Interview With Louie Gasparro, drummer for Supervillain by EC

"I remember not too long ago in the industry when "Metal" was not a cool word to say...Fuck that!"

Holy shit, Supervillain rules the fucking Earth baby! Finally the time has come for bands to grow their own balls, stand on their own two feet, and start cranking up some heavy hard rock jams. Forget bands like Nickelback, Saliva and Creed. Lets talk about Supervillain! Thanks alot for giving us a little bit of your time Louie. Congratulations on the brand new EP, tell us a little bit about Supervillain. How would you describe the band?

Well, first off I'd like to thank you for the kind words... Thank you! SUPERVILLAIN is a band comprised of 5 musicians..Morgan Adams/Vocals..Mike Mirabella/Guitars..Tim Grove/ Guitars..J.Nicholas/Bass and myself on drums. We started this band in April/May of 2002, Tim, Mike and myself...Jay entered a month later and Morgan in July. He was my first choice for a vocalist. Mike and I had been in a previous SUPERVILLAIN project with Morgan in 1996, but it was completely different material and it was'nt a full time thing for any of us. That lasted about a year. But we all remained friends. I know Mike for years, since we grew up together in Queens, NYC. I met Tim when I was in Murphy's Law in 98' and he was playing in FUNKFACE. Our paths crossed again when FUNKFACE asked me to fill in for their drummer for a gig at CBGB's. As for Jay. we've been playing together in assorted projects for the past 5 years. All in that meantime I'd been compiling riffs and ideas for songs.

This EP combines alot of different sounds, everything from Sabbath to Soundgarden. What are you biggest influences and what kind of sound was Supervillain searching for early on?

As far as my influences..I grew up in a family where I was alway hearing music from an early age..my sisters would play Motown stuff and my brothers would leave me all their Rock albums..2 of my bothers play drums and 1 of em' played the guitar so they were a big influence on me early on..Later I got into Zeppelin, Sabbath, Rush, Kiss, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Maiden, Priest, Motorhead..all the greats..The other guys have most of the same influences in music yet different..Mike is a real Jimi Hendrix, Frank Marino, Jeff Beck, Robin Trower fan where as Tim loves all those guys, he also dug Van Halen, Micheal Schenker and Jimmy Page as well as all the punk stuff that was happening in California in the early eighties. Morgan also loved all the classics, especially The Beatles but he also dug Celtic Frost and the Bad Brains. Jay our bassist was really affected by The Clash, The Bad Brains, The Who and various funk bands. So, all that thrown in together makes up the SUPERVILLAIN sound.

It looks like a majority of the band members came from different bands, such as Blitzspeer, Murphy's Law, Funkface, Krackdown, etc. With so many other bands and styles coming in to form Supervillain, how hard is it to gell together and make it all work out in the studio? Does everyone get along pretty well?

I came to Mike and Tim with the idea of forming a hard as nails rock project and they were interested. We got together with and wrote a few songs.. we got Jay and sent a tape to Morgan who I'd told about what I was doing. He dug the stuff and came into our rehearsal room and that was it! SUPERVILLAIN was born. At our 3rd or 4th show someone approached us with what at first we could'nt believe...He wanted to finance a recording we were planning!..and thats where the EP was born..We recorded and mixed it in 3 days..with the expert help of Engineer John O'Mahoney and Artie Smith who is the MAN! when it comes to drums, bro. We wanted this band to be a Hard and Heavy thing and all of our influences just jelled together to make this band sound the way it does..we were not at all concerned with what was being considered "happening" or "hip"..we wanted to play music that we'd like to hear as fans and the EP is the first example of that.

Where does your vocalist, Morgan Adams, come from? Was he a vocalist in any other bands before Supervillain. The guy is amazing!

I know Morgan from the late 80's from when I was in BLITZSPEER. Morgan and I hung out alot on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and I played a couple of shows with this band he had "The Steel Morticians"! In which original Murphy's Law guitarist/songwriter Uncle Al Morris was the guitarist..what a crazy band that was! But I knew right away that when I was forming the band we now have that he would do the material justice..and he has.

So far, has there been any interest from labels regarding the EP or a full length record?

Right now we have people who are interested in the band but we are taking our time to cultivate this band into a solid wrecking unit and things are getting better all the time, we've been recieving some really, really cool reviews and we just got on the New Jersey Hardcore/Metal festival with bands like Superjoint Ritual, Danzig, Biohazard, Type O Negative on the weekend of November 14th and 15th, so thats a really great opportunity for us to expose the band to alot of people in one day! We're psyched about it. We are also being featured on the NEW YORK CITY ROCK AND ROLL compilation that Radical Records is puttin out at the end of this October. The song WAR TORN is gonna be on it and thats also something to look foward to.

When can we expect a full length ball buster from you guys?

As far as a full length album..we are pretty confident that there will be SUPERVILLAIN product out there so just keep an eye open for it. We are in this full force and we fully believe in what we've been creating.

What's the metal scene like up north? Rap-core, indy rock, or death metal, what seems to be the most dominant?

As far as the Metal scene goes up here....y'know you have the bigger bands coming through town and all that, we've been playing the shit out of the city, trying to set up bills with other hard/heavy bands and its a bit difficult.

Right now bands like Godsmack, Linkin Park, and Limp Bizkit are at the forefront for today's modern rock genre. For whatever reason American radio just hypes these types of bands. In your opinion, are these bands helping at all with getting heavy music over with the average music fan, or is this just a slow deterioration of what was once a thriving metal industry?

I think people are just waiting for something new and something good for that matter, as all this horrible stuff is being shoved down their throats by big radio and big Mtv..Kids need the underground to find the stuff that will make them think and not just follow..turn off the tv and the radio and dig through some old vinyl bins, search sites, go to shows, y' know..explore. I think heavy music will be around for a long time..it just gets a different title every few years so the marketing people can categorize it for mass consumption..Rock and Roll, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Acid Rock, Stoner Rock, Grunge, Thrash,Punk, Hardcore, Death, Speed, Black, White,Nu, Emo....get the point! I remember not too long ago in the industry when "Metal" was not a cool word to say..Fuck that! That is a direct result of all those "hairbands" being called Metal..(Marketing again) You know what bands I mean. So Heavy/ Hard/ Metal what ever you choose to call it these days is very much alive and kickin ass and we play it because its what we love playing, like I said earlier, we did'nt care what was "happening" we just starting writing material that came straight from the heart and what we felt. And that is what we are doing.

Our webmaster Nailer, who kinda looks like a male version of Barbara Streisand, has demanded that we add a little humor to our interviews. So my last question is on a slightly lighter note. Tomorrow God will give you one of two things: Your band can play a 10 minute set on the main stage at Ozzfest, or you can sit at home and drill Britney Spears' tiny little bunghole for 24 hours. What's it going to be man?

As for Britney..well she loses out to Ozzy..Ozzy has been "Killing Himself To Live " for years and Britney just went "Ooops''

Well thanks again for all the news and the promos Louie. We wish Supervillain the best of luck! Let us know when you head south. All of you can eat barbecue at my house!

TITLE	DOR	COMPANY	REVIEWER	DATE MADE	RATING
Supervillain Demo	2003		Eric Compton	9/23/2003	-

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