ALL YOU NEED EIGHT DAYS A WEEK IS...BEATALLICA
by Paul Autry
I keep up to date with the world around me by reading Yahoo news. I read the top stories section for world news, the oddly enough section for a laugh and, of course, the entertainment section. It was there that I first heard of Beatallica. There was an article with the headline "Parody Band Forced Offline By Sony Publishers" that caught my attention. After reading the article, I decided to visit their website, which was, of course, down by the time I got there. So, I connected to the file sharing program that I use and I downloaded all the Beatallica songs that I could find. I ended up with a fifteen song disc and, as soon as I heard songs like "Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band," "Blackend The USSR," "Got To Get You Trapped Under Ice," "I Wanna Choke Your Band" and, my personal favorite, "Hey Dude," I was hooked. For those of you who aren't familiar with this band, the description in the Yahoo article I read says it all, and I quote, "They combine the classic melodies of the Beatles with the heavy metal thunder of Metallica." You can't really say it any better than that.
Anyway, I thought the band was very creative. So, I went back to the website, signed their online petition and contacted the band to request an interview because I felt this was a band that people would really be interested in hearing about. After all, they've been getting a lot of public support. Even the members of Metallica are behind 'em and, while I can't top that, I figured I could at least add a little something to it. Within a few days, I was on the phone with the voice behind Betallica, the one and only...Jaymz. Now, it gives me great pleasure to share that conversation with you.
Paul Autry: How did the band come together?
Jaymz: Well, pretty much, the initial ideas kind of came after we did a festival here in Milwauke called Spoof Fest. It's been around for 12 years. I help to run it and it's where local musicians have fun doing some of the music of famous bands. I've been in a lot of metal bands that have been done at this festival. One year, we wanted to do Metallica and just to further the spoof, we recorded a CD for fun. But, instead of doing straight Metallica songs, our guitar player heard a Beatles song on the way to rehearsal one day. That song was "For No One" off the "Revolver" album. He said, "God, I can totally hear this riff as a Metallica riff" and he started messing around with it. We recorded it with some lyrics and we thought that was fun. We did another one, which became "A Garage Dayz Night," we did another one which became "Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band." We just recorded these things on a disc, gave 'em out at the show just for kicks. A friend of a friend of a friend got a hold of one and now he's our web guy. He put it up and actually created a web page for it on his site. We didn't even know about it. We didn't even know this guy. So, he created this page and after a number of months, he started getting hits and hits and hits from all over the place and requests for music and to come out and play and stuff like that. That's when he finally contacted us and said, "Hey, I think you need to know about some things." So, really, the band was sort of in existance before we even knew it was a band. He's the one that even named the band. From there, we recorded another album and got a live working band together to fill the bass and drum spots and that brought us up to April first of last year.
Paul Autry: So, the band wasn't actually together when you got the idea to do this?
Jaymz: Correct.
Paul Autry: I thought you were a local band who was doing this as a side project or something like that.
Jaymz: This was already on the internet and being talked about before we even knew about it, the actual creators of the music.
Paul Autry: Since you have a band now, I assume these guys all come from other bands?
Jaymz: Sure.
Paul Autry: Are they well known?
Jaymz: Well, around the scene here. I actually play a lot in the Irish music scene here in Milwauke. Milwauke's got a very strong Irish community. So, I play in an Irish rock band and then an Irish traditional/acoustic band. We do a lot of stuff, we do the major festivals and stuff. So, I keep pretty active with that. Kirk, our guitar player and Ringo, our drummer, they both play together in another heavy metal band. Our bass player and I have played together in various projects through out the years. But, all four of us have all played at the Spoof Fest and one point in time with one another.
Paul Autry: I noticed you're not mentioning any real names. Is keeping your identity a secret a conscious decision?
Jaymz: Well, you know, I mean, we've published our real names in other articles and things like that. It's kind of like you know how Ace Frehley isn't Ace Frehley's real name. You know what I mean? But, people around here know who we are. I'm involved in a lot of musical projects and people know who I am. It hasn't been a secret or anything like that. [ED. NOTE - I know who he is too, but, as far as this interview goes...it's Jaymz!]
Paul Autry: Okay. Now, you've made these songs available for free and then you got a cease and desist letter from Sony. What's the story there?
Jaymz: Well, do you mean why do you think we got the letter or where is the case standing?
Paul Autry: Ah, I guess both, whatever you wanna talk about.
