Rob: Hello? Is this Tommy SOUTH-ward? hahahaha...
Tommy: This is South-ward...what`s going on Rob?
Rob: Nothing much, hows it going?
Tommy: Hanging in there...
Rob: Where exactly are you at on the East Coast?
Tommy: Right here is Jersey, surrounded by all the Jersy-Knuckleheads...
Rob: right on...
Tommy: Where are you at? You`re up in Portland right?
Rob: yeah, Portland Oregon...
Tommy: How is that?
Rob: It`s alright, it`s pouring right now...spring weather here, it still rains about 2/3rd`s of the year here.
Tommy: One of the few places I have yet to get to...the NorthWest out there...
Rob: ...yeah, a lot of you guys don`t come out here, but I understand because we really don`t get out to the East coast either...
Tommy: Seems like another country out there...Everyone from the East coast go out to California, and not Northern California either...right
to LA and San Diego...
Rob: Have you guys ever toured out here before?
Tommy: Yeah, but we got as far North as San Francisco, and that was it, we never got to the Northwest...
Rob: How long has Solace been together then?
Tommy: ahh, I guess since late `96
Rob: about 6 years...7 years...
Tommy: yeah, I guess...that seems like quite a long time...
Rob: you got a new album out on Meteorcity `13`...are you planning on doing any touring then?
Tommy: Actually yeah, we are going out with The Rubes in May...
Rob: oh, excellent...
Tommy: but, unfortunately, we aren`t going to the Northwest...heheh...
Rob: so you aren`t going to play SHoD?
Tommy: Not ShoD, but we are ending up the tour at Emissions, we`ll be playing Sunday with the Rubes...
Rob: Are you guys just meeting up somewhere...
Tommy: We are going to meet up in Virginia, meet up at the gig and then we`re going to travel together...to all the shows...great band...
Rob: How`s the heavy rock scene in Jersey, outside of the obvious bands like Monster Magnet and...
Tommy: Well, I mean we got tons of bands here and mean there`s tons of talented guys in this area, The Halfway to Gone guys, the whole
Bitchwax guys, tons of bands...Shovelhead, Lord Sterling, there`s not a shortage of bands and players out here...as far as the scene goes, I am pretty much out of the loop,
I mean I work, you know...I`m in another band as well...
Rob: I hear that, you have kids too?
Tommy: Two boys...it takes up so much time...it`s impossible.
Rob: You get on the internet everyday at work?
Tommy: Pretty much, I steal a couple minutes here and there man, you know? My lunch hour...first thing in the morning when I`m suckin` down
my coffee you know...I`m just waiting for the internet police to tap me on the shoulder one of these days and say, hey, what the fuck are you doing here buddy...
Rob: You guys did `Forever My Queen` on the new CD, are you a big Pentagram fan?
Tommy: Absolutely, one of my favorite songs from one of what I consider to be the unsung heros...I don`t think that they get their due...in
underground circles they do but, in my eyes I think they should of been bigger...amazing stuff, especially if you consider they have been doing it since, 70 or 71 or
so...they were doing it equally, on par with the Sabbath guys, and they just never got their due, you know.
Rob: You grew up listening to Punk Rock in the 80`s?
Tommy: yeah, that`s why we did the Agnostic Front cover, kind of just showing two sides of the coin...saying, hey we come from this
Sabbath, Doom, Pentagram whole school, you know but there is also this whole underground hardcore thing that we were into, the first show I ever played was opening up for
Agnostic Front back in...uh...I don`t wanna say! 83 or 84...
Rob: That`s awesome...
Tommy: it was quite a long time ago, and being from Jersey, a hop skip and a jump from Philly and an hour from New York, I spent a lot of
Sundays at the hardcore matinee`s at CBGB`s you know...seeing like all these killers bands, bands like Cro-Mags and Agnostic Front...bands like the FU`s and the Subhumans
that toured through...all these punk bands that were you know...
Rob: You ever see Black Flag?
