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Publisher Highwire Daze Magazine A General Partnership Editor Ken Morton Managing Editor Danny S. Pasley Senior Photographer Jack Lue East Coast Editor Jupiter Lee Contributors Ken Morton Jack Lue Jupiter Lee James Grover Kim Crain Tammy Greene Erica Vincent Cover Art by Yannick d’Assignes of Smart Works Intl Cover Photos by Jack Lue HIGHWIRE DAZE 827 N. Hollywood Way PMB419 Burbank, CA 91505-2814 www.highwiredaze.com email: ken@highwiredaze.com Copyright 2021 Highwire Daze Magazine Opinions expressed within this publication do not neccessarily reflect those of the publisher. All rights reserved. Nothing may be produced in whole or in part without the express and written permission of the publisher.
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERVIEWS with...
Accept...................................................................14 Leaves’ Eyes.........................................................18 Firefall..................................,................................22 Bill Champlin formerly of Chicago......................26 Jerry Salas of El Chicano......................................30 Kiki Wong from Vigil of War................................34 Stan Bush..............................................................36 The Norseman Company.......................................38 Persuader................................................................42 Diane & The Deductibles......................................46 Constance Antoinette.............................................50 Nikki Wozzo & the Bad Whiskey..........................52 The Hate Club.......................................................54 Bo Johnson............................................................56
KIKI WONG POSTER by JACK LUE.....................................32 ALBUMS REVIEWS Ampage, AOR, KOFN Underground, Rich Kid Express, We Are The Black Things.......60 SKETCHES BY THE EDITOR................................................... 8 PRODUCT REVIEW BY JAMES GROVER Sperzel Locking Guitar Tuners..............................10 IN MUSICAL ORBIT BY JUPITER Blue Oyster Cult, Michael Schenker Group, Natural Born Machine...........................................12
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Sketches By The Editor Welcome To The Covid Madhouse
So much has happened since the 30th Anniversary Issue of Highwire Daze was released back in November 2020. That was the goal - to make it to 30 - and the support our readers and advertisers displayed for that very special issue was amazing. We’ve actually managed to release new issues throughout the pandemic documenting how life has been for musicians and the industry overall. And then it happened - around my birthday in mid-December I managed to catch Covid-19. And what an experience that was!
What strange times we exist in still. And what a great companion music has been during the disastrous year of 2020 and even now as we venture into 2021. Everybody please wear your masks and continue to be safe. I want to see you all at a live show sooner than later. In the meantime, be sure to continue to support bands and artists by buying their music at record shops and online. So many of these artists have been busy creating new music for us all, so expect a lot of amazing releases throughout 2021 and beyond! And fully expect Highwire Daze to continue to cover the best in all sorts of music genres. Life is too short and there is so much good music out there! Here’s hoping Highwire Daze can cover it all for another 30 years and counting. - Editor Ken 02/06/21
There is nothing like receiving an email from the testing site saying you are “Positive.” It’s almost like your whole life flashes in front of you. I already had a severe cough by then when I received the news, and in spite of how horrible I felt, I was truly one of the lucky ones. I made my Covid status public on Facebook for a few reasons - to inform people that now they definitely know someone who has Covid and to be careful over the holidays - and of course to let everyone know that the first issue of the New Year was going to be late. As I write this edition of my column, I have recovered with just a slight cough. The picture you see above is the day I went back to my day job during the last week of January. And now here we are in 2021 with vaccines that many of us are still unable to get. We all have what’s called Covid fatigue. My last live concert was Dragonforce at The Regent on March 6th. The live music industry has taken a dramatic hit with being closed for so long. In the next issue, I plan to interview some local club owners and promoters to see how they have managed to survive in this pandemic age one year after lockdown. I feel very fortunate to be presenting to you all Highwire Daze Issue #134. Technically we are a month late and this issue is being called the February/March edition because of it. Thank you to everyone who checked in to see how I was while I was dealing with Covid - I was really touched by the messages everyone sent to me on Facebook, Instagram, and in my email. 8
Down In Wühan
The”Hit Single” Released World-Wide 12/14/20! Available Now. Everywhere. “Short, Sweet, and about the Chinese.” Available: World-Wide on all major platforms. i Tunes, Spotify, Amazon etc. youtube.com/toneraventunes February/March 2021
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Product Review by
James Grover Sperzel Locking Guitar Tuners
In 1977 when Bob Sperzel set his mind to create a guitar tuning machine head that would eliminate slippage and solve many tuning problems for guitarists he had no idea he created a tuning machine that is a must for many guitar players. As a Guitarist and a Luthier I use Sperzel Locking tuners with the “Trim-lok” technology on my custom guitars, the technology and the ratio of the locking tuners are very smooth. What I admire of the Sperzel tuners is that they are manufactured with the guitar player in mind. If you play Acoustic guitar the Sperzels really add more tone to your strings since it’s easy to lock and tune without wrap around on the pole. On the other hand if you are like me who plays electric guitar with a Tremolo system the tuners really hold their tune with the crazy dive bombs and excessive “whammy”. Installation of the Sperzels are easy to install if you have knowledge of working on guitars, there are different types available for Acoustic, Electric Guitar and Basses. One of my favorite features of the in-line six tuners are that they are available as a tapper set that eliminates the use of “string trees” on the headstock of the guitar which reduces “string catch” while tuning. When installing make sure to mark them with painters tape 1-6 to ensure proper installation with the Tapper.
Likes and Dislikes Likes:
I really like the feel of the craftsmanship of each tuner with a smooth ratio they hold the tune of the instrument. A big plus is that they are Made in U.S.A.
Dislikes:
I don’t have anything negative to say about the product. Only thing is that Sperzels are hard to find in local music stores. However you can obtain more info at: www.sperzel.com
Reach James Grover at: https://www.facebook.com/james.grover.311
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In Musical Orbit by Jupiter Jupiter at Highwire Daze Online Crew East Coast Editor
Hey everyone, it’s Jupiter Lee - East Coast Editor. Happy New Year one and all! Check out my record reviews here and be sure to add me on Facebook! Link is at the end of my column...
The Symbol Remains Blue Öyster Cult Frontiers Music
Welcome to THE SYMBOL REMAINS by BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, their first studio album in 20 years. Line - up includes ERIC BLOOM, BUCK DHARMA, RITCHIE CASTELLANO, DANNY MIRANDA and JULES RADINO. Rocking from the start with THAT WAS ME, it has great hit potential. Track 03, BOX IN MY HEAD has a slower pace. The moving bass-line makes it very melodic with some HAMMOND organ in the distance and has a good story within the piece. Track 05, EDGE OF THE WORLD, another great riff. You will want to turn this one up! Refreshing in this digital age of recording, that this band has a real rock and roll edge from many other artists. Clearly there are many writers because track 11,THE ALCHEMIST is very different and dark from the get -go. I hope they put this one early in their live set! They’re like a band within a band. At this point , I would have to put the album in the prog category. At one hour, THE SYMBOL REMAINS will reward you with many unexpected surprises. Brilliant!
http://www.blueoystercult.com/ Immortal Michael Schenker Group Nuclear Blast Records MICHAEL SCHENKER, celebrating his awesome 50th anniversary career releases his eleventh studio album, IMMORTAL. Ripping into track 01 is DRILLED TO KILL. With scorching, virtuosic guitar work, ramped up double bass drums and soaring, high energy lead vocals from RALF SCHEEPERS of PRIMAL FEAR, it sets the tone for the album. Vocalist JOE LYNN TURNER is a featured guest artist on track 02, DON’T DIE ON ME NOW, a slow heavy ballad. Also featured is vocalist RONNIE ROMERO on track 03, 12
KNIGHT OF THE DEAD and 06, SAILING THE DARKNESS. Track 05, DEVIL’S DAUGHTER contains a fast, screaming melody with double leads. Now for track 10, IN SEARCH OF THE PIECE OF MIND, MICHAEL has brought this one back from SCORPIONS era 1972. It combines a gripping riff and evil sounding, hellish vocals as it preludes the building of an instrumental climax. From the very beginning you can almost sense IMMORTAL’s plan of attack. Can’t wait to see them pull this off live!
http://www.michaelschenkerhimself.com/ Human Natural Born Machine Pride & Joy Music Italy based 4 - piece melodic hard rock band NATURAL BORN MACHINE was founded in 2019 by bassist and composer ALBERTO RIGONI (VIVALDI METAL PROJECT). Members include vocalist DAVID READMAN, guitarist LEX TRICARICO and drummer DENIS NOVELLO. The album begins with MOONCHILD and contains a really good hook. Probably their most commercial sounding rock and roll hit! You can look for the video on their website. Emotionally charged vocals with first class musicianship from everyone. Colossal studio production enhances the experience. There’s one tune for me that stands out from the rest, track 09, nothing except acoustic guitar and vocals, reveals another side to them. Though not a very long album at forty minutes, yet it’s power packed with ten tunes. You can look for HUMAN February 19 2021
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Wolf Hoffmann of
ACCEPT
ACCEPT: WAY TOO MEAN TO DIE
Interview by Ken Morton - Photos by Tammy Greene of Sound Lens Photography (Wolf Hoffmann full page) and Jack Lue (Live photos in article)
The legendary Accept kicks off 2021 with an explosive new album entitled Too Mean To Die, now available worldwide via Nuclear Blast Records. Their 16th magnum opus to date, Too Mean To Die is the perfect soundtrack to facing this pandemic age and beyond. Highwire Daze recently had the honor to interview the one and only Wolf Hoffmann to discuss Too Mean To Die as well as Accept’s historic and ongoing metal legacy. Read on... We’re here with Wolf Hoffmann from Accept. Is there any story behind that great title Too Mean To Die? Nah, not really. It’s just a cool saying that seemed to fit the time that we live in nowadays. With a little bit of tongue and cheek, we’re saying that we’re the metal machines – we’re the metal warriors eternal – immortal and a little virus can’t kill us. It’s pretty much our response to the Corona craziness but it’s not really directly supposed to mean anything more than that. Just a little bit of fun really in a metal way. Tell me about the first single off the album The Undertaker and what was the inspiration behind it. The Undertaker has more of a story than To Mean To Die to be honest. The Undertaker started as a set of lyrics by Mark Tornillo – he just wrote about some imaginary undertaker – maybe some creepy creature from old Western movies. I don’t know what he had in mind, but I found it intriguing that I wrote the song after the lyrics we written. And we even filmed a video for it which was shot in Poland of all places – and features this creepy undertaker guy dancing with a dead body – which I thought was pretty cool. When you were shooting the video, did you use all the social distancing guidelines and all that fun stuff? Yes we did, because we were on another continent when they shot it in Poland. (Laughs) We did our part in Nashville, Tennessee on an old cemetery – and we shot the main character in a deserted castle in Poland. So yeah, we were definitely socially distanced. Now you do have two new members – one of them is Philip Shouse on guitar – this resulting in three guitar players now. Let’s talk about Philip first – how did he beHIGHWIRE DAZE
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come involved with the band and what made you decide to have three guitarists? Yeah, we met him because he filled in for our original guitar player on this last tour last year when we played with orchestras all across Europe. And we discovered what an amazing player he is – and also such a nice guy he is. He’s super easy to get along with and fun to be around onstage. He works the crowd well, so he’s got everything going for him – and we felt it would be a shame if we never see him again if we let him go. Why couldn’t we have him as a third guitar player? That would enable us to do a bunch more things onstage that we normally can’t do. It just adds another color to the whole thing. We’ve done some shows with a threesome and it’s really awesome! It’s a lot of fun and it’s great – it sounds killer – so I think we made the right choice. You have another new member Martin Motnik. Tell me about him and how he became involved with the band. He applied – he had heard that Peter had left the band about two years ago and he was one of the people sending in his resume and his application. He happened to be living in Nashville but he’s a German guy, so that played a 15
certain role because we like German members in the band obviously because we’re a German band. It makes sense. So he turned out to be a super nice guy – a great player and we get along great. He actually contributed a lot of stuff to the new album – very unexpected but very welcomed – because I didn’t want to write everything alone now that Peter had left the band. So it’s great! It definitely brought some fresh energy to the band and some fresh blood. How did you feel when you found out that Peter Baltes was leaving the band with his last albums being Rise Of Chaos and Symphonic Terror? Yeah man, I was sad because I’ve been with Peter for all of these years, and I felt like we would last forever – but it wasn’t meant to be. I don’t know what caused it. It was heartbreaking really. But at the same time I felt like, man, the show must go on. It was sad as hell, but what can you do, man? Just move on with your life and you move on with Accept and the train keeps on rolling. Anytime somebody leaves it’s sad, but you could tell that he wasn’t in it anymore for some reason – his heart wasn’t in it anymore. I don’t miss that Peter – I miss Peter from the previous years – the old days actually. But the good news is when you get new member into the band, they’re totally excited to be there. There’s nothing worse than being in a band with someone who doesn’t want to be there. It’s great when you have new guys that really bring all they’ve got into this whole project – that fires up everybody a lot! 16
What has it been to like to record and release new Accept music in the middle of a pandemic and all this social unrest in the world? Our personal lives really didn’t change much. I mean, I personally don’t go out that much anyhow. I spend a lot of time at home – I work at my studio pretty much isolated even before Corona. But we had a little bit of an issue when we were trying to record the last few songs, because our producer couldn’t come into the country to help us with the production and the recording. So we had no other choice but to record a few songs alone and he was present online through a Zoom call type setup that we had. So that was definitely a little bit weird. Other than that, it was business as usual for the remainder of the time. Sometimes it felt quite strange to be there in the studio and to work on – don’t get be wrong – seemingly meaningless metal tunes while the outside world is really going to hell. It felt that way – like what are we even doing there? Is there even going to be audience by the time we’re done with this? Is the world still standing when this album is finished? There was a little bit of that, because we really didn’t know how bad it would get in the end when all this started to happen. You actually have a few anniversaries coming up as a band – I’m sure you actually always have some anniversary coming up… February/March 2021
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Yeah we do, especially if you’ve been around as long as we have, every year something happens - 25, 30, 40 whatever years ago. Always. What is it now? (Much laughter) Well here is what it is. 40 years ago there were two Accept albums that were released. I’m A Rebel in 80 and Breaker in 81. When you look back on them now, what do you think of those albums and that time in retrospect? Oh god, here we go again talking about these old songs. Not my favorite thing to do and it’s really hard for me to be objective about those things. But my thought is that we were really searching for a direction during the I’m A Rebel album. I think you can clearly hear that in these songs – I think the songs weren’t quite there yet. There were snippets here and there. And I honestly have to admit I haven’t heard those songs in a long time – the majority because I don’t really listen much to my old stuff – but I remember them off course. But I think that during the Breaker time, we started to find our calling – our direction a little more – definitely more than on I’m A Rebel. Let’s jump to 10 years ago which is a little bit more current. Mark Tornillo recording Blood Of The Nations – that was the first album he was on 10 years ago. What do you think has made you and Mark work so well together over this last decade? Peter and I realized at the time when we met him by pure luck that one day – I think it was 2009 – we realized there’s a guy that could really sing anything convincingly – especially our old material. But surely he could do new stuff as well. He definitely had the voice – he was a super nice guy – and we thought if ever that is a chance to regroup Accept, it is here. And I think we were right. These last 10 years with Mark have been great – super successful – super strong albums – and it’s still going strong. So I guess we made the right choice at the point to dare the unthinkable – to come back with a new singer. Another 10 year anniversary – Andy Sneap has mixed and produced your albums since 2010. What makes you work so well with Andy? Andy is a godsend! He appeared out of nowhere right at the perfect time when we were just starting to work with Mark. We were thinking about recording a new album – and we had barely started writing songs. Andy had heard about it through a friend of a friend that we were recording a new album – and he approached us and said “I’m an old Accept fan. I want to meet you guys. I want to talk to HIGHWIRE DAZE
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you about working together.” We had never even heard of Andy Sneap – I had no idea who he was – which doesn’t mean much because I was basically out of the music scene by then. And anyhow, he came in at the right time in our lives and turned out to be perfect for the job. He’s an Accept fan – he’s a metalhead – he’s an amazing engineer – an amazing mixer – and an overall nice guy. Ever since we’ve become really good friend and work together really, really well. And here is the one and only UDO question – I promise. Have you kept in touch with UDO or any of the other former Accept members over the years? No. I mean I would have, but we really have nothing in common anymore – nothing to do with each other. It’s weird – when somebody leaves the band, then the common interest is gone all of a sudden. It’s bizarre, but it’s really that way. Even with other members, as soon as they’re gone you tend to never hear from them again. Life goes on on their side and life goes on on our side and we move on. We’re on tour with new guys and everything so you lose touch with each other. It’s crazy. What do you hope 2021 brings for Accept and the world in general? Better times. 2020 was such a shit year – we can only go forward from here I’d say. So hopefully we can start touring again soon, but until then we thought let the people enjoy the new Accept album – at least they can listen to the music and think of good times ahead.
