By: Christopher Duda

Oct 24, 2005

Toronto, Canada

SugarBuzz Magazine

Page Two

I doubt it. That’s really a hard question to answer, cause if you’re doing Punk per say you must have the right team working your latest venture. People that believe in you and your music and can bring it to the right pair of ear's. When your brain switches gears, it is hard to relive what you once did. I say to move forward rather than relive the past. It all comes full circle anyways. Great songs and stories stem from observation, imagination and experience. There has to a different setting to each picture you’re verbally painting!

12. When Degeneration died where did you go from there?

Degeneration" died and was buried by 1983. I was still doing a few Projects with Scorpion (a.k.a. Chip Z’nuff). Keep in mind it is now about 1984 before Chips hey day with E’nuff Z’Nuff. I had a few little groups together and did a lot of recording but for the most part I felt a little displaced being based out of Chicago again. It felt like I was walking backwards and banging into everything in my path.

I finally found a group playing in a basement. We ditched the singer and I brought in a friend of mine for second guitar. The Noise Factory was born! The guys wanted my name within the group name so we changed it to "The Blast Factory. I think the year was now about 1986. Therefore, for about three years I was living with one foot in the grave and the other punching the gas, full throttle wide open!

13. Who were the members of the Blast Factory? How long was “The Blast Factory” in existence? Do you ever plan to release any of the recordings from that time?

The very start of the Blast Factory was this cat named Alley Blue and myself. I had all these new songs like "Soldier Boy, See no Evil, Ticket to Hell, Good Girls Gone Bad, as well as a few others. So Blue, myself, a four track and drum machine started doing demos to enlist other players. Blue was great on guitar, bass and a real wiz with the drum machine. I listen to those tapes today and its like damn that’s a fucking machine!

It was a drag cause after we had a complete line up, Blues guitar style wasn't working out with the other guitarist and he took a powder. In the end the one guitarist didn't have a need to play with another. Jack St. James rocked and then disappeared with the drummer’s chick.

Blast Factory was a tour group essentially. The Factory was the best line up I've ever had or for that matter played with. We lasted a few years but once again, trouble reared its ugly head. It has a tendency to follow me around!

The same booze and drugs scenario that killed off Degeneration killed The Blast Factory as well. The guys from the Blast Factory were from the metal world and I was from old school rock, punk, and glam. The outcome was that some great music was made. All those cats are done now they hung it up a long time ago. Back to the basement never to be heard from again! I think they all married each other’s ex's!

"The Blast Factory" did a lot of recording and I will release some of it. Some of the stuff we tracked was later rerecorded for "Junebug". I'd love to get it out there cause it really beats up the versions we did with Junebug.You can't take that kind of stuff and try turning it into a pop record as some people have learned, I knew I was right! The Blast Factory was heavy, dark, and haunting! All glam and punked out. Kickin' ass on ten!!!

The Blast Factor was put down (R.I.P.) around 1992 or 1993. It was a bit of a drag after so much work was put into that group.

Yes, my next band "Junebug" was playing some Blast Factory songs in the summer of 1993. Some of Junebug’s songs were rehash but new compositions were also being worked out.

15. Who was in Junebug? How would you describe Junebugs sound?

"Junebug" was getting press around the world being called "The long lost cousins of The N.Y.Dolls”. Essentially Junebug was a super group. The recordings were done with a lot of old friends; some of the players were under other contracts so they were listed under different names, like Tara on bass is Chip Z'nuff. We later toured with a chick bassist but when we played Amsterdam, her folks pulled the plug and Chip stepped in again. Desi Rexx from D'MOLLS came down to record and so did Gino Martino a.k.a. Eugene Strenz.

It was funny because I didn't perform a showcase or anything! I was just signed on the spot. Z’nuff was starting his Stoneyrecords and Larry Germack out of Cleveland had the label Circumstantial.Germack was also a rep. for R.E.D. Distribution. Essentially "Junebug" was released by two Indies’ with major distribution. I think it all is unbelievable and very cool .The first press we had was in Italy where they somehow got their hands on the demo cassette, which was still called "Peter Blast” at the time.

16. When did “Ticket to Hell” come out? During the recording of the Junebug cd, didn’t you take a break and start writing new material for a solo cd?

