5 Questions
with...
1. If I knew absolutely nothing about Rahway,
how would you describe the group’s music to me?
-- RAHWAY's music is a mix of everything great about
music from the last 30 years. RAHWAY has complex but catchy vocal harmonies
and melodies with a raw driving riff laden sound backed up by a rock solid
rhythm section. RAHWAY is influenced by everything we have ever heard from
the Beatles and Elvis Presley to Slayer, Guns and Roses and The Ramones.
2. If I were to buy your new album Snitches Get
Stiches,
what songs should I pay particular attention to and why?
-- The band' s favorites are Machine, Draggin
Fire and Different From The Norm but the singles are probably 9/16th
or I can Feel It. We just set out to make an album we would listen
to from beginning to end and we think we did it...
3. When and where did the band form, and where did the
name come from? -- Steve and Dave
Cardenas moved to Linden, NJ from the Bronx and met Bobby Paffrath through
mutual friends and have been playing together on and off in various bands
since their pre-teens. They gained much industry interest in various projects
but always had problems with their singers (LSD...Lead Singer Disease). They
found Steve Visconti through an ad on the internet while auditioning other
singers. He came down and everyone knew the chemistry was right.
The band was supposed to be named Pushrod. At the
time RAHWAY was working with Producer Jack Douglas (John Lennon, Aerosmith,
Cheap Trick). Jack was
working with Aerosmith on their "Honkin on Bobo" album and was
telling Steven Tyler about the new band he was working with. Steven Tyler
thought Pushrod sounded like Nimrod and asked where are they from. At the
time RAHWAY rehearsed in Rahway, NJ. Tyler said we should be called RAHWAY
and after Jack told us, we decided to listen to Mr. Tyler. 4.
What was your worst on stage experience? What was your
best?
-- One of the best was having Don Dokken yelling
at a club owner to get us off the stage in the middle of our set while
seeing his crowd loving us and then shortly after his first song, seeing
his crowd start leaving the club and hearing them telling us that we
were the show...
There are plenty of worsts but playing an empty club in the Villiage on
a Tuesday night with nobody there but our roadies and the sound guy and
the sound guy still telling us to turn down. Bobby used to always hurt
himself onstage too and Steve had broken every piece of drum equiptment
at some time or another. We could write a book on bad experiences....
5. Do you think that the Internet (whether it be Internet
radio, legal downloading, MySpace, streaming audio, etc.) is a good tool
for musicians or is it a bad thing because it hinders profits?
-- We think the internet is the best thing that has
happened to music in the last 30 years. The industry has been getting stale
and complacent, packaging up bands like Green Day and Blink 182 and trying
to call it new. Punk died in 1977... The kids buy it just because that's
all they got. Nothing new or interesting, let alone exciting and fresh.
The internet has knocked down the walls that the
music industry put up against the "Do it yourself" homegrown,
get out there and do your own thing vibe that happened in the 60's. Now
bands like us can reach
a huge international audience without a Major Label or their money. Music
is art and art can't be judged by some CEO in a $2000 suit, it has to be
heard and experienced by the people that appreciate it for what it is.
The internet has given new bands the ability to bypass the bullshit and
get on wth their art.
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