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Artist: Great White Date:
28 January 2008
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| Great White
are one of those legendary rock bands that hit the 80's full on.
Over the years they've had their fair share of highs and lows but here
we are today some 25 years later with the original line-up hitting the
road again to show the fans they still have what it takes for some mean
rock n' roll. Shortly before their gig at Newcastle's Carling Academy we caught up with Audie Desbrow and Mark Kendall to find out more about these individuals, the new album and the tour so far ... MM - This is the 7th date of the tour, how has it been so far what has been the fans reaction to the band? Audie - It’s been really hectic and no sleep and I came down with the flu but I’m feeling better today. But it’s been going really, really well with all the shows going very well. MM - What’s the fans reactions been? Audie - We’ve been getting a really good reception and we still have fans here. We don’t get the chance to come here as often as we’d like to, I think it was maybe 10 years since we were here last time. We were talking about this yesterday and we all said we’re going to try and make it across every year from now on. Simply because we build up a fan base then we go away, so every time we come back we have to start all over again. We’re definitely going to make a point of coming across every year. MM - What inspired the band to reunite after some 5 years apart? Audie - The band had never really stopped going, it was more that certain members of the band left the band to do other things. Mark Kendall left the band, then I left the band, then Sean left the band and Jack went solo for a while and that didn’t do too well. Then he got Mark back and they got somebody to take our place, the bass player and drummer, and coming up on the 25th year of Great White’s existence Jack had called me up and asked me if I’d like to rejoin the original members and do a whole new record. So I said … Hey let’s do it! … so here we are. MM - Back to the Rhythm is the bands first studio album for 8 years, at what stage did you think ... man its great to be back with these guys doing what we do best? Audie - Before we did the album we had done a reunion show in Hollywood which was the first time in all those years playing together and when Jack called me and asked me if I wanted to come back to the band and I said yes. He said we’re going to do a new record and I said that would be great. When we did our first show it was really just so like we’d never been apart and it was so surreal because we hadn’t seen each other for years and yet when we got back together, it was like no time had passed really. This time when we did the record it was really cool because we didn’t rehearse all the songs for the album over and over and then go in and record them. We just took certain ideas and then took a song a day and jammed it in the studio until we had a good feeling about where it was going. We just threw it out there and it was spontaneous and it wasn’t contrived. It was really fresh and exciting. Actually even before we did the record we all felt it was good to be back. It felt like we were coming back home. We did the show in around the January / February time. MM - The album itself is pure Great White, did you ever feel compelled to try something new for this album or do you believe in the old adage of IF IT’S NOT BROKE THEN DON’T TRY TO FIX IT! Audie - Well it’s a very collective album with a song in there for everyone. There’s a couple of songs in there that are very much like old Great White, then there’s the traditional blues Great White, then there’s like the heavy Great White. There’s something in there for everybody. No matter what Mark writes, or what Michael writes, or what Jack writes, it’s going to be Great White. Once we all put our own little influences in on the songs it all just takes its own route. We didn’t really stick to any kind of a formula. How we recorded the album, where we didn’t rehearse it beforehand, was something different for us. We’ve never done an album like that before where it was unrehearsed. We just went in and got familiar with the sound of the song and then just put it out there. It was a fresh sound. MM - Did you actually have any lyrics written before you went into the studio? Audie - Yes actually Jack had quite a few ideas, like the song ‘Just Yesterday’ is a song about the band. He was writing those lyrics as we were recording some of the other material. There was some songs that we’d already recorded when we’d played live, songs like ‘Play On’ and ‘Back To The Rhythm’, but these were with other players and weren’t done with the original members so it was more Great White sounding. MM - Which songs are your own favourites off the new album and which ones are you most looking forward to performing live? Audie - I like ‘Play On’ and I like ‘Take Me Down’ a lot. ‘Just Yesterday’ and ‘I’m Alive’ which is different from the traditional Great White sound and that’s why I like it. Those are my favourites. I had a lot to do with the collaboration of ‘Take Me Down’ and that’s why I like that song so much. I like playing on ‘Just Yesterday’ a lot. I do like all the songs in fact but these are the songs that got into my head the most. MM - Of all the elements that go into creating a new composition, which do you find the most rewarding? e.g. the working together on the creation