Tuesday, January 27, 2004

By Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

You may think there's something inherently odd about a local metal group with more than 100 Electric Banana appearances to its credit turning up on an album titled "Everybody Clap: An International Tribute to Maurice Gibb."

Rich Wilson Diamond Haze (L-R) Byl Leet, Greg Smith, Laura M Smith, and Rich Morgante Click photo for larger image.

But those who saw their share of Diamond Haze shows in the '90s will surely remember the band's headbanging cover of "Tragedy."

As drummer Laura Smith recalls, "When we used to play the Banana every week, we put it in our live set. That was back in the early '90s, when nobody liked the Bee Gees, of course, so that's why we did it. And Byl [Leet, Diamond Haze guitarist and Banana soundman] built a lot of pyrotechnics in his basement and we got to blow the stage up. That was always fun. 'Cause it's got those explosions, you know, in the song, so it was ready-made for that."

The members' first appearance on a Bee Gees tribute, in fact, was a studio take of their cover of "Tragedy," which turned up on a tribute titled "Ordinary People, Ordinary Lives," in 2002.

As Smith, who got to know the organizer of both tributes through an online Bee Gees mailing list called "Words," says, "It was just a group of fans from all over the world. And everybody just submitted their own tracks. Then, after Maurice died, they decided they wanted to do a tribute for him. So they asked us if we would be interested, and, of course, we were."

They chose a song from "One" called "House of Shame" and quickly found its inner metal.

"The Bee Gees' recording goes for the sensual," she says, "as they are apt to do. But we went for the sleaze."

Which isn't necessarily why they cut the vocals in Las Vegas. That's just how they make their records these days, now that Leet's in Vegas, where he moved in 2001 to find work as an independent sound contractor.

Smith, whose husband, Greg, is Diamond Haze's bassist and lead singer, explains the arrangement: "Usually, what happens is, I'll lay my drum parts here and we might lay down some bass and guitar and then Greg will fly out to Vegas to do the vocals. That's how we did 'House of Shame.' "

They tried to incorporate hints, she says, of the Bee Gees' studio and live recordings of the song, "while adapting it to our always understated, in-your-face style."

Her husband, she jokes, was just "happy that this time around, the vocals were in his range."

More recently, the band, which also features Laura Smith's brother Rich Morgante on rhythm guitar, has been recording new original material.

"We don't play live shows anymore," she says. "But we still record. Remotely. In fact, we have about six tracks recorded for a new CD. Hopefully, by next year, we'll get that released."

In the meantime, you can check the band out on "Everybody Clap," which also features two much younger Smiths on vocals. Engineered and mixed by Leet, the title track features most of the contributors and a few of their children.

"The way that that was done," says Smith, "is a guy named Manual Pino from down in Peru, he laid some keyboard and guitar and programmed the drums. I think he used a drum machine. And he sent those to Byl, and then all the contributors did their little vocal pieces and sent those to Byl. Then Greg flew out and did the bass and Byl added guitar and edited and chopped and put the thing together. Greg's on there on both lead vocals and harmony vocals, and our kids are on there, too. My daughter Samantha is 6. And my son, Matthew, was about 8 months. That's him giggling hysterically at the end."

And speaking of giggling hysterically, Smith is well aware that there are those who would find the inclusion of a metal band on a tribute to one of the Bee Gees amusing. She even makes self-effacing jokes about it. But the way she sees it, "Music's music, right? It doesn't matter if it's pop or metal, R&B. A good song is a good song and the Bee Gees write good songs. There's no doubt about that."

You can find the tribute at the label's Web site, www.tophatevents.co.uk., or save on postage by getting it here in the States from Diamond Haze at www.diamondhaze.com.

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