Jaymz: Well, a cease and desist was sent to our internet service provider. They also sent an individual letter to our webmaster, Dave. He's the guy who had put up the site back in the day. The case is still pending. There's still things that need to be talked about, things that need to be ironed out. There's a lot of people...if you go to forums or message boards...the press is nice and people are paying attention. But, because it's a hot issue, there's a lot of misconceptions. Some people think that Metallica is suing us. That's so far from the truth because, number one, Metallica is actually on our side. They're supportive of the band. Number two, we're not getting sued by anybody. We are not in court. We're not getting sued by Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr or anything like that. This is strictly...a cease and desist was sent to us by Sony/ATV and we're currently talking with them to see how we can remedy the situation. But, talking doesn't mean that the issue is over. This is still a live issue and that's why we haven't put the site back up because we wanna hold ourselves in a measure of good faith. We wanna remedy the situation. If we put the site back up before everything is settled and we have an agreement, that might be pushing the envelope and we're right back where we started from. We don't wanna do that. There's people running around saying that this is gonna get solved or these guys got signed and stuff like that. Like I said, there's a lot of misconceptions floating around on the internet.
Paul Autry: I'm not sure how the law works. But, legally, isn't what you're doing protected by the law?
Jaymz: This is one thing that we really learned. What might be a definition in a dictionary and what might be a definition in one form of business isn't necessarily the same definition in like, say, musical law. The songs are parodies, okay? Well, parody is kind of a grey area. Parody cases have been tried successfully and they've been tried unsuccessfully. Then when you throw in the internet, there's a lot of unsolidified laws that pertain to the internet. Like this whole thing with peer to peer file sharing, that's been a hot issue over the last couple of years. We've been getting those questions all the time...how come it isn't legal? I thought parodies were legal. What about Weird Al Yankovic? What about Dread Zepplin? Then, if you start throwing in aspects of, like, going for licensing and publishing to gain the rights like that, then that's a whole other aspect of doing your project. Right now, we do not have a licensing or publishing right to any Metallica or Beatles material. That's why we don't sell it.
Paul Autry: Do you think the cease and desist from Sony has given the band more publicity?
Jaymz: Well, sure.
Paul Autry: And would you view that as a good thing or a bad thing?
Jaymz: I'll give you the good aspects here first. The good aspects are, of course, everyone who plays in a band wants to get publicity. I mean, you would think you would wanna promote yourself and promote yourself in a good light. I think all the press that has come out in the last three weeks...we've been viewed, for the most part, in a pretty positive light. The negative side to this whole thing though is that the press is revolving around an issue that we would really just be happy if we could remedy. We don't want to upset anybody. We never had this grand plan to upset Sony/ATV or any lawyer or any musician or whatever. The more bad press that comes out in regards to whatever company, does that hamper our negotiations then? I don't know because negotiations are still going on.
Paul Autry: I really don't see what the problem is. I mean, you gave the songs away for free and, when I listen to them, I don't view them as insulting or anything. You really captured the Metallica spirit, which is a good thing because, I've seen a lot of articles where people have said that Metallica needs to lighten up (in regards to whatever people were talking about) and if they happen to support Beatallica, well, I would say that means they've lightened up a bit.
Jaymz: Yeah. They've actually been in our press kits. We use them in our press quotes and stuff like that and we've had other writers use us in conjunction with Metallica. They've been nothing but cool, especially Lars. Not only has he been a helpful resource, he's been really generous with his time when he doesn't need to be, know what I mean? He's been really cool like that and a lot of other bands have been cool like that. If you look on the petition, you'll see names like Brian Ritchie of The Violent Femmes or Vernon Reid or Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.
Paul Autry: How did you guys find out that Metallica was behind you?
Jaymz: The first time, I guess, there was this magazine in the UK that did an interview with Metallica when they were over there. Instead of asking them questions about the tour, he had a copy of our stuff and the interview revolved around their reactions to hearing our stuff for the first time. Kirk and Lars thought it was pretty cool right away. A couple of weeks later, they were in Italy. An Italian writer walks up to them, hands 'em one of our CD's that he burned and said, "You ever hear of this?" They were somewhere else and this reporter was like, "Hey, you ever hear of this band?" That's how they got turned on to us. By the time they came back to the States, they started following a little bit more. Their webmaster had been following it and once the Sony story broke, Lars and his webmaster were really interested to see what was going on. But, they had made quotes in magazines before we even talked to them and before Lars called me about the Sony thing.
Paul Autry: That was cool. Now, on the flip side of that, what about Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr? What are their views?
