Transcript of an interview I recorded with STEVE RILEY of L.A. GUNS - 20201029. Full article here. MAL-
Let's get started. Let's, if I could, take you back to early times in Los Angeles before L.A. GUNS. What are your memories of those days? STEVE- I've been doing it for so long and when I joined L.A. GUNS in 1987, I had already been recording for like about 12 years. I started recording in 1975 and I did a bunch of one-off albums with a bunch of bands and I did a couple of years with STEPPENWOLF out on the road. And then I started recording some more stuff in L.A. starting with KEEL doing 'The Right To Rock', and then doing you know, obviously the four albums with W.A.S.P. from '83 to '87. And so I haD been doing really a lot of stuff, Mal, before I joined L.A. GUNS and and I was bouncing around a lot doing it playing with a lot of different bands. MAL- What's your memories of the early L.A. scene like in the '80s? I was there in '86 visiting and I visited a couple of years ago now. What's your comparison between those days and these days? Must have been a real heady time? STEVE- Oh, yeah. It was such a heady time, you know from '82 to '92, the L.A. scene was just so driving and a lot of cities in the states had their moments when they had this scene in their city and they've lasted about three to five years in a strong fashion. L.A. scene in the 80s was just non-stop driving from '82 to '92 and I was really fortunate to be involved with both waves of hard rock that came out of L.A. you know, I was with W.A.S.P. in that first wave that came out with MOTLEY CRUE and W.A.S.P. and DOKKEN and RATT and all of those bands and I did that, and then when I was out of W.A.S.P. in '87, I realized there was another wave of hard rock that was coming out of L.A. and that was with GUNS N ROSES and L.A. GUNS and FASTER PUSSYCAT, JET BOY, and so I was really fortunate I jumped from the first wave to the second wave and it was just a thriving scene then and there was just so many record labels and so many management and so many big machines around for bands, obviously MTV and radio that did, the scene just thrived and we were able to get to a lot of eyes and ears. Right now L.A. is a different type of scene right now. It's more scattered. It's not so concentrated and all of the bands that came out of L.A. in the 80s, they're still going but you know, we were all fortunate, we've got a catalogue of material that all of us can play and tour around the world, but I really feel for the new bands here in L.A. it's a very difficult scene for them to get off the ground because of the the lack of labels and management and machinery that's around, there's hardly any record stores too but it's a different scene but we're all still thriving, we're all still recording, and we're all playing live but most of the bands that are doing that are the bands that already have the catalogue of material and have a big fan base, you know. MAL- Let's talk about L.A. GUNS then. You've got a long history with L.A. GUNS, but for anyone coming in and trying to read the history, they're going to get a headache, with two different versions, I mean, come on. How is that from your side? How is it competing against another version? Is their legal action involved? What's the story? STEVE- Well, you know what, the thing is is that with most classic rock bands that have been around for over 25 years or so. It's very difficult to keep the classic lineup together. It just really is. I have been the only one from the classic lineup that has stayed with the band and kept it going. I've always run the business of the band and I played drums on just about every album too and I've always tried to talk the classic members staying and not leaving and straying away and it's not always successful. People want to do different things. They want to do it differently. And so, you know, I just kept pushing forward and I've always felt like because I never left L.A. GUNS, I'm one of the classic members and I co-wrote all the material and recorded all the albums that you know this L.A. GUNS that I'm in IS the L.A. GUNS that people know because I've never quit the band whether it would be with the classic members or with Tracy alone or with Phil alone. I've always kept going and kept the band going and I'm very proud of the band and very proud of our catalogue, and I just know that there's confusion out there but it's something that you just can't get away from, because it happens to just about every band, they changed members and some of the classic members will keep it going and it's something that you just kind of deal with if you've been around this long and so I know it's a little bit confusing, but with me and Kelly Nickels together and us being co-writers on all of the classic material and us being the battery mates for the pushing all of the material, the bass player and drummer, I just feel really good about I feel confident about it. And with our new album 'Renegades', I feel like we stay true to L.A. GUNS sound, and our look and our feel and just our style so, you know, the confusion is something that you got to kind of deal with but if you're good and you feel confident, we've got the good material, It's something you just got to go with. MAL- Let's talk about 'Renegades' then. It's a good album. I had it on repeat last night. So well done there. What can you tell me about getting that together? And tell us some of the stories behind some of the songs. STEVE- Well, I tell you what, it was really really a snowball effect on everything that happened with me and Kelly Nickels. We we did a live show in 2019 in May at the big M3 Festival here in Maryland in the States. And we got Kurt Frohlich as a singer. He's a fabulous singer and we found them through a friend and we have Scotty Griffin playing lead guitar. He has been with the band for a number of years, but he was playing bass but he is a lead guitar player. So the band came together very, very easily. There wasn't any auditioning and Kurt was the first guy that we listened to on vocals and we knew he