| ON-LINE INTERVIEW WITH PEYOTE COYOTES PRODUCER DESMOND JONES Revised transcript from Napster Chat March 23, 2001 <Waxman1969> Tell me what is going on with you right now? <DesmondFJones> Well, currently I am still trying to remaster the last three PEYOTE COYOTES albums for the new CD reissue series that should be coming sometime in the next few months or so. I have been trying to avoid any unnecessary remixing during the process at this stage. We want as many original mixes as possible that we can still find, to be digitally restored for these new album versions. We are still searching for some of the original album master tapes that we should still have somewhere in the tape vault. <Waxman1969> What is the story about the unreleased material that you have been working with recently? <DesmondFJones> Well we do have quite a bit of unused stuff still left in the can. I have been trying to find things that we could use as extra tracks on this new series of CD�s. It is fairly obvious why some of that stuff wasn�t used at the time. We should also still have almost the entire collection of original recording session multitrack tapes. It seems that there are at least a couple of exceptions though. There are only a few of those tapes that we know about but haven�t been able to locate. <Waxman1969> What is missing that you haven�t been able to find? <DesmondFJones> The best missing tapes that I can remember are when Robert had taken away the session tape and the only mixdown from it that was ever made for �Sharp Shooter� and two acoustic tracks that he did as demos one day. He paid for that one session that he also produced right out of his own pocket. So there was no way that I could have tried to stop him from taking the tapes with him when he left. This was the only PEYOTE COYOTES session that Robert had ever actually paid for. As a result, this is probably the only session tape actually missing from our tape archives. He claims that he left the tapes in his car when it was impounded and that he never got them back. To this day I really wish that I had tried to keep at least a safety copy of that song in the tape vault. �Sharp Shooter� as I remember was probably one of the best recordings that Robert ever made. There were also the two acoustics demos that he did that same day, but I really don�t have any fond memories of those. He recorded these three songs during the middle of the DRUNKEN HILLBILLY SESSIONS and �Sharp Shooter� should have definitely gone on that album. I just hope that one day Robert will come out and say, �Hey, look what I�ve just found!� There could also be the possibility of some other tapes that we have completely forgotten about laying around somewhere, but we just don�t know that yet. <Waxman1969> Will there be any of this additional material on the new CD�s? <DesmondFJones> Of course, we would want to have at least around 3 or 4 bonus tracks on each of those albums. Maybe even more than that if we can come up with enough stuff and disc space will allow it. I haven�t decided yet if we will need to do any new remixes for these new extra tracks yet. There are some songs that I know for certain that we don�t have any mixes of whatsoever. This has been the main problem in trying to piece these albums back together again. These tracks often jumped between overlapping projects. As a result of that, some of the final masters for a few of the songs have not been found. Many times after a session a rough mix was made from the monitor bus of the mixer. There was just a volume control and a pan pot for each channel, no equalizers. This was an easy way of getting a quick reference cassette made so that we could listen to what was actually on the tracks without going through the trouble of a full mixdown session. I also think that we are going to run into problems with some of what we do have that might not be of sufficient enough quality for a CD release. I would still prefer to use original mixes, even if they aren�t up to the standards of what could be remixed today. That will depend entirely on what we can dig up in the near future. <Waxman1969> So besides the forthcoming three CD reissue series, what else is new? <DesmondFJones> We will also planning another volume in the CARDIOLOGY series of digitally remastered tracks, demos, outtakes, rehearsals and remixes for sometime early this summer, I think. The first volume in the series has just been released. It is available only from www.mp3.com/peyotecoyotes. The plan is to have CARDIOLOGY (THE SERIES) distributed exclusively by MP3.com. I have never been offered such a good non-exclusive deal that we can get out of at any time before. MP3.com provide and pay for all of the manufacturing and distribution costs. Our company Peyote Coyotes Muxic, Ltd. does all of the management and most of the promotions. We collect 50% of the retail sales. The problem with that deal is that we can only include songs that we have either written ourselves or that we have a license for or are clearly out of copyright on these compilations. Trying to get commercial mechanical licenses for all of the material that we have covered over all those years up to this point would be far more trouble than it would be worth. Not to mention extremely expensive, I might add. This is why we aren't going to distibute the reissue albums through MP3.com. We also did a couple of old traditional songs like �Ain�t No More Caine� that I have found a rough mix of from an unreleased early version that will also be included. We also have a few alternate takes and some rough mixes of a number of things that are very different to what eventually was used. Then there is the track, �All In The Name Of