Hi Bryce, may we grant you a warm welcome indeed. Ok let's get right back to the start. So please tell us when, where and who tripped your descendance into this world of Rock N Roll?
Bryce Wayt ; Hey!! Thanks for having us! Rock N Roll first got its hooks in me at a young age. My parents divorced when I was five, so already I'm stacking up the credentials. The event kinda flipped my switch and made me a little angry, which is fertile ground for Rock N Roll's influence. My mom loved late seventies radio rock like Foreigner and Zeppelin. My dad was responsible for getting me into The Ramones, Elvis Costello, The Smiths and more So Cal radio kinda stuff. My mom remarried with a guy named Rick Gaxiola when I was seven, and Rick played guitar. He wasn't just good, he was amazing.
Bryce's cool stepdad and rescuer Rick Gaxiola sat middle dripping in leather!
He was a shit hot LA touring and session guitarist in the late sixties, seventies, and a little into the eighties. He got burnt by his management and the industry and later became my dad, raising me to be a bad little motherfucker. He got me into Steve McQueen and Eastwood movies, guns, camping, working on cars...and GUITAR. He and my mom divorced when I was about twelve , but he stayed in my life and took me to buy my first guitar when I was thirteen years old at a guitar shop in Portland, Oregon. I bought a black Squier Strat for one hundred and ninety nine dollars with my own money that I had saved from working maintenance at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds in Newport, OR. This would have been in like ‘94. That could have been ground zero for when Rock really got me. Took the guitar back to his place, watched The Crow, and figured out a STP song by ear. Once I had the guitar I was completely obsessed with being able to write and perform songs, and I've never stopped.
Wowie! I knew this was going to be a story and a half! OK getting the guitar we can move on to but, first tell us about working at the fairgrounds. Now that for an aspiring young rock n roller that must have been tricky yeah? Take us into a trials and tribulations that funded that first guitar
B . W ; Ha! Yeah, the fairgrounds job was an adult dose. I dropped out of eighth grade a few months before summer break and moved from my Dad's house in Southern California to my Mom's in Oregon. Instead of enrolling back in middle school, I was allowed to just get a job, for some shitty reasons that I learned later. haha. I got the job from my Mom's new husband who was the principal of the middle school in Newport, OR. That dude hated me, and I hated his guts right back! He was on the city council and pulled some strings to get me hired. It seemed like he was doing me a solid, but there were two huge reasons to get me the job. He didn't want me around the house during the summer, and he didn't want to be my principal for a couple months. I was the only Punk Rocker in all of Lincoln County, and it was a huge embarrassment to have this gnarly kid with liberty spiked hair, eyeliner, nail polish, homemade anarchy vest, and plaid pants associated with him. I was just covered and smothered in safety pins!! The job was eight hours a day of back breaking labour, but I was working with a bunch of wild old men who took me under their wing. I learned how to drive heavy machinery, smoke cigarettes while roofing, and how to be a dude. I was also getting paid!!! I took my first couple checks and bought myself an amp and a guitar. I remember carrying railroad ties that weighed a few hundred pounds each, but pretending they were guitars as I struggled to move them. Once I got that first guitar and amp I practiced constantly. Not so much chords and scales, but jumps, power slides, rocker stances, and cool faces. I learned chords by watching Nirvana and Green Day concerts and pausing when there was a close up on the guitar neck. I still kinda learn that way. So summer ended and I enrolled in Newport High School. Home life was rough. My mom took my guitar away any chance she got. It was the ultimate for her and she loved to make me suffer. It was very frustrating because my guitar was my primary interest. It was painful to not play. She kept all my job money in her purse and didn't allow me to access it. I got wise to this, and when she wasn't looking, I found my money and took out fifty dollars to buy a black spray-painted Electra Les Paul from some kid at school. That was my "secret guitar", and I'd sneak off with it and work on my licks. The last day of school before Christmas break, my Mom let me know that I was going to be living with my Dad again because she didn't want me. I was furious, but also relieved because living with her was a goddamned nightmare.
My Dad is a pretty cool dude. From then on, my two sisters and I lived with my Dad, and the youngest three kids stayed with my Mom. Dad was cool, took us to concerts, showed us rad albums, and encouraged our artistic development. He loved our outrageous clothes and hairstyles. He was incredibly supportive when we started playing music together. My sister Rachel, who was a year younger than me, started playing bass, and in a matter of days we could play “Time Bomb” by Rancid. My other sister Mallory, who was a few years younger was holding down the rhythm section with canned keyboard drums and the Hammond organ parts. Committing this to tape and playing it for my Dad in the car kinda blew his mind and gave me a pretty good feeling. I liked listening to records of myself!!! Haha! Soon Rachel and I started a Punk band called The Anti Socials, and we were modelled after The Ramones. We recorded an EP that is on Spotify and YouTube. We played lots of backyard scumbag keggers in Moreno Valley and Riverside California. The hook was set!
Talk about whirlwind dude! OK your dad was a cool cat and took you to gigs so, which were they and which ones stood out at the time and also now with your rock n roll hindsight?
