- 1 day ago
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00I never use AI. I think it's awful, but in your world, what is it like?
00:04As a musician, I hate it when people use it to exchange for art that I have a problem with.
00:09It's like when you take the human element out of it and you just like,
00:12hey, I wrote a song and they give you a song that's done by Suno and it's like a cringe.
00:18Rock, metal, frog, and everything in between.
00:21Welcome to this episode of Talkin' Rock with Meltdown.
00:25Don't forget to follow the audio-only Talkin' Rock podcast on all podcast platforms.
00:30And now, it's time for today's conversation. Here's Meltdown.
00:34All right, I promise we won't talk about Twisted Sister unless you want to.
00:38Yeah, man, I have to tell all about it. Let's talk about Sebastian Bach in Twisted Sister.
00:44I don't know if I'm allowed to. But anyways, that'd be kind of cool to get on that tour,
00:49like hop on, maybe a headlining gig right there, an opening gig, I should say, for the Twisted Sister tour.
00:54That would be fun, man. Yeah. I'd like to see Sebastian Bach sing in Twisted Sister.
01:00I'd be all about that.
01:02Yeah, and for those that are wondering, I talked to Sebastian a few days ago and I was told I
01:06could ask one question about it.
01:08I'm like, okay, not by him, by the way. I'll just put it out there.
01:11But what was the biggest tour you've ever done in your life?
01:15Oh, man. American Idol artists, really. I mean, because the fan base is silly.
01:22So I used to be the music director for David Archuleta, who is a runner-up in one of the
01:27American Idol things
01:28and on the year that David Cook was on. And we were doing arena tours with Demi Lovato and playing
01:35Philippines for half a million people.
01:37So I think, you know, tour-wise, those were pretty big. I used to play with Nelly Furtado, too.
01:41And we went out with acts like U2, which were, you know, they're an incredible band.
01:47So, yeah, those were probably the biggest, I guess, tours that I had been on, that level of touring.
01:54Yeah, I think I saw Smash Mouth open up for U2 once, but you weren't in the band then?
01:59Not then, no. But we did some quite big shows with Smash Mouth, yeah.
02:03Yeah. I'm not a huge U2 fan, but it's one of those things where it's like you just got to
02:08go see them because you just have to go see them.
02:11I was the same. Like, until you experience one of their shows, you don't really get it.
02:15And then when you see how they connect to an audience, it's pretty impressive.
02:20Now, when was the last time that you yourself were on a stage playing music in front of people?
02:26Recently, last year. And I tore my Achilles on stage at a concert.
02:31So there's a band in Canada that's quite well known called I, Mother Earth.
02:37And the singer Edwin from that has a solo project, which I also produce and go out and play shows
02:42with.
02:43So I was jumping around on stage thinking I was 20 and I came down on my foot and my
02:49Achilles ruptured and I went down.
02:51I finished the set, though, finished the song, almost passed out, but I made it through and then I couldn't
02:57walk for months.
02:58Yeah. They're from London, correct?
03:03I don't know where I, Mother Earth is from. Like, Edwin lives down the street from me.
03:06So he's Oshawa, like, Ontario.
03:09Oshawa.
03:10They're a Toronto band.
03:11Yeah. You guys have the Oshawa 67s?
03:16I don't know.
03:17Hockey team?
03:18Oh, yeah. No, I don't know.
03:19I'm so out of the loop with Canada because I lived in L.A. for 20 years.
03:23So I only came back here three years ago.
03:26My wife dragged me back here.
03:27So, yeah.
03:30So I'm kind of out of the loop with the local sports teams.
03:33And your wife is Canadian?
03:35She's Canadian, yeah.
03:36Yeah.
03:37I was telling the Triumph guys, I drove through Toronto this Sunday before Thanksgiving, American Thanksgiving.
03:44And there's, like, 23 lanes of traffic and it's 2 in the afternoon and they're all backed up.
03:49I'm like, what is going on in Toronto?
