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Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are speaking with Danny Seraphine of the band CTA. How are you doing today, Danny?
Danny Seraphine: I’m doing great, Mark. I’m doing great.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. I don’t know if your press agent told you about this, but I’m going to start this interview off by saying something I’ve never said at the start of an interview before, and that is that your band totally does not fit our format, but because the music on your new cd is so amazing I could not deal with being any part of this thing getting buried. But to start off with, are we the first metal and hard rock site to interview you?
Danny Seraphine: That’s a great honor, Mark. Thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much that means to me, because and it means a lot to me that you’re acknowledging that good music is good music, period.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. So are we the first metal/hard rock website to interview you?
Danny Seraphine: Oh, without a doubt. Probably the only, too. (both laugh)
Rock My Monkey: Now, I know that classic rock radio has been accused of ignoring new material of bands that they play all day. Do you think CTA are going to be affected by this at all, and how do you think you’ll overcome that?
Danny Seraphine: Well, I’m overcoming it by, I’m actually doing live interviews on a lot of the morning shows. They’re playing two, two or three cuts off the cd, talking about my days in Chicago, and then talking about the new band. And it’s been great exposure for the cd because obviously, it harkens back to the original Chicago days, CTA, Chicago Transit Authority days. And the people that remember that and there are still millions of people who remember that, that era of music, and that’s what this record kind of takes a nod to that era, and just respects it. It’s a respect, it’s very much a show of respect for that time, and place. It’s hard to deny that, because people love that music, still. And these bands-yeah, you’re right. It is a bit of a, it is a quandary because there should be a radio format, I think, for bands, like REO and Journey, and you name it, that are still really vibrant and creative, and want to make new material, but yet there’s no place for them to get it played. I think it is kind of messed up, because everything is so niche oriented and pigeonholed. I think people are really wanting to be, to go back to a time when stuff was more eclectic, and a mix of things, and a mix of different styles of music. Not crazy, but sometimes crazy. Bill Graham used to present things at the Filmore. He would have The Grateful Dead with Miles Davis. He would have Chicago, Chicago Transit Authority with The Mothers Of Invention.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Now, because your cd has some of the most dynamic music that I’ve heard on a cd in a very long time, I really want to ask you about the controversy on what is being called ‘The Loudness War.’ Are you familiar with that?
Danny Seraphine: No, not at all. No. What is it? Enlighten me.
Rock My Monkey: Basically what’s happening is, and actually this had been going on even since the first record was made. But way back when we had the vinyl records inside juke boxes, the record companies noticed that the songs that were louder actually got played more than the songs that were a little softer. So they started trying to produce records so that they were louder than the other ones, so they would get played more on the juke box. The one thing that kept music from getting compressed to hell was that vinyl could only have so much. There was actually limitations in the vinyl that kept it from being too loud, too compressed, and you could only do so much with that. So that actually kind of held back the reins a little bit. But when we went into digital media with cds, they found that the dynamic, that the range was actually higher. But instead of using-it’s kind of like a lot of the nu-metal bands that use the seven string guitars, but only use one string. They would take that huge dynamic range, and then they would only use basically whatever would make the cd the loudest. They’d throw tons of compression on it. They would take out the dynamic range, and just make it loud. So that’s actually being called The Loudness War, where music is being compressed to hell, and all the dynamic range is taken out just to make it loud, and now we’re actually having bands that are writing songs to cater to that. Your cd seems to really go against the grain in that, whereas yes, you’re on a cd, but you seem to be trying to use that cd to it’s fullest potential.
