Jimmy Kay of Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to EXCITER bassist Allan Johnson and for the first time in an interview new EXCITER guitarist Daniel Dekay who replaced original member John Ricci.

Allan Johnson and Daniel Dekay talk John Ricci’s exit, Dekay’s entrance with Exciter and New album

Watch the Interview here:

When asked about the sudden departure of original guitarist John Ricci
“That is still somewhat of a mystery we haven’t seen or actually spoke with John Ricci since it happened. We got back from our Singapore gig and we started some email chats back and forth and John Ricci just said that he is getting fed up and he wants out. Dan Beehler and I were quite surprised about this. First thing I said to John was we got tentative shows next year. So John said you and Dan can go ahead and do the shows without me and that was pretty much it. John did not give a solid reason why, I don’t know what he meant by fed up? John said yeah I am definitely out. It’s funny cause the first thing I said to Dan about this was, guess what it’s 1985 all over again. It’s like deja-vous. Back in 1985 we came back from a US tour and John said I am out I don’t want to do it anymore and me and Dan were like we have a German tour in a month what do you want to do? John said do it without me. So it was total Deja-vous .” -Allan Johnson

When asked how Daniel Dekay got the gig in Exciter
“I am originally from Ottawa so when I started playing in Metal bands when I was 14, 15 ,16 I started discovering the legends of my city, names like Exciter, Annihilator were household names everyone knew who these people were. Threw playing in bands I met Dan Beehler I became friendly with him and his family and I also met John Ricci. My best friend played in Dan’s band Beehler. Ironically enough last February I was on the 70,000 tons Metal Cruise with Banger TV and I did an interview with the original lineup of Exciter and here we are less than a year later I am in John Ricci’s boots, this is insane, the whole thing is a lot to process. I went from listening to the records religiously to learning how to play their records, this has been the most exciting thing musically for me in a very long time.”- Daniel Dekay

When asked Allan Johnson why they picked Daniel Dekay
“When I announced John Ricci left I started getting messages on Facebook from guitar players all across Canada and the US and one particular message came from Dekay and all it was is, dude I want to be in Exciter , and I said are you serious? And he said 100 million thousand billion percent. I told Dan Beehler, Dekay contacted us and Dan said , OMG this is the perfect guy.” – Allan Johnson

When asked how hiring Dekay affects the recording of the new album
“No problem as far as the new album is concerned, everything that Dan and I did in pre-production is not a problem. iIstarted laying down my songs on guitar and Dan started writing lyrics, John Ricci never did come into the studio with us to lay anything down. So right now between Dan and I we have what we have been working on together nothing really included John Ricci and anything Dekay wants to contribute we are open. ” -Allan Johnson

“I wish I can emulate what John does such a unique style of guitar playing and a huge part of the Exciter sound. For me the most important thing is bringing in my own flare but I would like to stay true to the original vibe of Exciter and attitude guitar wise. ” Daneil Dekay

When asked on the timeline of the new Exciter album
“It’s going to happen fast, we don’t have any shows coming up so we have this break about 6 months were we can really go at it.” Allan Johnson
“I think 2019 is super realistic, If I got anything to say about it” -Daniel Dekay