Detritus
Mini-Issue #430.5 - November 2, 2007
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*** CAST OF CHARACTERS ***
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Patrick Brower, Editor
patrickbrower@...

Sean P. Gahgan, Editor
lof@...
http://www.lakeoffire.net/

Tim Wadzinski, Owner
tsw512@...

Steve Shumake, Co-owner
vongoober@...
http://www.myspace.com/kdsteve

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*** LET IT BE KNOWN ***
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-Enjoy Neal's little chat with the legendary Dave Meniketti. - Tim

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*** SPECIAL REPORT ***
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by Neal Woodall (MysticX9@...)

-Interview w/ Dave Meniketti (Y&T)
October 10, 2007

Not too many bands can claim to have been active during four decades,
but San Francisco's Y&T certainly can and what's more, they show no
signs of slowing down. Much of Y&T's longevity and success is due to
their charismatic front man, lead vocalist and guitarist Dave
Meniketti. Originally inspired by classic guitar greats such as Jimi
Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, Dave quickly forged his own unique
style and burst onto the scene in 1976 with Yesterday And Today's
self-titled debut. Five years later they would shorten the name to Y&T
and release the now legendary EARTHSHAKER album, later scoring a big
hit with 1985's "Summertime Girls." In 1991 the band released
YESTERDAY & TODAY - LIVE, a concert recorded in Tokyo that was
supposed to be their swan song; retirement was short lived, however,
as Y&T began returning to the concert stage periodically and recorded
two albums during the grunge heyday of the '90s. Now fully back on the
touring circuit with a fantastic new live DVD entitled LIVE: ONE HOT
NIGHT, Y&T are as dynamic as ever. It was my great pleasure to speak
with Dave about the new DVD, Y&T's increasingly extensive tour
schedule, and the possibility for that long awaited new Y&T album...

DETRITUS: I still pull out the Y&T LIVE AT THE SAN FRANCISCO CIVIC
concert video -- was it as much fun doing ONE HOT NIGHT?

DAVE MENIKETTI: Yeah, it was cool. You know, the only problem with it
of course was I was sick and two of the other guys were kind of sick
too, but you know what, it didn't really matter because once we hit
the stage the energy from the fans let us compensate for that. It was
a great show and you can tell the fans on there were really psyched --
just that extra had them going because they knew that we were actually
filming the DVD -- but that's a Y&T fan base right there though.
That's the kind of fan that we deal with on a nightly basis, they're
totally committed to the band, they just love it, sing the lyrics and
everything, it's great.

D: Yeah, it looked like you had a great audience that night.

DM: Yeah we did!

D: Why did you choose to do the DVD shoot in Holland?

DM: Well, it was because this guy who was out of a German production
company came up to us a couple of dates into our tour, a couple of
months before when we were in Europe doing some summer festivals -- we
had just done one called the Bang Your Head!!! festival. Then a few
countries later we were at another festival and this guy shows up
backstage with his laptop and he's playing back this six camera shoot
from that festival, with the sound and everything saying "See, we
really do a good job, we've done all these other DVDs from other
artists, but it's more than that -- we are huge Y&T fans!" So with
that going for them and the fact that they were very professional we
thought "Yeah, let's go with these guys -- if they're fans themselves
that means they are going to do the best for the fans and for us on
this DVD." So then it was just a matter of, they knew we were coming
back to do our own headline swing in Europe a couple of months later
so it was just finding the right venue that we were going to be at
that they could drive their whole production crew out to that would be
right for a DVD shoot and close enough for them -- and that was this
gig in Holland.

D: The set list is awesome -- how did you go about selecting the
songs?

DM: Well, that's never an easy process for us because we have so many
records out and we try to keep it fresh every time that we play. I
keep a journal of all the set lists we've ever done from year to year,
so we try to mix it up every year and this was our 2007 European tour
kind of, you know, basic skeleton of a set that we would go by, and
then we would maybe change songs every night if we had to have a
couple of songs that we would take out and change up, replace it with
this or that. So it was a basic set that we had sort of constructed
knowing that we were going to do the DVD and we thought "OK, we have
to play some of the obvious songs that everybody wants to hear every
night but let's also doing some other tunes like this, this and this
that haven't made it to any kind of video of any sort that we have out
there, to make sure we keep it fresh for everybody."

D: I know you can't play everything but was it hard to leave out some
things like "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Struck Down" from the early
albums?

