PipemanRadio Interviews RIOT V About Mean Streets

0:04 Hey, you have done to censure. Wow, crazy young, Wake up America. It's time for the Adventures of pipe Man on W four c Y dot com. West pomp Beach is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here with our next guest.

0:57 I gotta tell the story about this though, because I was really excited because there's like a couple band, a couple albums are like my favorite albums out there, and bands are my favorite bands I like listen to all the time. And so the publicist sends me over information about this new album and I look at him like, oh my god, I will definitely interview them, because you know, you get all kinds of requests all the time, and it's like some of them you know, some of them you don't. But this band and this artist we have here absolutely freaking incredible. I've been listening to them since the eighties, and so I'd like to welcome to the show Todd Michael Hall from Riot five. How are you, hey man?

1:46 Thank you very much, bike Man. I appreciate it. It's just a real pleasure to be with you here today. Oh, pleasure to have you and forty old school fans. Okay, I know it's interesting, like you came up with the five part because is it like the first time there's been like five people in the band. No, No, actually it's considered the fifth chapter of the band because oh, okay, there you go. Yep, there's been a lot of different there's been five different singers that have recorded with Riot. So you had the initial guy guys Beranza, and then they transitioned after the third album into RHTT Forrester, and then they transitioned into kind of more of a poor power metal style, and they brought on Tony Moore for the thunder Steel album and Privilege of Power, and then after that there was Mike DeMeo for quite a few albums, and then they did have a thunder Steel reunion, so they put out an album in twenty eleven with Tony Moore and all the original Thundersteel guys, and then Mark Reality passed away about a year after that in twenty twelve, and that's when they and that's when we then when they I mean I wasn't technically in the band yet. I was kind of in kind of in the process of getting in the band as they were forming the you know, you know, kind of regrouping, and that's when, and out of respect for Mark reality, Donnie and Mike decided to add the V, which a lot of people will say Riot V, but it's really Riot five is what we call. And that's when they decide, I respect him, just to kind of signify a new chapter for the band. But really, realistically, people know this is riot. When we're

3:17 out and people are chanting their name or whatever at a show, it's usually just right, yeah, right, you know, right and right yet five, you know, so that's so cool. And you know, one thing I will say too is so I'm listening to new music. You got the new album dropping on the twelfth, mean streets. And it's always tough when you you know, when you listen to bands for a long time, whether they had change ups or not, especially if you're an old school OG fan to kind of like like the stuff that's thirty years later, you know. But I gotta tell you, I mean, this music you have now is absolutely amazing. It's like, I don't know, it's like old school and new school all put into one with a great flavor to it, thank you very much. I mean that's definitely, you know, definitely something that we were going for. I mean, you know, we really have two principal writers of music on the album. That's Donnie the bass player, and then Mike the guitar player, and I tend to write a lot of lyrics, and we all work together on the vocal melodies. And you know, Donnie has actually met Mark Reality way back in the early eighties and then you know, back then they were just friends. They would jam together when Mark was visiting Texas, and that's how they met. And then you know, later on, Donnie ended up getting in the band, and thunder Steel was the first album that he was on and he was a principal writer on that.

4:48 And so because of that, we kind of considered because Thundersteel is really that transition to what I would call power metal, bringing in that side of it, even though Riot's always been pretty diverse obviously, and and you know, so Donnie definitely has that in spades. But Donnie grew up as a big fan of Riots, so he loves all from the first album on. He said, it used to be on the radio and he was a kid, you know, younger kid in San Antonio, and so you know, like when he first met Mark, he was like meeting one of his heroes, you know, and so yeah, so definitely, you know, don you know, and then Mike's obviously been in the band since eighty nine, so he's got a ton of history and experience with with the band and with with Mark reality and everything. And I think if you look at the history Riot, it's pretty you know, even when you've got an album like Privilege of Power that has tons of heavy songs on it, like on your Knees and black Leather and glittering Steel, you still have a song like Marianne, which is more like a pop hit kind of things. So there's definitely some diversity there, and that's what we wanted to have, kind of just some diversity.

