dUg Pinnick - "I Just Do What I Love To Do, and I'm Glad People Like it. That's Where I'm At."

"Haha, I think the world is more pleased than I am, it's not that I don't like it, it's just that whatever I am a part of, I can never step outside of it to see it for what it is!" ~ dUg Pinnick

dUg Pinnick is more of a walk the walk kind of guy than a talk the talk kind of guy. He's largely content to let the music do the talking, but with the success of his latest project, Pinnick Gales Pridgen, he's up early and doing press - no big surprise, for PGP has taken the hard rock world by storm, debuting at #1 on the Amazon Hard Rock Charts, and also #1 on their Progressive Rock Charts on the first day of its release, and the world is at their doorstep.

Pinnick Gales Pridgen is going to be a tough record to top for anyone in 2013 - I proclaimed it record of the year in mid January, and while I'd love to see someone knock the rock off my shoulder, I'm not holding my breath. Pinnick does what he's always done, Eric Gales puts on the lead guitar performance of a lifetime, and Thomas Pridgen's whirlwind drumming has left even his bandmates mystified.

I had spoken with Gales at length at last month's NAMM show in Los Angeles, and he excitedly told me that the band was already discussing the follow up record, so this project is growing wings - when offered a chance to talk about the record with dUg, well, of course, I couldn't wait.

Before we jumped into the new record, I had to ask about dUg's bandmate for the last thirty years, drummer Jerry Gaskill of Pinnick's full time band, King's X - Gaskill suffered a heart attack in early 2012, and then had the misfortune of having his home destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Pinnick was pleased to report that Jerry is doing better than ever:

dUg: "Jerry's doing great! After the heart attack he recovered completely - we've done some shows and he has a new found life. Man, he just brings life to the camp, y'know, it's pretty cool. We've got some shows set up this spring, and we're planning some recording, but there's no date yet."

In this economic climate, having your band on the shelf for a year is a tough thing, so I asked dUg how PGP came together, how Mike Varney got involved, and how the record got made:

dUg: "Mike was probably the focal point, in that he called me up and said, 'Hey, I want to do this record with you, Eric, and Thomas,' and I go, 'Sure!' Next thing I know, we're in the studio ten days later and we've got a record."

I asked if there was any time for demos, or preparation before hitting the studio:

dUg: "No preparation before - I brought in five songs, and we collaborated on five more, I think. It was really quick, it was like we all knew what each other was capable of, so we went in and let everyone do what they do. There was no arguing, there was no telling another person what to do, or somebody going, 'I don't like that part, why don't you change it to this.' Nothing like that happened, ever. It just seemed like everything we came up with worked. 

"We did the drum tracks in three days. We had to have the drums ready, because the drum tracks are the most important part of the song - and Thomas had to leave after the third day! So, he put down his drum tracks and left. Then we pieced it all together - we had the basic tracks, but we had to make up vocals and melodies, Eric had to put on his leads, and stuff like that."

Listening to Pridgen's performance, it's not just incredible that he laid the tracks in three days, it's also incredible that Pinnick and Gales could always follow his hyperkinetic masterwork. I asked dUg how difficult it was to adjust to Pridgen's fiery style:

dUg: "It's real hard! To play with somebody that busy - but, I wanted him to play that busy because that's his style, and that's what his appeal is! I think it really added to the band and the make-up of the band. I really do think that he did an exceptional job, but it's like I said, it's hard to play with him, because sometimes I don't know where the one is - he finds his way back there, but I don't!"

Pridgen aside, it's also a whole new ballgame for Pinnick playing with Eric Gales - Gales has a style like no one's and I had to ask how it was for dUg to play with Eric after working for three decades with the equally different, and very eclectic Ty Tabor, the legendary six string wizard of King's X:

dUg: "The difference is Ty doesn't think he's any good. Whatever he does - he always doesn't care about it, and he thinks that other guitar players don't care about him. He doesn't think he has anything to offer, even though he does.That's just who he is. 

"As for Eric? Eric loves everything that he does. Watching him do leads, watching him get excited about his leads, and watching him stop in the middle of a lead because he just did something incredible, and he'll look at us and go, 'Y'all hear that? That was deep!' I mean, he loves what he does in a really innocent and beautiful way. I wish I could love what I did like that. 

