Questions to Wino(Spirit Caravan Ex The Obsessed,Saint Vitus,Shine)

First of all I want to welcome you back on the scene with Shine, the Powertime demo is truly one of the greatest tapes ever recorded in history in my opinion. After the split from The Obsessed you dissapeared for a while from the scene, what happened? 

After The Obsessed left Columbia I was very dishearted. I fell into a wild lifestyle of living very fast. I had developed a very heavy speed addiction, and I was 100 proof alcohol all the time. I jammed and played guitar constantly, but I did nothing very productive. I contracted a wicked staph in my foot that finally forced me to lay down, L.A county hospital for 2 weeks with I.U antibiotics. At this time (May 1996?) I decided to to return to my hometown in Maryland, and abandon my Southern Californian lifestyle. I rode a greyhound bus from California to Maryland (3000 miles) in a pair of shorts. Thats all I had left. 

With the new band Shine, was that band already in your mind after The Obsessed period or did it come later? 

The new band was not in my mind. But Gary and Sherman from Wretched,Iron and Unorthdox cont pulled me out of my funk. At this time after 25 years of drinking I quit alcohol. This enabled me to focus on my music again and the band surged forward. 

Lets turn the clock back to 1975 when The Obsessed formed in Washington DC, the first recording I have is from 1980 where you play guitar only, were you a member of the band from the beginning or did you join later if so in what other bands did you start your career before The Obsessed? 

The Obsessed was mine and the original bassplayer (Mark Laue) conception from the start. An earlier version was Warhorse(Columbia Obsessed rocumentary) and the Leather Nunz(U.S) 

Before your Ep that was released in 1983 Sodden Jackal backed with Iron and stone and Indestroy you builded up quite a reputation for yourself as a liveact stateside even overhere in europe throughout the underground in some degree but mainly stateside, looking back on those days what is your opinion about the following you had?

It was very large, devoted and built by playing spectacular liveshows in the Maryland, DC , Philadelfia and the New York city area. 

Lets talk about the Ep from 1983 you released on a label called Bane drain publishing, was that label a local label or did you release it yourself, could you give us the information about the time in the studio and the response to the ep, any fun memories? 

Bane drane and Inviticus was our label, created for the Ep. The production and the mix is terrible. 

In my opinion you are one of the greatest singers ever also a great leadguitarist, in what time of your life did you realise you had this great gift as a leadsinger and leadguitarist? 

My vocal. I didnt really know until I started singing with Saint Vitus, thats where I learned how to sing, dont have the guitar to hide me on to be able to concentrate on singing that helped me grow a lot singing with Vitus definetely helped me grow a lot, a lot of people come up to me sometimes and say man your voice sounds great but I dont get many compliments on my guitarplaying I dont know, that does´nt make any difference as long the whole package makes people happy ,thats the important thing really. 

The Obsessed remained as a trio all through the years, also now with your new band Shine, does it give you a more musical freedom with the vocals and guitar also in the songwriting? 

Being a trio definitely its limiting in some ways,but it is also allows you some freedom in some other ways. Being a trio is easy I mean we thought about adding a second guitarist along the line in Shine but it never worked out, we are happy the way it is it makes it pretty easy but now with Sherman writing also with Gary writing Sherman contributes with a lot of riffs Sherman wrote Powertimeriff ,Fang ,Celics on the new record he wrote the riffs I write most of the vocals and lyrics.Sherman and Gary is writing now is 3 people writing so its all there. 

In 1985 you contributed to the Metal Massacre sampler with a track Concrete cancer the standout track in my opinion on that sampler, how much response did you recieve from that compilation. I remember there were rumours that now finally is an album on its way but it didnt show up, what happened during that time? 

What happened was that Brian Slagels deal with Metal Blade was first you did a song on a compilation and then you got a automatic full length record so what the happened was that he was pretty obvious right at that exact moment when trash was born you can tell on the bands there Nasty Savage The Possessed trash was born right there at that time Brian Slagel had Slayer their record had just come out Hell awaits or whatever what happend was that Trash just happened so Brian had a handful of trash bands so he renigged on his offer for a full length that is exactly what happened ,we were hoping so hard on a full length I had all the music in the can that would have been on the record ended up on The Obsessed cross demo that was a demo with Mental Kingdom and some other stuff...Hiding mask that was that demo. 

Lets talk about your time with Saint Vitus, still today to a lot of Vitus fans the greatest period of that bands career. The first thing you did was the Thirsty and Miserable Ep before the incredible album Born too late still one of the most heaviest albums I have ever heard, to fill up the place for Scott Reagers, was it tough job to do especially when you just had to only sing and not be able to play the guitar? 

