DANGEROUS TOYS Frontman Talks About Upcoming 20-Year-Anniversary CD/DVD

DANGEROUS TOYS/BROKEN TEETH frontman Jason McMaster recently spoke to Anarchy Music about the upcoming live CD/DVD set "XX", which will see release later this year through Corporate Punishment Records. McMaster also spoke about SHADOWS FALL covering DANGEROUS TOYS' "Teasin' Pleasin'". Excerpts from the interview follow:

Anarchy Music: DANGEROUS TOYS has a 20-year anniversary CD and DVD coming out. What can you tell me about that?

Jason McMaster: DANGEROUS TOYS officially started in October of 1987. 20 years and four or five albums later, a few reunion shows, a couple of trips to Japan and some touring with our idols, we've had a really great time. This is just a celebratory "thank you" to the fans and to rock 'n' roll. The DVD was filmed at a club here in Austin where we all still live. When we do reunion shows, generally people fly in from all over the place, Japan and all over the states. The phones blow up and it gets kind of crazy. It's fun and it gave us more reason to celebrate the whole thing. We go real deep into most of the recordings as farthe material we did. We did "Demon Bell", which is the song we did on the soundtrack to Wes Craven's "Shocker". It had never been played live until this particular show. The cover will be done by Tommy Pons, the original clown artist who also lives here in Austin now. We're trying to do it as a real DANGEROUS TOYS release, except that unlike most major label releases, this one will be fully band endorsed. No corporate decisions on this one.

Anarchy Music: SHADOWS FALL did a cover of the DANGEROUS TOYS hit "Teasin' Pleasin'", which you did guest vocals on. Were you a fan of theirs prior to them contacting you about doing the cover?

Jason: Honestly, I had only heard the name SHADOWS FALL and never seen them live, not before what you're talking about, but SHADOWS FALL had been hitting clubs in Texas for 10 years. I heard the name and seen it around, heard great reviews of the band but hadn't heard anything until someone called me and said, "Dude, I just saw SHADOWS FALL and when they got off stage one of the guys was walking around wearing an old school vintage DANGEROUS TOYS tour shirt." I said, "You're shitting me," and he said "No, in fact, I talked to him and I got his e-mail address and he wants to talk to you." I got the guitar player Matt's e-mail address and we started e-mailing. It wasn't until when I started talking to those guys that I started catching up their material and meeting more and more SHADOWS FALL fans. Those guys are totally cool and I met them a couple of times. One day I got an e-mail from Matt saying, "Hey, we want to cover a TOYS song" I was trying to sell them "Bones In The Gutter" and they weren't having it. They said, "Fuck that, we want to do the hit!" When you see them play you can't not walk away saying "I just got my ass kicked with rock". Those guys are not fucking around when they're up to there. They mean that shit and they bring it to the cauldron. You know what I mean? They call you up to it. That what it takes, man. Ultimately, I want my fans just like SHADOWS FALL wants their fans, just like any rock band or metal band. It is rock and metal that I'm talking about. It's not any other genre of fans. You're either into it to death from birth or the day you first heard BLACK SABBATH or whatever your story is. It's not like people you may meet that are just a farce that say, "Yeah, I used to like heavy metal. I had a couple of those albums." That's such bullshit. No, you had a couple of metal albums because your so-called friends at school were into it and you were trying to fit in. That's all that it is for someone who's not a metalhead from day one. I think it's something that you're drawn to. Its a cauldron, it's a roundtable, it's a tribe.

The entire interview can be read online at www.anarchymusic.net.