DM: Yeah, it is -- it is tough, especially the early, early stuff like
that from Yesterday And Today albums; I mean, some of that stuff we
haven't played much recently, but we have done "Beautiful Dreamer," we
do do it on occasion, you know, every other night or something like
that, it depends on if we start getting the feeling from the crowd
that that would be something they would know or want to hear. And we
do this thing every night where we stop in the middle of a set and do
a request thing, we go "OK, tell us what you want to hear," and if we
don't know it very well I'll just sing it a cappella or whatever. But
"Beautiful Dreamer" comes up quite often and we'll just go into the
whole song and do it. The other thing with these guys being fans, the
production company, they said "Look, we're going to film the entire
set but if there are other songs that you wish you could have gotten
into the set but there wasn't enough time, why don't you do them at
sound check and we'll film the sound check too?" And that's what we
did, we got three other songs in there. "Ten Lovers," "Midnight In
Tokyo" and "Sail On By" I kinda did a cappella.

D: Yeah, that worked out well! EARTHSHAKER is still my favorite so it
was great to hear stuff like "Dirty Girl," "Hurricane," "I Believe In
You" and "Rescue Me."

DM: Yeah!

D: [Guitarist] John Nymann and [drummer] Mike Vanderhule sound like
they've been playing with Y&T forever; how did their involvement come
about?

DM: Well, John Nymann has been with the band on and off for many years
in different capacities; he was doing background vocals for us in the
mid '80s, he even was a guitar roadie for us at one point, and he was
even the guy who was in the big Rock robot suit! (laughs)

D: Oh, I didn't know that -- was that him? (laughs)

DM: Yeah, but he's an accomplished guitar player and singer. He was in
the Eric Martin Band and a couple of other bands that had started up
in the Bay Area about the time that we started, and he went to high
school with Leonard [Haze, former drummer], so we knew the guy from
the very beginning. They were inspired by the Y&T stuff that we were
coming up with way back in the '70s, and they had their own band 415
that they started that was opening up for Y&T all the time so they
were kind of like the sister band to Y&T in the Bay Area for the
longest time. John was just such a good friend and a great player and
everything that for years we thought "Man, it would be so cool if we
could get John in the band if anything ever happened to one of the
other guitar players." And as it happened of course there was an
opening and he was the first guy we thought of, we said "Oh my God,
this is the time, we can finally get John in the band!" It was just
perfect then, and he knew the songs like the back of his hand already
anyway! Mike, Mike we got just last year. We made a change, and like
six weeks before a European tour as a matter of fact, with the summer
fests and everything, and we knew we had limited time to get the word
out -- try to find somebody, audition people and then after we find
somebody, get them to learn like twenty-something songs and be good
enough to go out and play these festivals. So it was no small feat
that Mike had come in -- and we really dug his playing out of all the
guys we auditioned -- and it was lucky for us that he was a local guy
and had the time to sit there and go through every song with us for
like two weeks. And that's how quick it was, two weeks to learn like
twenty-something songs and "OK, your first gig is playing in front of
30,000 people in Europe!" (laughs)

D: He had his work cut out for him!

DM: Yeah, yeah but he's worked out great.

D: Was there any talk of including Joey [Alves, former guitarist] or
Leonard, or are they pretty much out of the picture now?

DM: You mean for the video?

D: Yeah, you know, have them come in as special guests or something?

DM: Yeah, that would have been a possibility had we done it in the Bay
Area, but we were in Holland...

D: Yeah, I guess to fly them all the way over to Europe would have
been unrealistic!

DM: Yeah, that was unrealistic indeed; we tried doing a DVD shoot a
couple of years earlier at the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma out near us
in our area. it's a great little theater that we play every year, and
we had everybody who was ever in the band came down and jammed with us
at one point or another. We had Stef [Burns, former guitarist], we had
Joey, we had Leonard, we had [former drummer] Jimmy DeGrasso, I mean
we had the whole bunch!

D: But you didn't get that on film?

DM: Well, we did get it on film, but the look of the film was so poor
and it turned out to not be as great as we wanted it to be so we just
passed on it. But we still have that stuff and we may release bits of
it at some point on another DVD.

D: Your guitar work and vocals are as strong as ever; do you find you
naturally maintain your skills or is there still a lot of rehearsal
and practice necessary?

DM: Well, you know at this point I think it's a pretty natural thing
for me because I've been doing it for so long, but when it comes to
vocalizing, yeah, I mean I have to keep that up, because there is a
muscle involved there. There's a physical part that, ahh, takes me a
couple of weeks if I haven't sung for maybe a month or something,
takes me maybe a good week nowadays, to get back in there and start
rehearsing before my voice is ready for general consumption. (laughs)
No, I can do it, I've even done stuff lately where we've been off for
as much as six weeks, you know, and I can go in and do a vocal session
somewhere and kick it. But still, for doing two hours plus every
night, night after night, you've got to get it back up. It's like a
runner or something, you've got to get into training again.

D: ONE HOT NIGHT strikes me as an authentic live DVD unlike some you
watch where they've obviously gone back and, umm, kind of fixed some
things...

