Ricky Phillips has been more then just the bass player in some of hard rocks' best bands, spanning from the late seventies to the late nineties, when Ricky continues to write and record some of the more classic recent releases. It all started in the seventies with a little know act called the Baby's, featuring the fresh talent of Ricky, vocalist John Waite and keyboard player Jonathan Cain. The band became huge and went on to sell millions of records.
In the eighties Rick took to television and film writing, until the chance to team with Waite and Cain came again in Bad English, who bought us two albums of tunes pure AOR is made of.
After Bad English fell apart badly, Ricky continued to write, produce and record as a session player, in high demand.
Most recently he has played bass on the Coverdale/Page album, and recorded a great album with ex-Toto vocalist Fergie Frederikson. On that album, Ricky produced, wrote most of the material, sang lead on one track and backing on the rest, and of course played his bass.
In tune with always keeping busy, Ricky talks about another Frederikson/Phillips record, possible liaison with Bruce Gowdy and Kelly Hansen in 'Heaven And Earth', and working with rocks' hardest working vocalist Jeff Scott Soto on a 'pet project'.
And thrown in for good measure, some more stories of Lead Singer Disease, so elegantly highlighted by Eddie Van Halen recently!

How's things going?
Things are going good, man, things are going good. You know, there's always something going on.

I hear you have a new project together.
Well, I 'm doing a few things. I have just been asked to do another Frederikson/Phillips album, which is a thing I did, I don't know if you are aware of that.

I was going to get to that, it was one of my favourite albums of last year!
Oh, thank you very much.

I think that is superb!
Oh, thankyou. Well Fergie and I had a great time doing it, it was really quick and fast the way we had to do it, but we may be doing another one here. Magnus, who actually signed us to the Swedish label that started that with, has now ended up at another label MTM.

Yeah, I know Magnus.
Okay. And he wants Fergie and I to do another one where he can, er - he left the label before we really were finished, and it never really got the push or anything once it was released. So anyway he wants us to do another one.
So it looks like we probably will at some point, I kinda have been putting material together for that. It will probably be a bit of a direction change, Fergie and I talked about trying to do something that's a little more, er I don't know - we haven't really figured out what, but we want to make this one a little different than the first one.

Okay!?
But anyway, that's going on, and I 've been working with Jeff Scott Soto, and a guy by the name of Marcus Nand, who is a young guitar player from Spain.

That I didn't know about.
Yeah it's actually a project that I have had in the works for a few years, but it's just kinda one of those things that I have really been taking my time on it, and trying to....I want it to be exactly what I want to do. So it's not really following any trend, it's kind of it's own thing. It doesn't sound like anyone else. And I think um, the whole point of it is to try and get an American deal. So we'll see.
What project were you talking about?

The thing I heard about was with Bruce Gowdy and Kelly Hansen.
Well you know, Bruce and I work all the time.

Yeah, like on Frederikson/Phillips.
Yeah, yeah, Bruce and I wrote a song together on that and I played on when he was with interscope, I played on the Unruly Child album, and I have done a lot of the projects he's produced, I've played on. I just did a session for him a couple of days ago. But um, Bruce and I have been threatening to do something, whether it's going to be with Kelly, um I don't know. I mean, to be honest with you we haven't really put that thing in full motion, we've hung out, we've talked it around and I know there has been a lot of stuff discussed and talked about, but I haven't really committed to anything yet.

So we're jumping the gun a little bit with that one?
Yeah, I think so. As far as my involvement goes, they may be into something, but I don't' know, it just depends. If there is something real substantial, something I really like then I would be all for it, but I haven't really committed to anything with those guys.

Okay.
Yeah, I've been doing sessions. I've been playing on a few records here and there. I did a couple of guest spots on a couple of those tribute records. You know, just writing and producing a few things, and trying to stay busy.

Sounds like it! So is there anything else in the works at the moment? What will be the next record that Ricky Phillips plays on, that comes out?
It's really hard to say because right now there is a whole lot of stuff going on. I got a call from Keith Olsen who produced stuff with the Babys a few years back. He just called me this morning, and he's got some stuff he's working on, he said he couldn't talk too much about it yet, he was just wondering about my availability, so if that's something that is going to start soon, there's something there.
There's also a few things in the works, people who have been calling me asking me if I am available to play on stuff, but as far as any real major deal - the stuff I'm working on with Jeff Scott Soto and Marcus Nand, which is nameless at this point, is probably the main thing I'm kinda excited about.

He's a great singer.
Oh yeah, Jeff's great. And I have been writing this stuff, this style of music, I'm not sure how to describe it, but the're songs, it's really a singers type of thing, you know. And I have always thought Jeff is a great singer who always ends up in these kind of faceless projects that don't really, you know.

