Something a little different today... When a mate sends you a Steve Perry interview - you print it! Canadian BW&BK journo Mitch Lafon talked to the great vocalist Steve Perry late last week and has granted me permission to print the interview here in full.
Former Journey vocalist and general melodic rock legend Steve Perry talks about the new Journey live DVD and much more...

At one time, Steve Perry was THE voice of melodic rock. Both fans and radio-programmers alike couldn't wait to hear his latest (be it with Journey or solo) multi-million selling song of a generation, but for almost a decade his voice has been silenced due mainly to a seemingly self-imposed exile from the music business. By the fall of 2005, he was back (sort of) doing a limited amount of print only press to help promote the Journey: Live in Houston 1981 Escape Tour DVD that he produced. In this rare and candid interview, he looks back at what was and what may be.

Steve Perry: “Talk to me – where are you?”

Mitch Lafon: In Montreal...

SP: “It's so beautiful up in Montreal. I was on tour one time up in Canada with a band called The Privilege when I was a teenager. They hired me as a singer and I was one of their frontmen and we ended up in Quebec and Montreal. In Quebec we stayed at the Chateau Frontenac and my big thrill was having onion soup at the Chateau Frontenac.”

ML: Maybe, you'll come back up here on vacation or for a show?

SP: “Yeah, but how about in the spring? Is that ok?”

ML: Let's talk about the DVD – Live in Houston 81. Why did you accept to get involved with the project? Wouldn't it be too much of a heartache?

SP: “The answer is yes – it was too much of a heartache to look back. When I first heard the tapes and I remember that show, it was too painful to think what it once was, but the only thing I could not do was... I'm a fighter for the music. I'm a fighter for the songs and a fighter for the performances and I refuse to let them be evaporated into time. If I do anything, I'm going to fight for those performances to be heard and the band is out doing what they're doing and I was approached by SONY to do it, so I said absolutely. Since, I produced the first compilation DVD. So, I got Allen Sides and we did the 5.1 and stereo mixes together then I did the editing. The interviews and all that was painful too. It was tough.”

ML: Will you be doing more DVDs like this?

SP: “I don't know if my heart can handle it.”

ML: You've been away from the band for quite awhile...

SP: “Since May '98”

ML: And you've also been away from the public for quite awhile...

SP: “Except for the World Series with the White Sox.”

ML: How was that?

SP: “That was excellent. It was so exciting. I just couldn't believe it and they adopted the 'Don't Stop Believin'' song back in July as their mascot and when they won and were going to the World Series; their communications director wanted to try and get me to game one. I got a phone call and went out there and was there for game one and two and was getting ready to leave and they said you can't go. You got to go to Houston and I had to think about that because they had booked me for all these interviews to promote this DVD. It felt good to be wanted, so next thing I knew – I'm flying to Houston for game 3 (which lasted 5 hours and 45 minutes) and I was on another planet when we won that one and game four they won and swept'em. It was unbelievable. They swept the Astros.”

ML: Good city to be in to be promoting a Houston 1981 DVD...

SP: “I didn't start the promotion there. I actually came back to LA and started doing phone calls. It was actually very funny.”

ML: You've been out of the limelight since '98. You did the Journey Behind The Music, but you really haven't put out any music. What's going on? Are the interviews and new DVD... are you coming back? Is Steve Perry going to be singing for us soon?

SP: “You know I love singing again. I've been pulling out of it and I've been missing in action for sure... I put a lot of effort in trying to put Journey back together for the Trial By Fire era and I worked hard with those guys so that we would keep our original integrity and write some good music and we did. Then I had that hip problem and it crashed on me. I had to go have surgery. There were some mistakes made and they checked out a few singers and they got tired of sitting around and one thing lead to another and we split again...”        

ML: For the final time?

SP: “Well, I think so. Only because I said to them in January of '98 when I got this phone message that said 'go out and do whatever you want to do, but do not call it Journey.' That fractures the stone to me; that breaks it. I was given an ultimatum and I don't respond well to ultimatums.”

ML: Not that anybody should. Now, the hip thing was a degenerative problem. Is it getting better?

SP: “It's completely replaced. It's very good. It's beyond better.”

ML: So, you're 100% physically?

SP: “Well, I have some other physical issues. I'm not a teenager anymore.”

ML: Do you see yourself going back into the studio?

SP: “I've been thinking about the good side about this whole split up with the band that happened in May of '98; which is that I could not be kept under contract while they replaced me with a sound-alike or whatever he was... fish or cut bait. The bottom line is that the label had to let me go. So, I haven't had a record deal since May '98 and you've got to know that I signed my record deal with Columbia in '78. That was 20 years of being signed to a label. It's been a real pleasure not having contracts lurking over me... obligations and extensions until you deliver. Oh, please! It's been nice to fall back into your own life and so that's what's happened. I'm no longer in the band since May '98 and I had the surgery seven or eight months after 'that' January phone call... so, you know, I'm just living my life and I have been entertaining the idea of just getting into the studio, but it's a tough thing.”


ML: Have you been writing at all?

SP: “I've got all kinds of stuff written. Writing isn't a problem, it's...”

ML: It's not stage fright at this point in your career?

SP: “ No, it's just what do I want to do? I love R&B. I love rock. I love techno. I love remixes. I love acoustic. I love everything. When I come up to LA, I'll spend two days watching someone record 172 pieces of score. I sat back a year or so ago and watched Alan Silvestri conduct a 175 piece orchestra for Van Helsing (movie). So, when I watch that kind of arranging... I love the power of that. So, I just don't know what to do, but I'll probably jump in the studio with a four-piece section and just start having some fun and maybe do some covers just to get my feet wet. I sat in the studio for six weeks with this DVD mixing it in stereo then tore in down and mixed in 5.1... that was one of the best pleasures I've had other than the emotional aspect of being dragged through the plethora of emotions from 'what happened' to 'we were great' to 'look how young we were' and remembering all the stupid things we were doing to each other when we didn't know what we had.”

ML: You've got that built-in Journey fan base that wants to hear you do that melodic rock again...

SP: “Yeah, exactly, but I don't know if I want to become a parody of myself.”

ML: If you do a comeback album and deliver something the fans aren't expecting...

SP: “I may do a comeback album or I may do one track; load it onto ITunes and go home. I don't know.”

ML: So it is something you're thinking of?

SP: “I don't have management... I have completely shut down the store. The store has been shut down forever. I own steveperry.com, but I haven't flown it. I've really had to let go because emotionally... to be perfectly honest with you, if I do decide to sing again and record again, I'm going to do it for the right reasons. It's not going to be because people want a comeback record that's calculated... people come up to me all the time and say 'you should do a big band album like Rod Stewart. It would sell.' That's probably true...”

ML: It is true – it would sell gangbusters...

SP: “And?”

ML: But if you don't like it, what does that matter?

SP: “I have a spin on that. I would do that differently than anybody else's, but I can't talk about it and I don't necessarily want to do a big band album.”

ML: And I imagine you don't want to do an album of ten 'Open Arms' or ten 'Oh, Sherry'...

SP: “That's right. I don't want to sit there and (sings) 'start spreading the news...' I don't really.”

ML: It would be interesting to get you singing again and with all due respect you are one of the greatest voices of the last thirty years...

SP: “That's so kind of you to say because they've only been saying that in the last five years. They certainly weren't saying that years ago. We were considered the band that wasn't cool. It was the bands with the skinny ties, the checkered shirts and the Flock Of Seagulls' haircut that were considered cool. We were not considered timeless at all, but as time has proven and we're fortunate that the music has made the voyage with us so far.”
ML: What do you attribute that too? Here we are in 2005 and you're hawking a show from 1981 and it's still timeless, it still sounds great, the musicianship is tight and the vocals are perfect... What is it about Journey that got you this far? Why didn't you just fade away like the Flock Of Seagulls?

SP: “Well, it's because it was a real band. When I joined them they were a band and when we replaced Ansley Dunbar with Steve Smith – it became a bigger band. When Jonathan Cain came along and I started writing with him... I had written all songs with Neal from 'Anyway You Want It' to whatever and that was one kind of band, but when Jonathan came along we turned another corner in the evolution of the band. This particular tour (Escape) was the first time Jonathan was onstage and it turned the corner. The work we had done previous had built a fan base and now that they were really showing up we were turning a corner musically and they just liked it. We didn't have any calculated things. There was nothing pre-calculated about the music ever. Never did we second guess, it was just 'let's do this. Ok.' If you listen to the albums, I don't know how many groups you'll find that have 'Separate Ways' and 'Still They Ride'. That's left and right. You go onto Escape and you'll get 'Who's Crying Now', 'Open Arms' or from other albums 'Dead Or Alive', 'Where Were You'... these are all on the DVD by the way, but we were all over the map. 'Good Morning Girl' was a little acoustic piece. 'Patiently' was the first song I wrote with Neal when I was waiting to get into the band and I had dreams of being a singer in a rock 'n roll band. I sat in a hotel with him while he was out opening for Emerson Lake and Palmer and I wrote 'Patiently' and that's what those lyrics are about – 'for your lights to shine on me. For your song inside of me this we bring to you.' That's what it's about. I was dying to get into this thing, but from the heart stand point - not from a calculated stand point and today everything is so calculated. Don't you think? The music business has become like the movie business...”

ML: Also, the music business doesn't develop an artist anymore. It's give me a hit single and get the heck out of here...

SP: “Isn't that sick? The guys who helped build the Journey fan base were record label executives like Al Teller and all the guys that worked at the label at the time that are escaping my mind. They helped believe in the band and they would go three, four singles deep into every album...”

ML: They would also go three albums... You had three albums to make it. First one was the trial, second was the hit or miss and the third one was the do or die...

SP: “More than that. We had Infinity, Evolution, Departure, Escape...”

ML: They would give you three albums minimum to develop. Now, you get single one maybe two...

SP: “That's right. It's like television. They release a TV show and if the numbers aren't good – it's cancelled next Tuesday. It's unbelievable – there's no faith anymore and nobody believes anymore. That's why it is the way it is. There are corporate executives that should say to their superiors 'this is the single – we have to go on it' would they ever say that? No. Would they ever say 'the band is crazy about this song and believes in this song? No, they won't say that either. Will they ever say 'I went and saw the show and this song is getting a lot of audience response. I don't know why, but we should go on it and ask radio to play this... NO! They'll do what's calculated and safe.”

ML: They want to appeal to the lowest common denominator and get as much money out of it as possible...

SP: “They are not making decisions based on belief. They are making decisions based on fear. They assess it and say 'well, let's not do this and we shouldn't do that... so, what's left? Let's do that.' They're decision making process is based on calculated fear assessment. Instead of – 'wow – I don't know what it is about this one song, but I sure do like it.' Those guys are gone; they just don't do that anymore. I'll tell you a quick story – 'Who's Crying Now' that song was intentionally recorded and arranged so that the solo (back then songs had solos) was at the end. The song goes out on a solo and that song is long. The record label came to us and said 'as soon as the solo starts you'll have to fade it or radio won't play it.' I said ' well, radio can fade out and go onto the news. I don't care, but we're not going to cut the solo.' They insisted that if it said it was four minutes fifty seconds or whatever radio won't even add it to their playlist. So, I told them to put whatever on it... three minutes whatever, but I'm not fading the solo and they were adamant about it and said we were killing the song. It's not going to be a hit because you won't fade it, so just fade it. It's no big deal. I said 'look – Neal played the most beautiful solo on this thing. It's simple, heartfelt and feels timeless; the melodics are timeless and I do not want to kill that solo. So, fought for it, the song becomes a hit and the stations never pulled out of the solo. When it goes to that melody (sings melody) – it's timeless and it's not the melody that's in the song. It's another melody; so is that so wrong? No! So, I'm glad we fought for it against all odds. Plus, Neal would have been really crushed... he would have been destroyed.”

