Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal: The Culture Brats Interview

Guitar god Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal is releasing his tenth solo album, Little Brother Is Watching, on February 24th. Last week, we had a chance to speak with him about the new album, collaborating with Scott Weiland and Run-D.M.C.'s Darryl McDaniels, Guns N' Roses, and his dream music festival. Here is an edited version of our conversion (I had to cut out all the fanboy stuff where I talked about seeing him play live):

I saw on Facebook where you were giving your new CD your first listen a few hours ago. How did it sound?
It sounds just like it's supposed to (laughs). Which is funny, because I remember years ago I did one CD and they actually put the wrong music on the CD. They put one of my other albums on it. I started sending these out and people started writing saying, "Um, dude. Something isn't right." And then I had a friend that I produced his CD and it went to the manufacturer. Halfway through the CD, it switched to this other band's stuff, all this Latin music. I think it's gotten better in the digital age, but human error, things happen, so it's always good to check. I had an hour ride home so it was perfect. I pretty much finished listening to the whole CD as I pulled up to my door.

I've been listening to it today too and I've got to tell you it sounds really awesome.
Oh great. Thank you.

You stated that Little Brother Is Watching is about life in the digital age. What led you to tackle that topic?
Just looking out the window and turning on the computer. This is our life that we live in, you know? It's the next phase. The government would watch the powers that be, whoever it was—and I'm not this big government conspiracy dude or anything like that, but it's a reality that they have the eyes and the ears—but the thing that was not anticipated years ago when people were predicting the future was that we would have the technology as well where we can watch each other and watch those who are policing us. It's pretty interesting living in a time where everything you do can and will be posted on YouTube for the world to see and judge and enjoy. This is how we live now, part of normal life.

This is your tenth solo album. How do you feel it stacks up to the rest?
I like it! I feel like this one is a lot more melodic. I guess it's a little more grown up in the sense that it's not trying to be anything, not trying to prove anything. I wrote the best songs I could write and tried to perform them the best that I could and really cared a lot more about the space and dynamic moments within the songs and multiple melodies working with each other between guitar lines and vocal lines. I just tried to make it a lot more musical and I think it's less about the angst and the energy and it's more about melody and emotion.

You recently collaborated with Darryl McDaniels of Run-D.M.C. How did that come about?
Yeah! That dude is great! It goes back to the band Generation Kill. They've been working with Darryl. The singer of Generation Kill, Rob Dukes, is an old friend of mine and he told me about it and said they were looking for someone to take care of production and mixing and we started working together. We got one song done called "Lot Lizard," a real nasty song that sounds great. I threw in some fretless guitar solos and stuff in there as well. It's a nice collaboration. It's some really cool dirty rap metal. It's dark. The stuff is definitely dark as far as subject matter and how it makes you feel. It's got some creepy stuff going on. You just got to hear it.

When can we hear it?
Now that is a good question. I know they're in the studio working on some more tracks and some writing and getting some other stuff done. They're going to be getting me some more music to play around with then hopefully they'll start sharing the stuff and giving people some sounds very soon.



You also collaborated with Scott Weiland, Disturbed's John Moyer, and Jon and Vince Votta as Art Of Anarchy. What brought that group together?
That started off with Jon and Vince. They're brothers, one plays guitar and the other plays drums. I've known them for about eighteen years and I've been producing all their bands that they've had. They wanted to start their own music company and the first thing they wanted to put out was a supergroup-type album. They wrote the songs, I brought them into my studio and we tracked all their parts and then I laid all my parts. John Moyer came in and laid the bass stuff. Scott did one song and then he decided to do the whole album. It's all about the music. It's really... it's an album. It's some really interesting stuff. A good solid rock album and that should be out hopefully by May or June. It's something that's been in the works since 2011. It's been a long time of just taking our time with it and trying to get everything right.

