Matt Kramer is best known as the original singer for Saigon Kick. Unfortunately, the accolades he's received over the years for his performances on the band's self-titled 1991 debut and the critically acclaimed 1992 follow-up, The Lizard, have proven to be a double-edge sword. When he released his independent solo debut in 2002, entitled War & Peas, he had a ready-made fanbase, but the fact that it wasn't heaped to the brim with Kick-isms didn't go over well with the majority of said fanbase or potential record labels. As a result, the album appealed to only a small cross-section of followers, giving Kramer a lot of time to contemplate and re-evaluate his future. Those people that are expecting him to return with a Saigon Kick-flavoured album can keep holding their collective breaths, however, as he's got several things on his plate for 2005, none of which involve cashing in on his past.

To start, Kramer puts the success of War & Peas - or lack of it - in perspective:

"I didn't do a crazy amount of business with it because it's independent, so I guess the most positive thing to come out of it are the responses from guys like you, Martin Popoff , and some of the other really hard-ass websites and magazines that usually clobber people, including the heavy hitters of the genre like AC/DC and Metallica. That was my favourite part about it; the people that were able to step back from the Saigon Kick thing were able to understand that I'm not always going to follow that path. Without those guys I'm going to sound different. Usually people had a really nice response to it, other than the cover art (laughs)."

Which has since been changed, for the album's re-release this spring.

"There aren't any new tracks on the album; just the art is new," Kramer explains. "I kinda want to put it to bed. It's a raw record so I don't want to polish it up. War & Peas is pretty much everything I wanted it to be except for that fact that, being an indie without distribution, it was really hard to sell to people. But, I'm the kind of guy that, if I'm shoved down your throat, there's a tendency to regurgitate me a little bit (laughs). I have to seep into you."

War & Peas, and Kramer's solo career, will be given a serious boost this spring with the release of ex-Saigon Kick/Skid Row drummer Phil Varone's new movie, Waking Up Dead. The documentary - what Kramer refers to as "an anti-drug movie" - will feature four songs from War & Peas, a new song penned by Kramer and Varone, and extensive interviews with the singer.

"Phil and I have definitely gotten tight, more so since I left the band," Kramer says of his involvement in the film. "Phil has been through a lot. He lost his mom, and he never really got off the road or really understood that you can actually have a life, have barbeques on the beach once in a while and all that. He really just got worse and worse, and on the Saigon Kick reunion tour (2000) he tried blow for the first time and didn't stop until late last year. He was so bad we all thought he was going to die. I got involved in the movie through helping Phil out. I wrote the song 'Change' on War & Peas years ago, about a friend of mine who was going down the same path; stealing credit cards and really getting into some corrupt shit to keep her drug habit up. It was the first song I wrote where I really poured my heart out to someone, and that was the first song that ended up in the movie. Even before Waking Up Dead became a movie, Phil wanted it in there no matter what the plot was, and before I knew it he'd taken 'Soul Star', 'So Long' and 'If God Could Hear Me Now'. Phil also came up with a tune ('Just Hold On') he's had sitting around for about ten years, sort of a healing song, so I sang it and he played the piano. It appears at the end of the movie."

As for how Waking Up Dead came about, call it an accident.

"The movie was never planned," Kramer reveals. "Phil is one of the craziest guys I know, and he just started filming stuff. I know he wanted to do some kind of backstage Girls Gone Wild thing, and it kinda started like that, but the next thing you know they're hanging out with the camera on all the time. Phil's the kind of guy that really doesn't candy-coat anything, so he let (Emmy Award winning journalist and filmmaker Fabio Jafet) film some really crazy moments that you don't normally let cameras in on, and then they realized what they had."

Kramer makes it clear that Waking Up Dead isn't comparable to something like Motley Crue's book (and upcoming film) The Dirt. It isn't supposed to be.

