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the power source down the road

Chainsaw Men - Electric Juju

Sometime back in November, 1998 I got an e-mail from Simon Drew, ex-guitar player and lead singer of Australia's Vanilla Chainsaws, saying that he was coming to the US and how would it be if he dropped by and spent a couple days at my house.  I jokingly replied that we should go into a studio and record an album, since I hadn't done anything since the Gamma Men split in 1996.  I was a little taken aback when Simon responded enthusiastically.  A few more e-mails exchanged and we got serious.  I had a batch of songs I had written for the Gamma Men in their last days and Simon had actually almost finished a full lp of Chainsaws material, but the studio owner erased the multi-track tape before they ever did a final mix.

                 Simon                                  Steve

                   Richard                                            Dave

So we took the best songs of each and started getting ready to record.  I don't know how Simon got ready, but for me since I'm not the world's greatest drummer I needed serious preparation, so  I rehearsed at home for two months, practicing every other night for an hour or so.

the gear

Tuesday night, February 2, 1999, Simon arrived by bus from LA.  We went straight to rehearsal with Dave Elizondo, ex-Gamma Men bass player, at his transmission shop in San Marcos.  Despite the preparation, we were pretty dreadful, so there were some nerves the next morning when we booked into Blitz Studio in San Diego, where the Gamma Men had recorded three CDs.  Blitz Studio is run by Richard "Blitz" Livoni, who in the 70s played in the San Diego band The Blitz Brothers and for many years has been one of the best recording engineer/producers in town.  (Check out his work with Bart Mendoza's band The Shambles.)

Blitz Studio

the Seven-Eleven across the street

wheels to the studio

Simon, me and Richard spent five 14 hour days in the studio recording 12 songs.  We had intended to do 14, but the basic tracks for two of them didn't seem to hold together well, so we dropped them.  We recorded with me playing drums to Simon's rough guitar on his songs and  playing unaccompanied on my own, and then laying down the other instruments and vocals over the top.  Simon played rhythm guitar on all tracks, and he and Dave split the bass duties; Simon plays bass on four tracks and Dave on eight.  Simon did all the vocals with some good ideas from Richard, and Richard played all the leads...taking all day Sunday to do them, and making everything up on the spot.

Here are the songs:

Angry Man (music: Steve Bevis, words: Drew)
Frank Little (Gardner)
Bad Timing (Drew)
Meltdown (Gardner)
Took My Love (music: Steve Bevis, words: Drew)
You Used To Matter To Me (Gardner)
100 Miles Away (Drew)
Red Scare (Gardner)
Take You Down (Drew)
Start Of The End (Gardner)
Joyride (Drew)
Break Those Chains (Drew)

Simon Drew – Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Bass on tracks 2, 6, 8 and 10
Steve Gardner – Drums
Richard Livoni – all guitar solos
Dave Elizondo – bass on tracks 1, 3-5, 7, 9, 11 and 12

the team