Tue
07
Feb

Toto - David Paich (2000)

Categories: 
Interviews

Hey David, I've been trying to get through but we've had some power problems today.

Where are you calling from?

Hobart, Tasmania.
Oh right.

How about you? LA right?
Yes, you're down under and I'm up above here. I'm in LA and it's a gorgeous day here.

Fantastic. Here it's blowing a gale here! How are things with the band then?
Things are really good. The band's been touring and we've been playing around the United States doing Vegas and there's a lot of casinos we've been playing in different places.
We're going to be playing in Caribbean and we're going down to Costa Rica and Mexico City here in April. The band is doing really well.
We're taking a little bit of time off here and getting ready to promote our new album, which is 'Mindfields'. We've gone on a few shows like Donny and Marie Osmond and Rosie O Donnell and things like that you know. So we're just kind of entering a new phase here gearing up here to promote this new record.

The way the release dates for the record are kind of speared across the world, this album is going to be around for a fair while isn't it.
Yeah it's funny how they stagger dates, we end up promoting first in the States and then it comes back here to the States. It always seems to get released here later. But that's the business you know.

It looked at one stage like the album might not even get released in the States. Was that a possibility?
Yeah that was because we were at the end of our 20-year contract here so we were under some negotiations to see if we were going to re-sign with them (Sony). I don't think we are going to re-sign with Sony. I think we are going to start our own Record Company - Total Records. Sell our records on the Internet. So these negotiations have delayed our release here. We finally got released on Sony Legacy here and I guess we are just at the beginning stage of promoting.

So you seriously think you might have your own Record Label?
Very possible. Especially in the way that the world is changing now. With old groups, the older rock n roll groups like ours that don't really get on MTV or radio, it's a real alternative now with the Internet set up where you can sell records, you can be on Internet radio and you can even do live performances.

Well it's funny you should say that because I'm interviewing you for my web site and a mate of mine has a Toto Web site where he has set up his own Toto live radio.
Yeah exactly. It's a great alternative medium you know.

Do you enjoy the net yourself?
I do very much. I was a little slow getting on board here but once I got into it I found myself able to correspond with a lot of people easier than I can contact people on the telephone.
I'm much more in communication with people. I find its part of my life right now. I've used a computer for quite along time as a word processor to store lyrics since around 1980 when they first came out, the IBM's.
So they've been part of my life for a long time. Now I have an 11-year-old daughter I end up searching the web to help her to do her homework projects, looking up historical figures and biographies and stuff.

What sites do you enjoy looking at?
What sites? When it comes down to business, I'm looking up stocks on the stock market; I guess it comes down to whatever I'd normally pick up a phone for, instead of looking in the yellow pages. I don't spend hours and hours on it.

Do you check out the Toto sites out there?
Yeah, I have done that. It's very cool.

There's a stack of them isn't there?
Yeah there's a bunch of them, it's cool. You know we have great people that have done our web site. We have very devoted people that are really loyal and do a great job graphically.

What does it make you feel like seeing all these people dedicating sites to you?
It's amazing. I'm flattered. It's great for my daughter who sees Daddy on the web site. It's a great promotional thing. It kinda validates the work that you have done.

Tell us a bit more about 'Mindfields'. I was talking to Steve (Lukather) just before it came out and he was really jazzed about it coming out. Have you been happy with the response?
I think the response could be better. So far we've done pretty well with it in Europe. We've done over 500,000 units. I think this is one of the best Toto albums we have done with Bobby Kimball back in the group.
I can listen to this record and say to myself this is one of the best we've done. To me it's like the follow up to Toto 4 that everybody has been waiting for.
That's how I would describe it. I think it's got a little bit of everything on it.
I think it sounds great and the performances are fantastic. I think it's a great album even though I do try to be objective about it.
Even if I wasn't in the band I think I could put the album on and like it a lot. There's a lot of good playing and a lot of good material on there.

From the 13 tracks on the album, there is quite a diversity amongst them.
Yeah we're playing a little bit of 'tipping our hats' to The Who and The Stones on there being the end of the millennium. We were paying tribute to them and maybe showing the younger bands how you are really supposed to imitate them. (Laughs)

Absolutely. How did the recording with Bobby Kimball go?
It's been really very good. Bobby is singing better than ever and it's been so much fun to do live work. We toured so little in the early 80's because it was so hard without the technology to duplicate a lot of the stuff with a band like Toto. Now with samplers, gear and synthesizers we can go out and make it sound like the record.
That's what has taken so long. Toto in the last 8 years has toured more than we did in the last 18 years. Technology has made it possible for us to sound like our records do on the road.

Well, I have got your 'Livefields' album here and there's one big fat sound on that too!
Yeah, well that's us playing live.

No over dubs on there?
No overdubs on there. There's a little bit of editing on some of the solo spots, which went a little bit longer but no over dubs. We didn't go re-patching any of that stuff.
I think we are one of the kick arse rock 'n roll bands still around that play good.
I mean I love bands like AC/DC, The Rolling Stones that get out there and rock.

So it's been good with Bobby then?
Excellent, just like old times. It's almost like he never left the band. It's funny we'd been apart for 15 years and we got up in my rehearsal place here in my house and we started rehearsing and it felt like the first time we got together 20 years ago. We felt like 18 year olds running around playing rock n roll.

Will he be involved in future plans do you think?
I definitely think so. I think this is the unit that's going to stay like this for awhile. I think we are going to make more sporadic albums. I think we are going to take our time. Maybe put out some box sets. Take a little more time than '…here's 4 months to make the record….'
Music changes so much I think we also need to reinvent ourselves in the new millennium. So we can be part of the changing sounds of music.

So you think there might be a new sound next time?
Yeah I definitely think so. I think we'll add to what our sound is. I want it to sound fresh. I want to keep our old fans but add new ones.

I'd like to hear that.
I know there are a couple of bands or artists doing there own web sites and record label thing and in there plans they are releasing unreleased tunes that have been sitting around on masters. Has Toto got a fair supply?
Yeah we have a nice supply of that. We intend to do the same kind of thing. There might be some different versions of songs on the album that's out or a couple of extra cuts that didn't go on the record.

I think it's a good way to fill in the gap between studio releases isn't it?
It is and I think fans are interested. Like what didn't they put on that album.

I bet you have an absolute vault full of live recordings.
We have hundreds of tapes that we've recorded. As an example Toto XX was all the songs that were left off the records in the old days of vinyl.
You only put so much on vinyl.
We over cut a lot. I mean there's probably 5 or 6 songs we left off each album.

Are you still playing a lot of session stuff?
Well there are not too many sessions in LA. Most of it happens in Nashville. All the people from Los Angeles, all the Nashville sounds that you hear, are a lot of guys from LA that moved there.
Our ex-bass player David moved there. A lot of people are down there now. Dann Huff, he's taken over Nashville. Mutt Lange is there and he's the biggest thing there. I do a couple of sessions now and then.
I work with Don Henley once in a while. I work with Michael Jackson every once in a while. A lot of my time is spent playing the stuff myself in my own studio.
I like to do the one man band thing where I play the bass, drums, guitar and keyboards.

Is there a favourite session that you have had? Is there one that stands out as the best?
Well the ones I did with Steely Dan when I played on 'Black Friday' on the 'Katy Lied' album stand out. They were some great sessions…..

Any others?
I think when I played on 'We are the World'. That was pretty fantastic.
Working with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson on a duet 'The Girl Is Mine'. That was a very magical night. Even though I wished it could have been a better piece of material, it was still great working with those two people.

Yes that would have been amazing. What was it like being crammed in a room with all those egos on that song?
Well I was star struck I had to pinch myself I thought I was dreaming.
I wanted to get my autograph book out. I mean you have Paul McCartney there with FBI guys. In between all the takes there is me, Lukather, Jeff Porcaro and we're jamming like on Stevie Wonder songs with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson!
Singing these Stevie Wonder songs. Linda is about two inches away snapping all these photographs of me and everybody else in the room. It was one of the most exciting and memorable moments of my life.

Tell me there's a track on the Japanese 'Mindfields' that I've got here called 'The Spanish Steps of Rome'. Great song.
Thank you very much, I'm very proud of that song. It's one of the better songs that I've written. I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

That's one of the few times you've been on the lead vocal isn't it?
Yeah. I did 'Africa' and stuff but for some reason my band they always seem to be editing me off these records for some reason. Yeah but I ended up sneaking on this record here. I'm glad that you noticed that cut there you know. It truly represents the whole Toto when you can hear all three of us singing. To me it's like even though John Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison sang Ringo Starr always had one song on there. That's what made The Beatles you know.

Did you say your song made the American cut of the album?
Yeah it did. I realized that I wanted it on here. I wanted to be part of the sound.

Did you drop a track for that?
No we just added it on there.

There's 14 tracks for the U.S then?
Yeah.

What about a full solo album?
Well people keeps asking me that and I always tell them the same thing. Toto albums are my solo albums. If I were to do a solo album there would be things like 'Spanish Steps' on there. I'd be getting into my Mark Knopfler imitation.
I have these alias identities I wanna write under.

On a separate subject - I was absolutely amazed at the video clip for 'Melanie'.
Oh yeah.

How much did that cost?
Believe it or not it was very cheap. Columbia/CBS paid for that Sony ran to under $200,000. It's really like a $500,000 video but they made it for under $200,000. We were really happy with that. I mean people do make today 2 - 3 million-dollar videos. We are going to release 'Melanie' here in the States.

MTV is a dead dog as far as helping anyone but is VH1 helping anyone?
Well VH1, I guess they all do, have this stigma about people over 30. They don't play too many artists over the age of 30. I mean Santana just had their thing but it's hard to break through. It's kind of a silly thing. It's like they are prejudiced and anti over 30 or 40 years old. Even though there the token Eric Clapton thing every once in a while. Anyway that's my excuse.
(Laughs)
I've got my fingers crossed so there's always hope. Maybe with that kind of video it could be interesting.

I thought it was a fantastic clip.
I called my buddy before the call and asked him if there was anything he'd like me to ask you cause he's a big fan and he said he'd heard you were called the Uncle Fester of rock n roll.

Uncle Fester of rock 'n roll. Yes. You know who Uncle Fester is?

Sure, absolutely.
He's from the Addams Family. Lukather has many names for me. It's usually Bob Dylan's grandmother or Uncle Fester. It's boring now cause he calls me by my real name. It's almost scary you know. These are all private and inside jokes that are funny….he would appreciate that.

Steve's a bit of a clown isn't he?
Steve is a 6 year old inside of a 40 year olds body. 6 year old mind. He refuses to grow up.

That must be good for the band though.
It certainly is.

How do you keep up with him on stage?
It's very difficult, You basically don't try to out do him on stage. Let him have the mic and I just stay on his good side. I don't want to get on his bad side cause he's very good at putting you away on stage. He's got a great sense of humour, I love him.

Do you all play off each other when you're son stage?
Definitely. It's just like a big fraternity, a big boy's club. We all grew up together and we all know each other so there are no egos. Each person has his own little specialty. Everybody makes space for everybody. It's just like a big gang.

A well-oiled machine these days?
Yeah .

How's Simon doing on drums?
Simon's wonderful. He's very fussy about his breakfast though if you go to hotels. He always has the manager down in the lobby complaining. His drums are so big we call them the HMS Philips. It's like the Titanic you know. He's a monster. He's a world class drummer. They don't get too much better.

How far did you have to look to find a replacement?
Well I really wasn't looking for a replacement. It was like you couldn't replace John Bonham in Led Zeppelin. So I thought here's how I am going to get out of it. There were two side to it. If I had to have a replacement I didn't want to get another session guy who tried to sound like Jeff.
I wanted to get someone who was a killer drummer who could be himself. There was only one guy - Simon Phillips - and I was hoping that he would be so busy that he would turn it down. So we could disappear with dignity and say we can't go on anymore. Simon stopped what he was doing and said I'd love to do it.
He played all the tracks perfectly and it was undeniable. It was like we have to go on.

So you really thought about calling it a day?
Yeah. It's hard to replace Jeff Poracoro. To replace an irreplaceable member. But Phillips has played on Pete Townsend's solo albums and played with Jagger on the road. He was like the Porcaro of London.

Well it's good to see you guys still going.
Oh thanks man, Thanks for the support down there. We'd love to come back down and play. We had a blast in Sydney and Melbourne last time.

I have another buddy that saw you in '94. He said you played a club and it was a 3 hour gig.
We were rockin'.

What are the chances of you getting back down here?
Hopefully sometime next year.

I talked to Steve about this and he said 'Fuck man, get Sony to pay for it'.
Unless we go to Japan and come over after we leave Japan it's almost financially impossible for us to come down there. When we go back to Japan maybe we'll sneak down there.
I want to mention one other thing I'm doing separately from Toto Dec 5th I play in Bombay with Shankar we're opening for Peter Gabriel under the gate of 'India' there. It's like a big thing for charity. Mike and Steve Porcaro are going to fly down for a couple of gigs. I'm really excited about this. When you get into meaningful concerts that give something back to the planet and people it's great.

That'll be some gig. I hope you do get back here sometime
Thank you call again!

You can count on it! Thanks Dave.

 

 
Tue
07
Feb

Robin McAuley (2000)

Artist: 
Categories: 
Interviews

Thanks for taking my call Robin. So how ya doing?

I'm doing good. So how is Australia this morning?

A beautiful sunny day. Nice Saturday morning in summer, it's great.
You have the day off, and you're calling me - what a guy.

No get real! I'm pleased to catch up with you. Like I said the other day I've been a fan since Perfect Timing.
On no, now you're making me feel really old.

That's not that long ago! Maybe I should start back there at the beginning.
Where were you before MSG, Grand Prix right?
When I was in Grand Prix, ironically I was approached by Michael at that time. Grand Prix was playing in London and they came down to a show.
We were scheduled to go out on tour, I think with Sammy Hagar on the Standing Hampton tour. At the time I let it go and got some bad press out of it. 'Who does he think he is refusing this gig' & 'He mustn't know what's good for his career'. Blah blah blah....(That's Robin saying that, not me editing the interview!!)
After Grand Prix I was part of a project GMT with Brian Robertson. We cut some demos that were released without our knowledge in Germany. Anyway, to cut a long story short
I was introduced to a producer in Frankfurt and I went on to record a remake of Stairway To Heaven, a studio project called Far Corporation with Bobby Kimball from Toto.
It was a crazy thing.

