Exclusive Interview with Damon Fox of Bigelf Part Two
Welcome to part two of our phone interview with Damon Fox from Bigelf. In case you missed it, part one is here. In part one, we discussed the Progressive Nation tour, the recording of Cheat the Gallows, and Linda Perry. The second part with Damon is a bit more fun and frivolity.
BnR: Our next question is kind of strange. After hearing the band name, I have decided to name my penis, Bigelf. Where or how did you come up with that name?
Damon: Bigelf is already trademarked, why don't you call him Gigantic Gnome.
BnR: I didn't know Bigelf was trademarked. I will have to insert a synonym for big.
Damon: Or you could go with Microscopic Ogre.
BnR: I like that. That's it!
Damon: I don't know if you want to play with Microscopic. It just depends on which way you want to go with it.
BnR: I am fine calling it like it is.
Damon: I was a big Dungeons and Dragons fanatic when I was a child. Lots of graph paper, character sheets, dice. Before reality TV was hi. Before you could live your life through TV, we were living life through these characters. We were just sitting around trying to think of something. I thought, "we have to make a band with the word elf in it." Then somebody said "you can't have Elf because that is Dio." I didn't even know that. You had to be a fan of the Deep Purple world. But we were throwing names around and the original bass player Rich Anton said Bigelf. We were just putting words on top of words. That was it. It is an oxymoron and perfect. We were trying to get one of those Iron Butterfly type names - really cool oxymoronic 60's kind of name. Those names were kind of gone. Every body was "The something." I found out later that ELF in the submarine world is extremely low frequency and it still works.
Then when people misprint it as BigElk. We have had so many of those. BigAlf, BigRef, Bigelk. The best one, and I wish I could rename the band this, "Ladies and gentleman, The Biggles." It was from Northern Europe, I have it somewhere. It was in the paper and they actually called us 'The Biggles.'
BnR: That's not even close.
Damon: Yea. I do that sometimes with typos - see how close the letters are. That one is just psychotic.
BnR: Are you sure they were talking about your band and not The Wiggles?
Damon: It was us. Maybe someone said The Bigelves are coming. I don't know, but I love it. I am going to start my own Elf cartoon company and that is what it is going to be called.
BnR: What band influenced you to use a mellotron in your music?
Damon: The original "What is that?" question was Strawberry Fields. Later recognizing King Crimson and a lot more in the prog rock world. Stairway to Heaven has the big strings and the bridge. But it is mostly one of those holy grail instruments. It has a magic quality. Today it is much more common, but go twenty years and it's like a secret password. It was just one of those mystery instruments that brought you some mojo. I am glad I sought out the mellotron because I wound up meeting Steve Frothingham (Froth) the drummer for Bigelf, that way. If we don't kill each other first on tour, we will always have the bond of the mellotron. We can always go back to that.
It is just a unique instrument. There is a new movie coming out called Mellodrama. It is all about the instrument. We are in the rebirth section of the movie. That is cool for us. It is a really unique sound.
BnR: Which G.I. Joe character would you be?
Damon: You are catching me off-guard with a little bit of history. I was never a big G.I. Joe guy. I think I remember a guy with a water vehicle. I was never a big military kid. I was drawn more toward spells and swords. I remember the G.I. Joe kids were not really Dragon kids either.
BnR: We can easily change it. Which Lord of the Rings character are you?
Damon: [laughs] You are killing me.
BnR: You probably would be Legolas.
Damon: I can't keep a straight face to answer the question. Yea, ok Legolas. Legolas is pretty bad ass. If I was a character I could go with Legolas. The cool factor you have to say Legolas. But I think one of the key characters is Samwise Gamgee. He really is the strongest. I am going to have to give Samwise a shoutout. I would have to eat extra pancakes like Sean Astin did. I know he packed on extra weight for the role.
I saw here in L.A. at the Cinerama Dome, the Trilogy. It was before they released the DVD's with the extra footage. It was the first one with the bonus footage. The second one with the bonus footage. The third one was the premiere. You hadn't seen the third one yet.
BnR: You had to have been sitting there for like ten hours.
Damon: Longer because there is breaks and stuff. The whole day starts at one or noon and you are out of there by two in the morning. It was phenomenal. I did it in '87 with the Star Wars trilogy. I can actually say I lived to see them in order with the biggest geeks in L.A. It is crazy...when Luke comes on the screen there is a standing ovation. It is like Rocky Horror when you are with that many freaks. It is fun though. When are you going to get to do that again?
