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00:00there are any guests on the album oh we have a huge star-studded cast of characters celine dion
00:06is in there with us trice and came in i can already see the headlines rock metal frog and
00:12everything in between welcome to this episode of talking rock with meltdown don't forget to follow
00:18the audio only talking rock podcast on all podcast platforms and now it's time for today's conversation
00:24here's meltdown we can talk about medical ailments and stuff all day long but uh here with uh rob
00:31ray from spread eagle uh rob good to see you man good to see you meltdown thank you for having
00:36us
00:36buddy yeah ray how are you i'm good man i'm good i'm healing yeah we're all going on apparently
00:41everybody with that so the brutal divine comes out on a friday you guys are nice enough to hop on
00:49here
00:49with me and uh tell me about this record if i'm not mistaken and correct me if we're on there's
00:53three songs are out right now and farm uh flat earth vultures is street noise is that correct
00:58is that it in reverse order yeah so we put out street noise first then uh the flat earth vultures
01:04with a really cool video we thought yeah and farm with the video that rob's wife lily directed which
01:09is brilliant as well yeah we're rob and i were just talking about how it's like it's it's just a
01:13an effort from everybody in the band on this and uh and rob you're doing a little acting in flat
01:18earth vultures i see yeah he was great right he was great i i did you see the ankle bracelet
01:24yeah i did
01:25how could you best is the best we ask him to do a walk with swagger and that's the walk
01:30that we got
01:33i don't really know swagger i don't do swagger
01:38yeah the academy should be calling any minute now so if if they do just uh let me know and
01:43i'll get off
01:44the line here uh but no do you guys like we make a ben her
01:49i'm sorry the grammy the grammys road and we said no we're waiting for the oscar
01:55that is so funny you guys like you guys like making those videos i know uh i know ant farm
02:02it's like you know you guys weren't involved you're you guys you said rob's wife but what about that
02:06uh the flat earth vultures would you guys like making that oh that's it's the most fun thing in
02:11the world we don't take ourselves serious and we get to have fun with it you know we don't want
02:15to
02:15just be four guys mugging making duck lips for the camera that looks silly so let's do let's have a
02:20little fun with it you know let's let's play the whole clown thing and and the billionaire uh cowboy
02:24and we just had fun with our director frankie is just later he's he's what if we did this every
02:31second of the day he's like that so he just throws a million things at you and and he was
02:36he was the
02:36panhandler is that right rob yeah frankie paletta the director was the panhandler yeah and also ray
02:42is really good at this kind of stuff um so you know it just shows because ray's a personality guy
02:51you know that's why he became front man probably when he started you know um so it really showcases
02:57what ray a bunch of things that ray is really good at so it's cool now go ahead the clown
03:04go ahead
03:05i'm sorry ray no i just like frank frankie put the makeup on me and stuff and i felt normal
03:11dude
03:11i was like oh i get it i'll take the jokes i get it well let me ask you about
03:16this at the end it
03:16says something about you thanked uh alex scolding for the guitars what is that all about it's true
03:22so did he just lend you some guitars you guys didn't have any
03:25yeah i think frankie does he's really tight with alex so he wanted to use some particular guitars and
03:31he was like you got to try this in video i'm like okay it sounds great frankie it sounds great
03:35i think it was also a convenience thing because some of the stuff was uh frankie was carrying the
03:40gear yeah he had alex's guitars so i got you now rob did did you go to college with uh
03:47alex
03:47skolnick i don't think so did he go to berkeley he did he went to berkeley as well i didn't
03:52know if
03:52you guys had crossed paths or not no i never met alex but i'm i'm a i'm a big fan
03:57yeah i know i just
03:58saw your boy jd a couple months ago and you know um another berkeley guy i love jd i went
04:04to school
04:04with him and we were on the same floor of the dorms and what other musicians would we have heard
04:10of that you went to school with any i went to a party berkeley and got really drunk that's a
04:16really
04:16good question i'm not sure i'm not really good question right well you went to berkeley one night
04:24it's a party that's it i don't remember the rest it's a party yeah i obviously didn't for to not
04:30be able to answer that question i was obviously hanging out with the wrong crowd yeah apparently
04:34yeah people were all partying too much that's who i was hanging out with yeah but you and j that's
04:39why
04:39i'm i'm at where i am they are where they are hey man you've had a good career i had
04:45good fun
04:46and now the new record's coming out they're brutal divine we're just talking about this off the air
04:49at uh 36 years uh in the rearview mirror now new record and uh and rob you're saying this is
04:55it man
04:56this this record you guys put all your eggs in this basket yeah we uh what i was saying to
