iNTERViEWED
BY BRiAN LUSH
Having been the only black kid in my high school that didn’t
listen to BOBBY BROWN or BELL BIV DEVOE, I sought refuge in the full
throttle approach
of brothers with guitars like LIVING COLOUR and FISHBONE. So far, the
year 2010
has been something of a personal triumph for me after
having interviewed COREY GLOVER of LIVING
COLOUR and now DIRTY WALT KIBBY III – the cofounder of FISHBONE and one
half of
YEAR OF THE DRAGON with vocalist and guitarist RODERICK “RODCORE”
PALMER. The
dynamic duo tested the waters with an EP ‘A TIME TO LOVE IS A TIME TO
BLEED’
where they tore into thrash metal, reggae and acoustic sets with
complete
abandon. Now, YEAR OF THE DRAGON has issued their debut LP ‘BLUNT FORCE
KARMA’,
produced by DARRYL SWANN (MACY GRAY) and the chemistry between KIBBY
and PALMER is undeniably ignitable.
DIRTY WALT KILBY III
of YEAR OF THE DRAGON (and now of FISHBONE once again at press time)
spoke with
ROCKWIRED over the phone. Here is how it went.
How do you feel about
the finished work?
I’m enjoying it. I feel great. I feel like we got to do what
we wanted to do and now everybody can hear it.
What’s different this
time around from the EP that you guys released a couple of years back?
The EP was like us experimenting with how we work together.
It was a chance for us to see if we could sing together and blend
together. We
wanted to see if we could make something happen together because we
didn’t know
if we could make that work . We did the EP and everything sounded okay
and
after that we decided to go for the full length but we wanted to tweak
things a
little bit closer to what we truly visualized.
Who all did you work
with in terms of production for BLUNT FORCE KARMA?
That was produced by RODCORE and DARRYL SWANN. That was
pretty much it. Working with DARRYL is just like getting in there and
working
with one of the homeys. He does his thing and we do our thing. We make
it
happen.
Talk about how this
project began.
Me and ROB had to find out if we could really work as a
team. He and I were
working on another
project which as SPACEY T’s band SOUND BARRIER which was this black
heavy metal
band in the eighties. What we were trying to do initially was resurrect
that
band. We were recording a new SOUND BARRIER record with me and RODCORE
as the
singers but unfortunately there were all of these set backs and that
project
never materialized. Me and RODCORE had all of these songs and we
decided to try
to keep working on something and that was how THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON
got
started.
From where did the
name of the project originate?
Basically ROD and I were born in the same year – 1964, which
is the year of the dragon. We were born days apart form each other so
we
decided to call the band YEAR OF THE DRAGON for that reason.
How does the songwriting
process work within this band?
We come up with a concept and work off of it. He’ll write
his part and I’ll add my part, or I’ll write my part and he’ll add his
part and
we blend it all together in some weird, peculiar way.
Talk about how music
got started for you.
It got started for me in Columbus Ohio
with my pops. He loved music and he used to take me to a lot of crazy
concerts
like JAMES BROWN, OHIO PLAYERS and THE JACKSON FIVE. My mom would say
to me “One
day you’ll be like him (MICHAEL JACKSON)” and I would wonder if ever
would be
like him. Next thing you know, I’m learning the trumpet at a young age.
My pops
started me on the bugle and it pretty much started from there. I
started going
to all of the P-FUNK shows and any show that I could get into and study
and
learn everything. I got with the guys in FISHBONE in junior high school
and
when we got out of junior high school, FISHBONE got into a couple of
talent
shows and we won a ‘battle of the bands’ and started playing LA clubs
right out
of high school. You know the history of FISHBONE.
Absolutely! You guys
were one of my idols growing up - you and LIVING COLOUR. It seems like
this is
my year for meeting the bands that inspired me.
Excellent! Me and SPACEY T left FISHBONE in 2003 and from
there we started working on the new SOUND BARRIER. Through that
experience I
met ROD and the SOUND BARRIER project stalled for a little bit because
we were
missing a few pieces of the band. After that me and ROD started YEAR OF
THE
DRAGON and we’ve been working together ever since. We’ve created a
little company
called IBCT (INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF CONSEQUENTIAL TRUTH) so that
we could
put our records and our friend’s records and anybody we think is worth
putting
out. That’s where I’m at today.
I understand that you’re
back with FISHBONE as well.
Yeah, I just came back to FISHBONE. Now I’m in FISHBONE, YEAR
OF THE DRAGON, and my side project COLUMBUS SANITATION.
That’s a lot of commitments!
How easy or difficult is to maintain all of that at once?
I tell you its pretty rough. The schedule is crazy. It’s
very crazy. Some days I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.
Back to BLUNT FORCE
KARMA, what songs off of the album resonate for you the most and why?
I don’t know. Anything about breaking free is good for me –
like the song JAILBREAK. I love that one. I like to be free. I also
like BLUNT
FORCE KARMA. I like all of my songs really. They all have a very
special place
in my heart. They’re my children. You can’t just pick one kid over the
other.
I understand. Most
people hate it when I ask that question.
It’s like picking a favorite kid in front of all of the
other kids and the grandma.
2003 to now is quite
a stretch of time. What made you step away from FISHBONE and what was
it that
brought you back?
What got me away from FISHBONE was a couple of questions
that I had to ask at the end of a very hard, troubling tour after many
years of
fighting and arguing. I finally decided to ask them all a few questions
about
the business end and I got no love on that. So I asked another question
on the
artistry end and got no love there either and I knew it was my time to
go.
There was no room for any new development. They weren’t trying to move
forward.
They just wanted to be crazy fools on the road. I wasn’t with that so I
had to
leave. It was my time at that point. The thing that brought me back was
the
result of having worked a couple of “regular guy” kind of jobs just so
I could
get some perspective on life as a grown man as opposed to a lifetime of
rock
stardom and living in a world of Hollywood. I got a couple of real jobs
that
didn’t exactly pay real money but they paid a living wage and after
those jobs got
to the point here I couldn’t do those anymore because they were just
getting
ridiculous, something started happening to me. Something was telling me
to go
back to the rock life but now, I’m going back to it with a new
perspective
instead of the wild crazy, angry and hotwired WALT. Now, I’m a whole
different
guy. I’m more calm and relaxed and ready to do more talking than
fighting. Now
I’m approaching this rock thing from a whole different angle.
Any live shows lined
up?
Oh yeah! Next week we’re heading down to SXSW. We’ll be
doing an IBCT showcase there that will feature YEAR OF THE DRAGON,
SWADE G, UNCLE
POOCH and a whole array of other acts. That’ll be happening next
Friday. We’ve
got a few other gigs coming up in Arizona,
and Vegas.
How have live
audiences reacted to the music?
Everybody that we’ve ever played in front of has enjoyed the
music. I haven’t gotten a bad reaction yet. I’m waiting for it though.
In listening to the
music, it sounds like a lot of it lends itself well to some sort of
visual
accompaniment. Any plans for videos?
We’ve put out a video for JAILBREAK on YOUTUBE and our
website.
YOUTUBE is all you
need these days. MTV isn’t even MUSIC TELEVISION anymore.
Exactly! It’s a totally different station. We put them out
there on YOUTUBE and if anybody is curious, they can go there and check
us out.
We’ve got more videos from the album coming.
What would you like
someone to come away with after they’ve heard this CD?
I would hope that they would come away with a sense of joy
and happiness. I hope they come away feeling that this is something
that they
can keep playing again, and again, and again. I hope they enjoy it that
much.
MARCH 16,
2010
BRiAN
LUSH (FOUNDER,
EDiTOR-iN-CHiEF)