I remember hearing it and thinking what a great version of Stairway to Heaven!
Well not everyone liked it, but in terms of Europe it sold a hell of a lot of records.
It was kinda fun.

It was so over the top - that version.
Yeah it was over the top. It wasn't our idea it was the producers idea.
But as a result of that Rudolph Schenker heard that on German radio and Michael was on the lookout for singers again. He was living in Germany and tracked me down.
You know I didn't want to take it on. But we took in some studio time and recorded a few songs and it turned out to be 7 years later.
But we didn't work enough 3 or 4 records in 7 years is hardly busting a gut.

Can you hang on a minute please. I am a very busy man, I have 11 month old twin boys.....

Robin leaves the phone - disposes of his twins and returns!....

Yeah we could have done a lot more work. We were here, we were there, we were changing management - blah blah blah.
That was kind of it we decided enough was enough. There's a friend of mine from Texas singing with Michael now.

Cool! Keith Slack?
Keith, yeah. You know Keith.

We've spoken....
He's a good friend of mine.
What else....I've been doing some advertisements I have a national Buick Commercial. An Edgar Winter song. We did a remake of Freeride. And several other movie things - blah blah blah.
What ever keeps me going, I love the music.

MSG put out 3 very good studio albums. That was the most stable period of Michael's career. Why were you able to put up with him for so long?
I don't know. Michael is an individual who has his own ideas, truly a great player. Everyone has there ups and downs, there were some good times and some not so good. I think though, basically, we had the same goals. We liked the writing, we liked the songs. We thought we were knocking out some decent songs. We had a great lineup on all 3 albums and we just had some good people around us. You go though different management and different managers have different ideas. It wasn't always plain sailing from there. I think we lost the common goal at the end of the day. I hate that bullshit. It had just run its race.

Since you left, Michael hasn't recorded a record with the same singer twice.
I think the other singers have all had their own projects that's the problem. Don't quote me on that because it's none of my business really.
It was different with us, it was essentially Michael and myself and then the rest of the band. When we moved here to LA it changed a bit. It wasn't possible to have everyone in the same place at the same time. But we're all still here.
But I'm doing all the talking here!

Hey no no, that's great. Why did you move to LA?
Positive change of atmosphere. And to tour. We went out with Rush at one stage.

I love Rush, but they're not exactly the same style as MSG.
It was bit of a mismatch but a good tour anyway.

We then tried to then get into the second record as soon as possible and we did that here. It was never a commercial decision to move here (LA). It was purely based upon getting Andy Johns on the first record.
All of the Save Yourself record was written while I was back in Hanover. Michael was at that time between Hanover and I think Sweden he would send me music back and forth.

You guys got around then!!
Well you know we like to travel. We actually used to play Canada too. We used to have this thing where we played tennis in every city we were in. Wimbledon was not our goal however. Just didn't happen hahahaha.

Maybe one of my all time favourite unplugged albums was the one you did. MSG Unplugged Live. It has a great atmosphere - I love it.
It was one of my favorites, I believe it was one of the best things we did. We toured with it here, on and off, for 9 months. All of Europe, Japan and Korea. We did about 6 weeks in the States. We liked it because we thought there were a lot of other unplugged records out there and we felt it was a true unplugged album. There were no percussion, bass or drums. It was entirely live as it was. It was Michael and Spencer Sercombe, who we found in a band Shark Island and me.
Spencer actually found a girl in Germany when we were on tour. He married her and lives there now I think he's got a couple of kids.
WE ruined him!! hahahaha

Oh dear!! Great guitarist though.
Ditto - Super person

The hairdos on the back cover are slightly less scary than the first album.
Oh my god. You know what people say, let's take some fun shots “we promise we won't use them...” Hahaha

Don't believe a word!
Well I'll just give you a quote from Kerrang. I remember we toured at Wembley with Whitesnake and Kerrang had one of my most memorable quotes and it said: “MSG hit the stage like a hairdressers nightmare”. haha

Haha...for sure! You've recovered well.
Who's idea was that?!! I guess you should never say yes to too many things. What were we thinking?!! It was what it was, when it was.

What did you do after MSG then?
I took a little time out and regrouped. A couple of things locally in Texas, one with the guitarist Keith was involved with.
I wanted to do a Faces type thing. I was a big fan of the Faces. So we got together writing and we put a little band together. It was all original stuff. I just wanted to play some rock n roll. That's what we did for a year or so, played the clubs around here. The music industry being what it was and still is sometimes people would come out an listen and not quite get it. Like, if it's not grunge it's not music. Grunge kicked the music industries ass and kicked a few of us out of a job for a while. But change is a great thing.
I did a little bit of writing with a few people. I have a tune I recorded with Marc Ferrari that gets used for jingles all over the place. Then I heard that Frankie Sullivan was trying to get hold of me. So finally Frankie and I got together. Started kicking a few ideas around.
Curt Cuomo joined and off we went. We had a blast. Frankie played some awesome shit on that. I said that if anyone gets the chance to hear this it's pretty unique. They won't believe it's Frankie Sullivan playing.

Yeah, I think Frankie is a majorly underrated shredder!
Sounds like you are having a lot of fun in the studio. It's a pretty raw record.
It was like no frills, very little attached to the mixing aspect of it, we just finished the music and let's put it down and there's a few rough edges on it but there you go. We thought it sounds good enough. I don't know if anyone will ever hear it.

Tell me why did it take 5 years to get released?
We just didn't do anything with it. We kinda said maybe we'll get together and do a few more songs, but didn't and I decided I wanted to go study computer graphics, so I went off to school and took some time off. So I studied computer graphics...haha...because that's what I wanted to do and there you have it!
Then I just got a call - there's a label in Japan that's interested in releasing this and I thought that was hilarious. I said why the hell. They said cause they like it. The guys seems to like what I do and I guess it's better than to leave it sitting on the shelf.

So what else have you got in the can then?
I've got 2 or 3 other projects I'm in to and they are all very diverse. One of then is doing the Faces type of thing, elaborating on it a bit more. The other is a Celtic thing that I've wanted to do for a long time. It's been finding the right people who understand that whole tradition thing. Me being Irish of course. We've done a little writing, it's very traditional, very earthy. There's Irish bagpipes etc. There's one other thing that's very heavy acoustic based.

Well, you sound busy enough.
I'm not sure I love the industry but I sure love the music. And as long as the music makes me happy I'll do. When it stops doing it I'll stop doing it.


Well that' great Robin, thank you..
Ok Andrew. I'll shoot you a message sometime.

Thanks for your time.
God bless you mate

 

 
Tue
07
Feb

Paul Shortino - Jimmy Crespo (2000)

Categories: 
Interviews

Good of you to call Paul, how are thing's going with you and your new partner?

Me and Jimmy are really hitting it off well and we're going to have a great big future together, he's a great player.

Tell me how you two together?
We got together, actually through a mutual friend of ours who used to play drums for Jefferson Airplane if you can believe that. Joey Cummings. We did a gig together. He gave me a call and Jimmy a call and that's how we hooked up.
From that moment on it was like love at first sight. I fell in love with his guitar playing and he fell in love with my voice. We've taken it to a new level and in about a month we're really gonna let the cat out of the bag on what's really going on. I know you'll be pleasantly happy and a lot of people will with what we're coming out with. So that's how we hooked up and we've been rehearsing and we've been working on the new record. It's gonna be very heavy, very guitar and vocal orientated. Some of the good old hard rock coming back.

Tell me about it!
People need to start singing again.
Now at least with the Backstreet Boys and stuff they're getting back to singing. At least they're singing and not just rapping. It's a little too sweet for me. I like a little hard edge to the music, you know haha.

Yeah, now we just have to teach these bands what instruments are...
Haha. I just did a song last night - me and Jimmy are doing a Cult tribute song. We are doing Sweet Soul Sister - last night we did a Scorpion song Holiday coming out on Cleopatra
That'll be the first thing we do in the studio together.

A good tune for your voice...
We'll send you a copy when it's done, do you wanna speak to Jimmy?

Sure!
Here's Jimmy...

Hey Jimmy, how are you?
Hey Andrew, what's happening there man?

Just relaxing...
Lucky man

Where are you guys?
LA.

Well I'd like to throw a couple of questions at ya - You guys seem to have hit it off?
Instantaneous!
We played together one night, a nothing gig really and I heard him sing, loved it to death and we hit it off immediately. Love at first sight…haha

Where was your last gig?
Nothing specific, a lot of session stuff.

Ok.
So that's where I've been coming from. I've been looking for a singer in LA since '85
No one matched my idea of what rock should have been till now.

Yeah well he's got a voice and a half.
Fucking hell

You used to play with Billy Squire I hear.
I did yeah, 1989.

You were with Aerosmith? In the absence of Joe Perry.
Right '84.

That would have been a blur wouldn't it.
Very much a blur. Well more so a blur for them maybe. Haha

Good guys?
Great guys. Really cool down to earth guys.

How was working with Billy Squire?
Great. I was with him for about a year.

Also with Rod Stewart I hear?
Yeah that was my most current thing

Touring with him?
Yeah we almost made it as far as Australia, got to Singapore.
Went to Brunei.
Crazy country. No one can get in with out being invited. The Sultan threw a party for one of his kids. But that's all I can say as I signed a contract not to talk about it.

You guys are playing the Namm show coming up?
You bet.
An unplugged set.

What else do you hope to do in the New Year?
Play. Get this new project out there. Other than that good health and lots of money.

You and me both!!
Here's Paul again man...

OK! I also wanted to tell you we're back in the studio in Feb to start recording the album.
Also a guy called Steve Payne is hopefully going to direct a video for us in March.
He's done LA Guns, Enuffz Enough. Clips that have made it to MTV.

It's time someone shot a new video.
That's what we wanna do - a video clip that lets people see what we're like on stage.
Anything you wanna ask me?

How about a little about the Stand or Fall album?
Yeah I always wanted to do something like that. I didn't do it for any other reason than I've always wanted to put some blues tunes on record. If some people liked it cool, if not that was cool too. I pretty much wanted to do it for myself. I got some good response from some heavy metals fans.

It's a real blues blues album isn't it?!!
It was so blues we had to add a little thump in there. Kick drum and snare and some different guitar. The original is a bit out there. Traditional blues.

You went from being fairly quiet to having 3 albums in 3 years.
Oh yeah. I definitely am trying to crank it up. Now with Jimmy it's great. Put some good old rock and roll out there.

What happened to the sessions with Dan?
Danny is a really talented person but he's a little overwhelmed with the stock market. Got left a lot of money. He's into that stock market thing, a lot of money. And day traders are very stressful people. Pretty much he just snapped one day and said something to my wife that was uncalled for so I told him to chill out. It wasn't anything personal. He was just under a lot of stress and pressure. Left a lot of crazy things on my machine.

He doesn't look like your average stock broker!! All those tattoos!
Well he's not your average stock broker!
I'm a firm believer that God opens doors for us to do things. It was really a Godsend that Jimmy and I hooked up. We've got a great band. We all have the same respective goals. It's got a very spiritual base. Kinda like a family.

Great. Good going and good luck with this project. We'll be following it closely.
God bless you.
Talk to you later man.

See ya Paul and regards to Jimmy.

 

 
Tue
07
Feb

Jimi Jamison (2000)

Artist: 
Categories: 
Interviews

Congratulations on the new album.
Thankyou. Have you heard it yet?

I certainly have. I've heard it and reviewed it and I'm a big fan of it.
Great, it's on your website. I haven't been able to get online for the last 10 or 15 days or so.

It's the lead off review right now so.
Actually my laptop is broken at the moment so I can't get online.

Now going back about 18 months or so I heard a tape of demos for it which were a lot more mellow And obviously a lot more unfinished and at the time I thought it was going to be a fairly mellow pop album but you've really come out fighting with it.
Yeah we changed it a little bit didn't we.

How did the change come around?
Well when you play live you have to rock you know, you have to be energetic, you can't play ballads all the time. So we just decided we wanted to make the songs a little harder instead of soft. Bigger variety.
We always thought we had to follow a certain theme but I don't agree with that anymore. I think the fans deserve a wider variety of music, maybe even a couple of live tracks on the album. So they can see what you sound like live.

Yeah, there is a different sound but it does flow very nicely. Klay Shroedel has done a very good job producing it.
Oh yeah he did great in what was quite a short period of time. He played all the drums on the record. Needless to say he is in the band now (laughs)…

Yeah I saw that on the credits and I thought that's unusual for a drummer to produce an album.
Yeah isn't it. That's a first for me.

I don't think anyone could have guessed it would be 1999 before the new record got released.
Yeah well we weren't even really looking for a record deal all this time, it just kind of happened. We were playing over in Germany and the promoter said why don't you do a record. It had been so long since we thought about recording a record even though we kept writing songs so he gave a tape to USG and they seemed to like it. That's what happened. Actually, I had talked to Magnus at MTM before that. USG were keen so we just went with that.

So it actually took you by surprise then.
Actually yeah. It just kinda fell in our laps and went all right. Let's go.

Were you guy's just content to keep touring then?
Well we'd been touring since Peterik and Sullivan had left the band. Years ago…right after the Too Hot To Sleep tour.
We've been touring as much as we can. I guess it's not really touring, we play two to three shows a week.
Kinda like spot gigs for the last ten years. You have to pay the bills you know.

If you don't mind I'd like to ask about the use of the name. Obviously that's a topic that comes into any debate on the band. There has actually been a couple of vigorous debates over this.
You made the solo album after 'Too Hot To Sleep', under the Jimi Jamison name, at what point did you start touring under the 'Survivor' banner again. Also why did you decide to do it a that point?

