Rock Notes On-Line

Mike Keneally Interview

Conceptual Continuity starts here

2.2.88 Albany
I was there as MK signs his first autograph ever. "Eric Buxton" nabbed it.

3.20.88 Teaneck
I was there again as MK forgets his wallet in the bus and can`t pay for his hot dog & coffee. When my buddy Steve pays for it without a second thought the look of utter disbelief on Mike's face is one of my top visual moments of that whole 1988 tour with Frank Zappa.

November 1991 Zappa's Universe
MK burns another image in my memory cells with an incredible rendition of "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats".

April 1996 NYC
Beer For Dolphins w/Ed Palermo big band.

December 1996
Beer For Dolphins w/Steve Vai. One of the best shows ever!

August 1998 NYC
Beer For Dolphins w/Ed Palermo big band. "Sluggo" live.

Conceptual Continuity ends here

370 days later, I get a call from MK. It went a little something like this...

Hello Mike, what's the latest?
Well the same day "Mullmuzzler" comes out, I have a solo record coming out called "Nonkertompf".

Can you pronounce that for me?
"non-kur-tomf" (laughs) So you heard of it?

Yes on Random-Fandom. What's it like?
It's all instrumental. I play all the instruments on it. There's a couple of songs on "Sluggo" that hint at it's direction one called "I,Drum-Running,Am Clapboard Bound". That song is a signpost for how most of it sounds. It's pretty trippy.

Where was it recorded, at your home studio?
No my home setup isn't worthy, it was done at a place we did our other releases at Double Time in San Diego. Parts of it were done at my friend Lyle Workman's place. The grand piano was done here in San Diego at Sigma Sounds. I also did some work over at Hog Heaven, Ed Lucas`s place. Then I mixed it with Scott Chatfield, my manager now, then we edited and mastered it with Pro Tools. So that's the next one due on August 24th 1999. 74 mins with 30 something songs. It's the first release on a new label of ours called EXOWAX. Check it out here at www.exowax.com. We're really looking to get the word out on this to give it some promotion that my other releases didn`t have. We put some ads out in ICE magazine and a few others.

The Mullmuzzler CD comes out that same day?
Yea, I think some Keneally fans are gonna be shaking there heads going huh? It's not like our stuff at all.

You didn't write any of this did you?
No, no. How this project came about was Magna Carta called up and asked if I would like to play guitar on this record by James Labrie of Dream Theater. It happened to be at the same time I was working on the newest Steve Vai album last December. I have a hard time saying no, so I was able to explore some music that I had never played before. Plus they needed a bass player so I was able to recommend Bryan Beller, and the drummer on it is Mike Mangini from Vai's band so it was cozy. I had one afternoon of listening to demo's and going over parts with James but he was not in the studio when I layed down my parts. Only the engineers and me in the studio, plus I had like two days or something like that to get my tracks down due to the work I was also doing with Steve Vai. I would of liked to have a month or even week to really get it all down, this would have made it sound more like ME, but if it would have sounded too much like me, it would not have fit in. There is one solo on there that gets my sound a bit.

Is that Slowburn?
No, I think there was some slide on that one, which I like a lot. There's one solo on it where all the notes don't line up and go over the bar at times so it's a little different than what I usually play.

Speaking of Vai are there any tour plans?
Yes, starting in October running thru January in the USA then on to the rest of the world. This will last till the end of next year. Six weeks on, two weeks off. Last Vai tour, I was able to write most of Sluggo during the breaks in the tour. Hopefully I'll be able to get to finish writing the next BFD album during the breaks this time around. It is 3/4 of the way written now.

A couple of recording questions next. When doing a track with multiple guitar parts, are they all written out in advance or done in the studio later?
Every case is different. Take for example "Fencing", that was all written out beforehand, all the harmonies and such. Other times I'll just have the melody and I'll shape the chordal structures around that which is always fun. The new album has every conceivable method of recording on it!

The other question is, how did you get the panning effects on "Here is Why?
I believe that one had two voices on one side and one voice on the other side. I had all the lyrics written out then I recorded all the odd lines 1-3-5-7, etc. Then the even ones and panned all the odds to the left and all the evens to the right.

Is it true you played a gig with Buckethead?
Yes, he is a friend of Henry Kaiser's so he played on one of the shows we did with The Mistakes in northern California.

OK. Great to talk to you Mike. Looking foward to the new release, see ya soon.
Thanks, bye.