Have mercy!
Cinderella i en gammal reklamfilm för Pat´s chilli dogs.
Dokken i en relativt ny reklamfilm som skulle få självaste Nigel Tufnel att vika sig av skratt.
/Niclas
fredag 29 juli 2011
Veckans Henry!
"Again, I am perhaps too utopian, too "we can all get along," but when I am at a show and the music is playing, I feel closer to the human race than at any other time, and I am 100 percent certain that whatever comes our way, we can deal with it."
Henry skriver denna vecka om hans tro på musikens styrka.
Henry här
/Niclas
"Again, I am perhaps too utopian, too "we can all get along," but when I am at a show and the music is playing, I feel closer to the human race than at any other time, and I am 100 percent certain that whatever comes our way, we can deal with it."
Henry skriver denna vecka om hans tro på musikens styrka.
Henry här
/Niclas
torsdag 28 juli 2011
Intervju med Deen Castronovo i Journey!
Som gammalt fan av Journey hade jag hoppats på ett snack med Neal Schon eller Jonathan cain, men det blev istället trummisen Deen som nu lirat med bandet under 10 års tid.
Deen var en glad trummis som var ute och körde i hemstaten Oregon, vilket nästan gav honom böter.
Vi snackade bl a om nya plattan, favorittrummisar, Jeff Scott Soto och en del annat.
Deen: Hey Niclas, how are you buddy?
I´m good! How are you?
Deen: I´m sorry I was a little late. I was in the rest room and didn´t hear the damn phone!
Everything´s good!
Where are you? Are you in New York?
Deen: No, I´m in Salem, Oregon, my hometown and I´m actually driving right now, which is against the law, but I´m gonna do it anyway! Screw ém! (laughs)
Thanks for doing it! Ok, first of all, another great album! How long did it take to come up with the title “Eclipse” and what about the numbers one and three in the title?
Deen: The thing with “Eclipse” is that it was gonna be called “Resonate” and then before that, it was supposed to be called “Tantra”. Neal changed it every time and I like “Eclipse”and the logo on the record is an old throwback to the “Escape” logo and that´s where I think that came from. When Neal´s got his mind set on something he just goes for it! And he knows what feels good, so he goes for it!
Right! Sound wise I think it´s quite similar to “Revelation”. Was that the plan, to try and work it into that same kind of sound?
Deen: I don´t know about sound wise, maybe sonically it was, but I think we went into a musically different direction. Neal wanted it to be more guitar driven. Neal is not really a balladeer, but Jonathan is the balladeer writer. Jonathan kept coming up with some great rock songs, like “City of hope” and “Ritual”. Some of the harder rock songs on the record are Jonathan´s. He stepped up to the plate. No ballads and more rock, which is great!
Are you doing like another Wal-Mart deal, like you did with “Revelation”? Anything like that?
Deen: Yes we are! We have our deal with Wal-Mart.
Is that with bonus tracks or anything like that?
Deen: I think there´s a bonus track in Europe and a bonus track in Japan, but I´m not sure which one it´s gonna be. I was told that in Japan it might be “When you love a woman” in a live version, but we´re not sure yet. It kind of came down to the line where they asked us to do a bonus track and we were like “We´re on the road! We can´t do a bonus track while we´re on tour!”. (laughs)
It´s a great record! Do you like it, bro?
Yeah, there´s some good stuff on there. I love “City of hope”!
Deen: Dude, that´s a monster, isn´t it?
It is!
Deen: It´s about Arnel´s home town. It´s about Arnel´s experiences in Manila and it´s “City of hope”! It´s a very, very spiritual country. We went there and it was probably the best experience I´ve had in my life! Staying in Arnel´s home and seeing the park that he lived in, because he was a homeless kid for a while. My god, bro! Did he rise from the ashes like a phoenix! And now he gives money to the Arnel Manila Foundation, to feed the homeless in Manila.
“Revelation” was huge and you sold a lot of records with that one. Do you think of that with this new album, that you wanna do just as well or even better?
Deen: That was the whole title´s name, “Eclipse”. We wanted to eclipse the last record. We wanna move forward and that´s great with Neal and Jon´s vision of it. We have an idea of where we wanna go, but we can honestly go anywhere musically. I´ve never been in a band where we try different genres and try different styles. It´s really a great band musically. These guys are the best. Hopefully this record will eclipse the last one.
When did you start writing for it and was there any stuff left over from “Revelation” or was it just a clean slate and starting all over again?
Deen: Clean slate and started over. I think Jonathan started writing in January of ´09, I think it was. But I didn´t hear any of that stuff till I went down in May to record it. I listened to it brand new and “Son of a bitch, this sounds like a great record!”. We´re all very happy with it. Wait… Oh the cops are coming to get me! Oh my god! I´m gonna get busted! Oh my god! Anyway, hold on… keep going! (laughs) I swear to god, he saw me talking on the phone and pulled right off! I swear to god! It´s a $300 ticket. Can you hear me? Keep going! (Deen was on his cell phone and driving during the interview. Editor´s note)
Oh yeah! How do you all work on a song from the first idea of it to the finished product?
Deen: We take one song at a time. We listen to it a couple of times, we check a couple of things out and we try a few things… Oh he´s not going after me, he´s going after somebody else! That´s awesome! Go ahead! (laughs) We would take one song and listen to it in the studio and Kevin Shirley was our producer and we´d try a couple of things, like what drum sound I´d want and so on. We record it two or three times and we usually picked the first one.
What has Arnel brought to this album? Does he come up with song ideas as well?
Deen: Yeah, actually “To whom it may concern” is Arnel´s song with Neal and he wrote the lyrics for “She´s a mystery” and a few other things. Arnel is a… I mean, the kid can write music man! I wish I could! (laughs) I´m a drummer. I bash on shit, that´s what I do!
What´s the plan for the setlist? Are you thinking about digging out some old stuff that hasn´t been played for a while?
Deen: Well, we always stay with what we call the dirty dozen.´, which are the 12 biggest Journey hits, all that stuff! Usually we have over a 100 songs that we can choose from, so we might try some new stuff. If Arnel has a rough time singing or something like that, we usually throw in “Rubicon” or something like that, that is not too demanding on him. But it´s great! We have all these songs that we can choose from and it´s fantastic.
Any plans for you singing any special songs on this tour?
Deen: Well, usually do “Mother, father” because everybody likes that one and hopefully “Keep on runnin´” as well, but the last couple of night they let me do “Who´s crying now”. We´ll see! It´s Arnel really, if he feels a little rougher or tired, we´ll throw in just a couple of extra songs just to give him a break. That´s great! I´m like the quarter back. (laughs)
That´s something I´m really amazed of, playing drums and singing with that strong voice you have! That´s gotta be really exhausting?
Deen: The funny thing is, since I´ve done these songs for so long, I know exactly when to breathe, I know exactly how much air I need to get to get those songs out. Usually the drumming is like autopilot. I´m concentrating on singing the best I can and if you don´t, the fans will crucify you! I´m not even close to Steve Perry, nobody is! He´s a god and always will be, but I do my best and I try to bring the songs out as close as I can to the original, but of course I´ll never be Steve Perry, but I wish I was! He was an icon and still is an icon. One of my big influences. It´s just where you place your breathing and the drums take the backseat.
Have you heard about this Journey book that´s out?
Deen: No, what Journey book?
It´s an English writer and he´s written a lot of books and he´s got this book out.
Deen: Have you seen any of it yet?
Nah, I´ve just seen the cover and it´s supposedly good, but there´s no interviews with any of the current band members and not Steve Perry. He´s just talked to a lot of people around the band, but he usually writes really cool books.
Deen: Let me know where I can get theta when I´m over in Europe! I wanna snag that!
Have you stayed in touch with Steve Augeri or Jeff Scott Soto?
Deen: Steve Augeri once in a while. He´s really busy now and he´s got his own thing. Once in a while we call him and chat. I love Steve! Jeff Scott Soto we really don´t talk to at all. We were told he was gonna write a book and spilling the dirt on Journey and I was like “Dude, c´mon!”. We don´t talk to the guy. He sued us after he left the band and you do not sue Irving Azoff! He´s the god of managers on this planet, and he did, which wasn´t smart. It wasn´t smart. Needless to say I don´t talk to him at all. I wish I could talk to Steve Perry. I´ve only met him once and he was very cordial, but oh my god if I could just sit there. Steve Smith I talk to all the time. He lives about 200 miles from here in Oregon and hopefully I get to see him sometime and let him beat the crap out of me on drums, because he´s a god as well! My favorite drummer of all time! (laughs)
What if Steve Perry would knock on the door and say “I wanna do a song with you guys! We could do a duet with Arnel!”. Would you guys do it?
Deen: Oh I would do it, but I don´t think he would do it! He´s not interested and he doesn´t like us very much and I understand why, you know. What happened with the band him and basically he started this legacy and I´m just lucky to be riding it.
Ok. Are there any plans for coming back to Sweden and do additional dates after Peace and Love?
Deen: I´m not sure! Right after the European tour, we get home on July 15th I think, we have seven days off and then we start the American tour. We probably won´t be back until next year, if everything goes well.
With the last tour you did really, really well and it´s kind of funny because everywhere you read that it´s a tough climate for touring and a lot of bands not making it and have a hard time selling out places, but apparently Journey is doing big business these days.
Deen: Na, it´s been good bro! It´s been very, very good! We´re very fortunate.
What kind of inspirations and influences do you have? What kind of drummers did you grow up listening to?
Deen: Like I said, Steve Smith, but my very first influence was Neil Peart, Peter Criss, Steve Smith, Terry Bozzio and all those guys. Just incredible! Then I listen to a lot of metal drummers. My favorite guys now are like Gene Hoglan, Joey Jordison who´s a freaking animal and a lot of those guys! Dave Lombardo I listen to a lot.
A guy like Peter Criss, he´s gotten a lot of flak and especially since he did the reunion tour with KISS. Would you consider him being a good drummer?
Deen: He was good for KISS! Ringo Starr wasn´t the best drummer in the world, but he was right for The Beatles. It was perfect for KISS. I was seven years old when I was introduced to KISS and it fucked me up, man! “Holy shit, that´s what I wanna do when I´m older! That´s it!”. I knew I was gonna be a drummer as soon as I saw that. Then I saw Rush open up for KISS and it was like “Who´s that guy? Oh my god!”. Neil Peart, scary drummer! For me when I was a little kid, “Wow, he´s got all these drums and he plays them!”. (laughs)
Are you still living in Oregon?
Deen: Yes sir! Been here all my life and will not leave. I´ve got kids here and my mother and father and my whole family lives here. I wouldn´t wanna live anywhere else!
And the rest of the guys, are they in LA?
Deen: Jonathan is in Nashville now, Neal lives in San Francisco, Ross is close to San Francisco and Arnel´s in the Philippines.
Man, it can´t be easy to just get together and jam?
Deen: Well, when it´s time we get down to the rehearsal place and we go tear it up days on end. It´s really no problem. Thank god we´re successful enough that we can all live in different places and do what we need to do.
Is it true that Journey is playing Italy for the first time?
Deen: Yeah dude! You know, I spent ten months in Italy back in 1996 with Vadco Rossi. You ever heard of him?
