With news filtering into Uber Rock HQ through various social media sources that Glunk Rock saviours of the nineties D Generation were following up their 2011 series of sell out reformation shows with an all new studio album I just had to find out exactly what was going on right now with one of my all time favourite bands. So what better way to get all the (D) gen on the New Yawk five piece than to pick up the Hungarian hotline to the band’s (no longer) peroxide haired guitarist Mr Danny Sage, and talk album number four, working with Ryan Adams and what exactly was behind the lyrics of some of the finest songs to soundtrack my youth.

 

Danny, thank you for taking time for talking to Uber Rock today. Back in January Jesse was talking about making a new record. As much as I know your last show was in July in the Bowery, so what is the situation right now in the band?

 

The situation is, Jesse and I had talked about writing a new album. We had a great year in 2011, no one knew what would happen, I wanted it to go wherever it was gonna go, as far as we could take it. with this band, no one knows. It’s a really volatile situation, the band can break up any second, and has. But anyway, we had an amazing year, the last half anyway, played in Europe, the UK, sold out shows… Irving Plaza, Los Angeles, it was really great. The band played better than ever, it was a lot of fun.

 

So we started to talk about writing, and we figured we would see how far we could take it. We have written together a little while D Generation was apart, and we can always come up with something. However, we said, if we write a new album, we have to beat everything we’ve ever done. I felt really strongly about this.

 

So we started and it went really well. Then, we had a meeting with Ryan Adams, and he expressed interest in producing the album. So, since the new year, Jesse and I have been writing a lot: we have about 40 new songs, Michael has some, Rick has some. Howie is helping out with some, and it looks like we’ll be in the studio maybe in November.

 

Huh, that’s a relief to hear, because as Jesse put it some months ago: “this could just explode at any minute.”

 

Yeah. that’s always an issue, but I also believe, and I always have, that there’s a bigger picture, this band is bigger than the individuals in it. We had a huge fight about an hour before one of our Spanish gigs last year, then we went onstage and it was one of the best gigs we’ve ever played. I could give a fuck about fights: but most of my favorite bands probably hated each other, so let’s just get on with it.

 

When Richard was talking to Uber Rock last year he expressed his view that there would be no point in making a new D Gen record. Has he changed his mind, or maybe he just does not want to miss out now as you and Jesse and the others started to write? (laughing)

 

I don’t know what Rick was saying in that interview… I guess he has changed his mind… which is good, ’cause I wouldn’t play without him.

 

So a new record is maybe out sometime next year?

 

Yeah, I think spring… then we are planning to go back to Europe.

 

Do you already have some songs that are more or less complete? I mean with lyrics and solos and everything?

 

Yes, tons. Too many in fact. We played two or three at the summer gigs: ‘Apocalypse Kids’, ‘Piece Of The Action’ they are totally finished, complete. We have done full demos: probably 35 songs fully demoed. I believe in these songs more than any we have done since like 1994.

 

Hmm, so do you mean that the debut was the best one you ever released?

 

No… but since ‘No Lunch’ has some of the same songs, I just mean, the original or maybe “second” batch of songs: ‘No Way Out’, ‘Frankie’, ‘Guitar Mafia’, ‘Feel Like Suicide’, ‘Next Big Parade’, those ones. That was a good batch. To be honest, I am not a fan of the albums. This is a band you have to see onstage, I think.

 

Hopefully the new record will be different. That is something we spoke to Ryan about, this has to be a classic, fully realised D Gen album. Finally get the band on tape, for real. and I think he understands that.

 

Well, the sound of the original D Gen albums certainly did not do justice to the band. By the way, did you consider recording some of the reunion shows to give a proper representation of you as a live act on record?

 

We thought about recording some of the gigs, but I think we were too lazy! But I think we may have recorded the Irving Plaza show, which I still think was one of the best D Gen shows, ever.

 

Would you mind taking a little trip down memory lane and share your feelings on some of the songs you wrote? You already mentioned ‘Guitar Mafia’, so let’s take that one first, if you don’t mind.