B . W ; Yeah, he's a good dude. My first show ever was The BFD at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. in ‘97. This was an all-day outdoor festival with tons of bands. The Wayt's were there to see Social Distortion, who was a family favourite. This was my first concert, and first of many times seeing Social D. The headliner was The Cure. As the day began I kept seeing all these freaky people in all black with outrageous hair and makeup. I asked my dad what the deal with these people and he was said they were probably there for The Cure. In my mind, The Cure was going to probably be the gnarliest, most hardcore thing of all time. Fast forward to the end of the night when they come out and... they're The Cure. At the time, I didn't understand how anybody could get excited about music without crunchy guitars. Blur played that day, and I was a big fan. They hadn't yet released “13”, but they played a few songs that would be on it, including "Chinese Bombs", which they dedicated to the Chinese Punks. I thought that song was excellent, and it was a highlight. "Song 2" was a big single then and they bumped hard. Dick Dale played twice that day. Somebody cancelled and Dick filled the slot. It was very exciting both times. Echo and The Bunnymen played, and they're one of my all-time favourites. At the time, I was confused about why a band would choose such a goofy name. Dad had heard that Erasure would sometimes perform with a giant inflatable cock on stage, and he was worried that my sisters would be exposed to some inappropriate shit, but Erasure had more family friendly stage props, and all I remember is that it was electronic and they wore PJs. I did see some lesbian underboob, which for a fifteen-year-old, is very cool. By the end of the night, I had seen a truckload of bands, including Squirrel Nut Zippers, Fiona Apple, and a few bands that I despised, like Third Eye Blind and Toad The Wet Sprocket. It was a "rock by the pound" kinda lineup, and it got me rolling. From then on Dad would take me to see The Muffs, The Mr. T Experience, Groovie Ghoulies, The Queers, and whatever other pop-punk-ish bands that were in Southern California. We went to a few Warped Tours, Hootenanys, and even something called Ska Against Racism. Tons of shows. Kinda, too many to remember. We saw The Cramps, Buck Owens, Chichilia Bartoli, Elvis Costello. While Dad still lived in Michigan a few years ago, he took my wife and I to see Social Distortion for the millionth time. He's living his best life in Thailand now and still catching shows. He just sent me some pictures of him seeing Green Day.
Geez it's like a who didn't you see back then. OK so the punk in you was firmly set and also you saw everyone flying their freak flag! Great times. OK now you have this background in punk so tell us where and when and who started your trip down the glam rock route?
2014 Dreams come true. Bryce and Anthony Langdon
B . W ; My first Glam rush probably came in ‘96 after seeing "In The Meantime" by Spacehog on MTV. They looked and sounded triumphant, and although I didn't immediately identify this as Glam, I was rocked. In ‘96, Bowie was still Jareth from Labyrinth to me. I hadn't really connected the dots that he was an actual singer. Once I had put together what Glam was and I had done some investigation, I totally identified with it. Rock N' Roll was always very alluring to me, and music that had certain qualities resonated with me deeply. I was really into New York Dolls as a kid, but I thought it was early Punk back then. As I got obsessed with Punk, I would watch documentaries and read books that would outline how Ramones were influenced by New York Dolls, Stooges, and Velvet Underground... Then I'd get into the bands who my favourite bands liked and then trace it deeper to get into the music they listened to. So, my obsession with Punk led to an awareness of Glam, and they were both methods of reducing Rock N Roll to bare bones and keeping it dangerous and sexy. There was an event in my life that stands out as when I may have been converted to Glam. One day I went to the movies to see “Billy Elliot”, and the opening scene where Billy is jumping on the bed to "Cosmic Dancer" by T Rex was mind blowing. The production of the song was amazing. I loved the sonic qualities of the acoustic guitar and mellotron. The slap back on the drums and the relaxed vocal delivery all made T.Rex sound very exotic. There were a few other T.Rex tracks in the movie that I picked up on and I couldn't wait to get to the record store. Minutes after seeing the movie I bought a CD of “Electric Warrior”, and it destroyed me. Soooooooo good!! A couple days later I bought “The Slider” and as soon as "Metal Guru" started I had a new favourite band.