Danny Seraphine: That goes back to the kind of musician you are. I mean, I come from, obviously I come from the old school. All the guys in my band, even though they’re not as old school as I am, but really practice that. Old school meaning a true musician, Mark. I’ll give you an example. Let’s talk about Marc Bonilla, our guitar player who I consider to be one of the great guitar players in the world. I really do. And I don’t say that very often, but I mean it. It’s true. He’s one of the great guitar players in the world. But the great thing about Marc is, he’s plays with dynamic. If you came to see Marc play live, and you stood on the side of the stage, you would be amazed at how soft he plays when he plays soft. I mean, he plays loud. He plays loud, but he never gets over the point where he jacks up the stage volume because he’s so loud. And I respect that so much, have so much respect for that, because many guitar players, and even great guitar players, aren’t necessarily great musicians, because they don’t play with dynamic. Because to me, being a great musician-and it’s really hard, Mark, It’s hard playing with dynamic, but this band plays with dynamic. In other words, when the song goes down, we go come down in level. But we hit a verse and there’s a burst and the level comes down, and then we come up high, and we come down again. Dynamics. You need to have that. Music needs to breathe. Tempos need to breathe. Tempos need to move a little bit, too, but so does dynamic. That comes down to then, yes, our cd has dynamics. But when it gets loud, it gets very loud. But when it goes soft, it gets very soft. But it has that variation, and that’s what’s so beautiful about it.
Rock My Monkey: When it comes to-now, I don’t know who produced your cd, but when it comes to hiring a producer or hiring an engineer, do you purposely try and find somebody that maybe is a little bit more old school, and resists that urge to jack everything up?
Danny Seraphine: Well, Marc and I produced the cd, okay? That took care of that. And the engineer is an old school-he’s very successful in the business, in a studio called The Green Room in San Fernando Valley. He’s definitely an old school guy. He’s been around a long time. But he’s totally-he knows Pro Tools studio better than anybody. So it’s the best of both worlds with him. And yes, dynamic engine. Mark, I don’t know any other way. I really don’t know any other way. Honestly, I couldn’t-if you told me to Danny-of course I could jack it up. But you know, in mastering that’s what they do, Mark, it’s done in mastering they jack up the levels so high that there’s distortion. If you listen to a lot of the modern records, that’s what we’re competing against. If you listen to our records, it’s pretty hot. I don’t know if-I liked the review that you did, because you have a bigger variation of discs. Compare the loud part of our disc to the loud part some of the other discs. I’m kind of curious. In some of these other bands, you’re hearing them-they jack the levels up to the point of distortion. If the music’s already distorted, so it’s not so bad, but you’re talking about vocals distorting, drums, bass, everything. I don’t-you know, buddy, I can’t, I won’t-I mean, I want to just want the disc to be hot. And it is hot. It is hot. But I don’t want it to be hot at the complete expense of the sonic integrity, you know?
Rock My Monkey: Absolutely. Cool. Cool. As I said before, I’m mostly a metal and hard rock guy, so I have to admit that the rest of your band is totally unknown to me. But I couldn’t find any information on your band mates at all, so I was wondering if you could fill me in on how you got a hold of them, where you found them, and maybe a little bit about what their history is. But if you don’t mind, I’d love to start with the singer you have. Where did you find somebody that has such a passionate and soulful delivery?
Danny Seraphine: He’s been the voice of Tower Of Power for the last seven years. That’s where we found him. It happened, one of the first gigs this band ever played, and it was right in the inception of the band, when the band was put together, we played-I don’t know if you’ve heard of-well, she’s passed away-but Lisa Wails, she was a photojournalist for Modern Drummer. A lot of the drum magazines. She really got struck down with leukemia. So the drummers of the world put together a large, a huge benefit concert in Phoenix. And this was the first-they invited me because I had just kind of come out. I had just decided to start playing again, so I said, sure, I would love to. And Mark, they did that through Marc Bonilla, because Troy Luccketta, I’m sure you know Troy Luccketta, from Tesla, the band Tesla?
Rock My Monkey: Right, right, right.