"That's the biggest difference to me, besides playing-wise, because they're both just phenomenal."

Sticking with Gales's performance on PGP, I asked about all the layers of guitars that were laid down after the basic rhythm track - it's a masterful performance with Eric throwing down lead after lead after incredible lead. One of the performances of the century to my ears, and from most of the other reviews I've read. Surprisingly, his performance only came at Pinnick's prodding:

dUg: "The raw tracks were just his rhythms. Then, he just came in and re-did the leads, pretty much. We knew what we were getting from the beginning - there were no surprises. It was just really great to make him play as much lead as he could on this record, because he didn't want to! 

"He didn't want to do a lot of leads, but I thought, 'You know, this is his strength,' so, you do a lot of leads, you could do leads all night long - I said, 'This is what people wanna hear,' so he just went for it, you know? And that is the whole point in this band is that everyone tried to grab a hold of their strongpoints. Forget about weak points, we got no time for that!"

By the same token, Pinnick's bass tone is unlike any other. He gets his sound by sending his high end signal into a Fractal Audio Systems Axe-Fx II, giving his tone some grinding distortion and time based effects, while sending his low end through a more traditional bass amp rig. The result is a steamrolling sound that is as broad as it is long. At times on the record it's occasionally not easy to decipher whether you're hearing Gales's guitars, or Pinnick's bass - I asked if Gales's had any difficulty adjusting to Pinnick's huge tone, which is perhaps the most unique this side of John Entwistle's roar with The Who:

dUg: "Eric has known my sound since his band toured with King's X when he was fifteen, so he  knew what to expect. I don't know....we never discussed it at all, and he didn't seem to have any problems with it as he put his parts down. Yeah, it wasn't even discussed, really."

Mike Varney was the Svengali who dreamt up the lineup of Pinnick Gales Pridgen, so I wondered about his role, once the band got into the studio:

dUg: "He was the ring leader! He just kind of pushed us to keep going. We were sort of frustrated at first, because we were thinking, 'We've gotta make a record in ten days?' He kept us focused and kept pushing us, which was really cool. 

"I wrote about 25 songs in the last year, and some of them went on my solo album that will be out in May, then there were some more left over - Mike said, 'I want you to bring in five songs,' and I brought in ten, so we picked five of them, then we just kind of did them."

Again, I was pretty amazed that a record that sounds so rich and complex could have been laid down so quickly. It's down to seasoned pros knowing exactly what they're doing, and having the skills and confidence to proceed. Things haven't always come so easy - both Pinnick and Gales have on occasion had to battle with personal problems that made their lives difficult - I wanted to know what effect dUg's personal life had on his art, and the making of that art:

dUg: "It effects it 100%! I think I write better songs when I'm being tortured - when I'm happy and everything's going great, I have nothing to say, and there's no passion, or drive in my music. But, it seems the moment I'm hurtin', or angry, or frustrated - I write a song about it. 

"It's sort of a way of releasing a lot of my feelings. Also, because if I didn't have music to release the things I go through, and how I feel, if I couldn't talk about it - I'd go crazy."

When can we expect to see Pinnick Gales Pridgen on the road?:

dUg: "There's talk - it'll happen when we can figure out when. People are doing all their own thing, and we've all got so much going on in our lives that it's going to be a difficult coordination, but we'll do it. 

"It's a lot easier on stage now, because I'm more confident. Studios always intimidated me, because you're under a microscope, and I've never been....I'm a very insecure person, especially when it comes to my talent - when you're in a studio, and everybody's looking at you - watching everything you do, and making sure that you're in tune, and in time. Trying to get an emotion out of you that maybe you don't have, or they see something that they want you to get out of you, but you don't feel it.  

"The whole mindset of recording is so much different than playing live. Now days, when I go into the studio, it's like, I'm better at what I do, so I'm not as insecure about it. 

"When I sing - it's like, as soon as I open my mouth everybody either freaks out, or starts crying! So I go....well....I listen back to the take and I'm going, 'Man, I suck,' and they're looking at me like, 'This is the greatest thing in the world!' 

"I just roll my eyes, and go, 'We just do what we do, and we hope people will like it.'"

After recording both a solo record that features Pinnick playing, singing, and engineering nearly everything to going into the studio with a high powered producer like Varney, and a couple of super capable bandmates, I asked dUg which was easier?:

dUg: "It's easier with a bunch of individuals, because when I do everything myself, it takes forever - I engineer it myself, and I don't always know what I'm doing.