Jaymz: We've never heard anything. So, we're not sure where they stand. There's a huge, two week festival here called Summer Fest and every year, it seems like Ringo Starr and his band comes and plays on one of the stages. So, I wanna see if I can get a little hook up and introduce myself. I don't know if that's ever gonna happen though.
Paul Autry: Well, even if it does, without knowing his opinion on Beatallica, you're pretty much walking into that blind. Could be a good experience. Could be not so good.
Jaymz: Yeah, I know. You know what though, sometimes, you've just gotta hear it. Sometimes you just need to know. I think he'd be fine with it.
Paul Autry: While we're on the subject of Ringo Starr, because this will probably be the only opportunity I ever have to bring this up in an interview, what are your thoughts on his movie "Caveman?"
Jaymz: (laughs) I saw clips from that movie a few months ago. So, I guess I don't have any thoughts. But, I do admit that we have a "Dukes Of Hazzard" calendar at the Beatallica practice space.
Paul Autry: Well, I guess I can admit that I actually own "Caveman" on DVD.
Jaymz: You have it on DVD? There you go.
Paul Autry: Yeah. Now, here's something I've really been thinking about. How far can you actually take this? I mean, when you think about it, The Beatles have a wealth of material to choose from. As far as Metallica, sure, they've got a few releases. But, it doesn't hold a candle to what The Beatles have. In my opinion, there's really only so much you can do with this.
Jaymz: The thing about writing mash up music is it has to have a flow. You can't just take one song and throw it together with another one and expect it to work. You have to work on tempo, time signature changes, stuff like that. How do the lyrics flow, do the topics go well together. There's really a lot to it. So, you're right when you say where are you gonna go with the material. But, I can tell you this, when we recorded our last album, we put eight songs on it. Well, we had sixteen that were ready to be recorded. We chose eight for the album because we thought that some ideas weren't done, they weren't fleshed out, they weren't clever. Some things we came up with at the last minute and we wanted to sit on them and really develop them more. We have quite a pool yet to choose from and we already known the next concept that we're gonna use for the next album, hopefully, if it's able to come out. We have another song that's ready to be put out, it's done. We have it in our hands. But, because of the issues at hand right now, we put the release date on hold because we wanna wait until this is all finished. When it is, then we can release the song.
Paul Autry: As of right now, how many songs are actually in circulation? I have fifteen.
Jaymz: There's more than that. There's sixteen or seventeen. We put some live tracks up on the site, some songs that haven't been recorded in the studio yet. We are doing sons live that we don't have recorded yet. If we go out and do a show and we get all night to play, we do have more than fifteen songs. We have somewhere in the 20's.
Paul Autry: You also use a Madonna sample. Would you give us a little detail about that?
Jaymz: It's used in the song "Leper Madonna." I didn't even know that was gonna be in the final mix until we went over to the studio and heard what was gonna be submitted for mastering. Our studio engineer had found it, inserted it and he was playing around with it and having some fun with it.
Paul Autry: And if I'm not mistaken, that sample was from a bogus mp3 file that Madonna herself had put out into the file sharing community to verbally attack people who were downloading her music.
Jaymz: I didn't hear a lot about the story. But, I thought it was something like, if you went to burn her album, you would end up getting that message.
Paul Autry: I'm sure you've been getting a lot of feedback from the fans. What songs have been getting the most reaction?
Jaymz: Off the first album, I would probably say "Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band," "The Thing That Should Not Let It Be" and "A Garage Dayz Night." I would say those would be the three off the first album. Off the second, probably "I Wanna Choke Your Band" and "Hey Dude" would be the two off that one.
Paul Autry: "Hey Dude" was like the third song I downloaded and I was really impressed with that one. I love that song.
Jaymz: Cool. That was actually the last one that we wrote and the last one to be included on the last album. We were lookin' for a few more things to put on there and the last ones that we wrote were "I Wanna Choke Your Band" and "Hey Dude."
Paul Autry: What's the Beatallica live experience like?
Jaymz: We have the Ed Sullivan suit thing going on. But, imagine if you tied 'em to the back of your truck and drove around the city with 'em like that. Depending on the show or what we can actually bring along on a trip, we have props that we use. Those could range from the classic "Master Of Puppets" crosses to a submarine to a whatever banner, parody props. In the movie "Yellow Submarine" there's a big blue hand and we have something that relates to that. We also have a smoke machine, a bubble machine and stuff like that.
Paul Autry: Since the whole Beatallica thing kind of revolves around the internet, I guess you'd be the perfect person to ask this question to...what are your thoughts on file sharing?
