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ANDY CURRAN – ‘Whiskey & The Devil, Interview

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Photo courtesy of Donald Gadziola

Canada’s ANDY CURRAN may have been best known for his days and 3 album run in the early 80s CONEY HATCH, but following the breakup of the band, Andy would go on to record a few albums throughout the 90s. Albums released under such names as SOHO 69, CARAMEL, DRUG PLAN and LEISURE WORLD came later in the decade, but in 1990 his first ‘solo’ project was released simply as ‘Andy Curran’. A few songs received massive radio play across the country, and he was nominated for 2 Juno Awards in 1991, winning ‘Most Promising Male Vocalist’. That album was re-issued last year (in expanded box set form) for it’s 30th anniversary as ‘Whiskey & The Devil 30th’, as well as a 2LP colored issue. The extra LP included previously unreleased studio and live recordings. In this interview Andy recalls a lot from making that album, its success, and what came after, as well as detailing the bonus material. We also discuss SOHO 69, reissues, updates on ENVY OF NONE (w/Alex Lifeson) and CONEY HATCH, including the band’s plan to play the entire ‘Friction’ album (which they did) on a recent trip to the UK & France. And lastly, Andy gives us some great Canadian listening recommendations to check out.

I want to talk about the Whiskey and the Devil album. I know the box that came out last year, and I picked up the vinyl when I saw you guys in Oakville. So, a couple things right off the bat, obviously, is the title and the new artwork, because that wasn’t the original of either.

That’s correct. You know, I could be guilty of confusing people, but what I thought I’d like to do, Kevin, is all these years later, because it was a celebration or an anniversary issue, was to change it up a little bit. So I changed the artwork. That artwork was originally done by a very good buddy of mine named Bill Baker, and Bill is a tattoo artist. He has a tattoo shop in Toronto called Pearl Harbor Gift Shop, and he did that artwork for me back in the day, and it was on a t-shirt, and I just really loved it and thought, ‘man, I’m going to use it this time around’. And if I was to be really honest, when the record was released originally back in 91, I had a disagreement. It wasn’t anything hostile, but I never wanted to call the record Andy Curran. I wanted to call it ‘Soho 69’, and I had a title for the record called ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’, and they were adamant that it had to be called Andy Curran. And I was just like – I’ve always been part of the band; I always felt weird about calling the record after my name and everything, so I got a chance to finally get my way, and I changed everything.

The original seems to be a safe title and a safe cover, which is just the photo.

Yeah, I know. It’s weird because I literally had discussions with the label back then. I don’t want to use my photo. I don’t want to use my name. And they were like ‘Yes, guess what? We’re the record company, and this is the way it’s going to go.’ So, I wanted to change it afterwards, Kevin, and I got my way. Working with the guys at SING has been really great, and they were totally cool to just give me full artistic control on it, and so that’s the story behind the artwork.

On the original album, you have that emblem on the back there of that kind of eagle thing. Did you ever use that for anything?

Yes, the eagle logo we used quite a bit, and again, it was sort of a play on this whole ‘no tattoos’ thing. So going to my friend Bill Baker, he did the illustration for the eagle with the banner, and that was on our merch back then. I think we even had a backdrop with the eagle in the background. So, yeah, so we used that quite a bit back in the day.

You had quite a bit of success with this album. You had the Juno and everything, and you had like, the first three songs, I think, were all radio hits and singles!?

Yeah, that was a nice run for me. I mean, those songs, like “License To Love”, “No Tattoos”, and “Let Go” – they were all top ten songs at Rock Radio in Canada, and they were getting a load of airplay on MuchMusic with “No Tattoos” and “License To Love”. And I think that really propped up the visibility of the release of the project and helped me get a couple Juno nominations. The record was also nominated for, I think, Best Hard Rock Album of The Year, and I lost to some band called Rush or something. Yeah, that’s alright, I guess.

Did you tour a lot with this album?

We did. We were out on the road, Kev, for – when all things were said and done, we were out for approximately 18 months that year. The touring cycle was really, really quite long. Lots of solo dates, if I recall. Now you’re really stretching my memory here. We went out on the road with Glass Tiger and Haywire was one tour. We did a bunch of shows with my buddy Kim Mitchell. We did a bunch of shows with Rick Emmett after Rick had left Triumph and was out playing solo shows. And, I think probably the highlight for me was doing some dates with Rush, opening up for them on the Roll The Bones tour.

So, again, having the visibility of the Juno awards and all that airplay, it just fueled the touring cycle. So that might have been. It wasn’t a steady 18 months, but that’s how long we were out for on and off. Yeah.

You have live stuff on this new reissue. Do you have a full show of that or did you just kind of handpick some of the songs?

Well, there was a couple of live shows floating around that various people had recorded. And, with the live stuff that made the Whiskey And The Devil anniversary, I worked very closely with my buddy, and lead singer of Harem Scarem, Harry Hess. And Harry is a renowned mastering engineer and he and I were talking, and he said ‘man, your live band was so good back then. It’s too bad you don’t have any recordings’. And I said, I do, but they’re all on cassettes. And he said ‘well, I’ve done some pretty cool stuff with audio from cassettes. Why don’t you give it to me, and I’ll see if we can rescue it from the dead’. So, Harry’s got some really great technology, that works with basically upgrading audio from that format. So believe it or not, that was taken from a live recording that was handed to me on a cassette and Harry did some wonderful stuff with it. But, to answer your question, yeah, I cherry picked it because there were some songs that just didn’t really sound any good quality wise. So, we sort of focused on the ones that we thought sounded great.

I see you did a couple of covers. You didn’t just really stick to your own stuff there.

We had so much fun doing covers, man. Over the years, there was something about wanting to put my stamp on a few different songs that I really, really loved, you know? So, I’ve been a huge fan of the band WAR for a very, very long time. And I think I gravitate a lot to some of that old *funk just because of the baselines on it. But those two songs “Cisco Kid” and “Low Rider”, we always had a lot of fun with.

But we used to do a version of “Highway Star”. I wish I had a version of that Deep Purple one that we did. We did the Beatles “She’s So Heavy”. We used to do “Schools Out”. And I think we even did a version of Stan Ridgway’s “Mexican Radio”. I mean, these are songs that I grew up with and people are like ‘what are you doing? A hard rock version of “Mexican Radio”!?’ And I was ‘I love those songs’. But those two songs by WAR have just been old favorites of mine and I wanted to put them on there just to let people hear what we did, and best with those cover versions.

I like things that are different, and they sound different. They’re kind of out of their genre, you know!? And then you have the two songs that weren’t on the album that!?

As a lot of artists do, you go into the recording sessions with some extra material, just in case some of the songs don’t really pan out or, you never know how they’re going to go regardless of getting bed tracks done. You never know if they’re actually going to sound great or not sound great. So, “One Woman Man” and “Walk The Other Way” were recorded at the same time as I recorded all of the other songs, and I kind of had forgotten about them, to be honest with you. It was just such a distant memory that we had gone in and recorded those songs. And when Tom Berry from Alert Records gave me access to all of the original tapes, multi-track tapes, I was surprised to see two extra songs. I opened them up and I was like ‘Oh my God. I remember these two songs!’ The story behind them. If I recall is you’re always challenged with the amount of music that you can put on a side of vinyl and vinyl was still around. And so, we figured out that there was no way to get those two songs on vinyl. And if I recall, there was some business stuff going on about lawyers going back and forth about ‘Hey, you know, we’re, we’re only going to pay Andy up to 10 songs and we’re not going to put up 12 songs’. So, they just for no bad reason, just got shuffled off to the side. I just thought it would be cool to resurrect those ones. And I worked with my buddy, Vic Florencia, who is also a Juno award winner. And we thought ‘well why don’t we just those songs were finished. I was surprised that I had done everything on it. There was no extra overdubs required. They were finished and, but just never brought to life. So, it was a pretty easy thing just to get those tracks and remix them and kind of get them pulled out of the vault for people to hear. Because we used to play one of them live – “Walk The Other Way” – we played live for a long time.

There was no issue of what tracks you were going to put aside; was it was an easy choice, the first 10?

It was. I think when everybody sort of threw that through the list of titles into a hat and we picked them all, everybody was fine to leave those ones off and, full transparency with “One Woman Man”, that has a bit of a Southern rock-blues vibe to it. (And) we thought, we thought ‘does this even fit?’ And I’m a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan, and I just thought, ‘okay, well, guilty as charged’. That was me trying to add a little bit of Southern rock into the mix. Did it work? Did it fit? Maybe not. But all these years later, I really don’t care. I just was like, let’s put these in.

You also had a new single out “Looking For Love”, that came out a couple of months ago. And that’s a new recording!?

That is a brand-new recording. I’ll tell you how that came to fruition. *When I was talking to Geoff Osler, he is the CEO of SING. And he’s the guy that basically championed all of this and said ‘go ahead, Andy,.. I’m happy to work on this with you’. And he said, ‘but it’s really too bad you don’t have a new song’. And I said ‘that’s a stretch, man. I’d have to really put the band back together and go and write some stuff.’ I probably could get in touch with Glen and Simon, the original players. But I said, ‘what I do have is a demo of this song called “Looking For Love”. And we actually never got around to recording it’. And the premise of the song itself is based on a personal ad page in the back where people were. It’s almost like a version of a dating app. Now dating apps are so popular that the song topic might actually be relevant, even more so now with people on Tinder and all these different apps where they’re swiping to find mates. So, he said ‘well, we’ll go ahead and do it, pull it out and record it with the band’. So that song was originally written for my solo record. But I think one of the reasons we didn’t do it, it kind of starts off with bass, drums, guitar, almost a bit like “No Tattoos”. We thought ‘okay, we have these, but we can’t put both of them on the record. They are similar sounding’. So, we ended up shelving “Looking For Love”. And many years later, got back in the studio with Glen Milchem on drums and Simon Brierley, who both who played on the original record. And then I’ve obviously got a new friendship with Sean Kelly, who plays in Coney Hatch. I asked Sean Kelly to come in and do it. And all these years later, we resurrected “Looking For Love”.