Yeah, He's been in a few hasn't he?!
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. I said Jeff, you are going to be the guy who nobody really knows who he is because the kind of projects you get involved in are all projects that don't have personality to them, and so I said, you should check some of this stuff out and tell me if you are interested. I played him the material, this was like, over a year ago, he's as busy as I am doing stuff. So this has become each of our pet project and we're in no rush about it, we want to make it right. It's a lot of fun when we get together we are excited about it. The problem is it's not a project, it's more like a band, something we want to be involved in. So we don't have a time limit on it, we're not trying to beat the clock. It's different than just being in a project.

You were talking about your songwriting, how it hasn't particularly had a vein to it, or a direction. The stuff you wrote on Frederikson/Phillips is pretty diverse also.
Yeah, you know I don't know if that's good or bad. I'm always like that.

I thing it worked great on the album.
Well thanks, I hoped it would. I hate to do whole record that sounds like one song continues from the next, I like to do a little bit of everything. The one song I did with Alan White for example, I wanted to create that early seventies sound.

That's got a huge seventies epic feel to it.
Yeah, I just kinda wanted to have some fun with that, and then it goes into that sort of Pink Floyd middle section. But you know, I had a couple of the guys that work in and out of the Tower Of Power horns over the years, come in and blow horns on a couple of the songs. And a couple of the songs had the female backing vocals kinda thing, and I just want to try a little of everything.
This project with Jeff is really based around two guitars, cause I'm playing one of the guitars. I am playing bass so far on all of the recordings, but I really would like to find at some point a bass player to take over, because I'm playing guitar. Marcus and I have developed a sort of two guitar style with a lot of finger picking and some flamenco and a little bit of be bop and some blues, but not really rock at all!

And Marcus played with you on the Frederikson/Phillips.
Yeah, Marcus and I wrote a song on there called Queen Bee.

And you sang on that track!
Yeah!

It sounded great!
Yeah, thanks man! It's funny, a lot of people er, Fergie kinda dumped that in my lap. I really wanted Fergie to sing that song, but when I sent him the demo which I sang on, he said, You know what - all this other stuff's great, it's me, but there's no way I can sing that song like you do, and I said you don't have to sing like me, sing it the way you do. He goes - you don't understand what I'm saying, it won't be as good, you should sing that song. And I said, I'm flattered, but there's no way, I'm not a singer! You're the singer! He said, you know what? This is the perfect time for you to do this. In the end I only had him out here for ten days, and he kinda set it up so he didn't have time to do that song, and said there, see now you gotta do it!
See he's not living here, he's living in Minneapolis. So he came out to L.A., I only had him here for 10 days to do that record. Anyway, at any rate I am happy that way it turned out. I was scared to death at first, I really kind of freaked out having to sing it.

I think I read somewhere that you said you were intimidated singing after Fergie.
Oh, absolutely. Extremely intimidated! I have worked with Sammy Hagar, David Coverdale, John Waite, even John Parr who was an English singer, these guys are amazing singers. I have even worked with Roger Daltry on a project. He came over here when he had a solo record, and Pat Torpey from Mr Big, he and I did some stuff for him. And I have worked with some amazing singers. So I don't put myself in that category, it was fun to do. It was a great one-off situation, to be able to sing, I enjoyed it.

It did sound good!
Well I did another singing thing as a matter of fact, this summer. I starred in a short film that was shot in Los Angeles. It was just for these festivals, it was a twenty five minute short. I played the part of this other song writer, this guys name is H.T, and the name of the movie was H.T's Song. And at the end of the movie, I wrote the music for the movie, and the very last song is H.T's song, and I had Jeff come in and sing it and I sent it in, and the producer calls me up and says there's only one problem. She says who's singing this? I said well, Jeff Scott Soto. She goes, well he's got an incredible voice, but it's nothing like you would sing it, it has to be you, the guy in this movie, singing this song. You gotta be able to tell its you. That's part of the charm, the whole movie leads up to this song, and I went ohh shit!!
So anyway, I got stuck with having to sing it, and everybody seems to like it too, it's just makes me nervous!

For a guy with a pretty good voice, you seem reluctant to use it!
Well, thank you, but I think it's best when I'm singing behind another person, a lead singer. I could never front the band. I would hide behind someone else on stage, I could never do it! I can jump around and do what ever comes naturally to me when I'm playing, but singing I would be far too intimidated!

