Mooga

Bio Preview: Well, it all started when I picked up my older brothers Hondo II les paul copy when I was about 14. I figured out how to tune it so if you put a finger straight across the fretboard, it would make a nice chord. Think of it as an exaggerated drop D tuning...Anyway, then I met Grey Spangler (Dopamean) and we started jamming. Before long, my younger bro Dave picked up the guitar and I turned to the bass, an old Peavy T-40. Fuck, that guitar was HEAVY. Literally. Dave had an Ibanez and I a Peavy and Gray his Tama tiger stripe drum set, or shall we say, 'trap kit'. For a while we had 'crazy' Chris Bansak (still plays bass here locally I'm told) ..boards and vocals: we were called 'Stonehenge'. Later, we became a trio, and started playing a lot of Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Iron Maiden and Metallica (the old shit). Dave quickly showed a natural talent for the guitar, and I the bass. Hell, we were writing originals at 15 and 16 years old...our name was 'Obsidian'. The police always said we sounded good before they shut us down. How nice. As kids do, we went our own ways but Grey and I were to later join together in a project with Paul Marallo (vocals) and Rhett Grier (guitar). I think we called ourselves 'Avatar' and did some Metallica covers and some Whitesnake. I remember playing our first keg party and Rhett saying 'your timing is way off, man' and then he probably said 'you got any pot?'. I think we were playing 'sun and steel' by Iron Maiden. Dave, later known as the 'Turtle', was playing in bands of his own with a guy named Richard Farr (vocals) and on and off with Troy 'I learned side A of the new Racer X album today' Halbach (guitar). This was around the late '80s and early 90's and Dave was starting to shred. I later hooked up with Dave again around 2000 when we managed to get back with Grey. These were the best times of my life, hands down. We would rehearse for hours and end up off in some strange Zappaesque improvisation singing about 'the lizards are our friends, they harbor no ill will towards anyone, they only want to hang about and bask in the sun' that shit was hilarious. Once, under the influence of small squares of blotter paper, we had an impromptu jam wherein Grey ingeniously used a bunch of hanging beads on a lamp as a percussion instrument, combined with snippets of a keyboard solo on cassette tape from 20 years ago. I still have not recovered. We were playing Eddie C's after doing the hardest thing a band will ever do. Find a name. We settled on 'Repeat Offender' and we did some choice songs by Sabbath, Megadeth, Hendrix, all with one of the greatest guitar players I've ever had the privilege of knowing. Imagine satriani playing 'War Pigs'. The Metallica medley is of Dave's creation. Thirteen minutes of insanity. AND the Cliff Burton solo. Fucking Zoom pedal almost let me down. There is no substitution for a Vox Wah-pedal! Anyways, we fell apart after a while, Grey had his main project, Dopamean, which he had been with for some time, and we just weren't practicing enough. You can't do Cowboys from Hell on 1.274629 practice sessions per week. Our final gig, Mark McConnel (Bam-Bam) was to replace Grey who was in Miami working. 'I don't play Metallica' he insisted. 'Lars is an asshole.' Fine then, will you play Megadeth? Begrudgingly he agreed and we went on to tear the house down that night with a standing ovation. Bam-Bam had this crazy thing about ending the song we were playing, and each song the ending got longer until the last one was an exaggerated 13 cymbal crash ending (which he called as an audible) and left me laughing hysterically. I wish I had time to tell you about the time Eddie C said 'You guys rocked, you really sounded great. You let me down. You really let me down tonight.' All in the same slurred sentence. After Grey went off on him (we played 15 minutes over and the closer band 'Bandage' could have cared less, they were staring at us through the glass window to the bar) Eddie invited us to his trailer in the parking lot to 'make everything alright'. I was learning a lot about playing out. Get your money ASAP. Substitute drummers drink lots of Myers Rum. Up to this point all I had ever really played was a bass. I had songs in my head but all I could do was think about them. Dave had already