Death Dealer (Can)
Canadian Scene Is Always Put Aside

29.03.2011

Just a few years ago the idea of interviewing cult Canadian heavy metallers Death Dealer seemed unrealizable. No, members of these bands don’t have megalomania, they don’t live a secluded life and don’t wait for aliens and keep the press away so that the meeting would not be interrupted (like Rock’n’Rolf from Running Wild does). The thing is that they were out of sight for many years, and it was only by chance that we managed to establish the connection.
We have to start with a brief history lesson in order to evade any confusion. The band started in the early 1980s as Death Dealer and released a demo tape, but then changed its named to Deaf Dealer and recorded two excellent albums – “Keeper Of The Flames” (1986) and “Journey Into Fear” (1987). The latter promised to become a heavy metal classic, but unfortunately it remains officially unreleased up to this day. A couple of years ago the band got back together under the original name, and we have bassist Jean Pierre Fortin here to tell us more about Death Dealer’s past, present and future.

Let’s speak about the latest news from Death Dealer. You previously mentioned that you’re working on new material, so how is it progressing?

It’s progressing well, we rehearsed on the last two weekends, and we tried to put some songs together. The problem is that all the band members are living in different places – one in Montreal, one is in Quebec City, so we do it by computer. It means that we record our ideas on the computer and we send them by email. Me and the drummer live in the same city, so we put the bass and the drums together, then the guitarist sends his tracks by email, and we use Cubase software to add them. That’s the way we work. (laughs) Sometimes we get together to rehearse physically to the city of one of the members, we go there and meet to fix the songs.

When can we expect a new album from you?

Ooh, we hope to put it out as soon as possible, maybe next fall. We have to find a way to record it very quickly, after the recording it’s very easy - when we have made the first songs, we’re gonna put them on YouTube or something. That’s the way it is, we don’t have to put out a record the way it used to be in the past, we can put out three or four songs as a preview of the album.

As far as we understand some tracks which the band plays nowadays were written for the second album of Deaf Dealer and now you re-arranged them…

We chose only one song, on the “Journey Into Fear” album (1987) it’s called “Mind Games”, but originally it was recorded by Death Dealer back in 1984, yet before we got a new singer and name. We just took back the song from him. Death Dealer and Deaf Dealer are two different projects, and “Mind Games” is the only Deaf Dealer song that is going to be part of the next album. It doesn’t have anything to do with “Journey Into Fear”, which is my project, on which I spent three years to get it out on Mercury, and Andre LaRouche, the original singer, and the drummer were not in this project. So we chose only one song, which was originally called “Fiend Is Bleak”, it was the title when Andre originally composed it. I took it from him to put it on “Journey Into Fear”, which was my mistake, because it belongs to Andre.

Please tell us about the Death Dealer reunion – how did it all happen? What was the reason behind your decision to reunite once again?

In 1981 many copies of Death Dealer’s “Coercion To Kill” demo were spreading worldwide, and many record companies wanted to make a record out of them. One of them, Metal Blade Records, asked us to put one song (“Cross My Way”) on their compilation called “Metal Massacre IV”, which we did. The band eventually split, but some reporters from France and from England kept on asking us, “What happened with the band? Would you like to make a reunion some day?” The material was good, and the demand became stronger when the Internet got big. In 2008 a Greek company called Sonic Age Records took the “Coercion To Kill” demo and released it on CD. I was really surprised with the quality of the product. They asked us, “Do you want to make a show with it, do you want to play somewhere?” Andre worked a lot on it, he tried to find the band members and to arrange the reunion. We found five out of the five guys and we asked them, “Are you interested in playing a show on the 25th anniversary of the band?” Only one guitar player said, “No, I’m not interested”, but we still have four of the five original members. At first the project was not certain, because the label owner said, “I want five out of five original members, it’s too important”, but I said, “Don’t worry, I’ll find another one”. There was another band called Messiah Force which we rehearsed with in 1986, and the guy’s name was Bastien Deschenes, and I asked him, “Do you want to join Death Dealer to make the 25th anniversary show with Voivod?” We made it, and it was amazing! The show took place in Jonquiere, my home town, a small place north of Montreal, and it was great, you can see it on YouTube. After that we have played some more shows, and the record company sent a copy of the CD to the Keep It True festival in Germany. Keep It True asked us if we wanted to play in Germany in 2011, and we said “Why not”? (laughs) This is where we are now. Andre worked a lot to keep the band alive, to keep the spirit of the band. I on my part work on the music, I compose new songs, and this is the best I can do for Death Dealer, but Andre works with record companies and the press to keep people aware of the band. He is the voice of the band.

There is another re-release of your demos out there, on High Roller Records, and it has five more songs (“Danger of Death”, “High School Bridge”, “Die Hard”, “Show Me Your Ace”, “Try to Get Out”). What can you say about those songs?

The High Roller version is a vinyl LP, and these songs were recorded live in small bars where we used to play in 1983. The quality is not so good, but the organization called “Les Fils Du Metal” (“Sons Of Metal”) really wanted to put it on the market. We said, “OK, move on”, because it was a gift for us to have it on the market, we never expected this material to be on a record, for us the quality was not good enough. But they did it anyway, they made 500 copies, each one handnumbered, and they’re all sold out.

It’s great, but it’s a pity that this release is no longer available!

Yeah, it all was sold out at a festival in Germany. It’s interesting, but I don’t understand the cult aspect of our music. I guess it was original, but all major companies refused to put out our records back in the day. When we made “Keeper Of The Flame” (1986), it was completely different to “Coercion To Kill” - we had a new singer with a very harmonic voice. But this “Coercion To Kill” demo – the songs are not so good, too! But they put it on the record anyway, and we can’t stop them! (laughs) This pushed the band to make another record, and that’s where we are heading at. If they trust us, at this point we’re gonna make another one, a very good one with high quality songs that will incorporate all the things we have learned through the years and a new power of Death Dealer. And also with real English lyrics! It’s very hard to describe the language of the “Coercion To Kill” album. (laughs) It’s a mix of French and English. For the next one we will have to make really good lyrics – if we want to play shows in Europe and stuff, we need to speak really good English to present ourselves.

We heard that, apart from Death Dealer, you also worked on a solo album. Did you finish and release it?

Yes, it was made in 1998. It’s not a heavy metal project, it has more to do with blues, something like Eric Clapton, because I play guitar, too, even though my main instrument is bass. At that time I was in a very empty musical situation, so I had to make something, and I did this record, and it was good. But it is not in my metal portfolio! (laughs)

Death Dealer was founded in Jonquière, Québec – the same city that gave birth to Voivod, and you even played in Voivod for a while. How did you get to know them and why did you split with Voivod?

I was very young, I was about 16 years old and I was friends with Michel Langeven. One day he told me that he wanted to play drums, and I said, “Yeah, I wanna play bass!” He said, “OK, if you get a bass, we may make something together”. A year later we rented a small place to rehearse – me, Michel Langeven, Piggy, he’s dead now, and another guy, the singer. We tried to make music, we played some AC/DC and Motorhead stuff. After we rehearsed, I found that we have different musical taste with the guys – the orientation of Voivod was almost clear, they were more into power metal and thrash metal, and I was more into harmonic and melodic metal. So I told Michel, “Maybe I’m gonna find some other musicians to form my own band”. One month later I met Andre and Michel Larouche (drums), and we made Death Dealer. For our very first show we had nine compositions in the vein of Motorhead, Girlschool, Judas Priest. We put one of our songs on the “Metal Massacre” compilation, as I told you, we were on “Metal Massacre IV”, and Voivod were on “Metal Massacre V”, and both bands got international contracts right after that. But we are still friends – when I met the guys at the reunion show, it was great. We went to school together – me, Snake the singer, and Michel, so we’ve known each other for 30 years.

