The power metal band DragonForce who burst on the music scene in 2003 with their debut album “Valley of the Damned” are back with a brand new studio album titled “Maximum Overload”. The album features 9 original tracks along with the bands unique take on the Johnny Cash classic “Ring of Fire”. Media Mikes recently spoke with the bands guitarists Sam Totman and Herman Li about the albums creative process, the albums guest vocalist and the bands upcoming tour plans.

Adam Lawton: Can you give us some background on the new album and the story behind its title?
Sam Totman: Whenever we start any album we just start by writing what we think sounds cool to us. Everything else like song titles, album title and cover art all come after that. This one wasn’t any different. We wrote the music first and then the lyrics and then came the title. We chose “Maximum Overload” because it describes the music much like our previous releases. At the same time we had the idea for the cover art which depicts a person being hit with information from every angle much like how we are bombarded with information from television, internet and phone on a daily basis. It’s hard to ignore even for someone like myself who doesn’t really use a lot of that stuff. The title kind of ended up having two meanings so it worked out well.

AL: With Sam and Frederic taking on the writing aspects of the album, at what stage of the process did you come in Herman?
Herman Li: Sam and Fred first started writing together in France. Sam actually worked out the music on his own and then when he had all the structures laid out we started work on the demos in London. Our producer for the album was Jens Bogren and he helped as well.
ST: It was a pretty cool experience because in the past this was something we had never really done before. I would just do demos on my own and then I wouldn’t want anyone to touch them or contribute. It was cool working with someone else. I would come in with a song and then give it to the guys to add their pieces to it whether it is keyboards or Herman’s crazy guitar noises and such. Previously we just always wrote songs individually. Working together certainly brought a different element to the new record. It’s still very much a DragonForce album but there is a lot of cool new things going on which I really like.

AL: Do you guys often do a lot of pre-production then prior to entering the studio?
HL: In the past we did very little pre-production. If you listen to some of those previous tracks the demo versions are quite a bit different. There might be just a drum machine with a chord and melody laid down. Some of the songs would be quite unrecognizable. On the new album we actually had vocals recorded and some demo solos as well. By working with Jens we couldn’t just send him a pile of ideas and expect him to make a song out those. We had to give him a clearer image so that he could help us make the tracks stronger.
ST: With my demos I know what’s going on with them but someone looking at them from the outside in isn’t really going to understand what I was thinking. I often would just throw out some chords and not really try to play all that well. Demoing the songs with proper vocals certainly helped us give Jens tracks that were a bit more complete.

AL: Can you tell us about Matt Heafy’s appearance on a couple of the albums tracks?
HL: We had been working on the songs and we got to a point where we thought they needed something more. We were thinking of wanting different backing vocals on a couple songs and Matt’s name just happened to come up. It’s wasn’t planned ahead or anything like. We sent the tracks to Matt and kind of explained what we needed. Matt went above and beyond for us and did a bunch of different styles for his parts. I was amazed when I heard all of what he did I have to thank Matt for his work.
ST: We knew what we wanted but we told Matt that he could add whatever else he wanted to add. Honestly I think we thought he was just going to do what we were looking for and be over and done with it. When we got the tracks back it was totally cool because he gave us so many different things to work with.

AL: Tell us about the decision to cover Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”?
ST: It was just fate. We had said that covers were something we had never wanted to do. I have heard so many cover songs over the years that they tend to become quite boring. That’s not to say people shouldn’t do them but it’s not really my personal taste. 10 years now into our career we thought it would be fun to do a cover song as people had never heard us do one before. We wanted the song to be different and fun. It would be boring to just go and cover another metal song where it virtually sounds the same as the original. I heard “Ring of Fire” on the television one day and could envision the vocal line in our style. I thought the song could really work so we made a couple small changes and put our stamp on it. We want people to like it for being a good song and not as something that’s a gimmick.

AL: The band released a video for the song “The Game” back in June. Are there plans to release anymore in the coming months?
HL: We have plans for another video but I don’t think that is going to be done until the album has been out a little bit. We haven’t shot anything yet but possibly towards the end of the year is when we are thinking of doing another. It took a lot of arguing to figure out which song we were going to use for the first video so we have to plan for that as well. (Laughs)

AL: What are the bands current tour plans?
HL: We will be starting the tour on September 18 in the UK. That’s about a month after the albums official release. We wanted to start over in the UK this time around because the last two albums we our tours in the States. The UK fans were always asking why. This time we figured we better start in the UK so we don’t make anyone mad and we can keep getting free beer every now and then. (Laughs) US fans will want to keep their eyes open as we are working on putting together a run in the States.

Linkin Park recently released their sixth studio album titled “The Hunting Party”. The album is a departure from the groups more recent electronic-rock style albums however it is still very much Linkin Park. Media Mikes spoke recently with the groups front men Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington about the bands direction shift, the new albums unique sound and the bands upcoming tour.

Adam Lawton: Can you tell us a little bit about the shift in direction the band took with the new album and how it has been received by fans thus far seeing it was your first album not to go to number 1 here in the States?
Mike Shinoda: When we were making the album, I had a handful of demos that weren’t quite as heavy as this. They were a little more electronic-driven, and there was just a day that I was looking for something to listen to and I couldn’t find what it was that I wanted. I wanted something more aggressive and energetic and I just kept finding either stuff that was modern and progressive and the only stuff I was finding that was modern and progressive tended to be a little more mellow and if it was heavier, it tended to sound more progressive. I think we all found that there was just a style that was kind of being underserved that we wanted to hear and that’s what we decided to make. As far as the reception goes it debuted at #1 in 67 countries. Friends of mine here in the U.S. said, “Hey, I heard it. Sorry that you guys didn’t get to number one on the charts” I feel like the billboard chart is for one thing. It’s for the first week album sales, and this is not really a first week album sales kind of album. It’s a statement album. It’s a live album and an album that should be taken to the stage. That’s exactly what we’re planning to do right now with the Carnivores Tour.
Chester Bennington: It’s funny because I think probably more so than any other record, maybe other than possibly “A Thousand Sons” I feel like critically the record’s been overwhelmingly positive. I have yet to read anything negative about the record on a critical level that has been written, which is pretty amazing, and so for that we’re very grateful. But at the same time, almost on a daily basis I run into Linkin Park fans and I’ll take pictures or say, “Hi,” whatever, and every single person that I’ve met since we released this record has told me that they love the record. They are super happy that it’s out like it is. I’ve heard some other guys in the band say that they feel like it is a record that really the genre needed and that they also appreciate the record that we’ve made, that it is progressive and it is something that they want to listen to. I feel like we have accomplished our goal on this album. I think not only creatively, but personally for the band, but also for a lot of our fans.

AL: Was there initially a lot of reluctance or resistance to make a harder record? Or do you feel like the rest of the band bought in pretty quickly?
MS: For me, it was a bit of a process. I felt like Chester was on board from the beginning but it was still, like, figuring out at that point what we were. Conversations were happening mid-tour last album like, what does a louder record mean? What is bringing energy to the album and what does that mean? How do we do that without it sounding throwback or derivative of heavier stuff that we grew up with. At first it fell on me to kind of find the right tone, so that I could take that to, in particular Brad and Rob, and say, “You guys, like, I know this is something that you don’t naturally gravitate towards at this point in your life, but check out these reference points.”

AL: This was your first self produced album which you chose to recorded via analog tape. Is this something that you see the band doing again?
MS: Yes. I think it’s something that we’ve been curious about for awhile but it had to be the right moment to really dive into it. I’ve had a little bit of experience with tape on previous projects, but not really cutting such large chunks of the song and large performances to tape. It’s was so nice because it forces you to slow down and really consider each performance and each recording of whoever’s playing at the time. It’s definitely something we have experience with now and we could potentially go back and use it again, if the song asks for it.
CB: I’ve been recording the drums in this way. It’s really great in that it does give the feel of the song. It’s a more live feel. For us, I think one of the things that’s always been surprising to a lot of people when they come to see us for the first time, especially my musicians’ friends. There’s raw kind of more prompt and in your face attitude about the band when you see us live. Like, even like our mellower songs; there’s an edge to them that you get in a live performance that kind of gets lost in the studio. I think that with this record we’ve captured a lot more of what we’re like live in the sound of the record and I think that’s very exciting.

