Interview - Metal Mash Mayhem Radio

Below the interview conducted by DJ Tania for Metal Mash Mayhem Radio.

Thanks Tania for your time.

1) Introduce yourself and your the band.

Tom: Well, In CAI I'm the lead guitarist, singer and composer and let me introduce you John the bass player.

CAI is located at Achouffe in Belgium for some good and tasty reasons! God bless Achouffe.

In 2007 both we decided to create a metal band, we experienced that all bands live to get the good line up, a correct place for rehearsal, and be able to make music together.

I knew Jeff and Dan for years, they accepted to play a couple of songs for a rehearsal, the mood was very good, they

enjoyed the music and some local products. On the same page for these 2 last points, we knew that we could live at least 1 year in a small car to play some gigs. CAI was born.

About what we are doing in this band, we started with the idea to play the music we loved when we were kids and first of all fun to play on stage. We think it's the best for a musician when you're playing rock or metal in a live situation to connect with the people. We don't want to be focused on our instrument at that moment and be in the show with the crowd. This first pillar drive us for some points in the artistic choice to produce something fun to be played during the show.

The legacy of metal music is amazing, all these different bands and genres through the years since the first time the expression "heavy metal" has been used! You've just to open the book and have fun, considering that, listening some newcomers from the metal industry it's pitiful, if I want to make a comparison with cinema, mainstream new metal acts are closer than a Disney production than a Hammer ones.

Hopefully, it remains the underground world. To conclude, the second pillar is: with CAI we don't want to create a product.

The third pillar is: try to do your best to respect the first and the second pillar.

2) How long have you been in this music career, past, and present. Please tell how you started?

Tom: It started after I watched Live After Death on the TV, at the end of the show I wanted a guitar,

it was at the end of the 80ies, I was very young and full of energy...:)

In the same period I discovered lot of bands Deep Purple, Saxon, Scorpions and the very beginning of these

thrash bands from the Bay Area. I created my first band with my bro recording our first songs on

a tape, I remember the rehearsals were in a youth center, every week the police officers visited us with a

sound level meter. Often we had to stop. It was fun and smoky. With the years I played different kind of musics,

I became a huge fan of Blues and Jazz. And I was able to work in music industry managing or producing bands.

John : I’ve been seriously in a band since 2004 . I was looking for a band and a common friend simply introduced me to

Tom and his band at the time who were looking for a bass player …

Since that time Tom and I couldn’t get rid of each other !!!... ;-) …

I started playing bass when I was 18 , as before I used to be drummer . At least , with a bass you can jump on stage … :-)

Tom: John, Lars Ulrich jumps behind his drum kit.

John: To reach a tom, Tom?

Tom: Don't know.

3) What made you interested in this Genre of Music?

Tom: When I discovered this music it was incredible, musically it was a piece of freedom.

Back at these years, we lived almost in the same time the beginning of thrash, the heavy bands their best,

the beginning of the Metal Fusion and these guys from the Black Rock Coalition, the golden age of the guitar heroes.

It seemed that just you plugged a guitar in an amp and do what you felt, everything ruled.

John: For me , metal means to let off the steam , expel all your frustration and anger.

Get crazy on stage and share the same feeling with the crowd ! I started listening to metal

when I was 13 and it was love at the first sight . Somehow I was given a crap copy tape of “ Master of Puppets “

from Metallica and I immediately fell in love with this genre of music .

Tom: Sometimes as a band leader you have to be a psychiatrist.

4) First Concert you attended and the experience?

Tom: Not a big name just some friends playing in a local punk band, the next day I experienced...hmm...some difficulties.

Otherwise, the first Graspop in 1996, one of my first festival experience, a good party with a great bill and

these guys of Type O Negative discussing the quality of their pills with police officers...certainly some vitamin.

I discovered a new world...it changed my life...:)

John: My first concert was Sepultura with Paradise Lost in Berlin in 92 if I remember correctly .

Surprisingly the thing I remember the most was the performance of Nick Holmes , I found him phenomenal !!!

Tom: Elementary my dear Watson.

John: pffff...

5) First Album, Atrack or Tape you bought?

Tom: A tape, Live after death from Iron Maiden, considered like one of the best live album all time, it's deserved.

John: the first CD I bought was “ No More Tears “ from Ozzy . I still listen to it sometimes ... Zakk Wylde is the man !

6) Are your family and Friends supporters in your choice in life?

