Found this surfing the net it is a really old interview with Sebastian, not sure if it is on the board somewhere, but thought it was interesting and funny he is 26 in the interview talking about when he is 39.
thecelebritycafe.com/interviews/sebastian_bach.htmlBach, Sebastian (1st Interview) - of Skid Row
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
Interviewer presents an article based on his meeting with the ever-energized singer of Skid Row, Sebastian Bach, about Subhuman Race.
The job of most interviewers is to guide the conversation in a certain direction and reach some level of intimate information. Sometimes we are forced to drag information out of a person and hope to hear what we want to hear. My conversation with Sebastian Bach of Skid Row was one discussion which was guided more by the subject and less from myself. With Sebastian Bach, I just sat back and let him run wild with no boundaries.
SB) How's it going, man?
DM) It's going good. How's it going for you?
SB) Great, man. Did you get the tape?
DM) Yes, I did.
SB) Did you like it?
DM) It was great.
SB) All right! He screamed this out for a total of four seconds and at such decibels that my recording equipment reached maximum levels.
DM) I could see that you're a little excited with the album.
SB) Well, we beat the f***; out of ourselves to do an amazing album and everybody I talked to ... well, I've been doing interviews up the ying yang and everybody loves it. I don't mind doing interviews for this album 'cause everybody digs the album.
DM) Do you always have this kind of energy in you?
SB) I've been told so. I was hyper as a child as they say. I'm just excited to do the record and get on the f***ing road and play some gigs. And now we got four records to chose from. I'm really excited man. I mean *really* excited.
DM) What is it about this album itself that hits you the hardest?
SB) On the last record, "Slave to the Grind," when we came off the road, we found out that not everybody in the music industry was as nice as we thought they were. We went through a lot of legal bullsh&^ and, kind of, it was an awakening to the state of the world. We had a lot of piss and vinegar in us and that album kind of sounds like that. But I think that this record has a little bit more variation of sounds and emotions and I think that we focused in on songs as opposed to "Slave to the Grind." On "Slave to the Grind", my attitude was that I wanted to blow up the mike. Laughs. I would stare at it and psyche myself by saying, "I'm going to blow that mother f%*&er up" That's fun and everything, but on this record we concentrated all of our energies into writing the best songs that we could write. I think we got that, man. Well, at least I hope we did.
DM) It's been three to four years since you've released "Slave to the Grind." Why so long?
SB) Well, what people don't realize is that in this day and age the mass media is so pervasive around the world that when a record comes out like "Slave to the Grind," which sells three million worldwide, the tour for a record like that, well for us, is 22 months. We went from May 1991 until January 1993, which is insane. That's almost two years. And for our band we find that we get our best material when we come off the road to get a fresh perspective and stuff, and take stock where we've been and where we want to go. And the thing is that touring for two years all we took off was six months since 1986. Six months off and then we started writing. It took a while to get a good 20 tunes that we felt confident about, and we recorded it from October 1st until December 23rd in Vancouver. And we mixed it from the beginning of January. We didn't take that much time off, but the touring that a band like Skid Row does, or any band that's worldwide does, is really a long time, man. Nobody could have ever told me that we would have started our first ever headlining tour in Reykjavik, Iceland.
DM) How was that gig?
SB) Laughs. We did two dates up there. Ten thousands kids a night. Sold out. Twenty thousand kids. It's like, the first thing I hear when I get there, I ask a guy, "What do you guys do up here?" And he says, "This is where Neil Armstrong came to find out what it's like on the moon." Bach said this in an Icelandic accent. It was unbelievable up there. They started me on in the drinking over there. I was looking outside doing my warm up and there were these 12-year-old kids with bottles of tequila falling down puking and I was like, "Oh my god." They've got the highest rate of alcoholism there. It's pretty sad. But they sure love to rock and roll up there. They even have a Hard Rock up there.
DM) What were some other weird gigs you've had then?
SB) Well, to go to the other end of the spectrum, we did a tour of Brazil. There's footage of it on the "Roadkiller" home video. It's a really insane place down there. You've got the guards guarding the stage with submachine guns and all that whole thing. It's pretty nuts. You leave the hotel because there's a couple of thousand kids screaming "we are the youth gone wild" the whole f*&%ing time until seven in the morning, waking up the entire hotel staff. We played a gig at the bottom of the continent just near the Antarctic, right at the bottom of South America, and there's 30,000 people. It just goes to show you that rock and roll is pretty big all the world over. It transcends language and it transcends culture. It's pretty pervasive.
DM) One question which I had always wanted to ask you guys was about success in rock and roll. I've noticed that most times a hard rock band like Skid Row, Guns 'n Roses or even the Rolling Stones, the hit is with one of their softer songs like "I Remember You." Why is that?