ML: I'm surprised the record company didn't go ahead and just cut if off...

SP: “They would do that today which is why I'm glad I'm not signed right now. I would probably take a bat to somebody's desk.”

ML: That's the one new advantage, if you were to release new music, you don't have to go through a label. You can go through ITunes...

SP: “Isn't that amazing? I think the Internet is so freeing to music as we've come to know it. I think it's the best thing that has ever happened. It's phenomenal because as an artist you've never had so many choices. You just never have. I could get somebody right now to build my own site and put downloads on my own site. I've yet to do it though.”

ML: Is there a reason?

SP: “I'm just a little bit... you're going to ask me 'what is it, right?' But I don't know.”

ML: It's the question everybody has been asking, right?

SP: “No, we've been talking mainly about the DVD and the performances.”

ML: I apologize...

SP: “We can talk about this. It's ok. I don't know – it's a tough one... (pauses)... Twenty-four years ago when I did that DVD – when we recorded it for MTV... (pauses) It was a different landscape at that time, of course. MTV had aired for the first time in August of '81 and three months later we were recording this for MTV. It was a brave new world with this video music thing... (pauses) It was a different time – we had a mission as a group... (pauses) I emotionally was unstoppable... (pauses) My mother was alive and pulling for me. My father (though they weren't together) was pulling for me. My grandfather was alive... The whole landscape of that has changed... (pauses) You lose some of the incentive that you didn't realize was driving you to do good... to do it... to do IT. Now, that it's been done I'm trying my best to digest it. When I was doing this DVD, it was an emotional rollercoaster that I didn't expect. A friend of mine warned me because he knows me well. He's a TV director and he said 'I know you. You're going to get in there and be mixing and editing and it's going to be rough on you.' I said ' Ah, no biggie man – c'mon I did the other DVD.' And he said 'but that was assembling videos and synching up new masterings. This is going to be different. It's like making a mini-film.' And oh, God – he was right. It drove me... It dragged me through a plethora of emotions that I didn't expect. When I heard 'Open Arms' I got choked up. There are certain vocal things I did in 'Open Arms' that I'm not sure I'll be able to pull off exactly like that again because it was such a moment and I had reached beyond the master recordings to what I knew it could be. For example the lyric in the second verse 'wanting you near' that lyric is sung exactly the way I wanted it to be sung and I didn't know I hit it. I didn't know I got it. So, I'm sitting there mixing and watching the QuickTime video because I have to pay attention to audio and visual... so I'm watching it and just being dragged through... (pauses) through the whole thing again. The Whole Thing AGAIN! I'm dragged through our time together. I'm dragged through, 'what happened?' We were great together and then I'm dragged through the people who thought we weren't great and who used to belittle us in the press and I thought 'fuck them too'. How can that be fucked up? We were great! See you assholes... you know what I mean? We weren't fucked up – you used to tell us we were faceless and corporate and all these horrible things and all we were trying to do was keep our focus and play what we loved. Now, I'm looking back at it for the first time as a person in the audience... I'm not in the band and it's been years since I've been in the band. It's been years since I've been on that stage. I'm an older guy and this young kid up there on that stage believed in what he believed in and damned if it wasn't pretty good and I got emotional about it. I just felt vindicated. I really felt vindicated for my beliefs and my faith and my tenacity that I got such a bad rep for... it's just that I was NOT going to lay down. Betty Davis said “if you have a bad reputation – you must be doing something right.'

ML: She's absolutely right. It must really feel good after all these years. I was around back then and remember people complaining about your voice, that you were corporate and everything you just said...

SP: “They said it about a lot of groups.”

ML: I'm a Kiss, Cheap Trick and Aerosmith fan – all of those groups got dragged through the mud back then...

SP: “Foreigner got hit... everybody got it. They all were faceless.”

ML: Except Kiss – that only had a face, but no music talent, right? Not only did those groups survive, but are still setting trends to some extent. Anybody who looks into melodic rock has to start at Journey – you just have to.

SP: “And that's a big legacy to live up to. At the time, it was just living up to your own expectations. Now, it's become something else. Something you always hoped it would become. How do you deal with that?'

ML: I have no idea...

SP: “By the way if you're going to ask these questions – we kind of have to answer these questions as to what was going on with me back then versus now. It's a perspective that's interesting. A lot of it too... the music at that time... you were forced to perform everything. There was only one way to sell what you believed in and that was perform it and that was going to be live. MTV was three months old when we recorded this DVD. It was baby in diapers – it had no idea what it was. It had no power and I tried to go back to MTV and see if they had other elements or extra footage lying around and they had nothing because they burned over the tapes of that night. All I had was the final cut because they had no idea what they were going to become. They were too new and nobody had a clue. They were directionless. They were writing the pages as they were turned... everybody was and that reckless abandon is what created what we are calling timeless now.”

ML: Musically, there has been a loss of that 'fire' in bands and in MTV... there is no soul to anything anymore. It's all calculated...

SP: “They always said MTV would change the face of music forever and in some ways it did.”

ML: It did – for the worst.

SP: “It took the performing aspect out of it, but now they are getting back to it. Now, they realize that it's a great medium to promote performance. For a long time, it became a video lip-synch issue and it gave everybody credibility even if they're not performers. There's a lot of careers built on artists that have never performed, but they can make a great video and make a great record... and they were 'artists'. Then they'd decide to go on tour and work that up. A lot of them would run tapes, a lot of them were fake and would have mouth and ear pieces with little microphones in front of their faces and dance around. It was a totally different thing.”

ML: In terms of this performance – the band.. the five guys on stage (Steve, Ross, John, Neal and you) was that the ultimate line-up? Does this represent Journey well?

SP: “That's the quintessential line-up. Although, I don't want to take any credibility away from the line-up that existed with Greg Rollie and Ansley Dunbar. That was the earlier line-up that I joined and had it's own musical direction that was valid. It was a different kind of a band, then it changed when we got Steve Smith in there and Greg Rollie stayed. Then we got Jonathan Cain and I think the band turned a bigger corner. That became the Escape line-up that launched itself to another series of albums, songwriting and performing that was bigger. By bigger I mean it had a bigger pronounced sound to it... a mightier unity of the players than the previous one.”

ML: Jonathan brought a lot to the band... vocals, backing vocals and overall musicianship.

SP: “Yeah – right! And Steve Smith was a fusion drummer who was with Montrose... that's where we saw him play every night and I turned to Neal and said 'this is the guy we should have in our band. This is what we need.' I admit I was making trouble, but I had a gut level... that we had to look at making a change.”

ML: It was a good change...

SP: “Well, time has shown that to be the case, but at the time it had a mixed response.”

ML: By the way – with the producing of the DVD... is that something you see yourself doing more of?

SP: “I love it. I really love it. It's very very emotional and stressful though.”

ML: In general or doing the Journey stuff?

SP: “Both.”

ML: Do you want to do other bands?

SP: “I have shown up many times with little groups... friends of mine and I'll be a fly on the wall and help them. I do it all the time for fun and for free. I've be doing that for years.”

ML: Do you want to sell your services as a record producer? Hey record companies call me up...

SP: “No. I don't want to necessarily do that. There's a couple of groups I would like to do a track with here or there.”

ML: But not a whole album from conception to the final mixes?

SP: “It would depend on the group. If I believed in the group I would do it. If I believed in the song, the singer and the band. It would be easier doing my own thing, but that comes with a whole other set of demons.”

ML: If you did your own thing would you want to produce it?

SP: “Just yesterday, I was thinking for the first time ever 'should I just let it go' because I'm always so involved and that's the problem. I know what I want to hear and it can go against someone else's vision, but at the same time my own vision has built my own direction and sound. So, what am I doing? Do I want to become Cher and 'Do You Believe In Love' and let someone make a left turn for me? I don't know – I'm not that kind of guy. I do hear things completed in my head and try to follow that lead, but I don't know. I do know that I worked hard on this DVD and tried to make it sound contemporary sonically. That's why I chose Bob Ludwig and Allen Sides.”

ML: Satisfied with the final product?

SP: “I'm completely satisfied with the project, but there will always be issues. The sound quality I hear in the studio, you lose when... you know someone will make an MP3 of it. That changes everything. You do one thing to it; it changes it. Echoes respond differently. Digital converters eat echo and it loses some of the lush echoes you worked so hard on. That's just something I have to live with. There are certain things that are easier to do logistically with ProTools on a live project like this than with tape. There were certain pops and clicks in my special wireless mic. It had a lot of vocal qualities that I loved, but it also had a lot of problems because it was transmitter microphone. It would over modulate and there was a couple 'pffs'... it's everywhere and with ProTools you can get rid of it. It's fantastic. So, I was able to clean up problems that back in the day could not have been fixed. It enhanced the performance by not letting something like that distract it. You're in a restorative mode like when you take an old painting and just try to clean it up.”

ML: Any other touch-ups?

SP: “There really wasn't a lot of touch-ups on this. There really wasn't. Not one re-record was done. I will tell you... we did two shows and on the day-off between those shows... we knew we were on tour and we knew it would be aired on MTV with a quick mix. So, we got around one mic and sang the backing vocals against ourselves. So, that we could blend that studio thing we do with the live vocals; so that they would have a little shimmer to them. That's the only thing we did. We called that 'vocal help.'”

ML: That was just for MTV?

SP: “It's on the DVD too.”

ML: But the original ones from way back then?

SP: “Yeah, the band was on tour three months ago and we aren't speaking. So, believe me - we weren't in a room together.”

ML: It speaks volumes about the band that you didn't have to...

SP: “Well, it was great performance. It really was a moment where... I didn't like walking up to the back of the venues and see a recording truck because I would get a little moody and cause a stink about it. I didn't like the idea of having tape running. I like the shows to be free and have nothing hovering over them like 'the tape is running' because it changes the band's ability to be reckless and free. I like reckless and free.”

ML: It also make you over aware...

SP: “It instinctually makes you over aware that tape is running. You get more concerned that things be a little more performed, I'm so glad that there's no fall back to the masters to this performance in Houston. I think once the show started nobody cared... we just played. Though, I did not like to video or tape shows – I'm so glad that this one was because I would have been wrong to not have this one. I would have been really wrong.”

ML: It captures the essence of the band...

SP: “It really does and there's another laying around that we don't know what's going to happen to from 1983 – JFK Stadium in Philly. We had 14 cameras running film.”

ML: You want to produce that?

SP: “I don't know if my heart could take it. By the way I do want to say when you watch the DVD turn the Dolby to off. There is no need for it. It's been digitally recaptured. It will severely change the fidelity.”

ML: Anything else to promote or plug?

SP: “There's a band I like. I think they're fun and reckless called The Rock 'N Roll Soldiers. The lead singer is a talented kid called Marty... they're working on a record right now which I think is coming out on Atlantic. I like it – I believe in them.”

ML: Thank you for your time...

SP: “Thank you very much for your candid questions and your sincere feelings about this. All this is good stuff and I don't mind talking about the fears and where I'm going and where I'm not going and where I've been. I'm trying to put my arms around all of it and when I'm done with that... who knows? I'll either sing some more or maybe just be glad that we had what we had.”

