By Ryan Sparks
Stampeding out of the gate in the spring of 1989, the debut self
titled debut record from Dangerous Toys quickly shot the hell
raising Texas outlaws straight into the big leagues. The seeds
for the Toys were officially sown in the fall of 1987 when
guitarist Scott Dalhover, bassist Mike Watson and drummer Mark
Geary were operating a band called Onyx. After issues with their
vocalist arose they reached out to then Watchtower belter Jason
McMaster to help out and the rest quickly became part of rock ‘n
roll history.
After changing their name to Dangerous Toys Columbia Records
scooped them up and before you could sport a woody the band was
ensconced in the studio recording with renowned producer Max
Norman. The band got some serious millage out of their debut
through both steady radio airplay and lots of MTV rotation via
their two high profile singles “Scared” and “Teas N’ Pleas N’”,
not to mention the shitload of miles logged touring through
every single nook and cranny in the United States.
After the label rushed sophomoric effort Hellacious Acres
which was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, failed to make
significant dent in the charts and capitalize on their initial
success the band suddenly found themselves without a record
contract. Although undaunted, from this point on Dangerous Toys
moved underground. Two independent releases followed in the
90’s, Pissed in 1994 and the somewhat experimental
sounding and final studio effort to date The R*tist 4*merly
Known As Dangerous Toys the following year.
Although the Toys never officially broke up their activities
over the next few years dwindled considerably. Jason McMaster
would go on to form a new band called Broken Teeth in 1999 and
it would be that same year that the Toys began putting
themselves back together again, albeit slowly. Since that time
McMaster has managed to juggle various different projects at
once and the Toys still do a few shows every year for the
faithful in and around their hometown of Austin.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of that
electrifying first album and what better way to celebrate the
occasion than by releasing a kick ass live concert DVD that
captures the band in their natural element. Trust me these guys
haven’t lost any of their edge and the fire in their belly still
burns as strong as it did in their heyday. If you know anything
about Jason and any of the bands he’s been involved in over the
course of his storied career then you know that this cat lives
and breathes for the stage with everything else taking a back
seat. My interviews over the years with him have been more like
a conversation between two old friends discussing everything and
anything music related. You won’t find any rock star attitudes
on display with Jason. I recently caught up with him to get all
the juicy details on the new DVD as well as discussing the
groups past history, not to mention he let me in on some of the
other exciting things he’s got up his sleeve for the rest of the
year and beyond.
Ryan: I definitely want to talk about the new DVD but I have to
start out by saying how great it is that we can talk about
Dangerous Toys’ 20th anniversary which just in
itself is a worthy accomplishment to be proud of you know what I
mean?
Jason: I think so too. I like to think that it’s good to feel
that way about anything that lasts a couple of decades, it
doesn’t even matter what it is. The fact is it’s just hard to be
a rock n’ roll band these days and it’s only getting harder. A
lot of bands have broken up or gotten angry with themselves and
have no celebratory momentum for their craft and I think this is
something Dangerous Toys have always had, and we’ve kept our
credibility. There are all these reasons to celebrate Dangerous
Toys, I think that like a lot of bands that came out around the
same time, we didn’t sell a lot of records but we sold enough to
be able to have some sort of a career where we can play a
handful of shows every year. It’s not necessarily about the
money; it’s pretty much about celebrating that record and that
summer of ’89 as well as a career, which is something we’re
lucky enough to be able to do with this DVD that’s now out. A
lot of bands can’t do that because…well I don’t even know why
they would if there’s only one original member in the band,
there’s no reason to really celebrate that. That’s not the case
with Dangerous Toys because we’ve kept our momentum and our band
together, and we have a definite reason to celebrate by putting
out something that we’re proud of.
Ryan: This fantastic new DVD is really a perfect way to mark
the occasion and it really captures the ferocious energy of a
typical Toys set. Tell me a bit about how it all came about.
Jason: You’re right about the energy being captured for sure,
but as for it being a typical set it’s a rather long set for us
so it may not be as typical in that sense. For the most part, I
guess it was around 1999 that we started to think about playing
more shows because we didn’t play any for about four or five
years. A lot of people thought that we broke up or fell off the
path or whatever but for the most part it wasn’t like that. It
was the late 90’s and the record label that we were on we
weren’t working with them anymore, and there’s a few different
ways to say that we just got lazy, which isn’t really true
either because we were all just doing other things at the time.
