Interview w/ Michael Coon of Laaz Rockit

It could have been almost like a Behind the Music scenario: five guys come together and form a band; release a string of albums, get into drugs, get in trouble with the law, break up, everybody hates each other. Then, out of the blue years later, everybody decides to get back together, feeling an emptiness and a longing to finish business, record a new album and the new album sucks – we have heard that story many times, but for Bay Area thrash legends Laaz Rockit, that is not the case.

Having been involved in the thrash scene during its heyday, Laaz Rockit was a band that had a devoted and underground following back in the day. They released a string of several records, but when the '90s came into play, the music scene would change, the record industry would change, their label would sell out, and the band quietly decided to call it a day after years of playing to crowds across the world. Unlike many bands, the members would remain friends and keep in touch throughout the years.

Fast forward over a decade and it would be not only the band mates longing to get back together, but it would also be the demand from the fans that would bring everything full circle again to record Left for Dead (Blistering Records USA), a record that is tried and true to the authentic thrash genre, shying away from any flavor of the day, nu-metal or extreme metal connotations – it’s almost like the record was made to be played on the turntable, harkening the days of metal’s golden underground era in the days of vinyl.

“I would call it hibernation more than hiatus,” begins vocalist Michael Coons about the reunion. “We were dormant for nearly thirteen years between shows; I think the last show that we played in ’92 was in Tokyo. It was really easy for us to get back together because of our longstanding friendships. Even though we weren’t playing music together through that period, we always maintained our brotherhood – a couple of guys got married, had kids, and started businesses, but we were also in the Bay Area (although I have resided in Los Angeles for the last five or six years). It was something that we had discussed and it wasn’t like one of these things where we all hated each other or anything like that – we all still played golf together, went to ball games, and attended Christmas parties and stayed in touch. It was sort of like riding a bicycle, it took a little time for us to get tight again musically, but we worked at it and it was a very natural thing.”

Connecting again with the fans was also important for the band, whether it was to a whole new audience or to the band's longtime devotees, the magic was still there – even when it came down to recording the new record. “We had been doing these reunion shows and it was great because we discovered this whole new legion of fans,” explains Coons. “There were these fifteen to twenty-five year olds who knew our music and we were pretty struck by that because we of course had people that came to the shows that saw us in the '80s and '90s and a lot of these people had kids that might have been conceived at our shows. Through the computer age and the Internet, they have discovered all the Laaz Rockit music, so they knew all the old songs. It’s so funny, because there were people who were like nineteen and they would say something like, 'I’ve been waiting to see you for fifteen years,' and I’m like, 'since you were four?' (laughing). I was really stunned by the reaction and people were saying that they would really like to see us again and we certainly didn’t lose any energy from our show, I felt we were always a great live band."

“As we were doing these shows, we thought that it would be nice to do some new material because the songs were somewhat old to us, and even though some people consider some ‘classics,’ which is a great honor, we felt we weren’t done musically. Aaron and I started sending discs back and forth to each other for ideas around September of ’07 and I started to arrange and sit down to come up with some lyrical ideas and it actually came together fairly quickly – we mapped out a way to effectively do it in a studio up in Northern California; we just sort of poked away at it and after the first couple of weeks we thought that the material was pretty good – not being influenced by trends, flavors of the day, changes in music, or any other sort of hybrids that came out in the '90s; it was basically the same type of music that Aaron and I created when we first got together; back when we were teenagers. Obviously, I would like to think, that we are much more musically proficient than we were back then, but it was a ‘trip.’ I’m not a studio guy, I love performing live – that’s my thing, but I really enjoyed the studio this time, I think the songs are much more mature and In think they have subject matter that I hadn’t approached before (I can take from life experience), so it was quite a cathartic experience.”

They come from the same area that spawned one of the biggest metal scenes in the United States – being involved with the San Francisco Bay Area music scene was certainly an experience, it was good times; but at that time who knew that scene would become a hub for some of the most influential music, not to mention that this scene would spawn one of the biggest selling bands of all time. “I would say that collectively, us, Metallica, Testament, Exodus, Death Angel, and Forbidden – we didn’t realize the form of music that we were creating was actually a significant metal movement that was being recognized worldwide,” elaborates Coons. “I think Metallica, Exodus, and Testament had a bit of the lion’s share of that because they kept going at it…just look at Metallica.”

“We were sort of having fun, we all hung out with each other, it was a magical time, and I think that a lot of us were blissfully unaware of (the scene’s recognition) until the '90s came along and people began to cite our band as an influence – and I thought I would never be influential like that; for musicianship, that was quite an honor. Now when we get together and see each other, we spend a lot of time going down memory lane. Unfortunately, some of the people that we were playing music with or in bands with aren’t with us anymore – Laaz Rockit is very lucky that we are all still alive. It’s part of life and we did not think about those things in those terms at that time, we just played hard, partied hard, had fun, we talked about record companies, how they are screwing us here and there, how when we went to Europe we would have to ‘play this one place’ and you know whatever subject matter came up; it was a pretty magical time.”

