Header image credit: Steve Cameron


By Andrew Daly
andrew@vinylwriter.com

For bassist Duke Erickson, a long ride on heavy metal’s axiomatic roller coaster ultimately staggered to a halt in a town named stability.

Hoquiam native Duke Erickson’s contributions to Metal Church – one of the 1980s most critically loved but commercially relegated heavy metal bands – are often looked back on as a mere footnote in the genre’s grand scheme.

Erickson’s basslines – many of which were recorded when Erikson was only 19 and 20 years old – on albums such as Metal Church (1984), The Dark (1986), and Blessing in Disguise (1989) are remembered for their melodic nature and aggressive stylings.

Coming to relative prominence in an era awash with rock bands seemingly bursting from every corner of the globe, Metal Church blurred the lines of power metal, speed metal, and traditional heavy metal with seamless ease but struggled to find consistent footing amongst an engrossing scene.

As the ’90s dawned, Metal Church doubled down on their genre indifference, and in the face of grunge, Erickson and his cohorts pivoted to thrash, with mixed results, before taking an extended pause in 1996.

For Erickson, the ride ended even earlier than that, in 1994. In the face of commercial indifference, with a family to support and no safety net below, the earsplitting bassist put his dreams of stardom on hold and took a 9 to 5 job instead.

Erickson would return to the fold in 1999 for the recording of Masterpeace but ultimately chose to leave the project as a one-off. With a family at home, the four-stringer was unable to oblige the temptation to hit the road once again and instead finally settled into suburban life.

“Things with the guys and me were always great,” said Erickson. “We never had any kind of falling out or huge blowout conflicts. We all just went our separate ways and did what we needed to do.”

In the ensuing years, Erickson continued on, occasionally playing bass on the side but always working hard to support his family. At times he would dream of taking the stage once again, if only for a moment, but it was not to be.

“There was a time when I fantasized that after I retired, we would go kick around Europe for a summer, and I could hit a couple of festivals where the band was playing and reappear for a song or two,” lamented Erickson. “One last “Badlands” bass solo as I walk off into the sunset sounded awesome. Sadly, with the tragic loss of Mike this last year, that fantasy is out the window. I really doubt that there could be any type of reunion now other than maybe we’ll all get together for a picnic or something someday.”

As he eases into retirement, Metal Church’s original bassist, Duke Erickson, recently settled in with me for a rare interview, where he recounted his heavy metal origins and the trials and tribulations that ultimately led him to leave a life of metal behind.

Andrew:
What are your earliest memories of music in your life?

Duke:
In 5th grade, when it came time to either pick an instrument or sing in the choir, I chose the trumpet. In 7th grade, I switched to trombone as there were too many trumpets and only one trombone. In 9th grade, I switched to baritone in marching band because I didn’t like marching around with a trombone, but still played trombone in jazz band and orchestra.

Andrew:
What first led you to pick up the bass?

Duke:
When I was in 9th grade, I was starting to learn the bass at home because the rock band dudes around town looked like they were having all the fun. [Laughs]. Somewhere in 10th grade, the bass player in the jazz band quit, and I volunteered to try and play some bass, although I was very new to it. From there, it was all bass in the jazz band until graduation. I must say that it was a great way to learn. Our school had a great band program, and as an added bonus, Kirk Arrington was the jazz band drummer, so it was quite a challenge to try and keep up with him. Since Kirk was a senior when I was in 10th grade, I only had the one year that he was in the jazz band with me, but we were best buddies from then on. Kirk and I both played in every band in high school. Marching band, pep band, jazz band, orchestra, as well as all the musicals put on by the drama dept.

Andrew:
What first piqued your interest in heavy metal music?

Duke:
I was the youngest of three boys in our family. My oldest brother had a lot of cool records like Zeppelin and Sabbath. So, his influence was the entryway into heavier music for me. I was already listening to KISS, but my brother’s music seemed much more “sophisticated.” Then when I started hanging out with Kirk and then Kurdt [Vanderhoof], it just progressed on from there as Kirk was a Zeppelin guy, and Vanderhoof was into all kinds of great music, particularly the NWOBHM stuff.

Andrew:
How did you first meet Kurdt Vanderhoof?

Duke:
So, this is a little complicated; Kirk and Kurdt were kinda almost stepbrothers. They both had single parents, and for years, Kirk’s dad and Kurdt’s mom were off and on “partners.” When I first started hanging out with Kirk, Kurdt was already down in California. Eventually, he came back to town, like in ’81 or ’82 or around there, and then it was game on from there. Kirk moved out of town soon after Kurdt came back, so I met Kurdt through Kirk, but we weren’t playing together quite yet.

Image courtesy of Getty Images/Wiki Commons

Andrew:
Walk me through the formation of Metal Church.