Well actually I kept doing it, I was going that even when the solo album was out. I was still going around playing under 'Survivor' featuring me in the U.S in little clubs. After Jim said he didn't want to do it anymore and Sullivan said he wanted to go and produce bands. During the whole time I was out promoting my solo album, I was out promoting 'Survivor' as well. I would even go to radio stations and do acoustic things by myself, as in solo and then do a few Survivor acoustic tracks as well. I had spoken to the Scotty Bros. before and they wanted to keep the 'Survivor' promo thing going too.
Then we started getting a little recognition and Frank, especially Frank, didn't like it too much.
So I let Frank get back in the band for a little while and he played with us down in South America. Things however didn't work out between us and he left.

Yeah, then it got messy there for several years didn't it?
Yeah it did.

In and out of court.
Yes. I don't get mad too much, mad at anyone, but I can't deny they originally had the name but they dropped it and said they didn't want to do it anymore. I said hey guys we could keep doing this, there are still a lot of people out there who want to hear this music and I got email and letters from people who wanted to keep hearing it. I even got letters form kids in hospitals saying the music is what keeps them going and that really touched my heart.
So that was just another reason to add to all the other reasons to keep on with 'Survivor'.

Did it become more difficult to use the name after the original line up got back together minus Jim Peterik?
Well it doesn't really bother me cause I know this bands is as good as theirs. I mean Dave can't even sing more than 15 minutes at a time. When he tries to sing 'The Search is Over' it just doesn't happen you know.

Er, OK! You are the only person in the band with a connection to 'Survivor' do you feel comfortable recording under the name 'Survivor'?
Yes as a matter of fact I do. It was a whole different band when I got it, 'Survivor; with Dave was pretty much a new band as far as I'm concerned.
We kept the same sound but it was different. It had a little bit more soul to it. You know the other guys didn't really treat me too well when I was in the band, I don't know if that was on purpose or accidental or what but I helped write a bunch of songs that I didn't get credit for. There was quite a bit of money involved and I really feel like I deserve to do it. I think they should do what they're gonna do and they should let me. Whatever happens, happens.

Actually that was something I was going to ask you about was on the single and on the album credits here have been changed to read your name first.
Was that a pre meditated thing?

Yeah I did that on purpose.

Burning Heart and Rebel Son even?
Well I probably shouldn't have done for the Rebel Son! But because Jim actually started that song but I came up with the original idea for the other song and got jamming and wrote some lyrics first. I'm not sure exactly what Frank did. As far as the basic song idea and the track it was my idea.

That's a great tune by the way…
Actually I got 2 songs from one track. I also wrote a song with Joe Walsh called 'All Of A Sudden'. If you listen to that you'll see the similarity.
So I got a double bonus out of that one idea.

Do you think there is a positive or negative impact on getting a record deal with the 'Survivor' name? Was it a condition of the deal to get the name on there?
No, as a matter of fact. The record company for sure wanted to use the name but we were more than willing to go under my name. As far as the Japan part, the company Apex they were more than willing to go under my name. I know it helps to get a record deal using the name but it's hard to tell.

I have a personal opinion on the album where I think that because of the line up and the individual sound you've actually created, which sounds fantastic - but it might have been a good idea just to go under your name of a new name all together. I think the material is strong enough to develop a new name.
You know I thought about that too. I wasn't sure what to do so I was taking suggestions from everybody. So in the end we just went for what we did. I wasn't sure if my name was strong enough to carry it or not.
I have no ego anymore. Not after the problems with my solo album!

Yeah, Scotty went under not long after it was released, didn't they?
Yeah not having my solo album promoted was a pretty hard blow but still we're hanging in there and giving it the best shot we can.

What about the fan reaction to the name debate?
I have heard mostly good, especially when people come and hear the band.

Yeah, I actually thought the live tracks were a little unnecessary, I thought the new material stood up very strongly on its own.
I thought maybe a live track on the CD would be extra bonus to see how the band sounds live.

Well I must say they are good raw version.
Actually this band is a lot more energetic than the old band. This band has a lot more excitement going on.

I am a big fan of the track Rebel Heart. And it sounds like there is a different singer on Burning Heart?
Yeah that's Jack, our bass player. He sings really high. He had nothing else to sing so I let him come in and sing the high parts on this. He's not with us now but we decided to leave him on the record. He was with the band a long time and deserves to be on there.

I should go through some of the album now.
Cry Tough is a great track, great intro. I really like the melodic tone of the voice in this track.
That song was written by Cal Curtis and it was originally was supposed to be on my solo album.
I've always liked to song.

Who is Kenny Mims? I've noticed he has several tracks on the album?
He's a songwriting partner in Nashville. He's a great songwriter, having written with some of the greatest songwriters. Everybody from Kenny Rogers, to alternative rock. Whenever he and I get together it's just magic.

Well Run From The Thunder sure isn't Country.
Yeah I love that song. Kinda like Cobra running in to Survivor.

Actually the Cobra stuff has been in high demand. Hard to find these days.
Yeah, Wow. I think it has been re-released on CD.

I have just seen a few posts on my trading board asking for it.
Yeah I had to buy one myself, cost like 30 bucks!

I like the reworking of I'm Always Here.
We put it on there so people would say I've hear that somewhere before. To get everyone's attention, a little interest.

I'm Always Here hasn't really been on anything other than the Baywatch soundtrack to date. I like the piano work on it especially.
Like the Bruce Hornsby kinda feel, the inspiration there. Every chance I got I went to his shows. I got to know him pretty well. Like everyone else, I'm like a fan.

That's good to see. There are a few people I talk to, that seem withdrawn from the whole scene, other than what they are doing.
Whether they say they are fans of someone or not I guarantee they are.
Otherwise how did they learn the music and how to play? Where did their influences come from?

Cool. The track Empires - you turned it into a duet. Nice move…
That wasn't planned. We were in the studio and Klay said I wonder what that would be like with someone singing along with you. So Lisa Frazier was called who is like the backing singer for Boz Scaggs and George Michael and we called her in and experimented. Everyone thought it was great so that was it. It's a first for Survivor actually. I wasn't sure at first.

So how old is that tune?
We wrote that during the Too Hot Too Sleep album.

First Day of Love catches you by surprise on the album. It begins mellow and then the loud guitars really kick you.
It would wake you up wouldn't it?! In fact I played that for Jim Peterik a few years ago and he said that's the best song you've got that. It's a great song to play live. See I don't think the old Survivor back then had a big male audience. I think originally because we didn't play the songs hard enough or something. I want to get the male audience liking the songs.

I'm a huge fan of Tom Cochrane and I nearly fell off my chair when you started playing Calling America. Originally I only had a blank disc without the track listing.
USG played us that track initially. When we listened to the track we noticed how it really catches your attention. I'm a big fan of Tom's too. So we thought hey it would be an honor to do it.

It came out really well. Did you sing it in an octave lower?
Yeah exactly. You know this is going to sound crazy but I'm still confused as to what the song is about. Obviously it's about someone that settles in a new country but Tom told us it was about a hockey game! Haha Maybe he was pulling my leg.
It's great isn't we do the song but don't know what it's about.

I did an interview with him actually and asked him about a couple of my favourite songs and I got about 10-minute answers on each one. It was great.
He can talk. He's brilliant.

So what now with the record? Have you toured with these songs yet?
No not yet we start the tour in Dec, around the 22nd in Germany. We'll play all over, France, Spain, and Italy.

One place I really want to tour is Australia. So bad. I talked to the Little River Band and they said it was really hard to get a gig. There's not enough money in it to make a living.
I'd love to come I've never been.

So are you going to play the states?
Well no. We don't have a release here yet. We are negotiating that at the moment with a couple of different labels. I don't know what the status is. I'm sure we will get a deal. We need to go with the label most into it.
It doesn't matter to me if it's a giant label or not it's the people that believe in us that I won't to go with.

I know there was another court case recently where does that leave you with the name at this stage
Yeah the trademark thing in Japan.

It's still pending.
Yeah it's a long process. It's pretty complicated.

Would that hold up a release in the states?
No it has nothing to do with the U.S. You know I never even thought about filing it in Japan. It was my agent although I was mad when he did it. Then he convinced me I was just as much a part of Survivor as the rest of the guys were.

So do you ever see a situation where all you guys might work together again?
I don't want to rule anything out. I don't want to get into the mud-slinging thing. Things get cloudy and you can't see through it. So as long as you keep it clean there is always a chance of something like that happening. As for right now I can't see it.

The fans would like to see that one-day.
Yeah.

Everything laid to rest.
Well the only way that would work is if Jim Peterik came into the band really. For me that is the only way it would work.

I've actually spoken to Jim and I got on very well with him, I like the guy a lot.
I like the guy too, I don't know if he likes me but…I tried to contact Jim. I don't know what sort of reaction I would get. I have a lot of respect for him and it would hurt my feelings. Yeah I love that guy, I have ultimate respect for him.

Anything else I can add for you?
Well I think we covered the most important stuff, the stuff people want to know anyway. About the name and all that!
Well s far as the name goes, I think nearly everybody knows what's going on don't they,

I think by now they do!
Well thanks.

My pleasure, talk to you soon.
Thanks mate, keep in touch.

 
Tue
07
Feb

Tom Cochrane (1999)

Artist: 
Categories: 
Interviews

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.
Most of that is out of my control, it's in the hands of my agent and my management. I would really love to be able to get down there and do a show.

For sure. I was saying earlier that they still play 'Life is a Highway' on the radio all the time.
The name would still be recognized by the masses and it would be good to see some shows down here.

Well you know it's not out of the realm of possibility, it's gonna happen.
You know, it was 35 degrees Celsius here today, it was hot humid. I love this stuff you know a lot of people don't like the heat.

I love it. You have to really if you're Australian.
Well I guess so, you get some wonderful weather down there. You get some pretty good climactic changes through the season. Not like we get up here, we get drastic ones.

I spent a year there in Toronto, I didn't know you were from there, actually I didn't know where you were from. Where are you originally from?
Well I spend a lot of time in Vancouver. That's where I met my wife. You know, it's like a 2nd home. I spent my teenage years in Natobico and every 5th year in Oakflield, outside of Toronto.

I spent a year there in '92 and experienced your winter and your summer and I have to say the winter is incredible.
That was the 'Life is a Highway' year. That's when it was out.

Yeah, yeah. I was actually working in a record store so I was selling your discs in Toronto.
Is that right, cool...

Yeah it was fun.
Look I've got every record that you have actually released here. So excuse me if I ask you a few questions.

Yeah, well go ahead, shoot. That's what its all about and I'm pleased to help.

Yeah look I've been a fan since 'Breaking Curfew', that's when I brought your first album.
Wow, that goes back.

I mean I've gone back and got the rest since then, but I've also followed you ever since then. I should start with the last album I guess. Were you pleased with it?
Yeah I love this record, although it's funny that you're talking about some of those other albums because some people have pointed out that this record reminds them of some of the Red Rider stuff.
I'm not sure why. I think there's a very organic, honest feeling about this record. I'm very pleased about that.

It is a great sound, big productive yet still quite raw. That live feel…
That's kind of what I work towards, honesty in the music and interpretation and not let the production take over.

I actually reviewed this album saying it was a mix of 'Ragged Ass Road' - the sound of that - with elements of every other single record you've ever done.
Yeah, I mean 'Ragged Ass Road' maybe was very pensive in some ways, this album I tend to get outside myself a little bit more. It's a positive record, like 'Life is a Highway' and some of the songs on that record were very positive statements. But I think the album takes a very decidedly hard focus at the world in general in some of the changes that we are seeing at the end of this decade and at the end of this century.
And you know, the kind of changes we go through as individuals and still it's a very poignant record because of that. I go from songs like 'Northern Frontier' which talks about native gang war here in Canada and is a very important issue I suppose. I'm sure other people can find other issues that they can relate it to around the world. Even though they are culturally specific and very local you can relate them to issues happening in a lot of other places. Because of mass media and communication and so forth. To me it's a very positive record. Hopefully people will get that from the album, that there is a message here. It celebrates life and is life re-affirming. In that sense it really does parallel 'Life is a Highway'.

It is a positive record, even with the slow tracks.
Yeah, it speaks to your soul. I think that life doesn't handle a death you know. Tragedy in life normally comes with betrayal and compromise, and trading on your integrity and not having dignity in life. That's really where failure comes. I think death is a really natural part of the cycle and how you deal with the travesty of life and the hardships kind of decide who we are. It's still meant to be, what do the Buddhists call it, a joyful participation in the souls of the world. You still have to be able to have a positive death.
That's what you have to have, you know I haven't been to Australia but I've known a lot of Aussies up here and they are always positive people. They just take life and really live to the fullest and I think it's important to do that and not be afraid of a lot of the guilt and paranoia that we tend to have super imposed on us form youth. Maybe it's a fact that Australia and Canada, we were settled by adventurers, people that had to leave the comfort of England and Europe and they had to kind of break new ground. I think that is indelibly etched on our cultural spirit. I think as Australians and Canadians that's why there is a kindred spirit there because we have had to stick our necks out to kind of explore new land. Expand and challenge that. Hopefully some of my music expresses that attitude of mine.

I think there is a big kinship between the two countries because I think we are both fairly isolated. I know that you are attached to the U.S you still are a fairly isolated country.
Yeah I think because of that we are a very isolated country. I think Canadians had to look globally.
I think we are globally minded, and so are Australians. We've always felt like we are a bit like outcasts and a bit excluded from the American thing. Similar kind of people because we are hybrids of all different nations, a mosaic of a lot of different kind of people. We've learned how to play the game and observe everything, a lot of what happens globally. Americans don't do that, they are not really conditioned to do that. Aussies do that. The English and the Americans tend to be insular.

You are an extraordinary songwriter if you don't mind me saying that.
No I appreciate it!