of the song, the recording of it, or going out and playing live? Audie - I like all of it but playing live is my favourite part of it all. Helping in the creation of a new song is very exciting to me and this album was actually the very first Great White album where I was there every day with everybody else’s parts being recorded. Usually I’d do my drum parts and then I’d go … see you guys in tour season! … but this time I stayed through everybody’s sessions and I helped give input. I felt like I was a lot more of the creative process of recording than I’ve ever been in the past and that was very exciting for me. It actually motivated me into building my own recording studio here and home, which I’m still learning how to do but I have set it up. Michael Lardie’s been helping me to get familiar with what I have because he’s really good at using that stuff. MM - What are you planning to do with your studio? Just record material yourself or …? Audie - I’m going to have it more as a functioning demo recording studio for up and coming bands that are local to where I live and it’s going to be something of more of a bare bones studio and not really extravagant. Actually we've already re-recorded four Great White songs there. We re-recorded all the basic stuff there because we want to re-licence ourselves to be able to submit some of our songs for some video games and things. In order to have those rights we had to re-record the songs ourselves. So we re-recorded those four songs at my studio that I’ve just had built and actually they came out better sounding that the Capital Record versions of songs. The vocals were done at Michael’s studio because he has his own home studio as well, so between our two studios we have a pretty good sound going on. It’s going to be on some game, I think it’s a video game rather than a pin-ball game because then it would have to be the Great White pin-ball machine and I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think it’s some kind of 80’s game or something where you have a bunch of different bands from the 80’s. Also if some of those songs aren’t taken then we can use them for commercials or whatever. We actually plan on re-recording all our back catalogue eventually so we can do stuff like that with commercials and stuff to help earn some extra money. MM - What can the fans expect from a live Great White show? Will you be concentrating on mainly new material or will there be a mixture of older material included in the set? Audie - It’s going to be a mixture from the first album up until now, with the one emphasis on the ‘Hooked’ album because we did pretty good with that album in Europe I believe. So we’re including four songs off the ‘Hooked’ album and then I think we’re doing one song off the new one, one song of the very first one and then a lot of in betweens. Then we have some surprises in there too. Mark has a new solo album called ‘2.0’ and we’re going to have him do one of his songs. Then Sean has a song he wants to do, it’s not like any solo stuff for him but he just has this Robin Trower song he wants to do. Michael might sing a song. Everybody’s going to be singing except for me but it’s going to be a little different as we’re going to mix that all in with all the other Great White tradition songs. MM - How important is it to the band to be accessible to the fans, either face to face or via the internet? Do you ever get the chance to speak to many of the fans after the gigs? Audie - Well after we do our shows we do actually try to come out to where the merchandise stand is to sign autographs and thank the people for coming along. A lot of bands don’t take the time to do that and we feel it is very important that we meet our fans and connect with them. We don’t want them to just come and see us, we want to be a part of that whole experience. MM - Having been in the music business for some time now you must have seen some radical changes over the years. Some good, some bad. What do you think has been the biggest shake up over the years and what if anything would you like to see change? Audie - Well the internet was the biggest shake-up as far as selling millions of cd’s was concerned. That will never happen again. I heard they’re actually lowering the number of cd’s you need to sell to go Gold or Platinum. I heard that in Finland now it’s only 10,000 you have to sell to go Gold there now. I don’t know how it is over here in the States now but I heard that if you sell 100,000 copies of anything in the States now the record companies are ecstatic. Also with the internet people don’t have to buy the whole album now, they can buy individual tracks for 99 cents and then they can burn it and copy it and give it to all their friends. But you know that’s how we rely on our income for a lot of it and that’s all changed things as far as that goes. The internet does have its good points but as far as the whole sales things goes, that’s kind of killed the whole thing. MM - Do you think this might have actually made bands think a bit more objectively about the quality and type of music they put out? In the past we went through a phase where band would maybe put out an album with 5 songs that were good, then the rest were all fillers. Not all the bands of course but some did and everything seemed to get put out by the labels. I think perhaps the fans got a bit jaded to that and when the price of cd’s shot up it didn’t help the situation. Audie - Yes there is a lot of that. I buy and listen