Spacehog what a great intro into glam . Yes they were a breath of fresh air back then and some of them ended up in “Velvet Goldmine”, so a great place to start and trace back. So punk was in your orbit but now the glitter and glamour of the best music on the world hit you for six, welcome to the club. Now let's get back to your playing. Working hard to get a guitar then grooving to the punk bands. So, take us into your musical glam journey from your punk roots
B . W ; When I was a kid, my stepdad's bandmates would tell me that Rick was really good at guitar. Like, Rick Gaxiola was clearly of a higher calibre than any of them had ever come across. That really registered with me, and I took a lot of pride in being related to him. Also, I would listen very closely whenever he was playing, and I tried to discern what made him better than others. Rick told me, "use good taste" and "the most important note is the rest", meaning the note you don't play. He told me to use space and tone. Another factor in the way I approach guitar and art is that my early idols were great athletes. I really admired Pistol Pete, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Lou Gherig, and my all-time favourite was Michael Jordan. These guys were all pretty competitive and self-driven. I read many books about them that I checked out from the library, and common themes amongst these guys were obsession with their craft, relentless practicing, and also abrasive personalities that would either demolish your confidence or raise your game up to their level. Initially I was playing guitar to be as good as my heroes. In Punk, my heroes had limited abilities, which made it more approachable. I took some licks from some Rancid solos. I took some licks and scales from some Social Distortion solos. Steve Jones was a huge influence on me with his tone and taste. I also loved Oasis and Noel's playing isn't that hard to process. Slow-ish iconic shit with maximum impact. My Punk documentaries had pointed out that Ramones deliberately avoided solos, and although they did include some guitar solos from time to time, for the most part, they were avoided. I liked the way my solos sounded when they were recorded. I wasn't super-fast, but I was able to find iconic lines that supported the composition. I was living in my car when I was nineteen. I don’t want to get too deep into that, but on Thanksgiving Day I was sitting in my ‘88 Lincoln Town Car parked at a city park and it was raining. I was pretty depressed, and I was getting reacquainted with Led Zeppelin. They were a band that I had liked a lot when I was younger, but Punk had pushed them to the side for a few years. But now I was ready to get back into Zeppelin and I was in my car listening to their first album. I had my acoustic guitar there and started picking out "Over The Hills And Far Away" by ear. After about an hour I had the whole song down. I decided I was going to get "good". Jimmy Page was a great starting point for me because I had already committed his most memorable solos to memory. Now I just needed to figure out how to make my fingers do that. Page's style was fun to explore. I did a lot of homework to find out who the greats were on guitar, and I spent some serious time studying Clapton, Beck, Hendrix, James Burton, Steve Cropper, David Gilmour, Billy Gibbons... all sorts of great players who had something exciting to offer. I also got really into Duane Allman and learned that slide style. I did a lot of work to learn how to play the old blues style like Robert Johnson, Son House, Charlie Patton, and Skip James. All these guys really blew my mind, and I had to learn how to do it. In the very early 2000’s I used to hang out with a dude named Jay who was a lot older than me. He was a good drummer who played in bar and show bands. We used to hang out every day, smoke weed, listen to records, and jam on acoustic guitars. I started playing in bars with Jay when I was about twenty years old, and he was in his early fifties. I'd sneak in underage, and the bands would be gracious enough to let me sit in. I'd be on stage jamming along to songs I had never heard before but figuring it out in real time without a safety net. Sometimes I'd rule, and other times I'd fall on my face. Very valuable experience for me, and one of the things that really separated me from my peers in LA. I had a million stage hours by the time I got to LA, and all these other "rocker" types from my scene were just haircuts with guitars.
Well that's a n roll history lesson right there. OK lots of shows been played homework learnt, and then some! Now with the limits of punk to the basis of the blues gods and bang, crash.... you wanted to get good. So, you left the car behind and hit LA ready to make a mark for sure. So take us into the first meeting of likeminded artists in LA or was it fake city at first before you got to the grit?
B . W ; LA was difficult for me to acclimate to at first. I did have a running start when I hit the pavement though. I had been the lead guitar player of the house band of a bar called Pappy and Harriet's in Pioneertown, CA., which is next to Joshua Tree. I got to know a lot of LA talent when I was playing in the desert because LA would come out here to party on the weekends. I also got to open for some pretty big artists during that time and even sit in with them from time to time. Highlights include opening for Robbie Kreiger of The Doors. He came and watched me play and afterwards told me I was really good. That was awesome! I got to play with Eric Burdon from The Animals a couple times. I shared the stage with Band of Horses and partied with Hanson. Haha! It was always an adventure.
Keil , Bryce , Justin and Noah
By the time I got to LA I had met tons of people in the scene and was hoping to plug in and play once I arrived. My first audition in LA was with a new band that was just getting started called Hammered Satin. Noah, the singer, had been in a group called S'cool Girls in the early 2000s. I had become friends with their newly recruited bass player Dan, and Dan set up the audition. I showed up at Cascade Studios with a Fender Strat and a 40-watt Fender combo amp. I had the songs memorized, but my style wasn't quite what they were after. I tweaked my performance slightly, and they enthusiastically offered the job. I told them I'd have to think about it, and later that night emailed to decline. Not long after that they recruited my dude Connor and went on to thrive. I joined Hammered Satin a couple years later but quit after a short run of shows. Satin was fun, but I wanted to keep my dance card clear for bigger jobs, because I thought I was pretty great. Haha. I joined a Faces-like club band, continued to grow my reputation as a player and performer, but it was frustrating.
I got fired a lot because I'm wired hot. I ended up starting my own group called The GT350s and we did some rad things. I released a cool solo EP called, “Bryce Wayt and The Silver Wolves” and played some good shows to support it.
