13 QUESTIONS WITH JOHN KOSCO OF DROPBOX

DROBOX is the first act to be signed to GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna's Realign imprint, and despite the band's infancy, has already received some great exposure. The band has already toured with GODSMACK and ILL NIÑO, they have updated the 'Transformers' theme which is being used in the PS2 game, as well as the upcoming motion picture, and they're about to head out with DROWNING POOL and FLAW. We threw a handful of dopey questions at Dropbox singer John Kosco before he heads to Kansas for 98.9 Rockfest, and this is what he had to say...or type...you get the point.

Steve C: John, you're from New Jersey, so I'm going to assume you're intimately familiar with the phenomenon known as the 24-hour DINER. In your experience, which Jersey diners serve up the best post-drinking-binge feast, and which diner food will have your colon crying like a battered woman for days?

John Kosco: That’s easy, the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton NJ. Fucking place is packed every weekend night. (He's right; filled with drunks coming home from the city or from the Meadowlands, slopping down greasy diner food at 3am)

SC: Your guitarist (and original GODSMACK guitarist) Lee Richards is from Massachusetts, while the rest of the band is from New Jersey. When the Yankees/Red Sox fights break out, who usually wins?

JK: How many championships do the Sox have? It’s all in fun, its just baseball. (Yeah, like we really thought you guys were beating the shit out of one another on the back of the bus over a baseball game... well, then again...you never can tell with Red Sox fans)



SC: You recorded the theme to The Transformers video game (and ultimately, the Transformers movie)...when going up against a talent like STAN BUSH, who recorded 'The Touch' for the original Transformers animated movie, what kind of pressure did you feel? Was there a lot of crying involved?

JK: It’s music, not brain surgery. (Oh man...I don't think he's ever heard "The Touch"... How is this possible? Brace yourself, kids...this is some serious rock and roll...might want to have a change of undies ready to go)

SC: Hypothetical situation: You get to spend ONE day as a twenty foot-tall heavily-armed robot, disguised as a tractor trailer. You can spend the day driving your band and all its gear from New York City to Nashville, TN for a gig, or you can convert yourself into a robot, and rob a few banks, collecting enough seed money to sustain your band for the next five years. How do you spend your time as a 'Transformer'?

JK: Do you know how much $ that would save us on a tour bus. Let’s do the gigs.

SC: If we were to rummage through the DROPBOX porn collection (don't even THINK about bullshitting us; every walking upright male has porno), what kind of smut would we find?

JK: Anything from Hardcore bondage to softcore like Lord of the G-stings. I watch the 'Wishbone' video a lot. Those chicks are smokers.



SC: Travelling in close quarters with other men makes you intimately more aware of one another's bodily functions than you'd like. If we took a poll, which member of DROPBOX would win the 'most awful gas' award? (meaning which member of the band could knock a buzzard off a shitwagon with his farts?)

JK: That would be Lee.

SC: It's 2004. Overseas is much different, but rock bands are getting about as much respect in the U.S. as rectal cancer. How much of an uphill battle is it for a new band like you guys to publicize yourselves?

JK: The way I see it, you have to run a marathon, not a sprint.

SC: We've been told by a number of artists that you have to have multiple streams of income if you're a professional musician. What are the Dropbox guys doing to stay afloat while waiting for super-stardom?

JK: I photograph softcore porn. In the meantime check this riff out.

SC: If there was one celebrity/rock star (Sully Erna not included - too much attachment there) you could honor with a concrete monument, who would it be and why?

JK: Zakk Wylde. Needs no explaination. (No, it certainly does not, sir. Someone better go get Rob from Paragon some hand lotion...he cranks it to Zakk Wylde)

SC: OK, now which celebrity/rock star would you bury at the base of a concrete monument, and why?

JK: You would have to be a celebrity/rock star that crossed me to do that. So far no one has pissed me off to do such a thing.

SC: What do you look for when buying a new guitar; tone, feel, type of wood, thickness of neck?... or pointy with airbrushed tits/dragon/celtic symbol?

JK: Any of the above minus the silly airbrush crap. (Excuse me? "Silly airbrush crap?"...I'll have you know that a good set of airbrushed tits can make a riff sound ten times crunchier)



SC: Let's say it's about 1am on a Tuesday at Don Hill's in NYC, and I'm hanging around outside of a Dropbox gig. What kind of girls am I going to see you guys talking to/hitting on/bumming smokes off?

JK: I’ve seen some smokers in that club. Especially when the band SLUNT plays.

SC: If you had a few hundred bucks to get a pair of decent tickets to a rock concert this summer, who would YOU spend your money to see? (There's KISS/POISON, METALLICA, AEROSMITH/CHEAP TRICK, VAN HALEN, and many others....)

JK: Well I wouldn’t see Kiss impersonators, I’ve seen 'Tallica about 30 times while on the road with GODSMACK doing press. Fucking killer show by the way. Love Aerosmith and Halen, but ill have to say VELVET REVOLVER.

Short, sweet, but all around good answers from a guy who was most likely doing phone interviews all day, and took the time to type out this stupid shit. John and Dropbox are going to be on the road with Drowning Pool and Flaw this summer, and you can pick up their debut disc in stores now (VERY well worth it, by the way - it's got some great old-school riffage)

Check out the band's official site and preview the new disc and "Wishbone" video at DROPBOXMUSIC.COM

Some images courtesy Ken Coppens of metalrefuge.com