The Australian music scene is as strong as it ever had been, with many original bands all having a successful year in 2018, none more so than Melbourne hard rockers Ablaze, who released their highly acclaimed debut album ‘No Chaser’. It’s an album filled with hard rock guitar riffs, head banger drum beats and loin-quivering bass grooves that will get your fists pumping and your liver begging for mercy. The five-piece, comprising of Danny Slaviero (lead vocals), Ben Anderson (lead guitar), Matt Dynon (rhythm guitar), Dan ‘Mango’ Mangano (drums) and Dave Knight (bass) launched the album back in October 2018 at The Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy, before spending the rest of the year showcasing the launch with a string of dates which took the guys to Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia & ACT. The Rockpit managed to finally corner lead vocalist Danny Slaviero to chat about the album launch and how the rest of 2018 finished for Ablaze, musical friendships and just what exciting times lie ahead in 2019 for the band.
Sean: Happy New Year to you Danny. What a big year 2018 was for Ablaze…
Danny: And to you Sean. Yeah, it’s been huge. Right from the get go it started with us playing at Under the Southern Stars with Jimmy Barnes, Richie Sambora, Diesel, and Richard Clapton… all these amazing artists and so that was a real kick start to the year. It was so great to be asked to be involved in that.
Sean: That must be such a positive feeling being on that same stage as some of those names.
Danny: Yeah, exactly. So after that we went straight in the studio kind of on a buzz and started writing. It gave us so much inspiration. Ben (Anderson) has a beach house down in Wye River near Apollo Bay so we basically shacked up in there for a few days, on a few separate occasions, and the fruitfulness of that has become our album ‘No Chaser’.
Sean: I finally managed to have a proper listen over the Christmas break and it’s a wonderful album. You all managed to play some dates around some of the other states before the end of the year. You had a fantastic album launch night back in October too I believe?
Danny: Thanks, yes we finished 2018 off in Penrith on Saturday 22nd December – it was a great night. We love going to Sydney anyway – it’s kind of become a home away from home in a way for us so it was great. The whole ‘No Chaser’ album launch tour was awesome. We had also toured the first single release ‘Just a Taste’ and that was amazing because it allowed us to put out the feelers for venues for the album launch and to gauge people’s feedback from the single too. Once the album was released, we received an incredible response from it. The launch night was phenomenal. We held it at the Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy. We had a great line-up of bands join us too with Screaming Eagle, Echo Del Tusker and One More Weekend all playing killer sets – it was such a great night.
Sean: 2018 was such a strong year for Australian music in general but especially Melbourne based bands like Dead City Ruins, Echo Del Tusker, Warbirds, Dangerous Curves and yourselves… Some of my favourite music of 2018 has been coming from over the Eastern States.
Danny: I think a lot of it is that bands are now working harder to make sure they write good material. So it definitely has changed and for the better too. Bands not only want to put on a good show but to play good strong songs. Bands that were good in the past have now become amazing to watch and listen to. I put a lot of that down to the fact that it’s less of a competition but more of a brothership between bands now. There’s a real community feel between the artists and that really helps us all to achieve and aspire to better things. Ablaze has more or less always been in that school of thought anyway – if we played venues where we knew we would get good support and there was a young up and coming band who needed that experience of playing to a good crowd we would always give them a go and help them out. That’s so important to us, and more so to them.
Sean: It also helps that you have so many good venues over there like Cherry Bar, Evelyn Hotel, Whole Lotta Love, Max Watts… the list seems to go on.
Danny: Funny you should say that because ask any musician and they say we haven’t got enough [laughs]. There have been a lot of good venues that have closed down. The Espy has just reopened but that was closed for years. We used to love playing the front bar at The Espy, which sadly doesn’t exist anymore. But they are still having live music there so that can only be a good thing. The only positive about some venues closing down is that it means you have to work that bit harder to make sure you get a gig now. You have to really hone in on your craft.
Sean: One of the only states you didn’t get to visit was to us over here in WA. Will 2019 be the year Ablaze jump on a plane and come play some shows?
Danny: We were only speaking about this just before Christmas. We so want to get over there to play. It’s somewhere we haven’t been and also, unfortunately somewhere a lot of bands don’t get to play. Let’s face it it’s not cheap to get there. It’s too far to drive, so flying is the only real option – logistically & financially that brings its only problems with it. But it’s something we really want to do so we are going to endeavour to do it and hopefully get to play a few shows around the state.
