NEVER NEVER
By Willy van Buel

NEVER NEVER is a really sensational AOR/Pomprockband from The States. I did a review of their debut CD 'Monologue' sometime ago, you can read it by clicking here. Willy van Buel did an interview with the band and let's see what they have to say...

Could you please tell us all about the history of the band and something on the music careers of the members in the past. How did it all started, how did you guys meet?

Jeff answer: First off, thanks for having an interview with us. The Never Never line up as of now is: Chris Monk - Bass, Drum programming, Acoustic guitar and lead vocals. Joe Melton - Ld. Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, and lead vocals. Jeff Fountain - Keyboards, Guitar, Bass Guitar, and background vocals. Barry Simonds – Drums

We began in 97 with just Chris and myself. We had just finished playing in a local bar band doing country rock and such. We were tired of doing that sort of material, and longed to do our own stuff. We started experimenting with computer recording at this time. We made great strides during the summer of 97, and by fall and winter we had started recording the first tracks of our CD "Monologue". We continued until spring of 98, when Joe joined us in April of that year. This added the right elements we needed to fuel us to finish the CD. We wrote and recorded until December of 98. Starting in January of 99 we just did a few tracks and mixed and mastered until April of 99. We finished "Monologue" then and knew we had something special at that time and started trying to get it out to the masses.

I had tried many projects until I met Chris, many bar bands, and Christian recording projects. I had met Chris in a band called Sabre, a Christian rock project, for a short time. We did not meet with intentions of collaboration until much later. Joe has a much more elaborate past than us, right out of high school into a rock band for Six Flags Over Georga, an amusement park in Atlanta, GA. Landed a gig with a southern gospel star for a couple of years. He got to play some big arenas and such at this time. He scooted into the bar band scene after that with the guys from the Six Flags gig. Then he rotted a few years away playing in hotel lounges, (gag), and then gave up music for life. A year later he was making a CD with us. He realized that the problem was not music, but not getting the satisfaction out of truly creating something, not just copying others music in bar bands.


What do you and the others do besides making music?

Jeff: I am heavily into computers, gaming and Internet stuff. I read and study physics, languages, and history. For my real money I work for the US Postal Service selling stamps.

Chris: I am into camping, and hiking. Do a bunch of late night Starcraft games on the computer. I work for Diamond Presses building presses for print shops.

Joe: I am a stay at home type. Not to mention I build homes, repair homes, live at home. I do a lot of homework. I also play games on the computer.

Which bands influenced the band and why and do you think there’s still hope for this kind of music?

Jeff: Kansas definitely. Journey and Styx to a lesser degree, and anything with a decent hookline. I used the Beatles to influence the background vocals. Lots of aaahhs.

We definitely hope there is a future for this type of music. I personally believe that music is music. If it is good people will like it, no matter whether it is rap or rock. There are different approaches to music, art vs. fun for example. Like Al DiMeola vs. Weird Al Yankovic. They intend two different ends to their music.

How are the reactions on the CD so far?

Joe: If everyone is being honest with us we have done a very good job. I enjoy negative criticism in its own way as a honing tool. We have gotten a lot of very good response so far. People in many countries have purchased a copy and raved about it, as well as people here in our local area. The most encouraging thing to me is that everyone seems to have a different favorite song. Sometimes it surprises us to hear what people like. "End of the Day" seems to be a real favorite, but surprisingly it is the only one we haven’t played since the recording. I guess that will have to change.

Is there contact with labels about releasing your music officially? I mean, over here in Europe there’re some labels releasing this kindoff music and I’m pretty sure some of them would be interested in hearing, and hopefully releasing your music.

Jeff: At this point, in a nutshell, No. I feel we are still really just starting out and the glorious day of label contact is just around the corner. We are really ready to get going with some kind of backing, be it European or American. We want to go full time with this group and record all the time. However reality dictates that we will not be quitting our jobs this month. So if anyone is listening we are definitely for hire, now, really, right #$@&*(#! Now!

Are there more bands you know in your area playing your kind music, how’s the scene over there in the US nowadays? Do you think the golden years will ever return for AOR - POMP music?

