Your name:
Helena Cos.
Where are you from?
New Jersey, USA.
Name of band:
Spider Rockets
Who else is in your band?
Johnny Nap - lead guitar; Greg Manning - bass guitar and Dan Prestup - drums.
How would you describe yourselves?
Straight-ahead riff-oriented hard rock with lots of hooks
and melody. Personally we are very
different people, though. I am the day-to-day worker bee. Johnny is pretty laid back but is the guy
everyone turns to. He doesn’t
make a big fuss about things, but gets the job done—whether it is writing the
riff for a new song or fixing something that’s broke. Greg is the
band’s comic relief and in-house intellectual. Dan is the kind guy who happens to have earned the title of
one of the fastest drummers in the world having won the competition in the fastest feet category at NAMM,
with a drumometer reading of 858 strokes in 1 minute.
Who are your main influences musically?
Metallica, Godsmack, AC/DC, KISS, Pantera, Soundgarden,
Iron Maiden, Stone Temple Pilots and Foo Fighters.
What do you hope to achieve in music?
We wanna kick your ass and your friend’s ass…. and then
have you beg us for more.
What has been the highlight of your career so far, and
why?
Touring in the United States and performing in
Europe. But in all honesty it’s all
stepping stones and one eclipses the next. I met Johnny when I was auditioning for bands. We started playing as a duo using midi for our rhythm section. We’d play New Jersey and New York bars where
it would be us and a few regulars and we’d just let it fly. I would dance around the room, climb on the
bar and sing like nobody was watching or listening and Johnny would egg me
on. Next, we expanded to a full band and
started playing shows up and down the east coast opening for
bigger bands and getting our name out. Then came our first national tour where we had a crappy
minivan and trailer and the band we were touring with had a tour bus. But we were living the dream: we were thrilled each night we got on stage
and kicked into high gear. Wisconsin and Texas were
especially memorable—fans travelled from hundreds of miles to see us and we made sure they got their money’s
worth. We were chosen to play dates on
the Vans Warped Tour, which was a crazy experience in the
burning heat of summer, and more tours followed. I
remember a show in South Dakota in the dead of winter. We barely made it to the venue because of black ice, but it was an amazing night. The air was electric - maybe it was a
combination of the freezing cold outside and the heat from all the
bodies inside - who knows, but it made for a great night for a rock show. I can’t wait until we get back that way. This year, one of our favorite shows was near Albany, New York. The music was loud and so were the fans. Nobody wanted the night to end, us included.
And what’s the moment you want to forget?
I still haven’t forgotten and there is more than one,
unfortunately. I remember one time,
breaking down at 3am in rural Pennsylvania – nothing around us but
mountains - and we had 24 hours to get to our next show in Cincinnati, Ohio. We ended up renting a pickup truck, tarping
down most of the equipment in the bed of the truck, squeezing into the cab
for a 500-mile ride to the next venue and leaving some of our equipment behind hoping that it would
still be there days later.
If you had to choose just one of your songs to represent
your music, what would it be and why?
Scream just gives it to you straight. That’s when we are at our best and the song
is easy to relate to. We’ve all had one of those days where you just want to
explode. Ironically, most of the song
is not a screamer though. Instead, there’s almost a quiet and disturbing desperation bubbling to
the surface of the verses that finds its climax in the chorus. Musically, it has a gigantic, slow to
mid-tempo stomp... Kind of like Godzilla slowly wrecking his was through
downtown Tokyo. He’s not in a hurry, but
he’s gonna fuck your shit up. And Johnny’s guitar solo... it sounds like warfare. Not a million notes,
but each one feels like a ticking time bomb. Johnny is very effective as a guitar player
that way. It’s an anthem you can easily see people rallying around with fists in
the air--an empowering tune.
Where can we listen to it?
Where can we find out more about your music?
Website: www.spiderrockets.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/spiderrockets
Twitter: www.twitter.com/spiderrockets
MySpace: www.myspace.com/spiderrockets
Anything else you’d like to say about your band that I
forgot to ask?
Bitten is our latest CD and was named a top 10 hard
rock album of the year. We want you to
check it out. Also, we’d love to come out to the UK. You guys have
a vibrant music scene and we know the Brits are very big on music. We hope to get out to you soon.
nice
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