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No Strings Attached With JANET GARDNER & JUSTIN JAMES · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Hey, everybody, This is Jianna Gardner and Justin James and we are so
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  thrilled to be coming back to the landown under the one of the most amazing
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  places in the world. Best Australia. Now you gone. It's good to
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  see your small advices once more. You too, Chris, Chris, so
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  miss you misky going. So it's not gonna be about a week and we
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  get to catch up. Absolutely, we're so excited what's coming on right off.
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  So as much as I'd love to believe it, you guys not just
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  coming out to say me, you're actually talking back to Australia after four long
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  ease as part of glam Fist twenty twenty four. Are you packed and ready
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  to jugget? Pretty much? Yeah, I've started packing, she's lying.
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  No, we got a lot of packing to do. But well good.
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  By this weekend we'll be packed and ready to go and just staring at that
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  clock now for it. But we're really on top of it. I ordered
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  all of the like the adapters for the electronics. Yes, all that stuff.
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  We're on top of it. We're gonna be ready to go, ready
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  to rock, beautiful. It's going fast to the host of legendary rock bands,
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  including yourself. There's Slaughter, Lynch, Mob, Hate, Jet Boy,
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  and Morrissa. If you've had it a lot, there's gonna be over
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  one hundred years of music on that line up. Wow. Wow, that's
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  crazy to look at it that way. Yeah, say yeah, yeah,
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  But what's so cool is it's it's bands you know from the day that we
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  all love and still love. And then there's some newer acts too that are
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  a part of this bill that are great and cool and I'm excited to see
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  like heat and cruel intentions that we don't get to see here in the States.
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  So yeah, they're just gonna be awesome. So we yeah, this
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  will be a good opportunity to see them. Yeah, but most importantly to
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  see you, Chris. Of course, I'm thinking about coming to the airport
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  is a surprise and dressing up so you kind of recognize me. That'd be
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  awesome. Well, we recognize you, no matter what they would be like,
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  that's Chris. Yeah, I'm trying behind the follow and you'll see my
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  stomach sticking out from behind it. Christen the crazy Dinosaur costume. Of course,
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  you know strangers are playing festivals, are this guy? So what do
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  you like most about planning these shows? Like, is it the music?
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  Is it touching up with old friends, is it the atmosphere? Is it
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  all of the above? All the above, all the above. You just
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  nailed it. Yeah, you totally nailed it. I mean a lot of
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  these bands are our friends, and so it's great to see them because we
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  haven't seen them in a while, and obviously playing on stage playing music and
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  seeing the fans and the friends and crowd, and it's the whole thing.
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  It's just it's almost overwhelming. It's it's so exciting. We are so excited
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  about this. Yeah, and there is like a sense of community with you
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  know, our genre of music now that that didn't exist back when, you
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  know, we were all at the height of our popularity. Everybody's out,
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  you know, and other than the bands that you're touring with at the moment,
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  Like I didn't get a chance to see a lot of those bands because
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  we were always touring. So you know, these this is such great opportunities
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  for us to see other bands and share the stage with them. It's it's
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  an honor and it's it's amazing. The last time you hear was around this
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  time in twenty twenty, which was four years ago. So what's changed with
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  the band since then? Nothing? People, Yeah, we got spirit Richie
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  Rivera and and I mean we're just a happy family. When we get on
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  stage. It's like four kids up there just having fun and enjoying our ourselves
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  and escaping the nasty world that we all live in. And uh, just
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  playing some rock and rolls. Since the last time, though, we had
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  put out to new Yeah, some new songs in the set for sure.
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  Yeah, So I mean that was kind of the nice thing, you know,
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  when we got back. We barely got back, but we all unfortunately
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  went into lockdown and it gave us time to just really hone in on new
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  music. And I think we wrote and recorded an album in record time,
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  like two months. Yes, Synergy was fast. Yeah, And in fact,
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  we use in our video for Wounded off of Synergy, we used footage
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  from the last time we were in Australia for all the live shots in the
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  video. And and then recently we put out No Strings, our newest album
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  that we're super proud of and we can't wait to get there and play these
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  new songs for everybody to people like it. Yeah, And there's you know,
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  some of the you know, our earlier songs and then of course the
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  lasts from the past with the vix and songs. So really it will be
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  good set. We're excited. Yeah, it's funny because like I literally got
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  given one sentence worth of material to do research on to speak to you guys,
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  like there was nothing about the bands that also, oh and did a
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  bit of a search on the net, and everything I found only mentioned yourself
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  and justin like, there was no mention of Richie at all. I'm sitting
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  there looking at all. I'm thinking, poor Richie, he's left out.
