SEBASTIAN BACH: 'Making Music Is Like Magic'

Tim Louie of The Aquarian Weekly recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Aquarian Weekly: Was it a no-brainer to work with producer] Bob Marlette again after what he did with "Kicking & Screaming"?

Bach: Yeah! He helps me, well, he captures the sound of my voice. I don't know what button he's pushing or fading or knobs or whatever it is, he just makes it sound like it can't get any better. But also what he does is he helps me with my melody lines. Sometimes when a guy like Steve Stevens or John 5 or Duff McKagan gives me a song, sometimes the melody line comes to me really quick, but other times, I don't know because of my voice, it has such a range to it. Sometimes, I don't know whether to sing it super low and cool or super high and clean or really dirty in the middle. I can sing it in so many different ways. So, Bob helps me out with figuring out which part of my voice to use a lot of the time.

The Aquarian Weekly: I've been listening to "Give 'Em Hell" for the last few days and I felt that you might've taken a different approach with this record in that it's more laid back and more groove-oriented than "Kicking & Screaming", but your voice is still Sebastian Bach. Did you purposely make this record a little bit more laid back?

Bach: You're the first journalist to say that. Most journalists have told me that it's a heavier record than "Kicking & Screaming". I'm the guy who makes all of my records. So, I don't really care [Laughs] if one person thinks it's heavier and the next person that I talk to thinks it's more laid back. That has more to do with you than me, really. You know, as a musician yourself, making music is like magic. You go into a room with absolutely nothing and after a couple months, or however long it takes, the object is to come out of there with 12 brand new songs that nobody's ever heard that is just as good as anything you ever did that you want to put your name on and want to do interviews about every day, all day, and go on the road and support it. It's, like, how do you get to the point when you know your album's done? For me, it's like when I want to run up to people and grab them by the collar and say, "Fuck! You gotta fuckin' hear this! This is fuckin' insane!" That's how I know I'm done. And I love playing "Give 'Em Hell" for people. They can't believe it. They're like, "This is a brand new record?" Some people told me it just sounds like a classic record, which is a great thing to say.

The Aquarian Weekly: I love the fact that you have John 5, Steve Stevens, Duff McKagan and Devin Bronson playing on this record with you, but what happens when you hit the road? Because obviously these guys won't be able to go on the road with you…

Bach: I'm playing Starland Ballroom and B.B. King's in New York City in April, and I will have Will Hunt on drums from EVANESCENCE, I'll have Devin Bronson on guitar. He's on most of "Give 'Em Hell". He was introduced to me by Duff McKagan who hooked us up together, and then Johnny Chromatic and Rob DeLuca on bass, who I've played with many times on the East Coast. It's just the nature of touring these days. It's hard to keep five guys together year in and year out. My drummer, Bobby Jarzombek, who plays on "Give 'Em Hell", is my drummer for many years, but I have to share him with FATES WARNING. [Laughs] But I always wanted to play with Will Hunt, who is just incredible, and we just shot three brand new videos. The first one is "Temptation", and Duff McKagan is in the video, Will Hunt and Devin. Then we shot "All My Friends Are Dead" and Duff's in that too. Then a lyric video for "Taking Back Tomorrow", but we're still playing in the video. I'm lucky that I can just call up guys like Will Hunt and say, "Hey, I need you," and he's, like, "Yeah, no problem." That's fuckin' awesome! I play with the best in the business. There's just a lot of rock 'n' roll sharing going on.

The Aquarian Weekly: The last time we spoke, you had just suffered this loss from Hurricane Irene. You lost a lot of valuable memorabilia. Were you able to recoup any of that stuff that you lost?

Bach: All of the stuff that was worth the most I still have, but I had every fucking SKID ROW magazine that there ever was. I had a whole room in the basement that was nothing but SKID ROW magazines. I mean, from all over the world — Japan, Europe, Brazil and the United States. Nobody had the collection of SKID ROW that Sebastian Bach fuckin' had. I had everything there was to have and I lost most of that. I lost of a lot of KISS stuff, but not the super-expensive KISS stuff, because I kept all of that on the top floors, luckily, but tons of that like pinball machine and a lot of SKID ROW videos that I don't think will ever be seen again, which is a super shame because I don't see the point in me having all of this SKID ROW stuff if SKID ROW doesn't want to put it out. I don't get it. I still have all the master tapes from "Roadkill" and "Oh Say Can You Scream". I'm actually looking at those boxes right now here in Beverly Hills. I have the first generation tapes of all of that stuff, but there are no plans at all to ever release it ever, and it's almost mind-blowing to me that the video for "18 And Life", you cannot buy it on a DVD anywhere at all. I don't think there is any other band in the world that had success like we had that doesn't make it available to the fans that want it. I never heard of another band that has done that, but it's totally out of my control.

Read the entire interview at The Aquarian Weekly.