05:01you earlier
05:01is we've we have the backstory with the 36 years we have the current story we made a fantastic record
05:07that we know our our fans will like and so far the reviews are off the charts and we have
05:13the
05:13forward story we have 13 countries booked and so everything a band could do to succeed and to
05:20to set up a rep an album we have done and we're backing up with on our socials so we
05:26feel good
05:27we feel good and did did you start out 2026 by by like saying we got to do this this
05:32this this you
05:33just start checking off the boxes or it's just just uh kind of just a plan just coming together
05:37i think it's just coming together what do you think right yeah it's just a natural progression
05:41of things melt you know we evolve into this thing and just where we are now and using uh social
05:46media you know we've learned a little bit you know we we've caught on to some things so we're doing
05:51our best to just join the wave and and do it the right way but i mean we're just it's
05:55a culmination
05:55of time we're here now we we got to make things happen it's that simple well i think at the
06:00end of
06:00the day it all revolves around good songs and good music and uh and rob you're saying that this record
06:05is is perhaps maybe even the best you guys have done it's definitely one of the one one of our
06:10best
06:10records um it's fantastic he's being likes he rob rob he bought some great pieces to the table it's
06:16it's a really well written record and we're all real proud of it you know the work we did together
06:21it's it's it's really solid it's very solid and uh rob you you produced this record if i'm not
06:25mistaken correct i did and and the last one also yeah yeah and so this is that just goes back
06:30to you
06:31know you guys are you guys are kind of like homegrown and kind of doing your own thing as well
06:36yeah yeah we i mean it's it's now at the point where ray used to feel like when he did
06:43an album
06:43he was basically nailed to a cross and now we we have a good time in the studio so i
06:51think uh it's
06:52kind of cool that we're coming up with material this strong and and recording material this strong
06:57and still having a good experience recording it well ray ray why is that is that because of a producer
07:03now just because you guys are doing it yourself feel a little bit more at ease i were much more
07:07at ease i enjoy the studio process now what in the first record you know rob would say and i've
07:13told
07:13you many times it was not a pleasant experience for me you know it was very i was i thought
07:18i knew what
07:18i was you think you're hot hot stuff until you get onto a in a professional studio and on a
07:23really
07:23good mic and you're very naked so to speak you know and i and i just i had i had
07:28the fire put to me
07:29you know it was a really growing up learning oh there was a lot of yelling i threw a lot
07:33of
07:33headphones i broke a lot of stuff you know it cost us some money but i got through it so
07:38you
07:38right now we're in a good place we know what we've learned how to do this on our own
07:43you know without anyone having to uh to to ball and chain us or to whip us in any way
07:48we can do
07:48this ourselves so we've learned a lot and i now i enjoy working with robbie so it was a great
07:53time
07:54yeah i haven't said that as hard as that was for you right we created the album that has is
08:00the
08:00reason we're still here so as bad as as bad as that experience was it's it maybe it was what
08:07had
08:07to happen at that time yeah most of those vocals are like you know angry vocals at four six in
08:12the
08:12morning yeah wow and uh did did you think after that experience maybe maybe this isn't the game for
08:19me or did you just want to keep doing another one well i'm the kind of person you know if
08:24you tell
08:25me i can't do something i'm gonna go get it done so it was like that you know i'm just
08:29uh it's it's
08:31it's me against the world bro you know but now i have robbie in my corner so absolutely you guys
08:38gotta grow up man yeah you guys have been in each other's corners for uh many years so how's uh
08:43how's frontiers treating you when it comes to putting out new music they're they're doing well they
08:48they're they're they work real hard youtube real hard and that's anything is appreciated so um i
08:55think it feels like this it's it's hard to say because it hasn't come out yet but i i dare
09:02to say
09:02this is the first time we've had a label understand us so fingers crossed arms crossed eyes crossed legs
09:11crossed there's good communication going on with this album with the label so that's that's a big thing
09:16for us and we we really appreciate that yeah now i haven't heard the record uh rob asked me i
09:21haven't
09:21gotten a copy of each other i just heard those uh three songs uh tell me a little bit more
09:25about the
09:25the record is there any guests on the album any anything that that deviates from what spread is
09:30all about any anything like that oh we have a huge star-studded cast of characters that's why i'm
09:37asking that's why i asked these questions celine dion is in there with us yeah yeah yeah she's on a
09:43few
09:43songs and uh or streisand came in yeah i can already i can already see the headlines but it's