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  He is an amazing drummer. I mean, we were. We are so
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  fortunate that we have the two of them, Richie and Anthony, because they're
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  just the greatest guys. And I mean that's half the battle right there.
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  I mean, what you do on stage is really important, obviously, but
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  when you do off stage is really important too, because you travel a lot,
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  you do, and then if you know, if you had that bond
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  off stage, it translates to a stage right And we just love those guys
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  so much. We do, and you know what we do when we're on
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  the road, we do everything together other than when we were with you last
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  time, and we went to the zoo and Richie was terrified of all the
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  animals, so he saved me. He wants nothing to do with animals.
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  He's so funny. No, but because we're the opposite. I mean that's
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  we love animals and nature and and all that stuff and he's just not about
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  that. No, but he Richie is such I mean I've known Richie now
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  for probably fifteen years, and what a great attitude and delivers a story better
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  than Richie. Richie is just hands down a class act. And Anthony,
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  well he's a piece of crap, but we keep him around now I'm kidding.
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  No, Anthony's awesome, you know. He's just such a team player
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  and amazing bass player, phenomenal guitar player. And you're right, they don't
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  get enough kudos. They don't get enough attention or credit. So is my
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  sleeve over that? Actually, what day do you guys get eat of Melbourne?
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  Because I've got a friend who works at the Melbourne Zoo. So if
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  you want me to hook you up there, and if you want to go
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  check yes, do yes? Please? Yes we get in and Wednesday Wednesday,
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  Yeah, Wednesday next week. Yeah, we're flying in, but Thursday
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  is the day we're going to be doing stuff. Yeah, so Thursday were
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  Thursday. Yeah, all right, I do it for you and Anthony or
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  just the two of you. Anthony too. Anthony likes doing that stuff too.
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  Yeah, Ritchie, he's a weirdo. But yeah, Anthony likes to
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  be a person. The last time I took the Midnight Devils to the zoo
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  there and they got to say, you know, the little Lema's or the
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  little meerkats. Yeah, they let us inside their enclosure and we sat with
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  him for about fifteen minutes and they're just all over us and eating office and
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  it was a lot of meerkats. Well, i'll see. I won't promise,
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  but i'll see if I can organize one for you. But oh,
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  Chris, he'll be awesome. What's your address so I can send you sendy
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  confirmation? Just Janet Gardner at yahoo dot com. All right, sweets,
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  I'll try and organize that today for it, but I'll send you confirmation.
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  But it shouldn't cost you a cent, so i'll see what I can.
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  Thank you much, no worries, all right, Okay, I said that
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  there's also a large number of Australian bands on Glamfest, including Sisters Doll,
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  Rag Dolls, Shotgun Mistress and cross On. So do you before a festival
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  this like, do you do your research on local bands so you know what
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  to expect or do you just sort of going told and let it be a
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  surprise. It kind of depends on how much time we have, right And
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  I always try to because I like to know, you know, the other
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  artists that we're playing where they like to be familiar with what they're doing,
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  so you can have a conversation like I love this song blah blah blah whatever.
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  But a lot of times we don't always have a lot of time.
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  But well, if I recall correctly to cross On, they played with us
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  last time we were there, and I remember them having that really cool wild
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  stage show and everything else, so they were fine. Yeah, they were
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  a blast. So you know, we're excited to check out the other bands
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  too on there, and like Janet said, it just depends how much time
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  we have. We try always because we get it. It's I mean,
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  we struggle ourselves with getting people to check out our new music and stuff because
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  everybody either lives in the past or just listen puts on a playlist of top
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  forty music and they don't listen to new music, which sucks. So you
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  know, so we absolutely always try to listen to everybody who's going to be
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  a part of the bill. And yeah, you know, I've seen them
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  all before, so I do off a little cheat sheet. I'll just give
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  you like a cope. They likes that. If you don't catch them,
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  it's oh yeah, you guys give that hot rock band. So you sort
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  of touch on this before. But you released your last album, Nice Strings,
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  back in June of last Yeah, how was that one? We're saved
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  good. Yeah, we've been thrilled with how everybody's reacted to it. And
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  it feels good because it was I mean, we always work hard on all
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  our albums, but this one in particular, we worked really hard on and
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  we weren't about to release anything that was subpart We wanted to make sure it
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  was the best we could possibly make it right from the first note to the
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  last exactly, and we spent a lot of hours just dialing everything in.
