David Halprin – Interview – Thanks for Asking!

David Halprin – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: What historical era would you like to visit if the sole purpose was to put together a Battle of the Bands? How would you set it up?

DH: I actually love this question because I could probably give 4 to 5 answers. Well I gotta say the Late sixties 1969 so I would pick.

The Who , The Beatles , Rolling Stones, Blind Faith ( super group Eric Clapton , Steve Winwood , Ginger Baker, Ric Gretch ), Jimi Hendrix Experience, Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin , Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and Big Brother and The Holding Company, Santana, and Bob Dylan and the Band.

I would set up head to head battles every night for a week or two and the finals would be on a Friday Night with the final 4 bands battling and the Final round on Saturday  and the winner would Play a 2-3 show on Sunday evening.

Its really hard to Say who could win this Battle some bands could be on some bands could have off nights The audience and a panel off judges would decide The audience  with the roar of the crowd. Even A band that lost a round could come back and win. Im pretty sure we all know who would win this Battle but Im gonna keep this opinion to myself but there would probaly some time of Purple Haze at the end. The ultimate winner would everyone who saw the shows and the bands that participated.

RRX: Love is a big part of music. We’re talking first loves here. Lots of cool stories about first loves and the things we do for those loves. Can you (or, in the case of a band, one member) talk about your first love, especially if you did something cool to express that love? (No names needed.)

DH: I got a song Going Back Home to Virginia ( Virginia is For Lovers ) all about a lost love. I had a girlfriend in Saratoga Springs years ago and I lost her because I moved back to Virginia.  She now actually lives in Virginia now so I flipped the story around and made it about her leaving me to start a new life down south.

You get maybe 3-4 good girls that you have a chance with in your life and she was one of them and I let her slip away. I can look back and know how dumb I really was with some of my relationships with women.

RRX: Would you rather have one of your songs blow up and make you a one-hit wonder and household name, or would you rather have all your songs be solidly received, but no chart-climbers? (You have to pick one or the other here.)

DH: I definitely want my songs to blow up whats the point of doing this if you don’t go for it. I want everything number 1 songs on billboard, huge record deals and sales, Grammy Awards, Sold out shows and tours, the whole Rock  Star world.

RRX: Playing out is tricky because you never know what’s going to happen when you get there. Sometimes everything goes wrong. What was your worst show like?

DH: It is Tricky , I guess one of the worst ones when I started promoting at a local bar in Troy in 2022. The Manager was really cool at first he gave me two nights Wednesday and Saturday. I was excited and had a great plan I would do an open mic on Wednesday with the singer from a band that then would he play on Saturday night with his band and two or three other bands.

I had  to figure out who to get I knew alot of bands so my first call was to Brother T ( Tom Hogan) . I’ve known this guy since he was 14 years old I met him at Adirondack Strings Music Store in Colonie in 1991. The first band I asked was The Erotics and Mike Trash but he passed for some reason, so I then called up IKE from Ike Wasted World and he said he would do it.

So the open night was set for Wednesday, IKE from Ikes Wasted World, Brother T acoustic , Tommy Love on Drums , and Straight Edge Punks which is Tom’s Sons group The Emo Sea Monster and his friend Nick.

Everything was going pretty good we started around 7-8 the manager asked if I would stay till 2am because the had a late night crowd that would come in. Ike and Tommy Love were playing and Ike was paying through acoustic electric guitar out of my fender rock 1000 amp 100 watts and Tommy was playing drums and it sounded so cool kinda like the white stripes. Brother t did his set and his son played his set with his friend which was hilarious his friend plays the drum machine and TJ plays Keytar it was almost like a skit out of SNL. TJ was supposed to videoing the show and then only took video of his own group so the cool thing with IKE and Tommy was never recorded.

So everyone form the first group of people left and I was pretty much there by myself for a while. Matty d sent me a text message and said he was gonna check it out and he was gonna stop by with his crew so that was cool.

Then a guy showed up with his girlfriend and wanted to play. He had a real slick hair cut and hot girlfriend and told me he was a country singer  and he had recorded in Nashville.