We were kind of in between things. Our bass player Mike Watson
wanted to take some time off. Around 1995 we had done The R*tist
4*rmerly Known As Dangerous Toys, and even though it’s my
favorite Toys studio recording it was kind of ill fated with the
fans because it wasn’t “Teas N’ Pleas N’”, and “Scared”. It
kind of confused people a little bit and I don’t expect everyone
to do their homework because I know I never did mine, but people
needed to know that we were still alive. To just hit them with a
brand new record, there was no telling what it would have
sounded like because we were totally writing for ourselves and
not for anybody else. Even on that record there are some lighter
sides as well as heavier sides to the record. It was a fantastic
record but it wasn’t the original band. Mike had taken some time
off so I had to play bass, and the writing was different etc… In
199 we were asked to reform with Mike back on bass to open a
show for Alice Cooper in Dallas and of course we obliged. That
kind of reset our live show so to speak and we started playing
out more. We got asked to go to Japan and we kind of got a bit
more momentum but not enough to get past two shows a year. The
idea of recording a new record even though we were back playing
live with the lineup again, the ideas and roundtable discussions
that we had about writing and recording new material ended in
laughter. The right intentions would have been there but for us
to just write a record because fans want us to sound exactly
like we did in ’89 didn’t sound like a whole lot of fun to me.
To just go and remake the first record, I can hear the reviews
now. I don’t want to read that review where someone says
“They’re just trying to sound like they did back in ‘89”. I
could write that review. I want to make a record for me and if
the fans like it then that’s awesome, but what I will do for the
fans is play those songs for them because it’s part of who I am,
just like it’s part of who they are.
To get to the DVD I think the show proves that and it’s
important to us as a band to celebrate what the fans want to
celebrate. The idea of writing and recording a brand new record
that may or may not be trying to just sound like what we were
and what the fans just want us to be, why not just go out and
play the songs that they want us to be, which are the songs on
the first two or three records. So that’s what we do and that’s
what we did. Its twenty two songs if you count the demo song
“Shot To Hell” from ’92 that’s in the credits and in the menu.
That song almost made the Pissed album, it’s a great song
and it holds up real well. I think it’s an eight track cassette
recording and it sounds great. That is the lineup that played on
Hellacious Acres, so it is the band. There’s a lot to
talk about on the DVD, there’s also “Demon Bell” which had never
been played live before. That concert was the first time it had
ever been played. That song is from the Shocker soundtrack which
was a Wes Craven film that came out in ’89 that stared Mitch
Pileggi who went on to play Skinner on the X-Files. “Demon Bell”
was actually a riff that we had, before it was a song called
“Dangerous Toys”. I wrote new lyrics over the phone with Desmond
Child who was completely responsible for the success of Bon
Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, a couple of Skid Row hits,
Kiss, I mean everybody. I’m not saying “Demon Bell” was a hit
but it’s a song that came out really, really great and it’s
funny because we still make a few pennies off of it every time
we get a royalty check. Some bad B-film horror channel will play
that movie and everyone get s a couple of nickels. The reason
our nickels are not as shiny is because Desmond get’s 50%.
That’s the reality of that.
Ryan: What was it like getting a chance to write a song for a
major motion picture and were you a fan of Craven and horror
films in general?
Jason: Oh big time! I love old school slasher films and science
fiction and all that stuff. I think most heavy metal fans do
because it’s part of the M.O. to be into the excitement of
horror and artwork and gothic things, toy collecting and sci-fi
bullshit. It all kind of ties into the same kind of fan, it
really does and it’s rare when it doesn’t. It’s funny because
I’ll go to one of those weirdo, nerdo fan conventions and see a
lot of my fans there you know. I’ve been a special guest as well
at some of those Kiss conventions and toy conventions. We got a
lot of mileage out of the song. We never play a show without at
least one person bringing it up. It’s not like a thousand people
are yelling it out or making banners that say “Play Demon Bell”,
it’s not that crazy but it’s kind of a fun underground classic
for a certain demographic, which made it special for the DVD
because it was the first time we’d ever done it live. It was
also consistent with the debut album recording wise. We recorded
it with Max Norman who we did the first record with. He came
down to Texas and we recorded it in a studio called The Fire
Station in San Marcos TX which is only about a half hour south
of Austin. That’s where Bang Tango’s Psycho Café was
recorded as well. Anyway “Demon Bell” is on there, it came out
really cool and it surprised a lot of people at the show.
