Great bands are few and far between. CarolynTopolTalk.com was fortunate to get an interview with Future Villains’ lead singer, Dusty Bo, especially for our readers. Band members, Dusty Bo – Vocals, Clay Davies – Guitar, David Ellis – Bass, and Kenny Dale – Drums make up this exciting, up and coming group.
With their soon-to-be-released new album nearly here, it was time to share this group with the world!
Carolyn Topol Talk: Please give us, in your own words, how the band got together.
Dusty Bo: I guess things were really kind of started in 2011. That was when I met Clay. He’s the founder of the band — Clay Davies. He’s the lead guitar player and producer. We didn’t really form as a band with, the guys that we have now, until 2012. That’s when we finalized everything — got our drummer, Kenny, and our bass player, Dave, who’s been there since day one. That’s when things really started kicking into gear. That’s when we released our first EP which I believe was either in August or September of 2012. The summer of 2012 is really when we started rockin’ and rollin’.
CTT: That’s the EP, Future Villains, correct?
DB: Yeah. That’s the one that’s available on iTunes. We got all the songs up on YouTube, and live performances of that. It all came together after I met Clay. I think I met him in 2010 actually, when my old band did a release show. We became friends on Facebook, and months later he was looking for a singer for his band and he asked me to join Future Villains. Things were on the way out with the band I was already in. The way he described the band, seemed right up my alley. I believe he asked if I knew any vocalists who were into AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and Velvet Revolver. Those are some of my favorite bands so we were like, “Oh yeah, we should work together.”
CTT: Do you do all original music?
DB: Primarily original. All the stuff we have recorded as of now is original. We’re actually doing a cover–we’re in the middle of doing a cover of a really popular song that’s on the radio. I don’t know if I can actually say it right now. We do throw covers into our live performances because we are very influenced by classic rock, such as AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and Deep Purple, so we like to do a tip of the cap to the Gods of rock and also throw in one or two in every set. It’s also cool for the people who don’t know our music yet. We’ll throw in a really classic rock song the people already know, and can sing along, if they don’t know our tunes yet.
CTT: How often does the band go out and do concerts?
DB: At the moment we actually have not played in almost a year. The last show we played was September last year for a radio contest we won for KLOS out here [in LA]. Ever since then we’ve been on hiatus just working on our writing, and recording our album. We are done with the recording side of things now. It’s just getting mixed and then we move on to mastering after that. The plan is to get out once we release the new songs. Our plan is to play and tour as much as possible. We’re planning on releasing the new material early next year, and I’m assuming we’ll start hitting the the road right at the start of next year — or at least no later than spring. We’ll at least be playing locally by early next year.
CTT: Can we learn the name of the new album to be released?
DB: We [took] our time with it because it’s going to be the first time we released something that we’ve done that’s more than just a single EP. We’re also more than likely not going to release one full album. We’re going to split it because we have 14 new songs and we might be splitting those up into two seven song EPs. We’re kind of just rolling with it and talking with a few people. We have some new people coming onto our marketing team. We’re talking about what makes the most sense because, nowadays, especially with an unknown band (we consider ourselves an unknown band) people don’t listen to full-length albums anymore. It’s all down to streaming singles, and we have all the songs recorded, so we’re more than likely going to release half of them next year and we’ll see when we’re going to release the next bunch. Otherwise, we would then go back into the studio, but we really want to go out and play — get back on stage.
CTT: I would imagine that would be great, and would back up any new releases you have? This way you can get out and let the new releases be heard by everybody.
DB: We totally want people to hear our songs live. This is also the first time we’re doing songs where we work with other writers. We work with producers, such as Brian Howes. He’s worked with bands such as Hinder, Nickelback, Shania Twain, and Keith Urban. He knows the radio rock market really well. Another one Jason Charles Miller is a really good songwriter. We’ve always been very confident as a live band, but now with these new songs we’ll be at a more advanced level in the commercial world as far as getting placement and radio play — and just being more adaptable to a broader audience.
CTT: Do all four of you collaborate on your songs, as well as working with other people as well?