03:52It's worse than L.A.
03:53It's like, when I came back here, I couldn't believe how crazy it is here.
03:57It's nuts.
03:58And it's so busy.
04:01Yeah.
04:01And it's like, I kind of joked, I was goofing on them.
04:03I'm like, now I know why you guys want to tour because you just want to go to Toronto.
04:07Yeah.
04:08But you guys are heading back out on tour March 28th at the Token.
04:11You got some shows to warm up.
04:13And as the first show on the 22nd in New York, is that going to be your guys' first show
04:18ever?
04:19No, we did some shows way back in the day with the original singer.
04:24So it was, like, you know, 10 years-ish ago.
04:28And we had someone filling in for the original singer.
04:30So this is the first time going out with the band the way it's supposed to be.
04:33And we're super excited about that.
04:35Now we have, you know, full albums worth plus of songs.
04:39We're going to go out there and our set's going to be 90 minutes of, like, melt your face off
04:43rock.
04:44So it'll be fun.
04:46Yeah, no, that's great.
04:46So are you going to, you're going to, in tow, are you going to have those EP albums too?
04:51Yeah.
04:52The full length won't be, we'll have the EP physical releases there, probably sold out the shows.
04:58The album is going to be a full length album, will come out this year at some point.
05:01It's all written.
05:02It's all mostly recorded and finished, just some tweaks, but it's pretty much ready to go.
05:06And how many songs are on that or thereabouts?
05:09Could be 14-ish.
05:12We're, you know, we're still weeding some things out and we might swap some things out.
05:17We tend to write really fast.
05:19So by then we might have a couple more songs we might swap out or release a single.
05:24So we haven't decided quite yet, but soon we'll know.
05:29Yeah.
05:30Last time I talked to you was back in September and Billy was on the line with us as well.
05:34And now that he's not here, let's talk about him.
05:38But no, seriously, what is it like to work with a guy like Billy?
05:40I mean, he's in 186 bands.
05:43You know, what kind of ideas does he bring?
05:45What's the songwriting like?
05:47Stuff like that.
05:50That's a good question.
05:51He is in a million bands, but thankfully the big ones, I mean, not thankfully for him,
05:56but for us, I think the timing's really good because he now, this is his band.
06:01And, you know, I don't know if you've seen on social media lately, he's saying my new band,
06:06in the fell because Mr. Big's now gone, you know, taking a break.
06:10Winery Dog's taking a break.
06:12Pointing us back in Dream Theater.
06:13So there is time and it's a really good time for us to finally, you know, Toby's back in
06:18the picture.
06:19We've got a really great record and we're really excited about going to make this a band.
06:22And it's not just a project.
06:24So when it started out, it was more like a project, even though all of us were contributing.
06:30It was more like a project.
06:31And Toby and I were doing the bulk of the writing and that kind of thing.
06:34And now it's like, now it's really feeling like a band.
06:38Everyone's getting involved and, you know, cut that they're flying in to record.
06:43Sometimes Billy will send his bass tracks.
06:45But now, you know, Toby's here every couple months and we're getting knocking vocals out.
06:49And it's really great.
06:50Yeah.
06:51And, you know, I guess I was talking about this on the radio the other day.
06:54You know, that first Diamond David Lee Roth record, they did a cover of Talos.
06:59And, you know, obviously Billy was a part of that.
07:01But that was way back in the day.
07:03You guys doing any cover songs?
07:04We might.
07:05Yeah, we might do something cool from that era.
07:09OK.
07:10No, I won't say what it is yet.
07:12And I'm still learning the song.
07:14So hopefully I don't pooch it.
07:17Is that on stage or is that for the record?
07:20We might do it for a record, too.
07:21We have Billy and I have talked about throwing this one particular song that we're going to do in the
07:25set on a recording that might be released for, you know, a special compilation thing that we do with the
07:32fell, you know, but he's featuring it.
07:35Now, with you, you know, producing and doing all this other stuff on the side, you know, AI seems to
07:40be a big thing.