AL: With there being a two year gap between your previous albums was there ever a time in the recording process that you guys were worried maybe you went too far with the new sound and that it might alienate some fans?
MS: I think since “Minutes to Midnight” we’ve kind of had this conversation. We knew that when we went into “Minutes to Midnight” that it was going to be different. We wanted it to be extremely different. We knew that it was going to be a risk to take and we could potentially alienate our entire fan base.
CB: Our goal is to make good songs and some are great song. If we accomplish our goal, it will be almost impossible to alienate everybody. Luckily for us a lot of our fans have come along for the ride on the last two records and we really did go and stretch our wings to see how far we could take these. For us going through that process of trying things and making sure that we’re creatively excited and energized helps us create music that still sounds like Linkin Park regardless of what vibe the song is. I think for people to get hung up on us not speaking to a specific sound is kind of a silly idea anyway, considering that we’ve never really been a single genre type of band. I think that going through that process is really a lot of being able to be creative on a heavy record like this. I don’t think we could have been as creative with the guitar or the drums 12 years ago because we’ve kind of gone around and tried new things and kind of alienated ourselves and some of our band.

AL: Were the guest performers on the album brought in to counter balance the bands new sound in anyway?
 MS: The addition of those guys was, in most cases, pretty late in the game. I mean, if you’re just talking about from a fan recognition standpoint, then, sure, if somebody sees the guests names on there, they kind of know what they’re getting
CB: I don’t think those who appeared on the record would have been into working with us if that was the goal. though. If we were coming at this from the idea of “Hey, let’s go work with these people and then that’ll make the record even more cool.” But that’s a weird way of looking at what we do anyway and it’s kind of the opposite of what our intention would ever be. When we do collaborations it’s coming from a holistic place. It’s got to come from a very open, spontaneous kind of grassroots way. It can’t be forced or thought of in a boardroom and written down on a piece of paper. That’s just not the way that anything creative usually gets done.

AL: $1 for every ticket sold is going to benefit your organization; Music for Relief. What can you tell me about the organization and why are you guys passionate about it?
MS: Music for Relief started in the mid-2000’s as a response to the Indian Ocean tsunami. We had just been out touring in Asia. When we got home we were watching the news and the whole place had been destroyed. We just felt like we needed to do something. Music for Relief had been around for a year and we realized that we were actively involved in cleaning up messes, but not so much involved in anything preventative. So, we added an environmental component to Music for Relief, and all in all, I mean, we’ve done projects all over the world. We’ve worked with the UN. We’ve worked with Habitat for Humanity and Direct Relief and the Red Cross and put on concerts with No Doubt and Jay-Z. Most recently we did an awesome show with Offspring and Bad Religion. Travis Barker came out with us and it was just so much fun. This is an ongoing effort that we hope to involve more musicians with. Music for Relief isn’t about Linkin Park. Unfortunately there are always disasters to go get involved after and there are also environmental causes that we can get involved in to help prevent the natural disasters or at least keep our oceans and our land and air clean. The bottom line is Music for Relief is being built up as something that creates trust with the fans. We create trust with the musicians and the industry and let people know that this is a group that does work hard to make sure all the I’s are dotted, or the T’s are crossed.

The retro-rock act known as The Raskins, are currently out on the road as part of Motley Crue’s final tour which also features veteran rocker Alice Cooper. The band consisting of twin brothers Logan and Roger Raskin perform a unique blend of rock that harkens back to the early days of CBGB’s but with a modern twist. Media Mikes spoke with Logan Raskin recently about the group’s formation, their debut album and how they landed one of the biggest tours of the summer.

Adam Lawton: Can you give us some background on the band and what made you want t pursue music?
Logan Raskin: Both my brother and I were born in raised in Chelsea, NY and our parents were in the music industry for many years. My father did lots of shows on Broadway and was the lead in shows like “West Side Story”, “Oklahoma” and bunch of others. I grew up going to those shows and watching him perform. He also would take a band with him out on the road and perform various songs from shows he appeared in and my brother and I would go out on the road with him. My mother was a pretty well known jazz singer around New York and also put a couple albums out as well. They taught us how to play music at a very young age and I think my brother and I wrote our first songs between the ages of 8 and 10. It was sort of inevitable that we would end up in the music business. Granted our parents taught us music our mother never really wanted us going in to the music business because the lifestyle was sort of tough for them and she didn’t want us to go through the same thing. Growing up on the Lower East side however music was tough to get away from. On any given night we could go to a club and see The Ramones, Patty Smith or The New York Dolls. We got bit by the bug and it was pretty much game over. We are very happy to be able to be doing music now full time.

AL: Have you and your brother always played together in bands?
LR: People always assume that we have played together our whole lives but to be honest this is the first time that we have really been in a band together. We certainly have played together over the years but never in a band. The Raskins have been together for about 3 years and it was something that started out as just a writing project. Roger and I had been composing music for television and movies for years and that’s what we were in to. We started getting a lot of fan mail from around the world from people who heard some of our work and really enjoyed it. They were always asking about where they could get our music and when they could see us live. We took about a year and recorded this first record on our own. We initially went in and recorded 60 songs. From there we took the best 12 that we thought represented us well and we put them on this record.  Next we put the band together and worked the New York area pretty heavily before making our way out to Los Angeles. We pushed the internet market really heavily as well and that’s where things really started for us.

AL: Did you have a clear cut vision of how you wanted the band to sound when you were first starting out or did your sound evolve more naturally?
LR: It was a combination of both. When we went in to the writing stage we wanted to just write as much as we could. We had an overwhelming amount of music written when we went in to do tracking and things just went from there. Our influences certainly came out and Roger and I both had a lot inside us. We wrote these songs for us as over the previous seven years we were composing music for other people. We had the opportunity to do this for ourselves and we were like kids in a candy store. The reason we did the recording of the album ourselves was that we didn’t want to have to work within a specific time frame as we both knew each other had a lot to say. What you get on the album are the influences we got from our parents along with what we were exposed to musically growing up in New York.

AL: When you are writing material do you and your brother generally work separately or collaboratively?
LR: It’s a combination of the two. We have a main studio that we work out of but we also have our own little separate studios at home. We both write music and lyrics but for this album I think I wrote more of lyrics. A lot of stuff we do completely on our own but it’s great to work together and bounce ideas off one another. Roger has given so many great songs. We work really well together. Sure we battle it out sometimes as we do a lot of hours in the studio but we have a process we go through that works well for us. We don’t try to force anything. We just try to be ourselves.

AL: What was it like taking your two piece band and developing it into a full group for touring purposes?
LR: We went through several ideas in our heads. Have both been in and out of bands over the years it’s a tough process. People sort of see us as this overnight success because all of a sudden we are out on the road with this big tour. That’s certainly not the case. We have been doing this for quite some time. We love everything about music and have had our share of struggles along the way but to have this opportunity to start off as a duo with my brother and then build a great band around us we feel that the bond of the band is extremely tight. We are surrounded by some really great musicians and even though people may see us as a duo we are a band. My brother and I felt that being in this band together with other musicians would just strengthen our bond.

AL: Can you tell us about being out on the road with Alice Cooper and Motley Crue?
LR: It has been an incredible year for us so far. When we finished the album we wanted to tour as much as possible and to really get the music out there any way we could. We started out doing a winter tour on our own and after that run ended we were asked to be a part of the Scott Wieland tour. We went out with Scott for about a month and while that was happening we were in talks for summer touring options. A few ideas were mentioned and being an optimist I mentioned some of the bigger tours going on this summer like Slash and Miles Kennedy, Kiss and Def Leppard, and Motley Crue and Alice Cooper. About 5 shows in to the run with Scott we got a call asking just how serious we were about the Motley Crue tour. We were serious as a heart attack and our booking agent thought we had a shot so we went for it. After a couple weeks we still hadn’t heard anything. We had initially submitted only for 17 shows so we weren’t sure what was going on. We ended up re-submitting for the entire tour and shortly thereafter we got a calling saying there was interest in having us. We had to wait for the guys in Motley Crue to make the final decision and luck for us they loved us and we were asked to be on for all 66 U.S. shows. It’s great being out here playing all these great venues that we always dreamed about. We played the Hollywood Bowl recently and will be playing Madison Square Garden also this year. As two kids growing up in New York City that is just going to be a dream come true.

