The 'American Bandages' album, at the time of release, was a complete

 departure for you - working with other musicians again,a producer,an album

 of covers - how did the idea come about and where along the way did Cam

 & Marty get involved ?

 

The idea started when I first created my version of the Grand Funk Railway

 song 'We're An American Band'. I love doing my own take on 'Great Songs

 by Terrible Bands'. Grand Funk were awful, but this song had potential, in

 particular my chance to sing "I'm an American Band'. Being neither

 American or a band seemed to sum up the irony.

If you think of my previous repertoire of cover songs, it is an odd lot.

Dead Man's Curve, Dopes on the Water, 19th Nervous Breakdown and Baba

 O'Riley. Great, dumb, great, great.

 

After 'American Band' came '1984' and then 'Who Do You Love'. '1984' by

 the  brilliant California group Spirit was always one of my favorite songs.

 Originally released by Spirit in 1970, the song was not on any album, and

 as a single it never did make the top-40. I thought it was appropriate in

 1984  to introduce my fans to one of my favorite groups, hit or no hit.

'Who Do You Love' started as a jam piece in my home studio. I created a

 simple drum pattern and started to play the hook bass line on a keyboard.

 Soon I had all the mando and vocals down on tape. I think the whole

 procedure took less than 30 minutes. With this working template, I later

re-recorded the whole song as you now hear it.

The live versions of these songs are completely different from the final LP or

 CD versions. You can hear the difference on the live video 'American

 Banned'. The other songs, 'Born to Be Wild', 'Hey Joe' and 'Psychotic

 Reaction' were all created for the LP. Another song from this collection was

 'King Bee' but it never got developed. I have included the original demo

 version of 'King Bee' on the up-coming CD as one of the bonus tracks.

The producer Michael Waite was an aquaintance of mine and he had a good

 connection to a studio run by Glenn Johanson who acted as engineer on

 the project. Glenn had produced Eddie Grant's  hit song 'Electric Avenue'

 and he had great ears and great talent. The project could not have sounded

 so good without his involvement.

We had all the bed-tracks down with a Lynn Drum Machine, which still

 figures prominently in the mixes. It was decided that real drums would

 sound cool mixed in with the drum machine so I called Marty Deller. It was

 then decided that Cam's keyboard and vocals might come in handy so he

 was also brought in. At this time there was no intention of reforming FM and

 I was going out and exploiting this LP as a solo artist.

The story continues after your next question.......   

If this album had never happened, would it have been likely that FM would

 not have reformed ?

If the album HAD happened, FM would not have reformed! As it happened,

 the album was distributed in Canada by Quality Records but I never got a

 deal in the USA and that of course was the target market in the first place!

The album was put in the wrong hands to represent to distributors and it

 never go distributed outside of The Great White North. It remains today a

 well-kept secret from most of the world.  Hopefully that will all change with

 the release of the CD. I did some solo shows in New York and New Jersey

 at the time the LP came out, and the gigs in Canada became scarce.

I asked my agent at the time what I could do to improve the gig situation.

 He said ' Re-form FM'. So we did and we went out and played across

 Canada.

 

Who chose which songs to cover ?

As previously stated I was already performing some songs live and the

 others were selected by me and Mike.

 

How long did the album take to record ?

Approximately 10 days.

 

Can you tell us some of the sound effects used, and on which tracks ?

Nothing special. It's just HOW the effects are used that makes a song

 sound interesting.

 

 

The mandolin power chords sound really crisp, but powerful at the same

 time, what effects were used to achieve this (i.e. on 'American Band', and

 Who Do You Love' ) ?

In those days I used a Coloursound Supatonebender.

 

Are your vocals mostly a single track or are they overlayed ?

I can sing very tight double-track vocals so most were overlayed, you just

 can't tell.

 

The various remixes that were released as singles, were these recorded

at the same time, and how much input to their final wrap did you have ?

I was there for all the mixes. The extra dance versions are on the new CD.

 

Do you have any idea how may copies it sold worldwide on vinyl ?

See sad story above.

 

Which track is your favourite ?

I like them all but I'm extra fond of 'Who Do You Love'. It has a great groove

 and I played the bass keyboard line live in real time. It is not a sequencer. 

 

At the time of writing these questions, in a current poll on the fan site

your fans have voted 'Psychotic Reaction' and 'American Band' as their

 favourite cover versions, does this surprise you ?

No. Many of my fans are psychotic Americans.

 

Are there any songs now that you'd like to cover and release on a future

album ? (I'm still waiting for Nash's version of Gudbuy T'Jane)

Well, I've performed live but never released on CD : 'Animal Magnetism' by

 The Scorpions,  21st Century Schizoid Man' by King Crimson,

'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' by Iron Butterfly,  Pink Floyd's 'Astronomy Domine'

 and a version of  The Resident's 'Constantinople'.

You figure out which are dumb and which are great. 

 

 Please add any other relevant info that you think the fans would be

 interested to know about 'American Bandages'.

 

It sounds even better on CD than on vinyl and it's coming soon!