Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Doug Kendall of Downcount (Part 1)

MsBrandyRock: I am here with Doug Kendall of the band Downcount. How did you come up with the story behind the name Downcount?

Doug: That was actually Eric’s idea. He had had that name for a while.

MsBrandyRock: And Eric plays guitar in the band right?

Doug: Yes. We had actually weeded everything down to two names. One that I liked and one that Eric liked. And we flipped a coin to see which one we were going to use and I actually won the toss, so we were going to call the band something else. But then I thought about it and said look man your name is probably better from a commercial stand point. I have it written down somewhere but, I actually forgot what it is, but I might resurrect it one of these days. To me the name Downcount has a lot of things you can take from it. We are a very pro freedom band, very in your face about our passion for freedom and getting Uncle Sam out of our lives.



MsBrandyRock: So you are counting down to when Americans will actually have their freedom?

Doug: hahaha we’re counting down to the REVOLUTION! We may be down but you can never count us out!

MsBrandyRock: That could be a good slogan for a shirt or a show or something. Speaking of shirts….”collectivists I resist meaning”. What is a collectivist?

Doug: Yes, that’s one of our song lyrics. Collectivists are the people that want us all to be one kind of collective world. One kind of group think, go with the flow, and I am not that way. I believe in individuality, I believe in being yourself, being true to who you are. And I don’t believe in following any kind of group think just because some group or political party or persuasion thinks I should go this way or I am nuts. I just don’t buy into that. I am who I am and that’s what this band is about. Being yourself and standing up for what you believe in. Fight for your freedom, fight for your individuality and don’t let anyone push you or bully you into doing something you really don’t feel is true to who you are.

MsBrandyRock: And a lot of who you are comes out in the fact that you had your own political talk radio show, so you are used to talking about it. How long did that last?

Doug: I was in radio for about five years and I was on three different AM stations in the Columbia area. I had a blast with that and we were one of the top rated shows in our market and had listeners all over the world on the internet. It was wonderful, it was great, and we would have people calling in from the Netherlands. We would beat politicians like rugs, I mean, somebody here in South Carolina made a mistake…..

MsBrandyRock: Well that’s what I was going to say, how a lot of politics are in South Carolina….that you actually had local politicians calling in willing to speak to you?

Doug: Oh yeah

MsBrandyRock: And them knowing what the show was about and actually listening to it before hand?

Doug: Absolutely. I interviewed the governor a couple of times, Mark Sanford. And Jake Knotts came on the show.

MsBrandyRock: Really what was that like?

Doug: I beat him up and he wouldn’t come back on again, so that was a one time deal. Joe Wilson would never come on the show, his handlers kept on canceling on me and I finally….

MsBrandyRock: His handlers? Sounds like a circus.

Doug: Yeah pretty much. It got to the point one time that I called his office back and said look I will clear my schedule for Joe Wilson, you just tell me when he can make it and I don’t care if I have the Pope coming on. And they never got back to me, I just knew they were not going to let him come on my show.

MsBrandyRock: Give my one sentence definition of what true freedom is to you.

Doug: Not being under submission to a dominating force. That’s about as pure as it gets. When you have to go out and buy a license before you can start your own business or you have to get a permit before you can add onto your house or put a swimming pool in your backyard…………

MsBrandyRock: So your idea of true freedom does that go into the idea of Downcount’s CD title, “Soundtrack of a Revolution”?

Doug: If that’s what it takes, so be it….in some places like Florida they have neighborhood codes where you can only paint your house according to certain color schemes. Even here in the Columbia area, with the zoning in Richland County they want you to have certain vegetation and you can’t put a satellite dish where its visible from the road because someone might look at it and say oh that doesn’t look good. I mean we’re talking freedom here and if I can’t put a satellite dish on my house we don’t have freedom in America. That’s one of the things we are fighting against. If someone comes at me and they are going to use force against me either harm my person or take my will because I didn’t get my permission from them, that kind of thing, I’m prepared to fight. That’s called self defense. Fighting against the government is not terrorism. Self defense is not terrorism.

MsBrandyRock: Yeah terrorism is completely different than freedom of speech and freedom of life. You’re a voluntarist. What is that? I went to school to be a political science teacher and I have never heard that before.

Doug: A voluntarist believes that all things should be done by choice. All relationships should be voluntary. If there is force involved, if you initiate force in a relationship it’s not a voluntary relationship. It’s immoral, unacceptable, and that’s basically what the government has with us. They tell us how we can live, where we can live, where we can build, what we can eat, what we can say, what kind of jobs we can do….

MsBrandyRock: Don’t you think it could be a whole lot worse though?

Doug: It’s going to get worse, I believe before it gets better….There are a lot of people online that are realizing this and there are a lot of networks building, across this country, across the world with people who realize that things are not the way they are supposed to be. And if it comes to it we are going to fight. But I don’t ever want to see that happen.

MsBrandyRock: People call you “Chug” as a nickname. Does that come from all this political stuff?

Doug: haha no that comes from Eric. This originally started out as my solo project, but we turned it into collaboration, a partnership, a band project. I had told him when I first approached him to play guitar that I wanted to bring chug rock back. Nobody really chugs it out anymore, its all dual leads, and thrash and fast and speed. You don’t really here people just ch ch ch chugging it out, that low string just chugging on it, chugging it out. So instead of Doug he started calling me Chug.


MsBrandyRock: “Soundtrack of a Revolution” is that a full length CD or is that an EP?

Doug: Full length, 12 songs.

MsBrandyRock: What is your goal with that? Are you signed to an indie label right now or what is your ultimate goal as far as the CD goes?

Doug: Actually Eric and I are business partners. And we own the record label, Tensided Records.

MsBrandyRock: Are there other bands signed to that in Columbia, SC?

Doug: No, mainly for us, I wouldn’t be opposed to working with other bands. I’m all about the message; of course I would love to be successful. To live comfortably would be nice. Do that full time and just be able to concentrate on the creative process and spreading the message. That’s what I got into music for was the message and that’s what I got into radio for.

MsBrandyRock: Yeah people who get into bands just to be “rockstars” and want to get played on the radio; those are the ones that aren’t successful because that happens like one in a million.

Doug: Airplay is great because that is how you spread your message, so we try to promote ourselves, network and that kind of thing, so we can help get the message out to people. I’m not opposed to working with a major label, but that is not necessarily an end goal. There is a lot of crazy crap going on with the music industry right now.

MsBrandyRock: And chances are as political as your lyrics are there probably wouldn’t be a major label that wanted you.

Doug: And you know what I could care less. The contract would have to be good anyways and most of the times they are not.


http://www.downcountband.com/

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I would like to toot my own horn and say that I found the above picture I took while preparing for this interview on Downcount's website, this interview was never intended to be transcribed, but I have decided to post it since I do have it.