Sean: So we’ve talked about the launch shows and gigging but let’s talk about the main reason for those shows… ‘No Chaser’ is such a great album, which you guys must be so proud of. It certainly ticks all the boxes for me. ‘Darkest day’ is my track of the album at the moment…
Danny: That’s awesome to hear mate, thank you. We couldn’t be happier with it. ‘Darkest Day’ is one of my favourites too – That some was written a very long while ago, before I actually joined Ablaze. It was written by Dan (Mangano), our drummer and when I joined I listened to the demo of it and knew then it was a really good song – yes, it needed a bit of work with arrangements but the backbone of it was amazing. The story he is telling through this is great. So, firstly we released our EP a few years ago and we just didn’t want to put ‘Darkest days’ on there because we wanted to save it for an album – it’s quite a long song. When we went into the studio, we showed it to our engineer/producer Ricky and he loved it. We took it away again and Dave (Knight) our bass player played with the arrangement and chopped & changed a few little things to help it flow a bit better. We also felt it needed a bit more so we added keyboards & string – so in the end we all collaborated on it in the end but the main part of that song was all Dan. It’s a total testament to him.
Sean: For me, you can always tell an album works when, after a few listens, your favourite track changes… and changes… and changes. This album does just that with songs like ‘Dirty Little Secret’, ‘Bottom of the Bottle’, ‘Kings & Queens’ and ‘Long Way Home’ – it’s great. So what else can we expect in 2019 from Ablaze?
Danny: Well we have a few gigs lined up but also currently working on our second single off the album and sorting out some tour dates in support of that and we’ll be releasing a music video to that as well. Then around October & November we will be heading to Europe to a festival that we’ve been asked to play at so we are looking to push on a work some things out around that – but there is so much work to do leading up to that.
Sean: An exciting year ahead then. So, I’m interested to know where your musical journey has taken you so far, Danny.
Danny: Wow, how long have you got [laughs]? I’m the older statesman in the place – the kind of dad figure so to speak [laughs]. My first gig ever was at fourteen years of age at some pub in one of Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs; I just got that taste for it and never really stopped from there. I play in a KISS tribute band as well called ‘Kisstroyer’ and co-founded that when I was just nineteen, so I’ve been doing it a while now. And that’s been great doing that – we don’t do it as a piss take at KISS, but more of a celebration of the music. We kind of have a little game with is whereby the audience know we aren’t KISS, we know we aren’t KISS but we are all there to have a good time and celebrate their music. We’ve been doing it for sixteen or seventeen years and it’s still not slowing down. Along the way I have also been in other original projects too – I was in a band called Teargas for a while and also Spitfire Rain with Ben from White Widdow, who is an incredible song writer and as that slowly came to an end I did some fill in gigs with a band called Pretty Villain – don’t know if you’ve heard of them but Rosie Conforto is an amazing singer, she has one of those voices that just blows you away. Then some of the guys from Teargas started putting something together called Moments Apart, they had already written and released an EP and invited me along – but I already had things going on at the time. Then I heard the EP and thought “fuck yeah, I’m in” [laughs]. Al Gammie is an amazing song writer, especially with that heavy melodic kind of music; he’s just so good at it. It was around that time we met and brought in a guy who you interviewed when you were over in Melbourne last time… Anth Nekich.
Sean: Ah yes, from Warbirds of course…such a nice guy.
Danny: Yes, he is indeed. Anth joined us at Moments Apart and we’ve become the best of mates ever since, he’s such a good guy. Anyway, we recorded a single called ‘Thoughtless’ and the video is still up on YouTube and for sale on iTunes as well. It’s a ballad… if you could imagine a modern day power ballad that would be it. So now we are all doing our own thing with Anth with Warbirds, me with Ablaze and Al is in To An End which is just perfect for him, his voice and his melodies, it just suits him so well. And what’s great about it is we are all mates from way back and we are all out there doing what we love.
Sean: I love these cross-over stories where bands are somehow interlinked. Where do your major musical influences come from?
