Artist: Taime Down

Bands: Faster Pussycat/Newlydeads

Venue: Nottingham Rock City, UK

Date: 9th February 2002.

The interview kicked off with Taime telling us about the Tour dates being all over the place -

Taime: I forget where we are at because we just keep going - the whole tour- it's been all these long drives. I mean they're not that long a drive - so it's not that big of a deal - it's just that the riding wasn't done too well.

Tony: Are you getting much rest?

Taime: A little - We'll get rest when we get back home. It's a short tour - they get everything down (roadies etc), like in a matter of a couple of days. Everyone gets used to doing everything and now we're done. The States is like a good 2 1/2 months - I don't even have to go to sound-check because it's the same. They know what I need - monitors and sh*t like that. I just wanna play it (the gig).

Glenn: What made you decide to get 'Faster Pussycat' back together?

Taime: I did that remix record (Beyond the valley of the ultra-vixens). My friend Brian, he wanted me to do a Pussycat record - and I was like no - but I was like 'I'll do a remix album - because I was doing some remix stuff - doing some vocals and some other stuff - and once I did the remix, then it was kinda cool. It was like Summer and then we got an offer to go on the road. I was like yeah, yeah, I don't know - but then I thought about it a bit a little more and I just kinda said well - I'll do it - but I'll do it under my conditions. I just said only me, Greg and Brent (Muscat) and the other three guys from 'The Newlydeads' - Christian, Danny and Chad. Our drummer and bass player and just basically mesh Newlydeads with Pussycat for this tour and do Pussycat the way if we were still doing Pussycat if it hadn't had stopped (it's) where we'd be now anyway - you know what I mean. I mean - I started Faster Pussycat back then. I put that that band together. I was piecing everyone together and I did the same thing with 'The Newlydeads' - they are like good friends of mine - so I figured we would just do this - mix it together. Greg came out with us for a while - but then he had to take care of some personal problems at home so he had to leave - so I just got Christian to step up and for a while Tracii (Guns) was playing with us because L.A. Guns were opening up for us in the States. Tracii just came out and played with us too till Christian got all the stuff down because Christian didn't play on everything. He played on like 4 or 5 songs. So, that was it - mainly it wasn't for no nostalgia type sh*t - it was like - we had like a long year - it was like - let's just go out and tour in the Summer and have a good time - get the f*ck out of town and have some fun.

Glenn: Do you find that if you tried to establish 'The Nelydeads' across here (in the U.K.) it'd be like - Who are 'The Newlydeads' hard because people wouldn't know who they were - so it's easier with Faster Pussycat because they are established?

Taime: Yeah - and we could turn people on to 'The Newlydeads' stuff even though now it's more forged together as one thing now - but well we'll see - once we start workin' on stuff - I mean we've already started workin' on a couple of songs in at my den, back home - when we get back and I wanna start workin' on some new stuff - and if we've got this Summer I wanna be able to have a record out - whether we have a deal - we haven't shopped it but I'm sure we can probably get a deal. The new songs we are workin' on are pretty cool.

Glenn: Yeah, I should imagine you'll do pretty good.

Taime: It's like 'Newlydeads' stuff but more Pussycat style - you know - a little bit more Rock - more guitars 'n' stuff and not so many loops but it's still got that little bit of element.

Glenn: I remember a few months ago - an e-mail came through saying that you'd got so many members of Faster Pussycat and The Newlydeads together and you were gonna call it 'Dead Pussy'.

Taime: Yeah - that tour - the 'Dead Pussy' Tour !!!

Glenn: Yeah - that's cool. What would you say is your favourite material that you've written so far?

Taime: I guess part for 'The Newlydeads' records - well actually the new shit that's on my computer at home cause that's the newer stuff - my favourite stuff's always the new stuff till I write something else new and that becomes old stuff. I mean I like a lot of the sh*t. There's some songs I look back on and I'm like Arrhh !!! What the f*ck was I thinkin'. Just like any artist does when they draw something - they thought it was really cool - and they look at it like 5 years later they're like, 'F*ck, that was sh*t'. But I don't know - I'm pretty happy with the sh*t that I've done - I mean, there's good 'n' bad stuff -I mean we don't play every song - you get sick of stuff too. It's like you listen to it all the time and then you don't listen to it anymore.

