Check out some Retro Grave merchendise by Clicking Here!
Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are speaking with Jeff Olson of the legendary band, Trouble, about his new project, RetroGrave. How are you doing today, Jeff?
Jeff Olson: I’m doing great.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Now what does RetroGrave do for you and for fans that Trouble does not?
Jeff Olson: Just providing some doom, you know? Sort of an older style, doom style, that might be a little bit variegated from Trouble’s older days, maybe, you know? Heavier, Sabbathy kind of sound.
Rock My Monkey: Now Run is a rearrangement of Trouble’s Run To The Light, correct?
Jeff Olson: Yes. Yes.
Rock My Monkey: Now, will RetroGrave do original material, as well, or will it focus on the more classic material of Trouble?
Jeff Olson: What it’s going to do is on Run, it’s going to take it-I’ve already finished all the drum tracks, very close to the original. Slowed some tempos down, and then the guest stars will create the difference in arrangements. Different intros on it. And then there’ll be some bonus tracks that are like from Trouble One. I’m going to do Victim Of The Insane on there, that I wrote on the first Trouble record. And then an unknown, just one that we haven’t created yet. I think I’m going to do that with probably Ron and Sammy and Kyle Thomas. So yeah.
Rock My Monkey: So there will be original material in there, but it will be mixed in with the older Trouble material?
Jeff Olson: Yeah. Rather than eight songs like on Run To The Light, there will be ten or eleven. And then we’re talking about a double release, like the other, there’ll be a whole set of twelve or thirteen songs of original RetroGrave material, that can be released at the same time. We’re just running that. We’re kind of throwing that across the table to everybody, if we can release two records at the same time.
Rock My Monkey: What made Vincent Wojno the right man for the producer chair on the Run cd?
Jeff Olson: Vinny is just a great guy to me, a close friend. And he’s really the only producer that I know like that, as a friend, really that I can talk to and understand him, and set budgets and things. So Vinny, I really like, he’s very creative. He gives us a chance to-you know, I chose him just because I like his warm sound. I think he’ll get a heavy sound. He really gets my drums sounding pretty good, too.
Rock My Monkey: You have Kyle Thomas, currently in Alabama Thunderpussy on vocals. With his schedule being so busy now, was it a challenge to find time for him to record this?
Jeff Olson: Actually that’s kind of funny, because Ron Holzner the bass player on Run To The Light, that’s his connection, him and Sammy from Goatwhore. He goes down to New Orleans. I think he’s going down sometime this month, or in the winter, and they’ll record the tracks when they hang out together. So I think it will have to be when there is time. But that’s sort of Ron’s-he has to get that done. (laughs)
Rock My Monkey: That’s on his job list, then?
Jeff Olson: Yeah. I said, I asked Ron to do it with me, and he got all excited, and said, ‘Let me get Kyle and let me get Sammy.’ We really wanted to have Sammy. He’s got a great heavy sound in Acid Bath, and just a lot of the stuff he’s done, too. I chose the songs for them that really reflected Ron’s performance on Run To The Light, which I really liked him on Peace Of Mind and Tuesday’s Child. Plays very Geezer-like. He’s going to sound really cool on this.
Rock My Monkey: What is the latest on Wet Animal? Is that band still considered active?
Jeff Olson: Yes, very active. They would like to tour, as far as I know. I know that to be really good, and I know that they’re working on their next project, and what I heard was really, really good. A lot less demo-like than the first album. And very tight sounding.
Rock My Monkey: And you’re still the drummer of that band, as well?
Jeff Olson: No, I’m not, actually. The drummer is Mark. He was a-sort of-he’s a lefty drummer, just like Barry Stern. Very, very Barry Stern-like. He was a student of Barry’s. And he played drums in, not in Debris, but in D-Connect, where Barry Stern was singing right before kind of last leg of his life there, before the surprise tragic death of Barry Stern. Barry was singing, and Mark, and I can’t remember his last name’s pronunciation, so it’s just Mark the drummer of Wet Animal. He was playing the drums for Barry in D-Connect.
Rock My Monkey: With Retro Grave being an underground super group of sorts, is there any chance the band will ever tour?
Jeff Olson: Yes, yes. What I’m trying to do actually with it is maybe superstar cameos like that, or cameos of doom players. And maybe as quickly as possible to raise up a touring group that can play the music and still have it’s own identity as well, you know? So that it can create a really good live show. Something with a little bit of performance style into it. We’re talking about doing some crazy things with t.v. screens and things in the back, a little Pink Floyd-ish kind of stuff. But on low budget terms, you know? And right now Michael Schermuly is with me here in Maine, and that’s kind of what we’re working on is the other side of RetroGrave. Probably a three piece or a four piece group that will tour.