07:41It's funny because just yesterday somebody asked me to, like, write, you know, a recommendation about them or whatever and
07:48the whole thing.
07:48So I did it.
07:49Then they sent it back to me.
07:50They said, this is what AI and switch.
07:52I never use AI.
07:53I think it's I think it's awful.
07:55But what in your world, what is it like?
08:00I mean, look, as a musician, I hate it.
08:04As a musician, I hate it for, you know, if I'm writing stuff and I use ChatGPT and I need
08:09some CR, if I need to look up something really quick, it's great for that.
08:13If I don't want to hire a lawyer and I need a document review, hell yeah, I'll do that.
08:19Right.
08:20But, you know, here's the thing.
08:22It's not going to go away.
08:23And it's like when Pro Tools first came out, everyone was a diehard, like, audiophile guy that was like, you
08:28know, I only record on tape.
08:30I only record on Ada.
08:31Like, you know, and the formats always switch.
08:33So then Pro Tools came out, everyone was against that.
08:35I think AI as a tool will be really beneficial as a tool.
08:39It's like, hey, I need to create a string part real quick for a demo or I need to get
08:43a, you know, for someone who can't sing, I need to get a vocal melody across to a singer that
08:48can sing.
08:48I think for that type of thing, it's a very useful tool.
08:52And I think for producers, it's very useful.
08:55It's when it's relied upon and when people use it to exchange for art that I have a problem with.
09:02It's like when you take the human element out of it and you just like, hey, I wrote a song
09:06and they give you a song that's done by Suno.
09:08And it's like, here's the song, but it's not really written by them and nobody put it in chord changes.
09:12And Suno prompted the song.
09:14That's when I like, I'm like, I cringe.
09:16It's like, there's guys that have come to me as a producer saying, reproduce my song.
09:21And they give me a song and it's like, you did not write this.
09:24I know you didn't write this.
09:25It's like, you can tell by the lyrics that they use the same formatting, the lyrics, the same, same things.
09:30And those kinds of things that like kind of irk me.
09:32But, you know, as a producer, I have to get with it a little bit too.
09:36I can't be like the guy that's like granddad going, you know, I think, but I don't love it.
09:43Yeah, I can imagine.
09:44So in your studio that you're in there right now, you use Pro Tools?
09:48In Pro Tools, yeah.
09:49But I got a big, you know, sitting in front of me here, I'm sitting at my console, it's a
09:53big heritage console, analog stuff, you know, all the cool stuff.
09:58So what else are you working on right now besides the Fel?
10:02So my wife and I, so we own a record label that's distributed by Sony that the Fel is released
10:07under.
10:07But we have also a venture where we sub-publish the entire Sony ATV Extreme Music catalog in Canada exclusively.
10:15So that's everything from Hans Zimmer to Snoop Dogg and metal stuff and everything in between.
10:21So we license that out for film and TV.
10:23And then we grow our own roster of artists.
10:26And that can be in any style.
10:27So we'll develop and sign talent.
10:30And then we'll publish that out through Sony Music globally.
10:33So, you know, for artists that are aspiring artists that write great songs that want their things in film and
10:38TV, it's a great resource for them.
10:40So we do that.
10:42And then I have, like, legacy bands like Honeymoon Suite and Canadian Band on my label.
10:46And we're going to do some stuff with Edwin on our label.
10:53And then we have new modern things and young artists and developmental things, too.
10:57Yeah, Honeymoon Suite from Niagara Falls.
10:59And that's one of the gigs you're playing at coming up.
11:02Yep.
11:02Yeah.
11:03I think I saw Billy play with the original Talos in Niagara Falls.
11:07Like, I want to say it was around 2013, 2012, something like that.
11:11I can't recall.
11:12But it was awesome.
11:13It was a summer night.
11:14And they played outside the hard rock.
11:17And, you know, growing up in Buffalo, you know, Dave Constantino recorded my demo tapes when I was just a
11:24kid in the late 80s to try to get a job on the radio.