 

‘Guitar Mafia’ was written in Jesse’s old apartment in Greenpoint, Queens. I think he and I were sitting on his bed with our notebooks, just like now. Maybe I had a guitar. I think I wrote the bridge, obviously the guitar part in the chorus. the lyrics are almost all his… very much Jesse: great rock ‘n’ roll New York lyrics.

 

‘Feel Like Suicide’ is another one you wrote with Jesse.

 

Well, really I wrote that. Also, on his bed in Greenpoint. I remember it really well. He put in a line or two… “I wear my heart out on my sleeve…” that is definitely him. I was ripping off ‘Sheer Heart Attack” by Queen. and I was thinking about how for years, I went through life just randomly thinking about suicide, every day, and how common that must be for young people…

 

Well, I do hope your mindset has changed since then..

 

(Laughing) I figure if I’m still here, I might as well enjoy it. I made it this far, I hope everyone can see that. It’s hard when you’re in your teens or twenties, though.

 

Well, yes, but then you may have other problems in your thirties (laughing). Anyway, you and Jesse seemed to be a great writing team together.

 

I think we write really well together, and we stopped ’cause we didn’t get along. I think that was really dumb. we are back to finishing each other’s lines now, which is an amazing thing. I have been writing lyrics, more so now. He writes a lot of music, works really hard, always has new stuff. I’m more lazy.

 

Yeah, he has released a load of solo records, whereas your solo effort done like ten years ago may never see the light?

 

Yes, I made a solo album in 2002, or really, 2001, but it wasn’t a lot of fun playing and stuff: I like being in a band. I didn’t have much fun by myself, and I was being courted by a few labels in L.A., most notably Maverick, and then the guy would get fired. It was the beginning of the end of the record business. It got old for me, so I said, fuck it!

 

Who knows, maybe one day I might release it, we’ll see. I’m just way more focused on D Gen, as I always was. People tell me it’s good, people like it, it’s not that important to me, so maybe one day.

 

My colleague, Dom Daley has a question digging deep back into your past: will the Heart Attack album ever be released in a proper way?

 

Hmm… I don’t know the answer to that. I think Jesse has issued something at some point. I think he owes me money! Or at least a dinner!

 

Hey, you gotta ask him about it! There starts another fight in the D Gen camp (laughing).

 

Yes, the end! Seriously, I don’t know the answer to that. We talk about it sometimes. We still see Javier, our old drummer… we’re all still friends.

 

OK, let’s see ‘Working On The Avenue’ – what exactly is it about?

 

‘Avenue’ is about dealing drugs on the Lower East Side, or the East Village. We wrote it with Howie, sitting in the kitchen on East 3rd Street… at that time, that neighborhood was all about the buying and selling of hard drugs.

 

Which do you think is the ultimate D Gen song? I would guess a lot of fans would say ‘No Way Out’ (myself included), but Richard last year said ‘Frankie’. What do you think?

 

Oh definitely ‘No Way Out’, that kinda sums it all up for me. But there are others I really like. I like kinda weird ones; ‘Scorch’, ‘Suicide’, ‘Parade’, ‘Wasted Years’… there are a few. I like our cover of ‘I Got Nothin’, from some comp, the Iggy/James Williamson song from ‘Kill City’, the band did that really well. I also like ‘Too Loose’ and ‘Avenue’.

 

What do you remember from writing ‘Disclaimer’?

 

(Laughing)… I remember it really well, actually. Jesse and I were in the Chelsea Hotel, trying to write new songs for what would become ‘No Lunch’. I didn’t have a guitar, so I went downstairs to Chelsea Guitars, and they lent me a guitar to take upstairs. It’s a straight up rip-off ‘Helter Skelter’, anyway. But that kinda thing would never happen in NYC now… Glad I was there when it was that cool… that is a real New York story.

 

Has D Gen ever been recognised by NYC in any way? You guys deserve at least a street named after you (laughing).

 

(Laughing), in an “official” way? Certainly not! We’re too cool for that. The Bloomberg administration? Giuliani? We were under their radar. We got free drinks everywhere though, that’s enough for me.

 

Were you very disappointed when ‘No Lunch’ did not make you big?

 

Umm, yes. I thought we were a good band; we made a good record. But it has to do with so many other variables, most of which you can’t control. But yeah, it pissed me off.

 

How did Richard’s leaving change the band dynamics at the time?

 

Well, at the time I was really mad at him. So was Jesse. Howie, probably too. We did well anyway, musically, anyway. Toured a lot, made a record. But Rick is one of us; we all belong together, the 5 of us. It sucked in a way, we all have a certain sense of humour, and so on. It changed the dynamics in that way, and the band lost a certain “looseness”, let’s say… Rick belongs with us, it felt unnatural to me.

 

So it was like the family broke up in a way…

 

Very much so. That’s the five of us. Maybe except Howie, we all come from kind of disastrous childhoods, and so on. We all grew up together. went from doing shit jobs to being signed to the biggest record label in the world. played Madison Square Garden. We love each other. There’s no getting away from all that.

 

How was it playing with Todd?

 

It was good playing with Todd, he is a good player, and at the time, he was one of my best friends. So for me, it was cool. But there was a lot of drama in the band, he definitely was a part of all that as well. But we laughed a lot with him, too. He was a good fit at the time.

 

And what did you think of the Chrome Locust record?

 

I thought it was good, but really derivative. They never gave me a copy. It just seemed kinda like a lot of other stuff at the time, or maybe a lot of stuff that we all know. Certainly well done, though, and they got ripped off quite a lot later.

 

Let’s talk about ‘Through the Darkness’ a little bit.

 

Oh, God… OK.

 

What’s that? You hate it that much? (laughing)

 

It was a bad time, in a lot of ways. And no, I guess I’m not a fan of that album… it does have some good songs though…

 

Don’t try sell me that songs like ‘Hatred’ suck, that one to me is like The Ramones on steroids.

 

(Laughing) everyone has their favorites. My mother says “that’s what makes horse races”: people have different tastes. ‘Hatred’ was me trying to go to that Stooges/James Williamson thing again, like ‘Avenue’.

 

What about ‘Good Ship Down’?

 

Not really a fan. I did put a nice Lindsey Buckingham part on the chorus, but I just don’t care for the song.

 

‘Lonely’ has that real D Gen feel to me..

 

Yeah… ‘Lonely’ I think was the last song we did with Rick in the band. I might be wrong… It was a real group effort. I did some fun tricks with guitars and piano on that one, I doubt you can hear it though! I might have to remix that album one day.

 

It could do with some remixing for sure.

 

Yeah, so much for expensive producers. I mean, I think Ric (Ocasek) did a good job with ‘No Lunch’, but the other two, the records don’t represent the band well, sonically.

 

What was Tony Visconti’s actual role in ‘Through the Darkness’?

 

That’s hard to answer. Of course, the guy is talented, made tons of great albums. But he was thrown into a weird situation: the band was kind of breaking up, we had been on tour too long, we were getting fucked around by Sony, and to tell the truth, I had produced the demos, with Jesse, and I wanted to do the album. We hired Tony because the label forced us to pick someone. He hadn’t produced an album for a while, he seemed to be having some problems in his personal life at the time, and we certainly were, too. He was a nice guy, and of course had great stories. I feel bad, cause I gave him a hard time. We did get along, but there was a lot of tension all the way around, to his credit, he got the record finished, and we made our deadline.

 

So were you actually aware that this was going to be your last record together?

 

No, I mean, it was all falling apart, but I would have just kept going, no matter what. And I was told by my A and R guy at Columbia, if we deliver the album by June 1st, they’d put it out in late August/early September… that’s what any artist wants.

 

We delivered the album the last day of May, then they put it out February of the next year, by then, it was over, they had a lot to do with the original breakup, but we should have stuck together. We didn’t.

