Before the tape was switched on, I asked Kasim if he has any solo gigs booked but he said that he was unable to book anything as Meat Loaf’s plans kept changing. I also asked him about his DVD but that has also had to be postponed due to his work with Meat Loaf. He said that he’s started writing some songs and he has a new computer because he plans to write in his hotel rooms on the road. Another intention he has is to add some new music to KasimSulton.com the first week in August.
This is the (almost) unedited version of the interview with the questions in the order that they were asked
| Do you honestly think that Utopia will ever reform? |
| No......no, I think that even if it did it wouldn't live up to what people's idea of it was. I've really thought about this and my idea is that it's like an old girlfriend or a boyfriend. You can remember a time in your life when you had so much love for them and it was the best thing that ever happened to you. And then life changes and you become different in some ways....the same person but different. The only thing you have in your mind are the memories of that situation and the only things that you can remember are the good things about it. And sometimes those memories are better than having that back again because in the case of a boyfriend or a girlfriend you could be reunited and it could be the best thing ever or you could be reunited and it could be a nightmare and you would realise that you were never meant for each other. It's kinda hard to put it in the context of the band but my feeling is that some things are better left alone and I think that in this case it’s better to have great memories and great feelings about that particular band and the time that we were together and the music that we played than could ever be matched with us getting back together again. Because I think that if we did get back together again, in some way it would fall short…..it just wouldn’t have the magic that it had back then. And I think that’s what made it so special….the chemistry between the four of us and what was happening in the world then, the music that was important to people and where we fitted in. While some people struggle to get their past back, I don’t think that it would be such a good idea. |
| Do you regret that you did the Redux tour? |
| No…..no that was okay because that was only 7 years after we had broken up so there wasn’t a whole lot of time for it to be stale. Besides which we only did one gig in the United States and then maybe 6 or 7 in Japan so it really wasn’t a very big reunion. I mean I still talk to Todd about it - when I do talk to him I say that wouldn’t it be great to get back together again and I think he’s a little bit more circumspect about whether or not it would be a good idea. And the older I get the more I come around to his way of thinking that it might not be such a good idea …… it might be better to let it be what it was instead of what it could be. |
| Do you speak much to Todd, Willie and Roger? |
| I don’t speak to Roger at all…just because we travel in different circles. I speak to Willie regularly and I speak to Todd once every 6 months. Willie and I have always been close, when we were in the band together and now later, so I speak to him a lot. But Todd has been busy with his solo stuff and Roger works for Macintosh. |
| Do you know what you’re going to play in your set for this coming tour? |
| I have no idea! I don’t want to do what I did last tour but I don’t have new material so I’m open to suggestions! I haven’t even had a chance to rehearse anything by myself but that is really just me sitting around with a guitar figuring out what I want to play. |
| Does that mean that you won’t be having the band play with you? |
| I think that right now I’m not going to as there’s just too much other stuff that we needed to learn and to be concentrating on rather than my own stuff. It’s a totally new show with Meat Loaf. It’s an extremely theatrical show, there’s a lot of new stuff going on that we’ve never done before….new songs and new arrangements so it would be a little bit presumptuous of me get the guys to learn three new Kasim songs for my set! |
| Is there a set list for the tour or is it what Meat Loaf feels like on the night? |
| We learnt 20 songs and arrangements. Meat Loaf kept calling me each day with a different song to learn and in the end we’d learnt 20 songs so I said that we had to start the show now or we won’t be done by Christmas! Normally we do 11 or 12 songs in the show and that’s a 2 hour 45 minute show so we’ve learnt double the number that we need. |
| How much input do you have in the arrangements of the songs on stage? |
| I have a lot of input. Before Meat comes into the rehearsals the arrangements are what I want them to be. I think that after this long working with him, I have a pretty good idea of what he wants. I’m a pretty good judge of what’s going to work for him and what’s not. And then he comes in and makes a few changes here and there but the closer I get it to the way he wants to hear it before he comes in makes it easier for him to concentrate on other stuff. |
