The House of Shred was lucky enough to see the shred master Steve Vai in concert back in November. Wow, what a show. While Steve was as impressive as you would expect, just as impressive were his bandmates, specifically Mike Keneally on guitar and Mike Mangini on drums. Both are members of James LaBrie's latest project "Mullmuzzler." After the show both Mikes were kind enough to sit down with us and answer some questions. So, here is the conversation we had with them on that night. We'll refer to Mike Keneally as MK and Mike Mangini as MM. Your hosts for this evening's extravagant show (ok, so I'm over doing it a bit) will be known as HoS.

This interview took place in a room designed to hold a small dog, and maybe a bowl of water; there wasn't enough room for much else. But, being the inventive sort of people we are, we fit the three of us and the two Mikes all at the same time. I must also say that for them to take the time after such an incredible and certainly draining show to sit down and put up with us for as long as they did, they are truly humble and giving artists. The music world could do with a few more souls as kind as theirs. On to the interview...

HoS: Who's is the gentlemen on the cover of the Mullmuzzler CD?

MM: We call him Bulby (haha)

MK: Actually, I don't know. James did that.

MM: We don't have a clue.

MK: The concept of the album, graphically and musically are very much James idea.

HoS: What exactly does Mullmuzzler mean?

MM: There's something on the CD sleeve about that.

MK: It's basically about people not being able to speak their minds the way that everybody should.

HoS: Will there be another Mullmuzzler release or was this a one shot deal?

MM: Well, if I were asked to do it again, I'd love to do another one.

MK: yeah, I'm sure we'll do another one.

HoS: Will it be the same lineup? Will it be the same band?

MM: To Call it a "band" is like a laugh. We were never even in the same room together.

HoS: Really?

MM: Yeah, everybody recorded their parts separately and completely away from each other.

MK: It's very much a studio creation. It's a testament to the fact that everyone tried hard to make it a "band-like" unified effort.

HoS: That's great, really impressive.

MM: (closes his eyes and cracks an ear-to-ear smile)

HoS: Well, then that answers the next question.

MK: Yeah, the horrible "next" question.

MM: Oh, you mean, "how many farts did I cut in the third track"?

(Everybody laughs a lot)

MK: Yeah, the DVD of Mullmuzzler actually has a separate track for all of the farts.

MM: You gotta listen to that, it's a wicked track.

HoS: So you guys have never played live?

MM: Live? We never even stood in the same room at the same time! Hahaha

MK: Magna Carta called each one of us separately and asked if we would do James LaBrie's solo project. So we all checked our schedules and saw that we had absolutely no time whatsoever to do it, so we all said "yes".

(Everybody laughs)

MM: Actually, I think that it came about because Mike gave the thumbs up about me being in the project, and then I gave the thumbs up about Bryan Beller being on the project. He's a monster Bass player.

MK: And Matt Guillory, he's just amazing, a kick ass keyboard player, and he's also in the Magna Carta family, so it just came together really easy and tight.

MM: Yeah, we are like the Back Street Boys.

HoS: No, you guys are prettier!

MM: (in his best Austin Powers voice) Oh behave!

HoS: WE ARE NOT WORTHY!

(Everybody laughs)

MM: Do you guys "REALLY" like the record?

HoS: Definitely. We are fans of shred, how could we NOT like it??

MM: Oh yeah..True. hehehe

HoS: What are your favorite songs on the record?

MK: Musically, "beelzebubba".

MM: Yeah, that one was just...um..Great. But I really can't pick any "one" right now. They all offered something that I really like. I think that because we each recorded all of our parts separately, each song has certain parts that I latch onto. I dunno, I just cant pick one.

MK: Each part of each son got passed from one guy, to the next, to the next and so on. People, who wrote the song, recorded it as a demo at their homes. And then all of the demo's basically became the album.

HoS: We are really impressed with just how good the album is, especially knowing how you guys actually did it.

MM: Thank you. It's weird how if you have a lot of time to do something, you take a lot of time to do it. If you don't have a lot of time to do something, you go nuts! It's almost like um... well nevermind... hehehe. But lazy people NEVER have the time to talk to you. It's really strange.

MK: But busy people do.

MM: That's the truth.

MK: Each one of us had like a "lunch period" to record our parts.

MM: I had a day and a half to record all of the drum parts.

MK: yeah, I had like 12-14 hours to write and record ALL of the guitar parts. I didn't even know ANY of the songs before I went into the studio to record them.

HoS: Really?

MK: yeah. I listened to the demos for an hour or two, and then spent a few hours on the phone with James, while he told me what his hopes, dreams and plans for the project were. And then everyone was kinda left to their own devices to kinda key into the final product, and complete the big picture.

