Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Going It Alone With RACHEL BOLAN
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, this is Rachel Bowling and my band Bowling is
- 0:03Speaker 1: putting out a record June twelfth. It's called Gargoyle of
- 0:06Speaker 1: the Garden State.
- 0:08Speaker 2: Fantastic, Rachel, thanks for joining us today.
- 0:12Speaker 3: Thanks for having me Man, Sorry to get you up
- 0:14Speaker 3: so early.
- 0:15Speaker 2: That's a lot, buddy. Have you going back to bed?
- 0:16Speaker 1: Whin?
- 0:16Speaker 2: I finished with you?
- 0:17Speaker 1: So, Sonny, it sounds like me when I feed my cats.
- 0:22Speaker 1: They get me up at five, I feed them, go
- 0:24Speaker 1: back to bed.
- 0:26Speaker 2: Done for the day. That's right.
- 0:30Speaker 4: You released your very first solo album, Gargoyle of the
- 0:33Speaker 4: Garden State, on June the twelve.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Wich isn't too far away. So how are you feeling?
- 0:38Speaker 3: Feeling good man?
- 0:40Speaker 1: The response to the first two singles has been great,
- 0:45Speaker 1: overwhelming at times, because it's just watching all the views.
- 0:50Speaker 1: You know, this is my first ever solo endeavor, so
- 0:54Speaker 1: it's a it's a really good feeling and I'm excited
- 0:57Speaker 1: for the record to come out and see how it's received.
- 1:00Speaker 4: I said, can you tell us a bit more about
- 1:02Speaker 4: the record from a musical point of view and what
- 1:03Speaker 4: you were actually gone for with it?
- 1:06Speaker 1: Well, I was just going for a raw feel. I
- 1:09Speaker 1: feel that it shows me, uh and my my you know,
- 1:16Speaker 1: I mean, your influences come out in your songs and
- 1:18Speaker 1: it just this is this record sums up me and
- 1:25Speaker 1: what's going on in my head, you know. And uh
- 1:27Speaker 1: it was fun to play guitar, you know, I played
- 1:29Speaker 1: all the rhythms and the bass did most of the singing,
- 1:34Speaker 1: and and then had a whole bunch of friends come
- 1:37Speaker 1: in and uh, you know contribute, which meant the world
- 1:41Speaker 1: to me.
- 1:42Speaker 2: Yeah, I said, I noticed said.
- 1:44Speaker 4: New Jersey has referenced a futures into press releases, being
- 1:47Speaker 4: part of the stall and inspirational music, but frous over
- 1:51Speaker 4: here in Australia, we don't really know what that means,
- 1:53Speaker 4: Like what's what's the New Jersey influence on the sound?
- 1:56Speaker 1: Okay, so New Jersey, Uh, in the state, it's the
- 2:00Speaker 1: of a lot of jokes, you know what I mean.
- 2:02Speaker 1: It's like it's just next to New York and I
- 2:06Speaker 1: live an hour outside of New York City, and you know,
- 2:09Speaker 1: I love New York City. I consider that, you know,
- 2:12Speaker 1: my stomping grounds from when I was a kid, and
- 2:15Speaker 1: I still love going there. And but New Jersey is
- 2:18Speaker 1: a butt of a lot of jokes, and you know,
- 2:24Speaker 1: we have a tougher way of doing things, and we're
- 2:28Speaker 1: natural born storytellers. My dad had a saying for guys
- 2:32Speaker 1: that told a story really in a really long form
- 2:36Speaker 1: version of a story. He would say, Yeah, that's that
- 2:39Speaker 1: guy at the time, and he tells you how to
- 2:40Speaker 1: build a watch.
- 2:44Speaker 3: We're all kind of like that.
- 2:46Speaker 1: You know, we're sarcastic, we're blunt, don't We don't cut
- 2:51Speaker 1: you know, we don't sugarcoat anything. We just say how
- 2:53Speaker 1: we feel. And coming from New Jersey, it's really hard
- 2:58Speaker 1: to hurt someone's feelings from New Jersey. So that that
- 3:02Speaker 1: gun that shows in some of the songs. Most of
- 3:06Speaker 1: the songs nice now.
