This band is super important to me. I adore their music, and what a privilege to have this conversation with the bassist of Canadian rock band Default, Dave Benedict! He's one of the best bassists you'll ever see live, and he's enjoying making music with Default as well as new band Robby Hurricane. We talk the best Default album tracks, their relationship with Chad Kroeger and touring with Nickelback, The end of TNT Records, his record label with drummer Danny Craig, the song Richard Marx wrote with Default, and so much more.
Dope Nostalgia
Episode 216 - Default's Dave Benedict
[intro music] [music] [music] [music] [music] Be kind. Rewind. [music] [music] Hi friends. Welcome to another episode of Dopeness Delge podcast. This is episode 216, and it's me, Naomi, your host. This is a very, very, I always say this. This is exciting, but I have been such a huge fan of this band. They're called Default, and the bass player, who is one of the most charismatic guys I've ever seen on stage, just so entertaining and fun. Dave Benedict is my special guest today. Default were huge in Canada and made big, big waves in the States. They wrote incredible songs, and I was just so inspired by them as a young musician. And they've had so many opportunities to tour the world, and the lead singer, Dallas Smith, is now a very successful country singer with a breakthrough success throughout the world. So congrats to Dallas. Like, all default fans got to be proud of him. Here's a little background information on default. [music] Please bear in mind that Wikipedia is not to be taken as actual 100% fact. Any donkey could edit it at any time. If I'm reading you the artist bio, that stuff is a real truth. Default is a Canadian rock band formed in Vancouver in 1999. Since farming, the band has released four albums, and has sold more than a million records. The majority of their fan base is in Canada, but they had mainstream success in the United States with the release of their hit single, "Wasting My Time." The group disbanded in 2013 after a hiatus following the release of their fourth album, and lead singer, Dallas Smith, pursued a country music solo career. In 2018, Default announced that they were back together. The band also announced a tour in support of Stone Temple Pilots and Seether, and a co-headline tour with Age of Days. Between 1996 and 2016, Default was among the top 150 best-selling Canadian artists in Canada and among the top 50-selling Canadian bands in Canada. Upon obtaining their demo tape, Chad Kroger, the vocalist, a fellow Canadian post-grunge and alternative rock band Nickelback, discovered the band subsequently lending support and co-producing their first two albums. Default's 2001 debut album, "The Fallout," achieved success due to strong radio play of "Wasting My Time" and "Deny." In 2002, Default won the Juno Award for "Best New Group." On August 23, 2002, "The Fallout" was certified platinum by Canada's CRIA, and on April 30, 2003, it was certified platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA, signifying a million records sold. On September 28, 2013, the band announced on their official Facebook page that the band were not splitting up but taking a break and starting different projects. However, the members announced later in 2013 that they were going in separate ways. Now, that's what the wig computer says, all of that was straight from Wikipedia. But the good news is that you can see default still play shows together. They do it a lot in the summertime especially, but just check out their website defaultband.com to find out when you can see them together again. Also, our special guest today is an incredible basis. Dave Benedict, and he's been working on so many projects as well as being a successful photographer, digital artist, and him, and Danny Craig, drummer from default, have a brand new record label called "Rock Is Dead Records." They've been working with some incredible artists, and Dave is currently promoting brand new music by his band, Robbie Hurricane. Make sure you check them out on their social media. I'll leave the links for you on our Instagram. Welcome to the show, one of my favorite bassists in the world. This is Dave Benedict. Hi. All set. All right. Look at that beautiful collection behind you there. Oh, it's pretty awesome. It goes all the way around my office here. Okay, there you go. Oh, yeah, that's fantastic. I just saw on your Instagram, you had a post about travel cases, and you got this new travel case. It holds two bases at once. I did, yeah. But yeah, I know you were recently, we're talking to John G, who's a TikTok guy. He does a lot of Canadian contents, and I caught him in your new video. Yeah. Yeah, he's a good friend. He's a good friend of the show here, so. Oh, excellent. Yeah, John's a great guy. He, you know, he's been working with our manager and our label. It just seemed natural that, you know, we put him in the video, right? I needed a character, and I thought he would do great because he's always in front of the camera, and, you know, he's part of the team. So, you know, when I mentioned that he was more than eager to pitch in and help. He just didn't want to turn into the wiener. He's fun. He's a great guy. Yeah, he is. So, Dave, when you were listening to music as a kid growing up, who made you pick up the bass? Who were your influences? Oh, okay. Well, it's kind of a bit of a two-sided answer in a way, I guess. You know, it started, oh, my musical journey kind of started when I was in grade four with my dad, and I came home from school, and he asked me if I wanted to take drum lessons with him, because he was trying to connect with me at that point, right? And it's really odd because my parents never listened to music growing up. So, like, I missed out on all of, like, the zeppelins and Hendrix and all the stuff that, you know, like our parents naturally would have been listening to when they were young. They kind of duped me on that. And so, you know, all we had was AM radio around the house, right? And so, it was all talk radio. So, when I got into music, it was the '80s. So, I was just naturally drawn to what was, you know, pop culture at the time, right? Which, you know, was a lot of the hair metal bands, Motley Crue and Poison and Guns and Roses, you know, and then when I went deep, I went super deep. So, like, you, if you ask me any trivia on '80s hair metal, you know, I'm your guy. Yeah, I can't remember people's names or, you know, like the stuff that's important in life. But, you know, if you ask me all the members that have played in chess, you know, I'm your guy. So... I love that. Because, like, that's me with the '90s. That's why I do this show. Oh, nice, nice. Yeah. So, what