AL: What are the bands plans after this tour run ends?
LR: We want to try and take a little time at the end of November to do some recording as we are always writing. We want to get what we have down in to demo form. Right now it likes like we will be out with HIM for 10 shows in December and we are also looking at some dates with Joan Jett, Blondie and The Cult. That will take us into next year with the possibility of going out with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and maybe AC/DC. I told them to put that at the top of the priority list! (Laughs) My dad always told us to shoot for the stars and maybe you will reach a tree top. That our philosophy with everything that we do. This year has been great so far and we are excited about the future.

Chris Demakes is the lead vocalist/bassist for the Punk/Ska band Less Than Jake. In November of last year the band released its 8th studio album titled “See the Light”. The band is currently out on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour and  Media Mikes had the chance recently to talk with Chris about the new album, the bands 22 year career and about his recent appearance at the inaugural AP Music Awards ceremony.

Adam Lawton: The band’s latest release came out in November of 2013. With almost 20 years between the two releases what do you feel has contributed most to the bands staying power?
Chris Demakes: I think at some point we stopped believing that we could chase some kind of a trend. We were and still are a 3 piece punk band with a horn section. We worked really hard throughout the years and made a lot of friends along the way. It’s been a crazy ride over the 22 years since the band first started. Right now we are probably the oldest band out on this summer’s Warped tour. I think we are about 6 or 7 years older than the next oldest band. (Laughs)

AL: When you first started out was a career this long something you ever envisioned?
CD: No. I don’t think any band starts out thinking they are going to have a career. We were just a group of guys who got together in a garage to play some music. Next thing we know we were getting asked to play a party, then a bar and so on. Before we knew it we were 3 or 4 years in to this and getting some label attention. I wake out now with 22 years gone by and I am not sure how to totally answer this type of question. Everything sort of blended in to the next thing.

AL: By being the oldest band out on Warped tour this year how do you go about grabbing younger listener’s attention?
CD: There are certainly no delusions of granger on our part in that we aren’t going to make a 13 or 14 year old girl like our band when she isn’t interested. We just go out there and be ourselves no matter what. We have done enough festivals now to where we are comfortable getting up there in front of whoever. It’s hasn’t been too weird this time around. Warped tour is a way for us to get out there and play to people who may have never heard us before. Being involved with the promotional aspect of the tour has been great for us as well as it has really helped get our name out to the mainstream which is something that probably wouldn’t have happened at this stage in careers. We just aren’t that band anymore.

AL: When it comes times to work on a new record how do you go about keeping the music fresh and do you ever feel confined to writing with your specific genre?
CD: We write ultimately for ourselves and then for our core fan base. If you make the same record over and over people say you’re washed up and you haven’t changed. Then on the other hand if you add a keyboard or tambourine part on something you and asshole and a sellout. You really are damned if you do and damned if you don’t the longer you are a band. You can’t really listen to the internet trolls and naysayers. You have to do what comes from your heart. We are not that complicated of a band. We feel every time we put something new out that it has a freshness to it. We try each time to push ourselves a little bit in terms of writing and musicianship but you have to stick close to who you are while making sure that you keep everything fun.

AL: What do you feel has been the bands biggest obstacle thus far?
CD: That is something that I don’t think I have ever been asked before. I think the biggest thing for us has been all remaining friends. We have the same 3 guys that we started with. Our newest member is our saxophone player and he has been in the band 15 years. You learn over the years how to navigate those relationships. You learn which guy is not a morning person or which guy you don’t want to piss off at this time. (Laughs) That’s really just the everyday obstacle of being in a band and learning to communicate with each other. It’s like a relationship accept we don’t screw each other…Yet! (Laughs)

AL: You were just recently a part of the inaugural AP Music Awards. What was that experience like?
CD: I’m not completely sure how we got involved with that but I was asked to present an award and I graciously accepted. We got to go to Cleveland and drink free drinks and act like assholes. (Laughs) I think the idea of the awards is pretty cool and we were happy to be there however at this stage in the bands career I don’t think being a part of the event is going to change a lot of things for us. We had a great time however and again were very happy to be a part of the event.

AL:  What are the bands plans after Warped tour wraps up?
CD: We have some festival shows booked here in the states and a few in Canada as well. We also will be doing a two and a half week Canadian tour run before ending up in our hometown of Gainesville, Florida for a Halloween show. That will about do it for us this year.

The heavy metal group Korn is out on the road this summer as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. The group recently released a tour version of their 2013 album “The Paradigm Shift” exclusively through Best Buy which features several new tracks along with some exclusive live tracks as well. Media Mikes had the pleasure of talking with drummer Ray Luzier and guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer during the tours recent stop in Scranton, PA about the release and how they connect with the different crowds they perform for each night.

Adam Lawton: When you are out on a tour like the Mayhem Festival is there any one thing that is the same from day to day?
Ray Luzier: We hear the same bands every day. (Laughs) What’s really great is that we get to play to diverse crowds every show. There are people who have seen us 27 times and there are people who are just seeing us that day for the first time. I’m not sure about constants but I try to stay in a similar routine from day to day.

AL: With the band playing all over the world how do you go about connecting with each of the crowds you perform for?
James “Munky” Shaffer: Every audience is different and that’s really the beauty of it. Like Ray said before you get people who have seen you a lot and you get people who have never seen you before. We are playing the same songs night after night so we try and keep that thought in our heads so we go out and put on a great show every night. We want them to really enjoy the show and to come and see us again.
RL: We may be super tired from traveling or whatever before we hit the stage but once we are up there we are energized bythe crowd. We are fans of music ourselves and still go out and see a lot of bands and buy their merchandise and what not. This is Korn’s 20^th year as a band and I have been touring myself just as long. It never gets old. We are still excited to play every time we go up there.

AL: Have you guys seen any bands on this tour that you have really become fans of?
JS: Trivium is a band that has really impressed me. Their songs and how they engage the audience has really impressed me. Those guys are super tight professionally which is really inspiring. I know they have been around a few years but to see that level of commitment is really awesome. I was a mess at that stage of the game. (Laughs) I still am a mess but I have gotten a little better over time.
RL: I go out and check out the side stages from time to time and there are a lot of bands on this tour that have really impressed me. I watch bands like Mushroomhead and Miss May I and you can see just how hungry they are. They all have their own thing going for them which is really great to see.

AL: Can you give us some info on the tour version of your most recent album “The Paradigm Shift”?
JS: We initially released that album last year and after it was out for a couple months there were some songs that never got finished that we wanted to still work on. Jonathan went back in and wrote lyrics for these songs that we didn’t get to finish because we just ran out of time. They came out pretty good and we also decided to add some live tracks on the new release as well. When we are out on the road we like to have something in stores for people to buy that is fresh.

AL: Ray, how do you go about balancing your time in Korn and working with your newest project KXM?
RL: We all have side projects that we work on when we aren’t working on Korn. We just have a tremendous amount of music inside of us. I think these side projects are important for each of us to do as they help us remain creative. KXM is something that George, Doug and I have been talking about doing for years. The idea goes all the way back to my son’s first birthday party when we all were talking about jamming together. Scheduling is always the hard part as Korn is very busy but we hope to get some shows set up before the end of the year. Right now we are just working on videos and such.

Scott Durbin is one of the founding members of the popular kids television show and band “Imagination Movers”. They have a successfully show that currently airs on Disney Junior. They are also constanstly touring bringing their music to fans all over the world. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Scott about their music, their tour plans for this summer and also what the future brings.

Mike Gencarelli: When you guys started “Imagination Movers” back in 2003, did you ever think that you would be still going this strong today?
Scott Durbin: I would have never imagined this that show would be seen in 50+ countries, translated in 12 languages and we are recognized around the world. For that part of it, I would say “Definitely no”. On the other side, we were so tenacious when we started. We believed that we wanted to create something to encourage creativity in kids, modeling problem-solving and create music for kids that challenged them and did not pacify them. This gets them off the couch and gets them moving around and also their brain moving. Even for parents, like yourself, we wanted to make it something that you could listen to over and over without starting to hate it. We also wanted to make it developmental and age appropriate, so it really connects with the kids. So that part of me says “Yes, I knew we were going to be a success”. We are coming from a real place and doing it for the right reasons.

