THE DEAD DAISIES released their new Album “BURN IT DOWN” via Spitfire Music / SPV on Friday, April 6th, 2018. Their 2018 WORLD TOUR is also set to Bring the Heat to a Town near you!! After talking to Doug last week we caught up with John Corabi to find out his take on the new record and tour as well as checking in about his latest solo release ‘Live ’94 (One Night in Nashville)’ and an update on a new solo album.
John: Hi Mark, always great to catch up.
Mark: Good to talk to you John. It’s already looking like a big year for The Dead Daisies not only is the new album almost upon us, but you’ve got a huge Tour if the UK already announced and a bid US Tour to come as well as dates in South America and Japan.
John: Yeah the album come out April 6th and we’re starting the tour then in Glasgow Scotland and it’s gonna be a very long tour, we’re going out till probably mid-December.
Mark: And taking in just about everywhere – the tours just keep getting bigger! I talked to Doug the other day and he said that this year was going to be all Dead Daisies though he’s looking at a new Burning Rain album and you have your live solo album out that we’ll get to later. The most immediate news of course though is the new album and I think that ‘Burn It Down’ has to be my favourite Dead Daisies album so far. It’s heavier, more unrestrained?
John: It’s weird because it takes a few months to process a new record. Management will say “Look guys we’ve got these two months for you to put together the record” Pretty much every record I’ve done, and I’ve done eight studio albums now, we gin with nothing. Everybody will pull their phones out and say something like “Hey I’ve got this riff” and we kinda pick the ideas that everyone gravitates towards. And as soon as the wheels start going with the writing process, everyone really starts coming up with ideas and it flies. So pretty much all three records we’ve done we’ve had nothing and no conceived notion of where it was gonna go and we just wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered, everything, in about five weeks.
Mark: Wow.
John: So it all happens pretty spontaneously, there’s not a lot of thought put into it we just go with it. David always says it’s a journey and kinda is, we just start working on songs and we go where they take us. You know what I mean?
Mark: It’s a few journeys so far the. The album’s opening track ‘Resurrection’ I think is one of my favourites, it sort of sets the stall out and comes in all blustery and fired up. You reminded me a little of Ronnie Van Zant in your delivery on that one, did that ever pop into the back of your mind?
John: No not really, I don’t really think about it I just go and do what I do. That song we worked on it a little bit and then tracked it and after a while we went back and listened to it again. We came up with the verse in half an hour, lyrically it’s just kind of about second chances, you know what I mean, or any chances. I know for me a lot of people wrote me off after Motley brought Vince back, and so for lack of a better term it’s like my polite way of saying “F.U. I ain’t going anywhere!” (laughs) And it’s the same for Deen he kinda got written off a couple of years back, he had a kind of a dark spell there and he had a bullseye on his back and now he’s back, he’s got his shit together and he’s kicking ass. He’s such a sweet dude, so the song’s about that we ain’t going anywhere, we’re going to be here for a long time whether you like it or not! (laughs)
Mark: Let’s hope so. It’s great not only to see Rock music of this caliber out there, and so far you’ve made some great music together, but also you’re a band that’s actually prepared to get out there and play to everyone as well no matter what part of the world you’re in.
John: You know it’s weird there’s a lot of people out there who like to say “Rock is dead blah, blah, blah” but that’s crazy. A lot of our shows are already sold out in Europe, a lot of people are very excited that we’re coming to the States for a little bit more of an extended tour. We haven’t done much here in the States since I’ve been with the band, but the audience is here and it’s definitely growing. We do a lot of Festivals and there’s you know 100,000 people, 80,000 people – I mean they’re there, it’s just that the method of letting people know you’re alive is different. Before you used to have MTV and radio and now they’re pretty much non-existent so you’re doing internet, magazines, podcasts, you know we’re all on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. And I have to be honest with you I think our management team and our PR people are fucking amazing and together we’ve kind of brought the fans along for every part of the ride. Whether we’re on tour, whether it’s in the studio or even helping us pick the songs in the set.
Mark: It has it’s been great and very interactive and David and the team do a great job and it’s been a great ride so far, you seem to be one of the few bands out there that really get it. The new album brings a new heaviness and immediacy to the Dead Daisies mixing pot, where did that come from?
John: well it is but it isn’t if you know what I mean. I think its definitely more eclectic than the last studio record we did ‘Make Some Noise’. That record was just turn up, plug in and go and every song was just full tilt and here we have songs like ‘Set Me Free’, we have ‘Judgement Day’ which has some acoustic and harmonica, we have ‘Burn It Down’ which is a little bluesier then brakes into a Zepplinny riff. And ‘Rise Up’ to me is like old school, kinda Sabbathy, so it’s still pretty classic but for me personally I would never be able to get too heavy where you lose melody, that’s one of the things about the band – everyone has a ton of ideas and we write very quickly but everyone keeps each other in check, you know. So we’re all very aware of melody and then me and Marti who is like our secret weapon, producer songwriter he’s also very conscious of melody. So like I said we just started writing and let the music dictate to us where we were gonna go.
