Dtoyz In METAL EDGEGetting to Know the R.Tists 4.merely Known as DANGEROUS TOYS by Michael McCarthy
from ANT Magazine, February/March Issue 1996
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Dtoyz In METAL EDGE
When you think Dangerous Toys chances are one of two songs comes to mind. For some,
it's "Teas'n' Pleas'n" and for others it's "Scared." The sad reality
is that both of those songs are from the band's debut album, meaning there are a lot of
people out there that never got to hear their later work. In fact, some people have
probably forgotten about them all together. Well, I'm going to take a longshot here and
say that I think that's probably for the best. Why, you ask? Well, because the band's new
album, The R.tist 4.merly Known As Dangerous Toys, is such a diverse collection of
tunes--all very different from their earlier work, particularly the first two albums--that
you'll probably come to appreciate it a little faster without any preconceived idea about
how it will sound. In fact, those of you that are longtime fans of the band might actually
call this one a sell out. The thing is, however, that this music is so good--so
amazing--that the only sell out would have been for the band to continue playing what
frontman and now bassist Jason McMaster calls "cock rock" when they had all
these great ideas stirring about inside them. Here are Jason's thoughts . . .
ANT: Your new album is amazingly diverse and I think you've done a great job with
it, but, of course, it is quite a change. Were you afraid of what your longtime fans would
think when you were making it?
JASON: That's how we came up with the title of the album. We were a little skeptical. The
album was coming out so bright that we were freaking ourselves out. We recorded right here
in South Austin where we live. I mean, I live five fucking minutes from where that thing
was recorded. We've been around seven years, but we've never recorded here. We've always
recorded in L.A., done the big studio thing. Fuck that. We recorded at a friend's home
studio this time. We spent thirty grand, but it doesn't sound like we spent thirty grand.
It sounds like we spent two hundred grand. So, we were just amazed by how the record
sounded. As far as the diversity of the record goes, The R.tists 4.merly Known As
Dangerous Toys says it all.
ANT: Was the writing process different this time around?
JASON: Me, Scott, and Paul were writing songs at home on four tracks or whatever. I was
playing bass and guitar and singing on mine. Paul would sing a little bit on some of his.
Scott would just have a drum machine and be laying guitar tracks down, riffs and whatever.
And this is what we came up with. So, it's Dangerous Toys, because it's us, but it's less
collaboration. That's what made it sound so different. It was also me standing on my soap
box and saying to the band, I'm not gonna fucking sing boogie woogie blues 1, 4, 5, AC/DC
sounding shit anymore because I don't want to fucking do it. I'm tired of saying baby and
doing sha-na-na-na-na baby shit. I did that on the first record, and I did it again on the
second record, but I'm not gonna do it again. It's done. We were a boogie woogie band, we
were a metal band, we were this, we were that. People have called us a glam band.
Whatever. I said, let's take all of that and each of the things we've learned over the
years and combine them with all our influences. I mean, each member of this band listens
to totally different shit. Punk rock, hardcore, thrash, death metal, alternative--from
Prince to David Bowie to old Venom records and the first Slayer album. Back in the early
æ80's, anything Metal Blade put out I was into. So, all of the above down to The Beatles.
I don't even own a Beatles record, but it was important that we take everything we've
listened to and all of our experiences and make sure that they show on the record. And it
worked. It really did work for us.
ANT: Did that surprise you?
JASON: It scared us. We didn't know what to call the record or what the fuck was gonna be
on the album cover. It was easy being the same band all the time, being a fucking cock
rock band, going, oh, we'll just put the clown on there doing something else. The less
conceptual the better, but the Prince poke is fucking hilarious. Have you seen Prince's
Lovesexy before?
ANT: Probably. I think so.
JASON: The album cover to Lovesexy, Prince is naked on the cover. The picture on our album
cover is Lovesexy. If you squint, you're looking at Prince Lovesexy, but if you open your
eyes it's not Prince naked, it's the clown. We're just riding the title. The title
explains the band, me playing bass now, the sound, the album cover with the clown naked,
everything.
ANT: At any point did you actually consider changing the name of
the band to The R.tist 4.merly Known As?
JASON: Well, we thought about that, but it wouldn't work. Think about it. If we put out
"Share The Kill" and someone says, who's that, and someone says Dangerous Toys
they'll be like, no, I'm serious, who is it? Dangerous Toys. Oh. Now if we changed the
name and someone said, this is cool, who is this, and someone says Joe Blow and the Blue
Footballs they'll be like, oh, it's a new band? Then they'll tell them, no, it's not a new
band, they used to be called Dangerous Toys. It's still gonna be there. It's still gonna
follow you wherever you fucking go.