Let's talk Guns. Appetite was such a pivotal album and I'd just like to know what it was like joining them.
It seemed very normal. I always had my own band and was doing everything a band does: touring, putting out music, and everything. Every once in awhile, I would play with other people. Interesting people. I played with Nancy Sinatra. Lita Ford. I never joined another band, though. We just had a run or a show or I would even just pop up as a guest for one song. This was the first time I was going to be joining another band. Originally, I turned it down when we were talking about doing it eleven years ago. In 2006, we started talking again and I was like, "Alright, what the hell." We got together in New York. We jammed together one night on three songs. They were like, "You want to do another three tomorrow night?" "Alright, sure." I pretty much knew all the songs already because who doesn't? We jammed seven times and hit the road. For me, doing that kind of stuff is pretty normal. You get together with people and you make music and the more unexpected the situation is, the more fun it is. And that's what makes being a musician something that never gets old, never gets dull. You can never predict who you might be jamming with at some point and what an interesting moment that can be.

Final question: you're in charge of a music festival and you can get any five artists, dead or alive, to perform on the bill with you. Who do you choose?
Five artists dead or alive? Wow. That's a tough one! Of course, The Beatles gotta be there. Hendrix has to be there. Who else? I would want to see... Man, this is tough! There's so many I want to say. Manowar. I want Manowar on there. That's three. I'm going to say... Yes? Yes with Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford. That's four. Who else... GG Allin. GG Allin to get naked, cut himself with glass, and piss on people, and then run off the stage and start beating the crap out of random people.

What song do you all perform together as the final jam?
Final jam. One song. This is even tougher now. What would they possibly play together? "Dancing Queen" from ABBA. Just because it's so out of place.

That's just wrong and so messed up. We've got to go with a different song. You bring back people from the dead to do that? No! Something from Steve Wonder maybe? What a tough one. You know what? I'm going to say we'll all do a Manowar song together. What could it be, though? Could it be "Black Wind, Fire, And Steel?" "Valhalla" because the verse keeps changing keys. Hendrix would have a chance to solo over it, Wakeman could do something, perfect. There you go.

More Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal: Official | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

Back This: The Shagoolies

Want to have a hand in getting a brand new children's television show off the ground? What if I told you Foxy Shazam's Eric Naly and Bowling For Soup's Jaret Reddick were behind it? How about I stop talking and show you a teaser for it?



Looks pretty cool, right? They're trying to raise $150,000 to film a pilot so if you'd like to help out, head over to their Kickstarter page and check out The Shagoolies.

Song Of The Day: Lotus Crush, "Hearts and Minds"

From 2015, here's Lotus Crush with "Hearts and Minds."

Enjoy!

Song Of The Day: AWOLNATION, "Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)"

NEW AWOL, KIDS!!!

From 2015, here's AWOLNATION with "Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)."

Enjoy!

Seven Questions In Heaven With KIDS

Today we're spending Seven Questions In Heaven with KIDS' singer/bassist Joshua Diaz!

Describe your music for our readers who may not be familiar with you.
We are a band called KIDS, and we make art that we feel brings back a childlike feeling of adventure, paired with adult situations.

Who are your musical influences and idols?
All of our personal musical interests vary and are all across the board. We enjoy everything from Kpop to Dixieland Jazz. However, we try our very hardest not to let many of our personal musical interests influence our music too much. When writing this next record we're releasing titled Rich Coast, we were very intentional about that. We took three weeks off of our daily jobs, shut off our cell phones, and headed to the smokey mountains of the Appalachian Trail to get inspiration from adventurous experiences. We made it a point not to listen to any of our routine music during this time as well. We were adamant about wanting to document our actual feelings through our fingertips when writing these songs.

What was the first album, cassette, or CD you bought with your own money?
I believe it was MXPX, "Chick Magnet."

Seven Questions In Heaven With The Rocketboys

Today we're spending Seven Questions In Heaven with The Rocketboys!

Describe your music for our readers who may not be familiar with you.
We try and make music that is original, but still easy to take in. Basically, melodic rock that has big, anthemic moments, as well as soft, ambient layers; all with great hooks and melodies! Our new EP, Left | Right, has all that and then some, and we couldn't be more excited to share it!