Why didn’t you continue with Metal Blade after “Metal Massacre”? Why didn’t you sign with them for a full-length album?

It’s because Polygram offered us a contract. It was a huge label, a division of Mercury, which was at that time releasing such acts as Kiss and Bon Jovi, and we couldn’t refuse it. Metal Blade was and still is an independent label, and Polygram was a major. The manager we had at this time also pushed us a lot to sign with them, he said, “Don’t sign with Metal Blade!” And he was right, because Metal Blade got so many bands to manage, and it was hard to keep a close contact with a label that has so many bands. So we signed with Polygram, Andre and Michael left, and we made this record called “Keeper Of The Flame”.

Can you elaborate a bit on those events? We known that in 1984 the band moved from Jonquière and Montreal and changed the name to Deaf Dealer, but Andre decide to stay in Jonquière and quit. What were his reasons?

Montreal is the biggest city in Quebec, and all the business was there. Montreal is like Moscow of Quebec. (laughs) Jonquiere is a very small industrial town built around an aluminum factory, and there was nothing to do here. We and Voivod left Jonquiere at the same time. Andre stayed because he did not agree with the direction of the band. And I pushed forward because I wanted to keep the band alive. In addition, Andre had problems with the manager he had at that time, they didn’t have a good relationship, so he quit the band and went back to school. His brother Michael, who was our drummer, went to Montreal with us, but he left the band a month after that and returned to Jonquiere. Only three of us stayed in Montreal – me and the two guitar players, and we spent three years in that city. We recorded “Keeper Of The Flame” and “Journey Into Fear”, but after three years we became very tired. We toured a lot, we had a lot of problems with the manager, who was not a good businessman, we had problems with the entire record industry, and in 1988 the band came to an end. I stayed in Montreal, Marc (Brassard, guitar) stayed in Montreal, too, and the other guitar player (Yves Pednault) went back to Jonquiere.

When you were recording “Keeper Of The Flame”, some of your early songs such as “Sherryl” and “Cross My Way” were renamed because of the new guy who wrote new lyrics for them. Can you say a few more words about those events?

Yes, our manager changed the lyrics. We were working with a huge American producer, and the lyrics had to be changed because they were hard to understand for a non-French-speaking person.

The “Keeper of the Flame” LP cover reads that the band produced the album while Guy Bidmead was only the sound engineer, but did he give you any advice how to play or what to change in your songs?

No, we were in charge of the production ourselves. Guy was the producer of Motorhead and the sound engineer of Yes, the famous progressive rock band of the 70s, but when he worked with us, he was only worrying about the technical aspects of our sound. And he was not so good. The sound of “Keeper Of The Flame” is crap for me. (laughs) His job was so-so. We were not really proud of this album, especially as far as the drum sound is concerned. Guy came from England and he didn’t know much of our band, and we had a very tight schedule of putting out the record, so he just did his job. But it was not the sound that I like. The one that I’m proud of is “Journey Into Fear”, which has an amazing killer sound. Even if I was involved in the project, this is for me one of the best heavy metal albums ever made from the point of view of its sound. Someday we’re gonna put it out, but we have to fix many contractual problems with the manager we had in 1986-1987. 

Could you tell us about the instrumental track “On The Wings of Russian Foxbat”? What did you want to say with this title?

Russian Foxbat is a supersonic plane used during World War II. We gave this tune such a title because  there was some similarity between the power of the plane and the power of the sound. (sings the main riff) I guess it was used in World War II. (In fact, MiG-25 Foxbat was first presented to the public in 1967 – ed.) It’s not me who came up with this title, it’s the ex-manager once again. I think there was a movie made about this plane (“Foxbat”, 1977), and in this movie the Foxbat was fighting against Americans… Actually I don’t remember it too well.

This track was originally called “No Color”…

Yes, exactly. When we moved to Montreal and came to a studio, the manager said, “This song will be very good without lyrics!” We asked why, and he said, “It’s so powerful, you don’t need lyrics. The power itself is so great!” (laughs) It’s another version of our old track, but for me both versions are OK.

