This is a post I never wanted to write…
I found Tim Calvert online about 4 years ago while randomly Googling the members of Nevermore. He was posting on a message board for a hobby of his. I wrote him on the board and asked ‘were you once a musician?’ He answered yes and confirmed it.
I cannot claim to be a close friend. We never met or talked on the phone. It was purely email exchanges, with me trying to keep a respectful distance because I knew by reputation that Tim was very private.
Last November I wrote him to wish him a happy birthday and asked how things were. “All bad, don’t want to talk about it,” was the response. I asked why. He didn’t answer but slipped and said shit had been posted on his Wikipedia page. Well, Tim didn’t know Wikipedia saves revisions. So even though the change to his page had been undone, I was able to go in to the history and see the change. It was an entry saying he had Lou Gherig’s Disease. I said please tell me this isn’t true. It was, and he was curious how I found out, so I explained it.
Tim said he hadn’t flown since June and that his arms were rapidly going on him. Knowing time was limited (he said typing was difficult), I asked for one last favor: the story behind Trapped. He seemed pleased and said he would forward me a letter he’d written for a Hungarian metal journalist some years earlier on the same subject. The letter is one long stream of consciousness on Forbidden, including Trapped, Nevermore, and his piloting career.
BTW, I showed him the thread we had here on Forbidden, and he quite liked it. Well of course, he was praised numerous times.
I promised him I would keep his secret, and not publish this until after his death. I didn’t realize it would come so soon. I said my goodbye to him in January, not knowing how much longer he would be able to type.
Just so you know I’m not making this up, here’s a picture he’d sent me. It was taken in the cockpit of a Southwest 737. The pilot next to him is Michael Campbell, the brother of a rather famous metal guitarist (well, he isn’t playing metal these days). Does the name ring a bell? He’s a dead ringer for big brother.
Before I get into the letter, two tidbits on Nevermore he shared. I asked him, since Jeff switched to seven string following his departure, had he stayed, would he go 7 string? His only reply was “I am NOT a seven string guy!”
Second, I asked how the compositions broke down on DNB. Here is what he said:
The title track is almost completely Jeff's if I remember correctly.
In the studio I only played the heavy parts and the middle clean part
Deconstruction is all mine, but Jeff wrote a clean part in the middle, behind the flamenco part.
All play dead is also mine.
I added parts to many of the songs, overlays and second parts....
Cenotaph is also mine.One last thing: Tim had six songs recorded, one of which he sent to me with a drum machine, and it’s fantastic. I could only imagine what it would sound like with Warrel singing. He said he was going to give the songs to Jeff to use on a future recording. I hope Jeff does use them. Jesus, he must be gutted right now, losing Warrel and Tim in six months. And Tim confided his condition to Jeff, so he knew this was coming even as he was going through the Warrel memorial.
Note to Blabbermouth and other metal blogs: I created this account to post Tim’s final message anonymously. I’m a regular here and did not want to get hounded. I don’t intend to post again and will not divulge anything else Tim shared with me. I promised him my confidence and intend to keep it. He knew everything I intended to post and was ok with it.
Nothing below this is changed. And with that, Tim Calvert’s final words.
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Hi Szab,
Sorry for the long delay.....life keeps getting in the way.
Looking through the questions on your interview....I realized it would take longer than I first anticipated.
Some of these areas are a bit touchy. I have read many interviews and it's common to hear a feel-good answer given to a question that if answered truthfully, may cause some discomfort. It's considered classy to avoid disparagement when speaking publicly. But the watered down, half-truths you hear are often the greatest lies. I've always hated interviews like that. Nothing real is ever revealed.
If you are after a politically correct interview, maybe it's best not to post what I say here. And in fact what I type, I will try to be nice about things.
Rather than answer each question you've asked, I will try to give you an over all view of what I can remember from 20 years ago.
Lets back up to 1991
Twisted had come out and the record label made it clear that they were not willing to gamble on Forbidden. Pantera for instance, had massive $$ behind them and were getting bigger and bigger. Their record label believed in them and was willing to spend money. But Combat's owner knew that if he invested exactly what he did in our last record, he could most certainly profit without any risk. He wanted us to get right back in the studio and crank something out in a month. We wanted to milk Twisted In To Form for a bit and then settle down and write something really great, not just do a quickie record and sacrifice quality. We ignored the owner and his A&R folks and did it our way.