Duke:
We all grew up in a small logging town type of area; there was Aberdeen (the one that would be famous for hatching Nirvana) and Hoquiam. The two towns are only separated by a street. Kurdt and Craig [Wells] were Aberdeen guys, and Kirk and I were Hoquiam guys. Despite the fact that we went to different high schools, everyone at least knew of each other. Kurdt, Craig, and Kirk were all a couple of years older than me and were certainly known around town as being really great super high-level musicians. Little did we know that they were all actually world-class musicians

Around the time Kurdt came back to town from California, Both Kirk and Craig had moved closer to Seattle to work for their respective fathers, who both owned businesses. So, for a while, Kurdt and I kicked around town with other friends on drums, guitar, and vocals. We played cover tunes and, at first, didn’t really aspire to much more than that for a bit. Eventually, both Craig and Kirk came back into the mix. I don’t really remember how, but we were still down in Aberdeen/Hoquiam at that time. While Craig was in the big city, he had found David Wayne, so that’s how he got involved; Craig knew him.

Once it was the five of us that would be Metal Church, we started coming up with some original ideas (mostly Vanderhoof, of course) and moved the operation up to where Craig lived in the Seattle suburbs, and we made the 4 Hymns demo tape. One song from that tape, “Deathwish,” made it onto a compilation album put together by a guy from a local record store. That album was called Northwest Metalfest.

Andrew:
Can you recall Metal Church’s first gig?

Duke:
The first gig was at the local theater in Aberdeen, or maybe it was the gig associated with the Northwest Metalfest album. Either way, I don’t remember much; there were so many memorable things after that that the very first one kinda gets lost.

Andrew:
Metal Church signed with Ground Zero Records before recording its debut. What was their courtship like?

Duke:
There really was no courtship. Ground Zero was the label put together by Willy McKay, the guy who put out the Northwest Metalfest record. He was a great guy and good friend, and he was also acting as our manager at the time, but unfortunately, we very quickly became too much for him to handle. Around the time of the first record – which he financed – we really had some huge momentum going, and it felt like a whirlwind. I feel like our time on Ground Zero was very brief but a good jumping-off point. Breaking up is hard to do, so our relationship with Willy sort of soured, but it was all for the greater good.

Andrew:
Was there any major label interest at that point?

Duke:
Not quite yet; at that time, we were just super happy to be going into a real studio and making a record; that was a huge deal back in the day. I think that we were thinking a deal with Megaforce or Metalblade would be our next logical step as we knew both Johnny Z and Brian Slagel. Looking back, maybe it would have been a good step for us instead of going straight to a major label after the first record. That’s not to say that Elektra wasn’t great; they were, just maybe we weren’t so ready to play the big game yet.

Image courtesy of Metal Church Facebook (official)/Credit: Kelly Van Helsing

Andrew:
Metal Church’s debut remains iconic. Kurdt often gets a considerable amount of credit, but how did you most affect the sessions?

Duke:
Well, I probably didn’t other than supplying the lower frequency notes. I was 19 when we made the first record, or maybe just barely 20. So, I was very much along for the ride, especially at that time. My main goal was just trying to keep up with Kirk Arrington. I would say that Kurdt probably deserves as much credit as he gets. He was a super prolific songwriter even then. And that album cover, the only good one we ever had, was his idea as well. I feel like that cover was so good that we were jinxed for every album after that. I think that everyone deserves a lot of credit for their roles on that record. Dave was incredible, Kirk was amazing as always, and Craig too.

Andrew:
What was Terry Date’s in-studio approach? Was the band satisfied with the overall sound?

Duke:
That was Terry’s first album, too, so he hadn’t really developed any particular approach yet, as far as I can remember. His approach was to record the stuff that we played. As far as the overall sound, we loved it. Since everything we did after that involved some sort of outside influences that altered things, I’d say that the first album, as is often the case, is the one that’s just purely us.

Andrew:
Was the choice to cover Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” the band’s choice? Or was the label involved?

Duke:
100% the band. All that I can remember is that we did it because we liked it.

Andrew:
The Dark proved to be a breakthrough for Metal Church. Did major label support from Elektra have a big impact?

Duke:
Yeah, it did impact things. We had way more budget. [Laughs]. Micheal Alago was our A&R guy at Elektra, and he was great and always super supportive. Love that guy! But we had Mark Dodson as our producer on The Dark, and I think that was maybe too much of a change in some ways. Love that guy, too, but we should have just done what we did on the first record and kept it super simple. In retrospect, we should have just stuck with our guy Terry for every record. One other regrettable thing that we tended to do is listen to those outside the band’s influences too much. We should have stood up and said, “No,” more often and done things the way we wanted to. Our album covers are a great example of that.

Image courtesy of Getty Images/Wiki Commons

Andrew:
Despite the lineup changes, Blessing in Disguise may be
Metal Church’s defining effort. What was the band’s mindset, and what made that record special?

Duke:
Having Mike [Howe] and John [Marshall] join the band really breathed new life into things. Mike had a ton of enthusiasm and just a totally different vibe than Dave. So, that was really exciting. And John, well, he’s a really, really great musician and a great guy too, so having him around was a boost as well.

Andrew:
Take me through the inception of “Badlands.”

Duke:
This one is hard to answer. At the time, it was a song that we did; there was nothing special about it really. My feeling about it may be clouded by the fact that it was a song that we had to play at every gig after that record came out, so those kinds of songs can get a little old after playing it 10,000 times. Heck, most songs you kind of get tired of by the time you’re done recording them. I think it’s funny that, still to this day, people will say to me, “That’s so cool in the video when you play the bass solo, and you’re walking away in the desert.” And I’m thinking, “Really?” I always thought playing a solo with my back to the camera was sorta lame. [Laughs]. But whatever, It’s cool, I guess.

Andrew:
What did Mike Howe bring to the table as a vocalist that was lacking before? How did that allow the band to elevate its game for The Human Factor?

Duke:
Well, Mike was new to the band when we did Blessing in Disguise, so there’s that. He was much more comfortable and established in The Human Factor period. We weren’t really missing anything vocally previous to Mike; in fact, some would say that Dave was one of the greatest vocalists of the era. Big shoes to fill for sure. I guess the biggest difference, to me, was that Mike was easy to work with and a very hard worker. A great singer in his own right, he wasn’t Dave, but he was amazing in his unique way. By the time we recorded The Human Factor, we were all close buds as we had toured together a lot. By then, we were just bros hanging out and doing what we do, so those were really fun times.

Andrew:
In the face of grunge, Metal Church adopted a more thrash metal approach. What led to that decision?

Duke:
There was no conscious decision that I can recall. We were just trying to progress and move forward. We certainly never cared for or about the labels that were floating around. We just played the music that we liked. In retrospect, maybe we should have gone out and got some flannel shirts, stopped showering, and played our songs at half speed. [Laughs]. We probably would have been more successful, but we would have had to change the name to Grunge Church, and that just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Image courtesy of Getty Images/Wiki Commons

Andrew:
How big of an effect did the shifting musical scene have on Hanging in the Balance?

Duke:
At the time, the overall shifting scene had no effect whatsoever, or so we thought. Like I said previously, maybe we should have been more affected. By Hanging in the Balance, things in our camp were getting funky, though. We were moving backward, not forward. We weren’t on a major label; we were once again on our manager’s label, just like how we started. So, in some sense, it was okay, but our status was falling, and we could feel it. Once you’ve lived on steak and potatoes for a while, it’s really hard to go back to top ramen and hot dogs, and that’s what it felt like.

Andrew:
What led to your departure from Metal Church in 1994?

Duke:
This could be a really long answer because the build-up to the end was years in the making. By 1990 I had a wife and a kid, so my personal experience was affected by the fact that I had a family to provide for. Metal Church, for whatever reason, always had an album cycle of at least two years. That was unfortunate in the ’80s because, at some point, we could have probably used some more momentum to help launch us upward. But in the ’90s, it became a problem for personal finances. If we weren’t working on a record or touring, I needed a day job; I had bills to pay. It was okay for a while, but I couldn’t really get a good job or advance anywhere because I kept quitting to go do Metal Church stuff.

By ’94, that was getting pretty old. It took a mental toll eventually, as it was tough to go from playing music in front of 20,000 people one day to digging ditches on a construction site the next. For me, what ended my time in Metal Church was an opportunity that I would have been foolish to ignore. My wife had made friends with some people that owned a company, and they needed bodies to put on job sites. If I played my cards right, I could eventually get into the union, and this could be a very lucrative career. So, I had to decide: do I embark on a sustaining career or continue to wallow in the declining world of Metal Church? I did what I had to do to provide for my family, and I have to say that it was hard, but it was the right choice.

Andrew:
Masterpeace (1999) represented a reunion and featured David Wayne instead of Mike Howe. What led to that decision?

Duke:
You know, I’m not sure. I think, like me, Mike had a good “day job” and a family and didn’t have time to invest in a project that was likely not going to bear a lot of fruit. Also, Mike was in California, and Dave was right here in town, so proximity probably helped.

Andrew:
Why didn’t you stick around after the reunion?

Duke:
I had a very good job. There was no way I was going to jeopardize that for anything at that point. It all sounded super fun, but my family had put up with a lot of hardship in the early ’90s, and we were not going to revert back to that in any way, shape, or form.

Image courtesy of Getty Images/Wiki Commons

Andrew:
Looking back, to what do you attribute the Metal Church’s consistent lineup changes?

Duke:
Bad luck, I guess. It was really a tragedy at the time to have to change singers at what felt like the height of our powers, but it had to be done. In the end, I think the best version of the band was with Mike and John, but those changes in personnel slowed our trajectory some, and that might be part of why we struggled so much. Once again, those long album cycles really hurt.

Andrew:
In your eyes, who is the definitive vocalist for Metal Church: Mike Howe or David Wayne?

Duke:
Well, Dave was the guy on the first record, and his voice really got people’s attention at the time. So, there’s that. A song like “God’s of Wrath,” I’d say that’s definitive. I think when Mike was in the band, we were all much more mature and a better band. We had more great songs in that period, so there’s something to be said for that too.

Image courtesy of Duke Erickson

Andrew Daly (@vwmusicrocks) is the Editor-in-Chief for www.vwmusicrocks.com and may be reached at andrew@vinylwriter.com

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