I had another Zeppelin-esque band called Tinfang, and we kicked a ton of ass before imploding. We opened up for Dorothy for our second show at The Viper Room. She was at our first show and a mutual friend introduced us. Total babe, talented, and a class act. There was an exciting underground Sunset Strip Glam scene, and I was happy to be part of it. Not a lot of people made it to the bigtime from that class but a few that really made a name for themselves were Twin Temple, who back then were two bands (Zach James and the All-Seeing Eyes, and his gal's group the Alexandra Starlight Band), and LA Witch. My friend Kevin had an amazing group called Prima Donna. Kevin is in Green Day now! My buddy Luis had a great band called Into The Presence. Luis is in Foreigner now. I'm done name dropping, but really I could do it all day, and I love it. Haha! I'm proud of my friends, and it is encouraging to see excellent artists working and succeeding. I kept getting session and studio work and those cash injections really helped keep the ship afloat. A highlight for me was being hired by a touring Rock band to open for Ted Nugent on a US tour. Another highlight was a last-minute call from my friend Shane to play at the Egyptian Theatre in front of Kurt Russell during a special screening of “Escape From LA”. I was just chillin' at home, got the call, sobered up a little and dashed to the gig. Luckily I can play by ear and I'm a really quick study. That kind of flexibility and dexterity can get you good work. It also helps to look cool, be kinda easy to get along with, and have good hygiene!! LA was no fun for me until I had been there a few months, and I got some great advice. This guy was talking about how much he hated LA when he first moved there and someone had told him that the secret was going out, and networking. That is the only reason to live there. It kinda cracked the code for me, and I just made the most of it. Almost the whole time I lived there I was couch surfing and working as the front desk manager of a barbershop. Not very glamorous!!! I still managed to go out and make the most of the experience almost every night. I got to join some awesome bands, and some shitty ones. I got to make some good records, and some shitty ones. I met my wife, a Rock writer, and lived up to my potential, but it wasn't an easy journey. When I moved out of LA in 2016, I felt like I had conquered it, and it was time to move on.
Wowie Hollywood or bust indeed. Lots of names right there we know so well here at suits, glam is a small world but a very cool one. OK tell us about some of the records you made, and you are most proud of and just for fun the one you wished your never made...
B . W ; I made a trilogy of decent albums with a friend in LA named Josh Grolemund. I met him through a mutual friend, and we ended up playing in some bands together. Josh and his wife Leslie introduced me to my wife Jamie. Josh was a good dude to know. When I met him I had joined a band called Last American Buffalo, and I was going to be the Joe Walsh to their Eagles. They wanted to make a more Rock N Roll style album than the Indie Rock sound they had been exploring, and they needed to hire an authentic rocker. Well, we made the album, and it turned out just ok. We got a month-long residency at a popular club in LA and built a big buzz. I got fired from the band after the third show and it was pretty upsetting for me. I kinda wish I had never made the album, but then again, some really good things came out of it. That album kinda started the ball rolling with a series of projects that followed. I made a solo EP called “Bryce Wyatt and The Silver Wolves” and then recorded another solid EP with a group called Tinfang, who was Zeppelin based.
Tinfang was very exciting. The songs were good, the band looked great, and we were killer live. We played some amazing shows, and every show opened up a bigger door. Our second show was opening for Dorothy at Viper Room, as I may have mentioned earlier. We did some television showcases and had some cool opportunities.
I didn't think there was a ton of tension in the band, but there was too much for some people, and one evening I got a text that a key member was quitting the band. I reached out to the rest of them, and they all decided to bail with him. I was so mad that I didn't talk to any of the dudes for at least five years. Haha! We had a good full circle moment when we reunited for a show in 2019 at Mr Ts Bowl in Highland Park, CA.
In 2020 I started writing and recording material for what would be a Horror themed Heavy Metal band called Spellgrinder. I had been recording myself since the late ‘90s on whatever equipment was available. It is a skill that I have gotten better at over the years. The GT350s songs were recorded and mixed by me. While those songs have a certain spark, they are ragged. I recorded some of those GT songs with good producers in good studios later, and while the product was more professional, the magic was gone. So, it was a big deal for me when I finally cracked the code on how to make good albums all by myself, and that revelation came with Spellgrinder. Our first singles performed well, and we found a huge fanbase. Our first album got serious play from DJs, podcasters, and other taste makers. Spellgrinder had a Glam edge, and I would weave in my other influences, but it was all through the lens of Heavy Metal.
Spellgrinder released our second full length album 'Planet Of The Vampires' on July 4, 2024, and it was a homerun. With the second album I leaned more into my Glam influences, and the result was very Ratt/Crue/WASP/Alice Cooper. Spellgrinder is what led me to start writing and recording Dagamoor. Well, that and buying a Zemaitis metal front guitar. That guitar was the spark that inspired me to start Dagamoor.
OK maybe Spellgrinder could trip the trigger for some of the cats here, check them out people I know I will. OK before we get to that guitar...here we are at the germs of Dagamoor. Now we are going to dive deep into Dagamoor however, first up writing for spellgrinder started your road into your Dagamoor world what was the initial spark or eureka moment that made your brain switch to find your inner Dagamoor vibe?
