Lyle Simmons is an imposing figure — a black man dressed in black — complete with the black hat and the rocker's braided beard. He's not the guy you would expect to order the drink with the whip cream at Starbucks. But I, along with a handful of soccer moms on a Sunday morning in Pasadena were witness to that. He is also arguably Richard Haitz' right hand — and left brain — in the catch 'em now before they're bigger than the both of us, Nu Metal group, Haitz. A driving rock force with a beating jazz heart, Simmons is a worthy partner to help Haitz fulfill his ambitious vision for the group. Throughout our interview, he flashed the kind of large toothy smile that dares you not to smile as well. Like he's your buddy. But you're buddy also happens to be a Great White Shark. So it's good that he's your buddy. And if that weren't enough, Simmons has some integrity working for him too. So much so, that after the interview he e—mailed me because he wanted to make sure he gave credit to one of the LA Music Academy instructors whose name had slipped him while we were talking. It's worth stating again — it's good that he's your buddy — or in your band.

Yeah. That's right on. What that means is it's got a funky bass and drums underneath the hard edge guitars. But it's slanted more to the danceable metal. We're not talking about Poison or all that kind of stuff. We're talking Korn, Disturbed, a little less straight out angry metal, a little more funky edge to it. Kind of mix Alice In Chains and Mother's Finest. That kind of stuff.

I got an e—mail from the LA Music Academy's Graduate Division. At that time I was doing auditions and they were sending me leads. I was the first one to join the band. Richard was finishing up the (Identify) album when I joined the band. And actually (LA Music Academy instructor) Phil Bynoe was going to do the bass gig. He was the bass player from the Steve Vai band. But then he couldn't do it and he recommended Juan, so Juan came on next. And then we went through a couple of drummers. We auditioned a couple of guys and settled on one, but he didn't work out and then I brought a friend from Indiana in but he and Richard didn't get along. Finally, Joey was at one our gigs and heard that we were looking for a drummer. It was kind of like Spinal Tap before that.

I was pretty pumped. I wasn't familiar with "Monster Garage" or Jesse James (the host of the show) at the time, so I called and asked a few friends of mine that are back home in Indiana and they were all familiar with the show. So I checked it out and it was cool.

Indianapolis — 'Nap Town.

Yeah, that's my whole thing. I grew up listening to — well, when it came to metal — Van Halen, but I listened to Living Colour. Big, big, big influences were Living Colour, Bad Brains and Mother's Finest. Those were basically the most accessible and successful rock bands that had African Americans. I also checked out Body Count, but they came along after I was already past my formative playing years.

I try to compliment. Richard's a good metal, Nu Metal kind of groove player and my thing with the group is to try and bring a little more harmony or interesting chords to it in addition to adding to the groove. A lot of times when Richard is singing, I'm playing. But I try to play a counterpoint to Richard when he starts playing. So it mixes the groove with a little color to it.

It's a good experience. Joey, the drummer, is a pretty laid back guy, so we're similar. We were having a hard time with the guy before him, Joey coming in kind of calmed down the flux that was going on. We're kind of locked in now, so he's been a welcome, calming compliment. If you can call a metal, double kit playing, thrasher, Bonham—style drummer calming. Richard is really creative and Juan is a really, really great bass player, so the musical experience is pretty happening.

At this point, we have 23 labels that are asking us to submit stuff to them. 9 majors, 14 independent. A lot of it came from hard work in terms of putting promo kits together, knocking on doors. We sent out probably 600𥂔 promo kits and got 23 at this point that want to hear more. That's a lot of cash and time and effort on our management's part. It's very difficult here in L.A. to create a following because everybody is out here that are at the top of the business, so people are jaded. They can go down to the corner bar and see Frank (Gambale) play for five or ten bucks. You can go see Chick Corea play or go over to the strip and see members of different top rock bands playing — so it's kind of hard to be a new artist. But we've got some positive feedback from some key people in the business which allowed us leads as to where to send stuff and that's how we've done it.

Well, Richard's the leader, but we have a management company. Me personally, I put out a lot of ideas. If it works for the band, it's used. If it doesn't work, it's not used. For instance, on the current album that we're doing — I said, "Hey, we need to put it together in terms of a consistent flow. Let's do a conceptual album in the sense that you know, harmonically it flows, and thematically it flows in terms of what the lyrics are about." That was used. Even for the video — that was used. I'm not necessarily the person who leads the band, but since I come up with really good ideas they usually get used (laughs). So I don't know what to make of that (laughs, again).

I see it all as an extension (of the music). If it was just about the music, artists like Frank (Gambale) and all the great jazz artists would be the ones making huge dollars and they would be the ones on MTV. Nothing against those artists, obviously because I love jazz and that's gonna be my niche when I get older, but right now it's about the overall entertainment package. So it's visual, it's the music, it's making people dance, it's the hype, the lifestyle. So you're selling the whole package to everybody. So, in that sense, that's kind of the way I approach the business. That makes me more involved in developing ideas for the way the band is perceived.

Not at all (laughs). I can't even go to Hot Topic where they sell the wares (for the band), you know?

They picked out a couple that we had already done. I think "Go Away," and another one — I don't remember.

(Laughing.) Well, James is in jail. So he's not working on anything but getting his legal problems taken care of.

I can't say we're the hardest working, but we're definitely up there — in terms of putting practice time in, but it's not just that, it's all about marketing yourself and selling yourself as a product. I think what Richard was saying is that most people come out here and they want to be successful, but they don't understand all the aspects of making it.

I'm a big, big, big, big... Did I say that enough? A huge, colossal Chick Corea fan. So I was checking out the guitar player and knew that Scott Henderson played on one of the first records and then Frank came in. So I was getting into Frank and checking out his website and learning his music and buying his videos and I came across the LA Music Academy and the fact that he was teaching there. And I said to myself, if I can get lessons, any information from this guy on a day to day basis — I gotta go there. But when I got there, I discovered Jeff Richman, and Brad Rabuchin, and Dave Hill, Bill Fowler. I discovered these guys. Bill was a real big influence on me — correcting my problems with reading, Jeff — in terms of the jazz experience, Brad — playing the chords, Dave Hill — in the whole approach to groove based composition. And Frank is Frank, you know. He's got his style. But I discovered all those teachers in addition to Frank. I got all of this other wealth of knowledge.

First of all, when I got to the school, there were a lot of things coming at me academically. But about 10㬈 weeks into it, I kind of discovered that they were connecting the dots to a lot of things I already knew, and filling in the gaps in the areas that I didn't know. So I don't know that I went in without knowledge and came out with a wealth of knowledge. I did come out with a wealth of knowledge in that my overall knowledge of the guitar was more cohesive. And my approach to the guitar was better.