Interview - Dave Meros of Spock's Beard, Aug/08

Dave Meros steps out from behind his bass to share some thoughts with us...

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ProgArchives: So you just got back from Europe and Pennsylvania, how did that go for you guys?

Dave Meros: It went really well! The Europe Tour was great, they always are, and the Pittsburg gig was cool, mainly because it was a progressive rock festival, so there was a bigger audience than we would normally have. Then there was all those little reunions that happened, like with Neal and some of the other Transatlantic guys, so, it was kind of epic for a lot of people.

PA: You guys played The Light with him, right?

DM: Yup.

PA: And how did that come up?

DM: Well, we’ve been talking about it for a couple of months and it was obvious that… the internet comments started immediately after it was announced that he’d be playing the show. So we talked to each other about it. We knew we were going to do it, but the biggest decision was what song were we going to play, and even that wasn’t very hard – The Light is kind of our signature song. It was fun!

PA: So I’m guessing there’s not a lot of hard feelings between you guys

DM: No, not at all. I mean, there’s the obvious feelings of what it could have been if he had stayed in it, because we’ve kind of gone along pretty good without him. But in reality both of our careers have kind of diminished a little bit, it was bigger when we were all together – the way it was. So… and “V” and “Snow” were our biggest selling records and he quit right after that, even before snow was released. So no one will ever know if it would have gone any farther, but I best not to think of those things. But we’re on really good terms.

PA: A lot of people feel that this last album has been the best since Neal left and that you’re ‘back on track’

DM: I think Octane and the last one both kind of had a ‘sound’, like we’d kind of found our place, finally. Some people like Octane better than 9 and some people like 9 better than Octane. There’s so many different opinions. I mean if we had come out as a new band, I think we’d be more well accepted universally, because people are always comparing us to the Neal era of the band, and there’s some people who are just going to like the Neal era of Spock’s Beard better, no matter what we do. There wouldn’t be any of those comparisons if we were just a new band. But if we were just a new band coming out on the scene the chances of success are so low that we just decided to go with that franchise-name-thing. But yeah the new record was very fun to make, fun to write, fun to play live – Our record company likes Octane, they think that’s the coolest one, so, I don’t know. It’s all so subjective, I don’t even know anymore! We just do what we do and hope people like it.



PA: And you’ve been writing a lot of the new material recently, do you see that going on in the coming albums?

DM: I hope so. John and I, John’s the guy I write with, and we’ve been writing a lot of stuff in the last year and hopefully that will translate well into Spock’s Beard material.

PA: Okay, I have to know, what happened to Ryo exactly?

DM: I don’t know! The story is… I’ve heard lots of different stories, mostly from him himself [laughs], so I don’t think we’ll ever know the full story – but basically he got hit outside a restaurant or bar in Japan and his jaw broke… and it was broken quite badly and he had to have it wired shut and pinned. But he took the wire off so he could travel and do the Pittsburg gig.

PA: Wow… Now that’s dedication!

DM: I don’t know if he was ready to travel or do anything… You know, wiring your jaw shut… basically you’re supposed to have it shut for 6 weeks and Ryo had his wire taken off after two and a half weeks, so. So he showed up and did the gig and made it back alive, so: Mission accomplished!

PA: Hey, that’s all you can ask for! So he’s doing better now?

DM: Yeah, he’s doing better, it’s going to be painful for a long time, probably a lot less now than it was last week. The pins are going to stay in for another 5 months, y’know, they gotta stay in for at least 6 months, then they have to go in and remove those, so that will be another operation.

PA: You guys no doubt have a new studio album on the horizon somewhere, where would you like that to go?

