SKID ROW's RACHEL BOLAN: 'Social Media Is A Necessary Evil'

Rock Rebel Magazine conducted an interview with SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan and guitarist Dave "Snake" Sabo before the band's August 4 performance at Circolo Magnolia in Milan, Italy. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked how the music industry has changed in the 25 years since SKID ROW first burst onto the scene, Sabo said: "One of the great things, for us, when we were signed… The dream was you wanted a major-label record deal. That was our dream. We wanted to be on the same labels that had LED ZEPPELIN and KISS and whomever. And it was really important to us. And we wanted to be as much on our terms as we possibly could. And that always isn't the case. And we were fortunate enough, we got a pretty damn good record deal. But the thing that I find is the most different is that we had people around us that we trusted in a lot of ways with their opinion on our music, and it forced us to be better songwriters. We had people who would go, 'It's pretty good, but it's not great,' 'It's very good, but it's not great.' 'That's great.' So it made us better. And I hate to use the word 'gatekeepers,' but that's sort of what it was in a sense… Maybe that's a bad word. It probably is… But there was just people that you had to get past in order to have your music released. And today, anybody can release music. And I don't know if there's enough people out there who are not only striving for greatness, but are achieving it. And that's the thing that's different."

He continued: "You know, a great song is subjective. But the thing that we had that was awesome, and that we still apply in our lives now, is that push to make it better, make it better. So having that work ethic at such an early time in our careers, we've been able to employ that throughout our whole careers. And we don't stop. We push ourselves constantly. And a lot of that has to do with the way we were brought up as kids, but also how we grew as songwriters and what we were put through in order to get that first record made. I don't think that exists anymore. It's a shame. And I hate the idea of just being able to just throw out whatever you want out there, because it takes up space. No matter what anybody wants to say about it, it takes up space."

Added Bolan: "It creates a lot of false hopes, too. 'Cause I remember what it was like being hungry and striving to get a record out. Now it's, like, there's bands saying, 'Oh, record-release party.' It's, like, released to who? You know what I mean?! Anf there's a lot of hopes being built up but no one molding people and saying, like he said, 'No. this song sucks.' Or ' This song is great. Write some more that are as great as this.' It's just too much, and it's too quick to get out there, and I think it makes people not work as hard."

He continued: "Social media… it's a necessary evil, but I miss the mystique of rock and roll. I liked it when you had to wait for something, when it wasn't as instant. You had to wait on line for a ticket, you had to wait for a record to come out. I mean, our new EP just came out, and there's already torrent sites giving it away for free. We're, like, what are you gonna do? You could spend the whole year trying to fight it, or you just go with it.

"There was disappointment back in our day, but there wasn't any real false hopes; no one ever said, 'You guys are great! You're gonna make a million dollars.' 'Cause no one ever gave us bullshit like that. They told us, like I said, 'That song sucks. It's never gonna work. Write something better.'"

Stated Sabo: "Yeah. And you know what?! [To Bolan] You're right with the disappointment thing. 'Cause, I think, a lot of people are misguided in the sense [that] they go, 'Well, damn, man, my page got 20,000 likes.' Well, there's no substituting being out in a club and playing and seeing if one of those people is gonna respond to what you're doing. That's the test. So people who sit there and base their thing on 20,000 'likes,' but it don't mean shit unless you're out there proving yourself. That's still the way it is, [or at least] it should be."

SKID ROW — Johnny Solinger (vocals),Scotti Hill (guitar),Rachel Bolan (bass),Dave "Snake" Sabo (guitar) and Rob Hammersmith (drums) — has just released a new seven-song EP, "Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two", via Megaforce Records. The CD contains covers of QUEEN and AEROSMITH classics as bonus tracks.

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