to a lot of cd’s and there’s like maybe 18 or 20 songs on a CD and I ask … why?, most of them are like fillers and just like you said there are maybe only a few good songs on there. There is some bands that can have maybe 10 good songs but when we write our songs we try to write over what we’re going to put out on the CD and then we choose only the best ones we think the people want to hear. Obviously we don’t really know until it’s out there and the fans tell us what they think of them. It’s a bit like when we did the Ian Hunter song ‘Once Bitten, Twice Shy’, I never really liked that song and asked … why do we have to do that? … but it just took off and who knew that it would go on to sell millions of copies, which was great. It’s a lot different now as far as that goes. Also the internet has given a lot of bands we would never had had the opportunity to be heard the opportunity to be heard, which is great because there’s a lot of talent out there. A lot of bands are great but they never get the opportunity to get a record deal and be heard. I think in that respect it’s really cool, but then the downside to that is that everybody can have an album out now. It’s like … I’ve got an album out! I’m not even a musician but I have an album out, I have one!. I got my pro-tools and I can sound perfect as long as I’m not playing live … (laughs). I think it has it’s good and bad points, basically overall I think it’s a good thing. MM - Well from a fans point of view if it forces the bands back out on the scene and instead of just putting out an album then doing a couple of dates in support, from a fans point of view it’s better because now we can actually see these bands in the flesh and blood playing live again. Audie - Yeh, it was funny because earlier on today I was talking to a guy sitting outside and he said to me that he already knew what our setlist was going to be tonight because somebody had put it out on the internet. MM - Yes they did, somebody did it from your Holland gig. Audie - Yeh, that probably helps us because there’s probably all those people out their with there cameras and video cameras and we’re probably on YouTube as well! In that respect a lot of people can see what’s going on right away before they get there and they already know what we’re going to play before we even get there. That makes me think maybe we should change the set every night just to mix it all up a bit! Then they will all be saying ... hey wait a minute that’s not what it says on my list! ... (laughs) I think I might talk to the band and see if we can mix it up a little from time to time. MM - Well the information I saw this afternoon about the Holland gig last night was very positive and a lot of people had said … ah great, I was planning on seeing the band later in the week in the UK and now I can’t wait … so actually it does help spread the word. Audie - Yeh, it was a really great venue. The crew was great, the sound was great, in a lot of venues the people don’t really have it together and it’s kind of frustrating because you have a certain level of professionalism and you need everybody else to be up on that level. If they’re down there it’s kind of frustrating because you want to do your job to the best level you can, but if that other element isn’t there you suffer a little because of it. It’s like we played this little shit hole in New York where they were trying to make a kit out of 3 different drum kits and it was all different makes and I made it do, but I’m a professional and yes I do rise above all that and whatever they give me I can use but … Tonight these guys who we’re on tour with for 5 shows have some really decent stuff so this is enjoyable. MM - How long have you as an individual been performing and can you remember the first time you ever played to a live audience? Audie - Well before I got into Great White I’d been in several local bands for 16 years and I got my first drum set when I was 2 years old. A little toy kit and I broke all my drum heads on the very first night and I thought my dad was going to get mad at me, but he knew I was just a little kid. Then when I was 12 years old they got me this drum kit from this serious music store in the States, it was this little Japanese kit and from there I just kept playing to records and stuff. Actually my first gig with Great White was in October 1984 I think and it was a place in Hollywood that I’d played with other bands but only as the support. This time it was sold out and it was like … WOW! I’ve played here before but never in front of a full house. Then the next gig I played with Great White also sold out and I was like … WHOAH! This band is big because every time we play a venue it’s sold out! … We played 9 different times in 1 month and we were sold out every time, it was like WOW! It was great and it was such a rush because when I first got into the band, after the gig people were coming up and asking for my autograph and I felt this wasn’t really right because I hadn’t really recorded a record with the band then, but I’d already played with Jack before in another band when I was 16 years old, together with another guy called Tracey G who was with World War 3 and Dio. We had a band way back then when Jack was only 16 years old, from that he hooked up with Mark Kendall and later on I hooked back up with Jack and here we are today 25 years later. It’s amazing how that all worked out. MM - It is amazing to know anybody as a friend for that length of time let alone