B . W ; I like music so much it hurts. I want to do everything at once. I'm drawn to so many styles. I'm attracted to so many genres. I identify with all of it. As a means of self-expression, I require myself to participate. The discipline it takes for me to focus that energy into a cohesive product is immense. That's why I have so many albums and styles under my belt. I love it all. I write about five songs a day. I have for years. I have notebooks and external drives full of songs. I have little phone videos of riffs and licks, chorus melodies, hooks... I write all the time, and I have my whole adult life. While working with my friend and mentor Luis Maldonado (Foreigner, Train, John Waite, Glen Hughes, Big elf...), he challenged me to up my writing productivity. This was about nine years ago. I took the challenge to heart and crystalized it as part of my morning ritual. I'm up around five am every day, drinking coffee, watching a Western, and writing tunes. They're not all hits, but every once in a while I blow my own mind. Also, I regularly revisit some of my discarded ideas and find lots of good in certain ideas if I rework them or combine with other ideas. Spellgrinder is something I'm very proud of, but there was music that I have in me that couldn't be part of that. I love combining things, but I also like to keep things compartmentalized. Instead of making some spooky folky shit with acoustic guitars and mellotrons for Spellgrinder, I decided to make a completely different project. I also like the challenge of starting a band from scratch and then going out and marketing it and find the audience. I've released Country and Western music, Heavy Metal, Punk, 50s Rock N' Roll, Blues, R&B, but in all those projects, I'm a GLAM ROCKER. It is in my DNA. I'm hundred and thirty five pound 5'10" dude with jacked up teeth and a good head of hair. I like the challenge of making music outside of my comfort zone, but Dagamoor is the most comfort zone. It is the easiest thing in the world for me to do right now. I go into my studio and these songs pour out. Minimal effort is required, although I do naturally obsess on things. I'm wired hot. I think I have mostly answered your question, but there are a few other factors in the evolution of Dagamoor. I live in the Mojave Desert, and there are some talented people out here, but it was difficult to staff Spellgrinder. The drums are difficult.The guitars are difficult. The dudes out here kinda want to just get high and play Doom. I get it, but there was a problem maintaining a line-up that could deliver Spellgrinder songs at the quality they were intended to be played. I wanted to be able to play music that would connect with my peers and community, and that I could play with either a band or solo acoustic. Dagamoor can be performed by one dude on an acoustic guitar, and it is awesome. The songs work in that style. I can travel alone and play solo shows. It’s a good business model, because taking care of two to four other adults is taxing. Out of town shows are an expense for me when I have to provide for my band. Dagamoor can be scaled to work in any situation, and it was designed to hit live like Tyrannosaurus Rex. I've got my lovely wife playing conga drums in that situation like my Mickey Finn. To help the medicine go down, I have a psychedelic light projector. Live Dagamoor hits like Tyrannosaurus Rex meets Velvet Underground. Vibe city.
And if that doesn't get you hooked people I don't know what will, great insight Bryce. OK now let's get to Dagamoor firstly where did the name come from, and does it have layers or meaning or is a just a name that does the job? I am thinking the former yeah.
B . W ; I try to take on my bands like conceptual art projects. I try to Frankenstein all these components that would make me fall in love with a band. The songs in Dagamoor are connected by theme and style but have some variations. I wanted a name that sounded cool, exotic, and mystical. I wanted something almost meaningless, so it could be open ended for the listener.
I started looking through my usual reference material. I looked through "The Silmarillion", but Tolkien has been picked clean. I looked through my Robert Johnson songbook, I looked at Crowley, and beyond. The only two songs I had recorded at the point of closing the name were “Wizard Rock” and “Black Cat Mojo”.
“Wizard Rock” just fell out of me the day my Zemaitis metal fronted guitar arrived. I thought that it was near perfect but if it had a saxophone on it, it would be the most Rock N Roll. I hit up local legend Cat Celebrezze to play on it and she agreed!! She was going to come by two days later to play what you hear on the pre-chorus. I wanted to make it worth her while because her skill is way beyond what you hear in Dagamoor. She's awesome. So, I came up with the entire track of “Black Cat Mojo” in a day. When Cat showed up, she had two songs to play on and not just the one. That being said, she did all of her tracks in about an hour. Then we talked about when she worked for Lou Reed and Tony Visconti!!!! OK!!!! To get back to the point, now I had two complete songs that were sovereign!!! They were conceptually similar. They were exotic. They were cool. They were mystical!!! I needed a name, and I went to the true source material. BOLAN!!! Dagamoor is heavily influenced by T Rex, but more specifically, early T Rex. There was a fast evolution from Tyrannosaurus Rex to T Rex. The folky influence is what gets left out by many when they take on GLAM. I wanted to lean into the folky vibe that I think peaked with the 1971 self-titled album. I wanted to inject the stripped-down coolness of “Electric Warrior”. I was trying to avoid the bombastic victory lap that was “The Slider”, even though I've clearly crossed that line. haha, I break my own rules. I remembered "Dagamoor" as a word that I heard first in the 1969 T Rex song “Catblack” (The Wizards Hat). "Catblack the wizard's hat spun in lore from Dagamoor. The skull of jade was pearl inlaid. The silks, skin spun, repelled the Sun". After an extensive google search to see if the name was free and clear, I realized that I had struck gold. It felt perfect for the sound I was hearing and the vibe I wanted to communicate. I found a font that I thought communicated the right things and rendered it in HOT PINK!!! Boom! Now the band had a name.
Again, all the info and the cauldron of cool that is Dagamoor is laid bare for all to see. OK you have touched on your first two tracks now let's get into “Sparkle Jet Regret”, love this one! .Very Bolan and very fifties sounding kinda like The Ronettes by Bolan via Bryce, love it...also mentions of Hollywood also so, is this an autobiographical song of sorts???
