Danko Jones talks about new album 'Leo Rising' and what it takes to tour it – National

I've been following Toronto's Danko Jones and his band, Canada's hardest working power trio, since they first appeared in 1996. Although his group has had considerable success outside of Canada, it has been a long and arduous journey. But if you want to rock and roll, you need it. I spoke to Jones ahead of the band's 12th album, Leo Rising, which is released on Friday, November 21st.

Alan Cross: How many years have you been doing this?

Danko Jones: 29 years old.

AC: Did you ever expect this to become your life’s work?

DJ: No. When we started this band, it was right after me and JC (bassist John Calabrese) finished our last local band record, and we had no expectations beyond that we might put out a cassette demo or a 7-inch. We just kept going. We were kind of backed into a corner without a plan B and it was either this or fail.

AC: You've been living in vans and buses for 29 years. How do you manage? How do you stay motivated?

DJ: It's easy to be motivated. The trigger was the program. That's the reward this mutt gets at the end of the day. But the difficulty of traveling is something else entirely. It was even worse when I was always borrowing my parents' car. We do our shows for free. We are paid for the remaining 22 and a half hours. It gets harder as the years go by, but it gets easier once I graduate from vans, buses, and planes.

It's hard to be away from home. When we started this band, that was something we didn't think about when we started the band. Then you get older and things happen in your life and you start wondering how you're going to make ends meet with all these buckets. And you just… do it. That's one of the worst things about doing this job, being in a band for a career. Being away from home, friends, and family. I don't have enough things. Even my connection to Toronto has changed. When I get home, I think, “What happened here? Where did that go?” When I drive around town, I feel like a redneck.

AC: You specialize in sweaty bar-style hard rock. How do you keep up over 12 albums? As you get older, you become a better musician. How do you stay focused on that particular form of music?

DJ: The other two are very healthy. (Drummer) Rich Knox is actually a certified fitness trainer. JC runs every day until Adidas notices him and gets him some sort of sponsorship. myself? I'm very energetic so I hope that will get me through all of this as I get older.

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AC: Let’s talk about your new album “Leo Rising.” It features 11 songs that sound great in hot, sweaty venues. Is there more attention paid to melody on this record, or am I just hearing things?

DJ: Yeah, I think so. We've gotten more attention to this over the last five albums than we did in the first half of our career. The first six records were a little more screaming and screaming. It had everything to do with inexperience and anxiety. If you play this game a little longer, things will change. When it comes to worldviews and politics, I'm the same person I was when I was 16. But when it comes to singing, yes. My approach to vocals has changed. And I started to feel a little more confident in my voice and singing. In recent albums, I've added a little more melody.

AC: “Insecurity” and “Danko Jones” are not something I pair often.

DJ: Yes! That's because that's the smoke and mirrors of show business. The unique people who are attracted to the stage, and I am no exception, often have something to offer. (As we get older) it takes more time to figure out questions like, “What is this motivation? Why am I doing something that other people can't, won't, or won't do?” I use these words simply as code for “treatment.” If you do that enough, you start to understand what the heck is going on. (lol)

My fear, and this is all in the past, was that this knowledge would dampen my desire, my energy, and my fire to be on stage. It was like that for a while, but it was during the pandemic, so we were lucky to come out of that mess.

AC: There were a few lead singles from the album, including “What You Need,” which wasn’t supposed to be an official single.

DJ: That was a teaser track. But then the album's trajectory changed as it was added to radio stations' playlists.

The first official single was “Everyday is Saturday Night”.

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AC: I heard you talking about the album, and the name Kiss kept coming up.

DJ: Yeah, that's right. “If Good Time[from the last album to reach number one on German radio]was our anthem like Rock 'n' Roll All Night or[AC/DC's]Highway to Hell.” We've been pursuing it for years. What do you do to follow it up? We did “Everyday is Saturday Night” because Kiss was Shout It Out Loud. I hope the same happens to us.

AC: How did you get Marty Friedman (former lead guitarist of Megadeth) to play on Diamond in the Rough?

DJ: We've been friends for about 15 years. I sang three songs on his album Inferno. We exchanged emails and files and talked about different bands. Five albums after that record, I finally asked him to do something with Leo Rising for the first time. The song is Kiss-style, and I know Marty's favorite bands are Kiss and the Ramones, so it was a song that Marty was into.

AC: Why was the album titled Leo Rising?

DJ: Your first album was called Born a Lion. Twelve is a solid number (there were 12 people at the Last Supper, and Christmas is 12 months and 12 days long). If a Lion born is your Sun sign, that's a kind of astrological nexus that we can use, because your rising sign is something completely different – your birth time. My sun sign is Leo, but I'm a Pisces rising. That's why there are different versions of me on stage and off stage. I know this because when I was in my 20s I dated a lot of people who were interested in astrology.

AC: You're one of the few bands still producing elaborate music videos.

DJ: For some reason, it worked out for us. The song “Diamond in the Rough” features a Swedish Kiss tribute band called Wicked Kisser, who lip-sync the song. My part was filmed in my living room, making it a tribute film similar to Phantoms of the Park.

AC: Are you still writing? I remember you and I talking about how difficult it was to think of 800 words a week.

DJ: All those publications went out of print, so I lost all my columns. I don't do podcasts anymore. But I'm trying to get my podcast back on track, and in doing so I've started writing again. We're literally doing a podcast about our band. There are no interviews. I'm one of two world experts on bands. The other one is JC.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

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