| What’s your favourite track on Quid Pro Quo? |
| (A long silence) That’s a really tough question…..I don’t know that I have one. If I had to pick I’d probably have to say Goodbye. |
| That was the track that you had the most trouble with, wasn’t it? |
| Yeah, that was the hardest one for me. It took the longest to finish and yet it was probably written before any of them, except for Don’t Hold Me Back. That song has been around for a good three years in various stages of undress. It was one of those songs where I had an idea for it and I liked the initial feeling that I got for it but I could just never finish it. I had the music written, I had the melody in my head but I couldn’t get a decent enough lyric for it so I rewrote it a couple of times, someone else came in and wrote lyrics for it, I tried to finish it with Bob Burger from New Jersey, I tried to finish it with Glen Burtnik (Glen wrote a verse or something) and then I sent a copy of it to Eric Brazilian from the Hooters (he wrote Time After Time and True Colors for Cyndi Lauper). He didn’t really write anything for it but he told me that it was good and to follow my instincts. Eventually I just said that I’m just going to finish it and whatever happens, happens. However it comes out is how it’s supposed to be. Because I used a different instrument on it (it has a dulcimer on it), it has some cool quirky sounds on it so I like it! It’s not a great song by any means - it’s a good song but it just means something to me because it took so long to be realised. I guess that’s why it has sentimental value. |
| How do you write a song? Do you have the lyrics or the music first? |
| I vacillate between a couple of ways. Sometimes I’ll have a title in mind and that will make me think of a song. Sometimes I might just read something in a book that makes me want to write about it. Sometimes I’ll have a chord change - I’ll have that one chord change that makes me feel a certain way and that makes me continue that idea. It’s usually a series of ideas that will come out in various forms - that either come out in music, lyrics or melody. Melody not so much as to me that’s something that remains in a constant state of flux, even after I’ve finished writing and recording a song, I can still change a melody. It’s much harder for me to go back make a chord change, usually chord changes are set in stone. I have the biggest problem with lyrics - once I get a decent enough lyric, I usually stick to it. |
| Recently on one of the messageboards some fans were saying about which songs mean a lot to them and a lot of them mentioned Sacrifice. How did you come to write that song? |
| I think it kinda sums up where I am in life really. It’s about making choices and living with them and moving on. Sometimes you sacrifice one thing in order to get another. I’ve always thought that, for example, I’ve always had a deep respect for a very good lyric - my favourite lyricist of all time is Todd. He’s a brilliant lyricist. But he doesn’t work well with others, isn’t easy to get along with….or at least he used to be, he’s a little easier these days. It’s easy to mistake his cynicism and wit for being condescending when that’s just the way he is. And I always thought that he was blessed and cursed at the same time. He was blessed with this amazing ability to turn a lyric, to be able to write a song that thousands of people can say “that’s how I feel” but, at the same time, he can put people off just by the way he is as a person. But he’s fine with himself, I’m sure. |
| Do you think of Todd as a genius? |
| Well, they say “Genius creates and talent delivers”. I don’t like to use the word “genius” - Thomas Edison was a genius, Albert Einstein was a genius, Michelangelo was a genius. Todd Rundgren a genius?? He’s a very smart man, extremely talented. Genius? I don’t know that I would be so flip with that word. |
| How do you feel about We The People being associated with 9/11? |
| Well, that song was written before 9/11. I wish it wasn’t so trendy to have written a song that speaks to a bigger cause. Like right after 9/11, everybody wrote We The People….even the guy who runs the local deli would write a song like “Lest We Forget Our Fallen Heroes” or something like that. It was just something that people felt that they had to do to show their appreciation or their love for their country and the people who had lost their lives. So I just wish that I could have got a little bit more exposure for it. It was a good song….maybe it took a little long to get to the point but I like it. |
| So what did you actually write it about? |