I really learned how to sing when I put down my guitar like I said before Singing the Scott Reagers songs was definitely difficult especially songs like Zombie Hunger and Psychopath it was just a certain style obviously that Scott Reagers had a weird operatic style I tried to emulate to sing this particular songs I had a lot of tapes of Scott Reagers singing Born too late and hagged all this on songs that was already written so this was weird I sang in my own way but I tried to sing the hard ones like Zombie Hunger and Psychopath like him it was hard when I joined Saint Vitus I asked them if they might tune down a half step they used to tune regular I brought my stributer with me I showed them how to tune down half step to that way be able to sing before I joined them.I had to tune down , before I had tune down it was a hard time to sing ,they used to tune regular then Shine does too we tune to dflat. 

During your time with Vitus, you came over to Europe the very first timein 1989 with Agnostic Front with the following both with the Obsessed and Saint Vitus were you suprised with the response that came from the audience and the press overhere when you performed? 

The first time we came over with Vitus. I mean We had a underground following I dont know how much press we got got a little bit of press I was really suprised the people in europe were hipped people in the states still had to come on it was a pleasant suprise because people in Europe were very septive over Vitus and The Obsessed and it was very refreshing it made it all worthwile it was very very inspiring. 

With your time in Saint Vitus you did quite a number of recordings first the Ep then Born too late, then Mournfull cries later the legendary V album and finally the Live album(in my opionion one of the greatest livealbums ever), looking back on those albums today, do you have any good memories during the recordings of the albums please feel free to tell us some fun stories? 

First album I did was Born too late second album I did was Thirsty and miserable third one was Mournfull cries then came V and then the live album it was really fun recording in Europe there is a lot of stories about Saint Vitus Dave was on the couch during the first day of recording for V there was all this Marshalls there they have brought to us to try them out. David was too hung over on the couch I got to play with all this cool amps I am talking about old non master volume 50 watts basically I dialed the sound there using 2 old nonmaster 50 watts the first years plugged together old lowbar Marshall cabinets with mikes lbb 2 with I believe that is the sound he used. 

In 1988 for a short time you helped a young band called Lost Breed (now Vengeance brothers) to do vocals for their demo as well playing live, did you felt at the time that you needed a break from Vitus? 

Lost Breed Our shows were far between and we did rehearse a lot Lost Breed they asked me to join the band to fill in so I filled in but I didnt officially join them they always tried to get me to join the band I never would turned into them they asked can you do this one and that one and asking me more and more I really enjoyed recording and playing with them I couldnt give them as much time that they needed. 

On your last tour with Saint Vitus in Europe 1990 you brought on a Swedish band as a supportact Count Raven with later Vitus frontman Christian Linderson looking back on that tour do you have any good memories feel free to tell us some of the fun things that happened during that tour? 

Count Raven on that tour. We started in Amsterdam in a little town called Harleem I remember I got a great living etage we met the guys from Count Raven they were blown away playing with Vitus especially Christian we did our soundcheck for them they got down on their hands and knees in the empty venue started worshipping, so the promoters consistantly sort of Vitus got the hotel room what about Count Raven what about them we tried to help them out as much as we could I remember I gaved Christian a big custom leatherbelt that I had ,cause I thought they were really fucking cool just that song How can it be a song they didnt do A devestating age that song with the keyboard on the first Count Raven album .. 

After your period with Saint Vitus you went back to the old band The Obsessed, at first you had some minor problems to reunite with your old members Ed Gully and Marc Laue instead 2 new members joined you Greg Rogers and one of the most incredible bassplayers I have ever heard later Kyuss bassman Scott Reeders how did you find them? 

I met Scott at a jam out in Malibu California it was weird cause Saint Vitus was on SST a there was also an another band called Across the river I am not sure if they were on SST or not Scott played bass in Across the river I got a chance to jam with him he played guitar and drums thats how we met I didnt realise he was a incredible bass player until much later once we jammed it clicked the only thing about Scott Reeder was, and then Greg came from a band called Asaclown I met him in Hollywood I had actually seen him play because their bassplayer was into Saint Vitus actually the bassplayer in Asaclown was the origninal bassplayer in The Obsessed his name is Danny Hood he died in a motorcycle accident . Scott Reeder didnt want to be in the band first he did want to be in the band he didnt want to call the band The Obsessed cause his girlfriend put all this selfish pressure on him for weird like reasons when he once saw Obsessed had a bit of name he went with it ,I feel kind of bad Scott know cause I had Danny play bass Danny died I had a european tour so I had to ask Scott anyway I mean it all worked out it's a shame that he died. 

The first really debut album beside the first greatest hits album Lunar Womb turned out to be one of the greatest releases during that year 1992 still today the album is still rated as a classic. Looking back on that album today it has very much a live sound to it, could you please fill us in on the studiotime you had during this time cause it must have been a relief to finally record a Obsessed album after so many years? 