HoS: That makes this project all that more amazing.

MK: (to MM) I think you did your recording right before you started recording on the Vai project.

MM: Yeah, just two days before. In fact, my drums went from Musicians Institute to Steve's house, where I had to hurry up and set them up by the next day to record with Steve.

MK: Yeah, I spent days playing with Steve, and nights recording MullMuzzler. It was a hectic week.

HoS: Do you guys think it met James's expectations?

MM: I haven't talked to him since it came out. But he did email me a bunch.

MK: Yah, me too. I think we are all really happy with it.

MM: Yep. We should be. It was a hectic, weird experience, but it was a great one.

MK: Terry Brown is just a genius producer too.

MM: UGH! I can't believe what he was able to do.

MK: I don't know how he was able to do what he did.

MM: he conjured up a mix.

MK: I really find that the album grows on you.

HoS: yeah, we are finding the same thing too.

MM: I would have to agree.

HoS: Who would you guys say are your main influences? Who inspires you to play?

MK: Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Frank Zappa most of all.

MM: Jenny McCarthy

(Everybody laughs)

MM: Ya know, you'd expect me to say drummers, but it's a case where it's the quality of playing, not really any one person all the time.

HoS: If we were to go to your house, what we find in your CD changer right now?

MM: Hmmmm.... The latest Kings X, umm... Well, as far as influences... Frank Zappa, and all of the musicians that play with him. I tell ya, I will get influenced watching one of our back up bands. Cause I'm intrigued with the idea of a person with musical talent, in the way that they do their own thing. Who does what with what. No matter what the case, I can always appreciate where someone's heart is.

MK: I'm inspired by anybody who is an individual. Someone who rises above the rest of their peers. The voice of Stevie Wonder, the brain of Todd Rundgren.

MM: And "Bulby" who is immortalized on the Mullmuzzler cover. Hehehe

(At this point, MM gets a little weird. He grabs the mic from us, and begins to quote a very obscure Rush song called "The Necromancer")

HoS: Wow... old Rush. Were impressed that you know that song.

MM: It's one of the greatest progressive albums ever made, and they sold like 11 copies worldwide.

(Mike is referring to Rush's third album Caress of Steel)

(Thingfish then brings up the song title "Didacts and the Narpets," another song from that album that is basically a drum solo. Mike begins to "sing" the drum solo.)

MM: Neil Peart has influenced me more then any other drummer. I stole parts from a lot of people, but with Neil...wow. I owe him sooo much because I spent the better part of my teenage years in my cellar, trying to play the same stuff that Neil plays. Almost everything I learned on drums, I learned from him.

HoS: MK, tell us about your experience playing with Frank Zappa.

MK: The experience was a nice 8-month experience. I came from literal total obscurity, to playing on stage with the greatest musical genius of our time. He is one of the greatest guitar players I have ever heard. He is just a genius. Ever since I was a child, I had dreams about playing with him someday. When I talked to him on the phone in 1985 and told him that I often dreamed of playing with him on stage, he said, "well, I'm never going down that "live" road again so keep dreaming. Then a year later....hehehe. It was just an honor to be up on stage with the master, playing all of the songs I grew up loving so much. Then, to look over and see him standing there, and realizing that he thought enough of my playing to have me in his band was just incredibly validating, especially for my first professional musical experience.

MM: The fact that you which way North was, listening that that intense music at such a young age is bizarre.  You're a "freakazoid".

MK: The weird thing was, when it was over, at the age of 26, thinking that all I ever wanted to do in my life was to play with Frank Zappa, and now I did it, its over.. um... well.. "WHAT do I do now"? (laughs) So, the only thing to do is to start playing your own music. It's the only way to do justice to him, and to the massive influence he had on me. To synthesize it, and make it into something new.  Everything I do, is in some way, no matter how small, indebted to him. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here talking to you guys.

HoS: How many songs did Frank make you learn, in order to do the tour with him?

MK: (Answering without ANY hesitation) 108. It was a light tour for Frank...heh heh heh

HoS: How did you (MM) get the name "polyrhythm king"?

MK: He deserves it.

MM: I trained .....

(At this point, mike went into some mathematical equation; mixing drummer terminology, with the theory of  relativity, with quantum physics) When he was done explaining it, he showed us what he meant by slapping his thighs and counting out, explaining in layman's terms what he meant. It was incredibly impressive for us to see such a true artist, explaining to us what he knows so well. MK also watched with respect.)

