electricangels

Candy Metal Suicide: Adam T talks to Jonathan Daniels (Candy, Electric Angels, the Loveless) _____________________________________________________________________________________
Of the countless Los Angeles hair farmers roaming the sunset strip in the early '80s, very few had the impact on Flash Metal Culture that the seminal Candy did. Though the four piece only released one flop record on Mercury, the band's 1985 debut, "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FUN?", encapsulates the genre clash of Hard Rock, Glam, and Power Pop perfectly. The band would go on to spawn Flash Metal favorites The Electric Angels and Kills For Thrills, and various Candy members would go on to work with the likes of Guns N' Roses (Gilby Clarke), Alice Cooper (Ryan Roxie), and, ummm, Barry Manilow (Kyle Vincent). Though kinda wimpy by today's standards, the songs still shine, and it's these tunes that make Candy a hep name to drop 20 years after the fact. Bassist Jonathan Daniel was responsible for penning all of the band's pop gems as well as the albums by his post-Candy bands the Electric Angels and The Loveless (both which also featured Candy drummer John Schubert.) Jonathan's Candy era tunes were recently issued on CD for the first time via a 25 track compilation of demos, live trax, and rarities on SongTree Records. To celebrate the album's release and the upcoming Flash Metal Suicide book, I tracked down JD for the skinny on his electric nights in the teenage neon jungle...bring on the Electric Angels rarities compilation! _____________________________________________________________________________________
What sparked your initial interest in forming Candy? How old were you when you started playing with John Schubert? (Schubert played along with Jonathan in Candy, Electric Angels, & The Loveless) I met John thru a guitarist in, I think, 1980. John would know better, he drank less diet coke than I did. I was 18 or 19 and John is 2 years older than I. The first show I brought him to was Motley Crue's first show ever. They played two sets opening for Y&T. The did wretched covers of Tonight by the Raspberries and Paperback Writer by the Beatles. When I moved to LA in 1979, I was a punk rock kid, not a mall punk or a crusty punk--back then there were very few of us.
	We didn't look as cool or have all the AFI/Exploited patches--but we liked the Ramones and the Clash. Then I saw Nikki Sixx in the hallway of the Starwood... Who were the early influences on Candy? Nikki Sixx for sure. We wanted to be Generation X meets the Monkees-a cleaned up Ramones. Certain shows were huge influences on our wardrobe--Billy Idol at the Roxy was the ultimate. Musically, I was a big record collector--I'd buy tons of records for 99 cents at Aaron's on Melrose so a big part of our influence was stuff no one ever heard--Starjets, Milk n Cookies, all the bands that failed in the wake of the Knack, like 20/20 and Great Buildings. Rick Springfield's Working Class Dog got alot of spins, until it became a hit. How long did you guys gig for before you got signed? We started in 81, with Geoff Rexx (later Jett from the Nymphs) on guitar. We played like that for about a year, then Gilby joined.
By then we had a good following and we got a deal with Curb/MCA but the producer wanted us to be Shaun Cassidy/Leif Garrett as a band so we bought our way out of that deal. We signed to Polygram in Nov 1984. I wrote so many songs in those days, because I was just learning chords. I had this Japanese flying V copy I bought with a wad of money I found on Santa Monica blvd--clearly some chickenhawk's payday had fallen out of his pocket. Every day I'd write a new song, all bad, by the way. We'd switch the entire set list every few months. Gilby and Kyle never got along--Kyle's a little bit country, Gilby's a lot rock n roll--when we split with Kyle, we played with Gilby singing and Ryan (later of Electric Angels) and there was a second album written around that time. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Gilby, John, & yourself were the backing band for Angela Bowie at Wong's West in 1984. How did that come about? What kind of material did you play? I can't really remember how we met Angie--probably through Kim Fowley. We also played in San Diego with her and recorded a single, which was definitely with Kim. We played songs she wrote which may've been alright if she's not been stoned as the bejeezus. What was Kim Fowley's involvement with Candy? What about Paul Stanley? I met Kim at Madame Wongs. We were playing with a band called Tantrum that Laurie Bell, who used to be in a Kim Fowley band called the Orchids, led. I saw him in the elevator. I was a big fan of the Runaways, the Quick, and the Hollywood Stars, and I figured he was some kind of ticket to the big time. I cornered him and made him watch our set. Afterwards, he made me come to his apartment and play songs for about 3 days. We had no fans when we met him. He gave me his rolodex and told me to call everyone in it. Our next show at the Troubadour had a line all the way around the block. I owe him alot for teaching me music business shortcuts. Of course, I brought him Poison when they were Paris and Guns N Roses when they were Hollywood Rose, so I think we're even at this point. We were managed by Howard Marks, who managed KISS at the time. That was our only connection to Paul Stanley or KISS. We used to rehearse in Howard's abandoned Beverly Hills office. We'd setup mikes on his really expensive furniture.