Is ‘Whiskey And The Devil’ on CD as well?

We did not make this record available on CD. There’s been some discussion about doing that. I forgot if people still like to listen to CDs. I’ve got a huge collection. I’ve got a CD player in my studio. But a few people have been vocal about it. I don’t know. You’d have to tell me whether you think I should reissue it on CD as well.

I found over the last year, I’ve been buying more CDs, just because the way the price of vinyl has gone up. Plus, I play CDs in my car.

Yeah, well, it’s interesting that you mentioned it, because my friend Harry Hess, told me a lot of his fans still buy CDs. So maybe I got to put that on the to-do list and get a CD version of it.

With the success of that album when it came out, you then went with the band name SOHO 69 for the next album. Was there any pressure to follow up?

I don’t think there was any pressure, but it was a really, really odd chapter. Because you think about, I look back on it now, and it’s really just indicative of the music industry and life as a musician – just when you think things are going great, or you think you got the world by the short and curlies, the bottom drops out on it, right? So, when I was at the Juno Awards, and had won that Juno that night, I spoke to the record company, and they said, ‘By the way, we have to tell you congratulations, but we’re actually not going to be a full-fledged label anymore. So …you don’t have a record deal anymore.’ And I’m like ‘in what world does this happen?’ And you’re arguably celebrating something very successful, only to find out that you don’t have a record deal anymore.

I immediately had to scramble to just even find a home for the ‘Scatterbrain’ record, which I had already started working on. And there was all of this groundwork and all of this, great airplay that happens. So it did feel like there was momentum on this thing, and that I had to follow up on it really quickly. But because I didn’t have a record deal, it took some time. By the time ‘Kiss My Boots’ came out, off the SOHO 69 record, I had lost some *serious momentum on there, just trying to put everything together. And that deal with Hypnotic Records did not go well, like the honeymoon was over.

And when we released the record, we did very little touring on it. So, I look back on that chapter and thought, well, that was a tough punch in the chin, because everything went from super high to super low. And, after Scatterbrain, I sort of took this break to start working on the Caramel record.

*So, really a wheel fell off immediately after the Junos. And it really affected the lack of progress on it, to the point now where even if I was to go out and do some dates on this, and support this record, I wonder how many people would even remember ‘Licensed To Love’ or ‘No Tattoos’!? But it was a really tough chapter. It was mixed with highs and lows.

Yeah, I had Scatterbrain in the car this morning. The first like the lead off song starts and I was listening to this new Trapeze release the other day. It’s kind of got that same funky kind of heavy vibe to it. I thought the singles were great. So my next question is, would you ever like, between these albums and some of the other stuff you did in the 90s, would you ever contemplate taking a solo band or SOHO 69 on the road now and do a few shows?

Well, I have to tell you that my beautiful wife Monica is one of my best supporters. And she keeps saying to me ‘Andy how come you’re not going out and doing any shows with your No Tattoos band? And how come you’re not playing any Caramel or how come you’re not playing Drug Plan or Leisure World?’ So, I honestly have been talking to Sean and Glen Milchem about maybe doing some shows. Simon is a world-class pyro tech engineer that travels with all of these amazing bands and does pyro. So, his schedule probably wouldn’t permit Simon coming out, but I’ve entertained it.

But at the moment, I’ve been kind of focused on finishing off the year with Coney Hatch and the dates that we have in Europe and then also working on Envy of None. So there’s only enough time in the day. I gotta figure out how I can pull this off, you.

(talk of seeing Coney Hatch on Helloween 1994 at LuLus, which is now on YouTube)

I took my CDs with me that night and you signed mine. And so, I’ve got my Scatterbrain here and you wrote in it ‘if you’re not the lead dog, the view is always the same’.

Well, and listen, that’s a little bit of a play on the words. Like I had this artwork done for the record and it was ‘every dog has its day’. And there’s a really cool Toronto graphic artist by the name of Runt, and he did all the artwork at Lee’s Palace on the outside of the building. I got him to do this almost like an assembly line conveyor belt of dogs,. And they were all behind each other. And it just occurred to me that if you’re not the lead dog, you’re always looking up somebody’s ass, right!? So, you better get yourself in the first place. Yeah. I still want to use that artwork one day. And there is a song that I wrote called ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’ that was finished, and I might try to release that one too.

Who did the artwork for Solo69?

The Soho69, the Scatterbrain was done by my brother, Mike, and that was a bit of a play on an exploding brain and particles. We used to love Monty Python and some of their artwork was just like very, almost childlike where they would take things and cut it up. But the Scatterbrain record was also when the grunge thing started to happen. We thought we’d do a little joke and have everything in the tartan plaid grunge stuff. And by the time that record came out, when Nirvana came on the scene, anything remotely connected to hard rock or long hair was dead in the water. I remember hearing that track in Montreal going ‘this is amazing. My career might be over.’

It was really weird, because there’s lots of kinds of what I would call discrimination in the music industry. And there’s certainly age discrimination in North America that doesn’t exist in Europe. If you go to Europe, you could still see Status Quo playing or you could still see Rose Tattoo or Sweet or all these bands and nobody cares that these guys are in their 70s and they still go out. And then Coney Hatch falls into that category too. When we go over there, we have loyal fans that love us, and they still continue to see us. Not that we don’t in Canada, but in Canada, in North America, if you’re not young and if you’re not 20 years old or the next best thing, you easily get shuffled off into the side. And people forget about you. But in terms of styles changing, we can look over time, whether it was when our parents’ parents were listening to classical music and then Buddy Holly came on the scene and The Beatles that had just obliterated all of that kind of stuff. And then you think about disco and all of that stuff. It’s one of those things that changes all the time. And grunge really, really changed things. And it was a tough go for all of us at that point.

SOHO 69 got reissued back in 2004. Would you ever consider any kind of limited run reissue, including vinyl with it?

It’s interesting that you said that, because I’ve had a few people talking about trying to put that out on vinyl, because it was never out on vinyl before. But it’s always interesting when you get in touch with the old record company and ask them if they’re interested in doing it. But I remain friendly with them. But that would be fun; I’d like to see that on vinyl. I’d like to see the Caramel record on vinyl. I’d like to see the Leisure World record on vinyl. Those are things that, like the Leisure World and Caramel, I can control those. So I can get them out. And I’ve been thinking about doing that for quite some time now.

Now I’m assuming there wasn’t a lot of leftovers from that album?

There was a track that I had mentioned to you earlier on called ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’. I would probably add that to it and see what else is kicking around. I’ve got a lot of old demos that maybe I need to just get my buddy Harry Hess to resurrect them from the dead.

You’re playing the Friction album (with Coney Hatch) fully.

Yes, we are going to Manchester and to France, and our goal is on both of those nights to play ‘Friction’ in it’s entirety. We did, at the El Macombo, we played the first record for the 40th anniversary of that album. And then when we were in Oakville, we did the ‘Out of Hand’ record. We had a lot of fun doing that, just revisiting the old songs. So we haven’t played some of those, a few of them, we’ve never even played them. I don’t think we played ‘Burning’ Love’ – ever.! ‘Coming to Get You’ and ‘Champion’ haven’t been in our setlist in a long time, and ‘Stateline’. So, we’re going to dust them off, and do the entire record.

I did like the way they (Friction tracks) turned out on the Live in Germany album. I thought it was kind of minus the keyboards and it made it a little bit heavier than that.

Well, we’re thinking about recording one of those nights and maybe, you know, jokingly said, what about ‘Friction in France’? And we quietly went and recorded a couple of new tracks this year in Hamilton. At the beginning of the year, after we did the Oakville show. We kept Dave Ketchum in town and convinced Dave to go in the studio and hang out with us a little bit longer. So, our goal would be maybe to finish off those two songs, kind of like what we did with ‘Postcard’, where we had ‘It’s About a Girl’ and ‘Heaven’s on the Other Side’. Do the same thing and feed a couple of new tracks now that Sean Kelly is officially a Coney Hatch member. He’s been in our band for 10 years now, so we made it official with him the other day. We just thought it was time to let the new guy in on some stuff, so he’s been co-writing with me, and it’s been a lot of fun.

Do you foresee yourself doing just singles or do you foresee yourself ever doing a full album again?

I think the goal is to see what we come back from Europe with. If we’ve got some good recordings of those two shows, we might take a page out of the ‘Postcard from Germany’ and maybe do another live Friction record with some extra tracks on it. So, the goal would be to put out a full record.

I didn’t want to ask, but I wondered, because I was at those previous two shows, if anybody was actually recording them for future saving.

No, we didn’t record the Oakville show. It was a good night and I think the previous show at the El Macombo, we did record that. We just haven’t gotten around to listening to it just because we’re kind of focused on the Friction stuff, you know?

