Singer – Jason

Who are they? They’re Slaves On Dope, Jason (the singer), Kevin (the guitarist) Rob (the drummer), and Frank (bass player) sum up the latest import to show up on the LA heavy music scene. The four members of this band all originate from Montreal, Canada. After being here only months, they have in just a short time found a loyal following in the LA area. They have gained a status as a "must see" band through word of mouth on the street. Slaves play their music loud and aggressive, yet are uniquely refreshing in their "what you see is what you get" approach. What you get is plenty of attitude, and an extreme high-energy performance. They’re "Slaves on Dope" and if you don’t know them then maybe you should!

I met with Kevin, and Frank briefly after a show at the Roxy on 9-23-99. The interview took place in the frantic evening’s end while both the band and the Roxy staff members were packing up to leave.

How Slaves on Dope became a band?

Kevin: Well I meet Jason through a mutual friend, and we played and toured with a different rhythm section for a couple of years. It just wasn’t happening with them. We first enlisted Frank he was a friend of mine we went to school together in Montreal, and when our drummer dislocated his shoulder, the drummer that we knew best was Rob. So we had Rob fill in for the tour and he basically just stayed. That was about four years ago, so we have been writing together as a band for about four years.

How long have you been here in Los Angeles?

Kevin: Five months.

Kevin: It came to the point where we were touring with every signed band in Canada. Playing every club, from big huge places to little small places, and nobody wanted to give us a hand, nobody wanted to give a heavy band in Canada a break. We couldn’t get a deal, we couldn’t get an agent, and we couldn’t get anything. We had a manager and the first thing the manager said was we should play New York, and he knew a guy in New York, and then he wanted us to move to L. A.

So, is the musical vibe very different there in Montreal than it is here in Los Angeles?

Kevin: Oh yeah, there is no vibe in Montreal!

What was it like to play clubs there?

Kevin: It’s just bad. We had some support from a few key people and that’s really all there is. There is a disk jockey at a radio station that runs a local "home grown" contest that we won. there’s a guy who runs an L. A. Weekly type magazine. Then there’s a couple of other key people like the video stations and a couple of TV stations, and that’s it. Nobody on the club scene supports us, nobody. There were a couple of clubs where the club owners liked us, but there was only so much they could do ‘cause all the club promoters all hate us there.

What kind of bands were the clubs there booking?

Kevin: We would book into alternative clubs and rock clubs, but there was never any bands to play with. We would always stick out like a sore thumb, we were like the only metal band in Canada. So whenever a tour would come through we’d wanna open, but it was already packaged. Like we’d call up for the Deftones show and there were two band in the bill, Deftones and one other band, but they’d tell us "sorry were packaged." So we made the decision, if were gonna want to be in these tours we wanna do it, you gotta move to L. A., you just have to!

Bass – Frank

Kevin: When we came here, we had a name and that was it. We had a little inkling from an agent. We had an agent that said he’d book us and work for us if we moved to L. A. He said "If you guys can put it together, I’m in your corner, I like you guys. I can’t do anything if you’re not in the states and your not working, and you not with management." So the name we had was Alex Guerrero, he manages bands like Sepultura, Motorhead, Zerahead, and Misfits. We came down and just focused on him. We called him and he took our call, and called us back. Right off the bat without even knowing us, he took the CD and listened to it and started, there were no games, no bull shit. You don’t meet very many people like that. Like I was saying about the people form the radio stations in Montreal, those are the kind of people that stay our friends. That’s why we knew right away when he was that kind of guy that he fit. We knew, it was inevitable, and it was the first thing he said. We kept playing and he kept hearing form everybody that he needed to hear us play. He said "It’s inevitable we’re gonna work together." Before we even really talked about anything. When he came to us and said we wanna work with you we were overwhelmed. When you come out to L. A. you don’t expect shit like this to happen for a long time. We focused on him and he got us a lawyer, we have an agent, and now we’re just trying to get a record company. We have talked to a few people here and there, but nothing has been formally offered, or formally presented. So right now we’re just playing shows, were gonna showcase for some record companies in the next few weeks, and we’ll see what happens. That’s pretty much how you do it!

So are you all from Montreal?

Kevin: I live down town. Frank and Rob live in the Italian part because they're Italian, and the lead singer (Jason) lives in a place kinda like Orange County. It’s a nice city it is totally different from here. It’s more like New York, but with an L. A. feel. It’s very condensed, but very relaxed. It is very European in feel. There’s a lot of things in Montreal I miss, a lot of culture, a lot of things happening in the city. The Lifestyle is totally different from here. I kinda miss that.

Did you just finished a new CD?

Kevin: We did the EP to shop for record companies already and we have like 50 songs that we canned. We put out a record back home and we toured it. We toured Canada like three times in support of it, and when we came back we were like, ‘okay, let’s sit down and write’ Our manager wanted us to write and he wanted us to come to New York, like I said and start showcasing. We said ‘let’s get it together, let’s get some songs’ and we just wrote and wrote and we didn’t stop. We wrote like 50 to 60 songs and we picked the best, we recorded twelve and picked the best six. We kept writing and still have tons of songs we wish we could record, but we‘re not gonna record until we have a record deal. This is what we are, this CD is who we are!

Which song pretty much typifies Slaves on Dope as a band?

The two of us are joined by (Slaves bass player) Frank

Kevin: ‘Pushing Me’ it’s pretty straightforward.

Frank: Yeah, that’s the one that takes everybody by the throat grabs them, pulls ‘em across the room , brings ‘em bank, pulls ‘e across the room , brings ‘em back.

Kevin: ‘Pushing Me’ was one of the first songs we wrote for that whole set of songs and ‘Tremolo’ and those songs stuck. Through the whole course. ‘Sit Down was one of the later ones that was written. Some of the older songs rock just as hard if not harder than the newer ones.

How would you describe your music?

Kevin: really heavy! Really aggressive!

Frank: Sinful, but we’re structured.

Kevin: We have pop arrangements. Lyrically, whether Jason is screaming or singing, you can tell what kind of song it is. We have a lot of dynamics. We’re not funky.

Frank: We’re aggressive straightforward rock.

What’s something no one knows about the members of your band?

Frank: We’re mall rats!

Kevin: When we make it big we’re gonna want to play in the malls like Tiffany.

Frank: Salves on Dope will be playing at a mall near you!!!