We want to thank Damon for taking time to talk with us. Check out Bigelf's MySpace site and their official site for tour dates, news, and merchandise. Make sure you buy your copy of Cheat the Gallows, it is highly worth the money.
BnR: Our next question is kind of strange. After hearing the band name, I have decided to name my penis, Bigelf. Where or how did you come up with that name?
Damon: Bigelf is already trademarked, why don't you call him Gigantic Gnome.
BnR: I didn't know Bigelf was trademarked. I will have to insert a synonym for big.
Damon: Or you could go with Microscopic Ogre.
BnR: I like that. That's it!
Damon: I don't know if you want to play with Microscopic. It just depends on which way you want to go with it.
BnR: I am fine calling it like it is.
Damon: I was a big Dungeons and Dragons fanatic when I was a child. Lots of graph paper, character sheets, dice. Before reality TV was hi. Before you could live your life through TV, we were living life through these characters. We were just sitting around trying to think of something. I thought, "we have to make a band with the word elf in it." Then somebody said "you can't have Elf because that is Dio." I didn't even know that. You had to be a fan of the Deep Purple world. But we were throwing names around and the original bass player Rich Anton said Bigelf. We were just putting words on top of words. That was it. It is an oxymoron and perfect. We were trying to get one of those Iron Butterfly type names - really cool oxymoronic 60's kind of name. Those names were kind of gone. Every body was "The something." I found out later that ELF in the submarine world is extremely low frequency and it still works.
Then when people misprint it as BigElk. We have had so many of those. BigAlf, BigRef, Bigelk. The best one, and I wish I could rename the band this, "Ladies and gentleman, The Biggles." It was from Northern Europe, I have it somewhere. It was in the paper and they actually called us 'The Biggles.'
BnR: That's not even close.
Damon: Yea. I do that sometimes with typos - see how close the letters are. That one is just psychotic.
BnR: Are you sure they were talking about your band and not The Wiggles?
Damon: It was us. Maybe someone said The Bigelves are coming. I don't know, but I love it. I am going to start my own Elf cartoon company and that is what it is going to be called.
BnR: What band influenced you to use a mellotron in your music?
Damon: The original "What is that?" question was Strawberry Fields. Later recognizing King Crimson and a lot more in the prog rock world. Stairway to Heaven has the big strings and the bridge. But it is mostly one of those holy grail instruments. It has a magic quality. Today it is much more common, but go twenty years and it's like a secret password. It was just one of those mystery instruments that brought you some mojo. I am glad I sought out the mellotron because I wound up meeting Steve Frothingham (Froth) the drummer for Bigelf, that way. If we don't kill each other first on tour, we will always have the bond of the mellotron. We can always go back to that.
It is just a unique instrument. There is a new movie coming out called Mellodrama. It is all about the instrument. We are in the rebirth section of the movie. That is cool for us. It is a really unique sound.
BnR: Which G.I. Joe character would you be?
Damon: You are catching me off-guard with a little bit of history. I was never a big G.I. Joe guy. I think I remember a guy with a water vehicle. I was never a big military kid. I was drawn more toward spells and swords. I remember the G.I. Joe kids were not really Dragon kids either.
BnR: We can easily change it. Which Lord of the Rings character are you?
Damon: [laughs] You are killing me.
BnR: You probably would be Legolas.
Damon: I can't keep a straight face to answer the question. Yea, ok Legolas. Legolas is pretty bad ass. If I was a character I could go with Legolas. The cool factor you have to say Legolas. But I think one of the key characters is Samwise Gamgee. He really is the strongest. I am going to have to give Samwise a shoutout. I would have to eat extra pancakes like Sean Astin did. I know he packed on extra weight for the role.
I saw here in L.A. at the Cinerama Dome, the Trilogy. It was before they released the DVD's with the extra footage. It was the first one with the bonus footage. The second one with the bonus footage. The third one was the premiere. You hadn't seen the third one yet.
BnR: You had to have been sitting there for like ten hours.
Damon: Longer because there is breaks and stuff. The whole day starts at one or noon and you are out of there by two in the morning. It was phenomenal. I did it in '87 with the Star Wars trilogy. I can actually say I lived to see them in order with the biggest geeks in L.A. It is crazy...when Luke comes on the screen there is a standing ovation. It is like Rocky Horror when you are with that many freaks. It is fun though. When are you going to get to do that again?
We want to thank Damon for taking time to talk with us. Check out Bigelf's MySpace site and their official site for tour dates, news, and merchandise. Make sure you buy your copy of Cheat the Gallows, it is highly worth the money.
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