Who are your musical influences and idols?
We've all always had varying tastes in music. From late '90s emo bands, to pop country, to hip hop. I think one thing that's always tied us all together though is our love of big, epic sounding bands like Arcade Fire, Radiohead, and Sigur Ros. There are so many great bands making music right now that it's hard to pick an all-time favorite, but easy to find a new one.

What was the first album, cassette, or CD you bought with your own money?
Sixteen Stone by Bush on cassette tape. I think next was a cassingle of Shaquille O'Neal's "Shoot Pass Slam." Even from early on, I had pretty diverse taste in music.

Song Of The Day: The Davenports, "Don't Be Mad At Me"

From 2015, here's The Davenports with "Don't Be Mad At Me."

Enjoy!

Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley: The Culture Brats Interview

On January 23rd, Spandau Ballet will embark on their first US tour in thirty years. We were lucky enough to catch up with singer Tony Hadley to discuss the tour, Band Aid 30, and which Guinness World Record he'd love to have his name attached to.

In about ten days, Spandau Ballet will begin its first US tour in 30 years. What did we do to you guys to make you stay away so long?
It's what we did to ourselves. We had a twenty-year fallout which was pretty acrimonious. In our film, Soul Boys Of The Western World, it's all documented there. A pretty painful breakup, really. Sometimes bands keep going because they think they have to. If I'm looking back on it, Through The Barricades should've been our last album, we should've taken five years off from each other, and then probably we would've survived. But unfortunately we pushed it too far and for various reasons, we just weren't enjoying it anymore and so we ended up taking a break from each other for twenty years and ended up in court which was very nasty. It took a lot of soul searching to get ourselves back together again. We got back together in 2009 and 2010 and I said at the time that carrying all that baggage, all that nasty energy, doesn't really do anybody any good. There I was on television saying, "No, we're never getting back together. We don't like each other." It doesn't do you any good. It took a long time, but we finally managed to rekindle our friendship.

I don't know why we didn't tour the States back in 2009 and 2010. I think we made some mistakes with America. I think maybe we were too clever. We certainly spent lots and lots of time in Europe and especially in places like Italy and Spain and Germany. What I think people forget, or what we forgot as a band, is in America there's so many great bands and so many great musicians, you've got to tour. You have to keep going back. You have to prove to people that you can cut your chops as a musician. Once you do that and once you get a following, and Duran was very good at doing that, then you've got your place in America and American pop. We unfortunately for one reason or another didn't do that and we needed to.

After thirty years, [we're] coming over to America with a very short tour. There's already talk about coming back in the summer and doing some festivals and outdoor shows. I toured there as a solo artist several years ago which was great. I toured small clubs, it was great fun. I enjoyed it. Hopefully this is the start of coming back to America on a much more regular basis.

We were in Austin, Texas for the SXSW film festival. We did the premiere of Soul Boys Of The Western World, but we also did a small club gig while we were there and the reaction was fantastic and I think that was what spurred us on to say, "Right. We're definitely going to come back and play some shows in the States."

What will the shows be like?
We've been in rehearsals for over a week. The one thing about the States is it was "True" that was the big hit. That was the thing that broke us in America. Previous to that, I'm sure that some Americans are not even aware that we were a culty band. We were a synth-based band that came out of this massive music and fashion explosion in London called The New Romantics. There were songs that were really kind of synth dance stuff: "To Cut A Long Story Short," "The Freeze," "Reformation," "Mandolin," all these songs before we ever got to "True." We're going to be looking at some of those songs, which are sounding great actually. And obviously "True," "Communication," "Lifeline," "Only When You Leave," and stuff that hopefully the American audiences are going to love and know. We did three new songs for the new album as well and we'll be playing those, too.

Will the songs be true to the originals or will you be doing any new arrangements?
Pretty true to the originals. Obviously you update sounds and things like that, solos might be different, although the "True" solo is written in stone. That never changes. Steve's sax solo, that can never change. You might introduce slightly new elements into the songs, but what I've always found as an artist is if you detract too much from the original, the fans don't like it. I've seen other artists try to be too clever and it just doesn't go down very well with the fans. When we play "True," everyone's going to know instantly that that's "True." We're not going to be too clever.