 

I mean, they eventually put it out. We sat there for 6 or 8 months, it was the kiss of death for us.

 

So basically Columbia blew the last chance for you…By the way, in what way are you planning to release the new record? Are you considering any labels?

 

We are talking to a lot of people, there’s a lot of excitement, and we had a good year last year. People are also pretty curious about us working with Ryan.. We spoke with some labels, but we’re not just gonna go with anyone, and we don’t have to. We always do things our way, at least I can be happy saying that – and we will continue that way.

 

 

Right on! D Gen stuff that was unreleased and rare as hell – early singles, ‘Age of Confusion’, ‘Never Gonna Marry’ etc. Can you see a chance of releasing all these stuff in one compilation in the near future?

 

Yeah, we have talked about it. Maybe not ‘Never Gonna Marry’, but there are some good ones… ‘Heaven’. I used to like that one, you probably don’t know it.

 

No, not that one.

 

It’s a good one. Rick’s, from about late 1994 or so. There’s a real recording of it, somewhere…

 

I usually ask my interviewees which 5 records they would rescue from their home, if it was on fire. However, as one of your band mates has a record collection of 30 000 plus, I must change it this way: which 5 records would you nick from Howie’s collection first if you had the chance?

 

(Laughing) I wouldn’t be able to find anything if I was at Howie’s house.

 

Is it such a mess?

 

Let’s just say he’s got a lot of…ummm….stuff.

 

But I can’t go anywhere without The Beatles, the Stones, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, Howlin’ Wolf… let’s start with that.

 

Talking about legends, you were friends with Johnny Ramone, can you share us a classic story or some fondly recollection?

 

Yes, I am happy and proud to say I knew Johnny pretty well at a certain point. I have a lot of nice memories of him, he was another one who rook good care of us, he helped D Gen a lot, even in dumb ways, like making sure we had pizza backstage when we played with them. He used to give me all of his leftover canned cold espresso for our bus, cause he knew I liked it – which I thought was sweet, not like how everyone always portrays him.

 

There are a lot of funny stories from hanging out with him, and all of them, some I just couldn’t repeat, and they might not be funny if you weren’t there. I miss them all a lot, it’s amazing and sad that they’re gone, hard to believe. I think of them all the time.

 

For example, once he gave me one of his guitars, and when I was giving him money for it, he gave it back to me, and said “you can give me this money when ‘No Lunch’ goes platinum” I simply didn’t know what to say.

 

You played with both Green Day and Guns n’ Roses, so you are one of the few people who could reveal to us: who really is more obnoxious, W. Axl Rose or Billie Joe Armstrong? (laughing)

 

(Laughing) I would hate to blow their cover (laughing), actually they are both really good guys. And anyone who likes D Gen is okay by me. Billie in particular has been a good friend. I just saw him last week. Those guys have taken good care of us, and I can’t say enough about them. If anything, D Gen is a bunch of obnoxious, cliquey, bitchy people… But no, Green Day are really nice, so are the guys in G n’ R… sorry.

 

OK, point taken (laughing), but did you actually get to meet Axl in person or have a bit of a chat at least?

 

You know, it’s funny, we are not really G n’ R people, they hired us to be support. We said of course, we met Axl for a second, he was nice, he was just really busy. The guy works fuckin hard, takes it really seriously. I was there to do a job, to play, we were in our dressing room, they were in theirs, but we hung a little, we know some of their guys… Tommy, Frank… we hung out with and made some trouble, it was a good time.

 

 

Well, at least Axl knows who you are – just the way he should (laughing).

 

Yes, he definitely does, which is cool. They were good to us. We have always been lucky in that regard,  other bands have had a lot of respect for us… which means a lot to us. Maybe in some ways, more than sales…

 

Thank you very much, Danny, it’s been a blast! Take very good care and keep it real.

 

I always keep it real (laughing).

 

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[B&W photos courtesy of Nick Solares]

 

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