Widely know as a band never afraid to speak their mind, Poker Face are as passionate about their music as they are about their beliefs in mankind and world developments.  It seems fitting that in this festive season, a time we all look back at the times past and forward to the times to come, that we take time out to talk with Paul about what's important in their lives right now.

MM - Firstly, thank you once again for taking the time out to do this interview with us.
Paul - Brother Barry.  It is always good to stay in touch with friends.  What I have always liked about you and your site is that you are actually a fan first of the music and the musicians you interact with.  The reviews you write and the questions for interviews have always been deeper than the average variety of interview questions we have received over the years.  So thank you for that.

MM - It's been nearly five years since our last interview together, so what's new in the Poker Face camp?
Paul - Musically, we have released MIA - MADE IN AMERICA in 2003 that you recently reviewed.  We also have 2 new discs in the recording phase.  24 new tunes have been written.  We now have to finish recording the basic tracks, mix and master them. 

Since we are in the recording phase, we decided to pony up and start getting our own recording gear to cover the basic tracking of our original music.  It saves us a lot of studio time & money, and allows us to entertain different musical ideas for each song, be they the configuration of the song, how many harmonies, guitar, bass or keyboard solo's etc ... Getting the gear, and getting it all to work with each other has been a huge learning curve.  But each and every step we get under our belts, will mean that in future we will be able to get out our music, more quickly to our listening fans.  This 2-3 years from conception to finished disc has got to go.  We are blessed with a discs worth of new tunes every 6 - 12 months, and we would love to be able to deliver it that quickly. 

Personally - we have seen all our band mates grow.  This past year, both of the drummers we have played with off and on for the last 12 years; Richy Valentin and Howie Dean, both has little boys born to them, who are now 10 months old.  As you may know, from personal experience, children change your whole world.  I guess it's time to start grooming the next generation of little poker heads so they can continue on, making great music for the folk.

Also we've had several moves in domiciles, and jobs.  So all of these things at a day to day level have also added to the distraction and noise that has kept us from putting out the music more quickly.  But that is all part of life.  We believe that this daily grind, adds to the depth and sincerity of our music.  Also staying free from the music banks with the REALLY bad interest rates, allows our music and message to stay on key.

MM - The band is currently working on a new album, what can we expect from it?
Paul - The first 12 tracks we finish, we hope to put out as disc #5 PEACE OR WAR.  We feel the name is appropriate given the current state of the world, and the psychotically insane Globalists penchant to control all of our lives, and every aspect of it.  The more control they exert, the more all of our governments become oppressive.  So either, they allow PEACE to happen, or WE the Free of the World will bring WAR upon them and their tyrannical police state.  WE will go into this more deeply further into the interview ...

Hopefully as we grow as artists, and people, so does the art/music we make.  We hope you will find the new songs as hooky and as memorable as our previous works.  You will definitely be able to say that it sounds like Poker Face.  More and more folks are telling us that we have our own unique sound that is unmistakably the Poker Face sound.  Meaning that we are known for our guitar of wall sound plus the 3-4 part vocal harmonies we have throughout each tune, often times sounding like the cool harmonies of Alice In Chains.
          
MM - The band has always worn their views on their sleeve, but is their one thing that you haven't covered with your music but would like to?
Paul - I believe all of us want to, and are working towards shining light on many of the good/great examples of life.  Like people working and coming together to build better communities.  Sharing ideas that help everyone at a basic level, and feeling bad if a brother is left behind.  Technology and its rise in our lives has started to create a new divide between the haves and the have nots.

There is a better way, and that is allowing our Creator to work, live, play and LOVE in our lives.  Loving our neighbour, and his family and ourselves is a great first step in that direction.  Father created an economic pie that we can all be a part of.  We call it the LOCAL SOLUTION where we as a community create/produce all or most of our basic needs at the county level.  Where a township is too small and a state is too big.  We are currently being set up to DEPEND on only one system for the delivery of essential goods.  And if that system shakes, trembles or collapses, it will create mayhem on a global scale, instead of only impacting the area where it is happening.  Dependence is a BAD place to be when one is in need or want of say, food, or water.

http://pokerface.org/fx/viewforum.php?f=9&sid=17730e5a80768c01d14aadb12e22a2b3

MM - The world's climate has changed dramatically since the bands 'Made In America' album, have your views of the world changes any since then?
Paul - “The world climate has changed dramatically since the band’s ‘Made In America’ album” Yes and NO. Faces have changed at some key political and spiritual positions, and technology has exploded, but mans evil heart has stayed its course. 

We are now experiencing the world wide War on Scarorism.  Created by the same Machiavellian Satanic man god wannabes that are goose stepping us towards a tyrannical Global Order.  Where individuality and freedom are looked down upon, while “We are all one” – Borg like mentality is encouraged and programmed into our people.