I think your lyrics have great emotional depth. I'm a big fan of your lyrics, I fact there's a few tunes that I won't to ask you specifically as we go along though the catalogue here. Where does the writing come form, is it natural. Where do you get the inspiration from?
Oh me. Well I think first and foremost when I was kinda going through my life change, when I was going through the telling of age as a teenager and college and all of that. In a sense because my career didn't happen and a lot of people got off to a quick start with a hit record whatever, you know I worked a lot of different jobs. I drove a cab, I worked in Cil Paints as a clerk, I worked Canada Packers, packing meat then when I moved to LA I was delivering phone books and washing dishes to make a living. You know, I really think that's a important issue I've drawn upon a lot of those real issues in life, a lot of wonderful people I met. A lot of the lucky ones and all the ordinary ones. That's living in the real world, what I do is not living in the real world. I make a living doing what I love doing and it's what brings me joy, it's a hobby and I'm professional at it, but if I didn't have those experiences to draw from and I did those things till I was 26 to 27 - I know what's it's like to make a buck and live in the real world. I try never to forget that and sometimes I do but I go back and remind myself that's reality.
I think hey I'm real lucky to be able to do what I do for a living doing what I'm doing. As a songwriter which is first and foremost what I am so to answer that's what I draw upon. Quite a few times through the last few records I would go back to those original experiences that I had, like living and working in that real world and apply that to a lot of the songs. There is that and reading, I'm not afraid to go outside of myself and write in the 3rd person. That is to explore, like 'Big League' for instance thinking from the position of a father who had a son who died in a car accident.

I have a major question about that song. Tell me the story.
Yeah, well he's going to be a hockey star in his dad's opinion and was destined that way but it never came to be. Now you know to me, obviously that became a big hit in Canada partly because of the hockey reference, but there is bigger issues that come to bear there. I think that an Australian dad can relate it to
Soccer or Rugby or football or whatever. I think in the States they could relate it to Baseball. The reason is because people could relate to it on a number of different issues but I think the most important issue with that song is that the dad said to me 'I wish I got to know my son better'. He said he was busy with his hockey and his school and he was busy supporting the family that we didn't communicate as much as we could of. I think we'd always feel like that, he probably had a great relationship with his son.

Did this gentleman just come up to you back stage?
Yeah he came up to me. He was a custodian at the rink and said my son is a big fan and he loves ' Boy Inside The Man'. I asked if he was coming to the show that night because I didn't recognize the tense he was talking in and he said that he had died in a car accident. That just struck me, like a diamond bullet hit me between the eyes and said I was really sorry and he told me the story. He said he had a scholarship in the states and he was playing hockey with a bunch of his friends and he got hit by a truck.
So to me it was a no brainer, it had to be a song. It just was just a matter of time. At the time I was working with Ken Greer basically Red Rider was Ken and myself, we were working in a house in Western Toronto. We had rented a house to write songs. We set up a studio in there, it was a big bare house, and I had just a mattress upstairs. I used to go upstairs and meditate on the mattress and listen to my tapes.
It was just a mattress, a guitar and my tapes and a few books. Anyway I meditated and then I fell asleep, came out of it and within 15 minutes I wrote the song and I had the lyrics and everything within 15 minutes. It happened that fast. The actual story I had had with me for over 8 months and it was just sitting in there formulating in my mind. It was sitting there in my soul and my mind and was just waiting to present itself in song form.

Now I read that the father said he went back and listened to the 'Boy Inside the Man' and the album to get over the death of his son.
Well the son was a fan as well of that song. The father said my son turned me on to the music. It kinda hit me pretty hard, You know I recently just lost my mother in law and we were very dear friends. It's never the same I guess than when you lose your own parent but I was very close to her. I remember going back and I drove to the store, down in Winnipeg the day after the funeral and looked at the tapes she was listening to.
They were all my tapes, she loved my music and I really feel strange knowing maybe she was listening to my music shortly before she died. She died of a brain hemorrhage, no one knew, so it was very tragic. This healthy beautiful young woman only 56 years old. It's a piece of you kinda goes with them.
Same as the kid in the 'Big League', it was a very poignant moment.

I guess as a songwriter nothing could effect you more deeply could it?
No, I've had people send me letters telling me their kid died in a car crash and they found the 'Life Is A Highway' tape in the tape deck. Sometimes you don't want to hear that stuff. You sit there and go geez.
To me though, it goes on, it's the cycle of life. I believe we do carry on another level.
Music is one of those things that make us feel a little less alone in the world.

Absolutely. Well I can say everything you just said is exactly how I've felt while listening to some of your stuff sometimes. I have a different album of yours for every mood.
I appreciate that buddy. That means a lot to me. I think a the end of the day as a songwriter if you can touch people and make them feel a little less alone in the world then you've done your job. That's how I try to look at my job, no more no less. It's not terribly complicated. Some songs don't though. Obviously what's important to person isn't to the next. A lot of people love Good Times and to them that represents a particular time in there life, a summer that they were going through certain changes, fell in love, had their heart broken, whatever and they were listening to that song. Maybe on the new record, Piece Of Your Soul or one of those. These songs are something like the soundscape for somebody life. A soundtrack for people's lives. It's a privilege on that level. I try to look at it like that every time I think it's not an important thing.
I talked to a doctor once and told him I really admired what you do, he worked in the ER room in the Vancouver general hospital and I said I really admire you, you save lives.
You know what I do is really self-serving. He goes on the contrary, what you do actually saves lives too, because what is does is give people an outlet, it gives someone something that can change their mood drastically. Because I believe a lot of disease comes from anxiety, comes out of loneliness.
So in that sense he made me feel better, but I still think what he does is more important. None the less makes me feel better about what I do.
I believe even if someone's listening to Life Is A Highway and makes them feel better and diffuses a lot of bad feeling they have driving home and they might not have a fight with their wife that night or a fight with their boss, hell you're giving people an outlet to use as an elixir.

I totally agree, absolutely agree. And I tell you what gets my spirits up on the new album - The duo of I Wonder and Heartbreak Girl. They are a couple of terrific songs, happy and feel good songs.
Thanks Andrew.

I'm yet to understand why I haven't heard them on the radio!
I gotta be honest with ya, where did you get the album? I don't think it's released down there?

No it isn't. The day it came out I had a friend of mine in Canada mail it to me.
So you didn't get it through the Internet or something?

No. I had someone go out to a store in Vancouver and get it for me.
Well we are going through this with the record company right now trying to get releases in different territories and it's tough you know. We got released in Japan and Portugal and a few others and I'm shocked because we've always done well there. I had a really great response and a lot of really good mail form Australia.
Now there's no release down there. So right now the record company wants to resign me and I'm actually a little bit pissed of at them for that. I'm thinking of leaving them and going to another label. Especially with the territory issue, I mean Australia to me is important and has been a major issue. Germany is another issue. We did well there so. Australia to me has always been important to me. I'd love to get down there but I'm not a booking agent. I'm not a promoter so I haven't had a lot of control over that.

Me neither. Otherwise I'd have you on a plane next week.
You've gone through an independent label in the States haven't you?

Yeah we're on World Domination.

Now on to Ragged Ass Road…it blew me away. I just love this album to death. It was a great album but it didn't sound like it had many singles off it. Just a really a solid record.
Yeah.

Solid record from start to finish. What were your thoughts on the finished recording?
It was a tough record, a strange record. It came out after we had this tremendous period of success with Mad Mad World. It was a real roller coaster ride. I mean my marriage went through a lot of problems at that point cause you're on the road so much and there are so many distractions. Form my point of view and my wife. We kinda broke up for a while, a couple of years actually and eventually got back together but you know it was a tough period and went through a lot of changes. Ragged Ass really was the boat that weathered that period. It was an important record in that it was a great release.

There are some pretty tough talking songs on there?
Yeah.

Just Scream?
Yeah that's why I say it's a bit self-indulgent. You know and a bit cathartic. I didn't really care about sales figures and any of that stuff. I just wanted to get things off my chest. Yet oddly enough there's still some amazingly strong melodies I think. Some well crafted songs at least for me on that record. A lot of anxiety.
I'm very proud of I Wish You Well and Wildest Dream. Ragged Ass Road was an amazing song.

I love Paper Tiger.
Yeah, it's about Sylvia Platt. Who went through her own changes. I could really relate to her work. To some of her poetry. People like Dorothy Parker, I'm a big fan of all their writings. I've gotten a lot of inspiration from them. They have all lead very tragic lives. It is a very heavy record

I'd say it's your least commercial album but I think it's your strongest.
Thanks Andrew I appreciate it.

Mad Mad World was before that and I guess it had your biggest hit in a while didn't it.
Is that your biggest selling album to date?

Yeah it would definitely be. 2.5 million or something. Yeah it keeps ticking.

My favourite track is All The King's Men, fantastic. Sinking Like a Sunset is a favourite. No Regrets of course. Any particular inspiration behind the writing on that album?
The actual record…

...It was quite a change in direction for you wasn't it?
Yeah well it was the music on that record that drew from the old Memphis soul genre of music. It's something I've always felt kind of a kinship with. Even stuff that was estranged from it like Joe Cocker or Derek and the Dominoes, I think all of those albums had an affiliation with Memphis. So we ended up going down there to work with a Memphis producer and recording a lot of the record down there.
Even though we did Life is a Highway to Mozambique and Vancouver. Looking back on it I am very proud of that record. It seems fashionable for people to knock albums that do well and in hindsight 4 or 5 years down the line, but again to me it sold well but it was an uncompromising record. It had a lot of burly pride I call it you know. It had a lot of pride that record. It was big and burly and positive and I think people related to it because of that. I used to love playing a lot of those songs; Sinking Like A Sunset and No Regrets as well as Life Is A Highway. I have no problem with success if there isn't a big price tag in terms of compromise. I didn't compromise on that record.

No I don't think you did. I remember that once again I had to get it on mail order and rang up a store in Toronto and had them mail it to me.
No kidding. Well you were one of the first because when it finally got out there to Australia it did really well.

I remember getting it and thinking what a change!
Yeah so you were one of the first…on the cutting edge, Could always use a few more fans like you that's for sure.

Haha! What was it like working with Joe Hardy? I'm quite a fan of some of the other stuff he's produced.
Joe is great. I heard the Colin James work that he had done and I thought it suited where I was heading with some of the material on that record. I really believe that John Webster and I co-produced that record and Joe's biggest contribution came in the mixing, He was always there, quality control. He used to bring in a huge collection of guitars to work with, some pretty interesting vintage guitars. He had great instincts. It was a real group project. Joe shone in the mixing.

And you two self produced the last 2 albums, so you'll keep doing that?
Yeah.

You prefer producing yourself?
Well, to be honest with you I think I'm a good producer but it takes a lot doing it yourself. I might go to an outside producer for the next record. But we'll see. I love producing with other people, writing with other people. We'll see what happens. It would be nice to pass the reins on that level.

That was your first solo album since the early 70's.
You know I don't look at it that way, but I know people do look at it like that. Ever since Boy Inside The Man it's been, not really a solo project because Kenny was there, but it was mainly me and then the two of us. Really through Boy Inside The Man through Victory Day, even though Victory Day is Tom Cochrane and Red Rider its completely different musicians than Tom Cochrane & Red Rider. None of the original Red Rider guys were there. Red Rider became like this ghost.

The Red Rider finished up after Breaking Curfew?
Pretty much yeah.

Once again, I've got Victory Day here and there are a couple of tracks on there I'd like to ask you about. Big League we've covered but Victory Day. That had pretty intense lyrics as well.
It's a bit of a reach for me to go back and get the inspiration for that one. It's talking about overcoming odds. I think which human beings are pretty resilient.

It sounded like it was also dealing with domestic violence.
Yeah pretty much, she's beaten black and blue. She rises out of that. It's been explored since quite a bit.
So now it seems kinda redundant to talk about it. I think women have had a tough time. I've done a lot of work with World Vision; I've been out to Africa 3 times now. It became a cornerstone. A bit of an anthem and I'm proud of it. I felt like no matter where you're from it always seems the women get short shifted. They are always on the bottom end of any totem pole when it comes to civil rights. They are always the ones no matter what situation are always treated the worst. In a lot of 3rd world countries as well as here.
There's a movie which deals with this over in your neck of the woods, over in New Zealand called Once Were Warriors. A very powerful film, one of my favourite films but it's kinda disturbing.

An amazing film, I agree. Not always fun to watch, but essential viewing.
Another favourite track on that album is Not So Far Away. A nice little ballad!

Yeah it became almost an anthem for the stuff I did in Africa.

That 's right, you did that live version.
Now my favourite album of yours probably because of the time in my life it came out and I got it is the Tom Cochrane & Red Rider album with Boy Inside The Man.
Yeah and that song has gone through so many changes. It's been such a gas. I mean I've done a lot of different versions of it. It's always fresh live.

You've done it acoustically, 10-minute symphony version....
Yeah. It always brings the house down. It's a great song to play. We were talking about that earlier about the changes you go through as a human being and I think if you're a good song writer, that's what you are first not a star or celebrity and you're a human being.
Boy talks about those changes. About starting out, you're wild eyed, romantic about life and you've got all these possibilities. Then you have a few disappointments but you bounce back through those and then you become a bastard cause you figure that's the way you have to be to survive. A few things happen to you and you change from that. Then you become someone that's a father; you marry someone that's wonderful.
You go through some great changes that way.
It talks about those changes you go through as a man. That rite of passage from teenager to young man and that vision of what a woman is and what love is and what romance is keep you going. The spirit and that quest. Define what's real. Even though you go through all these changes and you might be a prick at times and you might fall from grace here and there you are always struggling to learn. You are always struggling to find something that makes sense. It's a truth amongst all the bullshit. I think that's what defines us as a human being is struggling to do that.

You speak of several things and that theme runs through the whole album actually.
Yeah. Some of the stronger records I've done have been very inspired with the people I've worked with, but where we've done them. That one was done in Wales, a very interesting area. We used the same studio that Oasis used on their last record. It was quite an experience there for 3 and a half months.

That's quite a long time isn't it. There's one song that stands out on that record and it's lyrically hilarious and I heard a small story that you might be able to tell me more about. Citizen Kane and that it was directed at an ex-manager?
Yeah it was as a matter of a fact. I think he's mellowed since. One can only hope.

It's pretty lyrically biting isn't it?
I'd say!

What happened there, he ripped you off or something?
Well yeah it's the usual stuff you go through with managers. More a misunderstanding, lets call it a diversion, differing philosophies. Bruce was the big circus guy who didn't believe that there should be any meaning of songs and any meaning other than making money. I was pretty young, naive and green so yeah, I'd say I got ripped off at times. It was a tough period of writing coming out of Breaking Curfew. However very often out of adversity that's when the best work comes. That's what happened in the case of Boy.