Chris: Right now, no. We know of no one playing to the level we are. Most bands here now are into Godsmack and Limp Bizkit. They are definitely into a different genre than we are. That kind of scared us at first, but now we are glad seeing all the good feedback. This goes back to just playing what you feel. As far as the golden years returning, people like what they like. Music is a dynamic thing that has a tendency to return to what is good. If you are playing what you feel and put all your emotion into it, then you are going get someone to relate to it, and hopefully pluck the strings that make them never forget that song. This applies to whatever style of music you play. Just listen to Bluegrass music, it has quite a following even though a lot of people never give it the time of day. There is always a niche for every style at any given time.

What are the plans and hopes with this CD?

Jeff: Pretty simple, sell as many as possible. We are hoping for some kind of label to pick it up and distribute it the correct way. We are far better musicians than marketers. We really think that with the right combination of factors it could be really big. We hope to see this work get into as many hands as possible. It is just one of those things that would sell itself.

On the MP3.COM site, the band is described as " A four piece group that records into little computers ". Can you please tell us more about that?

Jeff: Well, the meaning of this is that the entire CD was recorded through a Sound Blaster sound card onto the hard drive of a single computer. No ADATS, no DATS, no 4 tracks, Studers or anything. Just a hard drive. All mixing was done in the same computer, all effects, all guitars, vocals, all instruments were recorded in this way.

On the inlay of the CD, there’re only 3 members mentioned. What happened with the fourth, Barry Simonds? Are you looking for a replacement?

Joe: Barry joined us just recently. He is filling the shoes of the drum machine. He was not a part of the recording process of "Monologue". He will be featured on the next CD though. He was the last link we needed to perform this stuff live, and we are putting this show together now.

Has the band name a particular meaning? How did you come up with it?

Joe: "Never Never" was a name we just came up with at a recording session at Jeff’s. Maybe it was late, we were tired and thought we would never never finish the CD. I have the credit of coming up with the name, but it was actually just a working title for the band. Now that there are CDs out there with that name, I guess that be us. What’s in a name anyway? IE: The Eagles. go figure.

What’s the meaning behind the CD title " MONOLOGUE "?

Jeff: Monologue is meant as an opening piece, like David Letterman does at the beginning of the show. This is just our beginning.

How bout live performances? I think your sound is, sometimes, pretty bombastic and is it easy to create this sound live, especially now you’re a 3 member band? Do you often play live and how are the reactions?

Chris: We are in the process of putting our show together. We did just do a show on April 15th for kicks, just the original 3 of us. With drum machines, and sequencers. It went over really well. At least they asked us back if that’s any indicator. As far as reproducing the sound on the CD, we were concerned with this also. We are able to do it pretty well, as long as everyone does double duty, IE. Sing and play, Play guitar and keys at the same time, Switch instruments every song, and so forth. It is actually a lot of fun once you learn to be ambidextrous on every thing you do.

What are the bands favorite tracks? I think they’re all great, but if I may choose, I like the 3 final tracks the most (End of the day, You and the awesome killer track the Closing).

Joe: The Closing, definitely. Through the Lens, and Broken Threads for sure. Over the Edge, too. Pretty much everything has something to look forward to, it’s like picking your favorite child. Can’t be done.

Can you please tell us something more about the tracks and the lyrics. Has a song like, for example Power in your Hand, some kind of spiritual meaning?

Jeff: Yes, kind of, Power in your Hand is about a guy who had everything he could ever want without really doing anything wrong, but he got greedy and ended up losing every bit of it. Kind of a moral message type of song. Chris’s lyrics are like a painter with a palette, he deals in images more than straight forward thoughts. In Through the Lens the lens is that brighter future you’re looking for, through it you see the things you are hoping will happen.

Joe: I Believe is spiritual for sure. It is a song about reading all the evidence out there and coming to the conclusion there is a God.

Chris: Time is the Healer is a pretty way to say time heals all wounds. The Closing deals with the fear of death. It can be looked at very negatively at times. No matter what you believe, death is always very scary.