| I didn’t have much to do with the lyrics. I made some changes here and there but, for the most part, the lyrics were written by the wife of the husband and wife team George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam. Shannon wrote the lyrics. When I first heard the song, I think it was September 2000 (a year before 9/11) and we were going into the election. We were trying to write a song for Meat Loaf so it had to be big, it had to be pompous, it had to be long and it had to have a lot of stuff in it! So they sent me the idea and I kinda finished it and then sent them back what I heard for the song. That was when Bush and Gore started getting into the fighting match for Florida and then we thought “oh my God - this is so perfect. We’ve got to get this song out!” except that I think that by that point Meat had already heard it and turned it down. But we just never managed to get the right people interested….so it ended up on my record! |
| Whatever happened to I Will Wait, Maybe I Could Change and Afraid Himself To Be? Did you ever think about putting them on your album? |
| I didn’t want to do another cover song. I wanted to put Remember on and I really wanted Where Is My Soul on the record. I felt that I could always do I Will Wait - that’s always going to be my song, there was no rushing that. Maybe I Could Change is a really tough song to sing and I wasn’t doing it live at the time either. I really wanted to do stuff that I at least made an attempt to play live. I tried Where Is My Soul once and it didn’t work. Most of the other songs on the album I play on stage |
| How did you record the songs on Quid Pro Quo? Do you do the music first and then the vocals? |
| I did all the music first and somewhere along the line, I would record a vocal because it was important not to have the music dictate what the vocal would be as that’s the most important thing on any record that has a singer. So I had to make sure that the vocal worked with what was already down. Sometimes after I had recorded a vocal I would realise that it didn’t go with that instrument or this instrument - I would either have to remove the instruments or change the vocal. I really didn’t want to change any vocal work that I do so I would keep what they call a scratch vocal on the tracks and then make sure that everything worked around that. I did a lot of stuff slowly in my basement and for the better part of a year I would work every day on at least one song for the record. I really didn’t tour much last year - I think I did about four and a half months out of the year with Meat so I had a full seven and a half months at home which for me is an anomaly so I would wake up on any given day, run my errands and then usually by 5 or 6 o’clock, I’d be in my basement working on my record. |
| Did you complete one song and then move onto the next? |
| No, I did bits and pieces all over the place. You see my process is SO slow. When you’re doing it by yourself you’re constantly second guessing (or at least I am). Is this okay? Does this sound right? I’m working at a disadvantage in that I don’t have a million dollars worth of recording equipment just to make things sound the best so I really have to take my time and ensure that what I’m doing is sonically correct as well as musically correct. For instance the guitar on Where Is My Soul took me about 4 or 5 days to do because I would record it one day and I’d use a particular microphone and a guitar and then I’d listen to it the next day and I’d think that it didn’t sound right (it’s not warm enough or it’s too brittle) and then I’d set up another guitar and a microphone and I’d try it with that and then listen back to it. And then I might decide to blend the two together and then I’d record it one more time. And then, on top of that, it’s the performance too! I want to get a good performance down so I would be taking anything from 4 to 6 hours to get the correct performance. I’d just keep doing it over and over and over again. |
| Do you sing the whole song or take a bit from one recording and a bit from another? |
| Usually what I do is I sing the song maybe about 6 or 8 times all the way through and record each one and then I go back and I decide that I like a particular line on a certain track and then I lose it ….I go flat or I sing sharp or I make a mistake. So then I go to another track and see if I can find a good one on that. And then after I put together the whole song like that, I try and best that again so then I have track or 7 or 8 vocals that I’ve comped together (they call it comping) that make one complete vocal. And then I sing it again at least one or two times and then I make the decision about whether I keep what I’ve comped, if I use that or parts of that. Plus by then I’m comfortable singing the song and I sing it a little bit. Usually I get the most crazy about trying to ad lib…trying to do the who,who,wohs and the yeah, yeah, yeahs! I’m not a big yeah, yeah, yeah guy! |
| Do you take special care of your voice in any way? |
| I’d like to say yeah but I’m really bad. No, because I smoke which is crazy! That’s the worst thing in the world for me. |
| What’s your first ever memory? |
| We lived in Brooklyn in a huge old Victorian house in what is now the Marlborough Project on Coney Island. We lived right behind Lincoln High School. That was about 1960 and I just remember the backyard of that house and that there was a scrap yard behind us and my Mom had a cat called Tiger! There was a piano that someone had thrown away that was broken into pieces and I was fascinated with the inner workings of it. |
| Where you brought up in a particularly musical family? |
| No. My Dad played the guitar a little bit. He bought a guitar around the time that I was born. He had this guitar made for him by someone in Brooklyn on Atlantic Avenue - his son makes guitars there now. He paid $150 for the guitar that he paid in instalments. He left the guitar to my brother who still has it. |
| Where was your first ever Utopia gig? |
| I think it was in Binghamton, NY. I remember having to take an aeroplane - I’d never been on a plane before! We were flying from Kingston in upstate New York to Binghamton in two small 4 seater propeller planes. I had a woman pilot and there was a hole in the floor of the plane, plus she had a cigarette and she seemed a little tipsy and it was a rough ride so I was terrified! I think we played about 5 or 6 gigs in the Tri-state Ohio area and then we came right over to Europe and we played places like Groningen and Antwerp and The Old Vic Theatre in London and then we did Knebworth right after that. I remember only being in the band for about 6 months before we played Knebworth. We played two weekends….one with the Rolling Stones and the following weekend with Led Zeppelin. |
| Where was your first Meat Loaf gig? |
| That was a tiny club in Providence with a very low ceiling that was about 110 degrees in there. I was playing the keyboards and the guitar and I was REALLY nervous. That was the gig that when we came off stage Meat Loaf collapsed and I was convinced that it was all over! I’m freaking out backstage saying that someone had better get a paramedic or some oxygen and everyone else was stepping over him saying “Good show Meat - see you tomorrow”! |
| How did you get to tour with Meat? |
| I was on tour with Hall and Oates in Sydney, Australia and Meat Loaf was there on a promotional tour for some softball event. We were both staying at the same hotel so I was having breakfast one morning when I saw Leslie there. I hadn’t seen Leslie in about 10 years so we started chatting. So Meat came down for breakfast (he was a little different back then - he was the mysterious Meat Loaf - he didn’t talk a lot) so we talked too and he told me that they were doing a new record, that they hadn’t done the background vocals yet and that they were thinking of getting Todd in so I said that if you use Todd, you HAVE to use me! It was just before we did the Redux tour that we got the call from Jim Steinman to do the background vocals for Bat 2 so we did it up in Woodstock…me, Todd and Rory Dodd. So we went to Japan and did the tour and then for about the next year, I was floating in and out of jobs, looking for some kind of steady work. Out of the clear blue my phone rang and it’s Meat Loaf. He said that he was about to put a band together and he needed a utility guy - someone to play keyboards, a little bit of guitar but most importantly to sing background vocals. So I said that I would love to do it….let me check my schedule, yeah I’m free! So I auditioned - I’d known Meat since 1976 as I was there when he came up to Woodstock. I’ve known Leslie longer though. It worked out well though as this is the longest that I’ve been in any one band. This past June was 10 years! |
| Do you prefer touring or recording? |
| I guess that for me one is so entwined with the other when you’re working in a band…..you record to tour to record to tour. I think I’m generally enamoured with both. I don’t have any plans to give up the touring - I don’t want to but the business has changed SO very much over the past few years. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for people like me to maintain some kind of visibility in the touring aspect of it. There’s always someone to tour with though - I’m sure that I could always find some band and go out with them. I just dread the onus of having to do weddings one day. I know that some people do it and it’s fine for them and I respect them for it but I just don’t want to do it - I’d rather be destitute! |
| What’s the worse part about touring? |
| The worst part is about two weeks into it for me anyway. That’s when I think “Why am I doing this to myself? Why do I have to pack? And unpack? And get in the bus and get out of the bus after trying to sleep feeling like I’ve been beat up?”! |
| Why after two weeks? |
| I don’t know! There’s a two week wall and once I hit it I convince myself that I’ll never tour again and then a week later I’m like I’m a new man! |
| How do you pronounce your name? |
| It depends on how lazy I am! If I’m trying to teach someone my name I’ll say it correctly - I’ll say “Kas_im”. If I’m lazy I’ll say “Kasum”. |
| What about your surname? Do you stress the “O”? |
| I do! But why does everyone think it’s an “A”?!! I don’t understand that! |
| Does it bug you when people write it like that? I know some of your fans don’t like it. |
| Yeah it bugs me to no end! It upsets me! |
| What kind of music do you listen to? |
| I don’t listen to a lot of music but I’ll listen to stuff that I like. A while back I was on a big Jennifer Kimball kick. I think she’s absolutely fantastic. She was part of a band called The Story who were out in the mid 90s - it was 2 girls Jonatha Brooks and Jennifer Kimball. You can hear Jonatha Brooks on radio commercials all the time, she’s got a very distinctive voice. Jennifer writes really, really cool songs so I was listening to her CD for a while. |
| Do you ever listen to classical music? |
| Yes, I’m a Mozart fan…..Mozart, Strauss and Liszt are my favourites, except sometimes it’s hard to get past the depressing Liszt stuff. |
| If you had a choice, who would you most like to record with? |
| Michael MacDonald - I think he’s so cool. |
| What would you say was the highlight of your career? |
| I don’t think I’ve reached it yet! I think that I have to believe that there is something better for me out there, waiting to happen….and hopefully I’ll get there before I’m too old! |
| What was the biggest regret of your career? |
| Not realizing what I had until it was gone - the whole Utopia years. I took in all for granted. I had a hard time while I was doing it and now I miss it terribly. I had a hard time because I thought the business was run incorrectly…..that I was being manipulated and put upon. |
| Within the band? |
| Yes, within the band and business-wise. It was becoming increasingly difficult for me to get ideas across, yet and when I did have an idea, it was a good idea. I just never got a lot of credit for it. Although now I think that a lot of fans have come to appreciate my contribution to the band. |
| Was it because you were the youngest in the band? |
| It was absolutely because I was the youngest and I had the least amount of experience and therefore I got listened to the least and therefore I rebelled the most. I would come 4 hours late for a recording session - they would all be waiting for me. I did it a lot. I drove them nuts because they drove me nuts! That was my only way to retaliate - my only was to be rebellious and the problem child. And now I regret it, although I did learn from it - it was a valuable learning experience. Now looking back, there were so many good things about the band….so many things that should have been appreciated instead of being discounted. |
| What went wrong with the first time that you tried your solo career? |
| I don’t think that I was ready. I think that as much as I had a hard time with my first producer Roy Thomas Baker…I had a hard time with what he had said to me in the studio and what he said about my material but he was right. He was really correct in his valuation that I didn’t have enough songs. That I wasn’t ready. The whole time I was in the studio I was more interested in the fact that I had a solo deal, that I had Roy Thomas Baker producing my record, that I had a $150,000 record budget, I had a Mercedes Benz that I was touring around in around Los Angeles, that I was staying at the Sunset Marquee…I was more interested in what I had, in the peripheral in what brought me to that point and I didn’t concentrate on what I was doing. I concentrated more on what I had than what I was doing. I was 24 years old….I was more about “look at me - I’m an international jet setting pop star” - that was all that counted. What I had to offer didn’t matter as much as what I was trying to project. It was more important that I act the part rather than be the part. |
| How do you do that thing when you guess children’s ages? |
| You know it’s the same thing as The Price Is Right - without fail, at the end of the show when they do the showcase showdown, I can come within $2,000 of the final price! It’s something that I just do naturally. For instance if someone tells me that I can’t guess how much they paid for something, I’ll nail it spot on. |
| How much do you look at the messageboards on the Internet? |
| Not as much as I should….and not very much in the part month as I’ve been so busy with Meat Loaf. I’ve been at rehearsal from noon until 9 o’clock at night and then working back at home until 2 o’clock in the morning - I’ve barely had enough time to breath….and that’s been since May 1st so I really haven’t had time to pursue the messageboards. |
| Generally do you look at them? |
| Yes I do, the KasimSulton.com and the KasimInfo.com boards. |
| Tea or coffee - which do you prefer? |
| Coffee in the morning and tea at night. Never iced tea. |
| How do you feel about being an idol? |
| I don’t see myself as one - I don’t know that I’m idolized. I mean I appreciate people thinking that much about me but I don’t see myself like that. I don’t know that I’m worthy of such a lofty label….I’m just a guy…..I’m just a musician…I love what I do and I appreciate that other people like what I do and that’s all that matters to me. Maybe if I have something to say that other people can relate to, then that’s great. |