DM: I would like it to go anywhere more successful than what we’ve been doing [laughs], I don’t even know what that means. Nobody knows, nobody has any idea -We’re kind of in this stalemate that we’ve always been in. There was a little peace in “V” and “Snow”, but other than those two records we’ve sold almost the same amount every single record and… unfortunately, that amount isn’t enough. We kind of barely recoup our expenses and then there’s nothing left over in the end. We’ve been doing all these records kind of in the hope that something will click or that they’ll just be so fun and emotionally satisfying for us to do, I think that’s what a lot of the people who download or bit-torrent are thinking, “Oh they just love what they’re doing, that’s okay, we’ll just take this”. But yeah the whole illegal downloading thing has pretty much erased every penny of profit that we could have ever made. So… I think for the next record we’re probably going to do… I’m kind of getting tired of this big grandiose symphonic kind of stuff… I’ve been writing a little more concisely – still prog, but a little bit more on the single song approach rather than this “big suites of songs thrown together with this giant symphonic ending”… so maybe a bit more in that direction. Even though it’s been a while we’re still in the beginning stages of writing and production, so things could change.

PA: I have noticed that the last few albums have been very rock oriented, is that kind of where you’re going?

DM: That’s where I’m going, personally. I’m kind of like that anyways, I’ve always thought that Spock’s Beard was this big symphonic thing and I’ve been trying that on the last couple records. I’ve been listening to the old stuff and the newer stuff and its all got this big… thing at the end of every song and it’s like, “okay, how many times to we have to do that?” [laughs]. I’ve kind of not even allowed myself to – Oh, and the string and the brass on the last record were such a pain in the ass! Not so much the strings, but the brass. And it took so much time and it was just… expensive and a giant pain in the ass. It left such a bad taste in my mouth that I’ve vowed not to have any strings or brass have to come into the studio. [Laughs] so I’ve been writing and just staying away from… I’m sure it’s going to be in there at some point but I’m just tired of everything – I want to do something that’s the same, but different, if you know what I’m talking about.

A little bit of a different tweak on it, that’s what people where saying when Neal was in the band was that it started getting formulaic. My argument was that, “hey, it’s a good formula, isn’t it?”, it’s kind of like sex – there’s only so many things you can do, but it’s still really fun!

PA: Or you can try something new and hurt yourself

DM: Right! [Laughs] something where you have to wear a helmet!

But one thing that people can’t say is that… with the new Spock’s Beard we tend to switch it up a little bit more. We haven’t really fallen into a rut, and I think this next record is going to be a bit different than everything else we’ve done. I can only tell you what I relate to, the stuff I’ve written, and it’s a little bit more… Rock, but not rock, it’s definitely prog… it’s like… you’d consider Porcupine Tree rock but it isn’t really like, Def Leppard or anything, it’s still definitely prog. I’m going for something that can help us breakthrough this ceiling that we seem to have hit.

PA: So… more of a harder edge?

DM: Yeah, we’ve had in our last two records… there’s been pieces of it that have been more “harder edged” than anything. Pieces like “Surfing Down The Avalanche” or… uh… what was that thing I’m thinking of… oh I’m spacing out now. But we’ve had a couple really hard sections and the stuff I’ve been writing lately has not been as hard as that but it’s been less sleepy and less slow and less down and midtempo stuff than before. So instead of saying “more harder edged” I’d say maybe more “uptempo”, that might be better, I’m thinking as I go along here [laughs].



PA: So can you give us you thoughts on the new live set?

DM: Oh, those turned out great! We did this last year in a place in Holland, kind of this small venue with a large stage – the stage was comfortable for us and we’d been there a few times before so. We had this Dutch film crew come in and they really did a great job, we have our own lighting guy in Europe and he brought in some extra stuff and it all looks really good and the film crew edited it and they did a fantastic job. Really efficient, really positive, and we got it back and our sound guy in Europe, Rob Aubery, he mixed it and just did a wonderful job and it was like, “man, finally!” This looks like we paid a lot more for it than we did. It just turned out great! So we’re really happy with that.

It was a good marker for us to in terms of getting something out and this phase of the band documented, so we’re all pretty happy with it.

PA: How much say does each member have in picking the set list?