Tommy: Saw Black Flag many times...I was one of the few people that had his Black Sabbath albums and his Pink Floyd albums and he had,
Black Flag damaged...most of my friends would come over and see them and say `hey what the fuck are you doing listening to this hippy shit?` you know...
Rob: I am assuming that you are a big classic rock, 60`s and 70`s fan too...
Tommy: all music man, I gotta be honest with you, I have a really pretty wide taste, I collect records you know...everything from like 50`s
rock and roll...rockabilly, surf rock right down the line...classic rock, heavy metal...totally into like all new wave and British heavy metal stuff...Witchfinder
General...all that shit, I try not to limit myself.
Rob: How long had the material on `13` been ready to go?
Tommy: We actually have the next album already written, it basically boiled down to just what we had more ready than everything else, some
of the tunes we`ve had around for quite a while...we have like a total wealth of tunes behind us. We are just constantly writing, archiving all of our shit...we probably
will have more tunes than we have space on the next record...
Rob: Who does the song writing?
Tommy: It`s definitely a collective effort. Most everything starts with just jamming, sometimes things are brought to the table in a whole
or semi-whole...we all bang them around has their 2 cents, puts in their say, if everybody`s not happy with it we either drop it or move it to a different direction...it`s
pretty democratic. No like, this is the way it is kind of shit from anybody.
Rob: Are you going to be doing the next record with Meteorcity too?
Tommy: I hope so yeah, we`d like to...we have a deal so, hopefully everything goes good with this one...
Rob: How long is the upcoming tour
Tommy: it`s almost a whole month, 3 weeks or something like that...there is some talk about possibly going over to Europe, either in the
summer or fall...I don`t know how far along that is, right now it`s just talk but I`d like to do that...
Rob: Did you go over there with Solace?
Tommy: Not, Solace, but the band I was in before Solace...
Rob: Godspeed?
Tommy: yeah...
Rob: Cool, you guys were doing some pretty big tours huh? Didn`t you tour with Black Sabbath?
Tommy: yeah...
Rob: was that `Tony Martin` Black Sabbath?
Tommy: heheh...yeah, Tony Martin Black Sabbath, Cross Purposes...
Rob: I`ve got a T-shirt from tour? Black on Black?!
Tommy: Do you? Black on Black yeah! I`ve got one too, it`s in my closet right now, I`ve gained about 20 pounds since then...heheheheh...
Rob: You toured with Cathedral, Dio, Sugartooth?
Tommy: Actually, after Godspeed broke up and before I started Solace, I actually moved to L.A. for like a year and played in Sugartooth...
Rob: ...did you really? How long ago was that?
Tommy: ...that was right before their second album came out...right after their tour we did with them, they kicked out their guitar player,
Godspeed broke up, they needed a guitar player, they gave me a call, moved out there...jammed with them for about under a year, shit wasn`t really happening, I wound up
splitting, they played out their second record without me...
Rob: I think they got a lot of bad press, being compared to Soundgarden...
Tommy: I thought their first record was brilliant...
Rob: It`s great!
Tommy: I thought it was really ahead of it`s time it was kind of like doing this whole stoner riff rock thing before it kind of
exploded...when I moved out there I was like `holy shit I`m playing with the next Led Zeppelin`...that`s what I thought they could have done...that`s how cool I thought
they were...they let Geffen twist them around, I don`t know what the fuck they wound up doing with that second record...they let the Dust brothers you know...they had
record scratching and all kinds of you know, dopey shit...man, I just, I don`t know...When I heard it I was just like `I can`t believe what happened to these guys...I got
out just in time...`...heheh you know...
Rob: You know what the next Solace record is going to be called?
Tommy: no idea yet, we have all the music written...depending on what`s happening with Jason, our singer who seems to be as elusive as a
Unicorn- you know, who knows when it will see the light of day...
Rob: Have you guys changed line-ups that much?
Tommy: Drummers...
Rob: you guys have been through 2 or 3?
Tommy: More like 12 or 13 man...
Rob: really?
Tommy: yeah we only call the album 13 because that`s how many drummers we`ve had...we`re like the Spinal Tap of StonerRock... |
