Firing Squad

From Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Firing Squad were active during the eighties, they recorded a demo tape in 86, and participate in the compilation At the Foot of Brutality, with two songs, we had a chat with Ron Kujawa and Dean Arndt, to know a bit more about them.

Q. - When did Firing Squad started? Who were the first members? Tell us a bit about the beginning of the band.

Dean - Firing Squad formed originally in 1985 with Mark D’Amico on lead vocals, Tony Brehmer on bass guitar, Steve “The Lid” Mueller on drums and me – Dean Arndt – on guitar. During a period while I was healing from a broken collar bone, both Tony and Mark received other offers to join other bands. Tony moved on to the band “Nitro” with Michael Angelo Batio and Jim Gillette and Mark joined the Milwaukee thrash band “Realm”.

Q. - How did the band name came up?

Dean - Steve Mueller and I had just left a local metal band called “Damien” and were trying to come up with a name for the band we were putting together. Steve had a US Metal compilation album with two guitarists from the band “Le Mans” – Derek Frigo and Josh Ramos – that had an instrumental song on it called the “Frigo / Ramos Firing Squad”. We thought that “Firing Squad” would be a cool name for a band and that was it.

Q. - What were your main influences at that time?

Dean - We were into everything from more popular metal bands like Queensryche, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and WASP to more obscure metal like Warrior, ICON, and Metal Church. We gravitated to power metal bands over glam metal bands but we still liked stuff like early Motley Crue, Dokken, Ratt and Van Halen.

Ron - I was very much into Queensryche, Iron Maiden, Dio, Judas Priest and more melodic leaning bands like Dokken, Whitesnake, Def Leppard.

Q. - Did you start writing your own songs since the beginning or were you concentrated more on covers?

Dean - We started with covers primarily but did write original material almost immediately. I believe our first original song was called “Desperate”. We never recorded it but it was one we all enjoyed playing.

Ron - I started mostly on covers, but I was writing very early on.

Q. - The six song demo tape was recorded around 1986, how do you see this recordings after all these years?

Dean - I like the songs still. I think they were definitely songs from the era but still different and ranged from commercial metal to more power metal. The sessions were done at a small studio in Milwaukee and the recording quality and mix aren’t great but I still like them.

Ron - I remember at the time that first six-song Firing Squad tape was one of the greatest things I’d ever heard. I loved the band waaaay before I had a chance to join. I thought it was amazing that a metal band from my city could put something together that sounded so professional. I was sure they’d get a record deal and I was a big fan.

Q. - Did you sell this tape during the shows? Sent it to fanzines?

Dean - I think we gave more away than we sold but I don’t recall, honestly. We got some local airplay and people seemed to like it. I think we may have sent a few out to Kerrang and a few other magazines but I don’t remember. That was a long time ago!! J

Q. - Ron, when did you join the band? Was it around 1988, after you leave Aftershock?

Ron - It was ‘87 or ‘88. Aftershock wasn’t really a band I was in. It was a project a friend of mine did and he asked me to do vocals. We never played out or even got together as a band. I was in a metal band called Vex Tempter doing mostly covers at that time. After the original Firing Squad lineup parted ways, singer Marc D’Amico was putting a new band together. Members of Vex Temper, including me, did a rehearsal or two with Marc. I was super excited at the thought of being in a band with a guy I had looked up to. Shortly after, we found out Marc took the gig with Realm. Then I heard Firing Squad was looking for a new singer, so I reached out and got an audition.

Q. - Ron, did you adapt well to the songs that the band already had, before you joined?

Ron - No, not really. At the time I was so young and green and most of my style was derived from mimicking other singers, including Marc. Dean and Steve would encourage me to make the older songs my own, but those songs were ingrained in me and I was already a huge fan of them, so it was a struggle. It became way more natural to find my own style as we wrote new songs together.

Q. - You recorded two songs, "Here Comes the Law" and "Bring the Hammer Down" for the compilation "At the Foot of Brutality" back in 1989, did it got some air play on radios?

Dean - We actually recorded 8 songs for an EP cassette we put out called “Heads Held High”. The songs you mentioned were part of that 8 song EP. I think we got a bit of airplay on a couple local stations.

Ron - Those two songs on that compilation album actually came from an 8-song cassette we did called “Heads Held High”. We did get some airplay, but not a lot. The whole landscape was changing from the metal dominated 80’s to the grunge of the 90’s.

Q. - After this compilation did you try to approach a record deal to record an LP?

Dean - We were working with producer Eric “Griffy” Grief of Edge Productions with the hopes that he might be able to shop it and get some interest. He was part of the team that got Motley Crue originally signed and also got Realm and several other metal bands record deals.

Ron - We did, but in my opinion our effort was lacklustre. It seemed like there was conflict in the band. I know I felt I wanted more of a voice in things. As the tension started to build, we parted ways.

Q. - What do you think that lacked to Firing Squad to have a successful career?

Dean - We probably lacked a solid direction. We were doing some really great original songs in our live sets that we didn’t record. We may have put more emphasis on the songs that were more commercially accessible rather than staying with our more powerful or progressive material. Music in the world was evolving rapidly and we were all being influenced by it and probably distracted by it as well.

Ron - I think the talent and the songs were there. I think we lacked a focused effort on a single goal. The music business changing didn’t help either.

Q. - How about shows? Did you play regularly in the Milwaukee area back then or was it hard for a heavy metal band to be booked at that time?

