Interview with Tony Salvaggio (Vocals Bass) of Deserts of Mars.
What first got you into music?
Music was always on in our household, and my parents had a great record collection, so it has always been part of the fabric of my life. I remember songs I liked when I was young, so it impacted me from an early age. Later, I got into the high school band, playing clarinet, and I had a great time doing that. I started buying my own records and tapes late into middle school, but I wasn’t into metal until probably 1986/87, when my older stepbrother and a cousin put me on the path to heaviness.
I grew up in a really rural area where metal (and practically anything that wasn’t pop or country) was shunned and actively rallied against, so the feeling that it was something I “owned” and the rebelliousness of it all fueled my love of metal, alternative, and hip-hop. I was free to kind of find my own path, but music helped me get through tough times and find the people I bonded with. In general, it was my solace (along with reading and playing video games) when the world seemed harsh. It was there for all the anger, sorrow, confusion, and joy that life has to offer.
How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it before?
We are firmly in the Stoner Rock genre, but since the beginning, the various members have always brought their own styles into the mix, so we started calling it Mars Metal. People have described it back to us as a mixture of Motorhead (I play bass in a rhythm guitar style with LOTS of fuzz) and Monster Magnet, with some grunge thrown into the mix. That is pretty apt, I have a lot of influences, but the desert rock scene, metal, and grunge make up the basis of what we do. We balance driving riffs with groove and find that sweet spot that gets people shaking and bobbing their heads.
Was there a defining moment when you realized music was your calling?
Once I was in art school, I started listening to a lot of industrial music, as well as more Sabbath, Kyuss, Soundgarden, and thrash that I had always listened to since high school. I saw an ad for someone selling a bass for under $100 and let my love of Motorhead, Voivod, Cliff Burton, Warrior Soul, and The Misfits guide me. Once I started jamming with my roommate in the industrial band he was forming, I knew this was what I wanted to do. Godflesh, Skinny Puppy, Pigface, and Skrew were our influences, and it was great to finally get up on stage and rage. And It was raw and electric; it just felt right.
Later, I met my future wife through a musician's wanted ad in a local paper in Austin, and it just seemed like music was destined to be part of my life. There’s nothing like the feeling when a gig is going well or when you lay down that perfect track to solidify that music is where it is at. Even though it is hard to keep everything moving sometimes, when I don’t do anything musical, I feel hollow and out of sorts.
Where do you find inspiration for your lyrics or melodies?
Lyrically, I’m influenced a lot by books, movies, and games, and I try to balance the sci-fi and fiction elements with what is going on in my life and the world. Some songs take real-life angst and channel the catharsis through metaphor; other times, they express a raw emotion or something topical. I was asked when we were recording “Transmission” how I came up with the lyrics for “Dreamcrushers Inc.” and my response was “Just living life.” It felt like those lyrics needed to be sung. Sometimes, it is the experience of seeing that person you connect with in a dark club, like in “Black Leather” or love through sci-fi themes in “Cities on Fire” (inspired by the manga/anime “Fist of the North Star” and Mad Max/The Road Warrior) and “Everything (But You)” (about a person remembering their love as they leave them behind to travel the universe). I’ve always loved “story-telling” bands like Iron Maiden, Voivod (Nothingface is godlike there!), Clutch, Anthrax (their love of comics and Stephen King is huge for me), to name a few, so that mix of story-based lyrics along with real-life experiences is where I live.
When writing music, I usually yell out some temp lyrics when we are writing the initial riffs to get an idea of the cadence and melody, and I let the song inform me where I should go from there. It all comes from the vibe and riffs and what is going through my head when I sit down and listen to it over and over. The melodies come from that and then usually get shaped over time when we shape the demos and get into the studio.
How do you balance personal expression and creating something your audience will love?
Since music is the purest form of expression I have, I usually create what comes from my heart and let that guide me. I think that if the audience hears that raw emotion and is digging what is coming through, they will go along for the ride. We’ve changed a few things here and there for songs when we are working with our producers or engineers, but I rarely think about changing something based on what the audience might think. If you start trying to follow a trend, you're most likely too late, or at worst; you’re going to betray the intent that was in your heart and soul to begin with.
