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Your brother Eric is well known,
but aside of him were you raised
in a musical family ?
Yes. My brother Eric (who was
lead guitarist for Ray Condo
& his Hardrock Goners, as
well as the Crazy Rhythm Daddies)
is three years older than me, and
taught me guitar when I was about
15. But our father, Sture, was
very musical. He had a big
collection of jazz 78s that he
brought from Stockholm when my
parents moved to Canada in 1952.
We grew up listening to Louis
Jordan, the Delta Rhythm Boys,
Nat King Cole trio, Fats Waller,
Les Paul, Nellie Lutcher, Duke
Ellington, Django Rheinhardt, and
so on. Also my father played in a
jazz group, the “Jay Sands
Trio”, in the late 40’s,
touring around Sweden. He played
rhythm guitar.
How did you become
interested in music?
I was always interested in music
singing as a small kid. When I
was about 4, my parents worked in
a summer camp, and I went around
all day singing Popeye the Sailor
man, so they put me on stage in a
camp variety show. I remember it
still, it was very scary, with
the lights and the back stage and
the audience, but I think the
experience hooked me on
performing.
You play guitar, drums
and even harmonica, what was your
first instrument? And how did you
start playing the others?
Guitar was my first instrument, I
got one when I was 12, but
sibling rivalry set in, and my
brother kept taking it away from
me to show me how to play; he got
very good as a consequence. I
liked harmonica, and got one, but
I learned how to do blues sounds
from a book in a music store that
explained how to bend notes. I
couldn’t afford to buy it,
so I would just stand and read it
in the store. I formed a high
school rock and roll band when I
was 16, and I would try to fool
around on drums. Later when I was
about 20, my brother and I were
forming a band, and we didn’t
like the syle of our drummer, so
one day we arranged to jam
without him, and we took turns on
the drums.
We (at least me)
discovered you with The Hardrock
Goners, but were you in bands
before? I’ve heard about a
band called the Paradots.
That was the band my brother and
I formed in 1980. As Gerard from
the band “Deja Voodoo”
remarked we were a strange mix of
50’s rock and roll (we did
songs by Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee
Lewis, for example) and original
new wave type songs (influenced
by bands like the Stranglers, the
Specials, James Black and the
Contortions, for example). I
actually played saxophone for a
couple of years, but ended up
just singing, and my brother
played drums! We played from 1980-84,
only in Montreal, mostly art
school parties and some early
punk clubs.
How did you meet Ray
Condo?
I saw him play at one of his
first shows as Ray Condo, in 1984.
He didn’t have a drummer,
and I thought maybe he needed one.
A short while later I invited the
band onto a radio show I did, and
recorded them live in the studio.
Then Ray invited me to play drums
with them on New Year’s Eve,
1984, and I stayed with the
Hardrock Goners until 1994. He
was a painter, Clive Jackson made
the painting on the cover of
“Come on”and you draw,
The Hardrock Goners were really
an “art band” didn’t
they?
Yes, everyone in the band was an
artist as well, the violin
player, Edgar, was an animator,
and did the animation video,
“Barroom Crazy” (based
on the Pee Wee King song “Ballroom
Baby”); Eric drew and made
films, I did comic strips and
films (we made all the Ray Condo
music-videos), Ray did paintings,
Clive painted,and Chris Dean, the
original member and banjo player
also did artworks.
In
term of recording and/or touring
what was the highlight of your
period in the Hardrock Goners?
Recording was always fun, and for
sure playing Hemsby was a
highlight, in fact I would say
that playing Hemsby the first
time, in 1992, helped revive Ray,
and inspired him to continue
playing music. He was very
disillusioned with the music
business, and the scene at Hemsby
was so alive, and the people
actually knew the songs we were
playing. Still, I have to say
that all the tours were crazy,
and we had a constant party with
Ray!
“Come On” by
Ray Condo contained seeds of the
Crazy Rhythm Daddies as you and
Eric, your brother, sang more and
more...
For sure. We had already started
the Daddies in 1988, as Ray would
leave Montreal to go to Vancouver
for a couple of months. When he
came back, we would go on tour
and open with a set as the Crazy
Rhythm Rhythm Daddies, then bring
Ray on and do a set as Ray Condo
and his Hardrock Goners. The
Daddies were essentially the
Hardrock Goners without Ray,
until 1994, when Clive Jackson
moved to Vancouver to start the
Ricochets with Ray, then the
Daddies got a new bass player (John
Davis from the Gruesomes) and a
drummer, Robert Kraft.
You and your brother
formed The Crazy Rhythm Daddies,
I think Chris Dean, ex- Goner,
was involved in that project in
the beginning…
At first the Daddies had no drums
and I played rhythm guitar. Chris
Dean was on banjo, and he sang
many songs. My brother Eric and I
loved the 40’s “jive”
vocal acts, like Slim and Slam,
Cats and the Fiddle, and we
brought that element, so it was a
mix of stuff.
You
started the “Daddies”
during your Goners days. Do you
think their early jazz/western
swing sound had an influence on
the Ricochets?
Oh yeah. Chris and Clive loved
western swing and Bob Wills’
music was a big influence on the
Daddies. Ray would be in the
audience for many of our shows,
as I said, we often did the
opening act. Also Ray loved
Billie Holiday and wanted to
swing more, so western swing was
the natural fit for him.
I
believe at the beginning you also
had, in addition of the banjo, a
fiddle. Did you record with that
line-up?
Yes in 1989, I think, before
Edgar, who was the violin player
in both the Hardrock Goners and
the Daddies, moved to Vancouver.