I believe I have, yeah!
Deen: Dude, we played five sold out nights in San Siro, Milan. It was the most incredible, freaking thing! 100.000 seats every night. I spent ten months over there and I met cousins I´d never met before, family members and my father was there. Heavy man! I can´t wait to go to freaking Milan! It´ll be awesome! I´m gonna propose to my girlfriend there and they´re gonna fix something really cool with the show. She´s gonna be weeping! (laughs)
Awesome! Well, I thank you so much Deen! It was great talking to you and of course, drive safely man!
Deen: (laughs) Dude, you know it! As soon as we´re done, the phone is going down! Thanks brother!
/Niclas
Som gammalt fan av Journey hade jag hoppats på ett snack med Neal Schon eller Jonathan cain, men det blev istället trummisen Deen som nu lirat med bandet under 10 års tid.
Deen var en glad trummis som var ute och körde i hemstaten Oregon, vilket nästan gav honom böter.
Vi snackade bl a om nya plattan, favorittrummisar, Jeff Scott Soto och en del annat.
Deen: Hey Niclas, how are you buddy?
I´m good! How are you?
Deen: I´m sorry I was a little late. I was in the rest room and didn´t hear the damn phone!
Everything´s good!
Where are you? Are you in New York?
Deen: No, I´m in Salem, Oregon, my hometown and I´m actually driving right now, which is against the law, but I´m gonna do it anyway! Screw ém! (laughs)
Thanks for doing it! Ok, first of all, another great album! How long did it take to come up with the title “Eclipse” and what about the numbers one and three in the title?
Deen: The thing with “Eclipse” is that it was gonna be called “Resonate” and then before that, it was supposed to be called “Tantra”. Neal changed it every time and I like “Eclipse”and the logo on the record is an old throwback to the “Escape” logo and that´s where I think that came from. When Neal´s got his mind set on something he just goes for it! And he knows what feels good, so he goes for it!
Right! Sound wise I think it´s quite similar to “Revelation”. Was that the plan, to try and work it into that same kind of sound?
Deen: I don´t know about sound wise, maybe sonically it was, but I think we went into a musically different direction. Neal wanted it to be more guitar driven. Neal is not really a balladeer, but Jonathan is the balladeer writer. Jonathan kept coming up with some great rock songs, like “City of hope” and “Ritual”. Some of the harder rock songs on the record are Jonathan´s. He stepped up to the plate. No ballads and more rock, which is great!
Are you doing like another Wal-Mart deal, like you did with “Revelation”? Anything like that?
Deen: Yes we are! We have our deal with Wal-Mart.
Is that with bonus tracks or anything like that?
Deen: I think there´s a bonus track in Europe and a bonus track in Japan, but I´m not sure which one it´s gonna be. I was told that in Japan it might be “When you love a woman” in a live version, but we´re not sure yet. It kind of came down to the line where they asked us to do a bonus track and we were like “We´re on the road! We can´t do a bonus track while we´re on tour!”. (laughs)
It´s a great record! Do you like it, bro?
Yeah, there´s some good stuff on there. I love “City of hope”!
Deen: Dude, that´s a monster, isn´t it?
It is!
Deen: It´s about Arnel´s home town. It´s about Arnel´s experiences in Manila and it´s “City of hope”! It´s a very, very spiritual country. We went there and it was probably the best experience I´ve had in my life! Staying in Arnel´s home and seeing the park that he lived in, because he was a homeless kid for a while. My god, bro! Did he rise from the ashes like a phoenix! And now he gives money to the Arnel Manila Foundation, to feed the homeless in Manila.
“Revelation” was huge and you sold a lot of records with that one. Do you think of that with this new album, that you wanna do just as well or even better?
Deen: That was the whole title´s name, “Eclipse”. We wanted to eclipse the last record. We wanna move forward and that´s great with Neal and Jon´s vision of it. We have an idea of where we wanna go, but we can honestly go anywhere musically. I´ve never been in a band where we try different genres and try different styles. It´s really a great band musically. These guys are the best. Hopefully this record will eclipse the last one.
When did you start writing for it and was there any stuff left over from “Revelation” or was it just a clean slate and starting all over again?
Deen: Clean slate and started over. I think Jonathan started writing in January of ´09, I think it was. But I didn´t hear any of that stuff till I went down in May to record it. I listened to it brand new and “Son of a bitch, this sounds like a great record!”. We´re all very happy with it. Wait… Oh the cops are coming to get me! Oh my god! I´m gonna get busted! Oh my god! Anyway, hold on… keep going! (laughs) I swear to god, he saw me talking on the phone and pulled right off! I swear to god! It´s a $300 ticket. Can you hear me? Keep going! (Deen was on his cell phone and driving during the interview. Editor´s note)
Oh yeah! How do you all work on a song from the first idea of it to the finished product?
Deen: We take one song at a time. We listen to it a couple of times, we check a couple of things out and we try a few things… Oh he´s not going after me, he´s going after somebody else! That´s awesome! Go ahead! (laughs) We would take one song and listen to it in the studio and Kevin Shirley was our producer and we´d try a couple of things, like what drum sound I´d want and so on. We record it two or three times and we usually picked the first one.
What has Arnel brought to this album? Does he come up with song ideas as well?
Deen: Yeah, actually “To whom it may concern” is Arnel´s song with Neal and he wrote the lyrics for “She´s a mystery” and a few other things. Arnel is a… I mean, the kid can write music man! I wish I could! (laughs) I´m a drummer. I bash on shit, that´s what I do!
What´s the plan for the setlist? Are you thinking about digging out some old stuff that hasn´t been played for a while?
Deen: Well, we always stay with what we call the dirty dozen.´, which are the 12 biggest Journey hits, all that stuff! Usually we have over a 100 songs that we can choose from, so we might try some new stuff. If Arnel has a rough time singing or something like that, we usually throw in “Rubicon” or something like that, that is not too demanding on him. But it´s great! We have all these songs that we can choose from and it´s fantastic.
Any plans for you singing any special songs on this tour?
Deen: Well, usually do “Mother, father” because everybody likes that one and hopefully “Keep on runnin´” as well, but the last couple of night they let me do “Who´s crying now”. We´ll see! It´s Arnel really, if he feels a little rougher or tired, we´ll throw in just a couple of extra songs just to give him a break. That´s great! I´m like the quarter back. (laughs)
That´s something I´m really amazed of, playing drums and singing with that strong voice you have! That´s gotta be really exhausting?
Deen: The funny thing is, since I´ve done these songs for so long, I know exactly when to breathe, I know exactly how much air I need to get to get those songs out. Usually the drumming is like autopilot. I´m concentrating on singing the best I can and if you don´t, the fans will crucify you! I´m not even close to Steve Perry, nobody is! He´s a god and always will be, but I do my best and I try to bring the songs out as close as I can to the original, but of course I´ll never be Steve Perry, but I wish I was! He was an icon and still is an icon. One of my big influences. It´s just where you place your breathing and the drums take the backseat.
Have you heard about this Journey book that´s out?
Deen: No, what Journey book?
It´s an English writer and he´s written a lot of books and he´s got this book out.
Deen: Have you seen any of it yet?
Nah, I´ve just seen the cover and it´s supposedly good, but there´s no interviews with any of the current band members and not Steve Perry. He´s just talked to a lot of people around the band, but he usually writes really cool books.
Deen: Let me know where I can get theta when I´m over in Europe! I wanna snag that!
Have you stayed in touch with Steve Augeri or Jeff Scott Soto?
Deen: Steve Augeri once in a while. He´s really busy now and he´s got his own thing. Once in a while we call him and chat. I love Steve! Jeff Scott Soto we really don´t talk to at all. We were told he was gonna write a book and spilling the dirt on Journey and I was like “Dude, c´mon!”. We don´t talk to the guy. He sued us after he left the band and you do not sue Irving Azoff! He´s the god of managers on this planet, and he did, which wasn´t smart. It wasn´t smart. Needless to say I don´t talk to him at all. I wish I could talk to Steve Perry. I´ve only met him once and he was very cordial, but oh my god if I could just sit there. Steve Smith I talk to all the time. He lives about 200 miles from here in Oregon and hopefully I get to see him sometime and let him beat the crap out of me on drums, because he´s a god as well! My favorite drummer of all time! (laughs)
What if Steve Perry would knock on the door and say “I wanna do a song with you guys! We could do a duet with Arnel!”. Would you guys do it?
Deen: Oh I would do it, but I don´t think he would do it! He´s not interested and he doesn´t like us very much and I understand why, you know. What happened with the band him and basically he started this legacy and I´m just lucky to be riding it.
Ok. Are there any plans for coming back to Sweden and do additional dates after Peace and Love?
Deen: I´m not sure! Right after the European tour, we get home on July 15th I think, we have seven days off and then we start the American tour. We probably won´t be back until next year, if everything goes well.
With the last tour you did really, really well and it´s kind of funny because everywhere you read that it´s a tough climate for touring and a lot of bands not making it and have a hard time selling out places, but apparently Journey is doing big business these days.
Deen: Na, it´s been good bro! It´s been very, very good! We´re very fortunate.
What kind of inspirations and influences do you have? What kind of drummers did you grow up listening to?
Deen: Like I said, Steve Smith, but my very first influence was Neil Peart, Peter Criss, Steve Smith, Terry Bozzio and all those guys. Just incredible! Then I listen to a lot of metal drummers. My favorite guys now are like Gene Hoglan, Joey Jordison who´s a freaking animal and a lot of those guys! Dave Lombardo I listen to a lot.
A guy like Peter Criss, he´s gotten a lot of flak and especially since he did the reunion tour with KISS. Would you consider him being a good drummer?
Deen: He was good for KISS! Ringo Starr wasn´t the best drummer in the world, but he was right for The Beatles. It was perfect for KISS. I was seven years old when I was introduced to KISS and it fucked me up, man! “Holy shit, that´s what I wanna do when I´m older! That´s it!”. I knew I was gonna be a drummer as soon as I saw that. Then I saw Rush open up for KISS and it was like “Who´s that guy? Oh my god!”. Neil Peart, scary drummer! For me when I was a little kid, “Wow, he´s got all these drums and he plays them!”. (laughs)
Are you still living in Oregon?
Deen: Yes sir! Been here all my life and will not leave. I´ve got kids here and my mother and father and my whole family lives here. I wouldn´t wanna live anywhere else!
And the rest of the guys, are they in LA?
Deen: Jonathan is in Nashville now, Neal lives in San Francisco, Ross is close to San Francisco and Arnel´s in the Philippines.
Man, it can´t be easy to just get together and jam?
Deen: Well, when it´s time we get down to the rehearsal place and we go tear it up days on end. It´s really no problem. Thank god we´re successful enough that we can all live in different places and do what we need to do.
Is it true that Journey is playing Italy for the first time?
Deen: Yeah dude! You know, I spent ten months in Italy back in 1996 with Vadco Rossi. You ever heard of him?
I believe I have, yeah!
Deen: Dude, we played five sold out nights in San Siro, Milan. It was the most incredible, freaking thing! 100.000 seats every night. I spent ten months over there and I met cousins I´d never met before, family members and my father was there. Heavy man! I can´t wait to go to freaking Milan! It´ll be awesome! I´m gonna propose to my girlfriend there and they´re gonna fix something really cool with the show. She´s gonna be weeping! (laughs)
Awesome! Well, I thank you so much Deen! It was great talking to you and of course, drive safely man!