was the right guy and so from that show that we did in the M3 in May of 2019 it snowballed because the show went over so good. We only did classic material because we had not written together yet. And so the show went over so good. Somebody filmed it. They put it up on the internet and the response was tremendous. Everybody just loved it and we got a management deal from that, New Breed, out here in L.A. it's a big management company. They signed us right away. They brought us to Golden Robot Records and Mark Alexander loved The whole idea and what the band did at M3. We went into a pre-production mode in 2019 the summer for a couple of months and we all live all over the states. I'm in L.A, Kelly's in New York, Kurt is in Florida and Scott is in Las Vegas. So with the tight budgets that you have nowadays it's very difficult to get everybody together into a pre-production studio for a couple of months to write together so we used the internet and we started exchanging ideas and songs that we had all been sitting on and we had about 40 songs that all of us had and we started exchanging them and talking about them and what ones we might want to record, and we whittled it down to about 10 songs and worked on them through the internet, over the internet and ideas and what we thought we should do with certain songs and how we put them together. Everybody writes in the band, so everybody had tons of songs and gists of songs they were sitting on and after we had finished that, I had gotten everybody out here because I produced the album 'Renegades' also. So what I did was I got everybody out here to L.A .and we did a two day marathon pre-production and went through the 10 songs and made sure we knew what we were going to do with these songs and then on that third day I had everybody go into the studio and we went in for like seven days to record and like I get all my drum beds in one day, Kelly get his base starts with me that day and then maybe a few more than next day and then you know the guitars and the vocals and then I sent everybody home, they flew home and I mixed it with the engineer for about a week and we mastered it that week too. So we did it very old school and it was a very quick procedure that we did on this album, and I think it really worked, it helped because we capture the raw sound and we didn't dwell on it too much where we wanted to keep changing things and I think we really captured something special. It was a very organic thing that happened and the chemistry with the band was very very cool. And so, you know, everybody brought in songs and and each song was maybe a gist of the song and we all finished them together and shared songwriting credits together throughout the album too in a very democratic way and we just we felt very good about everything and we especially felt good Mal about finishing it in December 2019. I finished the entire thing ,mastering it and Kelly get all the artwork and then this pandemic hit because we are tooled around at the idea of maybe doing it this year and we would have been screwed ,we would not have been able to do it, it would have been just too difficult to pull it off and we had the album done. So we were going to release it in March of this year and go out on a tour. But when that changed with this virus thing we decided to release a single every two, two and a half months to give the fans something new to listen to and now we're right here, we're going November 13th. We release the entire thing so, we're very excited about it. And we're excited about the songs that we created and the sound that we captured on it too. MAL- Well done. I think you should be very excited, as for the recording thing. Nothing really beats the band getting together in the same room and nutting things out together does it? STEVE- Oh man, I'll tell you, Mal, It was really special after doing this thing. I've never done. I've never done an internet pre-production where we were exchanging ideas for a couple of months and working on them over the Internet, but it was something special because when we did get together for those two days of marathon pre-production here in Los Angeles and we felt that we knew that we had something really special and getting together the four of us and playing them after doing that internet exchange was something really special. So after those two days of marathons and getting into the studio, it was really very organic. It really happened very easily and I was surprised because I've always done a pre-production in a studio with the guys sitting down writing looking at each other but we get this differently and it just worked and we were happy with it. MAL- This is coming out November 13. This is a tough question but what happens then? How are we looking over there? STEVE- Well, here's what we're going to do. Obviously, the album will come out November 13th. We're going to release another single the week before it's 'All That You Are' from the album. So that'll be four singles that we have released off of it. And then the whole album will come on November 13. We can't wait for everybody to hear the whole album and see how deep it is, and how it moves so well and what we'll do is it's a great timing for Holidays too because you obviously don't have all the outlets to move stuff to record stores. So it's a great way to go to laguns.net to find out how you can order it. We got a bunch of bundles put together with shirts and patches that go with the album and the CD and then you know, what we'll do is we'll release maybe another single at the end of January because if anybody hasn't bought the whole album, they can at least get the singles and the other thing is the first three singles have streamed over half a million just on Spotify alone. So the response has been really, really good to the first three singles. So when the album comes out in November 13th, we have our whole schedule from 2020 this year moved into 2021. Nothing was canceled, everything was postponed. So we have a full schedule of festivals, fairs and casinos and maybe the odd