What is rock n roll without a little drama? The premiere edition of ROCK IS RED MAGAZINE boasted that bomb-ass photo by DARKO of First Nations rockers GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA who were still high from their win at the ABORIGINAL PEOPLES CHOICE MUSIC AWARDS (now called the INDIGENOUS MUSIC AWARDS) for BEST ROCK BAND. Who better to have featured on our debut cover? Within minutes of circulating the premiere issue in May of 2015, We received an instant message from front man LOGAN STAATS informing us that he was no longer with the band. It was a hell of a way for us to launch our new magazine but the tensions that have driven STAATS out of the front man position of GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA and the tensions that have arisen since his departure between him, the band and the record label have made for one hell of a rock n roll blowout. Yet despite the drama, LOGAN STAATS is making his voice heard as a solo artist with the release of his solo album GOODBYE GOLDIA - a stripped down acoustic affair that highlights STAATS' raspy howl and haunted prose. 

ROCKWIRED  had a chance to speak  with LOGAN regarding his new music and his thoughts on his previous band. Here is how the interview went.

Well LOGAN it sounds like it's been a crazy few months for you. Your former band GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA was on the cover of the debut issue of ROCK IS RED and the day we started circulating the magazine I got an instant message form you telling me that you were no longer in the band. Your departure was -needless to say - a surprise for me so talk about what brought all of that about.
LOGAN STAATS: It was a surprise for a lot of people. Basically the people that I work with in my community down here funded everything that GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA ever did like our traveling and our recording. They had run into some problems with the actual owners of the record label that we had been working with. These guys are personal friends of mine and they advised me that I needed to kind of remove myself from the situation. I had to stay true to those people that believe in me and have put all o this faith in me and time and money into me. So I kind of had to stick with them. They had had a falling out with the recording label that we were working with – GUNNER RECORDINGS. It really sucked. VICTOR MARTISIUS is a really good dude. I don't want to say anything bad about him .

He is. I'll agree with you there.
LOGAN STAATS: There is a lot of stuff that I can't talk about until all of this stuff is over. Just because VICTOR is really tight with the record label. He's a session musician so he;s constantly at their studio every day. He's a lot more personal with the guys at GUNNER RECORDINGS than I am. I had creative differences with them from the beginning. They didn't want me to do my own solo music and I've been playing solo music around this town for over ten years. GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA was a fairly new thing to my music career. It was all creative differences. Now it's a nightmare that you hear about in the music industry that you never want to experience. with these frickin' pirate record labels. Dealing with these people is scary stuff. The people that I'm working with now are so organic about it. I haven't signed a contract or anything like that. they have completely taken me under their wing and they're just letting me grow with out having their hand in my pocket. It's the complete opposite. So when I started to experience that for myself I had finally realized the myself and GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA were in the wrong place. Unfortunately they just didn't agree with me. My thing to is that those songs - the lyrics that I wrote - I don't know if those guys know anything of what those songs are about. It's hard to explain those songs to them. So they're up there singing karaoke. I saw them play the other and day and it just killed me to watch them play these songs about my daughter and my demons and my break ups. It's tough man! It's tough for me to take it all in and as of lately, it's been tougher for me to take it all in.

So they have new singer now?
LOGAN STAATS: VICTOR is singing now. They guys is great singer but a lot of the instrumentation has been dumbed down now. Before the guitar parts were very complex and to sing those play those parts at the same time is probably a bit tricky for him. I think eventually he'll get there. He'll be able to do that and carry the weight of a band. I just don't know if it's going to be GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA. I just don't know if that's good move. Start something else. You guys are great musicians. You're all brilliant dudes. It's like "Write some songs!"

How did this departure really go down though? Did any of the band reach out to you afterwards?
LOGAN STAATS: I had been working with DEREK MILLER a lot. He's kind of become a mentor to me. He was also signed to GUNNER RECORDINGS before I knew DEREK on a personal level he was my hero growing up. When I saw that he was signed to GUNNER RECORDINGS it was like "I trust this label!" They also had STEVIE SALAS. With these guys they have to be a reputable label. As soon as I signed the contract a week later I got these emails from STEVIE and DEREK warning me that the whole thing is a bad situation. Initially I kind of brushed it off and then eventually I just became tighter with these dudes and started hanging out with them on a regular basis and they started explaining to me what they had gone through with GUNNER RECORDINGS and it was very similar to my situation. Everyone who had invested in GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA had lost faith in the label and they pulled all of their funds. I started to ask myself "What are these guys doing for us?" You can't even get a GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA CD right now. You can't even buy one. They don't have any physical copies. Same with the DEREK MILLER record. You can't even buy that album. I just felt tied down and felt that it was time to move on. And I did just that. I went to California and told the boys that this is what I'm doing. I love making music with you guys and that my door is always open but I can not put my hear and soul into something with these guys standing behind.