"I'll try a vocal track a hundred times, and the first was probably incredible, but there's no one around to tell me to stop! Making a solo record is a nightmare for me. I'm real happy with the results, but it's a lot of work. Working with other people is the easiest thing in the world - if all I've got to deal with is my bass, or just vocals? Hey, that's a piece of cake. You got the engineer, the other guys doing their thing - lately that's been the most fun for me. 

"I've had four projects with bands in the last year, and I've just went in and played bass and sang, and it's just been so much fun to not worry about the guitar parts, or the drums, or to have to tell somebody how I want the groove to be. 

"In these side projects I'm doing, everybody's does their own thing and there's a trust that we all have with each other. Everybody's been around a long, long time - when you've been playing for twenty, or thirty years, if you're accomplished, you don't need somebody coming in and saying, 'Man, I don't like that chorus, why don't you change it?' What I like is, if I go into a chorus, I go, 'OK - what is my bass part going to do for this chorus to make it better, or make it comfortable for me?" I don't go in there for anything other than to make it work. 

"A riff is a riff, a song is a song - there's millions of them out there, and we continually shit out songs left and right. But, the thing is, when you allow everyone to do what they do, and stand back and say, 'OK, this person says this picture is green and yellow - and I have blue in my hand. Well, where you gonna put the blue at to make this a good picture? Or add to the picture - and that's how i look at it now is, let's just build a song.  

"There's no deconstructing a song - whatever you got, we can make it work! It doesn't matter what the riff is, or what the song is - if you can put a great melody on it, put some attitude to it - you got it."

I'm coming across this type of attitude more and more often, as the budgets for recording are smaller, and the demands of labels now non-existent. I suggested to dUg that I am reminded of the way in which old jazz records were made, often in someone's living room with one microphone:

dUg: "Yeah - that's it! I've got two other projects, there's 3rd Ear Experience with Robbi Robb from Tribe After Tribe, that record will be out soon, we're just getting the mixes together. Then I've got a blues band called Grinder's Blues up in Vegas - I drive up there, and we've just finished that record, and it's being mixed."

If you've ever wondered why so many musicians are involved in so many projects, much of it comes down to one thing. While in many ways it is great for the listener, and it is easier for players to cross pollinate amongst themselves musically, it really comes down to making a living, and keeping body and soul together. I asked dUg a question I'm asking all of my interviewees these days - dUg, what effect has illegal downloading and pirating had on you?:

dUg: 'It killed us! It killed me. It - the whole Internet killed all of us. I mean, you know, not just music,  but if you look around, the Internet changed everything. Everybody lost their jobs. You can't even go to the mall anymore, because people can sit at home online and buy stuff. It's across the board. 

"Yeah, I'm starvin' to death. I'm doing everything I can to make a living, I live month to month, and there's just no way out. People just don't buy music like they used to. There's no venues where people can go to know what's going on, there's no MTV, there's no serious radio, and all we've got is a big wall of information sent at us. It's up to the person to decipher, or sift through it to find if there's any genius in it. It just killed us.

However, Pinnick doesn't come across as bitter, or hateful - he gladly admits that the Biebers and that ilk are talented, and simply a commodity for corporations. He sees it as just part of a bigger picture:

dUg: 'Even Jimi Hendrix, when he first came out - he sold a million records, and that was a big deal, because very few artists ever sold a million records back in 1968, or '69.  

"By the '90s, you could sell a million records in a week. I remember Pearl Jam was at number one and sold ten million copies. Pantera hit number one - ten million. Now, we're back to ground zero, and back to where it used to be. A musician struggles, and he's unknown. 

"My hypothesis on this all is that everyone thinks because the '90s, and '80s were so huge, and even the '70s after Peter Frampton put out that live album, corporations saw that millions would buy records, and it became a big boom - like the oil boom in Texas, or the gold rush in California. But, sooner or later it goes away, and it's done. We got slim pickens - everybody's got their pitchforks out, and they're digging!"

