What a nice surprise to
find the original line-up of Exciter back at work! I discovered this by chance
only as I only noticed the Band releasing some unrelevant albums with just John
Ricci remaining from the initial line-up during the last years, so after checking
the homepage of the Band it was clear to contact the guys and try to get an
interview (after all, our little mag managed to be mentioned on 2
Exciter-Albums which makes us proud even today..). John replied right away,
questions were sent and Bassist Allan Johnson together with John Ricci took the
time out to send detailed and honest replies that you can read below:
First and most important, how did you come back together? Meeting at
the shop you work, was it that easy?? I read you didn´t talk for
20 years and then in comes Dan and you get back together again –
I guess you need a special magic to get together so quickly after such
a long time?!
John Ricci: After the demise of the
last version of Exciter (1996-2013) my plan was to take a year off and
re-assess what I was going to do musically. I needed that time off to
clearly think about my next effort. I didn`t even want to think about
music or deal with musicians I just wanted to focus on my other passion
which is restoring classic cars and just chilling out with no stress.
During all of Exciter`s career I`ve always had a regular day job, so
one day Dan came to my workplace, as soon as I saw him I knew he was
going to ask to get back together. He told me he knew about the
previous version of Exciter breaking up and whatever I decided to
do musically he and Allan would back me up. At first I was hesitant
because I wasn`t sure how it would turn out but after about a week I
decided might as well go for it because there were so many fans around
the world wishing that the original Exciter would re-unite. The reason
the 3 of of us hadn`t spoken to each other for so many years is
because there was no need to. I was happily playing with my version of
Exciter and Dan and Allan had the Beehler band for a number years.
Allan Johnson: What happened in the
months leading up to this was many phone conversations between Dan and
I, he was over as far as doing the Beehler project and I had quit that
band a few years back but he kept saying how much he wanted to do an
Exciter reunion and I was really sceptical, I kept telling him it would
never happen, well apparently you’re never supposed to say never
(haha). Once he did approach John we had to wait about a week before he
made his decision, we were pretty much crapping our pants wondering if
he’d say yes or no. Dan and I both understood how John felt and
that he may have needed a break from the whole scene, and that worried
us, that perhaps it wasn’t the right timing, but it didn’t
take long for him to make a decision and we were pretty happy when he
agreed.
Reading the Liner-Notes to the re-released Exciter-CDs I always thought
that one could read the enthusiasm out of every line, Allan and Dan
seeming very fond of the good old days and also seeming very proud of
what you achieved despite being out of the band at the time – so
why did it take so long to get back together again when there seems so
much fondness when looking back to the past?
John Ricci: Ironically I was not
involved the re-issues. Basically Dan and Allan took care of all of it.
Nevertheless the 3 of us all have fond memories of our struggle to be
recognized as a solid identity in the metal world. We worked hard from
the time of our formation in 1979 till today actually. I`m not sure why
it took so long for us to get back together, maybe Dan or Allan can
answer that better than I can? All I know I kept playing over the years
because music is like a drug for me and you can never get enough, ha,
ha!
Allan Johnson: We do have a lot of
fond moments and when we travel together or if we’re in rehearsal
we often bring up some pretty funny stories and cool memories. As far
as reuniting is concerned, Dan and John first approached me back in the
early 90’s to get back together again but it was not the right
time for me, I had settled down in a serious relationship and I
didn’t want to get back in to the music industry again where I
felt there was no money to be made, I felt like I had exhausted the
whole Exciter effort and I didn’t want to go back and play those
old songs again, if I had decided to do anything during this time
period it would have been to do something different. But I truly
believe that everything happens for a reason and the timing of our
eventual reunion in 2014 was just meant to be, it was perfect
timing for all of us. I think it’s perfect timing as far as the
heavy metal industry is concerned too as there’s been a huge
interest in 80’s metal again.
What did Dan and Allan do during their absence from Exciter? Never
heard again from them in terms of other bands/albums in contrast to
Exciter who continued to release albums.
Allan Johnson: Well I can’t
totally speak for Dan, I know that he spent many years working on his
Beehler project and maybe a few other things as well some of which I
was involved with and some I wasn’t. As for me, after I left
Exciter in the late 80’s I totally retired from the music
business, but let me back up for a second, as for the band situation it
wasn’t so much that I retired it was that I got kicked out of the
band. It was sometime in 1989 I think, we had recorded the self-titled
EXCITER album and we were being managed by the same company as our
record company, they were not doing anything for us, no promotion, no
touring, nothing. The band had been idle for a very long time, we had
not played live for a long time and our morale was very low. During
this time I had gotten into a very serious relationship and moved in to
an apartment with my then girlfriend, in order to pay the bills I had
to take any job I could get as the band was not playing. I don’t
even think we were rehearsing at the time because there was nothing
happening, I recall feeling kind of disconnected from the rest of the
guys, and I felt sorry for Rob Malnati too as we had got him to move to
Ottawa with his girlfriend so we could be closer. So one day out of the
blue I get a call from Dan, he was really angry, he had had a falling
out with Brian and kicked him out of the band. I can’t remember
how much time had passed but I’m sure it was only a matter of a
week or two later Rob called me up and told me I was kicked out of the
band as well, he was speaking on behalf of Dan I think, I’m sure
with such a history between him and I he didn’t want to be the
one to give me the news. I think that there was a lot going on at the
time that I did not know about, this was the first time during the
band’s career that I settled into a serious relationship and I
was so involved in it that I didn’t want to leave and go on tour
again. I was really unsure about the band’s future and so
personally for me it was a good time to get out, I was actually
relieved I got kicked out; it was like a huge weight was lifted off my
shoulders. After that I didn’t do anything musically, I was fed
up with the business, I was fed up with getting screwed by everyone,
not making any money but everyone else was making money off of us. I
jammed once with Brian McPhee and Jacque Belanger who were talking
about starting a band but nothing became of that. I sold everything I
had and I didn’t pick up a bass guitar until I started playing
again with Dan on his Beehler project back in 2002.
Any plans for a new album or do you consider this useless in times when
CD-sales are going down? Being used to preferring complete albums over
downloads I’d love to see a new CD by Exciter…and surely a
lot of fans, too….
Allan Johnson: We’ve been
talking about an album from day one, right away we all agreed it had to
be like the original Exciter material, same formula that we did on the
first three albums. This is something that I’m really looking
forward to but we have to take our time and not rush it, it has to be
the very best or fans are going to be disappointed. So we have this
massive amount of material between the three of us and not much time to
bring it all together, since the reunion we’ve had many requests
to play worldwide and so between all these shows and our own personal
lives there is not a lot of time we can devote to writing together,
we’re currently working on pre-production on an individual basis
to try and speed things up a bit. We’re all fully aware though on
the state of CD sales and that even the most famous of artists cannot
rely on music sales for income, live performances are the only way of
generating money these days. Personally I still buy CD’s, I like
something tangible, something I can hold in my hands, look at the cover
and the pictures and read the inside. It’s too bad that a lot of
people don’t support their favourite bands by buying the CD.
If you plan to do (or already have) new songs, which direction would these go? No big changes hopefully?!
Allan Johnson: The way I’m
looking at it is that the ideal situation would be to look at this as
album #4, what we would have come out with if we hadn’t parted
ways after Long Live the Loud. I don’t see any big changes, we
are what we are, anything we come out with is going to sound like
Exciter, there’s no way it couldn’t. When I joined up with
Dan to do the Beehler project we kept trying not to write songs like
Exciter songs but we kept coming out with song after song where we said
“no, sounds too much like Exciter”, it had to be a Beehler
album not Exciter. But the first song Dan and I wrote together was
Destroy and in the end the fans kept saying this song sounded the most
like classic Exciter, we had to agree. Now that Dan and I are back in
the band we can finally let out the Exciter songwriting that is still
inside of us, and so far the ideas we’re coming out with are
pretty damn good. It’s so great to be playing with John again,
everything comes natural again, it’s all organic.
Did you ever fully realize which influence Exciter had on other Bands
and note the kind of pioneering role you had when releasing “HM
Maniac” / the Status that you have within the Metal-Scene? Or did
it take some years to get to this point?
Allan Johnson: During the 90’s I
was unaware of the major impact we had had on so many fans, many of
whom went on to become musicians themselves, I had no idea that we had
influenced so many people, and it’s only now that I’m
hearing it from all angles. Back then I had no computer or internet
until the mid 90’s and even then it was so primitive, there was
no social media, no real good connection with the outside world. Once I
got back with Dan to do the Beehler project I started to really realize
it. We were in demand instantly to do live shows, but everyone wanted
to hear Exciter songs, they were promoting us as the 2/3’s of
Exciter. That says a lot right there, they really wanted the “two
thirds”, now they’ve got three out of three and the demand
is even higher now. Having traveled as much as we have since this thing
got off the ground I’ve been in contact with many fans and
I’m continually blown away by the impact we not only had in the
past but now as well. I have been running our Facebook page Exciter
Original and for the first time ever I can be in contact instantly with
fans all over the world, it’s amazing. It just makes me want to
continue and influence more people in a positive way.
Do you miss the days from way back then in the 80s with what went on in
the growing underground like Tape trading? Being a fanzine writing
letters and including issues from our mags never being sure to arrive
and/or ever get a reply was tough…so this is easier now but the
magic of those days cannot be repeated…what do you think?
Allan Johnson: There are a lot of
things I miss about the 80’s, it was an incredible tidal wave of
new heavy metal and I was aware of the underground tape trading and all
that but I never did any of that, just never had the desire to do that,
the sound quality was so terrible. I liked going down to the local
record store and looking for new releases, there was nothing like the
feeling of coming home and slapping on a new vinyl record. Later on I
was disappointed to go into a record store and see the increase in
tapes and the decrease in vinyl; tapes were so inferior in quality and
so small, the inside liners had such small pictures and not a lot to
read.
What I always wanted to know is why was “Feel the knife”
left off “Long live the Loud”? Was it planned that there
would be an EP where you needed a new song for? For me this is one of
the best songs by Exciter out of all the great stuff you did and would
have upgraded a great album ever further.
Allan Johnson: I can’t really
remember but I think it was more of a decision by the record company we
were with. It was a thing back then to have extra songs recorded so the
record company could release them on compilation albums and EP’s.
How do you consider the whole music-scene of today? Isn´t it a
kind of overkill when everything can be heard online easily? On youtube
you can hear thousands of legendary albums and it´s hard not
switching from one to another after just one song as younger people
seem to do. You don´t need to discover anything anymore, how do
you see that?
Allan Johnson: I think it’s not
so much that you don’t need to discover anything anymore;
it’s that you can discover things much faster and easier,
we’re living in the age where all information is immediately at
our fingertips and that’s great. The only thing that is not
around anymore is the mystique, the mystery behind your favorite bands
and what they’re up to. You had to wonder, you had to wait until
an interview came out or a press release or whatever. Now it’s
like everything is taken for granted, there’s no anxiously
awaiting going on anymore. As far as today’s music scene I can
only assume you mean the heavy metal scene? Because if I get into the
broader scale I could go on forever on how rap is not really music and
that hip hop is crap and so on and so on….. I’m only
really focused on what we’re doing now and that is riding the
current wave of the massive resurgence of 80’s metal. My theory
is that new metal got so saturated with the same style, same sound,
same everything that metal fans around the world went back to the true
roots of metal and the NWOBHM.
Do you follow / what do you think of today’s metal-bands? There
seem to be millions of them with all sorts of Metal being played…
Allan Johnson: Well I don’t
really follow the scene at all, a good friend of mine tried to turn me
on to all kinds of new metal bands and every single one of them sounded
like the exact same band, same style of music, same vocals, same
everything. I swear I couldn’t tell the difference between any of
them and I couldn’t bear to listen to them either. There are not
a lot of bands that really catch my attention but once in a while one
comes along a band that really turns my head. Recently I heard Crystal
Viper and they are absolutely amazing, real talent, real musicianship,
real singing and real songwriting. It’s the same with Attacker
and Mike LePonds Silent Assassins, real metal and once again real
singing, totally incredible. I try to stay away from listening to other
metal bands though because I don’t want it to influence my song
writing in any way.
So, to end this as we did 25 years ago – any final words to our readers?
Allan Johnson: I just want to say a
big thanks to all our fans both old and new; it’s so great to
continue to have the support of so many. It’s very humbling and
we all appreciate it. It is still so surprising to see such a wide age
group come out to our shows, I see fans from 19 to 65 out there decked
out in denim and leather and thrashing out with Exciter, it’s
great. We’re having the time of our lives and loving every
moment. Long Live the Loud!
This is it! We honestly
feel pleased for the guys to play as many gigs as possible as this is the only
way to get some money in nowadays (a tour of south America is announced
together with Sacred Reich if I read it correctly) and we still hope for a new
album by the Band to blow some heads off! Until then, revisit the Classic “HM
Maniac”, Violence and Force” and “Long live the Loud” Albums and learn why
Exciter are one of the main forces in metal-history, referred to by so many
Bands and Fans.
Frank