Jaymz: We really encourage it. We think that this band is kind of an experiment of how someone can be in a band that is a viable force as a musical entity. We're an internet band. The internet is really our heart. That's why when we got the cease and desist letter for the site, it was a concern to us. We thought we were proving it, that we could be an internet based band. As far as the whole file sharing thing, I just looked at the online petition again today and I find people on there, or on the message board who write in and say, because of this, I'm going out to dust off my old albums or I'm gonna go buy a new copy of this on CD or I've never been a Beatles fan, but, I'm gonna go out and buy a copy of "Revolver" or "The White Album" or whatever. I think it actually helps the industry because it makes people more aware. If you have a band like Beatallica, you have to really know both bands and their stories to really get the joke, get the parody. It encourages people to go out and check these bands out live or check out their material. We have stuff on peer to peer and that's cool.
Paul Autry: My opinion is, well, I downloaded fifteen of your songs and if you had an actual CD out, professional package and all that, I would have e-mailed the band to see about buying a copy because I would much rather have an original copy instead of a CD-R. Now, if you're going on line and doing nothing but downloading music and not buying original albums, I think that's wrong and you should be shot. You know, I've downloaded at least fifty to a hundred different albums. But, I have well over three thousand store bought CD's and, the stuff I downloaded, I will eventually buy an original copy...once I find 'em.
Jaymz: Yeah. I think that if all you do is swap music, I agree, you should go out and buy music, especially in your local scene. Go out and buy those products. But, if I'm at a show, last time Flogging Molly was here, they had their CD's at the show and I picked up a new one. I think there's needs to be some support from a consumer to whatever project they enjoy. I have bands where some of the stuff is burned and some of the stuff is the actual product.
Paul Autry: But, the point is, with the stuff you have burned, I'm sure you'd much rather have the actual album.
Jaymz: Yeah, sure, because it's a tangible product. Absolutely. Who knows, maybe all of this file stuff is gonna force the prices down. I think the high prices are what scares a lot of people off.
Paul Autry: I agree. So, before we wind it down here, would you explain a little about the online petition and what that's all about?
Jaymz: Yeah, sure. A friend of ours in the UK started this online petition...another person who started something for us without even telling us. But, she's a sweetheart, she's really great. We met her last September. She's been really awesome. Anyway, if you go to this online petition, you can type in your name and your comments and stuff. Your e-mail is kept private. It's up to about 10,000 signatures. You can check it out at Beatallica.com, this is like our temporary page. You can get on to our bulletin board from here and you can sign up to our mailing list. We keep people posted on recent events and when we have new music coming out and stuff like that.
Paul Autry: I know the petition is getting a lot of exposure. I signed it, sent it out to my mailing list and, from the time I signed it to the time that I'm talking to you now, it went up by like two thousands names. So, are you looking for any specific number or anything?
Jaymz: Well, it's public support. How much does an online petition do? I don't know and, hopefully, we're never gonna get to that point where we have to find out...when we're in court of law and we have to say, look, we have x number of people who signed our online petition who think this is okay. Well, the bottom line is, what does a judge think, what do the lawyers say? Online petitions are great, don't get me wrong. I don't wanna disregard an online petition because everyone who spends that amount of time just to say hey, I wish I could write everyone back and say thanks, you know? We're gonna release press statements and stuff like that.
Paul Autry: Well, I have a small mailing list. But, there's 500 more people who know about it. One person wrote me back and said they signed it. I'm sure there's more.
Jaymz: That's great, anything like that. Even if this whole issue wasn't going on, it's all about spreading a scene, having links...this is the power of the internet. This is one of the reasons why we started the band and did it the way that we did it. How can you use what is the greatest form of communication known to man to your best advantage?
Paul Autry: Final comments?
Jaymz: Really, the product is meant to be done in good fun. It's a bombastic, cartoonish sort of humor project. We love both bands, Beatles and Metallica. I understand that not everybody digs it or gets the joke. It's all in good fun. Maybe it will inspire you to go out and buy a Beatles album or a Metallica album. If you like it and you think that it's cool, send us an e-mail and say hi and, hopefully, we'll get to see you live once we get this issue taken care of. Also, a huge thanks to everyone. I think a lot of people thought we were gonna fold up shop once we got that letter. But, because of a lot of support, we've been able to pursure some other avenues.
Paul Autry: Well, I think it's a good idea and I admire your dedication in keeping in going.
Jaymz: Thanks. There's a lot of people who've had a hand in it, regular joe's to folks on the legal side, clubs, writers...a lot of people have been really cool about it. Not everybody. But, you can't expect to please everybody and I hold no grudges.