B . W ; “Sparkle Jet Regret” is semi-autobiographical. On the surface, the song is based on an experience I had with my wife at the Hollywood Guitar Centre. We used to live basically across the street, a few doors down from Rodney Bingenheimer on Curson Ave. While in the vintage room I saw a 1962 Gretsch Sparkle Jet Double Cutaway 6129T with the Burns vibrato, and it was actually priced semi-affordably. We both got kinda goo goo eyed about it, but for some reason we didn't pull the trigger. It was still pretty early on in our relationship, and I was pacing myself financially. Haha! We walked back to our place and for the next week we both kept talking about that Gretsch. Eventually we decided to get it, so we went back to the vintage room, and it was gone!! Sparkle Jet Regret!!! Soooo, I think it was actually a Duo Jet, but Sparkle Jet sounds better, and Glammier. Soon after that I bought my favourite guitar of all time, the Gretsch Billy Bo Jupiter Thunderbird. That guitar is referenced in the bridge of the song. Like, my Billy Bo found out that I'm actually in love with the Sparkle Jet, but I'm trying to show it I love it by playing it a lot. These things are funny to me. I love the Ronettes. Their influence goes deep on everything. They heavily influenced the Ramones, and Ramones got me early. New York Dolls are very 60s Girl Group, and those hooks and inflections are evergreen in music. Same with the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons word chewing. Like, when he sings "Sherry baaaay-aaaaaay-beeeee". When writing that song I injected a couple of those at the end of the bridge. It's one of those devices in music that's like, "why did this stop? It's great!" So, I brought it back!! So, this is slightly off topic, but to me it's awesome: In around the year 1999/2000 I was living in Moreno Valley; CA and I was like seventeen or eighteen. My little sister came to me with a show flier from the back of Mean Street or something. There was going to be a band playing at the Showcase Theatre in Corona that featured ex members of The Mr T Experience, The Queers, and Screeching Weasel. That was all we needed. My insanely supportive dad consented to drive us to the show. So, the night of the show, dad drops the two of us off and we go in the venue, and it turns out that is wasn't some obscure past members of those bands, but it was Joel Reader (the last MTX bass player) and Danny Panic (from most Lookout bands). We were STOKED because we were huge fans of those guys. Mind you, I was in a phase where I was growing beyond Pop Punk and was starting to get into the Beatles, The Zombies, The Kinks and things like that. There was this guy wearing all white with a shaggy Beatle style haircut and sideburns down to his jaw. He was kinda pissed off and zipping around the venue trying to take care of some shit. Turns out, this was Scotty Hay! He was the Plus Ones guitar player. When they took the stage, he’s playing on a vintage Orange half stack with a Gibson Les Paul. His tone was insane. They played Power Pop. They covered “No Matter What” by Badfinger. They blew my mind into shit. After the show my sister and I got autographs, and I bought the first T shirt they ever sold in Southern California. I also bought a little one-inch button, but they didn't have a CD yet. When I went home I started working on those sideburns and bangs. Also, I was craving the music I heard. I started thinking about what I had heard in my life that I could listen to in the meantime so I could get that buzz. The two bands that I could remember were Superdrag and Spacehog, both bands that I had heard on MTV buzz bin in 1996 but not thought about much since then. I went to the record store and bought some CDs of those bands and really that got me going down a path in life that takes me to now. Spacehog is my entrance to Glam. Buuuuuuuuut, why am I saying all this?? Over the years I have wondered "what happened to Scotty Hay from The Plus Ones?" They eventually released an EP in 2000. Then They put out a full album in like 2001. I bought both as soon as they came out. This was before I had harnessed the internet too, so I was hoofin' it to record stores and hunting weekly. I liked the albums, but over time I moved on to other obsessions. As I did get the internet, and social media became a thing, I would try to find Scotty Hay because he was such a great musician and super influential to me. No luck yet though. It wasn't until like 2023 that my sister went to see Pansy Division in Portland and Joel Reader from MTX was their bass player on the tour. She talked to Joel, and he mentioned that Scotty Hay lived near Joshua Tree. She told me the next day, and now I got on the computer and with my fully developed IT skills, I found his business One Inch Round, which makes band buttons. I hit him up through that and it turns out he lives in the next town over from me. So, I started talking to Scotty Hay and trying to plan something for us to collaborate on.
SCOTTY HAY IS PLAYING PEDAL STEEL GUITAR ON “SPARKLE JET REGRET”! I CAN ONLY TYPE THIS IN ALL CAPS!!!!