- 3:08Speaker 4: You mentioned the singles before We're at War with Myself
- 3:11Speaker 4: and anything but Yeah, like the the Chair released off
- 3:13Speaker 4: the album. So are they good, sonny representation of what
- 3:16Speaker 4: to expect from the whole thing?
- 3:18Speaker 3: Yes?
- 3:18Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely that that that everything is in that vein.
- 3:23Speaker 3: There's one song a little Slower gives you a nice breather,
- 3:28Speaker 3: but the.
- 3:29Speaker 1: The majority of the album is very high energy.
- 3:33Speaker 4: Yeah and Anything but You Actually I opened to the album, mate,
- 3:36Speaker 4: So what was the thought process behind God with that one?
- 3:39Speaker 2: To kick things off?
- 3:41Speaker 1: I think sonically, like the guitar tones and just how
- 3:47Speaker 1: it's kind of you know, pedal to the floor and
- 3:51Speaker 1: just hammered down, go just cursing my ass, you know,
- 3:56Speaker 1: s wearing my ass off in the song, and and
- 3:59Speaker 1: uh that it like Nick, the producer, Nick Rasculinox said,
- 4:06Speaker 1: he goes, that song is you when I think of you.
- 4:08Speaker 3: That's the song that represents the guy that I know.
- 4:12Speaker 3: So it h Yeah, it was a pretty easy choice
- 4:16Speaker 3: with that one.
- 4:17Speaker 4: Right, And I'm not to say there's no song on
- 4:19Speaker 4: the album called Gogole of the Garden State, which means
- 4:22Speaker 4: that must have a little bit more significance to you.
- 4:26Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like I'm fascinated with gargoyles.
- 4:29Speaker 1: I always have been, and I have them all over
- 4:34Speaker 1: my house.
- 4:35Speaker 3: But the uh, the idea came because I was like.
- 4:40Speaker 1: A lot of people aren't aware that they each serve,
- 4:43Speaker 1: like every design of a gargoyle serves some purpose, or
- 4:47Speaker 1: there's some kind of thought process behind it, thinking gargoyle
- 4:50Speaker 1: or a protection gargoyle or something that words off evil gargoyle.
- 4:55Speaker 1: And my friends always said it that you know, we
- 5:02Speaker 1: never know what you're thinking.
- 5:03Speaker 3: When you're not talking, we don't know what you're thinking.
- 5:05Speaker 1: And it's kind of the same principle as a gargoyl,
- 5:08Speaker 1: because you're like, oh, that's that serves a purpose.
- 5:11Speaker 3: But we're not sure. You know what, what does a
- 5:13Speaker 3: gargoyle do? You know?
- 5:14Speaker 1: So I was gonna call the album Gargoyle, and then
- 5:17Speaker 1: when I moved back to New Jersey, New Jersey is
- 5:19Speaker 1: known as the Garden State, so I was like, you
- 5:23Speaker 1: know what, that has a cool ring to it. I'm
- 5:24Speaker 1: going to put the two together, the Gargoyle the Garden State.
- 5:27Speaker 1: My friends always say, you know, and it's just I
- 5:30Speaker 1: made the whole story make sense in my head. And
- 5:34Speaker 1: the thing that's kind of cool about it, it's sort
- 5:36Speaker 1: of a tongue twister when you say if you say
- 5:38Speaker 1: it too quickly, yeah, yeah, it's kind of a tongue twister.
- 5:42Speaker 1: And I think that's cool too. You have to say
- 5:44Speaker 1: it a few times, makes you makes you remember it.
- 5:47Speaker 4: Try to light at night o'clock in the morning, but
- 5:49Speaker 4: it's almost impossible. Speaking of friends, the album feature's a
- 5:55Speaker 4: number of guests artists including Corey l Thank, Giants May
- 6:00Speaker 4: and Caught, David Johnson. We look into something specific with
- 6:04Speaker 4: each person that gets it on the album. Was it
- 6:06Speaker 4: more just the case of asking your freendancy you knew
- 6:08Speaker 4: or do a good job.
- 6:11Speaker 3: Yeah, that's more what it was.
- 6:13Speaker 1: You know, this is a monumental moment in my career
- 6:16Speaker 1: and my life, you know, making my first solo record.