really got me into playing bass and the love of bass was when I discovered the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And that just kind of turned it all upside down for me, right? It was like, you know, when I first started, it was a good time voice from mother's milk. And I was like, what is happening here? What is this guy doing with the bass? This is mental. And so then that just kind of opened the doors for me, for everything else. It made it okay to listen to different types of music. It made it okay for me to listen to funk and jazz and all these other, like, world music, stuff that, you know, my parents should have introduced me to, but they did it, right? So the Chili Peppers did that for me. So, you know, that's what really kind of opened everything up for me. That's really cool. And I find too, like, if your favorite band, like the Chili Peppers, do a cover of another artist, sometimes that can even take you into another radical of that artist. It totally does. You know, it's funny you say that because back when I was younger, I had a couple of friends that really loved the who, but there again, you know, that was my parents' generation of music, but they didn't introduce it to me. So for me, it was old people music. It was not cool. It wasn't hip. It wasn't happening at the time, right? But I loved every cover song. I heard any, any air metal band doing of the who, right? You had, you know, you had Rocky Blue doing the who songs. And I just, I loved it. So it was like, why, why don't I listen to the original, right? Like, why don't I go back and obviously all these bands that I love dig them? So why aren't I digging them? Yeah. Now, I've seen you live several times, especially in the 2000s and like, because I'm in Edmonton, and every time default came to Edmonton, I'd be there. Awesome. So you're definitely one of the top bands of the day. And you personally are the most entertaining bassist I've ever seen live. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Not to blow sunshine up your ass, but it's true. You're very, very entertaining to watch. Do you, you strike me as tech savvy because of all the digital media work you do. Did you get involved with using the internet in its early stages back in the 90s? You know what, a kind of and kind of not, you know, like as far as like what my wife was doing, you know, with the internet and stuff like that back in the 90s. You know, I didn't have a, I didn't have a cell phone until I was 25, right? Like I was on tour and I needed one, right? So I wasn't too tech savvy right at the beginning. It kind of, kind of came in a little bit more for me when like kind of the downswing of default, when things, you know, weren't as busy and we kind of went on that hiatus for a little bit. And I needed to figure out what to do with my life because I had been doing nothing but touring and playing music and traveling and that was it, right? Like, and at that point, you know, there wasn't social media. There wasn't, you know, I did, I did like the video blogging and stuff like that, which was very rudimentary at the time. I've got, check this out. Oh, geez. So this was the camera that I, that the record label gave me. It's one of those flip cameras. I don't know if you ever remember that. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a long time. Yeah. So it's got like a little USB thing that flips out, right? You plug it into your computer and, you know, upload the, your videos of the day and whatever. So, you know, I guess then there again, yeah, I kind of was, right? I was the guy that the label came to and was like, Hey, take this and, you know, film some stuff. So it kind of started there. And then, you know, I watched Danny or drummer, he was really getting into producing. So he produced like one bad son, their first album, their first, their first, uh, signed album. They had a few out before that. But, um, so I thought I was watching Danny kind of doing extra stuff, right? And he was producing these bands and, you know, he had something else going on and I didn't, right? I didn't, I didn't listen to my parents and, and do the backup plan. Right? I was like, no music, music, music, music. That's all I'm going to do. That's all I'm going to focus on. Right? I have no backup plan. If I have a backup plan, it's my, it's my backdoor. It's my out. Right? So, um, when I had to figure it out, that's when I was like, okay, well, I've done pretty much like be coolest job in the world. So what am I going to do moving forward? You know, so, you know, I've, I've always loved being creative and just making things. So Danny mentioned to me actually, he's like, why don't you take up photography? And I was like, hmm. Okay. Yeah. Sure. So I started and then, and then I went to school for graphic design. Wow. Yeah. And, uh, and then that's kind of when everything just kind of opened up, right, the, the graphic design kind of married with my passion and my love for photography, then let it's way into doing videos and all that kind of stuff. And then, so then from there, you know, Danny and I, we just always work really well together, right? That's right. The back bone. Yeah. You know, and he's, uh, he's one of my best friends. So it just really lent itself to us working more together in a different medium and a different setting, right? So that's when we, we started, um, the label, the rock is dead record label, which we've got two really cool rock bands on that label. One called Chase the Bear and the other one called the Vedos. And, uh, so then, you know, Danny does, he does all of the, he does all the audio stuff. He does all the recording, the producing, uh, and then I do all the visuals, right? So the, the, uh, the photo shoots, the, the videos, uh, lyric videos, uh, whatever else needs to be done, you know, social media wise or anything that has to do with the, the oculus. Well, what a team. I mean, how are you discovering the artists that you're siding to your label? Uh, well, Danny found both of these bands, um, and he, he was involved in this thing called, um, what was it called Vancouver's best, I think it, I think it is. And it's, it's a, uh, it's a battle of the bands, essentially. And he was one of the judges on it. And that's how he found Chase the Bear. He found the vetoes, he found those guys when they were still in high school. And he just came across them playing at a, at a local fair, saw them playing on a, like a side stage and, and was just like, whoa, who is this, these guys are great. And then he was like, holy jeez, and they're young too. That's great. Okay. Awesome. They're moldable. Fantastic. Yeah. They were just in the right place at the right time. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So we've had a long relationship with those guys. We've been working with them before we had the label for quite a few years. So it just, that was a natural fit that one. Now going back to when you guys were a young starting up band, describe the first time you guys met up with Chad Kroger and how did that relationship come into play? Okay. Well, my, my introduction to Chad is a little bit different than the other guys because I was, I was the new guy. So I joined the band back in 2000 and the band had, the guys had been together for about 10 months before this and they had played shows with Chad. They had even recorded, they'd recorded a demo with them and they had a different singer at the time. Wow. And they, they were, it was the three of them, it was Dallas, Jeremy and Danny and they had a bass player named Dwayne at the time and they all were in the studio with Chad and it just didn't end up working out with their bass player. So I worked with Jeremy at, we both worked at board dealership and we were parts drivers. So whenever we would see one another, we would just talk about our bands and we would just you know, be like, oh, you go, come see my band man, oh, my band's playing here next week. And you go come and see us. Right. So he went and saw my band one night and he, he, he liked what he saw and so when it wasn't working out with their bass player, he called me up and, and then the rest of history there. So that was their working relationship with Chad. So they did the, the entire first, the first album, the fall out, was done with Chad. And so then when I joined the band, my introduction to him, I was, I had three rehearsals with the band and, and then we played it, we played for Chad. We played for Lenny Johnson, who was the A&R guy for TVT Records, the records label who we signed with, and Jonathan Simkin, who was the band's lawyer and also owns six or four records with Chad. And this is pre six or four. So my third rehearsal with the band, and I'm playing in front of these guys, barely know the songs and I am trapping my pants, right? So afterwards, Lenny said to the guys, he was like, I don't know what you think about this guy personally, but he's a great bass player. And so that, then it was just like a big pressure, just, you know, the pressure cooker was off. So they took it out, they got us drunk, took us out for dinner, and I was like, ah, it's the best. And so yeah, then from there, the label sent us down to Seattle and we did some, did three songs with Rick Prasher, which was wasting my time, thick and tired and live a lie, which all ended up being singles on the fallout. So luckily for me, you know, I got in right at the tail end there, and I was a part of those three songs. So thankfully, because otherwise I wouldn't have, my picture would have been on the first album, but I wouldn't have been present as far as playing. So. Wow, I bet a lot of default fans didn't know that. Yeah, there is a, you know, if you look real hard, there is an independent default album out there that the album cover is the check board. Jeremy's mum took the picture of it, and this was back before I was in the band. And I think there's only like 500 copies or something like that printed up at the time. And it has Duane on the picture in that, and it has two other tracks that were cut from the album to put the three new ones on it. So it's a bit of a collector's item if you can find it out there. No kidding. Yeah. When they talk about the albums that you guys put out, I'm a big fan of deep cuts because I love singles. There's a reason they're a single, but I always like to talk about the deep cuts. So the fall outs, what would have been your favorite deep cut from that album? Oh, a deep cut from that one. I think I would, oh, absolutely would have to be let you down. Ah, very, very good song. Yeah, that was the song actually that when the guy showed me the demo, and this is before, I think even before Chad touched it, they showed me, let you down. And I was like, well, this song is fantastic, this is so good. And I feel loved playing that one today, even though I wasn't on it. I did get a chance to put my bass line on it though, when we did the recuts album. Yeah. Yeah. I just discovered the recuts yesterday on Spotify, and I thought it was cool that you guys did that. When did you record it? We did that in 2018, so when we kind of when we reformed and got back together, we got a tour opening up for Stone Temple Pilots. And because we got that tour, we thought, well, we should probably record something to have while we're out on the road. And it had to come together pretty quick because just everybody's life and whatnot, right? So writing a new song wasn't really in the cards at the time. So we're like, well, let's, let's, let's, let's re-record some of the old ones and give it, you know, a new shine and see how they sound now, right? Because we, we hadn't played any of them in six years. That, that was kind of the time that we took away from the band, right? So it was kind of, it was just a bit of a nice re-introduction back to our songs again. You know, giving the fans something at least, right? Like renewing your vows almost. Kinda. Kinda. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh I'll never let you down. Wow. I'm still around. So the album allocation, now you got to work with some heavy hitters there, Jim Valance, Gordy Johnson, Butch Walker, all these folks. What's it like with Jim Valance? Because I think of him and I think of all of the massive stuff he did with Brian Adams. Yes. Aerosmith, right? True. That was the big one there. I'm a huge Aerosmith fan. So Jim was great. He was just such a gentle and soft-boken man. You know, he's very passive. So yeah, it was great working with him. He also gave us our, we got these So Can awards and he presented us with them for going to number one with wasting my time. So that was, it was really cool being presented, you know, by a legend. Yeah. Yeah. Someone, someone you respect like that respects your music. It's got to feel good. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Um, I would say, okay, my two favorite tracks from allocation, I couldn't pick one, but I'm going with moving on. Yeah. Because it's got a really cool chord progression. The verse is like got, it's, it's, it's different, you know, um, and breakdown doors because breakdown doors is a crazy killer, like hard hitting tune. And I'd like to hear that one live, if I can, because that's a great. Oh, man. Well, you should have, you should have been to the last show in Dawson Creek, because we played it. I know Edmondton, it's not that far. I know. Yeah. You know what? Um, quick little story about that song. It was cut from the first album. So, and Brian, here's the little Brian Adams story for you. So when I joined the band, um, before we went down and worked with Rick Prasher, the label wanted to put us back in the studio again, right? So they first put us back in the studio with Chad again. And they put us into the warehouse studios, which is Brian Adams studio down in gas town. And we went and we recorded breakdown doors and we recorded sick and tired. And I got a good story about that. So we were, we almost got banned from Brian's studio because Uncle Chad took us out one night and just got us lit up. And we came back to the studio and I have no recollection of going back to said studio. But apparently in the morning, Chad showed up first thing and they were like, uh, uh, you got to pay a $500 for the cleaning bill because you idiots came in here. There's puke all over the place there, the, the bathroom towel rack was broken off the wall. There was banana stuck on the ceiling. We're like, Oh, okay. Uh, yeah, so we were on eggshells for the rest of the recording session, right? Like just on our best behavior, but yeah, we almost got banned from Brian's studio. When we were recording breakdown doors in a world class studio warehouse. That's amazing. That classy bunch of fellas we are. And I'm just going to be a little bit more careful. I love that. What's your favorite deep cut from allocation? Um, I would have to say it would be probably who followed who. Ooh, I like it. Yeah, we did that one with Butch Walker and Butch is one of my favorite artists. Like I've been a fan of his back going back to the hair metal band days and his old band South gang. So, well, yeah, I went deep, I went deep, so, so, you know, I was a big fan of, of, uh, South gang. I was also a big fan of Marvelous three. I just love his songwriting. So when we got to go and work with him down in Atlanta, Ruby Red Studios, it was like, it was the one of those kind of pinch me moments, right? Like I got to sit in, in Butch's car with them and listen to letters, the album letter is before he released it, right? He, he showed it to me in the car and I was just like, Oh my God, this is amazing. And I love that album. It's so good. Maybe I love it a little bit too much because of, you know, I got that sneak preview before anybody else did, but it's a great record. I don't, I don't care. It's fantastic. And yeah. Yeah. The best place to preview your new recordings. I swear. Yeah, it is because I don't know to me, to me being in the car and driving is where I love to absorb a record. It's the best place, the best place, you know, it's an entirety, it used to me. Definitely. And you can gauge how awesome that album is by your speedometer, right? If your foot starts getting a little heavy, you know, and you're like, Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, this is a good record. It's true. Has Joey Moi been your go to producer and engineer for years now? And do you still work with him on things? Uh, you know what, Joey was, man, Joey was one of the, we were, we were one of the first bands that Joey worked with out of school, right? So, um, we did a lot of work with Joey because, you know, he came along with, with Chad when whenever we worked with Chad at his house or at, uh, at the armory or, or sorry, not the armory, armory at the warehouse. Um, yes, we, we worked with him in the first album. We worked with him on, uh, one song on the E location, uh, which was throw it all away. Um, and then we did, uh, count on me with him on the third record by the fourth record and we did that whole album with Bob Marlette. So we didn't do any work with Joey on that one. Um, I think there were a couple songs that were rerecorded for US release and they were done with Joey at Chad Studio. Um, and then since then, obviously we haven't, we haven't written any new music since. He's been working with Dallas, I think. He does work with Dallas. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, he's still in the family. That's great. Yeah. Uh, one thing remains when you mentioned count on me. I remember when that song came out at, I was thinking, this is like the perfect melody, perfect chorus rock tune, you know, it's, it, it is one of my favorites for a few reasons. Uh, the bass line in it, I, I'm really proud of that one, um, story behind that one. So we were doing some work with Rich Robinson, the guitar player for the black crows. And we were recording at greenhouse studios with him. And we had brought in just the skeleton of, uh, for count on me. And it was a ballad. It was a slow song. And it just, I don't know, it just wasn't taken shape with Rich. And so one night, Rich went back to his hotel room and we called up Chad. And we're like, Hey buddy, what are you doing? He's like, not much. We're like, well, we've got this song right now that, uh, we're a little stuck on you want to give us a hand? He's like, yeah, sure, I'll be down a little bit. So he came down to the studio and, and, uh, I, I went out because I had to get my computer worked on. I came back. Dude, you want to hear what, what we just got? And, uh, and that was the chorus. So yeah, Chad came in and helped us with that chorus. And once that chorus came out, it was just like, holy geez, yeah, this is, this is it, right? Like the hair is, yeah, the hair is stood up on my arms, right? I, I think I like, you know, did one of those flying, this pumps in the air, you know, and, uh, yeah, it was, uh, it was pretty awesome. So then the next day when Rich came back, we're like, yeah, so I think we're just going to put a pin in that song. Well, you know, we're just not quite feeling it. We'll finish the other ones, but, uh, yeah, let's, let's put a pin in this one. So then we ended up going to Chad's studio, uh, about a month after or something like that and, uh, rerecorded it there and yeah, the rest of history. I believe it was a lead off single for that album, wasn't it? Yeah, it was, yes, I believe, I believe it was, yeah. I know that life ain't always good to you, I see any second one is put you through Don't you around and turn you upside it down in the solute. You got to think and there was no way out, you started singing and it pulled you down and maybe it's tough, you gotta get back up because you know that life ain't always good. I'm here for you to don't forget, you can count on me because I will carry you till you carry on, anytime you need someone, somebody strong to lean on, well you can count on me to hold you till that healing is done, and every time you fall apart, or you can hide here in my arms, and you can count on me to hold you till that healing