Tony: What influences you in the style of music that you play?

Taime: Just sh*t that I like - sh*t that rocks. Sh*t that just moves me, you know - there's no like one particular thing - although there'll be stuff like Nancy Sinatra or Patsy Cline, there will be like Pitshifter or f*ckin' (Nine Inch) Nails or anything, L7 - you know - just all types of music. I like groove so it's like..

Glenn: You don't stick to one thing you see.

Taime: I keep it rock but I don't like stick to one chord change.

Glenn: waht made you set up your own club - 'The Pretty Ugly Club' ?

Taime: I've been doing clubs since 'The Cathouse' days. When I went to Chicago I was doing the Pigface thing and when I came back I was gonna do another club but I wanted to get 'The Newlydeads' together first - get the right people and get that goin' and then get a club goin' and that's what I did and it's been like three years now we've been open - just like one night a week club, called 'The Pretty Ugly Club' on Wednesdays at 'The Dragonfly' - we've just had our three year Anniversary party in December.

Glenn: So it's goin' pretty good?

Taime: Yeah - it's killer !! We've got a bunch of stuff coming up - we've just had Duff's band (Duff McKagan) Loaded play before the night we left - they're fuckin' killer - have you seen 'em yet.

Glenn: I've heard about them.

Taime: They're f*cking good - really good. If they come over - you gotta go see 'em - they're really good. I was really impressed.

Glenn: I actually met Slash's Snakepit at Sheffield Corporation in December 2000.

Taime: Who's in it? - I have no idea who's in this band. Everytime I see 'em it's somebody else.

Glenn: Different members?

Taime: Yeah.

Glenn: Keri Kelli was in the band.

Taime: Was he? He played on the new Newlydead stuff too - he was in 'The Newlydeads' for a little while - then I brought my old guitar player back - but that was a mistake - he was my friend. But Keri's always been a good bud.

Glenn: He's with Jizzy Pearl (Love/Hate) in a bit.

Taime: Yeah - that's right - he's coming out here with Love/Hate. He's the Mr. - he's been in every band - he's such a good guitar player too. He's so good - he just picks up sh*t and if he doesn't have anything comitted right away - it's like, I have a guitar, we'll travel - go do it - go an' have fun. Not sittin' 'round and pickin butt- you know what I mean - there's work to be had - he's a good guitar player. He'll fit in with a lot of different sh*t because he can play anything - so that's cool.

Glenn: What's the interest been like from different kids that haven't heard of 'Faster Pussycat' before or 'The Newlydeads' - what have they been like towards the band? Have they been like - yeah this is cool man?

Taime: Yeah - I hadn't really talk to a whole lot of kids because we've just been on the road - I mean we hang out but most of the places we play or playin' are like over 21 and stuff. But you know - a lot of people just didn't get to see us back then because they were a little young - but like their brothers or sisters listened to the stuff - or even some like their f*ckin' folks - you know what I mean - it's been cool.

This tour we'll be playin' a couple of Newlydead songs - mostly it's like all Pussycat sh*t and some covers at the end. It's been just fun - we've had a good time - we've had a good Summer - it was a fun tour.

Glenn: I noticed you've re-arranged some of the old 'Faster Pussycat' stuff - have you kept some stuff the same and re-arranged some of the other stuff to keep it interesting, like the new version of 'Bathroom Wall' I heard you play in soundcheck?

Taime: Well we just had that remix record but live we pretty much do Pussycat sh*t - we do like a good set and we open up with a remix version of 'Bathroom Wall' and then we do 3 or 4 regular Pussycat songs. Then we do a f*ckin' 'Motorchrist' song - Danny, my Bass player, his little band - you know - they're f*ckin' killer.

He sings and plays Bass and I take a little break for like 2 1/2 minutes - it's a really short song - I just cool off for a second. And then we do a couple of Newlydead songs, a few more Pussycat songs and we just like do a few covers or so?

Paul: Do you have like a set set-list?

Taime: Pretty much - but we add some shit - depending on the times and stuff; how we feel - if someone's sick - we could be like 'cut that one out today, whatever'.

Glenn: What have you found the difference in the Rock Scene now - from what it was in the 80's to what it is now?

