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Interview With Temporary Drummer Dave E. C. Henwood


Todd

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http://greendaydasantigas.blogspot.com/2014/12/entrevista-exclusiva-com-dave-ec.html?spref=fb

Green Day's Brazilian fan site did an interview with Dave E. C., who is best known for contributing to 2000 Light Years Away.


1. How did you join Green Day? You went to them or they were up to you?

Well, my role in Green Day is kind of a weird one, it played a bigger part actually not playing music with them so much as it was my just being a general supporter of the band succeeding. At one point they were struggling to see eye to eye with their current drummer "Al". I had already played music with Billie Joe before, in a side project that included Jesse Michaels of Operation Ivy and Pete Rippins from Crimpshrine, Billie and myself. In fact we wrote a song that would later become ‘2000 Light Years Away’. But to answer the question, the band approached me.

2. So you're saying that ‘2000 Light Years Away’ was written in this side project?

Yes, basically Billie Joe and myself wrote the song while rehearsing in the side of the Gilman Street booking office, because that's where we used to rehearse. But we just wrote the music, Billie then later took the music and applied it to Green Day.

3. So that's why you received the credits for ‘2000 Light Years Away’ from Kerplunk! You helped Billie to write the song, but did you help to write any drum riff?

Yes I did, however I cannot take credit for Tré Cool awesome drumming. But I was better looking!

4. But... that side project, do you remember the name?

We never came up with a name for the project, in fact, the project was also short-lived, we wrote about five songs, the singer, Jesse Michaels, actually thought the band would've gotten too big too fast and didn't want anything to do with the hysteria of playing in a "punk rock supergroup". At the time I thought that was a strange reason, looking back on it now I understand where he was coming from, unfortunately at the time, I did not feel the same way, but everybody was super cool about it, and I consider everybody that was a part of that project a friend.

5. Did you know Billie and Mike before entering Green Day or you met them when they were in need of a drummer?

I was working with green day, booking them shows at the Gilman Street warehouse project long before they asked me to play for them. I was a fan just like everybody else was back then.

6. Did you play any concert while in the band?

I never end up playing a show with the band, while rehearsing with them, I decided to go into a different direction, and they moved on without me, so no I never actually played a show with Green Day.

7. After all, you were the one who resigned the band and not the opposite, right?

The feeling was mutual, but I believe they might of been disappointed at the time, I doubt they have any regrets now!

8. So you resigned because you thought you weren't good enough to Green Day, and they thought the same way, as i understand. Which song or other reason made you guys realize it?

I'm not sure why I felt this way, but I felt at the time the band should strip itself down and start over with me, I wanted them to change the name from Green Day to something else, and I wanted to just start over and write all new songs, looking back on it now, I was clearly crazy.

9. You used to spend lot of time on Gilman St, and was a friend of Green Day. Is that true that Green Day used to fill the place with people when they played there? I mean, they were said to be '’too poppy’' to play there

In the beginning they were told they were ‘’too poppy’’ and could not play there, once the club shutdown and reopened I was able to book their first show and many others afterwards, Gilman Street was reopened under the name Alternative Music Foundation. Like most bands, it took some time before they were able to fill the club, but their popularity grew much faster than a lot of bands in the area, and became headliners within a couple years of playing there.

10. But they used to fill the place until 1993 I believe... What did you think about Green Day has signed with a major label that year?

I have a bit of a unconventional view when it comes to "punk rock values" that are assigned to us when we are young, I never really thought of Green Day as being a punk band, so much as a great rock n’ roll band that was definitely influenced by punk rock. I don't give a shit if a band wants to sign to a major label, I don't think fans have a right to dictate what an artist wants to do with their music, although lots of fans were divided, I was very happy for them.

11. You said you were a fan like everybody else. Do you have a favorite Green Day album?

Kerplunk!!!

12. And one that you consider the worst?

I have to confess I stopped buying the records after Insomniac. For no good reason, I just did, I had enough Green Day in my music collection. If I had to guess… maybe Nimrod? I also was never a fan of Blatz.

13. After your band departure, do you still maintains or has maintained contact with the members?

Not really, out of respect for their privacy, once they achieved "rock star status" I left them be, I did this out of respect and nothing more and nothing less. I ran into Billie a couple of times, and occasionally get a hello but they all have families and full-time jobs as musicians.

14. What are you doing now? Do you still play in any band?

I'm currently not playing with anybody right now, the last band I played in was a band called Jack Killed Jill. I played in a lot of bands sense than including Filth, The Wynona Ryder's, Three Years Down and The Tantrums.

15. Was that a good experience being part of Green Day? How were they as bands mates?

My best memory of Green Day, it was my friendship with Billie, we were both very girl crazy when we were young, we were also big-time potheads, we used to circle a race track in Albany California, called Cougar Field, we would walk around the track continuously smoking weed and talking about girls.

They were a good combination of hard working yet relaxed and always having fun, But if I remember correctly, Mike was a little bit more serious than anybody else.

16. And finally, the last question: what means the ‘’E.C’’ on your name? It’s a nickname or an abbreviation?

A little bit of both, I was given that nickname by Aaron Cometbus of Crimpshrine. E.C. Stands for El Cerrito. A small town in the north of Berkeley, where I grew up, it was used to define which Dave somebody might be talking about.