What's it like working with singers like Sammy Hagar and David Coverdale?
Um, it's great, you know, theres something about each singer. Singers have a thing about them, they are the kind of people that don't seem to mind being the center of attention, as a matter of fact they prefer it that way.
And I'm not like that, it's very interesting working with people like that. Sammy is like the coach of a football team or something, he gets everybody pumped up and charged - lets go out there, you know, take no prisoners attitude, he's really fun. The only time I've worked with Sam is on a couple of occasions, we did the Bammy's with him - me Denny Carmassi and Neal Schon and Sammy did this thing. He was nominated for Best singer, I think it was the last Van Halen album that he sang on.
I've known Sam over the years, matter of fact I have been up to his house and recorded in his home studio a couple of times. It was a chance to really do something, have some fun, and he's just the greatest guy.
David Coverdale, hanging out with him, when we were doing the Coverdale/Page thing, we rehearsed a lot up at Lake Taho, at David's house. David is like just a real good guy, a real gentleman and he's a hard worker who likes to have his fun too, but he's a pretty serious guy really.

 

Another great album! It was a fun record. I think it could have been a lot tougher and rougher and had a lot more jagged edges to it. When we first did it, it was real pure and honest. But they started re-recording it, and I think they took too long to make it, so what happens when you start hearing things over and over, you start hearing imperfections as imperfections, rather then the beauty of them. And so as they started to hear these imperfections they started to correct them and fix them note and time perfect, and all of a sudden they squeezed a lot of the life out of it. But nevertheless it was a fun project, and Jimmy and David were both great to work with.

That would have been a buzz.
Yeah, but with singers in general, I think they have gotta have it.

And sometimes that attention thing can be their downfall.
Well, it's whether or not you can keep a leash on the animal, you know! Some people are too reckless, and the very thing that could them a huge success, is also the thing that could lead to their demise.
All musicians talk about it, they all know about it. It's no secret that singers are really the most egocentric guys in the band, it's just the was it goes. The reason musician jokes are so funny is because there is an element of truth to them, but I couldn't do it! Not me.

How about John Waite. You have worked with him on a few occasions over the years.
Oh yeah, John and I were best mates for a number of years, all through the Baby's and even after the Baby's. Initially, I remember when he first moved to New York, he asked me - Lets go to New York, let's get out of here, that's where it's happening. I thought you know what, I don't want to go to New York, I want to do something new. He ended up going, and we didn't really keep in close touch, every once in a while we would check in and say what's going on.
I remember when he was doing the Missing You record, he came back to L.A. and we were hanging out a bit during the making of that. But it wasn't until Bad English that we started hanging out again, and you know, I had changed incredibly in that time.
John and I were reckless maniacs with different women every night, you know, just raging partying, rocking and rolling. And um, when John went to N.Y, I changed dramatically, I started getting into film and writing for television and producing a few things, I even did a little acting back then, I just changed my whole thing.
When we got back together in Bad English, it was a real different kinda reunion. We were like the two crazy compadres at one time and I wasn't there anymore, I was a lot more serious. I love to go out and get crazy, but not as a lifestyle.

Bad English kinda fell apart didn't it?
Too many cooks. Nobody was willing to bend anymore. Everyone forget what the beauty of being in a band was all about, and at some point there has to be some degree of a democracy, or all the parties have to agree that one person is the dictator. It can't be both, and er, when you've got four great writers in one band, somebody's got to give. The first record we all kind of pitched in and did our job. First off I was really involved in the songwriting, then Neal came into the situation, and I pushed him forward. He would come over to my house and I would record his ideas one after another, cause they were so brilliant. But after awhile everyone forgot what the chemistry was, everyone was fighting for their ideas, instead of finding where the most natural flow was.

 

And people started keeping score, and that's where the dissatisfaction started cropping up. Quite frankly Jonathan Cain and John Waite tried to take over during the second record, and run it, and that's when Neal Schon and I basically said at one point - Lets finish this record, but this is not really what I'm here for. And slowly but surely I didn't change, it got worse and we really fell apart and split up during the making of that second record. It was at that point he record company kinda lost interest in putting anything behind it. Which is a shame, because there are some really classy pieces of music on that record. You could feel that tension, which in a way is kinda cool, I mean I can really feel the tension in the recording of those songs, and I like that.

But you can't live like that.
No you can't live like that, but it's a shame because it was a good record.

 

I remember hearing John say he would like to release a live album from the band.
Well, you know, Tony Phillips - who is producing the new John Waite record - I know that is what they are trying to do.
But John always tries to do that, he always says - I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it - I want it to be rough, I want it to be raw - Then in the end it sounds like a glossy record.

His last album was about as polished as they come!
Oh my God, I know! I'm hoping.....You know Tony Phillips is a great choice for this record, cause Tony knows how to get glossy and funky and over produced, but the beauty with him is that he can do both, and he knows when not to. And I think maybe this is the first time John gets a shot at doing a rough and raw record.