Mark: When I spoke to Doug he mentioned that it was Marti who really hit upon that fuzzed out guitar sound that I love so much and which gives the album a lot of flavour.
John: Yeah but you know it’s funny because Marco was using some fuzz in different spots and they were listening to it and someone was like “It’s like that blah, blah, blah band” and I was like “Who?” But to me Marco with the fuzz sounded kinda like Mel Schacher from Grand Funk Railroad – that old Grand Funk, or even Geezer Butler.
Mark: You’ve got it.
John: Yeah, so everything comes round you know, and it’ll be round again, then it’ll go out of synch for a while and in 5 or 20 years another bass player will grab a fuzz box and claim “This is killer”
Mark: That Grand Funk comparison just makes perfect sense now I think about it.
John: (laughs) If you listen to the very first Live record (‘Live Album’ from 1970) you know they were doing songs like ‘Paranoid’ and it was total fuzz bass and he ran it though a Wah-Wah pedal as well. That was the first thing I thought when he pulled out the fuzz box. It’s crazy.
Mark: And the other big news for you this year is that you’ve finally got your Motley Crue Live set out. That must have been great to finally get it out there?
John: Yeah and it only took two and a half years! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) I remember talking to you on the Monsters of Rock Cruise back in 2015 and you were hopeful of a release soon then. It’s been worth the wait though you’ve really managed to capture the sound of the show I heard back then. It’s a great representation of the ‘Motley’ show and what it sounds like being in that room.
John: I’ve got to give credit where credit is due the guys in the band I’m really proud of them – they really put a lot of work in. While I was out on tour with The Daisies they were just wood-chipping through everything, every little part and my son who plays the drums the same with him he just wood-chipped every little Tommy Lee riff and fill, so we did it, and when I got home we rehearsed for about four days till we got it nice and tight ‘cos I told them “I’m only recording one show.”
Mark: (laughs) no pressure there then!
John: (laughs) well we certainly had to make it count! Then we gave it to Michael Wagener and he just did an insane job mixing everything and keeping it true to form.
Mark: The interesting thing for me was the inclusion of the final song ’10,000 Miles Away’ which came from that Motley EP of outtakes that came out after the album. What made you choose that one? There was another track you wrote yourself on that EP and I’m sure when I saw you play the set Motley set a couple of years back you ended with something else?
John: Yeah, ‘Friends’ that I wrote, it was piano and acoustic thing but we decided to just keep it simple. But there was another song you’re right that we used to do too, and if I can be totally honest we would normally go out for the encore and do ’10,000 Miles Away’ and then we’d do another song called ‘Babykills’ that was also on the ‘Quaternary’ record. But it was weird that night I was just pushing a little extra hard and after ’10,000 Miles Away’ we just said goodnight , I was saying to the band “I can’t do the other song I’m wiped out!”
Mark: It’s good to hear the story behind that as I was sure I’d heard that extra song on the Cruise that time.
John: Yeah we did do ’Babykills’ on the Monsters of Rock Cruise that one time. But at the end of that Nashville set I had nothing left in the tank (laughs) dude if I’d gone out there and sung it we wouldn’t have been able to use it anyway!
Mark: So how are you looking forward to the long tour, you’ll be out on the road for some months, and I know you get the chance to come home at points but there’s the long stretch in Europe and a long US and South American jaunt?
John: It’s really not that bad, David our manager is very keen on keeping us working when we’re on the road: doing shows, interviews, media and even acoustic shows on days off but he understands that while he might have worked the shit out of us for five weeks he needs to give us a break before one of us cracks and becomes a serial killer! (laughs) So he’ll let us regain our senses, sleep a little bit and then he’ll bring us back out a couple of weeks later then we’ll do another four, five, six weeks then take a week back home then back out, so he’s pretty good at knowing when to give us a break, he’s a great guy.
Mark: I remember talking to him a few years back and listening to his stories, man he’s got some tales to tell. He always refuses to name names though! One day he’ll write that book as I hope you will too!
John: (laughs)
Mark: Let’s end by taking it all the way back – what were the albums that led to you becoming a musician – what was it that really inspired you to get out there and play for the first time?