Danny Seraphine: He organized the whole thing. So we, they invited me, so Mark, they approached me and said, ‘Look, let’s work up three songs.’ We’ll fly to Phoenix, we’ll do it as a five piece band. We’ll have the two keyboard players, Peter Fish, Ed Roth, and then myself, and then Mick Mahan on bass. We wanted to do two of the songs we wanted to do vocal songs, so David Garibaldi was also, David Garibaldi the drummer with Tower Of Power was there to perform and he had the singer there in this band named Larry Braggs. So Larry volunteered to sing "25 or 6 to 4,”, and “I’m A Man” and we did “Make Me Smile” as an instrumental, so that was where we first connected with Larry, and he did an amazing job. We kind of went through musical singers while we were performing some of our early gigs in L.A. Mark and I were talking, said ‘Man, Larry did such a great job, why don’t we see if he wants to sing on the record, and do a couple gigs with us?’ And I saw David Garibaldi and I said, ‘Look, man, are you okay with this?’ He said, ‘Sure, Larry’s his own man. Whatever, it’s okay.’ That’s where Larry got involved. And Larry, his 3 octave range, Larry is singing the parts of three singers. Robert Lamm, Terry Kath, and Peter Cetera. And that’s amazing, because there aren’t many people who can do that. Like you say, he brings a soulful edge to the Chicago stuff, and it’s so cool. It’s a pleasure.
Rock My Monkey: Cool, cool, cool. What about some of the other guys? You talked a little bit about your guitar player.
Danny Seraphine: Marc Bonilla
Rock My Monkey: Right.
Danny Seraphine: You want to know how I got connected with Mark?
Rock My Monkey: What’s that?
Danny Seraphine: You want to know how I got connected with Mark, is that what you want to know? And tell you about him?
Rock My Monkey: Sure, sure, sure, yeah. Let’s go on to the next member.
Danny Seraphine: Yeah. So Marc Bonilla who, like I said, to me, is one of the, I truly believe is one of the great guitar players in the world. He’s such an amazing musician, arranger, composer. I got connected with Mark one night, after Peter Fish and I were, we were the first ones to talk about putting the band together. I guess one night Don Lombardi, who’s the founder and owner of DW Drums, you know? He put together like an impromptu kind of hang, musician hang and jam session, and it was at Gregg Bissonette house, who’s another great drummer. You know, a friend of mine. And Bob Birch who’s the bass player for Elton John. So these guys, Mark, Bob, and Greg all grew up on Chicago, on Chicago music, CTA stuff, you know. CTA, Chicago ’67, or 68’. We sat around and I told them Chicago stories for oh god, hours and hours. They loved it. I told them all the stories about the band, and the gossip and you know, you get into it. Then we went downstairs and jammed in Greg’s studio. Mark and I had a connection that was just-I hadn’t had that kind of connection with a guitar player since the late, great Terry Kath who also to me is one of the top five of all time. Amazing. He was an amazing, beautiful guitar player and person. So Mark and I said ‘Wow, that was great, man.’ We talked about ‘Hey, let’s put a band together, a jam band together, and just play, maybe play a club in L.A. once or twice a month or something, and just see how it goes.’ Then we talked to Peter and then we, then we did the benefit. The benefit kind of came after that. And after we did the benefit, in doing the benefit there’s a little anecdote I need to share with you. We finished the three songs. We finished "25 or 6 to 4," and I went to the front of the stage and I took a bow, and I lifted up my head and the whole place was standing. It just like, it really lit my fire. That was the thing that really-you really need to play again. People appreciate your playing. People appreciate what you’ve contributed. You need to get back into it because this is what god put you on the planet for. This is what you do best. That’s when Mark and I started talking about putting CTA together for real, and really going after it, and going after it with a vengeance. I’m jumping around here. Is this screwing you up?
Rock My Monkey: No, no, no. That’s fine.
Danny Seraphine: Mark used to be-Mark broke into the business with a band called Toy Matinee, which is a pop band in the 80’s that was really, really good. A great band. Then that fell apart, and he got burned out on them. Then he just got into writing, scoring for t.v. and movies, and sessions. No one heard of him-no one knows this guy was a great guitar player. I got to be honest with you Mark. When the dust settles and people talk about CTA and whatever they want to say about me, the thing that’s going to really stick with people besides the band being so great and the songs is Mark’s guitar playing. I really believe people will finally get to know one of the great guitar players in the world.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. I do want to ask you about-I did some searching, and I cannot seem to find your cd on Amazon, or even CD Baby. Is bigger distribution on the way?