11:27So do you know Dave?
11:28Do you know who that is?
11:28I don't know Dave, no.
11:29But I've heard of Dave, yeah.
11:30Yeah, so he's the singer of, you know, Talos back in the day.
11:34But anyways, just to see, because I was too young, I just kind of missed that era, you know, of
11:39Talos.
11:40Because I was, you know, I was just too young for that.
11:43What an incredible band.
11:44I mean, incredible band.
11:46Yeah.
11:46And then you must have grown up with, like, bands like Coney Hatch and Killer Dwarfs and all those bands.
11:52Oh, yeah, for sure.
11:53Yeah.
11:54All those bands.
11:55I love Killer Dwarfs, man.
11:56I love, like, Harem Scare.
11:58Like, here's my guilty hairband pleasure that's going to come out now.
12:02No, I love all those bands.
12:03Coney Hatch is great.
12:04Andy Curran is, you know, I loved his solo stuff, too.
12:08All those, you know, Canadian rock bands.
12:11I love them.
12:12And Kim Mitchell, you know.
12:14Kim, yeah, of course.
12:15And I guess since we're on the topic, you just brought up Andy and stuff.
12:18He's in that project with Alex.
12:20What do you think about Rush getting back together?
12:22I thought it surprised everybody.
12:25I wasn't expecting that.
12:27I think it's incredible.
12:28And I think that Annika, Annika.
12:32Yeah.
12:33Annika, Niles, yeah.
12:34Yeah, she's so good.
12:35She's so good.
12:36I mean, I was shocked to see her in the band, but I've always been a big fan of her
12:40drumming.
12:42And then the guys from Triumph get back together.
12:44I mean, what's going on in the water up there?
12:46Yeah, I talked to Phil the other day, and he's like, oh, I'm coming to Canada.
12:50I'm like, you know, Triumph, doing Triumph reunion stuff.
12:54I'm like, oh, that's a killer.
12:56It's like everyone's dying to play.
12:59Yeah, Phil and I share the same birthday.
13:01So, yes, yesterday, the day before.
13:04Day before, yeah.
13:05Happy birthday, man.
13:06Yeah, thanks.
13:06Yeah, you weren't too far behind either.
13:08Weren't you in February or something?
13:09February 8th, yeah.
13:11Yeah, what'd you do?
13:11Anything good?
13:13No, I went out for dinner with my kids.
13:15There you go.
13:16Yeah, that's good.
13:18So, wrapping up things with the Fell here.
13:20So, you're just going to tour.
13:21You got these gigs here.
13:23You're going to drop a full length later on.
13:24Are you guys looking to hop on a tour?
13:26What's going on for 2026 besides what's right here in the front of us?
13:29That would be great.
13:30So, we do have some European, UK festival dates that are going to be bigger shows towards the end of
13:37the year.
13:38If, you know, any opportunity for us to tour with a larger act and get out there and open up,
13:42that would be really great for us.
13:44I'd love to go out with a band like Mammoth.
13:46I was just saying in an interview earlier, like, that's a great band that would be a good fit for
13:50us.
13:51Because, you know, sometimes because Billy's in the band and some of the bands that, you know, Toby and I
13:56have played with, you get lumped into this classic rock thing, right?
13:59It's like, but this band is more modern and it is more new and sometimes people can't see past, oh,
14:05Billy's Mr. Big, so it must sound like Mr. Big.
14:08While it has those elements, it's still modern.
14:10So, we would love to go out with a modern rock band and it would be great if someone would
14:13be like, hey, I like those guys.
14:14Let's go out and play together.
14:17So, we're hoping that that happens.
14:18Yeah, you bring up Mammoth and obviously, I mean, you know, Wolfgang has that studio at his disposal any time.
14:25But what do you think about a guy like that who does everything on the record?
14:28I mean, have you ever heard of something like that?
14:31Yeah, I mean, it's not often.
