Patrick -How ’ s the rash? (David picked up a nasty looking rash on his ankles at Jamaica)

David -The rash is gone, the red stripes on my feet are fading.
Patrick -It was starting to look monstrous there for a while in Jamaica. No it ’ s a sunburn, no it ’ s getting worse.
Patrick -What is your full name?
David-David Glenn Levy.
Patrick -Age?
David -Thirty-Five.
Patrick -Birth date?
David -May 28 1966
Patrick – My daughter ’ s is May 29th.
Where are you from originally?
Ann Arbor, I was born and bred here.
Where were you born?
Saint Joe ’ s.
How did you learn the piano?
In the traditional take lessons every week. Started in the third grade, once a week.
Was it an after school thing or Saturday ’ s?
After school.
I remember asking you before if you were trained on classical or classic rock and you said both?
The rock and roll stuff I learned on my own buying the song books, so obviously I was learning to read music. Lessons were mostly the classical stuff. My hobby was getting into the pop music, to a lesser extent with the guitar. And also a little Cello.
Patrick -All at once?
David – At one point I was doing all at once.
Three different lessons at once?
Sure, sure.
Was it at like Herb David guitars?
Actually I did take lessons there.
So we talked about Kansas and Emerson, Lake and Palmer (How he was influenced and into them earlier), any other influences like the Dead?
They were definitly an influence, later on in my college years. Before that in junior high there were bands like Yes and King Crimson in the 80 ’ s. There was the progressive rock kind of thing. Then I went into college with the Dead heads and all.
Have you played in many other bands?
Yeah. Been in bands continually since the 3rd grade or so. Yeah we did a few dances. Yeah. A lot of different bands. And the reggae on the side is still happenin ’ . (Since this interview the reggae band has broke up)
So who sits in with that?
Will our Deep Space Six drummer ’ s in it and his wife Kim sings (couldn ’ t make out the other members- if you know insert names please- Bones. Bones came up with this theory, it ’ ll be like the Borg (from Star Trek) Everybody will assimilate into one anothers band. Is it a reggae gig, once you have three members of the same the sound is gonna be the same. Who knows what ’ ll happen with that. So it went from a progressive rock band in the school years more toward the hippie rock kind of stuff. Santana, Allman Brothers and other things like that. More pyschedelic stuff. Where you ’ re not afraid to be creative but it ’ s not all about showing your technique all the time.
Do you Teach?
I have a couple of students right now. I don ’ t have a lesson plan worked out but they kind of guide me along.
At Your Home?
Yeah.
What group were you in before Deep Space Six, the reggae band?
No that was a spin off that started after Deep Space Six. There was a band called Missing Linxs, it still has a web site. It was some oldies up through some seventies things like the Eagles, Steve Miller and Beatles. With a really hot rock n ’ roll player called Steve Hargas
Stray Cats stuff, too?
Well, that stuff with some original stuff and Johnny Rivers, all the old Elvis. He had a big palette of 50 ’ s stuff he ’ d take along each night and we ’ d gradually learn some of it.
Sleepwalk – all kinds of stuff.
Did you ever hear of The Blasters ?
No.
They were really good. Fifties style things.
So Dead influence. Been to Dead shows ?
Yeah roughly twenty shows, started in ’ 85 out in Oakland, then closer to home.
Do you have those shows on tape ?
Yeah Now on CD, too. Friend of mine asked me what ’ s the first show you went to, if he had it he ’ d make it for me on CD. He has an awesome library. He ’ s got like six or seven volumes of songs that the JGB songs that the Dead did once or just all kinds of weird covers they did once or Hall & Oates – What ’ s Going On – with Hall & Oates.
He ’ s got the Deep Space Six Jamaica shows doesn ’ t he ? I want to get that.
Yeah . He ’ ll hook you up with that. We ’ ve got some great videos, too.
With Bones doing that for a long time, he must have a chronicle of the band.
In Jamaica he (Bones) has the opening act of the reggae band.
I like the beginning they even did a Herb Alpert tune.
Really ?
Yeah they did three instrumentals and the first was a Herb Alpert tune.
When you go to a show do you focus on the keyboard player??
Pretty often. I did that a lot when I went to see the Dead. I liked Brent a lot.
What about Hornsby and Vince Welnick ?
I think I saw them together once, then I saw Vince a few times after that. I liked them a lot, but it just wasn ’ t Brent. It just didn ’ t have that and toward the end Vince was growing on me more and more. The period with Brent was the best the band ever got. Musically and vocally.
Remember when you play sometimes you slam down on the keyboards and it bounces back is it harder to play like that ? With they keyboards bouncing ?
In general Yeah it tends to get going pretty hard, but not really. No.
Like a double bounce rebound thing.
In your opinion do you think that the bars that book Deep Space Six don ’ t sell as much liquor as when they book other bands? You know between the dancers and a lot of people not drinking anyway??
Well there are a lot of drinkers in the crowd. It may happen that way at times, I think there are others among us who make up for the ones who are not drinking.
Yeah That ’ s true.
As you become more familiar with a song does it get too easy so you may drop it all together, do you like to change it or expand it??
Yeah. I may start approaching it a little differently if I start getting sick of it. There ’ s nothing we do in this band though that I get sick of. There ’ s so many sides to choose from that by the time it comes around again I ’ m ready to play it. The harder ones I wish I ’ d get to play more often just to keep from getting rusty.
You guys do like a setlist practice before the show ?
We try to rehearse before most of the shows.
Do you guys tape your shows, with John at the soundboard ?
We use DAT. John Lyle usually runs his little mics basically mixing with what he ’ s hearing on stage. Those usually sound pretty good, but they don ’ t like the stage mix.
Sometimes the vocals are the main thing, cause the monitors down here are pointed up at you and the mics are over here, so even though you can hear the monitor and the mics can hear everything on stage the mics can ’ t hear it all very well.
When you were in Jamaica why didn ’ t you guys do more Reggae songs??
We were afraid to do Reggae songs down there. We had discussed doing no reggae because we didn ’ t want to pi## these people off on their home turf by playing their favorite songs badly.
Really??
I mean that was one side of the thought process the other one being they like reggae and try to do it. Knowing now I would have done more. Definetly. Though they would rather hear you try to do it then not.
Here ’ s something You guys know a lot of Dylan songs why don ’ t you do like a first set of all Dylan songs ?
Sure. Everybody takes a turn at different tunes.
When you hear another keyboard player and you like it do you try to incorporate that into what you play ?
Yeah, I mean some of that ’ s going to happen automatically when you listen to stuff. Like copping some riffs, but I ’ m not above copping some riffs either.. usually if it ’ s a Dead tune then I ’ ll just do it like if it ’ s their version of a tune.
So you went to Pioneer High School??
Huron.
The River Rats?
Then college??
UM. Just took what ever courses were there. Then Berkeley for two years. You don ’ t want to get into the years thing, I was a semi-professional student for some time.
Well that ’ s all the questions I can think of. Thanks a lot
Oh you ’ re welcome.