{"id":16286,"date":"2016-08-10T01:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=16286"},"modified":"2016-09-01T08:55:49","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T12:55:49","slug":"blowin-wind-with-uncle-acid-and-the-deadbeats-kevin-starrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=16286","title":{"rendered":"Blowing Wind with Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats\u2019 Kevin Starrs: \u201cThe first W.A.S.P album is a record that I recommend that everybody owns. From beginning to end, every song on there is a classic.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have pretty much become a household name in the world of stoner\/psychedelic rock. Through relentless touring and releasing albums such as Blood Lust, Mind Control, and their latest opus, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B010PD9K5C\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B010PD9K5C&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thegreatsou0d-20&amp;linkId=76bde8c3770e14b0b3c81ca779b88960\">The Night Creeper<\/a><\/em><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=thegreatsou0d-20&amp;l=am2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B010PD9K5C\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" \/>, Uncle Acid has been winning over fans left and right. In a genre that makes it hard to stand out from the pack, Uncle Acid has solidified themselves as a top tier band with a sound that is all their own.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I recently had the opportunity to talk with lead singer\/guitarist\/songwriter Kevin Starrs and let me tell you. This guy is fucking awesome. I had an absolute blast talking to Kevin as we discussed his distaste for cell phones at shows, why he would love to be a member of Neil Young\u2019s Crazy Horse band, and his love for the debut W.A.S.P. album. This was a really fun interview and I hope you all will dig getting to know this cool cat. Cheers and enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kev, thanks so much for taking the time out to talk to me today.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hi Don, how are you doing today?<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019m doing great. Busy press day for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, but you\u2019re the first.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>That\u2019s great. It\u2019ll just all be downhill from here my friend.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[laughs] Exactly. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>So you guys have had quite a busy summer so far!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, we\u2019ve been busy doing the summer festivals in Europe so yeah, we\u2019ve kept busy.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speaking of the festivals, over there in your homeland, you tend to land these amazing festivals and huge shows but here in the states you play smaller venues and clubs. Is there one that you prefer over the other?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You know, it doesn\u2019t really matter to me. We\u2019ll play wherever really. We\u2019ve done everything from dive bars to football stadiums at this point so at this point, it\u2019s just a show at the end of the day. You\u2019re there to play music and hopefully entertain people in some way. I mean, we play clubs in Europe as well. It\u2019s just that at the festivals everything\u2019s bigger. You\u2019re on bigger stages at festivals but other than that, it\u2019s the same in Europe. When we\u2019re touring in Europe we play pretty small venues as well.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YjO5PuXJO48\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Being that your music is a bit more intimate, when playing on bigger stages, do some things get lost in translation of the music itself?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes. I mean, when the stages are so wide and you can hardly see the person next to you [laughs]. When you\u2019re trying to create a musical moment and there\u2019s such distance between everybody that can get difficult. Also, you\u2019re so far away from the audiences a lot of times. With the club shows, they\u2019re more intimate and more intense I think.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>You do a lot of interviews. What is one of the single most annoying questions that you get asked all the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh man, pretty much all of them [laughs].<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Well I\u2019m sorry to be annoying you so much.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Laughs] Just kidding. The one that does always get me though is, \u201cWhere did you get the band name from?\u201d I mean, I can understand the mentality behind the question but it takes five minutes to look it up on Wikipedia. The answer is there already because it\u2019s been told so many times. It just seems like a standard question a band gets. Does it really matter?<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Whenever I do interviews, I tell them, \u201cThere are two questions I won\u2019t ask you today: \u2018How did you get your band name\u2019 and \u2018How\u2019s the tour going?\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Laughs] That\u2019s perfect!<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019ll be honest. I wasn\u2019t sold on you guys until I really sat down and gave The Night Creeper a listen and I really dug the hell out of it. Would you say that this is probably an easy album for those that have never heard you before to get into?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Honestly, probably not. I wouldn\u2019t have chosen this one as the sort of the gateway into the band. I mean, I\u2019m glad that you like it. Everybody seems to have their favorite album for the band. Each album has a sort of a different feel to it and so it varies from person to person as to which one they prefer. I think it\u2019s good that some people don\u2019t get us straight away and they have to work at it and then finally, they understand it. I\u2019ve been the same way with a lot of bands myself where I kind of wrote them off saying, \u201cI don\u2019t get it. I don\u2019t like it\u201d and then maybe a couple of years later I may hear something that completely changes my mind. Then I have to go back and revisit them.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>You guys have been spending quite a lot of time here in the US touring. What are some of your favorite things about touring in the US?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We are so used to touring in Europe that coming over to America is a completely different culture. Everything is open 24 hours. You\u2019re never hungry [laughs]. In America, you can get food in the middle of the night whenever you want whereas in Europe, you just need to wait until the next day for them to open.