1. How was the European tour?
Very rewarding. All the musicians were great and the audiences were warm
and very appreciative. I had a good time talking with the people who came to
the shows and I connected with a lot of really good people. I loved the tour.
2. You didn´t have electricity in a gig in Manchester? What happenned
then?
It was an acoustic gig at a music shop, so Bryan Beller and I simply unplugged and sat on the front of the stage and told the people to crowd in as
close as they could. It wasn't all the electricity in the building that went
out, just the power on stage, so we had a very good time singing and playing literally unplugged, just like the good old days.
3. Lately, you are very fond of the acoustic format? Is it related to your collaboration with Taylor´s acoustics guitars?
Very much so. Becoming so involved with Taylor has given me a lot of opportunities to play acoustically, since they've been booking a lot of clinics
for me and Bryan. It's a very different type of musical communication than
the electric format and I appreciate it a lot.
4. I think I have read in your web you are prepearing a new album with
Beer For Dolphins. Can you advance us something about the recording and your new album?
Actually we dropped the name Beer For Dolphins quite a while ago; we're just called Mike Keneally Band now. The new album will be my current live
band, which is a quartet (me, Beller, Rick Musallam and Nick D'Virgilio). It's
the sound of four guys playing loud and having a good time. We've been
playing a lot of the new songs live and the recording of the album is going great, although everyone in the band has been very busy so it's taking a long time to complete. I'm hoping to finish the recording in August and September.
5. Both Wooden Smoke and Dancing were very well wellcomed by both critics and public. What do yo expect for the next one? I mean, from your personal point of view, this implies a big responsability when facing a new work?
No special responsibility, or nothing different than it's always been, which is just for me to the very best work that it's possible for me to do. All
I want for the new album is for it to be an accurate document of the way this band sounds, and for the songs to be good. So far the recordings for the
new album are real powerful (it's more of a high-energy electric rock album than
I've
done for a long time), and I expect the next batch of recordings to be at least as good as what we've done so far.
6. Tell us something about that project with the Metropole Orchestra
On June 8, at the Holand Festival in Amsterdam, I'll be premiering my first composition for orchestra, a 45-minute piece called "The Universe Will Provide." The Metropole is a 50-piece orchestra which features a
full electric rhythm section in addition to conventional orchestral instruments, and I'm the soloist on electric guitar. The piece is in eight movements, is extremely
complex and high energy. We'll have four days of rehearsal to prepare for the performance so I'm very excited about the results. Later in the year I'll
be returing to Holland to record the piece in the studio with the Metropole, with
the
goal to release the work on CD before the end of the year. The studio
recording will feature additional music which we won't be doing at the live Holland Festival performance.
7. When you don´t play with your habitual musicians or with Beer for Dolphins, as you are going to do now with Toss Panos in the Baked Potato,
which are the songs you play, Mike´s ones or you guys make a different
show?
For the show I did last month at the Baked Potato with Toss and Doug Lunn (who were the original Beer For Dolphins rhythm section), we played only songs from my first two albums, "hat." and "Boil That Dust
Speck," and had a fantastic time. Whenever I play with different musicians, I try to play as many different songs as possible, to keep things fresh and interesting. I
don't enjoy playing the same songs over and over again too much.
8. Is it true that you have recorded a double cd of Pink Floyd songs? Why Pink Floyd?
No; my band recorded only one Pink Floyd song ("Astronomy Domine"),
and it appears on a new double CD of Floyd covers called "A Fair Forgery Of Pink Floyd." There's something like 30 different bands on the album.
9. Your songs cover a great variety of styles, but about all they show a great sense of humor, very Zappa-Humor, in fact a big number of musician
that have belong to his band, show this style in some occasions, is it by
chance
or is it because of a deep influence of Zappa in your music?
I had a strange sense of humor as a child, and when I heard Frank's music for the first time I knew it was the right music for me. I would say that the
humor in my music is somewhat influenced by the strong presence of Frank in my life, but mostly it's just me being me.
10. So one good day you picked up the phone and called Fank Zappa and told him you wanted to play in his band and that you knew all his songs& And
that was the way you came into Frank´s band?
Well, I had to pass an audition too, but yes, that's how it started!
11. Did Tricia do something similar to play in Beer For Dolphins?
No; when I produced Chris Opperman's first solo album in Boston in 1998, she was the percussionist for those sessions. She was fantastic and we got
along great; and a couple of years later when she moved to Los Angeles it made sense for me to ask her to join my band.
12. It is very usual that you incorporate in your guitar songs, voice. A clear example is Beautiful. Where does this habit come from? Is it
spontaneous?
In the case of "Beautiful," that was indeed influenced quite a bit by
some of Frank's work, like "Jazz Discharge Party Hats," where he had Steve Vai
transcribe Frank's vocal and overdub the melody on guitar. I played
"Jazz Discharge" live at the Zappa's Universe performances, doing the vocal and
guitar parts simultaneously, and I enjoyed that sensation quite a bit so I decided to arrange "Beautiful" that way so I could do it in one of my own
pieces. It's very fun to do, and not exactly spontaneous as it required a lot of practice to learn to play and sing it properly.
13. Since always you have been very united to Fender as the main source of your sound, but what can you tell us about the rest of your equipment?
My main amplifier is a Rivera Hundred Duo-Twelve, a fairly small 100 watt amp with two 12 inch speakers. These days the only device I use is a Boss
Hyper Metal pedal. I'm not so interested in guitar effects these days and have
been really enjoying exploring the possibilities of a very basic guitar-and-amp configuration. Also the tone of the guitar is so much better when there's
not a lot of rack units and stomp boxes getting in the way. I get tonal
variation with the hands and guitar itself, which is the most rewarding way for me.
14. Can we see you some day in Spain?
Thank you for asking; nothing is booked yet, but I hope to make it there one of these days!