5:49 And certainly when you're in a what I would call a legacy band like Riot, you want to try and have some winks to the past here and there. And like, you know, the title of the album is Mean Streets, and Donnie wrote a song called Johnny's Back, and so pretty much every album, you know, Donnie wants to have a Johnny type saga song, and so like Mean Streets is more of the continuation of that Johnny Saga on this new album. So nice, Hey Sids, Okay, you're talking about power metal. I have a trivia question for you. Oh boy, what thrash metal band was originally considered power metal? Because there was no such thing as thrash metal yet? Hmmm, I don't like exciter or something like that. That'd be my gift. Well close, So I'll tell you a story to answer it. I went to this band's first show ever in LA and this dude gets off the stage after a show. I think I was like fifteen years old. He starts talking to me and then he gives me his business card and it said Metallica power metal. Oh Dave Mustain. Wow right, And it's like I think about and like, why were they power metal? It didn't sound power metal, but you know, it's like it's almost like power metal was sometimes a genre that was given the bands that you

7:24 didn't know what genre to put them in. Of metal, Yeah, And it's so hard. I mean, there's so many darned different names for metal. I think. For me, when I think of power metal, in my mind, power metal is it can be fast and heavy, for sure, but it usually is melodic and has kind of soaring so that that to me is kind of the definition of so I would think of like say your Maiden or do O or Queen Drike at times, you know, stuff like that. Yeah, there's no way that like hit the lights of power metal. Yeah, definitely metal, but you know, not the soaring vocals at least not so much exactly. So tell us a little bit about this new album. You know, what's the creativity behind it? And you know, I have another question, because I have the album cover behind me, maybe you could tell people the story about why you have the animal on the album cover. Well, I mean, so I have to tell you through hearsay, but I do know. I mean I was I was about eight years old when the first album came out in nineteen seventy seven, and I do remember way back then that there was a lot of talk about baby seals getting clubbed and killed for their fur, and people were up in arms and upset about it happening and all that. And so if you look at the very first album that was released in seventy seven, Rock City, there was an art the artist that had made the cover. I have to believe that was what was on his mind, because if you look at the cover, it

8:56 is a guy with a baby seal head holding an act. It's like a dead body behind him in a city in flames behind him. And so my you know, my interpretation is that that's basically the baby seal getting back at man. And when that happened, I think it was so I don't know back then, you know, I think it was so rased. So when they came up with the next album, Narita, you know, they they had a jack, they had a sumer wrestler with a you know, with a seal head. And then when they came out with the third album, Fired down Under, it was just a close up of a sealed guy with a seal head and fire behind him. So, you know, they kept sticking with it, and and actually they they did have albums where they didn't but I mean, really, uh, you know, I think Born in America had it on there and Restless Breed he was half seal, and you know, so it's just been around for so long, and in some ways some people have teased kind of ride you know, and says, you know, without those you know, those terrible album covers, you know, and whatnot, have you and maybe they've been more famous if the album covers were so crappy and and I think, but but for us, we've kind of come first circle just kind of like we totally embrace it. So when we came out with Unleash the Fire, because they didn't have the seal on well on the one on Immortal Soul. But when we came out with it, Donnie wanted to bring it back, but he thought, maybe bring him in the future and make him somewhat of a cyborg or whatever, and you know.

10:16 And then last the last album, Armor of Light, that's where we introduced the notion of a gang and so there's multiples you know, of them, and then we continued the gang. This time it's a biker gang of seals. So I love it. You know why I asked that because it's very interesting, Like I have all those old albums still to this day, and it wasn't until looking at this album and reading something that I ever put together that was what was always on the albums. It didn't even register in my mind that those albums had the same kind of character, which is really weird. You know. I remember the album covers in my head, but I never thought of it that way until this one. I'm like, holy crap, Like, how did I not notice that it's funny? Right?

11:13 So, and this album covers Badass too, by the way, I love see I miss that nowadays of like really enjoying the artwork of an album cover, you know, and this one definitely does it for me. But let's talk about the music, you know, so tell us a little bit about what prompted this album, you know, what kind of creativity went into it, and what you really want to accomplish with the music, you know. I think you know, some bands, when they sit back, they you know, they maybe try to go for an overall concept with it. You know. We tend to be more like we just we like to write great songs, and so the creative process is pretty interactive. I mean, Donnie's a principal songwriter, so is Mike. Donnie usually sends a pretty developed song and then a demo, and a lot of times he'll send it to me and I can listen and try to write lyrics and vocal melodies. Michael do the same thing. Sometimes Donnie will write his own lyrics and vocal melodies.

