Exclusive Interview: Dave Kushner and Dave Warren Talk PusherJones

Take one part Guns ‘N Roses, one part Simpsons, and one part Skollo and mix them all together and you’ve got yourself Pusher Jones! The new animated phenomenon from the minds of Dave Kushner (Velvet Revolver) and Dave Warren (The Simpsons) both of whom are out to prove that Rock and Roll isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. We talk to the creators after the jump so go get ’em!

ChefRich: I guess the obvious place to start is the beginning. How did the band come together?

Dave Kushner: Let’s see. We met through – Dave and I met – the Dave’s met through a mutual friend, Donald Bernstine, who was – wow that’s going to be a boring version. Basically, we met, Dave W.
was working at Fox; he was a rad artist, I was a rad guitar player and we both wanted to just start doing something together. And so we had this idea to do something kind of similar to the Gorillaz that’s like a rock version and because Dave had worked on the Simpsons and all these other cartoons he was kind of like, well, what’s the background of the characters, blah, blah, blah. Then we just started working on it,working on the development of the characters and their story, and at the same time doing the music and all that kind of stuff. So, it just kind of went from there.

 

Dave Warren: Don Bernstine, who introduced us, is actually a pretty colorful character. He passed away a few years ago but he used to be the Hard Rock memorabilia collector, so all the awesome stuff that you see hanging on the walls in the Hard Rock actually was personally collected by Don.

Wow.

DW: I met him because I was in Florida opening up the Simpsons ride and I had the opportunity to meet him there and he turned out to be a huge Simpson’s fan. So we hit it off and then when he came up to L.A.he invited me to go see Chad Smith with his band at the Baked Potato and invited Dave K. So that was the night that Dave and I met and, as Dave said, we just started talking and found out that we had this mutual love of music and art and animation and decided to do something with it.

That’s really cool. And how did other members of the band come in? Like Scott Shriner and Joey Castillo and all them. How did you guys put together the lineup?

DK: Well, to be honest with you, I was in the hell part of Velvet Revolver where it was at its worse and everyone’s fighting and everyone didn’t – not everyone but, you know, a lot of people weren’t talking to each other and all that shit. So I was like if it’s a cartoon band then I could eat whatever I want, I could get as fat as I want; I don’t have to work out anymore and I could just play with people I really just love playing with. Not that…

Pretty much live the American dream. Got it!

DK: Exactly. Not to say I didn’t love playing with those guys in Velvet Revolver. I’m just saying the genesis of the idea was because of partially because of that and also because Scott I had known each other for a long time. We were in bands together in the past and he’s a very good friend of mine. He was the Best Man at my wedding and I’ve always loved playing with him. So he was just – he’s one of my favorite bass players, and one of my favorite people, so I just automatically went to him. Joey, also I’ve known for 25 years; we used to play in Wasted Youth together years ago.

By the way, big fan of Wasted Youth, so thank you for that.

DK: Thank you. Yeah. We were in a lot of bands together, actually, over the years. So we played in Danzig together, we played in some other bands together and he’s – I love that guy, too. He introduced me to my wife like 11 years ago. I think 11 years ago today or 11 years ago tomorrow, actually.

Wow. Congrats.

DK: Yeah, so I was just like I just want to play with people I really like and admire as people and musicians. So that was kind of the motivation.

So it always started out as the thought of being an animated band. It wasn’t a band and then animation? It just kind of came together at the same time?

DW: We were saying to ourselves was how do we do this and combine this mutual love for music and animation, and also to do this virtual band thing where we have the ability to be 27 forever? You know what I mean? There is a kid factor where we get to do what we want to do behind these characters, you know. So from the very beginning it was conceived from the viewpoint that we loved what the Gorillaz were doing but we felt it lacked substance. It was just sort of an anomaly, although it was awesome and way cool. We went, wow, what if the Gorillaz were more like Guns N’ Roses? And when we were trying to develop the concept Dave and I would sit around and we would talk about what it was about, what’s PusherJones about? What’s the story? What are these characters about? And we’d sit around and bullshit and swap stories about the entertainment business, the music industry, and Dave would tell all these crazy Velvet Revolver stories. And then one day we were literally sitting and having lunch and went, “That’s it. “That’s the concept. Let’s take all these stories drawn from real life and let’s animate them, and let’s blow them out and let’s do something sort of like a South Park on the Sunset Strip.”

(laughs) That’s awesome!

DW: We hope so.

(laughs) From what I’ve seen and definitely what I’ve heard it is. (laughs)

DK: DW: Oh, well thank you. We’re really excited and grateful about the way things are going. We feel very blessed too. Our fan base is just growing every day and we’ve got some amazing, amazing fans that are supporting us constantly. And a lot of good things are in the works right now, so it’s going to be a big year for us. A lot of awesome things are just about to happen that we really can’t speak about right now but within the next couple of months there will be a lot of big things to announce!

Very cool. Very cool.

DK: Yeah. Just blowing up. Shit is blowing up!

Like I said in the review, I thought rock n’ roll was dead and then I heard your guys’ five songs, so it totally revived my feeling that rock n’ roll was still very much there. So I’m looking forward to the next few months just as much as you’re looking forward to telling us about it.

