Interview With Taime of
The Newlydeads and Ex-Faster Pussycat
Aired By: Timothy Binder


FASTER PUSSYCAT & NEWLYDEADS



TD - Can you describe your music for the listeners out there and tell us how you approached the debut self-titled album?

Taime - It's kind of hard for me to describe just because it's just music. I use a lot of computers doing it but the computers aren't doing the music, I'm actually doing it. I don't know... it's heavy but it's still poppy. I use a lot of samples and loops and all the drums were programmed by myself. I have a hard time describing my own music. The best way to describe my music is to listen to it and describe it for yourself. I have a hard time saying it sounds kinda like this or it sounds kinda like that. Just listen to it. It's pop music but with crazy loops and samples and heavy guitars.

TD - What are your feelings on the music scene of today?

Taime - It just... To me right now there really isn't one music scene, it's just like a mish-mash. Nobody knows what to do. Everybody's trying to be something else and be somebody different and everybody is just trying to find the niche in the music and there is just too much stuff right now to say that there's just one scene. I think there's some great bands. I think there are some really cool bands out there right now.

      

TAIME AND X-FASTER PUSSYCAT GUITARRIST BRENT MUSCATT!

TD - Do you still speak to the former bandmates in Faster Pussycat, and if you have, what have they been up to recently?

Taime - I talk to them once in awhile, I don't really talk to them that often. I talk to Greg once in awhile because he kind of moved on to the computer era as well, learning the stuff and recording the stuff like that. He's not really doing too much in terms of playing. Brett, our drummer... I talk to him all the time. We go out drinking and stuff... he's playing in a band with Mark Terme from the Bullet Boys. I really don't know what Brent's doing and Eric as well.

TD - Looking back at the Faster Pussycat days and the music scene, how did you feel about the scene at that time?

Taime - It was fun, I had a great time. I got to do everything that I wanted to do. I moved to L.A. to play music. When I moved to L.A., I was into a totally different music scene. I was like into like Souxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, but I was into bands like Alice Cooper and Kiss and Motley Crue and stuff too. It was fun just to be able to come down (to L.A.) and do everything I wanted to do: play in a band, tour, go across the country, go to Europe, and actually get paid to do it.

Taime Downe & Kyle Kyle The Newlydeads

TD - How did you come to work with Kyle Kyle of Bang Tango?

Taime - I've known Kyle since before Faster and before he was in Bang Tango. We both moved to L.A. at the same time and we both liked to hang out. He was playing bass for a friend of mine in some band, I can't remember the name, but we have known each other forever. Then when I came back out from Chicago, like a year and a half ago, he was working with a band. He was producing this metal band and they needed someone to program some drums for them, and he got in touch with me and in the studio we put together all of our stuff that we were doing and when we were doing that record, we just kinda... I don't know, it just started happening.

TD - I was just wondering how you felt when the music scene started to shift. When the pop metal or hair/glam bands started to decline in popularity and MTV took over and alternative music became big. Also what do you feel about the dubbed 80s bands like Cinderella, Ratt, Slaughter, Warrant, Dokken, and Motley Crue all coming out with material right now?

Taime - Well when the scene changed and stuff, I mean it was really hard for Faster Pussycat to try to do anything, but to me I think change is inevitable and it's a good thing, opens up some different ideas. I thought a lot of the bands that came out at that time were really cool like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and they were all bands from like back home so well, it was cool for me. I didn't really care. I was already planning on doing different stuff anyways. I was already planning on doing it. As for all the other bands doing new material, that's great for them I guess. I don't know, I just like to do new stuff so it's great that this is the boat that I'm in right now, the Newlydeads and playing this new stuff but you know I wish them the best with what they can do.

Faster Pussycat Shot Circa 1992

TD - Do you think there would ever be a chance for you and the former members of Faster Pussycat ever doing anything again?

Taime - I really don't think so. There's no hate there and at least not on my end. I did leave the band but it was just because things were stale. Musical differences too. I always read that in articles of bands that have split up that there's lots of music differences but that stuff happens. It is like people have just moved on to different stuff. I have always been into darker spookier music and I actually wanted to do that with Faster Pussycat but it just didn't with the players I had and stuff. It just didn't fit the band. It didn't fit the playing. We had a good time with what we did so we just went with that. Things started getting sour and I had to deal with people in the band doing dope and getting in trouble and I am not a preacher, you know, do whatever you want to do, but when it starts interfering with what we are trying to do as a project then that is just well... whatever.


TD - You must have been on many great tours since you started your carrier. Is there any you could tell us about? Who you enjoyed playing with, with Faster, Pigface, or with the Newlydeads?

Taime - We have not toured yet with the Newlydeads, we are actually still rehearsing. We are in the process of trying to get stuff together. Like I said, the Newlydeads was done, we did all that stuff in the studio, so trying to figure that stuff out live is another thing, but it is coming along really good. Touring with Pigface was totally different than touring with Faster Pussycat in terms it wasn't my band. It was just a mish-mosh of different people - it was like adult camp. It was going on tour with 12 people you don't really know and by the end of the tour it was like "bye see you later." It was totally fun. It was like I got hammered every night, I was a total drunk mess on the tour, but it was fun cause I didn't really care. I went up there and played my stuff. I played guitar on the tour, sang a couple of songs, and had fun. In terms of Faster Pussycat, touring with them I don't know, We did a lot of cool tours. It's hard to say. The Motley (Crue) tour was great. I mean it was every night in front of sold out crowds. It was 20,000 people a night. It was insane. I mean there is no, I mean getting up on stage in front of that many people and not having them throw stuff at you was incredible. I mean I'll always remember that and I am lucky I got to do that.