- 6:19Speaker 3: And how do you make it even better?
- 6:21Speaker 1: You bring in all your friends and hope that they
- 6:23Speaker 1: want to participate and contribute.
- 6:24Speaker 3: And they all said, yes, I got cool fucking friends,
- 6:27Speaker 3: you know.
- 6:29Speaker 1: So so yeah, Damon actually played on the demos for
- 6:33Speaker 1: a few of these songs, played the solo and they
- 6:38Speaker 1: were great. Damon and I have this chemistry, like musical
- 6:42Speaker 1: chemistry and creative chemistry that I can't describe. And when
- 6:46Speaker 1: he hears one of my songs, it's almost like I
- 6:50Speaker 1: wrote the solo and you know what I mean, because
- 6:53Speaker 1: it seems like he just picks up exactly what I'm thinking.
- 6:57Speaker 1: And so he played on those songs and then two
- 7:01Speaker 1: more and he's phenomenal. It's just the guitar is such
- 7:06Speaker 1: an extension of him and he's like a natural. And
- 7:10Speaker 1: then the other guys I just I called and I asked,
- 7:13Speaker 1: I said, hey, you want to play or sing or
- 7:15Speaker 1: do something on my solo record, And they were all like.
- 7:17Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm in. When you know where.
- 7:21Speaker 1: So a lot of guys did it remotely because you know,
- 7:24Speaker 1: they weren't in Nashville. Damon was in Nashville, so he
- 7:27Speaker 1: came right to the studio and then Corey I flew
- 7:31Speaker 1: out to Vegas and we recorded his vocals there and
- 7:34Speaker 1: it was so much fun. And every time we would
- 7:37Speaker 1: get we would be waiting and the anticipation to hear
- 7:41Speaker 1: what everyone did. You know, we get it. We put
- 7:44Speaker 1: it in the song, and it was like Christmas Day
- 7:47Speaker 1: all the time. You know, it's like it's here. You know,
- 7:50Speaker 1: it's so cool. And you know, I just I kind
- 7:56Speaker 1: of picked. I kind of heard like their style in
- 8:00Speaker 1: the songs before anything, and I'm like, you know what,
- 8:03Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask New Noo to play solo on Jet
- 8:05Speaker 1: Black Universe.
- 8:07Speaker 3: That's gonna be perfect. His style of playing is absolutely perfect.
- 8:10Speaker 1: And it was, you know, and then Danko and then
- 8:13Speaker 1: Steve Kanty singing, and you know, of course the guys
- 8:16Speaker 1: Scottie Snake and then Rob played drums on the whole record,
- 8:19Speaker 1: and it all just worked out.
- 8:22Speaker 3: It worked out great.
- 8:24Speaker 4: And you mentioned that it is the first song you've
- 8:26Speaker 4: done so much singin, Like, how did you go with that?
- 8:29Speaker 4: Like was it was it an easy buried out of
- 8:31Speaker 4: a comic guess because you putting yourself out there if
- 8:34Speaker 4: more with that.
- 8:35Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't a huge stretch because I've done an
- 8:38Speaker 1: album where I sang all the songs before with with
- 8:41Speaker 1: the band I had called Prunella Scales.
- 8:44Speaker 3: And I also.
- 8:45Speaker 1: Had a band when I lived in Atlanta, a side
- 8:47Speaker 1: project called the Quasi Motors, and it was it started
- 8:52Speaker 1: as three piece, but the guitar player sang and I sang,
- 8:55Speaker 1: so I sang half the songs with that band, So
- 8:57Speaker 1: it wasn't anything new.
- 8:59Speaker 3: But you know what, I like the attention.
- 9:08Speaker 4: Which I guess is why you played the majority of
- 9:09Speaker 4: all the instruments on the album too. I was gonna
- 9:11Speaker 4: ask you if that was to challenge yourself, But it's
- 9:14Speaker 4: just an attention.
- 9:16Speaker 3: Yeah, It's like I usually get the attention from my bass.
- 9:20Speaker 1: Now I'm getting it from my face, so it's right
- 9:25Speaker 1: there you go. But yeah, it was cool, And you know,
- 9:30Speaker 1: I wanted the album to be raw.