Right on ok next up is “Satan's A Waiting”. Love this one and it has a very dark vibe which I think sets you apart from a lot of the other glam, glam is fun but also it can have many other over riding narratives to it...so tell us about this one
B . W ; Ah, yes. The sinister side of Glam. Haha! There is a lot packed into this song, which doesn't get in the way of its direct simplicity. The first draft of the lyrics were done about twenty years ago as a take-off on a couple different Louvin Brothers songs that I really enjoy. The Louvin Brothers were a group that sang in tight harmonies and had some really awesome songs. Songs like "Satan Is Real" and "He Can Be Found" provided a few breadcrumbs of a trail of a song. When I first wrote the song I performed a heavy folk version that barely resembles what you hear today. Years later I resurrected the song in a demo session and did a more Psychedelic / R&B version, which was fun, but it didn't have the magick that the current version has. It was after I released “Sparkle Jet…” and I had to get back to the drawing board that my wife suggested I work up “Satan's A Waitin'”, and the more I thought about it I realized she was totally right. It's a song that I thought could get good reactions out of a wide variety of listeners. The song is more open ended than it seems. Christians enjoy the song because the message seems to echo doctrine they are familiar with. Rockers can relate because the perils are almost universal. Am I being ironic? Who cares. Haha! The song is solid and open to interpretation. The issue was, how was I going to make it an engaging Glam Rock hit? I looked at the variety of songs I had done as Dagamoor already and paid respect to the "isms" of the band. It’s got the double tracked acoustic, slap back drums and vox, mellotron, saxophone... I wanted to give it a decadent vibe that could lift the set and get people dancing. I wanted to give a feel that hadn't been in any Dagamoor songs yet. I started looking to a post-1974 Bowie when he was doing Soul music, and thinking, "how can I keep it Glam still?". Inspiration for the feel really came from the song “Everyone's A Winner” by Hot Chocolate. That is a total party song. It gets played at sports arenas. It gets played in movies when people are doing glamorous and debaucherous things. It sounds very “Young Americans” era Bowie to me. I'm also a huuuuuge fan of all things Stax records. I love Al Green. I love Sly and Parliament. I love Abba and the Bee Gees. Those things are not that removed from Glam Rock, but marketing would have you think otherwise. To prove my hypothesis, I produced the song in the way that you hear it today. It is 300% Glam Rock, even with roots in Country, R&B, Disco, Funk, and Psychedelic Rock.
Cool. Next up is “Soul Surfer”, great, great word play and phrasing here love the line, "transistor frequency waves" and again this is swimming in a glam rock tinted ocean tell us about this one
B . W ; Thank you! Glad you like that song. For me, it feels like a Summer hit. It’s got a very muscular Mod/R&B beat with a simple and elegant chord progression on the verses. The chorus goes into a minor gypsy feel. I love the saxophone on this song that Cat Celebrezze generously contributed. Nine times out of ten I’m using my Zemaitis metal front guitar for electric guitar on Dagamoor songs. This song is the rare occasion where I used something different for colour and function. I wanted a Surfy feel, complete with whammy bar action, so on the rhythm guitar I used my trusty Stratocaster. The secret sonic inspiration for this song is “Hold Tight” by Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich. I was going kinda Bay City Rollers on it, but the feel wasn’t quite right. I woke up one day and realized that if I modified the rhythm slightly and added a Mondo Fuzz guitar, the song would hit like a steamroller. I sold that fuzz while recording the song. It was a Tonebender MK1 and I wanted to make the move to a Tonebender MK2. Basically, I transitioned from Jimmy Page to Mick Ronson. “Soul Surfer” and “Last Cowboy On Mars” both heavily feature that MK1. I just sent a brand-new song to mixing and mastering and that one has the Manlay Sound “Ronno Bender” fuzz on it, as well as the new Mick Ronson signature Crybaby wah. I’m getting some siiiiiiiiiick tones with that combo.
O.K Next one to chat about is “Last Cowboy On Mars”. Now for me it has lots going on but one of the major things is the backing vocals and woah woahs. This reminds me of the classic Bowie background greatness that he had on his own stuff i.e. “Rock n Roll Suicide” and also on Lou Reed’s “Satellite Of Love” and this track takes me there, tell us about this one
B . W ; Thanks! I’m happy to hear all that. Yes, I think about Bowie backing vocals all the time. The practice of backing vocals in general are something that elevates normal tracks to great. Eccentricity is a very important element to inject into any song, and direct rhythmic backing vocals give tons of flavour. “Transformer” by Lou Reed is dripping with the eccentric production values that Bowie and Ronson deliver. Same with “The Idiot” by Iggy Pop. The bridge section of backing vocals on this song remind me of “Blood and Chocolate” era Elvis Costello. The big piano chords feel Bowie to me, although Bowie would usually employ a pianist with talent. I do it myself and I’ve got limited musicianship, but that puts it back into the True Glam, which is minimalist Rock N Roll. I love the relentless fuzz guitar, which makes the track an entirely different beast. There is a Moog Theremin throughout the track. That’s what all those little sci fi noises are. It’s a very random instrument to play and it took a few passes to coax that exact performance. The last component that was a little wacky was the phaser guitar. That was more programmatic production. I thought it sounded like a Cowboy song by a Martian. Haha! Thematically this song is kinda based on this concept from some Westerns I love about a cowboy who has kinda outlived the Wild West.They were rough men with a use in taming the West, but once the West was tamed the world didn’t know what to do with them. Polite society was embarrassed by these guys, and many had to choose between a life of drifting or crime. “Monty Walsh” with Lee Marvin is a good example. There are some direct lines about that in the song. Also, “Tom Horn” with Steve McQueen is a big influence. Of course, there is a lot more going on in my song and I don’t like to give it all away. Haha! Dagamoor leaves the mystery in!