MK: See! That's why I asked mike to play on my "Beer for Dolphins" project. There's a song on there that's beginning to achieve legendary status for drummers because it's impossible to play. But Mike (MM) plays it anyway. I wrote the song on paper while on an airplane on the Vai tour. I got the ideas from a pattern on the ceiling that looked like notes. Mike walked by and he looked at the paper and the first bar is in 19, but the first to beats each have two septuplets. So there is fourteen in the first half of the bar, and 19 in total. So says to me, "I could play that". Looked at him like he was joking, saw the seriousness on his face and asked him "you can play this"? he said "Yah". So I said "You got the gig".

(Everybody starts laughing)

HoS: Did you play it?

MM: Yeah, I actually did. Mike brought me to the session and, if I remember correctly, we recorded it in I think 6 pieces, I had to dub in a bunch of fills. So, instead of where there were 7 notes in some places, I asked if I could play 11 instead. He thought that was the coolest thing and said "go ahead, do it". So I did! But I tell you, that one song is my utter, everything I am coming out in the song. And the fact that there is no possible, well, I don't think I could have ever recorded something like that for anybody else. But he made me feel so comfortable doing so. The emotions in the brain somehow mess everything up. So playing something impossible to play wouldn't have been..um... possible, if it weren't for Mike (Keneally).

MK: Its fun and wonderful and a blessing for me to have musicians like this who wanna do my stuff.

HoS: (Thingfish says) Do you need a didgeridoo player? (Yes, Thingfish not only plays guitar, but he plays the weird aborigine instrument.

MK: I probably will... I'll have my people call yours! Heh heh heh... I played a blue balloon.

MM: Yeah, I hadn't spoken to mike in a few months, and I called him about the balloon he played. I asked him "what color was the balloon"? He says, "What the fuck? Why? What does it matter?"  He then says, "I'm not gonna address WHY you're asking me, so if you really wanna know, it was blue." So I said, in the credits of the album we'll list the blue balloon as an instrument.

MK: Yeah, except I forgot. But right in the middle of the drum solo, I have a blue balloon solo.

HoS: Well guys, we have two more questions for ya, then we'll let ya go. First is word association. We say a word, you tell us the first thing that pops into your head. OK?

MK: Wild.

MM: Cool. This shit is fun.

HoS: James LaBrie

MK: Sing......er

MM: Orange

HoS: Steve Vai

MK: Friend

MM: Persimmon

HoS:Frank Zappa

MK: Yeah!

MM: Void. I never got to meet him. Upsetting void.

MM: Orange? What am I saying? Steve... um... love. James LaBrie...Correct...right.

MK: A really, REALLY good singer.

MM: He's just a good egg.

HoS: MTV

MK: "Empty – v"

MM: Jenny McCarthy

HoS: 36 double D

MM: (Screaming at the top of his lungs) YEAH!

MK: Prime

HoS: Mike Mangini

MK: Italian

MM: Everything with me has to do with Italians, food and booze.

MK: Family

HoS: Mike Keneally

MK: Trying

MM: (Whispering into the mic) Soul silly comfortable.

HoS: Mike (Keneally), you played with EXTREME...

MK: I did? No I didn't.

MM: Yes, you did! You played bassoon for them!

MK: Oh yeah... that's right.

HoS: Mike (Mangini), what do you think about Gary Cherone's split up with Van Halen?

MM: I'm Intimate with that situation. I've spent many hours with them. The right move is that they aren't together. Its just the right thing. What's great about this split is that they all LIKE each other. It's a happy thing. And ya know, that's a noble "thing" for music. I wish more people would just do the right thing for the music. They have no qualms about anything.

HoS: You're good friends with Gary Cherone then?

MM: Yeah!  We are very close... in fact, we spent hours talking about all sorts of goop two nights ago.

HoS: Ok guys, the hardest question. The house of Shreds famous "5 CD's question". If you were marooned on a desert island, and could only pick 5 CD's to listen to for the rest of your life, what would they be?

MM: RUSH - Hemispheres, number 1.  Paganini - 24 caprices with Itzhak Perlman playing it, #2. Kings X - Dogma #3. Blood Sweat and Tears' first record #4. And Chicago....um... (big sigh)... wow... um...geez... the blue one with "Make Me Smile."

MK: Yeah... great choice. Um, #1, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money, the original mix thank you. Todd Rundgren - Wizard A True Star. Miles Davis, pick anyone, it doesn't matter. John Coltrane - the complete Impulse studio recordings. Stevie Wonder - Inhibitions.

HoS: OK guys, thanks for sitting down with us for a while and answering some questions. Thanks for a great show this evening, and especially thanks for the Mullmuzzler project, it's a great work.

MM: Any time guys, good luck with the website.

MK: Yeah, we'll be checking it out from time to time

MM: Yeah, cool site. We'll see ya next time.

HoS: Take care, guys...