be in a band with them. Audie - Yeh, apart from my family Jack is the only person I have known for that long. Being in a band is like bigger than being in a marriage because with a marriage you only have 2 people, but in a band you have 5 individuals who are all different, but we’ve known each other and we respect each other and we just have to get along. A lot of bands can’t say they can do that for very long and end up hating each other. Yes we’ve had some fallings out but it’s all water under the bridge and everything’s great now. Sobriety helps a lot, back to when we were all messed up we were just deceiving each other and ourselves and we were basically falling out with each other because we were basically doing things that we shouldn’t have been doing at all, but it’s all good now. MM - Every musician at some point in their life decides to pick up an instrument and learn how to play. What was it that made you decide to do so in the first place? Audie - My mom played drums when she was in high school with her sister, my aunt, and my uncle that she married, he played trombone. My aunt played piano and my mom played drums. It was in the 1930’s and she showed me pictures in her high school annual where they were in this little dancehall band. Back then it wasn’t very fashionable for females to play drums, they got harassed a lot by the people for having a girl drummer. When I went to this amusement park when I was a little boy I saw this band set up on this café in front of this street and as soon as I saw these drums and heard this guy playing them it hit me, that’s what I wanted to be, I wanted to be like that guy drumming. I wanted to do what he was doing. Then my mom gave me 4 of her Beatle albums when I was 12 and I wanted to be Ringo Star so bad, I went to see that movie ‘Help’ 58 times when I was 12 because I wanted to be that guy so bad. So when I was 12 years old all I wanted was to be Ringo! We used to play The Beatles in the field at school, running from the girls and the whole 9 yards. He was a big influence in my whole wanting to be in a band. Then from seeing that guy in that amusement park and seeing the sparkle of the drum kit I was so mesmerised, there was nothing else I wanted to be, even through high school. I ditch school and hang out with my friends and go to the park and drink and smoke and I’d say one day I’d be in a rock and tour the world and sell millions of records. They’d all be like ... yeh! Right on dude! … We very nearly got kicked out of school but the thing is I actually went out and did it, so they have to give me that respect right. (laughs). It was always something I really really wanted to do. MM - Can you remember what was the first band that you saw perform live as a fan? Audie - The first band was Steven Steele’s Malassis (?) from Crosby Stills & Nash. I saw them at the Hollywood Bowl when I was 13 years old and I went with my friend and his parents dropped us off. We had 2 cigarettes and a valium and we split it and we smoked it thought we were smoking pot and getting high and thought it was so cool. We were just little punks trying stuff out. The next band after that I was Manfred Man’s Earth Band, Uriah Heap, Alice Cooper, stuff like that. I saw Yes open for Black Sabbath when I was in high school which was a strange miss-match billing. Back when I was a kid they did this and the support band always got booed off the stage. Like when I went to see the Rolling Stones, the first band were booed off the stage after only 3 or 4 songs and people were throwing trash at them like crazy. Every concert I went to around that time had a miss-match of acts and the first band never really fit and got booed. I think it’s maybe different now and people like Kiss will take a young band out and then you have that crowd introducing that band with that crowd and you kind of interchange fans between the bands. MM - Did you ever think that one day you would be that person up on stage and everybody would be rocking and cheering at you? Audie - That was always my dream, I always said I couldn’t wait to be big and to get backstage. Going backstage always seemed so exciting and I always wanted to see what it was like backstage. Now it’s just like going to work and it’s like … so, I’m going back stage, it’s not that exciting. It’s lost that mystique and mystery, the full spread with the booze and the food and the girls. It’s like it’s no big deal any more. That’s the only down side to living my dream in that all that mystique has gone. I still enjoy going to concerts though, I just saw Van Halen last month perform and it was awesome because I hadn’t seen them perform live since we were opening for them in the band I was in before I joined Great White and it was about 1975. It was great. The very first time I saw that little street band on the street corner I was mesmerized and then when I went to see a full production … oh like when I went to see Kiss perform live, they weren’t the headliners, the headliners were Wishbone Ash. The bill was Camel, Kiss then Wishbone Ash. It was 1975 and I enjoyed seeing Camel because I had one of their records and thought they were cool, then when Kiss came on and I saw all these little lights come on and all these Marshall stacks, then the band opened up with ‘Deuce’ and big flames of pyro came out from everywhere. It totally blew my mind because I’d never seen a show like that before and then Wishbone Ash came on after that and it was like … I think I’ll go home now. Yes