09:49seriously uh just you four guys just pounding away in the studio we're the self-contained machine man
09:56we write it we record it you know what i mean we it it's just us that's it they didn't
10:02use any
10:03elk skull links guitars on this album but we're opening personalities i'll tell you that yeah rob
10:10wants to give one of those a try ironically i was talking before i was talking some labels um before
10:19we decided to do this record with frontiers and it was all about who can you get to guest oh
10:26wow and i
10:26right then because that's a big thing these days obviously you know for asking that question
10:31obviously you know and i was i knew that they were sworn at the right people
10:37okay they were so focused on that like who what name can you get to do a solo what name
10:43can you get
10:43to come in and do some background vocals or trade some verses off with right yeah maybe if this one
10:51does well you know we'll get somebody next time barbara okay barbara and selenia to come in it's
10:56gonna be amazing i guarantee you so i got uh i got street noise course a gunflower jail rat for
11:02uh
11:02forbidden local honey push the limit uh and from we've heard as well uh scars in our eyes uh inside
11:08the shrunken head then it ends with uh would make believe or anything you can tell me about any of
11:12these songs i know i just i just listed off a bunch flat earth vultures we've heard so what else
11:16tell me
11:17something else about some of these songs what i will tell you quickly is that i wish we could do
11:21this
11:21entire album live because i think every song on this album translates really well live we'll play
11:26as many as we can but i think you know that's how i feel about it i really do like
11:31the ebb and flow of
11:32the record you know the front half is it's very punky it's got good energy it's got the street
11:36energies that people like to let us know that we do um robbie can tell you a little more about
11:41how
11:41things flow as far as that goes you know well it is a very punky metallic album um our our
11:50fans have
11:50been telling us after every show you know get back to that nastiness that we started with and it's a
11:58it's a it's a journey because you have to be honest about it and we are being honest about it
12:03and we
12:03have gotten we are getting back to that um we love all our albums though we really do so it's
12:10really
12:10authentic he's right authentic and it's very honest we're sincere band man what you see is what you get
12:16yeah i've told you guys many times that the rawness of that first record was really what attracted
12:21it to me and i never heard you talk about before ray at least not to me where you know
12:25that sometimes
12:26maybe a little bit of frustration maybe a little bit of anger was taken out on some of those songs
12:30in the studio there's a lot of youthful exuberance there's a lot of blackberry brandy and a lot of
12:36jack daniels and a lot of other things and you know a young cat who just thought he knew it
12:41all and
12:41found out he didn't know much when he got on the mic so i learned a lot i had to
12:45grow up fast
12:46now when you guys are writing these songs you just said uh ray you want to play all of them
12:49live do
12:50you guys write for the stage or do you guys just write for what feels right or how does that
12:53work
12:54we just write for what feels right we write from the heart and everything's natural we try not we
12:59i think maybe on the second album we did open to the public we tried to to do too many
13:04things and be
13:04all over the place but this is this is a very focused album sorry i agree but definitely this
13:14album is more a product of live shows than any of the other albums the first album we got we
13:21were
13:21getting ready to do shows and we got signed before our first show and they put us right in the
13:25studio
13:26second we did some touring for the first album but they pulled us off the road really early and we
13:30went in the studio and spent forever recording open to the public third album subway to the stars we
13:36weren't gigging that much because our our guitar player zeev shalev um had had a kid and he was he
13:42didn't really want to be on the road much this album we do 60 shows a year for the last
13:47four show
13:47four years so that does creep into the writing whether it's conscious or subconscious yeah that is
13:55there a lot of sense yeah also when you're in the studio too long you know things can get kind
14:02of
14:02wacky so it's great to have that live vibe translate to the studio and where the where the inside where
14:08you're just in the studio locked in and you're you're dealing with crazy you know what i mean
14:13also we went back to our earlier influences and we've been listening to a lot of nevada beach
14:19to for this one okay now you're just screwing with me
14:25what come on really that's funny man i didn't know them no offense to nevada beach i'm sure
14:32they're a great band but i didn't know them the first time you mentioned that 10 years 20 years
14:37later 30 years later all right for those that don't know spread eagle was the second band i ever
14:42interviewed in my life and nevada beach was the first band and i guess i stumped you the first time
14:47so you rob you've been holding that one in your pocket for years savage i'm gonna bring this out