On the last Obsessed tour I stayed behind to mix purple album, the Purple album came out on Hellhound they wanted the band to tour so I found Greg from Asaclown and Danny cause Greg and Danny were together that was the whole connection we were playing on the tour I told Danny about the tour in a hotelroom in Florida the days before he died a real shame, what happened was that Lunar womb was The Obsessed took on a tour in Germany that was me Greg and Scott Reeder ,t he way Hellhound did things in those days so it was playing some shows in the end of your tour you go straight into the studio and started recording which was great we actually finnished the actual songs for Lunar Womb in the studio I had all the ideas still learning everything we left the tour for The Obsessed it was excellent we recorded it in Berlin a week and a half to 2 weeks to do it a little bit pressured in the final mix I remember Scott on the soundeffects in between Endless circles and Lunar womb he actually physically cut the tape and spliced it back together 4 in the morning there is Scotty running down the hall with a spoon of tapes he spliced out we spliced the noise in all together the noise segment there a lot of it got mixed we mixed the noise part a lot of it got mixed down amazing that was pretty wacked. 

After a short tour of Europe in 1992 things started to go wrong with your recordlabel Hellhound records and you moved to Columbia it must have been a very difficult period in your career cause the folowup The Church within didnt see the light of day until 1994, please feel free to fill us on what did happen during this period with the band? 

What happened was Hellhound records I considered those guys as my friends they have told me from the start that they would never hold us back if we got a big offer they would let us go ,in reality what happened was that Hellhound screened us from Cloumbia Columbia was trying to find us sign us Hellhound screened us what the reason I dont know when it came time for Columbia to buy the rights they wanted a enourmosly amount of money tried to sign us what could have been an easy and smooth transission from Hellhound to Columbia turned out to be all out war we had one of the best lawyers in the business representing us for Columbia Rosemary Caroll she handled Nirvana our file was 4 times thick as Nirvanas just because we tried to get when we signed with Columbia it was a anticlimax everything we have been through with Hellhound .Basically Hellhound fucked us in the long run. 

Before the Columbia period a new bassplayer joined Guy Pinhas after what I have red a total Obsessed maniac, it must have been a dream for him to join forces with you and Greg? 

We were lucky to find him Scotty was a baby and left lied to me all that joined Kyuss he blamed on leaving Obsessed on some of my drughabits but in reality his wife wouldnt give him gas money to drive to rehearsals he decided to move back to California he had an offer from Kyuss so when he joined Kyuss we called Guy came out here Guy knew most of the songs he had his own equipment Guy know most of the songs Scott was a lot different compare to Guy as far as style go but he was very much more liberal. 

I thought as a long time Obsessed fan back in 1994 with the incredible album The Church within should finally be the break for you, you had the video out on MTV radioairplay you toured with White Zombie etc.etc played the Dynamo open air fest. Just to name a few things then you were dropped that must have felt really weird for you? 

That was really weird The Obsessed never got a chance to do a second record t which I thought would have been great t he songs that was going to be on the record fearless machine a couple of the songs we do now in Shine Columbia didnt give us a fair of shake sometimes it takes time for a record to break I thought when we signed the contract it was a license supply but in the long run ,Church within was OK when I listen back to it now I am not as happy with Church within as I am now with the new stuff I am doing now ,a lot that happened what was going on in my life some bad habits that have changed a lot of it ,Columbia didnt give us the break we needed which was the second room. 

After the Columbia period you made a single on the Californian based label Bong load records called Altamont nation with one of the greatest versions I have ever heard of Grand Funks Inside looking out, was that single just for the fun of it or did you wanted to continue on that label what happened? 

Bong load trip was just singles we would love to a full length album at the time they were just into doing singles I had a lot of fun recording that single I had a lot of heavy turmoil going on in my life at the time I thought it came out pretty good though . 

I still havent seen you in a liveperformance but I have heard that you have succeded already in both great headline liveperformances as well support, I hope that with the new deal you will come over to Europe, is that in the plans? 

That is very much in the planning .One of the first major shows we did with Shine was to get opening slot for Deep Purple so we went from the bed into the fire. We are planning to come over to Europe really soon . 

Finally I would like to thank you deeply from my heart for this interview, your vocals has meant a whole lot to me over the years as well your guitarplaying. Thanks for everything you have done so far and I hope that Shine will be a force to be reckoned with in years to come thanks and best wishes. 

Gabriel, I want to thank you for your interest in my music , my goal in my musical life has always been to make music for other peoples enjoyment ( and mine) I have grown a little spiritually and mentally over the last couple of years and I am feeling inspired . I love my new band these guys are my best friends.I really appoligize for the length of time to get this to you thank you very much for your beliefs once again Thanks a lot If it aint heavy, it aint shit!

By Gabriel Liliehook