Most of us who listened to metal and even college rock/classic alternative in the '80s might remember Enigma Records, as it was home to several influential bands and even satellite and distributed labels (such as Restless and Metal Blade) that are still heard today. Even with the label’s major label distribution, street credibility, and good promotion, the good times didn’t last long. Not only did the buy-out from Hollywood Records signal the end of an era to underground music, but it also signaled the beginning of the band’s ‘hibernation period.’

“(Enigma) were a big label at the time, they had a couple other bands like Poison, they had Capitol distributing the records trying to really get into the big biz; plus they had a lot of alternative acts such as the Dead Milkmen and The Smithereens, which were popular radio-wise. In the end, they sort of pulled the rug out from everybody and sold the interest to Hollywood Records literally overnight – and they were a Disney company and the ‘we’re here for the artists’ thing just went out the window. It came down to who’s moving two million copies of a record, who is on radio, and stuff like that; it screwed a lot of bands over in the process. That was sort of the culmination or the beginning of our demise at the time – being tired of battling record companies, trying to collect money and all that stuff. Record companies back then could operate and sign bands as a loss for a ‘tax break,’ there’s a lot of things you could get into about the whole business end. It was exciting at first, of course it was great to have our records in the stores when we were traveling the United States, but eventually the positive feelings about our record company at the time turned around.”

The DVD release of Live Untold was not only a big catalyst for the reunion, and not only was it a blast from the past for the fans, but for the band as well. “It was really interesting, especially for me because I saw it when it was just about done,” explains Coons. “I did not see the footage until I had to come up (to the studio) and approve it. This guy, Andre Welch, who is a very talented filmmaker and videographer – he has done a lot of independent moves and shorts; he is someone that I have done acting for in movies as well. He was slaving away in all this footage and when I went up to see all this, it was so interesting because I was eighteen, nineteen years old and I haven’t seen that stuff in over twenty years; I was just shocked thinking, ‘where did you find this.’ The guys and some other friends of ours all contributed their home movies and tapes – you think when you are in your late teens and of course ‘you know everything,’ I look at myself and I think, ‘I’m a little boy.’ But the whole DVD was well done and it brought back so many memories and of course and our interview sections with talking were fun, and when you see those interview sections, like I was mentioning earlier, that’s us together and we were like that, having a blast. It was very interesting looking at the chronological history of the band because I had never thought it would come together that well.”

A lot of us might have paid big money for an out-of-print CD or even LP on eBay, could you imagine paying $40 for something, then getting the album and finding out it’s not the official version. Coons has seen firsthand how the bootlegging/piracy business is affecting bands. “There’s a lot of bootlegs floating around, and we did re-release City’s Gonna Burn with Old School Metal Records last year, that was the only one that I know I signed off on and it was interesting because a friend of mine who saw us play with testament at the Key Club in April brought in copies of Annihilation and Know Your Enemy and I took a closer look and I asked him where he got those because the cover was different as well as many other differences and I said ‘these are bootlegs.’ Now that we have a new CD out, we are starting to see a lot of these things and not to sound greedy or anything, but we see nothing from these, and this guy paid $40 for each CD. It’s nice to see that people would want these things to add to their collection, but I would like to know where they are coming from. I wonder how many other bands besides us this is happening to. I’m sure that, sadly, a lot of bands are seeing their releases pirated and not seeing a penny, the people doing this are probably doing a hundred other bands, if not more; it’s bad for everybody. When someone goes out and spends a lot of money and it’s not the original copies, it’s certainly eyebrow-raising.”

At this point, the band has hopes to get out on the road and tour more extensively, especially in the U.S. – but for now, besides a few festivals in Europe, things are still in planning mode. “We certainly are going to do some dates now that the record has come out in the US,” concludes Coons. “The thing about this reunion; I don’t think we have been fair to the United States crowd yet, we really want to tour stateside; we toured Europe, we toured Japan, and we did a few California gigs, and a Las Vegas gig, but as for the East Coast, places like Nashville, Michigan, and Texas, which are places we want to play – people from all across the US that have seen footage on YouTube ask us, ‘when are you coming here’ and we really want to do that.”

“Three of the guys are married and have kids in school and that kind of stuff so we sort of have to bounce around that, but I would live to do a proper U.S. showing a play places like Nashville, because it’s important, you can’t just dictate what’s easy for you – I’m sure we’d have to make some sacrifices to do it. The market is important to us, but the fans are the most important because the reason we got back together to do this was to play live for people – it wasn’t for money, it wasn’t for ego, it wasn’t ‘hey look at me again,’ it was about the relationship that we have with people when we play live. So I would hope by next summer, we can start hitting some spots around the country but at this time the only show we have booked is the New Years Eve show with Testament in San Francisco. We’re supposed top be going to Europe for some festivals in the Spring, hopefully on the strengths of that we can books some US dates as well.” (Interview by Tommy "Hashman" Hash, November 2008)