The Junebug ”Ticket to Hell" CD was finished being recorded except for the vocals for "Kisses from Yesterday”. The night before the last session I fell off a stage, shattered my hip, and broke my leg in two places. After I got it together again, I went from a hospital to a studio and finished up the vocal track. From there, I went into detox. I stayed down South with some people and started writing a bunch of new stuff, which was completely different than what I was doing with Junebug. I wrote some old country & western songs along with rethinking what the Hell is my life all about .I think a lot of deep thinking went into those songs and made me a better person in the end. You know Junebug was like someone who was mad at the world. The new stuff I was writing down South was like saying, “Get it together Peter, and I’m sorry”.

Therefore, I kept going up to the city to record this new material with "Johnny K, the producer of Disturbed. I was recording another CD! with Junebug sitting on the shelf somewhere. Z'nuff calls me down South one day and tells me I got a deal. I said at this point for which one? The answer was for Junebug! It was time to switch gears again and get back home. Later on, those tracks that I was writing down South became my first solo CD,"This Side of Shang-Hi".

17. This Side of Shang-Hi sees you going in a totally different direction. Can you reflect back on the making of the CD and how it was initially received?

Shang-Hi was so different nobody knew how to market it, remember this Was long before crossover country and/or alt country were ever thought of, Now Nashville thinks they dreamed it up!

"This side of Shang-Hi" was released overseas by Perris records and later released by Stoney records in the States. I still think it is my sleeper. It was also the first CD that I produced completely (with some input by Johnny K.)

Z'nuff and myself wrote and co-produced one or two tracks and Chip played bass on the whole CD. Donnie played some guitar and Honky Tonk piano. Gino Martino played some Spanish nylon string guitar. Tony Christiano played the bulk of guitar, slide, and lap guitars. I also had Willie Shurtz on accordion; he had previously toured with Tom Waits and John Fogerty. Kenny Harke was on drums along with Ricky Parent. Now add in violin, banjo percussions, and a lot of layering and you start to get the full picture. I took a seven-piece group out on the road to perform some high-class joints. It was totally different from playing rooms with "L.A.Guns or E.Z., with Junebug. I was doing rooms that Sinatra was eating at!

It’s been a real roller coaster ride! I did a video for "The Crossroads Hotel" off of the Shang-Hi CD, which got a lot of viewing from cable T.V. shows across America.

18. I read that you actually penned material for the movie "Henry, Portrait of a Serial killer". How did that come about?

What a great flick! I was writing and recording with this guy and a small group of musicians. After we were done, I went down to Mexico to live for a few months. Steven A. Jones the drummer I was recording with became a director for the film and McNaughton the guy I was writing with got to do the film score, so the song "Waiting in the Garden" found its way into the movie.

19. “Explode” your next release seems like a perfect culmination of everything that you previously had done. Do feel the final product represented where you were at the time?

Explode" is different in the sense that it’s the first rock CD that I had complete control over. Chip Z’nuff produced “Junebug” in part although I did produce "Kisses from Yesterday". "This side of Shang-hi" I produced most of it but Johnny K, did have a helping hand in it.

Also "Shang-hi" wasn’t a pure rock record it had a lot of vibe front porch styled songs that called for acoustics, violins, accordion, Bottleneck, lap steel and more percussion rather then drums. I think that "This Side of Shang-hi" is a very special cd that people may look at again in years to come.

"Explode" and "This Side of Shang-hi are two different animals and Junebug yet another. "Junebug" was one pissed off guy where with "This side of Shang-hi" it’s like becoming at one with yourself. "Explode" is back to rockin' without needing anger management. I do like to write and record different styles of music! I think if all the songs sound the same, it’s not saying much about the artist’s abilities as a composer.

As always I called upon some old buddy’s to come and record on Explode. Gino Martino and Chip Z'nuff to mention a few and its also the first CD that I played Guitar on, all the rhythms &fills are me. These were the first live shows featuring me as the guitarist and front man. I got to tour and perform a lot with the Explode CD in the States and I intend to tour a lot more overseas. For now you'll have to settle for the video” As Sharp as a Knife”. It’s out there in T.V. land.