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Issue:January 2002 Year: 2002
this one
Jason Koerner

Louisville Rock Lowdown
By Jason Koerner

Without further delay, I bring you one of Louisville's premiere bands - Tornacade.

Tornacade

The members of Tornacade are AnDrew Wayne Davis: Vocals, Acoustic guitars (b. Louisville, KY, 11-29-77); Stephen Floyd Jones: Guitars (b. Clarksville, IN 8-4-76); Joshua Bryan Napper: Drums/Percussion (b. New Albany, IN 8-13-79); Kevin Michael Redford: Bass Guitar (b. Louisville, KY 1-17-73); Joshua Adam Carter: Guitars (b. Hardinsburg, KY 2-15-81), Steve Morris (b. Tacoma, WA 8-16-79), stage/band coordinator, all instrument tech, band contact. Send them (and me: Jason Koerner - b. Louisville, KY 7-23-80) birthday presents!

The group has been together for several years, acquiring the name "Tornacade" in December 2000. Tornacade's music is self-titled "Progressive~Emo."

This interview is a first: I did it online. Their replies did undergo some editing for clarity and spelling - our editor insists on it. I am JJKSLACKER and, of course, Tornacade is ClayMadePeople.

JJKSLACKER: What are your upcoming shows?

ClayMadePeople: Our upcoming shows are: January 11th @ TekWorld, January 12th @ the Crunch Zone, and February 16th at TekWorld.

JJKSLACKER: And the name of the CD just released?

ClayMadePeople: Bella Bleu

JJKSLACKER: Where does the name come from?

ClayMadePeople: The guitarist (Steve Jones) came up with it. "Bleu," like blue, is just a different spelling. The "bella" is French for "pretty," so it is kind of a "Pretty Blue" CD. There are a lot of shades of blue in the cover of the CD.

JJKSLACKER: Who did the artwork?

ClayMadePeople: The artwork is by the same guy who did our web site design and setup: Paul Corey, with Chaos II design.

JJKSLACKER: What is your focus right now as a band? To promote the new CD? To gain exposure through live performances? What?

ClayMadePeople: We would all like to do it for a living, for sure. If that means getting signed to a major label, independent label, or even a small label... whatever. We want to be able to do this for a living, so basically, without the support of a label, it can get to be very difficult. We are trying to get some professional management to help us out with getting us showcases for labels. We keep doing more original music. We plan on using the Bella Bleu CD for promotion, and getting on more showcases in the future.

JJKSLACKER: What is your best show to date?

ClayMadePeople: Well, best and favorite might be different, but, we think the recent CD release show we had was awesome! However Waverly Manor show from 1999 was incredible too.

JJKSLACKER: How many copies of the CD did you sell on the date of the CD release show at TekWorld? How many have sold so far to date?

ClayMadePeople: Well, we only made 100 copies and some had to be set aside, but we sold most of them. I don't know if we have any copies left. We basically sell out of CDs every time we have any.

JJKSLACKER: What was the attendance of the CD release show?

ClayMadePeople: Roughly 360 paying people, plus three bands and their guests.

JJKSLACKER: What was the lineup of that show and the date?

ClayMadePeople: The first band was False, then MSD, then Tornacade. We had a double long set. We also celebrated Drew's birthday on stage during the show. It was on December 1, 2001, so we had been together as Tornacade with the new guitarist for a year when we had it.

JJKSLACKER: Tell me more about the Waverly show...

ClayMadePeople: The Waverly Show was for Halloween, 1999. It was us (as Contortion) along with My Own Victim, Incursion 502, the Revenants, and Life Tap. There were hundreds of people all night, constantly, every hour. When we left at 3:30 a.m., hundreds of people were still pouring in.

JJKSLACKER: And your worst show/memory to date?

ClayMadePeople: Yes, this one is easy. There was advertisement up the f*****g a**. This was at the Pandemonium (a now-defunct venue in the Highlands). Everyone, even the people that worked there, thought it was going to be a s**tload of people. We had four bands: Contortion, Flaw and two bands from Indiana. The bands from Indiana didn't show up and didn't call to cancel. That was a total surprise. Flaw was running late, and I had to call them up and let them know that the other bands didn't show. Flaw showed up to (basically watch us practice) because there were only two people in the audience. Two. But the band played so sweet! Twice Told cafe started hosting new types of bands, and only charged $3 instead of $5, so everyone went down the road instead of going to Pandemonium.