You recorded some
cassettes with the Crazy Rhythm
Daddies, any chance to see them
released on a rarities cd?
We recorded two cassettes. The
first cassette is called “Flat
Foot Floogie”, and the
second “Swingcats’ Ball”,
after the Louis Jordan song.
Maybe we should put them out on
CD?? Good idea?!
“Satan takes a
holiday” is, in my humble
opinion, one of the best song on
the first Crazy Rhythm Daddies cd.
I guess there’s a story
behind the lyrics?
I heard an instrumental version
by Eddie Lang, but never heard a
vocal version. Then a piano
player friend of mine, Greg Shea,
gave me a fake book with a 1000
standards, and there were the
lyrics! But I didn’t really
know how it should be sung, so I
sort of made it up.
The first record was more
western swing-country flavoured
and the second was more jazzy…
The second CD was done over two
years in sporadic sessions, 1999-2001,
at a time when we had alot of
jive dancers coming to our shows,
people from Sophia Wolff’s
Jiving school, and so we played
more jive tempo songs.
What about the band to
this day, do you still play
together? I think you recently
moved…
I just moved to British Columbia
on the west coast in June, 2005,
so the Daddies last show was in
March. But we will play together
again. I will be back in Montreal
for the Red, Hot & Blue
Weekender in October, where we
will do a tribute show of Ray
Condo & His Hardrock Goners
songs.
Is this the reason you
stopped drumming for the Howlin
Hound Dogs?
Yes. The last show I did with the
Hound Dogs was in April. I played
drums with them from 2000-2005.
What can you tell us about them?
The Howling Hound Dogs started
out in 1994 as Jim Dandy and his
Howlin’ Hound Dogs. Then Jim
Dandy left. Noel Thibault was the
lead guitarist and he took over
as the lead singer, and still is
the front man for the band. They
have a very authentic approach to
rockabilly, inspired by artists
like Charlie Feathers, Bob Luman,
and Johnny Cash. They have a new
CD out, recorded last December
while I was still with the band,
and Jim Dandy had returned and
played lead guitar for that album!
Your main musical act
today is Slim Sandy. A project
you defined as “Hasil Adkins
meets Joe Hill Louis”. How
did you come up with the idea of
a one-man band?
I always wanted to play harmonica
and guitar together, especially
inspired by Slim Harpo, I got a
record of his in 1979..., but
when I saw Hasil Adkins in about
1986, I was blown away! He had an
acoustic guitar, played bass drum
and a high hat cymbal, that’s
all, and it was a wild rockin
show?! So after years of
practicing guitar and harmonica
together... and seeing the Bo
Weevil band from France at the
Rhythm Riot inspired me about how
to mic the harp, anyway.
I finally tried doing the drums
too. At first it was hard to
synchronize, but eventually I got
it.
Do
you have other “one-man band”
influences?
Dr. Ross, Joe Hill Louis,
Harmonica Frank... I actually
recorded “Rockin Chair Daddy”
for the Ray Condo “Come On”
CD, with Clive on bass, and my
brother on drums. Ray told me he
really liked that version. Also
Bloodshot Bill is a friend of
mine.
Can
you describe your set?
I do some original songs, like
“Don’t Need Nothin”
and “Roadster Rumble”
which you can hear on mywebsite, www.slimsandy.com, and
covers like “No More Nothin”,
by Zeb Turner, or “Texas
Boogie” by Gene O’Quin,
“Mean Ol’ Train”
by Papa Lightfoot, “Rockin
Bones”, by Elroy Dietzel,
“Cadillac Model A” by
Bob Wills, “Ain’t Got a
Thing” by Sonny Burgess, a
whole mess of stuff!
I was wondering : do you
record live or do you use
multitracking?
It is all live to tape!! And I
will have the engineer swear in
court! Haha! Actually for years
we recorded, doing over dubs,
because that’s the way
studios worked, especially in the
80s’. But I have tried for
several years to record live in
the studio. Some of the Daddies’
cuts on both CDs were done live
in the studio, but as Slim Sandy
it is all live! That’s the
only way I want to record now.
Any plans to do a Slim
Sandy album soon?
Yep, I have over 100 songs in my
repertoire, it’s time I get
more of them recorded.
Recently you’ve also
been working on a DVD about Ray
Condo. Can you tell us more about
that?
We made 9 music videos with Ray
from 1989 to 1994, and shot a lot
of super-8 mm and 16 mm film, in
black and white and colour. So
recently I had all that footage
transferred to video, and I
edited it down to one hour so far.
Then I did three interviews, and
the next time I go to Vancouver I
will interview the other original
members of the Hardrock Goners,
and some old close friends of Ray.
I have no money to make it, but
that never stopped us from making
videos before, or albums or
touring!! Then I’ll edit it
and burn the film to DVD. I work
for a video production company so
I have access to the tools.
Can you tell us a word
about your comic strips thing?
I did a comis strip for 4 years
called “SLUM DOG” about
a hobo dog, living in the slums
of the city. Recently I have
started up drawing again with a
new strip called “ROACH TOWN”
set in the bug world. It will be
published on www.roachtown.com
What are your projects?
I am doing a CD: “Best of
Ray Condo & His Hardrock
Goners”, and I plan to do a
“Slim Sandy” CD and a
45.
You
issued a 45rpm by Ray Condo, will
there be more in that serie?
There are recordngs of Ray’s
last band, but I am not sure what
they will do with them. I have
more Ray Condo master tapes, so I
could put out another 45, but I
need a distributor!
A last word?
Keep boppin!
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