John: So let`s talk about The Mos Generator.
Tony: Okay.
John: So when did it start?
Tony: I dunno. About five years ago, I guess.
John: What is a Mos Generator anyway?
Tony: It was a bass drum that sat out in this garage. Gathered a bunch of moss on it. We started calling it the moss generator. We needed the kick drum to record some demos and we didn`t have a name. We had the moss generator � oh, we have a name. Not knowing that there are a million generator bands out there (laughs).
John: You put out your self titled album, and then Late Great Planet Earth you put out yourself?
Tony: No, that was South Spin out of California. And then Nasoni out of Germany. So there are two versions of it. We have a 10� coming out on a label out of Seattle, and a 7� coming out on South Spin.
John: Now who would you say you`re influences are?
Tony: We definitely reach back to the classic Sabbath, Zeppelin, Deep Purple. Pretty much the basic foundation of heavy rock. We would consider ourselves just a heavy rock band.
John: How do you feel having an ex-Mind Funk drummer (Shawn Johnson) in your band?
Tony: At least he was on the good records. We played together before he joined Mind Funk. The three of us were in a band together 15 or 16 years ago. Then we all left and joined other bands and then we came back together. So there`s a major chemistry going on between the three of us. You couldn`t replace anybody in the band because of that long time relationship, musically. That`s a good thing too. It`s beautiful playing with Shawn because he`s such an excellent drummer. He`s a showman too. Sometimes I have to compete with him. I know they`re all looking at Shawn. I gotta do something here. That`s beautiful.
John: Is that why you were leaping around tonight?
Tony: I always do that. When you`re feeling it... Tonight I was feeling it. It was a fun night, man.
John: It was a great set. Glad I got to see it. Now is The Late Great Planet Earth a concept album?
Tony: Total concept album. We can`t play most of the record because of the overdubs. We went into it with that, �We gotta do it like that.� Let`s do something more grand than we actually are.
John: It`s like your King Crimson album.
Tony: Exactly. There`s a lot of a King Crimson influence.
John: So you guys have any tour plans. Like maybe going to the East Coast. Like maybe Boston?
Tony: I`d love to. See, now that things are starting to kind of look up. Being our advanced age that we are, it makes it kind of hard.
John: You got a house, you got a mortgage, you got a job...
Tony: Not me. I play music and record bands for a living. I own a studio. Golden Pig (Electric Blues Band) has a new album coming out. They just finished it and it`s fucking killer. So that`s what I do for a living. My wife plays music for a living. For us to go out on tour off and on is no problem. You just have to schedule it right. Things get put on the back burner when they realize that things are escalating for us musically � as far as recognition and whatnot � that makes it easier to go out on the road.
John: Things have been looking up for you guys lately?
Tony: Things have been looking real good. I can`t complain. We were just talking with Dexter Jones about doing a Scandinavian, German type tour. We hit it off right when we first played together a couple of nights ago. We played in San Fransisco Wednesday. I had heard them already, and they gave me what I expected plus.
John: Who else would you guys want to tour with?
Tony: We do a lot with The Golden Gods, which works out. (Pauses) I`m at a loss. There`s a lot of bands out there that I`m really into, when I see them live especially. Live music`s where it`s at. I like Dixie Witch. Honky we got along with well.
John: When I talked to Dixie Witch last May, they were talking you up.
Tony: They`re great guys. Every time they come up, we play with them. They came up with that Amplified Heat band one time and I was blown away by those guys. I like Pearls and Brass a lot. I`d love to do some shows with them. And they`re young. It`s cool that they`re that young and they`re playing cool music. For some reason, you have to be over 30 to play good rock music to me. It may not be true at all, but that`s what it seems like. Everybody out here doing what we`re doing, we`re all older.
John: Now what are some of the other bands you`ve recorded besides Golden Pig?
Tony: Let`s see... I wind up doing a lot of younger bands, like emo. In our genre, there`s not a lot of bands in our area that are heavy bands. In Seattle there are very few. Golden Pig`s not really all that active. They`re so fucking good, though.
Scooter (Haslip) and Shawn were in a band with John McBain and Pat Dubar, who was in Mindfunk, called Middle Earth. I recorded a bunch of demos. I`m trying to get them to let me put it out. They were done in about `95, `96. John McBain`s a great guitar player, man. They had some cool ideas and shit.
John: Who does the writing for the band?
Tony: I would say I do about 90%. I do all the writing and then the arrangement and... They`ll let me keep ideas that I don`t like. I bring in the core and they fill in the blanks. It`s a collaborative thing.
John: Back to Late Great, what was the concept behind it?
Tony: It`s all to do with Armageddon. Or the end of the world whether it be by nature, or the human race destroying it. The Biblical side, the scientific side. It goes through different stages. It`s not a chronological concept. It`s one idea throughout the album.
John: You released it on vinyl and CD. Did you record specifically for vinyl?
Tony: I know that when we mastered it, we decided... The problem with the CD is that there are no stops in it. It just continually goes, so when we decided to put it on vinyl, we had to make some edits. So there are some interesting vinyl only shit on it, but basically we recorded it to be a CD and somebody gave us the money to put it out on vinyl.
John: Now are you doing work on the next album?
Tony: We`re almost done with it, but we`re going to re-record it.
John: Why is that?
Tony: It didn`t turn out the way I hoped. Some of the songs were recorded prematurely. Now that we`ve been playing them, they`re better.
John: Talking about mainstream music, do you guys think you have a chance of breaking through mainstream or does that even factor?
Tony: I don`t think so. We`ve always been the musicians band. Even when we write the most simplistic song, it doesn`t register in the regular minds.
John: Why do you think that`s the case?
Tony: I have no idea. We can`t figure it out. We`re not going to change our formula or nothing. There`s a pop element and that`s just me loving pop music on top of heavy music. I can`t help that. I like melodic things. I like them to be heavy and melodic at the same time.
John: You were contacted to do the new Sucking the `70s?
Tony: We`ve been talking to Scott for awhile. He heard the first disc, but he didn`t like Late Great Planet Earth. He didn`t like that at all - �I can`t sell this record.� Which is understandable. We did it for us, we did it because we needed to get it out. Now, the next record is a mix of the two.
John: Now did you really have to chose the one Rush song that was never released?
Tony: I love the song, man. We play the music verbatim. It doesn`t sound like Rush. This is 1974 � it`s not all mathematical. It`s rock. I can`t sing like him, but...
John: Back when Rush was the Canadian Black Sabbath.
Tony: Exactly. Maybe people can find it on the internet. It`s not that hard to track down. It`s a great song and that`s why we did it. We were going to do a Heart song.
John: Which one?
Tony: �Mistral Wind� off of Dog and Butterfly. It`s this huge opus. We were going to try to get Ann Wilson to sing backup on it, but I thought, �That`s too far fetched.�
