Hailing from New York, New Jersey & Pennsylvania, North Eastern U.S.A. Kings Never Die walk the line between positive, uplifting messages and dead serious subject matter. A musical and lyrical mix of Hardcore, Punk, Metal with chat or sing along vocals. In the band’s words, “We love making music together and this is what gets spit out”. Comprised of members, Dylan Gadino (vocals) Dan Nastasi (guitar/add vocals) Danny Schuler (drums) Larry Nieroda (guitar) & Evan Ivkovich (bass).



Some may recognize Dan Nastasi from his past work as original Dog Eat Dog (ABK era) and before that Mucky Pup. Danny Schuler obviously as drummer in Biohazard and Evan “ONE” Ivkovich and bass player in Wisdom in Chains. Although fans of those bands are sure to not be disappointed, Kings Never Die want to completely stand on their own regardless of their resume of bands. Nastasi add’s, “This is all about what we are doing together right now, although we love and respect the people and our bands we have played with, past and present, people should only judge Kings Never Die on this new album and The Now. Of course, we hope people who enjoy what we’ve done individually in the past dig it, but make no mistakes, there are no shortcuts or riding on past successes. We have cultivated this band from the ground up, we’re putting the work and love what we are doing and what we created here.”

Capital Chaos TV – Are you a Romanian fellow?

Dan Nastasi – Uh no, I am Sicilian. Uh, I’m a Sicilian Viking.

How did you first get into music and who or what got you into the type of music you play?

I recorded my first record when I was 16 years old. I don’t know how I got into music. It was just always something that I was involved in. I basically grew up like every other kid, you know what I mean? I listened to music. the origins, like everybody else. I love Kiss, I love the Doors. I love, any type of actual music. And then, you know, I think I was like 13 or 14 when I got my first guitar, and I wanted to kind of learn, like, how to emulate what I was listening to and, you know, kind of self-taught. uh, guitar player just by ear. And then, you know, when I first picked up the guitar, the first thing I thought of doing was writing my own songs and not just playing other people’s songs, you know what I mean? So, uh, you know, I mean, I had my first band when I was like 16 years old; my first band was called Mucky Pup. And we got signed to a record deal with Torrid Records, who had, like, Exodus at the time was like, I guess the, you know, the band that everybody would know. And, uh, we recorded our first record when I was 16. It came out when I was 17. And then I just started to go on tour, make a record, go on tour, I think I went to Europe for the first time. I was, like, 17 years old, the first time I toured Europe. and the States. and I just kept doing it from there.

What other kinds of music do you like and dislike? Are there any kinds of music you can’t just can’t get into?

I really love all types of music. My favorite type of music that emotionally, I connect with is just hardcore music. There’s just something about the lyrics, the aggression of the beat, and the riff, but I’m a lover of all types of music, anything from U2 to Bob Marley. I love, like early hip hop, like Ice Cube, old Public Enemy, LL Cool J like, I just love. really the beat. Anything that moves you physically. I kind of dig

I know your first band, Mucky Pup around the same time as Agnostic Front, were they much of an influence on you? 

Yeah, Agnostic Front came before Mucky Pup. Like we made the first Mucky Pup record in, I believe it came out in 1988. And Agnostic Front was already established at that point. When I was younger, I liked metal; I liked Metallica, I liked Anthrax. I believe the first record I heard, like a New York hardcore record, was the first Murphy’s Law record, I was like, oh my God, this is just like a party, you know what I mean? Like, I just loved that it was lighthearted, and my first band Mucky Pup, was lighthearted, almost like a comedy band. I just picked on different topics that I probably didn’t know anything about, you know what I mean? Like, it was. more like, funny, like for fun. And as I grew after doing the first, uh, two or three Mucky Pup records, I really wanted to start to write music that maybe was a little bit more serious; you know, that wasn’t so funny. So, you know, I also spent, uh, like a year and a half in Murphy’s Law, like from 1989 to 1990, because I had left Monkey Pup in between the 2nd and 3rd records. So, you know, and then ultimately wound up back in my original band and then, you know, after I had left Mucky Pup after the third record. That’s when, you know, me and a bunch of buddies started another band called Dog Eat Dog, which, uh, you know, kind of took on a life of its own actually, but it was more in the direction of the type of music that I, that I kind of grew up or grew into play. And Dog Eat Dog was a band that was very influenced by Leeway and metal, but also hardcore and hip hop. So, it was kind of like a reflection of the things that we were all into at the time.

Have you always been a guitar player?

Yeah, I’ve always been a guitar player. Every band I’ve been in, I’ve always been like the guy that does, let’s say, the extra vocals, you know what I mean? Like in Mucky Pup, I did more like comedy voices, in Dog Eat Dog, you know, like on the “All Boro Kings” record, the original pressings, I sang in, “Who’s the King“ and “If These Are The Good Times” like me and John (Conner) went back and forth and Kings Never Die is similar, especially, the first ep and the new record is really a little bit more of like a two vocalist approach rather than just, Dylan doing all the vocals, and a lot of that I think just comes from the fact that, you know, primarily, the songs kind of originate and come from me. So, you know, naturally, when you’re, the primary lyric writer or songwriter, I hear things a certain way. I wanna hear a vocal a certain way, and we’ve kind of worked out a way that we kind of go back and forth on a lot of things, and I think it makes it, a little unique, a little different than, just a band that has one voice.