We’ve been lucky that Jeff Henson, (our engineer and producer on our EP “Return from the Void” and our last album “Dead Planet Exodus”) has a great ear and has mainly just pushed us to make the songs true to the groove and intent we came in with as a band. I’m not saying we never throw out a riff that doesn’t fit with what we are doing, but I think that our audience appreciates what we do enough to trust us to take them on an interstellar Mars Metal journey they will be into.
What has been the most rewarding moment of your career so far?
That’s a little tough because I have had some great times with various members of the band who are no longer part of the mix, and we shared some amazing times. However, I think the response to “Dead Planet Exodus” has really hit me. People who have been friends or have been following us for a long time have said this was a significant step forward and that they were even more into us now. We’ve had some great live shows where the crowd got into it, and everyone behind the bar and soundboard gave us props (which is no mean feat!). Our guitarist Kotah’s wife and family also went all in, and he has been in a lot of bands, so I take that to mean we are doing something right.
In the past, I really enjoyed playing a gig at a couple of venues where we donated to charity and relief for Japan, which had just gone through the tsunami and earthquakes. I have friends there, and it felt great to help wherever possible. I really like giving back to help in our community or abroad. That bridge between music and helping people is something I can never get enough of.
Are there any specific milestones you’re working toward in your career?
Right now, we are working on the early stages of a new album, but we also want to lay the groundwork for more touring with cool bands, especially if we can play in Europe and Japan. We want to keep the positive momentum going from our last release, and our big goal is to release music more regularly with this lineup. We haven’t had a lot of releases due to random challenges in the past, so we want to forge ahead with more music more often. Those things are what fuel us to keep our starship traveling across the universe.
How do you prepare for a show or tour?
I’m the band leader and “Band Dad,” so my prep is usually making sure everything is in order, that everyone is arriving on time, everything is set up, that things with the venue are cool, and that we are in with the sound people and crew. I’ll usually warm up a bit and talk to the people in the crowd who seem to be there to have a good time as well.
Right before loading on stage, I’m usually trying to control the chaos in my brain, get pumped to hit my marks, and put on the best damn show possible, no matter what happens. I ride a thin line with nervousness and getting ready to show the audience the best rock show possible before I hit the stage and flip the switch to full Mars Metal. I’m not a very mysterious person; what you see is what you get, so I have to throw it all out there.
What’s the most unusual or memorable thing that’s happened to you on stage?
We haven’t had many unusual things happen in Deserts of Mars other than some equipment failure that caused us to jam for a bit, and the audience thought the song we made was one of their favorites. We’ve had a few shows where people were chanting for an encore, and that is always appreciated (but we always check our time and make sure that the venue is cool with it- Don’t EVER be “That Band” that causes a traffic jam for the bands afterward!) Whenever we win over the crowd AND the venue staff and sound people, those are always the most memorable shows since the venue crew have heard a million bands.
I did have a guy give us some supposed magic runes after a show with another band. He said we should burn it if we ever needed help. However, I told my bandmate not to do that; I have seen way too many horror movies to trust that!
Can you tell us about your latest project or release?
Our latest album, “Dead Planet Exodus,” came out in October of 2024, and we’ve been really pleased with the response online and within the Stoner Rock community. We hit the October edition of the Doom Charts at number 16. That was a great feeling!
As we were doing demos and putting it together, it blossomed into a concept album about a bunch of spacefarers (possibly the ones Returning from the Void from our EP) crash-landing on a planet full of monsters, supernatural overlords, and fearful citizens. They struggle to escape and head home, fighting tooth and nail and missing those they lost along the way. It was a response to everything that had been going on in the world and our own frustration with losing momentum (as we were unable to tour with “Return from the Void”), and the supreme sense of anger and loss we dealt with in the interim. I also threw in a couple of topical songs, like “Shilluminati” (about the rich and powerful who run things, their greed and corruption no longer in the shadows) and “Temporal Vampires (about all the Time Vampires that waste everyone’s time and effort and don’t seem to care or respect anyone else) but overall the narrative throughline is there.
I took a lot of influences from movies like “Pitch Black”, “Heavy Metal”, “Aliens” (you might spot a reference in the lyrics if you listen close), comics like “The Incal,” “Leo Roa,” various manga, and my own imagination as a published comic book writer and went hard on the sci-fi elements tinged with metaphor.
The album itself was a journey to create in itself. We enlisted Jeff Henson to produce/engineer it since we had a great rapport from working together our EP and my wife and I’s band album for our band “Rise from Fire.” He and Jeff Klein did guest guitar work on it, and we got illustrators Sana Freeman and Rolf Mohr to do art with a good friend and game industry rocker, Paul Russel, to do graphic design. It was indeed a labor of love, but hearing how much people have enjoyed it has made it worth it.
Are there any collaborations in the works you’re excited about?
We are currently working on laying the groundwork for the next slab of Mars Metal, but I have contacted a couple of friends about a few things here and there. They are in the early fragile stages, though, so it is all in for heavy, angry riff-writing for Kotah and me while Morgan pounds out some heavy drums.
What message or emotion do you hope people take away from your music?
I’ve always wanted to take a page from a few bands like Killing Joke and others who have what I call “positive aggression.” I want people to be able to take a journey with us, and even when a song is crushing, by the end, I hope they feel a kinship or maybe a catharsis.
I know that singles shuffled playlists are where everyone is in this day and age, but I still craft our albums to be listened to through headphones front to back. I want people to feel the ebb and flow of the tunes that all my favorite albums have. I often use music as an escape, and I really want our listeners to feel the way I feel when an album hits me and becomes an all-time classic. I want them to feel that they are not alone and that we share the heaviness, loss, and hope together. We are connected through art, through riffs, and shared experiences. If I can elicit any of that, these tunes have done precisely what I wanted.
Who are you listening to right now?
I listen to a lot of different stuff throughout the day (my playlist is all over the place), but I was lucky enough to catch some really cool music at Stoner Jam in Austin this week, along with a couple of other shows. In addition to my usual metal (Voivod is featured heavily), Industrial, and Stoner Rock lists, I am excited about the new Mean Mistreater album “Do or Die, “ the latest Warlung “The Poison Touch,” Scorpion Child’s latest “I Saw The End As It Passed Right Through Me,” and I’m anxiously awaiting the new albums from Temple of Love and Frogmouth. I also picked up tunes from Lord Velvet and Weird Bloom this week and will be spinning those.
How do you see your music evolving in the next few years?
With Kotah joining the band, the idea is to fold his influences into the Mars Metal ideal and write music that speaks from our hearts. For me personally, I want to write some epic music that ebbs and flows a bit more, to ride the line between crushing heaviness and spacey trippiness. We have to do this while maintaining the drive and groove we are known for, but I don’t see that being an issue as long as I am writing. I’d like to see some longer songs, a bit more variety here and there, and a whole lot of planet-shattering heaviness that makes people shake their hips and bang their heads. That’s always the goal.
How do you handle the balance between commercial success and artistic integrity?
The fight for commercial success is a constant struggle. We do everything we can to reach that (we would LOVE to quit our day jobs!), but at the end of the day, we concentrate on artistic integrity above all else. I don’t really know what else to do.
I’ve worked on big collaborative projects in video games, comics, and animation, and there are a lot of moving parts there that involve commercial and business decisions far beyond the individual. I don’t want that with music. Deserts of Mars is perhaps the purest form of creativity I have, and if I start second guessing that for the promise of commercial success, I think I’ve already lost. I believe that fans can often see through that as well.
I’m not a really mysterious person; I don’t have that persona. If things are hitting onstage, I am smiling ear to ear. If people are enjoying our tunes, I am blessed and happy. This music is crafted out of our hearts and souls, so even if we don’t “make it” to the level we aspire to, we at least know we put it all out there into the universe in the most earnest way possible.
What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects, tours, or surprises?
It’s all about writing the next album and figuring out how to arrange everyone’s schedules so we can get out there for local gigs and tours. We hope to land some upcoming fest-type shows with our friends and keep things going here in Austin. We have some contacts with some bands we’ve really liked playing with that we want to do some jaunts with, but that is all in the early stages.
Anything You'd Like Your Fans to Know.
I just wanted to add a major thanks to all of our fans for sticking with it and grooving with us at every live show. To everyone who has spun our albums on repeat, bought some merch, or just reached out to tell us that you love the tunes, that means the universe to us. We hope to see you out and about this year.
No matter what, please keep spreading the word, listening to us and other bands that you are into, and we hope that you are throwing something positive out there to the universe. We can’t guarantee what happens when we are gone, but we can leave behind good times, good memories, awesome art, and lasting emotions. Those ripples spread out, and until the last one flattens and subsides, we are connected by it.