 

I don't think I have ever heard a rough and raw John Waite record! You know what, I am producing this girl right now, and I was trying to get a point across to her, and I finally realised, and I said come in the house for a minute, and I put on an old Babys record. I said this is what I am getting at. I haven't heard this record for years, so it may sound dated, but I think the energy I am looking for is something like this. I put on Head First. I hadn't heard it for a long long time, and it sounded great! John sounded energised, and rough, and raw, and going for notes and hitting them. There was some magic I hadn't heard John do in fifteen years. He can do it, he's got it, he'll do it, but then when it comes to recording he's thinks he's got the image of the guy who sang Missing You. He's got to take the dress off and do some rocking and rolling.

There are some very dark lyrics on that last album.
Oh, man!

He doesn't sound too happy with himself.
John's never been happy with himself. Oh my God! Yeah I know.

It's a cool record to listen to for morbid moods!
I know, there's actually one song on there about the guy.....

You mean Downtown?
Yeah, that's a great track.
Definitely, I mean John is a brilliant writer, he really is good. But we'll see what happens, I wish him the best, this is the one he has been talking about, I hope he does it, just let it go, let the beast within him go.

I actually had an interview with him, I was all set and called him up, and his manager came back to the phone and said he doesn't want to do it. He feels like he hasn't got anything to talk about.
Was that Ron Stone?

Yeah. Not good?
No, he's not one of my favourite people. Years ago I did some stuff with Belinda Carslile, so I have worked with him. I lost all respect for him, when me and Torpey and, do you know Brett Tuggle?

Absolutely!
Yeah, me and Pat and Brett were doing this thing with Belinda. He er, well he is not my favourite guy.

I think Brett is with Whitesnake now.
Well I think so, I think he is going to do that. I think they are doing some European and Japanese dates.

I'm still waiting for the new album.
Yeah, Denny Carmassi told me there is one song on there I'm really going to like. I was up in Taho over New Years, and was trying to call him, but we had this thing called the hundred year flood hit right in the middle of it, so all the phone lines were down. So I never got the chance to see him. I wanted to pop over to his place and hear the new stuff, I haven't talked to David in almost a year now.
I haven't talked to Denny now for a couple of months.
I'm a real blues fan, so he says there is one track I'm really gonna like, that will remind me of some stuff we did.

The Frederikson/Phillips has some blues leanings.
Yeah, Fergie isn't really a blues singer, but if he was man, I would have taken that thing real bluesy.

He's a killer singer!
Yeah, absolutely.

There was one other question for you. The track Loaded Gun from the Bangladore Choir album, was that your song?
Yeah, that's me. That is actually a song I wrote for Bad English.

It's the best song on the entire album!
Oh thanks man! Yeah basically I wrote the song, I thought it would be a killer single for Bad English. John would have done a fantastic job on that. The demo I did, I think was a little bit better than what Bangladore Choir ended up doing. I think it was a little bit much of a song for them to handle, but the demo of that is really killer.
And John just didn't want to sing er, it would have been the single from the second record, I think it would have done really well, but he didn't want to sing anything I wrote. He wanted to write the lyrics himself. That was a big problem with working with John, and I love his lyrics, I haven't got a problem with that.
I just don't sit down and write music, as a lot of times I'll think of a catch phrase or a title or something, and it'll start happening. With John he doesn't want to know any of that, he er, it's just bullshit, because he'll go sing a Dianne Warren song, you know what I mean? If it comes from within the band he has trouble with it.

He should definitely leave those Dianne Warren songs alone!
Oh, jeez, I know.

It's been done.
That was never my idea. I am even on film someplace saying - I don't think we should do this song, it may be a hit, but it will kill the band. And that is pretty much what happened.

Everybody's done her songs.
Yeah, I know. You know, good for her, but I'll never be doing them again.

I appreciate your time Rick.
No problem, call anytime.

Sure will!
You know what I just did, this AC/DC tribute record, with Simon Wright, and an Australian guitarist, I wish I could remember his name. Brilliant player.
It was the best session I have ever done! I walked in, met Simon, plugged in and tuned up, we didn't even rehearse the song. We played it once, and the guy was rolling the tape, and says good job we're done! I said you're kidding! No it was a good first take. We did the song 'It's A Long Way To The Top'.

It could have been Brett Garsed. He plays down here with the singer John Farnham, and they did that track live every night!
Could have been, he had a really weird guitar.

Good!
Good talking with you man!

See ya Rick!