Taime: Just less people - there was more of a scene - there was more people. Now it's like it's spread out a lot. I mean a lot of the styles of music - there isn't really a scene - you know what I mean - it's more diverse - Rock's so split up now - there's the like the Slipknot's and the Korn's -and then there's the rock bands which there isn't really a whole lot of - that's another thing too - there not really a whole lot of 'em but it's getting now in L.A. now - which is cool. it just needed a clean house - some new bands form and it's just a matter of some good ones forming you know. The time that we came out was actually, you know, there were a lot of cool people that all came to L.A. at the same time - it was like all around there - like this cool band and that cool band too and then there was this cool band. Like when all those bands go away and do their sh*t, there's nobody else like f*ckin' doin' it - it's like the scen just kinda dies out.

At change of time - a change of music - f*ckin' Nirvana and all that stuff came out and I was like cool with that because I needed a change. I was doing the last f*cking Pussycat record and I was not happy with it - all (the) production. I mean, the Producer, John is a really good guy - we're friends - but - he did the second one with us - he did it the way we wanted to do it. The third one it was done the way we wanted to do it - it wasn't done the way I wanted to do it and I didn't dig it - I just wasn't into it. I wanted to do something else anyway and I'd already started working on different sh*t and then quit and then went to Chicago and dig 'Pigface' with Martin. I did a tour with that - I just needed a change. Music was changing - it was like do I wanna sit there and do - like I said - if 'Faster Pussycat' would have stayed together, we'd have went through some changes.

Glenn: Do you see much of some of the ex-members like Eric Stacy?

Taime: Once in a while - Eric's a little bitter that he didn't get to do this tour but I didn't want him in the band. I fired him before I quit, before I ended the band - he was fired from the band for being an idiot - a heroin addict. I didn't want him in the band then, I don't want him in the band now - I don't wanna be in a band with that guy - he's like a f*ckin' liability - a headache - Danny rules!!! The Newlydeads band is a great band just by having Greg and Brent and just bringin that Old School element into it was cool. I mean - we might do some stuff too with Greg again just with this whole trip and just have time. I just didn't have time to talk with him about it. But maybe this Summer when we go on the road. Greg's a reaaly good guy - there was just some sh*t he had to take care of - some personal stuff to deal with and it came out at a bad time for us - it kind of p*ssed me off a bit - but just at the moment. I talked to him about a week later to make sure he was doing O.K. - he's good. I talk to Greg - I stay in contact with him.

Paul: You said you do a lot of recording at home - what sort of kit do you use?

Taime: I have a Pro-tools rig. I used to run A-Dats 'n' stuff and I had Studio-vision before with audio-sync - now I just got a f*ckin' bad-ass 24 mix plus rad hard-drives. And we've got the pods so we're gonna get a V drum kit set up in there too - but right now we've just been programming drums. We go over to Gilby's (Gilby Clarke -ex G'n'R) and Chad's - he's got a little studio set up there too so Chad'll just go there and bang out some beats and bring 'em to me on a disk and I'll just f*ckin' cut 'em up and make some loops, and just write some sh*t and then we'll arrange some sh*t and then we'll go over and have 'em re-track it with fills - go down the rehearsal room and bang it out. Then I'll have 'em played to a click and put loops in or whatever.

Paul: So you kind of like almost produce your own demos before they go onto the studio.

Taime: Yeah - in fact, it's not even that - those Newlydeads records and the remix records were all done right there - they weren't done anywhere else. All the drums are all programmed too.

Paul: How long have you been using technology?

Taime: Since I left Faster Pussycat. I was learning it before I left in '92/'93. I mean I got into computers in 89/90 - I got into 'em through doing like graphics 'n sh*t - I'm like cool. I still couldn't even program a drum machine - I mean I did - I just let 'em write songs and just hit play - doin' changes 'n' that and recording with it. But then I started getting into computers and learning sequencing on the computer - that regular sequencing and sh*t - the Yarmar sequencers and sh*t like that - it was like 'F*ck it'. Greg knew how to do that sh*t but it'd go in one ear and out the other - but when I could see it -it was like 'Yes' !!!

