PRONG Mainman Talks About New Material, Split With DANZIG

Abrasive Rock recently conducted an interview with PRONG mainman Tommy Victor. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Abrasive Rock: You had some recent band member changes. First off, why did Dan [Laudo, drums] leave?

Tommy Victor: "It was sort of a mutual thing. We'd been working on material for two years now and I just thought the progress was kind of slow. We are approaching some more technical parts and we're trying to up the dose a little bit, and stylistically we felt that it wasn't the right chemistry. Between all of us, he was not into what the demands of the new parts and the new direction a little bit, so he just wasn't feeling it."

Abrasive Rock: Who is [the new drummer], and how'd you hook up with him?

Tommy Victor: "There was Aaron Rossi. Monte [Pittman, guitar] was actually playing with him in another project. He's been around. He was in STRIFE, and in SHELTER, just played on JOHN 5's solo record. The guy's amazing, a really killer drummer. We just did a show here in L.A., Saturday night, House of Blues, and it went over really well."

Abrasive Rock: You recently left the DANZIG band.

Tommy Victor: "We don't know what's going on with that yet. I don't know yet. Glenn and I had a little tiff, and we've known each other for so long, but regardless of whether I go back now, or whatever, we're planning to kiss and make up right now. But I don't know yet. I don't know how pissed off at me he is right now. Eventually — this has happened before — eventually we'll continue or relationship somehow. I hope. But you may find me on that tour for a month. I don't know. We'll see."

Abrasive Rock: Would you be able to go into what caused the rift?

Tommy Victor: "I could just tell my part, which is I was getting significantly cranky on the last tour. I was just sort of in a… I don't know why, if it was astrological, or some personal issues, some financial worries that made me kind of difficult. So that's pretty much… I could tell you [I was] a little bit cranky . . . on the last tour."

Abrasive Rock: You guys recently, through the MySpace page, recently posted a new song called "Looking for Them". How has the reaction been to it so far?

Tommy Victor: "Very, very good, man. I would be the first person to say if it wasn't a great response, but I've heard nothing but good things. It's one of those songs that I had no doubts about, my confidence level on that. Again, we've been working on material for quite a while. Out of the batch of ten that we had from that era, or those two years, two songs survived. One of them being 'Looking for Them', the other one called 'Worst of It'. That one's being kept, too. We have right now five new songs that we're performing live. We just did the other day at two of the shows. One is called 'Salvation Taking Its Toll', which is written by me, Ted Parsons, and Raven, that didn't make it on the 'Rude Awakening' record that we're redoing. Then there's another song called 'Third Option', which went over fantastic the other night. There's a song called 'Disregard the Truth'. So that makes it five I believe, if I count it now."

Abrasive Rock: So what's the goal release date for the new album?

Tommy Victor: "Oh, man, as soon as possible. But there's two ways of doing this. I could hold out, wait until I get a somewhat decent recent record deal, or try to get some funds together and do the recording ourselves and sell it, license it. But that has to be decided first. I'd like it to be — I think we're ready. Once you get the first five, the rest of them are more acceptable. Once you've got something… we're not going to beat a dead horse and demo for another two years to get another five songs and be totally anal about it. We're close. Maybe as far as numerically being halfway there, yes we're halfway, but in essence we're real close. That's how I feel about it right now."

Abrasive Rock: What can fans look forward to on this upcoming album that maybe was missing on "Scorpio Rising"?

Tommy Victor: "A lot more Tommy Victor guitar playing, a la 'Cleansing' era, but modernized a bit. It's a lot more, I don't want to say complex or anything, but more recognizably PRONG on that end. But like 'Rude Awakening' was ultra-simplified. This is like 'Cleansing', but like plus, I think. It's more, within a song structure it does have some more brutal riffs, more challenging, extra tempos. More metal, but not necessarily with the metal attitude. It still has a little bit of, I hate to say alternative metal, but PRONG will always have that tinge in it. I just think right now… and lyrically it's pretty strong, too. It definitely returns a lot more to 'Cleansing', I think. That's what I've heard. That's what people are saying."

Read the entire interview at AbrasiveRock.com.