A new, sparkly glam-rock band has emerged out of the high desert—spearheaded by the leader of a horror-themed heavy-metal band.
Dagamoor is the latest musical concoction from Bryce Wayt, aka Spooky Von Amduat of SPELLGRINDER. Acoustic guitars, crunchy solos, nasally vocal tones and mystical, nonsensical lyrics craft a glam-honoring sound. Some memorable musical moments on Dagamoor’s self-titled debut album, released in early June, include “Sparkle Jet Regret” and “Satan’s a Waitin’”
Dagamoor recently played its first live show as a full band, and the live outfit includes Michael Cortichiato on bass guitar.
“I got asked to play the Mojave Gold Gemini Party from Shannon (Navarro-Mitchell), from Karma Dealers; they’re old friends of the band,” Wayt said. “I had only played an acoustic show (as Dagamoor), but I knew this guy, Corsh (Michael Cortichiato). He’s a haircut, cheekbones, just total rock ’n’ roller. … I’m a little image-conscious, and when you get an opportunity to have a band of babes, you go for it. Corsh is a handsome dude, super-good at bass, and he was moving from L.A. to Landers, and he liked Dagamoor, so he said, ‘Hey, when I get out there, can I play in Dagmoor?’”
With only a few days to go before the Mojave Gold show, Wayt went searching for other like-minded glam rockers. Danny Graham and Joshua Adams from Fever Dog heeded the call.
“I was checking out Blue Diamond, which is Joshua Adams from Fever Dog’s prog album that he did, and it’s dope,” Wayt said. “… It seemed like if he’s playing prog, and he’s got these kinds of chops, he’s probably razor sharp, so I reached out. … I tried to make it worth his time, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, sounds like a cool thing; what do I wear?’ Thirty minutes later, he’s like, ‘Can my friend Danny come, too? We’ve been in bands together since we were in fourth-grade.’ All of a sudden, I was going from a trio to a duo to a quartet.
“Fever Dog rules. To the other two guys at Fever Dog: I respect you guys, and thank you for letting me borrow your boys.”
The quartet ignited Mojave Gold in true rock ’n’ roll fashion! (See video evidence below.) Wayt said that when time permits, live shows in the future will feature his Fever Dog brethren.
“Fever Dog is their main gig, of course, and Dagamoor respects that,” Wayt said. “Dagamoor is my project, but those guys and I really got along. We found a lot of common ground as far as taste, senses of humor, and work ethic. I’m a little older than those guys, but we all have enough stage age where we can hang. … I don’t see any reason to mess with a winning formula.”
On a surface level, fans of Wayt’s previous heavy-metal project may be surprised at this tonal shift. However, true listeners have heard inklings of glam, early garage and pop sounds within even the heaviest of SPELLGRINDER’s tunes.
“SPELLGRINDER is horror-themed heavy metal, and it’s a conceptual art project, which, I guess, everything I do is,” Wayt said. “SPELLGRINDER was a heavy-metal band, but (I loved) sneaking in these little influences. Even on the first song on the first record, the bridge on it is 1950s ice cream changes (a popular chord progression in doo-wop music). A lot of people, they hear that, and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s like Misfits,’ but it’s also Frankie Valli. I would sneak in things that I thought were cool, that I thought were missing from the heavy metal, that I wanted to enjoy more. I wanted to make a metal band that would really appeal to me, as I’m a punk rocker; I’m a rock ’n’ roller; and glam rock is something I’ve always loved, because it’s awesome.”
As Spooky Van Amduat in SPELLGRINDER, Wayt crafted hard and sleazy sounds about vampires and frights. As Bryce Wayt in Dagamoor, the artist is pouring his new skills into a less-narrow musical setting.
“With these newfound skills that I have, I can really put it all together, and I’m building up this arsenal of amazing instruments,” he said. “I wrapped up the second SPELLGRINDER album, and I was going to start working on a punk-rock album, and then I bought a metal front Zemaitis guitar. I had always wanted one, ever since I saw Marc Bolan playing one when I was 22 years old. You couldn’t get one for less than $40,000 back then, but a few years later, Greco started making some cool ones, and what I bought was an early Greco model. Within a couple days of owning that guitar, I had recorded all of ‘Wizard Rock.’”
Dagamoor’s debut single “Wizard Rock” is a slow and sexy rock groove made wild thanks to some sweet saxophone licks from Cat Celebrezze.
“Cat is in 50 bands, and she’s really cool,” Wayt said. “She’s got a great look, and she’s the most punctual musician I’ve ever worked with in my life. She shows up on time, and she doesn’t want to bullshit. … I asked her if she wanted to play on that song, just a simple melody line on the pre-chorus. It’s kind of below her talent level, but it was just going to make the song so cool. I’d never worked with her before, and she was going to come by in two days, so I wanted to make that trip more worth her while, and more challenging for her, so I just sat down right then, and I started coming up with ‘Black Cat Mojo’ on the fly. By the end of the next day, ‘Black Cat Mojo’ was completely finished, except for the saxophone, so I just let her know, ‘OK, you’re going to be doing two songs.’ She showed up, and it took her 45 minutes for us to just go through both of those songs. … She’s a really good, instinctual player.”
While Dagamoor’s song styles and structure honor the era during which glam rock was perfected, production techniques help modernize, and give staying power, to the dated sounds.
“I’m using the same guy to mix and master as I used in SPELLGRINDER,” Wayt said. “Instead of doing what one would do with a band like Dagamoor, which is trying to mix and master it like it’s from 1971—why do that? You don’t want to just have such narrow time-machine music that was only marginally successful for a short period of time.”
As in SPELLGRINDER, Wayt is image-focused with Dagamoor, and he wants you to be able to pick up on the type of music the band is about to perform just by viewing the outfits. He recalled his outfit at the Mojave Gold performance.
“I’m wearing 1950s pink balloon slacks, an Elvis Presley Lansky Brothers jacket, and a Vivienne Westwood shirt,” he said. “… I loved it when bands did that. The Sex Pistols would do that, and when I was a kid, I was like, ‘Why is Sid wearing big pink pants?’ I wised up, and I think that Gene Vincent is more rock ’n’ roll than any of us will ever be, and if Gene Vincent wants to wear it, I want to wear it. Punk rock and glam rock—they kind of had the same mission statement, but they had different executions.”
Wayt said he’s ecstatic about his current position in life and in the music biz.
“I always thought, ‘I’m about to make it,’ and now, I look back, and I made it—and I never knew it, because I was hustling so hard,” Wayt said. “It doesn’t look like you thought it would. I thought it would be an Aerosmith level, which is why it was so difficult for me to rate the scale of success around me. … If you’ve been able to get to the point where you can just make whatever you want, whenever you want, to do it as an artist, that’s the coolest thing you can do.”
Learn more at instagram.com/dagamoor.