Today's Date: Sunday, September 07, 2008
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Last updated: Monday, January 21, 2008
Artist History ==> Web Page 3 of 26
Dombrovski began drumming for the innovative Elsmere/Wilmington-DELAWARE-U.S.A. heavy metal/hard rock band EXXESS in February 1989 after leaving the power-pop/rock band RAEL. The MTV-era of big hair and guitar heroes was in full swing, and EXXESS was led by the blazing guitar virtuoso and hero Michael Walker.
DOMBROVSKI: Don Patridge, a drummer friend of mine, first played me a tape of Mike Walker's metal guitar playing sometime in 1988 while I was still in RAEL, if memory serves me correct. I was very impressed because I not only heard great technique, but I also heard elements of classical music and jazz, along with some stuff I'd never heard before in my life! You'd have to classify it as metal, but in all honesty, it was beyond metal. There was lots of speed, innovation, aggression, passion, and fire.
DOMBROVSKI: To put it simply, this dude Mike Walker could do some furious shredding, but kept it musical and melodic at the same time. Mike had feel, and there was heart in his playing. It was obvious this guy wasn't a hack on guitar. I could tell Mike was serious about music, had some theory under his belt, and was born to play guitar. He was fearless. He wasn't even 20 yet.
DOMBROVSKI: Circa March 1987, when I was 19, I played drums on a cover version of the metal song "Midnight Dynamite" by KIX with guitarist Arlie Lane and bassist Bernie Harrison, two guys I was previously in high school with. I was just sitting in. Arlie Lane had a set of drums in his basement in Elsmere, DELAWARE, U.S.A., where we jammed that day. In high school, Bernie was bassist and lead vocalist in a band named "INFERNO," which my brother Dave Anthony played drums in. My cousin John Slawski (pronounced "Swahv-skee" in Polish) went on to drum with guitarist Arlie Lane and bassist Bernie Harrison in a metal band named "NOYZE." My former band RAEL did two shows with NOYZE on November 25 and 26, 1988, at a club named DELLE DONNE'S in Wilmington, DELAWARE, U.S.A.
DOMBROVSKI: Arlie Lane approached me about two months later on January 20, 1989, about possibly forming a metal band with him on rhythm guitar and Mike Walker on lead guitar. I was kinda' shocked, but I didn't give it much thought because I was still drumming with the power-pop/rock band RAEL, and RAEL had just talked serious business with impresario Lou Nathan. However, by February 8, 1989, RAEL was divorcing and on that day Arlie Lane took me to where Mike Walker was working, which was some kind of guitar shop in Wilmington, DELAWARE, U.S.A., to talk about my possibly drumming for Mike Walker's and Arlie Lane's forthcoming metal band. Mike was very reserved and mentioned learning some material on tape and auditioning. I auditioned on drums on February 12, 1989. By February 14, 1989, Mike decided I was in.
DOMBROVSKI: I knew playing and keeping up with Mike Walker was going to be challenging and would help me grow as a musician. I love Alex Van Halen's drumming. I love Edward Van Halen's happy fingers, and, although Mike is definitely his own man, I felt like this was my chance to be in a band that featured a good guitarist. Plus, given the fact I was joining a heavy metal/hard rock band, I thought there would be more opportunities for raping and pillaging, but I had to wait 'til my hair grew longer. Mike was 19, and I was 21. I could finally get into clubs legally and start checking out the musical competition on a regular basis.
DOMBROVSKI: You know, before I turned 21, I couldn't legally get into clubs when I wasn't doing a drum gig, so I never had the chance to check out a lot of other bands before that time. Before then, I was under the impression that musicians playing bars were highly-trained professionals with advanced degrees in music and their education included lots of ear training, counterpoint, harmony, theory, arranging, composition, notation, and elective courses in political science.
DOMBROVSKI: On March 7, 1989, we auditioned J. C. Steele on bass, the second guy we tried out. By March 9, 1989, Arlie Lane, Mike Walker, and I decided J. C. Steele was our man on bass.
DOMBROVSKI: Rehearsals began in earnest. By March 17, 1989, we had a "Vocalist Wanted" flyer ready for distribution. On April 22, 1989, an agent for CHIPPENDALES Strippers Male Revue came to watch the band rehearse. She wanted one of her strippers to sing for the band, but luckily it never happened. On May 25, 1989, we auditioned a guy with a very "new wave" voice, to say the least. That didn't happen. On June 8, 1989, J. C. Steele came up with the name "EXXESS" for the group. By July 21, 1989, we were in SOUND LAB STUDIOS in Newark, DELAWARE, U.S.A., cutting a three-song demo without vocals, since we still didn't have a singer. We didn't even have titles for those songs, although at that time Mike Walker was in the habit of naming his songs after the key they were in: "E," "F," "A Blues," "Swingin' D," etc. I think this manner of naming songs was a hard rock/heavy metal allusion to the work of classical composer CHOPIN. By July 22, 1989, we were already over budget with our demo at SOUND LAB STUDIOS, which was only the second day of recording. That shows how little money we were working with.
DOMBROVSKI: Things could move relatively quickly with EXXESS because the band was stylistically consistent. We performed original metal/hard rock with a heavy emphasis on Mike Walker's guitar wizardry. That was understood from the beginning and brought a lot of clarity to our situation. The songs were written primarily by Mike Walker, with Arlie Lane next. We performed an original I wrote entitled "In the City."