www.acceptworldwide.com www.facebook.com/accepttheband www.instagram.com/acceptworldwide 17
Elina Siirala of
Leaves’ Eyes
Leaves’ Eyes and the Last of the Viking Days
Interview by Ken Morton - Live Photos by Tammy Greene of Sound Lens Photography Leaves’ Eyes is back with The Last Viking, their 7th epic of glorious symphonic metal now available on AFM Records, and the second to feature Elina Siirala on lead vocals. A concept album regarding the life and death of Norway’s king Harald III, called Hardrada (“the hard ruler”), The Last Viking is a thrilling magnum opus music fanatics will want to revisit time and again. Highwire Daze recently interviewed Elina Siirala to discuss the making of The Last Viking, how the pandemic has affected the band, replacing an original lead vocalist, memories of her first show with the band in Jakarta out of all places, and more! Read on... First of all, let’s talk about The Last Viking. Is there any story or concept behind that title? Yes absolutely - it’s basically based on the life of Hardrada – who then when he died, that was kind of the end of the Viking era – so that’s why The Last Viking. And the album is based on his life. It starts actually with his death, and then the life flashes before his eyes – and all of the songs are the adventures of what happened in his life. It was really exciting, crazy stories that he had during his life and it goes all over the world – so it was a really a great concept for the album. Have you ever thought of, after the pandemic is over, performing The Last Viking in its entirety? That would be pretty terrific! Yeah, actually quite a few people have asked about that. It would be a pretty interesting idea. I could see a lot of visual possibilities and some staging possibilities. It would be cool to have some big show and be able to bring everything out from each song. But yeah, it would work because it’s a story that makes sense in a way. So yeah, definitely a good idea. What has it been like to record and release new music in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world? It’s been a blessing for all of us – especially for me for sure. It was back in March that we began to record everything – and we recorded it and everything was going to the plan – almost. We were in the studio when the lockdown came, so we were kind of doing the lockdown in the studio for over a month. So it turned out that we used the time the best we could and made the best out if it. And it was a real great way to put your energy – being able to concentrate on something during these difficult times. And of course we had to change a little bit of our plans with the release – it was originally supposed to be in August with a great big release show at Summer Breeze. But it obviously didn’t happen, so then we HIGHWIRE DAZE
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filmed the videos – and that also delayed everything so we had to push the release date a little bit. But so far, everything went really according to the plan. You have such a dramatic impact as a singer. Have you ever done any live theater or acting – or is that something you would like to do in the future? Of course I have a classical degree, so I was doing operas onstage before I moved to London. So yeah, I love doing that. I love acting, and acting with my voice and bringing characters into life. So I love that, definitely. How did your tour here in the States go in 2017 and what were some of the highlights? Oh yeah, that was the one with Sabaton and Battle Beast. I think that was like the best tour ever! It was really, really great! Such great people to tour with. We went all over the place there – long journeys it always is in the USA. And we had some great moments there – like for example on some of the days off, we went for the jet ski stuff and it was really awesome. Of course a lot of great memories from that tour. I think one of your shows was at The Grove in Anaheim. What did you think of that venue and Southern California overall? It was a big venue. I’ve been to California a few times now and it’s always great there. It’s a shame that we always 19
don’t have so much time to see around, but whenever I have time, it’s a pleasure to explore all these new places and see everything. You have a new guitarist in the band Micki Richter. Have you had a chance to tour with him at all and what is his background? Micki’s a long time friend of the guys and I’ve known him for a long time. And he was already touring with us as a bassist and as a guitarist before. So it was like a smooth transition when he joined full time the band, He’s a great guy – super good guitarist and we all get along really well. So yeah, really great. Prior to you joining Leaves’ Eyes, were you familiar with their music at all? I wasn’t so familiar. I knew like some of the biggest hits, but no, I can’t say that I was. So it was pretty interesting then that I had about two weeks to learn all of the songs for the first gig, so it was a great adventure and challenge for me back then. Describe your very first show with Leaves’ Eyes. I think it was in Jakarta out of all places… Yeah – I felt like I was almost in this bubble, because like I said, I had a very short time to get familiar with the songs – and then of course how quickly we rehearsed – and the long, long flight to Jakarta – and then this completely different weather and time difference of course as well, And then quickly to the hotel and then to the gig. And then there was this tropical storm – and it was almost very, very close that we couldn’t play at all. So I think at the end we had to cut our set a bit to make it shorter, but we did manage to play and it was in front of this massive crowd. I think over 10,000 people and this massive stage and it was so completely wet. And it was over quickly and then we quickly already flew back home – so it was a really kind of crazy but awesome experience. Have you met former Leaves’ Eyes singer Liv Kristine and how nervous were you to replace their long time lead singer? We met briefly at the Metal Female Voices in 2016. It was actually on the breakfast the next day after the shows. I said hello and it was all nice. It was a very short conversation. I don’t know her anymore than that, but there’s never been any hard feelings – at least not from my side and I don’t think from her side either. Whatever went on with the band and inside the band is their own private things. It’s not really involving me in any way. That was the part where I knew when I was joining the band, I’d have to come in as a complete new singer – new person – different kind of voice – dif20
ferent kind of performer. I just wanted to do the best job that I could do as a singer. To do justice to the songs that were already there and bring my own versions of the songs and then people can decide if they like it or how to react to that. For me, it’s more about how I feel about the situation – how if I feel I did the best that I could do, then I’m happy. These things are always subjective and there’s strong emotions and everything from the fans. But I’ve always had only really positive feedback from the fans and I’ve already felt really accepted by everybody – so it’s been very positive for me. What is currently going on with your other band Angel Nation? We were already in a good swing of things. I already wrote a lot of demos and new songs and everything. And then a lot of things happened and along came the pandemic – so everything’s kind of been put on hold now. But I really hope we can find the resources and time and possibility to continue and bring the third album out at some point. It would be great. What do you hope that 2021 brings for Leaves’ Eyes? Well, at the moment, we’re trying to find the possibility to play these new songs live. There are plans and we’ll just have to hope that the plans will hold and we’ll be able to do those tours and concerts (in 2021). Nobody knows but let’s hope. And do you have any messages for Leaves’ Eyes fans here in the States? Truly I hope that we can come back there soon. I hope that everybody is staying safe and healthy. I really miss playing there. There’s awesome audiences in the US always. I really hope we can come back there soon. And thanks for everyone who supported us and I hope you enjoy the album.
www.leaveseyes.de February/March 2021
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Firefall Return For
The World With Comet
Interview by Ken Morton
The legendary classic rock band Fireball has returned with Comet, their first album of all new material since 1994! Best known for hit singles such as You Are The Woman, Strange Way and Just Remember I Love You, Firefall may now add selections such as Way Back When, Younger, and New Mexico to their massive collection of songs. Highwire Daze recently had the honor of interviewing Firefall lead guitarist/singer/ co-founder Jock Bartley to discuss to the making of Comet, releasing new music in the middle of a pandemic, a chance encounter with the one and only Eric Clapton, and a whole lot more! Read on... Let’s talk about the brand new Firefall album Comet. Is there any overall story or concept behind that album Comet? As the band leader for Firefall, I wanted to, with the new record, have at least half of that record musically sound similar to or reminiscent of the 1970’s Firefall that had so many big hits – vocals, acoustic guitars, really good songs, melodic music, interplay with sax and flute and my lead guitar. And the title of the album kind of fits in with that whole deal. Of course our first album cover back in 1976 was the comet reflected in the lake there – and we wanted to tie our new album – our first in many, many years – back to the 70’s Firefall. I think we accomplished what I was hoping for because a good amount of the album I’ve been hearing from people sounds like Firefall – and yet we also stretched our boundaries musically some – which we even used to do in the old days. But the Comet name of the album – I didn’t know whether we should make the name of the album Comet or Yosemite – which is where the name Firefall came from. And my manager suggested Comet was really good – and we found the proper picture to be on the front of the cover – and that’s a recent picture of the comet Neowise. And we’re just really happy about having new product out. Tell me about the first single Way Back When and what was the inspiration behind that. The inspiration was just how great the music of the mid and late 1960’s was – and that the music of the 70’s, which included The Birds and The Buffalo Springfield and Poco and the Eagles and Firefall and all those bands that had that Southern California musical groove going. The music of the 60’s was fantastic! As a young person in the 60’s, it influenced me hugely – and 100’s of 1000’s of people all over the world. And when I wrote the first verse and the first chorus of Way Back When and mentioned the Rolling Stones and the Beatles – and from LA The Birds and Bob Dylan – I knew the 22
time frame and had the concept of what that song was going to be. And the person singing the song (which is me), he and his girlfriend are reminiscing about how great life was and the music was Way Back When, when things were a whole lot more innocent. And the video that was made on that song – which my son Jamey made – I wanted it to be a visual pictorial kind of history lesson about how great the songs were and the bands were back then. Actually the song wrote itself pretty quickly and I was really pleased once I finished the last verse and chorus that I hoped I was successful in portraying how great the music was and how much it impacted our lives back then in a much younger and more innocent era. Let’s talk about a few of the other songs on Comet. One of my favorite songs on the album is called Younger. What was the inspiration behind that wonderful song? Well first of all, the music industry and songwriting and publishing has changed so dramatically in the last 10-15 years. Back in the 70’s or 80’s, songwriters would make money on their copyrighted material when the album came out – whether they were in the band or not. Nowadays with Spotify and Pandora and everything on the web, millions of people expect to listen to new songs – old songs – anything they February/March 2021
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want – for free. That’s really turned the songwriting game upside down in the music industry. And I knew when we started putting together this new album many years ago, that it didn’t matter who wrote the songs. We were looking for great songs written by somebody in the band or somebody outside of the band – it didn’t matter. And our new vocalist – the newest guy in the band Gary Jones – who lives in Nashville. I encouraged him – because he knows a lot of people who live in Nashville – to look around and ask around to see if he could find any songs that might be appropriate for Firefall to do. And he found this amazing song by Gary Burr – a very famous songwriter who also works with Kenny Loggins in a band. He found a song from Gary Burr called Younger. And when he sent it out to us, I knew immediately that I wanted to give it a shot. It’s such a great lyric! It’s kind of tongue and cheek and doesn’t take itself too seriously as a song. But it really is poignant and it really speaks to – here’s a guy who ended up losing the love of his life, and the whole song is about him saying “Well, when I get Younger and change my life, maybe I’ll be able to do all these cool little things” that when you put them together and listen to them, some of them are really kind of humorous and make you laugh. So that’s a great song and he is a hit songwriter. I think Gary Burr has HIGHWIRE DAZE
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like 30-50 Number 1 hits in country music. But that was one of the songs we discovered that really felt like it was going to be great in a Firefall setting. So New Mexico – tell me a little about that song… (Laughs) That’s a great example of what this album was and is about. I wanted a number of songs to sound like Firefall. It’s interesting, because in the old days when we think of Firefall songs on an album in 77-78 in our heyday, about half of the record sounds like Just Remember I Love You and You Are The Woman, Mexico and Cinderella. Also we had songs on those records that maybe pushed the boundaries, I kept saying to myself in my head “We need a New Mexico! We need a song like Mexico that is instantly recognizable as a Firefall groove, reminiscent of the songs Rick Roberts wrote back on our first album.” Incidentally on the that song Mexico back in 1976, when I was at Criteria Studios in Miami Florida and we were making the record, the Bee Gees were down the hall and Stephen Stills was in and out. You know, it was the hit factory out in Criteria. And when I went out to do my solo on Mexico – now Firefall was unheard of and the first album had not 23