Deen: (laughs) Dude, you know it! As soon as we´re done, the phone is going down! Thanks brother!
/Niclas
Triumph på tung vinyl!
TRIUMPH'S CLASSIC BREAKTHROUGH ALBUM, 'ALLIED FORCES' TO BE REISSUED AS KILLER VINYL PACKAGE FOR 30TH ANNIVERSARY, ROCKLINE APPEARANCE ANNOUNCED
Triumph's 1981 release, 'Allied Forces,' was the album where it all came together for these Canadian prog-metallists – great compositions, great performances, and great album design…back when album designs mattered! And now, fans will be able to take a highly welcome trip down memory lane, as 'Allied Forces' will be reissued as a "30th Anniversary Vinyl Edition." on Tuesday, September 20th, 2011. The album's tracks are from the original source material (as prepared by the legendary Bob Ludwig), while the packaging itself will exactly mirror the original '81 vinyl version (including the four-color, UV coated inner sleeve, complete with photos, lyrics and credits). The record itself will be pressed on pristine 180 gram vinyl, which will also include a free download card, so fans can download this rock n' roll classic , as well as a video, directly to their digital player. TML Entertainment will be releasing the album, distributed by ADA in the US and UMG in Canada. The LP will be manufactured by Rainbo Records in Los Angeles, the premier replicator of vinyl in North America. 'Allied Forces' spawned two of Triumph's most beloved and enduring arena rock anthems – "Magic Power" and "Fight the Good Fight."Produced by the group themselves (vocalist/guitarist Rik Emmett, bassist Michael Levine, and vocalist/drummer Gil Moore), the nine-track album was certified Platinum , and has gone on to sell an impressive 2.5 million copies worldwide. "I am excited that the 'Allied Forces' LP is being re-released," enthuses Levine. "Vinyl was always my favorite audio format, because it has really nice warmth and depth. Yet another reason to polish up the turntable and crank up the volume!" Additionally, all three members of Triumph, will be debuting the release of the album along with host Bob Coburn, live on Rockline, Wednesday, September 21st (30 years to the week of the album's original release). Soon, you will be able to re-create the excitement you experienced when you cruised down to the local record shop to pick up 'Allied Forces,' back in the fall of '81. Get prepared to fight the good fight once more!
'Allied Forces' Track Listing: Side "A""Fool for Your Love" – 4:34"Magic Power" – 4:54"Air Raid" – 1:18"Allied Forces" – 5:05"Hot Time (In This City Tonight)" – 3:23 Side "B""Fight the Good Fight" – 6:16"Ordinary Man" – 7:17"Petite Etude" instrumental – 1:15"Say Goodbye" – 4:34
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT:www.triumphmusic.com
/Niclas
TRIUMPH'S CLASSIC BREAKTHROUGH ALBUM, 'ALLIED FORCES' TO BE REISSUED AS KILLER VINYL PACKAGE FOR 30TH ANNIVERSARY, ROCKLINE APPEARANCE ANNOUNCED
Triumph's 1981 release, 'Allied Forces,' was the album where it all came together for these Canadian prog-metallists – great compositions, great performances, and great album design…back when album designs mattered! And now, fans will be able to take a highly welcome trip down memory lane, as 'Allied Forces' will be reissued as a "30th Anniversary Vinyl Edition." on Tuesday, September 20th, 2011. The album's tracks are from the original source material (as prepared by the legendary Bob Ludwig), while the packaging itself will exactly mirror the original '81 vinyl version (including the four-color, UV coated inner sleeve, complete with photos, lyrics and credits). The record itself will be pressed on pristine 180 gram vinyl, which will also include a free download card, so fans can download this rock n' roll classic , as well as a video, directly to their digital player. TML Entertainment will be releasing the album, distributed by ADA in the US and UMG in Canada. The LP will be manufactured by Rainbo Records in Los Angeles, the premier replicator of vinyl in North America. 'Allied Forces' spawned two of Triumph's most beloved and enduring arena rock anthems – "Magic Power" and "Fight the Good Fight."Produced by the group themselves (vocalist/guitarist Rik Emmett, bassist Michael Levine, and vocalist/drummer Gil Moore), the nine-track album was certified Platinum , and has gone on to sell an impressive 2.5 million copies worldwide. "I am excited that the 'Allied Forces' LP is being re-released," enthuses Levine. "Vinyl was always my favorite audio format, because it has really nice warmth and depth. Yet another reason to polish up the turntable and crank up the volume!" Additionally, all three members of Triumph, will be debuting the release of the album along with host Bob Coburn, live on Rockline, Wednesday, September 21st (30 years to the week of the album's original release). Soon, you will be able to re-create the excitement you experienced when you cruised down to the local record shop to pick up 'Allied Forces,' back in the fall of '81. Get prepared to fight the good fight once more!
'Allied Forces' Track Listing: Side "A""Fool for Your Love" – 4:34"Magic Power" – 4:54"Air Raid" – 1:18"Allied Forces" – 5:05"Hot Time (In This City Tonight)" – 3:23 Side "B""Fight the Good Fight" – 6:16"Ordinary Man" – 7:17"Petite Etude" instrumental – 1:15"Say Goodbye" – 4:34
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT:www.triumphmusic.com
/Niclas
Ropen skalla, appar till alla!
Numera ska ju alla ha sin egen App, så även A Pale Horse Named Death.
Har du inte hört bandet förslår jag ett inköp ögonabums!
Här plockar du hem Appen!
/Niclas
Numera ska ju alla ha sin egen App, så även A Pale Horse Named Death.
Har du inte hört bandet förslår jag ett inköp ögonabums!
Här plockar du hem Appen!
/Niclas
onsdag 27 juli 2011
Heroin diaries som musikal?
Nikki Sixx svamlar, imponeras av "Phantom of the opera" och har lösa funderingar på att göra musikal av sin bok.
Lyssna här
/Niclas
Nikki Sixx svamlar, imponeras av "Phantom of the opera" och har lösa funderingar på att göra musikal av sin bok.
Lyssna här
/Niclas
H-Bomb!
Goldmine skriver om Deep Purple bootlegs och vad bl a Roger Glover tycker om detta fenomen.
Bilden ovan sägs vara det första Purplebootleget.
Goldmine här
/Niclas
Goldmine skriver om Deep Purple bootlegs och vad bl a Roger Glover tycker om detta fenomen.
Bilden ovan sägs vara det första Purplebootleget.
Goldmine här
/Niclas
PJ20 trailer!
Måste säga att jag ser fram emot den här filmen. Cameron Crowe gör det mesta rätt, förutom "Vanilla sky", så denna combo kan bli mäktig.
Jag hoppas verkligen att jag en dag kan åka tillbaka till Seattle. Var där i en vecka 1994 och det är något väldigt, väldigt speciellt med den staden.
/Niclas
Måste säga att jag ser fram emot den här filmen. Cameron Crowe gör det mesta rätt, förutom "Vanilla sky", så denna combo kan bli mäktig.
Jag hoppas verkligen att jag en dag kan åka tillbaka till Seattle. Var där i en vecka 1994 och det är något väldigt, väldigt speciellt med den staden.
/Niclas
tisdag 26 juli 2011
Intervju med Michael Sweet i Stryper!
För en tid sedan ringde jag upp Michael för ett snack om lite allt möjligt. När han svarade berättade han snabbt att han hade lite problem med sin hund och undrade om jag kunde ringa 10 minuter senare.
Det var självfallet inga problem och intervjun kom sedan att rulla på och handla om allt möjligt som har hänt eller händer i Strypervärlden. Personligen har jag aldrig tagit Stryper till mig, men det är alltid oerhört kul att snacka med alla dessa rockers och alla har ju en historia att berätta.
How are you?
Michael: I´m doing well. My dog had surgery about a month ago and I had an appointment and they were behind so it was out of my control, you know.
Stuff that happens.
Michael: Yeah! Where are you calling from? Are you actually calling from Sweden?
I´m calling from Stockholm, the Capital of Sweden, yes.
Michael: Wow!
The snow is finally gone and it´s almost like summer here, finally. We´ve had a cruel winter that lasted for months and months and now finally the light is back again.
Michael: Thank god! Our winter probably wasn´t as harsh as yours, but we had a pretty bad winter too. They seem to be getting worse every year.
Yeah, most definitely. Well, what are you and Stryper up to now? Are you still on tour in the US?
Michael: We are touring the US. We did a run in March where we did 20 dates and we´re coming to Europe and then we come home for a brief moment. We go to South America in August and Puerto Rico and then we do another US run in September and October. We´re trying to make people aware that we´re still alive, we´re not dead yet.
Sure. What´s it like making music these days compared to when it all started out for you in the 80´s? Is it easier writing music today, since you´ve done it for so long or was it easier back then with the music climate and everything?
Michael: You know, if easier is the right way of putting it, but I mean, I think it´s certainly different, good or bad. The thing about writing music today is… you know with Pro Tools and the digital technology and what not, you can go in and track drums and do edits later to fix the problem. Back in the day you couldn´t do that, you had to get it right, so maybe there was a little more stress back in the day and it took a little longer to make records. I think the enjoyment process is a little higher. This last record we did, “The covering”, we had the time of our lives. It was a fun experience.
A bit about your history. As I gather the name Roxx Regime turned into Stryper.
Michael: That´s correct. What happened was, we had the name Roxx and there was this other band that went by the name Roxx and we added Regime to Roxx and we actually signed the recording contract with Enigma as Roxx Regime, but everybody hated the name, so that´s when we all mutually agreed, the label and the band, that it would be best to come up with a new name and that´s when we came up with the name Stryper.
I think Roxx Regime sounds really cool!
Michael: (laughs) You know what it is, the problem we always found with the name Roxx Regime is that when people would say “What´s the name of your band?” and we´d say “Roxx Regime!” and they´d say “What?” and with Stryper we never get that. With Stryper they never say “What?”.
When you started out, did you plan or make plans… was the thought initially to become the most prominent Christian band or was that just something that happened? Was it the plan from the beginning?
Michael: No, there was no plan! I´ll tell you what happened. We were a regular Hollywood club band trying to make it, like Mötley Crüe and Ratt and all the bands that were on the scene at the time. We weren´t a Christian band! We went to church growing up and had a relationship with god for a while, but then kind of got into drinking and drugging, all the things that typical rock bands from that time period got into and we wound up talking to friend of ours who gave his life to god and we saw a change in him and he really encouraged us to change the direction of the band, so we did and we re-wrote the lyrics and decided, “You know what? We wanna be different! We wanna make a stand for a different cause and not just sex, drugs and rock and roll!”. That´s what we did.
Had that not happened with that friend of yours, would you have become more of the same kind of stuff that all the other LA bands were up to? The sex and the drugs and all that? Do you think that?
Michael: I don´t know! Maybe. I know not musically! We were writing a lot of the songs, all the songs on the “Yellow and black attack” album and a lot of the songs on “Soldiers under command” were written prior to us becoming Stryper. Musically speaking we still would´ve had the Stryper sound and what not, but as far as our spirituality and lifestyle goes, we might have gone down that road of sex, drugs and rock and roll and not know where we´d be today. Maybe dead! Who knows?
