01.02.2007
LOKOMOTIV COMES TO TOWN
CALIFORNIA-BASED, MOSTLY-FILIPINO HARD ROCK BAND LOKOMOTIV IS IN TOWN: ROCKING AUDIENCES, STAYING UP 'TIL DAWN, AND GETTING LOST IN THE JUNGLE
It was the end of an era when celebrated Pinoy hard rock band Wolfgang decided to call it a day, when drummer Wolf Gemora and vocalist Basti Artadi relocated to the US in 2002. But the music didn’t stop for its former members: guitarist Manuel Legarda and bassist Mon Legaspi continued with different groups in the Philippines, and later Mon left to play in Hong Kong. Basti joined a band called Kitaan, and Wolf, after auditioning for several bands, met up with bassist Danny Gonzalez and vocalist/guitarist James MacDonnell and formed the first version of Lokomotiv, a California-based hard rock outfit. After MacDonnell left the group, Wolf recruited Basti and former Razorback guitar player David Aguirre into the line-up, and Lokomotiv recorded and released their first album, Rock ’N’ Roll Death Toll, in 2005. The joke that went around was that Razorback and Wolfgang were trading members, as Manuel Legarda took Dave’s place in the Razorback line-up.
After the album was released, plans were made to tour the US and later the Philippines, a sort of “Hey, here’s our new band and our new music” tour, as well as “An excuse to come home,” as Wolf amusedly put it. Unfortunately, Basti had commitments and decided to prioritize those over the band, leaving them to audition for a new vocalist, which they found in Ryan Hudson. The quartet finally made their way to Manila, and are currently loving every moment of it.
So, your initial vocalist left because…
DANNY: Well, the initial guy, he really wasn’t gonna be the vocalist for the band, it was just we were a little frustrated that we weren’t gigging, and he decided that he would sing. But once we brought on Dave and then, later on, Basti, we didn’t need him as a vocalist. And he wanted to pursue other things so it was amicable.
Wolf, how has it been like, coming from a very successful band in the Philippines, how was it like with Lokomotiv when you started out?
No techs?
WOLF: No, no. I mean, you can have techs, but not personally. If you can afford it, I can’t afford a tech, so more often than not, I’m the one who sets up my own drum set, play the whole set, and then take it down and bring it home. So, if you think about it, it’s really hard work.
So, in clubs in Orange County, you have to bring your own set?
WOLF: Yeah, it’s like that everywhere in the States, you have to bring your own equipment. You only have the PA. It’s an empty stage, you know, and you fill up the stage with your equipment, so, you know… which is good because I’m used to my own kit. So you really can’t complain if your equipment starts being faulty because it’s yours, so you fix your own equipment and whatever. I mean, it really makes you work hard for what you want, and it’s a test. If you really want to do this, it’s a big test.
Whose idea was it to bring David in?
DAVE: I was kidnapped. I was abducted at gunpoint. I was in my briefs. [laughter]
WOLF: And they just stuck him in the car.
DAVE: Men in Black, man.
WOLF: Seriously…
DAVE: Will Smith and the other guy, they just took me. [Wolf chuckling in the background] And the next thing I knew I was onstage with Wolf and Danny.
WOLF: Do you wanna say the real story or…
Did you contribute to the sound of Lokomotiv when you joined?
DAVE: Yeah, well, that first album, Rock’N’ Roll Death Toll, it’s really a mixture. Like, a third of it is some songs that Wolf and I wrote even before he left for the US. A third of it is Danny and some of James’ has some, like, undertones in there too. A lot of Danny’s music and then there’s the Basti songs which the band and Basti collaborated on. It’s a good record, it’s got a lot of elements in it. And I can’t wait to do the next one, actually, it’s been uphill since then.
So, Ryan, how did you hook up with the band?
RYAN: I hooked up with them, I had just moved to LA from Oklahoma, where I grew up, I hooked up with them because I moved to LA looking for a new band, my old band back home broke up. Moved out to LA to try the music thing, I heard that these guys were auditioning for new singers, I went out and bought the CD, listened to it, liked what I heard, thought I’d give it a shot, contacted Wolf via email and a week and a half later I was in the band. Tried out, got a call, got accepted.
How narrowed down was it when you chose Ryan? Were there a lot of guys who auditioned?