So what are your favourite memories of the Red Rider years?
Well we had some good times, I mean to be honest a lot of it was fairly contrived, struggling to have an identify. You know when you're starting out like that in the music business in Canada, especially back then, it was a bit like endangered slavery.
That was part of the problem I had with Bruce Allen. Whereas I had all these lofty ideas about music and music being really important on commentaries on life and making statements on how people feel. It wasn't like a band that we were all friends and we all shared a lot of common interests like we started out in school it was all kinda contrived. I met a manager back in the late 70's when I was a singer/songwriter struggling and I'd lived in LA and I'd come back to Toronto and I was figuring out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Like a journalist I thought I'd like to be or a commercial pilot, so I saw Red Rider play and joined them.
We did have a lot of good times but a lot of rough times, I mean we struggled a lot. We got sent to the East Coast a lot in terrible weather, with not a lot of money and didn't get paid and didn't have anyone that would dig in for us. So I mean it was hard in those early years. I'd have to say the best times were when we moved to Vancouver and even though I had trouble with Bruce Allen and he was a bit of a bastard at times you know I fell in love out there, met my wife out there. Some really wonderful times in Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

Are you pleased to see all the catalogue has been re-eleased on CD?
Yeah it is. I think it changes from territory to territory and country to country. You know the Japanese will have combinations of different tracks. I can't keep track of who does what where but it's good to see.

I've actually got the Hang on to your Resistance CD here too!
No kidding. That's pretty early.

When did you record that? 74?
I was still going to school, I was in college. I was doing that on the weekends.

Now, you put out the box set Ashes To Diamonds. What was it like looking over all your work and compiling that?
Well actually a good friend of mine helped put that together. Frazer Hill. You hire the best people for the job and put those things in the hands of people you trust and he really dug out some great stuff, some really great demos that we had done. I really gotta give him the credit for that.

What I really like about it is there's some really good alternative versions on there and a whole bunch of live and unreleased stuff.
Yeah sometimes you figure that when a box set or one of those anthologies are released you're either dead or close to it. It kinda worked out. It doesn't really feel final. It's very important to me that those things don't feel like they're final.

So we can expect Vol. 2 then?
Well maybe. Depends. We are certainly getting a lot of good live recordings.

I was going to ask if you're recording any more live stuff cause I've got the Symphony Sessions and your Songs Of A Circling Spirit here.
We are at a stage now where we can record stuff to hard disc so easily and we've taken 8 DATS out on the road.

I'd love to hear some of the X-Ray Sierra stuff live. I do hope you do it.
Usually Andrew the stuff needs a certain gestation period and the public has to be educated about the song.
But songs like Beautiful Day seem to go over like I've been playing them a long time and people have grown to know these songs. Usually that doesn't happen, you have to have a lot of exposure. Songs like Beautiful Day really haven't had a lot of exposure.

With your Symphony Sessions was that complicated to put together?
No actually we had to give kudos to George B?............. who was the music director who lived in Edmonton at the time and worked with the Edmonton symphony quite a bit. Now he's moved to Vancouver he does a lot of film work but he helped score that and John Webster and Ken Greer really put a lot of work into it, put a lot of work scoring it.
We were so tired because we had been touring quite a bit coming into it, and I had a hell of a flu so those guys put it together and my mandate basically was I want this to be about the songs. We don't want over the top symphony on the songs, we didn't want to sacrifice the energy of the songs. So we put up all this plexi glass around the band and separating us from the orchestra and we pulled it off. I really think the songs have a lot of energy and the orchestra tends to follow the band instead of the other way around.

I mean songs like 'Can't Turn Back' actually sounds like you're not sure where you're going next!
Yeah exactly. In that song there was an element we left open to improvisation. It was quite exciting.

At one stage you scream out to Ken Greer about 10 minutes intothe song, "Is there anything left Kenny?”....then kind of wind it up. Very cool!
It was quite an inspired performance. We tended to play some songs that way from then on.

And Circling Spirit was different again?
Circling Spirit was just about getting in touch with the songs. My manager suggested I was getting out of touch with my songs. The shows were turning into a circus after Mad Mad World and he said just forget about the band and go play on your own.
Do these songs justice. I really wanted to think about it first. He said don't wait too long cause I think this is what you have to do to become connected with your songs.
We tried Lunatic Fringe first up and a bunch of other songs and couldn't believe how good they sounded.
Called up my manager a week later and a month later we were on the road playing these stripped down versions of these songs. Half way through the tour we realized we had something special going on and started recording the shows.
The whole tour had a real special vibe about it. I never felt so close to the songs before. It really generated a strong sense of self esteem.

It was great to hear you strip down songs like Paper Tigers.
I really love those versions.

What next Tom?
We really trying to sort this international thing out.

Yeah well the more people that can hear your releases the better.
Sure, then I'm shooting to get a new record out within the next 8 months to a year. We'll have to see what happens.

 
Tue
07
Feb

Steelhouse Lane - Keith Slack (1999)

Categories: 
Interviews
Hey Keith, I haven't seen much info on you out there, so we might go right back and get the basics from ya!
You are based in Texas, right? Always been a Texan?

Yes, I'm currently living in Beaumont, TX. Born and raised here, I feel blessed to have grown up in such a musically rich area that such musicians as Billy Gibbons, Janis Joplin and Edgar & Johnny Winter to name a few, came from.

When did you start singing?
Well, I actually started playing drums first at the age of four. I never wanted to be the front man, I hated the way my voice sounded at the time. I was more or less talked into it by friends and a few beers of course. I guess that was around 1995. Shortly after that I met Jonathan Grell and we formed Mudpie.

Who were your influences growing up?
My parents took me to see Three Dog Night when I was four and it was all over after that. I remember begging for Frampton Comes Alive, which I received for my sixth birthday, and then it was the usuals...Kiss, Hendrix etc...

And now - are differences in what influences you these days?
Oh yes, I've always had that inner soul thing learning for a new experience, and with the blues thrown in with that, there's an awesome combination. I listen a lot more to song writers and not so much musicians if that makes any sense. Don't get me wrong, it's great to have both but I'd rather be moved than amazed. I'm definitely a child of the 70's.

What were you first bands?
My first band was when I was 15. I played in a blues band here in Beaumont, playing drums. After that I think it was a modern rock a la early Cult band when I was 17 and then? it gets blurry.

And your first paying gig / band?
Well, we charged the neighborhood kids five cents to come and watch us jam and tear up our instruments when I was six, does that count?
Really I don't remember. I played a lot of gigs around the time I was 15 thru 17.

For the Steelhouse Lane debut, we heard from the Press Releases of this
sensational new singer. True of course! But where did Mike Slamer find you?

James Christian is who referred me to Mike, and that was damned nice of him. Mike called me and the rest so they say, is history.

Robin McAuley said to say howdy! How long have you two known each other?
Howdy there Robin! I've known Robin since '95 when I met his guitar player Jonathan Grell and we formed Mudpie. Back in the insecure days of singing when I wasn't real sure of myself Robin gave me a lot of support and assurance, He came to every gig and showcase we did and I'm forever grateful for that. He and his wife Gina are truly two of the nicest human beings on the planet and an amazing singer I must ad.

He mentioned an earlier project you had and were still thinking of shopping - MUDPIE was it?
Oh yes, Mudpie is where the real Keith gets to do his thang.

Tell us a little about that...

Jonathan and I are both from TX and have a lot of the same influences, so it was quite natural when we both jammed. I think the first time we jammed together we just looked at each other and started laughing because we couldn't believe how good it sounded. The CD we did together included some of the first songs I had ever co-written, and I think those songs still kick ass today.

So Mike's found you and you hook up, what was the sessions for the Steelhouse debut like?
It was a little nerve racking at first. My true style was a lot different from that, it was my first time working with a producer not to mention a musical genius. Everyday in the beginning I thought....surely he's going to get someone else for this album. I was quite green and luckily Mike had a lot of patience and encouragement. He's a very cool person.

Had you heard the original versions of the Slamer originals re-cut for the album (Metallic Blue, ...... etc)
Yes, Mike sent me a tape of the original versions to learn and go over before we did the recording.

Did you feel any pressure singing those songs, considering the success of the originals?
Yes, I didn't want to sing those songs like the original singers because then everyone has to make their comparison's, and Mike agreed with that so I just put my own inflections in there and it turned out good.

The debut album received a great response - looking back now, what are your thoughts?

It was the first real record I ever did. There are some really cool things on that record that still move me today.

Did you get any feedback personally from the fans?
Tons!!! that was the coolest part of it all, that people appreciated what I was doing. All the hard work just seemed to be a faded memory when the fan mail started coming in.

The Slaves album was amazing - I expected it to be great, but it was more than that. I named it my album of the year for 1999.
And I thank you for that! And a million thanks to the fans out there who bought and supported it.

What did you and Mike have in mind when you started to record the album?
Mike had said that he didn't want a S.H.L. Metallic Blue 2 record, and I agreed with him. We both wanted to create something more from a perspective of where we were, at that present time. I think too many people try to ride the same horse when they see that it wins one race, and that's not really growing musically is it ?

It was a major step up production, mix and sound wise. what do you put that
down to?

I think we had a little more time spent on this one, and maybe not even that...maybe it was the fact that the songs were more inspiring to us, I really can't pin point it down to just one thing.

How about tracks like Seven Seas and Find What We're Looking For. Great melodic anthems and huge vocals. What do you do to warm your voice up before recording such songs?
I usually try to warm up properly by doing some scales and what not, but I'm also impatient, so sometimes the music hits me and I want to start going for it right away. It depends I guess.

I am a great fan of Chris Thompson. How was it working along side the great
man?
He's a cool dude. Very wise and talented. At first it was a little intimidating but Chris makes you feel right at home.

Any vocal duels? Did you guys feed off each other at all?

Na, I didn't want to get left in the dust completely you know!

And the title track - who's idea for the mega-rap?!!
Well the Hmmmbardah thing was Chris all the way but the concept was Mike's and mine as far as the social evolution thing and all.

That track was a lot heavier than we were used to from the debut. It caught a lot of people by surprise!
Good ! there's nothing like a little shocking the system.

What have you guys got planned for album number 3?
Now you know that would be spoiling the surprise wouldn't it. We'll most likely just do what we do and saddle up a new horse for the distant ride into the sunset.........hey, sounds like a new song.

When do you start recording that?

I don't know yet. We'll keep you posted.

And any surprises in store?

You never know. It's like a venture into the unknown. That's the fun of it isn't it?

Now through much of 1999, you have been out onthe road with Michael
Schenker. What an experience!
Yes, it's been very cool hanging out with such a great band. Lot's of fun and great people.

How did Michael get in touch with you and what was that initial experience
like?

Well, Kelly Keeling called Michael's manager Peter Knorn and told him about me since Kelly was busy doing his solo record at the time. Later that week I received a phone call from Peter and then a fax from Michael saying congrat's and here's the song list. I then learned all the songs in a jiffy and we rehearsed for a few days and started the US tour. It was literally that fast.

The guys goes through a lot of lead singers, for various reasons no doubt! But how have you found the experience?
It's been a lot of fun and a great learning experience. I worked the green right off....ha ha ha. I needed the touring experience so it was perfect.

How long did you have to learn the material?

I don't remember I think about two weeks or less.

Best experience out on tour?
You bet!

Any word on whether you might record a studio album with Michael someday?
As far as I know there are no plans yet for an MSG studio record, but we'll keep you posted.

How about playing with the guys from Thin Lizzy?
Very cool ! It was an honor to be on the same stage as them. I idolized Sykes and Aldridge then I was younger so I felt like a kid asking them things.

And Glenn Hughes?

I hated going on after Glenn. He is hands down one of the best if not the best singer I've ever heard in my life! And he's a real nice guy too.

Were you able to meet or were approached by any Steelhouse fans out on the tour?

Yes, many. They were the coolest! Thanks guys!!!!

And you were even caught on tape! Immortalized on the MSG Unforgiven Live CD. Very cool mate!!

Thanks, that was the fourth gig in the tour I think. I wish it would have been later when things really started to gel but hey, It's still pretty good.

You obviously get a kick out of playing live - disappointed there has been no opportunity for Steelhouse Lane to play live yet?
No, I think that's more or less a record co. thing. With all the fan mail I've received I know the support is there it's just a matter of the co. following up on it. I know if it was my money I would want to protect my investment wouldn't you ?

That would be a kick ass show!

It wouldn't suck, that's for sure.

Any chance of that happening in the near future?
If I knew the answer to that question you would have to start calling me Nostradamus, ha, ha just kidding.

So Keith, if there is any room for anything else, what else have you lined up for 2000?
Well, I'm busy building my own studio at the moment. I'm going to release my own record in the future with me writing and playing all the songs. It will most likely be available via the Internet. I'm working on all that as we speak. Also, Mudpie is still generating a lot of interest with record companies here in the States as well so we'll see what happens.

Anything you would like to add?
Sure, I would like to say again that I really appreciate all the fan support as well as support from people like you Andrew for keeping the music alive when there are so many other alternatives to entertainment these days, and God bless everyone and have a prosperous and fulfilling new year!!!
Peace

One last question...what are you listening to right now?
Silence, It's golden isn't it ? ha, ha.... No, just kidding again, I was listening to my Jeff Buckley record "Grace", the man was a genius.
 
Tue
07
Feb

James Christian (1999(

Categories: 
Interviews

Hey James it's Andrew from Australia. Have you got a few minutes to talk?

Hey Andrew. Yeah of course.

Great.
I knew it would be you calling, You said around this time.

Great thank you. I finally got it together to call you! So how's things?
Great, couldn't be better.

Good. Now I have a copy of Rude Awakening sitting here, the 5th anniversary release.
Can you believe it's been 5 years?

No I can't, that's a long time. Time is just flying by, moving too quick for me.

I can remember when I brought this!
Yeah, I can remember doing the House of Lords record and that was in '89

Still some of my favourite albums I must say. So what are you doing right now?
Well right now I a have a business in Florida and I'm working also with my wife Robin Beck. She's got a new record coming out in 4 weeks or so. Well the promotions starts in about 4 days.

I haven't heard about it yet?
Well you will soon. I did some work, some background vocals for her. Basically I have a music company that I'm working with, me and my friend Mark Baker.

