Utter Trash--Happy Rainbow Death

Random Thoughts

An interview with Dave of Happy Rainbow Death

By Bob Ignizio

“What I visualize when I listen to our music is like midgets on crack playing polka music with heavy metal instruments, but I guess you could just say that we have a unique sound that blends all of our eclectic tastes of music into one big freestyle explosion of musical freedom. Still other people would describe our style of music as just plain shitty,” says Happy Rainbow Death’s vocalist/keyboard player Dave. At first, the band (which also includes Nick on drums, Joe on guitar, and Phil on bass) would often get booked on death metal bills. Although Happy Rainbow Death certainly has elements of that genre in their sound Dave says, “A lot of those kids weren't really down with our brand of shlock-rock. I think it's the keyboard that throws them off or the cheesy top 40 pop riffs we sometimes bust into. I guess they don't find it as amusing as we do. HRD is not for everyone, I don't really worry about it too much. Over the years we've found our audience or our audience has found us I guess you would say. And what a weird, wild bunch they are!”

The band got together in Chesterland, Ohio in 1992 and Dave says they picked their name because, “Happy Rainbow Death was about the most contradictory name we could think of at the time. Since we’re a band that blends styles of music that don't usually go together we figured that Happy Rainbow Death was an appropriate name. Plus we all are pretty big care bear fans.” Since that time they’ve put out 5 releases. Their most recent, ‘Random Thought Generator’, once again finds the band hopping from genre to genre like a crazed bunny rabbit and mixing styles that few sane individuals would ever think of combining. Dave says, “There is definitely a school of thought that exists out there that you cannot deviate from one particular style of music, especially when we're talking about popular/mainstream music. But there are plenty of bands in the underground like Dog Fashion Disco and Nuclear Rabbit who are mixing it up and keeping things interesting. Personally I don't think HRD is weird enough!”

On top of all the musical weirdness, the band doesn’t exactly write traditional rock lyrics, either. Humor plays a large part in the band, and even when Dave tries to be serious it doesn’t seem to work very well. He says, “One time I attempted to write some serious lyrics and when I presented them to our guitarist, Joe, he started laughing his ass off. So I just went back to what I do best, writing about crack-addicted transsexual midget cannibals. I've pretty much covered every topic that's worth writing about from cannibalism to killing mimes to shovel violence to eating fetuses and the joys of masturbation. I think on the next album I'm going to write more about nature.” Even if the band does like to have some fun, that doesn’t mean they don’t take their music seriously. Dave says, “A lot of musicians feel that since they're serious about their art, their art has to also be serious. I guess they're afraid they’ll lose credibility as an artist if their subject matter is too out there, which is fine. For me, I think that our goofy tongue in cheek humor actually helps me to keep a level head as a musician. I mean if somebody doesn't like my lyrics about killing mimes it’s not going to crush my world.”

As for how Dave feels about the area rock scene he says, “This scene is the only scene I know so it’s difficult for me to judge how good or bad it is without having anything to compare it to. Unlike a lot of bands, I believe that there are people in the scene who will help you out, you just have to look hard to find them. The only thing that annoys me is how homogenous a lot of bands sound around here. For every band that's actually bringing something new to the table, there’s like 10 others who are trying to emulate radio rock like Creed, Godsmack or whatever the current trend is right down to imitating the same vocal style. If I hear one more guy who sounds exactly like Scott Stapp or Maynard or that guy from Godsmack I'm gonna’ projectile vomit on them.” Those who fit the description, you have been warned. Best keep a raincoat handy in case Dave shows up at one of your gigs.

Some people Dave would probably never want to blow chunks on, however, are the folks at Pit Cleveland. “The best gigs that we ever played were co-headlining last years Summerfest in Thompson and the X-mas shows we've had at Pit Cleveland in the past. Gene and Kristy, owners of Pit Cleveland, put on all those shows. Those two are doing great things for this scene and any shows that we’ve ever played that have been put on by them have always been awesome.” Of course, HRD have had their share of not so awesome gigs as well. “I would have to say that the worst gig was opening up for Cannibal Corpse about 6 years ago. Although in hindsight its kind of funny, when I was onstage trying to duck out of the way of the beer that was being showered upon us it wasn't nearly as amusing. The gig started off alright, they really dug our death metal inspired “Feed us Yer Fetus”, but then we played 'Stroke It', which is this cheesy upbeat pop sounding song where I'm just singing about all these ridiculous ways to .. Uhm, have sex with yourself. Apparently Cannibal Corpse fans don't find that kind of shit funny. At all. We were lucky to get out of there alive.”

Looking to the future Dave says, “I'm not sure what the next level is for HRD. I mean we've pretty much come to the conclusion that we're never going to be on MTV. Of course we would definitely like to increase our fan base, but I think we all like the idea of having total control over this band and not having to compromise ourselves to outside pressures. The only tradeoff with doing everything yourself is that you're not going to be able to reach as many potential fans.” Dave does have one goal he’d like to see Happy Rainbow Death achieve that might be difficult under the circumstances, but one I’m sure many Utter Trash readers can relate to. “We would like to meet Carson Daily so we could kick him in the nuts,” he says. With lofty aspirations like that, it’s hard not to wish the band all the best.