I interviewed Dean Roland of Collective Soul. We discussed:
- Their new album, Here To Eternity 
- The decision to release a double album
- Recording at Elvis Presley's house in Palm Springs, CA
- Walking the line between exploring new territory and going of course 
- And more 

​The Collective Soul website: https://collectivesoul.com/

Cris Cohen: Reading through several past interviews, the one thing that kept coming up again and again was the term “reluctant lead singer.” How does one balance the idea of A) being reluctant and hesitant to move in this direction, but B) also wanting to improve and evolve?

Kevin Martin of Candlebox: Well, I'm certainly insecure. I mean, I think to be a lead singer you have to be insecure because you're looking for that instant gratification that you're good, you're talented, people like you. I’ve got to be honest with you, man. When I sing on a record or when I sing live, it's really about pushing myself as far as I can go. Because I love it. I only love it those two hours I'm on stage. But for the same two hours that I'm on stage, my mind is playing all sorts of tricks on me. “That note was wrong. You didn't get it right this time. You missed that pattern. You missed this lyric. You switched the lyrics up.” I've stopped “Far Behind” live several times because I fuck up the first verse. Being lost in that game can make it difficult to remember where you're at.

I finally got to do an in-person interview with bassist John Pierce of Toto. We discussed:
- How learning to play the drums has influenced his bass playing
- Playing with Toto drummer Shannon Forrest 
- His quest to play less and make each note more meaningful 
- Sessions with Huey Lewis, Mick Jagger, and Tom Petty
- Toto's "With A Little Help From My Friends" album
- And more 

Toto's website: https://totoofficial.com/

Cris Cohen: I found this cool quote where you said that "The songs on this album are feature films inside three-minute chunks of music."

What makes these songs feature films as opposed to, say, documentaries?

Tim Easton: Basically that's saying we're taking a two-hour story and having a climax and a change up in the third act and everything. 

Watch the full interview 

A weird compliment: When websites steal social media content you developed with your clients and pass it off as their own reporting. 
​
It has happened many times over the years. It just happened again.

It speaks to the reach a good bit of content can have. This reach is, of course, not measured by social media stats. So it is yet another reason to ignore that mess. 

Cris Cohen: Again, going to your showmanship on stage, I’m curious about what gave you the idea and when did you start using a keyboard pedestal that can revolve and spin… quite fast actually?

Lawrence Gowan of Styx: We're going to go right back to the last answer funnily enough. I had a song called “Lost Brother” that has a very kind of a cool little piano intro to it. Alex Lifeson plays guitar on that song, the title track from “Lost Brotherhood,” 1990. I called him and said, “They're giving us a budget to do a video for this song, and I’d like you to be in it.” And I’d written up the storyboard. I said, basically it'll be a bit like “Animal Farm”. It takes place in a barn, and the song is about gang mentality. We're in the barn and we're using the metaphor of gangs and very much like the animals in “Animal Farm”.

And Alex, when he plays his solo, breaks out of the barn. So the barn's kind of on fire and smoking. He breaks out of the barn, blows the solo as a soloist. Alone. Great moment, because he's apart from any gang affiliation, let's call it that.

I then realized, I’m going to look really boring in this video, because I’m going to be stuck behind the piano, playing this bit, and I’m going to be basically there with the piano player's dilemma, being behind “the desk,” trying to make it look like I’m physically involved.

And with the lighting company, we were having a meeting with them about it. And I said, I wish we could come up with a way of the keyboard moving. So we had a quick talk about putting it on a track, like a dolly track. And I thought, what if I could turn it? Like a guitar player can always turn and face different parts of the audience, and that's part of the great way that they can engage people. And as a singer, when I get off the piano, I can do that.

But I wish you it could move, and what if we had it spin? And that was like a great moment because the lighting guy suddenly goes, “We could do that.” And he started pulling together lighting pieces from their lighting rigs. He said, “If this part here could pivot on there, it would have to be heavy. Let's make it out of stainless steel.” We had the proverbial napkin-type drawing of what it would what it would do.

When we did the video, the thing turned out to be great, and I got really into using it in the video. Alex and everyone on the crew and my band were kind of like, “You're getting pretty good on that. Are you going to take that on stage?”

And I said that was never the intention. It was just to be in this video, a prop for the video. But I did realize this could be a really good stage piece. We started using it. I maimed myself several times on it in the first year. Pretty badly at first, but then I got more adept at using it.

And when I joined Styx, the very first rehearsal, we had the big multi-keyboard set up and I went on stage to play that. And they went, “Hey, where's the spinning thing that you were playing?”

I said, “I’m so glad you asked. I brought it with me.”

And so it's been with us on stage now 23 years.

Mark Murphy of The Devlins (clients): Colin is a great guitar player. He innately understands what works for the song. He's so sympathetic to supporting melody lines. And he has a really unique solo style and lead style as well.

I think he learned quite a lot from recording with Daniel Lanois. Colin generally has his amp really, really loud. And then he plays quite softly with his fingers. It's a very cool and dynamic way of playing electric guitar.

Cris Cohen: A lot of what you do is in support of guitar solos. Not just with this band, You've also worked with the Steve Lukather. So obviously you're a drummer who guitarists are very comfortable with. But that brings up the question, what's the key to playing under a guitar solo?

Mike Vanderhule, drummer for Y&T: I've always played R&B, soul, and jazz. And I was a trumpet player most of my childhood -- second grade to senior in high school -- while I was playing drums. So I know how it works in a band and who to listen to. Just be aware of backing up a solo and the expression of where they're going with it. Rock and roll is more planned out. But at home I play with a lot of blues guys where we'll show up without any rehearsal and just work off each other. So you just have to have huge ears and play with some dynamics. And what I got from listening to The Beatles and Alex Van Halen, give them a lot of that fire extinguisher sound out of your ride. Some guitar players love that wash.

Scott Terry of clients Red Wanting Blue: The song "Goliath" is an emotional battle. No one likes a bully. And so many people feel like they are being bullied. Maybe by an individual, maybe by technology, maybe by a big corporation. So many are fighting against a larger foe. 
We're a rock and roll band that's always felt like an underdog fighting against the odds. We will drive through the night. We will get less sleep. We will do whatever we have to do to show that we can stand shoulder to shoulder with whoever is out there. 

​I interviewed singer-songwriter Stephanie Sammons. We discussed:

• Her new album, "Time and Evolution"
• The challenge of being an empath and a songwriter
• Studying with Jonatha Brooke
• "I have a runnning list of interesting observations, things that move me, things that resonate with me"
• The lyric "I don't want to die, but I don't want to live like this"
• And more

​Stephanie Sammons website: https://stephaniesammons.com/