DAMN THE MACHINE
David Judson Clemmons ist ein amerikanischer Gitarrist, Sänger und Songwriter aus Virginia, USA, der heutzutage in Berlin wohnt.
Er war am progressiven Thrash-Projekt MINISTERS OF ANGER, mit dem späteren MACHINE HEAD-Schlagzeuger Dave McClain, beteiligt, das drei Demos aufnahm und auf Metal Blades ´Metal Massacre XI´-Kompilation vertreten war.
1995 formte er mit Drummer David Wright und Bassist Steve Cordrey das Trio JUD, das einige Alben veröffentlichte, das letzte ´Generation Vulture´ 2016. Zwischendurch gründete Clemmons noch THE FULLBLISS in akustischer und melancholischer Spielweise. Auch einige Solo-Werke stehen in seiner Diskografie.
Der wahre Grund dieser Ausführungen sind aber DAMN THE MACHINE, die Progressive Metaller aus Los Angeles, die 1993 von A&M Records unter Vertrag genommen wurden und ein Album sowie drei Singles veröffentlichten.
Die Band bestand aus Chris Poland (ex-MEGADETH, OHM) und seinem Bruder Mark Poland am Schlagzeug, Bassist Dave Randi – und David Clemmons an Gitarre und Gesang.
Vielleicht war es der leicht jazzige Unterton, der die Formation von QUEENSRYCHE oder FATES WARNING abgrenzte, eine gewisse Einmaligkeit konnte DAMN THE MACHINE nicht nur aufgrund ihres einzigen Releases zugesprochen werden.
David Judson Clemmons erinnert sich an diese Zeiten:
The legendary Project from 1992! Most of you know about the band, I am so proud to see it has stood the test of time, more than 25 years and still the content & production rates high on the lists of favorite albums from the Era.
I was living in Pittsburgh, PA, at the time in 1991 with my band MINISTERS OF ANGER, when Ross Robinson let me know that Chris Poland wanted to develop his instrumental project further, at the time his brother Mark Poland was on drums, and Dave Randi on bass. They were performing material from Chris’ solo album ´Return To Metalopolis´, as well as a few MEGADETH-songs that Chris wrote during his time with them.
I flew out (thanks gf, mom & sis for the ticket) to Los Angeles for an “audition” which was amazing, I was so nervous I had learned all the songs from Chris’ solo album and we played them and I guess that was enough, we played with new riffs, from what I remember we wrote a song at the audition, I came for a second jam and then we made it solid. The name came out of a conversation I had had years before with my friend Steve Cordrey (JUD), he overheard a couple talking in a restaurant, the man said something like, “damn these socks” and Steve said something like “you don’t damn socks, you damn a machine” or something, we both said, damn the machine, and our eyes lit up… since me and Steve never used it I brought the name up to Chris, Mark and Dave and they liked it so we started the journey there.
Janie Hoffman was managing Chris and took the band over, after writing a huge amount of material and recording it all in our room at Downtown Rehearsal Los Angeles, we began shopping the music around to labels and publishers and landed a wonderful deal on A&M records. We chose Brian Malouf to produce the album, and in the short version did a good amount of touring, we great bands as: Clutch, Flotsam&Jetsam, VoiVod, Excel, Dream Theater and sadly after working very hard for a few years we seemed to become a victim of the changing styles, oncoming grunge etc. and the label wasn’t happy with the something like 50,000 sold copies, ha, ha, and dropped the band. This put a knife in our hearts and we were unable to work through this.
After much time has passed, me and Chris are in touch and he has played on some DJC tracks, that are scheduled for release in 2019, and as I always say, if fate allows, and the lust is there I would absolutely write a new DAMN THE MACHINE record with Chris, I am sure, if it ever comes to be, it will be a masterpiece.
What is “the machine” well, in my opinion, call centers, transaction fees, parking tickets, rigged court cases and dishonest on all levels of government especially in defense and healthcare, I could type for days, somethings never change. The rich control the poor, and in 2018 their grip is stronger, and a greater balance of creatures>nature is inevitable.
love
Davey