Dean - Yes, we played quite a bit for a primarily original band. We had a good following in Milwaukee. The scene was pretty good and I think we did pretty well for a band that did a lot of original material and relatively obscure cover songs.

Ron - As I recall, we played a fair amount for an original metal band. It’s hard to play a ton as an original band unless you’re going to travel, and we didn’t do that much.

Q. – When did Firing Squad broke up exactly? What happened that lead to the break?

Dean - I think we broke up in early 1989 but I don’t remember exactly. I think we were a little frustrated by our lack of a record deal and we all had different ideas on what we wanted to do musically.

Ron - I think I covered that from my end above. Dean can elaborate.

Q. - So, then Dean Arndt went on to form High Treason with Morgan Thorne on vocals, what can you tell us about the demos recorded by High Treason, because there is not much information about it?

Dean - Initially, we were a five piece and we recorded a four song demo that we tried to shop a bit and generate interest before we actually began playing live. A short time into the life of the band the other guitarist quit and we became a 4 piece. We recorded another 4 song demo and then a year or so later recorded another 6 song demo/EP. The first two demos were done in our rehearsal house and the last was done at the same studio where we recorded the first Firing Squad demo although it was a different owner/engineer by that time.

Q. – For how long did High Treason last?

Dean - I think we formed near the end of 1989 and split up finally in the beginning of 1993.

Q. - How it was the Milwaukee metal scene back in the day? Was it a united scene? What were you relations with other local bands? Did you help each other?

Dean - It was pretty cool. There is always competition amongst bands as you’re trying to attract a lot of the same crowd depending on your genre but I think we got a long pretty well with other bands. There was a good comradery between most bands in the metal scene.

Ron - I was a great scene for a while. We were fans of each other, but speaking for myself, I was young and stupid and often had an attitude toward other bands thinking we were better than them. As I look back now, it’s pretty stupid.

Q. - Did you stay in touch with each other over the years?

Dean - Yes, for the most part. Life happens – marriages, kids, families, jobs, etc. - and leads people to different parts of the world. The various social media outlets like Facebook have allowed us to stay in touch to some degree. I keep in touch with everyone either via phone, email, or Facebook except for Jerry Richter (bassist in Firing Squad and High Treason) as he passed away about 10 years ago. Prior to his passing, I did visit him at his home in Arizona. I do keep in touch with his brother and widow though.

Ron - Dean and I have been in touch on a semi-regular basis. We live in different states now, so that can be tough.

Q. - Looking back in time, do you feel like there's some kind of unfinished business?

Dean - I don’t really as I try not to live in the past too much. I do wish we would have recorded some of the other music we wrote and couldn’t afford to record back then. We had some great stuff that was more representative of who we were as a band I think.

Ron - No, not really. Dean and I have talked several times about the last batch of songs we wrote together, which we agree were some of the best work we did as a band. We never got a chance to record them, although I have some live recordings from a gig. I think it’d be awesome to record and produce properly, even if no one else cared about them. It’s been discussed… the hard part would be drums. Steve isn’t physically able to play the parts, and they are so complex trying to program or get another drummer to do them wouldn’t be easy.

Q. - Do you think it would be possible to do a compilation with all the recordings that you have done in Firing Squad or even High Treason?

Dean - I think it could be possible but I’m not sure some members would want to mix the two together. The other issue is the quality of the recordings we have. The recordings were never professionally transferred from analog/tape to digital media. Most of what was put in a digital format was from cassette copies.

Ron - I think that’d be awesome!

Q. - Do you guys keep an eye to the metal scene of today? What do you think are the main differences between now and back in the day?

Dean - Yes, I’m still into metal and try to stay up on what is out there although I’m definitely old school and prefer the “classics”! J I think the thing that is great about the scene today is that it is much easier to get a good sounding recording done for a lot less money than it used to take. The bad thing is that people can now buy one song at a time and tend to buy less “full albums” from bands which makes it harder for bands to really get big or have staying power.

Ron - I’m definitely not “in the scene” anymore, but I still listen to a lot of heavy music because I like it. And when I’m working on my car, I usually have “classic metal” on Pandora. The music industry itself has changes so much that I don’t even know what the scene is anymore.

Q. – So what are you doing these days? Do you still play in any band? Tell us a bit about it.

Dean - I play in a classic metal cover band called “METAL MEN”. We do a lot of the material we did back in the Firing Squad early days. We cover a variety of classic metal bands from band like Motley Crue, Skid Row, the Scorpions, Queensryche, Metallica, Metal Church, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Y&T, Loudness, Dio, etc. It isn’t nearly as fulfilling as playing original material but we have a blast playing songs we grew up on. We have a very strong following of diehard metal heads!!

Ron - Believe it or not, I’ve gotten involved paying in church bands a lot over the last decade. I also write and produce music for TV. It’s a part-time thing for now, but I’d love to grow it into my day job.

Q. - How do you want to end up this interview? Anything more you want to say?

Dean - I really appreciate your interest in Firing Squad and High Treason. Those were both really special bands in my life. If we decide to release all or some of it, we’ll definitely let you know! I loved making music and writing material with every member of those bands. Great times and memories I’ll cherish forever!

Ron - I think that about covers it for me! Thanks for being interested and reaching out! It’s kind of bizarre that a few decades later people are interested in this music and what we did.

Thank you for your time, and wish you all the best for the future!

Thank YOU!
-Dean