Fun� and a couple of other things that we did with Darin Kornball that were never released before. <Waxman1969> When can we expect to finally see all of this stuff? <DesmondFJones> The exact release dates for these CD�s have not been slated yet. This is because we still have a lot of work to do in preparation for these releases and quite honestly, I just don�t know how long all of this is really going to take. CARDIOLOGY has just been released. The next volume will probably come out together simultaneously with the other three CD reissue series to help give them an extra push or maybe a few weeks before them. We will have to see what is going to happen. Our plans have been known to change in the past. So there should be four CD�s all released at around the same time this summer. This all-new album made up almost entirely of previously unreleased material will obviously also have some major impact on what the bonus tracks on the other reissue CD�s will be. <Waxman1969> What material do you currently have available on-line so far? <DesmondFJones> About ten songs have just recently been made available at the www.mp3.com/peyotecoyotes website. Right now the band has three files from the DRUNKEN HILLBILLY COLLECTION at www.peyotecoyotes.com in their on-line folders and uploaded to various other servers so far. These are the first three songs from the album. I digitally remastered and uploaded these tracks in December 1999 specifically for promotional purposes on the Internet. That was two years ago. Two of those songs are also available on the Napster servers. We still need to make a lot more of the material we have freely available. We will be doing more of that in the very near future. We should put up alot more stuff here and there and on our websites. I have just been too busy getting these other things together right now. <Waxman1969> This all sounds very exciting. I�ll check it out, if I can download from you. I like the name PEYOTE COYOTES. Who thought of that name? <DesmondFJones> Thank you very much! Actually, alot of people have said that they liked the name. �Peyote� was just a rhyme with the coyotes that we recorded singing on the hill behind our studios one rainy night. I thought that �The Coyotes� by itself was much too common for a name and that there must be other bands around with that same name. I think that I was the one who really came up with the name in the first place. Tom and I also used the word �peyote� in the one song that we ever wrote together. That song was �Borderline Crisis Blues� Actually I was surprised that everyone else ever went along with it. I guess that now after all these years we are pretty much stuck with that name. It�s kind like the plague or something. Try that song "Borderline Crisis Blues" on for size. That is the first song on our DRUNKEN HILLBILLY COLLECTION. Just Tom and I recorded that song all on the night of March 3, 1994. We wrote, recorded, did all of the overdubbing and I think even tried to do a rough mix of it all in that same night over a bottle of some really cheap whiskey and some generic cola. We spent nearly six bucks on that bottle! If we did do a rough mix that night, I don�t know whatever happened to it. Tom was passed out on the studio floor shouting things like, �I�m fucked up!� right on cue. This was while I was trying to do the last of the acoustic guitar overdubs. It was so funny that we decided to leave it in. As it has turned out, that is the only song that Tom and I have ever actually written together. <Waxman1969> Okay. I have added you to my hotlist, but you aren't showing up in the online box. I�ll browse for you. What is the URL of your Website? <DesmondFJones> http://www.peyotecoyotes.com is still our main Website. We started doing that Website sometime in 1997. It has been given several facelifts in the last few years. <Waxman1969> I�ll check that out. Is your band influenced by Badfinger? <DesmondFJones> I couldn�t really say, you can have a listen and I will leave it up to you to decide that for yourself. You probably can't tell from those three files from the DRUNKEN HILLBILLY COLLECTION but some of our other stuff would most likely be a little more obvious. Try a search of Napster for PEYOTE COYOTES and see if you can find those three files. <Waxman1969> Cool look to the Website. <DesmondFJones> Thanks, we are still working on it. I suppose that our Websites will always be �under construction�. There should be a midi file (pyramid.mid) playing over the main pages right now. After you have visited the main WebPages, you should be able to find the midi file and most of the pages graphics in your C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files folder. <Waxman1969> You guys have been together for quite a while now, haven�t you? <DesmondFJones> Well actually we have been together for just over 18 years now. Since about March of 1983, I think it must have been. <Waxman1969> Have you been with the band all 18 years? <DesmondFJones> That is if you can call what we did "WITH" each other! We rarely ever recorded together as a complete unit. Usually if someone had some kind of idea, we would do each part of it separately. Sometimes this would be over a period of days, weeks, months and in some cases even years. But we still have tons of tapes left sitting in the can. Someday we will find a use for them. That is what we are mainly trying to do now. <Waxman1969> Nothing came up on a Napster search. Are there any MP3s on your WebPages? <DesmondFJones> Maybe Napster has blocked our name like they just did with Elvis and everyone else? In our case, that would be an unauthorized illegal action on the part of Napster, restraint of trade as it were. I think that they already have enough legal problems as it is. We won�t make a fuss about it if that is in fact what did happen. At the moment there are only real audio files of just those same first three songs from the DRUNKEN HILLBILLY COLLECTION so far on our main Website at this time. The current main website can't handle more than 15 Megs and we need alot more space then that. I think I will upload a ton of stuff to my empty myPlay locker. That is if I can still find the thing. To make it easier to find the stuff, we will put in external links on our main Website to wherever our files are being stored. We also have pages with MP3 files at http://www.mp3.com/peyotecoyotes as well as several other sites that I have forgotten the URL�s of. <Waxman1969> It sounds more like the Byrds than Badfinger. What instrument do you play? <DesmondFJones> There is alot of the Byrds �Sweetheart of the Rodeo� and Dylan's �Basement tapes� in our so-called "Hillbilly" stuff. I played alot of those instruments that you are hearing right now actually. We are all really just a bunch of good guitarists. Dave is also really into oscillators, filters and things like that. Robert can play just about anything. He plays Windchimes on the second movement of the first track on the DRUG SONGS album. He and I also stuck two straws into the ends of a couple of Kazoos and blew them into a jar of water also for that same album. This was alot more difficult than it sounds and it is unlikely that anyone had tried this before. The resulting effect was similar to the bubbling backing vocals that The Beatles created for the instrumental verse of �Octopus�s Garden�. That was for the intro of �Robot Man From The Void Of Space�. I think that this part is a previously untold story. For the third movement, we both took our shirts off and tied them around our waists. We put some popcorn into two glass jars and shook them violently as we danced insanely around the microphone chanting, �Hay La Hay� in Native American accents. We double tracked this twice onto the third movement of the session tape. I know that nobody had ever done anything like that before. Tom plays alot of accordion on the DRUNKEN HILLBILLY COLLECTION and he�s really good at that. I think that he won awards as a kid. <Waxman1969> What was your musical background and upbringing? I played a bit of accordion too as a little six-year-old kid. My Dad gave me an accordion for my sixth birthday and my Mom got me a few lessons. I was never any good at it and didn�t ever really get the hang of it. I lacked the coordination for that instrument and probably still do. I did learn to read music before I could even read books. My alphabet at the time ended at G Sharp! I often wondered why there was no H flat! Then about eight months later, the following Christmas, Dad gave me a trombone. I played the trombone in the school bands until about the eighth grade. My Dad played bass with Dick Jergens Orchestra in the late 1930�s. I still have all of his hand written manuscripts. He did the arrangements for Jergens� theme song, �Moon Dreams� I think it was and I�ve got all of the parts that he wrote out in my tape vault. His roommate in college was a guy called Al Hawkins. Al wrote �Tuxedo Junction� after the place in Stockton, California where they rented a flat together. Dad used to say, �Give me the key and I can play in any flat�. In fact I think that I have heard him say that a little too much. Hawkins sent in his song to one of the Big Band leaders, Glenn Miller it must have been and he was ripped off, the song became a phenomenal hit for Miller. Hawkins sued him and won the case got paid and his name added to the label of all future copies. I would imagine that their rent receipts from Tuxedo Junction would have been instrumental as evidence in that case. The �junction� is actually just a place there near College of the Pacific (now University Of the Pacific) a circle where all of these streets came together. I don�t think there was ever actually a sign that said, �Tuxedo Junction�. During the War he got drafted and eventually enlisted with the Army Air Force Band along with Glenn Miller and the rest of his band. Dad said that he was out marching with a rifle in the hot sun, while this guys in the band were drinking cokes on a truck. He said he literally, �Jumped on the Band Wagon�. My Dad was a High School Band teacher from the Big Band Era just after the end of World War II. This was long before I came along. He could play any instrument and he was able to coach me a little here and there. <Waxman1969> What instrument do you play onstage? <DesmondFJones> I play only the guitar onstage and only a few times each year. I don�t think that I am good enough as a musician to play any of the things that I have used in the studio on recording sessions. That is a totally different game for me. You can keep doing the same little bit over and over again until you have gotten it right. On stage you just don�t have that �punch-in� option available to you. <Waxman1969> I was unable to download some of the REALAUDIO files from your Website. <DesmondFJones> I haven't put up any of our other stuff yet. There is just not enough room for it on the main Website. There were six songs found on that original master reel that those songs were taken from. There were also some alternate mixes at the end of it that we still haven�t used for anything that I know of yet. Only the first three files on the DRUNKEN HILLBILLY COLLECTION WebPages were uploaded that�s why the other three links still don't work yet. <Waxman1969> I see, you are in Florida right? <DesmondFJones> NO California, we all still live here in California. <Waxman1969> Oh