DM: Yeah, that's absolutely true. There is nothing fixed on this
record, everything is 100% like we played it that night, and
considering I had a cold while I was singing I thought "Well, God, I
may have to fix something!" I was going into the DVD thinking that and
then I thought "No, I'm not going to do it. If my voice is strong
enough like it's been all along on this tour, unless I did something
that was just so Godawful that I just have to fix it 'cause I can't
let that thing go out like that, I'm not going to worry about it." You
know, I can tell when I listen back, and some fans have even
commented, "Well, Dave's voice didn't sound perfect on the first two
songs..." and I say "Well, that's because I was warming up, that's all
I can tell ya!" (laughs) It didn't sound so bad to me that I was
cringing every five seconds so thought "No man, this is us, warts and
all, we're going to actually give people a real live DVD."

D: The set list on the CD is a little different than on the DVD, did
you just want to mix it up a little?

DM: Well, that was because the DVD is over two hours long, the
performance, and you can't put two hours worth of material on a CD --
there's only a 74 minute CD maximum so we had to kind of pick and
choose, and we just thought "Well, let's pick what sounds like a good
set." That's why it's in there that way.

D: I understand this was like the ninth show in a row and it looks
like it was about 110 degrees in the venue, and like you mentioned
earlier you were pretty much all nursing colds...

DM: Yeah, it was outrageously hot. I've played some hot venues in my
career, and some will always stay in my mind -- this is one of 'em,
this is absolutely one of 'em! I had a puddle underneath me, in front
of my mic stand that had formed after about the fourth song and I was
literally almost slipping going up to my mic stand -- it was that hot.
And you know when you see us afterwards backstage after the set and it
looks like I'm huffin' and puffin' for like a half an hour almost,
that was because of my cold and secondarily because we had just taken
every possible bit of energy that we had left in our bodies and
expended them because of the heat. I mean that was some hot, hot stuff
-- there were people passing out in the front just as a spectator, so
it was just one of those kinds of things you know. But it was cool, we
made it through!

D: Do you like playing under adverse conditions, does that energize
you? (laughs)

DM: Sometimes it does. You know obviously if I could have said, "What
would be the perfect situation to do a DVD?" it wouldn't have been
with a cold, five shows in a row, and being in a 110 degree venue!

D: Not opportune...

DM: Yeah exactly, but you know what? After the set was done, we all
slapped each other five and thought it was a great show. And when we
looked back at it a month later when we got home and they gave us a
rough cut of it -- you know, other than the fact that I hated the way
I looked because I was like a drowned rat -- other than that I'm not
gonna say no to the video because of that. I know the fans are looking
forward to this, I think it was a good show, and they gotta take it
for what it is -- it's a hot venue, we're sweatin' and there you go!
(laughs)

D: I think it's incredible!

DM: Thanks.

D: Are you in New York now?

DM: I'm in Ithaca now, we're playing tonight then we go to New York
City tomorrow night and then we have two shows after that, we're going
up to Worcester which is about 30 miles away from Boston, then we go
to Poughkeepsie, then we fly to Europe for four weeks, in Europe and
the U.K.

D: Are you trying to expand and play in more places in the U.S.?

DM: Oh yeah, every year we try to play as many places as we possibly
can...

D: Come to Georgia. (laughs)

DM: Yeah, I know! We really bypassed the South -- and not because
we're trying to -- we're trying every available thing we can to get
dates outside of basically the West Coast and some other areas in the
States where we've been popular and consistently been popular. It's
difficult but we keep getting new people, new places again that we
haven't been in maybe 15 or 20 years. Like on this run we hit Detroit,
we hadn't played there in almost 20 years, last year we had gone back
to Chicago and Cleveland where we hadn't played for the longest time
and Chicago has been a great venue for us now -- we sold out two shows
last year, we sold out a show this year, it's just been fantastic --
so that's the way we hope to keep coming back and hitting different
areas that we haven't hit.

D: I know that you are probably tired of hearing this question but now
that you have the DVD completed, any plans for a new Y&T album?

DM: Yeah, actually we're hoping to get some writing in come January or
February because we try to take some down time right around then and
do something constructive hopefully. We'll indeed sit our butts down
in there and start writing, and if it starts flowing we should be able
to get something together for a release for next year.

D: Great news there! What about your solo band Meniketti, any new
stuff coming from you soon?

DM: Yeah, that's another thing, it's just a matter of me getting the
time to sit down and really concentrate on writing some new material.
I don't know when that's going to happen but I know I will definitely
come out with another solo record, if it won't be '07 it will be '08,
something, or '09 I should say, who knows? (laughs)

D: I'd love to see an instructional DVD from you. Have you ever
considered doing something like that?