Danny Seraphine: It’s available in Borders. It’s available at Borders, and of course at iTunes. The actual physical cd you have to buy it at Borders, okay?
Rock My Monkey: Oh, Borders is the only place that it’s going to be available.
Danny Seraphine: Yeah, the physical cd. But it’s available on iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, it’s available on all the download sites. And you get the digital program, the booklet.
Rock My Monkey: So is there any plans to have it distributed beyond Borders?
Danny Seraphine: No. Borders-I have an exclusive with them until January. Yeah. There’s an exclusive with Borders, and it’s a great deal because we’re doing our own distribution and our own marketing. So I’m pretty happy because really there’s a number of Borders in almost every town. Is there a Borders in your town?
Rock My Monkey: Yeah, I believe so.
Danny Seraphine: So it’s available at Borders. It probably will, I’m sure that it will broaden out once the exclusive runs out. But if they want to extend it, they’re doing a great job, and I think that Borders is a great marriage for us. Of course anybody that wants to go, it’s available on iTunes and all the other download services, like I said, with a cd booklet.
Rock My Monkey: With Chicago you recorded many legendary hits, so what song off of this cd, what original song off of this cd do you think has the power to become a legendary classic for CTA, a song that fans will demand for decades to come?
Danny Seraphine: There’s a song called “Several Thousand” that’s really, really good. I mean, that’s probably the only song, I mean original. You’re not talking about any of the Chicago songs, right?
Rock My Monkey: Right, right, right.
Danny Seraphine: A song called “Several Thousand” I think is probably the most radio worthy, hit potential. But I think you can hear that this record is totally about music, and only about music. Yes, there is the thought about a demographic, and aiming it at a Chicago audience that remember Chicago Transit Authority, and remember early Chicago when Chicago was very hard edged, and a rock and roll horn band.
Rock My Monkey: Chicago, and you actually just referenced this, but Chicago was originally called CTA as well, and had to change their name due to the Chicago Transit Authority. Why won’t California Transit Authority have the same problem?
Danny Seraphine: Well, when Mark and I and Peter were talking about ‘Well, what do you want to name the band?’ They came up with ideas, and I said, ‘You know, I’d really like to call the band CTA.’ Because I always loved the name CTA. I didn’t like leaving the name CTA behind, but we had to, I guess. And so I hired a trademark attorney, and he did a name search, and nobody-you’re going to die-no one owned CTA. Nobody. So I registered it, and it’s a name that I own. Then I had to think, I had to say, ‘Well, what does it mean?’ It can’t mean Chicago Transit Authority. That’s too crazy, too close, it’ll cause all kinds of problems, legal problems. Then I thought, you know what, California Transit Authority. Why not? There is no such thing as California Transit Authority. So no ones going to start-so now I registered, I own both CTA and California Transit Authority, and we’ll have the names for as long as we want.
Rock My Monkey: I hope you don’t mind me asking this question, but James Pankow has said that you did not practice enough, and that that’s why you’re no longer in Chicago. So from your point of view, what would you say is the reason you no longer are in Chicago.