ML: Well, I think I speak for many when I say – we got to hear you sing some more...

SP: “I'll do my best – thank you. I would like to sing with the Rolling Stones one night and if by chance, I record something let's talk again.”

 

Something a little different. Lucas Aykroyd of Vancouver, Canada talks to Sweden's HammerFall. Lucas recently interviewed HammerFall guitarist Oscar Dronjak for a Georgia Straight preview of the band's August 25 concert in Vancouver. There was a ton of left over material, so Lucas kindly sent in the full interview for fans to check out.

HammerFall jumpstarted the European power metal revival with their 1997 release, Glory to the Brave. Since then, they've released four more studio albums (Legacy Of Kings, Renegade, Crimson Thunder, and 2005's Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken). Their hook-laden sound, melding elements of Judas Priest, Europe, and Accept, has resulted in worldwide sales of more than 1 million albums. Interviewer Lucas Aykroyd caught up with guitarist and songwriting mastermind Oscar Dronjak in early August 2005, just after the start of the quintet's Canadian tour.

How did you hook up with fellow power metal artists Edguy for this leg?
Edguy are old friends of ours. We toured together in '99 in Europe. If you play a similar style of music, you tend to end up at the same festivals. So we kept in touch over the years. Most importantly, we have the same booking agency in Europe. When we started looking into options for coming over to North America and doing our own tour, then we asked if Edguy wanted to come with us, because we always said that if we wanted to do a headlining tour, we probably should do it with another band that has some name recognition, too. Give people more for their money, I guess.

What's your main goal for the tour?
Have fun. That's the only thing we can really be sure of. We'll have fun. This is the second show on the tour so far. It's really hard to know what to expect. I really don't know what we're going to expect from the USA. From Canada even less, actually, because we've never been here before. It started out really, really good yesterday. It looks very promising for tonight, too. My hopes are really high, but I keep my expectations low so I won't be disappointed.

What do you think of when you hear the word "Canada"?
Hockey, of course. The [National Hockey League's Toronto] Maple Leafs. Moose.

So will you get your singer, Joacim Cans, to give a shout-out to the fans of the Vancouver Canucks? They've got a Swedish captain with Markus Naslund.
I think we can arrange that. It would be really cool if he said something about that. We were in Toronto yesterday, and Toronto is a classic Swedish team as well with Borje Salming and Mats Sundin. It feels really cool to be in these cities where people are as crazy about hockey as you are yourself.

You were previously supposed to play the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver with Dio on November 6, 2002. What happened?
[laughs] I have absolutely no idea. Dio didn't play there at all, did he?

Nope. And then I understand your equipment didn't arrive in time for you to play the next night in Seattle either.
Right. I have no idea what happened with the Vancouver gig. We were just the support act on that tour. We weren't informed of anything at all. During the tour, we weren't going anywhere. We didn't cancel any shows more than that. With the Seattle thing, we couldn't play, and that's the only thing I remember. I didn't remember anything about a Vancouver gig. I'm sorry I couldn't give you a better answer!

Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken is by far the longest album title HammerFall's used. What's the story behind that?
It comes from a lot of bad feelings, a lot of jealousy aimed toward HammerFall from people who supported us in the beginning. The great mass of fans, of course, they love the albums, because otherwise we would not be here. Most of the people like it. But there are always a vocal minority who go on the air and then blast everything they hear. Those were the people who were with us in the beginning when HammerFall came out with Glory to the Brave, and they thought it was cool because nobody else was doing this at that time. Eventually more and more bands started doing what we were doing, pretty much, and we got more and more recognition and fans all over the world. Not everyone liked that. Now, I don't really care. If you like the music, fine. If you don't, that's fine too. I'm not doing this to please anybody but myself. But the album title is a statement of where the band is right now. There were some things we had to go through. Certain people on the Internet started complaining, saying: "HammerFall is only in it for the money and they're not true to what they're doing. They don't like the music. They're just doing this to make a quick buck." Having fought for what I believed in for so many years before anything ever happened with the band, I took great offense to that. What happens now, and this is what I take such great offense to, is that people sort of conveniently forget about all these hard years we put in. There were ups and downs during those years, but we never stopped believing in what we wanted to. We never stopped playing the music we loved. But then in 1999 or 2000, people started claimed: "HammerFall only does this for the money." I really took offense to that. Then there was an incident that really brought matters to a head. On August 11, 2002, actually, exactly this date three years ago, when Joacim was assaulted in a bar in our hometown. It came out that the only reason for this was that the guy didn't like HammerFall's music. That's when I said: "Enough is enough. This should not happen anywhere, and especially, absolutely not for this reason." So instead of just ignoring all the badmouthing, we decided to respond to the critics with this. For me, the album title represents HammerFall now. No matter what anyone says or does to us or what happens, we're always going to be unbent, unbowed, and unbroken.

You also had about $30,000 stolen by a member of your entourage after your previous American tour in 2002.
Yeah, that was another BS thing that happened. But that's all in the past now. It was very unfortunate and very annoying. But what are you going to do? The guy just disappeared with all the money and there was nothing we could do about it.

How did you react earlier this year when you found out Chapter V had debuted at number four, right behind the new Judas Priest album, on the Swedish charts?
I was a little bit disappointed, actually, because I thought we would beat them in the first week. In the long run, we certainly did, because our album stayed in the Top Ten for four or five weeks, which has never happened to us before, and it certainly didn't happen to Judas Priest this time. But this is only because I know Sweden, and I know what kind of success we have achieved there. If we had ended up one position behind Judas Priest in any other country, I would have been ecstatic. But being from Sweden, we had high hopes for it. Those were actually met, anyway. The position on the chart is just a number. It's the actual number of albums, the number of fans that like your music that really matters. There's nothing to complain about, if you know what I mean.

Is it weird for you to be competing with a band you grew up idolizing?
Of course it is. I would never look at it in terms of "we're competing with them," even if it might sound like that. They are heroes of mine, and I really love them. For me they're always going to be number one.

Coming from Gothenburg, where would you say HammerFall fits into the so-called "Gothenburg sound"?
Not at all, actually. Not for me, anyway. The Gothenburg sound, for me, is what In Flames and Dark Tranquillity originated once. And we don't really have anything to do with that sound-wise. For me, we're just a different thing from that.

Even though Jesper Stromblad of In Flames did a lot of work with HammerFall in the early days?
Jesper has been a friend of mine for 15 years now. He was in the first installation of HammerFall. He was a member. So it was only natural that he continued working on the albums. But there's such a big difference between our musical styles, between In Flames and HammerFall, that I don't think we really have any place in the Gothenburg sound.

There's an incredible amount of melody, of sing-along quality in HammerFall's music. Where does that influence come from?
Partly Judas Priest, for one. When HammerFall started out in 1993, all we tried to do was create the kind of music we'd like to buy or listen to ourselves at concerts. In essence, we tried to create the ultimate heavy metal band, according to what we think and not what anybody else thinks. It would be stupid to listen to other people when you play metal. You should just do what feels right for you. The melodies themselves come from the music that we listened to. The minute I started listening to heavy metal, when I was around ten, I never looked back. I don't have a specific moment when I thought: "This is the music for me." It became clear for me, without me even thinking about it, that heavy metal is what I love. Then I started looking into other bands that I liked. So both Joacim and I have two very extensive 80's heavy metal collections on vinyl, because we were into that very much and still are to a certain extent. That's where the influences come from, everything we listened to in the 80's, which was melodic, most of the stuff.

Just about every well-known band from Sweden has that melodic touch, whether it's ABBA, Roxette or Yngwie Malmsteen.
You're absolutely right. I just don't have a good answer as to why. I think maybe ABBA is to blame a little bit for this, because they were the melody masters, in my opinion. Nobody could write melodies the way they did. I think they set the tone for a lot of the following acts. I'm not influenced by ABBA. I didn't listen to ABBA at all in the 80's or 90's. But in the last couple of years, I started to appreciate the band. I realized what incredible songwriters Benny and Bjorn were. It's unbelievable how they could put together so many melodies and great songs 30 years ago. I have nothing but respect for them. I think they might have had something to do with it. In Sweden, no matter whether you like ABBA or not, you hear their music right from youth. It's just all around.

Your European stage sets include pyrotechnics, castles with drawbridges, giant icebergs, and things like that. How much of that will North American fans get to see?
They'll get to see some icebergs, but only on our backdrop. We have no pyro because it would be too expensive to bring it over here and use it, in terms of the permits. Actually, what the people will get on this tour is just a heavy metal band and 100% energy on stage, with a backdrop. That's about it. We have two sidedrops, too. But otherwise, there isn't anything going on besides us and the music, which I like. I mean this is a big difference from what we normally do. We have a much greater connection with the audience now, because they're much closer.

Did you try to get a work permit for Hector, your warrior mascot?
[laughs] No, we never tried. Actually, Hector isn't really around much anymore. We haven't used him for this whole tour. It's partly because we decided we didn't want to use him, and also because, he's got this breastplate, which is sort of the main element in the costume. But no one has seen it since February 25, 2003, when we played in Oslo. It's probably hanging on somebody's wall somewhere.

In the past, you've been known to wear a long cape on stage. Have you ever had any accidents involving the cape?
I had a really close call once. But it wasn't on stage. We were doing an autograph session for the Renegade album in Gothenburg, and we were driving motorcycles to the record store. It was 100 meters down the street. But we were driving really slowly, and I was in front of [drummer] Anders Johansson, luckily, and he saw my cape had gotten stuck in the wheel. Nothing really happened. He shouted: "Stop, stop!" If I hadn't stopped, it would have probably yanked me backwards off the bike. It was fastened in a way that it would have pulled me with it before it broke. That was really close. Nothing happened except that the cape got a bit dirty. I was really worried after that, because I know from riding a motorcycle what could have happened if we were going faster. But apart from that, no incidents.

What is your explanation for why North Americans are mostly less open to metal music about knights, honor and glory than Europeans are?
I think one of the reasons is that because you had such a major backlash against the melodic music of the 80's, and that's still going strong. It seems like aggressive, attitude-based music is more incorporated with the society over here. That's at least one of the explanations.

Do you ever feel like, "Man, if we'd released Renegade or Crimson Thunder back in the mid-80's, we'd be playing Madison Square Garden now"?
[laughs] No, because we could not have put out those albums in 1983 or 1984, even if we'd been old enough at that time. Our music is so much a product of what we experienced during the 80's that we would never have been able to do that.

AC/DC's Angus Young once said, "The truth is that we've made the same album over and over 14 times!" What do you say to people who claim HammerFall keeps making the same album?
I would say they have no idea what they're talking about. Get into the albums, and you'll realize there is a big difference between them. We're following a path toward somewhere, I don't know where exactly. But we are not going to change our style. I know it's popular to do that in pop music. You go one way with this album, another way with the next. But that's not what heavy metal is about. Heavy metal is such a broad genre for us that I think we still have a lot of stuff within it to explore, and a lot of songs inside us that need to come out. I can admit that the first three albums were similar-sounding in a lot of ways, but also, I think we progressed with each one. But with the two latest ones, Crimson Thunder and Chapter V, I think what we learned with Crimson Thunder is how to put together a complete album instead of just writing ten songs and recording them. Now we write the songs with the album in mind. That gives the album a lot more diversity and variety, which I don't think the first three albums possessed to the same extent.