12:11 But you know, we interact. We'll even have arguments now and then you know, like there's the song high Noon that was like the first single or released. Actually I called it first Light, and the chorus was like show down at First Night, you know, you know whatever. That was my chorus, and I was like, I like my chorus better than this high Noon chorus. And so like we went back to Mike. I was like, Mike, come on, man, I got him and Donnie the I'm like, Mike, come on, listen to him both. Man, isn't mine's better, isn't it? He's like, No, I like Donnie's. You know, So Donnie's ended up winning out, you know. So every now and then you have those little contests and I'm still convinced my chorus is better, but I like high Noon too. But you know, so there is that interactive process. And then there's other times where you look at a song like lean Into It, which is kind of what I would call it has a real good, kind of old school throwback vibe. Sounds like something off of Rock City to me, and but Donnie sent me the music and it was just really sang to me, and I just I sent it back to him with lyrics and vocal melodies and it was like boom, there we go. You know. So sometimes they just go really fast and then other ones, you know, other ones they're just a labor of love. And so for us, you know, you know, it just it just comes down the songs. We just want a great song. You know, we're we're kind of beyond the notion of well, we want to impress somebody with high screams or fast solos or whatever. It's like, we just want to write a great song. That's all. Well, you know what, I think that's something that's missing nowadays, you know, because especially in the metal genre. As a lifelong metal head, I find myself sometimes saying things now that people said to me that it wasn't true back then. But it's like,

13:43 huh, every metal band sounds exactly the same. And I used to say, no, they didn't, But now I see certain bands it's almost like they use this algebraic equation to make a metal song, and the musicianship is kind of not necessary, is there, Whereas back in the day it was about musicianship. So I love that bands like you guys are like bringing that back, because it is coming back where it's important to be a good musician and to have a good song, not just here, let's just put this out like we're in a puppy mill. Yeah, yeah, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that. You know, it is really tough.

14:24 There's that fine balance, you know. To some extent, it's like, you know, your fans. You're kind of in a box with your fans, right like they kind of know what you are and they want to feel like they know what to expect from you. The nice thing about Riot is with with a long history, there's been some diversity, and so I think, you know, our fans are there, but you know, I think for us, we just we think about the people and we want to have a little bit of everything for him. So we always have some pounders. We call them the ones that got the real fast, heavy double bass and all that. We like to have some old school and we like to have dot Donnie says. We have two types of songs. We have up and down, which is like and then we have the left and right, which is done, you know or whatever. So you always have a little bit of that, you know, So like feel the Fire has a little bit more of that, just kind of old maybe Judas Priest fire where it's just you know, kind of heavy and but more mid tempo and stuff.

15:16 So, you know, I think for us that was it just try to mix it up and kind of you know, as you're writing, you know, don't limit yourself. Well I can only write this, or I can only write that. It was like, you know, but there's always some extra songs that you don't end up using and stuff where you're like, ah, you know, maybe that's not good for us. Whatever, we won't do that. I always say that's the key to being a great artist is not it's not like thinking about it, it's just what comes to you. It's like I remember being in high school and I was playing guitar and my dad would be like, you should give that up because you suck. And what I was really doing is I was just like experimenting with these different sounds. So like I wanted to see what I could come up with with, not do something that everybody else was doing. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

16:04 And it's like it's hard because with a band like Riot, with our long legacy of albums, and it's the seventeenth album and there's that fine line. You know, you want to come out with something that's in the spirit of the band but doesn't sound like it's the exact same thing over again, And you know it could be hard. I mean, we try to be successful, but it's definitely hard to do. So I always say that too, like my hat's off to you, because when when you have that many albums out or you've been a musician for that long, I always think, man, how hard is it to come up with new songs that people are gonna like because they want you to do all the same old stuff. But as an evolved musician that you know, has been learning the trade, you want to do new things and not do the same thing you've done your whole life. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, I mean I feel really blessed to be in the band because first of all, I mean, you know, there's been different singers, and my voice just fits the pocket of certainly Guy Speranza and Tony Moore tend to be the ones that we play the most songs from, and then obviously our own songs, and you know that's it just fits my vocal pocket really well. You know, So in that regard, I feel blessed. But you know, and the opportunities all the shows I've gotten to play, but also just the fact that we have people that, like when we went to South America, even back in twenty sixteen, there were people singing, you know, take Me Back, which is a song I wrote on Unleash the Fire, you know, I wrote the lyrics to that, and it's pretty overwhelming, like because because some bands, like the legacy bands, they can only play the old stuff no one