come out yet – I knew from a few years of playing live that Mexico was going to be one of my big moments on the record to play lead guitar and do what I do as a lead guitar player. And when it came time to record the solo for Mexico, I went out and was warming up in the studio, and in the control room people were in and out – and when the red light came on and I finally started playing to the song, it ended up being a one take three and a half minute solo – I played it once through and it went really great. Now the day before we had recorded the mariachi horn section on the song Mexico in the middle of my solo. I had never played with a horn section before – so I was unsure of where I was going to be and how I was going to play with that. But the producer said “Hey, it was great!” And I said “Keep what I did but let’s see if I can meet that solo section.” And the producer said “No, come on in.” And I got a little upset thinking “No, this is my moment to shine.” I take my guitar off and I walk into the control room to tell the producer I want to give another shot at it. And the first person that I see having listened to me play is my guitar hero Eric Clapton sitting in the control room. And Eric stood up and shook my hand and said “keen playing man” and he walked out. And it was the only time in my career and my life that I met my hero Eric Clapton. It’s funny – it was a really good thing that I didn’t know he was there watching me play because I wouldn’t have been able to play anything hardly. I may not even have been able to pick up my pick, ya know? So to have shined like I did as a lead guitar player for 3 and half minutes and then to go and find out that my hero had been watching and listening to me play that one take solo was just amazing! And now back to your question. I kept thinking to myself “We need a New Mexico to be on this record. I want to write a song that’s reminiscent of Mexico.” And the more than a said to myself A New Mexico, that ended up being the title. And I made it similar – certainly not plagiarized or anything – but I made it similar sounding to the original Firefall song by Rick Roberts Mexico. And the guy in the song – in the first verse he’s really happy – he’s got a girl with him and they’re in love and Mexico sure is different – it’s a New Mexico compared to the second verse where he’s reminiscing that he was on that same beach a year earlier all by himself terribly lonely wondering what the heck is going on with his life. And the addition of a woman that he loves is in his life has made Mexico a New Mexico. And in the third verse they actually move to New Mexico, so it was just kind of a play on the original Firefall song – and I was hoping to definitely make this song sound reminiscent to all the Firefall fans out there who love our first few records. What has it been like to record and release new music in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world? Well that’s a really good question and I was being pressured as band leader and producer of this record to have the record done last November in 2019. We were going to put the album out in early 2020 – it will help us with the number of gigs we play and maybe raise our price and it would be great to put it out. So I was really pushing to finish the record by December 1st of 2019. Our manager who is also the owner our of label Sunset Blvd Records – we were going to put the record out in February or maybe March of 2020. And then the bottom fell out in the world and the pandemic started and it got to be really serious – and we knew we had to hold off – let’s not put 24
it out now. And it just seemed – particularly to Mark Andes (Firefall bassist) and myself – we were very hopeful once things got past March and April and June and July of 2020 where bands weren’t playing out on the road – tours just basically stopped – and I didn’t really want to wait. Our manager was suggesting “Well, we’ll just keep the record on the shelf until Spring or Summer of 2021” – and both Mark and I had turned around and said “You know, everybody’s whose made an album who was going to put out an album in 2020 is going to wait and put it out in the Spring of 2021 – and let’s not be locked in that huge rush of albums that will probably happen in 2021. The fans are still out there. With no concerts, it could be perfect to put a new album out in the middle of a pandemic.” And our manager was a little bit undecided until he saw my son’s video Way Back When. He then said “Now we’ve got something to work with!” And he agreed to put the album out in December – and I was really glad that we were able to persuade him into putting a new album out with all of this crazy crap happening with the pandemic and the social unrest and American being at odds. It was actually going to be a real positive thing. I don’t know what’s going to happen in 2021. But we’re really excited to put the album out, even though we can’t go tour behind it. Complete this sentence. If I have to play the song You Are The Woman again live, I’ll… I am lucky to play in a band that has a song as big as You Are The Woman and I am thankful for it – even though there were a few years where I was “Thank God we have other songs in our repertoire like Cinderella which is unbelievable” – and it’s totally not a commercial song but it’s some of the most magical music we’ve ever made in the studio. We have other songs we can play – and by the time You Are The Woman towards the ends of our set comes in, people freak out – they love that song – that’s why they pay money to hear us. And it is great! When Firefall does our Meet and Greets after the show and we’re selling merch and shaking hands and taking pictures with the fans, how many stories you hear – like “we got married to You Are The Woman” or “Just Remember I Love You got me through some really hard times in my life.” And you realize as an artist – and one of the lucky ones who have songs on the radio and Gold Records and who can go out on the road and play – you realize at every concert how lucky you are and how important some of your songs were to people. To hear people’s stories of how a song really impacted their lives is a joy and it’s a blessing. And do you have any messages for Firefall fans who are reading this right now? We hope to be back touring soon. We are hopeful that we’ll be out on the road by the middle of 2021. With a new album out, we’ll be adding a few of those songs to our set, because Firefall is evolving and growing. We love our old material but we’re really happy to have some new material out. And we thank our millions of fans all around the United States and the world for hanging in with us. I think it’s because of the strength of our songs – thank you to Rick Roberts and Larry Burnett – the original singers/songwriters of the band. I really think it boils down to success and to really how good your songs are. My words to Firefall fans are we’ll be back and to enjoy the new album, listen to the old songs – and hopefully we’ll be out here doing it soon.
www.facebook.com/FIREFALLofficial February/March 2021
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Bill Champlin formery of Chicago:
Rocking Solo For The Love Of It Interview by Ken Morton Legendary Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Bill Champlin has certainly kept himself busy through the pandemic year of 2020. Champlin Williams Friestedt II was released to critical acclaim as well as a Christmas single entitled The Best Day Of The Year. The big news is Bill Champlin has now released Livin’ For Love, his first solo album in many years, and the music found within is well worth the wait. His wife Tamara was among the many collaborators found on the project, and the first single Reason To Believe is dedicated to her. Highwire Daze recently interviewed the amazing Bill Champlin to discuss the making of Livin’ For Love, working once again with Joseph Willams of Toto and Peter Friestedt on their II endeavor, his time spent within the ranks of the iconic Chicago, and a whole lot more! Read on... Let’s talk about the new album. First of all, the new single is called Reason To Believe. Tell me about that song and what was the inspiration behind it. The song was sent to us. Bruce Gaitsch is an old friend of mine - a guitar player. We wrote a lot of songs together here when he lived in LA. After the big earthquake here in ‘94, he moved to Nashville, as did a lot of people. And then for a while, I was living down there, so we were writing and doing stuff together. And he and my wife started writing together. I had written with him over the years, but I hadn’t talked to him in a long time. He had a handful of medical issues that was making it very hard for him to play. I had the same thing but a little bit early – cancer and all. And Bruce sent me a track he had in his stash of what he calls kernels – tracks with no songs on them. And he sent me the track – and both Tamara and I listened to the track and I went “Oh My God!” and we immediately wrote it. And I was kind of thinking in terms of Tamara being there for me when I was going through what I was going through – and Janie – Bruce’s wife being there when he was going through what he was going through. And somehow it ended up being Reason To Believe. And that song is really about gratitude at some level lyrically. Musically it’s one of the 26
more powerful vocals I’ve done in a long time. And the track is just slamming. What’s really cool is a friend of mine whose been on almost every album I’ve done – I think every album I’ve ever done except for my very first two – George HawFebruary/March 2021
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kins Jr was playing bass on the song along with Vinnie Colaiuta who was playing drums on it. And then Bruce played keyboard and guitar and I put some Hammond Organ on it – and then Tamara and I did the vocals on it. It was so great to have a song with George on it and I just miss him. George passed away two years ago. And so there was really gratitude factor between Bruce’s family and mine. The whole album – there’s a few things there that are just straight ahead songs, but for a good portion of the album – I read somewhere “that if it isn’t personal, it isn’t art.” So that’s kind of what I dug in for. And that brings is the album title Livin’ for Love. Who came up with the album title and what does it mean to you? Well I’ve kind of got a tradition of finding a song and making that the album title. I was sitting around, fooling around playing guitar and probably watching TV at a low volume and started coming up with this thing. And I said, “Hey, I’m going to write a lyric to this. This is kind of a cool little move.” So I started playing it and I wrote a little lyric to it – I only had maybe a verse and a chorus. And Tamara came home and I played it for her and she said, “Whoa Bill! You’ve got to do a solo album. You’re ready Bill.” And I usually co-write with people and I wrote for other people to sing – and she said “It’s time for you to do one. It’s been about ten years since you’ve done one.” And that was kind of the first song that was written for this album – Livin’ For Love – and I thought “Hey, there’s a title right there! Let’s do that.” You had another release come out this year as well – the Champlin Williams Friestedt II album. How did Part 2 of the project come about? We had such a good time doing Part 1. Peter Friestedt was over here and say “Hey could you sing on a few of these things and we’ll put out another album?” And I said “Of course.” At that point of the game, Joseph Williams was a little – he’s quite a bit on the record actually but not as much as usual, because he was so busy singing with Toto. And the whole time that we were recording, Peter did a lot of the tracks in Sweden and I did one or two. And we kind of leaned on Tamara a lot to come up with stuff for that record. We’ve got a song called Price Of Love which is one of Tamara’s older songs – and I kind of arranged that and put that together. And actually we got Michael McDonald to come in and do a duet with me on a song called All The Love In The World. And Michael McDonald can sing the time, news and weather and make it work! He’s an old pal – he and his wife Amy came in and sang on the record and that was a lot fun. Peter Friestedt played guitar on the thing and he did most of the production. The first one was a really good album. (On the second one), there’s not as much Joe on there as there should be – it was hard to get Joe to come off the road. Like “Could you come off the road and sing one lead?” And he’s like “No! I’m in Podunk, Iowa somewhere!” The last four or five years, Toto has been really balls to the wall and just working all the time – and making their own records. But we filled (the II alHIGHWIRE DAZE
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bum) up and we made it work. It’s actually doing better than the first one! I’m a real big fan of the first one – the more stuff I could do with Joe, the better I like it. Not only is he a great singer, but he’s a really good arranger. You see, it’s in his DNA – his dad is (motion picture composer) John Williams – you know what I mean? Plus he’s got the greatest humor of anyone I’ve ever met. I like sessions where you’re laughin’! With this new solo record, what has it been like releasing and recording new music in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world right now? Well you know, I’ve seen social unrest before. And the news isn’t quite what it used to be – they’re going to give you their opinion before they give you the news. It used to be that Walter Cronkite would give you the news and that Eric Sevareid would give you the opinion. Now you’re going to just get the opinion – if you’re on the left you’re going to get that opinion and if you’re on the right, you’re going to get that opinion – it sort of the way things go. If I want to know what’s going on news wise in the United States, I usually try to tune into the BBC. There’s a very good chance of it being more truthful and less opinion. I just want to hear “Man bites dog” – not “Man bites dog because he’s a dumb Republican” or “Dog bites man because he’s a dumb Democrat.” I don’t want to hear that crap. I’m just tired of it! We’re supposed to be one world. We’re supposed to be one people. Aside from being as angry as people are, I think it’s just too loud! Everybody just settle down for a minute and take a little look at things. Look around and smell the coffee or smell the roses and enjoy it a little bit – without just everybody trying to point the finger at everybody else and finding people to blame for everything. It’s too much. As a friend of mine said, “Man, all I want to do 27
is smoke dope and play guitar!” And I’m kind of like “It got me through the 60’s – it may have to get me through 2020.” (Much laughter) And everybody is in lockdown – nobody is playing live gigs. I know so many people – especially here in Los Angeles – that have a Pro-Tools rig – or some kind of rig in their house. And they’re going “Hey I’ve got nothing to do. I can’t go anywhere. I can’t do anything. Might as well make an album.” So I think there’s going to be more albums in 2021 then there were babies 9 months after the New York Blackout. You know what I mean? A lot of really good musicians with really nice studios making really good music – and I’m one of them. And now here’s the Chicago portion of the interview. When you joined Chicago, did you ever think that in your wildest dreams that you would be with them for 28 years? No not at all. I figured if I got past five months then I would give it five years. I hate to say it, but the money kept me in it. It was regular steady work. Everyone of my solo albums had had problems – every time I would release a solo album, the president of the record company who signed me was gone and somebody else was there. It happened twice – and I went “I just don’t have the luck of the Irish.” I had just done the Runaway album and the word got out that I was joining Chicago – and Kenny Loggins called me and say “What the hell are you doing? These guys are over!” I said, “Man, have you heard their music lately with David Foster producing?” And he said, “Oooh, that might be another story.” So I kind of hung with it for a while. After Peter (Cetera) left, we did 18 and there were quite a few good songs on 18. Then we did 19 – Look Away kind of kept me in the ball game – that was a really big, big record for them – and I think it was Diane Warren’s first really big power ballad. And it put us back on the road again for a while. And it was just like the carrot on a stick – and I just kept chasing after it – until eventually I was just kind of unhappy most of the time. And they knew it. So it was kind of mutual – “Okay I’m done. I can’t do this anymore. Way too much road. Way too much road! You were with them starting with Chicago 16 and I believe Chicago 30 was your last album with the band. Would you ever want to rejoin Chicago in the future under any circumstances at all? I don’t see anything there. There’s not a lot of love loss between me and the four major guys. I’ve worked with Jason Scheff – I actually have a duet with Jason on my solo album. We worked together on some stuff – he and I and Tommy Thayer are doing some stuff together – Tommy plays with KISS and he can play! And he’s a wonderful guy! And Jason and I – whatever we had between us got made up and we had a ball! Whenever we work together we have a great time. We had a great time 28
whenever we worked together in Chicago. But it just got sour – I just soured on it. It’s probably my fault. I probably should have gone, “Well, I love this gig!” But they were “We just want to sound like how we used to.” Well that was a smaller band. And it just got so political and I just kind of went “Fuck it, I’m out of here.” And they said the same thing – “Good!” I mean I was out of there years before I was out of there. Somebody once said to me at one of our shows, “Hey, you were voted the man most likely to secede.” (Much laughter) I mean I had some really great times with Chicago and I’m thankful I had that time. I kind of wish I would have bailed out a little bit earlier – it probably would have been a little bit better for me. You know – 20/20 hindsight – we all got it!
