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Joe Ferentino & Ed Del Gaudio Interview
(Father, Son And The Holy Ghost)
Father, Son And The Holy Ghost
Believe if or not. that is actually the name of a group hailing from Staten Island. N.Y. FSHG have just released what they term a concept album titled "In The Name Of" on their own record label - Amar Records. An advertisement for the group's record in a major rock magazine ("Circus") has resulted in nationwide inquiries from 250 cities and towns in 43 states, as well as in Canada and Europe (Belgium. Germany, England and Sweden to be specific).
FSHG is made up of a father/son team - Joe and Mike Ferentino as well as Eddie Del Gaudio and Pete Beggs.
We spoke with lead singer Joe Ferentino and drummer Ed Del Gaudio about their "commercial rock with a heavy metal flair" music.
Q. Your music which you've described as having a "heavy metal flair," is not the heavy metal music one is used to hearing. It is not Scorpions, or Sabbath type metal. Realizing that, do you still choose to use that description?
Joe: Again, we give priority to the word commercial. The melodies are commercial. I think everyone of them has a flowing kind of arrangement, verse, chorus, kind of thing. The distortion is there, the distortion in the guitars are there. The heavy driving beat is there. By no means do we see ourselves as Scorpions, Iron Maiden, or Twisted Sister. At the same time, I think we come off a hell of a lot heavier than The Cars.
Ed: Probably the category is closer to a Night Ranger.
Q. How long has this group been together?
Joe: About 21 k-3 years.
Q. How can a group that has only been together in that short space of time, get enough money together to release their own album?
Joe: What we're talking about here is a generation gap, and thus comes the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I'm a second generation singer if you will. I started out doing 50's music back in '62, '63, and bounced around several major companies - M.G.M. and Mercury and Gone Records back in the old rock days in the early sixties. I'm funding the project, but again, it's from working out on my own job. while we gig on weekends and whatever nights we can stick in.
Q. How many albums have you pressed so far?
Ed: 5,000 copies. Our stock is diminishing quite rapidly.
Q. Why do you have to fund this project on your own? Why not present it to a major label and have them pick up the tab?
Joe: Labels today, in my opinion anyway, want something to be proven to them. Our concept, when we started this thing was rather than get our album, finish it. and go right into the majors - let's do something on our own to prove to the majors that we have something to offer them. We designed a concept, and went and marketed it as much as we could through our own resources and our own ideas.
Q. On the back of this album, you give thanks to Michael Jackson. What did he do for you?
Joe: Michael Jackson has had the biggest success of any artist in history with the sale of 40 million albums. I believe that "In The Name Of," Father. Son, And Holy Ghost, the concept, the record, the sound, the product, can equal or exceed Michael Jackson's "Thriller." I really do believe that from the bottom of my heart, and I created this project with that in mind.
Q. That is a pretty tall statement to make. I don't believe I've heard anyone ever say that before.
Ed: It's a point of having your belief in your dreams. You have to go for something. We're not saying we're going to sell 40 million records in one year. We think the whole concept of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the music, the musicians, the group, is going to be one of the dominating forces of rock in the very near future, and for a long time.
© Gary James All Rights Reserved
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