September
25, 1998, Bigsound 100.5 Rob Rock Interview
by
Goodfriend Godffrey and Big Rey
*ROB ROCK's
historic, first and exclusive interview in the Republic of the Philippines.
Recorded on September 25, 1998 at 10:00 PM (Philippine day/time) for the
3-hour DWXY-FM Bigsound 100.5 ‘s FREE YOUR MIND radio show featuring Impellitteri
‘s music and Rob Rock interview aired on September 27,1998 at 3:00 PM to
6:00 PM.
DWXY-FM
(Bigsound 100.5): Welcome to "free your mind" program happening only in
the no.1 Pop music station in Tuguegarao, Cagayan, Philippines and that’s
why I said "Philippines" because we’re having a recorded live interview
with one of the greatest rock artist we’ve known Mr. Rob Rock, former vocalist
of the supergroup M.A.R.S, Driver, Joshua, Angelica, Axel Rudi Pell and
the current vocalist of one of the great bands today "Impellitteri". He
is on the phone right now and we are talking to him live all the
way from the United States of America, we’ll be asking him where specifically
right now, so hello to you Rob!
ROB ROCK:
Hello Philippines!
DF: Where
are you calling from?
RR: Orlando,
Florida. 45 minutes from Disney Land.
DF: We’re
live on the internet.
RR: Great!
DF: Let’s
start by allowing you to introduce the other member of the band.
RR: You
know who I am, I am Rob Rock, the vocalist and the rest of the band is
actually living in LA. It’s Chris impellitteri on Guitars, James Amelio
Pullli on bass guitar, Edward Roth on keyboards and on drums, Ken Mary.
DF: Who
does the songwriting?
RR: Chris
would come out with a riff and he would send me tapes then when I get the
tapes, I come up with all the lyrics and melodies that go over the
music and because we worked together for so long and we have a very good
chemistry…we were able to work in this way.
Basically
Chris and I write the songs.
DF: What
direction do you see yourself moving in musically?
RR: We feel
that we make a very strong statement in "Screaming Symphony" album then
we just came out with our new album "Eye of the Hurricane" which is more
versatile, it has ballads, instrumentals as well as great rock songs down
there and now we’re starting to write for a new album and the new direction
is going to a little more progressive, a little more musically diverse,
I think we’ll gonna bring in more keyboards, more dual guitars solos and
add different sections of music that kind a go off in a different directions
in a progresssive vein. Just so we can spread our wings out.
DF: What
are your goals as a performer over the next few years?
RR: as a
performer and as a band, our goal is to do a european tour next.
"Eye of the Hurricane" is just being released now in Europe.
That I think is going to be September 30. It’s finally
coming out in Europe.
We finally
found a company we think will do well with us and we’re looking forward
to that meanwhile though we’re not just waiting on that, we’re actually
writing songs for the new album.
DF: Why
is your CD called "Eye of the Hurricane"?
RR: I lived
in Florida, I see a lot of Hurricane. In fact there is one going on today
"Hurricane Georg". "Eye of the Hurrricane" was written at a time when
the sky were turning black and I was thinking how awesome it is. How awesome
God is. How awesome nature is. How we are so small we have no control over
this and how powerful the hurricane is and in the eye of the hurrricane,
like the center of the hurricane, all around the eye, the winds,
the storms are spinning. Relating that to life, if you have peace with
God, you have that serenity in your life even though the world around you
is crazy and a lot of things go on. If you have peace in your life everything
is okey, that’s what eye of the hurricane is about.
DF: What’s
the theme of the songs "Fuel for the fire" and "Rat Race"?
RR: " Fuel
for the fire" is apretty hard rocking song, that song is about ambition,
how people are so busy today chasing money, I think more than anything.
At least in America, everything is to have more stuff you know, to be king
of the hell or something like that. It’s about wasting your life trying
to be, trying to go for that stuff instead of a relationship which is more
important in life.
