Like many hard working bands Ragdoll does everything themselves. It is always nice to hear a band who not only keeps in contact with me letting me know why they are late (some bands sure can take a que) but they also had a great sense of humor. I am sadden that my phone only recorded half of our interview. It was not one of those happy moments where I got out of hours of editing instead I yelled fuck on the top of my lungs for about 5 minutes. It was one of those interviews that hopefully they can look back on in years to come with a happy thought rather then thinking it was a drag. Cam however still owes me an answer for the song he wishes he could have written.

 

 

HS- How is the tour going?

 

Leon-Good this it the second to last day. We were up at Rocklahoma last weekend. We hung around that weekend it rained and got muddy. A lot of bands got cancled so we won the lottery on that one. We played at Dallas in store yesterday. Then a show last night. We have one day off since we have been here. Everything has been go go go and now we are here in Vegas. It is sort of like the party town.

 

HS- Are you guys going to go party tonight?

 

Leon-Probably not. I won't, I don't party. Were more of a milkshakes and sodas kind of band anyways.

 

HS- Thats ok that's better. What are some of the things that inspire you to write your music?

 

Leon- We just like all the same classic rock music from the late 60's through the 90's kind of thing. Whether its Le Zeppelin, or Rush.

 

HS- Do you find that you are a politically based band?

 

Leon- We are not a band like Rage Against the Machine or anything like that. Or bands like Midnight Oil who are a great political Australian band. Llook them up if you have not heard of them. Our stuff tends to be about the human condition.

 

HS- That in it's own way is very political though because that is the human condition that’s all part of it.

 

Leon-The politics of love, and hate and disdain, joy all kind of stuff. That's Ragdolls bag.

 

HS- You like to put out live albums so your fans can hear your music live, what is your favorite live album?

 

Leon-The first album I ever got was Thin Lizzy Live . That's what made me want to play music. One of my favorite albums

 

Cam-Any Kiss live album, Live Three specifically. I used to drum to that all the time also interview unplugged by Kiss.

 

Leon- I played with Cam for quite a while and then he showed me Kiss Live Three. It made sense. I never really got that till I heard Kiss live because of the heavy versions. That’s another great album Kiss Live Three is another great one but for me it is still Thin Lizzy.

 

HS- If you could have written any song what would it have been?

 

Leon- Ohhhh, I like Cam's answer first I'm still thinking.

 

Cam- That's hard there are so many.

 

Leon- I wish I would have written “Don't Stop Believing”

 

HS- Really?!?

 

Leon- Think of the money you would make with that one.

 

HS- If you are not thinking about money, would you still want to have written it? Over Led Zeppelin?

 

Leon-I still love that song. That's me with me business brain however.

 

HS- Sorry but I just can't, “ Don't stop Believing” over Led Zeppelin

 

Leon- Well there's “Sweet Child of Mine”, “How Lotta Love” “Stairway to Heaven”.

 

HS- They didn't write “Stair Way to Heaven”, it was stolen. There's a list of stolen songs.

 

Leon- That's a whole other thing to get into at the moment. You know blurred lines happy things.

 

HS- Sorry I'm a music history snob. You can adopt a song. They didn't write it they stole it from blues singers on the street dying who didn't have any copy rights to it.

 

Leon-That was a lot of that on their first album. When you open up the reissues for Led Zeppelin one and two you see guys like Billy Dickson credited for it now. Its funny to see those comparisons. For me the song that I wish I could have wrote would probably be “Beautiful World” by Colin Hays. That's probably one of my favorite songs.

 

HS- You have released a track recently “Rewind your Mind”, do you have anything else coming out like a full album?

 

Leon-We are in the process of writing another release. “Rewind your Mind” was not a stop, the reason we put that out is we have a video coming out with it in a few weeks. It was very much to bridge that gap between releases. We do everything ourselves. We don't have sponsors, we don't have any endorsements. We play and we fund everything by using the bands by doing shows and selling merch, doing stuff like that. It can be a while between release cycles for us . We just wanted to get in and knock out a single, put it out and tour.

 

They might only be playing in a bar that is not much bigger then the Slide bar in So Cal but that does not mean they didn't own the stage. In fact if you have been to the Slide Bar you know how terrible the sound is, this was not the case for Vampd in fact they sound was spot on. It was fantastic to see the three men on stage playing to a crowd that was not prepared for how awesome the band is. The gentlemen who stood next to me kept asking me how I had come across this band because the sound was so amazing he wanted to know where he could buy one of their cds. Of course I had to direct him to the merch booth so that these fine gentlemen could make a sale for the evening. This is speaking loudly to how well they were able to captivate an audience that was no aware of who was going to be on stage next.

There were many songs that they had played, like “Break You” and the newly released single “Rewind your Mind”. Not only was the sound on point but much like smaller three piece bands like Tiger Army, they were able to take up much of the stage by kicking off the boxes that were set up for such events, playing off of one another, and engaging the drummer who is often forgotten. Like many bands with long hair there was head banging but unlike many bands it did not take away from their playing. It was nice to hear and see that each member was able to have an individual moment were they able to play a it of a piece for themselves. Although it was a short set of 8 songs, that did not take away from the impact that they had on the crowd. In fact they were able to play a few extra songs. Now I am a whore for a great cover tune and Led Zeppelin being one of my all time favorite bands I was incredibly pleased to hear them play “The Immigrant Song”. Not only is Zeppelin one of my favorite bands but that is one of my favorite songs. Please record that one day, it was for me as great as the Karen O, Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross cover which was done for the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. If it is not included one day I will have to slap a bitch. Also a side not we here at Holy Supermarket we would like to send our warmest wishes to Leon and his marriage that recently happened.