---

c.Andrew J McNeice 1997

If there is one thing we all know about Glen Burtnik is that he is a great songwriter.
He has crafted some of the finest undiscovered pop/aor tunes that have ever been, and still today remains one of the biggest cult AOR stars.
This interview was taken a few months back, when I talked to Glen at home, inbetween making arrangements for the release of his latest CD Palookaville.
It has turned out to be a great year for Burtnik fans, (note: no longer a ‘c’ in Burtnik!) with the new studio album, and also from MTM in Sweden, an archives compilation of his unreleased tunes, some of which he discusses in the interview.
You can read reviews for Palookaville and Retrospectacle after you have read Glen's teachings!

So Glen , Where have you been hiding?
Well what happened to me, was I put out two records, and there was a change of A&R staff at A&M Records and I kinda got caught in one of those things, so you know, I had a short little moment there at A&M and then it was over.
But then I started getting into songwriting after a while, and that has been somewhat lucrative, you know, I actually did better as a songwriter than I did as an artist! It just so happens that I have just finished a record though!

That should impress your fans...
Perhaps! Hopefully!

So what of this new record?
Yeah, I just finished it and am just going to put it out myself.
You know, there was a difference in the 80’s, when I worked on my records, then I was more concerned with um, what the label had to say, or having a label. Now there is the difference in that I couldn’t care less about the label. What that has lead to though, is I have no label!!

But probably a better sounding record....
Well I hope so. I mean, I like it and I’m sure we’ll find something.

I have a five track demo of yours that I’d like your feedback on.
It features the songs ‘Wanted Man’ (One of the most classic AOR tunes you could hear!), ‘Tail Of A Comet”, ‘Another Mile To Go’, ‘Every Day Of My Life’ and ‘Nobody But You’. Where did those songs come from?
Well, those songs were demo’s for my third album, in the late 80’s,
when I finished Heroes And Zeros, um, I was writing songs for a third album, and like I was saying, there was a new guy as A&R director at A&M Records and he just didn’t understand my music and he, I guess he just didn’t like it, you know, but those were the songs I was working on.

They sound remarkably fresh to this day....
Thanks, those would have been among the songs I was hoping to release but never did.

Okay, so you are onto all new material now?
Yeah, I am completely onto new stuff, it’s a different bag, it’s very much me, and it’s the same kind of melodic approach and stuff like that, but now it’s me a few years later.

Still the trademark choruses?
I’d Like to think so!
Yeah, I’m very much a pop songwriter really. Aan you know, I can try really hard to be anything but, but ultimately it’s all from a very pop place.

Well there’s no argument there from me on that one....
What do you think of bands like Bon Jovi, that writes ten songs in five minutes, of very average quality, and have hits, but a great singer/songwriter can’t get a break?
Yeah, yeah, I don’t know. It’s hard to say. There is a lot to the music business. I think it has a lot to do with things that aren’t really music related. Whenever I meet really powerful people in record companies and stuff like that, I often feel like they are just business people and they are good at promoting themselves. And that is cool, but it’s not about music.

Not at all...
See, I don’t know, it’s not really about the music all the time, and it’s not really fair, but I’m not going to get hung up on it not being fair, cause I got over that.

You end up going nowhere then....
Yeah, I’m not bitter or anything, bitter doesn’t help you. I came to a point where I realised, and that’s why I made this record. I came to a point where I said, you know, just because you don’t have a label knocking at your door asking for a Glen Burtnik album, I shouldn’t wait for anyone to give me the license to put out a record. I should just make a record.

There are afew others like you, that are doing just that....
Yeah, sure.

You recently worked with John Waite, on the song Downtown,
from John’s solo album Temple Bar.
Yeah, John is one of my favourites....

Same here. I heard you guys did a solo acoustic tour together....
We played a number of shows, it’s been a few months now.

How did they go?
Great, Really great! You know, it was a real thrill for me to first meet him and then start writing together, and when he asked me out on the road, it was really great, cause I admire him and we get along great.
It was a lot of fun, It’s a little frightening to walk out on stage with just an acoustic guitar, but he’s so special, he’s an incredible singer it’s always great.

Tell me about the Slaves Of New Brunswick project and album....
That was an album that came out a while ago, that I wrote and recorded. It was a band we put together, but we ended up asking people tp make appearances on it. It was from my small hometown in New Jersey.

I don’t know that as many people have heard of that album...
It’s pretty crazy, pretty odd!!

What about Freddy Curci covering one of your tunes ‘Perfect World’? Do you know him personally, or was it one of those record company deals?
No, I never met the guy! He’s a good singer though. There are a lot of versions of that song. There is a Tonio K version, also there is a version by a band called What If. It has been in some movies as well, but it’s never been a hit though, but there is always somebody who is a believer in it. I’m just happy people like it.

And you had a track on the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Soundtrack....
That’s right.