Ryan: Everything from the bands back catalogue is represented on
this DVD. You played everything off the first album save for one
track.
Jason: Yeah we tried to keep it at a no ballads timbre.
Ryan: After watching you belt out the first three songs,
“Gunfighter”, “Outlaw” and “Sugar Leather & The Nail” I have to
tell you my throat was hurting just watching you. Those are
demanding songs to sing.
Jason: Yeah those first songs are kind of a warm up for me no
matter what I do. Warming up is boring and there’s enough
singers that do that. Those are demanding songs, but
sheer excitement, nervousness and adrenaline are my friends when
I play a show. It doesn’t matter what project I’m doing or what
band I’m singing for. The adrenaline especially, I get up there
and get going and I see people hungry for the rock and I’m ready
to bring it, that’s really my warm up. I heard that Ronnie James
Dio never warms up, he just goes out and eases into it the way
that he’s known for, and by the fourth or fifth song there’s no
doubt because he’s seriously killing you with it.
Ryan: Watching you is like seeing a pit bull that has been caged
up all day finally being let loose.
Jason: Yeah and you try to keep up that momentum for almost two
hours. I think the DVD clocks in about ten minutes shy of two
hours. The ten minutes you can stare at the cover or just surf
around the menu to see what’s up before you actually press play.
I think two hours is fair for the average rock fan.
Ryan: I love the no frills look of the DVD as well. What I mean
by that is there isn’t all these different camera angles and
jumpy MTV style cuts, which I think often takes the viewers
attention off the music and the performance. This is just
straight up in your face rock the way it should be.
Jason: Yeah at the end of the day I think there ended up being
seven or eight cameras. Some of the multi-camera shots start to
kick in around three to four songs in, and a couple of songs are
busier than others but for the most part there isn’t a lot of
that crazy editing that you’re talking about.
Ryan: All the necessary camera angles are covered plus you get
the feeling at times that you’re in the crowd right in the front
looking up at the stage.
Jason: I actually love those shots a lot where it’s almost
annoying because you can see the backs of people’s heads. You’re
not missing the song because you know it’s a DVD and the angle
will change soon, but you get the feel of the room and
everything. I think the DVD is a great experience and it’s a lot
of fun to watch and I’ve gotten some very positive feedback from
the fans that have purchased it online. The show was demanding
and we’ve done a handful of those kinds of concerts where there
was no opening band, it’s a two hour set by ourselves. People
like me just want to keep going and going and I never tire. I
feel like I could play for another hour just with the momentum
and the good times that we create when we’re up there. They only
thing I think that would slow us down is if one of us had to
take a fuckin’ bathroom break.
Ryan: There’s also the question of what would be left to play
because like I said you pretty much covered all the bases.
Jason: Right, it would kind of become masturbatory at that
point. Someone might say “Well I want to do this song or that
song” but nobody would know it because it’s a really deep album
track. Why play “Down Inside” from The R*tist 4*merely Known
As… when hardly anyone is going to know it. I think that was
an original album but a lot of people don’t even know that
record exists. I’m excited when people do write me about it and
say “Man I can’t find that record anywhere, I never knew about
that record how can I get it?” And of course I’m more than
willing to send them almost a free copy because I’ve got a pile
of them in my garage that I can’t wait to get rid of. The label
folded and it was reissued through Deadline / Cleopatra and now
the cut out companies are selling them for 99 cents on E-bay. So
there isn’t really any way anybody can make any money off of it.
It’s officially out of print but you wouldn’t think that if you
walked into my garage. That record is available online but if
people want to e-mail me and buy a copy I’ll send them one for a
handful of dollars.
We did play some material from that album but it got edited out.
“Share The Kill” was the planned song that was going to be on
the DVD but we had to edit it out because of time constraints.
We couldn’t fit any more shit on the disc itself, which is a
whole other technical issue with something that’s been going on
with this dual layer thing. We put this out ourselves and used
our own money to do this. We were trying to be real cost
effective so we could keep the DVD at twenty dollars or even
cheaper. To go with the dual layer would have jacked the price
up another five bucks per disc just to make it.
Ryan: On the back cover of the DVD there’s a message to Free the
West Memphis Three. I take it your familiar with their case?
Jason: I’m not as updated as I need to be, but goddamn it if
I’m not pissed off at middle town America that has just
completely raped the lives of three young men merely because
they wore black and listened to heavy metal. I don’t know if
it’s a lack of education, lack of funding or lack of therapy
sessions by local governments that could have helped these kids.
They’re now grown men who have pretty much grown up on death
row. They had information pending the entire time they’ve been
in prison. It amounts to nothing more than a witch burning
session. Back in the old times if you were born, I’ll call it
funny looking, they would kill you. If as a baby you came out
funny looking they’d just kill you and probably not even
question it. They’d leave it up to the doctor or was probably
the mayor and the president and whatever else and he’d be like
“Oh we’ve got another dud” and just slit the fuckin’ throat
right there. He’d tell the mother who would be in complete shock
that the child was born dead or that there was something wrong
with him. To me this isn’t anything different. If you had six
toes and they missed it at birth and you were a young man or a
young woman you’d be called a witch and they’d tie you up and
burn you at the stake.
I think these people who are anti- abortion yet pro war is also
a dichotomy and a real problem as well. They’re all about God
and Jesus and all this stuff; they’re anti-abortion but pro war,
well guess what they’re killing kids no matter what. They’re
killing young kids and it’s all a witch hunt anyway. They don’t
even know why or give it a chance they just think that they know
it all. They’re not weighing all the sides and issues; they
think they’re part of solution when they’re only part of the
problem. That’s a whole other political statement but yeah with
the Free The West Memphis Three I’m trying to raise awareness to
the fact that we need to be feeling pretty goddamn lucky when
we’re able to be a freak by choice or what society might call a
freak, and that might be a heavy metal fan with tattoos or a
shaved head or a Mohawk. You know celebratory of a lifestyle of
freedom of individuality, as opposed to one of us walking down
the street and the FBI or the cops rolling up on us and busting
our asses, arresting us for murder when all we were doing was
listening to Slayer. That is not murder. That is celebratory of
freedom of speech and art. So I’m just trying to raise some
awareness for people who aren’t familiar with who The West
Memphis Three are.
Ryan: Shifting gears a little bit, if I’m not mistaken Dangerous
Toys made five videos back in the day.
Jason: That’s right, you’re good.
Ryan: Looking back on them was that a particular experience you
enjoyed personally and how do you think they hold up today?
Jason: I think there was a reason to make videos because it was
the dawning of the video age. Videos can sell your record and
also be very informative for the fans who might like that style
of music or whatever it is; it could be a video of anything. It
can raise awareness and bring new meaning to someone’s life. It
was like the age of short films and independent cinema and all
that shit too. I think that the 80’s was such an interesting
time for video because it still wasn’t a digital medium at that
stage. It was film, all analogue and the cameras were so large
and things like that. We’ve just come so far with video and
audio and recording in the digital age and everything which
today is considered to be multi-media art. I think videos shed
light on where the band was at that time in their career and if
they continued to make videos you see the growth of the band
just by the time the video came out.
Ryan: Did you guys have any creative control of input on the
videos themselves?
Jason: No the guy that made our “Teas N’ Pleas N’” video came
down to Austin to see the band live which I thought was smart.
They didn’t really have any ideas at that point for a treatment
so they wanted to see the band live so they could see what was
going on. The director came down and he brought the crew and we
went out to dinner after one of our shows and I think this was
even before our record dropped so there wasn’t much information
on the band for him other than for him to come and see us live.
Everyone loves Austin anyways and I’ve always been an ambassador
for Austin as well as Texas. They enjoyed the whole experience
and to make a long story short he saw the band live and decided
the treatment just needed to be a live performance video,
something that would just show us live and raw with all the
fuckin’ lights on. There weren’t any special effects or anything
it was just the band rocking out. Fuck we made that video in
broad daylight. The “Teas N’ Pleas N’” video was shot in a
warehouse with no lights, the sun was shining through the
fucking windows and it worked, it was a hit. It was a big MTV
based song and it totally worked. People still talk about it
today. The second video “Scared” was done by the same guy and
they actually let me have a lot of say in writing the treatment
for what was going on in the video.
Ryan: That video was really the only that had a bit of a concept
behind it.
Jason: Yeah and the idea was the song was a kind of a nod to
Alice Cooper. In the beginning there’s an actor who kind of
looks like me and he’s laying in bed and rocking out and
all of a sudden his room comes alive. He’s obviously a fan and
there are rock posters on the wall and everything starts to come
alive there in his room as he’s rocking out to the Dangerous
Toys album. You can see a couple of Alice Cooper records there
and I think there’s a Danzig poster on the wall, it’s just a
kids room with rock ‘n roll posters everywhere, which isn’t much
different from what my room looks like today and I’m an old man
so there you go. Nothing changes if you’re a real rock ‘n roll
fan. It’s a comfort zone, a reailty and part of who you are. If
you ignore it you’re going to be unhappy. Anyway the video is
that and there’s kind of these strange sequences where it turns
into the video with the band rocking out and we’re kind of in
the spotlight. There are all kinds of stuff going on.
Ryan: Do you remember where you filmed the video for “Line ‘em
Up”. It looks like it was shot in one of those L.A. viaducts.
Jason: Yeah that’s the L.A. River which I think is close to the
old 1st Street bridge. It’s the same rain ditch where
they filmed the chase scene in Terminator 2.
Ryan: Right and this was pre-Terminator 2.
Jason: I know. It’s almost like every movie in L.A. has that
ditch in it. I think there was a bunch of motorcycle chase
bullshit going in To Live In Die In LA as well.
Ryan: The artwork of Tommy Pons’ evil clown Bill Z. Bub has
become synonymous with the band; he’s like your version of
Eddie. Was that the intention right from the beginning to have
that strong visual character or mascot to kind of go hand in
hand with the music?
Jason: I bet Iron Maiden doesn’t like it when journalists like
yourself say that but how can you not say it. I’m agreeing with
everyone when they say it as much as Iron Maiden probably
doesn’t like it. We didn’t have the intention of ripping off
Eddie by any means, so I’m going to say no. I remember the
conversation well and I’ve said this in many interviews but our
manager who was brand fuckin’ new at the time, we were having
this phone conversation and we were talking about a logo and an
album cover and what exactly is a dangerous toy. We couldn’t put
a picture of a double headed dildo on there but that could
definitely be a dangerous toy. There was a couple of ways to
look at it, that being one. I came up with the idea of the jack
in the box but I didn’t want to put a hamburger on there because
Jack in the Box is a fast food chain. I was trying to stay away
from things that could be dangerous to another realm that we
didn’t want to be associated with.
Ryan: Or get you sued somewhere down the road.
Jason: Well I guess Iron Maiden could have said something but
Eddie isn’t a clown so our argument could stand up in court
either way. Iron Maiden is Iron Maiden and they have their fans
and they’re not necessarily Dangerous Toys fans. I’m sure Iron
Maiden can appreciate that statement as well because obviously
we or I are Iron Maiden fans from as long as I can remember
going back to their first album. As well as an Eddie fan just
from an artistic standpoint. I never wanted to call the clown a
mascot and I do feel that we’ve somewhat painted ourselves into
a corner by having the clown and by letting people go ahead and
actually call it a mascot. It is on all the album covers just
like Eddie. He has this scary kind of a monster vibe yet he’s
just got on this clown makeup, a red nose and an orange wig if
you want to say that. A lot of people tie it into Killer Clowns
From Outer Space or the Stephen King novel IT or any kind of
fucked up clown they’ll just tie it all into. But it also just
the plain old horror films and a clown looks fucked up and just
not right at all. There’s also this serial killer vibe as well,
it’s a fucked up thing.
Ryan: True. You think of people like John Wayne Gacy.
Jason: Yeah exactly. So whatever it is or whatever it isn’t here
we are with it. But our conversation was basically “What are we
going to do for an album cover and an image?” I came up with the
Jack in the box because you know what’s going to happen when you
turn the crank on a jack in the box. The clown is going to come
out and scare the shit out of you. The first time you do it, if
you’re young enough and you don’t really know what that is or
what’s going to happen, you’re shocked and scared. Just like the
song goes “I think I like being scared”, that ties into it
because you’re going to crank this crank and even if you know or
don’t know what’s going to happen you’re going to put the clown
back in, close the lid and do it again. So that kind of worked
in our favor later on, because I honestly can’t even remember if
the song “Scared” was even written by the time we had come up
with the jack in the box for the album cover, which is kind of
scary and strange in its own right. “Scared” and “Ten Boots”
were the last songs that we wrote for the first record. We wrote
those two songs the week before we left for L.A. to record.
Ryan: How would you compare the experiences of working with the
producers of the bands first two major label albums Max Norman
and Roy Thomas Baker?
