Mike Dijan is a true musical hyperactive. After coming of age in the 80’s Hardcore scene, he’s played guitar or bass with a slew of bands, including Show of Force, Breakdown, Crown of Thornz, Laws of Gravity, Lavalette, Sai Nam, etc, etc. These days, he can be seen on guitar with his latest project, Hard Rock/Metal band Kings Bounty, alongside singer Q-Unique of Arsonists fame. Look out for their debut album very soon. You can also catch him playing bass on select dates for Hardcore legends Cro-Mags JM, as he did last July in Montreal, at ’77 Fest. We caught up with him after their set, here’s what he had to say.
What have you been listening to the most lately?
GHOST. I love the whole concept, the artistry, the imagery, the song composition. Extremely well thought out. All the sounds, every drum hit, every keyboard sound, every bass lick, you could tell it’s all meticulously composed. As a songwriter myself, I really appreciate music like that.
Are we talking about the latest one or just in general?
In general. If I’m at work, I’ll put my earbuds in, put on Spotify and just play all the records. The front of house guy for KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, I noticed he had a Ghost tattoo on his arm so I started talking shit with him about that and he told me about this band the guy had pre-Ghost called SUBVISION, so I poped that in and listened to that. That’s more like YARDBIRDS or ANIMALS. That’s my interpretation when I’m listening to it. He’s developing his songwriting back then.
New Music, not much in the way of new music. My friend, at the cafe I go to, he turned me on to LUCIFER. They can play! Like, late 70’s SABBATH, Iommi soloing Never Say Die-era type shit with a hot blonde singer.
And I’ve always been a fan of Nicke Andersson also on drums.
He’s ridiculous, man! And they can all play too. Very, very good songwriting.
That vocalist is amazing too. Everything is spot on.
Yeah. What else? They’re my friends too, the most recent CANDIRIA record. Incredible. Again, very meticulous with the songwriting. Swerving in and out of Prog to Hip Hop to Jazz. John, the guitar player, is my very good friend and I am one of his biggest fans. I love them. When I played in Breakdown in the 90’s, we played together all the time. We don’t sound anything like each other but it just worked. We were a good fit for each other.
Oh, TURNSTILE! Love TURNSTILE, ANGEL DU$T. Those are my friends. I’m not biased because they’re my friends, they just put out really good shit. They have a Hardcore crowd. Different kind of energy, more positive energy than I would say when we were growing up. Our music was just a reflection of how we were living back then so I would say it was a bit more aggressive. These guys I think are more evolved than us, in terms of having positive energy and spreading that to the crowd.
It gives a higher level of sincerity too because that’s their reality.
Yeah, exactly, they’re playing to their reality. It’s not someone trying to carbon copy some style that they’ve heard before. They’re on their own journey and doing great. You could tell when you see them in concert, they’re very free. We get to play with them and there’s no generational gap. We’re just boys. I have a special connection with those guys, you know, from TRAPPED UNDER ICE. I did an album with Justice (Note: the band SAI NAM). It was one of the best recording experiences I ever had because it was very personal. It only ended up being a studio record, we didn’t really tour. He came to my house for three weeks. We just told each other stories and that’s all the lyrical content of the record, the stories that we told each other. Then we went in, started writing and tracking on the spot in studio. He was taking off with three bands at the time and I was happy just to work with him. That whole fucking Baltimore crew? Really talented guys.
What would you say is the record that you’ve listened to the most in your life?
Physical Graffiti, LED ZEPPELIN. Going way back to when I was a kid. That record and I also listened to Abbey Road a lot. That was the first record I listened to, I remember my mother had the vinyl in the milk crate and I saw the green apple in the middle of the vinyl. I didn’t know. She put the needle on the record for me and as far as back as I can remember, that was the first music I’ve listened to, the BEATLES.
From there, how did your musical tastes evolved throughout the years?
I guess it would evolve by where I was hanging out, and who I was hanging out with. Being in New York, I’m exposed to a lot so in the same five blocks that I grew up on, AJ (Novello, Cro-Mags JM’s guitarist)…I know AJ since I was 11, we lived two blocks apart. He sold me my first guitar. He needed money to go on tour with the BAD BRAINS in ’89 and he knew that I was looking to start fucking around playing because I would go to this garage and watch them rehearse. I’d watch LEEWAY rehearse, I’d watch OUTBURST rehearse, we were all from the same two to three blocks. So he needed money, and I was working, I had a job and I bought my guitar from him. I started teaching myself how to play and that’s how I started playing in a band. Anyway, I digress.
So, in that same neighborhood, you got Hip Hop guys, you have older guys that listen to Classic Rock. You have dudes that are into the British Invasion, pre-Metal stuff like PRIEST, SCORPIONS, like that. And we just listened to everything. We would hang out in the park and we’d set garbage cans on fire and we’d have a big boom box and just listen to anything. “What mix tape do you have?” The older guys were into ZEPPELIN and SABBATH the PINK FLOYD. These dudes that we were hanging out with, they were into Hair Metal, like DOKKEN and LOUDNESS, you know, checking out every Hair Metal band possible. So I heard all that. Then someone brought the first ACCEPT record. “Yo, you gotta fucking hear that shit!” “Wow, this shit is hard!” You know, it was before METALLICA. We heard that Crossover picking for the first time. “This the shit man!” So that’s how you could gauge New York at the time. Hip Hop was popping off. We loved RUN DMC, we loved PUBLIC ENEMY, we loved EPMD…A lot of these guys were from our neighborhood, LL Cool J was from Queens, like us. The JUICE CREW all stars were not even a kilometer from us. It’s just a melting pot of music, just like New York’s a melting pot of culture. That’s what we listened to.
Then going from there, AJ says, “Hey, my band’s playing at CBGB’s, you wanna come down?” Sure. And that’s how I got exposed to Hardcore. That was late ’85 or ’86, something like that. Maybe two months before that, I saw IRON MAIDEN at that fucking huge place. We went two nights in a row, for the Powerslave tour. I love all that too. I love all the Di’Anno Maiden. I love everything up to Seventh Son. Up to Powerslave, it’s all great. Then, Somewhere In Time and Seventh Son is, you know, I just started moving on to other things. I bought in to the Hardcore thing because it was just more real to me. It was a two part performance and the band’s only half of it. I just became hooked on that. Went to shows every weekend.
What are some of your most memorable shows from that era?
The first one, of course, was CORROSION OF CONFORMITY. LEEWAY opened up for them and they were on the Animosity record. Fucking incredible. It didn’t sound like a band, it just sounded like some entity or some dark force. I can’t explain it. The sound system in there was incredible, the smell was really gritty. When I walked in to the club, it was like being a little kid, it was scary. Everything you hear about, it’s all true. Like the danger element. But these guys could play, they were real musicians. They were just experimenting with this raw music. Sort of rejecting technical music to the point where it’s like anti-technology. You could be a little sloppy, you know? You don’t worry about someone smacking into your head stock, that’s all part of the show. CRUMBSUCKERS at CB’s, great! LUDACHRIST at CB’s, great. CARNIVORE! I saw Carnivore six or seven times. I saw them in Brooklyn, at L’Amour, their home turf. I saw Carnivore and AGNOSTIC FRONT together, a huge show, that was great. BAD BRAINS at the Ritz is probably one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. They were that good.
Branching out to your whole life, what are some of the best shows that you’ve seen?
SOUNDGARDEN at Jones Beach. I cried, it was so good. It was the first reunion, they were on fire. My daughter’s favorite song, that we used to sing in the car, was Black Hole Sun and my hair stood up when when they played it, it was beautiful. Yeah, that was one of the best shows that I ever saw.
There’s no weak link in that band. Everyone is doing their part.
Yeah, and the songwriting is incredible. As a songwriter, I’m heavily influenced by Soundgarden. Cornell’s odd time signatures, I use that a lot. I drive my bandmates crazy but it makes sense to me!
What else? REFUSED at Terminal 5. Again, first reunion, they played two nights. Fucking great. They’re a band that really pays homage to the New York Hardcore scene so they wanted to do their reunion in New York, which is insane. What other great shows? Jimmy Page with the FIRM, when I was 14 years old. His first solo band. That was the first concert I ever went to. He still had some of the light show from Zeppelin and did the solo with the bow. He had the green laser lights which, back then, that was state of the art. I saw a lot of great shows. SLAYER at Roseland, in ’93 or ’94, first tour with Bostaph, vicious.
Can you name five songs that you consider to be perfect? What makes them special?
Here Comes The Sun. George Harrison song. It’s perfect. What I like about it is, it’s a reflection of him as a human being. It just spews positivity. Lyrically, it transcends, the vibe, the way he sings it. That’s a perfect song to me.
Alright, I’ll put this because I’m listening to it now and I’ve been bragging about this: From The Pinnacle To The Pit, GHOST. That’s a perfect song.
In My Time Of Dying, LED ZEPPELIN is a perfect song because that’s a homage with the slide guitar to the old Delta Blues players and the repetition of it never gets old. You get more and more into that song.
Purple Rain by PRINCE. It’s perfect.
I’m missing one. There’s a STONES song that’s perfect. I’m really into 70’s Stones, like Sticky Fingers, Some Girls…the song Waiting On A Friend is a perfect song.
I like that it’s somewhat of a dark horse, for the Stones.
Yeah, but it’s perfectly executed for going outside of what they do. It reminds me of some Doo Wop or Motown kind of thing. The video for it is on a stoop on the Lower East Side, in New York City. They have the old polyester shirts on. Those are perfect songs to me.
Do you have any more of those dark horse or hidden gems by a band? An album or a song.
The dark horse for ZEPPELIN is Zeppelin III, for me. Zeppelin and the BAD BRAINS, those are my two favorite bands. And these Cro-Mags guys…obviously, I was a fan before playing with them. Soul Craft is a perfect song too. Dark horse track for Bad Brains? Popcorn. Listen to it. It was on a demo, Mackie (Cro-Mags JM’s drummer) played it for me. They ended up putting it on Into The Future. Vicious track. Justice Keepers by Bad Brains, awesome fuckin’ song.
Another Zeppelin dark horse track is his Achilles Last Stand on Presence. Actually, the record itself is a dark horse but that’s a great song, a seven or eight minute ballad that you just don’t get tired of.
Then, dark horse album. JUDAS PRIEST Unleashed In The East. Live record. Awesome. I’ll listen to that all day because it’s really well recorded and they’re playing a lot of the earlier stuff that wasn’t produced too well or played too well. They had a newer drummer that just fucking killed it. I think that record’s overlooked a lot too.
What are some of the heaviest riffs of all time, in your opinion?
Roots Bloody Roots (SEPULTURA). The opening riff to Roots, fuckin’ heavy shit and simple. The opening riff from Quickness, fucking heavy. Great riff. The last 40 seconds of Battery. METALLICA – Master of Puppets. It’s super fucking heavy and then ends really hard. There’s a SHEER TERROR riff on Love Songs For The Unloved, the bridge of Broken. That shit is hard. Black Dog by LED ZEPPELIN. Opening riff is the riff of all riffs. Page didn’t even write it, John Paul Jones wrote it. He’s the master riffer. That’s John Paul’s best riff, then Kashmir is Page’s heaviest because it’s simple. Oh, and Mean Street by VAN HALEN, opening riff. That fucking is hard!
What’s the first thing that strikes you when you listen to new music? Is there anything that makes or breaks a song for you?
First, I look for the hook in the chorus. Unless there’s a hook somewhere in the song, you don’t remember it. Then I look for something interesting, musically wise, that complements the vocals. Something that’s opposite of what’s going on with the vocals and how they mesh together.
What are your top five records of all time?
This is always in my top five: Joe’s garage by FRANK ZAPPA. I was turned on to Frank Zappa when I was in Europe, when I was a kid. These kids I hung out with were into more Progressive stuff. They already were playing instruments. Being young and into Jazz. They were way more advanced than we were here and I really got into that record. So that’s one of my top five.
Quickness. That’s my favorite BAD BRAINS record. Then the ROIR cassette and then I would say I Against I and then, you know, everything else.
BLACK SABBATH – Volume Four. I think it’s the most sincere, emotional Sabbath record. They’re all great but you could tell there’s a lot of heart pouring lyrically in that record. That’s a perfect record.
Dark Side of the Moon. I just went to see a PINK FLOYD tribute band. They were incredible. They’re called The Machine and they did Animals, Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon, in order, with an intermission in between each. It sounded exactly like Pink Floyd. They filled up a thousand seat theater. They had the girl come out and do the soloing. They have the light show. It was incredible. It was just a coincidence, my friend had extra tickets. I had a lot of fun.
Is there any band that you wish you would have caught live but never got a chance to?
There was a show that I wanted to go to, OZZY and MÖTLEY CRÜE at Madison Square Garden. In ’83 or ’84, on the Bark At The Moon tour. I was a kid and a scalper stole my money. He grabbed my money and ran into a hotel. So yeah, I missed that show. That sucked.
Did you ever get to see Ozzy, though?
I did, yeah. Well, later on in ’97 at Oz Fest, when all the Roadrunner bands were on. TYPE O NEGATIVE was on it, MACHINE HEAD was on it. Then Ozzy did a set and Black Sabbath did a set, so I got to see them both. They had Mike Borden from FAITH NO MORE playing drums.
The last Faith No More record’s fucking awesome. The track Sunny Side Up, watch the video, it’s really good. They’re wearing prosthetics, making themselves look old and the theme of the video is sort of like from that movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, where they’re given the medications and shit like that. It starts black and white and as they start giving them the pills, everything starts turning color. And it’s a great song.
I take care of my mom back home, and I’m trying to put stuff on TV and I found this thing -well, I knew about it- Mike Patton playing with an Italian orchestra. I played it for my mom and she’s like, “he’s really good looking. I Like his hair. He can sing too!” That was fun.
Do you have any unpopular music opinion? Perhaps something that you’ve been trying to turn people onto, with limited success? Or even arguing about with people?
I would say that GHOST thing, you either love them or hate them. I love them. I don’t care who hates them because I think they’re missing out. I was talking with someone about stressing performance when you play and I think a lot of bands nowadays, just kind of mail it in up on stage. People are paying, you’re there to put on a show. You have to be somewhat animated, you have to be somewhat theatrical about it. I think with Ghost, his mannerisms on stage sort of fuck with people’s masculinity. Because he’s being like this *mimicking him*. But hey, my parents took me to theater when I was a kid. You exaggerate your body movement to keep the crowd engaged. I think that’s where people think that Ghost is maybe too artsy. Some say “Oh, they sound like BLUE OYSTER CULT. They suck.” but really listen to them, dig down and hear the production, the songwriting, the lyrics. He’s got a whole storyline behind everything, he creates different aliases. I think he’s doing a movie now.
In the way of argument…it was a MADBALL and CROWN OF THORNZ tour, Europe ’95 and we were talking about albums, this singer’s better than that guy, this guitar player’s better than that guy. So I got into this heated argument with Matt Henderson over who was a better player between Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen. I know he looooves Eddie Van Halen and we were both drunk and I knew if I just set it off on him like that, that we’d get into a really bad argument. So I basically said Randy Rhoads fucking smokes Eddie Van Halen, hands down. He goes, “Bullshit! He doesn’t fuckin’ have his finger speed. He can’t fuck around like him. He’s just so fucking diverse!” You know, in my opinion, it’s apples and oranges. Randy Rhoads is more of a classical soloist as to where Eddie Van Halen is an innovator in finger tapping and developing his own solo style. Riffing wise, I would say that were equal…but Matty won’t say that! Oh, no!
So it remained at a stalemate?
No one won that argument! *Hahaha* We argued all fucking night on the tour bus. And then fucking Ezec, who doesn’t really care about it, he just walked by, “Eddie Van Halen sucks!” *Hahaha*
In closing, is there anything you’d like to promote? Are you full time now in Cro-Mags JM?
Currently I am because Craig (Setari) is really busy on tour but it’s Craig’s gig. Before I was doing bass duty, I was tour managing them the past few years. But I’m still not relieved of those duties, I have to do both! It happened by accident. He needed to leave the tour to play a show with SICK OF IT ALL in Minneapolis and we had a show in St. Louis. He’s like, “do me a favor, learn the set because I’m not going to be there”. I was like, “two weeks? Learn to set?” He’s like, “you know these songs. Learn it. I gotta go do this gig.” Then I played Age of Quarrel for the first time in St. Louis. No rehearsal, no line check. Nothing. I plugged in and we played it. I was like, “I can’t believe I just did that.” It was surreal. Not only because it’s the Cro-Mags but because they’re my friends. AJ is my best friend. These guys, they’re all my brothers but I’m still a fan and I’m still heavily influenced by their style and the way they play. To physically playing it was like, “holy shit!” I’m more comfortable with it now and I’m not really worried so much about playing the songs correct. Obviously, they have to be, but now it’s more about just putting extra energy into it and giving it 100% on stage. I’m trying to do my best to play those songs and pay tribute to who played those songs.
In terms of other projects, I’ve been working on a Hard Rock/Metal project for the last three years. It’s called Kings Bounty. It’s myself and a hip hop artist from Brooklyn named Q-Unique. He was in the ARSONISTS in the 90’s. The story with that is, he discovered that he could sing, and he can really sing this guy! Stylistically, throughout my musical career, I’ve always tried to branch out and do different genres of music just because that’s what I love. I love everything, from Rock to Pop, to Hip Hop to everything. So I start writing with Q and 23 songs later, we’re really happy with what we’re doing. We’ve played some shows. We did a week long tour opening up for KORN and that was kind of nerve wracking because Korn’s crowd is known for abusing the openers. We got through the first song and the crowd was cheering so, “alright, we’re good! Let’s do the show now.” One of the first shows we played was in California with Korn, they invited us out to do a show with them and then we did another run with them in the Midwest. Then we’ve done a few shows with P.O.D. and we’ve done a show opening up for SEVENDUST near Boston. That’s the project I have. We’ll have an album out shortly.
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