Did any of the songs that originated from you on that album (Friction) ever have a vocal put down by you?

That’s a well-documented difficult chapter for Coney Hatch with Friction, with the changing of drummers and me sort of stepping aside in the vocal department, but you know, ‘Coming To Get You’ and ‘Burning Love’, those two songs in particular were originally written by me and were supposed to be vocals by me. It’s funny you said that. I don’t know if we have old demo versions of those kicking around with me singing on them, but I think it would be so early that they might just be really bad rehearsal recordings of them. Carl’s a bit of a pack master, so next time you talk to Carl, ask him if he’s got a version of it shoved away in a closet somewhere, because he’s constantly surprising me with demos. He sent me some demos the other day, and there was a song that we had, I think it was called ‘Don’t I Know You’, and it was just dreadful. I said, ‘we’ve got to make sure that the world never hears this song’. He was laughing his head off! There were a couple others that didn’t make it to the A-list, so hopefully Carl doesn’t sneak them out and put them up online, because some of them I’d be pretty embarrassed for the general public to hear. it wasn’t our finest hour. (laughs)

Photos: Donald Gadziola

What else do you have on the go? Is there a second Envy of None album on the go?

Yes, We’ve been working really hard for the good part of this year on the second Envy of None record, and we had so much fun recording that first record that we just thought, why not? Let’s just continue. If all the stars align, there will be a new Envy of None record coming out sometime next year. But we’ve been chipping away at the stone on that one for quite some time and making some good progress.

Can you give me any underrated Canadian albums? Things that you would recommend to somebody that isn’t too familiar with Canadian rock.

I was a big fan of Queen City Kids back in the day from Winnipeg. They were a really cool band, and I don’t know if a lot of people know them. Obviously out West they know those guys. I thought Queen City Kids were a very, very cool band. There’s a very good friend of mine who’s a super talented graphic artist named Paulo Rizzo, and Paulo has a band called ‘Puddy’. Paulo has released some stuff recently that I think is absolutely crushing. That kid is super talented, so if you’re into really grungy mayhem rock, Puddy’s a good one. Obviously, my friends in Sven Gali, I really enjoyed working with them on their new record. There was this band that came out, and they kind of just came and went – ‘Priestess’! They were from Montreal, and they had some Queens of the Stone Age isms. Their first record (ed- ‘Hello Master’) was released back in 2005. What a great band! I would encourage anybody who hasn’t heard that record to really give it a listen.

And although they’re doing mostly covers, I really think my buddies in ‘Toque’ are doing a great job out there. They’re all super talented guys. I went to the induction of the Songwriters Hall of Fame on the weekend, and Sam Roberts got up. I just thought that guy’s so underrated. He’s got so many great songs. I think Sam Roberts is so great, the early Sam Roberts especially. There is a band on Arts & Crafts (Canadian label), I’m going to give you one more…This isn’t really a heavy rock band, but I’m going to tell you they’re definitely one of my favorites. I’m going to see if I can find this for you on there. I don’t think they’re together anymore, but that shouldn’t stop people from trying to go out and find it Arts and Crafts have a lot of pretty hipster bands. It’s a home of Feist. and Hayden is on that label too. I might have to text it to you because I played the crap out of this band. They’re called The Stills. There’s an incredible song called ‘I’m With You’ that I think is really good.

(And) Let’s not forget my buddy in Harem Scarem, Mr. Harry Hess. I’ve got to give him a shout out. My buds in Teenage Head are still kicking. I think that’s such a cool band. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the Ramones of Canada. If you want to go back and get an early kick in the teeth with some great Canadian punk rock, you’ve got to listen to Teenage Head!

So I gave you a couple of well-known ones and a couple of obscure ones, but yeah, especially like Priestess. The Stills did really well at Radio. Speaking of The Stills, there’s another band called The Standstills, which is a two-man band. One man, one woman. I’ve met them through the Tea Party guys. They’re another great band. I think they’re based out near St. Catharines.

Well, I know she’s unfortunately passed away, but Care Failure and Die Mannequin. I thought Care Failure was destined to be a huge star. Unfortunately, she passed away. But if anybody has a chance to check out Die Mannequin, it doesn’t get any more legit than that.

LINKS:

https://www.andycurranmusic.com

https://linktr.ee/andycurranofficial

*live photos of Andy courtesy of Donald Gadziola

SVEN GALI – ‘Bombs And Battlescars’ – Interview with David Wanless

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Photos courtesy of Donald Gadziola

Canadian rockers SVEN GALI returned in 2023 in a big way with a new album and more live shows. The band who released 2 albums in the 90s – Under The Influence (1992) and Inwire (1995), returned to recording with the (2020) EP ‘3′, before Bombs And Battlescars. SVEN GALI also recently recorded a show at Toronto’s El Macombo for a live album. I spoke to frontman David Wanless about SVEN GALI’s return, influences, and the new album. *Check out the links at the end for more on SVEN GALI..

It’s been some time, I guess, since the second album, so what kind of got the ball going on making a new album?

Well, what happened was, we took a long break for a while, and then one day, I got a call from Dan, the drummer, to come and jam with him at his house. He, and I, wasn’t really doing anything, so I took the invitation up to go to his place, and we had some other players there, and we just hung out, had a great afternoon. And then on the ride home, I was thinking, ‘well that was a good time’. And a couple days later, he called me and said ‘is there something you want to go farther with this?’ And we just talked to Andy and Shawn and stuff, and we thought we’d get together and play. And right off the bat it hit, and we started just jamming right away, and never looked back. So, since then, we’ve done some videos, we put out three, an EP three, and now Bombs and Battle Scars.

It’s the same, pretty much the same guys from when you left off in the 90s?

Same guys, except for, as you know, Dee passed away, and now we have, Dan from Varga who is playing drums, and then Shawn from Varga playing guitar.

Going back and revisiting the first two albums, the first album obviously is in that 80s hard rock- metal feel, and then the second album had more of the 90s alternative stuff, and I find that on this new album, is kind of a good mix of that stuff.

You know, you have your first 20 years of your life to write your first record, as they say. And we were young guys, and that’s what we were listening to, and that’s what we were into. But during the course of that, and being more experienced in travels and our musical tastes started to experiment different ways. And with the change in music, we decided the same thing. We were writing for ourselves. And Inwire came out, and I know some people thought – ‘they just totally bailed from what they were’, but all we were doing was growing as people and musicians, and now, but we still like what we did. So, now, this many years later, we started writing again, and we found influence from both time periods, and, then the birth of Bombs And Battlescars.

Now, the new songs on this album, aside from the cover, are they all newly written, or is there stuff that’s kind of hung around for years?

There’s some new stuff on there, but there’s stuff that we’ve had in the can before everything went south on us. Wehad a bunch of stuff that was ready to be written and recorded for the third record, a full-length record, so there’s some of those ideas, and then there’s a bunch of new stuff on there also. So there is a blend.

Can you tell me about a couple of songs, some of the influences on the new songs – lyrically or musically, how they kind of came about?

Well, the one that we just wrote, I think it’s, probably the last one was ‘Coming Home’. And Andy just presented that riff, and the song kind of laid out. And I was driving around for a long time just listening to that riff and trying to get some inspiration on where and what direction vocally, melodically to go. And one night I was sitting on the couch, and I was watching a movie, and some ideas started coming, and I just started jotting them down, and the next morning, I woke up, and I started putting melody to it, and then it all came together.

You’ve got a lot of heavy stuff on here, like ‘Monster’, obviously, ‘One Gun’… And the Triumph cover, I was a Triumph fan myself, so.

Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

That one you did with Andy Curran producing?

Yeah we did ‘Monster’, I think, with Andy, and I think there was another one. It was a good time; he was a great guy. We’ve always been big fans of Coney Hatch, all of our young lives. We used to see them at Uncle Sam’s in Niagara Falls back in the day. And, and, uh, so, he became a friend. And when Dee was having a struggle with his cancer, we did a benefit for him, and Andy came out. And then when it came time to do some recording, his name popped up, and we thought we’d give him a call, and he was very receptive, and we’ve had a great relationship since then. And played a couple shows with him also.

When you guys started out in the late 80s, what sort of bands were you into?

Oh, in the late 80s, man, we were into Queensryche and going as far back as Boston. I was a big fan of the music of the period at that time. When Ratt came out, I saw them at Massey Hall back in the early 80s. And bands like that; they’re great. The Scorpions, obviously, we were big Scorpions fans. And Black Sabbath, and stuff like that. So that’s kind of where we were back then, and since then, our music has just gone all over the place; you can walk into my house and you can hear anything. Who knows where you’re going to listen to when you walk in.

You guys did a lot of clubs around Ontario. What were some of the highlights during that period?

Yeah, we played every place we could, and anybody that’d take us, we set up. And we went back and forth across the country so many times. And, and then we got to the point where we said ‘okay, you know what? either we gotta do something or we gotta make that decision, or how far are we going to go, or what are we waiting for?’ So we went to the tour bus, a one-way ride to Los Angeles. He dropped us off; we had gigs planned down there. He dropped us off at our first gig, and then we just started playing in, in Hollywood. And then from there we got looked at by BMG, RCA back here, and it just went smooth as that. We played some shows, and then we got interest, and we just packed up and flew home and started recording the first record. Yeah.

The first album came out in 92!? And by that time the scene was starting to change, did that have much of an impact on you guys?