I've got to tell you I watched your performances on Kimmel and your voice, it still sounds amazing.
Cheers, mate!

Do you have to follow a crazy routine to keep it sounding so great?
I'm sort of lucky that I've always had a strong voice. I took it seriously from an early age. I've always been touring. I've toured with orchestras all over the world. I've sort of been singing all the time and I think the most important thing about any singer... It's when you stop, I think you've got problems or if you don't sing correctly, then obviously you've got problems. Touch wood, I've always been pretty lucky. I think that I'm singing better than ever and musically, I think the band is playing better than ever.

The Jimmy Kimmel show, bit of a weird one really in lot of ways. Spandau Ballet, where have you been for twenty-eight years? Well, we don't really care. So to get a chance to be on the Jimmy Kimmel show, and everyone was so gracious and kind and all the fans were there and they were all crazy. It was like, "Wow. This is good. This is nice." It was a great opportunity for us and hopefully the fans will be equally as kind when we come over to play next week.

You alluded to this earlier, but last you released the greatest-hits package called The Story and it contained three new tracks. Were these tracks from the vaults or were they new songs?
No. We spent so much time and energy on the film that Warners decided they wanted to release a greatest hits. They wanted two new tunes. We had a rehearsal and I went home and sort of wrote "Soul Boy" with a view to the film. If you listen to the lyrics, there's loads of references. "Died in your arms," which is Cutting Crew. There's song references in there as well. I went home and wrote that and Gary must've gone home and wrote "Steal" and "This Is The Love." We had probably half a dozen songs when we were there but we decided on those particular three. We had very little time in which to record and Trevor Horn was available which was fantastic. I was going on holiday. We had one day to do the vocals, one day to do the backing tracks. Went in, did three vocals in an afternoon and popped in the next morning to repair a couple lines and that was it. It was a very quick process, but sometimes that's the best way. We've spent time in the past when we've spent months going over stuff and rewriting. Sometimes, it's good to just fly off and be spontaneous.

Any chance there's a full album in the works?
Yeah, there is. We're doing a few dates in the States and then hopefully coming back in the summer. We've then got the rest of the world to tour. We'll finish round about September. Then I've got a new album I'm releasing, a new solo album. Then I'm going to be touring around the world. So it'll be I reckon in a couple of years. The good thing about Spandau now is we all love working together, but we've all got our own solo projects. So we'll go off and do our own individual things and give everyone a break from Spandau Ballet because they'll probably be sick to death of us by then and then get together and write a whole new album. So the next time we go out on the road, there will be a whole new album. There has to be.



Since you were one of the performers on the original "Do They Know It's Christmas?," I'd love to hear what you thought of the Band Aid 30 version.
The original is the original. You come out with the first Aston Martin car, it's a classic, it's a beauty. It's never ever going to be the same, whatever you produce after that, and that's the same with Band Aid. It was a very interesting decade, the '80s, and Band Aid was almost the birth of modern charity. It was the first time that music could really make a difference. Band Aid 30, I don't have a problem with it. I thought it was a pretty good version but the original is the original. From my own point of view, whatever those artists are doing, they're helping to raise awareness and make money and so I don't have a problem with it. I thought it was great.

You hold the Guinness World Record for "Highest Concert" for performing with Kim Wilde at 43,000 feet. If you could hold any other Guinness World Record, what would it be?
First pop musician in space.

More Spandau Ballet: Official | Facebook | Twitter

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES

01.23.15 San Francisco, CA Warfield Theatre
01.25.15 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern Theatre
01.27.15 Denver, CO Paramount Theatre
01.30.15 Chicago, IL House of Blues
01.31.15 Detroit, MI Masonic Temple Theatre
02.03.15 Toronto, ONT Massey Hall
02.05.15 Boston, MA House of Blues
02.06.15 New York, NY Beacon Theatre
02.07.15 Westbury, NY Theatre at Westbury
02.09.15 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
02.10.15 Red Bank, NJ Count Basie Theatre

New Music Fridays: The Wombats, "Greek Tragedy"

New Music Fridays: Ivy Levan, "Biscuit"