Jason: It was pretty much the same although I will say that Max
Norman was a lot more hands on. They were both pretty much slave
drivers, making us play and sing everything over and fucking
over, it was downright ridiculous. Everything was analogue back
then and you were recording on tape and tape was expensive. You
may only end up with one or two songs on a tape that might hold
45 minutes of music if you stretch it out. It was a lot of work
but I think that he got the best out of us that he could. I
think it was the best that we could do at the time as we were
kind of green back then. With Roy it was kind of the same thing.
The tones on that album were quite different and by the time
Hellacious Acres came out I think the tones had disappeared
and a lot of things were swimming in reverb and effects. I think
the outcome of the record as just a rock fan was ill fated
because it doesn’t stand up to the first record. Even though a
lot of fans say that album is their favorite record they get
kind of bummed out when I tell them it’s kind of my least
favorite because we weren’t ready to record it. We were on tour
and the label pulled us off the road so they could meet their
contractual obligations, i.e. their window in time to release a
record. They were on a schedule and we weren’t. We’re just a
rock ‘n roll band, if we’re ready to write then we’re ready to
write. If the first record is selling in droves because we’re on
the road and you want to pull us off the road while it’s selling
then that’s your fault not mine. That’s your dumb idea not mine.
They were hoping that window of opportunity would pay off and
that we’d put out another smash record.
Ryan: It was driven by money so they could quickly capitalize on
the success of the first one.
Jason: Right. They were worried about that. We were worried
about losing fans because we weren’t ready and we knew we didn’t
have the songs. We were still so green and having such a blast
on the road, just being a rock ‘n roll band playing songs that
we had just recently created. All of the songs were still so new
to us.
Ryan: The band was still new and you were all new to each other.
Jason: Exactly. We had only been together six months before we
got signed. By the time we got to recording the band had just
been together for a year, and some of the songs were only months
old. It was a very interesting place in your mind. So by the
time we were writing material for what was supposed to be the
third major release, which ended up being Pissed which
came out independently, it was some of the best shit we’ve ever
written in my opinion. Because we were writing songs that the
label didn’t like, there was a changing of the guard and they
were switching out their rock department for the Seattle
movement. Even though that was still rock ‘n roll, the image and
the feel wasn’t the same. Even though there was a lot of good
there was a lot of bad. It’s funny how the things I’m saying
about the Seattle movement you can say about the pop rock
movement. There were some good bands but a whole lot of bad
bands. I think the idea of Headbangers Ball was a good idea but
you can’t play Bon Jovi on Headbangers Ball, but they did
because there was no placement. Whoever was calling the shots
was too general with regards to their genre specifics. Anyway
that’s just spilt milk, but I think Pissed and R*tist
are my favorites just because they’re sort of underdogs, and
they’re songs and albums that we recorded on our own. W e were
developing ourselves at that point and not being told things
like “I just don’t hear a hit” or “If you guys do this there’s
some more money in for you”. You know basically just dangling a
carrot in front of you, well fuck your carrot. We’re not doing
this for the carrot anyway. Ultimately the things that we would
bend and do for the label they would either not use or we would
decide not to use whether they were involved or not anyway if
that makes any sense. Some of the shit that we ended up doing
because we were afraid we were going to have egg on our faces,
we didn’t have egg on our face because it belly flopped anyway.
Ryan: Tell me a bit about Shiprocked at the end of this year.
How did it come about that your other main band Broken Teeth and
not Dangerous Toys are on going on this Caribbean cruise?
Jason: That’s a very interesting question. That promoter saw
both bands at Rock The Bayou last year. I didn’t meet this
promoter but he contacted us not long afterwards and wanted
Broken Teeth to go on this Shiprocked thing with Queensryche,
Tesla and Skid Row. I asked him the same thing and he thought
that Broken Teeth were fucking awesome and he thought it would
be great exposure for the band, and that we were deserving for
an up and coming b-level rock band. He said “People know you
from the Toys so your fans will be there but it also gives a
chance for your other band to get a leg up”. It’s a cool offer
as well as some top billing on a cruise ship which is something
we’ve never done so it’s; something very different. Its
different for the fans too because if they do any kind of
research or they’re on the site because they’re a Queensryche
fan or they’re a Toys fan, and they notice my face in the
picture but the band is Broken Teeth, they’re going to go to my
website, listen to my music and probably more than likely become
a fan after Shiprocked. That’s pretty much how that came about.
Ryan: I understand you’re planning on adding author to your
list of accomplishments in the near future. What can you tell me
about that?
