Q&A: The Darkness, Buckcherry still flying flag for old-school rock
Oh, it’s a good time to be a fan of proper, ridiculous rock ’n’ roll in Toronto. The next couple of days bring two of the more successful contemporary standard bearers for loud-‘n’-proud hard rock of the rowdy, raunchy variety that was custom in the 1970s and ‘80s but has, sadly, been pushed aside as something of an anomaly in recent years. Sunset Strip throwbacks Buckcherry arrive at the Phoenix on Saturday night to offer local fans a preview of their Seven Deadly Sins-themed new record, Confessions, which is due out on Feb. 19. Monday, meanwhile, brings reformed (and still daft) U.K. pop-metal crew The Darkness back to the Phoenix for its first Toronto gig since the release of its first album after a five-year breakup, Hot Cakes, last August. The Star corralled Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd and the Darkness’s unitard-sporting bandleader Justin Hawkins for separate chats about the trials and tribulations of flying the flag for old-school rawk in a pop landscape now dominated by freshscrubbed Justin Bieber types on one side and doleful indie-rockers on the other.
JOSH TODD OF BUCKCHERRY
Q: This lineup of Buckcherry (formed in 2005) has now been around as long and released twice as many albums as the original one, so I take it things are going well?
A: We’ve been working hard. We never wanted it to go the way it did in the beginning but s--- happens and you go with it. We had the comeback story in 2005 and we’re very passionate about this band, Keith (Nelson, lead guitarist) and I, and this lineup that we have now is the band that we always wanted it to be. They’re great. We have a lot of fun together. I don’t even think about that first lineup.
Q: I find it weird that, despite all of your success, Buckcherry maybe hasn’t always been taken completely seriously just because it’s an unapologetic, good-timey kinda rock band.
A: I think we’ve accomplished pretty much everything you can accomplish in this business. We’ve had gold and platinum records, we’ve had Grammy nominations, we’ve toured the world. I don’t know what else you can say about us except that we’re still going and we’ve had this really quiet success over the years, and we’re on our sixth record and we’re just gonna keep on going until everybody comes around eventually. . . . We just want to give honest performances. I think what’s going on these days, especially in rock, is people just clutter up their records with too much processing and sounds and stuff to where it just doesn’t feel organic anymore. It doesn’t feel like you’re sitting in a rehearsal room listening to the band and I like to feel like, when you’re listening to a Buckcherry record, you could be sitting in the rehearsal room watching us jam.
Q: Tell me about the conceptual framework for Confessions.
A: For a long time, Keith and I had been throwing around the idea of doing a record around the Seven Deadly Sins. Other bands have done it, but we wanted to do our take on the same thing and I think we did it justice. I also wrote a short film that I’m still trying to get funded right now that goes along with the record. I really enjoyed having to tackle all that subject matter and still make good rock ’n’ roll songs. That was the challenge. It was a lot of fun. Plus, there’s just the contradiction of it all: y’know, organized religion and the fact that you’re put on this Earth and you’re already a sinner and all that stuff I just don’t believe in. I think it’s kinda silly, but it’s fun to tackle. I don’t know if you’ve seen the “Gluttony” video, but we did it in a church and we’ve got Jesus in there and everything. It’s so wrong, but it’s so right.
Q: Do you feel that, given your storied past excesses, that you’ve had some acquaintance with the subject matter?
A: Absolutely. Moderation is very hard for me. So I’ve experienced them. And that’s the thing: the sins are timeless so a lot of people can relate to them and have struggled with them at some point in their lives, so that’s why they’re cool.
Q: You’ve been clear of all that stuff for a good 15 years or so, though, right?
A: Oh, yeah, I have been for a long time. But it’s manifested in other areas of my life, so I’m always having to manage it. It doesn’t go away.
Q: Was there a moment that turned it all around for you?
A: When my first daughter was born. That’s when my whole life kind of flashed before my eyes. I didn’t want her to ever see me f---ed up. That was one of the key motivators. And then I got arrested, so that was the other motivator.
Q: How do your kids feel about having a rock ’n’ roller for a dad?
A: I don’t think they think that much of it. I’m a pretty traditional guy when I’m home. They just think I’m a nerd. I’m uncool and I’m always telling them what my mother told me. It’s funny when you hear your parents coming out of your own mouth.
JUSTIN HAWKINS OF THE DARKNESS
Q: You’re back. Tell us what precipitated the breakup and subsequent reformation of the Darkness?
A: We all just got sick of it and then fell out of love with the project and started to hate each other. I don’t think we were part of a movement — we were almost defiant in the sorts of musical choices we made and we didn’t want to be fashionable, and then we sort of had being fashionable thrust upon us and we found it really annoying so we started trying to do it more and that was totally counterproductive. You’re supposed to do stuff for the sake of doing it, not for making a statement. What the f--- were we protesting against? We realized it was each other. So we stopped and then missed it and then got back together.
Q: Was there a particular low point that catalyzed the breakup of the band?
A: I think the lowest point was when I left. That was the tipping point for Dan (Hawkins, guitarist) and Ed (Graham, drummer). That was the final straw.
Q: Do you find it ironic that a band so committed to an over-the-top rock esthetic was thought to have succumbed to most of the clichéd pitfalls of rock stardom at the time?
A: You shouldn’t believe everything you read. That had absolutely nothing to do with it. I could be on drugs right now and it wouldn’t make any difference. I’ve done some of my best work on drugs.
Q: I would agree with you that some bands should never stop taking drugs.
A: Yeah, but then they look like s---, don’t they? I’m actually 15 years old.
Q: Do you find it frustrating that a band doing what you do is considered something of a novelty in today’s musical environment? Why is it that people find it hard to take a band with a sense of humour and/or a spirit of unbridled fun seriously?
A: Life’s too short. You can’t worry about how society treats the last great rock ’n’ roll band on this planet. Just kidding. But there are people in bands who have senses of humour, and then you listen to their music and it’s just one-dimensional anger or pain or whatever. I think we try to be a bit more honest about things and put our personalities into what we do. So in a way people are criticizing us for being honest. . . . If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing it in the most spectacular way possible. Even if that means having a s---.
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