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Toxik interview with Tad Leger
By: Joe Florez
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God bless a label like Metal Mind Productions
out of Poland who brought to life once again a batch of late 80’s and
early 90’s long out of print releases from the RoadRunner catalogue.
Among them are Zno-White, Atrophy, Heathen and Toxik. Toxik were a
group of kids out of the New York area playing tech thrash just as
Texans Watch Tower did. The difference lied in the fact that Toxik
wanted to create music that had a consistent pacing while WT went
schizophrenic on your ass. From 1987-1990, they dished out two
releases “World Circus” and “Think This.” The progress that was made
between the two records was astounding. The maturity in sound and the
production was awesome. Former drummer Tad Leger was along for the
ride for the two releases and has no regrets. Since then, he has moved
on doing graphic design work and playing in a few bands for fun as
opposed to trying to make a career out of it. Folks, if you are into
the modern batch of prog artists such as your Spiral Architect’s,
Mayhem (Grand Deceleration Of War era and then some) you need to be
schooled a bit on where it stems from.
You met guitarist Josh Christian back in 1986. At that time, they were
performing mostly covers under the original band name Tokyo. Were the
guys playing technical music then or was it something that developed
slowly? How about you? Were you always into the more technical side of
things as well?
When I saw them, they were playing some covers & some cool original
material. The songs weren't really technical, mostly classic hard rock
& metal in the vein of Scorpions, Priest & Motley Crue.
A deal was struck with Road Racer records in
1987 and World Circus was released unto the public. What was it like
working with world renown producers Scott Burns and Tom Morris of
Morrisound?
Those guys were such great people. Morrisound was a great experience
in every way. Scott & Tom worked their ass off to make the tracks
sound as killer as possible, even though our budget was lean to say
the least! We met the Nasty Savage guys there who had just finished
what I think is their best release Abstract Reality. We also played a
few gigs there with Nocturnus & Wendy O as well, a great time for all
of us.
I remember seeing the ad for this release in RIP
Magazine time and time again, but never knew what type of music it
was. After hearing it now, I don’t think it would have been my cup of
tea back then. You all must have been ecstatic about seeing your
release in all of the different mags?
To shreiky 4 ya? ha ha! I don't remember seeing all that many ads, a
few interviews though. No one ever sent me copies of this stuff, just
like the interviews I do now actually... Thanx 4 nothing Snakepit!!
I know that you heard the comparisons to Watch
Tower endless amounts of times, but there is a huge difference between
the two. WT were more concerned with the constant technical time
changes and off the wall compositions while Toxik focused on
consistency in their songs even though there were plenty of technical
spots thrown in many of the songs.
I love Watchtower but yes, I agree. Josh was most importantly a great
song writer in both music & lyrics. I think this is way more important
than being able to play scales at top speed. There are many
technically accomplished guitarists, but not that many that can write
original & catchy riffs like Josh did. I think most of Toxik’s music
was written with the goal of creating memorable songs that were also
challenging for us to play.
Original vocalist Mike Sanders could hit some
ridiculously high notes and you can hear it on the first track “Heart
Attack.” I could see how this would irritate some people’s ears. Did
his voice ever bother you or did you just ignore it while you played?
His range goes beyond Rob Halford’s which is astounding. I will go on
record as never being a fan a high pitched vocals. Josh had a great
Gene Simmons/Hetfield-type voice that I always thought was killer, but
he was not into doing both vocals & guitar which I totally understand
as he had enough on his plate!
What was funny in the bio was that it said that
“Heart Attack” contained 268 BPM’S. It may seem slow by today’s
standards, but back then it was quick for you guys. I think the title
track was a bit quicker, but what do I know?
Hahahaha Well, it wasn't Reign In Blood, but some tracks like
“Victims” was pretty fast. Something I enjoyed very much at the time.
Your lyrics weren’t typical and cheesy. You
dealt with some serious issues such as drug abuse on “Pain And Misery”
and “Voices” which dealt with schizophrenia just to name a few topics.
Was it always a goal to be socially conscience in your music or did it
just end up that way?
Josh is a very socially conscience guy & that came out in the lyrics
he wrote.
“Count Your Blessings” is one of the songs on
here that would eventually be covered by Bay Area thrashers Exodus.
You had to be proud of that moment?
I don't think that's really true. I've never seen any evidence of
that. I think that's just an internet fabrication. Would be a pisser
if it was true though! |
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Do you look back on some of the photos and wish
that you never had puffed out glam hair? Those do’s didn’t mesh well
with the type of music that you were making.
Hell, yeah, that's def not my style. Those guys were really concerned
with image at the time unfortunately.
I laughed at lyrics to “Victims” because there
is a reference to the infamous videos of Faces Of Death I-III. There
have been two more added since then and even now pressed on DVD. Did
any of you watch them before making a reference to them?
I am a big horror fan but not of real death & suffering especially
animals. That stuff bums me out.
This brand of tech/prog metal was very advanced
for its day. Was it hard coming up with the complicated riffs and
beats?
We took a lot of time working on the parts & yeah, some parts were a
bitch to get right. Def the most technical music I ever did. Most
though were a lot of fun to play. Tracks like “Voices“, “Door To
Hell“, “Think This” & “Black & White” were my favorites to play I
think.