Do you remember the first club you played in LA?
Michael: Oh gosh! I remember the first time we played, one of the first clubs in LA, if not the first, was Gazzaris and I was way under age. I was 13 years old and I remember Bill Gazzari, knowing how young I was and having a problem with it, but allowing me to play there and it was a real controversial thing at the time. I was like one of the youngest guys that had ever played the club at that time, but it was illegal. We started at a very young age and that´s when I joined my brother´s band, when I was 13. We started playing backyard parties and then we eventually found our way into Hollywood. Gazzaris we played for years and Troubadour, Whisky, the Country Club in Reseda, so lots of places. I´ve been doing this for a long time and I was just this little punk kid up there, skinny kid and weighed about 90 lbs and soaking wet. Up there jamming it out or trying anyway.
Looking back on those days, of all the tours you did, which one was the most fun? Is there any tour that stands out from all the others?
Michael: Oh my gosh! I gotta correct something, I gotta make a correction! I don´t want any false information going out there! I was 13 when I joined my brother´s band and we did backyard parties and high schools and things like that, but I was 16 when I first played Gazzaris.
Still very young!
Michael: Yeah, still very young and you had to be 18 to be allowed in there. Your other question was?
Of all the tours back in the day, is there any tour that stands out from all the others and were more fun?
Michael: Absolutely! We had a blast with TNT and Loudness! It was an absolute incredible time and Tony Harnell to this day… we haven´t been in contact for a long time, but he came up on stage with us and did “Breaking the law” at BB King´s in New York. He´s a dear friend and he´s an amazing person and I´ve always respected TNT for their songwriting and their musicianship. It was just a cool hang! We toured with White Lion and that was fun too.
Cool! Whose idea was it to start throwing out bibles into the crowd? Was that from you or management?
Michael: No, Michael Guido made the suggestion. He was kind of a mentor of ours and still is and he suggested we´d get these little testament bibles and we started buying them and throwing them out. It became something that Stryper is known for to this day and we still do it.
Do you have any idea how many bibles you´ve thrown out to the crowds over the years?
Michael: Definitely thousands! Back in the day when we were playing arenas, 10-12.000 people, we would throw out 200 bibles at a time. Now we don’t. We throw out maybe 30-40 at each show, but you add up all the shows and average that out, it´s definitely thousands of bibles. We used to throw those out in the early days and they´d be left all over the floor and then we had stickers made up, Stryper stickers and we started putting those on the bibles and once we did that, we´ve never seen a bible left from that point forward!
Wow! You must´ve had an entire truck full of bibles on the road then?
Michael: The way it worked is that we had a portion of the truck. We had three semis, one for light, one for sound and one for backline and the bibles were on the backline semi and we had a lot of bibles and when we would run low, we reordered them. We didn´t take enough out to do the whole tour. We kind of ordered them as we went.
I know about the name Stryper, but why did it turn out to be black and yellow? Why those colours and not, let´s say black and red?
Michael: You know, my brother taped his drumsticks yellow and black way back when we were still Roxx Regime. It lead from the drums being yellow and black to the guitars being yellow and black. He would tape it up. He taped up my Flying V Gibson and the bass player at the time, Eric Johnson… we were a trio at the time and I was the only guitar player and he taped up the guitars and then we started wearing yellow and black and making our own clothes. We used to buy carpet and spray-paint it yellow and black and wrap it around our legs, you know. We were doing all crazy kinds of stuff. We didn´t have a lot of money and we made our own guitar cabinets and we made our own clothes and we really worked hard.
I just saw a short interview with you on YouTube from something called the “700 club” and it was in 1986 and in it you said that initially… and it was bout you getting criticism from the Christian community and you said that starting the band “…was a calling from god!”. Was it like that? It´s hard for me because I´m not religious in any way.
Michael: I really think so! We believe it was a calling from god. The reason why we believe that is because the people that were put in our lives, that miraculously so gave their lives to god. One of the guys was probably the person you would least expect to give his heart to god and we saw this renewal in him and this glow in his eyes, this sparkle in his eyes and we saw the change god made in his life and we wanted that! We wanted that change for us, so we really feel it was a calling. You know, we wouldn´t go back and change a thing. Everything was perfectly put into place and connected the dots and once we committed to that… I´ll tell you this right now and this is the truth! You can take this for what it´s worth! We looked for a record deal for years and we did demos for years to no avail. Beating our heads against the wall and nothing happened. When we committed our band to god and decided to make a bold stand for god, we got a recording contract instantly and everything exploded, ok? We started to sell out clubs, the press wanted to talk to us and that´s not why we did it, but it is interesting that when we did it, that that happened. It just solidified to us, that that´s what we were supposed to do. That´s what we were called to do.
Comparing the US to Sweden, we´re not a very religious country and the US is, but is there a difference touring in different states in the US? Do you still get criticism in places these days?
Michael: We get some criticism. Back in the day we got a lot more, but I guess people are much more open minded now. I remember back in the day, many times we would go to perform a show and we would be ridiculed, totally! We performed in Holland and we got booed off the stage for the first three songs and they were chanting and this crowd wanted to kill us, you know. But once we played, after three or four songs, we won the crowd over and I think what it is, is once people see Stryper, they realize that “…these guys are just a rock band and they´re not too bad at it!”. We´re not about religion! We don´t endorse religion! We just endorse god and we endorse the word of god. We don´t endorse religion. Religion, unfortunately, separates people and confuses people, you know. We´re not a religious band!
During all this time… I saw a clip recently from a show in the US and you were talking to the crowd. Have you ever thought of getting into preaching and did you ever think of becoming a priest or be more involved in church and so on? Was that ever a thought for you?
Michael: In my own way, yes. The calling in my life hasn´t been to become a priest, but I do consider us as ministers in some way, because we go out and we minister people. We do it in a different way. I am involved in church and I actually lead music for three years at my church and I´ve always been involved in church and I love going to church. There are many times when I can´t go and sometimes I go for a couple of months without going to church. When we´re traveling we try to have church on the bus or get together and read from the bible and pray together and try to encourage each other. We´re a little different animal because we were brought up in the world, not the church and we´re not your typical Christian band! It´s a little different for us and I think it makes it a little easier sometimes for people who are Christian, to relate to us. I was giving an interview earlier and we have a lot of fans out there, that you would not expect to be Stryper fans. We performed at Nokia live recently in LA and backstage was Twiggy, who´s with Marilyn Manson and he´s a Stryper fan. He showed us a photo of him dressed up a Stryper member when he was in high school. And then John 5, who plays with Rob Zombie, he´s still got his Stryper bible and followed the band back in the day. There´s a lot of people out there that are fans of Stryper, but they might not admit it.
The latest album “The covering”, how did you end up picking the songs? Did you have a list of like 30 songs and you picked from those and was it a band effort picking those songs?
Michael: The way it worked was that I wrote up a list of just the “no-brainer, not have to think about songs” and there were a lot of those. I wrote up a list of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Scorpions and all these bands and I submitted that to the guys and everyone was like “Yeah, yeah absolutely!”. It was real easy. The only other songs that we kind of went back and forth on was songs like “Highway star”, “Carry on wayward son” and all those were influences of ours. It wasn´t a collective influence. “Carry on wayward son” was probably more of an influence for Tim, than it was to Robert, you know what I mean? KISS was more of an influence to Robert than it was to me, so there were a few songs that were not as influential on all of us, but the majority of those songs was collectively and influence on all four of us.
Did you ever think like “Let´s do something really crazy and cover a Slayer song!”?
Michael: (laughs) No, we didn´t think of covering a Slayer song! We always wanted to play or tour with Slayer just to see the freak out on the crowd. There would probably be a lot of police on hand, let´s put it that way. We thought about being a little more obscure and controversial in the song choice. Like for example “Breaking the law”, if we had covered “Exciter”, you know. We toyed around with “Exciter” and we could pull that off and that I think, would´ve been a little more shocking than “Breaking the law”, so we played it safe in a couple of ways and I kind of wish we hadn´t.
Cool! What about a new studio album then? Are you writing now or is that more far off in the future?
Michael: You know, I write really weird! I´m one of those guys that if I get a phone call from the label and they say “Hey, we need a song!”, I´ll go down stairs and write a song in a day. It´s just weird! I don´t say that to say that all the songs I write are great, good or bad whatever, that´s your opinion, but that´s how I write. If they say “We need a record!”, I go down and work until I have 12 songs. Once it´s time to do a new studio album, I´ll go down and work hard on writing the material for it. We are going in for recording a couple of new songs and some old songs and I just recently wrote a couple of new songs, to prepare for that record and we´re excited about that!
Right! A forthcoming studio album, would you produce that yourselves or would you like to work with a hot shot producer?
Michael: No, no man! Nothing against hot shot producers, but we´re not a band in a position to work with a hot shot producer. First of all they want too much money and they want too many points and we don´t make that much money or sell that many records to afford it. Number two, I don´t think we need it at this stage in our career! I produced the last record and the record prior to that one and the reviews have been great. They sound great and we have a great engineer, Danny Bernini, and he´s awesome. He´s one of the best I´ve ever worked with. He came out of the Record Plant in New York and he´s phenomenal! We found this chemistry between myself and Danny engineering and the studio Spirit House in North Hampton, Mass. and we´ve got a great combination. We´re able to go in there and for 20 or 25.000 dollars, record 12 or 13 really great sounding songs and we´re very pleased!
Do you like working with other songwriters on songs or do you preferably work on your own?
Michael: For Stryper, usually it´s me. I´m open to working with other writers, but it´s just not a road that I`ve gone down or have really had to go down, but I do co-write. I just went to Nashville and wrote with Blair Daly who wrote the Uncle Kracker song “Smile”. I´m into co-writing and I love to co-write! I´m planning some other sessions to do some other co-writing with some other people, but for Stryper it´s kind of what I do and hopefully I´ve gotten good at it over the years. The well is not running dry yet!
Would you ever consider doing a full blown tour in full old school Stryper regalia with the black and yellow stuff and all that? Would you ever consider that or is that just part of the past?
Michael: No, it´s not part of the past. If there´s a demand for it and it´s viable, absolutely! You know, we´re doing this show in Japan this year and I can´t say who or what or where yet, but we´re doing a show in Japan (Loudpark festival Oct 15, Editor´s note) and we´re gonna be sporting the old outfits.
Cool!
Michael: There is a demand for that. It just depends on where and when and if so, a world tour or a US tour, absolutely! I think it would be really cool to go out there with the original look. I mean, we have to throw on wigs now to get the original hair! (laughs)Yeah, I think it would be fun!
What kind of set are you playing these days? Is it more of a greatest hits set?
Michael: No, we´re not doing any of the old songs! We´ve got a bunch of polka songs that we´ve worked out metal versions of. (laughs) No, of course we´re doing as many of the old classics that we can fit into a 75 or 80 minute set. We do a couple of new songs from the past few albums and then we do three or four covers.
Do you remember the first time you played in Sweden? Did you play here in the 80´s?
Michael: We sure did! I don´t remember specific dates, but we played Sweden in the 80´s, yeah absolutely!
