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The Proper Gander, November 96, p4.
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"Life After The Buzz Bin: A Conversation With Former Danzig Bassist Eerie Von"
"'.... I never really like heavy metal anyways' says Eerie Von, former bassist
of the Misfits (sic), as well as Samhain and most recently Danzig, which Von
says 'became more of a job,' and whose members reached a mutual decision to
finally call it quits after seven years and four albums.
Von says the band was 'pigeonholed into' playing heavy metal for such a long
time, and 'not really having that good a time', and despite the success...
'There was no big money in it to make me stay.'
... 'Actually it was my girlfriend's idea,' he says of his new effort with
Mike Morance, an album of horror-film soundtrack music entitled Uneasy
Listening, an album Von had wanted to do for some time....
The album features a variety of instruments and scary sounds, including
harpsicords and piano and sampled sounds. 'I was doing that stuff with Samhain
in '85 ' Von says, 'Anyboy with hands can play piano.'
The music... is different from the heavy metal wailing Von became known
for... but still dark enough to appeal to the defunct bands die-hard
following, and what Von calls, 'the spooky people', who have been waiting for
something a little more Eerie. 'They're still there... and it's nice to give
them something.'
A followup album is already in the work, again with Morance, like Uneasy
Listening but 'crazier[, utilizing] every instrument, every sound we can come
up with.'
Von is also hard at work on... Big House, whose music is along the lines of
the 'Motown, Elvis, and doo-woop stuff my parents always played when I was a
kid.'
When can we hear an album from the band? 'As soon as I get it towhere it's
really good. I mean, it's good now, but I want it to be REALLY good.'
Von says the music gets better... "like, osmosis- you let the songs just
go... and work out the stuff until it's ready."
The first thing anyone will notice about the album is the striking
photography... for which Von admits responsiblily.
'I would always see them [,the Misfits,] when I'd go to take pictures at the
football games, Eventually they approached me, 'Glenn wants you to shoot us'
and he eventually joined forces with Danzig, forming three legendary bands
(sic!)--- expanding the scope of punk rock and heavy metal as we know it in
the process --- over more than a decade.
The photographs on Uneasy Listening were taken at St Michaels' Cathedral in
Vienna, and also 'on a trip to Indiana... there was this old cemetery outside
our hotel,' he says from which the Satan statues on the cover... were taken.
'I took a couple of shots, and thought 'That's gonna be the cover of my
record!' and I pasted it all up myself. [When you] do it yourself whenever you
can, it's already done, and there's no one to pay.'
Leaving behind a past like Von's .... might seem like a step down.... 'Only
if you let it be,' says Von. 'Im back in New Jersey now where the mentality is
a little strange. I had a few gold records so I was more recognized [in LA],,
but that was it, it wasn't a big deal.... In Jersey, they ask you what you do,
you say you're a musician, they say 'oh, you're a musician. what else do you
do?'
Von still maintains his fan info hotline and answers all of his mail and
email....
Von's next project with Morance will be delayed,he says. 'I'll have to wait
until this industrial stuff dies down... they're doing the things I'd be
doing.'"
- The Proper Gander, November 96, p4.
(pob 3171, iowa city ia 52244-3171)