Danny: I started listening to a lot of 50’s rock n roll like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys then I moved on to AC/DC, KISS, Deep Purple and the 80’s rock bands before moving into the whole Australian grunge thing – I mean Silverchair ended up being one of the biggest bands in the country at the time, kind of our version of Nirvana. Then my music taste started to change and I got into the crooner kind of music like Frank Sinatra and a bit of blues with John Lee Hooker, some jazzier stuff like Tony Bennett. I like to listen to anything that I can learn something off, it doesn’t matter the genre.
Sean: Diversity is so important. So I have a couple of regular questions I love to ask. You’re booked to have a meal at a restaurant and you can invite three musical guests from this world or the next. Who would you like to share a bit of three on one time with?
Danny: It’s such a tough question but Freddie Mercury would be an amazing person to speak to, not only because he was such a talented singer & musician but also having to deal with his homosexuality at that time. I’d love to ask him did he feel it hindered him in any way, how people who knew viewed him… obviously it’s just accepted now but back then it was a big issue. Another one I’d love to have join me would be Dave Grohl. Whether people are fans of the Foo Fighters or not – I was a huge Nirvana fan back in the day – but they always seem to do the right thing and they write great songs. I mean in the start the Foo Fighters were meant to be a fuck about band and not something serious, so I’d love to ask him what happened and just pick his brains on that. They have some kind of formula happening and it works incredibly well. Audiences can always see through bullshit but they ‘get’ the Foo’s and that’s great.
Sean: And they always look like they are having so much fun. For me personally, I’d rather a band were musically at 90% but looking like they wanted to be there than a band that are sounded perfect but look like they don’t want to be up on stage other than for the pay cheque at the end of the tour.
Danny: I’m a big believer in putting on a show and in Ablaze, that’s what we are all about. If we have to sacrifice musicianship slightly to put on that show then so fuckin’ be it. We are there to entertain you – if you want to hear the music played pitch perfect and everything like that then you can listen to the CD. But if you want to have a good time with us then come see a show because that’s what we are all about – we want people to come down, forget about any problems they may have for that hour or hour and a half, however long we play for, loose themselves in the music and then party with us afterwards and have a chat. We love feedback over a beer – we want to know what you like and deliver what you want to hear. It’s all about improving and evolving – learning to grow with your audience.
Sean: You’ve nicely deflected from your third guest so while you think of another I’d like to ask what the last album you were listening to was.
Danny: The last album was the new Slash one, ‘Living the Dream’. What an album that is! I’ve had it on in the car a few times now. It’s a bit different to the previous ones but it’s that evolution of the band that we spoke about. Miles Kennedy is one of those singers that I look up to. He’s amazing at what he does. Dan always tells this story about when he was at the last Slash concert, he was singing along and Dan can hit all the notes Miles can… and he’s singing along and Miles looks at him, points and gives him a wink [laughs]… he always tells that one. I took the wind out of his sails one day by telling him I’d watched one of Mile’s concerts before and he’d done exactly the same to someone else too [laughs]. Joking aside, Dan is one of those singers who can keep up with Miles Kennedy, no problem there.
Sean: If you struggled giving me three names for the restaurant question then we could be here a while for this last one [laughs]. If you could be credited with writing any song ever produced, what song would you want to be known for writing?
Danny: Oh, god. There are so many [laughs]. Hang on, I’ve got my third dinner guest… John Lennon. I know it’s such a cliché but The Beatles were so influential to modern day music. I’d love to ask him about his political & spiritual views. He was such a huge movement in the 70’s promoting love & peace.
Sean: Great answer and I don’t think I’ve had Lennon before as a table guest.
Danny: As for a song… So many resonate with me but the one that sticks out is ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra. One of my countrymen and its lyrics really hit home with me. It’s like, yeah I’ve made heaps of mistakes in my life, I’ve had successes, there’s been happiness, sadness, heartbreak but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world because I did it all the way I wanted to.
Sean: What a great answer Danny and such a fitting way to end our chat. On behalf of us here at The Rockpit we wish you and the rest of Ablaze all the best for 2019 and we really do hope you manage to get over to WA to see us.
Danny: It’s something we need to do so hopefully we can catch up later in the year.
Sean: Look forward to it, thanks mate.
Danny: Cheers Sean.