BIG BAD WOLF DAYS
Billy Sean Attila T.J. J.
BIG BAD WOLF was an early 90's rock band based in White Oak, a suburban Pittsburgh borough in Allegheny County, western Pennsylvania, United States. The band was formed in the Spring of 1990, and officially broke up in Fall of 1994. Amazingly, while most bands switched members at least every few months, Big Bad Wolf maintained the original line-up until the Spring of 1993, when due to philosophical differences, they switched drummers.
"HOW DID THE BAND FORM" - The band was formed when Attila Domos (lead vocals, piano, keyboards) was introduced via a mutual friend to Billy Behary (guitars), who was already friends with Jason Wentrouble (bass) thanks to Rob Wakefield... a guitar student of Billy's. After holding a few short auditions, they added T.J. Stadjuhar (drums) and as the band was getting ready to head into the studio to cut their first album, they added Sean Yakich (keyboards).
"HOW DID THE BAND GET ITS NAME" - Around two weeks after Attila, Billy and J met, they decided that they needed a name. The started calling out names, and after someone had mentioned Cinderella (a popular blues laced hair metal band, hailing from Philadelphia) the guys threw out names of cartoon and fairytale characters. Everything from 3 Blind Mice to Snow White... any name they could think of, when Billy suggested laughingly "Big Bad Wolf". The room got quiet, and Attila immediately said with a serious face "That's it, Billy... you came up with it. We're Big Bad Wolf". Even though Billy thought up the name, initially he was resistant to the idea, but it quickly grew on him, and the band name stuck.
"WHO WROTE THE SONGS" - Attila Domos was not only the lead singer and piano player, he was also the main songwriter. He wrote all but two songs ("Driving in the Rain"... the song's concept and chorus' foundation was created by Sean Yakich, and the rest of the song was a collaboration, except for the lyrics which were written by Domos. - The other song not entirely written by Attila Domos was "See You No More", which turned into track 9 on the band's debut album... "Who Kicked the Bucket". The chord structure in the chorus was written by Behary as were the title words of the song... see you no more. The rest of the song was a collaboration between Domos, Behary, Wentrouble and Stadjuhar. The lyrics (with the exception of the words - see you no more - in the chorus) were written by Domos.) All of the rest of the songs were written by Attila Domos, who composed the songs on an old piano at his home... chords, changes and lyrics... and then introduced them to the band, where the individual members wrote their own parts to accompany Domos' acoustic creations.
"WHO KICKED THE BUCKET" - the band's debut album was recorded at Aircraft Studios in Dormont PA, in the Summer of 1990.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING BEHIND THE ALBUM'S NAME" - Attila thought up the name of the album. His mother died from breast cancer about 3 and a half years earlier, and he wanted to honor her but in a way that was personal to him, only. The name came from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, where Elmer Fudd thought that he'd killed Bugs Bunny, so he started to dance around his body singing "Howaaaay... the wabbit kicked the bucket!" Attila turned that line into "Who?... kicked the bucket". The "who" part representing his personal memory of his mother.
Some facts about the record:
While he played all of the keyboards on every BBW recording AFTER their debut album, Sean Yakich did NOT perform any keyboards on "Who Kicked the Bucket". That was done by Attila Domos. Not because Sean could not have played the parts, but because he was asked to join the band only days before Big Bad Wolf was scheduled to be in the studio.
The female voice who joins Attila at the end of "Shores of Disaster" belongs to Denise Dasynich. Denise was the lead singer for a Pittsburgh cover band called Xpozure, a band in which Attila played keyboards for a few months, prior to the creation of Big Bad Wolf.
"One Way Ride" and "You're the One" were two songs on "Who Kicked the Bucket" which Attila has previously performed live with a couple of his earlier bands, one of them being Denise Desynich's band... Expozure.
Claudia Metts provided the sexy voice in the intro to "Sexual Overdrive". All, except for the laugh. In her words she wrote on Attila's Facebook page on November 29, 2013 "My only regret is that I was too nervous to do my own laugh."
"HOW DID THE ONE MEMBER CHANGE COME ABOUT" - TJ was getting burned out from the rock & roll scene, and after an altercation with Attila, at one of their rehearsals, the band unanimously agreed to replace him.
Initially Billy and J were hesitant to bring in Attila's younger brother... Csaba Domos, but after just one audition, they were both convinced that they'd found their replacement drummer.
"WAS BIG BAD WOLF PART OF A COMPILATION CD RELEASED INTERNATIONALLY" - Yes! In late winter of 1993, U.S. Rocker magazine approached Big Bad Wolf about being a part of their soon to be internationally released CD. There were 18 bands represented. Over a dozen of the bands were from around the US, bur at least two of the bands were from as far away as Japan. Big Bad Wolf was track number 9, with "More Than a Million" (picture below).