www.billchamplin.net www.facebook.com/billchamplin twitter.com/billchamplin February/March 2021
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Jerry Salas: The “Magic Man” of Culture Rock Band “El Chicano”
Interview by Kim Crain I had the opportunity to catch up with the Legendary “Magic Man” Jerry Salas of Los Angeles based Culture Rock Band “El Chicano!” In the 1970’s, how difficult was it to break through in the music industry with the British Invasion and the Beatles fresh in the media? Viva Tirado the first hit for El Chicano was released in 1969 and I believe was the first song to be on pop, jazz & R&B charts at once so obviously the public was ready for us. What was it like being a young Latino in a band that was started in East Los Angeles California? Loved being a young Latino fronting El Chicano though I’m the only one who didn’t grow up in east L. A. I grew up in Atwater Village which is why I played so much on the Sunset Strip in the 60’s. How did you became the Front man of El Chicano? When I came home from Vietnam I had my own nightclub group that was managed by El Chicano management as well. When lead singer Fred Sanchez left, they asked me to join.
What can fans expect at your show? When we do package type shows our time is somewhat limited so we have to do the hits and we do them very close to the original with some improvisation, when it’s our own show we try to pull out some album favorites, especially tunes that were in movies, of which there are many.
first, we did some shows in Canada where I heard “Tell Her” on the radio, done acoustically. I liked it, bought it, and played it for the group. They didn’t like it. Then our producer came to rehearsal with the same tune and I asked him if they wanted to hear my arrangement. Relenting, they did, and the rest is history. As a Chicano musician, do you feel like you have inspired other musicians of the same culture? I’ve had many musicians tell us how much we inspired them to keep playing and writing music. When opening up for ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons came to our dressing room to sign a copy of Viva Tirado, as did many Chicano groups around the world.
One of your hit songs is “Tell Her She’s Lovely.” How did that come about? When making El Chicano’s third album, which was my
I know you have toured with dozens of music legends, but what was it like touring with Marvin Gaye? Marvin Gaye is one of my all time inspirations, so when
Which musicians were you influenced by as a child? Early on The Everly Brothers, The Ventures, Sam Cooke, and of course The Beatles, as well as many English invasion groups.
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we were booked to open at Devil’s Stadium AZ during the day for him I was so excited. Unfortunately we were also booked to play that same night at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino with Earth Wind & Fire, we had to leave right after our set and take a Lear Jet to get there and did not get a chance to see his show. You started singing and playing at a very young age. Your dad, your brother and uncle are all accomplished musicians. What was the most memorable influential moment you remember with them? My father, brother and uncle were a huge influence on me. One of the most memorable moments for me was all of us getting together for Christmas and passing the guitar around, taking turns singing in three and four part harmonies. You served in the U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam War, how was music therapeutic for you? Music may have saved my life. I had a beat-up acoustic guitar that I’d take from hooch to hooch so the troops called me the jukebox after a Christmas party where a Major heard m. He then sent a Master Sergeant to ask if I would like to join special services, entertaining the troops all over Vietnam, instead of driving a tank in the bush. Obviously I took his offer, so the last three or four months in Vietnam I was flown all over the country entertaining the troops. What is your advice for veterans going through the same things that you experienced? I started a 501C3 eleven years ago called “Rock for Vets,” specifically to help Vets who may have emotional or physical problems, so they may learn to sing, play an instrument, and give them a few hours in the week to just have fun and to forget their stuff. How many members are in El Chicano and what does the future hold for the band? Currently we have three of the original El Chicano members out of seven. We hope to continue our touring as we’ve done for the past fifty years. Our fans keep coming, so we’ll keep giving them what they want. Thank you Jerry for the interview, Wishing you well and hope to see you in upcoming concerts. Your music is iconic. Your classic “Chicano Rock” is timeless. I am grateful for your music and it was my pleasure to interview you!
For more information please check out: Jerrysalas.com HIGHWIRE DAZE
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Reach Kim Crain at kimcrain.com https//www.facebook.com/ kim.crain.9231 https//www.instagram. com/kimcrainmusic 31
HI GHWI REDAZ EMAGAZ I NE
PRE SE NT E DBY
J ACKL UEPHOT OGRAPHY
F ROM
Science and Guitars with
Kiki Wong fromVigil of War
Interview by Ken Morton - Photo by Jack Lue
Kiki Wong is shredding her way into the hearts of the world - not only with her guitar work in the mighty Vigil of War but with her best selling book 30-Day Travel Challenge: How to Make Your Travel Dreams a Reality. Kiki has worked with the likes of Taylor Swift and Usher - and also spent time in the She Demons - a band formed by Jerry Only of the legendary Misfits infamy. Highwire Daze recently interviewed Kiki Wong after a photo shoot with Jack Lue to discuss science, guitars, and the many aspects of an absolutely inspiring career in music. Read on... First of all, at what age did you discover music and what were your earliest music projects/band? I started playing music at the age of 6 when I had my first piano lesson. At first, I wasn’t super passionate about playing the piano, but it was integral to my development as a musician. I started learning the guitar at 13 years old when we bought my dad a guitar for his birthday. He taught me my first three chords and I learned on the internet (pre YouTube days) after that. I played in a bunch of little garage bands in high school, but my first major project was with the band Nylon Pink, an all Asian American female rock band. We toured all over the world in Asia, across the US, and even South America. You graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a bachelors in Biological Science/Pre-Medicine. What interested you the most about those subjects and do you still maintain an interest? I’m a huge advocate for science. I’ve always thought that science and music went hand in hand since it’s all about systematic thinking. At heart, I’m a huge nerd, and I don’t think I could ever let that part of myself go no matter what I’m venturing in. What was the experience like playing onstage with Taylor Swift at the VMA’s in 2014 and did you get to hang out with her at all? It was probably one of the most exciting shows I’ve ever played in my life. Taylor was one of the kindest and sweetest people to work with. Even at our rehearsals, her mom brought her baked chocolates covered bacon for the entire cast. We even participated in the Ice Bucket challenge for ALS and recorded a video with the whole cast. It was an absolute blast. We performed at The Forum, and I remember looking out into the crowd and thinking it was one of the coolest experiences seeing all the cell phone light from the filled stadium. I’ll never forget it. You also played with Usher that very same year. What was that experience like? 34
Performing with Usher was absolutely incredible. He is one of the hardest working individuals I’ve ever met. He never missed one rehearsal and was on his feet the entire time with so much energy and positivity. His voice and dancing ability were absolutely FLAWLESS. Since I was on the drums, I had my in ears in and I could hear how perfect his performance was and it was jaw-dropping good. How did you wind up in She Demons and what was it like working with Jerry Only of The Misfits? Back in 2014, I met Alicia on a crazy night out in Hollywood at The Whisky. We immediately bonded and ended up keeping in touch. Down the line, she hit me up about an awesome February/March 2021
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girl band project, and I said yes and found out it was the She Demons. It was one of the most exciting, incredible, and life-changing experiences being able to work with Jerry. The tours and the shows were all instrumental in who I am as a musician today, and I can’t thank them enough for allowing me to be a part of it. Would the She Demons or Hellfire Heart ever want to do any kind of reunion show or tour? That would be awesome! Tell me about your book 30-Day Travel Challenge: How to Make Your Travel Dreams a Reality and how did that come about? In 2016, music took a drastic halt for me. It was a pretty hard time, and I had a lot of adjusting to do. Kaila, my business parter and former singer of Nylon Pink, and I decided to change our band website into a travel blog. Within the first 6 months of launching it, we hit over 100K page views per month. We started traveling the world and sharing more of our experiences with our readers through our book “30-Day Travel Challenge” which focuses more on getting your mindset right for travel. What has it been like joining up with former She Demons member Alicia Vigil for Vigil of War and have you done any shows or touring with Vigil yet? Alicia is my girl! It’s been such a blast performing with Vigil of War. I first joined the band as a fill-in guitarist for their tour in the UK, but ended up staying in the end. Our last show together was the 25th Year Anniversary for Warped Tour, and it was at the Shoreline Ampitheater where I used to go to see my favorite bands perform when I was in High School. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for shows as soon as things get back to normal.
Say yes. Life is more exciting that way!
www.kikiwongo.com
www.vigilofwar.com
Tell me about the new Vigil of War song Vultures and what the lyrics and song mean to you. Vultures is all about cutting out those that hold you back and allowing yourself to rise above and be the best version of yourself. Life is full of toxicity, but we can all learn from it, grow from it, and rise above it. You are in the poster of this very issue. What was it like to shoot with legendary photographer Jack Lue? Jack is one of my favorite photographers in LA. He’s always so professional, so fun, and such a badass photographer that knows his lighting and angles. He’s just the best! What is your favorite guitar of choice and why? Oh man, I can’t pick to be honest. I do have 12 guitars though, and most of them are for individual tunings. Most girls buy bags or clothes, I just love guitars. Are you involved with any other current projects not mentioned in this interview? Just been doing collaborations with other artists on tiktok and IG right now! What do you hope 2021 brings for you and for the music world in general? Meeting more badass musicians, more touring, and more shredddddddd! Any final words of wisdom? HIGHWIRE DAZE
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Dare To Dream
with Stan Bush
Interview by Ken Morton
Dare to Dream is the fourteenth epic studio album from world-renowned, Emmy-winning songwriter/rock singer Stan Bush. Best known for his iconic song The Touch which was featured in the very first Transformers movie, Stan Bush has been releasing quality AOR music throughout a vast and brilliant career. Dare To Dream presents Stan Bush at the very height of his creative energies, featuring inspiring songs such as The 80’s, Born To Fight, and Home. Highwire Daze recently interviewed Stan Bush to discuss his brand new album, his Transformers legacy, doing a split single with the one and only Weird Al Yankovic and a whole lot more! Read on... What is the overall story or concept behind the album title Dare To Dream? Well it just kind of popped out. I was working on the music for the song and the melody – and all of a sudden this title just pops out – Dare To Dream – and it just seemed perfect for the music and everything else. It became a bigger song at the moment and it seemed like it was the perfect theme and title for the album. Tell me about Born To Fight and the promotion for the song it’s receiving on Netflix. That was the final song for the new album. It kind of came up all of a sudden. I was contacted by Netflix Anime and commissioned to write a song to promote their two most popular shows – BAKI and Kengan Ashura. So we wrote this song – I called my long time writing partner Lenny Macaluso – we co-wrote The Touch together – and Lenny and I cowrote the song pretty quick. And then we got it recorded and it came out great – it was the perfect final song and opening track for the album. Anyway the Netflix folks loved it and the music video was the next thing. We did that at the beginning of October and got it all done and ready to go. Tell me about the song The 80’s which I think may actually be the oldest song on the album, and what that crazy decade has meant to you? The 80’s actually is the oldest song on the album. It was written last summer over a year ago. It’s basically a summer song about 80’s music and a look back at not only the 80’s music era, but that feeling of carefree youth associating with people and fun and summertime. It really just seemed to strike a chord in terms of nostalgia and what not. So we did a music video. I knew that since this was the first song that was written that it would be a while before the album was finished, so we went ahead and released it as a single and did a music video of the song. 36
And let’s talk about The 80’s music video. Your son is in the music video. What was it like having him in the music video and is he a musician at all? Yeah, he actually does play guitar and sings. He’s obviously a lot younger than me and looks a lot better (laughs) . He did great! It was like for somebody who didn’t grow up in the 80’s – it’s like how do you explain that? It’s like “Now here – take the leather jacket and these boots and put them on.” So he was like instantly transformed into this rock star. It was really cool! And I even rented a VW Bus to sort of take us back in time visually. And he got a couple of buddies February/March 2021
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to appear as his “band.” It came out real cool – it was like cut back and forth between myself performing with my band and the younger guys in the VW – and of course the token hot girlfriend. So it turned out really cool! The song Home is such a wonderful and reflective way to end the album. Tell me the inspiration behind that particular song. That song really does, for me, have a lot of meaning. It’s about, in some respects, longing to go home and back to our roots and so forth. I grew up in Florida, and I think it’s important to remember good things about growing up and all that. I think part of us always wants to go back to the beginning and what not – and also that safety of being a child and not having the stresses of being an adult and all that. And I think the Home song is about that as well as there’s just an innocence that we have as children. I think we try to hang out to that, but it gets harder and harder as we get older. It’s about going back in time as well in a lot of ways. What has it been like to record and release new music in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world? It’s been a crazy year. My heart goes out to all the people who have suffered through all this craziness with all the issues and money and other problems people have had. For me, it was kind of a silver lining because myself and my producer were able to focus entirely on this record and the songs and production and what not. I’ve heard and read other people say that this year (2020) in terms of creativity was kind of a good opportunity for them as well, so I think there’s going to be a lot of good stuff coming out in the coming months. But for me, we were able to work solely on this record and I’m very happy how it came out. I saw your show at The Whisky with Robert Tepper. How did that show go and what were some of the highlights of doing that show with Robert? It was cool. I actually knew Robert from way back because we were on the same label Scotti Brothers back in the 80’s. He had just had a Top 20 single with Rocky 4 No Easy Way Out. Good guy – really good talent. We actually wrote songs together a little bit. Back in the 90’s we got together two or three times to write. Robert’s great. Anyway, the show at The Whisky was good – it was a really cool opportunity to play locally. It was funny – fans of my later stuff as well as my Transformers stuff were there as well – so it worked out well for both of us. Your song The Touch was actually as a split with a Weird Al Yankovic song called Dare To Be Stupid. How did that come about, ands did you ever get to meet Weird Al or do any publicity with him? Yeah I met Weird Al a couple of times and we keep in touch actually. I met him way back then as well – it was some sort of record event at Spagos – this elite sort of restaurant in West Hollywood. There was a dinner there with record people. So I met him at that thing. And we did a concert at Paramount when the first Michael Bay film came out – the Transformers live action movie – the first one. I see him at Transformers conventions from time to time. But yeah, he’s a nice guy. What do you think of the Love Don’t Lie cover by House Of Lords and how did that come about? My long time friend Chuck Wright who was in Quiet Riot HIGHWIRE DAZE
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and still is, he and I have a band together now and we’ve played locally for the last 8-10 years – Acoustic Saints – we do covers like Zeppelin just for fun. He’s a good friend. Way back, there were a couple of times, like when he was in Quiet Riot – they used one of my songs. Then later, he was in House Of Lords and they covered Love Don’t Lie. They did a great job. It’s funny , because the first opening line of the song, James Christian sounded a lot like me. I thought, “Wow? Is that me?” (Laughs) But no, he’s a great singer. I met James a couple times as well – we did recording sessions together once or twice back in the day. But yeah, it was a single for them as well. Of course, you’ll forever be known as part of the Transformers family. How does it feel to have this kind of legacy with the mighty Transformers? It’s pretty cool actually. I love all the people that I’ve met at these Transformers conventions and what not. They’re really good people. The song The Touch – when the record label let me know the song was going to be in an animated movie about robots, I was just like “What?” Little did I know! Because at the time, Ninja Turtles were a big thing. But later, the Transformers emerged to be this huge phenomena. What do you hope 2021 brings for you and your music? Well I hope to do some touring when the vaccinations that are now available or will be. Hopefully by summer things will loosen up and what not. I’d love to be able to start doing some shows. So that’s kind of the plan. And I’m just going to carry on writing and recording and doing promotional stuff. And do you have any messages for your fans who are reading this right now? First of all, I want to thank everybody for their support and also if the want to find out what’s happening – what’s going on – just go to stanbush.com – and thanks again for the support.