Scarorism and the MI6/Mossad/CIA created Scarorists are used to scare the sheople of the world on their whim, into giving up all of their God given Rights in the name of peace and security.  If we do that, then we will not be free, safe or secure.  But we will have created a Dictator in the end, whose abuses will exceed anything Lenin/Stalin/Hitler/Mao ever did.

What if I told you that the current events playing out today were planned over a century ago? The highest-ranking mason of his day Albert Pike (author of Dogmas and Morals) collaborated with Giuseppe Mazzini in crafting the 3 world wars that would be fall man in the coming decades and centuries. http://www.threeworldwars.com/albert-pike.htm

The plans to scare or convince we the people into giving up their individual sovereignty where fine-tuned at Iron Mountain in the early 60s.  The rest has been played out on our teebees for our consumption and mind shaping.  Currently the TV series Jericho is getting the sheople pre conditioned to a nuclear event going off in our country, so that when it happens, the sheople will shake their heads and accept what ever the criminal cartel running our government tells them to do.

So to answer your question, no our views haven’t changed.  They have gotten more refined, and focused on the criminal parties involved and the plans they have in store for the rest of us, who just want to live our lives in peace “from the man”.

MM - On ‘Made In America’ there was an excellent multi media section included on the album, will the new album have a similar addition?
Paul - If time allows for it, we will include one. We have several topics of interest that we feel, need to be addressed by giving the listener, access and exposure to information that is purposely being hidden from them, or out right lied to about.

But, we are always first about the music, so if time and money allow for it, it will be done. If not on disc 5 – PEACE OR WAR, then on the following disc #6 TBA.  Right now, we feel a lot of pressure from our fans and friends to put out the new tunes, because bottom line, the tunes are what grab your attention first.  If after that, if the listeners are curious about our beliefs on Freedom Vs. Tyranny we like having additional eye and ear candy to entertain them while they are being educated into the side of TRUTH and Freedom.

MM - If the band could appear on the ‘Tonight Show’, would you rather talk about your views in the chair or perform live to bring your message across?
Paul - Both. But if we could only pick one, it would be to Rock the Tonight show with a couple of our tunes.  Let the music stand on its own, and speak for its self.  We have gotten to reach a lot of people who first only heard the music, and had not one iota of a thought towards anything political or spiritual.  If people like the music they hear, then the more curious among them will track down our website http://www.pokerface.com and start to learn what Poker Face is all about. 

MM - There seems to be a trend of a three year gap in between Poker Face albums, is this intentional or just simply due to other commitments that you don’t get much studio time?
Paul - The main reason is funding.  Over the years had we been better funded independently or had had a Major Label (MUSIC BANK with really BAD interest rates) behind us, we probably would be putting discs out at a rate of 1 every year and a half to 2 years at a max.  

That’s why we currently have 24 new tunes that we are recording.  The song writing has been done for disc #5 over 2 years ago.  We are trying to remedy this by buying some of our own recording gear so we can do the basic tracking at our home studio.  We will continue to work with our friend Eric Beebe and maximize his time tools and skills to mix it and possibly master the disc at The Farm. 

Once we have the recording side working fluidly, then expect to see discs at a rate of every 2 years at a max.  We definitely don’t lack in making new songs up.  Our Creator has blessed us in that respect, that we are continuously writing more and more music. 

In the making of disc #5 PEACE OR WAR, we have had a lot of changes and commitments come into our lives, from changing jobs, to moving to new houses, to having 2 little poker heads being born to our 2 drummers Richy and Howie.  It has affected our touring and practice schedules to say the least.  We are all in our late 30s, and it's baby making time, in creating the next generation of musicians from our camp.

MM - If one of the band members was given the chance to run for political office, who do you think would be the best candidate and why?
Paul - I think any one of us would make a good, pragmatic, servant of the people.  Unfortunately, in America, the corruption of our political system stinks to high heaven.  First, the candidates that the elite select for us to choose from are horrible choices.  Unless you have a lot of your own money, and can beat the selected party representative, that candidate running is beholden to the party leadership, and their wants.  Not the American peoples wants. Our first president George Washington astutely said that the political party system would be a bane to America and her freedoms.  What happens, is that the (s)elected representatives are beholden to the party that funded their election, and have to pay back their masters in the way that they vote.  Which, most of the time is against the wishes of the American people, or what’s best for our nation.  

Recently HBO had a special playing called Hacking Democracy
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/

MM - On a lighter note, what are the bands expectations for the new album and do you have any plans to tour in promotion of the new album when it’s released?
Paul - AS for our hopes and expectations, we just want to continue making great music, and to continue growing/maturing as artists with each new disc that comes out.  We hope that our fans/friends enjoy the musical directions we take with each new disc.  We would like POW to get even wider distribution, and greater play on all mediums of media outlets that there are, then its predecessors.  SO far each disc has been consistent in the fact that it seems to triple both the # of discs sold as well as how much larger our fan base continues to grow.

