been confused, no fans have been confused, if you Google it and you’re gonna search it or whatever it says when they were released, it says “Saint Vitus 1984”, “Saint Vitus 2019”.
That’s not confusing, and basically it marks like a full circle for the band too, so…
It’s easy to do, especially if you go with digital download, on Amazon it’s the only one that pops up right at the top, the big grey album.

This is the first album in 24 years with Scott Reagers, how was it to be in the studio with him again?

It was really like a flashback almost, because we set up the way we did our first album with baffles in between the instruments and we played like that.
The difference is that the first album we just recorded the first takes, it’s like a live album, whereas this one of course we went back and went over stuff again.
But it was cool because everybody was in the same room so it was the same kind of vibe for me and him.

You’ve always been the main composer of Saint Vitus’ music, but from time to time other members jumped in to write something. Was it the case for this album too?

Yeah, actually on this record Henry wrote the music and the words to the song ‘Hourglass’, and Pat wrote the music to ‘Wormhole’, and I wrote the rest.
 So, yeah, there was collaboration on this.

Can you talk me a bit about the lyrics? What are they about, what inspired them?

Well, actually, a lot of times I do concept records, like “Lillie [F-65]” was a concept record.
This one is a collection of different style songs, so all the lyrics are very much different; the lyrics that I write are still the kinda dark, weird, you know, my own bizarre way things that I do.
Each song is it’s own little deal, except for ‘A Prelude to…’ and ‘Bloodshed’, that’s the small little concept thing that stuck in the middle of it all, but the rest are all entities on their own, they all mean different things.
Like, there’s one about leaving Earth to find someplace better, there’s one about walking through your mind and seeing all these weird visions, there’s one about how protesting is useless in this world, so there’s a lot of different stuff.

Talking about the band in general, Saint Vitus are regarded as one of the first Doom Metal bands, and one of the most influential. Do you remember when you realised the extent of this influence?

That wasn’t until 2002, when I was in a band called Debris Inc. with Ron Holzner from The Skull and Trouble, we did the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany, we played ‘Born Too Late’ as the last song and the crowd sung it all and I was amazed!
I was like, “What the hell!”, because when we retired in 1995 no one knew who the hell we were, that’s why we stopped: in Europe we were semi-popular, but in America we were still just fucking shit and I was like, “I can’t do this anymore”.
But when I saw that I thought, “Hey, that’s interesting!”, and when we were hanging in the bar and people were asking, “Will you try it again?” and I was like, “I gueeess”.
The next year Full Force booked Saint Vitus and Debris Inc. and that’s when we started realizing – because with Saint Vitus we had people starting to come to interview us – that’s when people started saying all this shit about what we did.
Apparently in those years Doom Metal came from nothing into being a genre on its own, and we were all surprised as hell, we were like, “Okay, ehm, thanks!”, because it’s flattering when people say that, but we never thought of ourselves like that.

As we said, it wasn’t the case when you first started, but Doom (and Stoner) Metal have been quite popular, at least in the underground, for some years with festivals like Desertfest dedicated just to the genre, and huge festivals like Hellfest having stages for this kind of sounds. What do you think of this newly found popularity?

Like I said, it’s cool!
I’d like to say it’s strange, but it really isn’t because it kinda make sense.
I like it, I like things like Hellfest having a stage for us, and the thing that is actually the weirdest for me is that Doom Metal is popular in America now, that’s strange, it spread, and that’s cool because so many people played it for so many years with no recognition, Witchfinder General for a classic example.

Is there any new band that you’re into?

Well, that’s the thing about me, when I’m not writing music, or out doing music, I don’t listen to music.
It’s very rare for me to listen to something, and that’s usually the stuff I grew up listening to, now I watch TV more than anything else.
So I really don’t know any new bands, I knew Dopelord’s name but I didn’t know what they sounded like and that was, “Wow, that’s a cool fucking band!”, that’s what usually happens when I’m out on the road, that’s when I hear bands I’ve never heard before, because when I’m home I just turn it off, because I have another job, so I shut this off and go into that.

May I ask you what the other job is?

Oh, I work in a retail store, we sell herb, supplements, pipes and stuff like that.

In the years you’ve been a musician the music industry evolved a lot, from vinyl to CD, then the internet, today with the streaming. How have things changed from your point of view?

Well, the internet thing help you get to more people, instantly, so that changes a lot.
Especially, not just music and where you buy it, but YouTube too with videos, you can watch yourself, in the dressing room after you’ve just played sometimes, that’s really good.
I’m still a fan of…to me the best way, my favourite way to listen to music is still CDs, they sound better than vinyl, this vinyl comeback thing is fine but to me CDs sound much better, and I don’t listen to anything on the computer because my computer’s speakers aren’t any good.
But, like I said, I don’t really know any new Doom bands at all, it’s funny to hear me say that, but…

Are you into other genres of music?

Yeah, I like all kind of different stuff, if I’m gonna listen to something when I’m at home I have to be in the mood, like I’m coming back from work and I’m like, “Fuck it, I’m gonna put something on” and I might put on my old stuff like Jethro Tull or Blue Oyster Cult, [Black] Sabbath, whatever.
After I watched Bohemian Rhapsody I was like, “Damn, I forgot how great those records were”, and I wanted to get them on CD but the price were jacked up because of the movie, damn it, I should have done that a long time ago! [Laughs]
Because I don’t have a record player so I can’t listen to all my old records, so…

Is there any kind of music you think your fans would be really surprised to know that you like?

Probably not because I’ve always said in interviews…but, you know, I also like weird stuff, I used to work in strip bars for years, so I like stuff Sade, Ace of Base, all those songs that stripper used to dance to, and I still like that stuff , so that might freak a few people out!
And I like, because of my age I like a lot of the stuff my parents used to listen to, like the Big Band Orchestras, like Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, that kind of stuff, I love all that shit, Swing music and all that!
What’s another weird one?  Jamaican stuff, Sean Paul and Lady Saw, I like all that shit too.

Well, I guess this might surprise some!

Yeah, yeah, Lady Saw is great, that’s a dirty bitch! [laughs]

That was my last question, thank you for you time and if you have a final message for your Italian fans this is the right moment for it!

Thank you, man!
I’m looking forward to playing for you again, come out to the show and on May 17 check out “Saint Vitus”!

Davide Sciaky