DOMBROVSKI: I think EXXESS was innovative musically in the sense we kept things harmonically interesting for a metal/hard rock band. I know my song "In the City" was using chords like Bm7, Gmaj9, F#sus4, Bm/E, and other hybrid chords. I was throwing things like Picardy thirds and pedal tones into the mix, and I'm only the drummer. Mike Walker brought such an onslaught of musical influences into his solos. Also, Mike had some monster riffs in his songs, and sometimes an entire song would be centered around that riff, but there were also tunes using Emin9 chords, jazzy chords like Am7(flat 5), and bluesy stuff. Rhythmically, we did some odd-time signature stuff in 7/8, which was cool. Mike wanted to keep pushing things to a higher and more difficult level musically, which I admired. This was a time when guitarists like Dave Mustaine & Marty Friedman of MEGADEATH, Paul Gilbert, Kirk Hammett of METALLICA, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton of QUEENSRYCHE, and Joe Satriani were on the scene. You're not going to pick up Alfred's Basic Guitar Method and learn to play some of the stuff those guys are playing. You've got to put some serious time into your instrument to attempt to emulate what those guys do. In EXXESS, I always felt like there was a strong emphasis on being a good musician. Mike Walker let me solo a lot, and my drumming developed aggression. Mike played LOUD, so I had to play a lot HARDER for longer than I was used to, which was good. My drumming solidified.
DOMBROVSKI: Anyway, after July 22, 1989, EXXESS had an unmixed, three-song demo with no vocals. On August 1, 1989, Arlie and I decided calling a great singer named John West, who was based in Philadelphia, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., would be a good idea. Arlie talked to John on August 2, 1989, and John was interested. He wanted EXXESS to send him something. On August 12, 1989, EXXESS mixed down our demo and had a promo-picture taken. We put together our promo-package and sent the tape and picture to John West. John West had the courtesy to call us on September 6, 1989, and tell us he wasn't going to join; however, if he had, we would've had one helluva' vocalist with a lot of experience. That would've boosted our morale and helped our confidence because John West had enough experience with vocals that he could've really helped the rest of the band with backing vocals. The vocals would've been as developed as the music.
DOMBROVSKI: On October 14, 1989, we created flyers offering $100 USD to anyone who got our band a singer. On October 19, 1989, a crazy girl auditioned, and I remember her showing me the tattoo on her ass; however, she didn't get the gig. On October 24, 1989, a singer named Mark Ridley auditioned. Mark Ridley had the metal look and cool ideas for lyrics, so he was in.
DOMBROVSKI: In December 1989, we changed our name from "EXXESS" to "WILD SIDE." We continued rehearsing, now with Mark Ridley on vocals, and on January 16, 1990, WILD SIDE had our first gig at a club named UNION STATION in Wilmington, DELAWARE, U.S.A. Those personal things that inevitably come between band members came up, and by January 25, 1990, after only one gig, backing guitarist and founding member Arlie Lane was no longer in EXXESS a.k.a. WILD SIDE. Now we were a four-piece band. On February 18, 1990, EXXESS a.k.a. WILD SIDE changed the band name from "WILD SIDE" to "BIG TROUBLE" in reference to those personal things that inevitably come between band members and former band members. On March 19, 1990, BIG TROUBLE played UNION STATION again, our second gig. On April 13, 1990, the named had changed again from "BIG TROUBLE" a.k.a. "WILD SIDE" a.k.a. "EXXESS" to "WALKER," and WALKER was supposed to play UNION STATION with a band named "PRESENCE" opening. Instead, WALKER found out we were opening for PRESENCE, so WALKER refused to play because WALKER wanted to close the show. UNION STATION management was PISSED and said WALKER would NEVER play there again. UNION STATION and WALKER reconciled, and on May 1, 1990 (May Day), WALKER headlined UNION STATION. On May 18, 1990, WALKER opened up for a popular metal band with a big following named HANNON TRAMP. By May 22, 1990, no one was happy musically, and our lead vocalist Mark Ridley quit. On May 24, 1990, WALKER disbanded after performing a total of four gigs. The band existed one year and three months.
DOMBROVSKI: Looking back, I think what happened was everyone had such high musical and performance standards that it was hard to accept the fact that the first few live gigs for any band are usually rough. We were just so disappointed in our performance, and I think we all started to blame each other. We rehearsed a lot, and you become very comfortable performing in a familiar sonic environment you get to know very well; however, when you hit the stage everything's totally different. You're in front of an audience, you're under hot lights, and your adrenalin is pumping hard, so you've got to learn to control it before it starts controlling you. It takes time for the band to adjust to different sound and monitoring systems when playing live in front of an audience; however, we were so young--Mike Walker was now 20, Mark Ridley was 22, and I was 22. At that age, you're in a big hurry; we didn't have a manager to help us slow down a bit and put our disappointments in perspective. NOT knocking them dead after only your first four gigs is NOT such a big deal, but we were too young and impatient to see that. I think we were worried the audience would never forgive us. I think we thought we'd left some kind of bad taste in their mouth they never could get rid of. Things got blown out of proportion. It's hard making it all happen perfectly right out the gate: chops, the look, stage presence, pyro, vocals, and then the songs. C'est la vie.
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Artist History ==> Web Page 3 of 26