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  And once it was released and we started seeing reviews come out, it was
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  so warm, it felt so good, and a lot of people got what
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  we were shooting for with it, and I'm really really proud of what we
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  did, and well you should be. Justin worked especially hard on like the
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  mixes and the mastering, just NonStop and just not satisfied, not satisfied,
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  not satisfied. I'm like, it sounded good four mixes ago. Funny,
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  like there's like a song on there. You know, when you do mixes
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  and masters it starts to putting numbers after it. I think like the song
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  in eighty five that we released, I think by the final version said eighty
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  five mix number seventy nine. It was just an exaggeration I was going.
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  Was it got to the point where I was gonna enroll them in some sort
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  of twelve step program, like We've got to cure you of this disease.
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  Well, I looked at it as when we were doing this album. In
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  the world we live in today, a lot of bands just release singles.
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  They don't release full albums anymore because people's attention spans are what it used to
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  be because there's so much music coming out now, So I don't know if
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  next time we're going to release a full album or just the singles. So
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  our plan was with this one to make it the best full album we can
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  possibly make, just in case it's our last full album. Well, since
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  that's happened, we kind of rolled that out and will probably continue to do
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  full albums because that's what we like. We like full albums, and you
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  know, singles are great, but they're not the same. It's just a
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  single. I like a collection. Yeah, I like different elements that had
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  a caste a vibe to it, and I yeah, well, and I
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  think what was cool with those strings is it kind of captures everything that we're
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  about. I even though Janet comes from the eighties, that's my forte of
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  like my favorite music style, so I tend to write in the style of
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  the eighties. Janet tends to be more bluesy seventies orientated. So I think
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  those strings kind of captures what we both are about. It's got a little
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  bit of seventies and eighties there. I mean that kind of but I you
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  know, I do like the anthemy catchy melodies of the eighties. We right,
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  right, of course, Yeah, it's it's definitely has lots of different
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  elements that that sort of make us who we are. Yeah, as a
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  team. Right, when you can buy them together, you got No Strings.
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  You do, You guys probably one of the few bands from that era
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  of music that is still popping out albums. Like a lot of bands stop
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  making albums and just go on their back catalog. But it's good to see
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  you guys still don it. But do you find that your fan base and
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  now was sort of pretty much long term supporters or still getting new fans because
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  you released in new music? I do. I think we are getting new
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  fans. I mean there's people on the No Strings album. When we released
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  the first single eighty five, I think there was a comment on YouTube that
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  said I was checking out so and so's video and then have a link to
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  your video is a recommendation, and oh my god, I love this.
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  Yeah, I'm sure glad I did. Yeah, glad I tried and go
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  buy it. So yeah, But you know, you're right, it's not
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  like loads and loads of new fans. No, you know, it's just
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  our genre is not people, don't you know? Getting new fans is right,
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  It's it's not easy. But then god, it's not nineteen ninety three
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  or four anymore, where grunge is totally taken over and we're just shunned upon
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  me. People are more open minded, but oh for sure. And you
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  know we do. Once in a while we'll get like a group of like
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  kids show up to our show. We're like, what are they doing here?
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  I mean that's cool. Yeah, it's like they're they're loving it,
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  they're into it. Their favorite bands are, you know, bands from the
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  eighties. So it does still sort of transcend age. Yeah right, Oh
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  my gosh. Well that's all I have got for you today. But it's
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  made an absolute pleasure catching up. The gland Fest festival picks off you Melbourne
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  on February sixteenth. You were in Brisbane on the seventieh and Sydney on the
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  eighteenth. So if you don't go along, get yourself a ticket. Yeh,
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  a dickhead, that's great. Yes, you don't want to miss it.