"They started filming A&R; guys and getting their points of view. They filmed young bands just getting started, asking why they want to be in a band. They've got interviews with me, Snake from Skid Row is all over it, Phil's ex-wife - who completely destroys him - so you get to see all sides. Phil's got a doctor in the movie telling him what cocaine does to the heart. He got the best psychologist and psychiatrist for cocaine addiction in Miami, which is cocaine central, telling him about the whole thing, so it's not just a rock movie. It's about guys that you know, guys that I know, that we've seen a million times but have never actually seen from a fly on the wall perspective. There's a lot of sex and crazy shit in it, but as much as you might think the movie glorifies everything you see in the trailer, it's quite brutal. There's a part where Phil is checking out his five bank accounts online and they all add up to $1.57. The film festivals are raving about it, and I don't think it officially hits the first one until April. It's a brutal, wicked, intriguing movie."
"There are going to be people that say 'Who the fuck is Phil Varone?' or 'Who cares, he never made it anyway,'" Kramer adds, "but, the movie isn't really about Phil. It's about what drugs can do to you."

For the record, Varone has since kicked his drug habit and is in the process of putting his life back together. Part of the healing process may include doing some live shows with Kramer during the press junket that will accompany Waking Up Dead's release.

"Between the soundtrack and the interviews, we're thinking about maybe doing some shows as Phil is doing the promo. It'd be a case of showing the movie with the band playing afterwards, and really making it a major media event. We'd do the War & Peas stuff from the movie, maybe bill us as Matt and Phil from Saigon Kick and kind of work both ends of the play."

While Kramer gears up for this, he is also working with former Dokken guitarist George Lynch again. The pair originally collaborated for a project called Stonehouse in 2002, having parted ways over musical differences. Three of the songs from those sessions did make the War & Peas record in the end, however.

"George just didn't get me at that point," Kramer says. "I'm one of those guys that you have to let sink in. You're never going to listen to my records, never going to look at me or hang with me and get everything out of it. I went into a Sisters Of Mercy range for a chorus (on 'If God Could Hear Me Now'), he thought I should have gone up to a Saigon Kick range, and that was it. But, he called me a few weeks ago and said, 'Man, you're the most creative singer I've ever worked with, I'm sorry about what happened, I didn't even realize what we had.' So, he's going to send me some new stuff and we're going to work on some songs. I'm busy right now with all this movie stuff, but we will get to it because I really enjoy working with the guy."

On top of this, Kramer will be working with former Coma bandmate Alex Kane on a new project, as well as following up War & Peas with another solo album.

"Alex was with me right after Saigon Kick, with Coma. We're going to do a heavy thing, really out-there almost punk, but not Green Day punk. Just really loud, artsy noise. I don't know when it's going to happen, though. I'm definitely doing a follow-up to War & Peas, absolutely. I hope to stay here because this solo stuff is great. I get to produce it, I get to call all my buds in, I get to write and play, and nobody pressures me. I don't care if it gets big, either. So, the movie will be my first real kick towards the sunlight, maybe get some distribution. I'm just looking for somebody that'll let me do my thing."

As for the possibility of another Saigon Kick album, Kramer advises fans holding on to that hope to move on. His split with the band - or, better said, with guitarist Jason Bieler - was ugly, so the only place the hatchet is likely to be buried is in someone's head.

"You know, there are some rabid Saigon Kick fans out there, and I love that stuff. But, there's something really corrupt about one guy in the band ending up being a millionaire and the other guys not being able to buy diapers for their kids or having to live at home with mom when they're not touring. When we started out, Saigon Kick was a real band, but Jason isn't the same person he was then and I'm not either. I'm not going to take the back seat anymore, and if you ask me Jason isn't in the same place musically he used to be. Head-wise, I can't deal with the guy, so we'll never get creative together again. For me to go and make a Saigon Kick album now, I'd be chasing my tail. When I'm on stage singing 'If God Could Hear Me Now' and 'Soul Star', that's me now, that was me five years ago when some of those songs were written. I don't want to do things now that shadow a band that I think really did have a good run."

Go buy War & Peas at www.mattkramer.net (it'll be worth it). For more information on Waking Up Dead go to www.wakingupdeadmovie.com.