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Blue Flame Combo
“Rockabillies Go Home”
(11-track CD, recorded at Emerald City Studios, engineered by Robin Hanley, Damian Bacci (guitar, lead vocals), Jeff Cesal (upright bass, backing vocals), Sean McDonald (drums, backing vocals), 19:25)
The title rings with a smidge of arrogance, if you asked a portion of their audience. Hey, why not just call it, “Our Fans Suck!” But if you really want to appreciate this band, you’d have to understand that there’s more to their music than just ducktails, suede shoes, or a vintage Gene Vincent album blasting on the jukebox. Although the original Blue Flame Combo was nurtured during the psychobilly craze back in 1997, the current band (Damian Bacci, Jeff Cesal, and new drummer Brian Riddley) is more musically diverse, combining a punk tenacity and pop melodicism with the traditional three-chord stomps. Along with Bacci’s varied songwriting, the inclusion of a pair of Smiths and Fugazi covers on their newest album (recorded just as drummer Sean McDonald was leaving) only points up the shifting influences that run through the Combo’s veins. It’s a contemporary twist to a classic sound that has caught the interest of England’s Nervous Records, who plan to re-release “Rockabillies Go Home” internationally later this Christmas. Widely regarded as the defining label for conventional and cutting-edge rockabilly artists, Nervous is also proactive in promoting their music as a modern movement. Just as country and jazz have historical roots, Nervous acts are still thriving and growing with the times. Likewise, the Blue Flame Combo uses the foundation of early rock ‘n’ roll to express the anger and energy of these times.
Upright bassist Jeff Cesal recently answered a few questions about the band and their latest release.
Focus: When did you guys decide to change your sound from a traditional rockabilly band?
Jeff: When Damian and I first got together and ran through some rockabilly-type songs, it became apparent that it was no big deal. We could have done that and been pretty good at it. But then, Damian started bringing in some material that had a lot of different changes. They were all over the place. It was obvious that we both liked punk rock. We liked The Ramones. So then it became a major point to include them into these new songs. So, ever since then it’s been a fight to try to make those elements fit nicely. Damian writes a lot of cool songs, but sometimes it’s hard in to relate them to what we do.
Focus: So are you guys trying to rebel against the fashion of bands like The Stray Cats, or are you putting a bit of blueblood rock back into the mix?
Jeff: If there is one thing our group is dis-interested in, it’s scenes of any kind. That’s one of the reasons we drifted away from straight rockabilly. There’s a lot of baggage that comes with it. (Our music) is not about rockabilly-ness or punk rock-ness. It’s just that we don’t care about all of that. If you want to come out and have a good time, great. If you want us to be a different kind of band than we are, go home. We don’t need to see you.
Focus: Is there a lot of pressure for you to change your style?
Jeff: There are a whole lot of people that don’t like us for personal reasons. But the way we look at it, there’s too much friction between factions. The ‘billy people don’t mix with the punkers and then vice versa. But, then we would play between cover bands at Gasoline Alley, and do just as well as we did at punk shows or at rockabilly shows. The way we look at it, Damian writes good pop songs and we play them well.
Focus: Is this a good town, a good market, for your style of music?
Jeff: Well, we’re from St. Petersburg, but we probably play Orlando twice as much as our hometown. Not for any particular reason, but there’s bigger bars and bigger money- and it tends to be easier to set dates up over there. We are generally well supported here, but the places to play are thinning out. But then again, we’re not interested in doing four hours of rockabilly covers, either…
Focus: Your new CD is on a Canadian label. How did that come about?
Jeff: Well, the original band put out a CD a few years back, but it was very different stylistically. When the new group began to play out, we went into the studio for about ten hours to record some new tracks. We eventually put up an mp3 site, and literally, the next day we were contacted by this Canadian guy (Hamilton’s AMP Records). He was putting out this huge, three-CD comp, and convinced us to contribute a track. Then, he asked us about our plans for this demo, so he helped distribute it by pressing it on his own DIY label. It was basically paid for and funded by us, but he handled the other details. It was a little more professional looking and promoted.
Focus: So how’s the response?
Jeff: Well that’s where the new label comes in. Nervous Records in England is probably the biggest rockabilly/psychobilly label in the business. They’ve been around for 20-25 years. Basically, we sent the CD to their store for consignment, and the owner wrote back saying how much he liked it and wondering if we wanted to put it out on his label. It sounded like a good idea, so we accepted his offer. Unfortunately, we really couldn’t assess what the Canadian label could have done for us, since two weeks later we had a Nervous contract in the mail.
Focus: How big is Nervous?
Jeff: Well, his publishing company is in some ridiculous number of countries, he distributes all throughout Europe and Japan, and has a huge mail order operation that services all of the American rockabilly stores. It’s a pretty cool place to be for now. It kinda freaked us out. I mean, barring international superstardom, it’s the indie label we would have chosen for ourselves.
Focus: That’s great. You should definitely get some international response…
Jeff: Well, that’s one of the first things that the band talked about with the label. Our intention has been to tour Europe, so our goal was really to get some exposure. We’ve been pushing to have it released before Christmas, but it’s coming along, slowly but surely. It’s been a tedious process in having photos taken for the new full color jacket.
Focus: The machinery is a lot slower than going DIY.
Jeff: Yeah (laughs)
Focus: Why did you guys choose Emerald City Studios (in Oldsmar) to record the album?
Jeff: A lot of the other studios that we talked to about our band were generally disinterested in the project. The most obvious factor was that we use different instruments to record. You just can’t walk into some place and get my (acoustic) bass to sound good. A lot of studios were like, “It’s no big deal. We record all kinds of bands here. Who cares?” But Robin Hanley (Emerald’s engineer) was really interested in the process. She knew what kind of sounds we were looking for and gave us a lot of ideas how to set things up mechanically. Most other places wanted us to play along to a click track, and then multi-track everything. That’s great for some kinds of bands, but not us. There’s only one punch in on the whole record, since we really wanted to play it live. There’s a separate track for the vocals, but that’s about it. We had a very good experience with her, so we went back there for this new album. She gave us a lot of good mix suggestions and was very helpful in to us in general. She did an excellent job of working with us and understanding what we wanted to get done.
Focus: What’s the biggest misconception about Blue Flame Combo?
Jeff: Well, a lot of people think that we have some attitude problems amongst the band, and that is just not our intention. I wouldn’t say that it’s a misunderstanding that people say we’re arrogant. But we’ve all played in a lot of different bands, and if there was one better, we’d all try to be in it. Maybe that is the biggest misconception, that people think we really care what they say about us or post about us on their web sites. We have this band. We know what this band is trying to do. And we’re accomplishing things much quicker than we ever expected them to be achieved. What somebody thinks about that is immaterial to us. The three guys in this band are important to each other and as long as we’re having a good time that’s our interest.
(contact: P.O. Box 48661, St. Petersburg, FL 33743-8661, email: BlFlmCombo@aol.com)
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