is gone. Yeah, we did the video with the same guy did Throw It All Away, Andrew McNaughton, and he was, I love the Throw It All Away video, that's one of my favorite videos. And so yeah, after we did that video with him, we asked him to do the count on me video, and yeah that was both of them were shot in Toronto, and rest in peace Andrew's no longer with us, so yeah, but yeah, we've got a couple good memories from him, so a couple good videos. That's a nice legacy for him to leave with all the great work he's done. Oh definitely, absolutely. Hey friends, I kind of miss getting those messages on my answering machine like me was too back in the day. What I'd really love is to hear from you, the listeners of Dope Nostalgia. This is your chance to be on the show, giving feedback, telling us what you love, what you hate, and who you'd like to see more of. Tell us at our new toll free number, 1-888-741-9192. Leave us some feedback, your message could be played on the show, so give us a call 1-888-741-9192. Hey everybody, I'm Rick Campanelli, and you're listening to the Dope Nostalgia Podcast. Want to understand the world we live in today? Just go back 30 years to the 1990s, nearly every aspect of society underwent major changes in the 90s that are still being felt today. Some things weren't so great, hairstyles, trash TV, and baggy pants, but you know what was great? The music, the movies, TV, and changes in technology that were nothing short of revolutionary. I'm Kathy Gonzora, and on each episode of my podcast, History of the 90s, I look back at important news events and pop culture trends from the decade, so you can not only understand what happened, but also learn how it impacts you today. Everything from the end of communism and apartheid, to supermodels, and super Nintendo. If it happened in the 90s, you'll hear about it on History of the 90s. Know what? Heat makes it happen. Hypercolor clothing changes color with heat, only by genera, like this. Got it. What was your favorite deep cut on that album? One thing remains. Get out of this would be my pick from, yes, get out of this, that's my pick. Oh awesome, awesome, yeah, that one we started, that one with Rich as well, I've got another version of it that Rich Robinson produced. At the time, I'd love to pull it out and listen to it again, because with New Years, because at that time, we were doing a lot of stuff with Nickelback, the Nickelback sound was huge, everything was to grid, everything was really perfect and tight, and Rich was more of a rootsy garage band feel, right, and that's what he was going for, and at the time, it just didn't seem to gel with what we were doing. Now listening to it, it probably friggin' rocks, right, but yeah, at the time, it just was like, oh, you know, it's just not quite modern enough sounding, so. Yeah, no things circle around again, so you never know. They do. You know, when it's all place and time, too, right, there's so many, I don't know, there's a lot of good rock records that I didn't give the time of day back, you know, when they first came out, but I listened to it with New Years, you know, with a little bit more maturity now, and, you know, it can be a completely different experience, right, so. Yeah, 100%, there's all kinds of artists that I didn't listen to, and when I was growing up that I'd really discovered in my adulthood. So 100%. That's the beauty of music, right, as long as you're open-minded, right, and you can go back because it really is, you know, how many times have you listened to a song, and you've just, it depends on even who you're with, right, like I've been with people and they're just, oh, that song's a piece of shit, you know, and it's, and it just kind of, you know, whether or not you think it does, it influences your thought on what you're listening to at the time, right, and, or how many times, you know, back in high school, you're like, well, I can't let my buddy catch me listening to, who, all Abdul, you know, they're going to be in front of me, right, but it's so funny. I just met her last month. Did you really? Yeah, yeah, I went down to see the magic summer tour with the new kids in Paula and DJ Jazzy Jeff. So, yeah, she's such a sweetheart. Oh, man. She was, she was my, she was definitely the one that, that I wouldn't tell my friends, but I secretly, really loved Paula Abdul. The guilty pleasure. It was like, yes, thank you, my guilty pleasure, yeah. And I'm tired to get inside of you, if I only knew where this would go. No, the album comes and goes, which was technically the last default album, was it not? It was. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that album, that album is a bit of a tough one. We were all going through some pretty rough times at going through that record, right? Dallas had gone through a divorce. My wife left when I was in Los Angeles recording the record. So it's, you know, it's got, like, I like the record, but it's kind of painful to listen to in a way, right, because it's just, it, it's, it has, it comes with baggage, comes with a lot of baggage, right? Not just that, but we, we lost our record deal at that point to TVT went bankrupt. They filed for bankruptcy. So this was, like, less than a month, I think it was after we recorded the record. So we finished this record and, you know, I'm going through divorce and I'm thinking, okay, well, I'll just get back out on the road and, you know, do what we always do. And I'll just kind of bury myself and work. And then the label went bankrupt and that, and then, so the, all of TVT's assets got seized by a bank, by the bank are album being one of those assets. So it took us, yeah, it took, it took five years to get that all sorted out. So we sat on that album for five years, five, like, long years. That's longer than, than, than the accumulation of the first three records, right? Yeah, it's a long time to wait lots changes in that amount of time, right? So when we did release the album, it, it didn't do quite as well as what we hoped, you know, and our last, our last tour, American tour didn't go quite what we were hoping it would. And so we were all pretty, feeling pretty defeated, you know, from that, from that album and, and just that whole experience. So, you know, as far as songs go, I feel like we were, you know, we were, you know, we were hitting on all four cylinders, you know, we, it was probably the strongest that we were at as far as, you know, figuring out our craft and, and stuff like that. But, you know, it was just kind of, yeah, the winds had just gone out of the sails at that point. So, yeah, time to hang it up for a bit, basically. Kinda, you know, I mean, every band has, has their moment, right? And, and kind