How did you know the Tom Cochrane song, ‘Not So Far Away’?
Somebody got me to do that actually. They wanted the song for the movie, and wanted to know if I wanted to do it.

Did you like the way it was used?
I wasn’t that impressed with the movie, but it was fun to do the song.

Soon after that you were with Styx. What was that experiance like?
Well, it was okay, it actually came at a good time, because I had label problems, so when they called it was good timing for me, it helped. You know, it was a job that paid well and got me out of my legal problems.

When I bought the album, I was dissapointed you were only on four tracks as a singer....
It’s a very odd group, you know, it’s very.....um, the way Dennis De Young works, some songs sound like one group, and my songs, I just brought them in.

They sound like classic Glen Burtnick!
Yeah, well ‘Love Is The Ritual’ was actually written long before and the songs were going to be on my next solo album, but they said lets do them, and I said okay!.....funny!!

Looking back on ‘Talking In Code’ and ‘Heroes And Zeroes’...still great albums?
Yeah! I’m particularily proud of Heroes And Zeros, it was more of what I wanted to say, but I’m not ashamed of Talking In Code at all either!

They are hard to find on CD, they fetch a good price you know......
Hey! I’m valuable!

Have you got some favourite tunes?
Not that I can think of. There is one new one called ‘Spirit Of A Boy, Wisdom Of A Man’, that’s great, I usually like the newest thing I’ve written.

Who else have you written for?
Well you know about Patty Smyth. I had a big hit with her and Don Henley, ‘Sometimes Love Just Aint Enough’ (Glen also wrote three others for the album), and also Open Skyz, they did ‘Every Day Of My Life’ and ‘Open Skyz’, I co-wrote with them.

And plans for the future, Glen?
Well I’m kinda getting back into songwriting, I’m working with a guy called Charlton Teddis, who is a producer, he’s pretty cool. I’m just doing the songwriting thing.

Pay the rent, eh?
Yeah! You gotta do that!

You didn’t record the acoustic shows with John Waite then?
No, but you should ask him about that, maybe he did. I’m trying to pitch the idea of doing a live recording of some of his past music, because he’s got so many great songs. A double album or something, he’s so talented.

Surely you are selling yourself too short Glen! You should do the same!
Well thank you so much for saying so.

No worries there Glen! Thank you for talking to me today....
It was nice talking to you, take care, thanks.......

 

Frederik Bergh talks about the new Street Talk album and why he decided to give this classic AOR act another chance, plus news on the new Bloodbound album.


Fredrik - let's start by talking Street Talk. First of all - fantastic to have you and the band back. Could “V” be the best Street Talk album yet? I think it was the most consistent for sure...
Very nice to talk to you! Yeah, it's good to be back with the new album! I'm very pleased with the result, lots of work was put into the making of this album to make sure that we really did a killer album this time around! I think this is our best album to date for sure!

I for one was pleased to stuck with Goran for all vocals - he has always been the main player, but why on this occasion did you chose not to use another vocalist also?
I'm also very pleased to have Edman onboard for all the vocals on the new album! I think Goran will be the only singer in Street Talk from now on! There's no need to involve someone else when we have what we have already! Of course I love to work with other musicians and singers for other albums/projects but for Street Talk I would say that Edman is the man.

I know you have felt some frustration with the constraints of the melodic music scene - frustrations a number if not all of the artists out there feel!
Is that what led you to declare at one stage that there would likely not be another Street Talk album?
Yeah, I felt that I put so much work into something that didn't give too much money in return. But as you can see I couldn't stay away from the studio too long because of my love for melodic rock music.

What convinced you to take another look at that?
I guess it was because I received lots of fan mails from fans from around the world who wanted the band to continue, and also because I felt that we had some very good music in us after recording the new two songs for the compilation album (Astray and Made For Paradise) which turned out to be some of the best tracks we've ever done.

The album V is the result - so I dare say you made the right decision! Are you happy with the sales to date and the reaction from fans and critics?
Yeah, I'm very proud of this collection of songs and I'm glad we did one more studio album! I'm happy with the reactions from the fans and the media! Almost everybody says that this is the best Street Talk album to date and that feels good after all the work with the album. Regarding the sales, I have no concrete idea of how many copies we've sold so far.

There are some glorious AOR tracks on this album - Responsible and If I Could for starters...Favourites for you?
Thanks for saying so! I really like most of the tracks on the album. But if I had to pick my top five I would probably chose the following tracks as my absolute fave songs: At The End Of The Day, Don't Believe, Groundhog Day, If I Could And Something's Gotta Give. Something cool about Something's is that one of my all time song writing heroes Mark Spiro told me that he dug that song a lot after hearing it! So if Spiro likes it I guess I have to have it on my list as well!