"HOW DID THE RECORDING DEAL COME ABOUT" - J came across an article in the newspaper that was written about a Cleveland Area Record label being in town, to audition local Pittsburgh talent. The band decided to audition and with in minutes of their audition, Big Bad Wolf was offered a recording contract with the label.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RECODING DEAL" - On September 22nd of 1993, Attila had a falling accident, which left him paralyzed from the waste down. The label hung around for a while to see what the result of the rehabilitation was going to be, but they had an act into which they haven't yet pumped any money, and when they realized that Attila's injuries were serious enough that his body couldn't make a full recovery, they rendered the contract null and void.
"WHY DID THE BAND FALL APART" - A lot of things have changed in the band while Attila was absent. He was away facing life and death situations and serious 3 months of rehabilitation. in the meantime, the rest of the band started playing blues covers, a la Clapton, Hendrix, and the like. After the 3 months of hellish rehabilitation, Attila returned to the band, but everything was different. With out Attila's artistic vision, the band got creatively lazy. In their time back together, Big Bad Wolf recorded a rough basement demo of the next album, but that's as for as the project went. No one was willing to throw money into the next album, with a paraplegic in the spotlight. As a result, Attila left the band, and Big Bad Wolf was no more.
The rest of the band members rightfully changed the band's name to "Billy-K and the Soul Cats", a blues cover band led by Billy Behary. They stayed together for a few more years, until the drugs, in-fighting and lack of leadership, destroyed that project, and everyone went their separate way.
"WHERE WERE THE 3 EXTRA SONGS FOR THE ALBUM THAT NEVER HAPPENED, RECORDED" -
"900" was recorded entirely at the Art Institute in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.
"Sing Me a Song" was entirely recorded at Audiomation Studios in Northside Pittsburgh, PA.
"More Than a Million" music was recorded at Audiomation, vocals and mix were finished at Granati Studios.
PEOPLE WHO WORKED BEHIND THE SCENES FOR THE BAND
Rob (Wakey) Wakefield (R. I. P.) - He was the original everything to the band. In fact... Wakey was originally going to be Big Bad Wolf's rhythm guitarist, but things didn't work out. As fate had it, he remained on as a roadie, and very close friend to everyone in and around the band. Tragically, he died in 2005 and his presence is sorely missed to this day.
Mark Suhy - He sat in and played saxophone with the band. He even played on the basement recording of the follow-up album which never happened.
Bob Bradley - He was Mr. EVERYTHING to Big Bad Wolf. He was the ultimate trooper. He's been on stage with the band as the introduction guy, he was drum tech, driver, co-manager and wore many other hats. Bob was also a very good drummer.
Jeff Cooley - He was indeed as cool as his name would suggest. Jeff also wore many hats. He was Big Bad Wolf's lead roadie, and was in charge of getting everything set up. He also provided the muscle and attitude when things got a little rough.
Tony Stadjuhar - T.J.'s bigger younger brother. He was also roadie, muscle and tech to Billy. Tony was actually a good guitar player, who played more for his personal enjoyment rather than for fame and praise.
Dave Perry - Dave and Attila were very good friends. In fact... Attila worked for Dave at his alternate job, and in return Dave roadied for Big Bad Wolf and was also one of the drivers to and from shows.
John Maurin - He came on the scene a few years later. After rehearsals, the guys in the band used to hang out at a near-by pub/lounge, where John was the bouncer. John has been over to many Big Bad Wolf rehearsals and even tagged along as roadie to a number of shows.
Paul Brown - He was a big boy who came on the Big Bad Wolf scene roughly around the same time as John. He too provided a strong back for roadiing and muscle... if or when things ever got rough.
Mark Petrunio - He was one of Csaba's friends, who joined the crew with Csaba, and served as Csab's personal roadie, and even filled in as a tech if or when Bob wasn't available.
Frank Lagana - He was also one of Csaba's friends who helped the band as a roadie on quite a few occasions.
Some, but not all of the supportive Wolfettes:
Claudia - Jennifer - Renee - Angie - Valerie - Vicki - Lisa - Jen - Tina - Tracy - Michelle - Shannon - Colleen - Cindy - Kim - Dee
- BIG BAD WOLF - "Who Kicked the Bucket"
- Plus 3 bonus songs, which were professionally recorded, to be part of the next album. Unfortunately, the next album never happened.
Those songs are "More Than a Million", "900" and "Sing Me a Song".
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For those who like "bootleg" or "basement" recordings, here's the last thing we recorded in our rehearsal hall, aka J's basement. The quality is horrible, but more bearable with headphones... lol Billy recorded this using a VCR... I don't know why, but it worked... kinda. As I said, the quality is as basement as it gets, but there's some pretty cool stuff here, if recording quality isn't your thing... lol
8-Track Mission From Hell
BIG BAD PHOTOS
If you have any photo of Big Bad Wolf you'd like to share, , feel free to email copies via the "Contact Attila" link. It doesn't matter if the pics are from a show, party... what ever.