they were the band I’d gone to see but they were just blown away by all these pyro’s I just seen I wasn’t interested any more. That made me realize there was so much more to music than I’d ever realized you could do. MM - Yes it’s not just about the music, it's also about the performance. Audie - Yeh, that was the very first time I actually realized it is about the performance not just about the music, there’s so much more to it than just the music. MM - What sort of music do you listen to at the moment or do you not get much chance? Audie - Well at home I listen to a lot of music that is different, bands like Godsmack, Sevendust, Audioslave, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, that kind of stuff. MM - Do you get to see many live concerts? Audie - I got to see Godsmack last year which was pretty cool. I’ve always wanted to see Disturbed but I’ve never had the chance to see them yet. I really like Sevendust, I like them a lot, the drummer is really amazing. They do some really cool stuff. I like stuff like what we do but then I also appreciate other stuff that’s heavier like Korn and some of the younger stuff. It’s cool and it’s got a lot of attitude, in the drumming you’ve got a chance to really cut loose in some of those kind of songs as there’s not too many lead solo’s. I like the energy that some of the new stuff has. (Just then the door opens and we're joined by Mark Kendall). MM - With the current music scene in somewhat of a turmoil what with the MADE BY TV bands can you honestly see any of these bands making it to 25 year anniversary tour? Audie - A lot of them probably not too many. I think there may be a small handful of bands that when a new sound comes out there’s suddenly a whole bunch of new bands doing that kind of thing but only maybe one or two will stand out. Stone Temple Pilots are still going, yes they’ve had a change in personnel and stuff. Alice in Chains lost a great singer then have got back together, but there’s only a small handful that survive. Like when the grunge scene came out and with Pearl Jam there was maybe only 2 of their songs I really liked, ‘Evenflow’ and ‘Jeremy’, the rest of the songs I just don’t understand. Nirvanna, I still don’t get them. I do like some of their songs and I love the drummer they had, the one who’s in the Foo Fighters now, that guy is awesome. He’s very talented. Queens of the Stone Age, I like them. I think Korn will last a while and Linkin Park, I like some of their stuff but after a while it starts to sound like the same stuff as on the last record. Getting back to your question though out of say 40 bands that’s new I think maybe there’s only 5 that will really stand the test of time and keep progressing. Then there’s bands like The Doors who are still huge from the 60’s. Mark – I have this friend who’s son is all full of face-piercing’s and he’s totally into metal and punk and when he heard The Doors his whole discography just went out the window, he was like .. WOW! These guys are god, they’re the only band in the world … This guy is like 20 years old and once the younger generation discover things, when something turns them on to something they really get into it. MM - If you could give any advice to young bands starting out today what would it be? Audie – Don’t quit your day job! (laughs) No seriously just stay true to yourself and check out everything, don’t just go with what’s the flavour of the month. I’ve noticed European fans are a lot more loyal and dedicated than the US fans. They don’t care what the flavour of the month is, they stay true to the band they like. It doesn’t matter what other songs or sounds are out there. I have noticed that. That’s where in the States the fans throw the old stuff out the door, they want what’s new and don’t want to hear the old stuff any more. It’s like when the grunge came out it killed the 80’s music, but now we’re having a chance because the kids know there’s got to be something more than just these 3 chords and all this screaming. Bands like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and ZZ Tops, the kids are saying … WOW! This guy can really play lead and this guy can really sing … I think the new kids should check out all the types of music that’s out there because all it’s going to do is broaden their horizons and allow them to become more versatile and be more creative. You can mix that flavour with that influence every once in a while instead of just copying one creation and be stuck in that same category. The Sabbath sound or the grunge sound, you should broaden and expand that. That’s what I like about Sevendust, they’re heavy but them they do very nice melodies and harmonies and sing really good, but then they can also get raunchy and heavy. That’s what I really like about those kind of bands. They still keep their own sound. MM - Now for a fun question now - if one day you were involved in a freak accident and became a new breed of superhero, what would your name be, what would be your special power and what would your costume look like? Audie – Man! Mine would be that my special power would be to read minds and my costume would look like a really sharp suit made out of shark skin. My name would be Mr Cool. (laughs). Mark – Wow, that’s cool, how am I gonna top that one? (laughs). Tuna Man! I don’t know if I’d want to be able to read minds. Audie -
That could be dangerous. You’d really find out who your friends
really are! |
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