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Back to Part I
RNW: Any Beatles covers gonna be
thrown in there?
Chip: If I have my way I’d like
to throw in a cover song. Sometimes you’re better off starting the night
off with a song everybody recognizes. So it certainly wouldn’t hurt to
open the tour with a Magical Mystery Tour or Revolution or Dear Prudence
but we’ll have to see. I love playing all three of them!
RNW: How is your label Spitfire
doing for you guys?
Chip: That’s quite a big independent
label, one of the bigger independent labels in North America. Alice Cooper,
Ted Nugent, Sebastian Bach, Zakk Wylde, Crowbar, L.A. Guns, Thomas Dolby,
Testament, The list goes on and on – Union.. they have quite a lot of acts.
We fit in there somewhere, I don’t know where. They seem to like our songs,
they like the band and we shot a video for the record with this company
called Noise Vision out of Los Angeles. It’s really shot well, we hate
the video but it’s really good. We just hate the way we look in it, cuz
we’re butt ugly. But the video is put together really well. It’s a really
strong song and they seem to be into it.
RNW: Are you going to try and promote
that one with the VH1 crowd?
Chip: I would hope so, I would hope
that we get the video serviced to everybody like MTV, M2, VH1 and everybody
makes their own decisions. It’s a really strong song and the video, like
I said, really accompanies it well. But it remains to be seen what
is gonna happen with Spitfire and Enuff Z’nuff. Right now, we get along
great, they love the band and they like the record. And we have a major
tour and I think they are gonna be behind us and help us. Especially in
the light that they told me that they are my friends, they gave us a lot
of pot and money so they better do something!
RNW: What was the biggest difference
you have found with an indy like Spitfire and when you were with a major
like Arista or ATCO?
Chip: Well it’s a big machine when
you are on a major label. Your staff is quadruple what you have with an
independent label. And the  money,
the numbers are always different; they are always a lot higher when you’re
on a major label. And there is also a lot more at stake too. They both
have their good and bad. With a major label sometimes you don’t have the
full artistic and creative control of your music. Where as with an independent
label you can pretty much make the records on your own, if they like it,
they’ll accept it and put it out. I loved being on a major label, Enuff
Z’nuff was on probably the best major label of the last decade, which was
ATCO Records. All the people who were over at ATCO are big leagues right
now… they are all great people. Being with Clive Davis from Arista was
certainly a great run; a fun experience. It certainly didn’t end as well
as I would have liked but it never does anyway. But I got a lot of respect
for the majors, we’ve had two great labels with terrific presidents and
great staffs that really believed in the band and worked their asses off
and because of that we still have a career. They were definitely a part
of it, those labels. With Independent labels, they pretty much live on
your past. For Spitfire they really seem to be behind us, it’s a brand
new record with new music: it’s fresh.
RNW: Are there any plans to re-release
Strength (one of the most popular EZN releases with die hard fans)? That
came out on ATCO in what 1991?
Chip: Yeah, that came out in mid
to late ’91. We’re talking about re-releasing the first two but we can’t
yet. I think Clive (Davis) still owns the rights to those records if I
am not mistaken and quite frankly those are still selling in the stores
a lot. So consequently, the record labels are making money and they are
not interested in letting us have the licensing on those records as of
yet. But, I think you’ll see them in the future. Maybe under the same umbrella.
(editors note: Enuff Z’nuff’s debute is
still being sold and distributed by ATCO, however, their second album –
Strength is currently out of print.)
RNW: On another front, I noticed
you guys are getting a lot of attention from this “She Sells Sanctuary”
Cult tribute. How did that happen?
Chip: The president of the label
(Versailles Records), a real nice guy named Jake called me and asked me
if we wanted to participate. When I brought it up to the band they weren’t
the happiest campers, they’re about as much Cult fans as the Cult is of
Enuff Z’nuff. But we do respect their musical accomplishments and we do
know that at one time they were really a cool band. But nobody in the group
was really a big fan, we weren’t really aware of their music, except for
the hits. The song, “She Sells Sanctuary” was one that the label suggested
and we played it and recorded it in one night over at Star Trax in Crescent,
Illinois. We mixed it up the following day and sent it out to them and
they loved it. Actually, it came out really good. It’s a good song, it
was pretty easy to do it, except that the vocals were a little difficult.
It gave me a lot more respect for Ian Asbury, he’s got high range and real
strong fuckin pipes, he’s a great singer. You don’t realize until you try
to do something that someone else has done, just how talented they are.
I think it was a really great version, Donnie really kicked ass on it.
Terrific vocal performance, the guy sang it like twice, that was it. He
really is just a great singer and it sounds like the Cure to me. It sounds
like the Cure meets Enuff Z’nuff its weird. It’s much different than the
original version, but yet close to the version, if that makes any sense
to you. Sonically, their version is really powerful, heavy but it sounds
like [the music of] today to me.
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