Interview: Bigelf

22 May, 2009

Mellotrons, theatrical rock and definitely progressive. Meet the biggest elf of them all.
By: Gian Erguiza

Bigelf is taking you back to a time when rock n’ roll was king and there was nothing else. The real intentions of this band? Bring back rock n’ roll in a big way. Bigelf’s sound is easily compared with rock greats such as Deep Purple, Sabbath and King Crimson and their latest release, Cheat The Gallows is proof. Now before you go and dismiss my notions, take a listen for yourself, it is prog rock heaven, hands down. Going out on tour with Dream Theater this coming winter, Bigelf is finally going to have their chance to bring their signature sound to Arenas and let the people feel what it’s like to have your soul walk through the halls of rock n’ roll. I got a chance to talk with Bigelf frontman Damon Fox about a few key things about Bigelf and got a chance to go deeper and find out what’s really on his mind. This is the Bigelf interview.

Hey Damon, can you please do our readers a huge favor and give them a quick history lesson on how the band began?

The history goes back a little. We’re not a new band. New to a lot of people because they’re finally finding out about us. I guess the rock n’ roll avenues are opening up more to classic rock and prog rock once again.

Alright man, so first off, you guys are now officially one of Alicia Key’s personal favorites. How much of a surprise was this and is it any consolation that Alicia Keys took a notice of the band, got the word out and do you even like Alicia Keys?

I love Alicia Keys. I think she’s an incredibly talented artist and is a really good soul actually. I met her through a recording session that I was doing. I was playing on one of her songs and she was asking about my band but I didn’t want to push my music onto her because it was about her music. Eventually she just cornered me and said, “I gotta know, what’s the band?” I dropped her a CD and thought she would just forget about it just like many people do. But then she went ahead and mentioned it in Oprah Magazine and I was shocked.

That was totally cool when I read that as well.

It was like us and the White Stripes and Nina Simone or something I mean c’mon man, she is one of the biggest artists on the planet.

Oh yeah man, that was definitely cool, I mean like you said, she’s one of the biggest artists in the planet.

I couldn’t believe it and I was totally speechless.

So now you guys are playing Musexpo this Sunday night at the Whisky, how stoked are you guys to play the Whisky this Sunday night?

I think it’s going to be a really great show. It’s a European showcase if you will, so we’re looking forward to starting up our European contacts again because we haven’t done any shows over there in a while. It will be good to get the juices flowing again, make people aware of what we’re doing.

Sounds good man, so Earth Day was yesterday, what did you do to celebrate Earth Day?

That’s a good question. Let me ponder through yesterday? Well, I always recycle. When we’re in the studio, I go around and collect all the water bottles from the garbage cans. Sometimes people are lazy!

[both laugh]

So it looks like good tidings are on your side this year. You guys released “Cheat the Gallows”, you have an upcoming tour with Dream Theater and Opeth, whom I actually love like hell. How has things changed for you guys these past couple months and how excited are you guys to be going out on the road this September?

Yeah, well it’s funny that the word “Dream” is in the band Dream Theater because as corny as it sounds, it’s just like a dream. Our band has struggled for so many years to get recognition and for Mike Portnoy to offer us the tour, going to Wembley Arena and the Icehall in Helsinki, it’s really all unthinkable. Duffy and Ace are from Finland, so to start the tour in Helsinki at The Ice Hall, it pretty much doesn’t get any better.

I hear you my man!

We’re definitely on the right tour, we’re with good folks!

Oh yeah, your music fits right in so it’s going to be a great package. Are you guys going to be playing here?

Um, we’re not doing the Prog Nation tour here in the US but we have some shows lined up for June with the band Hurt . We’re trying to get everything under the sun that’s out there. Anything from Heaven & Hell to small club tours.

Alright man let’s go back to “Cheat the Gallows”. What prompted the direction of the music and where did you guys derive inspiration from when you guys wrote the album?

There were a few songs in particular that have been hangin’ around for a while, ten years actually. “Gravest Show On Earth” and “Counting Sheep” had this theatrical sensibility to them and I certainly planned for them to be the opening and the closing of the album. Then it was just a matter of taking on this sort of carnival type of style and atmosphere. We didn’t plan it at all, it kinda grew on its own. It shaped out to be a little bit more of a bombastic event, not a straightforward rock record. I guess nothing in Bigelf is really straightforward.

What’s the significance of the album title “Cheat The Gallows?”

“Cheat The Gallows” is about cheating death. A certain death that artists face when they run out of options. It’s about determination, being able to come through and persevere.

Let’s talk about your lyrics. You’ve got some pretty deep and personal lyrics on this album so how serious do you take yourself while writing lyrics and is there a lyric that you really like from the album?

I try not to get too deep. You have to have a little bit of humor and a little bit of wit but with the last four Bigelf records, it appears that pain makes for great art.