WOLF: It was narrowed down to about two guys, but one prerequisite was that they have to sing the album and tour it, and most of them didn’t want to do it. They didn’t want to sing the album, because they were like, “No, I don’t want to do it, I just want to write new songs and do that…” so we were like, “Bye!”
Because you had an album out?
WOLF: Yeah, and we had to promote that album. And it’s important. So, it was narrowed down to two guys; the other guys was was a good singer but he was too old, he was older than me. So, you know, that’s too old.
RYAN: I also just wanna go on record that I’m much better looking than the other guy. I think that’s really what decided it.
DAVE: Bottom line, it was really that. Plus the nipple rings, that Ryan’s got. Big big plus.
RYAN: I was forced to audition shirtless. They made me audition without my shirt on.
Tell us about your album.
DANNY: Basically, the same thing, our music is pretty straightforward rock, I mean, it’s not pretentious, and I think our songs reflect that. I mean, it’s just straightforward rock n’ roll that’s meant to be played live.
It’s not one person dictates everything?
DANNY: Not at all. I mean, even if one person…
DAVE: Oh, but what I say goes. [chuckles from the other band members]
DANNY: [without missing a beat] The original idea may stem from one person, but by the time it goes through everybody, it really does reflect the entire band.
DAVE: Yeah, it’s a total band thing. And there’s no one formula, no one way of doing things. And sometimes it’s a bass line, sometimes it’s a guitar riff, a drumbeat, a lyric, a vocal melody, a funny feeling in your groin. It comes from anywhere.
So, what do you sing about?
DAVE: … an itch behind your ear, you know…
WOLF: And I think the route that we take is, because you can sing about being broken hearted and some girl doesn’t love you anymore, but we do not take the emo route, we take the “Screw you, it’s your loss, goodbye, bitch,” yeah, that’s the route we take.
DAVE: Yeah, we don’t whine about it. We just flick it off.
WOLF: So instead of saying, “Omigod she doesn’t love me anymore,” we get over it right away. And go to the next girl. So that’s pretty much, the atmosphere that this band projects is, you know, there are problems in the world, just get over it and rock.
DANNY: That’s not to say that we don’t think there’s bad things in the world, but people go to concerts to have fun, and we’re not there to bring people down. You know what I mean? It’s not to say that we think everything’s great and hunky dory, but I mean, you go to a concert to have fun, you’re there with your friends, if that’s what you want to do, it’s fun for us too. That’s the vibe that we’re putting out.
Do the people in the States know at all that these guys are foreigners?
DANNY: No, you know what, in the States, it’s pretty diverse.
RYAN: And I don’t think it’s that much of an issue.
WOLF: Especially in California.
DAVE: Especially in LA, especially in Southern California. It’s not an issue, I mean there are bands, System of a Down, they’re, I think the whole band’s Armenian. It’s not even an issue, it’s like they’re an LA band. You have bands, with a Brazilian guy in there, a Indian guy in there, it’s just rock n’ roll is rock n’ roll, it’s universal.
RYAN: People just usually think they have a good tan. [agreement and laughter] It’s a beach community.
WOLF: The thing that’s happening in California now is that, well, I think in the States, where there are a lot of Filipinos, is that the Filipinos are starting to make a name for themselves. So it’s like right now, the Latinos are really all over the place, but during the 70s that’s when they were starting… The Latinos in the 70s is where the Filipinos are at now in the States, they’re starting to make noise and whatever, you know? And when you say Filipino, most people are like, Oh, Filipino, okay. It’s not like, “Oh where’s that?”
So how do you find the Philippines? Would you come back on your own?
DANNY: Oh, of course, I mean, it’s tiring in the sense that the clubs are open late, stuff like that, the gigs go late. So, it’s got the good side, but I think too much of it could be a bad thing. But I really enjoyed the beaches and stuff like that.
RYAN: Yeah, the countryside is gorgeous. When we drove out to the beach not too long ago to take a little break, just driving through the country, I mean, it was beautiful. I’d never seen anything like that. I’d driven around the entire US before, with my old band, touring and stuff, and I’d never seen what I saw when I was driving. Just two/three hours to get to the beach, you know all the coconut trees, and we wound up getting lost in the jungle, it was great.
DAVE: We drove all the way to Lipa to this barbecue we were invited to and we got lost. We ended up in the jungle, pretty much.
