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Everything's Better With Ice Cream According To STEVE HARRIS From HILLBILLY VEGAS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Name is Steve Harris. I'm a singer of Hillbilly Vegas
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and he'pefully. Vegas includes Stacy Thornberg on lead guitar, Geraldo
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Dominelli on guitar and keyboards, Todd Ronnie former Bad Company
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: basist on bass, and Gunnard Molton on drums.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Fantastic same thanks for joining us today.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, good to be here. I'm this
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is my first Australian interview.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Hopefully Wen s fallop for the rest of them.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Then, nah, man, you're a lot nicer than guys from
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: New Zealand. I did so.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: I'm not even gonna get into that, but.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I know all about it. That's why I said it.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: We're here, did I to speak about the fact that
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Hillbilly Vegas released your new album I'll maye on May.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: The eighth, So how you feel about it?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: All right? We feel good about it. We like what
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: we've done, and uh, you know, the name Ala Mode
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: is a silly name, but it's a fun name and
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: we hope that everybody and he enjoys it as much
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: as we enjoyed doing it.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: No, it's good to take us a bit deeper into
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: the album. From a musical point of view and tell
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: us what you're gone forward with it.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I wish I could say there's a bunch of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: deep meaning in it, but we just kind of write
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: songs and when I hear the music, did the guys
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: start writing. I just sometimes it tells a story, sometimes
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: it paints a picture, and then I start writing from there.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I do a lot of observational stuff and people I
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: know or just things I've seen, and there's a lot
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: of things on there. There's a good story in every song,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: even the silly ones, and we hope everybody finds their
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: story in our story.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Very nice today to release the singles I hope, you know,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: and mister Midnight so I think a good sony representation
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: of what do you expect from the whole album.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, there's a couple of ballads on there,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of heavy rockers on there, and there's
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: a little bit of country music and boogie woogie on there.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: So you know, as we've always done, we kind of
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: write a little bit of everything.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah nice, and mister Midnight was actually written by the
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: legendary Paul Rodgers from Bad Company, who also features on
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: the song. Mate Like Bad Company, is a long time
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: favorite of mine. Bro, you must have been pinching yourself
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: to get that happen.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Long time, long time favorite of mine. Yeah, it's uh,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: it's uh. It was very exciting. Paul was very nice
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and uh and such a great guy to work with.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And you know, we share a manager and now we
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: share a bass player, so we had a connection. But Paul, Uh,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Paul went far beyond. And then he appeared in the
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  Speaker 1: video and in the song and and uh, it's just
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a dream come true.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Look you say it's a dream come true, bro, But
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: how does it feel to have? But that guy is
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: he's responsible for rock and roll music in a lot
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: of ways. I think, like, how did him come with
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: you and work on a song? Like does that sort
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: of does it make you realize that you're doing something
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: bright or do you just sort of.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: You know, you just love the experience or what you
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: take out of that.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Well, while it's going on, you don't really take much
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: out of it at all because you're just doing it
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and you know, and then once it's over, you start
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: reflecting on it a little bit and you think, you know, Paul,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Paul kind of defined the way we hear rock and roll.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Am I right. I mean he just he kind of
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: he's one of the greatest rock and roll voices in history,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and and just such a super nice guy and such
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a professional and and and so what you take away
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: from that is you just feel really really fortunate to
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: be in that position and really thankful that it was
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: able to happen.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, how the album starts through the refueled hot rock
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: track miss America Might Life.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: What was the thought process behind leading with U song?
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, if you don't hit him in the
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  Speaker 1: mouth right away, they might not think you're going to
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  Speaker 1: do it.
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  Speaker 2: Sure good push the cracker of a track that now,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: thank you very much.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: You guys are a rough and tumble bunch over there,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: you know, you know you got to hit them hard, right,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: I let him get back up again on the wise
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: of but.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: You guys right, you're the home of one of the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: greatest rock and roll bands in history ac DC in
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: them great Bond Scott. So to me, you know, just
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: just uh just kind of following that hit him hard.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's weir now for long Chong fans of the
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: band mate, how does Alam different musically to t your
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Elio material?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know that it differs so much as
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  Speaker 1: it's just a continuation of our story. And and when
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you're writing the story, there's lots of chapters and every
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: chapter has a little bit of a different thing to it,
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  Speaker 1: but it's a continuing story. So I would say that
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: that it's not so much different as it is just
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  Speaker 1: a continuation.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, hey, you mentioned this before. It was a bit
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: of fun mate. But I said there was a nice
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  Speaker 3: song called al on the album, So what does that
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: represent the collection as owns?