I ´m wondering, do you know of a band called Allies?
Michael: Are you referring to the old Allies with Bob?
I bought a vinyl record (Shoulder to shoulder, 1987 Editor´s note) back in the late 80´s. I bought it at the local record store and from reading the liner notes and so on, I could kind of figure out that they were part of the Christian rock community and was really blown away by how good they sounded. I always wondered what happened to them?
Michael: It was Bob Carlisle singing. A phenomenal singer with a really great voice. He went on to be a writer and he wrote a song called “Butterfly kisses” and that was a big hit, a huge hit! I´m not sure what he´s up to now. He does a lot of jingles and stuff. He´s got one of those memorable, amazing voices!
Great! A final thing, of all the bands you toured with and all the other LA bands you came a cross, was there any band that you felt that you bonded more with than others? Any bands that were more fun hanging around?
Michael: Absolutely! I bonded much so with Ratt with the original line up. Stephen Pearcy and I used to hang out in front of Gazzaris and talk. I bought a white Flying V from Stephen and that was the first guitar to get taped yellow and black. Good friends with Robbin Crosby and Chris Hager at the time, was the other guitar player and he then went on to be in Rough Cutt. I really hit it off with Jake E Lee when he joined Ratt and I was good friends with Doug Aldrich who plays in Whitesnake now. He and I hung out a lot. We hit the town together a lot! (laughs) he´s a super guy and I love Doug. I haven´t talked to him in years.
Yeah, I´ve met him and interviewed him twice and he´s a really nice guy!
Michael: One of the best, man! He´s so humble and what an amazing talent and super human being? And then CC Deville! An interesting thing with CC and Doug, is that they were supposed to be in Stryper.
Oh Doug too? I knew about CC.
Michael: Yeah, CC came down and we were gonna join forces. He got mentioned on “The yellow and black attack” and he was like a Tasmanian devil! He said “ Nah, I want to do the glam thing and and pink and purple…!” and he wasn´t into the yellow and black thing at all. Doug we wound up jamming with. I forget why we didn´t work things out or didn´t try to? I think he was gonna pursue his other band Lion and do that, but that could´ve been. It easily could´ve been.
You´ve got any fun Robbin Crosby stories?
Michael: No fun Robbin Crosby story, but it was always hilarious talking to Robbin with that deep voice and he was six foot seven, a huge guy, but a big teddy bear. Just a sweetheart! We hung out in front of Gazzaris and we hung out in the studio a lot and every time I ran into Robbin, he´d always give me a hug and say “Hey Michael!”. Just a great guy!
Yeah! It just seems like he went down a black hole and everything went wrong.
Michael: Yeah, that´s what I say. The whole rock and roll scene… that can happen to anyone, but it´s really sad and I know unfortunately that he experimented with drugs and what not. It´s just sad, man. Such a great person and he´s no longer with us. It´s a tragedy, it really is!
Sure is! Well, I thank you so much Michael! It´s been an utter pleasure talking to you!
Michael: And likewise!
I wish you all the best with the rest of the tour and it seems like you´re really busy.
Michael: Hey man, thank you for your time brother!
You too!
Michael: Alright, god bless you! Bye!
/Niclas
För en tid sedan ringde jag upp Michael för ett snack om lite allt möjligt. När han svarade berättade han snabbt att han hade lite problem med sin hund och undrade om jag kunde ringa 10 minuter senare.
Det var självfallet inga problem och intervjun kom sedan att rulla på och handla om allt möjligt som har hänt eller händer i Strypervärlden. Personligen har jag aldrig tagit Stryper till mig, men det är alltid oerhört kul att snacka med alla dessa rockers och alla har ju en historia att berätta.
How are you?
Michael: I´m doing well. My dog had surgery about a month ago and I had an appointment and they were behind so it was out of my control, you know.
Stuff that happens.
Michael: Yeah! Where are you calling from? Are you actually calling from Sweden?
I´m calling from Stockholm, the Capital of Sweden, yes.
Michael: Wow!
The snow is finally gone and it´s almost like summer here, finally. We´ve had a cruel winter that lasted for months and months and now finally the light is back again.
Michael: Thank god! Our winter probably wasn´t as harsh as yours, but we had a pretty bad winter too. They seem to be getting worse every year.
Yeah, most definitely. Well, what are you and Stryper up to now? Are you still on tour in the US?
Michael: We are touring the US. We did a run in March where we did 20 dates and we´re coming to Europe and then we come home for a brief moment. We go to South America in August and Puerto Rico and then we do another US run in September and October. We´re trying to make people aware that we´re still alive, we´re not dead yet.
Sure. What´s it like making music these days compared to when it all started out for you in the 80´s? Is it easier writing music today, since you´ve done it for so long or was it easier back then with the music climate and everything?
Michael: You know, if easier is the right way of putting it, but I mean, I think it´s certainly different, good or bad. The thing about writing music today is… you know with Pro Tools and the digital technology and what not, you can go in and track drums and do edits later to fix the problem. Back in the day you couldn´t do that, you had to get it right, so maybe there was a little more stress back in the day and it took a little longer to make records. I think the enjoyment process is a little higher. This last record we did, “The covering”, we had the time of our lives. It was a fun experience.
A bit about your history. As I gather the name Roxx Regime turned into Stryper.
Michael: That´s correct. What happened was, we had the name Roxx and there was this other band that went by the name Roxx and we added Regime to Roxx and we actually signed the recording contract with Enigma as Roxx Regime, but everybody hated the name, so that´s when we all mutually agreed, the label and the band, that it would be best to come up with a new name and that´s when we came up with the name Stryper.
I think Roxx Regime sounds really cool!
Michael: (laughs) You know what it is, the problem we always found with the name Roxx Regime is that when people would say “What´s the name of your band?” and we´d say “Roxx Regime!” and they´d say “What?” and with Stryper we never get that. With Stryper they never say “What?”.
When you started out, did you plan or make plans… was the thought initially to become the most prominent Christian band or was that just something that happened? Was it the plan from the beginning?
Michael: No, there was no plan! I´ll tell you what happened. We were a regular Hollywood club band trying to make it, like Mötley Crüe and Ratt and all the bands that were on the scene at the time. We weren´t a Christian band! We went to church growing up and had a relationship with god for a while, but then kind of got into drinking and drugging, all the things that typical rock bands from that time period got into and we wound up talking to friend of ours who gave his life to god and we saw a change in him and he really encouraged us to change the direction of the band, so we did and we re-wrote the lyrics and decided, “You know what? We wanna be different! We wanna make a stand for a different cause and not just sex, drugs and rock and roll!”. That´s what we did.
Had that not happened with that friend of yours, would you have become more of the same kind of stuff that all the other LA bands were up to? The sex and the drugs and all that? Do you think that?
Michael: I don´t know! Maybe. I know not musically! We were writing a lot of the songs, all the songs on the “Yellow and black attack” album and a lot of the songs on “Soldiers under command” were written prior to us becoming Stryper. Musically speaking we still would´ve had the Stryper sound and what not, but as far as our spirituality and lifestyle goes, we might have gone down that road of sex, drugs and rock and roll and not know where we´d be today. Maybe dead! Who knows?
Do you remember the first club you played in LA?
Michael: Oh gosh! I remember the first time we played, one of the first clubs in LA, if not the first, was Gazzaris and I was way under age. I was 13 years old and I remember Bill Gazzari, knowing how young I was and having a problem with it, but allowing me to play there and it was a real controversial thing at the time. I was like one of the youngest guys that had ever played the club at that time, but it was illegal. We started at a very young age and that´s when I joined my brother´s band, when I was 13. We started playing backyard parties and then we eventually found our way into Hollywood. Gazzaris we played for years and Troubadour, Whisky, the Country Club in Reseda, so lots of places. I´ve been doing this for a long time and I was just this little punk kid up there, skinny kid and weighed about 90 lbs and soaking wet. Up there jamming it out or trying anyway.
Looking back on those days, of all the tours you did, which one was the most fun? Is there any tour that stands out from all the others?
Michael: Oh my gosh! I gotta correct something, I gotta make a correction! I don´t want any false information going out there! I was 13 when I joined my brother´s band and we did backyard parties and high schools and things like that, but I was 16 when I first played Gazzaris.
Still very young!
Michael: Yeah, still very young and you had to be 18 to be allowed in there. Your other question was?
Of all the tours back in the day, is there any tour that stands out from all the others and were more fun?
Michael: Absolutely! We had a blast with TNT and Loudness! It was an absolute incredible time and Tony Harnell to this day… we haven´t been in contact for a long time, but he came up on stage with us and did “Breaking the law” at BB King´s in New York. He´s a dear friend and he´s an amazing person and I´ve always respected TNT for their songwriting and their musicianship. It was just a cool hang! We toured with White Lion and that was fun too.
Cool! Whose idea was it to start throwing out bibles into the crowd? Was that from you or management?
Michael: No, Michael Guido made the suggestion. He was kind of a mentor of ours and still is and he suggested we´d get these little testament bibles and we started buying them and throwing them out. It became something that Stryper is known for to this day and we still do it.
Do you have any idea how many bibles you´ve thrown out to the crowds over the years?
Michael: Definitely thousands! Back in the day when we were playing arenas, 10-12.000 people, we would throw out 200 bibles at a time. Now we don’t. We throw out maybe 30-40 at each show, but you add up all the shows and average that out, it´s definitely thousands of bibles. We used to throw those out in the early days and they´d be left all over the floor and then we had stickers made up, Stryper stickers and we started putting those on the bibles and once we did that, we´ve never seen a bible left from that point forward!
Wow! You must´ve had an entire truck full of bibles on the road then?
Michael: The way it worked is that we had a portion of the truck. We had three semis, one for light, one for sound and one for backline and the bibles were on the backline semi and we had a lot of bibles and when we would run low, we reordered them. We didn´t take enough out to do the whole tour. We kind of ordered them as we went.
I know about the name Stryper, but why did it turn out to be black and yellow? Why those colours and not, let´s say black and red?
Michael: You know, my brother taped his drumsticks yellow and black way back when we were still Roxx Regime. It lead from the drums being yellow and black to the guitars being yellow and black. He would tape it up. He taped up my Flying V Gibson and the bass player at the time, Eric Johnson… we were a trio at the time and I was the only guitar player and he taped up the guitars and then we started wearing yellow and black and making our own clothes. We used to buy carpet and spray-paint it yellow and black and wrap it around our legs, you know. We were doing all crazy kinds of stuff. We didn´t have a lot of money and we made our own guitar cabinets and we made our own clothes and we really worked hard.
I just saw a short interview with you on YouTube from something called the “700 club” and it was in 1986 and in it you said that initially… and it was bout you getting criticism from the Christian community and you said that starting the band “…was a calling from god!”. Was it like that? It´s hard for me because I´m not religious in any way.