RYAN: It was like an Indiana Jones movie.
DANNY: That’s been the best part for me, actually.
DAVE: The jungle?
DANNY: Just getting out and like seeing … No, not the jungle. [laughter] Like the smaller towns and stuff, that’s the kind of stuff that I enjoy. I mean, the big cities here are no different than, like, LA, except that they’re more crowded and everybody stays out later, but it’s the same kind of thing, you’re in a bar. A city’s a city.
What do you mean, we stay out later? Until what time do your club gigs end?
DANNY: Well, I mean, there’s been a couple nights where we come in like morning time. I mean, people are still out.
RYAN: Yeah, in the States, there’s a thing we call “Last call.” And they happen at every single bar at 1:30am.
DAVE: Yeah, 1:30am, they’re kicking us out. There’s chairs on the tables and they’re kicking us out.
RYAN: Yup, 2am, the doors are shut, you’re out of there. You gotta be out of there. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here, and there’s no where else to go. So, you go home. Here, 1:30am, it’s like, we’re done here, now where are we gonna go drink? And then 4am comes around, okay, now where are we gonna go drink?
DANNY: And then when you leave at 7, people ask, why are you leaving early?
RYAN: They ask, why are you leaving soon, well, the sun’s out.
DAVE: Yeah, that’s how we go home.
RYAN: The first time that we had one of those nights here, it was a little bit of culture shock, because everybody else was acting completely normal about being out when the sun was coming out. And Danny and I are just about to pass out.
WOLF: Yeah, it’s not like here, if like the waiters say, “Sir, you gotta leave,” you can be like, Aaah, fuck you. There, they’ll kick you out, dude. The bartender himself will kick you out. And they’re shouting, get out of here, get the hell out of here, because they wanna go home too. That’s why, you know, that’s how me and Dave got straight. Because even in the bar, you know, you can’t fuck around with the bartender.
DAVE: Let’s put it this way, I’ve only been away for three years and lived in the states, I came back here and tried to behave the way I used to, being out every night… Our first week, I just tried to do it, keep up with the drinking, stay out late and all of that. I can’t. I can’t, I’ve been housetrained. I’ve been domesticated. I cannot live the way I used to before. I don’t even have the urge to, you know?
WOLF: And it’s a good thing because we’re here to work. Partying is fine and Danny and Ryan, they can party all they want because they’re not from here, so, it’s fine if they go and experience stuff with their new friends, or whatever.
RYAN: On occasion. Then, we still gotta wake up in the morning and work out, hence, we kill ourselves. Right? It’s a job.
Whose idea was it to come here, to tour?
WOLF: Well, it was always an idea to come here. The idea started taking form when we got Ron as our manager. He said, “Okay, you wanna go back, let’s go back,” so ‘yun. And then he hooked up with EMI to distribute the album.
You have a pretty big fanbase, here.
WOLF: Well, I guess, we could say that between Dave’s and my past, yeah. But there are a lot of people who do not know who we are anymore because they’re young. I mean, Wolfgang and Razorback are very old bands, you know? All the places that we’ve played so far, people really don’t know us. There’s a handful of people who know us and they’re older. Most of the people who really know us don’t go out anymore, so it’s the young ones that see us out in the clubs and see us play. We’re a fresh band, [points at Ryan] this guy’s 21 years old. It’s a totally new band. People say, okay, Wolf and Dave have been friends, but we’ve never been in a band together, so it’s really a new band.
DAVE: Yeah, this is new for us too. In fact, I mean, Wolf and I have always jammed onstage, but we’ve never really worked as artists before, until like shortly before he left. And it’s kinda weird just being friends for about fifteen years, and like the first two years of Lokomotiv, when we’d actually have band fights or band arguments, I’d be like, “I just fucking fought with Wolf. It’s fucking great!” You know what I mean?
WOLF: And, the thing is, it comes with the territory anyway, so it’s not personal.
DAVE: Yeah, it never is. You can have, like, near World War III in the rehearsal room and once you get out, that stays in that room. That’s just how a band works. You’re like a family, you’re like siblings. You fight over the last banana. And then, you go sleep in the same bunk bed, you know what I mean?
RYAN: Dave and I fought over the last banana this morning, actually.
So, you’re saying a lot of the younger crowd don’t know who you are, so how have they been at your gigs?