I've got the 512 Version of Pro-tools or something like that. There's so much sh*t to learn on those things - as long as you get productive on it. It's like 'oh f*ck', I've been doing this one move for like a year and you realise that oh - you just do this and it'll do that for you - I was like, well whatever - as long as I get something done. Then I'll forget and I'll be gone for like six months or whatever and I'll come back and I'll be like 'How the f*ck did I do that? I figured out some killer way to do that.

Glenn: It goes straight out your head.

Taime: Yeah, I'll call up Tim Scholder once a week and have him give me a new tip - cause he just sits there and says all this sh*t the the whole time.

Glenn: Do you find it easier to work using the computer as opposed to setting all the kits up and the guitars and laying it all down?

Taime: Oh no - we have our guitars all there - but not f*ckin' rewind - it's just like that - you don't have to wait for the tape to go back again - plus like what's happenin' on tape - we can like rock out at like any time - you know - late we can just put on some headphones too and just blast our ears off - or just whatever - it's cool !! I can sit here by myself - work on shit. I don't need someone else to hit play or whatever like that - I can work on shit. I love it - I've learned so much about the sound design - buidin' stuff 'n' mixin'. You know - that's what I got into - recording stuff. You wanna start off on a 4 track and just build it up. We had like 48 tracks of A-dats all f*ckin' linked up to like 8 tracks on Audio-Media, Pro-tools before I got the Pro-tools rig - so we had like editing and then we had like an A-dat bridge thing too - so we could dump the sh*t and then we got rid of all the A-dats - we kept 2 or 3 - we keep them just for the live show for a backing tape when we do 'The Newlydeads' sh*t or the remix sh*t - we got loops goin'. All the Newlydead shit is running on tape and on the remix track. All the other stuff is just like straight ahead live - but not all of our stuff - all the guitars are live - it's just the weird sh*t that you can't really recreate live - like some of the weird loops. I mean all the Newlydead stuff's all programmed shit anyway, but like all the 4/4 beats and like stuff like that and changes 'n' sh*t - those are not there - just like the weird loops that come in and out - those are running on and Chad just plays with a click on those.

Glenn: Taking you back to the 80's - how did you get involved with 'The Decline of Western Civilisation - Part 2 - The Metal years' documentary film? that's how I first found out about you guys !!!

Taime: Brent's brother was going out with Penelope's daughter - or hangin' out - I'm not sure exactly - but she came to my club - 'The Cathouse' and it was like the club to go to at that time - so that's how we just got involved with that. Actually, she used our music in another movie she did called 'Dudes' - she used the 'Bathroom Wall' track - that was kinda cool - paid us like 2 grande for it - it was 4 grande or something we got for it - I got like 2 grande because I wrote it - so it was cool. It was like the first time I had had a song in a movie - it was like a movie - whereas decline was like a rockumentary.

Glenn: What was 'Dudes' about because I've never even heard about it?

Taime: I forget - it was about the same time - I think it was right after. I can't remember - I think like 'John Crier' was in it - the guy in 'Pretty in Pink' - he was the duckie - I can't remember what it was about. I remember this - it was in a restaurant when the song was on. I only saw it once - and that was like back in '87 or '88. I don't even remember what that movie's about.

Glenn: What would you say your greatest memories are of the time with 'Pussycat' in the late 80's?

Taime: F*ck !!! We had a lot of good times - that's the whole thing about that, when it went bad it was just was just kind of like 'F*ck it - let's just f*ckin' change - but coming over here and headlining - selling out the Hammersmith - playing Glasgow - the Barrowlands and packin' that - that was really a lot of fun. Touring with Motley Crue was pretty cool - but at the time they were like trying to be sober but I think they were full of sh*t - I think they were f*ckin bullsh*ttin' - they were keeping it a secret from us because, I don't know - they might have been clean, sober - I don't know - it's no big deal they are really cool -but we are f*ckin' gettin' crazy. We are like 'f*ckin' come on guys - come on party because I'd known those guys for a while and it was cool to be able to tour with 'em.

Glenn: What will you do when you get back (to the States)?

Taime: Work on some new songs - relax a little bit.

Glenn: Have you got any good stories you can recollect ?
Taime: Never dude !!! All the good stories you can never remember because you're like too f*cked up.

Glenn, Paul and Tony: Thank you for your time Taime

Taime: Oh, man - thank you guys and enjoy the show.

'Triple Rock Salute'

Glenn,Taime & Paul