of their, and their shelf life, right? So we were super fortunate that, you know, I got, I got 13 years solid, right? From the time I joined the band, right up until it kind of came to a slow, slow stall. So, yeah, that was, that was 13 years. So, you know, that's a, that's a pretty decent run. I saw a lot of other bands that we, you know, we came up at the same time, and they got one album if they're lucky, two albums if they're extremely lucky. We got four. So, you know, really feel like we kind of won the lottery there, and that we did get to put out that amount of music, you know, in that, in that amount of time. So, you know. And I think you created a long-term band base too. Well, that's where, that's where the proof is in the pudding, right? We're still, we still get to play, and we were, we were very lucky enough to have a slew of singles and still there for you. Yeah, people still remember them, which is great. You know, when we go back out and we play these songs and people are still singing them, people are still getting excited about them. You know, it takes them back too, right? So I know, I know what that's like whenever I hear stuff, you know, from, from my childhood or from, you know, high school years, it always makes me happy and it always brings back those good memories, right? So nostalgia is a big thing. And especially after 2020, I feel that a lot of us have dived in deep on it, you know? Oh, yeah, yeah, big time because everything changed. Everything changed in a big way, right? Like we didn't even, didn't know if we were ever gonna, well, you know, that's, that's a bit of a loose term, but... We didn't know what the future held? We didn't know what the future held, right? We didn't know what live music was gonna, what it was gonna be like, you know? And that was a scary thought. It was a scary thought, just like, when will it ever start up again? You know, so many, it felt like so many things have been taken away from musicians. And that was the one thing that we had left was live music and getting to go out and play live, right? Because far... And that's one of the best parts of it. It is the best part. That's my favorite part, like that. So when that was gone and it was taken away, I was out on the road touring with my other band at the time and our last show got canceled and it was terrifying. I was in Ontario and I didn't know if I was gonna get home and, you know, it just, yeah, really shook things up big time, shook things up for everybody, right? Like a lot of my colleagues gave it up, went and got nine to five jobs because they had to. And then, you know, a handful of them never went back because, well, you get comfortable and, you know, things change, right? And you just, the thought of that ever happening again is terrifying. So, you know, a lot of musicians went for, you know, the stability and because it's already, it's already a rocky career to be in, right? And you've got to, you really have to learn how to move and shift and, you know, change your colors a lot, right? Be a chameleon. What was the first event you went to afterwards where you got to hear the roar of a crowd again? And you're like, holy shit, this is amazing. It was the Calgary Stampede. Was it? Yeah. Yes. Aren't you opening for Motley Crue? We did. We did. But that wasn't, that wasn't the first one back. The first one back after COVID was the Calgary Stampede and we got to play the Coke stage, which was the last year of the Coke stage, which was great because we played it so many times. My son got to come with me, which was great. He got to travel on the tour bus with us and got his own and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, it was, it was a cool moment in so many different ways. I felt like I was going to, you know, I didn't know if I was going to like break down and start crying when I hit the stage, right? Because it was so like, it was just so emotional. Because it was, it was gone. It was taken away. And, and, and, you know, we were all forced to, to stay at home and not, not be able to enjoy that some of those things that we just, we took for granted, really, right? Like, oh, yeah, you know, there's, I'm not going to go up to the show tonight. There's going to be another one tomorrow. You know, you know, I mean, we learned we can't do that in life. We're going to grab the seats in the moment kind of thing. Absolutely. Absolutely. Before I move on from comes and goes, I did want to ask, there was an interesting writing credit on there. I saw the name Richard Marks. Yes. I got to ask how that happened. Okay. Well, like I was telling you, when we were doing that record, we were all kind of going through our moments. And Dallas was having a bit of a hard time with just getting lyrics done and stuff like that. So we, we were like, well, we got to get moving on on getting this done. So we had this song and we just started throwing these songs out to people to see, hey, could you put some lyrics to this? So Richard Marks was one of the one of them. And I don't know how his name came up, but it just did. And we're like, Hey, Richard, here's the song. Can you see what you can do with it? And he did the melody, the lyrics, and sent it back to us. And it was pretty surreal listening to, you know, the music that that you had written with your buddies and hear Richard Marks is singing it, right? And I had that version around here somewhere. Oh, that'd be incredible. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was pretty cool. So, so yeah, then when when he sent that to us, Dallas changed up a few things to just make it a little bit more, a little bit more default. And yeah, that was, I guess Richard has made a recording of that song himself as well and has released it. Oh, I'm gonna find that. Yeah, I would love to hear that because it's a great song. It is the cool song. And the video is, I have to take that comment. Well, I would say that throw it all away and all over me are my two favorite default videos. I mean, come on, like, we're in a gun fight with three beautiful women, right? Like stuff's exploding and, and, you know, we're firing rockets and, you know, I've got two machine guns involved. It's just cool, right? It was, it was such a fun video to do. Yeah. So, yeah, it's, I did that tune too. I'm sure there must have been a sign if you did not consume my mind, but I still swear I don't remember, 'cause they're not in all that deep to everything I know to keep from me. I'm ready to surrender. Let's see, see, now, this something in my hand. And it's all I have. I can hear the record calling. This boy's already falling. All I want is he won't hold me. All I need is he won't hold me. I heard you say if you