recorded a masterpiece of neo-classical guitar work. Haunting melodies and kick ass hard rock. Sure, I had the good looks and great voice, but Dave played like Tony McAlpine or Vinnie Moore. Meanwhile, I thought a 'sweep arpeggio' was something you use with a dust pan. So I allowed Liphams Music to rip me off for $325 for a fender acoustic/electric and I began to appreciate the extra two strings. Dave once said 'you could be a rhythm player'. He also said 'you need to play seven string' always twice in a row. Dave had injured his neck lifting weights and we had one close call where I found him unconscious and in the worst pain I have ever seen a man in. He was proud and strong and never said anything until it really had him down. We learned from our dad not to ask for help. At that time he could play guitar for 15 minutes at a time but it would hurt too bad. That guitar was his family. His wife and kids. His music was everything, and when he couldn't play guitar he picked up drums but that took its toll as well. I did see him become a pretty amazing drummer. He recorded the solo to 'Krazy' and that was probably his last studio work he did. It's a funny story because at the time he was helping me do my first song: and we had the drum ,bass, rhythm guitar and vocal tracks done and I had a sweet spot for a solo but I didn't know what to do and the song stalled out. One night he called me and asked if I had the solo ready yet and I told him I had something I was working on. He insisted that we do it the next day and man let me tell you, all he could manage to say after we recorded it was 'well, it sounds like it's in key anyway.' and then 'do you want me to do the solo for you?' Fucking A! What he did was not just the solo but the backing harmony guitars behind the chorus. When I got the song back I was amazed. My skeleton of a song had been given flesh and blood and eyes and was alive! I thank God ( yes, I still hope) , that we had those times together before his death. I can't tell you if he accidentally overdosed or just was sick of being in pain and without his life's work and took his life. I suppose I could take the autopsy report to a specialist and ask what the results really mean but Dave would say it really does not matter now anyway. And it would be true. I found his body after he didn't answer his phone and didn't show up for dinner at my dads. Finding your dead brothers body does something to your mind. And it ain't good. It makes you crazy for a while. I don't see him lying there anymore, but the image is still burned in my mind, nevertheless. He was the greatest single influence in my life. I always tell myself that I love him more than anything, even still, and no one, no God, will ever take that away from me. Ever. So understand, what I do is in tribute to one of the greatest musical minds to have lived in our time. From his detailed DaVinci like cartoon drawings as a kid(which were entertaining and hilarious)to his CD 'Terminal Velocity' his genius was obvious. Listen to 'Rocket Science', it was done on an 8-track back in the early '90s when Dave was in his early-mid twenties. Joe and Steve would be proud. Only a handful of players can play like that...I just mentioned two of them. The concept of the album 'Mobile Meth Lab' was Dave's creation. Krazy was to be the first song. There were others to follow but these would be done without his guidance: Dig, Down on the Farm, Monkey Man, I Can't Stand, Mobile Meth Lab, Don't know, Monkeys On a Rock in Space and Turtle Jam. I will finish this project before I die.....I promise! MOOGA is: All Vocals: Tony Muga Lead Guitar: Tony Muga Bass Guitar: Tony Muga Drum beats: Tony Muga (special thanks to Tomas Haake of Meshuggah) All songs written, recorded, mixed and mastered by Tony Muga. Mooga uses the following equipment: Ibanez Guitars and Ibanez Bass. Ovation 12 string acoustic, Dean acoustic Bass, Fender and Carvin provide 7 string guitars, EMG active pickups, Tomas Haake of Meshuggah provides drum samples via Toontracks's Drumkit from Hell, Mesa Boogie Mark iv amps, Digitech Electronics, Vox Clyde Mccoy wah-pedal, Mackie mixers, Rhodes NT-1 Mics, recordings done via Steinberg's Cubase SX 2.0, mixed and mastered in Turtle Shell Studios....ie: my back room.
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