You know, it was a really tough time, because we were kind of almost there when things were. We had so many songs in the can, and we just decided that we gotta stick to our guns and just do what we do. We’ve written this record, let’s just put it out. And fortunately we just caught the tail end of everything. But it was funny how things changed and how things are circling back again now.

And you guys get a lot of gigs now, are you starting to play more now?

Yeah, we had a great couple years actually. We’re pretty selective on where we’ve played. Yeah. We played with The Headstones and Bush in Ottawa, that festival, which was great. We’ve done a couple of our own big shows here. We played the big show, the Burlington Music Festival, We played that, and we opened for Coney Hatch and Lee Aaron there. That was last spring, in June.

Do you, with all these releases coming out, do you keep a lot of them yourself and do you keep your own collection? Have you kept everything over the years?

You know what, I am the absolute worst at keeping anything, because, people come over to my place and through the years they always leave with something. And, so Andy is the collector for the band, he kind of is the vault. So he has, one or two or three of everything. And, my house, it’s a revolving door of stuff leaving and coming back.

Is there a bit of a goal once this album picks up a bit? Is there plans for another album or is there stuff in the vaults that you guys might want to put out?

We still have a ton of songs and a ton of ideas that we’re ready to work on. We just finished a video a couple nights ago for a new song, which you’ll hopefully see before the video for ‘Life Inside’ will be coming out soon also. We’ve done two more in the last two months. And then we’ve got some other plans for actually a new record. It’s going to be a little different, and we’ve put some things together for it now and I can’t say too much about it until it’s really 100% confirmed. But I think people are going to really like what we’ve got in the can right now. So we’re still alive, still kicking, and we’re looking forward to surprising people with something that may be out by Christmas.

Cool. Are there things in the vaults as far as any live recordings, things like that?

Yeah. So, we just played the El Macombo on Friday the 13th (September).

You recorded that, didn’t you?

Yeah, that was recorded for our live album And we’re looking for, again, spring for the live record to come out. It’s being mixed right now and it’s getting printed in China where Andy is. And the artwork is pretty much there. So now it’s just package it all up, get things printed and then get it out.

How much of the new album do you guys put into the show?

The new record we had, on our headlining show we have, generally I think ‘Spellbound’, ‘Monster’, ‘Coming Home’. There was probably, I’d say maybe half to three quarters of the new record is playing, but a lot of people want to hear the old stuff too, so we slam it all in there. Yeah.

I kind of like older bands that are still doing something new. It gives you something other than just getting a ‘hits’ show every time. In the years between after you guys broke up, have you done anything else as far as any side projects or anything?

You know what, I jammed around with some guys in cover bands just for the love of music and just hanging out with those guys. And that was fun. But for the most part, I just focused on family and just stuff like that. But we’re all big music fans at my house. My kids love music, my wife also, we like to go see concerts together and it’s a lot of good times. So, music is still very important.

Can give me a few favorite singers, songwriters from your youth?

From my youth….I’m a big fan of Geoff Tate. His writing and vocal ability. And I met him in Toronto because Kelly, the guitar player of Queensryche, produced InWire for us. I was a big fan of Blind Melon. Christian from Blind Melon played mandolin on our stuff. But, before that, you can’t discount all the bands from Zeppelin to, you know…I get something from everybody. I just pull from all over and enjoy all the different styles and genres of music.

Can I ask you a few of your, kind of almost underrated favorite Canadian albums that, other than the obvious? Some, it’s like Canadian records?

I’m a big fan of Coney Hatch. Their record, in my youth, it was great. I like I Mother Earth. Hmm. Everything from Bryan Adams, he’s such a great songwriter…Loverboy, what they did back in the day, uh, you know, Headpins, I mean, there’s so many great bands with so many great records in Canada. Canada is such an amazing country for music. There’s so many great stars that came out of here – from Justin Bieber to Celine Dion, like, just keep popping them off.

So, what do you guys got coming up other than the live album? Any shows in the near future?

No, we’re done right now for; Andy’s gone back, and we’ve done what we set out to do. We played a couple shows on the East Coast. We got a couple shows, we got the El Macombo done and another show in the area here. And now Bombs and Battle Scars is released in Europe and the United States. So, it’s available everywhere right now. I saw it on Walmart the other night.

Well, you know you’re there then.

Yeah, it’s funny, I’m doing a lot of PR stuff around the world. And then getting ready for what holds in the spring. We’re looking to, for some shows out West, obviously. We haven’t been out there yet, we get a lot of requests to go out there and then we’d like to dive into Europe again and do some festivals.

LINKS:

https://www.facebook.com/SvenGaliCanada/

https://www.dekoentertainment.com/sven-gali

Bombs & Battlescars (2023)

*live photos of Sven Gali courtesy of Donald Gadziola, from El Macombo, 2024.

New Tracks to check out – Victory, Sandveiss, Dream Theater and more….

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i come across a lot of new singles, new albums, much of which I don’t have the time to review & post here. But I think what I will be doing from time to time is post a number of recommended clips to check out… So check em out below!

SUNSTORM – I’ll Stand For You. From the band’s new album Restless Fight comes out on Frontiers, Nov 22. Features the voice of Ronnie Romero. Pre-Order – https://ffm.to/sunstormrestlessfight

VICTORY – Tonight We Rock and Falling

From the latest album by German hard rockers Victory (on AFM), who’ve been at it for decades. Love the cover art for Circle Of Life. The track “Falling” kinda reminds me of Alien Nation” by the Scorpions. Both great tracks! https://shop.afm-records.de/victory/

WARLORD – Golgotha (the Place Of The Skull)

the new single from US metal band. WARLORD is releasing singles to coincide with a number of Metal Festivals that they’ll be performing at.

LAST TEMPTATION – Fuel For My Soul

From this California band’s 3rd album Heart Starter. Features members of Temple Of Brutality, Annihilator, and Killing Machine, but this is more like classic bands Y&T and Van Halen . The first single “Get On Me” is below this one. Album out November 22, on Metalville.

DREAM THEATER – Night Terror

From the band’s forthcoming album Parasomnia , due out in February. Sounds good, but damn long.

NO FAVORS – Stop Where You Are

British band whos beginnings go back to the 80s, and have been revived. This is from their upcoming album The Eleventh Hour (ain’t that a Magnum title!?), due out November 22 on Pride & Joy. Check out the description in the video for more on the band’s history and links.

SANDVEISS – Standing In The Rain

The title track from the new album by Quebec’s SANDVEISS. Highly recommended. (More on these guys in another post). Album is now out, check out info & links in video description.

HOUSE OF LORDS – Taking The Fall & Bad Kharma

Lead by singer James Christian, HOUSE OF LORDS Full Tilt Overdrive is out now, on Frontiers. It’s their 12th album.

ECLIPSE – All I Want

Megalomanium II is the latest from Swedish rockers ECLIPSE. Out now. Check it out.

HAZZERD – Deathbringer

From the forthcoming album The 3rd Dimension, from Canadian thrash band HAZZERD. Not a huge thrash fan, but dig the riff and guitar sound throughout this…plus they’re Canadian, so… Check out more info & links in the video description.

SAXON – Fire And Steel

not really a new track, but a brand new video from this fast paced rocker from Hell, Fire And Damnation, released earlier this year. The single/video is out in time to announce the band’s upcoming Hell, Fire and Steel European tour.

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SEAN KELLY – ‘Don’t Call It Hair Metal’, an interview

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Guitarist SEAN KELLY has become a huge part of the Canadian rock scene over the past 2 decades. In the early 2000s his band CRASH KELLY released a number of albums, and since then Sean has gone on to work with numerous acts as a songwriter, recording artist, and live player – NELLIE FURTADO, HELIX, HONEYMOON SUITE, LEE AARON and CONEY HATCH! Sean has also released a new book which discusses 80s hard rock & metal and includes loads of interviews with legendary 80s players – Don’t Call It Hair Metal. This book, and Sean’s previous writing Metal On Ice can be easily found online and in shops. Below Sean talks about the book and the new CD (sold separately from the book), both highly recommended for fans of 80s hard-rock & metal. Check out the links below. (*Photos courtesy of Donald Gadziola).

So, the book, I’m assuming the CD is meant to tie in with the book as did with the ‘Metal on Ice‘ and the CD with that book?

Yeah, exactly. That was something we kind of knocked around before the book came out. We didn’t quite line it up with the book release, but it was something I really just kind of wanted to get out of my system, too. I had a bunch of cover songs that were used as B-sides for, Japanese releases, and those were mostly, the kind of early 70s type stuff or the 70S – mid-70s glam stuff. But I always wanted to cover a couple of these songs, and I thought it would be kind of a nice thing to have as a kind of a compendium to go along with the book. You could listen along, and that was the motivation.

I’m kind of on the fence about ‘covers’ albums, because some bands, I don’t know why they do them, but other bands, depending on the track listing – and what I like about this is the track listing, because it’s a lot of stuff a lot of people would not normally hear covered – like “Roxy Roller” and the WASP song and a few others there.

It’s funny, those were just songs that for some reason or another stuck with me, like “Sex Action” by L.A. Guns, that song has just always kind of resonated with me from a guitar perspective. I just remember the video, so I really wanted to kind of capture that feeling of, for that, like the Troubadour in the early 80s in L.A., and then also the early days of Twisted Sister, which is why I picked “I’ll Never Grow Up Now“. So, kind of really between the early 80s hard rock and Sunset Strip stuff and the 70s glam – that was my whole inspiration for doing the Crash Kelly thing anyway. So, it works as kind of a sign of what Crash Kelly was about, but it also works as a companion to the book.