MG: I love that you guys have such strong educational messages in your show and music while still being entertaining and having fun…
SD: I think it is important to balance them both. If there is too much entertainment it can become campy. If it is too educational, it can be a turn off. But if there is a good balance, you can get the best of both worlds. You can teach and the kids will enjoy learning. I started off teaching in elementary education for 10 years. So in those years that I taught, I saw this level of creativity in the kids was just decreasing and I saw this need for creativity. I think part of the reason why we began. We say that there was no “real people” in kid’s entertainment (going back over 10 years now) and we wanted to change that. We wanted to bring strong male role models to kids. As a teacher, you had a lot of kids that didn’t have a strong male role model at home and I found that having that was invaluable.

MG: You guys are touring all this summer and through the fall, tell us about what you enjoy most about performing live?
SD: Obviously, we have been so blessed with just being able to travel and meet our fans across the globe. We just got back from the UK. We recently did a show in Dubai. An interesting thing about Dubai is that about 80% of the people there are ex-pats from direct countries. The group that brought us over there told us that most of the Western acts they bring over there, potential 95% of the audience are expats other countries like Australia, UK, Canada, or the States. So essentially they are all Western, but when we played in Dubai the audience was Indian, Philippian, Saudi Arabian and the group that brought us in said that they have never seen the amount of diversity that we brought to one of their shows. So for us, I think being able and being accessible to such a diverse group of people makes it worth it. That was so special. It just showed how four dudes from Louisiana can resonate with a six year old from India. When we tour, we get to meet families and hear stories about how the music has affected them and that is so humbling. We are very fortunate to be able to participate in this. There is a certain glimmer of magic in what we get to do.

MG: On July 27th, you guys are playing after the Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field for a special Christmas in July concert; tell us about that?
SD: I am very excited for this. We got to do it last year and we are lucky enough to get to do it again. The hard part about this is that the Rays are playing the Red Socks. I have a real soft spot for the Rays since I have been following them much more but my dad was a huge Red Socks fan. So I grew up rooting for the Red Socks, so I am little torn here [laughs]. For the Christmas in July, we will probably play about 70 minutes and throw in some fun Christmas songs. We have a really interactive set and the kids have a lot of fun. It is actually really a family concert that moms and dads will enjoy as well. We play live music, so there is so much great energy going around.

MG: Your latest album “Back in Blue” was released last summer which includes second set of songs from season 3; do you have plans for new music?
SD: Yeah, that is a great question. The music industry is changing and how bands get music out to their fans are changing. “Back in Blue” was our first digital release only, so there was no hard copy available. That is something that was so new to us to think that we can’t give you a CD and you have to download it. There are so many great songs from that CD including “Robot Chase Song” and “Have You Ever Seen a Unicorn”. In fact, right now we are actually starting on our ninth album. We did an album called “Rock-o-matic” a few years back, which was a CD/DVD. We created about 35 minutes of additional content with videos, sketches etc and we are looking to do a follow up to that. This time we are going to get our fans to participate. They are also going to get to experience more of the making of the CD and DVD. If you “Like” our Facebook, you can find out more about this.

MG: There hasn’t been new episodes for over a year now; is there a fourth season in the horizon for the “Imagination Movers”?
SD: Right now, episodes are currently are airing on Disney Junior. I don’t know if a fourth season will ever be made. But we are currently working with a production company in Canada right now to create new “Movers” content… So I will leave that at that because I do not know how much I can say right now. Around the corner, don’t be surprised if you are seeing some new content. So we are very excited about that.

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“Weird Al” Yankovic has been parodying music for over 30 years. He has won three Grammy Awards and scored four gold records and six platinum records in his career. Yankovic’s last album “Alpocalypse” in 2011, was his highest Billboard charted album to date coming in at number 9. His latest “Mandatory Fun” was just released and contains some of his best work including parodies on songs by Pharrell and Robin Thicke. He is also supporting the new album with releasing 8 new videos in 8 days (see the first three below). Media Mikes had a chance with chat with “Weird Al” to chat about the new album and his plans for the future.

Mike Gencarelli: Tell us how you chose which songs to parody on “Mandatory Fun” including songs originally performed by Pharrell, Robin Thicke, Iggy Azalea & Lorde?
“Weird Al” Yankovic: Well, it is not a huge secret obviously. I choose songs that are on the top of the charts. I create a list of songs that would be good candidates and that people would be most familiar with. I tend to pick songs that have some really identifiable musical and lyrical hook to them. I look for something that really jumps out of you when you hear it on the radio. Once I have that list, then I narrow it down to the ones that I can come up with a funny idea for.

MG: With “Mandatory Fun”, you produced eight music videos for this album; tell us these and your plan for them?
AY: I decided to do eight videos in eight days because I wanted to make the release of this album a bit of an event. MTV isn’t really music television anymore and video channels don’t exist for the most part. The internet is the new MTV. So I wanted to do a big internet promotion to get a lot of people’s attention. My videos are usually consumed rapidly and enthusiastly but in a much shorter cycle. So I thought if I can get each of my videos to go crazy viral for just one day each that would be a wonderful weeklong event for this new album. I wanted to make this first week very special.

MG: The video for “Tacky” is already a viral hit including celeb cameos from Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho, Eric Stonestreet, Kristen Schaal, Jack Black; how was it shooting this? Also it was done all in one shot right?
AY: It was, yes! I know there is one part where it looks like it might have been cut but I guarantee you there were no edits. It was one continuous shot. This was the most fun that I have ever had working on a video. I got to work with such fun, talented and professional people. It was like playtime and we never wanted it to end. We went through six takes and afterwards I looked at them all and the last take had a little something special to it, so we used that one. Jack Black, I have to tell you was just amazing. His energy was so intense. Every take he has this amazing level of enthusiasm that was just impossible to match.

MG: Do you find that the songs that you parody actually become more popular due to your work?
AY: Well, I have been told that my parodies do help the artists sell more albums. Executives at Nirvana’s record label once told me they sold the band an extra million copies of “Nevermind” due to my song. So from an artist’s prospective, if you look at the bottom line, it is in their favor to have a parody.

MG: When you do a “style parody” of a band like Foo Fighters or a full out song parody like “Word Crimes”, which takes on “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke; which is more challenging?
AY: The song parodies have a little more pressure because they are going to get the most attention. The style parodies are a whole lot more work and a lot more of me invested in them. I am writing the music as well. They sound like another artist but it is even a lot more work than writing a straight original because not only am I writing an original but I have to study an artists’ body of work, take notes and use every type of stylistic idiosyncrasy that I can to shape that song and have it sound like someone else.

MG: What would you say is your most successfully song? Personal favorite?
AY: Successful is easy. That would be “White & Nerdy”. It was the highest charting and highest selling song. It is a platinum hit selling over a million downloads. So in this day and age, that is pretty impressive. Personal favorite might be that one also. “White & Nerdy” is probably my most autobiographical song [laughs]. You don’t have to dig too deep or do too much reference because I have lived that life.

MG: I heard that “Mandatory Fun” may be your last traditional full length album; what are your future plans?
AY: I figure there is a very good chance of that happening. Yes, this is my last album on my record contract. Going forward, I don’t really think I should be doing full length albums anymore. If I have wait until I have twelve songs all at once, then a lot of those songs might not be fresh or timely. So I think it would behoove me to go with a system that would allow me to release new songs more frequently, maybe not all at once but just to get the songs out there.

MG: Are you planning a tour to accompany “Mandatory Fun”?
AY: Yes, the “Mandatory Tour” will commence in 2015. I don’t know exactly when or where just yet but we will be on the road then and doing a bunch of shows.

Dave “The Snake” Sabo is the guitarist for the hard rock/heavy metal band Skid Row who recently released the first of 3 EP’s titled “United World Rebellion Chapter 1”. With Chapter 2 set for an early August release and Chapter 3 slated for release in 2015 the band originally from Toms River, NJ shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Media Mikes recently had the pleasure of speaking with Snake about the bands current releases, his 28 yr writing/band partnership with bassist Rachel Boland and balancing the duties of being a guitarist and manager.

