John Calabrese - Danko Jones

April 29th 2010

C'est pour la sortie prochaine (ndlr: le 10 mai) du nouvel album de DANKO JONES légitimement nommé "Below The Belt" que j'avais rendez-vous avec John Calabrese, le bassiste italien du trio canadien (vous suivez?) pour parler de ce réussi nouvel opus. Ce natif de la région de Calabre nous parle de la conception de cet album, de la prochaine vidéo pour " Full of Regret " et des prochaines tournées. Tout simplement une des personnes les plus sympathique et pleine d'humour que j'ai interviewé…

Fab : Could you tell us a little bit about the genesis of "Below the belt"? Was there a different way of approaching it, compared to "Never too loud"?
John Calabrese (bass): Yeah,well, I think it's definitely different. But without "Never too loud", we would never have made "Below the belt", because we learned so much from working with Nick Raskulinecz (ndlr: Producer) and the whole process of doing "Never too loud" that we really carried all that knowledge into this, this new record. With "Never too loud", what we did is that we really demoed all the songs beforehand, sent them to Nick, worked with him in pre-production, and when it came down to record it, we were in the studio with Nick, he really pushed us to the edge, in terms of getting the best performance out of us. And particularly with Danko, he really pushed him, as Nick likes to work a lot with melodies, to his vocals with a more melodic approach. So that was one thing that we took from that experience, and when we start writing "Below the belt", we wanted to have melodies in the songs. But as well we wanted to have the growl, the screaming voice that Danko have. So in this record, we kinda blend in that too.

In terms of going to the writing process, we were able to do the same thing with this new album, doing the demos and going into the studio and making the new record with the demos really finished, and not spending any time deciding what to do in the studio. It can cost you a lot of money ( laughter).

Fab: So according to you, this album is more melodic than the prior one?
John Calabrese: Well, hum, not that much. I think this one has melody, but it also has… it's a heavier and more aggressive album. I will call "Never too loud" more of an 'classic rock' record, and this one more of an hard-rock album.

Fab: Yes, when you listen to it, it feels melodic but also very punchy, kind of classic "in your face" hard rock. Hard to not stomp on this one…
John Calabrese: Yeah, we wanted this from the beginning to the end of the album. Unrelenting.

Fab: A word about Matt Dematteo, your producer ?
John Calabrese: Matt has been great, he's a good friend of ours, we started working with him for "Born a lion" (2002) actually, he's engineered that. And then we, caught him to do "We sweat blood" (2003) and "Sleep is the enemy" (2006). And then, for "Never too loud", we went with Nick, but then, when we came down to do "Below the belt", we really wanted to stay in Canada, because for "Never too loud", we had to go to Los Angeles. But after being away on tour for so long, it would have been tiresome to still be away to record an album, and even more expansive. So we decided to stay within Canada, and do it with Matt, because we're already friends with him. And at the same time, Matt really understands the band, has seen the band live, has seen the evolution. I think it was a great time to take a step (back) from working with Nick, and go back with Matt and do what we did, because it really worked out in the end.

Fab: Whose idea is was to have Danko sitting in a wicker chair, surrounded by a kind of stripper and a lion? Which one of them are you, and Dan (Cornelius -Drums)?
John Calabrese: (laughter) no, no, no, it's not! But I would be the porn star (more laughter). When you see the cover, it's gonna grab your attention. And I think that's what the cover should be doing. You know, we could have had an abstract painting and wrote Danko Jones on it, but, it's not the same as that. So having said that, the cover has to be much more than just a cover. The lion is actually a real lion and the girl, her name's Riley Steele, she's a Digital Playground (ndlr: studio pornographique américain basé à Van Nuys) actress…

Fab: Hence the title of "Below the belt"…
John Calabrese: (laughter) yeah, exactly. It was just a matter of sexual reference. There's a lying lion, and the girl is standing strong, almost as she is the bodyguard. It's kind of a tough image, a tough sexual image. We were really conscious about that, you know. It would not have been any other way for us (laughter). I think it is of good taste and at the same time, I think it's really gonna make people smile. Today, I talked to some woman with witch I did an interview, and she told me she loved the cover, make her smile.

Fab: Did you know that in France the wicker chair is an erotic symbol? From an erotic movie from 1973 called "Emmanuelle"?
John Calabrese: You're serious? Wouah, it's great! (laughter). I have to check that out! (looking into his Iphone). So yes (with a very serious tone), we did the cover because of "Emmanuelle"…(hilarious). This is "Emmanuelle Danko"( laughter).

Fab: Which song is your favorite and why?
John Calabrese: My favorite one is "Full of regret". I gotta say, it's a selfish reason, it's because of the way I play bass on this one. I also really like the vocals…I think it's one of the strongest songs. In the middle part of the song, I play things that I don't usually do.

Fab: Elijah Wood (ndlr: Frodo in Lord of The Rings, between others) is playing a part in your new video "Full Of regret". How did it happen?
John Calabrese: Basically the directors, Josh and Jason Diamond are friends with Elijah, so we were able to get him. And the producer is friends with Selma (Blair, ndlr: actress in the Hellboy movies, Cruel intentions, etc…), so he's got Selma. And then, we were down in Austin, Texas, that's when the whole video kinda came together, that he got them…we were going to go to L.A., I told them that I was checking out and that Motorhead was playing tonight, and they went "oh, why you don't ask Lemmy?". So we asked him, we went to L.A., we also find out that Mike Watt (ndlr: The Stooges) was playing, we asked him, and he was ok too. So, Mike Watt and Lemmy…(laughter). It has just happened by chance, I mean, if we would have wanted those four people…

Fab: It was funny that Elijah added that his mom was a Danko Jones fan too!
John Calabrese: Yeah! (exactly). We don't even know he was a fan!

Fab: Which souvenirs do you have from your show at the HELLFEST 2008?
John Calabrese: I think I have a poster from this festival, that's about it! Danko has to sing a song with Death Angel, he was on stage with them, which it was great. The time before that, I remember hanging out backstage with Phil (Campbell - Guitar) from Motörhead, and, it was pretty funny to be with him, yelling at…(laughter). I mean, I could watch Motörhead playing, I was sitting here with them, joking around… This year, the Hellfest's gonna be amazing, especially on Sunday!

Fab: On a more personal level, any side-project?
John Calabrese: No, no side-projects. My band is a full-time job. It's an extension of me.

Fab: Except the upcoming Canadian tour, what are you plans after that?
John Calabrese: After that? We have a full summer festival tour, and hopefully, there's gonna some France gigs announced. After that, another U.S. tour, followed by a fall tour, we'll be playing in France, headlining.

Fab: Is there a question that I didn't ask, but that you would have liked for me to ask you?
John Calabrese: Oh, that's a hard question (laughter). No, just that I'd like people to check out our website dankojones.com, our twitter of facebook pages, to find the latest infos, the new video should be up by then, and check out on our site the tour dates that are coming!

Fab: Ok, thank you for your time.
John Calabrese: and thank you for the "Emmanuelle" tip!! (general laughter).