I agree!

I try to express what I’m going through. It’s not always about pain and struggling, there are some victories as well. There’s overcoming challenges or maybe imagery of dreams and things of that nature. One of my favorite lyrics, hmmm?

God your probably going through your head like what?

Yeah, there’s so many and I rarely right stuff down. I’m trying to think. I mean, I’m definitely going to say, “Money, It’s Pure Evil” and it’s funny because I just read a review of “Gallows” where they said “Money” was kind of a “mope and dope” sort of song, which I barely realized meant, it was a downer! I turned to my friend and said that means buzzkill, right? You know money really screws people up and that’s a pretty important lyric for me. I’m really into “Counting Sheep” as well, when we break down into the little opera in the middle with the sheep. I think that’s really interesting lyrically.

And since you’re talking about “Money Its Pure Evil,” who was responsible for the idea behind the video and how did it all come about?

I had some ideas about a band or two young girls coming out to L.A. trying to make it. Its kind of a cliché idea; coming to Hollywood, being consumed by the beast, demonized by the music business and then finally turning on your friend. That’s one of my favorite parts in the video, when you think we only taint the one girl but then in the end we get the other little lamb too. The final product was a nice collaboration between myself, Linda Perry and the director, David Yarvo. You know the funny thing about videos these days is, you spend a lot of money making them look amazing and then it just ends up on YouTube all fuzzy.

“We didn’t just start the band two years ago on some retro hipster metal thing. I’ve been doing this for a while and I’ve been collecting Mellotrons and vintage instruments before most of these rockers were in high school probably.”

I hate to say it but that is so true!

It doesn’t even look good until you put it on Vimeo.

Yup, so you can get it on HD.

But I hear that MTV is going to start playing videos again.

-You know, I heard that too but I’m a bit skeptical of what videos they might be playing.

Well, that means if they play 25 minutes of videos now then they’ll probably play an hour in the future.

Yeah, you’re right!

The thing is, I think it has to go back to artist representation. They could pull back some programming!

Oh man, they can pull back a lot of their programming and you know? I don’t even know anyone who still watches MTV that much anymore so…

Yeah, there’s some stuff here and there like VH1, some other TV junkie type of stuff, some eye candy when you’re bored, but it’s cool to turn on the TV and hear music, the way it used to be. I remember seeing all kinds of stuff. You know Duran Duran, Def Leppard, anything! Headbanger’s Ball, you get all kinds of different things in there.

Yeah please bring that back…the real one!

It’s sucks man, what can we do?

I totally hear you man and it’s funny how the other channels that show the videos now, are sort of are bringing the videos back. But MTV is the giant and they do need to bring the videos back.

It’ll probably come back around, it’s not over yet. You know what we need? We need a band to come around and make like a 20-minute video like Michael Jackson did and inspire everyone to make videos again.

You know, Bigelf can actually pull that off.

We’re going to make “Counting Sheep” an 11-minute short film, there you go. Breaking news!

I’m going to make sure I pitch that idea my man! Let’s get to your live setup. Your album is an orchestrated piece of work with a bunch of stuff going on. How do you guys pull this off live?

Bigelf is an ornate sounding group so it’s not going to be identical to the record but neither was Queen or Pink Floyd, if you listen to their live stuff from 70’s. I’d say we get a solid 80% of what’s going on from the record. There are little vocal overdubs and horns, tidbits that we don’t duplicate live because I’m unable…I don’t have a third arm! I’m pretty good about the rest, I mean I play the Mellotron which gives me the string sounds and I do have two hands(Spinal Tap). Most people do say that they like the live show better then the records anyway.

Let’s ext stage left right here. The rock n’ roll hall of fame just concluded with Metallica leading the pack. If I gave you the power to induct three bands, who would you induct and why?

Not too hard of a question, I’m just going to go off the top of my head here. There’s this band from the sixties called The Pretty Things, they would definitely go in the hall of fame for me. Boy actually, this is pretty hard! I believe The Pretty Things were one of the quintessential psychedelic bands, they recorded the album S.F. Sorrow at Abbey Road when the Beatles we’re recording Sgt. Pepper. They were responsible for the first rock opera. Pete Townsend cited them as an influence for “Tommy” which should give you a reference point. The second band is The Move which was Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne’s band before they started ELO. Jeff Lynne ended up producing the Beatles, so he’s no slouch and Roy wood is one of the most underrated musicians in rock n’ roll history as far as I’m concerned. Third band, that’s a tough one but I’m going to have to go with Badfinger. Pete Ham and Tom Evans both committed suicide, got screwed by Apple and Warner Bros contractually. Talk about bad luck! They are definitely some of the finest songwriters from the seventies. Is this a fucking game show?

[both laugh]

It might be?

There are so many great rock bands from the seventies like King Crimson…Wait, did King Crimson make it in the hall of fame?