DB: It’s primarily our guitar player, Clay Davies, and myself. Then every once in a while when we are in the middle of a writing or recording session, somebody comes up with a hook or a vocal chant or something to throw in there. Our method is to leave no stone unturned. If there’s an idea that somebody has, we’ll try it out. If it’s cool, we’ll go with it. If we all like it we’ll go with that, but for the most part it’s Clay and myself. Like I said, we did a few co-writes with some other people for the first time this year too. It was a lot of fun. It was cool working with somebody else who’s done a lot of different projects and has a fresh open canvas or pallet with our band, and our sound, in particular.
CTT: That sounds really interesting and intriguing. What gives you inspiration when you’re writing a song?
DB: For me really it comes from anything that’s happened to me in life that has been exciting, or scary, or heartbreaking. It could be anything from love for a girl, to driving fast, doing drugs, to a crazy night out, a one night stand, or it can be anything. It’s interesting that you asked that–this is a concept album. The songs that we did for this, we’re calling it Voodoo Metal which is pretty much what we’re kind of envisioning with the way that things have turned with the music Industry, and the way people change with fashion, with style, the clothes people are wearing, and the music people are listening to–going back to vinyl and cassette players. We’re looking at it as if there are spirits from the 60s and 70s — of people who wore sun dresses, weird looking hats, crazy clothing, listening to awesome rock’n roll. The concept is that those spirits are kind of living through today’s youth and that’s why people are starting to go back to trends that were so popular once upon a time. The songs are influenced by classic rock, but with a very modern sound to them — modern production. That was the inspiration for this album, mainly. There was a lot of references to, “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969,” — The Eagles and stuff like that. [Laughs] Another one is a Zeppelin reference in one of our songs. We reference a lot of classic rock songs. That was the inspiration for this album. It was cool to have something to really snowball off of. We were thinking voodoo — what’s a kind of a witchy, spell thing, we can put on this song — we’ve got a song that’s about being possessed by a witch to fight the devil and send him back to hell. We’ve got all kinds of trippy songs. They have very unique concepts to them.
CTT: I saw the video on your webpage. Is that what this concept reflected?
DB: Devil in her Bones [http://futurevillains.com]– no — but that one is somewhat similar. That one was more about a girl who had a troubled life at home and she just snapped and finally ran away, then went and had this wild night. What some people don’t understand is, at the beginning of the video she meets with this girl (actually Laneya Arvizu), and the devil in her bones girl is Toni Jacklin, she meets up with Laneya at the beginning of the video and they have this wild night. They fight people, shoot guns, rob a liquor store, and steal a car. At the end of the video we see it was just her alter ego. She never really met up with anybody. She had a split personality that day. It’s kind of the same idea as our new album, but she wasn’t possessed or anything. She had the devil in her bones but that was more the way she wanted to live her life for that moment.
CTT: I saw it as that was her devilish side.
DB: Yeah, yeah, exactly. A lot of people were confused by the end of the video. Some people thought she was having a dream. I could see where that confusion could be. But it was a devilish side coming out, and she was so wrapped up in it that she actually thought she was meeting up with the stranger who picked her up, but she was just on a devilish trip. [Laughs]
CTT: You say you reflect back to the hard rock of the 60s, and we have readers of all ages. You mentioned Led Zeppelin and references to The Eagles, is there anyone else whose music inspired you? When you were describing some of your music, my first thought was Janis Joplin.
DB: Right, well it varies. There’s a song we have called Wildflower which is my personal favorite out of our catalog. That song is very reflective of that time especially — heading out to the Hollywood Hills, and heading out at Sunset Marquis. It reflects people of the whole Haight-Ashbury, Laurel Canyon kind of scene that was happening in those times. From the 60s, the two bands I would say we reflect the most would be Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. I would say The Stones–we all like that stuff, especially me and Clay. We are really big into The Stones, the Beatles, but as far as our sound — it’s supercharged rock. But I would say Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, especially vocally.
CTT: If you were to have your dream concert, what would it look like?