Tom: I've no family, it's help. My friends don't really care or they are playing in one of my bands. It is convenient...:)

John: Sure ! You look cool when you tell your friends you are in a band !!!! You are kind of a hero ... ;-) ...

On a more serious note , you have to find the right balance between your private life and your passion.

And this , of course , goes with the support of your understanding family ...

7) Are you in this for the Fortune and fame?

Tom: The good old cliche. If someone is looking for that today, you can have some doubt about his mental health.

To play an instrument and compose is for me a physical need. Music is also the best tool you can use to connect people and get a better live. It's already a great thing.

John: And to get the girls !!!!!... ;-) ...

Tom: WTF?!?

8) What do you think about the President of the United States of America?

Tom: Well it's a cool band, if I remember they are coming from Seattle, just a guitarist and a drummer playing

a good rock like this incredible french band called The Inspector Cluzo, they are really amazing on stage and they

composed some really great tunes like Zombie Dj's Killers or French Bastards.

John: ?!?

9) Kfc or Mcdonalds?

Tom: Chouffe Double IPA Triple! Stop to eat to puke!

John: Well ... Since I found a hair in a burger many years ago , I don't go near Mc Donalds anymore !

Tom: Vengeance! (Tribute to Worms) it was not a hair John.

John: life sucks...

10) Best show you ever played, and why?

Tom: With John in our first band and one of our first concert together. It was in Luxembourg at the Rockhal in a club.

We played with a new singer after just one day of rehearsal I was behind the drum kit, everything was ready to be a massacre and finally it was lot of fun. So much than rappers playing after us ask us to improvise on their slam. We played hours! A great night.

11) How many Albums have you created with this band? and does each album or song have a meaning?

Tom: CAI is a new band, we started to release songs digitally in October.

About these 3 songs, you can read GaAaB like a tribute to the directors of z-movies like Ed Wood but for me it's also a though about the creativity these days. We've incredible machine to produce music or movies but often it's seems empty of meaning.

What really is the interest of a blockbuster ? Even in "Plan 9 from outer space" there are more ideas that in "The Avengers"!

Like played by Dire Straits it's just money for nothing.

By extension I think also about the censorship that artists lived at that time, at the end of the WWII governments constraint the right to freedom of expression. Same in USA artists risked everything for that and they were able to release masterpieces. Where are we now about that? Looking at the news these last days perhaps not so far. We've to pay attention about our liberty and our education again.

Cosmos Family Values is like a ironic comic strip about all these guys, in this case a politician, paid in our society to tell us what we've to think, how we've to live and behind the curtain they use and abuse. Remember this French politician in New-York,

Alien Number One is about Alien the Eight Passenger from Ridley Scott. It's adapted like a dialog between the narrator and the beast.

In my point of view it's the best movie of the series. Just for fun and a good subject to develop a more progressive and instrumental song.

John : So far we are still recording the first album . And to me it feels like an achievement .

Finally , we can get this project up and running ! We have had a lot of issues that have slowed down the whole thing ...

I'm very proud of this album to come.

12) Are you signed, or plan to get signed? Have you been offered to be signed? And if you turned it down why? (you don't have to answer)

Tom: No, we've not the necessary material to be signed by a label and not sure we will fight for that. I appreciate the fact to be independant

same if it's really difficult these days. At the end the fans decide, if our music is appreciated and the guys help us to deliver the goods,

the development of the band will go ahead easily. You know, if someone in the business knows it could get money on our ass, sure he will try...:)

13) Your Music ICON?

Tom: Billy Gibbons, Jojo Mayer and Les Claypool. Not really Metal, but if a producer has the crazy idea to put these guys in the same band, sure it will create something strange and beautiful!

John: No real icon . But I admire the old bands like Iron Maiden , Slayer , Pro-Pain , Anthrax , Cannibal Corpse , etc. that are still here after all these years , and still kicking *ss !!!!!

14) Do you have a Job outside your music profession? If so what do you do?

John: Yes , we both are CTU agents.

Tom: Oups!

15) Favorite Wild animal?

Tom: A bradypus, this guy understood everything.

John: Maybe a crocodile ... These things a real killing machines !

Tom: Did you take your pills?

16) Last question. Did you enjoy the questions.

Tom: Yep, It's always cool to speak about the band. Hope you've enjoyed the answers and took a good time.

John: Sure ! Our first and best written interview so far !!!... ;-)