okay, what part? <DesmondFJones> We are far more WESTERN than we ever were Country. I live about 150 miles East of SFO, exactly 148 miles actually. The other guys still live down in Southern California. <Waxman1969> But you do play both kinds Country and Western right? <DesmondFJones> Not really, we don't really even like Country music. <Waxman1969> I have recorded some local Country bands but it is not my personal taste. <DesmondFJones> It was my idea to do the album DRUNKEN HILLBILLY COLLECTION back in 1993-94. This was largely because of this really cute blond girl that I liked to look at about four nights a week when I went out. We meet her when she worked at our favorite hangout, THE RED ONION. There was this Heavy Metal-Rap band called THIRD PLANET playing there one night. Robert and I wrote the chorus of the song �KRAP� from the DRUG SONGS album while we were watching this band. The lyrics seemed to fit every song that they played that night. Robert wrote the verses for the song a few days later. Unfortunately when we did the recording of it, we couldn�t get the vocals in time with the backing tracks that we had just done. Then she started working at this Western Line Dance club THE BORDERLINE. That is where the title of the song �Borderline Crisis Blues� came from, I guess. <Waxman1969> Do you have a studio? <DesmondFJones> Yes, we have always had studios, several studios over the years and usually more than one at any given time. I still have two studios here now. They are just being used for storage right now. They are both full of boxes of everything. I think we will be emailing our parts to each other now in the future. <Waxman1969> One of those long distance relationships. How do you pull it off? Technically speaking. <DesmondFJones> Well, like I said, we are rarely together in that sense anymore. We haven�t really done anything in about the last two years or so. We have made some indefinite plans to doing something together again in the future. Other than the fact that I am physically about 350 miles away from everyone else, there is nothing else really stopping us from ever doing anything new together again. Right now we are just trying to sort out the past and we have a lot of that to sort. In the good old daze we did things whenever somebody came around the studios with an idea. Whoever happened to be around, usually it would be me, would help out with it. The next time the others would show up they might contribute something to the tracks, but then again maybe not. Three of us are on the Internet and the fourth lived here for about three years. <Waxman1969> So you email wave files and sequence them? <DesmondFJones> Well that would be the general idea of what we have been planning for a long time to do in the near future, I guess. We just haven�t gotten around to actually doing anything yet. But that has been the idea for at least a couple of years now. I don�t know about now, but at the time that I thought of the idea nobody had ever done that before. We still haven�t done it yet, but we will after we have gotten our past lives all straightened out. Probably it will all have to be in the MP3 64-track format, because it�s so much smaller to work with and upload. We haven�t done anything together for a couple of years now. This was because I was robbed three times in the last couple of years ago and have lost most of my musical instruments. <Waxman1969> That is really a shame. When was the last work that you did together that has seen the light of day? <DesmondFJones> That would have been during the period around 1996 or maybe even as late as 1997. This was when Tom and I did the rest of the final work on the album ON THE ROAD TO GIZA. We have quite a bit of unreleased material still leftover from those days. Tom used to live up here for about three years in my little cabin in the back. That is until June 1998 when he got drunk one night and wrapped my Corvette around a tree down the hill. This was when I was down in Los Angeles on a business trip. <Waxman1969> Oh my, did it kill him or did you do it? <DesmondFJones> Tom got away without so much as even a scratch. I can�t say the same thing for my Vette. I sure would have liked to kill him though! We had already finished whatever it was that we were working on and I didn�t need him hanging around anymore. I just told him to move back to his parent�s house down in Thousand Oaks, California. This of course has been a major factor in that we haven�t done anything together in quite a while. The last time that Dave, Tom and I held a series of PEYOTE COYOTES recording sessions was over three years ago, during the second week in January 1998. After days of setup, we didn�t get much of anything accomplished. By the summer, I was about to get married and Tom was REALLY in the way all of the time. <Waxman1969> I can see how that might be a problem. <DesmondFJones> Well it really was a problem for me! Badfinger used to live together as well, hehehe! <Waxman1969> We all know how well that went. <DesmondFJones> Check out our Recording Sessions pages. They list details for most of the tracks that we have recorded over the years. <Waxman1969> Okay, I will do that. Is there anything else that you would like to add? <DesmondFJones> Most of the reels we have still haven't been properly catalogued yet. That is still going to be a major undertaking. Not one that I would be looking forward to. <Waxman1969> I must go now but I will check you out later. Nice chatting with you. <DesmondFJones> Okay thanks, it has been a pleasure, see ya around. Copyright � 2001 Peyote Coyotes Music Limited. All Rights Reserved |
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