Can you elaborate on that?
We're just evolving, developing our sound bit by bit. Some artists go by leaps and bounds, but then, they have nowhere to go after that. We're just going in a certain direction, wherever that is. I guess we'll find out on the next album. We work really hard on not repeating ourselves. Of course, we're going to have the same style of songs here and there, but there's not one song that's similar to another one when it comes to the melodies and riffs. The structure may be similar, but what can you do? Sometimes you deviate from it a bit, but it's mostly verse, pre-chorus, and chorus. That's the way you write a good song, in my opinion. Of course, you need variety as well, and that's why we don't use that structure on all the songs. Some of the songs work better that way, but in other cases it's better not to have the chorus after the first pre-chorus or whatever. It's just a matter of what you feel when you write the song.

Is it safe to say HammerFall will never make an all-acoustic album, an album about saving the rainforest, or an album with a guest appearance by a rapper?
I can safely say "it's not very likely" to any of those. The first one might happen [acoustic], and that would be a bonus thing if it was 100% acoustic. The other two I can say with authority that this is never going to happen.

Tell me the craziest HammerFall road story of all time.
The one that immediately comes to mind when I hear this question is something that happened during the Death tour in 1998. We had a different drummer back then, and his name was Patrik Rafling. We pulled a Spinal Tap, actually! We left him at a gas station without realizing it. He was not very happy. I think it was in New Jersey, and we were going to Cleveland or Columbus. What happened was, half of the bus was asleep already, and half of the bus was out eating. So Patrik went to the bus and told the driver: "I'm going to get a Snickers," or something like that, "and then I'm going to bed." And nobody bothered to check for him. But he was still inside the gas station, buying his Snickers, when the bus took off. And Patrik being Patrik, he had no cell phone, no phone number to anyone. Luckily, he had some money. He called his mother in Sweden, who in turn called Nuclear Blast in Germany, who called Nuclear Blast America. When we woke up six hours later, there was about 100 messages on the cell phone from the label rep. Another label rep in New Jersey, luckily there was somebody there, took him to the airport and put him on the plane to Columbus, and so we picked him up there. It was also lucky that we had a day off the next day. We didn't miss a show.

And now Anders Johansson is a solid, permanent member of your band.
Absolutely. I don't think we could live without him anymore. The thing is, Patrik was in the band for two years. Anders has now been in the band for six years: three times as long! But he's still regarded as the new drummer sometimes. What are you going to do? With Anders, he didn't want to tour as much when his kids were really young. So we tried to find a middle ground. Now his kids are 8 and 10 or something like that, so pretty soon they're not going to want to have him around anyway! [laughs] So I think that's not a problem for him anymore. As for Joacim, he's got a little daughter about two years old.

What's one of your favorite memories relating to HammerFall fans?
Well, one of the coolest things I have experienced was when we were in Sao Paolo, Brazil. It was just HammerFall playing, no other bands. Everybody in the venue paid to see us. For us, that made it very special, because we knew it was 100% HammerFall fans there. There was a big curtain in front of the stage, and when the show started, the curtain was lifted and there we were. Before that, I heard there were about 3,000 people in the venue already, and this was about an hour before we started the show. So I took my video camera and Anders and I walked out in front of the curtain, and people just went crazy. I've never heard anything as loud as that. It was unbelievable. It gave me goosebumps. We stood there for about a minute with my camera panning back and forth.

What's the last CD you listened to?
The last album I listened to was Stormwitch, one of my absolute favorite bands. It was their second album, Tales of Terror, from 1985.

You've recorded with personal heroes like Udo Dirkschneider of Accept and Kai Hansen of Helloween. Who else is left on your list of people you'd like to record with?
That's a really long list. If I'm looking at what's feasible, so to speak, it would be having the guitarist from Accept, Wolf Hoffmann, do a solo on our next album. He's my guitar hero. I owe him so much when it comes to musical inspiration, it's ridiculous. He's also a very nice guy. We've met him a lot of times now, and he's almost like a friend. At least every time we see him, we give him a hug, and talk a little bit. He's really nice. That's something I'd love to do. Having someone like Rob Halford do something on the album would be the most awesome experience ever. But I don't think that's going to happen.

The last time you saw Accept, did you try to talk them into making their current reunion a permanent one?
No, I didn't bother with that, because I knew this Accept reunion was just for the festivals this summer. I talked to Udo a lot about this, and he said: "I know Wolf might want to continue with this, and he feels there are certain things we could still do." But Udo said in an interview that as far as he's concerned it's not going to happen, because he has his U.D.O. band. That's where he'll put all his energy after the current reunion is over. Still, I saw them at Wacken, and it was an awesome experience on every level.

Where would you reside if you couldn't live in Sweden?
I would probably move around a bit and find out where I felt at home, where I could root myself, so to speak. I don't really know. I think it would be a place where you have seasons, not just a rainy spring, summer, fall, and winter. [laughs] Sometimes that's what we have where I live in Gothenburg. But apart from that, I don't know. Somewhere that I spoke the language would be really important as well.

What would you do if you weren't playing metal for a living.
Realistically, I would be a teacher, because that's where I was headed before HammerFall started happening. But if I could fantasize, I have two dreams: being a paleontologist or working at a zoo with animals.

Give me your concept of a perfect day.
Well, it doesn't really matter what time I get up as long as I feel rested, because if not, the day's going to be shot to hell after that. Let's say I wake up around 8. I lie around in bed for a little while with my girlfriend, which I don't have right now, but this is a perfect day, so in the perfect world I have one! [laughs] We would enjoy each other for a little while before getting up, and then, because the sun would be shining, we'd go have breakfast in the park, and after that, I'd go home and write a song I was really, really happy with. Then I'd have a few beers and go see the monster lineup of the millennium, which would feature Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Accept, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, and KISS on the same bill. That would be a really long set, but who cares! [laughs]

What message would you like to give to all the people out there who aren't sure whether they should attend a HammerFall show or not?
I would tell them that if you have any interest in metal and you're open-minded when it comes to melodies, you should not miss this HammerFall/Edguy show. If you do, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. It's never going to happen again on this level. Even if we come back someday with a bigger show, this is something you should not miss. It's going to be a heavy metal party the whole night and something you will never forget. I can guarantee a really good time if you like heavy metal, that's for sure.

 

Mark Free burst onto the scene as a young rock singer in King Kobra. The sales and fame richly deserved may not have followed, but this fine singer has made a huge impact on our melodic rock community with each release seemingly another classic. Signal, Unruly Child and the Long Way From Love solo album are all albums that have attained a cult following and are highly regarded as staples of classic melodic rock and AOR music.
But it all ended too soon. We were left with the music, but longed for more when Mark Free made the ultimate life altering decision to undergo sex change surgery.
It happens everyday in the world around us, but is almost unheard of in the world of rock music. Thanks to the Internet and the ability to interact with fans, Marcie, as she is now known, has made a comeback of sorts – setting up a website and once again saying hello to old fans. Not only that, but making many unreleased demos available so us fans can at least hear some new music.
Marcie has never done a feature interview and I'm very proud to feature this in depth chat about her musical career, her life as it was and as it is now and possibilities for the future.
Many thanks to Marcie for talking openly and answering the questions put to her honestly.

Ok Marcie...I guess the very best place to start is right back at the beginning, as you have had a wonderful career that has produced some real landmark releases as far as the world of melodic rock goes.

Beginning with King Kobra - not too many artists achieve success on their first outing and even though you spent some time working before hand, you must have felt somewhat blessed to be on your way from the outset?
First of all let me say how much I have appreciated all of your wonderful friendship and support all these years. It is a pleasure to speak with you once again.
Yes, King Kobra was my first big break. I felt nervous and excited all at the same time. I was very grateful for the opportunity. I wouldn't really say that selling 50,000 records the first time out was all that much of a success though, but it was a start.

Two albums were recorded - both with a different flair. The debut was a little tougher and Thrill Of A Lifetime is more AOR. Do you have a preference for either release? Which album has withstood the test of time the best?
I really do not have a preference for either that much. It is kind of painful for me to listen to some of that stuff now as it was my first time making a record. I would say that Ready To Strike has to be the quintessential must have for all the KK fans. But my heart is much more into some of the Thrill of A Lifetime stuff as I had more of a hand in the writing and felt like I was starting to get more control over some of the production.

Thrill Of A Lifetime is still heralded as one of those cult classics - why the change of style for that album?
The first album was deemed a failure judging by the small sales figures, and by radio, record company, and MTV standards. Having a guaranteed two record deal up front, we were desperate to get on radio as we knew we only had one more shot before the company could opt to drop us. Carmine called on his long time friend Duane Hitchings to help us craft a more radio friendly sound. So that's what we did.

I don't think the band has ever received credit for it, but you were one of the very first rock bands ever to use rap-delivery in part of a song - Home Street Home being the track in question. What was the story behind that track?
Yeah. Carmine kept trying to make a big deal of that in the press but it always fell on deaf ears. Mick wrote the song while living in a very small one room apartment on a busy street in Hollywood at the time. He would see quite a lot of homeless people walking the streets. Rap isn't one of my forte's.

Of all the great tracks on Thrill Of A Lifetime (Second Time Around, Feel The Heat, Only The Strong), one track sits firmly ahead of the rest - at least as far as I'm concerned and I think this track stands today as one of the great AOR anthems of all time. I speak of Iron Eagle (Never Say Die).
The track was featured in the movie of the same name - what is the story behind this track - was it written for the movie especially or customized around the needs for the movie?
Duane Hitchings had a friend named Jake Hooker (Weird Al Yankovich's mgr.) Together they had an opportunity to write a song for a new movie that was being made called, "Iron Eagle". The movie people had secured a soundtrack album deal with Capitol records. Once that happened our manager (Alan Miller) along with Jake started lobbying Capitol's vice president of A&R to let us do the song since we were already on Capitol's roster. The decision was made to do it and it went on our album as well as the soundtrack album. Making the video with Lou Gossett Jr. was the best part though.

Did it bring the band some good publicity and attention? I must admit, it's where my love affair with your music began - the Iron Eagle soundtrack!!!
Yes, it did get more airplay than any of our other songs as a result of the movie and the soundtrack album.

Either way, it seems the band couldn't capitalize on this as the KK line-up disbanded without recording anything further. What happened at this stage in your career?
The business arrangement between Carmine and the rest of us as set up in the beginning by his manager and their lawyers was inequitable at best. As a result it left very little incentive to remain with the band if it was not going to be a huge success. And it became apparent after the second album tour was over and Capitol had dropped us that it wasn't. Going on the road and touring was very grueling. Once Johnny left for the money W.A.S.P. was offering him, I tried for a while to go through the process of replacing him and moving on, but the chemistry was not as much fun and the guitarists (Dave & Mick) were attempting to move the band in more of a trash metal direction which I really didn't want to do. With no money in my bank account and after two years of touring and no record deal… my heart just wasn't in it any longer.

I guess the very next thing was the Black Roses soundtrack, How did you get involved in this?
Alex Woltman was an apprentice recording engineer at Pasha Studios at the time King Kobra recorded our first album. He had a friend named Elliot Soloman whose father was producing a new monster movie called Black Roses. They had written some material and wanted to hire me to sing four of the songs. It was the summer of 1987. Alex was still working at Pasha, and I was working as a driver for a courier service to survive between gigs. I got paid $750 to sing the songs which helped me out quite a bit at that time. I've never seen another dime since.