DB: Oh man that’s a really good question. Probably, it would be awesome to play the new stadium in my home town, the Yum Center, because I’m from Louisville, Kentucky, and they just built a big awesome stadium there. That would be really cool. But it would probably be the Greek Theatre. I think that only seats about 6000 people, but just the ambience, and how good it sounds — knowing there’s not a bad seat in the house. I’ve been to the Hollywood Bowl, and the Staple Center and the Forum — all these really legendary venues — and I pay ridiculous amounts for really bad tickets at some of those places. The Greek Theatre tickets aren’t too bad for the shows that I’ve been to, and also there’s no bad seats in the house. Knowing that, and being out in the middle of Griffith Park — beyond the middle of park it’s like being out in the forest — I would say the Greek Theatre would be my ideal venue. The Greek Theatre is really intimate. It’s not that difficult to get in and out of. For some of these places, you spend more time driving, sitting in traffic, and parking than you do at the concert. It’s crazy. You spend an hour and a half getting there, an hour and a half getting back, and you only see a band play for an hour to an hour and a half.
CTT: I understand. I still remember the days of getting to Madison Square Garden — it was impossible — and tickets were no bargain.
DB: Yeah, I know. That’s one thing I admire about AC/DC. I got second row seats at Dodgers Stadium for $110 each. I really admire the bands that do that. More and more are trying to avoid those crazy ticket prices. You should be able to see these bands that are realistically not going to be around for more than another five or ten years tops.
CTT: Where would your band like to see yourselves in about a year? Are you trying to stay in LA, or are you trying to go further geographically?
DB: For the next year or two, honestly, I would be very disappointed if we don’t get to Europe to play festivals. Our music is definitely directed toward an arena rock kind of audience. I want to play the biggest venues we can. It may not be realistic to say we’ll be playing stadiums this year, at the same time we didn’t think we would be playing at the venues we played during the past couple of years. We work really, really hard towards what we want. I believe if we played our cards right, and get in with the right people, booking agents and whatnot, I really do think within the next year or two we could be playing at 10,000 seaters, and playing these festivals in Europe, and bigger festivals here. That’s our goal–that’s what we’re shooting for. We want to do it big — we’re not aiming for small. Not that anything is wrong with that it’s just not what we want personally.
CTT: So we should be seeing some of your new work released at the beginning of 2017?
DB: Yes, we’ll definitely release the music, I would say to be safe, at least by February — but maybe even January. Right now, the way we see things, and the people that we have talked to, we were advised that it’s not that great, especially for an unknown band, to release during the third quarter or fourth quarter of year. Everyone’s gearing up for the holidays and saving money for that. It’s colder around a good part of the country, so not as many people want to tour or go to the shows. We’ve been dedicating the last year to this album, so now we can have a little calm before the storm, before we really kick it into gear next year.
CTT: Are you going to kick off your tour in LA?
DB: We probably will do a kickoff, and/or a welcome home show, but we’ll definitely play early in the year somewhere here–the Viper room or Lucky Strike, depending on where we can get a good show — where we can just headline ourselves. We’ll definitely do a local show early in the year. But the goal is to get on a tour, or several tours, next year.
CTT: I know you have reflected on the bands that have influenced you to a great extent. If I was to say, “If you like _____, you’ll love Future Villains’ music,” how would you fill in the blank?
DB: I would say Aerosmith.
CTT: You just won me over right there. [Laughs]
DB: They’re my favorite. I would say that’s our collective favorite band. AC/DC is a special favorite for Clay and me. I have Angus Young tattooed on my forearm. The EP was shaped very much after AC/DC. But the songs we have now–we have some ballads–there’s more variety, and that’s what I really like about Aerosmith. They they have rock tunes, love ballads and weird psychedelic shit–they’ve got all kinds of material.
[Reconnected for brief follow-up of initial interview.]
CTT: Since our first conversation, has the band decided on a name for the new album?
DB: Devil’s Symphony
CTT: Is there anything else you would like to add?
DB: I hope people keep buying music and support bands so people will keep having bands, or in 20 years there won’t be any new bands or music. We’re planning to sell physical copies of the album, and tie it into a charity. For those physical albums sold, a percentage will go to The Healing Curve. [You can find information about this worthy cause here: http://thehealingcurve.org/.
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This album promises exciting, electrifying new songs by Future Villains! I hope you will all check them out when the album is released. In addition, keep in mind that if you purchase a physical copy, you will also be participating in supporting a worthy cause.
(Photo Credits: Ronnie Erwin; Kathy Flynn; Music Injection; Future Villains)