Michael: I really think so! We believe it was a calling from god. The reason why we believe that is because the people that were put in our lives, that miraculously so gave their lives to god. One of the guys was probably the person you would least expect to give his heart to god and we saw this renewal in him and this glow in his eyes, this sparkle in his eyes and we saw the change god made in his life and we wanted that! We wanted that change for us, so we really feel it was a calling. You know, we wouldn´t go back and change a thing. Everything was perfectly put into place and connected the dots and once we committed to that… I´ll tell you this right now and this is the truth! You can take this for what it´s worth! We looked for a record deal for years and we did demos for years to no avail. Beating our heads against the wall and nothing happened. When we committed our band to god and decided to make a bold stand for god, we got a recording contract instantly and everything exploded, ok? We started to sell out clubs, the press wanted to talk to us and that´s not why we did it, but it is interesting that when we did it, that that happened. It just solidified to us, that that´s what we were supposed to do. That´s what we were called to do.
Comparing the US to Sweden, we´re not a very religious country and the US is, but is there a difference touring in different states in the US? Do you still get criticism in places these days?
Michael: We get some criticism. Back in the day we got a lot more, but I guess people are much more open minded now. I remember back in the day, many times we would go to perform a show and we would be ridiculed, totally! We performed in Holland and we got booed off the stage for the first three songs and they were chanting and this crowd wanted to kill us, you know. But once we played, after three or four songs, we won the crowd over and I think what it is, is once people see Stryper, they realize that “…these guys are just a rock band and they´re not too bad at it!”. We´re not about religion! We don´t endorse religion! We just endorse god and we endorse the word of god. We don´t endorse religion. Religion, unfortunately, separates people and confuses people, you know. We´re not a religious band!
During all this time… I saw a clip recently from a show in the US and you were talking to the crowd. Have you ever thought of getting into preaching and did you ever think of becoming a priest or be more involved in church and so on? Was that ever a thought for you?
Michael: In my own way, yes. The calling in my life hasn´t been to become a priest, but I do consider us as ministers in some way, because we go out and we minister people. We do it in a different way. I am involved in church and I actually lead music for three years at my church and I´ve always been involved in church and I love going to church. There are many times when I can´t go and sometimes I go for a couple of months without going to church. When we´re traveling we try to have church on the bus or get together and read from the bible and pray together and try to encourage each other. We´re a little different animal because we were brought up in the world, not the church and we´re not your typical Christian band! It´s a little different for us and I think it makes it a little easier sometimes for people who are Christian, to relate to us. I was giving an interview earlier and we have a lot of fans out there, that you would not expect to be Stryper fans. We performed at Nokia live recently in LA and backstage was Twiggy, who´s with Marilyn Manson and he´s a Stryper fan. He showed us a photo of him dressed up a Stryper member when he was in high school. And then John 5, who plays with Rob Zombie, he´s still got his Stryper bible and followed the band back in the day. There´s a lot of people out there that are fans of Stryper, but they might not admit it.
The latest album “The covering”, how did you end up picking the songs? Did you have a list of like 30 songs and you picked from those and was it a band effort picking those songs?
Michael: The way it worked was that I wrote up a list of just the “no-brainer, not have to think about songs” and there were a lot of those. I wrote up a list of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Scorpions and all these bands and I submitted that to the guys and everyone was like “Yeah, yeah absolutely!”. It was real easy. The only other songs that we kind of went back and forth on was songs like “Highway star”, “Carry on wayward son” and all those were influences of ours. It wasn´t a collective influence. “Carry on wayward son” was probably more of an influence for Tim, than it was to Robert, you know what I mean? KISS was more of an influence to Robert than it was to me, so there were a few songs that were not as influential on all of us, but the majority of those songs was collectively and influence on all four of us.
Did you ever think like “Let´s do something really crazy and cover a Slayer song!”?
Michael: (laughs) No, we didn´t think of covering a Slayer song! We always wanted to play or tour with Slayer just to see the freak out on the crowd. There would probably be a lot of police on hand, let´s put it that way. We thought about being a little more obscure and controversial in the song choice. Like for example “Breaking the law”, if we had covered “Exciter”, you know. We toyed around with “Exciter” and we could pull that off and that I think, would´ve been a little more shocking than “Breaking the law”, so we played it safe in a couple of ways and I kind of wish we hadn´t.
Cool! What about a new studio album then? Are you writing now or is that more far off in the future?
Michael: You know, I write really weird! I´m one of those guys that if I get a phone call from the label and they say “Hey, we need a song!”, I´ll go down stairs and write a song in a day. It´s just weird! I don´t say that to say that all the songs I write are great, good or bad whatever, that´s your opinion, but that´s how I write. If they say “We need a record!”, I go down and work until I have 12 songs. Once it´s time to do a new studio album, I´ll go down and work hard on writing the material for it. We are going in for recording a couple of new songs and some old songs and I just recently wrote a couple of new songs, to prepare for that record and we´re excited about that!
Right! A forthcoming studio album, would you produce that yourselves or would you like to work with a hot shot producer?
Michael: No, no man! Nothing against hot shot producers, but we´re not a band in a position to work with a hot shot producer. First of all they want too much money and they want too many points and we don´t make that much money or sell that many records to afford it. Number two, I don´t think we need it at this stage in our career! I produced the last record and the record prior to that one and the reviews have been great. They sound great and we have a great engineer, Danny Bernini, and he´s awesome. He´s one of the best I´ve ever worked with. He came out of the Record Plant in New York and he´s phenomenal! We found this chemistry between myself and Danny engineering and the studio Spirit House in North Hampton, Mass. and we´ve got a great combination. We´re able to go in there and for 20 or 25.000 dollars, record 12 or 13 really great sounding songs and we´re very pleased!
Do you like working with other songwriters on songs or do you preferably work on your own?
Michael: For Stryper, usually it´s me. I´m open to working with other writers, but it´s just not a road that I`ve gone down or have really had to go down, but I do co-write. I just went to Nashville and wrote with Blair Daly who wrote the Uncle Kracker song “Smile”. I´m into co-writing and I love to co-write! I´m planning some other sessions to do some other co-writing with some other people, but for Stryper it´s kind of what I do and hopefully I´ve gotten good at it over the years. The well is not running dry yet!
Would you ever consider doing a full blown tour in full old school Stryper regalia with the black and yellow stuff and all that? Would you ever consider that or is that just part of the past?
Michael: No, it´s not part of the past. If there´s a demand for it and it´s viable, absolutely! You know, we´re doing this show in Japan this year and I can´t say who or what or where yet, but we´re doing a show in Japan (Loudpark festival Oct 15, Editor´s note) and we´re gonna be sporting the old outfits.
Cool!
Michael: There is a demand for that. It just depends on where and when and if so, a world tour or a US tour, absolutely! I think it would be really cool to go out there with the original look. I mean, we have to throw on wigs now to get the original hair! (laughs)Yeah, I think it would be fun!
What kind of set are you playing these days? Is it more of a greatest hits set?
Michael: No, we´re not doing any of the old songs! We´ve got a bunch of polka songs that we´ve worked out metal versions of. (laughs) No, of course we´re doing as many of the old classics that we can fit into a 75 or 80 minute set. We do a couple of new songs from the past few albums and then we do three or four covers.
Do you remember the first time you played in Sweden? Did you play here in the 80´s?
Michael: We sure did! I don´t remember specific dates, but we played Sweden in the 80´s, yeah absolutely!
I ´m wondering, do you know of a band called Allies?
Michael: Are you referring to the old Allies with Bob?
I bought a vinyl record (Shoulder to shoulder, 1987 Editor´s note) back in the late 80´s. I bought it at the local record store and from reading the liner notes and so on, I could kind of figure out that they were part of the Christian rock community and was really blown away by how good they sounded. I always wondered what happened to them?
Michael: It was Bob Carlisle singing. A phenomenal singer with a really great voice. He went on to be a writer and he wrote a song called “Butterfly kisses” and that was a big hit, a huge hit! I´m not sure what he´s up to now. He does a lot of jingles and stuff. He´s got one of those memorable, amazing voices!
Great! A final thing, of all the bands you toured with and all the other LA bands you came a cross, was there any band that you felt that you bonded more with than others? Any bands that were more fun hanging around?
Michael: Absolutely! I bonded much so with Ratt with the original line up. Stephen Pearcy and I used to hang out in front of Gazzaris and talk. I bought a white Flying V from Stephen and that was the first guitar to get taped yellow and black. Good friends with Robbin Crosby and Chris Hager at the time, was the other guitar player and he then went on to be in Rough Cutt. I really hit it off with Jake E Lee when he joined Ratt and I was good friends with Doug Aldrich who plays in Whitesnake now. He and I hung out a lot. We hit the town together a lot! (laughs) he´s a super guy and I love Doug. I haven´t talked to him in years.
Yeah, I´ve met him and interviewed him twice and he´s a really nice guy!
Michael: One of the best, man! He´s so humble and what an amazing talent and super human being? And then CC Deville! An interesting thing with CC and Doug, is that they were supposed to be in Stryper.
Oh Doug too? I knew about CC.
Michael: Yeah, CC came down and we were gonna join forces. He got mentioned on “The yellow and black attack” and he was like a Tasmanian devil! He said “ Nah, I want to do the glam thing and and pink and purple…!” and he wasn´t into the yellow and black thing at all. Doug we wound up jamming with. I forget why we didn´t work things out or didn´t try to? I think he was gonna pursue his other band Lion and do that, but that could´ve been. It easily could´ve been.
You´ve got any fun Robbin Crosby stories?
Michael: No fun Robbin Crosby story, but it was always hilarious talking to Robbin with that deep voice and he was six foot seven, a huge guy, but a big teddy bear. Just a sweetheart! We hung out in front of Gazzaris and we hung out in the studio a lot and every time I ran into Robbin, he´d always give me a hug and say “Hey Michael!”. Just a great guy!
Yeah! It just seems like he went down a black hole and everything went wrong.
Michael: Yeah, that´s what I say. The whole rock and roll scene… that can happen to anyone, but it´s really sad and I know unfortunately that he experimented with drugs and what not. It´s just sad, man. Such a great person and he´s no longer with us. It´s a tragedy, it really is!
Sure is! Well, I thank you so much Michael! It´s been an utter pleasure talking to you!
Michael: And likewise!
I wish you all the best with the rest of the tour and it seems like you´re really busy.
Michael: Hey man, thank you for your time brother!
You too!
Michael: Alright, god bless you! Bye!
/Niclas
söndag 24 juli 2011
Where Angels Suffer till Sverige!
Bandet som bl a innehåller Chris Holmes spelar i Sverige i början av september, i Trollhättan av alla ställen. Jag hoppas kunna göra en intervju med herr Holmes innan de sätter fötterna på svensk mark. Tydligen gör bandet en meet and greet efter spelningen.
Aug. 26th Untouchables Jevnaker Norway
Aug. 27th Alcatraz Festival Belgium
Aug. 28th TBA Germany
Aug. 29th Rockcity Switzerland
Aug. 30th The Underworld London UK
Aug. 31st The Diamond Sutton In Ashfield UK
Sept. 1st Yardbirds Club Grimsby UK
Sept. 2nd Sleazy Weekend, Elm street Oslo, Norway
Sept. 3rd Backstage Rockbar Trollhattan, Sweden
Mer W.A.S. här
/Niclas
Bandet som bl a innehåller Chris Holmes spelar i Sverige i början av september, i Trollhättan av alla ställen. Jag hoppas kunna göra en intervju med herr Holmes innan de sätter fötterna på svensk mark. Tydligen gör bandet en meet and greet efter spelningen.
