2005.02.10 - Sp1at - 10 Questions with Dave Dominguez (studio engineer)

10Q with Dave Dominguez (Producer/Engineer)

1) Describe Dave Dominguez in three words.

DD) Loves HIS kids (not in the Michael Jackson sense).

2) Are you kind to small mammals and old ladies?

DD) I've been known to help a cat cross the street and feed a stray old lady.

3) What was the first record you produced, and how did it come about?

DD) First record I produced that had more than a $100.00 budget was Autonomy for Earache Records. I heard some demos of them on the internet and thought it was a cool blend of heaviness and melody so I emailed the label and the band and pitched them the idea of hiring me...the record came out sounding like Raging Speedhorn meets the Beach Boys.

4) You worked on Weezer's Pinkerton album. Are you a fan of Weezer?

DD) I didn't do much on the Weezer record, just some guitar od's. I wasn't a big fan but I'm more of a fan now, I think Rivers is a great songwriter.

5) How did you meet the lads from Papa Roach?

DD) I met Jay Baumgardner when he interviewed for the producers chair on the Guns N' Roses record early on... a couple of years later I got hooked up with him when he was doing a demo deal for Warner Bros  for a band called Papa Roach, we did the demo but the A&R guy got fired a few days into recording, Warner Bros.' passed on the band and Dreamworks signed them, he asked me if I wanted to engineer the record....it took me all of two seconds to say "sure" and 4 million copies later here we are.

6) What are your three favourite Papa Roach songs, and why?

DD) "Getting Away With Murder"- just a great song and Coby sounds great - "Revenge" - Jay and the band were open to suggestions so I thought it would be cool to have a sitar open that song and I suggested a bass line change that everyone was cool with. - "Last Resort" - It was the beginning of their ride and it helped me a bit too.

7) In the late 90's, you did some work on the new Guns n' Roses album. How did this come about, and give us your thoughts on some of those early tracks like Oklahoma, This I Love and Ides of March **

DD) I was a staff engineer at Rumbo Recorders and was about to quit or lose me mind I thought it was time to get what clients I had (practically none) and get out. The manager came to me and said Guns was coming in to do their next record and they had no producer or engineer and that needed someone with experience so I said "yes" and she also said they would be writing for two months and then recording for two months and they would be it (haha) seven months later. I bailed on good terms with Axl and the band but not with the studio. During that time they interviewed quite a few producers and I had to give them a technical rundown of what was going on which was pretty elaborate and insane. As the far as the songs go : "Oklahoma" was pretty much written by the time they got to the studio Axl wrote that with inspiration from the Oklahoma City bombing (more as a tribute to those who died if I'm not mistaken) "Ides of March" was a working title of one of the songs that came from a loop name that Dizzy came up with I think they kept the name but it's been years so I'm sure everything has changed by now. "This I love" is actually an old GN'R song that the original GN'R wrote and recorded for the "Illusion" records I like that song a lot.. it took a couple of weeks to find all the tapes because they finished recording "Use Your Illusions" on the road and one tape was in Paris another in London and another in Sydney I believe.

8) Do you still keep in contact with Axl Rose?

DD) I kept in touch with him for a few years after I left. In fact during the recording of Papa Roach's record I took Dave Buckner down to the studio to meet him and we ended up in Zack Wylde's studio listening to the whole first Black Label Society record...a few hours later Dave finally met him, heard a tune and we left. Axl was always great to my family after he met them always asked how the were...One Halloween I took them to his house for a party and when it was time to leave I couldn't find my son when I did find him he was playing video games with Axl in the game room....I personally have nothing but fond memories of my time around him and think he's a really nice person.

9) What music are you currently listening to?

DD) Wrong question to ask... I'm listening to: Atreyu, Shadows Fall, Bury Your Dead, Further Seems Forver, Underoath, The Bronx, Eighteen Visions, The Flaming Lips, Hanoi Rocks, Hawthorn Heights, Portishead, Acceptance, The Snake The Cross The Crown, River City Rebels, AFI, Glassjaw, Skys of Fire and of course, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Marvin Gaye, Concrete Blonde, Sade, Teena Marie...music is my second love after my family so my iTunes playlist is over 2500 songs with rock, metal, jazz and soul all covered.