Your old songwriting buddy?
Yeah. We have a music company that we put together and we have had this for about 3 - 4 years. He works in California and I'm here in Florida. We basically do our music via computer, transferring files. I'll do some vocals and he'll do some melodies. It's working out pretty well

You have been pretty low key since you disappeared out of LA?
I have heard several rumors that you were selling computers down there in Florida?
Selling Computers? No! None of the above.

So you are still writing songs for Mark Baker, that's great. I love your stuff that you did together on the solo record.
On Rude Awakening? Yeah, we actually wrote most of the House of Lord's record too, that was Demon's Down.

My favourite House Of Lords record actually…
Yeah mine too. It was a change the market had taken a change for alternative right about when that came out. The record didn't stand a chance at that point.

You know I listen to that album and I can't pick a hit single because the whole album just flows so well.
Well we just wrote. We didn't try to gear anything towards being a single, we just wanted the best material.
One of those songs had a chance in Canada and ended up being Number 1 for 17 weeks in Montreal for a female artist called Julie Masse. We produced that and gave her 'What's Forever For'. She recorded that song and it went to NO. 1 for 17 weeks.

Oh ok, that's Corey Hart's wife?
Yeah. We won a Judo Award; it's like a Grammy down here for that song. So you know the material definitely stood up but the market changed so drastically in the US that it became very not in demand.

Well I can tell you there are many fans going through my site after this sort of music.
I just went on there the other day. Are you getting a lot of hits there?

1700 odd a day.
That's great. Your fan base will only get bigger. There are a lot of people who like this kind of music and can't get it via MTV or radio these days. What's happening in Australia these days musically?

Pretty bad. We follow the states about 6 months behind
6 months behind? That's not too bad. Germany is about 5 years behind.

There is no rock press or TV support here in Australia.
There is a video channel on Pay-TV but it's basically rap/dance.

It's a strange market right now. Music doesn't know which way to turn. Creativity has dried up. There are not enough great songwriters like there were 10 years ago. With the exception of a few prolific songwriters out there, there is not enough quality bands. I don't think in 10 years people will look back and say what a great band anymore. They seem to be gone in a year

In fact I've talked to few people like yourself, great songwriters recently and they are getting asked to write songs for the new hip artists because they can't write for themselves.
Well they have to. There was a time there for about 6 years where the bands refused any outside material form anyone. That's why you had a period of 5 - 6 years where the songs were so bad. You were thinking to yourself how could this actually get releases. It was the bands refusing to take the material. Now, because record sales were so down record companies are now demanding their artists have a couple of hit songs.

So where are Mark and your songs going at the moment?
We've done some things for some movies. I've done a thing for a full-length movie. There was some talk of me doing a new solo record. Right now I would rather concentrate on Robin's career. I mean she had a really huge career in Europe. She had a million selling record with 'First Time First Love'. Right now she has a new record contract with BMG and she is really pushing that.

What country is her record coming out in?
It's coming out in all of Europe. They are talking about a release in the states cause the new song is so good. It's a great song. It was written by Shelly Pikin who wrote 'Bitch' for Meredith Brooks.
Desmond Child wrote the flipside.

Have you sung on anything lately?
I've sung on Robin's record. I really haven't done that much as far as background vocals on people's records.
You know once I moved out here I kind of moved out of the loop from LA. Had I been in LA I'm sure I would have been involved in a lot sessions with different people. I did quite a lot of that at one time.
It's not that I don't enjoy doing it I've gone to a different place in my life.

You cut a lot of songs for The Randells…
The first thing I did when I moved out to LA was to work with Robin Randell and Judithe.
Very nice people. Great lady

I was talking to her cause and she needed a singer. She said tell James I need him.
Great people. I wish them a lot of luck. I also wish you a lot of luck with that site.

It's picking up pace. Thanks.
Have you had any offers from people who want you to make an album for us?
Yeah. I had Greg Guiffria that wanted to know if we wanted to put a record together.
It's something I don't think the time is right yet in the melodic scene.
I just don't think it's going to sell any records at the moment. The record scene in the US is alternative, rap and very angry music. I mean it would be fun to do a House of Lords record but who would we play it for? If that's 3 years down the line then we'll wait.

I talked to Chuck Wright a bit.
What's Chuck doing?

He's playing away in LA. Doing a couple of records for people. The last thing he is playing with Lenny Cordola. Something with Matt Sorum Gun's and Roses. He said to say hi and get in touch. He also plays on the new Mitch Perry project.
We very close .Did he get married?

He didn't say…
We kinda lost touch when I left LA and I got married and me and Robin had a baby daughter and she is like the light of my life. Everything revolves around her. It changes your perspective on so many things. Most importantly I look at her growing up. She'll have the benefit of our experience and hopefully won't make as many mistakes in career moves. You should hear her sing. She actually does some la la's in the song 'Shut Up And Kiss Me'.

Is Robins' record traditional rock?
She has a little more of an edge than her other material. I think it's the best stuff she's done in years. She caught a vibe; you know which is really hard to do these days, to find a little niche. It just sounds right for today's market. Whether you like melodic rock or alternative it goes both ways. It falls right in the middle.
I'd like to send you one if you can't get hold of it.

I'd like to feature it.
I may be able to set up something it you would like to speak with her.

So do we have wait a while longer for another James Christian record?
I'd say a year. We have maybe 10 or 15 songs almost in the can.

Well things sound like they are going well.
Yeah. Well I wish there was more music in my life but I don't want to beat a dead horse. I mean in the House of Lords it was big, I had a struggle before that, playing in small clubs. I got spoiled playing the big stage. If I can't do that I don't want to do anything at this point.

I don't blame you
Do you know what Greg Giuffria is doing?

He got involved in some kind of casino stuff in Las Vegas. I think it has something to do with slot machines. I think he's doing pretty well with it. I just don't know what it is.

Last time I spoke with Chuck he was having a laugh about the fact the last time he saw Greg he was playing golf with Joe Pesci!
Well that doesn't surprise me; he was the kind of person that liked to hang around with celebrities.

James I appreciate your time
No problem, I think it's time for you to go to bed now isn't it?

Yeah, bye

 

 
Tue
07
Feb

Rubber - Harry Hess (1999)

Categories: 
Interviews

Hey Harry. So the album is called Rubber then?

Yep!

So the album is called Rubber - maybe that's what you are going to call yourselves now for outside Japan?
Yeah. We decided to change the name for everywhere except Japan, cause things are going so well for us in Japan, but we thought a good tie in would be to produce the same album cover and call the album Rubber.

Sure, that makes for a smooth transition then doesn't it?
Well hopefully, yeah..haha.

Love the Rubber ducky by the way.
Haha thanks!

Canadian release date?
Not until the New Year. They are going to be starting to go to radio in Jan - so either late Feb. or beginning of March release.
It's going to be quite staggered because the Harem Scarem record isn't coming out anywhere but Japan. So we are really going to be concentrating getting things in motion for this release for Rubber and because it's a new thing they want to have a long build up time to get things organized.
And we are also going to be working on other territories that we have let slip in the last few years. We are going to try and get a US release and things like that.
There are a lot of things we are going to try and concentrate on that we couldn't do under the Harem Scarem name.
We are also going to be touring in Japan for most of December.
And there is going to be a ballads collection that we are going to be working on from mid October till the end of October then we will start playing in November.
The rest of the year is kinda mapped out for us doing little things, so the first chance to get anything else going will be the new year. That's why we are waiting to release the album then.

And the Ballads collection would be released in Japan for your tour?
Yeah, in Japan.

And some new tracks on that also?
Yeah, 2 new ballads.
You are the first to be told about that, I don't think anyone knows this yet!

Well thank you Harry!
Now an important question! So what is the style of the new album?
As far as the song writing goes, it is similar to Big Bang Theory. But the production style is a little different. It's more pop. It's definitely gearing towards - um, it is hard to use examples, because I don't know of many bands that are sounding like this these days.
We just approached the production a little differently. When you hear it you will know what I mean, but it is really hard to describe.
The guitar tones are a little less gainy - they are a little more in the background as far as any other Harem Scarem record goes.
It's more about melodies and songs on this record and they are definitely the strongest songs we have ever written.
It is all about vocals and melody on this album.

So even more harmonies on this album then?
No, not in the way of harmonies. Just n the way of vocal melody.
Lead vocal harmony. There are less harmonies on this record than on any record. But it is all about the vocal melody. Chord changes are very simple, song structures are very simple.
It's all about being just a good melodic song.
It's a lot like the old Cheap Trick stuff.

Sure. They wrote the perfect pop songs. Something like Marvelous 3 then?
Exactly, it's a lot like that.

Any different tracks for the Canadian release?
No actually. There is one more for the Japanese release. 10 for the rest of the world and 11 tracks for the Japanese as they always want a bonus track and that's it.

That will please fans.
Yeah, I think Warner Canada are going to release an import version of the album - like a coupe of thousand units before the end of the year for those who want it.
But other than that we have wanted to put a stop to different records with different track selections with different, you know, so people wouldn't have to go out and buy the same record twice.
And I am happy with that because I was getting a little tired of all those releases coming out.

Yeah, I got a lot of feedback saying the same thing.
That's what the record companies rely on, you know.
It's tough for the artists you know. You want give the label all the ammunition you can for them to be able to sell the album and the world market being what it is now, you can't stop all these imports coming in with different tracks that appear on one record and not the other.
We just cut 12 or 13 tracks and let Warner decide what they want to do with those tracks.
Essentially they pay for the album and they can market it how they like.
Unfortunately the fans are in-between that.
The label has said before - we don't like this track, or this track listing can we do this and we pretty much say, yeah do what you think is best.
All these multiple versions of the albums is a pain for the fans though.

I thought the Big bang Theory Japanese release ran a lot better than the Japanese release.
Well yeah, it did! That's our version - the Canadian one we can basically do with what we like and that was the original band version.
That was our vision.
Because the Japanese label sell the records for us there is no real good reason for us to say no to their ideas.

I can't believe they didn't include Wasted Time on that album!
Yeah, they hated it! They said this just doesn't fit and we were like well, OK!

I am beginning to wonder about their wisdom lately. How many units did you sell of the last album?
60 maybe 65,000 units I think.

Wow, that is great!
Yeah, it is very hard to get over that barrier of 50,000 units. When you are catering just to that specific rock market, there are only so many people to sell records too.
Some bands are selling 3 or 400,000 records there. More mainstream, which is why the new album is going to be more accessible than just to one specific genre of music.
It's really tough to change people's mind that you are just a heavy metal band or something, some of the records we made like 9 years ago.
The reality when you hear the new album is that it is just pop rock. It's a pop rock album.

OK Harry - thanks for taking my call and your time. Looking forward to the new album!
No problem Andrew.

 

 
Tue
07
Feb

John Sykes (1999)

Artist: 
Categories: 
Interviews

My interview with John Sykes was more of a chat session! It was pretty laid back and I have basically run through his career, of which I am a big fan.

There is a few interesting moments, especially when David Coverdale is discussed.
Before you get into it a few updates from a brief chat with John last week.
The album will indeed still have some elements of hip-hop, but not on every track and it will not be a George Lynch. I told John about that album and that is not what he is doing. It will mix elements of the classic Sykes sound with the new.

Also out is the chance of doing any work with David Lee Roth (discussed below). John Kalodner was putting something together but is now unwilling to involve David further after the two met just a couple of weeks ago.

That's about the update, besides the new album will be out in September-(ish) - now enjoy the interview!



John! So how's things?
Good, going very well

Excellent. You've got a new record just about in the can?
Well I'm working on it, I'm about two thirds of the way through it currently. You know just trying to get it polished and hopefully it'll be out by the end of summer.

The Japanese tend to get a bit excited and a bit ahead of themselves because they had you releasing it in April, then in June.
I think they just say that in wishful thinking. Actually I think they just released a Best Of, or a compilation.

Yeah, it came out just a little while back.
Yeah, so I don't want to throw them out too quick. I like to give people a little bit of breathing space so you don't bore them to tears.

You have been fairly prolific in the last few years haven't you?
Yeah I try to be you know, with Loveland and 20th Century I've sort of been chugging away at it.

Fantastic.
Is it easier to make records these days, now that you sort of make them for yourself?

Umm, sometimes it's easier, sometimes you get a bit of a block, it just depends. It's one of those things. I mean for the most part it's fairly easy but sometimes you've got to have a bit of piece of mind and dig really deep to come up with something that's worthwhile.
Hopefully the old inspiration will keep coming. You know in the next 10 and 20 years.
I have to write something that's interesting, something that turns me on first and for most.

I've got a couple of questions about the older albums, but I'll shoot a couple of questions about the new one at the moment.
What are you doing with the new album? Style wise?

Oh I've been working with a few people to give it a bit of a different flavor. You know it's got a bit of a hip-hop feel on some of it. Hip hop and heavy guitars. So it's kind of interesting. Going into some different territory with that and with some of my older style stuff.

Older style…what do you mean by that?
Well with the heavy guitar sound.

The Blue Murder sort of sound?
The lead guitars anyway….

Are you doing lead vocals on this?
Yeah. I've been working with a black guy called Peter Black who is working with me on the project, some of the project anyway, programming loops and stuff. I may bring him into the unit and share some vocal parts with him. I don't want to think too much about that yet.

And who is in the rest of the band?
Marco Mendoza will be playing bass as usual. I've been working with a guy called Bonnie Bonapart, who played a few drum tracks on 20
th Century for me.
I may get Simon Phillips in to cut a few tracks depending on his availability, as I do like working with him.

Yeah he has a good reputation.
He's a great player you know.

What about you working with Glenn Hughes then?
Well we'd been talking about doing something for a long time.

Two Englishmen in LA.
Yeah. We've talked about it for ages but hadn't had a chance to sit down and get into it. Yeah I think we'll get together in the not so distant future. I'm not sure if there's going to be anything on this record with him.

Have you heard his new album?
Yeah it's great.

It's sensational isn't it.
I love his singing. Yeah he's one of the classics. He's just amazing.

Well, I'll go back to a bit of your catalogue if I can.
I'll start with the most recent and go back. The Chapter One release. Did the label put that together?

