Every Man a King

Throw in a 'Pumpkin', a little 'Coleslaw', a 'Professor', some dirty words, and what do you get? Why, Citizen King, of course!
The Talent: DJ Brooks Dave Cooley Cory Coleman Malcolm Michiles Matt Sims Kristian Riley
We found Citizen King's very own DJ Brooks signing autographs at New Rock Fest in Milwaukee, WI. Buffy and I, Muzzle, had about 5 minutes to talk, but this is what we got.

Interview (primarily) by Buffy Transcribed by Buffy Photography and Editing by Muzzle

OverByte: Where did you come up with the name? DJ Brooks: Actually, our keyboard player, Dave Cooley, came up with the name and it means 'Every man is a king, every king is a man'. It's basically, Citizen King, everyone's equal.

OverByte: How long have you guys been together? DJ: Three years as this form. We were a group before called Wild Kingdom for about seven years. Four of us switched over and we got two new members, a lead singer, and a guitar player, Christian Riley, and just went from there.

OverByte: What's your favorite place to play? DJ: Milwaukee at The Rave, definitely.

OverByte: What about Shank Hall? DJ: Uh, no, we haven't done that for a while.

OverByte: Are you too big for Shank now? DJ: Oh, no, no, no. Not at all. I would just say...I don't know.

OverByte: You should definitely play a show there again. DJ: Yeah, we'll work on it.

OverByte: Okay. Tell us about some of your embarrassing band moments. DJ: On stage our keyboard player, Dave Cooley, Minneapolis Second Avenue, started a rockin' set and he had about a four foot piece of toilet paper hangin' out of his pants for about half the set. I think that was probably the best.

OverByte: What about nicknames for people in the band? DJ: Uh, my name is 'Pumpkin' 'cause a booty. I've got a big booty back there*. We got a 'Coleslaw' Coleman. He's our bass player. Uh, oh, I can't say that one. The other ones are bad. They're just bad. And the keyboard player is 'Professor'.

OverByte: Are there any local bands that you get along with really well? DJ: The Gufs, definitely.

OverByte: Who don't you get along with? DJ: No one.

OverByte: Yeah, right. Really. Who? DJ: No one that we have beef with at all...no one. All right, The Bodeans.

DJ had to get back to signing autographs for the swarms of people crowding him. There was no way we could compete with all of them, anyway. You could tell by the look on DJ's face and his broad smile that he was enjoying the attention immensely. We all know that Citizen King rawks. Go buy their new CD, Count the Days.

Feb./ Mar. 1997