How would you describe the climate of the LA music scene when Candy 1st started playing? Obviously, Motley Crue were taking off on a global level and spawning countless imitators, how aware were you guys of bands like The Gun Club and TSOL? Did you identify more with the Metal bands or the punk/underground bands? When Candy first started there were 3 scenes--new wave/skinny tie, metal, and punk. Musically, I liked the other two scenes better than ours, and we played the Anti Club and Cathay de Grande as well as the Whisky.
I knew all about Gun Club, Tex and the Horseheads, etc. The girls were hotter in our scene, though and, as we got better, our scene became a better place to get a record deal. You seemed to have a "play whenever and with whoever" ethic which followed into the Electric Angels. The whenever and with whoever ethic was probably mine. I was an opportunist. My favorite bands to play with were often shows that weren't great -- Iggy Pop, the Damned, Flesh for Lulu -- because those were bands I loved. The best shows were always on embarrassing bills. We once played 8 sets in two nights with Scott Baio at Knotts Berry Farm. That ruled. The Corey Hart shows, Rick Springfield shows, they were all awesome. Danger Danger at a Roller Rink somewhere in Pennsylvania was fun. Did Candy really open for Run DMC and appear in Honey Crip Cereal commercials? Guilty as charged. The Honey Crisp commercial was great because it was more money than we'd ever seen. The song was awesome--"got a rock and roll feeling for those golden puffs of wheat". The Run DMC show was not so good. It was a LA street scene. I don't think RUN DMC & Candy were a great match.
	G.G. Allin's "Sluts In The City" is the same song as "Kids In The City" from "Whatever happened To Fun?" When did you learn about this? Did Candy draw a mixed audience of punks and glam rockers? I actually just found out about it -- huge cred points! I have no idea how or why he would've known about that song or us. Candy's audience was 80% girls, 20% guys in bands looking for girls. What caused the breakup of the original Candy line-up?
Gilby and Kyle were not a good match--Kyle wanted us to be more pro, Gilby wanted us to rock more. They're still having the same fight 20 years later. How long did the band stay in LA before re-locating to NY? Was Shane singing in Candy before the name change? When was the first Electric Angels gig? Candy didn't move to NY, Electric Angels did, in Feb 1989. Gilby and I figured we weren't gonna get another deal as Candy, so we split into two groups -- Electric Angels and Kill for Thrills. We got Shane, Gilby got Jason Nesmith, who was Shane's guitarist at the time. Electric Angels' first gig was, I believe, sometime in late '87. We had a great photo of Shane from some rock fashion shoot. It got us a following right away.
Was the move from L.A. to NY a total culture shock? I think we may be the only band in the history of rock dumb enough to make that move--it's ass backwards. We got a deal less than a month into being in NY, so it was easy to stay. There was no good reason for moving, we were bored in the van on the way to a gig in Orange County when we came up with that bit of genius. The NY scene was pretty sad--it was sunday night at the Limelight, wednesday night at the Cat Club, and that was pretty much it. There were a couple of bands with deals but, for the most part, it was, and stilll is a very hard city for a band. There are no kids, it's really expensive and moving an SVT in a cab is just not happening. Of course, it's also the greatest city in the world, so my lyrics immediately became better.
