Bride - Interview w/Dale
[Here is the interview brian did with dale over the phone . . . just as it happened.]
Why don't you update me on the happenings of Bride since we last spoke?
"Well, we're about 2 weeks away from going into the studio. We just signed a record contract with Organic, which is a division of Pamplin. We'll be going in, in about 2 weeks, to work with John and Dino. We just expect a real good record."
How did the deal with Organic come about?
"We were shopping mainly to secular labels, and we had interest from different labels. But I didn't feel real comfortable. I had preached against making "deals with the devil," so to speak, for so long, that even though there was interest there, and some of 'em were very lucrative, I felt that there had to be something else out there for us. So I really kept putting off and putting off even talking to the labels. In, in fact, Dino Elefante called me and said, "Are you still looking for a record deal?" And I said, "Yeah." And he said, "there's a Christian company out of Oregon who is looking for a rock band, and they're interested in you guys." And so, Dino actually introduced me to the folks at Organic, and it turned out I knew a lot of the people that they had brought on board from other labels."
"We did a lot of praying about it. We had started actively looking for a deal around February, and Organic approached us about 2 months ago, so this was handled with a lot of prayer."
I wouldn't expect it any other way. You and a lot of people have said that this could be considered a Snakes II. Are there any other developments in the sound area?
"I'm wanting to separate ourselves from anything that anybody else is doing right now. And if that means being compared to the old Snakes in the Playground, I would welcome that, because I'm not particularly fond of a lot of the new sounds. It is going to be a very heavy rock record, and if anybody puts an alternative label on it, it's because it's gonna be different than what's out there. You know, Bride was actually the alternative along with a few of the other bands, but it was more to describe our message than our sound. But now, everybody's alternative. Somebody said the Tourniquet record was gonna be alternative! It's gonna still sound like Tourniquet."
Yeah, the connotation of the word "alternative" is totally turned around from the real meaning.
"It's like the word 'liberal,' you know. that covers such a broad base of things that the actual original definition doesn't apply anymore. But I can guarantee that this is gonna be a top-notch world class production rock record."
You said John & Dino are producing it. What's this one gonna be called?
"I've got a working title right now: The Jesus Experience. I had come up with that title a long time ago when I was working on my solo stuff, and I believe that I had it confirmed the other night at a show in Santa Claus, Indiana. A fella came up to me after the show, and his words were something to the effect of, 'It doesn't matter what my name is, and I'll tell now -- and I've waited nine hours today to tell you this -- take on the name of Jesus.' That's all he said. I just counted that as a confirmation to this. And I couldn't apply it to anything else that was in my life at the time, except the title of this record.
"I think it's time now more than ever to be bold about what we do, and stop trying to mask it under some other title so we can squeeze it into the secular realm. I think we ought to tell 'em straight forward what we do and what we stand for. We actually were supposed to showcase for a secular record company not long ago. And we had no idea if the person or persons were in the audience, and we were told by someone working closely with the band, that if I were to preach, we may lose the record deal over it. So, of course, that was one of the first things I did. I'm just tired of having to hide what we are and what we do, and have the light under the bushel. If we're not living in the last days, then I don't know which generation is it that's in the last days. I think it's God's will that we do it."
Well, who all is in the band currently?
"Well, Rick Foley is not. He had come back. You know, he went through some life reconstruction, and he came back, we welcomed him back. It was something that we thought that was a good idea at the time, because it would mean that we'd have two guitarists, moving Steve Curtsinger from bass to guitar. We actually played about six shows with Rick, and both the shows went really smooth. But deep down, none of us knew what Rick was thinking, and he bailed on us, and said that he just didn't feel like he was an equal part of what we were doing, and just felt like he should move on to other things. I don't know really what he's moved on to, but I wish him all the best, and I felt as though that God opened a door for a while to come back, and I don't know why it was abruptly closed. So, we do have a very consistent line-up for this record.
"After this record, who knows? But we still have Jerry, who is 120 pounds lighter, on the drums. As a matter of fact, nobody recognizes Jerry. We played a show with Guardian. We've known those guys for years, and they didn't even recognize him. Dez Dickerson saw us play in New York, and told me that he really liked the new drummer. Scott Wenzel just couldn't believe how good Jerry looked. And we also have Steve Curtsinger, who was the smallest guy in the band, and now is the second smallest. And, of course, Troy, and I'm now the heaviest in the band. (laughter)"
So, why did he decide to lose the weight?
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