We know that your label Mercury wasn’t happy with the name Death Dealer, and made you change it, but who came up with this name Deaf Dealer?

(laughs) It’s a very strange story. Polygram were the label of Kiss, Scorpions, Bon Jovi, and the guy involved with Polygram told us, “We don’t want to have any ‘Death’ in the names of our bands, because we don’t represent that kind of stuff.” Death metal as a style was not on the market yet, but they said, “You have to change the name because we don’t want to be associated with death or stuff like that.” We said OK, but we had a very short time, I think, we only had one week to change the name. We tried many names, we did brainstorming and brainstorming again, and we still didn’t know what to do. And then I said, “Just remove T and H and put F instead, and it will sound almost like the previous name.” This is the only reason, there’s nothing special about it, it’s just that we had a very short time, and the record company insisted on changing the name, so we chose the easiest way. (laughs)

We saw the live video of “Caution To Kill” on YouTube – the public sits down on benches and Michel Lalonde goes out of stage to the public. Do you remember that show? Where and when did it happen?

The show took place in Jonquiere, our home town, in 1986, and it was sold out. It was the band’s first tour with the new line-up – the new singer and the new drummer.

And what can you say about your stage performance at that time? Were there just musicians playing, or did you use pyrotechnics and stuff?

There were just five guys playing, because we didn’t have the budget to bring all this equipment along. The band had just started, it was our first tour, we had a very small tour bus and we were traveling the countryside.

At the same show you played a cover version of Metallica’s “The Four Horsemen”. Was it something natural for the band to play covers at that time?

We used to do some covers every show, we enjoyed doing that. We always played “Phantom Of The Opera” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name” by Iron Maiden – people liked it, and we liked it too. When we started the band, we used to play those songs so well, and we kept them with us further on.

Please tell us about the situation with you second album “Journey Into Fear”, which remains unreleased up to this day. Do you remember what you felt when you recorded this album in the studio?

Oh, it was amazing! The band spent one month in a house basically secluded – the manager provided us with food, and we stayed in the house rehearsing eight hours a day and composing the record. When we went to the studio, it helped us a lot, because the songs were very hard to play, but we were ready to record them, and there was a great spirit on that record. We really wish some day it’s gonna be out (at the moment there’s only a bootleg issue of it circulating on the Internet – ed.). But we still have problems with the manager. I have tried to find other ways to put it out, I have talked to other record companies, but they don’t want to get involved in the project because of this man. They know him, and they don’t want to mess with this snakepit, it’s too serious. He wants to put an injunction on the band if we release it, and there’s no way to release it without him. I still try to find a solution.

But how did it happen that he has rights to this album, not the band?

He wrote all the lyrics, and thus he has an association with the product. The only way out is to change all the lyrics, but it means that I need to go back to the studio, and this is an analogue recording, so we will have to redo the entire project, which would be very expensive. If it had been digital, it would have been very easy, we could just remove all the vocals, record some other lyrics, and keep all the project original. So far I’ve tried it with many record labels, and they don’t want to be involved. They called me and said, “This album is amazing, we want it! But…” What we need is a lawyer specializing in the music business, a strong man who would be able to say, “Just step back and fuck off!”

What did you do after the band’s break up?

I got a job. I finished school, got a degree and started to work in the construction business. Andre works for the government, Michel the drummer is a teacher, Marc (Brassard, guitarist) is a postman, so everybody has his own life. We’re close to 50 years now (laughs), we’re not 20 any longer, we have lived more than we have yet to live. But I want to put another record out as soon as possible, and I want to play live. I’m going to Japan next July, and I’ll try to find contacts so that we could play over there. This is my dream – to bring the band over to Japan.

A lot of people compare Deaf Dealer with Iron Maiden. What can you say about it? Do you think it’s a fair comparison?