SB) It's weird, huh? I don't know why that is. I think for hard rock it's a musical style that's based on proficiency. For hard rock it's the players that can really play the chops that really survive. I think that when a band like the ones you're saying does a ballad, we play so many shows, we develop a certain kind of musical telepathy. When you see a band that just formed last week and a band like the Stones playing, it's just a little bit different. And I think that's what you're hearing. So when you do a song like a ballad that's obviously an emotional kind of music, I think it really comes into its own, coupled with the musical proficiency of bands that play live for a living, except just lip synching to videos. Because all of the bands that you're talking about all grew up playing clubs. I played clubs for six years before I was even in Skid Row. It's not like we're a guy who's on the "Real World" and then gets a record contract handed to me for sakes, or some bullsh&^ like that. We came from the clubs, playing three sets a night to the people that hate you, whipping sh&^ at you, doing f*&%ing cover tunes. It's called rock and roll. Laughs.
DM) How was it with those early gigs back then?
SB) I started playing clubs in '83. I was 14 years old. I was 6'3" ... I could get into clubs. I wore so much makeup that I looked like, I don't know ... like Beavis and Butthead would say, like Christie Brinkley or Cindy Crawford or something. But I used to wear tons of makeup and get into that whole trip back in '83. I was in a band called Kid Wicked and I would play all the bars in Canada and Quebec and sh&^. I could even remember getting a chair whipped at me and stuff in the middle of a set. Standing there doing a rap in the middle of three sets, and this f*&%ing chair comes sailing through the air right at my head. It teaches you to be quick on your toes if nothing else.
DM) Regarding those rough days in rock and roll, I've noticed that you've gotten a name in the media as the bad boy in rock and roll and the such. How much of that is true?
SB) Well, that's all the fringe kind of stuff. That goes along with what you do. I don't really concentrate on that stuff. I just try to make the best music I can. But I also try to have fun in my life. Maybe that has something to do with it. I mean, you get a kid that's 19 and has a million bucks in his pocket, things are bound to f*%& up somewhere. Laughs and says to himself, "that was a good one!" You give a 19- year-old buddy of yours a million bucks, stick him in a limousine and send him around the world, things are bound to go crazy.
DM) How did that feel, being 19 years old, and reaching such a level?
SB) It was just pretty weird. I was just glad to be singing. Our manager is really famous for really working bands. I didn't have much time to sit around and do cocaine and heroin and stuff like that. I just basically developed my pipes into what you get on "Subhuman Race." My voice is getting stronger as the years go on. And the male voice comes into its strongest point at the age of 39, and I got thirteen years of work. It's going to be fun.
DM) You're only 26 years. You have a long way to go.
SB) I got the contracts to show it that I ain't going nowhere. They've got me signed so many f*&%ing ways, man, you wouldn't believe it. Laughs.
DM) Then how do you see yourself in 10, maybe 20 years from now?
SB) Well, my hair will probably be down to my ankles by then. I'll be like the Crystal Gayle of rock. Laughs. I'll probably just be singing. I love singing. When I get off the road, I don't just sit on the couch with a remote in my hand. I take vocal lessons. I work with other musicians. I have that love for it. I think the key to longevity in life is doing what you love to do. You're a music journalist. You love doing what you do and I love doing what I do, so there's no reason to stop. Especially with guys like Steven Tyler kicking it in the f*&%ing ass at the age of 50 or whatever he his. There's inspiration right there.
DM) You mentioned that you take vocal lessons. Usually there first thing they tell you is not to sing rock and roll because it damages your voice. How do you handle that?
SB) Yeah, well, if you listen to the way I sing, the color I add to it, there's some roughness, but the way I sing dirty, I'm not straining it as much as you might think. I'm approaching the note cleanly but I'm just adding a little gravel. I don't ever lose my voice. I've never ever lost my voice.
DM) Has you voice ever gotten really sore after a show?
SB) Never. Well I can't say never. When I'm sick and I have a cold and stuff, it gets a little bit more difficult. But I've never canceled a show.
DM) Do you think this is a little bit due to the vocal lessons?
SB) One hundred percent due to the vocal lessons. Well, no ... you're either born with strong pipes or you're not. I've had doctors look at my pipes. I'm really lanky, right? And your vocal range has to do with the size of them. And I'm really long, like my legs, my hands, and other parts of my body. Laughs. But my vocal chords are like that, but it's all due to how you treat them. If you sing from the throat, then you'll notice a gradual degradation as the years go on. But if you sing from the diaphragm correctly, your voice will get strong like James Brown, which is something not of this earth, or Rob Halford. As they get older, they get better. Those are the people that I get my inspiration from.
DM) I hear right now from how you're speaking. You're almost high on life it seems.