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I don't know, uh, you know where
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: we're from in the South. When they say you want
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: something ala mode, they had ice cream to it, and
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  Speaker 1: so I just kind of felt like everything's better with
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: ice cream?
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  Speaker 2: Right, I've never heard that before.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Well, you get if you get out here, you get
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: apple pie al of mode, and apple pie alo mode
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: just means a hot piece of apple pie and they
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: slaps of ice cream on there and it makes it
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  Speaker 1: so much better. So why not make it better? Right,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Everything's better with ice cream. That's what this album is,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the ice.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Lunch today And I'm gonna ask you to put ice
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  Speaker 3: cream on my golic drawings just to test the theory.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Oh well, there, that's a whole different deal.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Come back in Tarbright life just started. He'll believed it's
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: back in twenty eleven. So what was the musical climate
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: life at the time they gave bad.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: To the band?
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: And where did you fit in it?
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: We were, I will say that we were a little
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: more country leaning back then. And we got signed. Our
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: first record deal was with the Nashville label. And when
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: we got to Nashville, we found out we were all
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: wrong for Nashville and uh, they told us so, and
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: we told them so and it didn't work out that well,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and uh and it taught us a lot though, And
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I appreciate every bit of that experience because it started
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: us on our road. And I love Nashville. I love
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: it so much. But it's it's a it's a factory there.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: It's a machine there. And if you write your own.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: Songs and you play your own songs, they're not really
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: that interested in you because.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: They have they have it's like an assembly line. They
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: have writers, they have musicians, and they have producers and
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: none of them mix. So everybody has a job to do.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: And if you come in and disrupt that, you know, So, what.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Did you do, you come in and disrupt it and
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: guys somewhere else.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: So we came in and disrupted it and uh, and
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: they called us the Metallica of Nashville for a bit
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: and all of that. And we did okay with a
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: couple of singles on the radio, but really we had
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: we had a lot of rock and roll Southern in US,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: and and we didn't want to tame it down, and
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: they wanted us attainment down more and gotten love them.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: They meant well, but for us, we wanted to play
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: a little bit of everything, and you just couldn't do
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: that in that environment. So so we just took it
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: to We took it out back home and did much better.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Sweet do you remember the first song you heard one
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: of these songs playing on radio?
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  Speaker 2: And where you wear? And what song was?
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a song called Localhoma three point two
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: And it was right after we started the band and
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: I was at work and somebody said, hey, your song is.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Playing on the radio, and we couldn't believe it. And
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: it was just a local DJ and it was just
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: playing on a local station.
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  Speaker 5: Funny story though, if you're familiar with the movie Wayne's
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  Speaker 5: World and Nashville record executive was driving through the state
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  Speaker 5: and that very moment that he was on the freeway,
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  Speaker 5: that song played, and from his car he called the
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: radio station.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: To find out who we were. And that's how we
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: ended up in Nashville. Just like Wayne's world, you know,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: mister Big and his limousine made the phone call. That's
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: exactly what happened. I kid you not. And so so
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the first time I heard our song on the radio
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: was the we got that record deal.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: Yes man, chatty man chashy, Yeah, I remember. Over your music,
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: Blends has been an Outlottle contrytors Electric plays his classic
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: rock and daylight. Do you how do you find the
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: balance into creating process?