DW: Oh, you know that’s awesome. And you know, the thing is that I think that everything in life and in music is circular and tends to repeat itself, you know. So I think in music right now we’re in sort of this pop phase, an EDM phase. It’s safe and approachable, and that’s one part of the circle. But rock ‘n roll, is a little bit dangerous, you know. That’s the other part of the curve, the dark side of the moon. You can’t see it right now, but it’s there, spinning into your view. And with PusherJones the idea behind it is to do something that even though it’s animated, is a little dangerous and has a little bit of an edge to it, and make it interesting. If you look back at the ‘80s when Madonna and artist like that were at the top of the charts. You had these 10-year-old girls going to Madonna concerts, with their moms, both dressed like the material girl, like a fucking play date. That’s safe, that’s boring. And then the Beastie Boys opened up for Madonna on a few shows and they were on stage with this giant inflatable penis and slamming Budweiser’s and throwing them into the crowd. And parents went nuts. It was shocking to them. And I think a bunch of kids went, “oh that’s cool!” That’s rock n’ roll! So I think we’re trying to do that in a way. We’re trying to be a shot in the arm to what the current commercial, corporate music scene is and give people something interesting, different, fresh, with a definite edge.

So what studio did you guys record in?

DK: I don’t want to say it was a guerilla recording but it was just wherever we could. We did the first VR record with a friend of mine, Josh Abraham. And he actually owns a rad studio here in Silver Lake so,and the engineer who did it was this guy Ryan Williams who’s awesome. So we recorded some parts of it with Ryan at Pulse Studios and we did some of the vocals with Franky (Perez) at Henson, which used to be A&M Studio. We did some vocals at my studio in Studio City. And then at Sunset Sound we did some stuff…I don’t know if we used any of that. But anyways yeah Sunset Sound and I think that’s it. The bulk of it though was at Pulse.

How has the EP been received so far?

DW: Like I said it’s just amazing really. We’ve had just tremendously positive reviews. Great reviews in
the press and great fan reviews. It’s kind of funny because, you know, we got sort of blindsided a little bit because when Count Me Out came out on the Avengers soundtrack we were still in the process of finishing up the recording. And then all of a sudden this single came out on the Avengers and it kind of blew up in our face but in a good way. And we really weren’t quite prepared for it because we didn’t really have any product. But we had great reviews in Rolling Stone, USA Today, etc., a lot of major publications. And it opened up a lot of doors for us. We just starting to record some new music that we’re hopeful will be able to enhance that legacy.

Very nice. Very nice. Who came up with the Skollo character?

DW: I did. First we came up with the PusherJones logo and had the skull in there in place for the “O”. And then I did the more rendered out version of it with the headband. At the time I was the creative director on Sons of Anarchy so I do a lot of skulls and things like that for S.O.A. and so I just started playing with the idea like a skull with headphones and this kind of cholo looking guy that’s kind of hard-core. And he just sort of came together and then from just trying to develop content to put up there for our fans and keep things going. He sort of grew into his own character. Almost like kind of like our Eddie. He’s like a mascot for the band.

Exactly.

DK: Now he’s kind of spun off into a little family, you know what I mean. There’s Skollo, there’s Father Skollo, and then there’s Skally, the female Skollo. So who knows maybe there’s a spin-off series there?

So has there been any interest in producing the animated show yet or could we see that on the horizon?

DW: It’s definitely on the horizon. We’re actually in talks right now with a couple of different studios and a couple of different production companies. It’s been really well received and we’ve gotten a lot of interest from some pretty major players. And also some people are also, you know, we’re fans that reached out and wanted to help us with this. So it’s definitely happening. I wish I could say more about it right now but we’re kind of keeping it hush-hush until we have a real announcement to make.

How about a full-fledged tour?

DK: Oh yeah. We want to do it eventually; it’s just a matter of trying to figure out when and how. We want to make sure that we do it right. And for us, part of the bar we set is really high. You know, like the animation has to be as good as the music. And the music has to be as good as the art; everything has to be as good as the other parts. And we just want everything to be on that level. So it’s just a matter of figuring out how to tour and not kind of doing it prematurely without the right kind of art to go along with – the right kind of visual to go along with the audio.

Exactly. ‘Cause there’s really two roads that can be taken there. There’s the Gorillaz road where it’s projected on a screen and it’s all animatic and everything like that. Or the Metalocalypse/Dethklok kind where you just hear the music and it’s Brendon Small. So it’s very interesting.

DW: Both of those ideas are on the table. We’re thinking maybe one is a little bit easier for us to do right now than the other. And so for now it’s more likely that we will go out in that Metalocalypse sort of a way and maybe do some smaller shows. Just to get out in front of some people, and then as this develops to do the more full-blown thing. The ultimate goal for us is to really do a full-blown 4D holographic tour. We’ve been developing that over the last year, working with some cutting-edge people and technology to do something that people have never seen really before in rock ‘n roll. And really try to breathe some fresh air into the live arena. A blend of the visual extravaganza of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” mixed with the energy of an EDM show. Blow your mutha funkin’ mind shit!

Get the new EP from PusherJones here and check out their new videos here. Follow PusherJones on Twitter @PusherJones and on Facebook 

 

–@ChefRichBB