Danny Seraphine: The reason I’m no longer in Chicago is the lead singer, the new lead singer, Jason Scheff and Bill Champlin, didn’t like the fact that a drummer was running the band. And at that point I was pretty much running the band. And they didn’t like it. I think they had designs on being in control of the band. So they put it to Jimmy. Jimmy just feels guilty, so that’s why he’s talking out his ass. Jimmy just feels guilty, and I’ll get into that in a second. Yet they put it to Jimmy, Walter, me and Robert, that if I wasn’t let go that they were going to leave. And I think the guys sat back and thought, you know, it’s going to be easier to replace the drummer than two lead singers. I think many bands might have done the same thing. But in reality the band since I left has not done very well. Listen, I don’t wish them bad. These days I’m just looking forward. These days I’m just moving forward. So, but as far as Jimmy saying that? Out of all people that should be criticizing me for not practicing, it shouldn’t be Jim Pankow because there’s a guy that has really neglected his craft. I saw that, I saw that on Wikipedia, and I said to myself ‘What the hell is he talking about?’ I mean, there’s a part where he said the reason he brought in Laudir DeOliveira to steady out my time. I’m the one who brought Laudir DeOliveira. No one else in the band. I jammed with him, and loved his playing so much I said I got to bring him into the band. Because we were doing a lot of Latin stuff at that time. I don’t know what Jimmy, what he’s smoking or what he’s drinking to come off and say that. To be honest with you, if you knew Jimmy Pankow, you’d know not to take it seriously. It’s unfortunate. It’s not that he’s a bad guy. He’s a really nice guy. But if you know him, he’s not the most logical, sane person, you know what I mean? And also the ???? guy that stopped woodshedding many, many, many moons ago. That’s what was such a hypocritical thing. They tried to say that to me. And I took them seriously. I went and woodshedded for six weeks. I found a really good teacher in Denver to work with, because that’s what you do. It’s like a trainer. And I got that. I really worked on fine tuning. I’m thinking if you guys are saying my playing is suffering because I’m too involved with the business, well, it must be true. In the back of my mind I knew it was political because I went and really focused on getting my playing back together. You want to talk about practicing? I was practicing four, five, six hours a day for three or four months, and then I came back and I played my ass off. The last gig that I played with Chicago, which was a corporate date for Shearson, Lehman and Hutton, and then they fired me after that. It’s a bunch of bullshit. To be honest with you, he’s just trying to rationalize something that he’s ashamed that he ever did. And I would tell him that to his face. It was really stupid of him to do that because if you look at my playing now and look at my playing even, the last album I did with Chicago was a huge success. It had five top five records. To be honest with you, that’s enough said about that. I don’t mind you talking about it because it’s really ironic because when I saw that on Wikipedia, it really pissed me off because it’s not true. I don’t mind people saying things that are true about me. But that’s one thing that’s not true. I’m a lot of things, but I am a dedicated musician, and have been.
Rock My Monkey: I think if anybody doubts your playing, they just got to pick up that new cd of yours and take a listen to it, and I think that’ll win them over. On a much more positive note, what’s the touring schedule of the band, and are you guys going to be up in the Northwest anytime soon?
Danny Seraphine: If you have it my way, we’ll be up there soon. I would imagine, with the cd so far we’ve created a nice buzz, thanks to you and a lot of people like you. I don’t know if you looked on iTunes. There are a lot of amazing reviews up there. We are our own record company. We subsidize the cd ourselves, and the marketing. We’re subsidizing the marketing. We don’t have the deep, deep, crazy deep pockets of a record company but we do have funds for marketing, and we’ve done a fair share, and we’re going to do more. God willing the cd wakes up a lot of people and motivates them to buy it. In one form or another, either downloading it from iTunes or the other download sites, or going to Borders. Yeah, I didn’t look at the sales so far in the Northwest. But I want to. I love the Northwest. It’s a beautiful part of the United States. I have a lot of great memories playing Seattle with Rod Stewart up at the Eagles Ballroom up in Seattle, and Portland. We’ve just had a lot of wonderful-I’ve got a lot of wonderful memories with Chicago that I want to experience with CTA now. I want to sent people out with this music. I want to give them something back. I’ve been given so much by the fans of Chicago and CTA. I’ve got a wonderful career. I want to continue to give back. I want to give them back really true, honest music. I want to continue to do that. I will not be corrupted again. I will refuse to be corrupted again. I will stay true to this path, and this band will stay true to this path. And you have my word on that. It just isn’t going to happen.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Now on a non-musical question, I noticed in 2007, sometime this year, we’re supposed to see the release of a movie called Lonely Street, and you are credited as being one of the executive producers.
