The BDR Interview – Part 1.
July 14th, 2015 was just like any other night. If that night means sitting around the picnic table eating gourmet hand tossed pizza and hearing the raunchiest rock and roll tour stories imaginble. We covered everything in good taste, one-upmanship took hold and good taste went out like a Christmas tree in January. Legends of sex, drugs and rock and roll piled on top like the pepperoni and mushrooms. Just any other night, unless you’re with San Diego hard rock power trio B.D.R.
BDR Members: Allen Camp – Guitar, Vocals, Bryce Giuliani – Drums, Frank Mercurio – Bass.
CL: Alright, lets get this out of the way right now, What does BDR stand for?
AC: I’ll let Frank answer that.
FM: Big Dick Rock.
Big. Dick. Rock. Right, ok. Well, some people would say that claiming you have a big dick means you don’t. What would you say to those people?
ALL: (LAUGHS)
FM: It’s more of reference about the music, obviously.
AC: I was at rehearsal and I said, “We’re a three piece. We gotta’ come out swinging. You know, play like you a gotta BIG DICK!” Go big or go home.
So would you say, it’s more about the attitude?
BG: Yeah. It’s how you carry it. How you represent it. How you SELL it. All of it.
AC: Go big or go home.
BG: Big drums, big bass, big guitar, BIG DICK!
FM: Only one of us in the band has a big dick. Ladies, it’s up to you to figure it out.
All: (Hysterical laughter).
BG: Win:Win for everyone!
So, with a name like Big Dick Rock you must have a pretty decent following in the gay community, right?
ALL: [Laughter intenisfies]
AC: TRYING! We’re trying. We welcome everyone! Hey, Facebook says it’s ok. Anyone who likes Big Dick Rock.
BG: Even gays have big dicks.
FM: Everyone appreciates good, hard, rock music.
AC: We welcome the gay community.
FM: We welcome the heterosexual community as well.
Well, with all this talk about big dicks… On average, how many groupies do you shag on the tourbus after a sweaty night of rock and roll?
FM: The most I had was three in a night.
Yeah, but that’s the high end. What’s average?
FM: One a day.
AC: I’m married. My tour bus is just me.
If you bang a mom and daughter does that count for one or two?
FM: You know, I haven’t that done that.
BG: That’s Bid dick rock style!
FM: I still haven’t done the twins yet. My roommate was banging the mom while I was banging the daughter. Does that count?
AC: Franks’ filth, filth, filth, filth flying Frank.
FM: I’m just willing to explore.
Alright, let’s back up. How did you guys form the band? What’s the backstory?
AC: I got a call from a guy named Willie Physco. He was going on tour with a band named DRI. I didn’t have a band, and I said, ‘you know, I’ll fill in.” We had about 2 rehearsals.. I met BG on tour. I said, “Maybe we should get together after tour, and just see what happens”. I haven’t been in a band for awhile. I’ve known FM for 5-6 years.
So we reached the end of the tour. There was a huge blowup with Bryce, and he fired Bryce…
Whoa, whoa! I haven’t heard this yet! Bryce, what happened at the end of the show?
BG: He didn’t fire me. I was done! The tour was over. What happened, was we both ended the tour strong as fuck. It was fucking epic..suicical baby. Let’s put it this way, someone had a few of my shirts who weren’t paying for them. And drunk bimbo was walking away with seven or eight of them that hadn’t been paid for, thanks to someone. So, I walked over and corrected the situation. I even gave her two shirts for free, and that was the end of that. Don’t disrespect me.
How do you approach song writing?
AC: I think we just get in the room and we… I come in with a riff, he (BG) comes in with his drums, and he (FM) just kinda jumps in on bass. I wanted everyone in this band to have parts. Think of it like the Beatles. Everyone needs to shine. Bryce, just be Bryce. Frank be Frank. We play it live! Live music needs to be live.
BG: Yeah, but he let me know that not only do I have free reign, fucking murder it!
AC: Yes.
BG: Kill it right here. I’m thinking, ‘man, I gotta’ lot of chops. I’m not going to be constantly blowing over this.” But he was encouraging that, and the more we do that, the bigger the dick rock it is!
AC: Live music, needs to be live.
You’ve laid down some tracks at a local studio right?
FM: We record every thing we rehearse, and then we go back and listen to everything we play. We pick out parts we like, and put songs together like that. You don’t remember things you played the day before. There is that zone the band gets in to, and it doesn’t happen all the time. When it happens you have to capture it and record it. Then try to recreate it.
AC: Also, we have the luxury of not looking at the clock. We’re in a compound. If we wanted to we could lock ourselevs in and record an album. We have a creative space.
BG: It’s the Deemer Den.
AC: We have a million dollar budget, without a million dollars.
When was the first time you jammed?
AC: Right after tour. …
BG: Right away, it was right off. We got off the road in January.
AC: Our first jam was Feburary 2015.
FM: Then I came in later, around April, to complete the project.
BG: It started right away. Even the first day we wrote stuff. We still play some of the stuff we wrote on the first day.
AC: I just appreciated being to write with a drummer.
FM: That’s the beauty of the power trio. We got a lot of room to breathe.
Was Ironhide was the first riff you wrote?
BG: Oh yeah, yeah.
AC: It was the second. I was driving home. It was just a riff, and I said, I wanted it to sound like big dick rock, like arena rock. I had it recorded on my phone.
Your first hit, Ironhide is a personal memoire for your brother law. Can you tell me more about that.
AC: My brother in law. He was in the Army, and then we got out he was a weapons specialist. He’d go away for four months then come home. He got kidney cancer. He was 36 I believe. They gave him very little time to live. … He was really brave about the whole thing. He ended up losing his voice, so at the end he could only text.
He joined a biker club that visited service men. They would go to the VA’s, clean up the graves of servicemen without families. In the club they gave him the name Ironhide. This is a guy who jumped out airplanes and was a paratrooper and served in the Army, so I didn’t want to write a sad song like, “Oh Josh I miss you, blah, blah, blah“. I wanted it to celebrate his life.
DON’T MISS THE BDR INTERVIEW – PART 2… CLICK HERE..
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Copyright © 2015. C. Lougeay
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