DM: Well everybody can put – we can all argue our case for any song that we want to put in. Nik usually winds up doing it because he’s really good at it! I don’t know how much time he spends on it… he’ll say, “well, how about doing these for the songs?” and I’ll look at it and go through it in my head and just say, “yeah, that works!” or, “Cool choice! I never would have thought of that one!” or “nah, I don’t really think that… well, let me think about it… yeah, that works, sure!” So at the end I’m going “Fine, let’s just do that,” and I’m usually really easy with it and the other guys make some suggestions or criticize it so he’ll go back and make some changes, but 80% of the time it winds up exactly how Nik picked or maybe one song different. He’s just really good at picking a set! He’s also really good at just going back and – the thing that we try to do (we’re getting a larger and larger body of material), each time you go back and pick a few ‘legacy’ things that haven’t been done in a long time. We’ve been together… we’re kind of an old band… 14 years… we’ve done a tour, at least in Europe just about every one of those years, so we’ve played just about every song we’ve ever recorded, numerous times! So we have to go back and pick one like, “oh we haven’t done this one since ’98, so that’s good, let’s do that”.

PA: Are there any songs specifically that you like to play? Any favorites?

DM: Somebody asked me that once and it was an e-mail interview so I got to think about it for a long time, and I couldn’t come up with a favorite! It used to be Go The Way You Go, but we’ve played that hundreds of times, so it’s loosing it’s impact with me, but that was a great live song. On the last tour, not the one we just finished, but the DVD tour, we did a lot of stuff off of 9 and that stuff was kind of written with the purpose of being fu to play live, so that was fun. But every time Nik finds these little gems back in the catalog and, like, this time be played “The Great Nothing” and man! What a great song that was! I think it’s one of Neal’s best songs as far as writing and as far as his writing technique. It’s huge in the end it’s got all those cool parts and every time it’s like, “wow, this is really fun!” But I think they’re all really fun.

PA: I always find that you have a very unique style of playing the bass, where do you think that comes from?

DM: it came from… well, basically when I was a kid, I didn’t even start playing bass until I was 20, but when I was younger than that I was listening to everything that came out and everyone. And not being a bass player it was kind unique to hear bass parts, and every once in a while something would pop out and it was the coolest thing I’d ever heard and it’s like, “what was that? It’s a bass? Oh my god!” and one of those, of course, was Chris Squire and I heard what sounded to me at the time like a chainsaw, and I was like, “Oh god, that’s the most aggressive thing!” Him and Geddy and to some degree other rock guys like John Entwistle. So I finally got, many years later, in a progressive rock band, so I just tried to combine the styles of everything I’ve ever liked, because that’s what this band has always been about. I’ve worked on getting this really insane tone for a long time… and the band really gives me the opportunity to work with every kind of style so it’s really great!

PA: Can you tell us a bit about your side project, “The Kings Of Classic Rock”?

DM: Oh that was done… I’m actually in a couple of those now… I really don’t want to work in Starbucks or McDonalds, and [laughs] I’d lost my main bread and butter gig a few years ago, so there’s the Kings of Classic Rock and there’s this other band called the Party Council, more in the San Francisco bay area. We play corporate gigs and all of us in both bands have been in other, kind of famous bands in the past, so we put a resume together kind of like, “we’re all-stars”, and we play those songs and we try to get corporate gigs because they pay really well, and it’s fun and they’re good work and a good band and good people to work with. But it hasn’t really worked out to well for either of them so far, I think it’s the downturn of economy, the market’s flooded, that kind of stuff but, yeah. Those bands are designed to kind of make a living but leaving enough time to function in the Spock’s Beard world. So far it hasn’t really worked, but I’m still trying. I’ve been practicing wearing my funny hat and saying, “would you like fried with that, sir?” just in case.

PA: I was going to ask if you’ve ever considered a solo record, but, well… have you?

DM: People have been asking me about that for a long time, and for a long time I was going, “no, absolutely not, I’m happy doing what I’m doing” and then these songs, when I started writing more again, some song would pop out that was totally not Spock’s Beard, and they’re usually something a little more dark and edgy, maybe more angry sounding or bombastic. So it was just like, well this is really cool! I like it, but I can’t use it, so it just kind of goes to the side and I’ve got a few of them. John and I have talked about doing a side project for probably 3 or 4 years now. We’ve been tossing ideas back and forth, but it’s still kind of on the side and on the backburner, but for the last year or two it seems like most of my ideas are compatible with Spock’s, so I haven’t really been contributing to that.

