Page 19 - Rocknation Issue 28_Neat

ROCKNATION ISSUE 28 PAGE 19

Interview with

Eddie Smith

Hello Eddie and welcome to Rocknation. Let’s start off with your “Best Of 1999-2021” CD. Please
tell us about some of the tracks.
We are really excited about the “Best Of” cd. It features songs from each stage of our career and showcases all the growth and changes that we have been
through for the past 30 years. Some of the early tracks that I really like are Cold Sweat and Anyway That You Want Me. There is also a really cool track that
Ted Nugent singer Derek St. Holmes sings with me called Nothing Can Keep Me Away. We had the Hollywood Sunset Strip vibe going on back then. We had a
super glammed out look and sleazy, high energy songs with a lot of attitude. Our sound is always changing and evolving. Around the time of the Animal cd in
2007 our sound started getting a little heavier, kind of similar to how Skid Row evolved from their first cd to the Slave To The Grind cd. Some of my favorites
from that era of our career are Loaded Gun and the title track Animal. Both are really heavy and driving but still have strong hooks and catchy choruses. The
newer stuff we have recently put out is my favorite era of the band. Songs like Liar and The One You Love To Hate are some of the best stuff we have ever
written. We also included a few power ballads on the cd. The songs It’s time I Told You Goodbye and Lonely are both really cool ballads, I’m very proud of both
of them.
You have a 80’s MTV quality video of “Thief In The Night” from this release. Please tell us about that.
Thief In The Night is a new song that we wrote and recorded just before we released the “Best Of” cd. We shot the video in an old warehouse in downtown
Atlanta. We wanted the video to have a real dark, gritty look to it. All the exterior shots were done at night in different parts of the city. One thing we try to do with
our songs and videos is to capture the vibe from the 80’s without coming across dated. We have a very retro sound and look but I think it’s presented in a very
fresh way.
What national bands have you played with?
We spent the better part of 30 years touring all over the USA, opening up shows for a ton of cool bands. We’ve done multiple shows with Ratt, Cinderella, Skid
Row, Warrant, Quiet Riot, Slaughter and The Bullet Boys to name a few. We’ve also played a lot of festivals through the years and got to be on the bill with Kiss,
Poison, Whitesnake, Dokken, Queensryche and a bunch of other cool bands.
How long has the band been together?
We started in late 1990. We came charging out of the gate, we built up a huge following really quickly and did several major label showcases in New York. Once
grunge hit in 1991 things came to a grinding halt and nobody wanted anything to do with us anymore. We jokingly refer to that time as the dark years. We kept
pushing forward and in 1999 we signed a recording contract with Perris Records and soon after we started touring all over the country. It was such an amazing
experience to go from playing local clubs and bars to all of a sudden opening up shows for bands like Ratt and Cinderella in front of thousands of people. We
were featured in several national magazines including Metal Edge and Spin Magazine. Although we don’t tour that much anymore we still get out there every
now and then. Our last tour was to promote the Love, Hate And Deception cd. We did shows from New York all the way to Hollywood, California where we got
to open up for Geoff Tate at the world famous Whisky A Go Go.
Your band has an impressive list of festivals you have played. Please tell us about that. Perris Records just got in a picture disc of your top selling
CD for MAD MARGRITT “Animal”. The CD got airplay on several radio stations across the United States and Europe and was featured on XM Radio’s
hard rock channel The Boneyard. The bands video for the song “LOADED GUN” got airplay on several television shows across the country and was
named “2008 Video Of The Year” on the show Rocknation TV. How did that CD take the band to a new level?
The airplay we got for Loaded Gun from radio stations all around the world including Sirius XM’s channel The Boneyard really got a lot of momentum going for
us. Then the video for Loaded Gun won Video Of The Year on Rocknation TV. Doors really started opening up for us. We started getting offers to appear at
festivals all around the country so we did a bunch of them including Rocklahoma, The South Texas Rock fest and several big festivals in Florida. I really love
those type of shows. The stages and sound systems are always huge and the crowds are always in the thousands. Usually there are between 10 to 15
thousand people at those type of events but one show did back in 2008 or 2009 was in front of 30 thousand. It was such a rush performing in front of that
many people, definitely something I will never forget.
Does the band have any new written music for a future release?
We are always writing. Hopefully we can get some of the new stuff recorded soon. It’s very much in line with our last cd Love, Hate And Deception but the songs
have some new twists and elements that we are really excited about.
Thank you for taking time for this interview and last words to the fans?
We always appreciate the support we get from our fans. We’ve met so many amazing people through the years. It’s hard to believe we have been doing this so
long. We don’t have plans to slow down anytime soon, we want to keep this going for many more years.

Buy MAD MARGRITT

CD’s direct from

Perris Records.
Scan this code:

MAD MARGRITT
“Best Of 1999-2021”

This CD features 3 unreleased
tracks including a recent
recording called
“Thief In The Night”.