Rock My Monkey: But it won’t necessarily be the same lineup as on the album?
Jeff Olson: Right.
Rock My Monkey: Is there any plans for a video single for this release?
Jeff Olson: Video single? Not yet. One thing we have talked about was a type of college show simulcast, where the video cameras are rolling and we’re playing live at a college or something. So that would be the closest we would get to that.
Rock My Monkey: And maybe rebroadcast it through one of the internet sites like Stickam Or something like that?
Jeff Olson: Exactly. Exactly.
Rock My Monkey: Now is Simple Mind Condition By Trouble ever going to see a U.S. release?
Jeff Olson: (laughs) Yes, it will. It’s been a real rocky road, everyone knows. I mean, it’s not new news how long it’s been. We say it’s coming out and then it doesn’t come out. The last I heard-I even heard that it was January. And it isn’t because it’s not finished. Now it’s finished.
Rock My Monkey: Well, it’s out in Europe.
Jeff Olson: Yeah. Yeah. It’s out in Europe. I remember signing autographs, and they came from a store. And it’s like ‘Where did you get it?’ ‘It’s sold in stores.’ So yeah. What happened with that I’m not really, truly clear. I don’t completely understand. I know that it could have been released here in the fall, but they don’t like to compete I guess with, around Christmas time, I guess.
Rock My Monkey: Now, Run To The Light featured Dennis Lesh who replaced you when you left Trouble to pursue a Bachelor Of Music Degree in Film Scoring at Berkley College Of Music in Boston. So why not redo Psalm 9, or The Skull?
Jeff Olson: Well, because Run To The Light has some gems on there that I think are older metal. The sound of the record had a couple things in it that I wished some of the songs like Borrowed Time and Born In A Prison and things like that, might not have had the reverb, you know, and maybe to bring it back. And it’s not just a remake. I want to try to make things sound-taking something that sounded great to me, almost a favorite album of mine. It really is, a favorite Trouble record. And I didn’t get to play drums on it. So it’s kind of fun to-I did it live. Like I would play The Beginning, I played Born In A Prison, Misery Shows, Run. Most of the music on the record, Thinking Of The Past, all that, I played live in the old days. And it’s fun to be able to do that on record, so that’s kind of why.
Rock My Monkey: Would you say you regret not being part of that album?
Jeff Olson: Yeah, you know, there are times I regret not being part of Trouble in those days. We’ve got a boat going by us right now. I’m actually on a lake right now talking to you. ( both laugh)
Rock My Monkey: Cool.
Jeff Olson: I regret sometimes not being in the band. But at the same time I really pursued a lot of study. I studied anthropology, I studied theology, I studied music. The main emphasis was music. Just glad I did that. So I really don’t have regrets of studying, but I wish I almost could have been two people, where I could have still toured and done some of the exciting parts of Trouble. The longer tours. We used to just go out for two weeks and come home. That’s kind of, what the deal was with that, ya know? (laughs)
Rock My Monkey: What’s the schedule for Trouble look like as far as touring? Do you guys think you guys might jump on a U.S. tour anytime soon?
Jeff Olson: Yeah. They’re talking about a-we went out for a small amount of time in the winter in the U.S. Nice club type tour. Around February, that kind of a thing. And then gearing more towards the festivals for next summer. And then there’s a few things under the wings of touring in March and stuff. And that could be here and abroad.
Rock My Monkey: Call it still negotiating a U.S. label deal tour?
Jeff Olson: Yeah. (both laugh) But you know, it’s really tough to say, you know?
Rock My Monkey: When people see Retro Grave live, how much-you mentioned a little bit of theatrics, like maybe a broadcast screen. Or something like that. How much of it is going to be those extras, how much is going to be the stripped down rock and roll? What can people expect from that?
Jeff Olson: Well, I really want it to be quality, to really enjoy the show. And I want it to have that old, retro performance, meaning, you know-it’s almost like, the other night we saw Ogre. And it’s just good-they’re still like Budgie. They just come right out, three pieces, rocking it down. Just slammin’. Just, it was really great. It was exciting. So I kind of want that. But at that the same time I like a little bit of humor in things that go on. Not necessarily Spinal Tap, but t.v. sets with atomic bombs going off for the flash pots, crazy antics maybe going on in the stage with mirrors and things like that. Just something that makes people remember the show, but also can bang their head and close their eyes and just rock, too.
Rock My Monkey: What song on Simple Mind Condition, what song do you find is your most personal song? The song that you relate to the most?