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: We don't uh to be perfectly honest with you. You know,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I don't want to eat the same food every day
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: for the rest of my life, and I don't want
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: to play the same music every day for the rest
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: of my life. So whatever we're in the mood for,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: that's what we write. Just like you're having prawns later,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You don't want them every
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: three times a day, right, You want something else, and
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: so you know, just think of it as a meal.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: You want something today I might want something tomorrow. I
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: don't want to eat the same thing every day. I
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: don't want to hear the same song or the same
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: genre every day. I want some rock and roll, I
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: want some country, I want some blues, and it all
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: has the same thing. It's us and so and as
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: long as we're who we are and we're telling our
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: story while that's going on, you know, that's how you
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: balance it. You just beat you.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very cool.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Now, the album comes out on maybe eighth mine. So
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  Speaker 3: if you got any shows, any love shows or a
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: draw playing.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Around it, we do. We have a summer tour coming
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: up in June, July, and August. We're going to do
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: that in America. I can't tell you all the details
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: on that yet because you get with these people, you know,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and then you're not about doing announce things just like
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I used to do. I used to just be able
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to say what I want. But yes, we have an
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: American tour, which, honestly, that'll be our first American tour
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: in three years. We've been over seas for the last
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: five tours, and so we're very happy to be staying
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: home and playing across our beautiful country and listen our
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Our country is actually bigger than tour in Europe. So
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: it's you know, we did we were with Ted Nugent
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: and we did in two months, we did almost twenty
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: thousand miles and so in just America, and so you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: if five tours overseas we haven't done twenty thousand miles. Yeah,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: So it's it's it's a vast place. Like you. You've
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: got a huge country, you understand that, and there's a
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: lot of mileagy between everything, you know what I mean,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: And so we're very happy to be doing that. We're
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: excited to get out here in American play. And I
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: gotta tell you, I see our our our Spotify reports
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and our Apple Music reports, and five of our top
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: ten top fifteen cities are in Australia. So I may
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: be telling something.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Well, you gotta come over and party with its.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what was it just a twenty something
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: in twenty four hour flight? I think something like that,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: But yeah, absolutely, I mean the land of Rick Springfield
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and ACDC and Jet three of my favorites.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: What could go wrong?
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Now?
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Before I let you go to that, Steve, I got
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: a new segment I started called photo Bombs. So basically
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: I controlled through social media and I found a couple
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: of photos that I want to ask you a little
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: bit more about. So right first, one I got like
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: one thing the average kind of doesn't realize or appreciate.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: I think with touring bands is how much time you're
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: spending airport lounges.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: But you guys look like I had a bit of
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: fun during this fight.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, we like to be silly.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And our photographer, Joe, who's also one of our road managers,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: he said, hey, everybody look at different direction, and we
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: thought we were being silly, but it came out and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: so we used it. And that is the story of
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: our lives right there in one photo.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: So give us your best airport story, mane, I bet
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: you spent a bit of time in some.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, best airport is London Heathrow. They they would not
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: read our passport for one of the people in our party,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and three hours it was my wife and she was
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: with me on the tour. And for three hours I
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: was on one side of the rope and she was
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: on the other, and we were afraid she was never
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: going to get home, and you know, and finally finally
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: they got it figured out. And that was really scary.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: And another time I swore I lost my passport. We
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: tore everything apart, and it was in my pocket the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: whole time, because there's a certain amount of there's a
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: certain amount of panic in international travel that your passport
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: is always gone, so we're always checking for it. And
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I swore I put it in my bag, and it
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: turns out it was in my pocket.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: So we will be there with the second fight.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: I might I'm not even gonna try and guess what's
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: going on here, so you're gonna have to help me out.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Uh, well, just what he had? What's going on?
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: That? Oh man? That is uh. I don't remember the city,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: but that was in England and Todd our bassis. You know,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: he's a goofy dude. He likes to take pictures in
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: his underwear. He we found a wig up there that
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: was our dressing room and he said, he put the
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: wig on his glasses and he said, take my picture.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So we did it, and there it is. That's just
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of time to kill, you know
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: what I mean. Somebody once said, you know, I'll play
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: for free if you pay me for the other eighteen
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and a half hours a day that I'm traveling and
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: setting up and doing the other stuff, you know, And
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: so there's a lot of downtime and a lot of
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: times we're quiet and read. But sometimes you know, somebody
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: will throw a wig on and next thing you know,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: it's immortalized here.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: You know, I say, bro, thanks very much for John
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: Brother comes out on May the Ice and I'll be
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: fortunate enough to have a listen absolutely cracking over.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Now we're brothers. I better luck with it and hopefully
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: you see I hear sooner rather than light up.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for a fun interview and thanks for having me,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and I hope everything's good for me in the future.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: It looks like it's all right with you.