Is Crash Kelly basically just yourself now, or is it still a band?

I used to say it was kind of like T-Rex or Marilyn Manson. I always considered it a band, whoever was playing with me at the time was in the band, but really it was a benevolent dictatorship, and it still kind of is. It really was my thing, although I have to say that the drummer, Tim Timleck, he’s been my musical partner on so much of this stuff for many years, and he’s definitely a band member. We’re actually working on some solo instrumental stuff for me right now, and the guy is just so talented on so many levels.

And you had a few guests on it as well. I’m just trying to think, Nick from Slick Toxic…?

Yeah, Nick Walsh. Nick and I were in a band together called ‘Revolver’, but I’m a massive Slick Toxic fan. Slick Toxic, really one of the reasons I moved to Toronto was reading about them in ‘Meat Magazine’ and them getting a deal, and then they made that amazing ‘Doing the Nasty’ record. So yeah, I did say it was great. I consider Nick a very close friend of mine, and it was great to have him on that. That was many years ago we recorded that; he’s got the Alice thing down. Nick is a master vocalist, he has his own sound, but he can also kind of catch the tonality of different artists, and he just did the Alice thing perfectly.

When did you move to Toronto?

I moved to Toronto in 1991.

So that was kind of like a tough period for metal and all that, because I remember getting those Meat Magazines and suddenly you had all the Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana and all these other bands that were on the covers and stuff.

That came just after. When I landed in Toronto in 1991, I’m from a smaller place, so it still very much felt like bands like Skid Row and Guns N’ Roses and Firehouse and Slick Toxic – they were still kind of the big bands, and then there was Extreme and Saigon Kick and all these bands. So, it felt like it was still very vital, and I remember getting to Toronto and immediately going to the Gasworks and seeing bands that were very much in that kind of 80s rock kind of paradigm.
But you’re right, what was really happening was a change of scene was happening, and when it changed, it felt like it changed overnight, and all of sudden things were radically different. And unfortunately for some of us, it was harder to find a place in that, because it seemed like some of the things I valued, like the way I played guitar or the way I looked, those things didn’t seem as relevant. It was a new way of thinking about things.

Regarding the book, what inspired the whole concept, I guess the whole premise of it?

Yeah, I think I got a little flack by some people because they said – “well, who cares about hair metal!? A lot of bands consider themselves hair metal.” But you’ve got to remember, when that term came out, it was after market. That was a term that was applied to 80s rock after the fact.
It was a pejorative term. It was a term designed to put it down. So no matter what it’s become – hey if you embrace it, you call it hair metal, you love it – more power to you! I actually don’t care. But where it comes from is from a pejorative insulting place, and that’s just fact. I’ll argue anybody on that.
And what I wanted to do was… and a lot of these bands have expressed frustration because really what they are is rock and roll bands. And the best of it deserves to be considered among the best of rock and roll. I don’t care what you say, Cinderella? Tom Keifer’s as good a musician as anybody who’s come before or after. So to lump him in under some pejorative title, I find it insulting. And I am an artist. I am a musician. I know how it feels to be lumped into something when it might not be appropriate. So this was a deeper dive into the best of it. Now, sometimes I would go back and listen to things and go, Oh, you know what? I can kind of hear that is formulaic. Or I had to re-investigate or reconsider some things that I initially had thought about some of those bands. But for the most part, I really wanted to tell the story and honor the contributions of those people that made up the soundtrack of my life.

You’ve got a lot of interviews. How much time or (I guess) over how much of a period of time did you collect interviews and stuff for?

It was over about two years. Every time I go in and write a book, I’m working on it right now. I’ll tell my publisher, ‘Oh, yeah, it should be done by this so and so.’ And I always need an extension because what happens is once you start talking to people, new ideas percolate. And new directions reveal themselves. Fortunately, I have an amazing publisher, ECW Press, and an incredible editor who’s become a dear friend, Michael Holmes. And he is so ‘writer friendly.’ He just wants you to write the best book possible. So, if I need more time, he’ll fight for that for me, and I appreciate that.

I know you’re friends with a lot of these people like Dee Snider and that. Have you got much feedback from them regarding the book or the album?

I did. And I have to tell you, on the album not so much because really, let me just talk about the album. The album is only available through rockpapermerch.com. Yeah, I didn’t put it up for streaming. And I’m not really pushing it, and Crash Kelly isn’t really touring. But I kind of like that because the people that are seeking it out are realizing it feels kind of special. It’s something that’s not widely available, and it’s not disposable, unfortunately a lot of great music starts to feel disposable in the age of streaming. You listen to half of a new song, and you go ‘that’s cool’, and it doesn’t stick. And music like anything else – like food and art, takes time to learn to appreciate it. So, I think the people that have actually gone out and picked up the CD and dusted off their CD player I think that they appreciate it.

Yeah, well, with me, CDs are for the car, mainly. I have my vinyl downstairs. But, but yeah, there’s a lot of albums. One thing is there’s so many albums coming out nowadays, it’s tough to keep up, right?

That’s it. And because the technology is such that we can record albums more efficiently, cheaper, I think there is a bit of a glut in the market sometimes, even with bands that, you know, ‘Heritage bands’, so it’s tough. And because you have the access to it, you can flip through and, skip ahead. It’s so easy. It’s not like rewinding a cassette or having to walk over to the record player, pick up the needle, right? I think sometimes good music that normally would have really sat in the listener’s mind doesn’t get a chance to do so.

I think like when we grew up, you put on an album, you had to listen to it, because you didn’t have much else. And you listen to it over and over until a couple weeks later until you got something else. But now you can get three or four things in a day, right?

Totally. And listen, to answer the other part of your question, I had some wonderful feedback, Dee Snider reached out to me to tell me how much he loved the book and enjoyed it. And I’ve had that from a few different people who really kind of told me that. That made me feel good, because I really was writing that to honor them, and honor the artistic motivation of these people.

What’s your take on some of these, a lot of these bands are still going and some of them are kind of like getting a bit of flack, like obviously Motley Crue and a few of these bands that are still going and kind of, you know, making changes and stuff like that!? And then you have other bands that are going strong still, they’re putting out decent albums and stuff.

Yeah, honestly, I think that it’s up to the listener, but people don’t stop being creative. And that’s something that the audience sometimes needs to understand about artists, like, “why are they just putting out new music, it doesn’t sound like their old stuff, or it sounds too much like their old…” Listen, these are just people who want to create, I think it’s important. I think it keeps it fresh for artists. And it kind of re-energizes them to allow them to go and deliver those hits that people love. Yeah, that’s important. And look, at this stage of the game, for artists from the 70s and 80s, a lot of it is based on nostalgia, but it doesn’t mean that they’re not creative people. So, more power to anybody who takes a shot at it and puts something new out there. I appreciate where it’s coming from. And, it’s funny, someone was talking to me about this whole thing about bands that replace members, and when is it too much – I think if there’s some kind of officially sanctioned line to the original band, like, I just had a great chat with Pete Agnew from Nazareth. And Pete acknowledges it’s not the same game without Dan McCaffrey, or Daryl Sweet, sure, but it feels so authentic. We just played a gig with Lee Aaron with Nazareth, and it feels so authentic because it has the blessing of the original unit. Listen, Daryl Sittler doesn’t play for the Leafs, but they’re still the Toronto Maple Leafs, you know what I’m saying? It’s a franchise, and if it’s fostered and passed along with love and respect and integrity, I think it’s a great thing.

With Coney Hatch you’ve done the two live albums, and obviously a couple new tracks. (Yep) Have you guys given any thought to or are you hoping to record something new with those guys?

Absolutely, in fact, you know, I can say there’s been a couple of new things that have been worked on, and I don’t know what format that’s going to take, but you know, we’ve been in the studio and worked on a couple of things, so you never know what’s going to be coming in the future.

Lee Aaron’s another one, obviously you’re playing with Lee. And I never really got into Lee much in the 80s and early 90s, but the last four albums or so, they’re very consistent, very solid pop rock stuff…(Thanks.) Yeah, so I guess what’s your whole thing with her, like how you guys work together and, you know, she’s pretty consistent putting out albums, right?

I mean, Lee Aaron is very much the captain of the ship. But she’s also very, very open to input. We all write together as a band. At first it would be, she would co-write with when I first joined the band, co-write with me or co-write with Dave, the bass player (Dave Reimer.) But now we just all throw our best ideas into the pot, and we work on it together, and it’s been a really great experience. She’s amazing to work with, very open, very collaborative, you know, she produces a record, she’s got the direction, but very open and it’s been a really rewarding experience.

You’ve, obviously you’ve worked with a number of Canadian bands, not just Coney Hatch and Lee Aaron, but Honeymoon Suite and Helix and a few others. Do you ever have stuff where you’re writing with somebody and you think ‘this is an idea or something that would really sound great on somebody else’s thing’, you know, like you ever have kind of a conflict, I guess, of ideas?

Well, not really. I mean, I’ve never kind of come up with something and said, ‘oh I’m going to hold on to that.’ I’m not really like that. I believe in working with the artist at the time, if I’m co-writing with somebody, you know. Yeah, sometimes you bring things that you think they’re going to really love and that they’re going to be – ‘oh, this is going to be perfect, this is going to sound exactly like a vintage track of such and such artist’ and they’ll go, ‘nah, that’s not really what I want to do.’ So sometimes that’s interesting. It’s like, ‘oh okay’. But I’m always open to it. When I’m trying to help, especially when I play with a band that’s had success or a history, I’m just trying to really help them flesh out their vision.

