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Hum, where do we start? Danny Frye was one of my best
friends. What do you want to know about him? His family was originally from
Pikesville, KY. Danny's Mom went to high school with Loretta Lynn
(Coalminers Daughter). His father was a Baptist Minister. The family moved up to
Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1970's just prior to Danny being born. Danny had 3
older brothers, and an older sister. He always claimed his music styles were
shaped early on by his oldest brother Donnie, who listened to everything from Elvis,
and Mink Deville to The Sex Pistols, The
Clash, Roxy Music, and T-Rex.
Danny sat for hours listening to all of his brother's 78's, and dreamed of
being on stage himself. He practiced & practiced & practiced, eventually
picking up the vocal style of his idols.
When he was 13 or 14 years old, he & a friend began experimenting with
recording songs they wrote on a 4 track. These are Danny's earliest recordings,
and really a hoot to listen to. There is a guitar, and sometimes a drum machine,
and a Casio keyboard!! . But even then you can hear substance in his song
writing, it's not just your typical 14 year old kid songs, they have something
more.
Then when he was in his late teens he formed a band called Bop Dead
which eventually ended up signing to a local Cleveland, Ohio Indie label called
Fishhead records. The bands debut album was produced by Don Dixon of REM
& Hootie & The Blowfish fame. The records
single "So Long" scored a spot on the Billboard charts. This got
Danny's band on the road touring with national acts. That summer he both toured
with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls, and Marky
Ramone & The Intruders. Sylvain eventually ended up liking Danny's
musical skills so much, that he invited the band along again for another tour,
and Danny found himself pulling double duty as his lead guitarist. Danny also
did the same thing for Joan Jett, and pulled a short stint with
her as well.
Eventually all the stress from touring, as well as members drug &
drinking problems caused the band to self destruct on stage in 1998. Danny
didn't take anytime off though, he put together another group of musicians
immediately, and put together the band The Vacancies(Now part
of the Joan Jett imprint Blackheart Records). They were/are a hard working band
that puts on a hell of a stage show. This is when I approached Danny about
possibly doing an acoustic record. He had a lot of material written that was
less edgy then the Vacancies, and more 50's style rock n roll. He & I jumped
into the studio to demo some of the tracks. We tracked probably 30 songs in
those sessions, with the intent to only use a little less then 1/2. I wasn't
happy with Danny's arrangements, and some of the contents to the songs, some had
just verse after verse after verse with no chorus or hook, or he wrote something
hooky, but the lyrics were lame, and the arrangements were just plane crap. So I
took the demos along with all the lyric sheets, which I made him type out for
me, and I basically rewrote & arranged Danny's songs on a few hour plane
ride to the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, and then on my jump flight to
Seattle following the Billboard Music Awards. These would eventually become the
final versions of Hellbent! As soon as I came back east we jumped into the
studio along with studio engineer Eddie Tomecko, and began tracking. Much of the
music tracks are played by Danny, myself, and, Eddie, and all of the backing
vocals are Danny & I. We stood face to face on a AKG C414 set on infinity
and basically yelled in each others faces. We laughed and laughed while tracking
those.
We finished recording and I mixed the record, and was finished by June 2001.
Then we employed the help of Grammy Award Winning producer Eric Wolf to do the
mastering. So Danny Eddie & I headed to Nashville to begin work on the final
stage of what was about to become the "Hellbent" you
hear today. What a fun & wild trip that was, fancy cars, $1000.00 a night
hotel suites, and lots of…………..chaos, but we'll leave that part out!
As soon as we got back the records were off to the presses, and I began
marketing Hellbent, and getting distribution for the record. While I was doing
that Danny was assembling a part time band to put around him so he could start
touring the record. Those names listed as the band on the record never ever
really played with him minus Jimmy Harry, who did a stint as his bass player on
the UK tour. Anyway, interest was building on Hellbent, out distribution was in
place, all adverts ready to run, and the records ready to ship to our
distributors. Danny still didn't have a complete lineup, just people weren't
jiving in the band, so I told Danny to clean house, and we'd look elsewhere. So
Danny & I looked to England. He & I were both HUGE fans of SUB POP
recording artists The Yo-Yo's. They were tearing it up on both
sides of the pond, and had been on some pretty big tours, and were all
experienced musicians. We caught a rumor that they were splitting up because of
problems with Danny McCormack(The Wildhearts/Yo-Yo's) their bass player. So I
contacted them straight away, and asked if they'd be interested in joining
Danny. They at first were kind of wishy washy, but after I sent them promo packs
along with the unreleased album, they were on the first plane over to the US.
They all got together at Danny's home, and rehearsed and damn if they didn't
click perfect!!
So next we set up a whole UK tour, and we were amped because basically we
took the Yo-Yo's fans by having them in the band, so the record became very
anticipated in the UK. Anyway, the record was ready to ship and the release date
was set, and then BAM, Sept 11th happened!!! Our records set to ship to Cargo
our distributor sat in a warehouse one block from ground zero!! So, we waited
and waited and waited, all of the magazine articles came and went, all of the
press came and went, all of the initial adverts came and went, and the records
couldn't release they were still in that warehouse!! So finally the record after
a month of being held up dropped. Unfortunately I didn't foresee this, and
interest dropped in the US, and sales were initially OK, but not what originally
expected. BUT thank GOD for the UK. Our records were flying off the shelves over
there, and we were getting great reviews, and gaining quite a bit of popularity
over there thanks to the Yo-Yo's as well as Danny's ties to the New York Dolls.
But then Tom Spencer(The Lurkers, Dogs D'Amour,
The Yo-Yo's) our one guitarist decided to drop out, and then
Mike Donovan(drummer) decided that he didn't want to go overseas because of
world events. So again we were between a rock & a hard place, so weeks
before going over, Neil Phillips asked his former band mates from the B-Movie
Heroes (another big uk punk band) to fill in, and they did!!!! So UK
tour went off without any problems, and out UK distribution took another large
shipment of records. Things were going great. UK loved us Kerrang magazine even
had a Danny Frye ring tone, and listed him at #17 of the top 25 records of 2001
right above Alkaline Trio!!!
Then Danny decided that he wanted a US band, because Neil & Scott Garrett
had other obligations to full fill, and the B-Movie Heroes (Neil's other band)
were getting bigger than Danny in the UK, so we searched high & low for a US
band. We eventually found two local boys to fill in on bass & guitar, and we
still needed a drummer. We found him in an unlikely place. His name was Frank
Garisto, he was doing some time in Jani Lane & The Underdogs(Jani
Lane from Warrent!-HA!!) Frank also played with the rock outfit
the GODZ, and recently WASP. His brother is Lou Garisto ( Iggy
Pop, Psychodellic Furs), and his sister is Diane
Garisto (Leonard Skynard). What a drummer, and what a family
pedigree!!!!!
This lineup was probably the strongest, and best!! We did a lot of regional
touring, and got on support shows with OK GO, and Fountains of Wayne. But
something started to happen. Danny started to not want to play music anymore.
He'd been a musician basically his whole adult life, and wanted to settle down
and live a normal life, not a life out of a suit case. So one day, after the
disappointment of our China tour cancellation he just said I'm done! It's
over!!!! So he broke up the group, and became very reclusive. He just sat in his
makeshift home studio, and worked on music for a few independent movie sound
tracks. The last thing that he did was a favour for me. I worked at the
time for Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols, and had set up a Rock
n Roll Hall of Fame one off for Glen. I thought it would be great idea to
possibly get Danny out of his funk by joining Glen on stage for a couple of
songs. Glen agreed, so Danny, along with another friend of mine Justin Sane (Anti-Flag)
played with Glen, and it was a riot!!! It gave Dan a bit of a new lease on life,
and he was excited about what we were working on next. Then one day I got a
phone call from a mutual friend. I had been away on a trip with the family, and
came home. The phone rang, and then that was it, Danny was dead!!! He battled
his diabetes silently his whole life, and it finally caught up with him! One
month and a few days after playing that Rock Hall of Fame gig with one of his
heroes, his songs were silenced FOREVER. I miss him dearly.
That's his story!!! ...
Special thanks to record producer William
J Chylik III for sharing this information with us all.
© 2006 Jeff Lynn/Gunny Records
You may not copy this biography
to use it on your website, or for any publication.
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