Exclusive Interview with Johnny Pisano
 23rd May, 2001 - NY - USA

Portal do Rock has made this exclusive interview with Johnny Pisano (ex-Marky Ramone & Intruders), bass player of the American band Bellvue, which has just released its debut album called "To Be Somebody" and which is formed also by famous Jesse Malin (ex-D-Generation) on vocals, Esko Poldvere (guitar) and Joe Rizzo (drums).
 
 
 

For those familar with the bands D. Generation and Marky Ramone & Intruders, it is good to mention Bellvue has nothing to do with the sound of such bands, despite the influences and the presence of Pisano and Malin. Bellvue does a heavier and better produced sound. It is a first class rock and roll, with strong influences of bands from Seattle, Sonic Youth and Smashing Pumpkins. Those fans of alternative rock, with distorced guitars and agressive vocals will definitively be satisfied with this band.

The CD was produced by Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Spacehog, Lemonheads, Breeders, and others). Besides the "rock stars" playing in the band, this CD brings special appearances of names like Ryan Adams (Whiskeytown), Sergio Veja (Quicksand), Howie Pyro (Danzig) and Jai Diablo (Dragpipe).

Check out the interview now!

Portal: How is your work with Marky Ramone & Intruders? Is it finished? What happened to the band? What about alex? What is he doing now?

Pisano: Well Marky has decided to move on to other things. He plays with the Misfits live and he plays half the show with them and the Black Flag drummer plays the other half. He also has a project called the Marky Ramone group with some friends of ours in Belgium. As far as me and him playing together, he knows I will allways be there to play with him. He is a great guy, a great drummer and a great friend....
Portal: Who had the idea of forming Bellvue?

Pisano: After Jesse separated D-Generation he then formed a band called PCP Highway and later Tsing Tsing and thats the point that I joined the band. It was Sept. of 2000 and I was still in the Intruders and later we changed the name to Bellvue. I bellieve there is a band out of England called Tsing Tsing and Bellvue is a better name anyway in my opinion and for the record it was Jesse who came up with the name.

Portal: What is the meaning of the name Bellvue?

Pisano: I believe if you were to look it up in the dictionary it means 'a nice place'.

Portal: What are the main influences for the music of band?

Pisano: We all still have our punk roots but we also like the Stones and Elvis Costello, and Cheap Trick and Janes Addiction.etc etc....
  
 
 
 
 
 


Portal: How is the acceptance of Bellvue in your gigs and by the media in US?

Pisano: We allways get great responses and great write ups in news papers and articles. And we have a nice following as well of all age groups. And freaks who come to all the shows. And unlike most Ramone and Intruder shows for some reason a lot of girls. Jesse has a pasionate way of singing.

Portal: Who are the main composers of the band and how is the process of composition?

Pisano: Jesse is the main composer of the music and now we all have a hand in the writing of all the new stuff. All these songs were already done by the time I joined and alot were recorded as well. And they recorded some with the other bass player Sergio Vega from Quicksand while I was touring in america in oct. of 2000.

Portal: Besides "Heartbreaker" of Stones, do you play any other covers in your gigs?

Pisano: We do "Sweet Talker" sometimes by Sister Double Happiness.and just recently we did "I just wanna have something to do" for Joey's birthday bash at the Hammerstien and we did our own version cause no one can do it better than the Ramones and it came out really cool. We may even record it one day.

  Portal: Do you intend to launch this CD "To be Somebody" in Brazil? When?

Pisano: Right now we are trying to get a deal to release it world wide and we want to release it there specially so we can come down and play to promote it...

Portal: Do you have plans for a tour in Brazil? When?

Pisano: As soon as we can. I miss you guys. The plan is for Chucky from Forgotten Boys who also works at MTV to play out our video (Faded Flowers) so people know who we are and hopefully it will make the whells turn faster and we can get down there to play asap.
 
 
 
 
 
Portal: Is there anything else you would like to say for your Brazilian fans?

Pisano: I allways appreciate the support that everyone gives to music there. The Joey Ramone bash was amazing between bands like Blondie and Cheap Trick and us (Bellvue) and Joey´s brothers band, Stop and the Independents. There were people going up speaking. like Lil Steven and Hilly (the owner of CBGB's) and Legs McNeeal (author of book "Please Kill Me") and Tommy Ramone. just to tell storys about Joey and the Ramones.

And to really top off the night Arturo (long time Ramones designer lighting and famous backdrops) had 3500 cup cakes (Yankee doodles and ring dings) and everyone of those 3500 people got to eat one or throw one and on ther way out there was an envelope given to each person as well with stikers and pins and posters. It was all about giving back to the fans it was a different kind of show. We all felt it. As opposed to the usuall try to sell sell sell.

While Joey was in the hospital he was helping us out. He helped finance some of these songs and he was lying in his hospital bed listening to our song telling us what to put on the CD and which order to put the songs in. We love him and miss him as a friend as well as the fater of punk. Bellvue has a web site where you can download some songs or samples of songs and you can buy the CD as well. It´s bellvuemusic.com.

Marcio Faveri