Part 2 of HEAVY Mag's interview with FASTER PUSSYCAT frontman TAIME DOWNE

This is Part 1 of HEAVY Mag's interview with Taime Downe from Faster Pussycat.

On the back of the release of a brilliant EP late last year Affinity Minus Perfection are about to go on tour.

Once has a relationship has fractured to the point of separation there is little need to retread old ground. The old adage of if it didn't work the first time it never well has been proven in both life and music but there are exceptions to the rule.

Sometimes that unique but departed person merely needs to re-energize and gain back the drive and hunger that saw the relationship thrive and prosper when it mattered. Sometimes that separation is needed, although not popular at the time, but in the rare instances where both parties are prepared to focus on the future instead of dwell on the past the strengths of the individual become the strengths of the collective.


When Frankenbok parted ways with vocalist Dan McDougall in 2015 diehard fans were devastated. McDougall was widely acknowledged as the band's premiere vocalist out of the handful that had fronted the band, with his intensity and menace only matched by his aggressive nature. He led the band by example, with no quarter given but plenty taken.

Unfortunately, with personalities such as this the highs are matched blow for blow with the lows and after a period of unrest and instability McDougall left the band and was replaced by Dan White. Although White was a more than adequate replacement whispers continued to fester that McDougall's exit had detracted from the aura that surrounded Frankenbok with some openly campaigning for his return.


When White left the band towards the end of last year and the band put out a statement saying that a replacement was being considered in-house only the most optimistic dared to believe that a return from McDougall was possible. As more time passed before the bands next gig in late January the whispers gained traction until today's announcement that McDougall would, in fact, take his spot front of stage. Hopefully gone would be the friction that caused the break-up and in its place a renewed sense of unity that would see Frankenbok return to full force.


"It feels fantastic, absolutely fantastic", grinned McDougall when pressed how it felt to finally be able to speak publically about his return. "We had another rehearsal last night and the band is on fire! We've got a thirty minute set at Blaze and we were trying to squeeze in too much so we ramped it up by a couple of BPM's on the last run through and it was way too fast (laughs). Right now I have to say that I'm very happy to be back in the band but in a way, I never really left. I just kind of changed positions. My other band Never and Frankenbok both rehearse out of the same place here and I continued to do stuff for the band behind the scenes. I made film clips for them and recorded the last album so I went from being the vocalist to behind the scenes so it hasn't been much of a stretch really. I live at the rehearsal studio so every practice for the last year and a half I have been present at".


When White and Frankenbok parted ways in December that close proximity worked in McDougall's favor.


"Prior to Frankenbok touring Japan in November, I had been thinking about vocals a little bit. It was the first time in a few years that I had seriously considered singing again and prior to the boys leaving I did a recording of them running through the set in the rehearsal room minus Dan who had left early that night. After they left I had a bit of a play with it singing over the top of the music and it felt good. I already knew most of the songs so I cranked them through the PA and belted them out. When the band got back Azza (guitarist and founding member) had a chat and he explained the situation to me and said that while the tour was unbelievable things weren't so great on a personal level. I got the impression Dan wasn't fitting in with the rest of the guys and it became apparent that they would be in need of a new vocalist pretty soon. I told Azza what I had been playing around...

Beast In Black are back with their brand new album and HEAVY Mag sat down with a chat to see what fans can expect.

Subtract-S are the latest signing to Rue Morgue Records and HEAVY Mag sat down to have a chat with them.

Grant Burns is about to embark on a solo career and HEAVY Mag sat down and chatted with him before the release of Chaos In Design

A new album and a tour to Australia that nobody thought would happen - yep it was time for HEAVY Mag to catch up with Avantasia main man Tobias Sammet.

Dan Brittain talks about his busy last few months with Rue Morgue Records and what his fans can expect next.

"It was only Morgan (Rose, drums) and John (Connoly, guitar)... there wasn't a band yet", recalled Sevendust vocalist Lajon Witherspoon of his first introduction to what were to become his bandmates for the next 25 years. "They came to a bar I was working at - and this is a true story - and it was Morgan, John and Vinnie (Vince Hornsby, bass) and John had never played guitar, he was a drummer, he never even had a guitar strap! (laughs) They said man, we really love what you do and I used to always go and see those guys jam - except for John, he was in Piece Dogs and played drums for them. They were signed to Energy Records so I was already impressed with him, he was a signed artist already, but he never played guitar so that was a little bit weird (laughs). It was great and Vinnie and Morgan were in the band Snake Nation and they almost got signed by RCA records but the A & R guys signed Dave Matthews instead - which I think was a great move for him (laughs). So these guys showed up in a spot I was working at and I was playing on a Monday night in a little band I had and they said they'd really like to get together and to come down to the rehearsal place but it wasn't a band. It was just us jamming and that's what started it. That's what started the seed of Sevendust right there, in that room and we wrote 'Black' and we wrote a song called 'Crazy' and we were so excited about this little band that we had that we went out to a local bar and we just jammed and everyone showed up because they knew us from previous bands and we only played those two songs and they asked us to get up there again so we played the same two again (laughs). We rocked it, man, so it was like, we have to put a band together and that's what we did; that's where it started".
Rising from the Atlanta music scene in 1994, Sevendust garnered their reputation the old fashioned way through relentless touring and taking their music to the masses. So much so that Witherspoon jokes that fans in their hometown weren't sure whether or not the band had fulfilled their dream or merely faded into the shadows of many others that had followed the same path.
"We were just on the scene in Atlanta", he laughed. "That was the only place we ever played and then we got a record deal and I remember leaving from the Midtown Music Festival and we never went back to Atlanta for a year or two because we were on the road. It was like we got thrown from our home scene to the world. It was like wow, we've left Atlanta and never went back. I don't think they ever realised what we were doing out there on the road because we'd been gone so long (laughs). We'd really been working and paying dues - and we still are - but we went out there in a van and toured the world and went from a van to several vans to several R.V's! One time I remember the bus pulling up and we all said wow, all our rock and roll dreams have come true but in reality, the nightmare had just begun. We didn't know that yet but (laughs). It's been an incredible journey. We started in Atlanta with bands like Sunk Mojo, and The Black Crowes were coming out of there but we weren't really that big yet. We were growing. We knew that we had a good thing going on and once we hit the road it kind of hit man and we just never stopped"!
Sevendust released their self-titled debut in 1997 and while it is widely respected now hardly set the music world on fire then, selling poorly in its first week. Rather than let that dampen the young band's spirits, Witherspoon says that the members were largely oblivious to the fact it had failed to ignite.
"No way, no way"! he reiterated when pressed if it was an issue. "Not for me. I was 21 years old, I had a record deal, we didn't care about the numbers. I don't even... not even today. It's still just an honour to be relevant in the music business when it's so crazy and you can be here one minute and then you're gone so for me it's that same feeling of I'm still here, you...