- 9:32Speaker 3: I wanted it to be me.
- 9:33Speaker 1: I wanted it to have the feel that I hurt
- 9:35Speaker 1: in my head, and so I just I just played
- 9:40Speaker 1: most of the guitar.
- 9:40Speaker 3: I didn't.
- 9:41Speaker 1: I did a couple solo type things but left the
- 9:46Speaker 1: you know, the heavy lifting to the professionals.
- 9:48Speaker 3: So but yeah, it was fun. You know, it's like,
- 9:52Speaker 3: did I hit all the notes on those bar chords
- 9:55Speaker 3: a couple of times? But maybe not all the time.
- 9:58Speaker 3: But it's it's been great.
- 10:00Speaker 1: It was a great experience, and it was so much
- 10:02Speaker 1: fun just being in the studio and doing that, and
- 10:06Speaker 1: you know, it was a cool experience.
- 10:09Speaker 4: Actually kind of an Oasis song rock and roll stop right,
- 10:12Speaker 4: it's a fucking good.
- 10:14Speaker 2: Version, but it's a left field.
- 10:17Speaker 3: Thanks man. It's funny.
- 10:20Speaker 2: You know.
- 10:20Speaker 1: I like Oasis and I really loved Noel Gallagher's songwriting.
- 10:26Speaker 1: I wasn't the biggest Oasis fan, so when I heard
- 10:29Speaker 1: that on the radio, I didn't know it was Oasis
- 10:31Speaker 1: until the vocals came in.
- 10:34Speaker 3: I was like, Wow, this is cool song.
- 10:36Speaker 1: I love the bluesy, swampy field to it, and I
- 10:39Speaker 1: started tuning into the lyrics and I was like, oh,
- 10:42Speaker 1: I completely get what he's saying, and you know, and
- 10:46Speaker 1: at least my interpretation was, you know, he's in a
- 10:50Speaker 1: wildly famous band and he's in this position where people think,
- 10:56Speaker 1: you know, you have to be that person all the time,
- 10:59Speaker 1: or disappointed. I've been in that position where people said, actually,
- 11:04Speaker 1: someone said to me, is that what you wear? And
- 11:08Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like jeans and my hair tied back.
- 11:12Speaker 3: You know, this was and I was just like yeah.
- 11:15Speaker 1: And I'm at a diner. I'm not on stage, so
- 11:19Speaker 1: I've been. That was my interpretation of the lyrics, and
- 11:22Speaker 1: you know, it's just one of those things.
- 11:24Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm gonna go home.
- 11:25Speaker 1: I'm gonna program some drums and I'm just gonna throw
- 11:29Speaker 1: down bass and guitar and some vocals and for fun,
- 11:32Speaker 1: see how it turns out. When I did this, Oasis
- 11:35Speaker 1: was no more, you know what I mean. I just
- 11:37Speaker 1: thought it would be fun and played for a couple
- 11:39Speaker 1: of my friends and whatever, and I called Scotty.
- 11:42Speaker 3: I was like, hey, can you throw a solo on this?
- 11:46Speaker 1: And he did and it sounded great and now it's
- 11:49Speaker 1: like the exact solo on the record and it was
- 11:52Speaker 1: phenomenal and I'm like, man, this.
- 11:54Speaker 3: Is really cool. And everyone I played for it.
- 11:56Speaker 1: You know, when we play each other's songs, I'm like, hey,
- 11:58Speaker 1: listen to this, and I play it and what song
- 12:01Speaker 1: is this? And I'm like, keep listening and then it
- 12:03Speaker 1: get to the chorus, They're like, oh shit, it's Oasis.
- 12:06Speaker 1: So I sped it up a lot, and that therefore
- 12:11Speaker 1: it needed a solo section because now the song is
- 12:13Speaker 1: about thirty seconds shorter.
- 12:14Speaker 3: Yeah, so I put a solo section in it.
- 12:18Speaker 1: And now fast forward to in the studio getting ready
- 12:24Speaker 1: to record drums.
- 12:25Speaker 3: And whatnot, and I was like, I don't know.