Who’s responsible for the songwriting? How do you work creating a song?

Jeff: We all collaborated on every song. No one song is completely one person’s entity. Pretty much, one person will start off with either an old song idea, or a new riff and we build from there. Chris handles much of the lyric work, and Joe polishes what Chris writes. Kind of brings him back down from the heavens. Chris did the drums, I would lay down a dirty track for reference and then he would clean them up or completely compose a new drum line. For the music part of it, Joe writes most of the guitar lines, and I will sprinkle in some of my limited ideas here and there. I pretty much write most of my material on keys, then transfer it to guitar. Joe builds around that. A lot of great stuff was figured out while recording. A little keyboard note by accident sometimes turns the whole song around. Chris or Joe did all vocal lines, they are responsible for most of the melodies.

The only different one is Over the Edge, I got really involved in the melody line of the voices in that one right down to saying sing this note here and hold there. Still, they pretty much had the melody in place and I just made them put in what I heard here and there. All background lines were just a bash it out sort of affair. We would just sit and sing and sing until something fell into place.

How and where did you record and who produced the music?

Jeff: We recorded most of the material at my house, in the basement. I produced most of it there. Joe did some work at his house, then transferred into the mix. We took each track one at a time and it was definitely done in pieces here and there, over time. No live band type playing, just single tracks. But the music does lend itself to being played live quite nicely. We have a myriad of programs, and effect plug-ins we use. A lot of experimenting to find the best sounds and effects was done here.

Are there also songs that didn’t make the CD and what about new songs? Will the style be continued?

Joe: Yes, it was hard to choose 12 songs out of the lifetime of work we have accumulated so far. The nice thing is you can take a song you wrote 10 years ago and change it around to fit what you are doing now.

We are currently getting ready to start recording again, we have a few ideas at this time. We are leaning toward some fresh ideas for this next project, rather than building on old ideas and songs. We want to write completely new material just for this new project. We have a lot more toys to play with this time around, so no telling what the sound will come out like. We will pursue this next project with the same objectivity as "Monologue", so I am sure there will be a recognizable sound to it all. It is hard to change what you sound like, or how you write music.

What’s your opinion about sites like MP3.COM? I mean, without them, we weren’t talking right now.... Why did you decide to promote your music on this site?

Jeff: We are totally behind sites like this. We feel that this is a good way to get your music out. It provides an outlet for the folks that don’t luck up and get the big "break". We decided to try it because there was no easy way to get out of the basement. We were just 3 guys with a computer, but lots of great music to share. We feel that the record industry just tells people what to like rather than let someone make that choice on their own. With MP3.com you can listen to what really strikes your fancy at the moment, rather than having a limited selection at a record store.

What are the bands near future plans?

Joe: Put the show together, get out and spread the sound around. Record as much a humanly possible, after all this is what we love to do. We are renting a beach house in June to get away, and do a lot of writing. Kind of reset the batteries while we work.

Some last words for our readers....

Chris, Jeff, and Joe: We wish to thank everyone involved with us so far. Nicky (for being the first), Gabor (for the great review), yourself (Willy, for the extra beer money), and many more people in Europe that were and are so kind in words and efforts. Some of the greatest times in our life were spent listening to music, it is great to think that someone else is doing the same with our music. Many thanks again. And keep the music alive.

An off the record question, what are your and the others their 5 favorite albums of all time ?

Joe: 1) Hotel California-Eagles 2) Main Course-Bee Gees 3) The Wall-Pink Floyd 4) The Grand Illusion-Styx 5)
Audiovisions-Kansas

Jeff: 1) Passion and Warfare-Steve Vai 2) Intuition-TNT 3) The Wall-Pink Floyd 4) Images and Words-Dream Theater 5) Any Album by Yngwie

Chris: 1) Leftoverture-Kansas 2) Children of the World-Bee Gees 3) Live in Australia-Elton John 4) Misguided Roses-Edwin McCain 5) Repeat Offender-Richard Marx

THE END (for now.....)

BACK TO INTERVIEWSINDEX

BACK TO HOMEPAGE