And another thing, a lot of the other guys have done side projects and I asked them like, “what was your sales like?” and none of them have even come close to recouping the expenses. So I could do something and spend a lot of money on it and think it’s really cool and it would just be a vanity project, basically. Who am I trying to impress, really? So if things change one way or another I might feel the need to put something out myself, but… it’s something that might happen some day, but it’s totally a backburner thing. It’s not out of the realm or possibility, but it’s a probability.

PA: I remember on your MySpace there was a solo tune called “Remembrance”, is that kind of the style you’d aim at if ever this thing did happen?

DM: No, actually, it’s the opposite. That song was – I was trying to write this dark, moody ballad for Spock’s Beard and I had this idea, and it wasn’t working out. It was a nice idea, but I was stuck with it… but then the chorus from that song was kind of asking me to be a little solo piano piece, kind of a minimalist piece. I can’t remember the name of the guy, but there’s this guy who does these albums of semi-classical minimalist stuff that’s really nice, and I thought it might sound good in that direction. So I just kind of did it that way. It was like “wow that did turn out kind of cool!” So I added strings to, it was really nice. So it was like, “Wow, now I’ve completely taken it out of the Spock’s Beard realm”. But my friend that I work with, John, he does a little scoring stuff every once in a while, like TV stuff and film stuff and some jungles, so I sent it to him and said, “put this in your archives, maybe you’ll be able to use it some day.” And he says, “you know what? I think this would be a good chorus for a song!” and I’m going, “well, it’s funny you say that because it used to be the chorus for a song!” So I kind of went back and rewrote some parts, kind of the way I had in mind for it to start and he’s working on it, trying to come up with lyrics and kind of arrangement. But in the meantime I had this piece that was kind of nice and kind of finished and I just kind of put it on there, just for the heck of it.

But yeah, the solo thing, if I did do a solo thing, would be exactly the opposite of that. It’d be like… Tool with keyboards… or something like, “Oh my god, Dave! What’s the matter? Are you okay?” [laughs].

PA: I don’t think I could imagine one of you guys coming up with something like that, it’d be cool!

DM: Yeah, I’ve really got like a total aggressive almost head-banger side to me. I’ve always had that ever since I was a little kid. I’d listen to some really cool jazz stuff and then take that off and put on something, like back in the day, like Black Sabbath or Deep Purple or something. All of us have that side to us – Neal even had that. We used to just, at rehearsal, jam on a lot of those old metal songs so. That’s something that really isn’t the Spock’s Beard style, but I’ve got it in me and it comes out every once in a while. There’s a lot of the newer bands that I’ve been listening to that really resonate with me, so. Maybe I’ll write a few more and see what happens, record them here at home. Maybe get some outside financing and put it out someday – have everybody wonder about my mental health.

PA: [laughs] Life’s no fun if they don’t!

DM: [laughs] yeah, exactly! The Ryo getting hurt rumors, that’s over now, so we some other thing to spark up rumors about “what’s wrong with Spock’s Beard?”

PA: [laughs]. So that metal streak – is that the reason that you’re the only guy in the band with long hair now?

DM: I don’t know! Maybe. I’m thinking of getting it cut again, especially if I take that McDonalds job, I’ll probably have to. But I just had… I had long hair for a really long time, and I cut it off, and it looked kind of good, and then I went crazy and cut it really short, and I didn’t like that so I just kind of said… “aw, screw it, let it grow again”. I don’t know, I think I’m just trying desperately to hang on to my youth. When I had the short hair it made me look older, so then I grew it out again, but the long hair is kind of weird in it’s own way too, kind of like the Old-Hippies thing. I’m kind of confused about the hair. I just let it grow because I don’t have to make a decision when it just grows.

PA: [laughs] ah well there you go. At least you’re not balding.