14:33There's not a lot of guys that do that.
14:35And that's why I love him.
14:37I love him because he's an incredible singer.
14:39He's an incredible talent.
14:40He plays drums amazingly.
14:43There's nothing he can't do.
14:44I'm a big fan, big fan of him.
14:46And obviously, I'm sure you were a big fan of his dad's.
14:49Oh, yeah, for sure.
14:51I mean, he has so much of his dad in him.
14:54Like, I know that he's his own guy and he's his own person.
14:56But, I mean, look, he's got the EVH DNA, man.
14:59That's like what all of us wish we had.
15:03But he's an incredible talent.
15:05Like, I went to go see him in Toronto the other night.
15:07Like, he's so good.
15:09Yeah, no, he is good.
15:11You're right.
15:11He's his own guy.
15:12He's got that battle to fight.
15:14Like, it's like being Wayne Gretzky's kid.
15:17Yeah.
15:18Yeah, you better be damn good.
15:19That's right.
15:21But he is, though.
15:22Like, you see him.
15:23And, you know, I've seen him play his dad's songs.
15:26It's just as good.
15:27Like, he's incredible.
15:28And people, like, rag on him on social media a lot.
15:31Like, that kid must deal with so much shit.
15:33But he's so good.
15:35He's so talented.
15:36And it's weird.
15:36Like, that whole Van Halen thing is kind of strange.
15:39Like, Sammy and Michael are, like, the best friends ever.
15:43Alex and Wolfgang do their thing.
15:45Diamond Dave does whatever Diamond Dave does.
15:47It's like this whole dysfunctional family.
15:48I've never seen a band quite like it.
15:50No, they need to go get a fucking tour together and just, like.
15:56Yeah, that would be something.
15:59All right, Mike, last thing here for you.
16:00The biggest challenge so far of the Fell.
16:03You've been in it for a little bit.
16:04And I know you did it before.
16:06But I'm talking about, like, you know, since, you know, Billy joined the band and stuff.
16:09What kind of challenges do you face with the band?
16:12I think it's because it's, you know, it's our own band.
16:15It's an indie band.
16:16We're not on a major label or anything.
16:17We're self-funding this, essentially, alongside my own label.
16:23I think the challenge is just getting it seen.
16:26Like, getting it out there and getting, you know, getting the right shows and getting picked up on radio.
16:31Those things are hard when you're a new band.
16:33And, like, you know, we don't have a radio plugger that's out there every day pounding the pavement trying to
16:38get our songs.
16:38And we don't have those kind of budgets at this stage in the game.
16:41But we're hoping it takes off and the songs speak for themselves.
16:45And slowly but surely people start catching on.
16:48And that's, I guess that's the biggest challenge.
16:50Because it's not like we don't want to play.
16:52We want to get out there and play.
16:53So budgets, you know, we'd like to see good budgets and be able to afford to go out and tour
16:58and those kind of things.
16:58And plus, with you and your wife and all the other side projects you just mentioned, it's like when you
17:03go out on tour, you're not only playing that night, whatever, but you're constantly probably working during the day, I'd
17:08imagine.
17:09Oh, yeah, for sure.
17:10Like, yeah, constantly.
17:12Yeah.
17:12And keeping tabs on the U.S. gold medal hockey team or something.
17:15I don't know.
17:16Yeah.
17:20All right, Mike.
17:20I'll leave you with that.
17:21The gold medal jab.
17:23But, yeah, Rick Emmett didn't want to talk about that.
17:25He was very upset about that.
17:27I'm not too upset.
17:29I'm not that upset.
17:31Well, listen, March 28th at the Token.
17:34My friend John does a great job over there.
17:36I saw Billy there one time with the Winery Dogs.
17:39And right here in Detroit, Rock City.
17:41We'll see you in a couple weeks.
17:43Yeah, man.
17:43Can't wait.
17:44Check out Talking Rock with Meltdown on all podcast platforms and WRIF.com.
Comments