Adam Lawton: Can you give us some background on the second EP you have coming out and why you chose to release the album via 3 separate EP’s?
Snake Sabo: The music business is much more different now that it was through the better part of our career. We were raised on doing things a certain way in that you release a record of 12 or 14 songs and then you go out and tour for 2 years. For us that just doesn’t work anymore. We are living in an age of information overload. Things are being thrown at us at such a rapid basis that it’s hard to take it all in and navigate through the white noise. With the way music is being delivered these days we started to feel that maybe less is more. We figured we could hit people with a few songs, let them digest a bit and hopefully you have left them wanting more. Doing things this ways makes sense on a number of different levels. Economically we are able to keep costs down in the studio as we are only in there for about 2 weeks which is awesome. We can also keep the retail/download prices down as well. We aren’t asking the listeners to invest a lot of time or money in to something we are just hoping that we can provide them with something they can get off on and enjoy. We then do the whole process again 8 or 9 months down the line which gives us a steady stream of material being released. Things are very much in the moment because that’s how we are creating it. It is very fresh and pure and not convoluted in anyway. We didn’t go in and write 20 songs that we are just released over time we have written separately for each release so far. Things are working really well for us this way and it feels great. We are having a lot of fun. This new EP was probably the most fun I have ever had doing a Skid Row record. Rachel and I were pretty much on the same page the whole time and everyone in the band was galvanized. We dove head first in to this and no matter where something started it became all of ours in the end. It was really great to be a part of that.

AL: The new EP’s both seem to be quite a bit heavier than the bands previous releases. Was this something you did consciously or did that happen more naturally?
SS: Things happened very naturally. We want to write the best songs we can within where are collective headspaces are at during that time. Things tend to start out with a conversation and from there we just follow things in to songwriting.  This time around we asked ourselves why we make music. It always comes back to it being the most pure form of expression for us even from the time we were teenagers. Music was and still is the great escape for us. We found that feeling again and got back to it. We noticed things really didn’t change from when we used to stand in front of the mirror dreaming we were Gene Simmons or Ace Frehley. Our problems might be different these days but things are just as impactful and dramatic as they were when we were 16. Music is our avenue for expression so we pealed back some layers of the onion to get to the heart of things again and that helped us realize what was going on. From there the light just kicked on and away we went.

AL: How has yours and Rachel’s writing relationship evolved over the years?
 SS: I think we probably know each other better than anyone else in our lives. 28 years will do that. It’s one of those things where if we aren’t hanging out every day we are at least communication in some form or another. It’s very rare we go through a day without speaking. With all the life we have experienced together we just have a tremendous amount of respect for one another. We have each other’s backs regardless. When we are working and I come with an idea in my head and Rachel has a feeling in his heart we go with that feeling over the head every time. That’s not always the easiest thing to do but judgment wise it has always worked out in the end. It takes a lot of living life to get to that point with somebody. I am really proud we have been able to not only coexist but flourish in keeping Skid Row alive for 28 years now.

AL: What is it that appeals to you about putting out new music? And is it hard to introduce that new material being that you have such a well know back catalog?
SS: Sure it can be hard. You want to be self indulgent but at the same time people are paying money to see you play and you know they want to hear specific songs. I believe there is a way to make both sides happy. I am proud of everything we have ever done as a band. I have no problem playing “Youth Gone Wild” or a new song like “Kings of Demolition”. To me it is all cut from the same cloth so I can be upset if people want to hear one song more than another. I am thankful people want to listen and am very proud of that. We have been introducing some newer stuff and it has been going over well lately and it has been getting more than just a golf clap. The songs are infectious so you can’t help but bob your head to a song like “Kings”. When I go to shows I find it exciting to hear new music. I remember seeing Soundgarden open up for Neil Young one time and they played the song “Spoon Man”. This was just before “Super Unknown” came out. I loved that song! I think about how that experience had an impact on me and I hope that our material will have the same impact.

AL: The band has been out since April touring. How far will this current tour run take the band?
SS: We are booked through mid December. We plan to take some time off for the holidays and we are talking about getting together sometime in January to start writing the 3^rd EP. With the second EP coming out in August we want to go out and tour on that as well so by January it will have been out 4 or 5 months by then so we will probably want to tour some more in support of that. Our goal is to tour 6 to 8 months for each EP release. A lot will depend on how the releases are received by the public as well as with where are heads are at when we decide to sit down and start writing. As long as we are still having fun each night we will continue to be out there.

AL: You also manage bands. How do you go about balancing your duties for each project?
SS: I don’t know. (Laughs) I love working with the guys from Down and Vintage Trouble. Doing that almost balances everything out. At one point I’m out on the road doing shows and all that and then I get to step out of that roll and in to the role of manager where I still get to be involved in music but on a different level. It can be trying at time but technology has a wonderful way of keeping everyone connected. If I didn’t have that I don’t know what I would do.

 

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Mike Watt is probably best known as the bassist for the influential 80’s punk band Minutemen.  Following the death of the group’s lead singer D. Boon in 1985 Watt went on to form and play with other seminal rock groups such as Firehose, Dos and more recently The Stooges. Watt’s latest project Il Sogno Del Marinaio is a 3 piece Avant-garde group that bends and blends musical genres and instrumentation. Media Mikes had the pleasure of speaking with Mike recently about the group’s new album and their upcoming 53 date tour.

Adam Lawton: Can you give us some back ground on Il Sogno Del Marinaio?
Mike Watt: I’m a bit partial to trio’s and this new group is a very traditional trio however lately things been a bit different. With Missingmen and Black Gang I put those groups together to play my opera’s. I asked the guys who made up those groups if they would take direction to help me realize that piece of work. Then for 125 months I helped the Stooges which were the opposite as they were the ones telling me what needed to be done. With Il Sogno Del Marinaio its closer to what I was doing with D. Boon in Minutemen as there is a lot more collaboration going on. The band’s name means sailors dream and the other two guys in the group Stefano Pilia and Andrea Belfi are from Italy. They are about 20 years younger than me so I am like their student. How we came together was a total accident. I was in Italy doing some shows with Secondman and the promoter put Stefano with us to help navigate the area. About 4 or 5 years later I get an email out of the blue from Stefano asking me to come play some shows with him and a friend of his (Andrea Belfi). I didn’t even know Stefano was a musician. I knew he knew about the music scene but come to find out both him and Andrea are schooled musicians whose styles come from Avant-garde. Though our styles are different we share the same punk roots. That’s part of the reason why I feel like I am their student as I am learning a new style of music from them. It’s going to be great to bring these guys over here to the states and show them the landscape and expose American listeners to their playing. Here in the states you don’t get to hear a lot of Italian artists so this run of shows is going to be really special.

AL: The tour is very fast paced in that you are doing 53 shows in 53 days. Can you tell us about that?
MW: Coming from groups like the Minutemen who toured with bands like Black Flag doing shows like this is a tradition. It’s not really too wild or crazy as this is what I have always done. When Stefano asked me to first play with them we had to get the material together. My idea was to do some more shows together so the guys put together a small mini tour of 6 gigs.  Between the 3^rd and 4^th gig we made our first album. This will actually be our second tour for our second album. The guys know it will be a lot of work but they don’t see the B in burden they see the O in opportunity. If you really want to get out there and do a tour right you have to hit all the places not just the big ones.

AL: Can you tell us about the new album?
MW: This second album is much different from the first. When we did the first album we had just those three gigs together and that was it. The album was informed by just knowing each other and that was it. This new album is definitely formed from a different place. I think it’s important to make something different each time. Albums are almost like diary entries as they almost document what was going on during the time it was made. We worked with Bruno Germano in Bologna at a studio that was built inside a barn. It was such a cool place that the whole time I was there I never left it. Bruno has a more natural direction that doesn’t use a lot of effects to capture the moment. Bruno also brought a fourth man perspective which made the sound much more different. Bruno also was the guy who mixed the album. We did the album in about 8 days and I think it turned out really well. I got put in some interesting places and I thank the guys for that.

AL: Was there ever a time you were asked to step too far out of your comfort zone?
MW: The first thing was that those guys are trained musicians in other forms of playing than just rock and roll. They are capable of playing all these different time signatures very naturally. For me it was a bit harder to go back and forth from 4/4 to a more intricate signature. These guys have an expertise that is more accomplished. I had a similar problem when I worked on the song I did with Miku which was written in 7. In fact the drummer had to pound the rhythm for that out on my back. (Laughs) I got it but I needed a little help. It’s not bad to do things like this though because I think that if you don’t try shit and you always have the training wheels on then I feel it cheats things a little bit. You should always give things a try even if they may frustrate you a little bit at first.