SB) The effort and the passion I put into it, when I talk to somebody like you and you can feel it, I get really excited about it. I'm not jaded. I'm not a jaded musician. I get off on what I do. The guys I hang out with from other bands seem to lose the joy of it all, and do it because that's what they do. But then again there's bands like Biohazard that f*&%ing are high on life doing what they do.
DM) So whatever gets you down?
SB) Being off the road. Laughs. I don't like sitting around too long.
DM) What do you do during your breaks then?
SB) I try keeping busy by taking lessons as I said, and working with other musicians. I had a break over Christmas and I got a call from Alex [Lifeson] of Rush, which is one of my favorite bands. And he's one of my favorite guitar players. We did a song in his house in his studio, which came out amazing.
DM) Who else would you like to work with?
SB) I'd like to do a duet with Rob Halford someday. I'd love to work with Janis Joplin but obviously that would be a little difficult. She's my all-time favorite singer.
DM) Did you ever do a cover song of Janis?
SB) No, I didn't, but I love her singing.
DM) How about a B-side for one of the singles? "Take a Little Piece of My Heart" or something like that.
SB) singing *Take it, take another little piece of my heart now baby ... take it.* You've got a tape going. Then you can sample that, put it on your answering machine. *I've cried baby ...* I sing to Janis all the time. I love Janis.
DM) When you sang that "Piece of My Heart" you had a little bit of a gravel though. How did you do it without damaging your voice at all?
SB) I don't know, kind of like this ... Sings another Janis song.
DM) You have to do a B-side of a Janis song.
SB) I can tell you this, in my lifetime I will do a Janis Joplin song. I can guarantee you this. Did you listen to that Jimi Hendrix cover we did of "Little Wing?"
DM) Yes, I thought it was great.
SB) That was a first take, that vocal. We did it in Berkeley where Jimi used to record a lot. And we just plugged it in and kept it. That was the first time we ever played together and there seemed to be a kind of magic to it.
DM) Any other covers you were thinking of doing?
SB) "Rock and Roll Outlaw" by Rose Tattoo. Go to the import section of your local metal outlet and check it out.
DM) What other bands do you listen to outside of heavy metal?
SB) Whitney Houston ...
DM) You listen to Whitney Houston?
SB) Yeah, I do. I know it's either a love it or hate it kind of thing, but I don't care. I just love her voice. It's so pure. I love the purity of her voice.
DM) Who else?
SB) Jeff Buckley. He is an amazing, amazing singer. James Brown, of course. I got the whole catalog of that. The Doors, the Eagles. I listen to good music, man. I love good songs. Do you know what else I love? I'm one of those suckers that f*&%ing blows all his money on those CDs that you see at four in the morning on those infomercials ... "Summer Fun Hits."
DM) You actually order those things?
SB) I'm all stoned at four in the morning just ordering that sh&^. *Alone again, naturally.* I put it in my car and I'll listen to Slayer into Gilbert and Sullivan and it's great.
DM) I get the same thing too. I switch from Pavoratti to Beethoven to U2.
SB) That's the beauty of having a CD changer. Speaking of Pavoratti, I actually love him. Usually when I'm flipping through channels I'll end up watching an opera station. People would be like, "f*&%ing turn it, man!" And I'm like, "No, this is the best!"
DM) Have you ever seen an opera live?
SB) Well, not really an opera. I've seen "Phantom of the Opera," which is theater.
DM) Then next time you come to New York, we'll go to the Metropolitan Opera.
SB) Screaming. I'd love that. Give me a buzz through Atlantic and we'll do it.
DM) Technically speaking, which singer has the skills which you'd love to emulate?
SB) Robert Halford. His power and his range are amazing. He's the most powerful, cleanest, versatile singer I've ever heard.
DM) You definitely know a lot about technique and skill within music. Do you feel that being in rock and roll makes it harder to get respect as a musician?
SB) Well, I'm in a fortunate position where I don't give a sh&^ what anybody thinks. Because I do it first and foremost to get myself off on the music. I don't do it to be huge. I never thought I would have a No. 1 record. But here I am at the age of 26 and we sold over 10 million records worldwide.
DM) How does it feel to know that so many people have heard your material?
SB) Do you know what it does? It makes me totally do more of it and get more into what turns me on in a band, because it gives me confidence in myself. It lets me know that what I like translates to other people. Like a song like "My Enemy" or "Break it Down" on the new record translates to other people because I like those songs.
DM) I was thinking from the perspective that people who do it for so many years get bored of the music or ...
SB) No, not me. I'm a fan of the music first and foremost. And I think that's the key to keep on keeping on.
Talk to other readers about this story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``
That was Killer!!!!!!!!!!!!
Much more crap to go through.
