| Default |
| July 8, 2004 |
| Dave Benedict |
Katrina: What do you think about how Canadian music is being shown around the world right now?
Dave: Its good, I mean all the barriers seem to break down. Seemed like once Nickelback hit the flood gates kinda opened and all of a sudden people started
recognizing all this Canadian talent we had for years but just nobody recognized it. So yeah its healthy, it’s going good. We got tons of great bands doing well in
Canada and in the States. It’s just good to see. It’s about time.
Katrina: What have you learned while touring?
Dave: I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve learnt how to be a better musician. I’ve learnt things. I’ve learnt not to use the water on the tour bus for brushing my teeth. I’ve learnt a lot
of things I usually wouldn’t think about unless it came up.
Katrina: Who were your musical influences growing up?
And have they changed?
Dave: I still have a lot of the same influences that I had growing up. When I started listening to music, I started listening to Iron Maiden and Metallica and the first cd
that I bought was Alice Cooper “Killers”. Actually it was tape it wasn’t cd then. Then I bought Megadeath “So Far So Good So What”. Then I really started getting into
the glam scene. Motley Crue, Guns And Roses, Poison and stuff like that. Then I discovered the Chili Peppers and then that opened the doors to funk and from there
it just blossomed and became this entity to itself that it’s just music and good music. Any kind of music I’ll listen to. I don’t put boundaries on it all anymore.
Katrina: You said you liked Alice Cooper, did you get to meet him at the Junos?
Dave: I didn’t meet him at the Junos but I met him in Germany and I got to hang out on his bus and we talked about gold and all this kinda cool stuff. He’s gotta be
one of the coolest rock stars I’ve ever met. He’s a complete gentleman. Soft spoken, really nice guy, really intelligent man.
Katrina: Which artist would you like to tour or work with?
Dave: I’d love to work with the Chili Peppers. Even play one show with them would be great because they’re my all-time favorite band. There’s lots of people I’d like to
work with. I’d like to work with the Dust Brothers. I’d like to work with Rick Ruben. I’ve gotten to work with Butch Walker on this album which I was very stoked about
because I’m a big fan of his. I’ve gotten to work with Rick Prasher again which was great because I’m a big fan of a lot of the work he’s done and a lot of albums that
he’s recorded over the years. And my list could just go on and on and on. There’s so many great musicians and artists out there that I’d like to work with and that I’d
like to play with, hopefully I’ll have a long enough career to be able to fulfill those goals.
Katrina: How do you write your songs and where do you get your ideas from?
Dave: It usually starts with a guitar riff and all of us just get together and we get a rehearsal spot and just hash out ideas and then Dallas comes in and does the
lyrics. The inspiration for songs just our day to day life, stuff. We don’t really sing about a lot of hardships other than relationships because all of us had really good
upbringing’s, all of our families are all still together and nobody came from an abused family or anything like that. It’s just basically what we see happen to our friends
or us or whatever. Inspiration can come from anything. I get inspired by watching movies, a book that you read. My wife and I had a baby girl and I drew huge
inspiration from that. Just watching her grow everyday and learning and developing as a human being, it’s crazy inspiration.
Katrina: How old is she?
Dave: She just turned one.
Katrina: How does it feel to be away from her all the time?
Dave: It sucks really bad. Out of the year that she’s been on this earth, I’ve probably been around her about 3-4 months if that. So it sucks. Every time I come home I’
m wondering if she’s going to remember who I am. If she’s gonna play strange with me. I missed out on so many first things. But I try to keep positive and look on the
positive side of everything. That I’m doing what I love, that I’m making a living, I’m able to feed my daughter and if it wasn’t for this job, I probably wouldn’t have a
daughter and I’d be working some shit job, for no money and I wanted to have a house and the things that my parents gave me before I had kids.
Katrina: What’s your favorite venue to play?
Dave: There’s so many cool places that we played. I have to say Atlanta one of my ultimate favorite places to play. I love playing at all the House Of Blues. They’re all
very New Orleans type style. Very voodoo-ish and the vibe there is really cool. They treat you well, foods good. You know what you’re gonna get as far as the p.a.
and lighting system and all that stuff, those are great places to play. Those are probably my favorite.
Katrina: What’s your most embarrassing moment on stage?
What’s your most memorable?
