SEBASTIAN BACH: 'If I Put My Name On Something, That's Because I Believe In It 100 Percent'

Troy Culpan of May The Rock Be With You recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

May The Rock Be With You: Do you get nervous around album-release time?

Bach: Yes, I do. Of course you do. You always want to top what you've done before and make everyone happy and but the thing is that if you make yourself happy and you're happy with what you've made deep down in your own heart that that really is the ultimate accomplishment. If everybody didn't like "Kicking & Screaming", I would still love it. I mean, I honestly love the record, and if I put my name on something, that's because I believe in it 100 percent and I totally believe in every song on this record. From the production and the sound and the performances, everything about it I absolutely love 100%.

May The Rock Be With You: This is your first with new label Frontiers Records. How did this marriage come about?

Bach: Well, I have a big-time rock and roll manager named Rick Sales he manages SLAYER and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and if you've noticed that I've been more in the forefront in the industry in the last couple of years, a lot of it has to do with Rick, my manager. He's a great manager, he got me the record deal with Frontiers, and Frontiers have pulled out all the stops to give me a great shot at getting to my fans. We're not only doing a CD, we're doing a DVD in a deluxe version that is an incredible DVD that has an hour long movie called "As Long As I Got The Music" with like at least an hour's worth of live concert footage from around the world from Santiago, Chile; San Sebastian, Spain; Bogota, Colombia; and Halifax, Nova Scotia; and London, England at the O2 Arena. It's got amazing footage on the GUNS N' ROSES tour. It's all pro-shot, Pro Tools on the board and five camera angles from Axl's [Rose] camera crew and it came out amazing. It's also got the three brand new videos on it and an Easter Egg which is the "Battle With The Bottle" video from "Gone Country", which is I don't know how to access it, but it's on there somewhere. [laughs] The DVD is almost as exciting as the CD. If you like "Oh Say Can You Scream" and "Road Kill" and the home movies that we made, you're gonna really like this DVD. And it's not only the DVD, but we're also doing a record, a vinyl album with a gatefold sleeve which is really cool. I think it's the first vinyl record I've designed since 1990 or something like that. [laughs] So, yeah, Frontiers is really pulling out all the stops and I could not be happier with them.

May The Rock Be With You: You mentioned that you worked with Bob Marlette on this record. Why was he the right choice for this record?

Bach: Basically, because he was available right when we wanted to work, and he's a great producer and he was right ready to go in February when we were ready, and he has had a lot of success with Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes and SHINEDOWN and BLACK SABBATH. The reason I really liked working with him number one, he's a great songwriter; we sat down and wrote some great stuff together. But he also has a great bottom end to all his productions and when I'm singing really high, I have a high singing voice a lot of the time, so when I was singing the high screams and stuff, it's good on the production side to have a big bottom end to even everything out with my high vocals and Bob's bottom end is just monstrous, it's really big and powerful. And I would love to work with him again, definitely. Great, great producer.

May The Rock Be With You: You talk about being able to sing high but I must say, you still have a killer set of pipes where many others are clones of their former selves. What's your secret?

Bach: Well, my secret is definitely these Italian opera scales called Bel Canto which is a style of singing that originates back in the 1600s in Italy and these scales that everybody from Tony Bennett to Lady Gaga use. Jon Bon Jovi sent me to this vocal instructor in Manhattan back in 1987 and this guy taught me how to warm up my voice. I do these scales all the time and before I sing every time and they really make my voice very strong. I also sing along to like JOURNEY and JUDAS PRIEST and songs like that, so yeah, it's a style of singing that's been around for hundreds of years and it really works.

Read the entire interview from May The Rock Be With You.

"Kicking & Screaming" EPK:

"Kicking & Screaming" video: