Everyone’s favorite bass player, Newt Davies of the punk band Toxic Dream sits down with us to talk all things Toxic Dream, work on the Journey tribute album, his new tattoo and more.
Punk is not dead and the band Toxic Dream proves that time and time again with each new release. The band’s success has been attributed partly to the on stage chemistry between lead singer, Siren Storm, and guitarist, Kaidan. What really makes the band is bassist, Newt Davies, expert on all things punk, with his unique sound and never-say-die, balls to the wall, attitude. BP: Thanks for the interview Newt. The first thing I have to ask you about is Your bass guitar. I have heard some people say that you aren’t actually Playing a bass, that it’s a cello. Who ever heard of punk rock cello? Newt: Have you ever heard of the 80’s band, The Stray Cats? Lee Rocker Totally uses an upright bass. The first time I seen them I thought that was So punk rock. Everyone thought he was a bit weird for it, you don’t see Rockers using upright basses but it helped give the band their unique sound. BP: The Stray Cats aren’t really punk rock. Newt: Have you not being paying attention, dude? They are totally punk rock. If it wasn’t for the Stray Cats we wouldn’t have the psycho-billy sub-genre of punk. BP: Who else inspired you? Newt: The Sex Pistols, The Exploited, Wendy O, New York Dolls, Billy Idol, Charged G.B.H., The Ramones, The Cramps…Poison Ivy can inspire anyone! BP: Recently Toxic Dream was asked to play on a Journey tribute album. That doesn’t seem like something you guys would do. First, it’s a cover and second, it’s Journey. Newt: Journey is classic arena rock! In their time they were huge! Journey’s music can be so totally punk rock, and we proved it! BP: Rumor is you already filmed a video for it. Newt. Yea, we did. I tried out a new way to play the bass in it, but it’s rather awkward. I don’t think I will be doing that again.
BP: Can you tell us anything else about the video? Newt: Mostly you will have to wait for it to be released. We did have one problem. It was filmed at night down in this warehouse district and we had a huge problem with stray cats and raccoons walking onto the set. It got to the point we almost had to cancel the video. At one point a cat fell asleep between Siren and my drum set. He wasn’t hurting anything so we left him there. If you look closely in the video you can see him, or her. We are considering re-shooting the video if we can get our record company to agree to it. There were some other technical problems. BP: You got some new tattoo work done. Newt: Yea, It’s totally punk rock, isn’t it? That was the first good idea that my girlfriends’ brother has ever had. BP: You have a girlfriend? There are going to be a lot of upset fan girls now that you have admitted that. Newt: I don’t think upset fan girls is reason enough to break up with my girlfriend. BP: Speaking of relationships, everyone is curious what the relationship status is between Kaidan and Siren. Can you tell us anything about that?
Newt: You would have to ask them about that. BP: Something else that is on everyone’s mind. what was the deal with the stage in Sunset Valley? Newt: Well, it seems that Katy Perry thinks that she can just leave her stage props where ever she wants to. The stuff is so not punk rock and since no one would remove them, we refused to perform. The concert has been rescheduled. If they are still there, I have a friend who is into blowing things up and we are really going to have one awesome punk rock pyro show. Just sayin’. We aren’t going to disappoint our fans a second time. BP: Toxic Dream just released their new CD, Screaming for Silence, what was the inspiration for the album?
Newt: Well, Frantic the Spider asked us to do his theme music and it kind of went from there. It’s sort of a concept album, much like Sugar Trash was. name one other band who has written a song, let alone five of them about mimes. BP: So, Toxic Dream has a thing for mimes? Newt: Hell no! They scare the crap out of most of us. Not nearly as much as clowns though. However, you have to give it to mimes. These performance artists, or whatever they call themselves, know that people hate what they do and make fun of them for it but they continue to do it anyway. That is so totally punk rock. BP: What can you tell us about the music on this album? How is it different from other stuff the band has done? Newt: It’s typical Toxic Dream. Lots of power cords, amps turned up to eleven and lots of loud in your face punk rock. We don’t experiment much. We did that back when we were a garage band annoying the neighbors. When Kaidan got his first effect pedal one guy down the road called the cops thinking we were killing geese or something bizarre like that. After that incident we figured out quickly what was and wasn’t going to work for us. BP: It sounds like you got lucky in that respect. Not every band can claim that. Newt: Well, after a few citations for disturbing the peace, we had no choice. We also ended up moving band practice into Kaidan’s basement. It’s a converted fallout shelter from the 50’s, sound proof and has awesome acoustics that you can find nowhere else. We set up our recording studio down there. BP: Does working on A Sim’s Life interfere with the band or vice versa? Newt: Not at all. The two really complement each other in so many ways and A Sim’s Life ends up promoting the band, since you can’t have me without the band. In fact, there is going to be some upcoming installments where the entire band makes an appearance. BP: So, is A Sim’s Life really based on your life? Newt: Actually, it’s based on Jake’s life. He’s a bit of a weirdo and someone thought that he would make great reality TV so, since he’s my roommate, I get no privacy. I am so waiting for an unauthorized sex tape to surface it’s so bad. On second thought that would be totally punk rock. You can check out Newt Davies and rest of Toxic Dream on their new CD, Screaming for Silence.