Aug. 26th Untouchables Jevnaker Norway
Aug. 27th Alcatraz Festival Belgium
Aug. 28th TBA Germany
Aug. 29th Rockcity Switzerland
Aug. 30th The Underworld London UK
Aug. 31st The Diamond Sutton In Ashfield UK
Sept. 1st Yardbirds Club Grimsby UK
Sept. 2nd Sleazy Weekend, Elm street Oslo, Norway
Sept. 3rd Backstage Rockbar Trollhattan, Sweden
Mer W.A.S. här
/Niclas
fredag 22 juli 2011
Greg Puciato gillar Spotify stenhårt!
Saxat från hans Facebook:
Geniunely excited and blown away by Spotify. Good to see a huge positive step for the music industry. This is gonna be a critical piece of the big picture of shifting out of the “old” industry to the “new”. Makes so much sense for casual listening….my IPOD suddenly feels like a giant book of CDs.
This is for real sick. Who gives a shit about royalties….that stuff’ll figure itself out in time. More important to just get the new infrastructure in place first so that the royalty situation can then be dealt with. In my opinion, this in a few years time turns CDs and Vinyls into complete collectors items that should both be numbered and limted. There will still be people that download so they can have the music in case there is no 3G….but Spotify actually has an “offline” mode too so you can temporarily save the music you’re streaming in case you’ll be away from 3G/4G/Wifi…which in a few years time you’ll NEVER be away from anyway.
The most significant change is gonna come in cell phone data plans…how much will they go up? Or down? Streaming is the future of casual music listening/movie watching. Netflix and services like it will eventually have every movie you want…and things like Spotify will have ever song. For people that still want the collector’s item…either because it’s rad to have or because it sounds better(vinyls and wavs > 320mp3s) they’ll still have that option but come on lets be real a streaming mp3 at 320 is sufficient for most daily listening(car, background at your place, etc).
I just listened to the stream of “Fix Your Face” and then played the same 320mp3 off of my ITunes and they were both instantaneous and sounded IDENTICAL. Obviously if I put on the Vinyl or listen to the wavs there will be a difference, but even then it will only be different on a legit hifi stereo….wouldn’t make a difference through computer speakers or earbuds.
/Niclas
Saxat från hans Facebook:
Geniunely excited and blown away by Spotify. Good to see a huge positive step for the music industry. This is gonna be a critical piece of the big picture of shifting out of the “old” industry to the “new”. Makes so much sense for casual listening….my IPOD suddenly feels like a giant book of CDs.
This is for real sick. Who gives a shit about royalties….that stuff’ll figure itself out in time. More important to just get the new infrastructure in place first so that the royalty situation can then be dealt with. In my opinion, this in a few years time turns CDs and Vinyls into complete collectors items that should both be numbered and limted. There will still be people that download so they can have the music in case there is no 3G….but Spotify actually has an “offline” mode too so you can temporarily save the music you’re streaming in case you’ll be away from 3G/4G/Wifi…which in a few years time you’ll NEVER be away from anyway.
The most significant change is gonna come in cell phone data plans…how much will they go up? Or down? Streaming is the future of casual music listening/movie watching. Netflix and services like it will eventually have every movie you want…and things like Spotify will have ever song. For people that still want the collector’s item…either because it’s rad to have or because it sounds better(vinyls and wavs > 320mp3s) they’ll still have that option but come on lets be real a streaming mp3 at 320 is sufficient for most daily listening(car, background at your place, etc).
I just listened to the stream of “Fix Your Face” and then played the same 320mp3 off of my ITunes and they were both instantaneous and sounded IDENTICAL. Obviously if I put on the Vinyl or listen to the wavs there will be a difference, but even then it will only be different on a legit hifi stereo….wouldn’t make a difference through computer speakers or earbuds.
/Niclas
Nya Mastodon!
Kort om kommande plattan "The Hunter" i Rolling Stone. Det ska bli mycket intressant att se vad de har kunnat skapa tillsammans med producenten Mike Elizondo (Dr Dre, Gwen Stefani).
"Kids are going to get in trouble to this album.They're going to break speakers, pop springs on their beds and get drunk and nude in public." - Brent Hinds
Mastodon här
/Niclas
Kort om kommande plattan "The Hunter" i Rolling Stone. Det ska bli mycket intressant att se vad de har kunnat skapa tillsammans med producenten Mike Elizondo (Dr Dre, Gwen Stefani).
"Kids are going to get in trouble to this album.They're going to break speakers, pop springs on their beds and get drunk and nude in public." - Brent Hinds
Mastodon här
/Niclas
torsdag 21 juli 2011
KISS på radio under 70-talet!
Som gammalt KISS-fan blir jag alltid exalterad av små saker som denna artikel. En kille får ett gäng skivor från en gammal collegestation i Dallas och i den stora högen finner han två KISS-plattor med lite roliga kommentarer från de som var DJ´s då det begav sig.
KISS på radio här
/Niclas
Som gammalt KISS-fan blir jag alltid exalterad av små saker som denna artikel. En kille får ett gäng skivor från en gammal collegestation i Dallas och i den stora högen finner han två KISS-plattor med lite roliga kommentarer från de som var DJ´s då det begav sig.
KISS på radio här
/Niclas
Oh Henry my Henry!
Henry Rollins lever det abolut häftigaste livet. Ever. I hans senaste krönika berättar han om en oerhört intressant upplevelse i en liten kyrka i Florida.
Henry här
/Niclas
Henry Rollins lever det abolut häftigaste livet. Ever. I hans senaste krönika berättar han om en oerhört intressant upplevelse i en liten kyrka i Florida.
Henry här
/Niclas
fredag 15 juli 2011
Ännu en konspirationsteoretiker!
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Senaste numret av Classic Rock bjuder på en hel del riktigt läsvärda artiklar. Bl a om G´N R "Use your illusion", Judas Priests "Stained class", Black Country Communion och två artiklar om grunge.
I de senare säger bl a Dana Strum (Slaughter, Vinnie Vincent, Vince Neil) följande om grungens tillkomst:
"Music has always been cyclical, but what caught me off guard was the way the flock of sheep swung so quickly against bands like mine. It was almost religious programming. I still don´t know how much of the grunge era was a natural development or was planned by a team of radio consultants."
En liten teori som passar in med Kennedymordet, 9-11 och månlandningen.
/Niclas
Senaste numret av Classic Rock bjuder på en hel del riktigt läsvärda artiklar. Bl a om G´N R "Use your illusion", Judas Priests "Stained class", Black Country Communion och två artiklar om grunge.
I de senare säger bl a Dana Strum (Slaughter, Vinnie Vincent, Vince Neil) följande om grungens tillkomst:
"Music has always been cyclical, but what caught me off guard was the way the flock of sheep swung so quickly against bands like mine. It was almost religious programming. I still don´t know how much of the grunge era was a natural development or was planned by a team of radio consultants."
En liten teori som passar in med Kennedymordet, 9-11 och månlandningen.
/Niclas
onsdag 13 juli 2011
Intervju med Frank Bello i Anthrax!
Då jag just nu befinner mig på resande fot och har väldigt sporadisk kontakt med datorer, har uppdateringarna blivit få den senaste tiden.
Här är dock den korta intervjun jag hade nöjet att göra med Frank under pågående Big Four spektakel i Göteborg för någon vecka sedan.
Strax innan intervjun stod jag och väntade utanför backstagefållan som ett annat mähä. Helt plötsligt blev det liv och rörelse på folk runt omkring och det visade sig att mr Hetfield stod 2 m ifrån mig och betraktade Megadeths spelning. Själv blev jag till mig som en liten skolflicka och fick upp kameran snabbt som attan och fick en bild. Utan tvekan det närmsta jag kommer att komma denna riffmeister.
Frank visade sig vara en ytterst trevlig rocker som bjöd på ölen han just fått i handen och sedan hämtade en ny åt sig själv samtidigt som han kraftigt underströk att han ännu inte hade hunnit dricka ur min öl. Samtalet var kort, utfördes i ett trapphus och blev inte direkt djuplodande, men jag hoppas på ett nytt tillfälle i samband med att nya plattan släpps.
Frank: Where were you?
I was way up in the back.
Frank: Alright. I don´t know what happened with the wiring, but it was all… we just had to go with it, you know. Thank god we know the songs! (laughs)
That´s always good!
Frank: Yeah, we just saw a playback of the show. Sounded good?
Yeah!
Frank: Thank god, you know! I thought it got all weirded out.
Pretty cool that you did “Only”! Have you been doing that for a while?
Frank: You know, we´re mixing different songs. The other night we did “Medusa” and now we did “Only” instead, but we always do that to see what works. You want a beer?
Sure! (Frank hands me his beer and keeps telling me he didn´t sip it) I´m just wondering, since I´ve read a bit about the new album, how much of it was all new stuff that you did with Joey?
Frank: We pretty much erased everything from the past. Scott, Charlie and I wrote these songs a while back. The good thing with having all this time is that you can pick and choose different parts. For Joey we took out lyrics and melodies that we didn´t want from the past and everything was Charlie, Scott and I with the band and I tell you man, I haven´t been this psyched about a record… I came over here and we just got the masters the other day and it´s a great fucking time when you´re finally finished after eight years. Listening to it I was like Oh fuck man, I really can´t wait to play this shit!”. Everybody says that, but I really… I think we could play every song on this record if we wanted to. A friend of ours from a magazine in Germany, heard the whole record at a listening party and he compared it to certain records, but he said it sounds new and fresh and that´s what I wanna hear. It sounds new and fresh and I think it´s definitely what we want and I think it´s what people are looking for. I don´t think anybody´s gonna be disappointed! I´m fucking… I haven´t been this stoked in a while!
Yeah, I´ve heard “Fight ém til you can´t” and it just brought me back. It´s got classic Anthrax and there´s new stuff to it as well and it sounds really good live.
Frank: Thank you! With Andreas, he´s a good friend of ours and obviously the right guy for the right job and Scott just had the baby. We´re all family and this whole tour is family, man! That´s what´s great about the Big Four. Everybody talks about metal, but we talk about families because that´s where we´re at in our lives. This music is still intense. Andreas, man… I had jammed with him before and when Scott was having his baby, he was the right guy and he also brings an intensity to the stage. I´m really stoked and it´s a different part of Anthrax again. It´s the only time Scott hasn´t played with Anthrax for all these years. It´s kind of cool! We were rehearsing the other day for this tour and Scott was on Skype holding the baby and watching us. (laughs) It was so surreal just watching it.
Was Andreas your first choice?
Frank: Yeah! I don´t know if you know this band called Hail, but I had jammed with them in New York. It´s Dave Ellefson´s band and he asked me if I could come down and jam and we jammed on some Anthrax songs. I´ve known Andreas for a long time and I knew he´d lock it so for me it was a no-brainer. I love what the guy does! It´s so heavy! His sound is so heavy! He came into rehearsals and I swear it was like Scott was there! It was kind of cool!
This new album, have you produced it yourselves?
Frank: It´s Anthrax, Rob Caggiano and Jay Ruston. Do you know who that is?
No.