- 12:28Speaker 1: You know, Oasis went on this enormous you know, as
- 12:32Speaker 1: everybody knows, went on the enormous reunion tour and it
- 12:36Speaker 1: was so successful and so huge, and I'm like, I
- 12:40Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know if I should put it
- 12:41Speaker 1: on the record because it seems like I'm just, you know,
- 12:45Speaker 1: sa using an opportunity, you know, and people might might
- 12:50Speaker 1: think it's disingenuous.
- 12:52Speaker 3: And so Nick is like, you're thinking too hard, and
- 12:55Speaker 3: he goes, you did it your own way, you stayed
- 12:58Speaker 3: true to it, and he goes, I would put it
- 13:02Speaker 3: on a record. He goes me personally, I would put
- 13:04Speaker 3: it on the record.
- 13:04Speaker 1: And then Rob Hammersmith is like, I agree with Nick,
- 13:08Speaker 1: and since when did you start to give a shit
- 13:10Speaker 1: about what people thought of you?
- 13:12Speaker 3: And I was like, good point man, good point. Yeah,
- 13:17Speaker 3: so I.
- 13:19Speaker 1: Had fun with it, and you know, I hope Oasis
- 13:22Speaker 1: fans like it.
- 13:23Speaker 3: If they listen to my record, I hope they dig it,
- 13:25Speaker 3: And yeah, it was cool.
- 13:28Speaker 1: I love when people take do covers, but they make
- 13:32Speaker 1: it their own and make it their own style. But
- 13:35Speaker 1: they you know, it's when someone covers your song, and
- 13:39Speaker 1: I'm speaking from experience, it's the biggest compliment, and it
- 13:47Speaker 1: just tells you how much people respect that song and
- 13:52Speaker 1: how it made them feel and it's important to them,
- 13:55Speaker 1: and that as a songwriter blows my mind, you know
- 13:58Speaker 1: what I mean. So I doubt they'll ever hear it,
- 14:02Speaker 1: but if they do, I hope they have the same.
- 14:04Speaker 2: Mind version of it.
- 14:08Speaker 3: Oh my god, that would be awesome.
- 14:11Speaker 4: You didn't play music and bands some more than four
- 14:13Speaker 4: decades now, bro, So why is now the right time
- 14:16Speaker 4: for you to put out a solo album?
- 14:19Speaker 3: You know, I didn't find the time. The time kind
- 14:22Speaker 3: of found me. You know.
- 14:24Speaker 1: We have downtime with skid Row while we're searching for
- 14:27Speaker 1: a vocalist, and I had a bunch of songs and
- 14:31Speaker 1: you know, and I kept writing through through the whole
- 14:34Speaker 1: process until we you know, got in the studio. Yeah,
- 14:40Speaker 1: so I'm like, not now or never, but now would
- 14:45Speaker 1: be a good time.
- 14:46Speaker 2: You know, do you plan on I'm playing the album
- 14:51Speaker 2: live one day maybe?
- 14:52Speaker 4: Or are you just gonna slip a few gradually into
- 14:54Speaker 4: the skid racet and get him in my way?
- 14:57Speaker 1: No, I would love to go on the road, and
- 14:59Speaker 1: I I would love to do a bunch of shows.
- 15:01Speaker 1: You know, we'll see when the record comes out, and
- 15:03Speaker 1: only time will tell really, but that's that's the main objective,
- 15:08Speaker 1: you know, write songs, record songs, play songs, and hope
- 15:12Speaker 1: people dig it.
- 15:13Speaker 4: No, I said, do you remember back to the very
- 15:16Speaker 4: first song you heard one of your songs played on radio?
- 15:18Speaker 4: And where were you and what song was it?
- 15:23Speaker 1: It was eighteen in life, I, you know, other than
- 15:29Speaker 1: like stuff that was on TV, you know, MTV. I
- 15:37Speaker 1: was in New York and I just went to see
- 15:42Speaker 1: we were doing press and a couple of my friends
- 15:45Speaker 1: went to this place called the cat Club that used
- 15:47Speaker 1: to be there. It was a fun rock bar and
- 15:50Speaker 1: you never knew who was going to be there anyway.