Having brought up Jimi Hendrix himself, I felt it fair to ask a question I think I already knew the answer to - I asked dUg what Hendix would have thought of Pinnick Gales Pridgen's new record?:

dUg: "From what I know of the people that have known him, and the people that talk about him, or just know his history - I'm sure he would have loved it! As far as I know, Jimi was just like the rest of us - not sure of himself, and he didn't think he was the greatest. He just had the heart to do what he did. I think when he saw other guitar players, he was intimidated sometimes, just like when they saw him. 

"But then, I don't know - because I remember that story about when he first went to England - Chas Chandler said, 'OK, I'm going to take you to England to play,' and Hendrix said, 'OK, but you gotta get me a gig with Eric Clapton, I want to play with him. Then, when he did, Hendrix got up and blew Clapton out of the room. Jimi knew what he was doing, so sometimes I wonder how much of a big head did he have? Hahahaha!"

I insinuate that perhaps on occasion Eric Gales has a bit of the same gunslinger in his makeup:

dUg: "He knows what he's doing, haha - He's a genius in his own right - that's for sure!"

To wrap things up, I thought I'd ask dUg what he was listening to these days for both pleasure, and inspiration. In letting me know, we may have found him yet another potential side project:

dUg: "Djent music from Meshuggah, Tesseract, Sikth - the Meshuggah-type djent music they call it - it's so heavy and low tuned, it's a completely different vibe and sound - a whole different mindset for thinking up riffs.  

"Plus, I go to the opposite extreme and the last Coldplay record (Mylo Xyloto) that I play a couple of times a week. It makes me smile and makes me happy, which I don't hear in most music. A band hasn't made me excited since early U2, and Coldplay does that for me. I also love Rival Sons because they've brought back the '70s the way I remember them, and they move me. 

"Then there's this guy named Wilson T. King - that dude! I just got turned on to him, and I got both records from iTunes, and I pretty much have played both records every day for the last week. I would love to meet him!"

I mention that I know Wilson T, and that I will certainly pass this information along:

dUg: "Please do - that would be awesome! He is - it's amazing, it's so reminiscent of Band of Gypsys, and Maggot Brain, all that stuff by Funkadelic. That's some of my favorite guitar playing, and I heard those were some of his influences, so when I heard him, I instantly related to it. 

"Cool, I'd love to get to know him - when I write some new solo stuff, I'd like to send him a track to put some leads on. That would be awesome!"

dUg Pinnick is on the move - with the incredible Pinnick Gales Pridgen album tearing up the charts, another record in the works, a solo record out May 7th, tour dates with King's X, and several exciting side projects slated for release, we should have no shortage of dUg for some time to come - let's just hope the business is as good to him as he is to the business.

Thanks to dUg Pinnick, Eric Gales, Thomeas Pridgen, Barbara Lysiak at BLI, and Magna Carta Records.

Pinnick Gales Pridgen: Flying The Freak Flag High For 2013

Talk about an auspicious entree into 2013 - Pinnick Gales Pridgen have thrown down the gauntlet hard - the high-water mark for the new year is set, and set high.

Make no bones about it, this is a supergroup, but there's nothing to fear, for these three musical titans seem to have checked their egos at the door, and simply gotten down to the business of making a great album. There's not a weak link to be found - the songs are thrilling, with incredibly fat grooves, sophisticated changes, some great poetry for lyrics, and an always solid melodic foundation; the playing is stupendous - you have three guys who are absolute state of the art in terms of chops, tones and taste; even the production is exemplary - there's massive amounts of information, but it's all delivered with a crisp clarity. PGP has it all in spades, and I won't be alone in hoping that this lineup takes it onto the road, and back into the studio.

dUg Pinnick is the senior partner of the firm, in terms of length of service to rock and roll, and he's never sounded more passionate, vibrant, and alive. Maybe it's partially a result of being sidelined from his day job with King's X for a lengthy period, but I'm guessing that more likely he's just getting better period. In addition to his legendary career fronting one of America's (and the world's) greatest and longest lived bands and some great solo work, he's also on the A-list of live cameos - acts as great and varied as metal mavens Accept, and blues rock icon Joe Bonamassa have clamored to get his stunning stage presence and incredible voice to grace their shows. In addition to being a great vocalist and a true poet, he's also one of the most powerful and facile bassists in rock - his tone here is as big as a mastodon, and he maneuvers brilliantly between the never ending barrage of brilliance pouring forth from his bandmates, Eric Gales and Thomas Pridgen.