JJKSLACKER: When was that show? Obviously it was a while ago...

ClayMadePeople: It was around June 2000.

JJKSLACKER: What has been your musical peak?

ClayMadePeople: Our peak was as Contortion in 1999, in my opinion.

JJKSLACKER: And your influences?

ClayMadePeople: Influences as a band or individually?

JJKSLACKER: As a band...

ClayMadePeople: We always consider our influences more as styles, instead of bands. Progressive, Rock, Metal. It's more like composing music instead of just trying to create it. We had to do styles because everyone in the band is influenced by different bands, and mostly different styles.

JJKSLACKER: Why the name change from Contortion to Tornacade? New members? New style? Big copyright lawsuit?

ClayMadePeople: In November 2000, Jason Williams and the rest of the band parted ways. We picked up Joshua Carter in December of 2000. We now had a lot of new material and a new member, but Jason also came up with the name Contortion, so we felt like it was a good idea if we used something we (without him) came up with. Jason has been playing with Luther for awhile now (and is still). Jason left the band, and Contortion is no more. Anyway, we basically started over; we had a renaissance, in a sense.

JJKSLACKER: Any funny stories you would like people to know? Any unusual trivia about the bands' members?

ClayMadePeople: I got one. We were at the Bullitt County Fairgrounds in 1999, and we had the longest set of our life playing the Bullitt County Fair. We ended up being the only band that showed up, and got to play for about four hours! Late in the set, Jason Williams started playing "Sweet Home Alabama." Then, he just stopped... all Hell broke loose, and a riot started. Fights broke out, Bar stools and pool sticks went flying, chairs went soaring, and all kinds of s**t happened! We got it on tape.

JJKSLACKER: I would like to hear that!

ClayMadePeople: For the longest time people would get in fights at our shows. Our music created some kind of chemical imbalance in their brains, and there would be a fight or something at all our shows. Now people tend not to do that.

JJKSLACKER: That is good.

ClayMadePeople: Well, this guy got up in Drew's face and told him to finish what he started. There is even a guy laid up in bed being wheeled up to the stage to yell at us...

JJKSLACKER: Security appreciates that, I'm sure!

ClayMadePeople: No security was there.

JJKSLACKER: What kind of place was it?!

ClayMadePeople: Just us and a couple of hundred Skynard fanatics inside the building and at the fairgrounds.

JJKSLACKER: So they were too excited that you played it?

ClayMadePeople: They were p***ed because he started it and never finished it. It was supposed to be a joke. Well, the riot settled down a little bit. But, we got to some of the heavier songs again, and another one started. This time it was bad and lasted the rest of the night. The band had to get up and come to the front of the stage and warn the crowd to back down. We were worried about the girls with us... The guys in Tornacade can hold their own in a fight, but a couple of hundred drunks are a bit much. We left watching the guy that was in charge of the place choking a guy that was a big part of the problem. The guy doing the choking was p****d.

JJKSLACKER: Any tracks of yours being aired on the radio right now?

ClayMadePeople: The track "Crippled" should be. WLRS played it for the first time the exact time we went on stage December 1 at the CD release party.

JJKSLACKER: Any more tidbits to add? What do you want people to know?

ClayMadePeople: Well, we would like to add that information about our shows can be obtained from tornacade.com. That doesn't have a "www" by the way, it is just tornacade.com. Also, we appreciate all the support we have been getting since we have been Tornacade. It wasn't easy starting over, but the fans have been more then cool.

JJKSLACKER: Thanks for your time...

ClayMadePeople: Thank you...

Be sure to check out Tornacade as soon as possible!

A few other new releases to mention are:

Muffy - How'd Ya' Get So?, available at www.muffyrocks.com. You can also buy it at ear X-tacy on Bardstown Rd.

Diggy-Mudhouse Serenade. Diggy will be at the Rudyard Kipling on Tuesday, February 5 at 8 p.m.

Be sure to come out to the Redman Club (904 E. Main St., New Albany, IN) on January 12, 2002 from 6:30-midnight for the Elizabeth Harper fundraiser. Liz is the wife of a former band mate of mine who has been diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant in February. Musical guests will include Strum Drum, Flathead Screw, Mouth of Maddness, and Liz's husbands' band Fullyload'd. Admission is 6 bucks, and there will be free snacks, $1.25 drinks, and door prizes; so help out if you can! My best wishes go out to Liz and her family.

Rock on Louisville!

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