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The VOX Interview

>>Dave Benedict rockin it live in Los Angeles.>>

VOX: How does it feel to be full-on rock stars?
Dave Benedict: I feel so privileged to be able to just play and not have a 9-to-5 and try and do music at the same time, to try to do both.  To just be able to concentrate on music is amazing.
VOX: What was the last 9-to-5 you had?
Dave: Uh…I worked at a Ford dealership, with Jeremy actually.  That’s how I met Jeremy – we were parts drivers.
VOX: Really?
Dave: It wasn’t too bad of a job.  You got to drive around town all day from place to place, get paid for it and listen to music, so…

VOX: How has life changed in the last year?
Dave: Well… I haven’t seen my home. [Laughs]  Um, I’ve now been able to buy myself a condo, which I never, ever, thought I would be able to do…

VOX: So you’ve invested a little?
Dave: Oh, yeah, definitely.  I want to be smart with the money I make because who knows how long it’s going to last, right?  It could last 15years, it could last 15 minutes, you know.  You gotta be smart with it, cause I don’t wanna go back to driving a parts van again.

VOX: What's been the best part of it all?
Dave: The best part…has probably been doing it for a living, traveling on the road with your friends, and playing music every night.  That’s the best part, definitely, and hearing the roar of the crowd, you know, right before you go on.
VOX: It must be especially satisfying watching everyone sing along and know the words.
Dave: Yeah, it’s really cool…the coolest thing in the world to see someone singing along to the words you wrote in your basement.  It’s overwhelming to think that you’ve somehow connected to all these people.

VOX: Lately Canada has produced some big names (Nickelback, OLP is getting more press in the US)…
Dave: Sum 41.
VOX: Them, too.  Fellow Ontario boys.  What's going on up there?   Is it the water?
Dave: You know, I think that’s it just that we’ve a couple of really great Canadian bands get discovered over here, and it’s been like with the Seattle scene or the LA scene, when something really good comes out of the place, everyone rushes in there to check it out and see where this great music is coming from, when in fact, we’ve had great bands all along coming out of Canada.  We’re finally getting some recognition for our talent.

VOX: So what will it take for a band like The Tea Party to break over here?  They’re so huge there.
Dave: And they don’t get the recognition.  I don’t know.  I’m sure if they knew the formula, they’d already have done it.  If we knew, we would have done it a long time ago.  I don’t understand it, because The Tea Party…they’re such an amazing band.  Same with Big Sugar…but they get no recognition.

VOX: Let's talk about the music - tell me about "Wasting My Time".
Dave: Umm, well, I remember when we wrote the song - Jeremy came in with this riff, and Danny and I started playing along with him, and we just started hashing out ideas.   But I knew, right then when I heard that riff, that this was going to be a great song.  I could just feel it.

VOX: How about "Deny."
Dave: I wasn’t around when “Deny” was written – I wasn’t in the band yet.  I came into the band about a year after it got started.  A lot of the songs were written before I got in the band.
VOX: How about the acoustic version that’s available on the website?
Dave: That was done…we did that in Brian Adams’ studio in Vancouver.  I was in the band at the time and recorded the acoustic version.  We went in and recorded four songs with Chad (Kroger, of Nickelback), two were acoustic and two were new songs.   We ended up using them on B-sides.  I do have a funny story if you want to hear it…
VOX: Yeah!  Of course!
Dave: When we were at Brian Adams’ studio, we were one of the only bands that were almost banned from his studio.  We went out with Chad one night, and we got…we got into the party mode, and we had, oh, a few drinks.  Then we came back to the studio and whooped it up a bit and ended up having a food fight – there were bananas stuck in the ceiling and a couple things got broken.  When we came in the next day we were told we needed to pay $500 or we wouldn’t be able to continue the recording process.

VOX: The video is pretty amazing - tell me how working with Laila Ali came about.
Dave: Well, the concept was…
VOX: You guys getting your asses kicked?
Dave: [laughs] Yeah!  The concept was put together by our label’s owner, [TVT owner] Steve [Gottlieb] and the director, Noble Jones, came up with it.  They got Laila because of a connection Steve has with her. We actually never got to meet her.   We did our parts one day, and then we had to fly out on tour.  She came in the next day and did her part.  Somehow they put it all together.  It’s all just the magic of Hollywood.