ANT: What kind of reaction has the album been getting from the fans?
JASON: Everybody can't believe it. Some of the local bands have said, man, I need to
fucking update. That's a quote. It's kind of frightening to hear your friends say that.
There's a lot of soul searching that made the record we have now. I've had some friends
pass away recently. I don't want to say baby anymore. I don't want to talk about love
anymore. I don't want to grab my penis anymore. I'm a different dude, man. I'm not saying,
man, I'm sad, my friends are dead. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just taking where we
left off with Pissed and kicking it in the ass, making it new. Songs like
"Pissed" and "Strange" were pretty much where we were headed anyway.
Jason
McCaster Dangerous Fuckin' Toyz!
ANT: You actually sing different on this one, like you said. Is
that something you were wanting to do for a long time?
JASON: I lost part of my voice on the Hellacious Acres tour. I could still sing most of
the high stuff, but there was a crack in it. I wasn't able to sing at full voice anymore.
Anyway, I was fucked up. I needed a serious rest. I needed something. My voice was
changing. I mean, fuck, I had been singing that way for ten years, you know what I mean? I
needed to get my voice back in shape. Now I'm a better singer than I've ever been. I'm so
proud of myself now. I've come up with a style that's easy for me to do and I'm playing
bass, too. I'm very excited about it. I don't have to worry about losing my voice or
anything. Sure, I get a little tired, you know, but nothing like it was on the Hellacious
Acres tour. I was hurting.
ANT: Have you always played bass, but just not in Dangerous Toys?
JASON: Well, I started playing bass when I was 13. I wasn't any good until about 15. Then
I joined a band, but all we played was Judas Priest and AC/DC. Of course, it was about
1976, 1977 that all this shit was going down so that makes sense. Then I started playing
bass and singing. I was doing that at about age 17 and then I started just singing. I sang
for a band called Watchtower for about six years. I pretty much had to drop my bass
because they just needed a singer. Between æ82 and æ87 I was basically just a singer. I
found my voice and learned how to sing. Then I would just play bass for fun. In 92 I
started playing bass a lot again because I was playing bass in a Kiss cover band called
Ssik--Kiss spelled backwards. We play around Texas all the time. That's been going on
since 92 and it's still going on. We only play a few shows a year because I'm always busy
with Toys. But, as far as the bass playing goes, that was my only outlet. So, it's
something that's been in my life for a long time, but I don't consider myself this real
bad ass bass player, you know? I just bang on it. It seems to work really well for the
band though. I think we got lucky. It could have sucked. Thank God it worked.
To Be Glam or not to be That's the fuckin' qusetion!
ANT: So, you'll continue to play bass in Toys in the future?
JASON: Right. That's the plan as of right now. The rehearsals have been going really well
.ANT: As far as the older material goes, how are you going to incorporate it into
the set list with the new stuff, which is so different?
JASON: We're playing a medley of old stuff that consists of "Teasin',"
"Line Em Up," "Gimme No Lip," "Sportin' A Woody." From
Pissed we're playing "Pissed," "Oh Well, So What, Who Cares," and
"Strange." Old songs we're playing entirely are "Scared," "Bones
In The Gutter." As far as the new album goes, we're playing every fucking track.
That's our emphasis now. And this is the first time in our history we play every song on
the record. When we were on our first tour, we didn't even play the whole record.
ANT: What are you releasing as a single right now?
JASON: There's a guy in metal radio on the East Coast that's working the record who wants
to go with "New Anger." People are saying that's strange, he should go with
"Cure The Sane" or "Share The Kill." There's a guy at Z Rock that
wants to go with "Better To Die," but there's a fuck in it so he's gotta fix
that and then he's ready to spin it. So, basically, when people ask me what the single is,
I'm saying, fuck, whatever the fuck you want. Whatever you feel is right. I don't want to
tell someone not to go with something. It's all us.
ANT: The clown on the album covers. Does he have a name?
JASON: Yeah. Bill Z. Bub. Like beezulbub, which is another name for Satan.
ANT: Was he inspired by the clown in the movie Poltergeist?
JASON: That's a good question. I think it was all of the above: the clown from
Poltergeist, the Joker, Alien. All of that. The original version of the clown had no eyes
and saw blades for teeth. The record label made us butter him up a little bit. But he was
fucked up when we first got him. [Laughs]