17:37 even, you know, they won't even put out in New Albus because nobody cares to hear it or something. And I think with ours, we have fans that expect new songs and want to hear the new songs, and they sing a long with the new songs too, you know. And that's where I feel really blessed, because it's like I feel like we're still pushing the thing forward. We're not just out schlepping the old stuff, you know. I love that. It's almost like the attitude of your fans are the old school, underground type of fans, you know, like, you know, it doesn't matter what you put out as long as it's good, you know, and they don't need you to be just this and please play this song that you've played fifty million times, because that's the only one I want to hear. You know, yeah, it's you know, it's amazing. There's just we do have some really incredible fans. I mean I've been I remember playing shows. I mean like on quite a few occasions, I mean like three four at least occasions. I've had grown men come up to me and tell me that they were crying as we played blood Streets, which is a song of Thundersteal, because it brought back all these emotions of when they were a kid, and they just thought that we sounded so true to the original that they just loved it. And like, that's for me. I mean as a vocalist. You know, vocalists have different theories of how they want to do stuff. Like for me, when I do the older stuff, my goal is to try to have it sound as much like the original as I can. I don't change the melodies around and do anything. I just try to do it exactly because to me, that's what you know, you know, like, and I'm not saying that that's the only way to do it. I mean some people prefer to change stuff up. I went to see Counting Crows and Concert and Adam changes the melodies all the time. I

19:10 didn't even know what songs he was playing at the time, the words, you know, but that's not my thing. I don't work that way. So I like your way actually, because you can be your own on your new songs, but then you give that nostalgic vibe at the same time with the old songs, So I love it. Tell everybody how they can connect to you guys on socials, on the web, how they can get the new album when it drops. They definitely have to check out the video that's out for Feel of Fire, because that's badass, not just the music, but the video itself itself as cool as hell. And every way that they can check everything out, I'm sure they can pre order or pre save. I know there's multiple colors of vinyl and all that cool stuff. Yeah.

19:55 Well, obviously, you know we're on the social social media, so Facebook, you'll find us some under Riot, and you'll find us on Instagram. I don't even sure what that one is, but if you look up right, I'm sure you'll find us. You know our web pages. Are you ready to riot dot com? So if you go there, you're gonna find links to pre order the album. It's also you know, you'll see it on Amazon and all over. It's we're on Atomic Fire of the record label, so they've got their own site. So yeah, there's sites all over the place, right, you'll connect with it. And we have a you know, you know, just a lot of a lot of great stuff. The Psyche is Psyche. We have another. I think Mean Streets will be the next video that we're going to release in a little while, and then we'll even have a lyric video for a Love beyond the Grave I think when the album drops and so it comes out April twelfth, and so we're just hoping everybody picks it up and enjoys it. And as a Jersey boy, I love that you shot the new and the video in Jersey. So I'm going to say that we definitely did. Yeah, we and we got some scenes of us walking around, uh walking around. I think the second one for was in New York, but Feel the Fire was definitely in Jersey and a little studio in Jersey. And I think the gal in it, I correct me if I'm wrong. I think she was Miss Jersey. Oh really, yeah, it's cool. I'm forgetting her name, but she was real nice gal obviously, But Donnie sent me a picture of this Miss New Jersey and I'm like, well, who's that because that's the one in our video And I'm like really, so wow, that's cool. You have a final words you want to leave our listeners with that we haven't covered that maybe they

21:26 need to know. Yeah, I just want to thank you for, you know, first of all doing the interview, and just thank all the people that support us. I mean, you know, this is like a passion project for us. You know, it's something that obviously I have a full time job like most everyone, this is something that we do for fun. And it's been great for us because they get to play shows all over the world and stuff. But it's we go because the people are there and they want us to come, and they want us to play shows, and they want us to put up more music. And just appreciate the support that people give us, and thank you and we'll keep keep keep giving you if you want it, we'll keep coming. Oh we want more for sure. Thanks for giving us more music all these years later, and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. All right, man, well, thank you for having me my pleasure. Hey, this is Todd Michael Hall from Riot five and you are listening to the Pipe Main on W four c Y Radio.

22:26 Thank you for listening to the adventures of Pipemin on W for c u I Radio.