DANKO JONES Wants To Be The Band That Accompanies A Good Time

By David E. Gehlke

The Canadian power trio DANKO JONES has long relied upon the core fundamentals of undeniably catchy songwriting and vigorous roadwork to help them lay claim to being one of rock's most consistently reliable units. It's practically a point of pride for the band's singer/guitarist namesake, who, along with co-founding bassist John "JC" Calabrese and longtime drummer Rich Knox, continues to crank out albums and tour at will when a vast swath of rockers and metallers are trying to adjust on the fly to less-than-favorable conditions that minimize returns. For DANKO JONES, there is no room for excuses. They just go out and do it.

The band released its 12th studio album, "Leo Rising", last fall. Accordingly, it's stocked with high-octane, memorable jaunts like "What You Need", "Hot Fox" and the fantastic "Everyday Is Saturday Night", serving as a reminder that while the world remains unpredictable, DANKO JONES can be counted upon to deliver a good time. It's why BLABBERMOUTH.NET found the time to catch up with Jones, who was kind enough to wax on his band's work habits, "Leo Rising" and his never-ending love for KISS.

Blabbermouth: DANKO JONES can be counted on to release an album every other year, then tour, then repeat the cycle. How committed are you to this approach?

Danko: "I don't think there's any time to overthink this. There's no time to rest on your laurels. Also, going the opposite way, if it doesn't do as well, just get back on the horse and put out something that will overshadow that. [Laughs] That's happened in the past. Practically speaking, this is what we do. I mean, this is our job, our occupation, career, whatever you want to call it. There needs to be a routine. I get asked this a lot, which makes me think: 'What are the other bands doing? Other than the A-list bands who have millions of records sold and millions of dollars in their bank accounts, what are the other bands like us doing? How are they able to take time off and not work on music and not go on tour if they haven't sold half a million copies of their records or half a million t-shirts from the merch table?' I don't know how bands don't have the luxury to do this. It's always been about the rent, man. Paying the rent. Of course, we have standards. We write songs to please ourselves first. That's a really high bar we have to reach. You're always more critical of yourself than anyone else. We have to reach those levels for the songs to make it onto the record, at least the ones that are good to our ears. Yeah, that's basically it. If we don't come up with a record now, we're not going to be able to tour. Let's write a fucking record now, and let's go on tour and keep paying the rent and keep food on the table. I say that as if we're at a desperate place, but we're not. It's more of a thing where that's what everyone does who has a job. Whether you work in a doctor's office or at a dry cleaner's. You have to work. That's always been the thing. I know that music is sometimes seen as, I don't see myself as an 'artist' because that comes with a lot of pretension. With that comes the luxury of taking time off, so I don't see myself as that kind of person. I just think of ourselves as we're locked into this sound. We know what we sound like. We like what we sound like. We're going to continue to sound like that because that's A, what got us into the party in the first place, and B, brought everyone to see us, and why the fuck would I want to drag anyone through some sort of experimental sound that we think everyone is going to love because we're amazing. No, we're going to keep playing the songs that got everyone into our band in the first place. Luckily, we like that sound. I love that sound, and I'll keep playing. I, personally, get entertained by it. It's not a hard thing to do."

Blabbermouth: Perhaps what people find admirable about your band is that none of this burns you out.

Danko: "Within those two years from album to album, we're able to take time off and rest up. There's definitely the hounds of hell nipping at our heels, going, 'If you guys don't make an album, in about two years, you're going to be feeling it.' There is a bit of that. I wouldn't go as far as to call it 'burnout,' but you have to pace yourself. I would say it's a matter of pacing yourself properly. It's just a mental game you play with yourself."

Blabbermouth: What's the meaning behind the "Leo Rising" album title? Are you a Leo?

Danko: "Yes, I am a Leo. Astrologically speaking, you can find the meaning in 'Leo Rising' because our first album title was 'Born A Lion'. That's my sun's sign. Then your rising sign is the sign on the cusp of your time of birth. That's how the world sees you, not necessarily your sun sign. Born a lion is your sun's sign; Leo is your rising sign. It's also our 12th album. There are 12 signs in the Zodiac and 12 months in a year. I don't know. It's a nice, neat number to use to bookend. Plus, the next album will be album 13 and in rock and roll, that's a magic number. It's still going to sound like our albums, but I don't know what it really means. I am a Leo, but I'm not a Leo rising. I'm a Pisces rising. I know my time of birth, so it was Pisces. That is how the world perceives you. When people meet me, I'm pretty quiet. I'm talking to you now because we're in the middle of an interview, but I usually keep to myself and am usually quiet. There is an astrological element to it, but also, if you don't believe in astrology, then it's a cool title as far as I'm concerned."

Blabbermouth: Do you find it necessary to write a "fun" record considering all that's going on in the world?

Danko: "Yes, but it wouldn't be the truth. I'm glad it's a fun record during these weird times. That helps, I guess, a band like ours. It's always been, not a mission, but we only wanted to be a band to accompany a good time. It just seems that as the world is headed to hell in a handbasket, the time is right for our band. [Laughs] Even if we were experiencing good times in the world, we would still be playing the same kind of music."

Blabbermouth: "Everyday Is Saturday Night" sort of encapsulates it all for you, doesn't it?

Danko: "It's a party anthem and is our follow-up to 'Good Time', which is on the last album. I always liken it to 'Good Time', every album we've tried to come up with a party anthem or an anthem like 'Rock And Roll All Nite', [KISS] where the chorus has a lyric that you can say over and over again, like 'We Are The Champions'. [QUEEN] I never thought we achieved it until 'Good Time', which is, 'I came here to fuck shit up and have a good time.' 'Everyday Is Saturday Night' is the follow-up to that, kind of like how KISS followed 'Rock And Roll All Nite' with 'Shout It Out Loud'. This is our 'Shout It Out Loud'. Even though it's meant to be an anthem, its beginnings or the roots of it are really what I'd say to people when I come off tour, and people are inviting me out. I would usually say something like, 'Look, your Tuesday night is my Saturday night. I just had 30 Saturday nights in a row. Every day has been Saturday night for me. I just want to be home and have some peace and quiet.' That's where that line comes from. In writing the album, I just took the line that I always say to people and put it in a song to make it a party anthem."