| Which books have you read recently? |
| I just read a great book on Pontius Pilot and how his life was SO entwined with Jesus Christ, if you subscribe to the theory that there was a guy called Jesus who was around 2,000 years ago….how their lives were enmeshed since the time that they were born….that there had to be a Pontius Pilot in order for there to be a Jesus Christ. It was fascinating book. I just read another great book called 'Erasure' by Everett Pinkton - it’s about a research novelist who is thoroughly disgusted with pop culture and the ability of people to write and produce absolute dreck for them to become widely successful and hugely famous that he writes his own piece of dreck that becomes successful behind his wildest dreams so that it consumes him. |
| How do you chose what you read? |
| By the cover! I always chose a book by the cover! Usually if I pick something up and I read the dustcover, if it strikes my interest, I’ll buy it. I don’t particularly like a lot of fiction and I don’t like horror. I used to be a big spy fan - I was a huge Tom Clancy fan….James Cavell….Robert Ludlum…..but not so much now. I enjoy biographies now. |
| How much of a democracy was Utopia? |
| In theory or in practice?! No…it was Todd’s band. |
| Who decided which songs you would sing on stage? |
| That was more or less a democratic process but stuff like album artwork wasn’t really very democratic….Todd would come up with the concept of any given record. He would say that we’re going to play these kind of songs on this record. More often than not he would come up with a touring concept. It was his idea to do the Back To The Bars and The Beatles Tour. He really did a lot of the visual endeavour and a lot of the creative stuff was him….we kinda just followed…lambs to the slaughter! |
| When Utopia wrote a song together how did you accomplish it? |
| What would invariably happen on more than half of the records that we did together was that we would come off the road, we would have maybe a month or two off and then it would be time to record a new record and we’d set a date. So on that date we’d meet at Todd’s house and Todd would have 5 songs written already and he’d say that this is what we’re doing! And then he’d play us the songs and we’d say that that’s half the record written so all we have to do now is to write the other half! On one hand I think that he wanted us to say that but on the other hand, as much as he wouldn’t have liked it, I think he wanted us to only accept two of those songs and reject the others. But we were so afraid of him and of his track record - he was the only one in the band with a proven track record (at that stage he had already produced hugely successful records by The Band, Grand Funk and Bad Finger) and he himself was famous - that we were really holding onto his coattails. Plus he had such a strong personality that it was hard to butt heads with him. And if you did, he would make life miserable so it was easier to go along than to try to force your own ideas against stuff that he felt so strongly about. But I think that in the end that was what really killed the band……he just didn’t want to do it any other way but his way. |
| Was it really the band belonging to Todd Rundgren? |
| We tried SO hard to make it Utopia. We would beg him to do the kind of record that was expected of us …….that people really wanted to hear. In the end, people wanted whatever we gave them because they could always find something good in what our records turned out to be. The biggest example was what followed up Adventures In Utopia - the follow-up was a disaster …….. and Todd knew - he knew exactly what he was doing. That it wasn’t going to be a very big record and that it was a mistake to make that kind of record but I don’t think that he wanted the band to be very successful. I think it wanted it to be this kind of quirky side-project ….to keep it in it’s own place and not let it get too big so that he had room to do other things. He was never about doing one thing and one thing only. He was always about producing this artist, producing his own solo records, Utopia, the video studio, writing for someone else and so on. So it was a constant battle for his time. |
| Do you ever think about what Utopia could have been? |
| To think that is to be unhappy with what it was and I’m not. It was what it was and it was great. It afforded me a career. I’m working today because of Utopia. I still get recognition today through the work I did with Utopia. Just recently we were in pre-production for the Meat tour and someone who worked at the production facility came up to me and said that he was honoured to meet me because Utopia was his favourite band. I think that’s why I answer all my own e-mail - if people take the time to write to me to say how much the band meant to them and all the songs and tours that we did, then I want to acknowledge my appreciation to them too. |
