New QUIET RIOT Album To Arrive In Early Spring, Says FRANKIE BANALI

Meltdown of the WRIF radio station in Detroit, Michigan recently conducted an interview with QUIET RIOT drummer Frankie Banali. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

Speaking about QUIET RIOT's plans for the rest of 2017, Banali said: "Well, we've got a new record coming out. This will be the first new record of all new songs, newly recorded material, that we've done since 2006; that's the last time we released an official QUIET RIOT record. And that's coming out early spring on Frontiers Records, so I'm really, really excited about that. And it's got the current lineup, it's on that record. And we continue to tour. I'm concentrating on hitting as many cities — be it large cities or small cities — as I can this year, as well as continuing to make headway in European markets."

He continued: "This is what I do, this is what I love to do. When it comes to the business of it, I'm very serious about it, but from the time I get to an event for soundcheck, and especially from the time I put the stage clothes on to the time I take 'em off in a hotel room, it's all about the music — nothing else. I don't think about business, I don't think about family, I don't think about anything except the music and the fans, and, for me, that's what keeps me going."

Asked what fans like to talk to him about when they approach him on the road, Banali said: "It runs the gamut, because I run into diehard fans that have seen us time and time again, and you have to search the memory banks: 'Oh, yeah, I remember that date,' or something that happened that particular day. The other rewarding aspect of it is that I'm seeing fans out there that clearly were not even born when the 'Metal Health' record came out, and they're equally as enthusiastic about the band as the diehard longtime fans are. And when I'm sitting there behind the drums — I've go the best seat in the house — and I'm watching an older fan and I'm watching a much, much younger fan and they're both singing the lyrics to songs, and not just the hits, but even some of the deep tracks, that's when you know you've made an impact in some manner into a lot of people's lives, and those lives have impacted mine and the career of QUIET RIOT, so I'm really grateful for that."

He continued: "It means the world to me. Most musicians won't admit it, but the reality is that without the fans, we wouldn't be able to do what we do, so I'm forever grateful for three decades of being able to do what I do with QUIET RIOT."

Last October, QUIET RIOT announced Seann Nicols (a.k.a. Sheldon Tarsha; formerly of ADLER'S APPETITE) as its new vocalist.

Vocalist Jizzy Pearl (LOVE/HATE, L.A. GUNS, ADLER'S APPETITE, RATT) left QUIET RIOT at the end of 2016 to concentrate full time on his solo career.

Banali revived QUIET RIOT in 2010, three years after singer Kevin DuBrow's death, along with veteran bassist Chuck Wright, who played on several of the tracks on the classic QUIET RIOT album "Metal Health", and guitarist Alex Grossi. The group went through two vocalists — Mark Huff and Scott Vokoun — before settling on Pearl in 2013.

The Pearl-fronted QUIET RIOT recorded six new songs for an album called "10", which was released digitally on iTunes and Amazon.com in June 2014, but Banali pulled the songs from both download stores shortly after putting the effort on sale and hasn't made them available again. He later explained that his decision to remove "10" from iTunes and Amazon.com was motivated in part by the fact that he couldn't find a record label that would properly promote the album. In addition, he said that the system that brought us classic rock music has been forever altered by the times and the promotional and marketing engine that is broken, no longer effectively exposing music from the labels through radio and to the masses.

Interview (audio):