We are right smack in the middle of the Mark Free golden era (if you can forgive the self appointed terminology!), as the next release from you was the utterly classic Signal record.
Let's talk about Loud & Clear - an absolute anthem packed AOR masterpiece!
I believe it was former Peter McIan (Men At Work) that had a project going he needed a singer for and that featured Erik from Signal and songwriter Mark Baker?
Signal was hard to form. It originally started as a Peter McIan project with Erik and Mark as co-writers. It evolved over a two to three year period between late 1987 and 1990. It was originally called The Fugitive Kind. The name Signal was given to us by Ron Fair who had taken over the A & R duties at E.M.I. after our original A & R rep Bruce Dickinson left the label. He got the idea when he went into his bathroom one day and saw the bottle of mouthwash on the back of his toilet. I had tried for years to get everyone in the band to agree on a name. I had come up with literally hundreds of names. In fact the name Unruly Child was one of them. They didn't like any of them, so after two weeks in the studio and still no name, we had to basically settle for the name Signal which I hated, but hoped it might help influence our rapidly sinking support at the label.

Kevin Elson produced the album - I love his stuff to death - what influence did he have over the material?
I love Kevin Elson very much and his work as well. I felt honored to work with him for his accomplishments with one of my all time favorite singers Steve Perry. But you would be surprised to learn he actually influenced the material on this album very little. Not to say he didn't have some interesting ideas in the studio, a few of which I believe we ended up using. But Erik Scott had very meticulously pre-produced much of the material before we went into the studio. Kevin brought his pristine mixing and engineering skills to the table which added a lot of sheen to the overall presentation.

The writing credits for this album are very diverse, it seemed to be the first time you wrote with people outside a band itself and generally speaking, you were not involved in much of the songwriting here.
As it was basically a vehicle for Mark Baker's writing, and he was writing such good songs, I felt like "go Mark go". Once Danny came into the band near the end of the process, he and I started writing together. If the band would've survived another few years I feel that he and I would've been able to write some pretty cool things.

This also marks (I believe) the beginning of writing relationship with Mark Baker. How did you and Mark hook up?
Mark and I had tried to write together a few times. Not always successfully. Mark had very specific ideas that were hard for him to let go of at times which kind of butted heads with mine. I always felt inferior to him and his ideas. It wasn't the best of chemistry.

Also of note is the use of songs by outside writers - did the label force/suggest you go down that route?
I believe that "My Mistake" was the only song the label may have suggested. "This Love This Time" was a song that I had done the demo version of for Peter Glenister while he was in the United States on a writing assignment for his publishing company. He and I were paired up to write together by E.M.I. one day and that is how I met him. I loved the song and brought the song to our manager at the time who also fell in love with it.

And Eric Martin guested on the marvelous My Mistake. How did that come to pass, as he wasn't that big a name himself at that time.
Yes, but I knew of him and thought very highly of his talents. I had actually met him at a Capitol records party in 1985 while I was in King Kobra. He lived in the San Francisco bay area where we recorded the Signal album. Eric was managed by Herbie Herbert who also managed Journey, hence the connection with our producer Kevin Elson. Doing the song this way having Eric answer me during the chorus was one of those great ideas I told you about that Kevin came up with. It worked well I thought. Eric is one of the worlds truly great singers and a wonderful person.

Favourite songs Marcie? Personally I'll vote for Arms Of A Stranger, Does It Feel Like Love and the monster ballad This Love, This Time!
Oh let me see…would I be too egotistical to say I love them all? The ones you mentioned would also be high on my list that are close to my heart. But I do love some of the demos that I did like "Your Wild Ways", and the Jonathan Cain and John Waite song "I Wish That I Was There".

Yes, I will get to that track shortly! The Signal album was a one-off....which was extremely disappointing. Why? Was their label pressure for a hit single, or other complications? It seemed as if the band was on it's way to great things - touring etc...
We got signed to E.M.I. by a guy named Bruce Dickinson (not of Iron Maiden). He was good friends with a lady who at the time was an old flame of Peter McIan's. She was acting as the bands manager when I came into the picture. She persuaded Bruce to leave his position at Chrysalis records and come over to E.M.I. so that he could sign us to their label. Once he came over to E.M.I. he signed us and six other bands then decided to leave E.M.I. and take a position with M.C.A.. This pissed off a lot of people in the marketing department who are responsible for support at radio and MTV when it comes time to release the album. The decision was made at the executive level to release the album, but to drop us and to not spend any money to promote the album once it was released.

A three year break followed here - during which you spent a lot of time signing demos for various writers.
First to the art of that craft - for those new to the workings of the music industry, why would someone call you to sing on their songs?
Actually I apologize but I have to correct you on your timeline. Signal was released in April of 1990. Unruly Child was released in April of 1992. I left Signal in October of 1990 and started slowly forming what became Unruly Child. It took U.C. about a year to write all the songs and come up with our deal at Interscope. I believe you are referring to the time between King Kobra and Signal. That being said, I was working as a driver for a courier service in L.A. and in the meantime I met Judithe and Robin Randall. Once they hired me to sing their demos, they started telling all their other writer friends in L.A. about me and the phone started ringing and well I needed the money really bad so I started singing demos for people. It really helped me to develop further my ability to sing in the studio and I was being paid for it. Cool huh?

Indeed! Let's continue on with the demos for a moment...If you don't mind me asking, was this a good way to earn a living? How did it compare with working for yourself in a band?
It's a great way to make a living. A lot of singers have done this in between gigs. You don't really make a killing but it beats the hell out of working at a bank.

You sang an amazing amount of songs for some amazing people - I want to talk in more detail about your relationship with the Randall's in a moment, but just briefly, could you share a line or two about your thoughts of working with some of the others you sang for. Any that stand out in your mind for one reason or another?
Yes. Jeff Silverman, David Tyson, Christopher Ward, Teddy Castellucci, and Tom Mgrdichian to name a few. You would have to throw in Jonathan Cain as well. Jeff for his unique song writing ability and speed and accuracy at the controls when recording. David and Christopher for their impeccable song writing and precise producing and engineering skills. Teddy and Tom for all of the above. And do I need to say anything about the great Jonathan Cain??

You recorded several tracks for Jeff Silverman, another writer I am big fan of. Any memories there?
Yes. And Jeff - I apologize - but he had a reputation of being a bully on singers who he had worked with in the past. I on the other hand found him delightful and very fun to work with. I welcomed each and every time my phone rang when he was on the other end of it asking me to sing another one of his songs.

Many of these great demos you have copies of and are featuring in the members area of your website - what a cool idea. Let's plug that a little now - tell us about it.
Thank you so much Andrew. Yes. My website www.marciefree.com has a section which I refer to as my "vault" where people can come and subscribe for a year and receive access to all of my demos and most everything else I have ever done that may be hard to find out there and the ability to download them. All for a nominal charge of only $36.00 per year.

You and James Christian seemed to be the go-to guys for anyone that needed their songs demoed in the best possible light. Is that something you look fondly back upon?
Oh I know for a fact there were lots of others. Stan Bush I think was one. There was this guy named Joe somebody I can't remember his last name, who sang all of the Diane Warren and Desmond Child demos. I cannot remember the names of the others. But anyway James and I would seem to meet about once a year at a Judithe and Robin Randall Christmas party and exchange glances.

Do you have any idea how many songs you sang for others over the years and of all of these, what are the stand out favourites?
I remember once I counted about 150 songs that I had sung over the length of my career. These also included the songs I sang on my albums. But that's still quite a substantial number if you compare it to the number of songs you can find out there by some of the so called, major artists.

At what stage were you introduced to Judith and Robin Randall? You bonded on a personal as well as professional level didn't you?
From my own experience with Judith, these gals were class all the way and super nice people.
Yes very much. Judithe was one of a kind. She selflessly promoted me to everyone of her contacts from the first day she met me until the last day of her life. And for not one dime of compensation did she ever ask for her tireless efforts. Her ability to write lyrics was magical. Robin is one of the sweetest most gentle, compassionate, and extremely gifted musicians I have ever known. Perhaps not so much as in playing ability, but certainly in music knowledge and in musical composition. She and Judithe will always be in my heart as two of the greatest individuals who changed my life for the better.

How many songs did you record vocals for the Randall's?
According to my records, I sang 19 songs for them. I may have missed writing down a session or two though.

Of course, some 17 tracks would appear on Long Way From Love as your first ever solo album! Let's skip time a little and run through that - Now & Then Records released the album - what got the process underway for this album?
I received a call from Mark Ashton. He promised me the world if only I would agree to release the demos I did for Robin and Judithe, and he ripped me off for practically every record sold after that. In his companies defense they did pay for our expenses to come over and do the first God's of AOR concert. Other than that, I never saw a penny from his company after the first quarter accounting which was a complete joke. To this day I have no idea how many records I sold.

Who decided on the songs that would make up the release?
Robin, Judithe and I.

Again, another classic collection of AOR material - it was later re-issued with bonus tracks and The Gods 1993 performance on it. Did you have much to do with the re-issue? This leads us into the new release you have lined-up, but I'll get to that shortly.
No. That scheme was cooked up by Mark Ashton and the guys in Italy at Frontiers Records. Ha.

I'd like just to clean up some confusion over some of your demos which have long been traded like gold - some of which are in the Vault section of your site.
There are numerous references to some tracks being a second Signal record - is this correct, or are they merely tracks you sang on that fitted the same song/style as the Signal material?
I am not quite sure to which songs you are referring to but there were two songs that were recorded in addition to the ten songs we recorded at the original recording session for Loud and Clear. Those were Runaway, and You And I Need Love. There was another song which appeared on the Signal Live video that I released a few years back called No One Gets Out Alive. But other than that there was only one other demo that I did for Signal in hopes of getting another record deal after we were dropped called What Goes Up.

Of the unreleased material there is some seriously amazing songs....just amazing....for example The Night Has A Way, Dancing On The Edge, You Do It For Love, Hopelessly Lost, Do It For Love....and stacks more!
Where did those tracks come from, as they all sound very close sonically?
The Night Has A Way was written by David Tyson and Christopher Ward producers and song writers for Alannah Miles. One of my favorites. Dancin' On The Edge was written by Jeff Silverman and Rick Springfield. Rick actually sang backgrounds with me the day I sang the lead on that track. Very cool. You Do It For Love was written by Teddy Castellucci and Tom Mgrdichian who wrote and produced all those pop delights I did later on for them as a possible solo endeavor in the summer of 1993.

I must dedicate a question to my all-time favourite unreleased demo and that is Your Wild Ways. What an amazing song - tell me about that one and the amazing vocal. Who wrote that one??!!
That track was the first song I ever sang for David Tyson and Christopher Ward. Most enjoyable. My Canadian friends.

There is also a set of 10 songs in a more pop/dance style over the AOR tracks. What was that project?
Those were the pop delights I was referring to in the answer above. Teddy Castellucci and Tom Mgrdichian. Two very extremely talented players, producers, and composers I had met while living in L.A..

Any way I can share a few of these with the site regulars, or will they appear in The Vault?
I am sorry, but I am planning on putting them in the vault and have hopes they will be hot sellers for me.

Jumping back a little - yet another major label deal came with the signing of Unruly Child. How did you come to be a part of this project?
The timing was impeccable because I was already planning on leaving Signal. It was July of 1990. After floating around for a couple of years doing demos for all the various songwriters in L.A. you start to get a reputation. Bruce Gowdy's publisher at Warner/Chappel contacted me one day and asked me if I was available to sing some of Bruce's demos. The first song I did for he and Guy Allison was a song called "Let's Talk About Love". I had first met Guy Allison back in 1980 while he was in a band called Lodgic. I had always fantasized playing with him in a band as I thought very highly of his talents. We all jelled immediately and the chemistry was magical. We ended up writing all the material for the Unruly Child album in the next 10 months to come as well as some of the songs that were not used on the first U.C. record that ended up on the Tormented C.D. It was a very cool time in my life as well as a very tormented time as I started actualizing my life long gender issues around that time as well.