Danny Seraphine: Yeah, I’m an executive producer, and the music supervisor.
Rock My Monkey: What can you tell me about this film and how you got involved?
Danny Seraphine: I was involved with two Broadway clients prior to that. I was a producer. A producer is a guy basically who goes and raises the money for it. So I got a reputation as someone who can raise money, and I never had done this until I did these two Broadway plays. So I went out and raised money for-and they brought me on board because of my musical background and musical knowledge, and I got on board because of the content, the premise of the story, and the potential of the music. I’ll tell you what the premise of the movie is. The movie stars Jay Mohr, Robert Patrick, Joe Mantegna, Mike Starr, Lindsay Price, Paul Rodriguez, the comedian. So Jay Mohr plays this low level Southern private detective who’s kind of a bumbling, kind of a bumbling kind of guy who’s always one step away from bankruptcy. He’s a screw up, okay? He gets a knock on the door one day, and it’s this character by the name of J.T., a Southern fellow also, who needs a bodyguard for a celebrity. He’s in town, he wants to hire, him and his boss wants to set him up to hire extra security, because his boss who is a really well known celebrity feels like he’s being stalked by a fan. They want him, they want Jay Mohr’s character’s name is Bubba Mabry, so they want him to tail this guy, and kind of just shadow him and make sure he doesn’t do anything dangerous, doesn’t create any danger to the celebrity. So anyways, Jay Mohr agrees to this deal. It pays fifty bucks a day. He’s tickled pink. He needs the money. Mike Starr plays the part of the bodyguard. Mike Starr was the original bodyguard in The Bodyguard. Pretty Italian looking guy. He takes Jay Mohr in this black Cadillac to meet this celebrity. Jay Mohr, he puts a blindfold on him, says he doesn’t want him to know where he’s going. And Jay Mohr throws up all over the front of the Cadillac. The guy puts him in this trunk because he doesn’t want him throwing up again. It’s funny. You have to see it because he projectile vomits on the windshield, and it’s very funny. So anyway, he brings him to meet the celebrity, and they pull up to this kind of hideaway, getaway mansion type of place. He’s getting ready to walk through the door, and he takes the blindfold off him, and says ‘Come on, come on take this thing off of me. Who is this guy? Who is this guy?’ Mike Starr goes, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll recognize him, but don’t call him by his real name. He likes to be called Mr. Aaron’
Rock My Monkey: It’s Robert Patrick?
Danny Seraphine: It’s Robert Patrick. Robert Patrick plays the celebrity. So they open the door, and it’s kind of an oriental kind of garden, Zen garden, the guy is meditating. A samurai type guy over him doing these ancient ritual type things. So anyways, the guy stands up to turn around to meet him, and you can tell he’s an older man, because he gets up very gingerly, you know, like an older man. Turns around, and Jay Mohr almost falls flat on his face. It’s Elvis. Okay? So Robert Patrick plays the part of a 72 year old Elvis who fakes his own death because he did not like where he was going in his life. He was turning into an alcoholic, drug addict. He cleaned up, cleaned himself up, and went underground and changed his life, and is now completely straight. Very handsome, by the way, but 70 years old, you know 72 years old. When you see this, you’re going to die. Robert Patrick plays the most amazing Elvis you’ve ever seen. Better than the real Elvis. And the story is now he wants to make a come back. This is where the story starts off. And it’s a murder mystery. There’s a guy who gets murdered, and you’re wondering if Elvis did it, or if it’s his bodyguard, or who did it. It’s a great story. And the music is, originally-like for instance I produced the song that’s Elvis’ comeback song, and it’s called “When The Rebel Comes Home”. It’s a really cool song. I produced, the song is thirty years old. I produced it for a singer/songwriter by the name of Tom Jans. Now Tom Jans and his girlfriend ironically wrote a Bette Midler song, My Mother’s Eyes, that song My Mother’s Eyes. He wrote a song called Lovin’ Arms that was a hit by Dobie Gray and it was also covered by Elvis. So this song is really cool, and I got an Elvis impersonator from Ireland of all places to do an amazing vocal that sounds just like Elvis. And the music is going to be really way cool.
