Prophets of the rampant 90’s Modern Rock movement SALIVA will be bringing their show to Australian stages for the first time ever. Fans can expect a crushing cross-section of the bands entire catalogue guaranteed to get your blood pumping! Their latest album ‘Love, Lies & Therapy’ (the first to feature former Shinedown and Fuel bassist, Brad Stewart) bears all the trademarks of a hard-fought album. Informed by themes of loss, destruction and heartbreak, The Grammy-nominated outfit peeled back the layers, which had calcified throughout the decades, to tap into the raw, and unfiltered heartbeat of Saliva that put them on the Hard Rock map, that got them on the radio, that got them touring the nation. We caught up with drummer Paul Crosby to find out what we’ve been missing…
Corey: Hi Paul, it’s Corey here from The Rockpit in Australia how are you doing?
Paul: I am great man, it’s good to hear from you.
Corey: It’s great to see you finally making it to Australia.
Paul: It’s awesome we’re excited, beyond excited, we’ve wanted to come for years man and it’s never lined up.
Corey: Have there been plans to come out in the past?
Paul: Well we know from our social media that we have a lot of fans in Australia, but none of our agents we’ve had have ever been able to sync up with a promoter over there so it’s just been bad timing I guess. Our new international agent is doing a great job though so we’re hoping to come over there and rock out so that we can start making regular trips over there.
Corey: ‘Every Six Seconds’ you’ve been in the band pretty much since the recording of that album, how do you define the style of the band and how it fitted in with the whole Nu Metal scene in the early 2000’s?
Paul: The weird thing about it for us man is getting labelled as anything really, we’d just show up in our band room and start playing. I’d lay down a drum beat or something and then we’d lay down a guitar riff and we’d start jamming from scratch and see what came out. I’m sure the sound had something to do with our influences at the time, but we didn’t set out to play any kind of style, we just let it happen.
Corey: So what were those influences early on?
Paul: The thing about us early on is that each one of us had completely different styles and influences that we were into and I think that really helped to mix the pot up a little bit as well. So we had five different personalities and five different sets of influences.
Corey: Was there anything around that time that the band heard or something that happened that got you into that whole scene?
Paul: Probably at that particular time there were bands like Korn and music of that kind that were starting to come out, but we were in Memphis, Tennessee and there’s a real big Hip Hop and Rap scene there as well as the music it’s more well known for and we were already using that Rap and RNB influences in our stuff before the whole Rap/Rock genre really took off and blew up. So that scene then kind of happened and I guess it fit naturally for us.
Corey: Bobby’s the new singer in the band these days, how has he fit into the role over the last couple of albums?
Paul: To us he’s been in the band some time now and he’s done a great job of fitting in, but in my honest opinion and from the feedback we’ve gotten from a lot of people this is the best version of Saliva ever. People say that we’re better than we ever were live, better than back then.
Corey: Well the band is definitely cooking, I’ve got the new album ‘Love Lies and Therapy’ and it’s a killer album from start to finish. As you’re coming to see us for the first time are there any tours in that past that you’ve done that we can try and top for you, ones that have particularly stood out?
Paul: Well we did get to tour with Kiss and Aerosmith for about two months in 2003 so that was probably my highlight, but we’ve done lot of cool tours with a lot of cool scary people all over the years but that kind of still sticks out as being the coolest.
Corey: What are you looking forward to the most on your Australian Tour?
Paul: Well just the fact that we’ve never been there. We’ve been to a lot places over the years and it’s always awesome to go back to those places but there’s always something a little differently exciting about places you’ve never been to before. I’m just looking forward to witnessing the beauty of your country with my own eyes, connecting with our fans over there and hopefully making connections and starting a great relationship so that we can come back over there on a regular basis and make you one of our regular tour stops, that would be amazing.
Corey: What have you got planned for the rest of 2017 before you come to see us?
Paul: Well we’ve go shows up until Christmas when we take a break over the holidays and then it’s a big 2018 when we kick off the year with you guys in February.
Corey: As a drummer who have been your biggest influences over the years?
Paul: Oh man, there’s so many. For me I guess Tommy Lee, Dave Lombardo, Lars from Metallica, ‘Master of Puppets’ when that album came out that got me really into rock. I wasn’t too much into rock until that record came out, that record really pushed me fully into the rock world. So all of those drummers really had an impact on me doing what I’m doing now.
Corey: What are the plans for after the Australian tour? Is there a chance of you recording a new album soon?
Paul: We’re actually about 90% done with the new record. We’re planning on it coming out sometime early summer. we don’t have a name for it yet, we’re not that far on it, but it’s very close to being done.
Corey: Is there any chance of us hearing any of the new material on the Australian Tour?
Paul: Not likely, We probably won’t play any of that stuff until right before the record comes out, that’s usually how that works for us at least but we’ll be playing all of the other big songs, singles and all that stuff. We’re gonna play a very thorough show and play all of the songs we know everybody wants to hear.
Corey: That’s great to hear. One final question, what is the album you’ve recorded over your career that’s stood out to you the most?
Paul: Probably the second record I was on ‘Back into Your System’
Corey: That’s a great record! Definitely soundtrack type material and some great songs on there. I’m really looking forward to giving that another spin now and hearing new the album when it hits. We’ll see you at the Rosemount Hotel in Perth on February 18th. Have a safe trip over and we’ll see you then.
Paul: I’m excited!
SALIVA TOUR DATES
Wednesday 14th February – Adelaide – Fowlers Live
Thursday 15th February – Melbourne – Max Watts
Friday 16th February – Brisbane – Crowbar
Saturday 17th February – Sydney – The Bald Faced Stag
Sunday 18th February – Perth – Rosemount Hotel
TICKETS From: https://metropolistouring.com/saliva/