Have you always been a Les Paul guy?

Well, I was. I was an SG and Gibson Les Paul guy my whole life. It was the only guitar I ever played. But about five years ago. I found, ESP guitars, and, I still play like a Les Paul body, but it’s an Eclipse. So for the last 5 to 6 years I’ve only played ESP Eclipse guitars. I have the ever-tune bridge, I just couldn’t keep a Gibson guitar in tune. Like I could never get a guitar that I could, keep in tune and with modern technology and Ever Tune, uh, you know, it’s just unbelievable. It’s like, it’s like life-changing to play guitar and always be in tune, you know.

Have you had much of a problem with a string breakage?

Not unless I change it, but I also use gauge 11 strings. So, it’s. like I’m playing much thicker strings. I guess most people use nines or tens. I mean, I play elevens, and they’re the fat series elevens. When you have an Ever Tune Bridge, if you don’t change the strings, you’re going to break them. But if you keep your strings changed, I really haven’t had that big of a problem.

Has your rig and effects pedals changed much over the years? What was the last update that you had?

I haven’t updated in a while. I mean, I switched from Gibson to ESP Guitars. I love the tone of like a Gibson Les Paul, like the heaviness of the body, but I’ve used the same Mesa Boogie, solo head for the last 20 years. and I always use Marshall cabinets, 1960 cabinets, and that hasn’t changed. I mean, I use a little HD pod. I honestly, I kind of plug straight into the head, but I use an HD pod, uh, just for like a little bit of screamer and a little bit of noise gate, and, I use it as like a tuner. I’m not big on, I have an old Boogie head, I don’t need much more, like, it’s the player, it’s the tone of the guitar and the head, you know what I mean? So, uh, you know, I juiced it up a little bit, but very little.

So, the album is out and doing really good at radio. You’re, on Metalville Records. you’re in good hands with those guys?

Metalville is Holger Koch who worked with Nuclear Blast for years and years and years, and then he started his own entertainment group, Flying Dolphin and Metalville Records, and they’re out of Germany, and it was just like a mutual, we had a conversation, you know, look at this point, I love and I appreciate the fact that I could, I have, like, you know, I have this band, I could still make records. This is like a young person’s, game, you know what I mean? Like I’m over 50 years old, I’m not like a young, and I think they understand that as well. And, I’m grateful that Holger believed and liked the music that I was writing. But as a label, they have some, serious metal acts, and then they also have, like, you know, my old band Dog Eat Dog just did their record on there, and they have Ugly Kid Joe, and they have us, which is more of a hardcore punk band. And then they have, really mainstream metal bands, and, it’s a diverse label. And I love the new record, and I’m really grateful that it’s being played around the country. I’m not the type of guy that, like, studies every chart, and I know we entered really high, and I know the last two weeks we’ve been climbing on the radio chart, you know what I mean? And that’s awesome. And Skateboard Marketing does a great job, with that. Ultimately, when you make music, the goal is that you just want people to listen to it. You know what I mean? Like, you make it for yourself, but if other people enjoy it, that’s awesome. And this record, our last record, you know, it started off; it was, you know, ok, and I don’t know if it was so much of a radio record. I don’t know. I mean, I do know that this record is, by other people’s accounts, just a much more well-rounded record. I think it’s more memorable, I think the material on the record, you know, we have a song “Bigger They Come, Harder They Fall”, and that song is doing really well, and that’s great. I take it a little bit with a grain of salt because, you know, that’s kind of the reason that, I still love to make music because I get to share it with other people. and if it continues to do well, that’s fantastic. But we do live in a short-term memory society, you know what I mean? Like social media, it’s like in one ear, wow, that’s cool out the other, you know. So right now, it’s about building, continuing to build the following. Honestly, it’s about getting the right booking agent for us in the United States. I believe we have the perfect booking agent in Europe, the record formally comes out in the United States on November 22nd. And after that, we’re hoping to make tour plans, get on the road, and support the record, like, that’s why you make it, because you want to go to a different city, you want to see people’s reactions to the music.

My particular favorite song at the moment on it is “Empathy”.

I love hearing that. That’s actually the next song we’re going to make a video for that song. I actually have about half of it done. We made like a lyric video for “Bigger They Come, Harder They Fall”, and we made like a quick shoot, like a constant quick shoot video for “The Life & Times”, but “Empathy” is one of my favorite songs on the record as well. The tempo of it is maybe not as high as some of the other songs, but I do think, and I’ve been hearing different people mention “Empathy” as a song that they really dig. So that’s awesome. You know, it’s like. When you hear from different people, different people have different opinions about what their favorite song is, that’s a positive.

Any final thoughts you’d like to share with our readers today?

Wherever you go to listen to music, check out the record if you dig it, buy it, it’s available, you know, will be available anywhere on vinyl and digipack CD. And, it’s already out on Apple Music, Spotify. I mean, it’s everywhere. The goal is just to like spread the disease and have people listen and enjoy the music, and we hope to see you out on the road.

Categories: Interviews, News

Tags: interview, Kings Never Die