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Ambush Interview

In our continuing effort to bring the best of the nationally known, unsigned talent to your attention, we present Ambush.
Calling New Jersey home, Ambush has already sold thousands of copies of an independently produced album.
They're on their way up, and Ambush is certainly one band you'll want to watch.
Sal Flamma pounds the skins for Ambush, and he talked with us about the group.

Q. Sal, does this group have a financial backer?
A. Yes, now we do. We would fly out to Hollywood and play every year and just try to get someone to look at us. As we went back and forth, one of my friends moved out there, and landed this job with a large video production company. We had this album out, which we did ourselves. We put three thousand into it, and have it in local stores. And this guy saw it, Craig Fanning, and he's our manager now. He worked on like tons of big videos. He does people like Aerosmith. He's been helping us out like crazy, and that's what we needed. We were playing, plugging away for six years. It's like someone's gotta see us. And, finally we hooked up with him.

Q. You guys are from Vineland, NJ. What big city is that near?
A. It's 35 minutes west of Atlantic City.

Q. Is it true Ambush used to open for Cinderella at a club called the Galaxy?
A. Yeah.

Q. How many times did you open for Cinderella?
A. We opened for them a few times, and this is when we first started out. So, it was like five years ago. And, that's when they weren't drawing that many people either. They were drawing maybe 30-40 people. We were all pretty much just starting out.

Q. So you and Steve (Russo) formed Ambush in what year?
A. 1984. That's when we really started getting serious about what we wanted to do. It was like, if we're gonna do it, let's do it right, and make sure we get everybody who's really into it. Me and Steve have been together since high school, just tryin' to find the right things. It was really hard at first.

Q. Ambush was originally a Top 40, cover band?
A. Yeah, that's how we first started.

Q. So, you were playing the hotel circuit?
A. No. We weren't that much into it. We were doing local clubs, fairs. We would play 'Ratt' tunes, some old Motley Crue. We found out, we couldn't play anybody else's music. So, I said, Steve let's go original.

Q. Did you go in debt to play clubs in other states? Traveling around must be expensive.
A. We did, yeah, especially in Hollywood. The whole band would just like save up for a whole year, and then just go for a whole week, and play. We played the Roxy, the Whisky, Gazzari's.

Q. In the group bio, Ambush is described as a "ground-breaking, trend-setting band, ready to take your place among the rock elite." Why do you see the band as being "ground-breaking and trend-setting?"
A. O.K. It's like now, not that it's wrong or anything, but it just seems to me there's a lot of bands wearing leather. And, we're more showy. We're a real show band. All our moves are all the same, and it's all choreographed. The whole show is like that. It's kind of like "A Chorus Line rock 'n' roll." We're real colorful. It's real bright. We're non-stop. It's like pure energy. I think that's what makes us different.