This record is amazing in its ability to stay on track - you've got three virtuosos flying at full speed, and it still ends up sounding more like a band with decades under their belts than a thrown together jam. I keep going back to the high quality of the songs, and you'll do the same. If Cream, or The Jimi Hendrix Experience had formed in this millennium they would face some stiff competition from this lot. Of course, you've got three gunslingers who have been plying their trade for ages, and they bring every hour of their experience to this show, and it shows.

Eric Gales should finally get his due as a true guitar hero - mind you, he's been revered by those in the know since his days as a near solo star in the early nineties. His playing is absolutely incendiary, imaginative, and even innovative. His upside down, left handed approach creates a sound that is as unique as his jazz informed sense of melody and phrasing. The ten and a half minute tour de force, Been So High (The Only Place To Go Is Down), seems to be over too soon, as the six string veteran burns down the house with a Page approved intro that proceeds to take off like a rocket ship to the edge of the solar system - this is plutonium fueled blues rock of an unimaginable octane. He confidently sings alongside Pinnick as easily as he trades licks and riffs. Gales's soloing is a thrill a minute and it will have listeners on the edge of their seats in a way that rarely happens in the age in which everyone has heard everything. You haven't heard this, and it's like finding gold laying everywhere you look.

Then there's the key, the glue that holds this whole magnificent affair together, and it's drummer Thomas Pridgen. I've often written that the right drummer can make an album great, and without a great drummer, no album can be truly great - this has never been more true, as Pridgen drives this hurdling rocket through the sonisphere with power, precision, and expertise. His playing is as fiery and imaginative as his bandmates, while his sense of constant propulsion is magnificent - he pushes and pulls his more experienced brethren with a confidence that borders on the edge of domination, but not at all in a bad way. A lesser sticksman would have been disastrous - this parade needs direction, and Pridgen turns in a performance that is not a bit less than fantastic. One of the most truly exciting drum performances since the days of Moon, Mitchell, Baker, and Bonzo.

As soon as Collateral Damage begins, you know this is not a loose jam, or a quick cash grab, the usual suspects when the word supergroup is bandied about. Everyone has brought their A-game, and all cylinders are firing. Crazy cool guitar parts, gang vocals that suck you right in, and a rhythm section that pulses, careens, and bludgeons beautifully. One thing that concerned me when I heard about this lineup was whether Gales would return to the tuneful, tasty axeslinger he's often shown himself to be in the past, or if he would continue in the more free flowing style that I've witnessed in his live performances for the last several years. While his playing here is nowhere near rote, complacent, or 'dumbed down,' it is very accessible and focused. I'm hearing the older melodic side of his psychedelic rock leanings and dare I say, some of his fills and melodic motions are even Beatles-esque!

Angels and Aliens sounds like Aerosmith from Mars - if only the Boston boys were near this melodic and powerful in this decade. This grooves like mad, and the burly melodicism is awesome. When the pre-chorus kicks in I'm instantly reminded of how powerful Living Colour were when they exploded onto the scene in 1988. There's a very Corey Glover/Vernon Reid moment that takes me back in a beautiful way. Gales's solo is everything you want a solo to be - it's technically impressive, it's emotional content is pure, unbridled passion, and he wraps it up with an ending that returns the ship to earth with a good bit of danger along the way. This is the best interplanetary rock ride since Lynott's Warrior. Things get very Hendrixian when Gales takes the tune out on a phase distorted ride-out that makes my ancient studio monitors shudder orgasmically.

Gales interrupts the rock for an all too brief moment (1:18) to re-work Beethoven's Fur Elise into For Jasmine. I'm guessing its pleasant presence is simply a chance for one to catch one's breath before the band rips into the riff rocker, Hang On, Big Brother, which would have fit nicely into the catalogue of rock that got so rudely interrupted by the death of the Electric Church. Gales and Pinnick are an amazing matchup, as Gales throws in memorable fill after memorable fill, and dUg's barreling bass clears the path for the guitarist's blistering onslaught as Pridgen grounds things with a muscular pummeling of his bass drum and toms. An amazing trail blazer.

Wishing Well is a perfect example of the marriage between Pinnick's bass and Gales's never obvious chord voicings. This is a musical matrimony made in the heavens, and not to be ignored, Pridgen's drum work intertwines with Gales's wah pedal in a near miraculous fashion. This is the closest Pinnick comes to King's X in voice and composition, but it still manages to sound nothing besides fresh and new.

