This interview, only my second after Eddie Jackson of Queensryche five years earlier, turned into a terrific text article on former Helix guitarist Brent Doener, called Cranking the Decibels.  I am very proud of that, and listening back to the full 1 hour 16 minute interview for the first time since 2006, I had a lot to work with.  Including some pretty cringey questions from me.  But Brent was more than generous with his time and we had a great chat that zoomed around numerous topics.

Highlights for me listening back today:

• Brent’s heartfelt admiration for artists he loves and passion for music.
• Clickbait road and studio stories about music legends such as Lemmy.
• Tom Jones.
• Brent taking apart his songs for us, explaining the structures and lyrics.
• His influences from many genres.
• A moment at 42 minutes and 30 seconds of Brent miming the drum part to his song “Billy Oxygen”.
• Praise for his band which included Shane Schedler (guitar) and the late Ralph “Chick” Schumilas (guitar), and trying to woo singer/bassist Hills Walter into the fold.
• Brent had a warm, open nature, never saying no to a question no matter how dumb, and he helped turn this interview into an extended conversation always circling around the love of music.

This interview was recorded on a Maxell XLII 110 minute cassette with one side change midway.  It’s long but unreleased in this form until now.