- 15:51Speaker 1: It was my friend Michael Ilago and my other friend
- 15:54Speaker 1: Mary Gormley, and they're like, hey, we're going to you know,
- 15:58Speaker 1: the cat Club, why don't you meet us down there?
- 16:00Speaker 1: So it was summer, and uh, I got in a cab.
- 16:05Speaker 3: And I went and met them.
- 16:06Speaker 1: And that night at the at the bar, my friend
- 16:10Speaker 1: Michael goes, Hey, Joey Ramone's here, do you.
- 16:13Speaker 3: Want to meet him? And I'm like.
- 16:16Speaker 1: Can I say yes? A million times? And I'm like,
- 16:19Speaker 1: why are you even asking me this? So we went
- 16:23Speaker 1: over and I met Joey Ramone and he was the
- 16:26Speaker 1: sweetheart guy that you would imagine he was.
- 16:29Speaker 3: He was such a good dude.
- 16:31Speaker 1: And you know, there were no cell phones with cameras
- 16:34Speaker 1: back then. I'm gonna you know I didn't. I don't
- 16:36Speaker 1: have a picture of our first meeting.
- 16:38Speaker 3: So but I'm in a case.
- 16:41Speaker 1: I leave, we say, everyone says goodbye, and I leave
- 16:43Speaker 1: and I'm in a cab back to my hotel.
- 16:46Speaker 3: The window was.
- 16:47Speaker 1: Down and I'm crewe We're coming up to a stoplight
- 16:52Speaker 1: and there's a car and in the in the car
- 16:56Speaker 1: they had their windows down. The radio was blasting and
- 16:59Speaker 1: it was very It was the really really commercial radio station,
- 17:05Speaker 1: not not like nothing near a rock station. And I
- 17:12Speaker 1: wish I could remember the call letters, but I can't remember
- 17:14Speaker 1: off the top of my head. Anyway, they just finished
- 17:17Speaker 1: like a Paula Abdul song or something like that, and
- 17:21Speaker 1: it was loud. I was expecting them to go into
- 17:23Speaker 1: Milli Vanilly or something, and then I hear the beginning
- 17:26Speaker 1: of eighteen in Life and the DJ announces this is
- 17:29Speaker 1: the newest single from skid Row after davey Oh and
- 17:31Speaker 1: blah blah blah eighteen in Life, And the dudes in
- 17:34Speaker 1: the car didn't look like our fans, you know what
- 17:37Speaker 1: I mean, But they were rocking the fuck out to it.
- 17:41Speaker 1: And I'm sitting there and I'm like, there, We're like
- 17:46Speaker 1: we could have given each other high five through the window.
- 17:48Speaker 1: And I'm just sitting there, going, this is absolutely incredible.
- 17:54Speaker 3: I wish I had all my friends here to share
- 17:56Speaker 3: this experience.
- 17:57Speaker 1: This is unbelieve And then we they pulled away, and
- 18:02Speaker 1: we pulled away, and I was just like, I wanted
- 18:05Speaker 1: to tell the cam driver the story, but I was like,
- 18:08Speaker 1: he turns a cam in New York.
- 18:11Speaker 3: He's had people way more famous.
- 18:13Speaker 1: Than me in his camp, I'm sure so, so I
- 18:16Speaker 1: didn't tell him, and I just got back to the
- 18:18Speaker 1: hotel room and I couldn't sleep that.
- 18:19Speaker 3: Night, and next day I was like, oh, my god.
- 18:21Speaker 2: Cool.
- 18:22Speaker 3: I could wait to see some of the guys to
- 18:23Speaker 3: tell him what the experience. It was great. It was,
- 18:25Speaker 3: it was, it was huge. I'll never forget it.
- 18:28Speaker 4: That's fantastic. Well, thanks very much, you talk about to
- 18:31Speaker 4: be an absolutely pleasing speaking with you. Make Gogo of
- 18:33Speaker 4: the Garden State is out June the twelfth, and I
- 18:36Speaker 4: got Sandielli. You made it an absolute fantastic slav of
- 18:40Speaker 4: rock and roll music.
- 18:41Speaker 2: Brother, so well done and all the best of it.
- 18:43Speaker 3: Thank you, brother, I appreciate it. Man.