"Rat Race
" is kind a similar actually because Rat race is direct towards just being
so involved and caught up in the world where people just go to work
9 to 5 and come home and sat down on TV that all their lives
is consists
of this work or entertainment. Parents never talk to their children
and children go up and they just get this trouble because there is no relationship
there. The media, the television,radio and everything you see, ads, everything
tells you, "you need more", "you deserve this…that"…it’s more on getting
and gathering things, when actually "you can’t take it with you when you
go". So, the most important thing to what you do now is your relationship
you have with diffferent people, relationship with God actually, on how
you actually see yourselves on day to day basis, as oppose all this chasing
the dreams or chasing money.
DF: The
market are into alternative music nowadays, is there a posssibilitythat
Impellitteri will follow suit?
RR: I have
to say "No". there is no possiblity. Basically we write songs around the
guitar and vocals. Chris is known in Japan as the "great guitar hero".
I don’t see Chris or myself going down the road to write songs with only
simple chords and no guitar solo and vocal harmony. Right now, all the
alternative is very dark. Sometimes I think the lyrics are very depressing
And I like to write lyrics that are bold and strong and uplifting too.
DF: What
basically is your repertoire about rock music that you’re in?
RR: Any
kind of music is a gift from God. I don’t think music is the thing that
should be dismiss and not say that you can’t enjoy it. No matter what you
believe in, I think music is like an international language that touches
everyone and because personally I love rock music, I love the energy, I
love the power of it. I use this tool that God has given me to write songs
that are relatable to His word, and also to everyday people. In my style
of writing, I know a lot of things, I was brought up in a Christian home
and I read the Bible, I pray everyday and I am in touch with God in this
way and I want to share that to the listeners. I don’t want to share it
in a way that is preachy because to me it’s very personal. If I can get
them to see a glimpse of the goodness in it so maybe they would be interested
as well, because it is a great thing something I would like to share with
my friends. This inspires me you know to write songs that aren’t about
sex, drugs, drinking and partying but they are out there about life, positive
things that are great.
DF: How
would you describe the other guys in the band musically?
RR: Chris
is very awesome guitar player. He is very focus on his guitar technique
and he spend a lot of time practicing and practicing, playing and playing
and that is the main focus of the band. The other members of the
band are also professional players. Ed Roth on keyboard played a lot of
session, he does a lot of work in LA and so does Ken Mary and James Pulli.
Everyone in the band do not work down at the grocery stores and play guitar
at night but we play our instruments and sing all day and we do this for
a living. It’s more of e evryday process so when we are together it’s very
natural thing to have this harmony between us.
DF: What
point in your life did you know you would definitely pursue a
career
in music?
RR: I was
in high school and I was playing drums in my brother’s band.
I basically play drums and I sing . For me to get into my first band, I
had to sing harmonies because there are a lot of harmonies in the band.
I was playing in a lot of bands being both the drummer and the singer.
That was when I knew I wanted to do music.
DF: So,
you belive in destiny made God?
RR: Yeah,
yes!. I think He has given me a talent. He has given me something that
comes natural and for a long time in the beginning of my career. I used
this talent to try to make it big in rock and roll and I didn’t think much
about God and at the point when I made the M.A.R.S Project Driver in 1986,
I thought that would be a great huge success with Rudy Sarzo and Tommy
Aldridge from Whitesnake, I mean they were not Whitesnake at that time.
I though by playing with this guys and Tony McAlpine on guitar, that would
be a great success but at that point we just finished recording the album
and David Coverdale from Whitesnake offered Rudy sarzo and Tommy Aldridge
a very big amount of money to come to play and do the next Whitesnake album.
They left to do that. That’s how M.A.R.S. project driver broke-up. At that
point I decided that God gave me this talent and I would use it for His
glory and at that point I was like out of a band and I was in LA and that’s
where I hooked up with Joshua band.
DF: Where
do you get your inspiration in writing exciting, good and
quality
lyrics?
RR: I get
a lot of the content that I relate to in the songs from everyday life and
from television and stuff like that, what’s going on in the world.