Craig, Paul and myself were writing some really good stuff. During the creative process, Paul provided a much needed balance between the three of us that was ideal. Trapped, So Dark, My Sorrow and Disillusions were written at this time and the chemistry was working. Eventually, we broke it off with Combat and also with our manager Debbie Abono. I was still new to the band and the business aspect of it all but I realized it was a gamble. I just, kind of watched it happen. What we needed was someone to push the band but we had very few options because Forbidden had a personality in it's midst. A personality that
had a knack for burning bridges. A lot of them. (I'm being slightly PC by not mentioning a name).
On top of that, Hurl Phlegm ....oops, I mean Pearl Jam and Nirvana were taking off. Between the shift in the US music industry and the beginning of the first Gulf War, only one label wanted to sign us.
There was an A&R chick names Leslie Lewis at RCA that loved the "Trapped" demo. You need a person to believe in your band and she did. We were showcasing for her boss and things started looking really good. But suddenly, Paul decided to quit due to a religious revelation he had. He could no longer, in good conscience play Heavy Metal because of this devine enlightenment. Three days later he joined Slayer. I was distraught and in disbelief. He was my favorite guy in the band.
Many drummers hoped to fill Paul's shoes but after our third tryout we called off auditions. A guy from Cincinnati named Steve Jacobs was the 3rd. An incredible player and a great guy. The band got tighter with Steve raising the bar with his ability. The dude never made mistakes! Steve practiced Martial Arts and at age 12, earned a black belt. He had learned early on not to let his mind distract him and he applied this same discipline to music. But being new to the band, Steve did more taking instruction than offering input. Craig now had more control and the balance that Paul had once provided became apparent. Craig changed drum parts to the demo songs we had done with Paul and when Leslie heard the new versions she really wasn't into them. They just didn't groove the same. RCA walked away.
This next part won't fit in the interview / story....but for your info....
Original version of Trapped....with Paul on drums...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOIysQQbSMs Forbidden - Trapped (Demo) - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com{Requested by HereticMocculta} From the 1991 demo "Trapped" A very rare collector's item, contains songs recorded for what would be the third Forbidden ...
Reworked version....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLbn1pP7neM Forbidden - Trapped live from Tales From The Pit - YouTube
http://www.youtube.comUnsubscribe from Tales From The Pit? Rating is available when the video has been rented. Directed bt Jerry Allen
While we are at it, the Trapped demo stuff that you can find on youtube is something copied from a cassette demo that was distributed only to record companies, traded and copied again a few more times by tape traders, and then someone made a CD of the degraded tape. The original recordings were album quality. No one knows what happened to the original studio recordings. In fact those tracks were recorded in the same studio Distortion and Green were recorded in. Would sure be nice to find and remix the originals.
In case you're not familiar, here is
So Dark (on this side)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xPERLOZ ... LOZ_Zc#t=5 Forbidden - So Dark (On the Other Side) (Demo) - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com{Requested by HereticMocculta} From the 1991 demo "Trapped" A very rare collector's item, contains songs recorded for what would be the third Forbidden ...
My sorrow's my own...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUXyOLoFfQk Forbidden - My Sorrow is My Own - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com{Requested by HereticMocculta} From the 1991 demo "Trapped" A very rare collector's item, contains songs recorded for what would be the third Forbidden ...
Disillusions....written with Paul, Steve played drums on this....it was recorded in Dec 1992...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zFyBeIHcKg Forbidden - Disillusions - YouTube
http://www.youtube.comBand: Forbidden Song: Disillusions Album: Trapped (demo) Genre: Thrash Metal Year: 1992
Trapped demo recorded in the summer of 1991
Trapped
So Dark
My Sorrow's My Own
Disillusions demo in Dec 1992
Disillusions
Mind's Eye
(hmmmm.....what other song did we do on this???)
Distortion demo sometime in 93
Distortion
Hynotized
All that Is
Rest Assured
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtHHFE_7a5c Forbidden - Rest Assured (1993 Demo)
http://www.youtube.com1993 Distortion Demo Produced by Pat Coughlin. I believe the line up at the time of this demo consisted of: Russ Anderson - Vocals Craig Locicero - Guitars Matt ...
...okay back to the story, as I remember it.
Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were starting to influence Craig's writing and direction. It was a fight to keep things on a track where everyone in the band would be happy with the outcome. The guys at Guitar Center in San Fran referred to Craig as "grunge boy".
Then in '93 Chuck from Death asked Craig to fill in on guitar for a European tour. While he was gone I wrote No Reason with Steve. Craig came back from the tour a changed man, spouting off that he now "knew what the people wanted!" Well, at least we were back on the metal track, but all the old stuff got thrown out and it was more like writing songs with a dictator than ever. There was no fun in it anymore. As label after label turned us down, fingers were pointed at Matt, Russ and myself, blaming us for holding the band back. At that point in the 90's, nobody was into a real singer, or a guitarist that played lead guitar, etc. Things were so serious. Like a matter of life or death
A friend of the band had been managing us for the last few years. He was a smart business guy but had no real experience in the music industry. However he did end up getting us signed to GUN records in Germany.
Finally we went into Music Annex in Menlo Park. This is the same studio we had done the last 3 demos.
In fact, the Trapped demo was Produced by the same guy that Engineered Forbidden Evil, Doug Caldwell. Awesome guy. The engineer at Menlo Park was Pat Coughlin. That's how we got to know Pat. After engineering the Trapped demo in '91 we had him produce and engineer the next two demos and things worked so well we had him do Distortion and Green. Pat is one hell of a guy and I just talked to him yesterday.
20 years ago. Crazy. No computers, just a big fat tape rolling on a very expensive machine and a 24 channel console. We had to get the drums recorded first. Steve was a monster and cranked out first take after first take. Towards the end of the first day, he was getting tired and after 6 attempts to record the song Distortion, we decided to try again in the morning. The very next day he came back and nailed it immediately. After 2 days all the drums were finished.
We recorded most of the guitar tracks live with Steve and kept many of them, only going back to fix a few things and then double other parts. Studio time was profoundly expensive and we were on a very limited budget so having a bad ass sum-bish on drums saved a lot of $$!!
After all the main structures were complete we put the icing on.....leads, acoustic and vocals. While Pat was mixing the songs we went into a smaller studio next door and put together the intro to Hypnotized, which was quite a bit of fun....the guy sitting there with the remote control changing channels......Propaganda.
My favorites on the album are along this order...
No Reason
Feed The Hand
Rape
Distortion
Hypnotized
Minds I
Undertaker
All that Is
Schitzoid
No Reason, Feed the Hand and Rape have the best production and mixes in my opinion.
All that Is and Schitzoid....hmmmm....what I can say about Schitzoid is that every band seemed to be doing covers in '93 and '94 and I thought it was trendy. Craig wanted to do a Beatles cover and thank God Steve found this song instead. Call me lame, but I'm not a Beatles fan. They might be the greatest songwriters in history, but they are just too damn happy and popular for TC.
You asked about Annexanax....the hidden track....someone got a hold of some Xanax and we popped em and started jamming in the studio. Pat secretly recorded it. We were using Lexicon rack mounts and set a nice delay on em. Not much more to it than that!
RipRide was actually recorded for a Venom tribute album. Craig was a Venom fan. Our record company sent us an extra day's worth of studio money. We rehearsed it for an hour in Matt's front room with practice amps and Steve hitting a newspaper with his sticks to keep time. All our gear was in the studio already so it was quick. I like the way it turned out.
One of the things I remember most from that recording.....we hadn't been practicing all that much before finding out we were going in the studio to record. Suddenly we were playing 8 plus hours a day and my sore fingers started to blister. I was recording the solo for Mind's I, and it's all bending and hand vibrato, no wammy bar (In 1991 I had my guitar made into a non trem). I'd never had bigger blisters hanging off my fingers and I knew if they broke I was in trouble. It was like a miracle that they hung in there until the end and I was able to finish recording. I couldn't believe it.
In late October '94 we flew to Frankfurt Germany and started a tour with Gorefest. It was good to be back on the road after 3 1/2 years of struggling.
The matter of getting signed to a label in the states was not easy and things were not going well for us.
In early 1995 we did a co-headlining tour with Malevolent Creation. Our manager's Dad passed away during this tour and more bridges were burned with the handling of this situation. It was disgusting, I will leave it at that.
Luckily Testament took us on a US tour in the summer of '95 and it was suddenly like the old days again.
We never did tour on Green, and there was a band meeting sometime around May '97. Craig announced that he was breaking the band up to start his own thing. It was a great relief to be honest.