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Within The Realm of
The NorsemAn Company
Interview by Ken Morton
Venture within the realm of The Norseman Company, and be ready to encounter a band very loud and proud and ready to hard rock your world! The mastermind behind The Norseman Company is Geir Arne Dale, formerly of Humbucker. The amazing debut album is entitled The Coming Of The Chord, now available through Perris Records, featuring standout tracks such as Here Comes Rock And Roll, Master Of The Dark, and When The Hammer Falls. Amongst the special guests found within The Coming Of The Chord are Martin Steene from the mighty Iron Fire and exDio guitarist Rowan Robertson. Highwire Daze interviewed founding member Geir Arne Dale to find out more about the entity known as The Norseman Company and The Coming Of The Chord. Read on... Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in The Norseman Company and how long the band has been together. Thank you for having me here! Really appreciate it! My name is Geir Arne Dale and I`ve played drums for about 35 years. From 2010 to 2016 I was the drummer, manager, main songwriter for classic rock band Humbucker. I worked 24/7 to build that band and I also organized the release of two albums and a European tour. I left the band in 2016 because I could not take it any further. I don`t think the guys believed in what I was doing, so to make a third album, I had to start something new. I decided to do a “solo album”. I play drums on the album, I have also written all the songs, except for one bonus track called One Step Behind, which my producer, Hallgeir Rustan, wrote the music for and I did write the words. I also did the cover concept together with US artist, Eric Ridgeway and I`m also is the executive producer. I pretty much did “everything” in Humbucker as well, so the difference in the amount of work was really not that big when starting up this project. Music wise, I only play drums though, I can play guitar but only chords to put the songs together, so it was clear that I would need a company of musicians to make this album. Even though it`s a solo album project, I did not want my name on it, so I thought I should find a cool “project name”. I live in Norway, it`s a lot of people involved… The Norseman Company seamed to cover it all. Where is the band based out of and what was your local music scene like there pre-pandemic days? 38
I run the band from my home in Akkerhaugen, Norway. It`s in the south of Norway, not too far from Oslo, the capital of Norway. There is a great local music community where I live, with many bands. One of them is KAASIN, who has released two songs from their upcoming album with a track called Runaway Train, reaching 100000 streams on Spotify alone, so it`s pretty good around here. It`s a really a big farming area here where apples and corn is grown, but that`s not my cup of tea, so I am happy to say that with The Norseman Company and KAASIN, this area is now also exporting hard rock to the world! Famed Notodden Blues Festival is just around the corner too, and it`s a great place to perform. I hope we can get the local scene back together after the pandemic and that it will not have destroyed too much. Everyone has kept themselves going one way or another though, so I`m optimistic! How did you wind up signing with Perris Records? When building up Humbucker I was also running our own record label. I needed a distributor for the world and found Perris online some place. The music business can be a shitty place sometimes, so I emailed Beau Hill and asked about February/March 2021
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Tom Mathers. What kind of guy is he? Beau`s answer was that it would be no problem, “Tom is one of the good guys!” I trust Beau a lot and went for Perris to distribute the album and he did a great job! He got the album out world wide and I was stocking all the CD`s at home and sent him CD`s when he needed them. Humbucker would never have worked so well outside of Norway if it wasn`t for Tom! No doubt about it! He did a great job for me and it was actually he who suggested to give me a record deal this time for The Norseman Company and release the album The Coming Of The Chord through Perris Records. That really made my work much easier of course so I really appreciate that. The album named The Coming Of The Chord will be out on February 5th and I could not be more proud and happy about both the album and the whole situation. Is there any overall story or concept behind the CD title The Coming Of The Chord? Not really. I am a huge Y&T fan. The song Rock And Roll`s Gonna Save The World from the In Rock We Trust album, has this line that says “My eyes have seen the glory. Of the coming of the chord!”…I always liked the phrase “The Coming Of The Chord” and thought it would be cool for an album title and now it finally seemed to fit! Select two songs from The Coming Of The Chord and what inspired the lyrics. One song I am really proud of is Master Of The Dark. I saw an interview with one of those ISIS-idiots on TV and he said we were children of witches, lives in the dark and all sort of shit. “What a moron!” I thought… But all of a sudden this song turned up as an “answer” to that guy. Famed Norwegian rock star, Aage Sten Nilsen (Wig Wam / Ammunition) heard it in the studio and wanted to sing on it and it turned out really nice. A really heavy, cool, Dio-ish rocker. Another track is Don`t Wanna Lose You, which I wrote to my girlfriend, Annie. We were together for a short time in 1992 and found each other again in 2015. Most people write ballads to their girls, but I thought it would be cooler to write a rock song instead. A very poppy one, I have to say though! Lol. Another fun thing with that song is the fact that Danish singer, Martin Steene, is singing it. I worked with Martin the last year I drifted Humbucker and he`s a very cool guy and a great singer. He is the lead singer in Danish metal band IRON FIRE and I think that it`s a cool thing that the most metal singer on the album is singing the most poppy ones on the album. He`s also singing Dirty Nelly on the album, which is a re-recording of a song I wrote and recorded with Humbucker. I wanted it to be more bluesy, more groovy and we kept the drums and re-recorded everything else, with acclaimed Norwegian blues-rocker, Peer Gynt, doing all guitars and the solo. The song also includes some Jon Lord “Wine, Women An`Song”-piano style, played by a friend in my neighborhood, Olav Ajer. I am really happy with this one as well. What has it been like to record and release new music in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world? Well, it has worked out great actually. I live in the south of Norway, while my producer, Hallgeir Rustan, has his Stargate Studios in the middle of the country, so we don`t see each other every day or every week, but you know… with the internet it has really not been a problem. We have just sent files to each other and done it that way. He arranged the HIGHWIRE DAZE
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songs and recorded most of it before the pandemic anyway. Ex Dio guitarist, Rowan Robertson, recorded the guitar solo for Gimme Some Rock And Roll in Las Vegas, US and we sent him the files with the music on it, he recorded his stuff and sent it back. It is a time difference between here and there, so it took a couple of days, instead of recording it in a studio together and figure things out right there. It has taken some time to make this album… LOL What could one expect from a live The Norseman Company show? Lots of energy, pyro effects and lots of fun! In fact, I`m working on a show as we speak, but we will have to see if it happens. I just hope they get this pandemic under control as soon as possible!! If The Norseman Company could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why? That`s an easy one for me: Kiss, Y&T, Helix, Whitesnake. My favorite bands right there. When you look back on your time spent with your previous band Humbucker, what do you think of it now in retrospect? It was a lot of fun, but for me it was also a shit load of work, being the drummer, main songwriter, manager and organizing everything building the band. I worked 24/7 for six years but we had a lot of fun and toured a lot. Seeing new places and meeting new people is always great and I made a lot of contacts in the music business because of my work with Humbucker, which I am using now, so it has turned out pretty good after all… What was it like touring with Helix while in Humbucker and what were some of the highlights? That was great! It was an old childhood dream that came true when we did that tour. My responsibility was to provide the backline and the transportation. I though what the heck, let`s go, and I ordered this big Night-liner bus from a German company. That was not too smart as some of the places 39
did not have electric plug-in possibilities for the bus, so in retrospect I should probably have ordered some vans instead. The tour was poorly organized by the promoter and he did not send someone to follow us around, helping us, so I ended up being some kind of roadmanager for the whole tour. The promoter for the tour did not pay me a dime for that work, but it made me a lifelong friendship with the Helix guys and that`s worth more anyway. Especially with Brian Vollmer, that I worked close with every single day, from early morning to late at night. Brian has since become one of my best friends in the business and I totally love the guy. He and his wife, Lynda, has a summer home in North Fort Myers in Florida, US and I have spent two weeks every February there for three years now. I totally love it there! Because of the damn pandemic I will not be able to go this year, but I`m hoping for a Fort Myers comeback next year! We`ll see… How did Martin Steene from Iron Fire’s connection with Humbucker come about? When the singer in Humbucker left in 2015, I got in touch with Martin through friends. He lived in Norway at the time, just 50 minutes from where I live. We became good friends and he was in Humbucker for about a year or so. Some of the other guys in Humbucker did not show up for practice in time or write new songs, and I was very tired at the time, so I jumped the ship. Martin moved back to Denmark and is very active there with Iron Fire as well as different other projects.
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I always kept in touch with him and he will come over and sing his songs if we get that gig going this year. It will be an all-inn thing with tons of pyro and a great show, so hope that`ll happen! What do you hope 2021 brings for The Norseman Company? I hope people will buy the physical album! Digital platforms are killing bands that don`t get millions of streams and I have songs for two more albums laying here actually, and I would like this one to break even. In that case I`ll start work on the next one right away. A nice physical sale would really help in achieving that, so that`s my biggest hope. And I hope we can do at least a one night only live show this year. We will have to see… Any final words of wisdom? I want to thank you for having me in your magazine! I truly appreciate that! And I would also thank everyone for supporting this project! Thanks to everyone who have liked the page on Facebook! There is room for more though… LOL My final words of wisdom would be something that I heard Paul Stanley say and that has stuck with me ever since: “THE ONLY ONE WHO FAIL, IS THE ONE THAT SAYS IT CAN`T BE DONE!” Cheers from Norway everyone!