As we continue to become better known through out our country and the world, we are beginning to get better gigs, further and further away from our home base.  We are now getting flown to gigs that are too far away to drive in a weekend. That never happened until this year.  And more gigs like that are coming.

We hope to finally make it to the west coast, and southern states of the United States in the near future.  We have a lot of fans that never get to see us.  And now, groups are banding together with their events to pool their resources to make the gig happen.  We would love nothing more then to tour heavily through out our nation to support the new disc.  WE have so many friends we have yet to do a face to face with.  Like you and Poker Face, we have corresponded back and forth over many years.  It would be cool to hang out with you at a pub in the UK and throw back a pint or 2.  For example, Barry, you, are a brother from another mother, whom we haven’t met in person, but will feel like we have known each other forever.  We would like more of that free time to do just that.

MM - What’s the most important thing to the band at this moment in time?
Paul - Is there ever really any MOST IMPORTANT thing? Usually there are several, and all going on at the same time.  

Spiritually what is most important to us, is, to continue to grow in knowledge of our Christian faith.  And that is to study the Word of GOD called the Bible.  We are not into the systems of Religion and the man made traditions that make the WORD of God null and void.  We also refer to religion as the Bureaucracy of the Souls, Churchianity, or Religion Incorporated.  Lately it seems as though Satan has entered the churches/temples/mosques of God and feels quite at home in them.  Or so it would seem with many of the recent scandals in all faiths that have made the news worldwide. 

Politically what is most important is to continue the process of using the same tools the elites use on us, against them.  By waking up one sheople at a time to the ruse that it is NOT a left/liberal/democrat/communist VS. right/conservative/republican/fascist fight, but one of Freedom & Liberty VS. The Forces of Tyranny/Police State wannabes.  That is the true divide.  Anything else is just … Talk talk.

As a band we want to continue making more and more music.  In whatever style or variety that amuses us at that time we are making it.  If it isn’t fun, then why bother. It then becomes a job.  For Poker Face, it has always been fun, and the brothers that make up this band make it so.  If only you could hear some of the shenanigans and craziness, heard on many of our practice tapes.  The few friends that have heard snippets of our antics, have asked us to put out a disc of just that.  Pure unadulterated comedy at its best.

Which leads us to another area we would like to begin exploring and that is video.  We are working towards bringing video content into our shows to supplement the ideas and thoughts relevant to the subject we are singing about.  We would also like to do a Poker Face Reality show for shits and giggles, because comedy is one of life’s true blessings.  One can never have enough laughter, and that is one thing we are full of.

MM - In the last interview you wanted to bring forth a Poker Face show on par with the likes of Pink Floyd, is the band any nearer that goal?
Paul - Every disc and song is another step in that direction.  Pink Floyd wasn’t just about great music, but conveying ideas to the people to wake them up, to bring them together and to comfort them.  Coming out of a Pink Floyd concert has been one of the closest experiences that I have had, to what I feel church is suppose to be.  I had the pleasure of seeing Pink Floyds last 3 shows in Philadelphia back in the summer of 1994. Everyone leaving the concert had huge smiles on their faces.  A feeling of true brother/sister-hood love was going on all around.  The last thing or thought on anyone’s mind was anything bad, dark or evil.  Some music has the ability to lift us up, not just emotionally, but spiritually as well.  Our Creator gave us a means for tasting just a little taste of what the spiritual side is.  And as Poker Face, we are working daily in that direction. Some have used the term to describe our band as

MM - Finally, thanks for taking the time out to do this interview and do you have any messages or words of wisdom for your fans out there?
Paul: First, thank you for the opportunity, Barry to let the folks visiting your site and reading this interview, the knowledge that we even exist.  At this point in our careers, it can never be enough.  Especially for an Indy band like us that is not funded by the current Music Monopoly.  The times have never been better for a truly independent band to “make it” on its own with out the system having their barbs in you, to control you and your content. 

Second, live your lives for freedom.  My level of freedom depends on others knowledge and understanding of it and the practice of it.  What you don’t use, you will lose.

Third, question EVERYTHING that comes out of a politician’s mouth as well as bankers, lawyers, judges, teachers, preachers and the stoopid box, aka the television.  Remember they don’t call it TELEVISION PROGRAMMING for nothing.  The elites choose their words very carefully and usually do things in plain site.  So yes we ARE being programmed daily, by the mind shapers of the anti-God Pop-Culturalists of GLOBAL CORP.

Fourth – Do a random act of kindness daily, with out wanting payback.  Give and forget, and see how much God blesses your individual life.

Lastly Love your brother/sister like yourself.  Do unto others, and be the Example for all of those around you, to emulate.  Remember, most people are followers.  If we want a better society, then sometimes you need to lead and be that catalyst for a better tomorrow.  Smiles do wonders, try it sometime and see.

Peace and Yah bless

Paul and all of Poker Face  
December 2006

MM - We'd like to wish Paul and all the Poker Face guys a safe and blessed Christmas and look forward to hearing the new albums when they are completed.

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