left, I'd be okay. All I want is he won't hold me. And here's a clip of Richard Marks' version. I'm sure there must have been a sign when you did not consume my mind, but I swear I don't remember, 'cause they're not in all that deep to everything I know to keep from the end. I'm ready to surrender. Let's do it, right now. I don't know how. I can hear the record calling. This boy's already falling. I got you all over me. I got you all over me. What are some of the TV shows and special appearances that you guys did that were most memorable for you? Oh, well, we played Craig Kilborn. That was cool. He was on that one. We did The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. That one was the biggest one, obviously. That one was huge. Then we did the Mike Bullerchow a couple times. We did Cool Pizza in New York. What else did we do? Much music, a bunch of different times. We were all over MTV back when Wasting was out. The MMBAs, did you play those? We never did. We did win a Juno, so we got to do that. We got to play the halftime at the Orange Bowl one year with Shaggy and She Daisy. That was pretty wild. Oh, I love that mix up. Yeah, it was crazy. That one, I think, was five different stages in the middle of the football stadium. They wheeled all five of those stages out, and then just boom, boom, boom, boom. It was weird because it was like 80,000 people in that stadium. It was the biggest crowd we'd ever been in front of, and we lip synced 30 seconds of wasting my time. Yeah, there's a lot of TV that's like that, hey? Yeah, I mean, I get it. There's so much money involved in it, right? So if we went over or somebody else went over even a couple of seconds, that's big commercial money. So there's a reason why they do it, right? You know what, it's funny, too. A lot of these places require you to lip sync for whatever performance, but then if something happens and it becomes plain and obvious that there's lip syncing going on, you're the one that they're upset with. Yeah, people. So it's like they just bites you in the ass. I don't know. Yeah, unless you're like Nirvana, right? You go up there and you just pretend that you're you just totally play it up that you're not plugged in. That was great. Brilliant. Now, have you played a European music festival? We haven't played any European music festivals. We did one tour with Nickelback over in Europe. We got to play some really cool places there with them. But yeah, unfortunately, no festivals over there. Love you. I just always hear how incredible the rock festivals are compared to North American ones. Yeah, they're massive. The crowds and just what was the European crowds like in general for your Nickelback shows? They were good. They were good. Yeah. It was when Silverside up was out. So Nickelback was on the climb at that point. They hadn't quite hit their ultimate peak yet, but it was the exciting time. It was that moment where it was so electric and so what is happening with this band? They were everywhere. They were huge. And we were right there along with them. It was I shake my head sometimes and just go, "Holy crap." That happened. I was there when I watched the Nickelback documentary. I was watching it. I'm like, "I played that show. I was there. I did that. Oh, wow. Cool. I remember that. I remember that. Oh, I know that person. Oh, cool, right?" Yeah. You shake your head and you're like, "Holy crap." That was a big part of musical history at that point. It's really weird to think that I was just that little part of it. I got to ride a bit of that wave and it's pretty mind-blowing when you think about it sometimes. I feel very lucky and very fortunate that I was at the right place at the right time. Yeah. All these crazy cool stories and memories you have to share. Oh, the stories go on for days. I don't even know if I believe some of them anymore. I feel like Nickelback is having a renaissance period right now. 100% they are. Yeah. And it's well-deserved because I have been tired of all the slagging on them for years from people who just think it's cool to be an asshole. You know what? I've always said that it's low-hanging fruit. It is the easy joke, the one that will get a laugh from my bonehead buddy over here. Even though I've listened to Nickelback, I have four other albums, but hey, it's cool to slag on them right now. That's the funny thing is that they become like they were so huge and then all of a sudden everybody doesn't like them, which is the popular thing to do, but you're hating them because they're popular, but now you're doing what everybody else is doing. So I don't get the mentality of it. It's weak. It's a weak. It's a fart joke, right? It is. It totally is. I always want to tear down who's on top. Always. Totally. And because I'll tell you this, that Chad Kruger is one of the most talented human beings I have ever met in my life. The guy shits out his song for breakfast, right? And it's insane how many other bands he's touched, how many other bands he's influenced, how many other bands he's written for, not to mention he can play the guitar like son of a bitch. He can sing his voice. It just keeps going for days. He can play bass. He can play drums. He's a songwriter. He's the full package, right? So anybody that flags on him, they have no idea what they're talking about. It's these people who do this, and then they turn around and say that ACDC is their favorite band. I know. I go, that's called a signature sound, my friend. Yep. But yeah, I'm glad that I had to have that moment with you and get that off my chest. Good. Me too. Because obviously, being friends with all those guys and knowing how talented they are, and even personally, all those guys are great guys. All of them have treated us so well over the years, even when we didn't deserve it, when we were shitheads and we were destroying dressing rooms, they were still very kind to us, and treated us like family. So I love those guys, and everybody that's involved in that whole camp, they're all great people. I've had the opportunity to meet Chad twice, and he was just lovely. So I think I'll always, always, always stand up for Nickelback. I love him. They're amazing. Check this out. He gave this to me just recently. It's a good story behind it. So a friend of mine back in high school, I had that Tony Hawk board, and you always have one of those friends that just wrecks, breaks everything in yours that just is awesome. He's one of my best friends, still is. But one night he was leaving my parents house, and he's like, "Dave, can I take your skateboard?" I'm like, "No, can't. You're gonna break it." He's like, "Come on, man. It's the Tony Hawk one. It's indestructible." I'm like, "Yeah, but it's