A couple of more intense tracks I'd like to quiz you on also - tell us about the lyrics behind the very emotional At The End Of The Day?
I guess you have to ask Goran about this track as he's the one responsible for the lyrics on that tune!

How about Oh Maddy? There's a definite story there. Musically is reminded me of Journey's Raised On Radio record...
Same here, Goran wrote the lyrics, I wrote the music, so he's the one who could tell you the story behind this tune. Yeah, I agree with you that it's got some Raised On Radio vibes. I guess it s because of Sven's Neal Schon-esque guitar playing and my keyboard harmonies that remind you of that particular Journey album. ROR is my all time fave Journey record. It still sounds very fresh even today 20 years after its release!

What are your music influences as far as the AOR side of things?
I have to say that my main music influences come from the following artists. I don't know if you can label all those artists AOR, but the following has meant a lot to me over the years: Journey, John Waite, Phil Lynott, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Def Leppard, Jackson Browne, Rick Springfield and many many more.

What about the future for Street Talk Fredrik? Does the response to V shore up the future for the band?
Well, I think there will definitely be more Street Talk albums in the future. I have already the music for half an album written for another album, so I guess it would be stupid not to do another one!
Of course the response to V feels very nice and there are a bunch of people out there who want Street Talk to go on, so yes, the future looks pretty good for Street Talk. As a matter of fact, we've sold more and more albums for every album we've done even though the over all sales of CDs have gone down! That is a pretty good sign that more and more people discover the music of the band.

V is immaculately produced - just how do you present such a fine sounding album on the recording budgets of today? What is your method of working?
I just try to do my best. It's all about hard work and to try to bring the best out of myself and the musicians around me. I'm very picky in the studio and I try to push everyone involved to the limit of their capacity.

I think most will be aware that there is another side to your musical personality that we should definitely speak of - Bloodbound. Certainly a band at the other end of the melodic music spectrum to that of Street Talk, yes?
Yeah, bloodbound is pretty different compared to Street Talk. But bloodbound is still very melodic and structured even though it's hard and more aggressive music.

What was the thinking behind getting this band off the ground and did you get a lot of comments from surprised fans that thought perhaps you were not capable of such power?
Well, myself and the bloodbound guitarist Tomas Olsson had been talking about doing something musical together for years as we are good friends and I am a big fan of Tomas' guitar playing and writing. So that was pretty much how the band got started! Some Street Talk fans have reacted to bloodbound thinking what the hell was going on with me…lol…but it's not strange at all for me to play harder music as I started my musical path playing in hard rock bands as a teenager and I grew up on bands like Maiden, Priest, Accept, Helloween and so on, so it isn't so strange that I play this kind of music now.

Why the make-up, the look of the band? What was the thought process behind that and has that decision worked in favour of the band?
The make up started as a funny thing. We thought we'd try to do something crazy and wild during the photo shoots for the album…maybe we got too crazy…haha.
Yeah, I think it has worked because people talk about us and our image, some think it's cool, some think the make up sucks...haha....I guess all publicity is good publicity so all this talk about the make up have been good for us I guess. We'll see what we'll look like on the next album ;)

You are best known for AOR - but do you have a preference for style of music, or are you equally happy doing both styles?
I think it s very interesting and creative for me as a songwriter and musician to do different kinds of music, so I can t say that I prefer one style over the other! It would be boring if I only created music in the same style all the time.

You are just wrapping up the band's second album - what can we expect from this new album? Any surprises?
Yes, that's right we are currently working very hard on the recordings and writing of the forthcoming second bloodbound album. The disc will be released early next year. Probably around March/April. It will be a killer disc for sure! We have some amazing new metal tunes in the making and the biggest surprises is that we have a few new members in bloodbound since the last album. But these changes have only made the band stronger and better.
The album will be in the same style as Nosferatu more or less, but we have some small surprises for you for the second album. For example we have a big epic ballad that will be very cool! I can reveal some of the song titles: The Tempter, Book Of The Dead, Vampires, Turn To Stone, The Silent Call, Lord Of Battle and Into Eternity.

Are you up to anything else mate? What else has been going on in the world of Fredrik Bergh and what can we expect from you in 2007?
I work on new music all the time and besides bloodbound and Street Talk I will also be involved in the forthcoming albums from Bruno Rock and Northern Light. I have also talked to the great singer Rob Moratti from Final Frontier about doing some writing together. Oh, I almost forgot, myself and Goran Edman also did the backing vocals together on an album by a new Swedish country singer which was produced by Asa Jinder.

Cool. Anything that you would like to add?
I would like to say hi and thanks to all the people out there who buys our albums!

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview and look forward to what comes next!
Thanks a million Andrew and keep up the great work on your website!