DF: Are
you married?
RR: Yes,
I am married and I have a beautiful wife and she is very supportive in
what I do and she is definitely a gift from God.
DF: Who
is the better guitar player, Chris or Yngwie?
RR: Well,
I only knew Chris so I have to take Chris. I don’t know Yngwie personally.
DF: Do you
find putting good lyrics in a song important?
RR: I find
that very very important. When I write songs, I like to obviously
write the words with a meaning but also there is another aspect when you
are writing lyrics. Lyrics need to sound good on tape sonicly. Some words
do not sound good when you sing them or put them on tape and they stick
out on music and it could sound funny. A lot of times you end up changing
words that’s sound good on tape but it’s very difficult to get the right
meaning with the right sound is where I concentrate very much plus also
with my melodies I like the words to fit in the melodies so that easy to
remember and easy to sing, so that it will stick in people’s mind and I
test my lyrics that if I can sing the song away from the music, if I am
somewhere out driving or in the shower or something that I think of the
song that I could sing the melody and the lyrics, you know, you remember
it. That’s how I test myself as far as whether I think it’s ready to record.
DF: If you
had to make a 1-5 list of people you look up, respect musically, who would
that be?
RR: As a
singer, I have to say Lou Gramm of Foreigner. I look up to Lou Gramm because
I love his range and melody. I like Ronnie James Dio from Dio because I
like the power of his singing. I like the band Styx very much, I really
love the harmonies and also chords changes are very nice and also Steve
Perry of Journey, very melodic, very nice and I really like all Deep Purple
stuff too.
DF: In what
way would you desire people or the media to describe the band?
RR: Our
purpose is that we are a rock band and we write rock and roll songs and
we’re rock and roll musicians like I told Big Rey, we all do this as a
living. So we made the living playing music and when we’re together as
a band because I write the lyrics and because of my personal relationship
with JESUS CHRIST, I feel the need to write from my heart and what’s in
my heart is my relationship to Christ and my relationship to other people,
that’s what I write about. … LYRICALLY, IT IS A CHRISTIAN BAND; PROFESSIONALLY,
IT IS A ROCK AND ROLL BAND, …we are interested in reaching the people that
don’t go to church and in letting our songs be heard by people on the street,
people that are normal everyday people. Those are the people we want to
reach and people we want to talk to and people we want our music to touch….Service
being true to ourselves reaching people that are lost. People that have
no idea who Jesus is. Maybe they could see in our lives and in our music
His light can be attracted to it.
DF: What
can you say when people describe rock music as a bad influence for the
youth?
RR: In any
profession, there is bad and good people. I think in my world, the rock
world there is a lot of professional musicians, the professional musicians
are very serious about their music, their craft, their art. Most of them
do not let drugs interfere but when you have young people, young kids Aren’t
sure how to handle themselves in anyway and then you put in a position
with a rock band and they have great success that the money, the sales,
the pressure to always do better leads them into drugs because they don’t
know how to handle themselves on their own. They live out in the world
on their own so they go to drugs because they are on the road and they
are being promoted all the time and they find sanctuary in doing drugs
and that road of course is getting darker and darker before you know they’ll
have drug pronlems. That’s what you hear about. You hear the successful
artist that cannot handle it on emotional level that lean on drugs to carry
them through and then they get in trouble and then everyone
hears about that and that’s how the misconception is being said. It’s a
personal matter, it’s just that you take the very young stars that record
company is pushing, put them on the
spotlight
and under the pressure they go to drugs maybe they are not mature enough
to handle it.
DF: Tell
us about your most memorable experience in the studio
RR: When
I was recording with Axel Rudi Pell in Germany. That album flew over there
as a studio musician to sing for Axel, he said "go for it man, do what
you want to do, we don’t care what you do, just do what you want
to do" so I would come in everyday I was there for like 10 days, and I
would listen to the tracks they recorded and then I would go out to the
kitchen of the studio. I would write lyrics like 4 to 5 hours then we would
go out to dinner and after dinner I come back and I would sing the song
like 10-o’clock at night and I would sing the song only 3 to 4 hours, that
I would give it everything I have and do it in my own way and those guys
when I look to the glass and see them at the board they were yelling and
screaming, they are so happy. To me is a great memory in my mind, they
are so excited about the performance.