Jeff Olson: The one I most relate to the most is probably the one I wrote, Beginning Of Sorrow. But the one that I gravitate to the most, as far as heavy sounding, is Mind Bender. I really like the unconventional tuning. It has a very low six string, and the rest of the guitar is tuned standard, just creating a really great, kind of tone, Trouble-esque tone. And it also has that old powerful Trouble sound to it.
Rock My Monkey: Many people have often called Trouble a “white metal” band. How do you feel about that, and do you feel you guys have-do you guys have more of a connection to bands like Down and Pantera, or do you have more in connection with some of the Christian metal bands?
Jeff Olson: I think more towards Down and Pantera, over the history of the band’s lyrics and ideology, so to speak. There’s many phases of Trouble. You have the first two records, and then you have Run stuck sort of on it’s own. And then you have the (Rick) Rubin years. And then you have another awakening at Plastic Green Head. And then you have another pause. It’s almost like you these four phases of the group. You have a psychedelic phase on Plastic Green Head, sort of in the end. And Manic Frustration through this psychedelic phase. And I think in the early days, Eric took music about life and death out of the bible because it was really in your face as a- say antiquity almost. The words are mystical because they’ve been written, they’re so old. So he would pull those storylines and bring them into a modern perspective in life and death, in real life. And at the time, you know, things were like, the more evil you were, the more heavy you were. And this is the first two records. And I think that he really doesn’t like to conform to anything. He didn’t want to conform that we have to be a horror show. We can be more about peace or maybe political. So he chose that path I think that way in his lyrics. As things changed, he got maybe more angry, or more free on drugs, or whatever it was, so his lyrics changed. I think the group still wanted to remain not a shock fest group, just a good rocking old band, a good old rocking hard rock band. Acid rock, heavy metal band.
Rock My Monkey: So it could be that people, a lot of the people misinterpreted those somewhat Christian-type lyrics incorrectly, and the band is actually much more secular than a lot of the white metal fans would like it to be?
Jeff Olson: Yes. Yeah, I would say that. And I think it’s just each person’s individual faith or ideology again would call for that. The majority of the group, we’re not biblical evangelicals or anything like that. Like Stryper was more of a deep, there was a purpose to bringing troubled youth to Christianity. Almost prostelytizing. J really did that. He just wrote about biblical terms during those phases of the group.
Rock My Monkey: And Trouble would never throw a bible at an audience member.
Jeff Olson: No. (both laugh) Not a Barren Cross or an evangelical group at all. Just a good time rock band. I mean, heavy group. The thing that’s funny that puts Trouble sort of in a hard position for people to coin who we are, was we love like Captain Beyond, like Alice Cooper, but Alice Cooper was the modern day shock rocker, you know? Incredible antics of ‘you’re not supposed to do that.’ But the music of Alice Cooper was what Trouble loved. Dueling guitars, leads, and heavy riffs, you know?
Rock My Monkey: Wrapping things up. Retro Grave, when do you think it will hit store shelves?
Jeff Olson: Stores shelves for Retro Grave are definitely going to be in 2008. There will be no delays on that. I can’t give a month yet. We are trying to finish signing a record deal with Metal Blade. We really like them, a lot. We would like to sign with them, so we are negotiating with them right now. That would make it more evident that we can push things further into having it off the tape machines in the computers and having it in the stores for people. So 2008.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Awesome. I do have one final question. Every year we do choose one final question that we ask every single band from classic rock legends, to the most extreme death metal bands at the end of every interview. Partially to stump people, but also to see who wimps out and won’t answer. 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?
Jeff Olson: Might die this year? Who’s going to die? This is a crazy question. (laughs)
Rock My Monkey: Absolutely!
Jeff Olson: Let me think who’s old. I don’t want to say this, because I’m going to get in trouble, but all humor, I guess Peter Steele is a little healthier now.
Rock My Monkey: Yeah.
Jeff Olson: I’ll say Peter Steele.
Rock My Monkey: Peter Steele? Wow. Okay.
Jeff Olson: He’s gonna kill me. (laughs)
Rock My Monkey: He’s a big guy, man. (laughs)
Jeff Olson: Well, I can run fast.
Rock My Monkey: Well, there is that. (both laugh) Alright. Cool. Well, 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. Anybody that feels brave enough can click the album cover of Simple Mind Condition by Trouble, and purchase that as an import. And I do hope to see you guys up on tour in the Northwest sometime soon. Thanks you very much for your time.
Jeff Olson: We’ll be there. We’ll definitely be doing something. Thanks a lot.