Yeah they kinda put it together. I haven't actually even got a copy of that. I haven't even seen the damn sleeve on it. I think they threw it together. I really haven't heard that much about it.
I just know it's a compilation of a lot of my old tracks.

Well there could have been a few more Blue Murder tracks but I guess the label would have had to have licensed those.
Yeah probably one of the reasons they didn't. I would think they were leaning it more in their favor.

Yeah I reckon that what they've done, but it's still a good collection of tunes.
That's ok, when I put out Chapter 2, I'll put more of the old ones on there.

Good one. Tell me, your records have been solely for the Japanese now for a few years, are there any plans for licensing for other territories.
Yeah I've really gotta get that stuff together. I've just been doing the Japanese thing for awhile now cause it's easy. I guess I really have to get off my arse and get into some other stuff.
I've kind of been a bit lazy in that department.

Is that something you would work on, or your manager?
I guess it would be something the manager would work on. But I've been just hitting the Japanese thing and it has been quite successful for me. It's been comfortable and easy. I should really stretch out and get some distribution worldwide.

I know a couple of labels that have formed over the last couple of years that would probably be interested. I should steer them your way to see if they bite at it. It would be great to see European or American release.
Yeah it would be really. I guess there are a lot of fans all over that would like to get their hands on it and then they have to go through Japan for extortionist prices.

It cost $50 Australian for a Japanese disc.
That's ridiculous. I have thought about selling it myself on the net. Maybe I'll do that.

Well that is what this interview is for, my website. There are certainly some fans out there.
That's killer.
You know in America the general consensus is that rock is dead. Ever since the alternative thing came in. With rock, it's like they just don't want to know about it.

That's the same as here.
It's a shame really. Because good music is good music.

Yeah well from friends I've grown up with and talk to still ask me "what are these guys up to".
It's like well they are still going, the bands, but you just don't hear about them. You can't pick up a magazine and read about it.

It's just not mainstream anymore. I mean I went to see Toto at the House of Blues, the other week.
They were fucking great.
Steve Lukathur is just an amazing guitar player. Even Steve said on stage the same thing about rock, and that they get no support from their label.
People are kind of interested, but because it's not in the mainstream it doesn't get that push. But life goes on!
Its strange cause a lot of the older bands have these reunions and they seem to do really well.

You've done the Thin Lizzy thing a couple of times, did you enjoy that?
Yeah we've done that a few times and it's always fun. You know we go out and pay our respects to Phil Lynott. He wrote damn good songs. It's just a great pleasure to go out and play and think of him.
Like a group of old veterans we tell a few lies and have a few laughs. Go and play the tunes and it's great.

I talked to Darren Wharton about that and he was much in the same opinion. He said it's great to get out there and play the tunes again.
You know Phil is one of those guys that should be in the Hall Of Fame really.

What is it about Phil that has made such an impression on so many people?
Well, just an unbelievable charisma.
An outstanding talent. To be honest, in being in this business 20 years like I have, you never met anybody like him. He was definitely a one off. They broke the mould after him. He was one of those blokes that absolutely lived it. He was sort of like a Keith Richards sort of character. He was just a born rock ' n roller. He lived every second of it.

Yet unfortunately didn't make it through.
Yeah unfortunately he didn't, because he was the real thing. There's not too much of that around.

Is there any chance of you, because Darren tossed it around, of you maybe recording some new material?
Maybe the original members, but not necessarily under the Thin Lizzy name.
I don't really know, I've talked to Scott. He's asked me about doing some recording. I wouldn't want to go and record under the Thin Lizzy name, it wouldn't be right. Thin Lizzy was really the band around Phillip. It's different to go and play under that name and pay respect to Phil.
More of a tribute thing. It's a whole other bag of apples to go out and record under Thin Lizzy.
Me personally I wouldn't feel right about it. That's not to say I wouldn't go and record something under a different name with Scott.

What's Scott doing these days?
I think he's probably playing golf and watching a lot of telly.

Haha! I loved his 21 Guns album. I thought it was sensational.
His new one.

Yeah, his first one was my favourite.
Actually I think I prefer the first one.

I think the singer did it for me in the first one. Maybe the songs were a little bit better in the first one.
That was a good solid album the first one. I probably only heard the second one once or twice.
I really need to listen to a record four or five times before I can judge it. It takes me awhile to get familiar with all the songs.

So going back a little bit further. Why 20
th Century and Loveland, why split them into two releases?
You know a rock album and a ballad album?

Well initially the label wanted me to do a 7 track extended play of some ballads.
I started laying them down and recording them and I had a few tracks left over.
I just called up the AOR guy and said we might as well do a ten-track album, instead of a 7 track EP because this stuff was sounding pretty solid.
After I played him some stuff he agreed. So I went with the full album on it.
I'm glad I did cause I love that album a lot. There's a lot of variety on it. It was a nice break to get away from the rock stuff. Then after that I was definitely geared up to do a good solid rock record.

So they were separate recording sessions?
Yeah, separate. So I pretty much wrapped up the ballad one and a lot of people were going he's gone soft!
So I thought fuck it and threw the 20
th Century one together.

Yeah well you don't get much heavier than 20
th Century.
Yeah it's a pretty driving record.

It signaled the return to the big guitar sound.
Yeah.

Well obviously on Loveland, cause that was a ballad record, but even before that. On 'Out Of My Tree" you kind of departed the big sound a little bit.
Yeah that was a little different too. I try to diversify as far as the albums go. I try not to remake the same record over and over again. Which some people tend to do. Always trying to get into some different area, different space.

How was the response to those three albums?
Yeah, it was good. To be honest as far as the fans go, at least in Japan, I always get a good reception. The fans are pretty loyal with me. The fans went with me, and accepted the ballad album and it got great reviews. People seemed to like it. It was actually nice to have a little break and show people another side to what I could do.

The one before that was the Blue Murder live album. That was a monster live record.
Yeah that was one we recorded in Tokyo.

That was the one that completed your contract with Geffen?
Yeah that was the last thing with Geffen.
So I did that and fulfilled that contract. I went over to the Mercury people in Japan. I mean Geffen didn't really do a lot for me, so it wasn't like I was losing a whole lot.

Yeah they had two good damn records and…
And they kind of sat on both of them, which wasn't too pleasing. What can you do, you can't cry about spilt milk. You have to get on with it and like 'fuck 'em.'

I was talking to John Waite and he said almost the same thing - after Mercury dropped the ball on with his last album.
John Waite from the…

The Baby's and Bad English.
Oh, he's great. Bad English was a great band. He's a great singer.

Totally! Now, If I go back to the start of Blue Murder.
Actually I'll go back a bit further. Whitesnake. Can I swear in front of you John?…..David Coverdale.

Oh yeah. I don't think anything which way on it. (laughs) That's so old, almost like a lifetime ago.

1987 is such a phenomenal album.
Well, its funny people still till this day come up to me and ask me when I'm going to get back with Whitesnake. When are we going to see you and David together? I have.
Although we did some great work together and everything else he kinda has to get off his high horse a bit if we are ever going to work together again.

There are two things that I have read in interview that David has said I'll run past you to see what you think. The first was 'You and him recreated rock history inside 5 day when you wrote this album, recreated the hard rock sound."
I think it might have been longer that 5 days but I think he might be right. You know when that album came out I think it definitely made a few people sit up and listen. But the thing is I just can't understand why he killed it so quickly. I think one of the reasons people sort of got disappointed by the Whitesanke band, is that 9 times out of 10 when people buy a record they want to see the people that played on the product perform the product. Not David Coverdale the voice and then a backing band form the local bar or pub. They want to see the real deal. He sort of robbed people of that opportunity and I think it's a real shame.

There was such a great line up on there.
I think it was very short sighted of him to do that, although he probably made a killing to start with.
In the long run I think it's probably hurt the whole thing.

Who or what got in his ear and convinced him that he needed a new band?
I can't really say cause I don't really know.
I mean if it had been just one person, fired me or just one of the band member's cause they'd had a little tiff or tizzy or something you could understand it. But he fired everybody. The drummer, bass, me, the producer. It was like he was just cleaning shop and the only reason I could imagine that would be for is so he could have a lot more control of things, certainly in the financial department.

I mean the record that followed that he even stiffed his guitarist (Vandenberg) to bring in Steve Vai.
Well the thing is if he needs a blues based guitar player - he's not a blues player.

The record was ok but it didn't suit the whole feel of his voice at all.
It was almost like it wasn't believable anymore. It was like these semi rock/pop songs.
There wasn't really a whole lot of depth to it I felt.

I don't think any of his records match that sound, because of the guitar sound, the rhythm section.
Well actually David's just used my bass player on his record, Marco Mendoza.

I was going to ask you about that. Did you feel betrayed by Marco?
Well I wasn't too pleased about it and I did give him a good chewing up about it.
I know Marco has to make a living. He said to me it was basically just a cheque to him, which is fair enough. It's just a session to me. Initially I felt a bit betrayed by him but after talking to him he has assured me it was only money to him. I've got to be a big enough man to take it and get on with things.

The other thing that Coverdale said and for me this just sums him up. ' You and Robert Plant should go off and form a band called the Anti Christ's.
Me and Robert Plant?!! The Anti Christ's?!
Hahahaha!! Him and Plant aren't real good buddies.
Dearie me, he's still all upset.

This is about 5 years ago.
I did talk to Robert once. Later I got a call from one of his personal assistants to go check out his show. I went down and met with him briefly but nothing ever came of it.
That makes me laugh. Anti Christ's, not a bad idea.
David may have felt a bit threatened by Robert, with all his years in the business. With me, I pretty much say what's on my mind. Especially when it comes to creative things. Sometimes it like you just say your thing, not a big deal. But if somebody constantly want you to kiss their arse and you don't do that. It becomes something some people can' t handle too much. I'm just not an arse kisser.

What's he doing, a solo record?
Yeah, he's got some called Earl Slick playing guitar on it.
I can't think of what he did?

He was in Phantom Rocker and Slick and Dirty White boy with David Glenn Eisley.
Oh he's got a hell of a good voice. I nearly had him in the band for Blue Murder at one stage.

Slick was also in Little Caesar.
I think David's got someone else in the band. Maybe someone from Mister Mister. What's his name…Steve….

Yeah? Steve Farris?
He's a real nice bloke.
Well that's about it from that front.
I spoke to John Kalodner. He was trying to get me and David back together.
I can see that John would like to recreate the old magic. Like he has done with Aerosmith.

Now, I've got about half a dozen questions form fans online.
One of them asked now that John Kalodner is resurrecting the portrait label in Sony is there any chance you will end up over there with all the other 80's geezers?

Well I haven't called him and asked him about that one. I'm not sure. I'm doing this next record.
He did mention to me briefly about doing a soundtrack cut for a movie with David Lee Roth. Which I don't think is going to come through, as I didn't hear more about it.

So you are playing guitar for David Lee Roth.
Yeah, for a new movie with Adam Sandler. Like I say I didn't hear anymore about it.

You jumped to Geffen and put out Blue Murder, that was around '89.
Yeah I came out with a pretty heavy one. It might have been a bit too heavy.
That one has almost become like a cult classic. It's like a record that you really like and then still like it 10 years later.
It doesn't sort of get old and wear out on you. It still stands the test of time. I definitely had a lot of angst in me at that time

Over the Whitesnake thing?
Yeah I really wanted to come out with something that would establish me; I did feel cheated about the Whitesnake thing.

How many did that go on to sell?
500.000

Pretty solid figures then.
Yeah I still don't feel that the label promoted it that well. Other bands were selling bigger units.
There were a couple of singles on there. I just didn't think that the label backed it up that well.
You really have to have a whole lot of things in line all at the same time, ready to go, to get the green light from upstairs. If you don't really get to make everything happen at the one time, you know promotion, making sure you are on the TV a lot, maximum exposure. If all that's not happening pretty soon the whole deck of cards fall on you. There was a lot of radio interest in Jellyroll but no real follow up from the label.
I've heard through the grapevine I probably shouldn't have signed on the same label as David, he had a hell of a lot of power there with all the record reps. I might have suffered a little bit with that.

Previously we didn't even know you as a lead singer?
I didn't even know myself actually. I tried a lot of guys. Tony Martin from Sabbath for example. But the thing was I kept trying all these different guys but I had already sung a lot of the songs in the demo format myself.
I think what happens is when you listen to something over and over again you kinda get brainwashed with it and I think when I sent it to John he's listened to it so much with my vocals, eventually he said just sing it yourself. I didn't really want to get into that but kinda got pushed it to it…eventually once I got into it I became comfortable with it.

You've got a sensational voice. It suited the material.
Thanks.

Another question now.
As far as singing is concerned how much and to what extent have Phil Lynott and David Coverdale left their mark on you?

They have definitely left their mark on me as far as working with them; I've picked up a lot of influences from both of them. I think in some of my songs you can hear a bit of both of them.
I was fortunate really and lucky to have worked with both of them. I mean David is one fucking good singer. Phil was an amazing singer in his own right. I managed to pick up a bit from both.

Yeah you do a great version of 'Still In the Night'…
Thanks.

Haha! It was about 9 minutes long?
Well we've played that song and it's lasted 25 minutes.

Haha! Awesome. What about that famous solo in it with the cello?
Yeah, well that was actually the first part of that song I wrote…was the middle section.
All that was written on guitar in my mum's kitchen. It wasn't till months and months later that I came up with the other stuff and basically got the riffs and the chord for the verses.

You must learn form people you work with cause after the first Blue Murder you produced the second one yourself?
Yeah

Why did you decide to do that?
More control.
Not really the control thing. I had a lot of time on my hands. Actually if I'd used a producer it probably would have got done a hell of a lot quicker.
I was just mucking about and experimenting. I thought I would just give it a go.

How does it compare working with Neil Murray and Unbar to Menoza and O'Steen?
Well I never worked with Dunbar in a live situation; we only worked in the studio.
Working with Neil was great. Good solid player. Not as fiery as Marco.
I can always rely on Neil, very rarely fucks up. Marco's just an amazing player.
He's got a lot of heart and soul. He can play pretty much anything you want him to play.
Tommy a great drummer.

What's the deal with the Thin Lizzy boxset?
I don't really know. I don't know how many different box sets you can put out really.

Is there any original Blue Murder demos with Ray Gillan and Cozy Powell featuring on them?
I didn't even know you had Ray Gillan on some vocals?
Oh yeah. There was a lot of stuff on reel to reel that, I think got wiped. There is some stuff I think I've got in the archives.
I have thought about releasing that. I did think about it when Ray died. I have a great original version of ' Riot ' with Cozy Powell on. Where he just slamming on it.

Yeah poor old Cozy as well huh.
Yeah. Actually Cozy played a lot on the old demos. Some of them have Ray on vocals. At some point I will go through it all. I will do a box set with some these rare recordings.

Well next time I'm out there, I'll come and sort it out for you.
Yeah, ok. How often do you get out here?
Give us a call when you get out here. It's a great place.
Thanks a lot for this and the good questions.

Sure, a pleasure John!
Well listen you have a good one and we'll talk soon.
Well I'll hopefully talk to you in the not so distant future

Bye mate.

 

 
Tue
07
Feb

John Waite (1999)

Artist: 
Categories: 
Interviews

A year on from my first Interview with John Waite and at a much more likable hour of the day - I caught up with the AOR legend via phone to his new Los Angeles home.

More informal this time around, I really enjoyed this interview and thought John's replies were relaxed and quite funny in places.
See what you think!



Hey John.
Andrew - how are you doing?

Very well thanks. Yourself?
Well I just knocked a big hole out of my guitar, trying to pick it up!
Pretty good though - the sun's shining out here and everything's hunky dory!

It's been a while since we had our last chat.
Yeah, was that the one where it was like 3a.m. and you were sitting in front of a wood heater or something?

That was me!
Hahaha. Are you in the same place?

Yeah, except this time it is a decent hour (midday) and it's summer, so I am not freezing my ass off!
Yeah, it's tomorrow there isn't it?

That's it! So you are in LA now - what inspired you to move out to LA?
Well I was on the second single from my last album When You Were Mine, that single was Imaginary Girl and my manager was out here and they kind of botched that last single - even with all thee radio stations playing it and no body did anything.
So I thought it was worth the trip out here to be with my manger when the second single came out, but the same thing happened again.
I couldn't believe it.
I changed management actually. And I am still here. It kinda grew on me a little.
It was kind of good to get out of the East coast scene for a while.
A lot of my friends are here and a lot of people who were huge Baby's fans in the music business are here also.
A lot of the Baby's success and the solo success like Missing You were in California.
So it's easy to get things done here.

I am a huge LA fan so I can see where you are coming from.
Have you ever been to New York?

No I haven't - next trip!
Just try and see it - just for the spectacle. It's really something.

Toronto is as close as I got!
That's a nice town.

OK - the last interview ended with Temple bar, so we should start we left off last time around.
You got a new deal for When You Were Mine?

Yeah, that was a long time coming. Two years after Temple Bar had had it's day and Imago had gone down.
And it took about two years to get singed to Mercury. It looked like it was going to be great, because my manager had a personal relationship with Danny Goldberg, who was the head of the company. And my ex-manager was head of the A&R department. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake to just whip out an album and get back on the road.
But we had a few problems with a few things and it just kinda got lost.

How in God's name did they fuck it up?
I just don't know. I just don't know. It was all over the radio. We closed out all the stations in the first 3 weeks and it was absolutely on it's way.
But they had priorities for a certain artist there and there was no chance for a video and no chance for a tour.

But it was such a commercial album.
Yeah, it was really made to do this singer/songwriter thing and take a different route. It was very commercialized and very accessible.
We were getting tremendous reviews and interest and all this air play, but you can't motivate a company if they are more concerned about getting other artists on the radio.

I just don't understand that at all.
Well I had seen it before, I saw it a Chrysalis at the end of the Baby's.
The person you need to get in your court is looking the other way. You can't do much about it. They have priorities - it's a business.

So where did that leave your head after that?
Well it did me in! Especially after moving out here. I really just expected people to do what they said they were going to do.
It was kind of crippling really.
But there are worse things in the world than losing a record. You know, there are terrible things going on all around the world. Northern Island is a tragic. Rwanda is a tragedy.
But losing a rock record - that's ridiculous.

That is a nice perspective to put it John, but it is still a shame.
Well it was realistic. Over the last 5 years, I have had some bad luck. I still got to make the thing and work with those musicians. It was just disappointing.
Things go in cycles and it will come back around.

When I talked to you, the tape was in the mail and I wasn't able to discuss the songs with you, so I have to ask you a few questions now if I can?
Sure.

There was two halves to the album. A rock half and a more softer country feel to the second half.
Well after Temple Bar started to go down the toilet I couldn't stand to watch it, so I jumped in the jeep and drove right across America and headed down to New Orleans. On the way down I was continually writing songs in my head. And seeing that I was on the open road with a lot of Bob Dylan and Hank Williams - I started formulating an idea in my head about doing a record with a reference point of an acoustic guitar and almost being country.
And it started of with When You Were Mine, which is like an idea of looking back at being 17 and the characters in the songs Suicide Life and Bluebird Café are 17 also.
It was loosely based on flashbacks in people's lives with country and also an English roots feel, my story almost - musically.
I was trying to put it together with an acoustic guitar.

Suicide Life was an extraordinary track…
Well that guy, that the song was written about - when I first moved to LA, me and my girlfriend used to go up to the corner supermarket and this guy stood in the doorway.
Schizophrenic I think, but he had this big beard and was filthy - he looked a little like me!! I was better groomed of course, but he had my nose or something!
That always stuck with me. We always used to buy him the odd slice of pizza or something and have a talk to him. He never had much to say, but he wasn't a loony - he was just in a lot of trouble.
And any time I would come back to LA, I would always see him. In fact I saw him last week. I saw him yesterday even.
In all my time, since 1977, he has been living in West Hollywood walking around.
When the car pulled up to him, I almost leaned out and said "Do you know I have written this song about you" - but I don't know what he would do.
Very strange to see him still about.

The music to that track was pretty out there for a John Waite song!
Well I used to write..…well, yeah. The last couple of albums my songwriting has become more descriptive.
There's a song called Encircled off Rover's Return where I use symbolism rather than spelling things out.

The whole album really does tell a story.
Well yeah, I had two years to get all that stuff together, it was interesting.

Show Me How To Love Me was almost a classic Baby's song.
Yeah I wrote that with Jeff Golub. We were listening to Otis Reading, we were into 'I've Been Loving You Too Long' - just a fantastic song. We were trying to get back some of that feel.

So what happened with Mercury in the end then? Did you ditch them or did they let you go?
No, actually it was pretty funny. I rang up the A&R person on a cell phone driving down the 405. I though, this isn't happening.
So I asked if they would consider just letting me walk away as it hadn't happened and I got the call back in about 3 days saying it would be OK and consider myself free.
They were very decent about letting me out of it. It was a mutual thing where it just didn't work at all.

Well they should be decent - they screwed it up on you!!
Well I am trying to be big about this! Hahahaha.

Hahahaha.
It's not working - fuck 'em!! Hahaha!!

Yeah, don't worry about being big! Screw them!
Yeah, it was a shame to lose the album, but you can still find it in the stores.
It is a shame to lose that kind of a record, but what are you going to do?

At least the fans were able to get it. It never got released in Australia.
Really?

Yeah, but the mail order network is very good, fans know where to find it.
Too bad about the wider public not hearing it though.

Yeah I could have used a hit around that point.
It was overdue.

Yeah, they still play Missing You on the radio down here and I feel like ringing them up and saying will you get the fricking new record already!!!
Hahahaha.

They had a poll down here for the top 10 love songs of all time and Missing You was in the top 10.
Really? Yeah that was a good one. Write one of those and people know you for life.
At the time it came out I think it connected with so many people. It is almost like My Way or something.

Well, When I see You Smile was in the chart also, so you are not doing to badly!
Ok, yeah.

The Falling Backwards best of is a tidy compilation.
Yeah, there wasn't a Greatest Hits album out at that time and I wanted to salvage a few songs from Temple Bar, so it was a good thing.
I tried put a few odd things on there like Act Of Love, but mainly you have to stick with the hits.

I was glad Act Of Love as on there, it's one of my favourite tracks.
We play that live now. The place goes nuts when we do it. A lot of people seem to like that track.

I still love Downtown also. I talk to Glen Burtnik and am always mentioning that track. Any chance of you guys writing together again?
Yeah, we have another one called New York City Girl we wrote last year, It is really great and am hoping that that will be on the next album.
We don't write that much together, we play gigs and all that. And I spend quite a lot of time with him when I see him. But we have only written two really good ones together.

Well, if they are of the quality of Downtown, then that's OK.
Yeah, every three or four years, if they are going to come out like that, I will wait for them.
A very musical guy, is Glen.

I like his stuff a lot.
So mid to late last year, you did some gigs for the first time in a while.

Yeah, we went out and played a few gigs, it was kind of a new start as we changed agency's and we are playing a lot more.
We are going to slot in a lot more, the agency are a lot more interested in getting us gigs and there will be a lot more in the summer, some festivals.

It's great to see you getting out there.
Yeah, it should be a good summer. I am more concerned though in getting back in the studio.

OK sure, so what plans do you have there?
Well not much. I have like 30 songs written. We are talking to two major labels and there is the chance of there being a soundtrack in the very near future.
And we are trying to get that done and get in the studio and finalize one of these deals.
We really do need to get with someone that is going to push it through though.
These past two experiences, I would rather have day job than go through that again.
I am not kidding either!!
I would rather know where I stood you know.

So major US labels?
Oh yeah.

OK, so let's talk about the new tracks. Style wise, where is your head at?
We are trying not to be as country as the last record, that was a conceptual thing, but there is still a lot of acoustic guitar in it. And there is that sort of Americana flavor rather than blues country in it.
But the songs are very pop.
The last two albums were an amalgam of style. American and English views, but we are trying to clarify what we are writing.
I don't think there will be anything like Suicide Life in the new future.
It's very melodic and pretty modern sounding. There is more rhythmical things happening inside the tracks.

Maybe something like Let's get out of here?
No, I would consider that rock with a country edge.

So even more rock than that?
Well, there is a certain strand of Missing You when I do this stuff. Very spare and a similar rhythmic feel to it.
I am trying to write a big record, is what I am trying to do.
Not trying to complicate things, just concentrate on the melodies and the lyrics.
Write songs that are going to have an impact.

All I can say is Please - Guitars!!!
Yeah!! Well there are guitars all over this stuff. Shane is such a great player. We will never go back to the keyboard thing, that's not my style.
I think most of the success I have had come from the guitar.

Fantastic! So when might we see something? Late year?
We met with a major label mid week that want a soundtrack song for them. There is a lot going on I can't really tell you about, but if that goes through and they give us the thumbs up it will probably result in a record deal for the same label. It's a big label too.

And the soundtrack is?
Well, I am getting a couple of scripts sent over to me tomorrow and some video clips. But is a big label, so I hope it goes well.

I will get killed if I don't ask if you are ever going to get to Australia?
Well I say yes, but something always happens. The same goes for playing in Britain.
We are just concerned now about getting back in the charts in America and even Britain. But I tell you what - we are considering gigs in Europe right now, but I would love to do a festival in the UK.

Well it is alternative festivals only downunder.
That's a shame.
Most Australian bands like rock though.

Yeah, but he press love this imported rap and dance shit! Horrible!
Hahaha.

I talked to Eddie Money once and he said it is hard for a white boy to make a living these days.
Well yeah, that is true of Eddie hahahaha.
He's rather special.

And I talked to Ricky Phillips, good to see you guys hanging out and talking again.
Yeah, I saw Ricky last night actually.
We always got on, me and Ricky. It was me and the keyboard player (Jon Cain) that didn't and that is putting it mildly!!
I saw him a few months ago and we had dinner.

I asked if you two would work together again?
Oh yeah, what did he say?

He said he would do it in a heartbeat!
Yeah there was some talk of getting the Baby's back together, but there is really no future in it.
I mean they have even deleted some of the early albums now in America. There would be no point to it.
But he would have been up for it.
We still owe Chrysalis something like half a million dollars!

What?!!!!!!!
Yeah, charged us for everything they possibly could, you know.

So what do you do with a debt like that?
You leave Chrysalis!!! Hahaha.
You change your name, get plastic surgery and more to South America. Haha.

So they don't send the boys in black suits around then?!
No! Haha. Well, no - John's out at the moment…….I think he's on an Australian tour or something…..haha. And he's not coming back!

They would never find you down here! Fantastic!
Anything I can add for you John?

Well you can give johnwaite.com a plug and there's a guy in Scotland with a quarterly newsletter….

Oh yeah, he wants to know when the Mercedes is arriving in kit form?
Hahaha. That's Kev, my old guitar player. He is a great guy.
He has this once a year John Waite trip, where they go and drink beer where I grew up and used to go to college.
It's wild! Grown men coming up from London to hang around Lancaster.
I turn them onto all the best pubs. Just a little bizarre though!

You can also buy T-Shirts on the website - we are making up a new one - Great Set Of Hits…..Think about it Andrew…

Hahaha. Sorry, I get it!!
So what are you going to play on these upcoming shows?
For the first time we are going to go out and play everything we released that we had a hit with.
For the first time in 16 years, we are going to do Isn't It Time.
We are going to play all the hits, but if someone wants to shout out something, we will play it because we know all the tunes.
We are trying to do a broad show to play everything people want to hear.

You know I haven't asked you about the live album coming out!
Yeah, we are in final negotiations with one guy in the band that hasn't given his OK for it. We are hoping to get that OK soon.

What does it comprise of?
Well, it is a live gig from 1982 that contains most of the musicians from the Ignition record - Donny Nosov and Frankie La Rocka and it is a really great show. The 1982 stuff comes from 2 great shows.
Then there is a quick snippet of the 1984 tour and band - Tears and Missing You.

13 tracks from 1982 and 2 from 1984 then?
Yeah, it is surprising how good the band is from 1982 actually.

Well I think that's it John.
God bless, thank you for calling and being interested, I am flattered.
Call me anytime you like.
Nice talking to you and stay in touch.

Thanks John. Will do for sure!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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