Pinnick puts his brilliant street poetry on display to full effect with Hate Crime - his shamanistic presence has always posited him favorably amongst the most literary and spiritually progressed rockers as he spills out his passionate message. This lays it out as powerfully as it can be laid out:

"Tell me who would choose to be, a hate crime candidate?

No way, not one, no.

Tell me who would choose to live a lifetime with hate?

Maybe somebody, somebody somewhere, but not me, no, no, no."

If this is any indication of what we can expect from 2013, we're in for a barnburner. This is incredibly vital, brilliant, and beautiful music.

Lascivious is a tune that almost defies description - it's a bluesy metallic mashup of the history of rock that has come from the future to speak to the masses. Almost Celtic in its passion, one wonders if this trio is actually earthbound, or if they are from a mystery school in the stars. All three members shine like elemental stars, and the Universe brightens and smiles. If you don't dig this, you probably never, ever loved anything about rock.

Black Jeans is another example of the massive mastery of form on display here. Cinematic and brooding, Pridgen's military snare work keeps this blues dirge at attention, and his dazzling work on the chorus sections is awe inspiring. As Gales solos, dUg's bass is as big as an ox, and then the fireworks go full tilt and it's off to the races. This outfit will conquer the world when they tour - they must tour, at least some shows, this is too good to not be put on public display.

It takes some balls to cover Cream, even more to cover Sunshine of Your Love, and I congratulate these fellows for being more than up for the task. It's detuned and Pridgen all but thumbs his nose at Mr. Baker with his take no prisoners display of trap-tastic kit work. Covers of this tune fail because of the drums - wait until you hear what happens when Gales goes into the guitar solo - all bets are off. Up to the task? Hahaha, they murder it, wonderfully.

So - what do they do to follow that? They up the ante and take on the British blues even further with the astonishing ten and a half minute Been So High (The Only Place To Go Is Down). If Page and Beck had seen where their Yardbirds would roost, they surely would have smiled. This is everything good about blues rock - it doesn't apologize for it's musicality, or hide behind outdated and out-moded structures - it sticks to the playbook, but as it does the band shows you how many tricks can be shown to an old dog.

Me and You brings the album back to modern rock, and it's a melodic, rocking tune that nods its hat to power pop, and Pinnick's earlier work with the much vaunted King's X. This almost sounds quaint when measured next to some of the record's more adventurous moments, but when Gales kicks in the extra gain and wah for his extended solo, it's right back to putting on the seat belts - the whole thing gets wickedly melodic at the end of the solo, and for the rest of the tune, and the level of sophisticated composition on the menu is refreshed once again.

Gales puts on his bop hat to ring us into The Greatest Love - another new genre is invented before our eyes, and we dance, we hum, we get surprised and grin. This is some joyful jazz, indeed. Probably the most sophisticated piece of jazz rock since Spectrum Road brought back hard fusion from the dead last summer. This is another example of why this band must play live. Lord only knows where this could lead.

Frightening - this band is so good it is almost frightening. Not just the finale, Frightening is a harrowing tale that is starkly beautiful - another example of the perfect matching of Gales's streets and dUg's otherworldliness. I have to just love an album that is as strong (if not stronger) by it's final track. Gales put a lot of effort into his overdubbing of lines, solos, and phrases, and I'm glad that he took the time, and finished the painting. It's going to be hell to pay for guitarists for the rest of 2013, but Eric Gales has, as I said earlier, set the bar awfully high. Pinnick - well, he's been great for so long, I almost take it for granted, but I am not sure that this isn't his greatest yet work.

Pinnick Gales Pridgen is an absolutely fabulous record. I hope I hear a bunch of records this brilliant before this new year is over, but if I do, I'll be pretty shocked. This band has nailed it. The record won't be released until February 12th, but having heard it, I can't sit on the information - the word must be spread. You deserve....no, you need to hear rock this brilliant. A beautiful and stunning debut.

dUg Pinnick, Eric Gales, and Thomas Pridgen - I salute and thank you, gentlemen. You have made my world a better place.

You can hear great samples and read more here:

http://magnacarta.net/pinnickgalespridgen/index.html