And I was so proud of you guys at the ABORIGINAL PEOPLES CHOICE MUSIC AWARDS.
LOGAN STAATS: A lot of people were really proud of me. I get cynical about it sometimes but I know that was a big part of what I was doing and what I'm doing now. A lot of momentum was built off of that whole experience and I was able to capture that with what I'm doing on my own right now. I know that was a huge part of my success as an artist and as much as it sucks and it hurts. I know that everything happens for a reason and even now I'm in a way better spot. I'm not struggling and starving anymore. And you know what? I was actually thinking about reaching out the boys. I've been contemplating it a lot and telling them to come away from the dark side and come to the light. We've got an awesome facility here at Six Nations.

Is that JUKASA STUDIOS?
LOGAN STAATS: Yes. I've got full audio support at JUKASA and video support at another studio. I have all of these tools at my fingertips that we never had with the last record label. So I'm thinking about reaching out to the guys. When I went to see them at The WT FESTIVAL and I didn't get a chance to talk to VICTOR. He was hanging out with VIC FRANCO of GUNNER RECORDINGS. But the other two guys PAUL and RYLAN came up to me and kicked it with me for a little while. I guess the vibe on there end isn't the same.

Tell me about the new music that you're about to release.
LOGAN STAATS: Well I went down to California and did that LIVE OFF THE FLOOR record and that just dropped on June 21rst and I am overwhelmed with how much support and how much positive feedback that I've gotten form this record. I was kind of nervous because it's live off of the floor and it's really raw but it's pulling it's weight. it's been doing really good online and on SPOTIFY. It's been doing awesome. I'm just getting ready to go out to BC on the 16th and play some shows and sell some CDs. and then I come home for the PAN AM GAMES where I'll be doing the closing ceremony. I'm also doing a really big show with BUFFY SAINTE MARIE that I'm really really pumped about. I'm super busy. The guys that have behind me now are really killing it. This is on a different level.

You've talked to me about everything that went into GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA before and really, all of this is sad to hear.
LOGAN STAATS: You know, I didn't even listen to the CD for a long time because it made me sad.
But I finally put it on last night and i was rocking out to it on the way to Toronto. I started to miss it. While I like the intimate show I'm starting to miss sweating all over people and trashing hotel rooms. I don't know what you're going to see. I don't know if its' going to be a rebirth of GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA or a might just get something else going and start rocking out on something else. I don't know whats' going to come but I'll tell you I've got this beast inside me that needs to be unleashed. I love the slow movement and the intimate settings and the blushing girls but I wanna rock out and party again.

I hear what your saying. I'm sure your former band mates from GHOST TOWN ORCHESTRA are gonna be reading this. Why wouldn't they?
LOGAN STAATS: I hope so. Either way I wish them all the best. The boys in the band I never had a problem with. I love those guys to death. Those are my brothers. Unfortunately I found myself butting heads with the people that they work with and it just got really bad. Hopefully once all of this is over I can reach out tho them but at this point I have to stand my ground and stand by the people that have invested all of this time in us. I really don't know what's going to happen. I really don't even know if I should talk about it. There is going to be a court case over it and I don't think that they're going to be standing on the right side of the fence. I've been told by my people that I'll be getting my music back so I'm just waiting for all of this to blow over and see what happens and try to rebuild any bridges that got burnt throughout this fucking mess.

And tell me what it is that you learned from this experience.
LOGAN STAATS: Now I'm so cynical when it comes to any opportunity that may come my way. Right now everybody wants to talk to me about this or that opportunity and I'm just so cynical about it. I just do my homework. I really look for references from people. I really take my time to research people and I listen to my gut. I kind of had a weird feeling in my gut halfway through this whole endeavor and then found myself really butting heads with some of the people working there. I mean shouting matches. Music is such a spiritual thing and I've just got to listen to my gut and listen to what the spirit is telling me. You know how it is when you play music with someone and it just clicks. It has to be the same way with the people that you're working with. You have to have that kind of trust with the team that is behind you.

What would you like to say to your old band mates right now?
LOGAN STAATS: I'd just like to tell them to keep on rocking and hopefully we can play together one day.

In the meantime you have this solo thing that's happening. You're not exactly playing dead.
LOGAN STAATS: No of course not. This year is going to be big. Already I'm playing bigger venues. I'll be playing some milestone venues and I'll playing with people that I've always wanted to play with. You enjoy the little things in this industry. I enjoy traveling around and seeing new places and playing for new people. I could enjoy that for the rest of my days and not think about anything else.

CHECK OUT THE PODCAST AT:
http://www.rockwired.com/rockisred/rockisred11.mp3

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