| Which guitars are you using at the moment for your solo music? |
| I just got a new one - it’s the same model as the electric acoustic that I’ve been using but it’s a cherry burst color (orange with red around the edge). |
| How many guitars do you have? |
| I have about 50. |
| In a “separate storage facility”?! |
| Yes! In my separate storage facility in the desert …..in Area 51! |
| How much do you know about the Meat Loaf tour in advance? Do you know for example where you’ll be playing on a certain day? |
| I do now - I didn’t until last week. Before that I would check KasimInfo.com to find out where I was going to be! People would tell me that I’m going to be in my city on this date and I didn’t know that! They would then say that they’d seen it on KI.com so I’d tell them that if it’s on Sue’s site, then that’s where I’m going to be! Usually on tour I’ll only remind myself about a week in advance. I’m actually looking forward to getting to Atlanta and we have two days off in a pretty nice hotel so I can set my studio up and do some writing. |
| Do you have a lot of time off during the tour? |
| In this particular tour I’m busy a lot because there’s two new band members and it’s a bit more involved than the last couple of tours have been….since the StoryTellers Tour. StoryTellers was a tough tour not only because we had to be on stage for 3 hours ……although out of the three hours, if we actually played for one hour, it was a lot! On this tour there’s a lot more responsibility on me to make sure that the band is together. Renee Cologne who replaced Pearl is also playing guitar and keyboards in the band so I had to teach her the parts. We’re also using a lot more peripheral stuff on the tour that we haven’t done before….different equipment. When you see the beginning of the show,, you’ll be amazed - I’ll be on stage but you won’t know it’s me! |
| How much say do you have over who is in the band? |
| What I do is that I get a few names and then I select about 2-3 people from that and then usually Meat will make the final decision, although in this case, Meat wasn’t around so I chose. I picked Randy as he was head and shoulders above everyone else. With Renee there were two other possible but we wanted someone who could at least play a little guitar. |
| What do you think about people downloading music? |
| It’s so difficult to come to a conclusion about it because on one hand it’s here and there’s no getting around it. I think that the RIAA’s approach to prosecuting people that they catch downloading music is absolutely barbaric just because they can’t make it so that people can’t steal it. I think that for a minimal amount per track everybody could be happy. They can not decide on a way that everyone agrees on so everyone suffers. And I don’t see it getting any better. |
| How do you feel about people trading your music? |
| I think it’s great. I think that if you’re going to do that though that you at least buy a copy yourself and then send a few tracks to your friends. I would hope that at least five out of the ten people that you share it with would go out and buy one too and that they in turn would send it to another ten and so on. Because really when you come down to it, that’s how I make a living. |
| If you were sick, what would happen to the Meat shows? Are there contingency plans? |
| I don’t get sick! I would have to be extremely ill not to play. I think that if I was that ill that I couldn’t play, it would probably jeopardise the show. |
| You broke your foot when you were touring with Todd but what if that had been one of your hands? |
| Then I would have had to have been replaced. I would have begged Todd to have replaced me rather than cancel the tour. |
| Why did you chose to have the tattoo of a rose? |
| When I was 17 I so much wanted to fit in as I felt geeky and out of place in my own skin. Most of my friends had tattoos so one day in the summer 5 of us piled into a car and we drove to New Jersey. We went to Tony’s Tattoo’s Parlour on Route 35 in Neptune. We started looking at the patterns on the walls and I saw a tiny rose up on the wall (as I decided that it was best to go for something small). I opted to go first so I sat down on the chair and I pointed that I wanted it up on my shoulder but he started drawing it down on the bicep area. It hurt so bad! I can’t tell you how much it hurt! The other guys were asking if it hurt so through gritted teeth I was telling that that it didn’t. When the next guy sat down, he’d picked a massive design so when he found out how much it hurt, he really wanted to beat me up! Mine took about 15 minutes but his took at least an hour! |
| Do you have any hobbies? |
| I like working with wood. I just made two 7 foot long flower pots for the front of my house….they’re functional but nice. I’ve put up a couple of walls in my basement by myself. |