Dave: My most embarrassing moment on stage, I’ve fallen a couple of times. That’s kind of embarrassing. Probably the most embarrassing was I went to jump on one
of the monitors, no wait I’ve got a better one then that. It was my birthday and Nickelback brought me out and sang happy birthday to me and gave me cake and all
that kind of stuff and the crowd sang happy birthday. And then the crowd wanted me to jump in so alright, here I come. Backed up, I ran and went to jump and it’s a
distance ‘cause we were playing an arena so I stopped. Got my bearings, backed up again, got a little bit more speed, I jumped out and I was like a hot knife through
butter. Nobody caught me. I hit the floor, buggered up my leg, right in front of everybody so yeah that was my most embarrassing. It hurt. And it’s not the first time it’s
happened to me either. It was even more embarrassing especially in front of my band-mates. They’re like ‘don’t you learn’. But it was compact it was an arena, there’s
so many people in that space I figured I’d get caught, but nope. My most memorable moment was in Atlanta probably when we played music midtown, and we were
headlining it and over 40,000 people showed up to an outdoor show. And it was something totally unexpected. And the crowd was electric. We played really well. It
was just one of those nights we’ll never ever forget that night. I think it’s probably everybody else’s memorable moment on stage. Just the electricity in the air was
amazing.
Katrina: What’s the craziest or nicest thing a fan has ever done for you?
Dave: I’ve gotten some nice gifts from fans. I had a couple fans in New York give me Mr. T memorabilia, ‘cause they know I’m a huge Mr. T fan. Chili Peppers
memorabilia, I had people give me clothes for my baby. A friend of mine, one of the nicest gifts I’ve gotten is from a guy by the name of Sketch Bailey and he’s an
artist. He drew a picture of my wife and it looks like a black and white photo. It’s the most gorgeous picture that I’ve ever seen. I got it up in my house. Love it.
Katrina: How do you pick your next single to hit radio stations?
Dave: A lot of that has to do with politics. It’s not really one of us deciding. We have our say about what we would like, doesn’t necessarily mean that’s gonna happen.
I would have like to have seen us start out with a heavier song rather then a mid-tempo song off this album.
Katrina: What song would you have picked then?
Dave: Myself I would have probably picked “Who Followed Who”. I would have liked to come out with something completely different and off the wall and so un-
Default to do. Make people turn their heads and go ‘Oh yeah, shit these guys got a nut-sack on ‘em’. But instead we came out with a mid-tempo song. That was the
choice of, not me.
Katrina: Ever plan for “Who Followed Who” to hit the radio stations?
Dave: I don’t know. The next single that’s coming out is “All That She Wrote” and I guess it all depends on how well that does. If the record company decides to put
out another single to follow that up while we’re in the studio or whatever. It would be nice to end off with a heavier song again.
Katrina: What’s your favorite song to perform?
Dave: My favorite song is probably “Sick And Tired”. And “Who Followed Who” is another one. And playing “Wasting My Time” just to see the reaction from that is
awesome because somehow we seem to touch a whole bunch of people with that song. So when the first chords to that song are played the crowed goes nuts. It’s a
cool feeling.
Katrina: How do you come up with the concepts for your videos?
Dave: It’s not really us who comes up with the concepts, we do our job by making the music and then we hand it over to people who write scripts for videos and that’s
what they’re job is and we get a bunch of people submit scripts and we choose which one we think’s gonna represent us the best.
Katrina: Which one was your favorite to do?
Dave: I really like the last one we just did for “Throw It All Away” ‘cause it wasn’t that boy-girl shit. It was more abstract. It didn’t have a story to it. It was just a cool
looking video. It was in black and white, which I find black and white is more timeless. That’s probably one of my most favorite. I really like the video for “Sick And
Tired” as well because it just kind of showed what the band’s all about, it was backstage stuff and live stuff from the beginning to the end and it had that Atlanta show
in it. It just put that whole album in previews. So when I watch it, it brings back lots of awsome memories for me.
Katrina: What advice can you give to other people who are wanting to create a band?
Dave: Work really hard. Don’t suck. And shit if I can do it anybody else can do it too. It doesn’t come to be really easy either, so if anybody is thinking that success is
an overnight thing, it’s not. We get asked all the time about the whole overnight success thing and sure it happened really fast for Default. Once it hit it really started
to hit but I’ve been doing this for over 10 years. I’ve busted my balls for it. I’ve worked shitty jobs after shitty jobs and paid my dues over and over again. And if you’re
not willing to work hard at it then go to school or work in a restaurant. Just don’t think this is going to come easy and fast.
Katrina: Who causes the most trouble in the group?
