| Page 1 2 Who Wants My Pineapple? by Adam M. Anklewicz Hobbling into Toronto’s Legendary Horseshoe Tavern after a raucous weekend in Boston and New Hampshire, Danny Walters, the frontman and organist for The Brown Hornets, was ready to cover the bar with flyers for their upcoming CD release performance. The Brown Hornets have become known for a live show that mixes great ‘60s-inspired soul-punk-rock with a flare for theatrics that cannot be matched. The Brown Hornets want you to have a good time, and won’t rest until you do, even if it means Walters fracturing his foot while jumping over a drum kit.With the upcoming release of their self-titled debut record, The Brown Hornets are ready to make their mark on the world. Danny Walters found time away from a non-stop whirlwind of promotion to sit and talk with Being There in the basement of the famed Toronto tavern that would host them and their antics just days later. Being There: Let’s start off with some basics. Who are the Brown Hornets? Danny Walters: Me, Danny Walters, on the organ and singing. On guitar Mike Tomlinson, on bass it’s Justin Heming, and on the drums it’s Robin Mason, and our manager is Chris McPeake. BT: Where would you classify The Brown Hornets? DW: I would classify us as something underground, but not subversive. We’re not underground by virtue of painting our tongues green or tattooing snakes on our faces. We’re not Il Divo or anything that’s marketable; we fuse classic soul with rock and roll and blues, last time I looked the kids weren’t digging that past 1969. We’re happy with that. BT: How long have you known Mike, and how long have you two been Brown Hornets? DW: Mike and I have been best friends since 1990. He’s starting to fossilize and so am I. People still think we’re in our early to mid-twenties, but we’re not. In 1990 we met and we skipped classes together; we weren’t even in the same grade, he’s a year older than me. We’d co-ordinate our timetables so we could rock out in the music room. During our lunch break we’d bring our ghetto blasters… kids nowadays dance to cell phones and fucking iPods, we had actual ghetto blasters and we’d crank Little Richard or The Rolling Stones. BT: You’ve been playing music together since then? DW: Since 1990, seventeen years, holy shit! BT: When did you decide to form a band? DW: Then, instantaneously. I played drums and trombone at the time. Mike was just learning to play guitar and I wanted to be Ringo Starr. Our very first performance was in 1990 and we played “Sunshine Of Your Love” by Cream. I had a big drum solo in front of the whole school, 500 kids because it was a country school. He started out on guitar and I started out on drums. It morphed into organ and then vocals by default because no one else in Newcastle played those instruments. The trombone just fell by the wayside; there wasn’t much of a market for trombone players unless we’re gonna play some Glenn Miller. I still might bring it out one of these shows and just let it rip. It won’t be good, but it’ll be interesting. BT: How long have you been performing under the name The Brown Hornets? DW: Since then too. BT: Where did it come from? DW: Fat Albert. BT: That’s what I figured. DW: It ran from 1972 to ‘83 and we started in 1990, so it wasn’t really off the airways for that long. It was still relatively contemporary, and was on TV all the time. I started taping them and we’d get crazy and laugh at it when we’d take breathers from playing all day long. And now it’s all out on DVD. I’ll probably go home tonight, watch a few episodes and die. BT: I still haven’t picked it up yet. DW: It’s so worth it, but there’s one dud out there. They did a compilation of what they thought was the best episodes, but it’s horrible, you’ve gotta buy the seasons. It was good music, they had some serious studio musicians, Idris Muhammad on drums and Ron Carter on bass. BT: Speaking of bass and drums, the current rhythm section wasn’t there a few years ago. Why the change and how did it improve the band? DW: In every way possible, not to discredit Dezz and Brock. They were fantastic, but they stayed in Durham region. At first it was a geographical thing, really I blame the colonel, our manager. He said “if you want to keep going forward with this you’ve gotta get into a market, like Toronto,” so Mike and I moved here, the others started families. They were wonderful musicians, but the stars just aligned because Justin and Robin are fantastic players, it’s like I’m playing with CCR. BT: How long have they been in the band now? DW: Just a year and change. Page 1 2 |
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