John: Hands down the record that really started getting under my skin, the first one was ‘Abbey Road’, ’Abbey Road’ was the one where I started really ‘microscoping’ everything on that record, I remember as a kid listening again and again to ‘Side 2’ and how they took each song and went into the next song and then just sitting there thinking this is genius, how on earth did they get that song to go into that song, and that one into that one, you know what I mean? And I remember so clearly thinking how amazing that was. But there’s been a few for me like when I heard Zeppelin IV – that was like ‘Wow” and David Bowie probably ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust’ – I always really loved his music but that album also made me realise that you’ve gotta kinda have a vibe, or a look, there has to be some sort of image there as well and he had it down. And then honestly I loved Grand Funk but I would probably have to say ‘A Night at the Opera’ by Queen was the next really big one, another thing when I just went ‘wow’ – see I listen to things and I go “Fuck why can’t I write that!” (laughs) I would love to sit down at some point and that album inspires me to write something, not that I maybe never will, maybe I will, but I’d love to be able to write something like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ I mean how in… I’m on a tangent now but I just saw this thing on Netflix ‘Classic Albums’ and they did a whole thing on ‘Night at the Opera’ and they broke it all down, and Brian May says something like “Yeah Freddie was a little burned out so he went to Ibiza for the weekend, to just party and recoup and when he came back he’d written the song. I mean who fucking does that, I wish I could dig Freddie Mercury up so that I could just punch him then put him back again! That kind of talent freaks me out. I mean you get inspired all the time but those were the records that really set me on my path.
Mark: That’s incredible. The first time we ever spoke was a few years back now just before you released your first solo album, are you looking at a second album? I know you’re very busy with the Dead Daisies at the moment, but Marco just had a new album out and Doug talked of a new ‘Burning Rain’ album, is a solo record on your radar?
John: A solo record? I did the acoustic one a few years ago then I sat on the ‘live’ record for a few years, but I’ve already started working on some new things and I just wanted to start something ‘musical’ in a broad sense. A lot of people didn’t understand why I did the acoustic record first but I know it was because I wanted to do an acoustic record first so that I could kind of ‘wipe the board clean’ and so the next record that I do, I think now, (with the time that’s passed) no-one’s going to sit there now and think “Well that doesn’t sound anything like the Motley record, or that doesn’t sound anything like Union.” Doing the acoustic record first has kind of given me a blank slate aand no one is really going to know what my next record is going to sound like!
Mark: Even you probably?
John: (laughs) Even me! You know I’ve got all these little ideas, I’ve got some stuff with piano in it, but I love heavy stuff like ‘Misty Mountain Hop’ or even heavier stuff, but I also love too a song that I listen to constantly at the moment, I’m a little obsessed with it at the minute 10cc: ‘The Things We Do For Love’ I don’t know what it is about that song and it maybe that it’s a little Beatlesque, but it’s perfect, so I really wanna do something that’s got some balls to it, but also something that’s a little more musical. So I’ve already got the same label that did my acoustic record and the live one, they signed me to do another record. So as soon as I get any time off or any breaks I’ve got to sit down and get down some of my new stuff.
Mark: That’s great to hear, I hope it all starts to flow mate. All the best with the new album and tour and thank you so much again for taking the time to check in with The Rockpit. I hope that at some point you’ll get to stop in on us in Australia.
John: Thanks Mark, I know the other guys and I were talking about that the other day and we’re all hoping that we will do. I would love to come back down there again I’ve had nothing but great times every time I’ve been to Australia.
Mark: Thank you so much John, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you.
John: Alright buddy. Thank you.
THE DEAD DAISIES BURN IT DOWN WORLD TOUR UK & EUROPE:
UK (with special guests THE TREATMENT* & THE AMORETTES)
APRIL
Sunday 8th Garage Glasgow, UK
Monday 9th Robin 2 Bilston, UK
Tuesday 10th Koko London, UK*
Thursday 12th Academy 2 Manchester, UK
Friday 13th Rock City Nottingham, UK*
Saturday 14th Academy Bristol, UK*
EUROPE (with special guests THE NEW ROSES)
APRIL
Monday 16th 013 Tilburg, NET
Tuesday 17th Biebob Vosselaar, BEL
Wednesday 18th Markthalle Hamburg, GER
Friday 20th Sticky Fingers Gothenburg, SWE
Saturday 21st Parktreateret Oslo, NOR
Sunday 22nd Klubben Stockholm, SWE
Tuesday 24th Pumpehuset Copenhagen, DEN
Wednesday 25th Rosenhof Osnabrueck, GER
Thursday 26th Backstage Werk Munich, GER
Friday 27th Barba Negra Track Budapest, HUN
Sunday 29th Simm City Vienna, AUS
MAY
Tuesday 1st Thanks Jimi Festival Wroclaw, POL
Thursday 3rd Kesselhaus Berlin, GER
Friday 4th Schlachthof Wiesbaden, GER
Saturday 5th Live Music Hall Cologne, GER
Sunday 6th Le Trabendo Paris, FRA
Tuesday 8th Z7 Pratteln, SWI
Wednesday 9th Live Club Trezo (Milan), ITA
Friday 11th Zentral Pamplona, SPA
Saturday 12th Mon Madrid, SPA