Dave: We’re all a bunch of douche bags. We all like to stir the pot. We’re all procrastinators, we all constantly argue with one another and it’s stupid things too. One
guy will say ‘Aw man the sky’s really blue today. No it’s not, it looks more green. No really its blue’. It’s just stupid. We’re like brothers, we fight over dumb things. We
play stupid pranks on one another. You gotta because you’d go crazy if you don’t. It’s like water off a duck’s back. You can’t let any of it affect you or get pissed off at
it. Because if you do take too many things to heart, it’s not gonna last all that long ‘cause you live in pretty small quarters and you’re with one another more than you’
re with anybody in your family, your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, roommates, whatever. We eat together, we’re in the bus. We all sleep in the bus. We work together so it’
s like we’re around each other 24/7 and months on end. We did 18 months on the last album and if you can’t let shit roll off your back, it’s gonna be the last tour you
do.
Katrina: What’s one thing you can’t tour without?
Dave: One thing I can’t live without, probably my cell phone. It’s one of those things that I thought I’d never ever have and ever want to have and never had a use for
before and I thought why get one now, I’ve lived so long without one and now that I have one, I’d be lost without it. It’s nice when you’re out on the road for months on
end, if you’re feeling lonely, pick up the phone and call somebody you love and ‘cause you sure can’t go home from a crappy day at work and get a hug from your
girlfriend or in my case my wife. That’s probably the most essential. That and having the ps2 out, it’s pretty good too.
Katrina: How many tattoos do you have?
Dave: I’ve lost count. I’m covered except from the waist down. I don’t have anything there yet but I plan on getting some. Hopefully when I go to Hawaii, I wanna get
the traditional style done with the bamboo it’s like tap and needle type stuff. That’s what I’d like to get, some kind of Hawaiian flower or something like that.
Katrina: What was your first tattoo?
Dave: It was Marvin the martian playing a bass and it’s now covered up. Because I was young and stupid and another word of advice is don’t get a tattoo until your at
least in your 20's ‘cause your mind changes all the time and it’s permanent. I thought having a cartoon character on my arm would be a good idea. Then I got into the
art of tattooing and it was a really bad idea. And I wish I could have chosen something else for the spot. I couldn’t be too choosey with covering it up because it had to
be something solid enough and something dark enough to be able to go over top of it and to cover it. My last one was a Japanese kanji on my spine that I just got in
Japan. For child for my daughter.
Dave: Its good, I mean all the barriers seem to break down. Seemed like once Nickelback hit the flood gates kinda opened and all of a sudden people started
recognizing all this Canadian talent we had for years but just nobody recognized it. So yeah its healthy, it’s going good. We got tons of great bands doing well in
Canada and in the States. It’s just good to see. It’s about time.
Katrina: What have you learned while touring?
Dave: I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve learnt how to be a better musician. I’ve learnt things. I’ve learnt not to use the water on the tour bus for brushing my teeth. I’ve learnt a lot
of things I usually wouldn’t think about unless it came up.
Katrina: Who were your musical influences growing up?
And have they changed?
Dave: I still have a lot of the same influences that I had growing up. When I started listening to music, I started listening to Iron Maiden and Metallica and the first cd
that I bought was Alice Cooper “Killers”. Actually it was tape it wasn’t cd then. Then I bought Megadeath “So Far So Good So What”. Then I really started getting into
the glam scene. Motley Crue, Guns And Roses, Poison and stuff like that. Then I discovered the Chili Peppers and then that opened the doors to funk and from there
it just blossomed and became this entity to itself that it’s just music and good music. Any kind of music I’ll listen to. I don’t put boundaries on it all anymore.
Katrina: You said you liked Alice Cooper, did you get to meet him at the Junos?
Dave: I didn’t meet him at the Junos but I met him in Germany and I got to hang out on his bus and we talked about gold and all this kinda cool stuff. He’s gotta be
one of the coolest rock stars I’ve ever met. He’s a complete gentleman. Soft spoken, really nice guy, really intelligent man.
Katrina: Which artist would you like to tour or work with?
Dave: I’d love to work with the Chili Peppers. Even play one show with them would be great because they’re my all-time favorite band. There’s lots of people I’d like to
work with. I’d like to work with the Dust Brothers. I’d like to work with Rick Ruben. I’ve gotten to work with Butch Walker on this album which I was very stoked about
because I’m a big fan of his. I’ve gotten to work with Rick Prasher again which was great because I’m a big fan of a lot of the work he’s done and a lot of albums that
he’s recorded over the years. And my list could just go on and on and on. There’s so many great musicians and artists out there that I’d like to work with and that I’d
like to play with, hopefully I’ll have a long enough career to be able to fulfill those goals.