club here and there that we might do and so we have a full schedule that starts in March and that'll be perfect timing. We might release another single at the end of January. And then right before we go out maybe release another single and go out and do some of this new material with obviously a lot of the old classic material that we have to do, 'Never Enough', 'Ballad Of Jayne' all of that, 'Sex Action'. I mean fans want to hear those songs, and then we'll probably throwing three or four new songs from 'Renegades', but you know we're with everybody else, Mal, we've got our fingers crossed. We have a complete schedule to play in 2021, but we got to see how this plays out. And you know, if for any reason we can't go out next year we have such a wealth of material that we're ready to do another album with Golden Robot Records, and they ready to do it too. So we just want to get out there and play live like all of our other mates here in L.A. Everybody's just sitting waiting to see what's going to happen with this pandemic. It's been a hell of a year. MAL- It's been pretty shit to put it mildly. STEVE- Totally man. Just a bunch of shit and it's just been going on. It feels like it's been going on for like four fucking years. It's insane, but it's really, you know, it's only been going on for like seven months now and it feels like it's been going on forever. MAL- Let me ask you this. Any stories you can tell me? What's the funniest thing that's happened either at a gig, or on tour? After the answer that Stevie D from BUCKCHERRY gave me, I think I'm ready for anything. So hit me with it. STEVE- Yeah, I mean, you know, I've been playing for so long with so many bands, so many funny things that happened really, you know, I mean obviously hundreds funny stories, but you know, I mean when I was with W.A.S.P., a lot of funny stuff happens you know with Chris Holmes. He's such a good friend of mine and he's such a wild man and I've told the story before and it's probably one of the most funny thing because we were on stage and you know, the early W.A.S.P. we used to throw out the meat at the audience, and that was a big thing Blackie throwing the meat at the audience during our set. We would be doing a song and then going to a mode where it would just be a rhythm underneath him and he'd be thrown out the meat and we were over in Europe and Scandinavia and we were in a large club, but we were using smoke machines and so the club would be filled up with all smoke and you really couldn't see very well from the stage. And while Blackie was throwing out that meat, I was playing and I could see something coming from the audience and you know, the people used to throw the meat back at us too on the stage. It was a funny scene and I saw something coming of the audience and it was this big thing and I didn't know what the hell it was and me, Chris Holmes and Randy are playing, oh Randy was throwing out the meat with Blackie and this big thing's coming out of the audience and it looked like it was in slow motion and it was a big frozen rack of lamb or something. It was like a frozen big piece of meat, huge piece and it hit Chris Holmes right in the head and it just knocked him out. He went right down and it was kind of scary but funny as hell because it all happened in slow motion and it's one of the stories and one of the things that happen with me while I was playing live that I just will never forget. Chris Holmes went down. He had like a big big cut on his head and this Frozen lamb, rack of something just hit him and it's something that I swear to God I'll just never forget but that's one of the stories that's like embedded in my mind. That was hilarious. MAL- Who goes to a Metal gig with a rack of lamb? I mean.. STEVE- Oh man. I'll tell you what, it was unbelievable. And he went down. He was out cold. It was huge huge frozen piece of meat and it is funny because we all got pelted with meat. When Blackie threw it out to the audience, obviously the people threw it back. It was so funny. MAL- I think we've pretty much covered everything, Steve. STEVE- Well, I tell you what, you know, Mal, the thing is, it's so hard to find how to get product right now because there's not a lot of record stores and people are kind of like bewildered. I just wanted everybody to know, you know, all our fans and anybody else if they ever want to find out about L.A. GUNS dates or our shows or how to order our album or any merchandise and watch any fun videos to just go to laguns.net On that site you can find out everything that we're doing and how to order a new album and it's just the easy way to give the people an alleyway on how to find out what we're doing and how to get our product too and you know, I just thank you for your support Mal. We really appreciate it. MAL- Hey, no worries. I am just on that laguns.net right now. It's a very impressive looking site well done. STEVE- Yeah, I was wondering where are you out of, Mal? MAL- Adelaide, South Australia. STEVE- Okay, you're in Adelaide. Yeah, we we did a zoom meeting ith Golden Robot Records the other day to talk about the launch of the record and there's very big talk about me and Kelly Nichols bringing the band over to do an Australian tour and New Zealand and Japan in 2021. So hopefully we'll see all you guys in 2021 in Australia. They're really thinking about bringing us over there. So we got our fingers crossed and if we do come over me and you will have a beer, we'll hang. MAL- Rock and roll, I promise not to bring a frozen rack of lamb. STEVE- Yeah, please don't. MAL- Hey, we're just about out of time. I think I should wrap it up Steve. Thanks so much for your time man. Good luck with the album. 'Renegades'. Very good album, I like it. Best of luck with that and hopefully yeah we see you next year. STEVE- Oh man, thanks Mal. I'm so glad you like the album. We can't wait for everybody to hear it and yes, I will see you next year. I'm going to count on it and thanks again for your support brother, be safe out there okay. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |