DEAD SOUL TRIBE INTERVIEW
Having been a true fan of Psychotic Waltz ever since their fantastic debut album "A Social Grace" on through their whole career, spanning such great albums as "Into The Everflow", "Bleeding" and "Mosquito", it didn't take me more than one second to decide whether or not I'd be doing an interview with singer Buddy Lackey (or Devon Graves as he calls himself nowadays). Right now Buddy has his Dead Soul Tribe album ready, but what would an interview with this charismatic dude be like, if I didn't start out by asking him a few questions about Psychotic Waltz…?

Interview by Claus Jensen
"We ended the band 5 years ago, but it might as well have happened 3 years earlier. I wasn't really happy with the conditions we were working under, not while recording and not while touring. Things weren't as before. When Brian left the band it was quite an easy decision for me to make, I just didn't feel for Psychotic Waltz any longer. I missed playing the guitar - you know, I've been playing guitar longer than Dan or Brian has, and I've always been more of a guitarist than a singer. My songs are very different from Dan's or Brian's, I don't WRITE them, I LIVE them!"

When Psychotic Waltz was through, you moved to Europe - why?

"It was a personal thing - I was married to an Austrian girl back then, and since nothing was keeping me in the US, I just decided to move. And now I'm actually very happy about living in Europe."

Your first solo album, "The strange mind of Buddy Lackey", wasn't that big of a commercial success - to be quite honest, I think the album went pretty unnoticed, even by Psychotic Waltz fans. In my personal opinion it was a FANTASTIC and VERY PROGRESSIVE release, although the sound wasn't that good. I also heard rumours a couple of years ago that you were going to rerecord it and release it again…?

"That first solo album was recorded in my own bedroom. It was a personal album for me, and I had almost decided to do it all by myself, when the label chose to have a German drummer playing on it. When the sound of the drums was quite different from what I had recorded, it was also chosen to add a German bass player and a German guitarist. So all in all, most of the recordings went over my head. But the album is good yes. And the guitarist on the album was fantastic - his style was very different than mine (just like Dan and Brian played a completely different style than I do). I'm more of a Jimmy Page kind of guitarist. It's true that we talked about rerecording it, but it didn't happen. I'm still playing around with the thought of doing something with the great material, and I might end up recording some of the songs for an EP."

For me there were the four big ones in Progressive Metal - Dream Theater, Queensryche, Fates Warning and Psychotic Waltz. What I think is quite symbolic for every genre of music, is that there will always be a billion copy-cats following in the footsteps of the big ones, and we've seen it with all the other three bands, but NOT for Psychotic Waltz. How come nobody (except perhaps one or two bands) has tried to copy the sound of Psychotic Waltz?

"I think that our music was kind of difficult to copy, as all members of Psychotic Waltz came from different backgrounds - one was this death metal fan, one was stuck in the retro rock, one completely into Iron Maiden and so on - and when you melt all that together you get a very unique sound, which is hard to copy. We didn't try to be part of the progressive scene, we'd rather be METAL in the Iron Maiden or Judas Priest style, just a step up the ladder. However, people ended up labelling us as progressive metal, and that is okay J"

Being in such an original band as Psychotic Waltz must have been a nice feeling, knowing that you created something people hadn't heard before.

"Sure it was nice to know, but then again, we didn't really get rich on doing it. You know what, I was actually fooled by the whole grunge scene, as those guys played the exact same three chords I was playing before I joined Psychotic Waltz. I thought that the band I joined was the right direction forward, you know, the band that would hit big-time. Instead it ended up that Nirvana and those kind of bands got success with that style of music I used to play."

Which is your favourite Psychotic Waltz album?

"I like different albums for different reasons. I don't really have a favourite among them."

Okay, moving on to your new project - the DEAD SOUL TRIBE - how would you describe it?

"I'd say that it's a modern version of old school heavy metal. Not Heavy Metal like in Priest or Maiden, but more of the Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull or Hendrix way. I know some people would call that kind of sound RETRO, but it's not really like that - it's music inspired by what I personally like to listen to."

I think that your way of singing has changed quite a bit over the years …

"Yes, that might be true. Back then I used to try to sound like my favourite vocalists, Ian Anderson, Dio or Ozzy - but nowadays I'm much more confident in myself, and I am more focused on sounding like myself instead of like a bad impression of someone else. My voice today pleases me, and I don't care not mind if it's more commercially appealing. You know, I've only had ONE singing lesson in my entire life, but I learned so much from it. Be natural, let it come, and don't force it. When I trusted in that, then I became happy with my singing."

The sound of the album is really cool … where did you record it?

"At my own little home-studio. Man, you'd laugh if you saw it haha. It's smaller than our old Psychotic Waltz jam room. I did the album completely on my own - I like doing stuff like that in solitude, no compromises to be made. Then when it was done, I handed it over to the guys in the band and said - do your stuff! I'm very happy with the result."

For the cover artwork of the album, you've used Travis Smith … now, that's another link back to the Psychotic Waltz days, right?

"Yes, I've always loved his art, but this time around I had spent all of my advance from the record label on the recording studio, and I knew that I couldn't afford Travis. However, the record company contacted me and asked if I would mind if Travis did it, and of course I was happy to have him doing it."

So what are the plans for Dead Soul Tribe now?

"Well, we have a small tour coming up in April or May - to light the fuse, so to speak. What happens after that depends on sales and the response we will get from the fans."

Ok, any last words?

"Thank you for doing this interview - and thanks to everybody out there who has been a Psychotic Waltz fan and waiting for me to return. Check out our website at http://www.deadsoultribe.com !"