BLUE OYSTER CULT (Photos Available)

MUSIC AMERICA Heaven Forbid is the first record of all new material for the band in ten years?

ERIC BLOOM It=s all new material with one live cut.

MA What is the live cut?

EB It=s AIn Thee@.

MA Is this going to be a classic B.O.C. style album or something completely new?

EB It sounds like us I think. There are a couple of reaper-esque kind of tunes in there. There is some hard rock stuff that I wrote. There is all kinds of stuff.

MA Has everyone contributed to the writing this time around?

EB Buck and I wrote everything. A lot of lyrics by John Shirley who wrote the screenplay to the movie AThe Crow@.

MA I know that you have done a lot of work on movie soundtracks does that tie in here?

EB Shirley is actually a big fan of the band and he just started faxing us the lyrics and as the lyrics came over the fax machine we started writing tunes. So, I would say that at least half of all the lyrics on this record are Shirley lyrics. He is such a weird guy and the songs are weird.

MA Singing other peoples lyrics is something that you have done before.

EB Yeah, we=ve done that before.

MA Patty Smith and ...the other names are all escaping me now.

EB Sandy Pearlman, Richard Felter, all kinds of people have kinda donated lyrics.

MA Do you find it difficult, at times, to sing other peoples words with conviction?

EB Oh no. I wouldn=t write the song if I didn=t think that the lyrics were good. That doesn=t bother me a bit.

MA Is the music itself usually inspired by a lyric or the other way around?

EB Well, in this case the lyrics came first.

MA Are there a lot of classic B.O.C. themes on the record? Science fiction and things like that?

EB Let=s see. There is one song that is about domestic violence that is the first single called, AI=>d Like To See You In Black@. That is the first radio tune out there. We are trying to get Detroit radio to play it right now. It=s been out about a week.

MA Is that something that you think radio is going to jump on?

EB Certain kinds of radio. I don=t think it=s something that your pop stations are going to play it. I mean, they are not going to take MADONNA off the play lists to put us on it. But, it=s hard rock and if they will play METALLICA and other kinds of hard rock they should play us to. It=s not for every station in the country but it could cross over. We have other much more melodic stuff to come right after this.

MA Is this something that is radio ready in the same way ABurning For You@ was?

EB Buck wrote a couple of tunes that are a lot more reaper-esque as I call them. I think that they are a lot more accessible to the general public but AI=d Like To See You In Black@ will let people know that we are still alive and that we are still rocking. It=s a very up tempo hard thing.

MA The live shows that I have heard being advertised claim that this is a reunion of the original group.

EB That is completely incorrect. Why are they saying that? I have no idea.

MA Actually the lineup of the group has been together for about A year I believe?

EB Well the band has been together forever but there has been a different drummer for about the last year and a half.

MA That being Bobby Rondinelli?

EB Right.

MA He is someone who has definitely been around a bit.

EB Oh yeah, Bobby comes from the Long Island school of rock and roll and that is where we come from so it was a natural fit. You know he has been in RAINBOW and BLACK SABBATH and a lot of other bands.

MA Have you ever asked him what his favorite color is? Black or Blue?

EB (Laughs) Probably black >cause that is all he wears!

EB He=s pretty happy with us and we are pretty happy with him. Our drummer for several years, Chuck Burgi, left to join Enrique Inglesias. I guess you would call it a dollar kind of thing. We had a couple of our good friends here on Long Island want to come out and play with us and we gave Bobby the shot and we are very happy with it.

EB The stuff was recorded a year and a half ago before Bobby joined the band. Then one of the songs that we did we wanted to redo because it didn=t come out as good as we had hoped. A song called ALive For Me@. Bobby had been playing it live for a year so, we used Bobby in the studio to redo it.

EB Well yeah. You know this is BLUE OYSTER CULT. We are not playing electronic music. We are not playing disco. We are not playing rap. I mean it=s us. It=s me, Buck, and Alan. Just as it has always been. The guys who played wrote and sang all that stuff. The only difference is that on bass Danny Miranda, has been with us for about three years now and Bobby has been with us for a little over a year.

EB I don=t know, after the millennium probably.(laughs) It=s just like every tour it never stops. We don=t do tours. We are home for like six or seven days and then we go out for two weeks then we are home for nine days and we go out for seven days ect...It just never stops.

EB Yeah. We did The King Biscuit Flour Hour five times so they are taking assorted cuts from different performances. That will be coming out in the summer time.

MA Something that I just watched recently was the ABlack and Blue@ concert video. Is the production for this show going to be big like that?

EB Not early on. It depends on how this record does. I am guessing that if the record is doing something and the tour gear up a little bit more, I could see us adding some production but right now we just get up there and play.

MA You are distributing this record through CMC International. How has that been for you?

EB We are very happy with them. So far, they are doing a great job. AI=d Like To See You In Black@ has been out a week and it is on twenty-four major stations across the country and they are going to add more this week. I have been talking to djs around the country who are playing it and they are putting it up against other new cuts in their contests and we win every night. We are very enthused.

EB We do about an hour and forty-five minutes. We play three new tunes and the rest is all classics. I imagine that will change when the record comes out but that is what we are doing right now. I know when I go to see a band I want to hear the old stuff. I don=t want to hear the stuff I don=t know. We don=t try to beat up the audience with all new material.

MA When you talk to people at shows are they very familiar with your last several albums or is it mostly the early stuff that they know well?

EB There are no rules. There are all kinds of fans. We have people who have never seen us before to people who have seen us fifty times. We have a very big Internet presence. We do a monthly chat on AOL every month. I post all the dates at the AOL classic rock area because we have a lot of hard core fans out there.

EB Probably. There is talk of an all CMC tour but, it=s not firm yet This is just a rumor so if you print it, print it as such because my manager tells me that it keeps changing on a daily basis. On CMC are JUDAS PRIEST, MOTORHEAD and IRON MAIDEN. So they are talking about some sort of CMC tour. I see that as doing some good business.

EB No far from it. You know STEPPENWOLF draws a certain type of audience and Pat Travers, the FOGHAT guys and us. It was O.K.

MA Is it very much different for you to be on the road today than it was twenty-five years ago?

EB I like touring. Some days you get good or not so good hotels and some days the travel is crappy but what are you going to do? In general, I like it. That=s why I do it.

EB You know I have other interests that I would like to pursue but I like this. It=s the best job I ever had!

EB PANTERA is my favorite band probably. I am a big Dimebag fan. I also like SEPULTURA but that=s not for everybody. When I try to turn people on to SEPULTURA they look at me like I=m crazy but I like them a lot.

EB It depends you know. We take it a year at a time at this point. We are all committed to touring AHeaven Forbid@ until we can=t anymore!