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FRESH FACES |
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by Ernie Thomas
CLOCKWISE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL THE DICE VEGAS
STYLE
Though a tad bit snarly, this hungry Las Vegas band, is hardly
riding anyone’s coattails. They
are “punk” only in that they are rebellious and 100% pure rock ‘n’
roll. Their rock solid
debut RCA album, Healthy Manipulation, is a winner from start to finish.
The group has toured extensively in 2002, including a short
summer run supporting Alice Cooper, fall dates with Kittie and a current
run with the Murder Dolls.
“Alice Cooper is a rock ‘n’ roller,” states vocalist
Austin Leduc, who felt comfortable playing with the shock rock legend,
but grossly mismatched with the likes of Kittie.
“We’ve managed to hold our own and we’ve gone over pretty
good at every show, but it’s tough to play in front of people who
obviously are not your audience.”
The twentysomething Leduc has wisely educated himself to the
ways, means and inner workings of the blood sucking record industry.
“I just pay a LOT of attention to things and ask questions,”
he said, “because I like to know the different ways I can get screwed
in this business.”
While sometimes seeming bitter towards the record business at
large, Leduc stressed they are “treated really good” by RCA. They were “the most honest and straight forward” during a
bidding battle against Sony, Atlantic and others.
Leduc feels RCA has devised a strong “artist development
program” for them. The band’s main concern when contemplating label
offers, was insuring Clockwise would not be a one hit wonder one week
and a “Where Are They Now?” subject the next week.
“We plan to be in for the long haul and have seen how
labels today operate,” he said. “We
have no intention of being ‘flavor of the day’.
RCA gave us that long-term commitment we were looking for... and
it’s cool being on the same label as Elvis,” he cracked.
Clockwise was a quintet until a few months ago, when guitarist
Justin Pasquale quit. Leduc told of Clockwise being cursed in a “Spinal
Tap” fashion with an ever-rotating cast of guitarists.
“Some people are afraid of success and some are afraid of
failure,” he philosophized. “I
think Justin was so afraid to fail that he didn’t even want to try.”
Pasquale was one of two guitarists that joined the band after the
deal with RCA was signed and recording was done.
The core group of Leduc, drummer Dave McMahan and bassist Alfonso
Bernal had played together since high school.
Finding string benders who shared the trio’s long term
commitment and musical vision had always been a challenge.
“We’ve been signed for two years already,” said Leduc, even
though Healthy Manipulation, just shipped late last month. “Justin
joined in September of 2001 and he only plays on two songs on the album. They were ones we wrote and recorded to replace songs on the
album that we felt were not strong enough.”
Their second and now sole guitarist, Scott Beare, joined later
and does not play a note on the CD.
“Our producer, Dan Brodbeck, played most of the guitar on the
album,” he continued. “Though
they picked his name from a short list of available producers provided
by A&R folks at RCA, Leduc said that Brodbeck has become like an
actual member of the group. “He
and I wrote together for this album and we have gotten together since it
was done and written some new songs too.”
Beare looks to be a keeper according to the singer, who said they
would have a lot more songs written if they had not spent so much time
teaching old songs to new guitarists every few months. “Clockwise had
always been a five-piece, two guitars band, but we’re staying a four
piece since things are working out so well,” he concluded.
While their CD is already in stores, RCA and the band jointly
decided to not push a single from it until early 2003.
“There are too many singles from big names like Pearl Jam and
Nirvana being pushed at radio right and new albums competing for
Christmas shopping dollars. A baby band like us hasn’t got much chance
at getting squeezed in at radio right now,” he explained.
“We decided it was much better to wait until January or
February to push a single, because we have a better chance of getting
added. I really hate the whole corporate game that the music
industry has become, but we’re in this business and sometimes you just
to have to play it,” he said.
Every game has a winner and Clockwise have the kind of musical muscle and the right moxy to
be just that.
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