Charlie Dominici
March 2008
You found yourself back in the music business last year. How did it feel being active again?
It's a great feeling, it's what I've been missing for all those years. I knew that I stopped playing music because it stopped being fun but after a while it was no fun to not play music. Now that I'm doing it again and I'm in a better situation as I have my own band it's much more fun.
What was the highlight for you last year?
Actually to tell you the truth the highlight was when the CD was finished and the record company sent me some free copies in a box and when I opened the box and had a shrink wrapped copy of the CD I was like, "Wow, I did it."
You were able to open up for Dream Theater last summer, including a gig in Budapest. How did they turn out for the band?
You were at the Hungarian gig so you know that it was getting closer for us to play and the band was nowhere to be found. We almost missed that show because the car broke down and I had to fix the car myself and we found Petőfi Csarnok three minutes before it was time for us to start playing. I literally run onto the stage and Dream Theter's tour manager said to me that "Take ten minutes and cut some songs." But I said, "No, let's start the show." We were in our street clothes and stuff but that was cool I think. We were cool that way with that we-didn't-care kind of attitude. And as soon as we started playing we were right there with no major mistakes.
And how was meeting up with the DT guys again?
It's always nice to see them. They are a family and I love them for 20 years. We've been in touch the whole time and I have been very happy for their success and obviously it's helping me now because at least I'm not completely nobody and I'm not starting from scratch, which helps. We've always been very close friends and Mike is very supportive.
You also did a couple of headlining show last year but weren't you hoping for more?
Yeah, we were hoping that there would be more but the timing was bad: the album came out in March and the tours were already booked by March. No one really knew what our album was gonna sound like and I don't think anybody even knew we have an album coming out. We were lucky to had the three dates with Dream Theater because I guess those dates have been available for quite a while and it was perfect for us because we were right there. I was right in Hungary and it worked out perfectly.
You moved to Hungary last year and you had high expectations. How did that turn out for you?
Well, it's okay. I was closer to my band and my wife was closer to her family but the language is very difficult. I tried to learn as much as I can and I can handle myself, I can leave the house and I know how to buy a buszjegy and I know how to take the train to get to the airport by myself, how to get home, which is all that matters. And I know the basic questions and answers and things like "jó napot kívánok, szívesen, jó étvágyat." I mean I know enough to be able to get by but the language is very difficult. I'm moving back to New York next month so I'm looking forward to being back in the United States for a while so I can concentrate on other things besides trying to express myself.
So, you're leaving Hungary after one year...
Yeah. I would say that we live a multi continental life. My wife is a Hungarian citizen but she's also a United States citizen and I'm a United States citizen but I also have Hungarian legal residency now. We live both places.
What's the thing you like and you hate the most about Hungary?
Why did you have to ask me that, Zoli? (Laughs) Next question. I stopped eating meat three months ago... nem hús... so I can't eat the Hungarian food anymore: gulyásleves and brassói and all the things that I really enjoyed before, I can't eat anymore because I don't eat meat anymore. I love Erős Pista and paprika and your food but unfortunately I'm not able to enjoy it anymore so much. What I don't like about Hungary is... the economy is very bad. It's actually good for me because I use American dollars and euro and I can buy two packs of cigarette for the price of one pack in America. But I see around me people starving and it's very difficult for everyone because if you can't make money then you can't spend money and if you can't spend money somebody else can't make money and if they can't make money they can't spend money, that's how the economy works. But unfortunately your government is keeping the people down so that they can stay rich. But that's nothing new, it's like in every country.
All right, let's talk about the music now. How was the second part of the trilogy received by the media?
It was very well received by the media. We got really really good reviews most of it. And I think we're going to get much better reviews this time because this is a much better album. Part two was progressive rock with a little bit of metal. This album is now progressive metal, it's just as progressive as it is metal. And it's also melodic so I think it'll receive good feedback. It already has been getting really great response. People are just telling me that it's amazing. I'm very happy to hear that because I can't tell because I'm just so close to it. I don't know if it's great or good or okay or fantastic, I don't know. I just know that it's my vision and really it's what I wanted and it came out the way I wanted it to.
Did you start composing for this right after the second one?