Now you grew up on a lot of the stuff you’re actually playing in now. So what’s, I guess, your whole experience of where you are now looking back at it.. I wonder if you can talk a bit about that, like how that experience of going from being a fan to a band member.

Yeah, I always try and keep that fan alive when I’m playing with those bands, because it’s that excitement in their music that kind of drew me into a career in music. So, first of all, it’s an honor; it’s definitely a thrill. But also, I think that that renewed sense of energy helps to renew them. They start to see the influence maybe they’ve had on other people. And I think it becomes this nice transaction of energy.

Now, do you have any Canadian bands you’d still like to work with?

Ha Ha! Yeah, I want to work with everybody! I’m energized by working with people. I’ve been so lucky to get a chance to work with so many. April Wine comes to mind. I almost had a chance to work with them, but it just didn’t work out. But yeah, Kim Mitchell – that’s someone I’ve always, you know, Kim is to me, the greatest guitar player this country ever produced, so I’d love to love to work with him. You know what!? There’s so many. It’s almost too many (LOL) to think about. But I’ve been sure lucky to work with the people I have. I’ll tell you that much.

In talking with a buddy of mine we’d mention the number of bands that Spider (Sinnaeve) would show up in as bass player. So, in mentioning you he said, ‘he sounds like the Spider of Canadian guitar players.’

I don’t even close to anywhere as talented or prolific. But I’ve been very fortunate. And it’s weird how it’s worked out. Helix and Honeymoon Suite were my first concert. And I got a chance to play with both of them and write songs with both of them. I play guitar because of Twisted Sister, and I got to star in a musical with Dee. It’s kind of crazy.

You’re also doing an acoustic thing with Carl (Dixon)!?

Yep, we have a new project called ‘Northern Strum’, which is a lot of fun. I love working with Carl, and Carl and I are no stranger to the acoustic thing together. We did it for years. But this has taken on a new element and really enjoying it actually working on a couple of new arrangements right now of classic Canadian songs and having a great time with it.

Yeah, that’s just gonna be a corporate thing perhaps!?

That’s kind of the idea, right!? But, you know, we kind of take everything from an artist’s point of view – it’s always really about making something that feels artistically satisfying. And sure, we need to make a living. But wherever we go, it’s always kind of coming at it from the idea of a recording act or recording artist or from an artistic point of view. It’s never about crass commercialism. It’s always about art.

Can you tell me a bit about your own record collection? Do you still collect a lot of records?

You know what, I wouldn’t say I’m a collector, but I buy a lot of records. And I buy a lot of vinyl, just for the thrill of the ritual of taking off the shrink wrap, reading the liner notes, that was very important to me. And like everybody else, I got rid of my record collection. I had tapes, I got rid of tapes, I had CDs. And now I’m just back to vinyl. I just like the ritual of it. I get excited when I see something, maybe it was something I couldn’t afford or couldn’t find when I was a kid. And I find it now. And that’s what it’s really all about.

What are you currently listening to these days?

I just listened to – on repeat, the new Michael Schenker Group, a couple of songs with the guests. So, I was blown away with Joey Tempest from Europe and Roger Glover on “Only You Can Rock Me”. So, I’m a big UFO fan, big Schenker fan. I’ve been listening to that. I’ve been listening to Teaze. I got back into the band Teaze. I’ve been listening to Teaze ‘Tour of Japan’, great 70s Canadian rock band, who are still active. I’m trying to think what vinyl I picked up recently. I grabbed that Kiss ‘Destroyer’ Deluxe version. So, some of the demos on that. But really, – Enuff’s Enuff, Van Halen, Cheap Trick… that’s the stuff that I listen to at home. But I recently started hosting a radio show on 94.9 Rock called ‘Generation X Radio’. And I’ve been getting hip to a lot of great bands like Damn Truth and Sierra Pilot, Art Deco. So that gives me a chance to listen to brand new music. So, kind of the new interpretation by younger artists on the classic sounds that we grew up on. So that’s been great.

You’ve written a few books. Do you read much as far as rock bios?

I read tons of rock bios! I’m constantly reading them. I’m looking forward to the new Cheap Trick one that’s coming out very soon. I forget what the author’s name is, but there’s a new Cheap Trick one ‘From the Bars to Budokan’, I think it’s called. So, looking forward to that. And my buddy Robert Lawson writes some great books. I’ve just been reading his Nazareth book. His Cheap Trick book is excellent; it comes more from a listener, record collector perspective. I just read a couple of books on Power Pop, which were collections of writings by other music writers. Oh, I just read a book I have to tell you about – ‘They Just Seem A Little Weird’ by my good friend Doug Brod. It’s an amazing book that connects Kiss, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith and Stars. It’s incredible!

One last thing I want to ask you is, of your Canadian albums, can you recommend a few of your underrated Canadian bands or albums?

Oh, underrated. Okay, I’ll go Slick Toxic ‘Doing the Nasty.’ I’ll say, underrated, Big House – their self-titled album. Teaze, anything by Teaze. I really love the ‘Tour of Japan’ album because they’re playing great, they’re on fire, they’re in some place that are excited to see them. It’s a great, great record! Underrated(?)….Well, you know what, that first Kim Mitchell EP is crucial. The one with “Kids in Action”.

I remember that, that got played to death on the radio here.

Yeah, there’s bands like Refugee and Orphan and even on the New Wave side – Cats Can Fly or Images in Vogue, you know there was so much world-class music coming out of Canada. And, even on the rock side, Brighton Rock…

I’d like to see somebody do a book someday on just like the top 100 or 200 Canadian rock albums that are less than obvious.

Yeah, that’s a great idea.

LINKS:

Sean Kelly
Don’t Call It Hair Metal: Art in the Excess of ’80s Rock

https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459707092-metal-on-ice

http://www.instagram.com/seankellyguitar/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/rushguyyyz?igsh=MXVnY2RtNHlzamh4aw==

https://www.baytoday.ca/rooted/north-bay-musician-sean-kellys-new-book-dedicated-to-80s-rock-7360305

http://www.leeaaron.com/tour/

https://www.coneyhatch.com/tourdates

LEE AARON – Tattoo Me (out now)

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LEE AARON’s new album Tattoo Me is out. It consists of 11 covers of varying classic tunes. I’ve said it before – I am not usually a fan of such albums, unless there’s something unique or very different about them, or they have a purpose or a theme. Tattoo Me has a great selection of songs spanning a number of decades; it also features Lee’s distinctive voice, and songs aren’t presented as note for note covers — so that gives it all a different and fresh approach/feel….There’s a few songs here I’ve never heard before, such as opener “Tattoo” (originally by California band The 77s), cool song, suits Lee and her band perfectly (and since I don’t know the original, well… it’s all new to me). Other favorites here are “Go Your Own Way” (Fleetwood Mac) with Sean Kelly doing an awesome job of re-visiting Lindsay Buckingham’s legendary guitar work, “Even It Up” (Heart) – which is a bit slowed down and rockier, Elton John’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”, and Alice Cooper’s “Is It My Body” – a bit of a twist, and Lee gives it attitude (as required with AC songs). Lots of different stuff here that Lee Aaron and band pull off like it all belongs together. A fun Canadian rock album just in time for summer! *Check out the press info and links below…

Eighteen albums into her career, AARON has written, recorded, and produced music achieving gold and multi-platinum sales. Recognized as one of Canada’s top rock vocalists, she’s also made forays into jazz, blues, and even opera, receiving numerous awards and accolades and, most recently, a 2023 induction into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

“Songs are like tattoos” – the famous first line of Joni Mitchell’s Blue – is a sentiment that has always resonated deeply for Canadian rocker LEE AARON.

“The one thing I’d never done was a full covers album,” says AARON. “It seemed like a really cool and super-fun project to tackle at this point…”

Taking a nostalgic journey, Tattoo Me pays homage to musical trailblazers who helped shape her own artistic path. As a reflection of her eclectic taste, yet in keeping with a profound respect for the greats, these 11 dynamic tracks are a unique tapestry of influences that transcend era and genre.

“It started out as a heartfelt nod to artists we’d been influenced by in our youth, but the truth is, we didn’t stop being influenced or being fans at 18, so the list kept evolving. It covers a few decades and a few unconventional choices, but it was incredibly rewarding to make!” she states.

Each track is a labor of love, infused with AARON and her band’s signature rock ’n’ roll swagger, yet in keeping with a sense of reverence for the originals.

The album was produced by AARON in her Vancouver studio and mixed by multi-media genius Frank Gryner (Rob Zombie, L7, Def Leppard, Larkin Poe, Ian Hunter, and more).

“One of the positive things that came out of the pandemic was that we all upgraded our home studios and got very good at engineering and recording ourselves. No one was under the pressure of a studio clock, so the performances are as genuine as they’re gonna get.”

From the sizzling blues-rock of 1960’s Nina Simone’s “The Pusher,” to the rebellious energy of 1972 Alice Cooper’s “Is it My Body,” AARON growls, purrs, whispers, and wails, sounding like she’s having an absolute blast infusing these songs with her own fiery spirit. Her voice is as versatile and powerful as ever.