14:51one day and smack meltdown around with it we're waiting for them to reform we're trying to give
14:56them i mean this is a major platform of press for them and come on take the bait and get
15:02some shows
15:04guys hey 36 years later this business i've never interviewed them again so uh but anyways getting
15:10back to that uh you guys are going to be doing some record release parties on friday and saturday
15:14uh talk about doing some of this stuff in in your hometowns i guess correct
15:19well we're doing the first one is in new jersey new jersey has adopted us we've adopted new jersey
15:24you know when we play the city it's a lot of the same crowd that goes back and forth but
15:27this
15:28particular club dingbats in clifton that's right yeah yeah the owner's really cool it's just a great
15:32vibe there it's very it's it's very raw it's down it's a down and dirty venue it's awesome
15:37the other gig is in newark delaware and robbie it's like in robbie's backyard so robbie can tell
15:44more about that yeah i grew up in delaware um vinnie moore and i and uh i love playing there
15:52all my
15:52childhood friends all those delinquents come out my family it's good it's hilarious they all show up
16:02yeah so they haven't changed since we were 11 12 years old they haven't changed all right well
16:07this is this is crazy because i like to talk about this stuff sometimes so did did you grow up
16:11with
16:11vinnie moore to go to school with him and all that stuff no i never met vinnie until until the
16:16first
16:17work we had like a one or two rehearsals before the first ufo shows i did okay never met him
16:23i heard
16:24about him because even as kids he was famous he was the famous kid who could play all the van
16:30halen
16:30songs and you know and people would talk about him you know that guy over you know in this neighborhood
16:35he knows everything so he was always famous on whatever level he was on yeah well when you guys
16:42were gigging around on your first record he had a song in a tour called meltdown
16:48thieff thievery thievery you need you need to get some some uh credit on that yeah that was too long
16:55ago i don't think i'm going to but uh hey uh real fast how was the monsters of rock cruise
16:59i know ray
17:00you and i've talked about this uh off the air but uh man i uh rob i tried so hard
17:04i appreciate you
17:05sending me along some uh email information i tried to get in on it but just couldn't make it happen
17:09so
17:09ray what do you think about the monster rock cruise oh you know it's great you know utopia on the
17:14water
17:14you know it's like you're you're it's it's fantasy it's disney for it's it's everything it's it's like
17:20this heavenly utopian society of everybody just being really cool and loving to rock and the bands
17:26all get along and there's great food but on this one i got seasick i've never gotten seasick in my
17:32life so the second set we did first that was great but the second set i was i was gone
17:38i was nauseous
17:38i was dizzy i was i was twirling around and we got it done though but man it's robbie had
17:44been on
17:44on monsters of rock cruise several times before and uh before we went on in 2024 i was like man
17:49whatever you know the boat whatever and then you do it you're like oh i want to do this every
17:54day
17:54man i can live on that thing larry's got a good thing going on oh yeah no doubt rob so
18:00you rob how
18:00many times you've been on there well that one i've done like about 10 cruises probably that one probably
18:07just 10 that's six seven times um but probably six times um but uh yeah larry moran thank god bless
18:18him
18:18he he he invited us into his family and we're so lucky we're you know like you know what what
18:25our
18:26situation is we're trying we're this underground band that has a lot of respect that is trying to get
18:32some mainstream attention so we can get it to a bigger level and uh things people like you uh eddie
18:41trunk who we mentioned earlier the cruise m3 festival those are the those are the biggies and
18:47jackie bam bam you know those are the biggies and those people you people that is letting us into your
18:55circle it means so much to us so getting back to the cruise larry moran he he brought us into
19:02his
19:02family and it's just incredible the the cruise is like this to me if you were ever at a festival
19:10outdoor festival maybe the the sun was just going down and it's just the perfect moment you know not
19:16a shitty festival that's raining like a really nice one you're you're there with your girl and it's
19:22just fantastic the band's great sun's going down it's like that for like four that feeling for like
19:27four or five days straight with with all the food you can eat um yeah it's just fantastic uh and
19:35there's
19:35there's a band starting every 20 minutes and it's really sucks that you didn't get on meltdown because
19:41you should be there people you know you people like you in the industry should all be there um but
19:48back to
19:48it uh like every 20 minutes there's a band going on so and it's only a you know at the
19:55most like a
19:56thousand feet walk i mean it's they're both huge but it's still it's it's you know it's a five ten
20:02minute walk at the most so you can see all these great bands you can go see a few songs
20:07uh the darkness