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MY FRIEND JOÃO MIGUEL FOR FIRST ENTERING IN CONTACT WITH DAVE AND ASKING HIM IF HE COULD GIVE US THE INTERVIEW; MY OTHERS FRIENDS, MATEUS DE OLIVEIRA, ANTÔNIO FILHO, MATEUS TEIXEIRA AND AMANDA FAVERI, FOR HELPING ME TO MAKE THE QUESTIONS AND ORGANIZE THE INTERVIEW; Mr. DAVE E.C, FOR BOOKING SOME OF HIS TIME FOR THIS; AND ESPECIALLY YOU FROM GREEN DAY AUTHORITY, FOR NOT IGNORING THE E-MAIL.

AGAIN, I’M NOT HERE FOR YOU GUYS TO SPREAD MY FANPAGE OR BLOG, I JUST WANT YOU TO SPREAD THIS INTERVIEW WICH MIGHT INTEREST SOME PEOPLE

Head over to their page to see some pictures Dave sent too :D

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the guys did an amazing job!

Have you asked them for the original interview in english, instead of translating it?

No, I didn't. I fixed up a few really poor translations like "Lights 2000 Years Away" :P

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I'll try and get it

but a mistake that a saw is on the line: "but I did not take credit for the amazing battery Tre Cool." - translating Battery and Drums to portuguese you get the same word (bateria)

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so this guy recorded the drums for that song? I had no idea, I thought Kiffmeyer and Tre was the only drummers on the official records :/

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so this guy recorded the drums for that song? I had no idea, I thought Kiffmeyer and Tre was the only drummers on the official records :/

I think he helped to create the riffs and not to record. He just rehearsed with green day for a while

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Hi! I'm the guy who made this interview and i gotta say i'm very proud for my interview with Dave has been shared in here! Below are the pics he sent me as a proof that the interview was real (in case of someone doubt):

''Green Day das antigas'' means something like ''Green Day Old School'' or ''The Old Green Day''

1465203_373356532833587_6217092720234958

Bad Religion T-shirt :lol:

10846153_373357186166855_375198148578271

10696378_373357216166852_650764026247241

Of course these aren't all the pictures Dave sent me. There are some others, but to post a picture in here is a bit of complicated :ermm: I need to copy the URL and stuff... anyway, if you want to see the rest here's the link for the complete album:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.373357166166857.1073741838.233313490171226&type=1

And why he sent me so many pictures? To me to choose wich was the best, but honestly, all of them were awesome :dance: Thanks again Dave!!!

Sorry any grammar mistakes :( As you should have already noticed, I'm from Brazil

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This was an interesting interview to read, thanks to the guys who arranged it! :)

I actually never paid much attention to song credits thus I never knew that Dave E.C. contributed to 2000LYA.

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http://greendaydasantigas.blogspot.com/2014/12/entrevista-exclusiva-com-dave-ec.html?spref=fb

Green Day's Brazilian fan site did an interview with Dave E. C., who is best known for contributing to 2000 Light Years Away.

Head over to their page to see some pictures Dave sent too :D

Dude, can you say to me how did you get knowledge of this interview? I'm pretty curious about this! Haha! :D

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I loved reading about the early dynamics of the scene, and the "punk rock supergroup". I'm a local band nerd in my own state, so to learn about locals that gave rise to (now) well-known bands, is exciting.

Also, I enjoy knowing that the road to Green Day's success wasn't so cut and dry. I feel like in 2005-2007, a lot of articles were like "they got together, played shows and became insanely popular" which is inaccurate.

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Dude, can you say to me how did you get knowledge of this interview? I'm pretty curious about this! Haha! :D

Dave posted it on his facebook. I'm friends with him and a lot of other east bay guys
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  • 11 months later...

I didn't even know this thread existed until I found out it was the source used for Wikipedia on the Green Day page..

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Nimrod is not the worst green day album so wrong guess. Nice interview anyway.Brazilian green day fans are always amazing and hardworking ,love their work.

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8 hours ago, Private Ale. said:

Nimrod is not the worst green day album so wrong guess. Nice interview anyway.Brazilian green day fans are always amazing and hardworking ,love their work.

How can his opinion wrong? 

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3 hours ago, WhiteTim said:

How can his opinion wrong? 

It's not an opinion ,it's a guess. He probably didn't listen to it.And that's only for me, nimrod is not the worst.

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5 hours ago, Private Ale. said:

It's not an opinion ,it's a guess. He probably didn't listen to it.And that's only for me, nimrod is not the worst.

He said he stopped buying their records he's still friends with Aaron I'm sure he's heard the rest of the albums in passing 

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11 hours ago, WhiteTim said:

 

2 hours ago, WhiteTim said:

He said he stopped buying their records he's still friends with Aaron I'm sure he's heard the rest of the albums in passing 

I rewrite my statement as " I don't agree with him about Nimrod being the worst."

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On 15.12.2015 at 0:22 AM, Private Ale. said:

I rewrite my statement as " I don't agree with him about Nimrod being the worst."

I thought he was just trying to be funny or something, though.

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