Katrina: How do you write your songs and where do you get your ideas from?
Dave: It usually starts with a guitar riff and all of us just get together and we get a rehearsal spot and just hash out ideas and then Dallas comes in and does the
lyrics. The inspiration for songs just our day to day life, stuff. We don’t really sing about a lot of hardships other than relationships because all of us had really good
upbringing’s, all of our families are all still together and nobody came from an abused family or anything like that. It’s just basically what we see happen to our friends
or us or whatever. Inspiration can come from anything. I get inspired by watching movies, a book that you read. My wife and I had a baby girl and I drew huge
inspiration from that. Just watching her grow everyday and learning and developing as a human being, it’s crazy inspiration.
Katrina: How old is she?
Dave: She just turned one.
Katrina: How does it feel to be away from her all the time?
Dave: It sucks really bad. Out of the year that she’s been on this earth, I’ve probably been around her about 3-4 months if that. So it sucks. Every time I come home I’
m wondering if she’s going to remember who I am. If she’s gonna play strange with me. I missed out on so many first things. But I try to keep positive and look on the
positive side of everything. That I’m doing what I love, that I’m making a living, I’m able to feed my daughter and if it wasn’t for this job, I probably wouldn’t have a
daughter and I’d be working some shit job, for no money and I wanted to have a house and the things that my parents gave me before I had kids.
Katrina: What’s your favorite venue to play?
Dave: There’s so many cool places that we played. I have to say Atlanta one of my ultimate favorite places to play. I love playing at all the House Of Blues. They’re all
very New Orleans type style. Very voodoo-ish and the vibe there is really cool. They treat you well, foods good. You know what you’re gonna get as far as the p.a.
and lighting system and all that stuff, those are great places to play. Those are probably my favorite.
Katrina: What’s your most embarrassing moment on stage?
What’s your most memorable?
Dave: My most embarrassing moment on stage, I’ve fallen a couple of times. That’s kind of embarrassing. Probably the most embarrassing was I went to jump on one
of the monitors, no wait I’ve got a better one then that. It was my birthday and Nickelback brought me out and sang happy birthday to me and gave me cake and all
that kind of stuff and the crowd sang happy birthday. And then the crowd wanted me to jump in so alright, here I come. Backed up, I ran and went to jump and it’s a
distance ‘cause we were playing an arena so I stopped. Got my bearings, backed up again, got a little bit more speed, I jumped out and I was like a hot knife through
butter. Nobody caught me. I hit the floor, buggered up my leg, right in front of everybody so yeah that was my most embarrassing. It hurt. And it’s not the first time it’s
happened to me either. It was even more embarrassing especially in front of my band-mates. They’re like ‘don’t you learn’. But it was compact it was an arena, there’s
so many people in that space I figured I’d get caught, but nope. My most memorable moment was in Atlanta probably when we played music midtown, and we were
headlining it and over 40,000 people showed up to an outdoor show. And it was something totally unexpected. And the crowd was electric. We played really well. It
was just one of those nights we’ll never ever forget that night. I think it’s probably everybody else’s memorable moment on stage. Just the electricity in the air was
amazing.
Katrina: What’s the craziest or nicest thing a fan has ever done for you?
Dave: I’ve gotten some nice gifts from fans. I had a couple fans in New York give me Mr. T memorabilia, ‘cause they know I’m a huge Mr. T fan. Chili Peppers
memorabilia, I had people give me clothes for my baby. A friend of mine, one of the nicest gifts I’ve gotten is from a guy by the name of Sketch Bailey and he’s an
artist. He drew a picture of my wife and it looks like a black and white photo. It’s the most gorgeous picture that I’ve ever seen. I got it up in my house. Love it.
Katrina: How do you pick your next single to hit radio stations?
Dave: A lot of that has to do with politics. It’s not really one of us deciding. We have our say about what we would like, doesn’t necessarily mean that’s gonna happen.
I would have like to have seen us start out with a heavier song rather then a mid-tempo song off this album.
Katrina: What song would you have picked then?
Dave: Myself I would have probably picked “Who Followed Who”. I would have liked to come out with something completely different and off the wall and so un-
Default to do. Make people turn their heads and go ‘Oh yeah, shit these guys got a nut-sack on ‘em’. But instead we came out with a mid-tempo song. That was the
choice of, not me.
Katrina: Ever plan for “Who Followed Who” to hit the radio stations?