10) What are you working on in 2005, and do you have any new products to plug?

DD) I have a few things lining up for 2005. I don't want to say any names because I'm afraid to jinx it because things are still in the works but I have bands lined from Earache Records, Victory Records (hopefully two) maybe one for Copro Records and I just joined a new management company called Lippman Entertainment.

**Ides of March is listed on Heretodaygonetohell.com

https://web.archive.org/web/20050429121923fw_/http://www.sp1at.com/4000000014.html

Update on Sp1at, February 14, 2005
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Guns n Roses were offered soundtrack spot (in 1998)

Sp1at can exclusively reveal that the soundtrack for the Robin Williams film "What Dreams May Come" was meant to feature the as yet unheard song "This I Love".

Dave Dominguez revealed in a Sp1at interview that the song was being lined up for a "Robin Williams film" but he did not give any further details. Sp1at's intrepid reporters followed this up and found out that this was the case. Sp1at contacted Dawn Soler, the musical supervisor for the film, and she told confirmed that this indeed was "true".

Unfortunately for Guns fans the film got its cinematic release in 1998 and did not feature music from the band. The song "This I Love" which Axl Rose described in 1994 as the "hardest" song he's written has yet to see the light of day. Although Howard Karp, who worked on the song in 2000, has told Sp1at in the past that it is a "simple piano track".

In the 7 years that have passed since the release of "What Dreams May Come" Guns n Roses have released only one new studio track, "Oh My God", which featured on the soundtrack of the film "End of Days".

https://web.archive.org/web/20050501055132/http://www.sp1at.com:80/News/1100000031.html

Another update (via Blabbermouth), February 21, 2005
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Unreleased GUNS N' ROSES Track Was Intended To Appear On Movie Soundtrack

The following report was issued by Gigger at Sp1at.com:

After a week of investigating Sp1at.com can exclusively reveal that the unreleased GUNS N' ROSES song "This I Love" was intended to feature in the 1998 film "What Dreams May Come".

Sp1at was originally alerted to the connection between Axl Rose and the film when Dave Dominguez, a producer on the "Chinese Democracy" album in the late '90s, told Sp1at that the song was intended for "some Robin Williams film." Sp1at's intrepid reporter followed this up and soon contacted the office of Dawn Soler, the musical supervisor for the film "What Dreams May Come".

Speaking exclusively to Sp1at on the subject, Dawn Soler said, "Oh, boy, that was a long time ago," and admitted she was unable to recollect how the oppourtunity to work with Axl Rose came along in the first place. She did assure Sp1at that Axl was "really into the film" and even suggested that he "wrote the song for it." However, Sp1at does not believe this to be the case as the song was originally mentioned in 1994 by Axl Rose himself when he described "This I Love" as "the heaviest thing I've ever done." Fans of the band have often speculated that the song was about Dylan, the son of Axl's ex-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour.

As it turned out, the song did not make the final cut of the film, although Dawn Soler insists it was not down to her. She said, "The director was a pill and didn't get how cool it would be." Sp1at has contacted the agent of Vincent Ward, the "pill" of a director, on the issue but they have yet to reply.

Sp1at went back to Dominguez to see if he had any further comments on the song and he went on to say that "it was definitely a love song...very heartfelt, it would have fit perfectly with 'What Dreams May Come'," before adding that the song was "five minutes or more" in length.

It is unlikely that the song remains in the same form as it did in 1998. Howard Karp, who worked on the song in 2000, told Sp1at that it was just him and Axl in the studio at the time and that the song was a "simple, piano ballad." It is also known that Bryan "Brain" Mantia has recorded on the song since joining the band in 2001.