Yeah, it’s especially true for “Journey Into Fear” because of the singer. For me it’s not a problem, it was made in 1986, and my style of writing at that time was a little bit like Steve Harris. I look like him, too! (everybody laughs) We’re almost twins! For me it’s not a problem, because Deaf Dealer, especially in the times of “Journey Into Fear”, was more into power metal than Iron Maiden, we played a little bit faster. But I have to admit that because of the singer such similarities do exist.

There’s one more question about the band’s early days which we forgot to ask before. We have right before us a photocopy of a fanzine called Metal Madness which dates back to 1983. They published an interview with Merry Martin, and in the beginning of this article they listed the band’s line-up, which is very different to what we know: Marc Daniels on lead guitar, Merry Martin on vocals, Chris Ericson on bass, Yes Pednault on lead guitar, and Michael Gonzalez on drums…

I don’t know what that is! I’ve never heard of that! Gonzalez? From Mexico? (laughs)

It’s funny that we can see your face on the photo accompanying this article even though you’re not mentioned…

(cracks) Michael Gonzalez, Mexican drummer!

We can send you a scan via e-mail!

Yeah, yeah, of course! I don’t know where it’s from. Chris Ericson? Wow! (keeps laughing)

It seems that Canada has always had a strong metal scene but only a few metal bands got a real international success, even such bands like Anvil, Exciter or Voi Vod have small success and are popular only in the underground. What do you think about it? What’s wrong with Canada’s metal market?

It’s not only the Canadian metal market, it’s the entire Canadian aspect. It has a lot to do with Canada’s geographical position in North America. The U.S. occupies all the place, they will never push Canadian bands, be it metal or pop music, because they’re a huge protectionist country. The Canadian scene is always put aside. It’s all because of the geographic and economic situation in North America. That’s why our bands are kept on an independent level.

But if we’re talking about Anvil, this is different. I don’t know why, but Anvil was a major band when we started, we played with them in the early 1980s. I think the management around Anvil was not appropriate, because this band deserved to have a major success worldwide, more than Voivod. But I don’t know what happened with Anvil. The guys who made the movie about them (“The Story Of Anvil”) put Anvil back on the scene, but for me it’s not enough. Lips (Steve Kudlow, Anvil guitarist and singer) is getting older and he can’t promote the band as much as when they started. It’s a little bit late for Anvil.

You are playing at the Keep It True festival in Germany this April. What are your expectations from this festival?

I really don’t know what to say about this. I’m not sure whether the audience or the organizers who want Death Dealer there. Oliver Weinshemeier from the organization and Laurent Ramadier from the Snakepit Magazine and many journalists who really like Death Dealer have asked us to go there and play the show, but I’m not sure about the audience, whether they really remember the band. We never played in Europe even in the 1980s.

In general, do you feel that young fans understand your music?

Oh yeah, they love it! Imagine a band like Iron Maiden, nowadays they have completely new fans. Parents go to see the show with their children! Heavy metal has a resurgence now, bands like us are more famous than when they started. I have seen the “Flight 666” documentary of Iron Maiden – did you see the audience there? There are very young people even in very strange places, and the shows are sold out everywhere. A friend of mine was working on this, he was a cameraman, and he said it was amazing. I hope that with the new album we’re gonna reach new fans, this is what I want the most. Actually I’m writing new songs, and I want to put out a very special album. I want to make the band as professional as it was in the times of “Journey Into Fear”.

To round up this interview, can you say a few words for your Russian fans?

Oh, my best wishes to Russia! It would be great if we can go there, maybe some day with Voivod or with Anvil. It would be our pleasure to go to Moscow and St. Petersburg. I went to Hungary as a tourist two years ago, and I became friends with a person there, and he said St. Petersburg is the most beautiful city in the world. I am going to Japan in July, and maybe my next trip will be to Russia.

Death Dealer on the Internet: http://www.myspace.com/deathdealermemorialfourth

Interview by Konstantin “Hirax” Chilikin, Roman Patrashov
Photos: various sources, courtesy of Jean-Pierre Fortin
February 3, 2011
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