Phoenix, AZ. In 2013, I started a new rock n roll relationship.
We were four years into the TYNATOR reunion that began in 2009, and then our activities started to cool off around 2012 with everyone getting busy with other things. Our bass player, Aric, had started lending his bass skills to other bands and various projects around town. One of those bands was Chemicals of Democracy (C.O.D.). They had played right before us when TYNATOR played Al Harbison’s birthday bash at the Marquee Theater, the year before.
Shortly after that, someone from the band approached Aric about filling in for their bass player for an upcoming show, which then started a relationship of sorts for Aric with C.O.D.
In any case, Aric got to know the band’s founder, leader, main songwriter, lead guitar player, singer, and lyricist, Darrin Richards, and started filling in on bass for their live shows whenever their bass player couldn’t make a show. Aric told me a little bit about them and I was floored. I don’t know or don’t remember the details but somehow, some way, Darrin was able to get the attention of Chris Tsangarides, the well-known and highly regarded record producer of many artists, likely the most recognizable being Judas Priest’s massive record, “Painkiller”, and ultimately scored a record deal on the label Chris had just started.
Chemicals of Democracy released their debut record, “American Scream,” on Chris’ label, Dark Lord Records, in 2012. Following the release, the band was invited to play Hammerfest 4, in the UK, alongside Anthrax, Exodus, Skindred, and a host of other big names in metal. They played in the UK twice that year.
I remember sitting at home, thinking, who are these local dudes? And how in the hell did they score a Euro deal, and now getting invited to play at these festivals?? I figured it’d be no time that I’d start hearing about them being on tour somewhere. I was a bit envious, I’ll admit.
Fast forward a few months into 2013, and while the band had been invited overseas one more time, their drummer decided he didn’t want to be a part of the band any longer.
Another phone call…
Ring, ring… it was Aric. I answered and he said, “I just gave your number to Darrin Richards, the dude from C.O.D. He’s going to call you and ask you to audition for the band.” Aric pushed me on and said, “You should do it because you will get the gig and get to go to Europe as they’ve been invited back to play another festival!”
With an oddly familiar memory bouncing around in my head, I went from envy to excitement, again. Not a minute went by and my phone rang again. I knew it was Darrin but I wanted to hear what he had to say, so I let it go to voicemail. His voicemail was short and he didn’t give much away, and just said he wanted to chat.
I called him back and he said Aric told him about me and gave him my number and asked if I wanted to audition. I told him I did and asked that he email me a few tunes. I said I’d learn them in a couple of days.
He emailed me about 5 or 6 songs and I learned them all essentially in about 3 days. I went to their rehearsal space, auditioned on the former drummer’s drumset, and at the end of the jam, Darrin asked if I wanted to go to Spain the following month. He went on to say that, in fact, yes, they’d been invited back to play the Hard Rock Hell “Road Trip” fest in Ibiza, Spain. I said that Aric made mention of it, but didn’t go into detail. Darrin said it was a festival and was being headlined by The Quireboys, formerly known as The London Quireboys.
The band set up a local warm-up show to work out any kinks and to make sure I could handle myself in a live situation. It was a good show and we spent the next few weeks rehearsing the set we were going to play in Spain.
The first week of May 2013 arrived and the band gathered at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix to fly to NY and meet up with our 3rd guitar player, Sammy.
We got to New York and I met Sammy, who’d flown to the States from Brazil. Sammy is Brazilian-born and connected with Darrin over the internet. Sammy auditioned over the Internet and secured his place in C.O.D. that way. He’d been part of the band for the UK shows the year before so he was already familiar with everything. He is an incredibly nice guy and an unbelievably talented person – an amazing guitar player and riff writer but is also a dedicated bodybuilder as well as a proficient student of jiu-jitsu. The one word I think of when I think of Sammy is discipline. He’s a master of the concept, in my opinion. Sammy did not drink nor do any drugs of any sort. His obsession during the time we spent together was equal parts bodybuilding and guitar practicing. It was inspiring to see, especially after I’d kind of become jaded about anything related to music. He breathed a huge fire of inspiration into me personally and into the band.
We successfully made it to Spain and met up with the festival organizers who’d procured a van for us and our equipment. Beyond exhausted, we all piled into the van for the hour trek to San Antonio.
The Hard Rock Hell Road Trip organizers essentially bought out several floors of a hotel in San Antonio, Ibiza, down the street from the festival venue. We were put up for an entire week, before our show. I guess it was more cost-effective, perhaps. But I remember thinking on day five how much money they must have spent and likely lost.
The small town of San Antonio or at least the part we were in was very Spanish. Small, narrow streets, little spots tucked away here and there to eat and drink, near the beach… I loved it all. The festival was held at a club that could easily hold a few hundred people. This was not the “festival” experience I was hoping for but I snapped back to reality and remembered that I was in Ibiza, Spain, preparing to play a rock n roll show.
We got checked into the hotel and all of us promptly crashed, except Darrin. He went out to explore and hours later came back to our room, making all kinds of noise to wake us up. He had Chris Tsangarides with him and wanted to introduce us to him. Chris was a nice enough guy and said he’d see us around over the week.
The first couple of days, we just acclimated to the timezone and found places to eat. The shows started a couple of days after we got there. C.O.D. wasn’t scheduled to play until literally five days later.
