ERIC BLOOM & BUCK DHARMA
Blue Öyster Cult veterans return with several celebratory live sets
What film could your latest album soundtrack?
Eric Bloom: For The Symbol Remains, the silent Nosferatu.
Have you done anything that fans may not know about?
EB: Commercials, including Pepsi (Catch That Pepsi Spirit), AT&T (Reach Out). I collaborated with ex-billy Joel saxist, Richie Cannata, and almost got a deal with Columbia, 1980. Where the tapes are? Unknown. I offered to produce
Poison Dollies, a New York-based all-girl band, but, after one rehearsal, nothing came of it.
Is there anything else still unissued?
EB: A cassette of my college bar band, Lost And Found, in 1967. Four songs, including an original by Peter Haviland. We were mostly students at Hobart College, Geneva, New
York, and recorded reel-to-reel.
With whom would you like to make a split 7”?
EB: Ex-members of Thin Lizzy, Hoodoo Gurus.
Who’d you like to remix?
EB: I was recently listening to a 60s Moody Blues album. Could you make it sound better? Sure. But then it’d lose something.
Would you re-sequence any of your own albums, given the chance?
Buck Dharma: Yes. The Symbol Remains. I’d move Secret Road to the second song. It’s at the back of a 14-song sequence and has gotten lost.
Would you change any of your artwork?
BD: Heaven Forbid. An awful cover, the result of miscommunication with the artist, delayed delivery, and no time to fix a botched concept and execution.
Was anyone in your family a musician?
EB: I’m told my older sister took accordion as a girl.
BD: My dad, R Donald Roeser, was a semi-pro sax, clarinet and flute player. He played most weekends, in addition to his day job.
When did you first hear one of your songs on vinyl?
EB: A friend knew a DJ in Manhattan and got him to play Cities On Flame, in 1972. We huddled round a car radio.
What were your first records? EB: Ray Charles Greatest Hits, Dave Brubeck Time Out.
BD: The Ventures’ Walk, Don’t
Run, in 1960.
What’s the last album that you bought?
BD: Chris Cornell Higher Truth LP. What fact about you may surprise fans?
EB: I’m an inveterate video-gamer and used to write articles for video game magazines. I played World Of Warcraft for years, plus Diablo, and currently it’s Star Trek Fleet Command and Return Of Shadow. What records that you own might surprise fans?
EB: Return To Forever.
Were any of your songs written in an unusual way?
BD: Godzilla was begun in a hotel room in Dallas, while most that I’ve written were at home or in studios. Which of your lyrics would you like to see on a T-shirt?
BD: “History shows again and again, how nature points up the folly of men”.
Of all the people that you’ve worked with, who taught you the most?
BD: Record producer/engineer Martin Birch taught me a great deal about the recording process and related skills.
What unfulfilled ambitions do you have?
EB: I wanted to be a pilot, but my family read me the Riot Act. I went to Skip Barber’s race car school instead and learned I’ll never be a pro.
If you drove an ice cream van, what’d it play?
BD: Manu Dibango’s Soul Makoosa. It sweeps you away and makes you dance.
Blue Öyster Cult 50th Anniversary Live First Night 2CD, BD, 3LP are on Frontiers, 8 December.