| Do you prefer bass or keyboards? |
| It depends on the gig. If I’m playing with someone like Hall and Oates, I’d much rather play bass than keyboards. I’m playing with Meat Loaf, I’d much rather play bass than keyboards. If I’m playing with my own band, I’d much rather play keyboards than bass because there’s more emotion in keyboards. |
| Do you get nervous before shows? |
| Before my own shows I do but not before Meat Loaf shows. I might get nervous before the first show of a tour in the sense that I hope everything goes okay, that the show as a whole goes well. |
| Will the shows on this tour be good? |
| Yeah they will. It’s put together well, the songs flow together well, Meat seems to be comfortable, there ‘s not a lot of room for talking within the songs. It should run like clockwork. |
| Can you tell the differences between the various audiences around the world? |
| Oh yes, the Americans are very staid…very much we’re here so impress us. The Germans are like “Meat Loaf is great” and the British are somewhere in between…they want to love him (and for the most part they do) but they’re not going to be fooled. |
| Will you be going out with your own band next tour? |
| I really want to. I really want to have a band, even if it’s only a small band but it depends on where I can play and if I can afford to pay people. |
| Are you thinking about trying to book some gigs before the end of the Meat tour? |
| Yes but I have at least until the Fall until I have to think about it but I can’t definitively start thinking about it until Meat Loaf decides on his plans. |
| How do you feel about your website? |
| Right now I’m kind of ambivalent about it because there’s nothing there….I haven’t put a new message up in 2 months….I haven’t checked my messageboard…I’ve been lax in my web duties. |
| How important is your website to you? |
| I think KasimInfo.com is more important to me than KasimSulton.com is! Really, I’m serious! It’s good for me to have my own site and I should have my own site but I think that mine should be more product-orientated than information orientated. Like this is where you can buy this, this is where you can hear this. We spoke about having a subscription site for downloading music but I’m shying away from that because of all the bad press over Todd. We’ll have to see what happens. |
| Any chance that you’re going to do a Tour Diary? |
| I don’t know! Do you think I should? Do you want it on your site? |
| I’d certainly read it and I know that loads of others will too! I think it should be on yours but do you have the time? |
| If I kept it brief I’d probably have time. I'll think about it. |
| What happened about the law case with Kirsten C. Ashley? |
| The final outcome was that she sued me for breach of contract in Nevada State Court and I in turn sued her in New York Federal Court for cyber privacy (using my name and likeness without my consent). She would have had to answer to the greater charge in a higher court so she agreed to drop her charges and I would drop mine. |
| So it only cost you your legal fees? |
| In the end it hardly cost me anything. In a way it was bitter-sweet. I don’t know that I would have had that kick in the behind if she hadn’t been around. It served a purpose but it’s a shame that it had to come out like that. |
| Are you looking for a new manager now? |
| I’m kinda looking. I’m disillusioned with a lot of people right now. I won’t name names but I’m disappointed with a lot of people that I was involved with on a business level for the past two years. |
| Can you manage without a manager? |
| I don’t see why not. |
| But will you actually do it or will you procrastinate? |
| No because I think that it will come to a certain point when it’s a necessity to do it….right now it would be a luxury. As much as I wanted to book a show before this particular tour, there was just no time. |
| When did you start songwriting? |
| When I was about 12. My first song was called Rambling Man and it was just a song that a 12 year old would have written. |
| How autobiographical are your songs? For example The One Sure Thing is about staying together and Before She Was Gone is about separating - is there a part of you in each of your songs? |
| Yes, I change my mind every 2 seconds and I reserve that right - different things make me happy at different times and different things affect me every second of the day and sometimes the same thing affects me differently the one time as it does the next so that’s why my songs vary so much. Except for something like We The People, there’s something in every song that I wrote that I’ve felt at some point. |
| How much care do you take about your appearance? |
| I’m nuts about it! It’s definitely important in my job although more and more it’s okay to look like a slob, to be unshaven and unkempt but that’s not me. I can’t walk out of my room like that. |
| One last question, do you have any message for your fans? |
| Yeah….stay tuned! |
(Photos by Frank Ciapanna)