The very next day my old guitar tech Takumi called. Nevermore was in need of a guitar player. Not kidding. The very next day.
I went out and bought Politics of Ecstasy that afternoon and was blown away. However, I was tired of BS and was not going to join unless everyone was exceptionally cool.
I already knew Warrel and Jim. In the summer of 1990 Forbidden was touring the US as support act for Death Angel. Sanctuary joined the tour and opened up for us. I already owned Refuge Denied and Into the Mirror Black and was very happy to be able to watch them play every night.
I flew up to Seattle and met Jeff....absolutely awesome guy. They say every band has an asshole and I was expecting the drummer to ruin the whole thing. Two days later I met their drummer Van and he ended up being the coolest bastard on the planet.
Ever since Paul had left Forbidden I had lacked good chemistry. It was back and writing new songs was easy.
I moved in with Jeff and his girlfriend in an old apartment just a few block from the Space Needle with an incredible view.
There was no music scene in Seattle anymore. No grunge, no metal.
In Sept 1997 we toured with Flotsam and Jestsam. We were in a van towing a trailer but it was a great time in my life.
That winter we started writing.
Jeff had a crappy 4 track and we would come up with riffs and then Jeff would use a cheap drum machine and pound in some drum parts.
As inspiration I said to Jeff, "If you had to go into battle, to defend your family and friends, what music would you want playing in the background?" He would make something up, then I would make something up.
In May 1998 we flew into Brussels to start a tour opening for Overkill. We played in Budapest on the last night of that tour. In a park. Must have been late June, very hot out. Good memories.
The rest of the summer was spent writing at our roadie's apartment that was literally over Lake Washington in Kirkland. The whole theme was water, and Warrel's concept of Dreaming Neon Black was born.
We recorded DNB in Tornillo, Texas with Neil Kernon, another great guy. His dad had been a Mosquito pilot for the Royal Air Force in WWII and was shot down and a POW.
Our A&R guy at Century Media was a real tool. When it came time to finish the album we needed a few extra dollars. This guy wouldn't go to bat for us because he hated heavy metal. We had to rush many of the parts on that album to make it work. Neil did an incredible job. In fact the girl who sang on the song Dreaming Neon Black was not even there. 2 months prior in Seattle, Warrel had gotten her drunk and recorded her on his 4 track. That version of her vocals was in a different key and a different speed. Neil took her part and made it work on the album!
We had 3 months off after recording and I went to visit a girl I had met in Antwerp. Ended up staying 3 months. We got drunkenly married and she moved over to Seattle. Jeff's girlfriend and my new wife did not get along and one night the cops were called and attempted murder charges almost pressed. Someone supposedly tried to poison the other. Let's just say that made my staying in the band very difficult.
The politically correct statement made by Nevermore was that I couldn't handle being on the road and I wanted to start a family. I stayed silent.
I had wanted to be a pilot for as long as I can remember.
My Dad flew in the Navy. His brother flew in the Air Force and then 747s for Northwest Airlines. His two kids now fly for Delta.
My Mom's brother flew 767s for United.
It was in my blood.
Now was the time. I got a job at Boeing Field and started working on my aviation ratings. That was March 2000. I worked my ass off. Stacking hangars, fueling corporate jets, pulling up cars for the super rich, throwing bags, unloading sports teams, etc. I probably dumped over 1000 lavs.
It took me 6 years to get my all my ratings and then first flying job. By then the marriage had collapsed.
I flew people around in 4 and 6 seaters for a year in horrible weather in the Seattle area.
Then I got a job flying cargo in a kick ass twin engine Cessna 402, over the mountains in the middle of the night, alone with no autopilot. Often in snowstorms with ice accumulating on the airframe. After surviving that for a year, I was hired at SkyWest Airlines. Been here 6 years and other than getting up too damn early once in a while, I am loving life. We fly routes for United and Delta in 90 seat jets.
When I look back on how everything happened, it all has a rhyme and reason. The timing worked out just right. I feel very lucky to have had the experiences I have. I still play guitar when time allows and have about 6 songs worth of riffage. I stay in touch with most of the guys from both bands.
That's about it. Now I can get old and die!
Thanks for your interest. Use whatever you want for the mag.
Cheers, and sorry again for taking so long....but I think Distortion was released in Sept 1994.
Tim