1. First of all, now that you've read my review of your album...feel free to comment on that, defend yourself, throw insults at me or whatever!

Hey everyone at rockunited.com and thank you for helping us getting the word out about Damn Cheetah. I think your review was fair and honest. However, do have one bone I have to pick with you.(LOL...Kidding!) In all serisouness, to say that some of the songs were of a somewhat "standard" hard rock style? Well, your entitled to your opinion but I feel and I'm confident most listeners that have heard the CD think they are actually above average. But i do respect your feelings. Now, on your comparison of my vocal style to Terry Ilous of XYZ. I never really took a good listen to XYZ prior, I did check them out after I read your review. In my opinion he is a very emotional and aggressive singer, which is what I strive for as well, so in that respect I would agree with you and I take it as a great compliment...thank you! DC would like to give a big shout out to all the staff at rockunited.com and we couldn't be happier working with Kivel Records and John Kivel and his crew!

2. The name...I remember "Cheetah" from those old Tarzan movies. Are you Tarzan fans or what's the origin of the name?

Me, Tarzan fan...no!..Band, Tarzan fan...no!...Band, like Cheetah YES! The name actually comes from an old song Anthony and Carl wrote when they were in the band Blacklace they had a pretty strong following in Europe back in the 80's.

3. Tell me about the history of the band and the members of it!

Les Brown: Formerly of the powermetal band N.R.G (we were in the animation classic,Transformers:The Movie)
Carlo Fragnito: Formerly of Blacklace
Anthony Fragnito: Formerly of Blacklace
Dante Renzi: Formerly involved in many different projects in NYC. Dante started the whole mess! ;-)

4. Does Damn Cheetah play live a lot? And when you do play live, what can one look forward to?

In the past..yes..we played alot, but lately our focus is on writing and recording. Not enough good venues and worth while shows these days. Its easier to just record and put it out there for the masses that will listen. If there was a good show worth doing, we would in a heartbeat! We are well underway working on stuff for the next album. When you see Cheetah live expect everything on the record kicked up a couple of notches. Expect to have your ears ringing and leave the show singing!

5. The eighties' Hard Rock bands are doing big tours these days, like "Rock Never Stops" etc. Would you accept an offer to join one of these tours or would you rather tour with some contemporary act? Absolutley we would consider jumping on an "80's" tour IF it made sense.We would consider a tour with a contemporary act as well if it was a good match for us and we could draw for each other for sure. In the end it goes back to my previous answer..it has to be worth while to do..not just for us, but the fans of this genre

6. Tell me about your songwriting process: does everyone participate or does someone take a bigger share of the writing duties?

We all write as a team but usually more times than not Carl and I will write together and Anthony will write and everyone brings their strongest ideas to the table.It is a very natural and fun process where we feed off of each others vibe. If an idea sucks, WE say it sucks and move on. However, we may shelve a riff or a lyric idea for later use. If an idea is good and we are feeling it..then we know the audience will feel it as well.

7. I was very impressed with the song "Tonight". It seems like a departure for the band, cool tempo changes and twists'n turns, quite different from the more traditional hard rockers on the albums. Can we expect something in that vein in the future?

"Tonight" is a great song, Anthony wrote that one and had a lot of passion for the song when he first brought the idea to the band and it was pretty much a done deal...put a stamp on it...great song! "Forever" Carl and I wrote that piece by piece until we got the emotional and musical package we were looking for. As far as the next album, expect the UNEXPECTED! We write all kinds of stuff, we actually had a real funky tune that didn't make the P R I MA L album...it has a horn section in it!!!! Ive been told John Kivel wants it for the next album for sure...so who knows, Maybe it will end up on the next album.

8. What do you see in the future of Damn Cheetah? Do you think you can live on playing hard rock one day (or are you already)? I guess we all know that this kind of music isn't exactly the easiest route to fame and fortune these days...

Well Damn Cheetah will always continue to write and be creative and try to get the word out but your right it is a very difficult environment right now, in that a lot of the venues that were there and that were supportive of the melodic hard rock scene just aren't there anymore. So you are constanly looking for other venues to expose what you are doing.

9. What are you listening to these days yourselves? Old classics or modern bands? What's your fave tune right now (own material not accepted)?

A mix of both...What I'm listening to these days in my MP3 player is: Saliva,Evanessence,Adriangale (fellow labelmates!)Linkin Park,Satriani,Sevendust just to name a few...I like stuff that is commercial yet heavy...but don't get me wrong I like stuff that I can groove to as well, like the Black Crowes,Mr. Big, Kings X etc..... My favorite classic album to listen too has to be "BURN" by Deep Puple...It STILL kicks ass!!!

10. Any last message for your fans out there and to those who haven't yet checked out the band?

Thank you so much old friends and NEW....For all your support through the years and a thank you to all our new friends as well! If you like straight ahead rockers and good ballads stop by www.damncheetah.com and check out the tunes...We would love to hear from you and we would appreciate you joining our street team! We are currently updateing the site so stop back to see the site evolve. There will be pics, mp3s, videos news and more!!

Interview by Kimmo Toivonen,
(c)2003 RockUnited.Com