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is your favorite food to indulge in while on tour in US? A lot of my European friends say steak which I always think is hilarious.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[laughs] Well, I\u2019m a vegetarian so it wouldn\u2019t be steak [laughs]. You guys do very good vegetarian food over there. Great mock meat or whatever. It\u2019s just such great food places there.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>When I interviewed Purson, they were just in love with Whole Foods here.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[laughs] Yeah. It\u2019s a bit expensive but it really is a great place.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>With four albums under your belt, looking back, do you have a personal favorite that you think represents everything Uncle Acid is all about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not sure. I kind of like all of them [laughs]. I\u2019m kind of a selfish songwriter. I write songs to please myself and to hear the things I would want to hear so everything that I\u2019ve done I\u2019ve been proud of it. I guess I would have to say Volume I since that\u2019s the first thing that we did and it was a good starting point for us. It shows quite a wide range of influences for us that maybe people wouldn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>When Uncle Acid plays live, to you do the same setlist every night or do you try and change it up a bit?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, we\u2019ll change it up every now and again. Some songs get tired and after playing them 3 or 4 times in a row they start to lose it a little bit so we\u2019ll bring in another song to the set. We\u2019ll also change the order of the set and stuff like that. We\u2019re constantly trying to tweak things to make it flow the best it can.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you ever write on the road at all and if so, do you ever road test new songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Writing on the road is pretty much impossible for me. For me, I need complete isolation and you can\u2019t get that on the road. The whole band is there, the crew\u2019s there, everybody&#8217;s on top of each other for months on in and there\u2019s no way to really escape from anybody [laughs]. You\u2019re just constantly doing something. You\u2019ve got press, preparing for the gig, watching a film on the bus [laughs]. There are always distractions on the road.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is a misconception of Uncle Acid that you\u2019d like to put to rest?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh, I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a lot [laughs]. I think that maybe some people kind of dismiss us as being some part of a big occult rock thing that we\u2019re not really a part of. We\u2019re not really a part of any scene. People keep calling us occult rock but hardly any of our music has anything to do with the occult or anything like that. We\u2019ve been thrown into various categories like that.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Like when they say, \u201cOoo, they sound just like Black Sabbath!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Laughs] Exactly. I can get that they\u2019re a huge influence on us but I don\u2019t remember a time when Black Sabbath had two singers singing harmony or when they had two guitar players or did concept albums. There\u2019s more to us that just Black Sabbath. Of course, I love Black Sabbath but I think if you really listen to us, you should be able to pick out other points of reference.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you consider yourselves a metal band? IF not, are you ok with being lumped in with metal bands?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think that we\u2019re a straight up metal band. Obviously, we\u2019ve got metal influences but to me, we\u2019re just a hard rock band. If you\u2019re going to describe us as anything that would sort of cover all the bases of what we do. You don\u2019t get many harmony singers in metal and that\u2019s one of the biggest parts of our sound. Everything is two and three part harmonies. There is that metal influence but there\u2019s a pop influence, a folk influence, there\u2019s so much more to it.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who are some of your favorite current bands that you feel like are doing some cool things?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Blood Ceremony. I love them. Danava, they\u2019re a great band and probably the best band in America really. I love Graveyard. There\u2019s a lot of really great guitar music out there which is good.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/alJI5DRwDWE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you could sing\/play in any band for just one night who would it be and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[laughs] That\u2019s a good question! I would love to be able to sing and play with Neil Young or someone like that. .<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wow, you really threw me for a loop there with that one!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[laughs] If I was a member of Crazy Horse for a night that would probably be the ultimate.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>In your opinion, what is one hard rock\/metal album that nobody should be without?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll give you one that is maybe not appreciated as much as it should be for various reasons but I would say the first W.A.S.P album is a record that I recommend that everybody owns.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Damn, Kevin. You are blowing me away. That album is one of my all time favorites. It\u2019s flawless but nobody ever mentions it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Laughs] From beginning to end, every song on there is a classic. They kind of got thrown in with the whole hair metal thing. Maybe they were too soft for the thrash fans and maybe they were too heavy for the more mainstream, MTV audience so they were just kind of languishing in the middle somewhere. Blackie is a huge influence on my songwriting that nobody ever sees. He\u2019s always got the heavy riffs and the two part harmonies. That is the same thing that I try and do. I want to have that heaviness and that darkness and all these sort of sweet pop melodies and harmonies as well.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>So does this mean that someday we can look forward to Uncle Acid covering \u201cSleeping in the Fire\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Laughs] Yeah, I would love to do that. Why not? [laughs]<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you enjoy getting out there and meeting fans?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah, it\u2019s always fun. We\u2019ve got a lot of crazy fans [laughs]. It\u2019s always nice to hear from the people and to see that you\u2019ve made an impact on them in some way. It\u2019s nice to be able to do that.