Not at all. In fact for the second album I had written all the lyrics before I even went to Sardinia. And I actually had some songs written on acoustic guitar. This new album I decided not to write one note and not one word until I came to Sardinia. I had it all in my head and I wanted it to be fresh and I wanted it to be real and I wanted it to be well put together so that the words and the music really work together, much better than on the second one so I did it in a different way. I wrote the words as we were writing the music. We were working together back and forth on the material. Once I knew we had eight songs I opened up eight Word files on my computer and named each one and then I just wrote at the very top just what that song was going to be about. And I left it in the lyric sheet when you see the album, it's still there. I purposely did that because I wanted people to see that there's like a little explanation of what happens in the songs. And that's actually how I wrote the lyrics by writing that explanation first and after I wrote the lyrics for that. And I did it that way so that I could make sure that, by the time we got the song number eight, I would be finished. (Laughs) We weren't just finishing an album but we were finishing a trilogy.
So now that you have finished the trilogy what's next from Dominici?
From the band the next is gonna be probably an album that's hopefully better than this last one as I want to be better all the time. But it won't be a concept album, it'll be an album full of progressive metal songs just like every time Dream Theater release an album. They did a concept album but most of the time their albums are just bunch of songs that sound nice together on the album. And for me personally I also want to start producing. I mean I produced these last three albums and I really enjoy that part and I think I'm getting better and better at it and my production on this last album I think shows some pretty good quality. I enjoyed it and I wanna produce then. I wanna find some young talented bands that need an experienced and talented producer to help them out. Not even necessarily progressive rock bands... metal bands or top rock bands. I prefer metal and progressive of course but hard rock is okay and anything that I know how to sound.
And as far as a musician do you think you could release back-to-back records every year?
I could come out with a new album next month. I'm not kidding. We're really like a machine. We told ourselves to just work like animals like in a sweatshop working 14 hours a day. They don't stop to think about it, they just keep working because they have to keep working. And that how we're working and we trained ourselves like trained animals in a circus to perform. I could go back to Sardinia right now and spend two months and come home with another album. I don't want to (laughs) because it took a lot out of me, man. I was sick for the whole two months, I was on antibiotics for the whole two months. I had some kind of flu and I couldn't get rid of that. But I didn't care. I was driven, I was a man on a mission, I just pretended that I was fine and I just worked and sang.
What would you see as the biggest musical challenge in the future?
I don't know. It's always a challenge to create something from nothing. As much as I feel like we have developed a process and machinery that works I'm still sitting here right now and I have not typed one word and I have not picked up the guitar because I'm packing and if I started an album I would have that same feeling I always have when I start writing and it's like, "What the hell am I gonna do? What am I gonna write?" It's like anything else, you put yourself in a position where you just start working and it starts coming. But I have so many songs in my head, I have four albums in my head already that I can hear.
Since you're moving back to the US and your band is situated in Italy the question is obvious: won't this mean scheduling difficulties?
No, this is the same as with Hungary because even though Hungary is a little closer Sardinia is a tough trip because you can't go straight from Ferihegy to Sardinia. You have to go to Rome from Ferihegy and then you have to wait two hours and get another plane from Rome's Ciampino airport to Sardinia. And even just to get to Ferihegy, because I sold all my cars in America, I had to take the bus in Kecskemét to the train station and then take the train from Kecskemét to Kőbánya-Kispest and then to take the 200 bus for another half an hour over to Ferihegy. And then I had to take the plane from Ferihegy to Rome and then take the plane from Rome to Sardinia and it's just the same as just flying from New York. It was a nightmare when I was in San Diego because it was 24 hours to travel but either way now, from Kecskemét to Sardinia it's a good 12 hours and from New York to Sardinia maybe it's 13 or 14 hours, so there's no difference really. The main thing is that I'll be at home and I'll be able to get a lot of things done that I can't do from here.
And maybe you get more inspiration at home than here...
Yeah. There's no place like home, everybody says this. When you live at a place where you know everything nears you and you know how to do things and you know how to get things done and you know where to go and how to do it and you can speak to people, if I was fluent in Hungarian this might be a little different but still it's a big difference between New York City and Kecskemét.
Why do you say that? (Laughs)
(Laughs) New York is this little town on the East Coast of that small country over there across the ocean. There's a little town called New York there. What bugs me in Kecskemét is that on a Saturday night at 10 o'clock I can't buy a pack of cigarette. What?! (Laughs) In New York City I can buy a pack of cigarette on Sunday at 3 am right on the corner.
Speaking of the States there's the presidential election campaign over there these days. Any comments on that?
Yeah, I wanna run for president because I know what the problem is in the world, I really do. I've been an American citizen all my life and I've seen as presidents come and go and it's just the same all the time. We have a saying in America called "Same shit, different day" and it's always the same shit with a different guy and I'm so sick of it. It's the same way in any country. You guys don't have the greatest government leaders either and most countries have this problem.