Jason: Yeah I don’t have the feather in my hand, dipping it in
ink and writing on parchment. These days when you say you’re
putting out a book, that’s literally what it is. I don’t think
that a lot of musicians actually write down anything, they
record everything and they have someone transcribe it and that’s
what’s going on. I’ve been pushed by friends, fans and family
that my story is interesting enough, which is me talking more so
than them, to put in some sort of story form whether it’s a
conglomeration of my travels, my journals, my stories and love
for hard rock and heavy metal, and at the same time a story of a
bit of the history of Texas metal. So it will come all in one
McMaster speak. It won’t be much different than the interviews
that you and I have done, not far off from the stories I’ve told
you many times.
Ryan: That’s excellent because just from the discussions we’ve
had I think you’re definitely the guy to do it and I’ve probably
only scratched the surface in our chats of what’s to come.
Jason: You’re making it sound real decent and I hope that it
actually becomes a piece of fruit on the tree. I think it’s kind
of exciting knowing your story and your words are going to be
out there and if there’s ever any argument about anything they
can just look it up in a chapter and hear my version of the
story as I remember it. If they don’t remember it the way I
remember it then call me insane but I don’t think so. It should
be true to the stories and the experiences that I’ve had as I
can recall.
Ryan: This is all that anyone can hope for.
Jason: That’s right. If there’s any document proving or pictures
to go along with the story there will be sidebars and stuff that
pertains to the time in question etc…It’s literally going to be
all over the place but there will be some sort of family tree /
timeline and not necessarily any names changed to protect the
innocent.
Ryan: Broken Teeth have a new album in the works at some point
and your buddy Danko Jones is going to be contributing. You’re
really hoping to take it to the next level with this one aren’t
you?
Jason: I think so. There’s definitely some different mojo
happening on this record. I think I’ve mentioned this to you
before in our past interviews, but Paul Lidel the original
guitar player who is also in Dangerous Toys with me, who has
since left the band, had anything and everything to do with the
sound of Broken Teeth just as much as my voice. There are no
Paul Lidel riffs to be found anywhere on this record. For the
most part it’s my guitar work – I’m not playing guitar on the
record but the riffs and lyrics- the lyrics are mine, but some
of the lyrics and riffs were written by Jared (Tuten) and some
by David (Beeson). Paul Lidel isn’t anywhere to be found on this
album other than his influence on the band which is huge.
There’s a different feel and attitude, there’s some funny almost
light hearted stuff going on as well as more of a metal aspect.
Ryan: Can we expect a Jason / Danko duet at all?
Jason: He’s harmonizing on the chorus on the title track, a song
called “Viva La Rock Fantastico”. He also sings a verse on that
track; it’s not necessarily a proper duet.
Ryan: That’s a great title for a song.
Jason: Oh I think so too. I think it scares some people off
because they think we know Gloria Estefan or something. Fuck no!
The title is celebratory of what would we do without rock ‘n
roll, look what it’s done for you and look what it’s done for
me. These songs are our friends; they’re always going to be
there for us. It’s my teacher, my friend and my mother and
father. Rock ‘n roll has taught me everything I need to know to
get through life smiling. That’s what the attitude of that song
and the record is all about. The other song Danko sings on is
called “Big Spender”, he sings the chorus on that. It’s a great
record and we’re hoping to have everything done and mixed by the
end of July. I don’t know when it’s going to be out; we are
waiting on artwork and things like that.
Ryan: Last question for you Jason. I could be wrong on this and
I’m sure you’ll correct me if I am, but those pants you’re
wearing in the concert DVD look very much like the ones in the
“Scared” video. Are they also approaching an anniversary of
their own as well?
Jason: They are indeed the same ones. Those were born in ’89 as
well. I can still wear my clothes from high school.
Ryan: Right on. I’m a bit of stickler for details in case you
haven’t noticed.
Jason: It’s a good way to be. I am as well. I did have two pairs
of those and they were both made in ’89. I have to fess up here
a little bit but the actual pair that appears in the “Scared”
video were autographed by the band and put up for an auction for
homeless children way back in probably 1990 or ’91, so those are
floating around somewhere. Then my second pair which was my
backup pair was made by a different seamstress during the same
time. I wore out the other ones during the first tour because I
literally wore them every night, so I had to have a second pair
made anyway.
http://www.myspace.com/dangeroustoys3000
http://www.myspace.com/brokenteeth
www.jasonmacmaster.net