AL: Was the song writing a collective effort or was there one guy who wrote a majority of the music?
MW: We all brought in our own tunes. I think I brought in 4 or 5 things. I didn’t honesty think that we would do all of what I brought in but when it was all said and 4 of my songs made it on the album. We did 12 songs all together. We all have distinctive ways of writing. I write on the bass on purpose and I don’t write anyone else’s parts. Andrea writes for everyone and Stefano writes only the guitar. We all take different approaches to composition. I come in with the bass lines and then give them to other guys to do their thing. I will change structure based on what the other person comes up with.  Stefano likes to put out guitar licks and then watches for what we do. He then will develop a melody right there in the moment. Andrea’s like to map everything out via Midi demos. We did a lot of work right there in the studio. Prior to the sessions starting we all did our homework and were prepared.

AL: Besides this album coming out in August what other releases do you have planned for this year?
MW: I just had an album come out titled “CUZ”. We started that fucker 6 years ago and just by coincidence it came out right now. That’s the problem with doing a lot of projects as things start to overlap yet you want to make sure that you give each project the proper respect. This “CUZ” album was the first time I ever made an album in England. Recording there was a bit different. We did a couple days of jamming and then parts were pulled from those sessions to make songs from. This is a very strange yet interesting album. This is something they want to try and do live which is pretty trippy to think about.

AL: Do you find it hard splitting time between multiple projects?
MW: (Laughs) Look what happened with Il Sogno Del Marinaio. I could even release the record because we couldn’t tour for three years! When I am working with a group I work with them like it is my only band. You don’t want to give a half ass effort. I go all the way with everything so I have to dedicate my time to each project. It’s hard to be in more than one place so I have to plan further ahead than I used to. This tour coming up I started booking back in January. If you want to give people a good shot of what you can do for them then you have to be planning ahead. I just did some shows with Big Walnuts Yonder that have been in the works for a couple years now. Those guys have some really crazy schedules.

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March 13, 1979. A group of friends and I are at the Lakeland (Florida) Civic Center to take in a concert by STYX. The opening band that night is The Baby’s, fronted by singer/songwriter John Waite. As the concert begins, I meet a young lady who surprisingly takes a keen interest in me. As a gentleman never reveals his secrets, I’ll just say that every time I hear the song “Every Time I Think of You”…I think of her.

I recount this story to John Waite as we meet up to talk about his long musical career and the new release of “BEST,” an 18-song collection of Waite’s favorite songs, both as a member of the Babys and Bad English as well as his successful solo career, which includes the huge #1 hit “Missing You.”

Mike Smith: Why did you feel that now was the right time to release a “Best of” collection?
John Waite: Last year I put out an amazing live album. It shook me at how amazingly true it was. It was one of my greatest wishes to be able to put out an album like that while I was still able to sing the way I sing. Having done that I became aware of what songs were included on the live album and wished there were more. To make a long story short, I went to a photography exhibition by Richard Avedon on accident at Christmas. I went and stared at this wall of photos and wondered what they would sound like with music. To see this collection of his favorite photos not only planted the seed…it kicked me up the ass! I went back to England for Christmas with my sketch book and just made notes over a two week period. And then I hit the ground running. I re-cut “Back on My Feet Again” because I thought I could sing it better. I had only written it three hours before I first sang it all those years ago. I wanted to do it “stripped down,” as most of my music is now. I wanted to do it very “spar.” And I’ve always wanted another crack at “Missing You,” because I think it’s a great song. And I think it really has a lot in it when it has “less” in it. It’s a true child of the 80’s for sure…it’s a “singles” mix.

MS: How long did it take you to decide what songs you wanted to include?
JW: I went into the project with 18 songs in mind. Well, 17 really. There is an acoustic song called “I’m Ready” which is just me playing the guitar. It’s a song about reincarnation and I was hesitant about putting it on. But it was so much “me” and so much about my roots. It’s a sweet song, really. And then there are songs like “Bluebird Café” that maybe got away from people. These are the songs I felt were my best. They were the ones that always stuck out to me like a sore thumb and they’re the ones that I like the best. I rang up a friend of mine who played bass and asked him “should I put on this song…should I put on that song” and he said “what are you asking me for…just put on your best!” That was the opinion I got and that was the opinion I took. It’s my life…this is who I am.

MS: Do you have a personal favorite among your own songs?
JW: I think “Bluebird Café” is great because it’s just me and a guitar, with a little violin in the back somewhere. It’s a story. And I like story songs. Those are my roots. I grew up with Western-songs (NOTE: rock and roll, blues – NOT country and western). A song like “Suicide Life” is dark. A really dark song. But it’s also a true story in some ways. It’s my take of being in the belly of Hollywood at night. It’s about the people that inhabit the streets…the ones behind the neon. The society of people that take over when no one is looking. I love singing that song too. All the songs I’ve put on there are ones I love singing the most. So in answering your question, maybe that’s why all 18 songs are on there. They’re the ones that are closest to my heart.

MS: I guess it’s almost like asking a parent which child is his favorite.
JW: Yeah, yeah…absolutely. These are the ones that I’ve put the most heart in to. I wanted to explain where I come from. And the live section features the band playing the living shit out of the songs (laughs). And then there is the duet (NOTE: Waite duets with Allison Krauss on a new version of “Missing You”) which I thought was a great way for the album to go out. I’m very happy with it…it was a very satisfying project. It’s left me looking at my work and knowing what it meant. And it makes me excited to start a new record. I’ve got enough new songs that I could go into the studio today. But I’m putting it off because this record is occupying my time now. I’m sure I could go in and knock it out in two weeks as most of it is going to be acoustic. It’s going to be a very interesting record.

MS: If the album is successful, can you find another 18 songs for a ‘BEST: PART 2”?
JW: No, I wouldn’t do that. These are the songs. I went and re-recorded the ones I felt needed to be re-recorded. I wanted to show off the band, playing live. That is something you’re not going to get, at a high degree, on a “greatest hits” record. There’s the duet…there are some current songs. It’s my take on ME. Like I said, I asked my friend the bass player and this is what I want. It’s like the Richard Avedon photo exhibition. Those were his favorites…his best. I think it would be a bit boring trying to do Volume 2.

MS: What do you have coming up? I know you said you hope to record again shortly. Are you touring this year?
JW: Yes, we’ve gotten a few gigs in this year and we’ve done quite well, actually. The response has been “5 star” caliber reviews. And I’m very pleased with that. Especially with playing the acoustic songs. We have 10 gigs on the book now and we should be done with them by the end of next month. And hopefully we’ll double that or triple that. I just want to keep playing. And then there’s the next album. I think now is the right time to begin it.

MS: Well I hope you make it here to the Midwest. I’ve seen you a few times over the years and you never disappoint.
JW: Thank you. Apparently I’m good luck for you. (laughs and then begins singing) “Every time I think of you…..”

MS: Exactly! When you’re 17 or 18, that’s a memory that stays with you for the rest of your life!
JW: 17 is a magical age. I think it was my favorite year. 17 was the big one!

Genevieve Goings is best known for her work with Disney Junior’s Choo Choo Soul. You might also know her as Miss Hugs from Fisher-Price’s Little People product line. She just released her first solo children’s album called “Do You Know” with amazing and fun new music for kids (and parents) to enjoy and learn from. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Genevieve (again) to discuss the album as well as her new role at Disney Junior.

Mike Gencarelli: This is your first solo children’s album; tell us about the evolution of “Do You Know”?
Genevieve Goings: Yes it is, I am just so happy that it is finally out! It started when I was working with Fisher Price. It sparked something inside me. When we came to the end of that project, I felt like I had more creativity left in me. It is more important with programming and corporations not to stuff the education aspect down kid’s throat, so to speak. There is more of a storyline with magic and the discovery. So none of my clients are looking for those straight educational songs but I have had so many ideas for these songs. I thought how about if I put out the educational album and I can stick with the magical storytelling songs for them. I think when I completed the song “How Many Fives Around The Clock?”, that was when I knew I had something special. That song is so cool, catchy and fun. So it all started with that.