Steve, nice to have the opportunity to throw some questions at one of Britain's most respected rock vocalists. Is it nice to be a busy man again after some time away from the scene...
Hi Andrew, it's nice to talk to you. In answer to your question it's always nice to be busy & although I guess I've been out of the public eye for a while. I've been busy with writing projects & sessions.
But it's nice that people can see that I'm still alive!

From where you sit now, Shadowman and The Ladder signify a new creative path for you after year's of work with FM. But neither is too far musically away from where your heart lies, correct?
Yes you're right about the direction of Shadowman & The Ladder being where my heart lies. I had a period where I wanted to move away from the blues rock kind of thing (i.e The S.O album) but it's what people know me for & I guess you always go back to what you do best.

Let's talk Shadowman first - you have obviously been in contact with Khalil of Escape for sometime. What convinced you to launch into this new project?
Khalil called me out of the blue one day to do a session (Tribute To Boston). I went to the studio & Steve Morris was producing the session, we got chatting & got on really well. Khalil asked if I would be interested on working on an album with Steve, he sent me some of his song ideas, and went on from there.

Tell us about working with Steve and the chemistry between you two.
Steve is a great guitar player and a good idea's man. He tends to get a backing track together, sends it to me & we write a song around it. We get along great. I have the same idea's on where we want each album to go

The debut was straight British AOR with a bluesy tinge, but this time around I think the roles are reversed. This is more soulful blues with an AOR twist. Would you agree?
I think the second Shadowman album has definitely moved on from the first. We've had more time to develop the direction of the band & it offers much more variation in the song writing. That's not to say the next album may not be different again.

And why the slight change of approach?
We didn't make a conscious change of approach on the second album, it was just the way the writing seemed to go.

 

 

You possibly couldn't get a better rhythm section than Thunder duo Harry James and Chris Childs - tell me about working with those guys...
Harry and Chris are two of the best rhythm section around. They are so solid and great guys to work with.

Is there any current music that influences your writing and singing, or is it all drawn from a lifetime of experience?
I listen to all different styles of music & although you draw influences from everything you listen to, a lot of the stuff you write is drawn from past experience

Would the more soulful style be a precursor for the future direction of Shadowman? I presume you would enjoy to continue the project?
The more soulful style on the second Shadowman album is just the way the album was written & performed. There will definitely be more Shadowman albums as long as people still want to listen to this kind of music.

Over to The Ladder. The debut was made up of old unreleased FM songs. Would you have used the FM name had Merv been interested at that stage?
I don't think we would have used FM name on the Ladder project even if Merv had been involved. We would never put out an FM album without it being one of the full original line ups of the band

And will you continue using up the archive of FM material in order to deliver more Ladder records, or will there be fresh material written for the second record - which I think could be out later this year right?
The second Ladder album is all brand new songs. The first album was basically for the fans, as most of the songs had only been heard at live gigs & had never been recorded properly or released before. The new album is different direction & we are really pleased with the way the songs have turned out.

Escape has worked on a couple of very nice FM re-issues - more proof there is a market there for the band.
The two FM re-issue albums have a great packaging & once again some materials that fans previously didn't have. I hope they have completed people's collections & thank you to everybody for sticking by us in everything we've done.

And I guess that question always permeates into the inevitable question of a possible FM reformation! Is that on the cards in any way, shape or form?
When FM parted we never said we wouldn't at the same point work together again. We are all still good mates, and although there are no plans at the moment, Never Say Never! If we did reform it would be because we wanted to and not because we had to.

Do you appreciate the strong desire by a great number of fans for a new FM record - even after all this time?
It's great that the Fans are still there for us after all this time. The problem we have is that if we did another album, we would want it to be FM at there best and the writing process would take time. At the moment everybody is very busy doing other projects.

I heard a whisper that you and Merv had collaborated for an American blues artist. Can that be spoke of at this date?
Merv and myself are working together on few things at the moment & it's great working with him again.

There is a lot of love out there for the band! Do you think the band has unfinished business?
As I said the support for FM after all this time away is fantastic & if we did get back together it would have to be the right time and with a great album. We'll have to wait & See.

Any chance of seeing Steve Overland performing live in 2006 - either as Shadowman, or even FM ;)
There are no dates planned at the moment but we have spoken about it. I would love to do some dates with the full Shadowman line up & various things have been offered, but to get the band in a rehearsal room all at the same time isn't easy, as everyone doe's so many different things!

Anything you would like to add Steve?
Thanks for the interview Andrew & I would just like to say once more THANK YOU to everyone that has stuck with us down the years & I'll do my best to keep making albums, hopefully that they'll enjoy!!

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview.
Thank you.