Fosterchild, which consists of Kevin Miller on Drums, Brian Quinn on guitar, Erik Leonhardt on bass, and Danny Beissel hooking up the vocals, have clawed their way from the gutter of the Philadelphia music scene and into rock's spotlight. Their new album "Independence Day" has been well received by media and rock fans alike.
"Fosterchilds sound and look are reminiscent of a time when rock n roll still had the swagger and bite, but was less consumed with being of-the-moment."
We had an opportunity to chat with Danny, and this is what he had to say:
BnR: It is awesome to talk to you Danny. Whereabouts are you?
Danny: To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I know we have to play tomorrow night in Indianapolis. We are somewhere in Indiana.
BnR: How is the tour going with Tantric and Framing Hanley?
Danny: It is going awesome! It’s going really really well. The acceptance for the new album has been amazing. We are selling a shitload of CD’s every show and the band is having a lot of fun.
BnR: I know Erik, your bassist, and Kevin, your drummer are also in Tantric. How are they holding up through all of this?
Danny: They actually love it man. We go on right before Tantric and Iasked them if they were ok with it. They said it kind of warms them up because our show is straight up rock n roll. Tantric is a bit more intricate than us. They love it because they definitely want Fosterchild on the bill.
BnR: That’s great. Framing Hanley is doing ok as the opener?
Danny: Yea man, they are doing great. Yea they are awesome. They are great kids and good guys, man. We get along great and we are all rocking out.
BnR: What city have you enjoyed so far?
Danny: Um, well.
BnR: Has there been a favorite city of yours?
Danny: Where did we just play? Our last show was one of our favorites.
BnR: What made that show special?
Danny: The crowd reaction and acceptance. The city we just played was Chicago. The show was sold out and the stage was great. The acceptance was awesome and I really felt good on the stage. I actually really enjoyed the stage. That was one of my favorites. Oh, and it is the most recent so that might be why I am saying it was one of my favorites.
BnR: It was because of the groupies, wasn’t it?
Danny: Um no comment. Yea that never hurts. But really it was because the radio in Chicago was playing us nonstop so people knew who we are. They also know the songs and that made me feel good.
BnR: Let’s talk about the album Independence Day for a moment. It has obviously been received well by fans and critics. Was it hard to make the album? I know you guys were coming from varied backgrounds.
Danny: Well how we did it was we recorded all the music in the Poconos. And we flew to Florida and I did all the vocals down in Orlando, Florida. And it went great. It went really smooth. I am in a rock band now and this was basically my first rock album. So I had a couple of vocal coaches to get my voice up to par and we did like 20 songs. It was smooth sailing.
BnR: Your voice sounds great especially on the cover of Hunger Strike by Temple of the Dog. How did that come about?
Danny: Actually I was at a place in Pennsylvania called the Riverside Bar and Grill. Hugo was playing, this was before he created Tantric again. He was warming up and I heard this vocal segment when he was warming up. I started to think him and I have different voices, but in a cool way. I said to him ‘yo we should do a duet,’ but I was thinking of only doing it live. I was going to do [Chris] Cornell’s part and he could [Eddie] Vedder’s. We told the label and the label freaked and they wanted us to record it. So we went down and recorded it. It goes over awesome at the shows too.
BnR: It is a great song.
Danny: Yea it is a great song and Cornell is one of my favorite singers. You gotta watch when you do something like that and you actually put it on cd. So we tried to keep it as simple as possible. Obviously there are some violins and some cool guitar parts
BnR: I hear you mention a lot about Philly. We are from Delaware and know the Philly well. It is a crowed rock scene. How did you make it out alive?
Danny: That is actually a great question because Philly is a hard scene to break. Well I was always playing on South Street, but Brian used to be in a band called Octane. So that is how he knows Kevin [Miller]. So I played on South Street for years doing my solo thing. Brian and I used to jam together and became buddies. Then him and I started doing duo gigs just for the hell of it and talking about doing a side project. So when Kevin left Fuel, he called Brian to get together and jam. But Brian said that he had a singer and a bass player. So we all went up to Kevin’s one day and immediate the chemistry was amazing. We wrote two or three songs in the first day and decided to start a band. And with Kevin’s connections, he knew Jeff Hanson. He actually called Mark Tremonti from Creed. But anyway, Kevin sent a demo to Jeff and he signed us to the label.
BnR: Sounds awesome.
Danny: Yea it really was.
BnR: Now we just have a few quick hit questions for you. The Hooters, another local Philly band, said that they had wished they had written the song "Boys of Summer" by Don Henley. Is there a song that you love and think, "Damn, I wish I would have written that?"
Danny: Actually immediately a Cornell song comes to mind, Sunshower. I am very fond of that song.
BnR: Have you ever played it live?
Danny: Yea I have. I usually play it live and acoustic usually when I play solo. On the one hand, you wish you wrote it, but on the other hand I wouldn’t want to take it away from him.
BnR: You seem to be a big fan of Chris. Have you been able to meet him?
Danny: Yea actually I did. I toured with his brother. His brother Pete has a band called Black Market Radio. We did a tour with those guys all over the East Coast. I finally got to meet Chris at the TLA [in Philadelphia]. He did a meet and greet and I got to talk to him a bit. I think he knew my name from being out on the road with his brother. It was real cool.
BnR: Do you have an iPod?
Danny: No, I don’t.
BnR: Aww, that is a shame because Hugo [Tantric] listens to Enya and we were trying to get a shameful artist that you were going to go on record and saying you liked. Maybe something like Celine Dion or Don Johnson.
Danny: Well I have stuff like that. I am really happy with a lot of stuff I listen to. Let me think. What was I just listening to?
BnR: It was "Heartbeat" by Don Johnson, wasn’t it?
Danny: [Laughs] You can put down the sound track of Dirty Dancing. [laughs]
BnR: That’s bad only because the quality isn’t as good as "Footloose". But then again what is?
Danny: Yea, my friend had it and I listened to it.
BnR: Now you are just passing it off on your friend. It was somebody else’s Dirty Dancing. Just like it was somebody else’s Milli Vanlli album I was listening to.
Danny: Right, actually I will tell you the last cd I really got into was the Robert Plant Allison Krauss CD. My girl got it for me and it was an amazing CD.
BnR: Ok, so your shameful artist is Allison Krauss.
Danny: Now that I think about it I think I have that Enya CD. No, I do.
BnR: You must have gotten it from Hugo. Anyway, we always conclude our interviews with the same question. What member of the A-Team are you?
Danny: Oh definitely Face dude.
BnR: That is what Hugo said, nobody wants to be B.A.
Danny: Actually Kevin my drummer might say Mr. T because he is huge. I am not going to say Murdock, though Murdock was one of my favorites.
BnR: So you had the Murdock doll?
Danny: They had A-Team dolls?
BnR: Oh I have no idea. We were pussies. We had New Kids on the Block dolls. Thanks for talking with us today Danny. We will be at the Lancaster show and you guys better rock it out for us so we can give you a good review.
Danny: I wouldn’t do anything less for ya man. Thanks for letting me talk and say what I wanted to say. See you in Lancaster.
Check out Fosterchild @ www.myspace.com/fosterchildmusic and check out their live performance as they tour with Tantric.
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