INTERVIEW WITH DRIVER
For those who remember, ‘Driver’ was first on the scene in 1989/1990 and released a 5-track demo. Since then, various band members had moved on and made waves in the music business in many different projects. A short list is included on their website. Having been ousted by the industry back in the day, ‘Driver’ has become a cult classic amongst those fans of classic/melodic metal. A quote taken from their website explains ‘Driver’ as being “When heavy metal meets melody, when class merges with power, and when energy melds with musicianship and creativity, the resulting force can be summed up in just two words: Musical bliss”!
Band members include: -
Rob Rock – Vocals
Roy Z – Guitars
Reynold “Butch” Carlson – Drums
Edward Roth – Keyboards
Aaron Samson - Bass
Since their reformation, things have been progressing nicely for the band; I was privileged to speak to vocalist Rob Rock over the phone from Florida about the release of their fantastic album ‘Sons of Thunder’.
PM: Congratulations on “Sons of Thunder”, it’s a terrific album, how did the project get back together? And what was the inspiration to do so?
RR: Thank you. I got a call from George Beagle at ‘metal heaven records’ who was a big fan of the 1989 Driver Demo that had 5 songs on it, and he had an idea to release a full album of the Driver material. I always wanted to release more material back then but it never happened. We decided to accept his offer to make a full album.
PM: Yeah some of the songs have appeared on your solo album ‘Holy Hell’, did this make the decision easier?
RR: It was never my intention to release more ‘Driver’ material, it just happened.
PM: The album is out in the UK what has been the response so far from people that have heard the album?
RR: Awesome! People not only like the music but they also like that fact that it is totally true to the 1989/1990 sound.
PM: But it has quite a modern production sound to it?
RR: Yeah, well we had a lot of the original vintage equipment that we used for this recording, we wanted to make it as true to the original as possible but Roy Z did an amazing job on production.
PM: Was the recording process a quick affair? How long were you in the studio?
RR: Jan/Feb we started recording last year, but due to busy summer schedules of Roy Z it ran on into the summer.
PM: Are all the musicians in the same area of the USA, or was this a long distance recording between the many schedules?
RR: The band recorded in LA and then I flew out to Roy Z’s studio and laid down my vocals after the music was recorded. The entire band lives in L.A. I live in Florida.
PM: Did the band write the new tracks in the studio whilst the recording process went on?
RR: The new ones, Roy Z demo’d the songs; I worked on the melodies and the lyrics.
PM: The album sounds fresh and renewed in 2008, how do you go about creating a timeless classic?
RR: As I said before, Roy Z did an amazing job, and the songs sound fresh today as they did back then you know, I am really pleased that they still sound relevant. Roy and me thought the same thing when we listened back to the old EP, and it kind of helped us make the decision to push forward with the recording of this album.
PM: Where does the inspiration for the lyrics come from?
RR: Well, some of the original tracks, the lyrics had some religious inspiration in there, a trait of my upbringing I guess, and some of the songs are a lot more modern subjects in there, like ‘Never Give Up’, and ‘Sons of Thunder’ that is about auto racing and that.
PM: Who came up with the concept for the album cover?
RR: We started out with one cover, and then we ended up with another! When they printed it, they printed it totally too dark. The US version is ok in USA code, but the EU version, when they printed it in Germany it came out too dark, something happened at the printers, the black got blacker and the red got 80% redder, all of a sudden there was no purple or gold tone. I don’t know, but that’s the only thing I am disappointed with is the cover with regards this album. Perhaps next time I should see some proofs you know!
PM: Does the band ‘Driver’ have any future plans for touring to support the recording?
RR: Well right now we are talking with some people about maybe doing some festival dates in 2009 in the summer, nothing conclusive, we have to talk as a band and make sure everyone is available, but we have had lots of requests for ‘Driver’ playing live.
PM: Are there any plans to re-release the original recordings made in 1990 on the DRIVER EP? I see there is a dedicated myspace site for Driver 1990. I also see that the Japanese release of the album will feature a couple of bonus tracks, do you know what is on the European release?
RR: For Japan, those guys always like something special with the currency being so high, so those tracks on that release are the original demo tracks of those songs. They are old 4-track recordings, not the standard 24-track recordings that we put on the album proper.
PM: What are the influences of the ‘DRIVER’ project? (not to be confused with the M.A.R.S. Project: Driver album in 1986)
RR: I think probably the influences back in 1989 were pretty much what was around at the time you know, ‘Whitesnake’ were pretty big at that time and there was a lot of melodic metal going on. We thought we would get on that train, but we were a little late! Grunge kind of took over whilst we were trying to get a deal with Atlantic Records, and they gave us a call and said grunge was the thing and that was that for the melodic metal bands.
PM: Are you guys going to release any merchandise for the band, like t-shirts, patches etc?
RR: Yeah, we are going to open up the band website for that stuff, links to buying the album, downloads, things like that.
PM: Do you feel there is a strong musical scene now in relation to classic metal? Whether in the USA or Worldwide?