Standout tracks include a rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “What is and What Should Never Be,” Heart’s “Even it Up,” and Hole’s “Malibu.” Stellar performances by AARON’s long-term band – Sean Kelly (guitar), Dave Reimer (bass), and John Cody (drums) – effortlessly channel these ’70s and ’80s rock giants and seem to capture the original magic of each of the tunes.

Another gem is AARON’s take on Elton John’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.” Kelly’s gorgeous acoustic guitars create the soundscape, then strings and lush harmonies support her stirring vocal performance. The tribute is passionate and heartfelt. She reflects, “I spent hours and hours laying on my basement floor with headphones listening to ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ on repeat. I desperately wanted someone to save me from my boring life when I was a teenager…music ended up being that for me.”

The album also takes some unexpected turns, with delightful interpretations of songs from a diverse range of artists, including mid ’90s BritPop band Elastica, California’s 77’s, and the Undertones. Each track echoes the vibe of the era while seamlessly fitting into the lineage of AARON’s own storied career.

Tattoo Me is a sonic time capsule, bridging the decades. Once again, cementing her status as a rock ’n’ roll chameleon, AARON blends the old and the new, proving not only that the transcendent power of music never stops, but that she herself isn’t ready to anytime soon.

LINE UP:
Lee Aaron – lead vocals
Sean Kelly – guitars
Dave Reimer – bass
John Cody – drum

TRACKLIST: 1. Tattoo 2. Are You Gonna Be My Girl 3. Even It Up 4. What Is And What Should Never Be 5. Is it My Body 6. Go Your Own Way 7. The Pusher 8. Malibu 9. Someone Saved My Life Tonight 10. Connection 11. Teenage Kicks

LINKS:
www.leeaaron.com
www.instagram.com/leeaaron.music
www.facebook.com/LeeAaronMusic
www.youtube.com/user/LeeAaronTV
www.metalville.de
www.facebook.com/metalville

Making It Her Own: Lee Aaron Is The Metal Queen And So Much More

LEE AARON performs HEART classic ‘Even It Up’ on new album

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Canadian rocker Lee Aaron has released a new single/video from her upcoming album of covers Tattoo Me, to be released later this month. The new track is Lee’s take on Heart’s 1980 hit “Even It Up”, and it is excellent! Check it out below, and check out the previous video for “Tattoo”, originally by The 77s.

Also check out more details and ordering info in the video descriptions.

CRASH KELLY to release MÏXX TÄPE VOL. 1 

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Canada’s CRASH KELLY has a new album coming in April titled Mix Tape Vol 1. It will be CRASH KELLY’S first release since 2008. Featuring guitarist/vocalist Sean Kelly (Lee Aaron, Coney Hatch) , Mix Tape Vol 1 features covers of classics by Alice Cooper, Ratt, Motley Crue, New York Dolls, Cheap Trick, and more, as well as 1 Crash Kelly original. The album is inspired by Sean’s best- selling book Don’t Call It Hair Metal : Art in the Excess of ‘80s Rock, (see links below)

You can check clips from Mix Tape on YouTube –

*For more info, tracklisting and pre-order: https://rockpapermerch.com/products/mixx-tape-v1-2024?_pos=2&_sid=05983e380&_ss=r

*For more on Sean’s latest book –https://ecwpress.com/products/dont-call-it-hair-metal-80s-rock

DERRY GREHAN of HONEYMOON SUITE: Alive Interview

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photo courtesy of Rockin HRM

Niagara Falls’ HONEYMOON SUITE debuted in 1984 with the Q107 radio contest winning cut “New Girl Now”, which lead to a record deal and a highly successful debut album. The band followed that up with further successful albums The Big Prize (1986, produced by Bruce Fairbairn), Racing After Midnight (1988, produced by Ted Templeman), and 1991’s Monsters Under The Bed (co-produced w/ Paul Northfield). Following that run it would be a decade before another HMS album, and another after that! But the end of this week sees the release of Honeymoon Suite’s brand new studio album ‘Alive‘.

In this conversation I talked to guitarist/songwriter Derry Grehan about making the new album Alive, as well as the recent remix & reissue of the Clifton Hill album, what else he’s up to, and some of the band’s he grew up on. HMS is one of the first band’s I saw live, and growing up near the Falls was well aware of them – they broke out big right away, drawing instant comparisons to Loverboy (who had a similar early success with their debut LP), but after that string of 3-4 albums I moved on to other things, and wasn’t aware most of these guys aren’t still in the Falls (or so close), so we began with that….

How’d you how’d you end up in Nashville?

Well, I’ve been in Illinois, Central Illinois for 20 years. I moved from Toronto, to Illinois, where I have my house there. And I recently, about six months ago got another place in Nashville with my daughter, who’s a singer-songwriter as well. So I’m kind of biding my time between two places because I love Nashville. And I’ve been kind of commuting back and forth for a long time here working with people. So we just decided to get 2 places. But I’m kind of down here a little more than I’m a back in Illinois and hoping to relocate here permanently.

So you must have a lot of other things on the go other than just a new Honeymoon Suite stuff coming out?

Well, I always find things to do. I do some co writing with a few people, once in a while and work with my daughter, and I’ve been working on a solo record. And this Honeymoon Suite thing is there, it keeps me pretty busy as well. So there’s always something to do.

So the new album ‘Alive’, that’s coming out – It’s kind of been in the works for a few years, right? Like there’s been a few singles out since 2019.

Yeah, it has taken good three years probably since we started it. Probably three years ago, Johnnie and I started but we went to Nashville, to meet with our producer Mike Krompass, who was down here at the time. I reached out to him, see if you’d be interested in working with us. And he was, and we went to his place and started writing songs. And he said I want to produce produce your album. So lots of trips back and forth. And then COVID hit in what 2022. So Mike, moved to England at that time. So we were going back and forth to his place, his studio in England doing stuff, but then COVID hit we couldn’t travel anymore, so I guess what I’m saying is just everything got pushed back, you know, then it took longer. You know, the way it was.

So did you guys have all the songs or all the songs at that time when you started? Or was this kind of still adding?

No, not right away. But we wrote, we had a fair amount of them, but we also wrote a few along the way and developed them over, you know, a year or two.

I saw you guys out in Port Colborne a couple of years ago. 2019. with David Wilcox, and I think the new track was on the radio at the time, but I don’t think you guys played it.

No, we hadn’t put the songs in the show. We’re really careful about putting new material in the show. Although we love it, you know, people are there to hear the hits. And like with this new album, or our singles are really doing well, so we’ll probably put out a new song or two in the set…

Can you tell me a bit about how you and Johnnie, obviously you guys live pretty far apart so how you guys collaborate and get things together?

Yeah, you know, we we’ve lived here he’s been up in your area and I’ve been in Illinois for 20 years, but it hasn’t impeded us at all, you know, John and I, it’s been a long time since we live together or lived in the same place. We just, you know you got the internet now and everything’s recorded digitally and Pro Tools and all that. So if I have an idea, I’ll just send files to him. And we send stuff back and forth by the Internet. Once in a while, of course, we see each other a lot when we’re touring. because all the band guys- we all live in different places. When we tour, we all go to an airport and then meet up in the city and we hang out for a couple of days. And then sometimes we’ll get together on the road and bang some things out.

Can you tell me a bit about the songs, the singles, you guys got out like ‘Find What You’re Looking For’ and ‘Tell Me What You Want’ – what they’re about, and what how you guys came up with some of the ideas?

‘Find What You’re Looking For’, that was the first one that we wrote with Mike, and that was one of the first songs we recorded and finished. Mike had a lot to do with that; Mike’s a great producer and the sound around it’s classic Honeymoon Suite, but he made it sound not dated, he gave it a kind of a modern sound to the production but without alienating you know, the real sound of the band. ‘Tell Me What You Want’ is a good example of that. It’s kind of different for us. We tried some new kind of production techniques and sounds and I think it’s a cool song. What’s it about? ‘Tell me what you want’ – It’s I guess, when you’re in a relationship, sometimes you just can’t figure that other person out, whether it’s your girlfriend, or boyfriend or whatever, it’s like, I don’t get you, man. Like, I’m doing everything for you to me, tell me what you want. You know, it can be that old struggle. And then ‘Find What You’re Looking For’ is a track that I’ve had for years actually, and it was called something else, but I always loved the the verse in that song it was so heavy, we just didn’t have a great chorus. So eventually, we worked on that with Mike and we did come up with a really good chorus for it. And if you listen to the lyric, it’s really cool and find what you’re looking for – Grabbing and and don’t don’t give up.

The new one is ‘Alive’, the title track and I was watching that today and 2 things – I like that it’s short and to the point, punchy; all the songs are easily memorable. And also, you guys still play the – like with the video, you still use the falls in the background and a lot of local scenery…

We decided to go back to Niagara Falls and do the video for that just as a kind of a nod to our past. And if you remember – one of the first videos we did was ‘Burning In Love’, in Niagara Falls. So it was fun to go back to that same location, walk around with a camera crew and watch people look at us funny. And put Johnnie back in Niagara Falls. So I think it was really cool.

Do you guys have much of a hand in the album artwork or is that kind of brought in to you guys?

No, actually, Mike, our producer, he also has his own record label and his own team of people. They came up with the concept of the the guy on the front with the hat, cloud on his face. Mike actually presented that to us and and I was like, right away. I’m like ‘That’s great!’. Everybody thought that was cool. Say no more. You know. I like it, Yeah.