No, I don’t believe so? They might’ve been nominated but shut out.

King Crimson in my opinion, invented prog rock. They made a definitive statement of what prog-rock was supposed to be and they left everybody trying to emulate them. Yeah, King Crimson should be in it, now that I think about it.

Totally agree. Are there any bands that you’re currently into that people should know about?

I’m in LA right now working with a band called Din Caliber. They’re the new breed of what’s to come from young rock musicians, their music is modern but has a vintage flair to it. They’re completely hip to the past but stay true to what their modern minds discover. Kids are learning so much faster these days and there’s a lot out there to learn. This band is certainly phenomenal. Maybe I’m biased cause I’m working with them? I wouldn’t be working with them if I didn’t think they were absolutely fantastic!

So speaking of the internet, do you think that the internet is music’s salvation or is it actually killing the music?

I think the internet is good for music. It’s integral for discovery and research, it connects people. Bigelf would probably be dead right now without the internet so it’s definitely not killing music. Now technology on the other hand….this question is kinda like a double edged sword by the way. There are elements of digital music that are good but then there’s elements of it that are bad. But who know where it’s going to land. I think it’s healthy that the system is getting a big shakedown because it seems like it has sucked for the past 15 years. Any music system without rock n’ roll in it sucks in my opinion. Rock n’ roll is just not around anymore.

Do you watch American Idol by any chance? Do you think that it’s a load of crap or a great hub to finding the next great artist?

I don’t want to dismiss anybody in that way. I think great talent is different then a great artist. A great artist is someone who can make art. Some people that are on American Idol can really blow, I mean they can really sing! A lot better than some people on the radio actually, and you know what…just because they’re on American Idol doesn’t mean they’re not talented. There is a lot of great talent on that show.

It is what it is, I think people tend to write people off way too fast sometimes but some of those guys can really sing.

There’s a lot of people on Idol that can sing, they’re doing it. The dynamic of the show is more like a popularity contest instead of a singing contest most of the time. In the first wave of auditions it is always like…who’s got the best story? Do you watch it?

Yeah, I actually started watching recently.

Well, if you’re watching this year…I like Danny Gokey, he’s a phenomenal singer. His journey is incredible since losing his wife 10 months ago, but the thing about him that I like is that he’s got so much passion!

You can hear it in the dudes voice man.

I’ll take passion like that from an American Idol finalist over a metal band that doesn’t have any passion and is just playing the same shit that everyone else does. As long as the music is vital and has passion, I don’t really give shit what genre it is. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to listen to it but I think those are the things that people would like to see get back into play again with artists.

I agree man, except for Bigelf?

Well, we’re tryin’ man, I don’t know! There’s a lot of cool bands out there, The Mars Volta, The Raconteurs, Louis XIV but there’s no movement. There’s no one singular movement.

Speaking of those bands, where do you guys fit into the musical equation since the musical landscape is so vast and you’re music being different?

That’s definitely a tricky question. It’s not really easy for us to fit in anywhere. I guess the bands I just mentioned are some bands that we could tour with. I think a Raconteurs/Bigelf Tour would be really cool. I think The Mars Volta and Bigelf would also be appealing. We’re probably more like a Raconteurs type of band where there’s exploration and pop melodies involved in the genetic code of songwriting. The Mars Volta are more into the sonic experimentation and the musicianship. A lot of people forget that the foundation of Bigelf is the songs because they always talk about the prog-rock, the beards, the Mellotron and all of that, but in the end Bigelf is a pop band. Every song is like a pop song but not in the sense of modern radio now but a pop song kinda like “Come Together”. Also, I think our tour coming up with Dream Theater is a good start. It’s melodic metal with heavy progressive overtones and any band that covers the “Made In Japan” album and “Darkside Of The Moon” and releases it on DVD pretty much is a winner in my book.

-If you gave me three words to describe the sound of Bigelf, what would the three words be?

Wow, you’re really diggin’ into the spontaneity!

Sorry man, just tryin’ to see if you’re awake for today!

Beatle prog, Wonka metal and glam hobbit. There ya go! There’s three new sub genres I just created!

I’ll give you credit for those! Any shameless promotion or plug before we go?

Thanks for listening to the music cause that’s what it’s there for. To be listened to more than once. Check it out and get into it! Music these days seem to pass really quickly so the more you listen to it, the more you get into it. I appreciate the questions and in-depth talk!

Sorry about the questions my man!

It’s okay, it’s not like you asked me about the origins of the band. In that case, we would have to go out to dinner and talk for like two hours! We didn’t just start the band two years ago on some retro hipster metal thing. I’ve been doing this for a while and I’ve been collecting Mellotrons and vintage instruments before most of these rockers were in high school probably.

Have fun tonight and try not to get into too much trouble!

Thanks!