RYAN: Amazing. The crowd response has been unlike anything I’ve ever seen. And it’s very exciting.
Not even where you’re from?
RYAN: No, not even where I’m from because the crowd here, this seems, you know as an outsider, our kind of music seems to be something that right now the music scene out here is starved for. They want this kind of music, there are very few places where they can get it, and when we come in and when we play a show, it is no holds barred. I mean, we are there, we’re gonna give every single thing we’ve got, a hundred and ten percent onstage, we will collapse as soon as we step offstage. And the crowd reacts to that, and they love it, and they’ve just been so responsive and so supportive, I mean…
WOLF: Most of them don’t know the music, the songs.
RYAN: Yeah! They don’t know the songs. They’re just reacting to what we’re doing or how we’re performing, the emotion and the energy that we’re pouring out onstage, it’s universal. They see it and they’re just going crazy. And it gets me and it takes me to the next level, which makes me perform even better, which takes them to the next level, it’s just, it’s an experience. It really is.
DANNY: The crowds have been really good and I’m really surprised to see so many younger people because I, I mean, I knew about these two guys and their bands and the support they’ve had, so I’ve been expecting a lot of their fans to get to gigs, but it’s been a healthy mixture of younger fans and older fans and I think we’re making a lot fans now.
So, what’s next? Like how long are you staying here, have you any idea?
WOLF: We have two more months. [NOTE: This interview was conducted in late November, 2006] We’re just gonna fill that up.
You’re in every major concert.
WOLF: Yeah, because Ron, like I said, he hasn’t slept for the last six months. He hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep when he was there working things out. Because the time difference is totally, because if it’s day there, it’s night here. So, when people are working 9-5, he’s up at 5 in the morning, talking to whoever, making business deals. I mean, that’s what he did. And we wouldn’t have gone here if those gigs weren’t ready for us. Because, I mean, they’re the big gigs. That’s why we’re here. And we just want to play as many times as we can in a week. Last weekend, we played six gigs in three days. I’ve never done that in my life, even with Wolfgang. When Wolfgang made it big, we made it big in the first album. So, we were superstars from the first album onward. So, it was like, well, you know, I don’t have to work my ass as hard as I do now, because now, it’s real life right now. We paid for our plane tickets ourselves. No one paid for it, we paid for it. This is real life.
DAVE: We’ve made our mistakes in the first run, you know? Now, it’s no more fucking around, this is work. It’s fun, we love what we do, but this is work. This is a business, and we’re not gonna run it into the ground.
DANNY: That’s what we’re here to do. I mean, there’s plenty of distractions here in the city and everything, but at the end of the day, we’re here to play and, you know, that encompasses the business side too. Bottom line is we’re here to play, make fans, promote the band as much as we can and improve our game. Like become better players, it’s all part of the deal.
So, what do you love most about being in this band?
DAVE: Everything, man. It’s just real, honest rock n’ roll, everyone’s on the same page. Everyone’s after the same goal, which is just to rock out and connect with people who want it. We’re not trying to reinvent music, we’re not trying to be pioneers or anything, we’re not trying to prove anything to anyone. We’re just here to write the best rock n’ roll that we can. And keep it real. And put on the best show we can, too. You know, get onstage and really do it. From the heart.
WOLF: Since this band started, this is the only time that all the people in the band are one. Have the same goal, have the same mindset that, okay, this is what we have to do and we will do everything in our power to do it. Because before this line-up, there was always one guy that was just out there. We try to pull him back, and pull him back, and they just wanted to go that way and it’s never gonna work that way in a band. The whole band has to be on the same mindset.
DAVE: Yeah, this is the magic line-up, this is it. This is the one.
RYAN: Until their hair starts to go gray and then I quit.
WOLF: Hey, it’s already gray here dude. That’s why I keep shaving it.
RYAN: He’s hiding it, huh? Nah, I’m not gonna quit, I like it. I’m gonna rock these guys until they’re dead. I’m gonna rock these guys into their graves.
DAVE: Right on.
WOLF: Which is every musician’s dream, is to rock until you die.
DAVE: Exactly.
Performance photos taken by Richard Garcia and Eric Fernandez. Publicity photo c/o the band's website.
Lokomotiv will be rockin’ the Philippines 'til February! Join their mailing list for gig updates. You can also visit them online at LokomotivRocks.com.