Think This would be your second and final
record. A lot of things changed and for the better. Vocalist Mike
Sanders was out and Charles Sabin was in. His lung work was an
improvement as he could sing high and low. The music was still
technical, but seemed like it had more bite to it and it was slightly
more mature. Take the title track for instance. There was acoustical
guitar work that was played beautifully and then everything gets
plugged in. The riffs were meaner and even more intricate than before
making for unique breakdown and time changes. Agree?
Toxik really achieved it's full potential on Think This. Some cool &
original parts that I still really enjoy listening to.
Do you feel that everyone’s playing improved here?
I think everyone stepped up & kicked out the jams on that record. I
loved all the crazy fucked up rhythms Josh came up with, it was wild!
The one thing that stayed in tact was the
intelligent lyrics. Did that come naturally?
For Josh, I think yeah. The lyrics needed to match the intellect of
the music.
It seemed like in 1990 that metal would take a
turn for the worse and it slowly did as another genre was rising from
the underground known as alternative rock or grunge. Did you all get a
chance to do some touring before calling it a day?
We toured Europe twice & also did a US tour with King Diamond which
was pretty cool as Josh & I are HUGE Mercyful Fate fans. Touring in
the States fucking sucks though. You get treated like dirt!
Toxik managed to get a spot at the Dynamo
festival back in 1988. How did that go?
It was one of the greatest days of my life. To be on the same stage as
Exodus & thousands of metal warriors chanting Tox-ik Tox-ik Tox-ik. It
ruled & look out for the Toxik dvd coming from Displeased!
How did Metal Mind approach you about these
re-issues? They did a fantastic job at re-mastering them and creating
a nice booklet with awesome liner notes.
They just asked me for liner notes & bonus tracks, so I gave 'em what
I could. Most of the unreleased stuff went to Displeased though, who I
worked with previously. |
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Athiest claimed that it was their music that
challenged everyone to change their ways of playing and incorporating
new styles. Perhaps in the death metal genre it may be true, but Toxik
and Watch Tower seemed to set the bar high back then.
Before Watchtower & Voivod, there really was no precedent set for
mixing heavy fast thrash & strong musicianship, as well as classic
metal like old Scorpions & Accept which were huge inspirations for
Toxik.
I think if the band existed today that you would
have a bigger following. Have there been any thoughts of a reunion or
creating another record?
Toxik is now reunited & will be playing out again soon. I'm not taking
part though, I don't want to take time away from my current band
Lucertola right now. I feel bad about disappointing Toxik fans who
would like to see me take part in the reunion, but I'm just not into
playing that style of metal now. Between Prime Evil, Toxik & Blackened
Sky was a lot of years of fast thrash. I still love metal, just more
of the heavy doom variety.
What did you initially do after the band called
it a day?
I jammed around with some friends, including Brian from Toxik. I tried
out for Overkill & that looked like a possibility, but it didn't pan
out in the end. The first serious band that came next was Blackened
Sky. They had some songs that I really liked because they were totally
unaffected by the current music trends. It was raw, fast and brutal .
Unfortunately, this was a time when metal especially the sort of old
school style was pushed aside for alternative & grunge rock. We put
out a 3 song demo & shortly after we were joined by Andy Abbene (Bro
of Jay Wrathchild America/Souls At Zero) then the songs became more
diverse with some Motorhead & COC type riffs adding to the sound
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band. We then cut a 6 song demo called Teratoma, which is one of
my favorite sessions that I've done. Blackened Sky were the first band
interested in using some of my guitar riffs, which was really great to
initially explore my potential as a guitarist.
I see that you have your own website up now and
you do graphics. How long have you been involved with
this for?
I started working full time as a designer around 1997. That's how I
pay the bills. Not much money to be made in metal!
I noticed that you have created logos for
companies and even upgraded the logo for the popular Goosebumps series
of nightmarish books. How did you score that?
The first studio I worked for had some cool clients like Cartoon
Network, South Park & yes I was handed the task of making the
Goosebumps logo a bit more dark & evil. They came to the right guy.
You write and do the layout for the popular
underground Pit Magazine here in the states. Were you always a fan of
writing?
Yeah, I love to write. I've written a few reviews in Metal Maniacs &
some 'zines in the past. Now I do layouts & some writing in Pit, my
kinda gig!
You do plenty of print and video layouts and
covers, but one in particular that struck my interest was the infamous
horror movie Cannibal Holocaust. You did the layout for the theaters
and video as well as print. Nice job on the layout. Are you a fan of
the movie at all?
Thanx! I am a total freak for horror & exploitation cinema, so doing
posters, ads for CH was a great honor. It is one of the most powerful
films of all time I think. Blair Witch totally ripped it off with it's
documentary style horror.
I noticed that not only did Grindhouse Releasing
(run by Quentin Tarentino) put it out, but Sage Stallone is also
involved. Is that Sylvesters kid? If so, did you ever meet him?
Tarentino is just making a movie titled Grindhouse. The company is run
by Sage & Bob Murowski who is the editor for the Spider Man films. I
have met Sage & he could not have been cooler, very enthusiastic on my
Cannibal Holocaust designs. I'm currently working on the Grindhouse
website which should be up soon!
Any final words to say to the fans out there?
Thanx so much 2 everybody who has supported Toxik or any of my other
bands. It's been great meeting so many cool metal people over the
years. Anyone interested in my music or art can go to tadleger.com.
www.tadleger.com
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www.myspace.com/toxikmetal
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