DM: Yeah, well, it is thinner than it used to be. And that’s another reason I might cut it a little bit. I still have all the hairs, but each individual strand is not all thick as it used to be so if I don’t… If I have a bad hair day it’s, like, really bad! Where as when I was younger, if I slept on my hair wrong I could shake it out and it would be okay. Getting old definitely has its physical drawbacks. Yeah, I am thankful that I do have the hair; I would hate to be one of those dudes that has the big bald circle on the top but has it long in the back. But I see all these old… with all this campaigning going on, I see all this old footage from old presidents, and man, if I pull my hair back and grease it back I have the total LBJ hair, or the Richard Nixon hair, you know, with the little receding things on the sides. “Oh my god, I could look like one of those dudes!” [laughs]



PA: You’ve worked with a lot of people outside the band as well, like Glenn Hughes, Brian Auger, Mark Lindsay… is there anyone you’d want to work with if you could pick anyone in the world?

DM: Oh man… there’s so many. Well any of those guys I’d like to work with again. Let me see… There’s the obvious choice of undeniably the coolest choice ever like Peter Gabriel or something. Yeah… a lot! Pretty much anybody that’s really good, and there’s a lot that I associate with bands, and I wouldn’t imagine myself in that situation. I don’t know why but what’s coming to my mind right now is Aerosmith. I think Steven Tyler is one of the coolest rock singers ever, but I don’t imagine myself working with him because he belongs in the group that he’s in. But still that would be really cool too. Really, anyone that I’ve ever idolized would be great to work with.

PA: Back to the band, what do you feel was your best moment with the band?

DM: I think our finest moment was… uhhh, what year was this? Maybe in 2000, maybe 2001. Yeah, it was 2001. We played a show in London that was, to me, the most perfect show that Spock’s Beard could ever play. Everyone was just firing, and the crowds – we usually play in the smaller room at the Astoria, it’s called The Mean Fiddler, and this time we were playing upstairs at the bigger room and we had one of our largest crowds ever and they were just going completely insane. The London crowds can just be, and you wouldn’t expect it, but they can just be one of the best rock audiences in the world. Because when they’re behind you it’s just like you’re riding this wave of audience power. They were just going off and we were just channeling that and it was crazy! I was just expecting something bad to happen… and we came off stage and Neal was in the band and we looked at each other and it was just like, “wow, what just happened there? Also in ’95 when we played our first really big gig at the prog fest in LA - That was really our first, first gig that we played as Spock’s Beard with songs from The Light packaged in its form that it was going to be. We were just started out and we were all really excited and we had just found out that there was actually a progressive rock scene that we didn’t really now about before. Also that we were so well received, that was another really big highlight. I would say that for the band it would be those two.

For me personally, the London show would be say up there on the list. Another one for me, we were recording Beware Of Darkness and we had just finished “Walking On The Wind” and finished mixing at night, so I came in the next day – they were setting some stuff up so I just put on some headphone and listened to the mix and it was like, “oh my god… this is just so… I am just so glad I am in this band, what I great piece of music,” and it was just mixed perfectly. That was just the coolest feeling, so hear this thing that you’re part of and just think, “wow, this is killer! If I wasn’t in this band I’d be so bummed out”. So there’s a couple of highlights.

PA: If someone walked up to you on the street and asked which Spock’s Beard record they should buy, which one would you recommend to them?

DM: Well… I’d probably ask them what kind of music they like and steer them from there, But I was just to say something without getting any kind of background on the person I’d probably just tell them to go out and buy the newest one because I think that’s a really good representation of where we’re at now, and it’s produced really well and there’s some really good tracks on it with lots of different styles. In fact, that’s one of the problems we had with that record was that there was too many styles on it. We had a bunch of extra stuff, but we didn’t know if it was “extra” stuff, we had more than what would normally go on a cd. We were talking about a bonus disc and then we said, “no, let’s just cram it all onto one cd and if someone doesn’t like it they can just press skip. We figured that would be a cool thing to do, but what it really did was give every critic something to hate, they’d all say, “Oh man the album was really brilliant, except for this one song!”. Then another critic would pick another one of those one songs. So it’s like, well… and looking back, maybe that wasn’t such a great idea… putting what would normally be a bonus track on the main disc.