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Persuader: Back From The Dead
Interview by Ken Morton The mighty Persuader is back from the dead after several years of silence, and has unelashed Necromancy upon the world at large via Frontiers Music Srl. In addition to their over 20 years of power metal madness, the band has connections with legendary acts such as Nocturnal Rites, Savage Circus and Naglfar. Highwire Daze recently caught up with guitarist Emil Norberg to find out more about the rising of Persuader, the story behind their new album Necromancy, a new band he’s invovled with called Kingdom North, and more. Read on... Is there any overall story or concept behind the title of 42
your new album Necromancy? Not really. We thought about it for quite a while, and I think that we all agreed it’s time to reconnect. It’s been a long time since the last album and we’re back from the dead – again! Now you are signed to Frontiers Music. How did that signing come about? I don’t think any of the other labels that you were signed to are around anymore. Probably not. As you say, we released our last album Fiction Maze on Ulterium Records – and we were quite far into the pre-production for this one when – he was a one-man kind of label – not really a big label – and he told us he wanted to downsize for personal reasons. And that February/March 2021
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kind of led us to looking for a new label to get new music out. I think we had two or three interested labels that felt a bit okay for us. We compared the different deals and finally we landed with Frontiers. I think it can be a pretty good label for us – they’ve really started to expand their musical horizons and not only release 80’s style music. They have a lot of new harder bands nowadays. The first single from the new album is called The Curse Unbound. Tell me about the song and the inspiration behind that one. Actually, it was written a while ago while we contemplated some sort of Savage Circus revival, but it never came about. So, I had this piece of music laying around and I thought it was really good, so I kind of reworked it. Jens was supposed to sing it anyways, so it’s kind of was a no-brainer. The lyrics are actually from a chick underground movie.. How did Fredrik Mannberg of Nocturnal Rites become involved with Persuader? Did your brother have anything to do with it? (Editor’s Note: Fredrik recorded on the new album Necromancy but has since left Persuader. Former Nocturnal Rites’ guitarist Nils Norberg is Emil’s brother). Not really. We all live in the same quiet small town – it’s like 100,000 people here. As you say, my brother was involved with Nocturnal Rites back in the day, so we all kind of know each other. So, when we needed someone to step in, it felt pretty clear that Frederik was first choice. Did you and your brother ever do any projects together or did you have any fun rivalries when it came to music? Nothing that’s ever been released anyway. We have some drunken jams off and on, at least during the younger days. We tried to write some serious songs a couple of times, but it kind of always went down the drain for some reason. But it would certainly be fun. Let’s see if we can manage to get something together in the future. I think you are playing bass and guitar on this new album. Have you hired a new bass player yet and what happened to your longtime bass player Fredrik Hedström? Yeah, we have at least a stand in for the moment, (Alex Friberg from Naglfar), it’s pretty new. As you know, our friend and drummer Efraim Juntunen also plays drums in Naglfar. It’s kind of black metal band from our hometown as well. Alex has kind of agreed to help us out at that point. So, what happened with Frederik? None of us really knows. He kind of sent us a text message that he was quitting the band and we could keep his gear. It was abrupt. It was certainly weird. What has it been like to record and release new music in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world? You’ve picked an interesting year and time to make a comeback… Yeah, I agree! It wasn’t planned – I could say that first thing. I mean we had the album more less done in 2018 already, but as the old label decided to downsize, it took HIGHWIRE DAZE
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a lot of time to find a new label – and once we had everything set with Frontiers, that’s when the whole Corona shit happened. The label postponed a lot of releases for it, and it kind of dragged out a bit more than it was supposed to. So, we’re not entirely to blame for the long time. (Laughs) When you look back on your work with Savage Circus, what do you think of it now in retrospect? I mean it’s two solid albums music wise. It was a bit turbulent with members, and with members being involved with a record company and the rest of the guys at the record company had their kind of issues with each other and that kind of thing. It was a really good idea in the beginning, and it was really sad that it didn’t reach its full potential I’d say. Do you still keep in touch with Thomen Stauch and what do you think of his new band Mentalist? I hear from him from time to time – it’s not weekly or monthly but occasionally with some years in between. We speak sometimes and it’s real nice to hear that he’s found a band that he’s settled in with. It was kind of weird – the Serious Black stuff that he was involved in – that kind of fell through as well, but he seems to be in a better place now. And Mentalist is not really my cup of tea, but it’s not really bad either. I do have to check it out a bit more, because I’ve only heard two or three songs. If Thomen started talking about a Savage Circus revival, would you be interested? It depends. We’ve tried it before. It didn’t really work out. I think Piet Sielck is not going to do it, and I think it would be hard for me to write that kind of album by myself. He was really the primary songwriter for the stuff – I contributed some songs and riffs, but he really was the assembler of riffs and things. 43
Back to Persuader. Your first album The Hunter is now 20 years old. What do you think of that album in retrospect? I don’t think you were on that album, were you? No, it was Pekka Kiviaho who played guitars back then. He only played on that album and I replaced him for Evolution Purgatory. The Hunter is a cool album. The guys were pretty young when they wrote and recorded it. Jens was a good singer even back then and still is. It’s a bit aggressive and unpolished, but it’s real cool as well. What do you think has kept the music of Persuader so alive for you for 20 years and counting? You joined up with the band in 2001. Yeah, time definitely flies. Maybe because we only release albums every five or six years. I like writing songs with the other guys. Efraim has his own distinct style and it fits pretty good with the stuff I do as well. And we have the same kind of thinking when it comes to what we want to write, which is a big plus – instead of having to argue every day. We share the vision, I guess. We have a real good time the few times we head out to play live on the road as well. It’s really nice!
Are you currently involved with any other bands outside of Persuader? Yeah, me and Fredrik Mannberg started a thing together called Kingdom North with two guys from Brazil and the bassist from Symphony X. We actually released a single – I think it was last Friday. Let’s see what happens with it. It’s kind of been hard for a new band to gather label interest, but we’re trying to secure a deal at least and get the album out. We’re done with the songwriting and all the pre-production stuff, so we’re just getting prepared to really record the stuff properly. And what do you hope 2021 brings for Persuader? The album (came out) in December. I really hope this Corona shit calms down and we can hopefully start going to a lot of shows – and hopefully playing some shows as well. And we’ll keep writing for the next album – we have a few songs written already. Hopefully we won’t have to wait 5-6 years again, but I’ve said that before – after every album, I think. I really hope we can get the shit together maybe in 2022-23 – it seems like a realistic thing…
https://www.facebook.com/Persuader-50270729045
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Diane & The Deductibles Rocking Out and Living Without Regret
Interview by Ken Morton Photos by Jack Lue and Erica Vincent There is indeed a world of difference between the numbers TWO and THREE, especially if you are referring to the audio journey of Diane & The Deductibles. T W O was released in better days, when live music was rampant, before the signs of a world filled with news of Covid-19 and social/ political unrest. T H R E E - 6 Feet Apart - finds Diane & The Deductibles and their listeners in a whole different world where creativity and hope remain alive even in the shadow of a deadly pandemic. Conceived during the tumultuous year of 2020, Diane & The Deductibles made the best of downtime from playing live, and present to their friends and fans T H R E E - 6 Feet Apart - the next chapter in their rocking legacy from these talented and diverse musicians - including current and former members of collectives such as Air Supply, Geoff Tate’s Queensryche, and Hurricane. Highwire Daze recently interviewed founding member and band leader Diane Adams to discuss the making of T H R E E - 6 Feet Apart as well as rocking out while living life without regret. Read on... What was it like completing T H R E E in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world? Very Strange!! HIGHWIRE DAZE
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I think at the beginning of the pandemic, we were all stunned…so we stayed low just living a minimal existence and all the band members/crew retreated to their homes or in the case of Robert, his boat. My day job is essential so at least I never felt lost and could still earn a living. I walked daily to the Beach with Cliff (my husband & bassist) so I could feel some freedom and feel the strength of the ocean. … and then around June …I realized Diane & The Deductibles had left so much of our music in limbo, no shows, no weekly rehearsals writing new music. T H R E E was not completed on schedule in 2020 so I decided to finished 2 uncompleted songs we had not recorded yet so we would have enough for an album release. We recorded in Keith Lynch’s studio basic tracks. Keith, Ronnie, Cliff and I braved the recording …Keith sanitized the microphone, and surfaces as it was my first time out and I was hesitant. Then the tracks were sent to our producer Andy Zuckerman to send to Robert. Then Robert would send them back after he added his guitar work and Andy would send them back to us so we could add vocals, Keith’s lead guitar or my rhythm guitar. Wow that sounds complicated…but this is what happened. Robert Sarzo actually never went into the studio for the album completion. Tell me where he recorded his final parts and how they were delivered as well as how easy or difficult that was. Robert set himself up on his boat, amps, recording gear…and recorded floating on the bay. 47
Tell me about the opening song on T H R E E called Let’s Live and how living in today’s pandemic age inspired it. It’s the last song we wrote for the album…we had no lyrics or melody just a chorus we wrote in one of our last rehearsals in early Feb-March…I thought we were only locking down for 2 weeks…Who Knew!!@!@! So the Lyrics talk about masks, our faces attached to our phones…and that HOPE Will turn the page…just stay safe…stay strong.. “Let’s live while we’re alive, Too late to compromise, Never apologize, The world is in our Hands” - My belief is you should never apologize for the life you have lived… It’s my Covid-19 song… Say What You Mean could be all over the radio! Tell me what the inspiration was behind that song. “Win or Lose that’s the only game we play” …another way to say that is “I never lose, either I win or I learn…living at 110%”..Many people have thoughts but never “Say What they mean or Mean what they say”…. who knows why but I believe that truthful messages or reminders of living an honest life should prevail in poetry, stories and lyrics… When I write I always write a positive or meaningful lyric… Darkness is about the tragic life and death of purse designer Kate Spade. What made you write that song, and did you ever meet Kate? We had come up with a very funky rock groove and at the time in my hunt for lyric…Kate Spade had just killed herself…Her 13 year old daughter found her hanging on a door knob strangled with a RED silk scarf…Depression was more powerful than her responsibility to her daughter, I was taken back…I had met Kate Spade years before in California and she was so kind, creative and to see her end up in such tragedy ..The mood of the song…felt like a heartbeat near death.. “Darkness surrounds the Room…” What inspired the lyrics for the very poignant I’ll Never Say Goodbye? A few of my friends were taken early…Old means you go… Young means you have life to live and when it is suddenly taken away…your friends are in shock…The point of the song is when the maker takes you away, it was nothing you did just your time had come…tells it all. Most importantly, I will never say Goodbye, I won’t cry…You will remain in my heart even though you fade away… *You always know how much money you have, but your never know how much time you have* Winner is quite a rocker and a powerhouse way to end the album. Tell me about the inspiration behind that song. Well this song was started on tempo, we wanted a really fast, short song…The chorus was fast and I am not sure how I came up with the chorus melody…It all just happened…then I spent more time on the verse…it’s lots of fun to play live!!!
ing your own music? It’s not easy, it’s expensive, but I still want to do it…I just want to document our music… I believe you must always invest in yourself… What do you hope 2021 brings for Diane & The Deductibles? Well that question is still up in the air, not sure I have control of the hope translating into reality…We all want to play and create but to be safe as we used to be is out of our hands… LIFE has changed…Ask me next year!! Any final words of wisdom? Keep on living without regret!!!
Diane & The Deductibles are: Diane Adams - lead vocals, rhythm guitar (studio singer) Cliff Rehrig - bass, background vocals (formerly of Air Supply) Robert Sarzo - lead guitar (formerly of Geoff Tate’s Queensryche and founder of Hurricane) Keith Lynch - guitar, background vocals (Music Director for Bill Ward, founder of Black Sabbath) Ronnie Ciago - drummer (formerly of Riverdogs and Brand X)
Info: www.dianeandthedeductibles.com
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Constance Antoinette Releases Debut Single Ghost Girl
Interview by Ken Morton - Photo by Jack Lue Constance Antoinette first showed an interest in music and performing arts at the age of 3 and hasn’t stopped since. Chasing her dream, she acquired a degree in music from Musicians Institute of Hollywood. While guitar is her “soul instrument,” she is also trained in 5 other instruments as well as voice. Not only does she play music, but she acts, dances (ballet-on pointe, tap, jazz, hip hop, and heels), models and is a black belt in kung fu. Constance started gigging/touring at the age of 13 and has played in many bands over the years. In addition to appearing on the popular TV series GLEE, Constance toured with the She Demons as direct support for the legendary Misfits. With these pandemic days placing a temporary halt on touring, Constance has been writing her own solo material, and her debut single Ghost Girl was released on January 29th. Highwire Daze interviewed Constance Antoinette after a Jack Lue photo shoot to discuss her brand new song, working with Jerry Only and the Misfits, appearing on the Vans Warped Tour, and other topics of intrigue. Read on... At what age did you decide you wanted to do performing arts and what were some of your earliest performances? I started music, dance, and arts at the age of 3. I chose to play violin at 4 and sadly quit a few years later, but then took up many other instruments. My first band gig was at 13. I was in a classic rock cover band, playing guitar and singing. Where are you based out of and what is/was the music scene like prior to the pandemic? I am based in Los Angeles. The music scene here was amazing. However, since the pandemic, it’s been really tough on all of us musicians. Not being able to get on stage and perform what we love with the public is tough. I know I miss jamming on stage more than anything. You just released your first single Ghost Girl. Tell me a little about the song and what inspired the lyrics. Ghost Girl is a very personal song I wrote about the harsh reality and inevitability of losing your innocence, whether it may be from years of being hardened, personal experiences, or abuse. This causes a “ghost girl” of the child I once was. 50
As a woman, I have faced many negatives down the road of life and this song asks if I would be better off remembering and embracing my past self. How close are you to recording and EP or even an album? As of now, I have quite a few songs written. I would love to release an EP some where down the road, but expect more singles until then. February/March 2021
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What has it been like to record new music and be creative in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world? Writing music helps distract myself from the harsh reality of the strange uneasy world we live in right now. I’m just so thankful to be lucky enough to be healthy and creating what I love. What was your experience like attending the Musicians Institute in Hollywood and what were some of the highlights? Well, I was the only female in my graduating class with a Guitar Performance major. Being the only woman was hard at times. Some days I felt so isolated because I was excluded from the boys club. However, that never stopped me. I worked extra hard. It was a lot of sleepless nights and studying. I would play guitar a minimum of 12 hours a day every day. All of my highlights of MI are definitely from my professors. Each and every one of them helped shape me into the musician I am today. What was it like working on the TV show GLEE? It was quite fun. I got to play guitar beside Adam Lambert and the rest of the cast. However, I’m not much of a morning person. So a 6am call time isn’t my favorite. I also do commercial and other TV work and mornings never get much easier. You know how us musicians are. LOL How did you wind up in She Demons and what was it like working with Jerry Only of the Misfits? Alicia Vigil D’Med me one day informing me about the project and that they were auditioning lead guitarists. Obviously I was stoked because touring with the Misfits was a great opportunity. I met up with Alicia and Kiki one afternoon and we jammed out the songs. We all became sisters shortly after and the rest was history. Touring with Jerry Only and the Misfits was a huge honor, and a crazy adventure. Jerry Only is a very eccentric and fun person, so we never knew who we’d meet or what experiences would unfold each day. Any chance of a She Demons reunion and do you still keep in touch with the other members? We definitely all still talk and keep in contact. Our bonds we created during the project can never be broken. I love my demon sisters. We may or may not have been taking about a She Demons reunion. LOL But let’s just say, keep an eye out for us! What was the experience like playing the Vans Warped Tour? Playing Vans Warped Tour was a literal check off of my bucket list. It was so surreal playing on the bill with bands like 311, Blink 182, All American Rejects, The Offspring, and so many other big bands I love. These are all bands that I grew up listening to and covering in highschool. Now I was backstage in catering drinking beer with them. On a side note, the Atlantic City tour date, actually had a huge storm and we had to evacuate directly after our set! Everyone’s merch tents were flying up in the air and blowing away. Thankfully, the storm blew over eventually and the festival continued later that evening. HIGHWIRE DAZE
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You recently did a photo shoot with legendary photographer Jack Lue, a picture of which is included here in this magazine. How did the photo shoot go and what was it like working with Jack? I absolutely love working with Jack Lue! The photos he takes of me are always so amazing. I’m always blown away when I see them after the shoot. Jack just has such a great eye when it comes to photography. Our studio shoots are stellar, but his live performance shots are fire as well. He just always knows when to take the shot at the perfect time. Not to mention, he is a total sweetheart. What is your guitar of choice and why? Ohhhh! Well as shown in my instagram name, missgibsongirl, I love Gibsons (especially Les Pauls and Explorers). I always looked up to Slash as a young girl and wanted a Les Paul just like him and my guitar teacher Mike (who always played one as well). When I was in high school I worked as the secretary at a local music school for a few years and saved up to buy my very own Gibson Les Paul. His name is Leslie and is still my favorite guitar to this day. I have an artist relationship with Gibson Guitars and I absolutely love the company. No other guitar has the sound and feel like a Gibson. Any other new projects on the horizon we haven’t mentioned? I also play guitar in two bands aside from my solo project, Shiragirl and Xtine & the Reckless Hearts. Any final words of wisdom? Stay safe, take your vitamins, wear a mask, and head bang to some badass music.
