{"id":5160,"date":"2012-04-27T00:00:51","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T00:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=5160"},"modified":"2013-05-28T16:19:17","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T16:19:17","slug":"feature-bangalore-choir-04-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-bangalore-choir-04-12\/","title":{"rendered":"BANGALORE CHOIR – Civilized Good (April 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

BANGALORE CHOIR – Civilized Good<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nApril 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fired from German heavy metal outfit Accept in late 1989, vocalist David Reece travelled to Los Angeles in a bid to track down potential musicians to work with. He discovered bassist Danny Greenberg and guitarist John Kirk through the Guitar Institute Of Technology in Hollywood, the latter having played with guitarist Curt Mitchell in Reno, Nevada as a member of Razormaid. To complete the outfit John telephoned Curt, who travelled to Los Angeles. Rusty Miller was initially on drums, but was shortly replaced by Darek Thomas Cava (ex-Brunette). This was how melodic rock outfit Bangalore Choir came into existence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was crazy,\u201d remembers David Reece, vocalist and co-founder of Bangalore Choir. \u201cWe had only played like nine shows in LA, and we had an offer from every label in the city. Giant \/ Warner Brothers came up to see us play at The Palace. They signed us, and then we started looking for producers. We started with Max Norman (Ozzy Osbourne \/ Megadeth<\/a>), and it just wasn\u2019t a pleasant experience so we got rid of him. We then got Jim Barton who has since worked with Queensr\u00ffche, and Jimbo completed it. On Target<\/em> (1992) did a few 100,000 units when it came out and then of course the tide changed, and pretty much hard rock was over with. It did really well though, and it\u2019s amazing that that record has stood the test of time. We did Firefest a couple of years ago; we played probably 50% of that record live, and everybody knew the words and were asking about it. They had the initial pressings, and everything. It did well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tide in question temporarily claimed the life of Bangalore Choir, the assortment\u2019s demise lasting roughly 15 years. \u201cWe had Whitesnake\u2019s management,\u201d the mainman explains. \u201cWe were on one of the biggest labels in the world and eight weeks after release they dropped us, and we were told that basically hard rock is finished, get a real life, and get a new job. With the pressures internally created by that and being told that they weren\u2019t going to support us, the band just frittered away. I stayed in Los Angeles and did some other things, but I got out of music for about ten years. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do it for as long as I have and you get out of it though, it\u2019s still a part of you. You can\u2019t completely walk away. I missed it terribly the whole time. A friend of mine contracted MS (multiple sclerosis) in Twin Cities, Saint Paul in Minneapolis, Minnesota where I kind of started. I was phoned up by some guys who asked me if I would come there, and just record before this guy passed. Fortunately he\u2019s still alive. He\u2019s not doing very well, but… I did a bunch of recordings with those guys (Dare Force) just for fun, and they posted it on the net. The next thing you know I\u2019m starting to get offers from record companies. I got an offer from Martin Kronlund to come over to Sweden and do the Gypsy Rose record (June 2008\u2019s Another World<\/em>) back in 2007, so I decided to do it. Since then I\u2019ve been working like an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n

August 2009 solo album Universal Language<\/em> is among the work David has undertaken. \u201cI moved back to Germany, and was in my favourite pub,\u201d he divulges. \u201cAndy Susemihl walked up behind me, and said \u2018Hey, we should do some writing together.\u2019 One thing led to another, and that\u2019s where Universal Language<\/em> spawned from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further solo material might be in the pipeline. \u201cIt depends on the label,\u201d the singer reckons. \u201cIf AOR Heaven wants another one, I\u2019ll do it. I\u2019m really excited about Metaphor<\/em> and promoting this record. Right now, I\u2019m writing with some young guys. We\u2019re doing a really heavy thing; it\u2019s reminiscent of what I did with Accept, the reason being because a lot of my fans have asked me to go back to that. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a solo album or if it\u2019s a group project, but it\u2019s killer. I\u2019m really happy with it. If that turns into a solo record, then cool. If not, I would love to do a solo record. I don\u2019t know how much longer I\u2019ve got on this earth to do records (laughs), but I would love to do another one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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David\u2019s sole outing as an Accept member was May 1989\u2019s Eat The Heat<\/em>. \u201cThe good of it was in those days I played seven days a week, five hours a night in America,\u201d he recalls. \u201cYou had to emulate a lot of the singers you were copying, so you went out, you had a strong voice, and you sang every night, but you kind of lost your identity. You didn\u2019t really know if you\u2019re a singer or not, or if you could hit the notes. When I got into Accept Dieter Dierks really worked me as a singer, and the result of that was I developed my own style. That\u2019s one of the good things. Some of the bad stuff was I was never really comfortable in the group, and trying to replace Udo (Dirkschneider) is a difficult thing. Nobody really can; it\u2019s not really Accept without Udo. That\u2019s some of the bad, but overall, learning the work ethic and what it takes to be professional and do it was good. It was a whole different atmosphere for me. They don\u2019t mess around (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

A physical altercation with bassist Peter Baltes brought the frontman\u2019s Accept membership to an abrupt conclusion. \u201cI punched him in the face,\u201d he admits. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get along, and I had had enough of the banter for a few years. It was just a two-year culmination of never feeling welcome \u2013 they were never happy. It\u2019s hard to remember what was said, but it just wasn\u2019t a good situation. A lot of gossip, innuendo and typical band stuff happened, and it came to a boiling point. One thing led to another, it became physical, and I was fired. That\u2019s really all I can say about it. I regret that decision, but I\u2019m glad to be out of that scenario. It was never comfortable for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a plus though. When you sing for a group with the name Accept, everybody knows who you are. I definitely respect the fact that it put me on the map, and launched my career. That was 25 years ago, so I think I\u2019ve done enough since then to prove that I can stand on my own. But yeah, I definitely accredit that move for putting me where I am. Had I not done it, who knows where I would have gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bangalore Choir\u2019s rebirth was partially inspired by the enquiries of a specific record label. \u201cGeorg Siegl at AOR Heaven had asked me what the possibilities of re-releasing On Target<\/em> were, and I had to do some wrangling to find out if it was possible,\u201d David acknowledges. \u201cI found out that it was okay, and then I said \u2018You know what? I\u2019m gonna try to reach out to these guys.\u2019 I really felt like we never finished what we started, and it was really cool. There was a lot of water under the bridge; we were all glad to speak to each other. I had actually written a lot of those songs with Andy Susemihl for that record, and then we asked Danny and Curt to contribute to it. That kind of opened the doors for a reunion, and then one thing fell together after another. Kieran (Dargan) had asked me at Firefest if I could put the band onstage, but I could only guarantee myself, Curt, and Danny. That was fine, so it was cool. Everything fell into place, and since then we\u2019ve done some summer touring together last year. We plan to go out this fall in Scandinavia and hopefully the UK and Germany, but as you know, touring is a mess right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like every day you hear of a new club closing. You book dates at some clubs, and then you find out a week later they\u2019re shutting their doors. I think the recession is a big part of it, of course. Another big part of it too is I see a lot of the fans \u2013 because of the recession \u2013 stay at home, and they can watch the show on YouTube within hours after you\u2019re done. A lot of people just stay at home, fish around, and see it that way. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think YouTube doesn\u2019t help as well, like I said earlier. With the drinking laws in America, if you drink a couple of beers and you\u2019re stopped then you\u2019re going to jail. For somebody to go out and spend their money on tickets when they can sit at home, drink a beer and watch the show on YouTube literally minutes after you\u2019re done… I think that\u2019s murdered us, and a lot of the American acts. I just did a show with Vince Neil (M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce<\/a> vocalist) a couple of weeks ago with this young outfit that I\u2019m working with; there were about 2,000 people there, but they had expected twice that for the show. I got home at midnight, and about an hour later I could see pretty much everything I\u2019d done. It\u2019s killing us, and the illegal downloading of records through the internet is killing us too. <\/p>\n

