I have known Mike Dean for years and years, he was and is a cool guy. In fact, he is the only guy out of the COC machine that I still see every once in awhile. Regardless of whether you are a old fart like me that remembers how much of a kick ass band they were in the mid eighties, or if you are a current fan of the Pepper Keenan led version of the band (which has been lying low in one of their now numerous "down periods"), Mike Dean is a Raleigh North Carolina institution. Here is a interview I did with Mike for NOT YET DECIDED. It was right when they made their ill-fated choice of Simon Bob stepping in as the new singer. Read on and see Mike try to deny that he in fact DID think Exodus was a real good band. Liar.
Mike Dean interview in Not Yet Decided, issue Number 13, early 1987.
NYD: Let’s hear about the new album and tour..
Mike: It’s called “Technocracy” and it will be out in a few weeks. It’s a four song EP. They are songs we have kept under our belts for awhile & now we are finally going to release them. It is going to be the last record that has anything to do with Metal Blade. It’s interesting. It will be the first record that has a singer on it besides Reed & me. Actually, it is the first record that we have done in a long time. We have a lot of new material; we are going to record an album real soon, too. And if you can tape the EP from a friend that has already gotten it that is probably the best thing to do. It has a high list price. I don’t think we are going to see any money from it anyways, so what the heck..but it does have an interesting insert.
NYD: How did you get Simon Bob as your new singer?
Mike: The Ugly Americans were breaking up. I even encouraged them to continue, I don’t know why they did it but when they did we got Bob so we could concentrate on our instruments more. Plus, I had pretty much shredded my vocal abilities to their..ragged ends.
NYD: All of your new songs sound like an almagation of Black Flag & Black Sabbath. How do you respond?
Mike: Um..I suppose.
NYD: You wear those influences fairly well.
Mike: (mad cackling laughter) DO WE?!
NYD: You sure do! I saw that recent spread Mike Gitter wrote about you in that magazine Creem Metal. How do you feel being in a magazine like that amongst other hot rockers like Ratt & Bon Jovi?
Mike: It certainly stands out from that trash, it is amusing and obnoxious.
NYD: Do you feel that when you were singing your lyrics to people in audiences everywhere that you were screaming to deaf ears..preaching to the converted?
Mike: Definitely. There has to be a new way of getting people’s attention.
NYD: Did you ever think about handing out lyric sheets or something?
Mike: It could be useful. I think it would be more interesting to hand something out that wouldn’t be political dogma, & it wouldn’t be lyrics but..that it would just be something artistic that would take people’s minds out of their normal phase. You know, something that they could pick up on.
NYD: My big complaint about punk shows these days is that you already know what is going to happen before it does. You know what the bands will sound like, you know how the audience will react..
Mike: I know exactly how the audience is going to react like. It kind of bums me out. Sometimes I wish that people would listen and calm down but then again its good to have a reaction, a spontaneous reaction. They typical stale reaction is starting to wear pretty thin, especially after all of these years.
NYD: Are you tired of people labeling you with this whole “pioneers of thrash metal” kind of stuff?
Mike: Actually, I am tired of being tired of it! I was tired of it for a long time. We kind of set ourselves up to do it, in a way.
NYD: Yeah, I remember a long time ago when we first met was when you used to worship Exodus!
Mike: Bullshit! Bullshit! False..
NYD: (interrupts) “False Metal”?
Mike: Ha! That was like our road to..being visible or audible to that audience. A lot of that stuff is pretty worthless.
NYD: How do you feel about your home base?
Mike: Raleigh, North Carolina?
NYD: Yeah..
Mike: Well…it’s a really good place now that the scene is dead!! (Laughter) There are a lot of great new bands. It will stay pretty cool as long as we don’t call it a scene. It is more creative now then it was. Since there have been more clubs now for music, for out of town bands, I have seen a lot of good music. Probably more then when we go out on tour..
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