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Like Candy, Electric Angels shared gigs with some truly great and truly bizarre bands of the era. What do you remember about playing with... Zodiac Mindwarp - I was a huge fan of their singles--the gigs were great, I was always happy to play with a band I liked. Dramarama - We played with them? That song "Work for Food" has genius lyrics. "No one wants to pay me for my broken heart" is an incredible summation of pretty much every musician I know. Iggy Pop - The gig was somewhat of a letdown, given that Iggy's a legend and his audience wasn't really interested in seeing an opening band. Telling other bands we were opening for Iggy ruled, though. D'molls - D Legend begins, D future is now. Pandoras - "Run Down Love Battery" was a hot song. Flesh For Lulu - I was a huge fan-even had the import singles with the non-lp b sides. Sea Hags - I think we played with them and LA Guns somewhere in the south bay. I think we were pissed off they had a deal when we had a bigger following. Richard Marx - The review said my lyrics were "Shakespearean by rock standards." I think he meant by Richard Marx' standards. Paul Warren from Paul Warren's Explorer (I believe that album cost me 29 cents at Aaron's) played guitar with him. The Damned - Again, like the Iggy show, telling your friends you were opening for the Damned was better than actually doing it. I don't think the audience made a sound through our whole set. Warrant - Lots of kids singing along with "Heaven". ____________________________________________________________________________________
	Any memories of The Scream Club? Scream was great--when it first opened we would get in by saying we were LA Guns. No one knew the difference with all the black hair and leather. When Gilby disbanded Kills For Thrills to join Guns N' Roses, what did you think? Were you fans of Gn'R? Any input into the freakshow which is Axl Rose? GnR were Candy fans, so it didn't seem as surprising as you might think.
I loved GnR, I thought they were gonna be huge from the first time I saw Axl sing. Gilby and I were friends with Izzy so when Axl moved to LA, Izzy asked me if I could help book gigs. I booked them at Madame Wong's Chinatown. I remember watching them with Tim from Flies on Fire, thinking "holy shit", this is it. Axl was always an unusual guy. There's always been a common thread to the sound of Candy, The Electric Angels, and The Loveless, probably because you were the main songwriter for all three bands. What's your main approach to songwriting? Favorites you've written? I usually come up with a title first, then try to fit as many words as humanly possible into a 3 minute pop song. Then I would sing it really badly to either Kyle or Shane, and they'd try to interpret it. I like the Loveless songs the best. I think I'd figured it out pretty well by then.
The Electric Angels album was produced by the legendary Tony Visconti, what was it like working with him? Tony is very talented, the strings he did on the album are amazing--he had great stories about T Rex, Bowie, Thin Lizzy, etc. In retrospect, we probably should've made a more raw album, but that was our fault, not his. Like so many bands signed in the wake of the Flash Metal explosion, it seemed Atlantic completely dropped the ball in regards to promoting your album...in retrospect would you rather have signed with an indie label? I think if we'd been around now, we would've been more successful in that we were pretty DIY and we could've made our own cds, etc.
What happened with the Loveless? Did you ever play outside of NY? Was there any other material recorded after "A Tale Of Gin And Salvation"? The Loveless was a recording project, mostly. It's really hard being in a band in NY and we never found a guitarist. John Ceparano is a friend of mine who played with us, as a favor. There was tons of other material recorded prior to the album--the lost Electric Angels second album and songs we left off the Loveless album. I'm proud of that album in that we did the entire album, artwork and everything ourselves for the cost of the Electric Angels photo shoot, and I think it holds up pretty well by comparison. What have you been doing since The Loveless? What is your current career? I manage bands now. Those that can't do, manage right? One of my artists, Butch Walker, is the natural progression of what I was doing musically. He's just like me, only younger and more talented. How did the new Candy compilation CD come about? Totally Kyle's vision. He did everything and sent it to us when it was finished. I thought he did an amazing job.
	What were your 5 favorite albums from the Flash Metal era? Dogs D'Amour - Errol Flynn Wildhearts - Earth vs Wildhearts Flesh for Lulu - Long Live the New Flesh Billy Idol - Billy Idol Guns N Roses - Appetite for Destruction Singles? Zodiac Mindwarp - Prime mover London Quireboys - I Don't Love you Anymore Flesh for Lulu - I Go Crazy Hanoi Rocks - Boulevard of Broken Dreams The Alarm - 68 Guns
__________________________________________________________________________ LINKS: CANDY SONGTREE RECORDS ELECTRIC ANGELS CRUSH MUSIC MEDIA MANAGEMENT KYLE VINCENT GILBY CLARKE RYAN ROXIE -Adam T Sleaze Home
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