Asides

DOWNLOAD: “Sweet Chariot” from Dead Child’s Attack

Though he’s played in indie rock bands far removed from the metal scene (Slint, Tortoise, Stereolab, Royal Trux) and served time in Billy Corgan’s short-lived post-Smashing Pumpkins band Zwan, guitarist David Pajo is really just a shredder at heart.

During the Slint reunion tour in 2005, Pajo, Michael McMahan, and Todd Cook started talking about putting together a metal band that paid homage to the bands they grew up listening to (Maiden, Priest, Motorhead) and shortly thereafter they hooked up with other Louisville, Kentucky musicians Tony Bailey and Dahm to form Dead Child.

Dead Child’s debut full-length, Attack, was just released on Quarterstick Records and the band is currently in the midst of a short run of tour dates.

I sent Pajo some questions last week and here’s what he had to say:

Message boards are lame, anonymous users with the freedom to say what they want without being held accountable. That being said, you’ve been taken to task by a few posters on the Donewaiting message board essentially as being a “fake” metal musician. And Dead Child has been mentioned in the same breath as bands who supposedly previously wouldn’t claim their “metalness”, if you will, but now are perceived as jumping on the bandwagon. So I ask you, Mr. Pajo, would you care to silence your anonymous, hiding behind a name, “critics”?

This is a bummer but I anticipated this kind of backlash. It’s a risk for us to call ourselves a metal band and it would be just as easy for us to drop it. But we set out to form a metal band so why refer to it as anything else? I’m trying to get away from this elitist bullshit! Besides, aren’t there more fruitful efforts to pursue while we orbit on this tiny pebble than sorting out what’s metal and what’s not? Metal is a broad fucking term – ultimately, it’s just music and attitude.

I understand the sentiment though – poser metal (hair metal) was a real problem in the 80s and I used to hate those guys/bands. But these days it’s not so much of an issue, except for that nu metal shit. Hot Topic metal. I think you’ll see more and more people like me coming in (or back) from other genres that have finally ‘seen the light.’ I think this should be welcomed because it will help expand and fortify the genre. It’ll be interesting to see what develops from these new influences. What I’m trying to say is, I understand that metal is precious to you and you have every right to be suspicious but please judge us on our music. Not our recorded history (which only tells a fraction of the story). If it’s not your cup of tea, we are easily ignored.

I don’t know why people would think we’re jumping on some sort of bandwagon, it’s not like I’m milking the market dry. I’ve had prominent people in the indie rock world, people who I thought were friends, turn their back on me for “committing career suicide.” Quarterstick is pushing the record as hard as they can but we’re all still broke, sleeping on floors, averaging $100 a show, playing to tiny crowds. I’m 40 years old, We got $0 the last two times we played out and they were legitimate shows! I’ve been doing this shit for a long time. Yes, I gave up a successful career in the indie rock world and my old friends don’t talk to me any more. But I can’t deny where my heart is, and I can’t help that it’s 100% in metal.

To those anonymous critics that never experienced life before cell phones, internet, MTV, and compact discs:

• My front four teeth are fake because the Louisville Outlaw bikers knocked them out at the Iron Maiden concert in Louisville, KY in 1983. It was their ‘Piece of Mind’ tour and Fastway and Saxon opened. It must have been their first tour with their new drummer, Nicko McBrain. Fuck you.
• My first band was a metal/hardcore crossover band called ‘Maurice’. We did a tour opening for Samhain in 85? 86? I think ‘Unholy Passion’ had just come out. Glenn called my parents house months after the tour because he was forming a solo band called Danzig and he liked my guitar playing (I could shred way better then). I never called him back because we had just started Slint and I didn’t want to play show-off guitar anymore. FUCK you.
• I was playing Malmsteen licks when he was in Alcatraz – Rising Force hadn’t started yet. I saw Metallica with Cliff and they slayed. Fuck you and YOU.
• FUCK YALL.

Continue reading “Dead Child – David Pajo proves he’s “metal””