DF: What
about your worst experience in the studio?
RR: The
first album that I recorded M.A.R.S Project Driver. When I went into that
recording session, the producer does not have very good people skill. I
would say and for him to get me to sing very hard and very heavy and he
put in his mind that he would have to make me very angry so he was doing
everything he could to get me very angry, the words he was saying and he
would abuse me verbally to get me angry so I would sing and scream very
hard on the record and that emotionally, I didn’t like that but the end
result it taught me how to sing with a lot more power and strength than
I ever did before that recording session and to this day I still use to
deliver power in my vocal style so I am thankful for that but the way I
have learn it I didn’t like.
DF: Where
can the fans expect to see you in the future?
RR: As far
as playing live the next time will probably be Japan. Japan is very goog
country for us and we have a new release for Europe now. "Eye of
the hurricane" is coming out in Europe at the end of the month. We hope
to play some festivals there. As far as Philippines is concern we hope
we can create a big enough fan base there so we can come there and play.
JVC-Victor which is the same record company in Japan owns the territories
for release in Philippines. I hope the records are out there and in the
future we can somehow get there. I love to perform there.
DF: What
is the status of metal music today?
RR: As far
as America is concern. I think metal music is kind of back to being more
underground. Right now those radio stations here that are not playing pop
are playing alternative music and sometimes they play some good hard rock
but not very often and most of it I would say underground. I think in the
future that it would be coming back around and we come out and be popular
again so I don’t know, it’s very hard to judge. All I know is that I’ve
been able, God has blessed me to be able to put up like 12 albums in 12
years and I plan on continuing to write and record song and I hope that
someday the recording and radio industry will catch up to me.
DF: Where
can they reach you?
RR: They
can reach me at P.O. Box 720425, Orlando, Florida 32872-0425 USA. Or e-mail
at: rob@robrock.com also check the website www.robrock.com and on that
site you can get to the list all the albums I’ve done and all the history
and also it has link to Impellitteri webpage which also has all the Impellitteri
history and it has the CD ordering section which links to Sonic Revelation
which is a mail-order company that carries all of the Impellitteri and
Rob Rock CD. So the easiest way is www.robrock.com
DF: When
will the band back into the studio for the next album?
RR: Come
January-February we will be going to start recording the new album and
right now we’re getting together guitar riffs and vocal melody ideas and
song title together now so we can take and choose for the new album.
DF: To all
our listeners, what would you say as your concluding statement?
RR: I would
say to all the listeners out there I thank you very much for your support
throughout the year and I thank you for staying in touch with Rob
Rock and Impellitteri and I ask you to keep listening to our music and
to share it with your friends and we just thank you for sticking by.
DF: We would
like to know your favorite song..
RR: On the
new album, I would say "Paradise".
DF: Can
you sing a part of your favorite song? I hope it’s OK with you and this
is our request.
RR: (laughing..)
DF: Please
C’mon! Okey they are clapping right now, so we’re waiting (…laughing and
clapping..)
RR: Oh!
This is embarassing. This early in the morning?
DF: (laughing)
Please!
RR: Oh man!
DF: (laughing)
C’mon!
RR: Alright,
you’re ready?
DF: Yeah!
RR: (…Rob
is singing the first paragraph portion of the song "Paradise" and everbody
inside the station was very silent and excited…very very happy and they
started shouting and clapping after Rob finished singing…)
DF: That
was really good! In Behalf of the staff of DWXY FM and of course Charlie,
we would like to thank you for taking time with us and we would like you
to know that YOU GOT A FAMILY HERE IN THE PHILIPPINES. Thanks and God Bless.
RR: Thank
you.
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