Whether we'll ever get to hear the song "This I Love" is debateable. GUNS N' ROSES' "Chinese Democracy" album has been in the works for around seven years but is at present set for a "mid-year release," according to an industry source. However had Mr. Ward followed the advice of Dawn Soler, then "This I Love" would be a seven-year-old track rather than another myth in the world of GUNS N' ROSES.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/unreleased-guns-n-roses-track-was-intended-to-appear-on-movie-soundtrack/

Do we known exactly when Dominguez was involved with the making of Chinese Democracy? "Late 90s" is a bit vague, but I suppose it might have been over a few years, maybe from 96-99. I am basically trying to figure out where in the history section I should put the quotes from him.

Soulmonster wrote:Do we known exactly when Dominguez was involved with the making of Chinese Democracy? "Late 90s" is a bit vague, but I suppose it might have been over a few years, maybe from 96-99. I am basically trying to figure out where in the history section I should put the quotes from him.

The "What Dreams May Come" movie was released in 1998.

In a later interview, Dominguez said he was there when Youth was dismissed. So I would say he was there in 1997-1998.

It says here he started in January 1998; https://warmaudio.com/artist-david-dominguez/

Blackstar wrote:How did this come about, and give us your thoughts on some of those early tracks like Oklahoma, This I Love and Ides of March **

Oklahoma was mentioned in Rolling Stone, February 2000, and This I Love was mentioned by Axl back in the 90s. But Ides of March? It is mentioned as coming from htgth.com, but who on that forum mentioned it? Dominguez confirms it, so whoever talked about it at htgth knew their stuff. Maybe Jarmo himself posted about it, but was he an "insider" already in 2005?

Soulmonster wrote:

Blackstar wrote:How did this come about, and give us your thoughts on some of those early tracks like Oklahoma, This I Love and Ides of March **

Oklahoma was mentioned in Rolling Stone, February 2000, and This I Love was mentioned by Axl back in the 90s. But Ides of March? It is mentioned as coming from htgth.com, but who on that forum mentioned it? Dominguez confirms it, so whoever talked about it at htgth knew their stuff. Maybe Jarmo himself posted about it, but was he an "insider" already in 2005?

In this thread from August 2004, Dominguez is cited as the source:
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?topic=18832.msg252195#msg252195

In a later post (after the Sp1at interview with Dominguez), Jarmo references an old thread, but the link is broken:
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?topic=18832.msg321127#msg321127

Blackstar wrote:

Soulmonster wrote:

Blackstar wrote:How did this come about, and give us your thoughts on some of those early tracks like Oklahoma, This I Love and Ides of March **

Oklahoma was mentioned in Rolling Stone, February 2000, and This I Love was mentioned by Axl back in the 90s. But Ides of March? It is mentioned as coming from htgth.com, but who on that forum mentioned it? Dominguez confirms it, so whoever talked about it at htgth knew their stuff. Maybe Jarmo himself posted about it, but was he an "insider" already in 2005?

In this thread from August 2004, Dominguez is cited as the source:
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?topic=18832.msg252195#msg252195

In a later post (after the Sp1at interview with Dominguez), Jarmo references an old thread, but the link is broken:
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?topic=18832.msg321127#msg321127

Mysteron is one of the more credible posters. The post is from August 2004, so apparently Dominguez talked about song titles to someone (a magazine, fans?) before that, mentioning 'Ides of March'.

I searched htgth for "Ides of march" and the first mention I could find is from February 2004 when "carmiedisco12" suggests that "Ides of March" could be a great album title (http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?topic=10087.msg175321;topicseen#msg175321). So I suppose the song title was known already by then. Again, maybe the original source is Dominguez, pre-February 2004, or maybe something else.

Here is Jarmo pasting from the missing thread: http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?topic=10087.msg174510#msg174510

"Most of the songs had working titles but I know that "Oklahoma" and "Ides of March" were songs that were almost complete."

- Dave Dominguez

Seems like all threads from before February 2004 have been deleted or removed from htgth.com.

Soulmonster wrote:Seems like all threads from before February 2004 have been deleted or removed from htgth.com.

They - at least some of them - probably haven't been deleted. They just can't be accessed through the index, but are accessible through the members profiles, for example.