www.instagram.com/missgibsongirl/ 51
Meet Nikki Wozzo And The Bad Whiskey
Interview by Ken Morton Meet Nikki Wozzo and The Bad Whiskey, a local LA based band via Canada ready to leave a lasting impression on all who give a good listen. With two standout singles now available and an album on the way, Nikki Wozzo and The Bad Whiskey is sure to intoxicate the masses with their rockin’ reveries. Highwire Daze recently interviewed Nikki Wozzo to find out more about The Bad Whiskey, activities during these pandemic days, his other band Serpents Kiss, and a whole lot more... Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Nikki Wozzo And The Bad Whiskey and how long the band has been together. Hello. I’m Co-founder, lead singer, and guitarist of The Bad Whiskey, my name is Nikki Wozzo. I originally formed this act when I moved from Alberta to British Columbia in 2014 when I was continuing my post-secondary schooling as a musician. That act was originally called The Great Wozzo and the Lost Circus. It used to be an Alice Cooper tribute act that slowly evolved into a blues/country rock group. What was the music scene like in Canada and what kind of bands or projects where you involved in there? Where I came from in Alberta Canada, the music scene was mainly country music. However, the closest city, which was Calgary, had a very interesting underground metal scene which was more my style at the time when I was there. I used to hang with a few bands in and around that metal scene, but soon learned that if I was to make this a fulltime career I’d have to relocate if I was to have any form of success in the music industry. What made you decide to relocate to Los Angeles and what do you think of our Los Angeles local music scene pre-pandemic days? Before I moved to LA, I had relocated to the United Kingdom. I stayed in London for a short while, then moved up to the North end of England to a small city called Stockton. I’d say it was about 40 to 45 minutes away from Newcastle. I had joined a NWOBHM band called Serpents Kiss that kicked off my career in music. This band is where I released my first chunk of music as a vocalist in the Heavy Metal genre. I love working with that band, the co-founder Will Philpot I owe so much to, as he gave me my first opportunity to show off my 52
skills. Now we’re working on our second album in Serpents Kiss and I couldn’t be more excited. After my Visa expired, I had to move back to Canada where I soon got the itch to get back out on the road playing music. So, I applied to Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California to get my foot in the door of the American music scene and that’s what got me in LA. I love the scene in LA, although I could live without the “Pay To Play” part of it but, I understand it and respect the venue owners who do. It’s the music business, and it’s how it is. The rock scene is kickass there, of course, and the Americana scene is full of killer talent. LA is a killer town, and I would not change it for anything. Select any two songs by Nikki Wozzo And The Bad Whiskey and what inspired the lyrics. The first song I’ve selected is Bad Whiskey which was the first ever single released under The Bad Whiskey band name. The lyrics are inspired by a friend that unfortunately burned February/March 2021
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his home down after a night of drinking whiskey. Thankfully no one was hurt, and it sure became a funny story. The next song I selected is the most recent single release from The Bad Whiskey called Lovers Song. This song’s creation was inspired by a love story that involved me and my girlfriend. See, we originally planned to be married while I was away in LA and touring, but money and the music made it very hard for me to return to Canada for a wedding. So, the song was a short story about that part of my life. What could one expect from a live Nikki Wozzo And The Bad Whiskey show? I’d say expect a group of musicians that are locked, cocked, and ready to rock! We’re a very tight band that are ready to entertain not just musically but theatrically as well. Our stage influences like Garth Brooks, ZZ Top, and Pink Floyd have driven us to be loud, rowdy, and entertaining. What was the experience like opening for Jack Russell’s Great White and did you get to meet or hang out with them at all? It was fun. I enjoy every moment on stage. Jack Russell is a great performer and vocalist. I respect him greatly. I’ve had the opportunity to meet the band on multiple occasions and they have always been respectful. That night though I did not hang with them as after the gig I went straight to The Rainbow on Sunset Blvd as I had a date with friends, Jack Daniels and killer pasta. Metal Babe Mayhem sponsored an all-day Lock Down Rock Down Online Festival. How did you become involved in the show and what was your contribution to it? Yes, I remember doing that. It was a nice thing to do during the lock downs, I did a short acoustic set by myself performing a couple country covers, and a couple Bad Whiskey tunes. I was asked by Alison Masson my friend and C.E.O. of Metal Babe Mayhem to be a part of the online festival, and of course I was onboard.
“Hate is not a joke; hate is a killer.” I hear these words and think, shake hands. We may not always agree, but we’re in this together. So let’s work together for a better tomorrow.
nikkiwozzoandthebadwhiskey.com
How has the pandemic affected your band, and have you written any new material for an album or EP during this down time? At this time, I’ve been locked down in Alberta Canada unable to return to the USA, so it’s been slow, but hasn’t it been for everybody? I can’t complain. It’s given me plenty of time to work on new music, record, and plan out my next steps for once our music world gets spinning again. Currently I have almost completed a full album’s worth of music in the studio and plan on releasing it in the near future. Are you involved with any other bands or projects outside of Nikki Wozzo And The Bad Whiskey? Well, Serpents Kiss of course, and a few other bands here and there. I play bass on and off for the local rock group to LA called Ring of Leaders, as well a few cover/tribute bands around North America, most recently a group called Broken Hero’s. What do you hope 2021 brings for Nikki Wozzo And The Bad Whiskey? Any final words of wisdom? A new clear and united future. Not just in music, but in the people around North America. We have been so divided lately, and I hope for unity and less hatred. I’ll leave you with a quote I heard from Eva Olsson who is a holocaust survivor:. HIGHWIRE DAZE
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The Hate Club Unleashes My Name Is Legion
Interview by Ken Morton Heavy Metal / Industrial artist The Hate Club premiered the animated video for My Name Is Legion - a stunning collaboration between The Hate Club mastermind Alex Poe and animator Evan Streb. The Hate Club is an Industrial Metal act spawned in 2017 from Poe’s desire to satisfy a diverse vision. The Hate Club is a mix of social satire and aggression. Visionary and epic in scope, fans of the almighty Rammstein and the controversial Marilyn Manson should really check into the artistry of Alex Poe and maintain a membership within the ranks of The Hate Club. Highwire Daze recentlly secured their own passage into The Hate Club and present this interview with it’s creator Alex Poe. Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in The Hate Club, and how long the band has been together. I’m Alex Poe, I’m The Hate Club and I’m the band. lol The project has been active for 4 years, it started on Jan-9-2017 54
with a solo show at The Wayfarer in Orange County, LA. Currently, I’m doing pretty much everything; music, writing, artwork, recording, mixing & mastering. It’s too much. I understand you live in Los Angeles now via the Ukraine. How is the music scene like in both places – pre-pandemic of course. Yeah, I moved to the US to pursue a music career around 10 years ago. It’s almost impossible to compare the music scenes in the US vs Ukraine. For a lot of European countries the reality is that we don’t really innovate but rather consume what’s being produced either in the US or the UK. While we certainly have cool acts & bands, the industry there isn’t as advanced, very few real opportunities to be independent. Hell, even getting decent gear is virtually impossible, because it pretty much doubles in price by the time it reaches there. I think, in recent years there has been quite substantial growth, though. February/March 2021
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What inspired the lyrics for the new single My Name Is Legion. What inspired lyrics?..hmmm...I was listening to a lot of Rammstein at the time, including their self-titled track from Herzeleid “Rammstein”. And I thought to myself, “I can do that, I can sing a song about myself” haha. The lyrics are about THC’s own world, with a few biblical quotes like “my name is legion, for we are many.” I wanted something that fans can be a part of., My fans are The Hate Club and we are all one. Unity in an unconventional up way. The video for My Name Is Legion is amazing! Tell me about the new video and how it all came together. The making of the video was a very smooth, although lengthy process. The entire thing was animated by Evan Streb (@ evanimations on Twitter) and he’s an absolute beast. I’ve found him online and I knew he was the guy to make it, he’s an absolute loner maniac like myself, that’s what I love about him. At the time, I was talking to a lot of my fans and the ideas of The Legion (THC’s fanbase) started to appear, and as I was chatting with a couple of my supporters on IG I kind of took some ideas from everyone and then put together a script with visual references. Then Evan came in and completely crushed the entire video. There may have been no more than 2 edits to the entire video along the process. Everything he was sending through was God-Tier great. There have been very few projects in my life that went as smooth as this. It’s insane.
What could one expect for a The Hate Club live show? WINDMILLS & HEADBANGING. A LOT OF IT. IN SYNC. ENERGYYYYYYY. (starts headbanging) What do you hope 2021 brings for The Hate Club? Debut album and internalizing what THC’s true nature is. I’m still experimenting a lot. Perhaps, that is it? I don’t know. Any final words of wisdom? My name is legion, for we are many.