It’s a very different cover to me, you know. Like I love the ‘Clifton Hill’ cover with the classic shot of Clifton Hill from the bottom, and obviously the earlier covers, but yeah this is very different cover. It almost looks like something that I might expect from one of those prog bands or something but…

Yeah. Like Pink Floyd maybe a little bit. Yeah. But it’s very artsy and cool, but I think it goes with the music really well.

You also have the reissue of ‘Clifton Hill’ out(!?)

Well, that is a guy that we’ve been working with, actually does our merchandising called Greg Campbell. He’s run our web store for a long time. He does a lot of bigger bands. He’s done really well for us with our merch and our albums in Canada. He approached us and he’s just a fan of the band, and he always liked the Clifton Hill album. He has a relationship with a studio in Toronto; so he approached us with a proposal, he said ‘You know, I love the Clifton Hill album, would you guys be interested in re mixing it?’ And I said ‘for sure’ because the original one – It’s okay, but it could be better. So I gave him the tracks, the stems, and he mixed it and it’s amazing what they pulled out of there. You know, the engineer found tracks I forgot that I did. So I’m very happy with it.

Do you know where that picture came from? Was that just an archived photo on the cover?

Yeah, we actually..my wife and I did the artwork for that back then. Of course we call it ‘Clifton Hill‘ because we wanted something related to the Falls. And we actually got that from the Niagara Falls library, if I remember correctly. We found it in their archives looking for pictures of Clifton Hill, you know. And we asked them for permission to use it, and they did. So it was really cool because that’s the Clifton Hill that I remember growing up in the 70s. That’s what it looked like, it was really cool.

You said you’ve got a solo album you’re working on!?

Yes. So during COVID all us musicians had a lot of time on our hands, you know. So I would spend a lot of time in my studio just writing and playing guitar, which I do every day. And I started cataloging a lot of riffs and ideas. And a lot of things that I come up with weren’t really Honeymoon Suite they’re just more like heavier rock riffy kind of stuff. And it occurred to me that I would have probably enough to maybe do a little solo instrumental album, which I’ve always wanted to do, but I never had the time or the right tracks. So Yes – it’s almost finished, it’s going to be like 10 songs. It’s all guitar, no singing, just all instrumental. I’m playing everything on it, and I got some wicked drummers playing on the stuff, and some of it’s pretty heavy. And it’ll be coming out, probably in a couple of months.

Can I ask you what you grew up on listening to as far as bands. I know a lot of bands that came through and that but you know, you guys would have seen shows at Niagara Falls Convention Center and stuff like that back then, and in Buffalo.

For sure, well growing up in the Niagara Peninsula, like I grew up in St. Catharines. It actually was a great place because at that time in the 70s and early 80s – there’s so many bands playing in the clubs. You get all the cool bands from Toronto coming down – Triumph and Max Webster and all that. playing Uncle Sam’s you know locally and Montebello (Park) in St. Catharines. You’ve got these great recording bands coming down and then you had Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and the Aud in Buffalo, Niagara Falls Convention Center – these huge venues just like an hour away. And so every band you wanted to see came through. So where I grew up on man like Deep Purple was my band – Ritchie Blackmore. I saw them with at the Aud. I saw Kiss and Bowie and Blue Oyster Cult. It was great area, a great time and that’s where I saw a lot of my bands that I love, you know!?

That’s cool. Actually my second show I ever saw was 1984 when I saw you guys opening for April Wine at the Kingswood (Music Theater).

Wow, early days, Awesome!

I remember because Corey Hart, there was big sign up that Corey Hart had cancelled. but we didn’t know who was going to be the band until you guys came on. But I don’t think the album was out at that time, I think we just knew you guys from the Q107 contest.

Yeah, right. So that’s what happened. A lot of things were going moving really fast then, and I remember Corey had to cancel some shows. So they just called us up and asked us ‘do you guys want to drive eight hours down and open up for April Wine?’ Hell Yeah! You know, we would play anywhere and everywhere.

Did you keep a lot of stuff growing up – as far as albums and stuff, like buy a lot of stuff and still because I see the album like Clifton Hill came out on limited vinyl reissue and that as well.

Yeah, I wish I knew that vinyl was going to come back like it did man like I wish I kept my records. I had tons of them. But you know, moving from place to place – those damn things are heavy and I had milk cartons full of great records. I wish I’d kept them all but I gave them away or I traded them in, you know and now that I have a turntable and I’m back into vinyl, I’m rebuilding my my collection. So the only thing I kept was about 60 Purple albums. Is it Honeymoon Suite ones.

What’s your favorite Deep Purple albums?

Well, you know, Machine Head was a classic. And then the first one with Coverdale and Hughes – Burn, that’s another classic. Made In Japan, man wore that one out. Love that!

So Purple was your number one band grown up?, anything else as far as guitar players or favorite albums?

Well, sure, I mean, Ritchie Blackmore! Early Santana. Yeah. You know, Alice Cooper, Grand Funk. Anything that was rock and heavy I love.

LINKS:

https://honeymoonsuiteband.com

https://www.facebook.com/DerryGrehan1

Honeymoon Suite

https://www.facebook.com/RockinHrm

Canadian band STRIKER release 7th album ‘Ultrapower’

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Canada’s own STRIKER has a new album out this week, titled ‘Ultrapower‘, the Edmonton band’s 7th record. First off, love this cover-art by Al Perez/Ramone Sketch, awesome retro 80s drawing of machine/robot and cool colorful lettering drawn in. These guys are really more fast paced hard-rock /metal, but throw in elements of AOR/pop, prog-metal, and party type rock & anthems. The band’s latest single “Give It All” even features keys and saxophone, and those big ’80s backing vocals, making this one sound like it could be out of some lost ’80s action hero movie! For the most part this is really good, with standouts “Circle Of Evil” (the previous single, a Malmsteen inspired metal cut about secret societies, etc..), as well as ’80s styled arena rockers “Turn The Lights Out” , “City Calling” (influenced by 80s AOR & pop like Kenny Loggins and Toto) , and “Ready For Anything”. Most interesting track is the sorta progressive “Blood Magic”, with a few twists and changes, big guitar solos, with the band citing King Diamond as an influence here. Musically these guys pick up lots from ’80s bands like Dokken, Queensryche, Anthrax, as well as Judas Priest (the ’80s stuff)… Well worth checking out. A fun rocking album! *Check out the band bio below, as well as the 3 videos from Ultrapower, and links!

STRIKER:

Dan Cleary – Vocals
Tim Brown – Guitar
John Simon Fallon – Guitar
Pete Klassen – Bass
Jono Webster – Drums (album only)

Blending classic heavy metal, hard rock, and 80’s hair metal, Striker has been making shredtacular anthems since 2007. The band has toured multiple times across Europe and North America, chosen to open for Metallica in their hometown of Edmonton, AB, Canada along with many festival appearances that include 70,000 Tons of Metal, Wacken Open Air (Germany), Bang Your Head Festival (Germany), and more to add to the almost 1000 shows performed in their decade-plus career. The band has been honoured with multiple Best Album awards in their home country of Canada from the JUNO Awards(The Canadian equivalent to the American Grammy), Western Canadian Music Awards, and the Edmonton Music Awards. 

Striker is kicking off 2024 with their seventh studio album “ULTRAPOWER”, which follows their Juno Award-winning self-released full-length “Play to Win” (2018) released on their label Record Breaking Records. The new album also features the band’s latest lineup addition of long-time friend and guitarist John Simon Fallon (The Order of Chaos). For the band’s seventh full-length, they teamed up with producer Josh Schroeder (Lorna Shore, Tallah, King 810), entering the studio in March 2023. With the band writing material since 2018, “ULTRAPOWER” is a collection of five years of Striker tinkering and exploring new avenues.

“ULTRAPOWER is the amalgamation of 5 years of writing and exploring music. With influences from AOR to Speed Metal, Hardcore to Hair Metal, Steely Dan to Deathcore, you name it, it made its way into the album. In the end with the help of Josh Schroeder’s guiding hand, we melted it all together to present something uniquely Striker. Lyrically we’ve stuck to the Striker tradition of writing montage songs for movies that don’t exist, songs about our spiraling serfdom, and lyrics about the evils that lurk in the shadows.” adds the band.

 “ULTRAPOWER” follows Striker’s six studio albums Eyes in the Night (2010, Iron Kodex), Armed to The Teeth (2012, Napalm), City of Gold (2014, Napalm), Stand in the Fire (2016, Record Breaking), Striker (2017, Record Breaking), and Play to Win (2018, Record Breaking). 

*CDs and digital downloads are available on Striker-Metal.com, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and CD Baby.

LINKS:

Striker-Metal.com | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Instagram | Soundcloud

Bandcamp | Spotify | iTunes | Big Cartel | CD Baby

HONEYMOON SUITE – Clifton Hill Revisited

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HONEYMOON SUITE’s 2008 album Clifton Hill has been remixed to a vastly improved sound and and reissued, along with a limited number of colored vinyl in gatefold sleeve (w/CD), and bonus tracks! Titled Clifton Hill Revisited (Clifton Hill being a prime tourist location in Niagara Falls), with a slight change up of colors in the cover titles (and brighter), 2 added acoustic tracks, and signed copies through the band’s official merch page (see below!) .

MIMIS017CDLP HONEYMOON SUITE – Clifton Hill…Revisited Deluxe Edition

LINKS:

https://honeymoonsuiteband.com/

https://www.facebook.com/HMSLive