you. You're gonna break it." So he's like, "Come on, man." So I let him take it, and I said, "Just don't wreck it." Next day I saw him at school, he's like, "So you won't believe what happened to me last night." Oh, yeah, right. He opens up his locker. He hands me my skateboard in two different pieces. He fell off the skateboard. He lost control. It shot underneath the car, and it got ran over. So anyways, I was over at Chad because one night we're talking, and he asked me if I was into skateboarding. I said, "Yep." I was, and we got talking. What skateboards did you have, and we talked about that, and I was like, "Yeah, I had this, the Tony Hawk board, you know, the indestructible one will be buddy, wreck, mine, and blah, blah." He's like, "Come with me." Go down to his office, and he's got like a stack of boards this high wrapped in rap, and he's like, "Yeah, I became friends with Tony Hawk, and he made these boards up for me." So you want one? I said, "Heck, yeah, dude. You gotta sign it for me, though." He's like, "All right, let's do it." So then I called my buddy up the next day, and I'm like, "So I replaced your board finally, the one you broke on me." That's a cool story. Yeah. That's everything circling around. I'm glad that happened for you, man. It took a while, took a while to get it back, but hey, you know, it's a much better board now. Well, before we wrap things up, I want to really focus on what you're up to. I know Robbie Hurricane, brand new band, right? How long have you guys been together now, and what's going on with the new band? Well, it first started a band called Bons of Mara, and that band started with Sal Costa. He used the guitar player for My Darkest Days, and Rich Badot was in the band from Finger 11, although we never ended up. This was what our plan was anyways. Rich was going to be in the band, but we couldn't get him across. He couldn't get across the border at the time, so we ended up getting a different drummer, but he was in the band for a short period of time, and then we had Brian Byrne, who is the second singer for My Mother Earth, and we recorded three songs with that band, and then because Brian lives on the other side of Canada, he's in the Maritimes. It just was so hard getting together, and he decided that he wasn't going to be a part of it anymore, so then we got Brian Crouch, who's the singer for Hail the Villain, and then we over COVID, everything kind of split, and the three of us or Sal ended up moving to Florida, and the three of us decided to start a new band and make it a little bit more funky and change the name, and that's how Robbie Hurricane came to be, so the three of us left from Bonsamara. I can't wait to learn all about the new music, and I'll share it on the social media so people get a chance to hear the new band. Robbie Hurricane sounds a kick-ass. Yeah, we've got an EP right now, and then we're releasing a full-length album here hopefully in a few months, but we've had it done for quite some time now, and I'm just itching to release it, because it's cool. It's different than default, it's different than Hail the Villain. Yeah, it's cool. It came from Passion, right? Yeah, there's that, and then I've got some other music out there that Danny and I did. We did some writing for a video game called Sons of the Forest, and so Danny and I wrote about, I think about close to 30 songs for that video game, and it's a pretty big video game. The first game was called The Forest, and that game was the, I think it holds the record for being the highest-selling independent video game release in history, and it's sold, I think, 33 million copies, and the one that Danny and I were on, it's been out for about a year now, and I think it's up around 8 million copies. Sweet. Yeah, and that music is very eclectic, very different, right? It was just Danny and I doing all the music for it, so it's very drum and bass heavy. We've got guitars and stuff in there too, but we definitely played up to our strengths, because that's what him and I are in the band, right? But yeah, that's really cool, so if you get a chance to look up any of that music, it's fun. And what else do you have on the go? I know that you do a lot of digital arts. Yeah, yeah, so a lot of photography. I'm a content creation manager also for a custom home builder, so I do all of their social media stuff, so I'm constantly shooting video, constantly shooting photos, and putting together videos for social media, which has been great, because it's just, it's taken my skillset and really refined it and made it so much faster. When I edited the video for We Got the Beat, we shot that in an afternoon in Wasaga Beach, and then I went back to Darryl's house and I did the full edit in like two hours. And I think, well, the other Robbie Hurricane video, we had, we have animation in that one, so that one I wasn't able to do quite as fast, but the initial edit, I was able to bang that out pretty damn quick as well. So, you know, just repetitiveness over and over and over, right? Just just makes it a little bit more proficient now, so it's good. Well, I'm happy to see you're doing so well and all the different things you've got on the go. I want people out there to know that default is not broken up. You guys are touring during the summers, right? And Dallas is really successful right now doing country music, but like I said earlier, you opened for Motley Crew recently. What's coming up for default? Is it like a winter, anything for the winter? Well, we just played our last summer show, and that was up in Dawson Creek. And then we have one more show, and that's in Calgary again. So, we're playing the great Eagle Ballroom. Yeah, it's going to be really cool playing there because we did that room with Stone Devil Pilots when we did that tour. So, now we're going to be headlining it, and it's going to be our first New Year show in probably a decade. Very cool. Yeah, I swear, I think the last time I saw you guys, you were playing the Urban Lounge in White Ave in Edmonton. It was either that or the Halloween howler from the bear. I got that's a way back that it's like I got back in the MySpace days because I had you guys in like my top eight. Awesome. Well, hey, you know, Calgary's not that far. So, you know, if you don't have any New Year's plans, maybe you should come rock out with us. It's not that far. Yeah, definitely. Next time you're in town, even in Edmonton or wherever, I'll come and say hi for sure. Awesome. Yeah, it's been a pleasure to get to know you and chat with you. The stories are amazing. Thank you so much, Dave. Well, thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. 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