www.facebook.com/thehateclub www.youtube.com/thehateclub
Is there any overall story or concept behind your EP title Death Of A Protagonist? Death of the Protagonist ties into my obsession with Clockwork Orange. At first it was supposed to be based on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, thus Cerberus was born, and I wanted to make a song for each of the 9 circles of hell, but I keep changing my mind about everything, all the time. So in the end DOTP reflects the usual chaos and uncertainty behind THC. It’s a grotesque image on everything surrounding me, the place I live in & the people I’m with. Select any other The Hate Club song and what inspired the lyrics? A Dying Dream is one of my favs on the EP, it’s definitely about LA, and how everything “is not as pretty here as people think” on the contrary, I think it’s full of rot. Like a cursed Oasis, a mirage leading you into a trap. You’re from here, right, you know what I’m talking about? What has it been like to write and record new music and a video in the midst of a pandemic and so much social unrest the world? Honestly, not much has changed in my life, on the contrary I was happy that I don’t have to stress out about not going on tour and that I could focus on experimenting and growing as a musician. Certainly, a lot happened last year, and I always keep the words of Bill Evans (jazz pianist) in my heart. Something like “what am I supposed to do when there’s all the suffering around us, as a musician and artist I need to make priorities and diligently work on my art and let that speak for itself. If you’re going to be torn apart by everything happening in the world there’s not going to be anything left of you and you will go insane”. So I chose to focus on my art, I don’t mean I’m turning a blind eye on things, it’s vital to be a human being and show empathy and compassion, but I want to stay sane. HIGHWIRE DAZE
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Rise Above with Bo Johnson
Interview by Ken Morton
Bo Johnson is a musician / producer from Sweden whose eclectic and introspective music is beginning to gain a good deal of notice above and beyond the icy Scandinavian nations. With an interest in forms of genres ranging from country to EDM and beyond, Bo Johnson presents a wide array of influences, unleashing compositions that are vibrantly original. In the throes of a creative renaissance, the Falling EP was released last year and now The Rise full length is on the horizon awaiting its premiere in late February. Highwire Daze decided to reach out to Bo Johnson to find out more about this compelling artist on the rise. Read on... Where are you based out of and what is your local music scene like there? I’m based out of Malmö, the very south of Sweden. In general, as most people know Sweden has a proud history of music export, which puts quite the amount of pressure for sure. The good kind of pressure! There are many local acts from all parts of Sweden, from the north to the south, with great many talents. Last year of 2020 was obviously not the best year for the live acts and scenes though, with concerts and music festivals etc., due to the corona virus. Hopefully this will turn sometime during this new year of 2021! Is there any overall story or concept behind the Falling EP title? Very much so! Somewhere at some point in life, we all get the feeling of falling... This FALLING EP is a small collection of emotional deep/ future house, pop/EDM songs that captures and expresses this which everyone can relate to, whether you have lost the one you love the most or dealing with another type of life crisis. Especially in the beginning and ending, and this EP is also a teaser for the upcoming album The Rise which will be released on Friday the 26th of February this year 2021! What inspired the lyrics on the Falling song? All my songs are based on experience and true stories some 56
way or another. The lyrics on the song FALLING is about getting your heart really broken and crushed. You feel lost, standing there with so many questions and left alone. The one you thought you really knew, the one you loved and trusted the most in the whole world, has left you. I had some experience of this. And ironically, just before the release of this EP it happened in real life, in real time. We went from living happily and lovingly together as a family one day, to me suddenly being left alone with the son and daughter the next day. Considering the shock, the dead silence and unreachability by purpose afterwards, and not one broken heart but three as the result, this was the biggest betrayal of them all. She just disappeared, without even saying goodbye. And all carefully directed by my then motherin-law and her husband… I do not want to name and shame someone, and I try to look forward and not back when hope is lost, but I believe in staying real and just telling the truth. And this is exactly the type of life crisis, thoughts and feelings that FALLING is about. February/March 2021
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How did R&B star Evan become involved with the Falling song? I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to have worked with Evan on several songs and projects. He has really got one of the best R&B voices in the world in my opinion, and I love how he sings my lyrics. He can always understand and relate to the messages and feelings in my songs and texts, and express them in the way they are supposed to. He can also both sing in the classic, honey smooth type of sound, as well as in a more powerful, clean and Pop kind of sound. The latter will be perfectly displayed on the song Southern Lights, which also features the great rapper Stico and which is included on the upcoming album The Rise! Tell me about the song I Hear You Tonight and what inspired the lyrics. This song literally came to me, during a very special night with a breath-taking blood moon that I was watching from outside my house in Sweden a few years ago. It colored the whole horizon blood red, while the rest of the sky was really black. With a heavy heart and taken by the amazing blood moon sky, the notes and melody came flying to me and I had to rig and record a draft on my living room piano already that same night, since I knew that if I had waited to the next morning it would most probably be gone again. And I’m very glad I did! Because it became one of the most pure and true songs that I’ve made, and people are touched by it. There is obviously lots of sadness in it, but it is also about healing soul-searching and is meant to comfort in an embrace-it-and-let-go kind of way. What did country star Brandon Chase do on the Falling EP and how did Brandon become involved? I’ve always loved several different genres of music, Country music being one of them. When I heard Brandon Chase for the first time, it was on the TV show The Voice where he was selected to Blake Shelton’s team, I instantly fell for his voice and the way he sings. He has an awesome tone and timber in his voice and can both sing with sensitive feeling or with pure power, in a modern country kind of sound. Both warm and crisp at the same time! I reached out to him, and when he loved my song I Hear You Tonight and jumped onboard, I was really thrilled. As I said to him, if one may wish freely out of all male singers in the whole world, I would find Brandon Chase or Brad Paisley the very best fit to feature on I Hear You Tonight! Your upcoming full-length album is entitled The Rise – almost the direct opposite of Falling. Is there any overall story or concept behind that title? Yes, the opposite is the purpose! You must have been burnt and fallen to the ground, to be able to rise from the ashes. That is the whole concept, theme and spirit behind the fulllength album The Rise. It also contains some quite dark and melancholic songs and lyrics still, but together with more uplifting and positive songs and in a constellation that in the end and in total aims to give the listener the feelings of new hope, new will, new life energy and new strengths to kick HIGHWIRE DAZE
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open that door again and rise. This symbolic fight and life balance is also reflected in my artist logo, which consists of a dragon and a phoenix, facing each other. And the phoenix statue on the album cover art was hand made from just tinfoil by my daughter. Have you ever played your music live and if so, what was the experience like? I have, and I absolutely love that feeling. The rush, the adrenaline, the bonding you can make with the people in the audience live and direct. To me, music is all about sharing different stories and feelings, and the chance and ability to help, support, make people happy and dance or comfort and empowering them with my songs, is fantastic. Since I have always prioritized my family and the time with them first, and since most live set opportunities have meant the whole Weekends and far away from home, I almost always chose to say no thank you and decline though. If you could open up for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why? Wow that is a tough question, since there are so many that I would love to open up for! Spontaneously I would pick the Rat Pack from the 60s with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. Just because they seemed to have crazy fun and put on a great show on stage! Other dream bands and acts to open up for would for instance be Coldplay, Garth Brooks from his golden concert days, and of course Eric Prydz and Swedish House Mafia. What has it been like to write and release new music in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world? It’s been special of course, very different. But mostly different in a positive way, as far as the songwriting, producing and releasing new music is concerned. Lots of more spare time and occasions have been given for it. And since you 57
often sit alone with it or already work remotely and digitally together with other people in the music industry anyway, none of the restrictions and limitations have affected it in a bad way either. The pandemic has partly and directly or indirectly affected many song lyrics and themes though! Since people around the world have had to stay at home a lot, with social distancing etc., the music consumption from e.g. streaming platforms and digital music stores has risen too. So in total the pandemic has probably only been good for the music production side, from writing to releasing. But with massive losses and negative affects on the whole live performance, concerts, music festivals etc. side of course. Are you involved with any other bands or projects? Yes, I always tend to be. In 2000-2005 I almost explicitly spent time on finding, developing and lifting other songwriters and artists. Helping them out and I produced for several of them. I still love doing that, but today it is more often a question of collaborative projects together with other people in the industry and features with other artists and acts. And I am fortunate enough to be working with some real diamonds in the game; US West Coast rapper Stico, Canada top voice and NHL as well as NFL National Anthem singer Laura Cavacece, Sweden based and Grammy nominee Lazee, and US R&B singer-songwriter JC just to name a few. What do you hope 2021 brings for you? To be honest, 2020 was one of the best years for me personally. Mostly since I was given so much extra quality time at home with my family that I appreciate more than anything else in the world. However since it suddenly crashed and ended in an absolute horror way for me, I just pray that Karma will do its thing and hopefully grant my children, our family and loved ones and me a healthy year of 2021 with lots of happiness and love. And of course, some great successes with the music! Any final words of wisdom? Maybe I can share a (the) “life motto” that I came up with at a rather early stage in life already, and use very often as everyone who knows me know, and it is: “It can ALWAYS be worse!”. And it’s funny, because most people laugh when they hear it, but then it tends to sink in… Sometimes it gets replied by a negative respond, e.g. “wow that’s sad, things can only get better!”. And some respond in a more positive way, for instance “yeah you’re absolutely right, in comparison it’s not that terrible really!”. It all depends on the receiver of the message really, is the glass empty or half full? To me it is actually not just a negative or positive way of seeing things, this motto. It’s rather a more realistic philosophy in between, closer to reality, which is also dependent on the situation. In the end, it’s a way to try to comfort and strengthen people, as well as myself. Because really, if you are not dead, things can always get even worse. Always. And when that has sunk in, given it that perspective, tough times and situations that may feel impossible... may become possible.
Listen to HIGHWIRE DAZE RADIO on LIVE 365 Classic Rock Hair Metal Black Metal Metalcore Heavy Metal Pop Punk Punk Rock www.highwiredazeradio.net
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ALBUM REVIEWS Season In Hell Ampage (Self-released) Review by Ken Morton
Ampage has been rocking your world for 40 years now, presenting eight albums of pure sonic intensity. And now during the 2020 worldwide pandemic, Ampage lead singer Mark Mason has written 12 new songs to try and encapsulate the feeling during this historic and unsettling moment in time. The rest of the band quickly joined him in the studio to record, unveiling their ninth magnum opus titled Season In Hell. Presenting a band at their very height of their creative prowess, Ampage has unleashed their finest effort to date with their wildly ambitious Season In Hell – and all this includes their inspired rendition of the Harry Belafonte classic Lime In The Coconut! Our introduction into a Season In Hell begins with the rock-solid Living In A Virtual World, where modern day lyrical observations mesh well with the supersonic soundscapes. Sky Is Falling is definitely the anthem for this age of Covid-19, with a chorus just as infectious as the dreaded disease it’s referencing. Crank It Up Loud commences with “If it’s too loud, you’re too old my son,” and it’s a rager to be played at maximum volume. Then it’s time to take a trek on The Blvd to discover the darkness of our old familiar haunts and the road to good intentions in these difficult times. And the tunes just keep blasting on, with selections such as Burn It Down, We All Ride On, and Rolling Dogs Of Thunder making you want to rock it out into hopefully better days ahead. #Rock (Hashtag Rock) shows once again the prodigious knack Ampage has for mixing timely irony and memorable grooves into what should be a hit single played all over the radio airwaves. If there is a such a thing as a breakthrough record these days, Season In Hell by Ampage would be huge in this moment in time! The band has been flying just under the radar for years, releasing some of the best music you may not have had an opportunity to experience. There is not as better time than now to discover an amazing band, so be sure to check into Season In Hell and make this your own personal soundtrack as the pandemic rages on. 60
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The Ghost Of L.A. AOR (Perris Records) Review by Ken Morton
The 20th studio album from the long running AOR is entitled The Ghost Of L.A., and it’s as sweeping and magical as the legendary city it references. With cover art from the iconic Griffith Park Observatory and a bustling city filled with buildings in the background, the mood is set for the melodic rock to be found within the grooves of Frédéric Slama’s latest masterwork. In addition to the maestro Slama on guitar and keyboards, the one and only Tommy Denander performs all the other instruments, unveiling stunning music reveries for the many superb guest vocalists found within. The Ghost Of L.A. kicks off with the rapturous refrains of The Easiest Way, featuring an impassioned vocal performance by Step Honde (Hollywood Monsters, Paul D’Anno, Café Bertrand). Too Late For Tears is up next, featuring one of four truly terrific performances on the album from solo artist Rick Riso. The great Paul Sabu lends his trademark vocals to Give Her The Moon and The Distance Between Us, two standout tracks within The Ghost Of L.A. realm. Sarah’s Touch features Markus Nordenberg (Coastland Ride, Pearls & Flames), who places his heart and soul into this truly remarkable song. And be sure to hang out until the end for a rocking instrumental entitled Good Intentions, showing Slama and Denander at their most brilliant and inventive. Congrats to Frédéric Slama for another absolutely solid album of classic and very memorable AOR tapestries. Fans of Survivor, Journey, and Foreigner will be over the moon when encountering the wondrous visions of Frédéric Slama’s AOR presents The Ghost Of L.A. – now available stateside via Perris Records! Definitely a terrific way to kick off a brave New Year in music!
www.slama101.fr perrisrecords.com facebook.com/fredericslama.aor paulsabu.com www.facebook.com/stephhonde February/March 2021
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Lost In The Sea Of Empty – EP KOFN Underground (Aurc Midian Productions) Review by Ken Morton Being part of the innovative Willow Wisp whose motto was “defy the mundane,” the various members of this Hollywood underground collective are now starting up new projects. GLAD (aka Glenn lee alan Davis) was the bassist and keyboardist for Willow Wisp – and his latest endeavor is the thoroughly imaginative and genre defying KOFN Underground. At the very commencement of 2021, KOFN Underground unleashed Lost In The Sea Of Empty – a stunning collection of tunes that will tantalize the senses of all who give a good listen. Opening with the soaring refrains of Forgive Nothing, one notices the sweeping musical arrangements courtesy of GLAD and the rich and vibrant guest vocal performances of Adrienne LaVey and Chris Bone. The song flows seamlessly into the throes of Down The Lonely Path and Simple Splendid Serine Destiny, where an eclectic mix of Doom Metal, Opera, Goth and Classical reign supreme. Down The Lonely Path is revisited with a Tortured Mix, where the sumptuous choirs are enhanced by the chilling and unearthly vo-kill appearance of Tony F Corpse from Willow Wisp infamy (and now in Post Mortem Superstar) – simply mind blowing and over the top brilliance! Even When The Stars End closes out our journey through Lost In The Sea Of Empty, haunting to its very core of existence. There is no doubt that GLAD possesses the mad skills of an ambitious entity such as Therion, Ulver and well beyond. The KOFN Underground is certainly unpredictable yet always captivating – and with the unveiling of Lost in The Sea Of Empty, GLAD presents the next glorious chapter of his compelling auditory visions. Be sure to go on Spotify and check into the grand and subversive world of KOFN Underground. A true sonic adventure from a musician whose creativity and inspiration knows no bounds. And while you are at it, be sure to check out his The Gothic Side of Life Podcast!
www.kofnunderground.com
Psychodelic Rich Kid Express (Squib Kick Records) Review bv Ken Morton The Rich Kid Express has arrived, and they are ready to rock a pandemic weary nation with their super explosive HIGHWIRE DAZE
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anthems. Combining the aesthetics of classic rock, hair metal, bubble gum pop, and even punk, the Rich Kid Express will slam into you like train with the mighty Psychodelic, their brand-new album of ragers now available from Squib Kick Records. Your conductor through this wild ride into the heart of Psychodelic is Rob Richardson, performing the entire 10 song journey with a sense of fiendish glee. From the frenzied attitude of Get Outta My Life to the roaring refrains of Cross The Line, Do It Your Way and beyond, Rich Kid Express chugs its sonic engine full speed ahead with memorable songs galore. Lovesick Blues is absolutely rapturous, and the ripping reverberations of Pink Eye is one infectious tune you’ll want to catch time and again. In a world consumed with Coronavirus, confrontational politics, and not a live show in sight, Psychodelic is the aggressive remedy we all need and crave. Once the world opens, it will be exciting to see Rich Kid Express perform these amazing songs in concert! Stay tuned, because Psychodelic by Rich Kid Express is one groovin’ choochoo that you’ll to book passage on early and often!
www.squibkickrecords.com
Down In Wühan – single We Are The Black Things (Tone Raven Music) Review by Ken Morton We Are The Black Things possesses all the classic qualities of a band seeking the Hollywood rock and roll dream. But this time, Tone Raven and his crew venture away from the streets of Tinseltown to explore the nightmares of another city entirely with their brand-new single entitled Down In Wühan. As dark and foreboding as you would expect, Down In Wühan commences the next chapter to the sonic infamy of We Are The Black Things. From the haunting vocals and imaginative guitar work of Tone Raven and the stunning contributions from each and every band member, Down In Wühan is as timely and mind blowing as anything this pandemic age has unleashed upon the world. In addition to the hard work and driving passion for his art from the one and only Tone Raven, We Are The Black Things consists of co-conspirators Scott Garrett on drums, Frank Garrett on bass, Rae “Owl” Starling on keyboards, and Luthario Mitcho on turntable. Stay tuned, because We Are The Black Things will assault your senses with a brand-new full length this summer and it’s guaranteed to be intriguing and well worth seeking out!
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