RR: Its great when there are festival dates with a lot of fans turning up, but when you’re doing single shows around the USA the attendances are quite low. Melodic metal fans are older (sometimes!) and if we play mid-week, it’s hard to get them to come out of the house to shows.
PM: What has been your favourite country to tour around in recent times? And is there a city or country that you would want to play in that you have not had chance to do so yet?
RR: I would love to play Brazil and the UK for that matter, I still have not played there, and maybe Russia as my wife’s family have ties there, so for that reason I would like to add Russia on a list of countries to play. My favourite places that I have played had been Japan, Germany and Spain in Europe. People get kind of crazy in those countries.
PM: What made you get into music in the first place and start singing?
RR: My older brother always had a band, he would rehearse and I would go and listen to them rehearse. I started out as a drummer, and to play in my brothers band I had to be a singer cause they were doing a lot of vocal harmonies and stuff. But when I left my brothers had I wanted to play the metal stuff, I like the metal stuff and so I started my own band and they said you sing better than you drum, why don’t you come out front!
PM: You have some good advice on vocal training on your website, do you teach students in your spare time?
RR: I don’t actually teach vocal training, but I put up those tips to help out aspiring singers, a lot of people email me with questions etc. I tried teaching in the late 80’s, one guy went onto to record an album, the other guy I had did nothing and I realised that students were strange. The guy who did no homework and did nothing was just giving me money for nothing so I did not find it rewarding.
PM: Have you ever tried ‘cookie monster’ vocals!!! Without destroying your voice! Death metal vocals like Deicide or cannibal corpse. Just wondering if you have tried that and heard what you sounded like!
RR: (Laughs) No I never did that! I don’t know how they do than man; I do spare a thought for those guys who can do that.
PM: You played Prog Power USA recently with your solo band, how did that go? Did you include any DRIVER numbers in the setlist or is that a separate thing all together? (‘Iced Earth’, ‘Jon Oliva’s Pain’ & ‘Pathosray’ were also on the bill).
PM: It was pretty good; we should have some good material for a DVD from that show.
After my closing remarks, it has to be said that everyone should check these guys out! They were a terrific bonus for me when I heard the album and with Rob’s aspirations to tour and release more material, we can only hope and pray.
For more on the band check out
http://www.myspace.com/driverofficial
http://www.myspace.com/driver1990
http://www.metalheaven.net/
http://www.myspace.com/robrock1
Interviewed by Paul Maddison
Driver - Sons of Thunder Review
Artist: Driver
Title: Sons of Thunder
Type: Album
Label: Metal Heaven Records
There are some famous names on this album for sure, including Rob Rock (vocals), Roy Z (guitars), Reynold Carlson (Drums), Ed Roth (Keyboards) and Aaron Samson (bass). Having been in circulation during the late 1908’s with a demo released in 1990, they are one of the underdogs on the hard rock scene. With Rob Rock and Roy Z forging careers in other bands and different avenues of music, 2008 see’s ‘Driver’ reformed and ready to take on the world.
Five of the tracks on offer were originally from their 1990 demo and have been re-recorded, the only negative point to the promo copy is that there are only 3 full length tracks, with 8 of them (not including the intro) being “shortened versions”. Very frustrating especially as the tracks build all the time and then meet their untimely end when some wicked guitar work is in full flow!
‘I’m a Warrior’ bursts out and is full of precision riffing and powerful vocals, think ‘Queensryche’ (…’Mindcrime I’ era) with a touch of ‘Leatherwolf’ thrown in for good measure. Upon hearing this tune, I am reminded of another band, but then finding out it’s the same singer, no wonder (‘Axel Rudi Pell’), the melodic interludes are very pleasing to the ears and fit well. The title track is a particular favourite and stands out as this. A bellowing mix of pure traditional metal/melodic hard rock coupled with top class production, it does sound good.
The only downside on this album is the ballad ‘Change of Heart’ which sounds just like a weak ‘Foreigner’ ballad from the 1980’s (showing a major AOR influence on the album). Thankfully, this is the only one for me that is below par, the remainder of the disc flows effortlessly and you have to appreciate the sheer wealth of talent on display. There are some blistering lead breaks and solos, and I find it interesting listening to the riff on ‘Never Give Up’, it does start out sounding like a guitar players warm up routine/riff! ‘Hearts on Fire’ proves that these lads keep up with the best of them with a rousing powerhouse of energy and mature song arrangements.
It’s fair to say that I was surprised when I heard this album; I have not let it out of my CD player for a number of days now, the sign of an infectious album! ‘Driver’ truly is at the forefront of hard rock and metal and this album is an excellent find. One for the older or purest form of hard rock fans perhaps, but still, it is definitely worth picking up.
http://www.metalheaven.net/
Paul Maddison
- 인터뷰 원문 페이지(Original Interview Page) : http://www.metalteamuk.net:80/interview-driver.htm (Closed)
- 리뷰 원문 페이지(Original Review Page) : http://www.metalteamuk.net:80/cdreviews-driver.htm (Closed)
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