20:09played there i didn't even i wasn't even a fan before i saw them two times ago they played both
20:15times
20:15that we played that both times that spread eagle has played the cruise the darkness of light and now
20:21i'm like a huge fan because i had no idea what how amazing they are uh but anyway just you
20:28get to see
20:28bands you know that's a perfect example i didn't know anything about that band other than that kind
20:34of funny song you know yeah i think i'll yeah crazy yeah i think i'll love yeah what you if
20:39you see
20:39them you it's it's unbelievable how good great they are in every every box is checked off with
20:46that yeah they're great performers yeah then it was glenn hughes two years ago when we played there's
20:51always queensrike who are always one of the best bands i didn't get to see them this year because i
20:56was so busy dangerous toys impressed the hell out of me i i i always liked them but i had
21:02no idea they
21:02was that great a band i'd never seen them live just non-stop you know there's 40 something bands
21:08yeah meltdown it's like the world's greatest meet and greet it's just it's it's cool you know people
21:13have access to you and the good thing about the thing about this cruise that got me we had to
21:18go
21:18on at the same time that the darkness did they were outside so i saw i told rob i go
21:22man i mean who's
21:24gonna come see us you know and uh lo and behold we we had a nice packed room and it
21:29blew my mind so you
21:30know everybody goes to see the bands they want to see and they have time to see a lot of
21:34bands it's
21:34great we got to see the loudness that was really special that was cool so it was just a great
21:38time
21:39we got to all go to dinner together you know we brought our significant others it was cool you
21:43know we're all a big family it's great it's great yeah i think two years ago when you guys went
21:48i think
21:48i texted you a picture i actually i was driving by the boats i don't know if you remember this
21:52rob i was
21:52yeah i could see the boats from a half a mile away i was in miami i got that close
21:57yeah so far
21:58yeah yeah that was i was that close that close and that i think about you were missing it would
22:03have been nice to have you on dude i wanted to come and hang out with you guys for sure
22:07again
22:08personalities like you should definitely be on it so i don't know what went wrong with that well i
22:14appreciate that well i'll tell you what i'll cut you guys loose here the record comes out on friday
22:19and like i said and farm flat earth vultures and street noise are out right now uh the brutal divine
22:23by
22:24the way uh tell me a little bit about this title before i forget i was i was going to
22:27ask you guys about
22:27that early what's that like entail well it's a lyric in one of the songs um there's a song
22:36called uh jail rat where the character who may or may not be the same character as king of the
22:44dogs
22:45um goes to the top of a building like in in manhattan and is looking down on the people
22:53so that's kind of like it's a lyric from that spot in the song well ray can maybe say say
22:59some more what
23:00it means to him that's good to me there's a there's a beauty in it you know there's a beauty
23:04in the
23:04suffering you know and this album is very truthful and there's a lot of suffering and truth that go
23:09together you know so we try to paint a really nice picture we don't try to dictate the lyrics for
23:13everyone we want people to listen to this stuff and listen to it on you know and interpret it to
23:19what
23:19they want that's that's what i think when you look at a painting it should be like that you know
23:22this painting is about that no people should listen to it and make it and put it into their
23:27own dna and and there we go you know but i this record has a great feel it's got great
23:33melodies on
23:34it you know it's got great textures the lyric content is ridiculous so we're really proud of it
23:39and i'll be able to play and i'll be able to get this for all the department jami is oh
23:44yeah yeah
23:44then we got it because jami is ridiculous people look at it don't take notice of jami now for sure
23:49they didn't before they will now and i'll be able to get this on vinyl yeah yeah yeah red vinyl
23:55oh nice okay yeah because i think uh ray you signed my original copy of the uh debut record i
24:01don't
24:01think i don't think i got robbed to sign that one yet i might have but i remember you just
24:05got it
24:05like a few years ago yeah my wife found it somewhere i don't even know where she got it
24:08she got it for your birthday yeah or something like that yeah that's right well good luck with
24:14everything and uh i appreciate you guys after all these years three and a half decades since i
24:18talked to you guys after nevada beach uh but um good luck with everything in europe and maybe we'll
24:23see you here in detroit uh sooner rather than later we appreciate you we're swinging for the fences just
24:29like you brother we're swinging for the fences man and i can appreciate that we'll uh we'll give you a
24:33little bit of push here and try to get you towards those fences okay thank you check out talking rock
24:39with meltdown on all podcast platforms and wrif.com
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