It was Jordan Stoner. I’m not making this up the first person to sign up for my open mic was this amazing country singer from Ulster county who is an awesome singer and  recorded in Nashville. He sang about 4-5 songs and then Matty D played it was getting Late. I got up and started playing and the late night crowd that the manager told me about from the service industry showed up about 20-30 people. I was playing my songs Chi chi and the Slot Machines, Virginia , knocking on heavens door thing like that.

I thought the night was a success and I helped Tommy Love and his girlfriend carry his drum set out to his car. I then left around 2 in the morning but as I was leaving and giving the bartender a Tip he then told me I owed another 45 bucks. I said what? He said yeah your friend Tommy Love drank a bunch a beer and said to put it on your tab. I was so surprised and i didnt have the cash on me so I told him i would have to bring it back to him. I was gonna be back there Saturday anyway. Thanks Tommy Love .

I call the Manager and I tell him I got a band in mind for the show on Saturday but they are young and some of them are under age is OK if they play the bar. he said yeah no problem.  You see Ike didn’t understand the concept I had and he couldn’t play with his band on Saturday so I was scrambling for a band. This band Fallen Youth was playing the Tuesday night open mic at the Black Bear in Watervliet and they where pretty good and all their girlfriends were really hot. This could be genius I thought.

I had a meeting with the Manager because I had concerns about doing the show because it Fourth of July weekend. I told him everyone is gonna be out of town and if we play on Saturday the only way people are going to come out is if it rains. He said he still wanted to do the show so I went forward with my Saturday show. The line up Brother T acoustic , TJH Emoseamonster solo , me David Halprin and Fallen Youth as the headliner.

I was gambling I knew these guys were young and inexperienced but they were excited to be playing one of their first gigs.

We got to the venue Brother t did his set for some reason he didn’t have any of his friends come out to see him that wasn’t very helpful. His son was playing next i told him to play a longer set try to stretch thing out to 45 minutes. Meanwhile we were waiting for Fallen Youth they were late. I called them on the phone and they said they where on their way. Well they lied they never showed.

The show was a disaster as the owner sat at the bar eating chicken wings with his girlfriend who was about 15 years younger then him. Everyone was tense because he was there. He was playing his set and they were not felling it. he is about 25 and plays the keytar and none in the bar was felling it. They actually shut the the door to the music room. When he was finally done I got up and started playing Neil Young’s Rockin in the Free world on my electric guitar as an instrumental.

The manager came back and shut the whole show down said its over you guys are done for tonight. I said fine. I went and ordered my free burger and ate it and then left.

A complete disaster thanks to that young band Fallen Youth fucking me over.

Ther more to this story but ill have to tell  another time because I want to make the deadline.

RRX: My singer punched my drummer out. Memorable moment, though nothing to brag about. But we have these things that, when summing up your endeavor, an incident comes to mind. What do you got?

DH: I had a fallen out with my guitarist years ago when I was in Athens Ga .  We where at a party and we had driven over together and he was ready to leave and he wasnt. He was buggin me to go and I didn’t want to leave because I was talking to a hot chic and there he was trying to cock block me again.

I final took him back to his pick up truck by my house and then when he got out he pushed me. Well that was gonna happen like that I threw that guy down on the ground and pinned him to the ground and he started crying like a little bitch. Well that was the end of our collaboration and playing together. But when I look back on that I shouldn’t have let that incident be the end of everything between us, I mean look at the Robinson Brothers in the Black Crowes they used to fight all the time and look where they ended up.

RRX: Like songs, every artist has a unique feeling about their first show. What was your first show like? Was it your best show? If not, what was your best show like?

DH: First shows? This question could go a couple ways. I think about the first show I every went to and how lucky I was to see these artist. The first concert was Andy Gibb at Great Adventure in NJ and I was really young. I was way in the back high up and the place was packed. It was the summer in NJ and what I could remember most was that all these young girls where up close to the stage and they where all passing out and I couldn’t understand why. They where all getting excited from seeing Andy play and with the crowd and the heat they passed out. I was thinking wow I want to be that Guy on stage making all the girls so hot they pass out and have to have Medical attention. That’s so cool and that so Rock n Roll and that’s guy I still want to be.

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