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Bangalore Choir 1992 (l-r): Ian Mayo, Jackie Ramos, John Kirk, David Reece
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\u201cThere are about 10,000 sites right now that have got Metaphor<\/em>. Unfortunately, I think some of the journalists who get the promo CDs and the people who pretend to be DJs who get the promo CDs upload them when they\u2019re not really official people in the industry. They don\u2019t realise the harm they create. I think the mentality of society is take, take, take \u2013 it\u2019s not like when I was young. I really liked going to buy records and spending the day listening, following a band, and reading the liner notes. I think everything is so fast that the attention span has died. The loyalty has gone. It\u2019s better in Europe I would say; the fanbase that I have in Europe is far stronger than in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really have the strength though to command the promoters to say \u2018Okay, we\u2019re gonna put this out and do this.\u2019 It\u2019s two ways. We\u2019re well known, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019re well known enough to get that. I was just talking to Andy about it not long ago, who\u2019s in Germany right now. Of course we all wanna tour, and we were just talking about how frustrating it was. We had momentum in 2010 after Cadence<\/em> came out; we went out with UFO in Europe, and then of course there was Firefest. We did some other dates in Europe as well, but it seemed like everything just fizzled out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bangalore Choir\u2019s sophomore record finally arrived in September 2010, entitled Cadence<\/em>. Third album Metaphor<\/em> saw the light of day in April 2012. \u201cI thought it was a good stepping stone to put the guys back together,\u201d the lyricist muses. \u201cI think Metaphor<\/em> is a stronger record. I\u2019m proud of Cadence<\/em>; there\u2019s some moments on that record… to be honest I\u2019ve done a lot of records in my life, and with every record I always wish I could\u2019ve done more. After you listen to it when it\u2019s finished and you\u2019ve laboured, you always feel you could\u2019ve done better. With Metaphor<\/em> it\u2019s more of a group effort, everybody writing material. I feel stronger about Metaphor<\/em> right now, which I think is a little more in line with On Target<\/em>. Melodically, I think there\u2019s some more similarity there. There\u2019s still some of the Cadence<\/em> elements. I don\u2019t know if you would agree with that, but I think because the band was totally more involved on Metaphor<\/em> it feels a little more natural to me. I wasn\u2019t the main songwriter like I was on Cadence<\/em>. I kind of opened the door on Metaphor<\/em> and said \u2018Everybody bring your ideas,\u2019 and that\u2019s the way I wanted it. I think you hear that on Metaphor<\/em>. It\u2019s a stronger record, I think.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started submitting things to Andy, and then on the phone I would sing the melody idea. Andy would flesh the thing out with guitars and the drum loop, and then he would send it to me. I would then do my thing, and then we would send it to Curt Mitchell in Reno, Nevada. Danny lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so he would fly up to Reno and they would arrange their ideas to it. It\u2019s an all round world experience (laughs). We\u2019re spread out all over the place; I\u2019m in Minneapolis right now, and it\u2019s just crazy. That\u2019s how it came together. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we were doing it, Curt would say \u2018I\u2019ve got this kind of bluesy, country thing I want you to sing to.\u2019 He would send that to me, and that\u2019s where the song \u2018Never Face Old Joe Alone\u2019 came from. \u2018All The Damage Done\u2019 was Curt\u2019s. I also wrote with Rikard Quist again out of Sweden; he and I collaborated on the last Reece-Kronlund album (Solid<\/em>), and I think the guy\u2019s got an amazing talent. I think if he breaks out, he could write a hit song any minute. It all fell apart and fell together at the same time (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional personnel handling songwriting duties arguably resulted in a more varied affair. \u201cWhen you get a guy like Curt Mitchell writing songs, playing guitar, really focusing and being more involved, I think it really shows,\u201d David enthuses. \u201cThe guy\u2019s a monster. Yeah, I think so. It\u2019s really difficult. I could take everybody and put them together in a room for two weeks in America, but then everybody has their normal lives that they have to take care of. It\u2019s not like the days before where we lived down the street from one another, and we rehearsed every night. We\u2019re older, have children, and have mortgages. It\u2019s a different scenario, a different lifestyle now. I wish it was like the old days to be honest. I wish the band was doing six months out of the year in a touring van or a bus again. To me that\u2019s magic, and what you come up with is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rikard Quist collaborated on the tracks \u2018Silhouettes On The Shade\u2019 and \u2018Scandinavian Rose\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of the same as I do with Andy, and Curt,\u201d the vocalist says of the collaboration. \u201cRikard actually was a part of Gypsy Rose when I came back to music. Martin Kronlund owned a studio in a music store, and Rikard was a keyboard player for Martin. He also managed the music store which was in the same building, and I never really listened to what he was saying. He would say \u2018I\u2019ve got some songs,\u2019 and then one day I just sat down and jammed with him. I said \u2018Wow, this guy\u2019s really melodic \u2013 he\u2019s got a great ear.\u2019 He plays multiple instruments, and he sings fairly well. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor Reece-Kronlund, I had this concept for the song \u2018Samurai\u2019 (from June 2011\u2019s Solid). I wanted to do an Asian feel on keyboards, some melodies. I just hummed it to him, and what he played was exactly what was in my head but I couldn\u2019t express it. With \u2018Silhouettes On The Shade\u2019 and \u2018Scandinavian Rose\u2019 on Metaphor<\/em>, I pretty much had the titles of the songs and some of the lyrics worked out, some average melodies, blah blah blah. I hummed those melodies to him, and that\u2019s what he came across with. I think he\u2019s a force to be reckoned with. I understand he\u2019s doing a record for an English label. I don\u2019t know who that is yet, but I hope he does well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all of the compositions David and Rikard penned together surfaced on Metaphor<\/em>. \u201cThere are two or three others that I recorded that I think are more geared towards if I do a solo album,\u201d David confirms. \u201cI think when you open the floodgates with guys and say \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve got a deal. Let\u2019s start recording… This is what I\u2019m thinking,\u2019 then everybody starts going \u2018Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let\u2019s get to work.\u2019 So yeah, I was focused mainly on Bangalore Choir for Metaphor<\/em>. I love that band, those guys. Andy Susemihl and Curt Mitchell are two of the finest guitarists that I\u2019ve ever been around. As you listen to the record, some of the guitar work I think is amazing. Those guys are great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyricist Jon Wilde lent his services to Metaphor<\/em> as well. \u201cI wrote a lot of lyrics for the Reece-Kronlund album Solid with him,\u201d the mainman notes. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realised \u2018This guy is clever. He\u2019s got a good way of writing a story that works. If you listen to a lot of my lyrics, it\u2019s important for me to… I\u2019m not into \u2018Ooh, baby baby,\u2019 those kinds of lyrics. I\u2019m into stories, and Jon helped me because \u2013 like I said \u2013 I\u2019ve done 16 or 17 records in my life. It\u2019s not easy to be fresh all the time. I have titles in my head all day long, but after you\u2019ve done a lot of writing you tend to write using the same words if you\u2019re not careful. It\u2019s hard to be fresh, and easy to become redundant. Jon opened the door for me and gave me insight into taking the story into a better and fresh direction, and I hope to write with Jon more. Jon and I are writing lyrics right now for this new project that I was telling you about. I\u2019m calling the project Waiting For War. It\u2019s very heavy, kind of melodic Judas Priest meets Avenged Sevenfold, so that\u2019s cool. I\u2019m really enjoying it; the stories are deep, and the hooks are there. Jon\u2019s got another future. I\u2019ve helped Jon, because he\u2019s writing for other artists as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waiting For War\u2019s birthplace was Minneapolis, Minnesota. \u201cI started in the music business here in Minneapolis when I was 17,\u201d David begins. \u201cThe drummer Eric Domagall has a band called Downtread, and they have a guitarist named Brett Petrusek. They\u2019re just monsters; they\u2019re fresh, they\u2019re hungry. They\u2019re maybe 10 years younger than I am, and I\u2019m 50, so… these guys have played around the area. They have a recording studio that\u2019s like the old days. The band is always together because they live in the same city; they play a lot of shows, and play a lot of open airs for a lot of the big acts that come through the Midwest. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI had gone down to the studio called Pound Sound, and a guy named Jeremy Tappero tracked the vocals for Metaphor. He played some of this band\u2019s music, who were Downtread. I said \u2018Who is that?\u2019 He told me who it was, and I said \u2018Those guys are great. I\u2019d love to sing on some of their stuff.\u2019 He goes \u2018Well, that\u2019s kind of interesting you said that. They\u2019re fans of yours, and they would like you to record with them a little bit.\u2019 One thing led to another, and then we sat down in a room and just started writing songs. Right now we\u2019ve finished the third one completely, and there\u2019s six more that are floating around. Hopefully, I\u2019ll make a record with these guys this year. I\u2019ve put the feelers out to let record labels know what I\u2019m doing. They\u2019ve said \u2018As soon as it\u2019s done, we wanna hear it first,\u2019 which is great. It\u2019s nice to have that opportunity (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Guest appearances by the singer are firmly in the pipeline. \u201cI sang on Christian Tolle\u2019s record, and Paul Shortino and Michael Voss is on that record as well,\u201d he elaborates. \u201cIt\u2019s called The Higher They Climb<\/em> I believe, and that was released in March. I did a record (Identity Crisis<\/em>, Kivel Records) for a group out of New York called Tango Down. I did that in 2010, and it\u2019s gonna be released in May. Actually I just went to New York in late March, and we opened for Y&T and Twisted Sister. We did three dates on the East Coast, which was a lot of fun. That\u2019s more of a commercial, pop \/ hard rock record than what I\u2019m doing now, and that\u2019s coming out this year. I did a song on a concept record with a guy out of Norway. I\u2019m not sure when that\u2019s coming out, but it\u2019s supposed to come out this year. I like to stay busy (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

David\u2019s vocal services are in great demand. \u201cI hope so, and some people criticise me for that,\u201d he confesses. \u201cYou know what? I tell them to fuck off, because I\u2019m a singer and in this climate you take what you can get. I\u2019m not gonna take shit but if something\u2019s good, they offer me decent pay, and it\u2019s something that\u2019s gonna be on an album, then I\u2019m gonna do it. I really don\u2019t care what anybody says. I wanna work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same with Jeff Scott Soto. He gets criticised for singing on a bunch of records, Joe Lynn Turner gets criticised. What people don\u2019t remember though is that Bangalore Choir is my baby, but if I was to rely on that then slowly I wouldn\u2019t be doing very much. Rock \u2019n\u2019 roll is a funny business. You have your hardcore fans who say \u2018You shouldn\u2019t do this. You should restrict things to Bangalore Choir,\u2019 and to me it\u2019s all music; I wanna make music, so that\u2019s why I continue to do it. They think you should stay true to one thing. I then have others who say \u2018Hey, the more the better. Keep making songs, and keep recording,\u2019 others like yourself who think that if somebody has sent you a good song and put a microphone in front of you, let\u2019s see what you can do to make it work. I just choose to record more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metaphor<\/em> was released on April 27th, 2012 through AOR Heaven.<\/p>\n

Interview published in April 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BANGALORE CHOIR – Civilized Good Anthony Morgan April 2012 David Reece Fired from German heavy metal outfit Accept in late 1989, vocalist David Reece travelled to Los Angeles in a bid to track down potential musicians to work with. He discovered bassist Danny Greenberg and guitarist John Kirk through the Guitar Institute Of Technology in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[271,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bangalore-choir","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5160"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11709,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions\/11709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}