But y’know, other people thought it was brilliant! You’d get all this stuff and all these new musical influences and if you have an open mind. I mean, I skip tracks on that record too! You have to be in the right mood to listen to something like “Hereafter”, and if I’m in the car rocking out and that song comes on it’s like, “Nope! Next! Gzzt!” But I guess that bummed out some of the reviewers… that one and the… oh, I can’t remember the name of it… the little 3-minute rock song on there – oh! “Is This Love” a lot of the critics said, “what, this isn’t prog, what are you doing?” and then the song that Al wrote which is one of my favorite pieces on the whole Cd… man why am I spacing out on the names for all these… it’s kind of like the 70s swaggery rock song.

PA: Sometimes They Stay, Sometimes They Go?

DM: Yeah! I think that song… when I first heard it I was like, “Yes! Yes! This is the coolest thing!” and I blast it when I’m playing it! But it’s not Prog, so all these prog heads go, “bleh, what was that? That’s not prog, that’s horrible. I’ve lost respect for you guys”. So all three of those tracks maybe would have been on a bonus disc. Maybe then people would know that we knew that, okay, these songs are not stereotypical progressive rock. We realize that, so don’t hate us - Don’t hate us because we rock.

PA: Of course if you put all those on a bonus disc then someone will say, “there’s no rockers on here! What’s wrong with these guys?”

DM: Right. I’m having the same problem with these cover bands that I’m in. I did a bunch of research for each of them and it’s like, what do people want? What does each of these corporate buyers want? And then you reverse engineer it and you build a band based on what people want. Then you try to get agencies to book it and they won’t book it and they tell you a reason, then you solve the reason and they come up with another reason. It’s like, no matter what you do, people who want to say no will find another way to say no. It’s maddening, really! I mean, with these cover bands you could play every piece of junk, like “Brown Eyed Girl” or “Play That Funky Music White Boy,” going for completely the nauseating stuff that people say they like, and then at that point they’ll say, “Well why should I hire you when 20 other bands are doing it?”

Same with new music, you basically have to just go for it and hope you get lucky. It’s weird. If I had a kid I would say, “Just don’t be a musician. It’s stupid.” It really is a funny way to make a living. Or, no, be a musician, but do it as a side-line! Be an architect or something and make tons of dough and then you could have a killer studio and be as creative as you want!

PA: It’s funny to hear that you guys have the same troubles as starting bands

DM: Yeah, it’s universal! The few people… I consider myself kind of in the middle range, I’ve been a professional musician for almost 30 years and I’ve had some mid-level-high-profile gigs, but not really big ones. I’ve had the opportunity to do more than 90% of musicians, but those other 10% are so far ahead of me that it’s in a whole other world. But it’s really hard to be one of those 10% who it really pays off for, not only in money, but as far as getting your music out to millions of people, that kind of thing. The odds aren’t good. It could be worse, you could be a stand-up comedian, which is totally hard to be successful in, but you might as well just buy some lottery tickets, the odds are about the same I think.

PA: Coming into my last question now, what was the last cd you listened to?

DM: The last three cds I listened to were some of the cds that people gave me at the 3 Rivers Prog Fest, y’know just some local east coast bands that some people gave me to listen to. And I really liked one and I really hated the other one, besides that though… let’s see… what have I listened to… probably… There’s this other guy on the east coast he’s this really good pop/rock kind of writer… There’s a Porcupine Tree record on my mp3 player right now, I just listened to it at the gym. Went back and listened to an old Tool record a couple of days ago. So I dunno, I’m kind of all over the place when it comes to listening to music.

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Thanks again to Dave for taking the time to do this interview, and to InsideOut for setting everything up.

The new Live Dvd "Live" is out now!



Edited by King By-Tor - September 24 2008 at 16:40

excellent interview, KBT....much appreciated...

Great job!!! Very interesting interview to read.