Metal was huge at the time of this release and as a vocalist you toughened up your sound for the release also. This was a rocking record, but also seriously high-tech as far as layers and technical achievement!
Beau Hill was the album's producer - I'm not so much a fan of his - but this was a monster sound! Do you know how much money the label spent on this album and how long did the recording process last?
Yes the recording budget for this album was around $200K. The recording process started in the fall of 1991 and was wrapped up by December of that same year. It was scheduled for an April 1992 release.
As for me toughing up my sound - I felt for the first time that I had nothing to lose by singing the way I always wanted. I felt free for the first time to actually be me in this group. I knew that I could always do a more subdued singing style if that was what would bring me financial security but at this point in my life I was going for what was in my soul.

As we would later learn - through the release of the Unruly Child Basement Tapes - the original tracks were quite different than the finished product. Any thoughts on this?
I actually liked our demos better than the finished product that Beau presented. He homogenized our edge and took away our soul I felt.

And directly from that question - what did you think about the release of the Basement Tapes and the inclusion of the behind the scenes DVD? Quite a brilliant package for fans...
I bless anything that Bruce and Guy wish to do regarding our relationship past or present.

With Unruly Child, you had a much greater involvement in the songwriting. Did the record label believe you guys more than EMI did with Signal?
It was just a whole lot different. Signal was presented to the label as a project, and U.C. was presented as a group. Plus I had the benefit of the power of Herbie Hebert behind me when first being presented to Interscope as he ended up managing Signal in the end times.

I suppose this question is aimed more at the tracks that would become the Tormented release, but how much was your inner turmoil affecting the subject matter of your songwriting?
Tracks like Forever and Falling contain some haunting lyrics and although you did not write Still Believe, I feel the vocal on that track is about as heartfelt as it gets.
That track was actually written by Bruce and Guy after the breakup of the band but they still wanted me to sing it. I believe they actually paid me to sing it as well. I believe very deeply in always putting my heart and soul into everything I do. The anger in the songs which appeared on Tormented was actually the whole bands rage directed by the frustration of being on the losing end of the newly found "grundge era" and the wittnessing of the L.A. riots after the Rodney King verdict.

At the time of your change of lifestyle announcement came the Marcie Free release Tormented. Obviously the title was an absolute understatement, the music itself was more or less the second Unruly Child album wasn't it?
The title of the album had nothing to do with my personal issues. I had written the song Tormented with the guys back when we were Twelve Pound Sledge and it just seemed like an appropriate title at the time.

First of all - why the decision to release under the Marcie Free moniker, but more importantly, tell us about the music within and why Unruly Child wasn't to be?
I think that is pretty much obvious by now being that I am transsexual and the world was not ready for the likes of me or anyone like me. After I announced that I could no longer live as Mark my whole musical world quickly fell apart.

Ok. There were two separate masters for that release wasn't there - a European release and a superior Japanese release. How did this happen and who made the decision to go with the different master (and artwork also) for each release?
Different companies make different decisions. The Japanese company simply chose to re-master the DAT before the release. I had no problem with this decision.

xx

Marcie, it seems almost every band you were involved with has been the subject of some kind of archive release (King Kobra, Unruly Child & Solo). While some will see that as a cash-in on the part of the labels involved, I also see that as tantamount to the legacy of music you recorded over the years and the continuing demand for that great music. How do you feel about this?
I really don't know to be honest with you. But I do know that archives are always important to the hard core fans and I suppose that is what provides the value of their content.

Speaking of which, you have released a coupe of archives of your own :)
As well as the continuously updated Vault section of your website came the Signal live release. Good memories to put that together? Is that still available?
Yes it is still available and I plan on making a DVD release of the live performance available soon.

The Gods 1993 performance was I think your only ever UK appearance - it was recorded and filmed and as already discussed, has been released as a bonus audio CD already.
This time around you are releasing it yourself, both as a DVD and a CD. This time without the involvement of your old record label.
As I previously discussed they have no issues with me. They already made their money. Now I am simply making mine.

I've gone on record previously naming this live show as one of my favourite live recordings ever - it's nice and raw, features the odd mistake, but has an amazing energy. Who was in the band on that day and what are your memories of the UK appearance and that show?
The band was made up of a bunch of crazy Swedes named Snakes In Paradise. (I of course mean that very lovingly guys) They were all freaking incredible. I watched the whole DVD recently after not seeing it for many years and I couldn't believe how great the band was. They had not only learned all the songs we were to play during the show but also learned how to transpose the songs in no time once we showed up for our first rehearsal in the U.K. together. I also brought with me from the U.S. Robin Randall and Diana DeWitt without whom I could have not survived long enough to do the shows.

Oh yeah, I did forget that…fabulous band! There are not too many places you will hear a string of classics like these tracks all in one place!
Feel free to plug the DVD/CD purchase details right now also :)
Thank you Andrew. You are so kind. The DVD which is available now on my website, www.marciefree.com is one of the last live shows I have ever done. It was filmed at the Ritz Club in Manchester England in October of 1993. I remember how wonderful the fans were that night. Everyone who was standing in front of the stage that I could see were all mouthing the words right along with me as I sang that night. It was such a thrill for me. And a memory that I will never forget. It also includes a MTV interview with me which gives the viewer a lot more than just a live performance. The price is right at only $19.99 USD

How did you like touring/live performing Marcie? You performed a lot with King Kobra and Signal and even a few solo dates at the advent of signing with Now & Then Records. Did Unruly Child perform much?
Live performing with King Kobra at first was grueling for me as we traveled with 13 guys in a sleep 6 broken down old motor home. Night after night I had to take sleeping pills and lay in a corner of the bed in the back along with 6 or 7 other guys to try and get enough sleep before we arrived at the motel the next morning so that I could have the physical rest my voice needed to be able to sing the next gig. I always loved being in front of the fans but the logistics of being a live performer night after night got very tiresome for me. I need to be more grounded and have roots. Signal only did 5 maybe 6 shows in the time we were together. It was a shame as we were becoming an excellent live band near the end. Not as exciting visually as King Kobra, but much better musically I think. Unruly Child tried to do some live shows a few times but I think we only did 3 or 4. Again quite a shame as U.C. was very talented and extremely tight live.

I recall the guys speaking fondly of the band and leaving the door open for possible new music in the future.
I suppose anything's possible. That would be up to Bruce. He treated me quite harshly near the end and I would have to see an intense sincere effort on his part to make amends.

I think I have covered the music Marcie, which leaves me to talk about the person behind the music.
I noted with some concern at the time and now looking back, it still makes for a powerful sentiment, but you wrote within the thank you's for the liner notes of this album "All of whom have inspired me to persevere and survive through some of life's darkest hours".
Just how dark did things get for you Marcie?
If I could've wished myself back to heaven instead of living my life as I am I would have. I never had the courage to actually harm myself. But I thought about it many times.

As hard as it is to put into words to ask you about, I can't begin to imagine what you have been through over the last 10 years.
I read a quote attributed to you at the time of your decision to have a sex change that you literally had to decide between life and death. To chose life was to make the hardest decision imaginable.
Yes it was extremely difficult, but it has been very rewarding in ways I never thought could be.

Yet, you had the courage to make that decision....
Courage or desperation? I think I had no choice in the matter. If I would've continued my life as Mark I would have died for sure.

At what stage did you decide that your only way out was the course of action you took? Dare I ask how hard it was to tell friends and family about your choice?
I had tried to be the man once again and fell deeply in love with a gorgeous woman named Laurie Richardson. She was and is a very talented lady rock radio personality. We were married on June 24, 1989. After only 2 years of marriage we were divorced because of my gender issues and I knew then it was only a matter of time. As I have said many times previously there were very few friends who stayed by me once I came out with it. Including my former wife Laurie. My family is still with me though. Thank God.

I did hear you were married at the time. I'm sorry to hear that things ended badly.
Laurie was and will always be my last love affair with another human being in this life time. The fact that she could not stay with me was her choice and I suppose I cannot blame her for that. But to this day she still does not wish to talk with me or have anything to do with me what so ever and that makes me believe she never truly loved me and that really hurts me very much.

I know for a fact that many did not stand by you, but some others did. How important was the support of those that did stick by you and were there some that surprised and hurt you by not supporting you?
I learned during that time that there are 3 groups of people in this world. Those who like you, those who do not, and those who are indifferent towards you. As hard as it was to accept that there are some who do not like me, as I think I am lovable always, I had to gravitate myself to those who do and to not worry myself about those who do not.

In the few years following your change of life, did you feel exiled from the music business and the world in which you had been involved since being a teenager?
Yes at first. But it was best for me to bow out anyway.

You obviously got well away from all that - what have you been doing over the last few years?
I have just been living life and working as a normal person does every day. The best thing this change has given me is my peace of mind. That is the most simplest concept for most people but the most difficult to attain if you are not living inside the body of who you feel like you are inside. Once I did attain it, it immediately took away my desire to become famous and to be loved and adored by everyone like I was striving for while living in the body of Mark Free. Loving myself so that I can love others is all I care to do now.

How important has the Internet been in allowing you to finally again mix with the many fans you left behind?
Extremely. Without it I would have never even known anyone still remembered me or even cared about me. I love being in touch with you all very much. It gives me so much joy. I really am a people person in spite of my reclusive nature.

As you are well aware, the melodic rock community has a great deal of love for you as a performer and as a person, as witnessed by the amazing amount of entries in the guestbook I set up for you.
What were your first thoughts when you read those entries, which continue to be added to still!
I was shocked because I truly had no idea that there were so many out there who even knew who I was. I am deeply touched by all the outpouring of support and love the people have written about me on your message board. My appreciation and my heart goes out to everyone of them.

Without getting to personal (as that's not what I'm trying to do), are you happy Marcie? I ask as I - and I'm sure everyone else - is hoping you have found peace and comfort in your new life that the past did not fully allow?
Yes I am very happy. Life is just life now. It has it's ups and downs but I deal with it as it comes. It was always such a struggle for me before.

That leads me to what's next - the future!
Do you have any other archive releases planned and what might fans be in store for?
Yes believe it or not there are still more demos to be put up in the vault so please be looking for that.

My biggest hope is that you will consider some form of new/fresh recording. I hope (again) I am not being in sensitive hear, but how is your singing voice now? I am still amazed at the power you held over your career, and just hope it is not the last we hear from you!
I too would like to be able to run my studio and to be able to record the new songs I have written lately. My voice is still the same. I never had it altered surgically like some do. I would never do that. I don't sing as much as I used to though and I would most likely have to do some practicing to get back the stamina I had built up at the end. But I am still planning on someday recording those songs and putting them out.

To a few more light-hearted questions, is there one thing you have not been asked, but you wish you had been - this is your chance to ad-lib!
Laughing... No Andrew I think you have about covered it all very thoroughly indeed!!!

Marcie, is there anything you would like to add to fans reading?
Just please know that I feel your love, and your support, and your good will deeply, and that if I could be with you all I would. Thank you all so much for the caring and the giving. My life is much fuller as a result of our relationship together. May God continue to bless us all. Love, Marcie xoxoxoxoxxo

From his best known role as frontman of Alias, to his roots fronting Sheriff, through the solo years, the Alias demos and back to his new project Zion – Freddy covers it all in this new interview.


Freddy?
Yes.

Andrew from Australia
Oh, Andrew!

How are you going?
Good, man. How are you?

Very well, thank you. I'm a few minutes late of course but at least this time I called. [Last scheduled time I forgot…Ooops]
Oh, no. Not at all. It's fine. It's only 4:15 in the afternoon.

Terrific. Have you got a moment to chat?
Absolutely.

Fantastic. Great to talk to you after all this time.
Yes.

I've been a fan since the debut, in fact. I picked that up upon release back in the day.
Oh, my gosh.

Longtime fan.
So you're calling from Australia?

I'm from Australia, indeed.
And where are you calling me from now?

I'm in the state of Tasmania right down the bottom.
Incredible. I love Australia.

Do you? Have you ever been down here?
Yes I have. I did a promotional tour with Alias down there and it was unbelievable.

Is that right? Did you really?
Yes, it was just a dream come true. We have a few fans down there and I'm excited about releasing a new record, you know?

Yes. Let's jump straight to that.
Okay.

It's great that you're working on a record; it's been far too long.
Thank you.

You've been working on and off for a couple of years on this, right?
To be perfectly honest, I was sick for a year and a half.

Really?
I couldn't sing.

Oh, my God.
I had lost my voice and I thought, that's it, I'm finished, I can't sing anymore. I had kind of the same thing that Phil Collins had.

Wow.
It was a viral infection. There was nothing I could do about it. I had no range. It sounded like I had a cold. If you were to hear me it sounded like I had a cold and there was absolutely nothing I could've done. It took me a year and a half to… I lost a bit of hearing in my left ear.

Wow. That's vicious.
It was a little scary but not enough for me to hamper my career or anything. I lost a bit of hearing in my left ear, but thank God my voice is back. I've been taking really good care of it. I'm singing like I was a kid again. I'm very, very pleased where I am now as far as my voice is concerned.

Do you know where you picked this up from?
No, I don't know. It's so weird. Not to compare myself to Phil Collins at all but he said that he picked it up in L.A. and that's where I live.

Great.
So it must've happened here somewhere.

So this is what, a couple of years ago then?
Yeah. It did. For a year and a half I was devastated. I thought, oh my God, there's nothing anybody can do. I went to specialist after specialist and all they wanted to do was fill me up with steroids. I said, “I don't think so.” “Well, we can't really do anything, then.” “Okay.” I just got really depressed.

As you would, yeah.
I tried to write and kept praying that one day I would be able to sing. I can sing now and I'm a happy bird.

Oh, yeah. Did the virus affect you physically otherwise like a normal cold or a virus?
Right, I just felt run down. It felt like a flu. I didn't have the strength, I couldn't do anything, I didn't want to go out. It was a terrible thing.

A year and a half flu, great. I'm just getting over one I can't kick and it's been a week!
God bless you. I hope it doesn't go any further. I hope it goes away now.

I think I should stop wincing now that I've heard that story.
Yeah <laughs>

So a couple of years ago you signed onto Frontiers for a record.
Yes.

Did you get it started then before…
Yes, I did. We were into the project and going for it and doing it and everything came to an extreme halt. I didn't want to hear about anything. I couldn't proceed.

Sure...
They've been terrific. They said, “Take as long as you need to get better.” I did and now I'm really excited. They've been terrific. I didn't expect it. I thought that they would be all upset but they were in my corner and incredibly supportive, you know.

Well that's great. That's all you can hope for.
And now they've promised me huge support on this record, so what else can you ask for?

Yeah, exactly. So where are you at now with the record, Freddy?
I'm pretty much done.

Really?
I've got three songs to mix and then that's it.

Wow.
I'm really in a good place. I feel like my guns are loaded. It's just so much fun! <laughs>. I can't tell you. I want to let you hear songs over the phone. I'm bursting.

I bet.
I can't wait for people to hear this stuff. It's been so long.

How many tracks will be featured on the album?
Probably 11 or 12, something like that. I've got enough for a double record right now but hopefully we'll put another one on the market soon.

Gotcha. Let's talk about who's playing on the album.
Tons of people. Everybody from Joey Scoleri to Paul Marangoni… I forget who else, Jason Hooks and I hooked up recently and he's been playing on the record.

I heard about that. That's interesting.
Jason is phenomenal. He's my hero. Have you met Jason?

I haven't. I've had some email conversations with him.
He is so amazing. He's the nicest guy in the world. He's in rehearsals right now with Hillary Duff.

Yes.
Next week in fact we're going to be mixing a song that we wrote together. As soon as I put up my computer I want to let you hear… I'm so stoked about this song.

That's cool. Something just clicked and I've got a much clearer phone connection with you.
Oh, is this better now?

Absolutely better.
I just changed phones.

Terrific. It's much better.
I'm in my studio now.

Fantastic. So style-wise, people aren't looking for an Audioslave record they're looking for a continuation of Alias. Is that what you're…
I don't know. It started out being a really dark murky ugly record because that's where I was.

I bet.
It was just horrible and then I literally let it go for about 6 months and didn't listen to anything and then I popped the CD in my car one day and said, “What the hell is this?”

Really?
<laughs> It was so ugly. The lyrics were about suicide and death and the whole world is going to blow up and Armageddon's here, and I'm like, “I don't think so.”

Okay. So you've left those off the record or there's a little bit of that?
Well, I don't know. There are some great songs. We've certainly got a lot to choose from, but I would like to see, for lack of a better word, an uplifting record – something that makes people feel good. Dare I say it, almost edifying?

Yeah. I think that's what people will be expecting.
That's who I really am and what I like to sing about and where I come from. It makes me happy to be able to do that and see people's reactions and stuff. Hey it makes me feel good as opposed to let's all go commit suicide.

<laughs> Well I can't blame you for singing and feeling it, that's for sure.
I guess I'm with the old school that music should be entertaining.

Yeah.
Here, want to listen to something?

Yes, mate. Absolutely!
Okay, hold on a second here. Hold on.

You bet.

<Freddy begins playing Andrew a song (“All It Takes Is A Minute”) from his computer>

Oh, wow. That sounds like something people are going to want to hear.
I hope so, I hope so. I'm singing good again, anyway. That's what makes me feel good.

That sounds great. You sound perfect.
That's the one that Jason and I just wrote a month ago. I'm singing good again. I'm feeling good again, and thank God I'm singing in tune! That was my biggest worry that I wouldn't be able to sing in tune. I focus and I sing with one ear off anyway.

Okay.
So that's okay.

Now what was that song called?
“All It Takes Is A Minute”

Fantastic. I can tell people on my site that I heard a snippet of that and it sounded great.
Oh, cool. That was right off the multi-track.

Wow. Lots of vocals going on there in the chorus.
Yeah. I guess I'm over doing it now that I can sing again! Not to harp on the subject.

You can never overdo it. The more vocals the better.
That was 46 background vocals. All me.

Really?!
Yeah.

Fantastic.
Well the thing is it's a blessing and a curse. It's great to sing exactly what you want to sing, but you've got to sing so much of it to make a cut because it is all me, there aren't real different textures.

Yep. Okay.
It's all me and you've got to keep singing to make it sound full. To make it sound like 10 people you've got to do like 46 tracks of it this time. I've never appreciated music more than I do now. I'm just so enamored with this whole thing again. I don't know how to explain it. It's such a joy now to be able to so this. I guess when I was younger I took it for granted and now it's just doing music for music's sake and being really excited about whatever the record does it does. That's not important. It's out of my hands; it's out of my control. What I can do is make the best record I can and that's all that really matters now.

What a perfect place to be in, so enthusiastic and being able to promote a record, almost, you know, get it up there and make the most of that.
Well I'm sitting in my studio and, I counted, it was 17 steps from my house.

Really?
Yeah. I have a studio in my guest house and it's really state of the art. I have incredible neighbors that don't mind if I play into the wee hours of the morning. You know how neighbors complain? I've got an English couple living next to me and they say, “How lovely, we were listening to you playing the guitar last night and it was just lovely.” And I'm thinking, “Can I kiss you right now?”

You couldn't ask for better.
Yeah, it's a really, really wonderful situation to be in.

Where about in LA are you?
You wouldn't believe it; you could spit to the strip from my house. I live right up Sunset and Fairfax.

Yeah, okay.
Right where the strip starts.

I was there about 4 weeks ago.
Get out of town! Why didn't you come over?

I only had three days.
You could've taken some pictures for the article. Way to go.

I know, I know. It's terrible, isn't it? I just had so much to do in so little time.
The hotel was on Sunset and North Vermont.
Gosh, you were 10 minutes from my house.

I know. It wasn't far was it? Next time.
You could've had dinner.

Yeah, could've had dinner. Exactly.
I'm good with barbeque.

Are you? Oh, we love barbeques!
I'm good with barbeque. I'm Italian. I can whip up anything. I had my mother's – I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse – if you look in my refrigerator it looks like there's nothing there, but I can whip up a 3 course meal.

I'm hopeless like that. My wife is good like that. I'm hopeless.
It's like, “What do you want to eat?” “We've got nothing in the fridge?” “Oh yes we do.” Boom.

Brilliant. Do you know when the album will be released?
I'm hoping that it will be released in November sometime.

Terrific.
That's what we're shooting for.

Excellent. So you really are seriously close to finishing it.
Yeah. I truly am.
I'm mixing this song next week. I've got some odds and ends to finish. I've got a lead vocal to finish on “One Man Alone”. Just a few things to finish up and then we're out of here. I'm going to do everything I possibly can. I'm going to be doing some promotional dates in Europe.

Oh that would be great.
We spoke with Frontiers; they're really behind this record. I'm so stoked about it. I go, “I want 50 promotional dates,” he goes, “How about 5?” I said, “Done.”

You can barter up from there.
Yeah.
Jason's going to be touring with me.

All right.
It's going to be Jason and I and possibly one more guitar player and we don't know if it's going to be an acoustic set or a full band thing but, yeah, that would be a blast.

Let's talk about acoustic tracks and in particular, the VH-1 Metal Mania release.
Sure.

I heard that a tour was being put together. So that's a go?
Yes. It's been put together; we start Oct. 8 or the 18 somewhere in America and we're going to be touring.

Wonderful. And how many dates?
I think 20 or 30 dates across America.

How did your involvement in that record come about?
I just got a call from the head of A&R who said, “We need you to do a record for this,” and I said, “Okay,” so two days later I had a record for them.

Yeah? And that was a whole new recording you did for them, wasn't it?
Absolutely. Yeah. It was weird because that was the first thing I sang that I didn't know… I kind of put myself under the gun because it was the first real thing that I sang and I didn't know if I could do it, but I did it. I figured that if there was anything I could sing in my sleep it could be that, “More Than Words Can Say.”

Yeah.
So when I pulled it off it gave me a ton of confidence to be able to say, “Okay I guess my voice is back.”

Yeah, it sounded great.
Thank you. That was so easy to do and a lot of people liked that vocal on that track. They say it sounds even more soulful than the original. <laughs>

It was. I liked the format. It was the perfect song to lend itself to that format.
Yeah, I dig it.

I have a buddy that was in the LA show for the live show and he said you sounded great there too.
Well thanks. The live show came off really well. I had a really wonderful time doing it and was really glad to be there. When you get to my age, being a rock star doesn't matter anymore.
All I want to do is get out there and get the music to the people. Because, let's face it, when you're in the studio it's a wonderful environment but yet it's like hell because you've got this microphone and all it's doing is sucking your soul. It's sucking every ounce of your emotional well being. And it gives nothing back.

That's an interesting take on that.
When you're live you're getting all of this incredible energy back. It's almost overwhelming. It's the first time I had played in I don't know how long. I was totally grateful for the guys I was playing with and man it couldn't sound any better. I was being taken away by the crowd. I thought the crowd was into it. They didn't know who I was originally but then you could see it in their faces, oh yeah! I think half of the girls lost their virginity to my song. They're like, “That's the guy?”

Haha…Tell me, when Alias had that – that was a massive hit, even here in Australia.
It was a #1 hit in 18 countries.

Yeah, it was a huge hit. How does, you don't have to talk details here, but how does that specifically set you up financially? Does that really do it for you?
We did okay. We were okay. There was a ton of airplay; we sold a decent amount of records, we weren't really foolish with the money. Just because I wasn't dealing with it. Thank God we had wiser heads prevailing at that point.

A lot of guys snort it or blow it, don't they?
Well, yeah. I tried my best.

Did you? <laughs> Fantastic!
Yeah.

I ask that because a lot of people get screwed, don't they?
I got screwed in Sheriff. I never saw a penny in Sheriff.

Really? That's just sad isn't it?
I equate stories by bottles of wine and that's a 4 bottle of wine story.

Really? <laughs> That doesn't sound too good.
It's really a sad story. It's so typical of rock and roll bands or all those bands that come and go it's such a shame. I know for a fact that the bass player and the drummer in Sheriff are working in factories and whatever money they would've received from Sheriff would've been a windfall. The last I hear, the drummer from Sheriff was living in a, how do I say this, a bit of a ghetto.

Yeah. That is really…
And we're still fighting. It's been 15 years of lawsuits.

Really? And you're still going.
And I don't want to tell you how much money we've spent. Oh, I don't care, I'll tell you, we've spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on lawsuits. All I know is that there is a God because when there had to be money for a lawsuit, boom, here's Alias with this hit and we were able to afford the lawsuit. It's not about the money, it's about doing what's right. Sometimes you've got to do what's right in spite of the money.

Who are you fighting? The record label?
In a sense, we're fighting the publishing company.

Okay.
Which is the keyboard player that was in Sheriff and the keyboard player's cousin that was in Sheriff.

Oh, dear. Never bring family in to it.
What are you going to do? It's been 15 years and it's sad because we never made any money when we were in the band. We could've had a wonderful situation after the band and it's just sad. How can you not take it personally?

I would. Absolutely. Sheriff still receives good airplay in Canada, I'm sure.
I guess. I hope so, yeah. I wouldn't know.
And the scary part is, Sheriff, the lawsuit that we filed, we won in 1995.

Right.
We won two subsequent appeals and they're still smoke and mirrors. Stuff like they keep changing the bank account every month because we've garnished the wages.

That sucks.
It's been…it just really sucks. It's stupid, you know. It would be really wonderful if we just got it all over with and could move on. Well, there you go. There's my Sheriff story.

I feel like a drink after that.
Yeah, I feel like having a shower.

Absolutely. But Alias was obviously a better deal for you and that went well.
Oh, yeah. Alias was amazing.

Do you keep in touch with the guys?
Yes, I do. Steve and I spoke yesterday for 3 hours Steve DeMarchi and myself. I spoke to Steve Fossen about two weeks ago and he updated me on the other two guys and if this tour goes to Seattle I'm going to get them to come up onstage.

That's cool.
We're still friends. They're wonderful guys, great musicians. Mr. Derosier is still the loudest drummer I've ever played with.

Really?
Poor drums. He had to change heads every gig – boom, whap, boom! I felt so sorry for those drums.

Alias was a pretty rocking band.
The band was the best band I was ever in.

A lot of people will only know you for the ballads, from radio play, but you were a pretty rocking band.
It was such a small part of the band.

Exactly.
A lot of bands have fallen into that trap. I don't regret having the hits. How many people have had two #1 records in their lives? I just wish that more people would've seen the band rock live because we were amazing. We were really amazing.

Is there any live recordings or radio shows?
Yes! We did a live show… yes we do as a matter of fact.

I'd love to hear some of that.
I'm thinking of perhaps convincing the record company to release that.

Oh, I think they'd be there in a second.
We've become old enough now that we've become nostalgically hip if that means anything.

Absolutely. I've seen the 2 video clips off of the album, which I thought were great, but I've never seen or heard anything live.
The band was… the Heart guys knew what they were doing, Steve and I knew what we were doing. When we were up there, nothing mattered. We didn't' care about anything. It was like a punk attitude with melodic songs.

Yeah.
We would go and I would look at whoever and go, “Go do a solo. I've got to go have a drink.” <laughs> It was fun, we would react to the audience. It wasn't staged in any way. We would talk to the audience. It was really the best band. When you get a bunch of people up there who really love performing. The bigger the crowd, the better. Actually sometimes the small crowds were great too. After the show we would go jam at some bars and that was a blast too.

That's fantastic.
I'm really looking forward to actually touring. Hopefully I'd like to be touring non-stop for a while. I want to sing now. I can!

That VH-1 thing is a good leg up, isn't it?
Yeah, I'm really grateful for that again.

Do you see Alias touring or recording or getting back together?
That would be my dream. If we could get together somehow…It's just a matter of logistically getting it all together. Me, I can't even get out of bed. I'm not a very organized person. <laughs>

I can sympathize. <laughs>
Somebody's got to step in and go, “Okay, guys, this is what we're doing.” “Okay.” So hopefully that will happen.

That's cool.
Maybe Sarafino will go, “Okay, guys.”

Well, I will pass that on to him. I've got to ask you, Freddy, about the… I don't even know if it is officially the 2nd Alias album, but the tracks have been bootlegged the hell everywhere.
Oh, the bootleg?

Yeah.
I don't know how that happened.

Some company in Sweden put out a 10 track…
They're not even mixed!

Really?
They're not even mixed, they were just roughs of some stuff we were recording and it got out somehow.

Right. Personally, I've got 14 tracks.
Wow. I don't know how that got out. I have no idea how that got out.

Was that something you were working on at the time?
That's what we were working on at the time as a 2nd Alias record.

Did that just get swept aside because of the usual label bullshit?
You got it. I don't know how that happened.

You're re-recording a couple of tracks for Zion, right?
I am. Yes.

That's cool.
One is “How Much Longer is Forever” and I can't remember the other track.

Was it “Heat of the Night”?
Oh, “In the Heat of the Night” has never been released and nobody has ever heard it. It's a track that I wrote with Jim Vallance.

I think I've heard it.
No way!

Yeah.
Has Sarafino let you hear it?

No, I think it's part of the original trade thing that got traded.
No. I don't think so. I saw that record. “In the Heat of the Night” is this song here… hold on a second… Let me find it.

I swear I think I heard it because I was talking to Jim Vallance once because I got a hold of him via email.
And you've heard that song, huh?

I sure have, yeah.
Well there you go.

I don't think it's one of the ones being widely traded or whatever, you know.
That's interesting.

These ones have been traded are crappy quality anyway. I even featured a couple on my site, forgive me, but…
Wow. There you go. Well, “In The Heat of the Night” is a smash song and if it got out, what are you going to do?

Well, I'm really pleased that you're doing it properly now.
Yeah, it's going to be a good version. I love Jim. Jim's got the best work ethic.

I have enjoyed e-mailing him.
Yeah, he's the most amazing writer. I don't know where he gets his ideas, but I just thank God for them.

Yeah. I'm a big fan of the stuff he works with. He seems to bring out the best in artists.
I don't know. He's just an amazing man and an amazing writer. Just a lovely guy. I could never say enough wonderful things about the guy because he's just… he's that one in a million that somehow I had an opportunity to write with the guy and I'll never forget it. I'm very pleased with that. Hopefully one day I'll be able to do it again.

That's good.
He's just so amazing. You know, then you understand why he's had all of these amazing hits. You think, “How can he do that?” Just amazing. We wrote two or three songs together and they're all amazing.

How many songs did you write together?
Either two or three.

And where are the other two? Have they been demo'd or recorded?
Oh, yeah. A song called “Believe Me”, that's a really good, that's like a shuffle, it's really cool. Maybe it was just two, I don't remember.

He's doing a web site where he's doing a history of every track he's ever written.
Has he? It'd have to be a pretty big book.

I know. This is two years ago and he goes, “I'll let you know when it's finished,” and he still hasn't emailed me.
God bless him.

Yeah, he's a nice guy.
His work ethic, he knows how to caress a song. He knows how to get the best out of whoever he's working with. I can't say enough about the guy.

Yeah.
There's some people who I work with that just… I guess I'm too old now to have an ego now but some people still have egos and I'm like, “Oh, shut up. Come on.” My father has this saying, “Even the Queen has to go to the bathroom.”

Exactly.
So let's make it real here.

You're in the wrong business not to deal with egos.
Well, yeah. What do they say, “How does a lead singer change a light bulb? He just stands there while the world revolves around him.”

I like that. <laughs>
How true.

Yep. I'm also a fan of your solo album.
Oh, Dreamer's Road. Well thank you very much!

That was a really nice album.
Thank you. Thank you very much. It was supposed to be a 2nd Alias album.

Again.
Again. It was supposed to be a 2nd Alias album but we had to make a bunch of changes because the record company said, “Well, rock isn't happening anymore so we want to do a Freddy Curci solo album.” “What? Okay”.

That was good of them.
But, we pulled up our socks and tried to do the best job we can. It is all music after all.

Well, it was great, a little more relaxed; it was a nice sort of laid back record. I really like it.
What a band I had for that record!

Yeah, because you had Steve on there as well, didn't you?
Yeah, Steve DeMarchi, he's my champion, always will be, but aside from Steve there was Abraham Laboriel played bass, I had Carlos Vega playing drums, I had Debra Dobkin playing keyboard, I had Kevin Savigar playing keyboards again.

Oh, wow.
I just had this incredible studio band that were all so amazing and then I had Marco Mendoza playing bass; you know Marco.

Oh, Marco. I met him in the UK last month. He headlined the festival.
Marco. We spent months together working on that record.

Fantastic.
And Larry Aberman playing drums. If you look, all the 6 string fret lists… it's Marco.

That's great.
In fact, on that bootleg, that's all Marco.

Is it really?
Yeah.

I never knew that.
Yeah, you've got to hear some of the stuff though. He gets a little funky on... There's a song called “Love is a Jungle”. You've got to hear Marco just wail on that.

I'm going to dig it out and play it in a minute.
Marco's all over the place on that. Larry Aberman is playing drums all over that stuff. Larry Aberman was the guy who replaced the drummer… remember when the original drummer in Foreigner left?

Yeah.
Larry was the guy who took his place.

Okay.
So I had all of these incredible musicians to play with. Robert O'Hearn played on some of this record, so it was like my dream band. Plus Steve, you know.

Yeah.
That was a really joyful experience after spinning our wheels with Alias. But I'd love to do one more Alias record.

Absolutely.
It was a pleasure, pleasure speaking to you.

You too, Freddy.
This was the most un-interview interview I've ever done.

I know. Sometimes I tend to get a little bit laid back and tend to just chat through it!
That's the way it should be.

Yeah.
Completely informal. I probably told you more than I intended <Laughs>.

Yeah, I charm it out of you. I ooze it out of you.
Well, you're a charming man, what can I say.

<laughs>
Well we've got each others' e-mail addresses, let's keep in touch.

Thanks, Freddy!
I'll talk to you soon!

A pleasure talking to you, mate.
You too.