Rock My Monkey: I got to say having Nikki Cox play a character named Bambi, that’s just extremely hot.
Danny Seraphine: Oh, it is really hot. She is really hot.
Rock My Monkey: She’s a beautiful woman, and her playing a character named Bambi, that’s extremely sexy.
Danny Seraphine: You know, I forgot to mention Nikki Cox. That’s right. Thanks for reminding me.
Rock My Monkey: I’m a big fan of hers, actually. I’ve been watching her stuff for a very long time. Now, when do you think this will be released?
Danny Seraphine: We’re hoping in spring of ’08, summer of ’08.
Rock My Monkey: Okay, so spring or summer of ’08. Now, I’ve only got three questions left, but this next question is actually a trivia for you.
Danny Seraphine: Okay.
Rock My Monkey: I’m going to name a whole bunch of artists, and you tell me what they all have in common with CTA. The Doors, Waylon Jennings, Dixie Dregs, Randy Travis, Pennywise, Boyz II Men, Charlie Peacock, Xzibit, and Drowning Pool. They all have one thing in common with California Transit Authority.
Danny Seraphine: The Doors, Dixie Dregs, right?
Rock My Monkey: Yep. Waylon Jennings, Randy Travis, Pennywise, Boyz II Men, Charlie Peacock, the rapper Xzibit, and the metal band Drowning Pool.
Danny Seraphine: The drummer plays DW drums. I don’t know. Mark, you’re killing me, man. You got to help me on this one.
Rock My Monkey: You ready for the answer?
Danny Seraphine: I’m ready for the answer.
Rock My Monkey: They all have albums, they all have an album called Full Circle.
Danny Seraphine: Okay. Yeah, yeah. Full Circle, I knew Full Circle wasn’t the most original, but it meant the most to me, and you understand why.
Rock My Monkey: Right, right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Before I ask my final question is there anything you’d like to say to the fans of CTA, or maybe just the readers of RockMyMonkey.com?
Danny Seraphine: Yeah, I’d like to say that, I hope that you can embrace this music, even though it’s different than maybe the music you normally listen to, and appreciate where it comes from and the time and place in music history that it really kind of pays homage to, with the 70’s, late 60’s early to middle 70’s. And appreciate the freshness and integrity of what we’re doing here. It’s really meant for good music lovers, and it’s really meant as a state of respect for the audiences and fans, true music lovers around the world.
Rock My Monkey: This next question, this is the final question. Every year I make up one final question that I ask every single band that I interview, everybody from classic rock legends to the most extreme death metal band. This is where you’re definitely reminded that you’re being interviewed by a hard rock, heavy metal website, because this question is purposely a little bit obnoxious. This year I’m asking people to look into their crystal ball and predict what political figure, world leader, musician, celebrity, anybody well known, anybody world wide famous, who do you think might die before the end of the year?
Danny Seraphine: Who am I worried might die before the end of the year?
Rock My Monkey: What’s that?
Danny Seraphine: I’m trying to think who’s on a path of destruction.
Rock My Monkey: Yeah, a lot of people answer that way. I’ve actually had a few people mention friends of theirs just as a way to call it out and say ‘hey, stop doing this’ and maybe get healthy. So you can perceive it any way you want.
Danny Seraphine: Ronnie Montrose
Rock My Monkey: Ronnie Montrose. Alright. Great answer. I thank you very much for doing the interview, and anybody that’s listening to the audio version can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with clickable links, readable text, and many more wonderful features. They can I guess go to Borders to purchase the physical version of Full Circle by California Transit Authority, or check it out on iTunes. And I do hope to see you guys up on tour in the Northwest sometime soon. Thank you very much for your time.
Danny Seraphine: Can’t wait to meet you Mark. Thanks for the great interview.