Frank: I tell you, Jay was the missing link for Anthrax because he really worked with Joey really well. Coming into this stuff, Joey raised to the occasion and people are gonna freak out when they hear Joey´s voice! Raising to this level with this intensity in the music, I think Joey, where he left off, I think he took it to another level. I´m really psyched of what he did. I´m telling you, dude, I´m really psyched of what he did! Next time I see you, you tell me! It´s a good record and the whole fucking thing… I´m just psyched!
What made you pick “Fight ém till you can´t” to be the first song that you unveiled?
Frank: It says Anthrax! Like you said, it sounds like Anthrax. I think it has all the elements of old and new Anthrax and the way Joey sang it. It´s just a little taste and I can´t wait for people to hear the other stuff, because if this is like this, wait till you hear the other stuff. There´s a song called “In the end” and the first song on the record… god… I just can´t wait!
And “Worship music”, the title, where did you get that from?
Frank: It´s all about worshipping! This is what we do and it´s been eight years. You gotta be in on it, you gotta love it and worship it and then it comes to this! I just think we´re lucky enough to make a living doing this, for a long time. We´re playing Yankee Stadium, guys from the Bronx! Selling out Yankee Stadium, it´s ridiculous! A tribute to Metallica and this isn´t kiss ass! These guys have been my friends forever and I´ve always loved them. They didn´t have to do this, but they did because they believe in it and I love ém for it! We´re having a general good time this whole fucking tour, man! Everyone gets a long and it´s all good!
The artwork for the single, is that gonne be the artwork for the album?
Frank: No, that´s for the single. It´s cool and you´ll see.
And you´ve worked with him before, Alex Ross!
Frank: Dude, he´s unbelievable! The things he´s coming up with. I think he mastered up and it´s so intense and so fucking detailed.
It´s gonna look awesome on a t-shirt!
Frank: Yeah! When it comes to concert t-shirts, the youth of today, I think they get it. 15-16 year old kids coming to our shows and they wanna go old school. It´s real nice! It´s meat and potatoes!
Yeah, I still use a cassette player! (Frank and I both point to my recording device)
Frank: I like it! All the demos for the record I do like this. I do it like this and then I have my iPhone. I do tape first and then my iPhone and e-mail it to everybody and then we go back and forth.
Cool! These days every album comes in three or four different versions. Are there gonna be stuff like that?
Frank: Yeah, there´s gonna be bonus stuff. Anthrax are known for their b-sides and we´ve got a shitload of them. Shit we grew up with and just fun stuff. Some of it is like “Whooaaaa!”, it´s fucking weird but cool. I like doing that. It´ll surprise people. A little different taste of it. It´s really cool!
One final thing, an old thing. How come you ended up on “Married with children” and who nailed Christina Applegate?
Frank: I´ll tell you exactly how it happened! It wasn´t me but there was a rumor. She was actually dating a friend of mine back then and she´s a sweetheart. This woman worked for Megaforce Records back then and she knew we were fans. She called them up and said “The band is really into the show and if you have anything they could do on it, it would be great?” and they said “Yeah!”. It was a week full of fucking craziness. It was great! It was one of their biggest shows for some reason.
It kicks ass!
Frank: It did. It´s still a really cool show!
And Katey Segal is an old singer. She was on Gene Simmons solo record in ´78.
Frank: Yeah, she is and I remember having beers with Ed O´Neil and just sitting down and talking shop and him going “Yeah acting is really close to the music industry!” and just getting loaded and it was great, man. I loved it! Such a cool guy! Good people and they helped us a lot with our lines and were like “Just take your time and relax!” and that´s why I think it came out so well.
Ok, cool! Thanks man!
Frank: Alright dude, no problem!
/Niclas
Då jag just nu befinner mig på resande fot och har väldigt sporadisk kontakt med datorer, har uppdateringarna blivit få den senaste tiden.
Här är dock den korta intervjun jag hade nöjet att göra med Frank under pågående Big Four spektakel i Göteborg för någon vecka sedan.
Strax innan intervjun stod jag och väntade utanför backstagefållan som ett annat mähä. Helt plötsligt blev det liv och rörelse på folk runt omkring och det visade sig att mr Hetfield stod 2 m ifrån mig och betraktade Megadeths spelning. Själv blev jag till mig som en liten skolflicka och fick upp kameran snabbt som attan och fick en bild. Utan tvekan det närmsta jag kommer att komma denna riffmeister.
Frank visade sig vara en ytterst trevlig rocker som bjöd på ölen han just fått i handen och sedan hämtade en ny åt sig själv samtidigt som han kraftigt underströk att han ännu inte hade hunnit dricka ur min öl. Samtalet var kort, utfördes i ett trapphus och blev inte direkt djuplodande, men jag hoppas på ett nytt tillfälle i samband med att nya plattan släpps.
Frank: Where were you?
I was way up in the back.
Frank: Alright. I don´t know what happened with the wiring, but it was all… we just had to go with it, you know. Thank god we know the songs! (laughs)
That´s always good!
Frank: Yeah, we just saw a playback of the show. Sounded good?
Yeah!
Frank: Thank god, you know! I thought it got all weirded out.
Pretty cool that you did “Only”! Have you been doing that for a while?
Frank: You know, we´re mixing different songs. The other night we did “Medusa” and now we did “Only” instead, but we always do that to see what works. You want a beer?
Sure! (Frank hands me his beer and keeps telling me he didn´t sip it) I´m just wondering, since I´ve read a bit about the new album, how much of it was all new stuff that you did with Joey?
Frank: We pretty much erased everything from the past. Scott, Charlie and I wrote these songs a while back. The good thing with having all this time is that you can pick and choose different parts. For Joey we took out lyrics and melodies that we didn´t want from the past and everything was Charlie, Scott and I with the band and I tell you man, I haven´t been this psyched about a record… I came over here and we just got the masters the other day and it´s a great fucking time when you´re finally finished after eight years. Listening to it I was like Oh fuck man, I really can´t wait to play this shit!”. Everybody says that, but I really… I think we could play every song on this record if we wanted to. A friend of ours from a magazine in Germany, heard the whole record at a listening party and he compared it to certain records, but he said it sounds new and fresh and that´s what I wanna hear. It sounds new and fresh and I think it´s definitely what we want and I think it´s what people are looking for. I don´t think anybody´s gonna be disappointed! I´m fucking… I haven´t been this stoked in a while!
Yeah, I´ve heard “Fight ém til you can´t” and it just brought me back. It´s got classic Anthrax and there´s new stuff to it as well and it sounds really good live.
Frank: Thank you! With Andreas, he´s a good friend of ours and obviously the right guy for the right job and Scott just had the baby. We´re all family and this whole tour is family, man! That´s what´s great about the Big Four. Everybody talks about metal, but we talk about families because that´s where we´re at in our lives. This music is still intense. Andreas, man… I had jammed with him before and when Scott was having his baby, he was the right guy and he also brings an intensity to the stage. I´m really stoked and it´s a different part of Anthrax again. It´s the only time Scott hasn´t played with Anthrax for all these years. It´s kind of cool! We were rehearsing the other day for this tour and Scott was on Skype holding the baby and watching us. (laughs) It was so surreal just watching it.
Was Andreas your first choice?
Frank: Yeah! I don´t know if you know this band called Hail, but I had jammed with them in New York. It´s Dave Ellefson´s band and he asked me if I could come down and jam and we jammed on some Anthrax songs. I´ve known Andreas for a long time and I knew he´d lock it so for me it was a no-brainer. I love what the guy does! It´s so heavy! His sound is so heavy! He came into rehearsals and I swear it was like Scott was there! It was kind of cool!
This new album, have you produced it yourselves?
Frank: It´s Anthrax, Rob Caggiano and Jay Ruston. Do you know who that is?
No.
Frank: I tell you, Jay was the missing link for Anthrax because he really worked with Joey really well. Coming into this stuff, Joey raised to the occasion and people are gonna freak out when they hear Joey´s voice! Raising to this level with this intensity in the music, I think Joey, where he left off, I think he took it to another level. I´m really psyched of what he did. I´m telling you, dude, I´m really psyched of what he did! Next time I see you, you tell me! It´s a good record and the whole fucking thing… I´m just psyched!
What made you pick “Fight ém till you can´t” to be the first song that you unveiled?
Frank: It says Anthrax! Like you said, it sounds like Anthrax. I think it has all the elements of old and new Anthrax and the way Joey sang it. It´s just a little taste and I can´t wait for people to hear the other stuff, because if this is like this, wait till you hear the other stuff. There´s a song called “In the end” and the first song on the record… god… I just can´t wait!
And “Worship music”, the title, where did you get that from?
Frank: It´s all about worshipping! This is what we do and it´s been eight years. You gotta be in on it, you gotta love it and worship it and then it comes to this! I just think we´re lucky enough to make a living doing this, for a long time. We´re playing Yankee Stadium, guys from the Bronx! Selling out Yankee Stadium, it´s ridiculous! A tribute to Metallica and this isn´t kiss ass! These guys have been my friends forever and I´ve always loved them. They didn´t have to do this, but they did because they believe in it and I love ém for it! We´re having a general good time this whole fucking tour, man! Everyone gets a long and it´s all good!
The artwork for the single, is that gonne be the artwork for the album?
Frank: No, that´s for the single. It´s cool and you´ll see.
And you´ve worked with him before, Alex Ross!
Frank: Dude, he´s unbelievable! The things he´s coming up with. I think he mastered up and it´s so intense and so fucking detailed.
It´s gonna look awesome on a t-shirt!
Frank: Yeah! When it comes to concert t-shirts, the youth of today, I think they get it. 15-16 year old kids coming to our shows and they wanna go old school. It´s real nice! It´s meat and potatoes!
Yeah, I still use a cassette player! (Frank and I both point to my recording device)
Frank: I like it! All the demos for the record I do like this. I do it like this and then I have my iPhone. I do tape first and then my iPhone and e-mail it to everybody and then we go back and forth.
Cool! These days every album comes in three or four different versions. Are there gonna be stuff like that?
Frank: Yeah, there´s gonna be bonus stuff. Anthrax are known for their b-sides and we´ve got a shitload of them. Shit we grew up with and just fun stuff. Some of it is like “Whooaaaa!”, it´s fucking weird but cool. I like doing that. It´ll surprise people. A little different taste of it. It´s really cool!
One final thing, an old thing. How come you ended up on “Married with children” and who nailed Christina Applegate?
Frank: I´ll tell you exactly how it happened! It wasn´t me but there was a rumor. She was actually dating a friend of mine back then and she´s a sweetheart. This woman worked for Megaforce Records back then and she knew we were fans. She called them up and said “The band is really into the show and if you have anything they could do on it, it would be great?” and they said “Yeah!”. It was a week full of fucking craziness. It was great! It was one of their biggest shows for some reason.
It kicks ass!
Frank: It did. It´s still a really cool show!
And Katey Segal is an old singer. She was on Gene Simmons solo record in ´78.
Frank: Yeah, she is and I remember having beers with Ed O´Neil and just sitting down and talking shop and him going “Yeah acting is really close to the music industry!” and just getting loaded and it was great, man. I loved it! Such a cool guy! Good people and they helped us a lot with our lines and were like “Just take your time and relax!” and that´s why I think it came out so well.
Ok, cool! Thanks man!
Frank: Alright dude, no problem!
/Niclas