DM: Well, not really, only because the style that I play, I feel like
I'm good at playing when I'm in a band and I can play along with
something. By myself, I feel like I don't know where to start when it
comes to instructive video, know what I mean? (laughs) I'm not one of
those kinda guys that just, you know, likes to play by myself for
somebody, I feel like I'm better in a group atmosphere. I get fans who
come up to me after a show and go "Oh man, that was cool -- did you
play in the Dorian Mode?" and I'm like "Hell, I don't know what mode I
played in!" (laughs) All I know is I play what I feel and whatever
that is is what it is! So I'm kinda, sorta a very non-instructional
kind of guy! (laughs)

D: (laughs) Your guitar sound has always been great, that very
identifiable tone -- do you ever experiment with new equipment or are
you pretty satisfied with what you have?

DM: Well for the longest time I was just real satisfied with my
standard setup which was a Les Paul and a Marshall, and nothing in
between except for a wireless, I didn't even use foot pedals for 90%
of my career so that worked for me. Then all of a sudden the tone
started changing, the Marshalls I was using weren't getting the same
tone or who knows what so I started experimenting with different
things and I've been using a Mesa Boogie Tremoverb for the last, like,
six years. I still look for different things, I'm still open for
looking for different amplifiers, different guitars and different
things right and left so I keep it loose at this point but I'm still
gettin' pretty good sounds I think. I like what I'm doing right now
but I know it's not the perfect thing, and right now I have a guy I
sent my old amp off to trying to reconstruct it and get it back to its
original sound, and if that happens I may go back to that and start
playing that again.

D: Let me hit you with one more question Dave. Gary Moore is one of my
favorite guitarists and I know he was an influence on you, but he has
recently stated that he has "grown out of rock" -- what's your
thoughts on this, can you grow out of good music?

DM: Ahh, you know, people's tastes change as they grow older and
musicians change as they try to expand their guitar playing or
whatever their instrument is, and if it just feels old hat to you to
play that kind of music, I can understand where he can come from that
attitude. He's been doing some blues things for many years too, and I
can remember I had records of his, in fact some of the first records
that I really was inspired by him, he was playing in like a fusion
band!

D: Yeah, the Colosseum stuff...

DM: Yeah, Colosseum II, exactly! So the guy is obviously a talented
musician, he's played different styles and I guess he just got to a
point where he got bored playing rock 'n' roll, and it wasn't doin' it
for him anymore, it wasn't making him feel inspired or at the end of
the day, satisfied or something. You gotta give it up for each
individual, everybody's got a different way. I personally don't listen
to rock 'n' roll that much when I'm at home, I listen to jazz and
classical, stuff like that but I still love playing rock 'n' roll --
that and the bluesy stuff is the stuff that gets me off the most. I
don't think I want to play jazz even though I listen to it, it's just
one of those things where what I listen to at home and what I want to
play when I'm onstage are two different things.

D: Well I'm so glad it's still doin' it for you to play it live!

DM: It is, it is, and that has a lot to do with the fans because our
fans are so dedicated to us that when we play live it doesn't matter
whether there's a couple hundred people, a couple thousand, ten
thousand or whatever, it's the same every night, for them it's magic
and they make it magic for us.

D: Excellent. Well Dave, anything you would like to add in closing
here?

DM: Just that we hope we are gonna finally get our butts out to the
South and play again, we're trying, believe me -- don't think we're
not thinking about you guys out there. In general, if you hear about
us coming near you, if it's 200 miles away get in your car and come
out and see us!

D: Oh yeah, there would definitely be a road trip! I'd like to come
out to California and see one of those Mystic Theatre shows...

DM: Right, right, those are great, we're playing there again at the
end of November, first day of December, that weekend.

D: If you could make it out this way, all the better!

DM: Absolutely! Just in general, the thing I like to tell people is if
you're a fan of any band that comes to your area, make an effort to go
see 'em live, because if you don't, it's harder and harder and harder
for bands to play live nowadays and harder and harder for local clubs
to stay alive because the business is failing out there for a lot of
these bands and a lot of these clubs, it makes it tough. If you can
come and support the bands live, it will make all the difference in
the world!

D: Support the live scene!

DM: Absolutely.

D: Well Dave, thanks so much for all the great music through the years
and for taking the time to do this interview, I hope to see you live
soon!

DM: You bet, I hope we play in your area!

Relevant links:

Joey Alves
http://www.myspace.com/joeyalves

Stef Burns
http://www.stefburns.com/

Jimmy DeGrasso
http://www.jimmydegrasso.com/

Dave Menikietti
http://www.meniketti.com/
http://www.myspace.com/davemeniketti

Mystic Theatre
http://www.mystictheatre.com/

Mike Vanderhule
http://www.myspace.com/mikevanderhule

Y&T
http://www.myspace.com/yandtrocks

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*** OUT ***
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