Dave: I don’t know. The next single that’s coming out is “All That She Wrote” and I guess it all depends on how well that does. If the record company decides to put
out another single to follow that up while we’re in the studio or whatever. It would be nice to end off with a heavier song again.
Katrina: What’s your favorite song to perform?
Dave: My favorite song is probably “Sick And Tired”. And “Who Followed Who” is another one. And playing “Wasting My Time” just to see the reaction from that is
awesome because somehow we seem to touch a whole bunch of people with that song. So when the first chords to that song are played the crowed goes nuts. It’s a
cool feeling.
Katrina: How do you come up with the concepts for your videos?
Dave: It’s not really us who comes up with the concepts, we do our job by making the music and then we hand it over to people who write scripts for videos and that’s
what they’re job is and we get a bunch of people submit scripts and we choose which one we think’s gonna represent us the best.
Katrina: Which one was your favorite to do?
Dave: I really like the last one we just did for “Throw It All Away” ‘cause it wasn’t that boy-girl shit. It was more abstract. It didn’t have a story to it. It was just a cool
looking video. It was in black and white, which I find black and white is more timeless. That’s probably one of my most favorite. I really like the video for “Sick And
Tired” as well because it just kind of showed what the band’s all about, it was backstage stuff and live stuff from the beginning to the end and it had that Atlanta show
in it. It just put that whole album in previews. So when I watch it, it brings back lots of awsome memories for me.
Katrina: What advice can you give to other people who are wanting to create a band?
Dave: Work really hard. Don’t suck. And shit if I can do it anybody else can do it too. It doesn’t come to be really easy either, so if anybody is thinking that success is
an overnight thing, it’s not. We get asked all the time about the whole overnight success thing and sure it happened really fast for Default. Once it hit it really started
to hit but I’ve been doing this for over 10 years. I’ve busted my balls for it. I’ve worked shitty jobs after shitty jobs and paid my dues over and over again. And if you’re
not willing to work hard at it then go to school or work in a restaurant. Just don’t think this is going to come easy and fast.
Katrina: Who causes the most trouble in the group?
Dave: We’re all a bunch of douche bags. We all like to stir the pot. We’re all procrastinators, we all constantly argue with one another and it’s stupid things too. One
guy will say ‘Aw man the sky’s really blue today. No it’s not, it looks more green. No really its blue’. It’s just stupid. We’re like brothers, we fight over dumb things. We
play stupid pranks on one another. You gotta because you’d go crazy if you don’t. It’s like water off a duck’s back. You can’t let any of it affect you or get pissed off at
it. Because if you do take too many things to heart, it’s not gonna last all that long ‘cause you live in pretty small quarters and you’re with one another more than you’
re with anybody in your family, your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, roommates, whatever. We eat together, we’re in the bus. We all sleep in the bus. We work together so it’
s like we’re around each other 24/7 and months on end. We did 18 months on the last album and if you can’t let shit roll off your back, it’s gonna be the last tour you
do.
Katrina: What’s one thing you can’t tour without?
Dave: One thing I can’t live without, probably my cell phone. It’s one of those things that I thought I’d never ever have and ever want to have and never had a use for
before and I thought why get one now, I’ve lived so long without one and now that I have one, I’d be lost without it. It’s nice when you’re out on the road for months on
end, if you’re feeling lonely, pick up the phone and call somebody you love and ‘cause you sure can’t go home from a crappy day at work and get a hug from your
girlfriend or in my case my wife. That’s probably the most essential. That and having the ps2 out, it’s pretty good too.
Katrina: How many tattoos do you have?
Dave: I’ve lost count. I’m covered except from the waist down. I don’t have anything there yet but I plan on getting some. Hopefully when I go to Hawaii, I wanna get
the traditional style done with the bamboo it’s like tap and needle type stuff. That’s what I’d like to get, some kind of Hawaiian flower or something like that.
Katrina: What was your first tattoo?
Dave: It was Marvin the martian playing a bass and it’s now covered up. Because I was young and stupid and another word of advice is don’t get a tattoo until your at
least in your 20's ‘cause your mind changes all the time and it’s permanent. I thought having a cartoon character on my arm would be a good idea. Then I got into the
art of tattooing and it was a really bad idea. And I wish I could have chosen something else for the spot. I couldn’t be too choosey with covering it up because it had to
be something solid enough and something dark enough to be able to go over top of it and to cover it. My last one was a Japanese kanji on my spine that I just got in
Japan. For child for my daughter.