OK Bryce next up is “Lost On The Wind” now, first word that springs to mind here is EPIC! Lots going on here and it flows in a glorious chaotic glam swirl , love it and that's not to mention the stellar guitar work, reminds me a lot of “The Prettiest Star” guitar work like Ronson mixed with Bolan an excellent mix! There is also a little melancholy here about something that is lost like an idea, a love, a dream.... take us into this one
B . W ; “Lost In The Wind” was written on piano, which separates it from other Dagamoor songs. All the others were conceived on guitar. Because of this, and my limited piano skills, it is the only song that is not tuned half a step down. I tried the song with the same guitar tuning as the rest of the album but success was illusive until I changed it and did normal tuning. I wanted a big Bowie sound and a couple tools were secured to make this a home run. First, I got a fuzz pedal called the “Ronno Bender”. It’s a detailed tribute to Mick Ronson’s Tonebender MKI fuzz that he used with Bowie. That is used throughout the song when it needed to get hairy. The second piece of the Bowie puzzle was the recently released Ronson Wah. I pre ordered one after it was announced at NAMM show and sat on this track until it showed up. Lyrically, the song is loosely about releasing art that never finds an audience. Luckily I no longer have this problem thanks to folks like you Darren. This song is about the last part of an artist’s journey where they share the art, and sometimes the reception is disappointing, and it affects you, your perception, and your future output. I’m very proud of the guitar playing on this song. I feel like it is very “me”. I’ve got so many influences on my playing, and I’ll try to go with what suits a song. Ultimately, I see myself as a mix of Peter Green, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons, Mick Taylor, Keith Richards, Steve Jones, and Angus Young. I have a ton more influences, but those may be the biggest. My little psychedelic freakout lines feel like Hendrix meets “End Of Game” era Peter Green. Kind of like Bolan, but with a little more musicality and dexterity. There is some Brian May elegance in the solo, although it’s super burly with the double tracked fuzz and cocked wah. The whole outro of the song is “the wind”. Two chords over pounding piano and fuzz guitars. It’s a musical painting of the whole process of sending songs into the void and hoping for the best. The backing vocals continue the fifties doo wop themes of the rest of the album and they joust with a more angelic Beach Boys counter melody. I wanted a jam that I could get into on stage and use it as a point of drama in the set. I was maybe going to put talking over that part and build it but once I built the song to where it is now, I had to just put down the paintbrush and admire it. I love how this song turned out.
..and what a corker it is! OK last track is “Carnival Of Soul”. Now this is a call to arms if ever there was one and it's the song at the end of the set that says, “come on in this is a carnival for you all to enjoy, a rock n roll carnival from my soul to yours”. was that the mind set with this one?
B . W ; Thank you!!! “Carnival Of Soul” revealed itself as the last song on the album. This record was like an oil painting. I kept adding layers until the finished product was revealed. The flow of this Dagamoor album is quite a ride, and I wanted to end on a high note. A total call to arms. There are several lyrical themes in the song. Most notably, the inspiration from the movie “Carnival Of Souls”, which is about a girl who gets in a car accident while racing with another car over a bridge. She crawls out of the water alone and gets a job playing organ in a church. She is drawn to a derelict carnival haunted by spirits. Other themes are woven into the song that make it more open ended and abstract. This album has a lot of different secret sub genres woven into it. There is funk, country, folk, R&B, and a handful of others. For the last few years, I can’t get enough of The Cult. With this song I wanted to do something kinda like it could be on “Sonic Temple” but keep it Dagamoor. The mellotron almost plays a Billy Duffy melody line. The guitar lines on this song feel very sixties to me. There are violent guitar chords which I think are very Johnny Thunders/ Steve Jones/ Pete Townsend. I enjoy the post punk end jam. In 1998 I was really into an album by Blur called “13”. Almost half of the songs on the album had weird little dirty arty noise jams at the end. It gave the album a sense of depth to me, like even the cutting room floor was so cool that we were invited to sample it. Later on, I’m listening to “Scary Monsters” and “Lodger” by Bowie and realized they may have been referencing that era. Anyways, that got thrown into the mix with Dagamoor. It’s a compact album with a lot of flavour and personality. Eight songs that don’t overstay their welcome. I would hope that people put it on and listen to it a few times in a row because the journey is so enjoyable. It is for me anyways, and I’m very proud of this album. Thanks for giving it a shot and it’s been awesome chatting with you about Dagamoor!!
Indeed man. So, tell us are there any plans to make it more than a digital release, I can see the art all over a vinyl issue can you?
B . W ; With previous projects I have made vinyl available, but I’m dragging my feet a little with Dagamoor. I would prefer to find a record label that would sell vinyl as a distribution partner. I may make a limited run of CDs to sell through the Bandcamp site, and that’ll give people something tangible. There may be a T shirt on the way. My merch project is Spellgrinder and that is a lot of work. Dagamoor is very pure, and I think this is an album that will keep growing in popularity as word spreads. No vinyl at the moment but anything can happen with the right opportunity.
OK man so that is the ethos of Dagamoor right here for everyone to read about and then go and discover. Do you have any parting words for fans of old and everyone else that will encounter Dagamoor in the future?
B . W ; Dagamoor does all this for art and Rock N Roll. Being bad, being sexy, being loud and proud... these are things worth fighting for. Live a Glam life. Have lots of consensual sex. Wear outrageous clothing and enjoy the night. Dagamoor will be there with you out on the front lines. Thank you Darren Wood and Suits And The Platform Boots for the opportunity to share my story and art with cool glamorous people!
Get onboard people and do the Wizard Rock!
Photographs courtesy of Bryce, Dagamoor and the Suits Vaults