Blabbermouth: That goes back to what you were saying earlier: You like your quiet, even though you play in a rock band.

Danko: "I live in a building with senior citizens. They go to bed at eight thirty. It's really quiet. I don't know if you can hear, but someone is across the way mowing their lawn, but usually, it's really quiet. I don't mind it." [Laughs]

Blabbermouth: Do your fellow tenants know what you do for a living?

Danko: "No. They have no idea. [Laughs] Especially when I'm leaving or coming home from tour, I have a lot of gear, and I store it in a room here. They see me with all this stuff. They don't know."

Blabbermouth: What has made your current lineup the most enduring one yet?

Danko: "JC and I started the band. It's been the two of us for 29 years. Rich has been in the band the longest as a drummer. He's been with us since 2013. That's longer than most bands are around. We've been solid units coming up on 13 years. When Rich joined the band, we put out 'Fire Music'. That was the beginning of a different way of being in the band. It marked a great chemistry, like on and off the stage. We're actually able to get along off the stage, the three of us, which is really important, in any working environment, but especially in a band when it's always so tense. There are always too many cooks in the kitchen, and everyone needs to contribute their creative input. We're able to do this and have chemistry in that way. That's really important, and we get along, on and off the stage. Rich is the best drummer we've had, so that makes it easy. JC arranges all the songs. He sequences all the albums, and he writes all the setlists. People ask me, 'Hey, you should play this song.' I'm like, 'Yeah, maybe. It's not for me to decide.' [Laughs] 'Talk to JC.' At this point, he arranges all the songs. I'll come up with a riff, a few riffs and come up with a loose arrangement and send them to him, like this is the verse and the chorus. He'll send it back to me, and a lot of the time, maybe 40 or 50 percent of the time, he'll say, 'No, the chorus is the verse.'"

Blabbermouth: The "Diamond In The Rough" video is excellent, especially in light of Ace [Frehley] recently passing away. Do you want to go into KISS and what they mean to you?

Danko: "That was a bit weird because we put that video up a few days before he passed. It was weird timing. I guess it's become more of a tribute to Ace. The whole thing started with 'Diamond In The Rough' because we don't live in the same city, but we needed a video. Since that song is so early KISS-esque, JC thought of having a KISS cover band lip-sync it. Then I said, 'Well, if I dress up like the Phantom like the 'Phantom In The Park', we could do a parody of that made-for-TV movie.' In the bigger picture, KISS is definitely the first rock band that I was a fan of. I joined the KISS Army when I was six years old. I've been a fan ever since. I got a package in the mail from KISS, and when you're six years old, getting mail is a big deal. To get it from KISS made me a fan for life. The reason why I got the package was that my mom got tired of me bugging her to buy me a KISS album. She said, 'Pick one. I'll buy it for you.' I got her to buy me KISS 'Alive!'. On the back, in the earlier pressing, there was the KISS Army address. She said, 'If you write a letter. I'll send it in.' She did, and I got the package. I don't think it was a month later, but my dad threw it out. That's all I was doing, listening to the record. They were getting concerned. Plus, in the gatefold, there's this spread with the letters and sexual innuendos, and my parents didn't like it, which only made me a fan of not just KISS, but rock music, for life. They should have done the opposite. They should have let me listen to it until I got bored and tired of it. That didn't happen."

Blabbermouth: Then you'd become a banker.

Danko: "Yeah, if they had just let me get tired of it on my own: that was a traumatic event, man. My dad got so angry. He broke the KISS'Alive!' album over his knee. I will never forget it. That's a traumatic moment, but it made me a rock fan for life. It's like, 'Well, now I'm not going to listen to it.' Here we are today."

Blabbermouth: Going back to "Leo Rising", "Too Slick For Love" has a rockabilly flair. Where did that come from? Do those bands influence you?

Danko: "When we started our band, we were more of a garage punk band. That's more of a train song, like how we used to sound. Taking a cue from Hound Dog Taylor and his song 'Let's Get Funky'. We wrote, I don't know, how many songs based on 'Let's Get Funky'. We're writing our 12th album and haven't written a song like that in years. We did, and it turned out pretty cool. We put it on the record, but that's where it comes from. You're right to reference that, it's more of a callback to our beginnings as a garage punk band."

Blabbermouth: You'll hit 30 years as a band in 2026. Have you started to reflect on that? Will you do anything to celebrate?

Danko: "I think the 30-year mark is something that most bands will want to celebrate or publicize. In our band meetings, we've not had one discussion about it. I think the reason why is when we hit the 25th year, there were all these discussions about what we're going to do and put out this 25th anniversary thing, and when that year happened, nothing happened. [Laughs] I don't know, it didn't feel like anyone gave a shit. At the end of the year, we didn't give a shit. Now that we're hitting the next milestone, I don't want to celebrate it. We might mention it on Instagram, but past that, I think it's cooler just to go, 'Okay, let's just work on the next record.' As if it's our eighth year as a band. I think it will be more of a reminder that we're closer to the end than the beginning if we're looking back and celebrating all those albums. That's why we've never done a tour where we've played one album from beginning to end. Not that we've ever had one that's worthy of that, but when you start celebrating your past, it's done. I don't feel done at all. I feel like we've got another 12 albums in us."

Photo credit: Ole Martin Wold