Tim Pierce: The wise words of a studio legend.... The legendary guitarist Tim Pierce talks in detail about life as a session musician for hire and his time with the Rick Springfield band in the 80s and some of the quirks and issues surrounding the music industry then and now. Definitely an interesting guy to chat to, I think that will come through in the intevriew and some of what he has to say about the industry is definitely enlightening. G'Day Tim, great to finally have this opportunity to talk to you after following your career for many years. How are you? Good! I work a lot as a recording musician and I have a beautiful home studio that I work in and a lot of nice people… so life's pretty good. I can imagine so. You're set up in your own studio, obviously a smart thing to do these days. Well yeah, it has become… I didn't mean for it to happen but it just turned out to be a great thing for me. A good adaptation to the new music business. The bands I talk to that are doing the best these days are the ones that ...

  Toto - The 2006 Interviews       Bobby Kimball (Lead Vocals) "Sorry, but I had to get a baseball bat and kill Joseph Williams. YIKES!!!!! Not really, OK? I loved having all the guys share the vocals, as it's been a Toto trademark from the beginning to have vocal trade-offs. Our signature songs are done with multiple vocalists, case in point: Africa, Rosanna etc. I really like to mix it up and show the different sides of the band vocally. If ya got it, flaunt it." Online Now - Read Interview. David Paich (Keyboards / Lead Vocals) "Not many requests for runway modeling lately. Actually, I want to take this opportunity to thank all the support from various organizations that were associated with this type of thing. Unfortunately Mr. Lukather's attempt at humor was taken to heart by many who actually have to deal with these kind of personal burden..." Online Now - Read Interview. Greg Phillinganes "I've known most of the guys for at least 25 years and I've worked on several different projects over those years with Dave, Luke, Simon and Jeff. When I started touring with them, our relationship intensified as we were able to spend more time ...

The Insider Interview: The Record Industry Exposed   Who is the insider? He is a long time site regular who works in Los Angeles for in a high profile position for one of the big four major record labels. When sent a whole range of questions regarding business practices of the major labels and how different aspects of the record industry work, he was only to happy to spend some time writing some in depth and thought provoking replies. What is included below may sometimes be controversial to some, but none of it is fabricated. It's how things work. Naturally the identity of the author cannot be revealed because of fear of reprisal from his employer. While they are one person's take on the scene, his views are an interesting read... As a record label executive, how do you feel about the Internet? Unlike most of my peers, I see an untapped potential rather than a threat. Unfortunately, most people at record labels see the internet as a threat to the current business model. In a way, maybe it is. Then again, maybe it's time to shake things up a little. What most label people don't tell you is how ...

AOR Heaven NEH Records Z-Roxx Loud 1 Groove Machine Destiny Hot Tracks Target Wishing Well Perris Visual Vinyl             THOM GRIFFIN / Mecca - Backing Vocals Hi Thom, Thanks for taking the time out to answer some questions! How did you find yourself involved in the Mecca project? I became involved in the Mecca project when the producer, Jim Peterik called me for the session. Apparently, they had tried some other singers, and were unhappy with the results. I gather you knew Jim and Joe from the Chicago area? Is that where you work from / where are you based these days? I am from the western suburbs of Chicago. I do almost all of my work from here, 99% being jingles. Have you worked with any of the Mecca guys previously? I have sang a lot of songs over the years for Jim Peterik, who then sent them to various artists trying to get his songs placed. I have sang with John Melnick on many jingle, and some record dates. I have to say, without being biased in any way, that the backing vocals on Mecca are some of the best I have heard - ever! Well done! ...

Hi Andrew Hi Tom, how are you? I'm ok buddy, sorry it took so long to get hooked up here. No look, it's fine. I cocked up the last interview so to speak. I called you a bit late I think. It 's great to talk to you Yeah we finally get to connect. How's everything down there? Great actually. Where about are you, in Melbourne? I'm in Tasmania No kidding, you're way down there, eh? You know where it is, that's a plus. Yeah well I've heard rumors. haha. Beautiful. Very beautiful actually. It's a little like Vancouver. I'm living in Hobart, which is the capital. Kind of mountainous right? Very mountainous, very green. A river up the middle of the city, bridge over it. I'd love to get there. Do Tasmanian devils really exist? Absolutely they do. Aren't they like badgers? Sort of I guess, closest comparison anyway. You wouldn't want to pick em up though. Very vicious creature, they'll take your face of! Wow. You know I'd really like to get down there. I find it quite absurd that we've had a Number 1 record there and a couple of Top 5 records and we've never been down there. ...