MG: How does these songs differ from Choo Choo Soul?
GG: When I was working on the songs, I had a white board up jotting down ideas and putting different pictures up on a cork board. I was looking at photos for Choo Choo Soul and I was thinking who that person would be if is she wasn’t in that costume. I was making a list of my favorite parts of Choo Choo Soul, like the fact that I have a costume and not showing any skins. I wanted to find the places where I can push the boundaries. Some of those are just being really super silly and not following any of the rules for songwriting, especially in the song “Aeiou”, which is just completely ridiculous and I love it [laughs]. I think a lot more humor came out in this album as well. It still really pulls from my roots in R&B and soul music though. I discovered myself also while making this album. I have been and still am the train conductor, but I got to find out who is Genevieve by herself.

MG: “My Telephone Number is…” is one heck of catchy song and honestly can’t get it out of my head; tell us about how the song came to be?
GG: I thought it encompassed the idea of what “Do You Know” is. I couldn’t find any other songs like this out there. I did that with the whole album. I wanted to see what was needed out there. I also went out and asked parents what song topics they wanted. I feel like that melody is so catchy and fun. I even got responses already from parents that their kids were learning their own number due to it. So that is so amazing to hear.

MG: The video for “My Telephone Number is…” was very fun; what future videos do you have planned for this album?
GG: “Inside Voice” was just released, which I just love. It is such a fun video to shoot. I also have a video “How Many Fives Around The Clock?” and “Rainbow Colors” coming up but they were shot on a green screen and are just waiting to be animated. So that is very exciting.

MG: Congrats on being named the new host on the “Radio Disney Junior” hour on Radio Disney! Tell us about this new gig?
GG: Thanks! They are really pushing the new Watch Disney Junior app. They added a radio function to the app. I am hosting that whole radio station for that app. It is a loop that plays throughout the day. There is a “Pirate and Princess Hour”. There is a “Storybook Hour”. There is a “Magic of Disney Hour”. So it started with me working with the app and then I guess they thought, “Why we don’t bring her over to the real radio station”. So I have been recording for that as well now. I have been doing voice over so long that I expected a script but it is a free formed thing and I am able to talk with just the kids and it has been so amazing.

MG: Tell us about the PSA you recorded for Disney Junior as well?
GG: I love this PSA! When you purchase Disney Junior branded products that say “Give a book, Get a book” on it, you get a code and go online to enter it. You select a region you want to give a book to and they really are delivering actual book. Then you also get a digital copy of a book yourself. I have always been into literacy and teaching, so this is really great.

MG: With these two new Disney Junior projects; any plans for new videos or songs in the works for Choo Choo Soul?
GG: We don’t have any planned right now but I have been doing some other new songs with Disney Junior’s “The Power of Doing Good”, which is their new initiative now. I have been doing some commercial voice work for them. It is definitely promising that they are keeping me around and using my voice. It is such a production to put on for Choo Choo Soul with the cast of kids, the costumes and the animation. We are also trying to share Disney Junior with so countries around the world. So you take a show like “Sofia the First”, it is easy to translate into 36 different languages but not so much for myself and my voice. But I wouldn’t say the door is completely closed for Choo Choo Soul. Like the way that the PSA was, there could be more opportunities that way. I guess as long as I can fit into the costume [laughs].

Click here to purchase “Do You Know” on CD

Click here to download “Do You Know” on iTunes

Michelle Beebs is the lead vocalist for the funk/ska band Beebs and Her Money Makers. The group was featured heavily on the Fuse Channels original series “Warped Roadies” and have been burning up stages across the U.S. ever since. The group recently released a brand new studio album titled “The Wurst Album Ever” and is set to take over the Journey’s stage as part of this year’s Warped Tour line up. Media Mikes had the pleasure of speaking with Beebs recently about the new album as well as about the impact of being on “Warped Roadies”.

Adam Lawton: What can you tell us about the band’s new album?
Michelle Beebs: Honestly it’s the worst album ever! (Laughs) We didn’t put a lot of effort in to it but we did what we could. (Laughs)  It’s a really fun album that I think everyone is going to really enjoy. We have been on this sort of ska frenzy lately so there is quite a bit of that on their mixed in with some funk as we certainly are a funky band. We also included a cover of TLC’s “Waterfalls” on the record which was a lot of fun to work on.

AL: Were you working on this record while being out on the road this past year?
MB: We were writing while we were out on tour and as soon as we got home we just started compiling everything. We found that the songs you work on the most tend to be the ones that suck while the ones that come together pretty quickly tend to be more fun. We work pretty fast and generally end up with songs that are really poppy and catchy. The ones that we decide to put to the side and go back to later generally don’t make it.

AL: can you tell us about the video for “Out the Door” and what made you decide to choose that particular song?
MB: We had originally planned to release a video for “Death to Ego” first but last minute we switched it to “Out the Door”. We just weren’t quite sure if the world was ready for that much funk at once. Our drummer Paul actually directed the video and I got to drive the coolest car ever. I wish I could have kept that car but they wouldn’t let. I keep trying to wear them down so I can have it. I have found that being persistent can either get you a restraining order or get you lunch with someone. (Laughs) That was the case with John Stamos.

AL: John Stamos has a restraining order against you or you guys are going to lunch?
MB: Well I want to put on record that Beebs and Her Money Makers have beef with John Stamos. He promised to have lunch with the band and then totally bailed on us. I’m not saying that my feelings are hurt but he certainly disappointed me.

AL: This album has similar artwork to your previous releases. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
MB: We have had the same guy doing our art work since the very first album. His name is Tony Baldini and he is just amazing. He actually did a full comic book on as and we are currently working on a second one which should be out next year.

AL: Can you tell us how you first got involved with performing on the Warped Tour?
MB: It was like magic! We were playing the Florida Music Festival which was being held in downtown Orlando and Kevin Lyman was a keynote for the festival. He saw our performance and came up to me afterwards and introduced himself. He said he thought we were amazing and asked if we would come out on Warped Tour the following year. I still to this day don’t know if that was even real.

AL: How did being involved with the television show come about?
MB: Kevin called me and told me they were going to do a second season of “Warped Roadies” and they were looking to follow two female artists this time around. They were looking at doing one independent artist and one that was on a label. They chose us and Echosmith who are on Warner Brothers.

AL: You and the band had a lot of big moments happen while on the tour. What was it like having the cameras there to capture everything?
MB: It was all just so crazy! Everything you saw was real and I am glad the cameras were there as the summer just happened so fast. So much went on it was hard to retain it all. (Laughs) I met my brother for the first time, my dad came out to the tour, I met a boy, got to sing with Reel Big Fish and ended up becoming good friends with those guys. We actually got to tour with them recently which was awesome! It’s really just hard to believe that all that stuff happened within two months.

AL: Were you surprised with the impact the show has had on the band?
MB: Kevin Lyman has been a huge inspiration to me on a business level. I was already trying to make it to the lecture the day he asked us to be on Warped Tour but I didn’t make it. That day was crazy and then I end up meeting him and being asked to be on the tour. This whole experience has been so surreal and leading up to all this we were working and still are working very hard. I will forever be in debt to Kevin for everything.

AL: Can you tell us about the bands plans for this summer and any other plans you guys might have?
MB: This summer is going to be crazy! We partnered with a company called Flutter Fetti who is the industry’s leading confetti maker. We are going to be playing on the Journey’s stage this year and we have so much cool stuff added to the show that our performances are going to awesome. We are going to have confetti at our merchandise stand for people to throw during our set. We are bringing out the Jam Bot this year and we are also encouraging people to come dressed as their own super hero. It can’t be one that already exists it has to be something they created. We plan to pick the top three or four at each show to come up and dance on stage with us during our set. It’s just going to be a lot of fun.

Ruben Alvarez is the guitarist for the San Antonio, Texas based band Upon a Burning Body. The group recently released their 2nd full length album titled “Red. White. Green.” Via Sumerian Records and will once again be a part of this year’s Rock Star Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. Media Mikes spoke recently with Ruben about the album’s release and the bands plans for this summer’s tour run.

Adam Lawton: Can you give us a little background on the bands formation?
Ruben Alvarez: We had all been members of different bands here in the San Antonio area. Danny and Sal had wanted to start up a side project and they were the ones who started Upon a Burning Body. I jumped in a month or two later. Basically this side project took off way faster than any of our other bands. People really started liking us and were coming out to the shows so we realized we had something with this group.

AL: Can you tell us about the new album “Red. White. Green.”?
RA: When the band goes out on the road it becomes very hard to write so this time around we had our producer and a couple other songwriters working with us. We still brought a lot of songs to the table as a band but we chose a couple of their songs do go along with six of ours to help change the feel of the record. We wanted to keep our style while adding some diversity. I think it’s going to be our biggest record so far.

AL: how do you guys go about adding in that diversity while staying true to your original sound/style?
RA: I have always looked at song writing and you are telling a story through music. I feel that if we can write a good story and we can add in some chaos to that it will make for a fun listen. It definitely changes with each song. A lot really depends on what we want the song to be about. We like to listen to the songs and see what type of emotion it has and then go deeper from there.

AL: Do you ever feel limited or confined to write in the genre you are identified with?
RA: There is definitely a barter that goes on. We have to stay true to our sound because this is what we have always been and what our fans like. It’s always a scary moment for a band when you transition to a bigger sound because you don’t know how many fans you may lose or gain. You have to try and keep that familiar vibe. For us it’s all about the energy.

AL: What are you guys most looking forward to about being back on this year’s Mayhem Festival?
RA: The cool thing about this year’s tour is that we are going to be on a bigger stage. When we did the tour the first time we were on a small side stage. Last time out we were playing to around 3,000 people per shows and this time were going to be playing to around 15,000 people per show. This is a big step up for us.

AL: What is it that appealed to you about joining Mayhem Festival as opposed to going out on your own solo headlining tour?
RA: I think Mayhem is just such an awesome tour to be on. For me it’s the new “”OzzFest”. It’s a big metal tour for metal heads. I love metal heads because they are just so crazy and into the bands. I think if we toured on our own we would get sort of demolished as there are so many great tour packages out there. We had to be very precise with what we want to do as a band because of that.

AL: What are the bands plans after Mayhem Festival?
RA: Things are pretty crazy right now. Even before Mayhem starts we are going to be out on a short headliner run then we are going out with Emmure for some show in Canada before we take off for Download Festival. We get a couple weeks off and then we hit the road for Mayhem and go from there.

Trevor Jackson is the guitarist for the punk rock band The Revenant. The band which also includes former Unwritten Law members Derik Envy and Kevin Besignano along with Lit drummer Nathan Walker has just released their self titled debut album to rave reviews. Media Mikes had the chance to talk with Trevor recently about the album, what it was like balancing multiple projects and the bands upcoming tour plans.

Adam Lawton: Can you tell us what led to you guys forming the band?
Trevor Jackson: We had all known each other from touring and we all had a common ground in that we wanted to do something that was our own. We have all had some great opportunities in the past but at the end of the day we wanted to see what could happen if we got together and wrote some songs. Derik and Kevin knew each other from playing together in Unwritten Law and I had toured with Nate so it really was probably the easiest way a band could come together. We never really did any auditioning or things like that just started writing music together. Things just worked.

AL: How did you go about deciding which direction to take the band in stylistically?
TJ: We all came from playing in other people’s band so we weren’t too sure which direction to go. When you get together with 4 new guys you have no idea what things will sound like. We pretty much went in completely open. We just started writing together and let things develop throughout the pre-production process. We all come from different music backgrounds and everybody in the band has a specific strong point. Writing wise we would all sit down together and work through the different ideas. No one really had any egos. An idea would get thrown out and we would all just start working on it together. A lot of times Kevin or Derik would come in with a song and we could hammer it out in 45 minutes or so. We all just worked really well together.

AL: Was it hard for you guys to balance your time between multiple projects?
TJ: Making the transition from one project to another came with some difficulty however it was something that we all really wanted to do. We really believed in what we were doing so anytime we had down time we went right in to the garage to demo songs or rehearse.

AL: Can you tell us about the first 4 songs you guys released?
TJ: The full album came out June 17^th but to get people familiar with who we are prior to that we decided to release 4 songs from the album. These were songs that we really liked but it was a little weird only picking the 4. Our whole record is 10 songs that run just over 20 minutes. Those first few songs sort of showcase the albums variety.

AL: Have you guys started discussing tour plans yet?
TJ: That’s all we talk about. (Laughs) We have been putting the word out and talking about some different things but I think the biggest thing we wanted to do first was to get the record out. We want fans of music and punk rock to get the album and decide for themselves what they think of it. If we get a phone call today I am sure we would have the van packed and be on the road but right now we are shooting for towards the end of summer to back out on the road. This project was something that we have been pretty quiet about thus far. We wanted to get everything recorded and done before we really started telling anyone about it. This is something we are having great time doing it and we can’t wait for people to hear the album.

Spider One is the lead vocalist for the industrial metal band Powerman 5000. The group has just recently released a brand new album of original material titled “Builders of the Future” and will be hitting the States this summer with (hed) p.e. Media Mikes had the chance recently to speak with Spider about the new album, the bands creative process and their upcoming video release.

AL: Can you give us some info on the band new album “Builders of the Future”?
Spider One: We are so bad about putting out new material in a timely way. The last album of original material we put out was in 2009 and then we had an album of covers come out which was a bit weird. That covers album was a project that I thought was never going to come out. I didn’t want it to be a record but somehow it ended up being one.  I had thought we were going to do some songs for licensing purposes but then it turned into more than that. That album took up some time but in reality the band doesn’t work in the traditional schedule of record and tour then repeat. We sort of work more off and on. This record was made in bits and pieces and probably if you added up all the time we put into the record it would all even out but this one did take a little longer. I like how we work as it give me time to think about the songs and even try stuff out on the road. We actually started playing the first single off this record “How to Be a Human” over a year ago. We were able to get a good test of how people reacted to it. By the time it came out as a proper single people were expecting it and knew it. We create things sort of erratically.

AL: By working in the way you described do you find yourself revisiting material that at one time you felt was completed and reworking on it?
SO: Sometimes. We do a lot of self editing. You always hear about bands recording 40 plus songs and then narrowing it down to 11. We edit things as we go so by the time we get to the end we have the songs that are going on the record. We don’t end up with a lot of extra material. If something isn’t working we just scrap it. There are some older ideas that made it on the album but for the most part we don’t keep a lot of extra stuff lying around.

AL: Does everyone bring in song ideas or are you the primary writer for the group?
SO: I usually work in conjunction with at least one other member. I play a little guitar but not enough to where I can do everything on my own. I write a majority of the lyrics and handle the arrangements but as far as guitar parts go I might lay out something very primitive and then give it over to the other guys to give it that little something extra. I’m definitely not in the studio creating these songs on my own. Everyone works on the track to make it their own.

AL: Being known as a visual band has there been any talks of releasing a new music video?
SO: We released a lyric video for “How to Be a Human” and we also have a more traditional video set to release for that same song. Things are much simpler these days when it comes to shooting a video. The days of making million dollar videos that at the time were considered “cheap” are long gone. If you can scrounge $5,000 to do a video today you’re doing ok. We went very stripped down with this new video and I think it looks really cool. It was kind of a relief to make a video that basically just shows the band playing.

AL: Did you find it harder to capture what you wanted to get across with that limited budget?
SO: You have to be smart about what you are doing. You have to know that you aren’t going to be able to make “Star Wars” on a $5,000 budget. You have to approach things correctly. I have shot videos for other bands as well and it’s pretty amazing what you can do with a smaller budget. You don’t need a huge budget to make a quality video. Things can certainly be more challenging but there are a number of elements that are a lot easier.

AL: Can you tell us about the two versions of the album which are available?
SO: A lot of times with certain retailers they ask for different versions of an album that is sold exclusively in their stores. Obviously the idea is to get the person buying the album to come to their store. We don’t generally have a lot of material lying around but we were able to come up with a couple bonus tracks for a deluxe version of the album which will be available exclusively at Best Buy.

AL: Are there plans to tour behind the release?
SO: We just wrapped up a 6 week U.S. run and we getting ready to head over to Europe for a run of shows over there. We will be hitting a number of the big festivals over there which puts us on bills with ands like Metallica, The Rolling Stones and Prodigy. When we get back from there we will be hitting the States again with the band Hed P.E.

 

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