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s such a huge thing over these last few years where bands charge a pretty huge fee for their fans to meet them. What\u2019s your opinion on that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s totally ridiculous. There\u2019s no need for that. We would never do that. We will meet anyone and sign anything. That\u2019s really no problem for us. I just think it\u2019s really fucked.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>What would a dream tour be for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Honestly, the tour that we have coming with Danava and The Shrine. To me, that\u2019s going to be a great tour. Its three bands we all sort take a different approach to the music. I\u2019m really looking forward to that and the fans are going to really like the lineup.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>So many of Uncle Acid\u2019s songs are so visual, especially with the conceptual themes. Have you ever thought of incorporating visuals into the live shows in order to add to that vibe?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, we\u2019ve done it before with the big screens and the projector and things like that. It sort of has become played out. There are a lot of bands that are doing that; showing video clips and horror films behind them. When you\u2019re playing to that, people kind of start watching the screen and not really paying attention to the music or what the band\u2019s actually doing. They\u2019re just glued to the screen like zombies and the music is just sort of an afterthought. That\u2019s not really a good situation to be in. Besides, we don\u2019t always play venues big enough to bring in all of those things.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Well, the trash cans on stage on the last tour was a nice touch.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Laughs] Yeah. I mean, it was just garbage; a couple of brick walls and garbage everywhere on stage [laughs]. There could be more of that sort of thing in the future.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you have any kind of pre-show ritual? LIke, what do you do to get into the zone?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t really do anything really [laughs]. I just sort of distract myself and not think about it and then we just go on stage and go for it. We get in the zone and I don\u2019t like to be distracted by anything else.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>When you really get in that zone and are working it, do you ever get distracted and find yourself being pulled out of that zone?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The only thing that sort of breaks it a little bit is when you start seeing cameras everywhere. People are filming the whole show and looking at their screens the whole time. That\u2019s a little bit disappointing and it kind of cuts them off from the experience. If the way they choose to live life is through an iPhone screen, then that\u2019s their problem really.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you ever call people out on it when you see this happening?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, if I see somebody filming for the whole show, I\u2019ll just tell them to please stop and if they don\u2019t, I\u2019ll just kick a monitor into them and kind of scare them a little bit [laughs]. Normally, you can get them to stop by just looking at them a certain way.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>If Hollywood was to make a movie about your life, what famous actor would play you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Maybe if Al Pacino went through a makeup job to make him look like me, I would say Al Pacino [laughs]. He is a bit too short to play me though [laughs].<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is one song that every time you hear it you say, \u201cI wish I wrote that?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s another good question. Maybe, \u201cBe My Baby\u201d by the Ronettes. That is just one of the greatest songs ever written. Brian Wilson and Keith Richards both say the same thing. There\u2019s just something about that song that\u2019s just so well written and so well produced and performed. It\u2019s just the ultimate song.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>If I wasn\u2019t a musician, I would be&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d be a writer. I would like to sort of write short stories or something. I\u2019d be involved in writing something even if I was just a journalist or something.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>That kind of ties in with the fact that you enjoyed doing the concept album thing. Have you ever considered maybe doing some sort book of stories?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, I have. I was thinking that because the Night Creeper is such a strong sort of narrative, I was thinking of doing perhaps a pulp kind of paperback detailing the events of the album and having the actual story that it\u2019s based on. I think a lot of people listen to the album and read the lyrics but they\u2019re not quite sure of what is actually going on [laughs]. It would be good to sort of have the story there for them to read it. It\u2019s there in my head so it needs to be explained to the people. Maybe that\u2019s something that could happen in the future.<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>That would be awesome. Kevin, they read it here first!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Laughs] Exactly, there we go!<\/p>\n<p>==========================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kevin, thank you so much for taking the time out to talk today. It\u2019s been an absolute pleasure getting to know you. You\u2019re an awesome guy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This was a nice one. Thank you so much, Don. I hope to see you in Atlanta if you can make it out. Cheers, Don.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For more on Uncle Acid, head on over to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uncleacid\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uncleacid<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have pretty much become a household name in the world of stoner\/psychedelic rock. Through relentless touring and releasing albums such as Blood Lust, Mind Control, and their latest opus, The Night Creeper, Uncle Acid has been winning over fans left and right. In a genre that makes it hard to stand out from the pack, Uncle Acid has solidified themselves as a top tier band with a sound that is all their own. I recently [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[1164,1622],"class_list":["post-16286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-rise-above-records","tag-uncle-acid-and-the-deadbeats"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}