TNT: All The Way To Another Hit Album TNT & Starbreaker frontman Tony Harnell talks about the latest TNT release and the work that went into getting it recorded and released. So Tony, TNT time again....it doesn't seem that long since My Religion - at least compared to the gap between that and Transistor! Was it a conscious decision by you and the band to try and keep the momentum rolling? To some degree yes. We had an opportunity to keep things going, we felt creative and thought it would be nice for once to have two albums in two years. Something we have never done before in our career. When did you start writing for this album and how long did the studio process take? We started writing in December 2004 and a little more took place in early 2005 and then we had one false start in the studio before finally getting to work in February/March. While the album has its own personality, I can hear similar production values to My Religion - did the recording process itself alter much between albums? Not that much, I think this one came out better in that regard. Some small changes ...

Tim Donahue: Madmen & Sinners. Tim Donahue had a broad vision for his follow up to the successful Into The Light release. This time he enlisted Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie to drive the powerhouse progressive / melodic metal project. Tim speaks about the already highly acclaimed results! Hi Tim, congratulations on the album - which is finally available! This one has been a long time coming hasn't it? When did you start work on the album and did you envisage that it would take this long to complete? Thank you Andy. I started composing MADMEN & SINNERS in 2002, and I really didn't think it would take 2 years to finish the album. There were a lot of technical problems came up that had to be solved along the way. From memory, you had plans for this album before the Into The Light project was released - have you realized your long time goal with this album? You're right- some of the initial music for this album came to me as INTO THE LIGHT was being released. I'm happy to say that musically speaking, the MADMEN album is everything I wanted it to be. Production-wise, there will always be things that can ...

Thunder: Shooting for a new lease of life. Thunder vocalist Danny Bowes talks about life as an independent band in 2003 and the challenges of everything that involves. And there's plenty of Thunder still to come! Danny, as you know I'm a big fan of the new CD - what made 2002 a perfect time to reform Thunder? It was all down to the UK Monsters Of Rock Arena tour. I convinced the promoter it was a runner, having answered all the technical and logistical questions and queries. My plan was always to be involved in it on a promoter and business level, but they made Thunder reforming and playing a part of the deal (they knew it was a big risk to put on the show and Thunder would sell them lots of tickets). I took it to the band, who agreed instantly. After that one thing led to another, as always seems to happen with Thunder. Was the reason for you disbanding a sense of frustration in the scene, or did you just all require a rest? Luke and I agreed as kids that we didn't want to end up sad old gits prancing around a stage with our Zimmer ...

Singer Ted Poley has been around long enough that he's witnessed and seen first hand the ups and downs of the music industry. Are the recent down's enough to put him into retirement? And all about his new album with Gerhard Pichler - "Big". So Ted, here we are - why is this the last Poley-Pichler album? Well, that's a sad way to start out an interview! Actually, my friend, partner and guitar player of 3 years has gotten a big taste of the sad realities of the music business and has decided not to continue along this path in life, so he is heading home to his native Austria to pursue a more "fair" career and I don't blame him. I wish him the best of luck in whatever he ends up doing, he is very intelligent and will do well no matter what he chooses. We achieved a lot in just 3 years and I will miss working with him in the future, I hope to still keep our friendship going and I would love to keep doing some songwriting together but it will be harder because of the distance. Its a sad time for me. Since the team of ...

xx Tony Harnell: From Cyberdreamer to TNT Singer Tony Harnell worked harder than ever to make the new Westworld a very melodic album and the results have paid off handsomely. It's easily their best album to date and the following interview dissects the album and Tony's thoughts on it. Tony, there are not too many bands these days that get to album No 3 so you must be pleased at that? It was a lot of work getting this one together and getting all the labels sorted out. We were sort of under the guise or whatever you want to call it of this guy in New York for the first two records. It was this character Jeff Allen who manages Riot He had started this little record company and he had friends, Kase Wessel was one of his good friends from Roadrunner so he put that whole thing together and basically hired all of us. We got fees. I thought the guy was kind of a jerk, I mean he's ok he put up the money and everything but I just kinda decided it would be so much better if we could gain control. Even if it meant taking a ...

  Interview with Ted Poley & Gerhard Pilcher of Melodica - June 2000.   OK Ted and Gerhard.... Time to play you off each other and get some truly honest answers!!! Lets talk about the making of Melodica. First up - I have known you both separately for a while - Gerhard you were looking for a singer, how did you guys hook up? Gerhard: Actually our first contact was in July 1999 per e-mail. I took his e-mail address out of " Metal Edge" magazine here in the US and just gave it a shot. He's always been one of my favourite singers since Danger Danger and to be honest I never thought to work with him one day but on the other hand if you don't try you'll never find out. As you know I was already in contact with other celebrated singers before and I could feel it's just a matter of time 'til I find the right one. All of the guys liked the songs but were too busy with their own stuff at that time. So with Ted everything started falling into place right from the start. Ted: Yeah, I was contacted by Gerhard by e-mail. Ted - ...