DDR: At what point in your life did you decide that you wanted to follow music as your career?
Darrell: I was always doing music. When I was a kid, I had a paper route. My dad played piano and my parents felt I was going to be an entertainer so they made me take piano lessons. I had my paper route, so I saved my money and got a drum kit. My dad said ok, well we need to make you a practice spot he he set me up in the basement with six layers of carpet around the kit. It was really cool that they were always really supportive. I also was a teacher for awhile. One of the last bands I was in was like a glam rock band. I like to sing, but I have issues with singing drummers. Sorry, it’s just weird to me (Laughing) We were on the last couple of shows and our singer did so much blow before the show that he had an attack on stage and I ended up taking over on vocals and one of the roadies was one of my students and he knew all the drum parts and after being up in front I thought to myself, I just want to sing ! (Laughing) You know I had a huge drum kit, it was like thirteen pieces and having to lug that thing around everywhere was not too fun.
DDR: How was that event for you with the singer and having to change up like that, was it a smooth transition, or were you like shit, what now?
Darrell: It was more like the guys saying dude you can sing just as well as the lead singer. They wanted me to continue singing the songs from behind the drum kit and I was like "No, no, no". It was after that I decided to go forward with being a singer. After that, I did a lot of pop music and stuff. I was a huge fan of Iron Maiden so I was making pop music but I still listened to alot of metal stuff.
DDR: It’s funny you say that , I have interviewed many musicians and many of them have different listening preferences that what genre they play. I have heard them say they have roots in Bluegrass and Country and sometimes it really boggles my mind. I have been thinking, you have been making metal for so long and your telling me your first love is country? Sometimes it just blows me away.
Darrell: I’m not a fan of country music but when I was touring with Ministry, Al loves country music. There was country music playing on that bus left and right, it was like HeeHaw! Man, it was overkill on that stuff. (laughing) Yeah, Al is a trip, it’s awesome touring with Al.
DDR: Off of the new album pills, there are seven songs, which song is most meaningful to you?
Darrell: Man, that’s a hard question. I would probably have to say ‘Everybody’. Yeah, because it completely reflects what Pound Of Flesh is. We are actually going to shoot a video for that next month, we are shooting for the third weekend.
DDR: Will you be touring this new album?
Darrell: We would like to. We are trying to get everything together, first quarter we are going to go a bit harder with radio promotion. We will definitely be playing midwest shows. If we can get in for college radio and specialty format radio we will definitely hit the road
DDR: With Pills now being out, have you begun work on the next album or are you concentrating on the current album?
Darrell: We have written 17 or 18 songs, but our plan at the moment is to work Pills. We may shoot for releasing an EP in the Fall. I think it’s cool to be able to put music out with people twice a year, it keeps it fresh. The cool thing with our current label is if we start getting picked up for Houston and other markets they will make it work financially to get there. We brought on Adrenaline PR and Maria is awesome. The communication with them is awesome!
DDR: The next question is a two part question. What would you like to say to your current fans as well as to people that are reading about you and hearing your music for the first time?
Darrell: Wow! I would say to the fans that have been with us, thank you so much for the support, you have been awesome. And as for the new fans, give Pound Of Flesh a listen, there will be something that you will like about it. A lot of bands that are coming out now, everything sounds the same and with Pound Of Flesh, it doesn't sound like anything out there currently. It’s funny, when I first started working with Al, he introduced me to Howard Klein. He was a previous president of Warner Brothers and he loved the material. One of the best pieces of advice I got from him was when he said "Don’t worry about what is on the radio, don’t try and copy all of this stuff. If you have a different sound, you just need to convince everyone that they need this and make them think this is what is now!
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