It’s been a while now since guitarist Danny De La Rosa left Babylon A.D. in March 2017 to be replaced by John Matthews. His departure was followed soon after by bassist Robb Reid (replaced by drummer Jamey Pacheco’s brother Eric) the following year and then guitarist Ron Freschi who left just last year. So whilst Babylon A.D. regroup we thought it was time to catch up with Danny to see what he’s been working on since leaving the band. There is of course a solo album on the way, a few tales from the days of Babylon and that time he auditioned for Kiss!
Mark: Hey Danny!
Danny: Hi Mark how are you?
Mark: I’m good thank you, sorry about being a bit off in my timing for the call.
Danny: Hey no problem, you know what I was worried ‘cos I was reading about the fires and I didn’t know if that was close to where you are, when you’re so far away everything seems much worse
Mark: It is really bad over here this year, but thankfully quite a way from us, we had a big fire a few weeks back that was quite close but we’re OK, our prayers go out to all those affected.
Danny: Yeah
Mark: and thank you so much for taking on the new technology for me, that’s great.
Danny: Hey, I’m grateful because now I have it!
Mark: Many, many years ago I saw Babylon A.D. play what was at the time their only show outside of the US.
Danny: Oh Nottingham?
Mark: No I’m thinking way back before that at the Astoria on London a few decades before that UK Tour! The place was heaving and the walls were dripping with sweat. It was part of a series of shows called ‘American Dream’ or something like that and I think only that one show took place.
Danny: It was all a blur in those days! (laughs)
Mark: But the last time I saw you guys was the two sets you played on the Monsters of Rock Cruise back in 2015.
Danny: Oh that is so much fun. I loved that cruise.
Mark: Babylon A.D. though has been in your rear view mirror for a couple of years now and we’re here to talk about your new album, and while I’m still to hear 12 weekends in its entirety what I have heard so far especially ‘Acid Flame’ is great.
Danny: Oh thank you. I’m so glad you said that, hardly anyone has heard it yet, the full album, but it all ties in. I was just talking to Derek (Davis Babylon A.D. vocalist) two days ago and we were talking about singles versus an album, and we’re still so pro-album because there’s a theme and a feeling from the top to the bottom and I think that’s what I created with all the songs on ’12 Weekends.’ And I don’t know but I think maybe some people are surprised that it doesn’t sound like 80’s Rock, or typical 80’s Rock, I don’t know? Or maybe it does? (laughs)
Mark: No it doesn’t and that’s one of the great things about it, like Derek’s Blues or Soul albums it has its own voice. I think that’s one of the great things when you follow a band and I must admit I’m a great fan of Babylon A.D. and have been for years. When I started up the website ten years ago one of the first guys I got to speak to was Ron, who had just released the Syrum album, then a few years later Derek put out his first solo record, so it’s great now to get to hear the stuff that you’ve been working on. It’s kind of cool to hear everyone’s work outside of Babylon and hear those diverse influences.
Danny: That’s cool.
Mark: Before we get onto the solo record though I have to ask, even though Babylon A.D. has lost three original members over the last three years things still seem amicable between everyone?
Danny: Yeah it is amicable. We all spent a lot of time together and don’t know how much you know about the band’s reputation but it was pretty wild (laughs) a lot of good times, a lot of fights, but we’re like brothers and I know when I left, the way I always thought about Babylon A.D. was that it was the nucleus of us five original guys and if anyone left I thought it would be different. I thought that one of us were, how would you say it, musical geniuses, but together as a band we clicked really well, and if you take something out of that puzzle it’s really not the same. And I think all of the guys agree with that, but you know sometimes you gotta go on and do what you can if you still feel it. I think at this point they’re on hiatus.
Mark: So Derek has his Blues and Soul, where do your roots lie?
Danny: My Roots are very AM Radio based from the San Francisco Bay Area. My Dad worked part-time security at the Oakland Coliseum Arena and I remember him coming home and telling us about which shows he worked and it would be things like James Brown, Sly and The Family Stone, The Turtles, Paul Revere and The Raiders and he would buy their music and that is what I would listen to, and it was great, it really influenced me. And then when I first heard a distorted guitar as a little kid that was a real pull to me. So in the Bay Area there was Sly and the Family Stone, Santana, Journey, all these great Bay Area bands and add that to Am Radio and The Beatles, I love The Beatles and then as I grew older I got into Kiss and then it was all over! (laughs) Then I was into Hard Rock all the way.
Mark: And as you mentioned Kiss, years later you actually auditioned for Kiss?
Danny: Yeah.
Mark: How cool would that have been, especially as a fan? How did that come about?
Danny: Well I was in a band in the Bay Area called Harikari and we were doing really well, we did a lot of shows with Y&T and ten I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Mike Varney? He brought Yngwie Malmsteen over here and all these great guitar players, anyway he stole our lead singer (laughs) and eventually I got to talking to him and he used to place musicians with bands. So he gave me some people to talk to and then when the Kiss thing came up he got my information to send through to their management, so I sent them a bio, a photo and a demo tape of me playing. And then Gene Simmons called me, and it was one of those things where I didn’t believe it was him at first (laughs) but his voice was so clear and real. So they flew me down and I got to hang out with them for half a day and play, and to play some of those songs, it was incredible. And it was really loud, I remember that because I always like it really loud (laughs) ask any lead singer I’ve ever played with.
Mark: (laughs)
Danny: But that’s how that came about, through Mike Varney. It was really exciting but I knew there was gonna be a lot of people auditioning it was just too ‘pie in the sky’ for me to think that I would have got it.
Mark: What a wonderful experience though for any young musician to get that chance, did that inspire you?
Danny: Oh yeah, it did inspire me because what it did was make it real to me that if I put in enough effort there were gonna be opportunities and you have to be prepared for them, you know what they say about luck, it’s all about being prepared for an opportunity.
Mark: That’s exactly right. And it’s all led us to this point now and ’12 Weekends’ –I love the album cover.
Danny: Yeah that’s actually in Cabo, I go there a couple of times a year, for the last 20 years I’ve been going there and I took some pictures and it was so cool and I just thought “wow that would make a nice album cover.”
Mark: And the album itself is a nice mix of styles, I get the Beatles, I get the Am Radio thing you mentioned, but also I get a bit of Cheap Trick and that whole late 70’s early 80’s vibe going on. What has the reaction been like to the singles ‘Acid Flame’ and ‘The Mirror’?
Danny: So you heard The Mirror as well? I forget that was out (laughs)! The response really has been great that it is different and that people are surprised that it doesn’t sound like Dokken or Babylon or L.A. Guns, or something like that, I love all those bands. But this is what came out of me, I’d never done a record of my own before, never written lyrics before, this is a first. So I guess you could say it just bleeds on me. (laughs)
Mark: But your voice sounds great for the music, did you sing backing vocals on the Babylon albums?
Danny: Not on the albums, no. If I did a couple of shots and a few Coronas I’d get up there and give it a go, but no. People would always ask if I sang and the rest of the band would say “Shoot, he barely talks” (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Danny: A lot of the reason I was comfortable not doing backgrounds was that I did all the fills in all the songs, and I don’t know if you noticed but I have my slide on my string because I need to use it in pars of songs and then drop it real quick so I have it accessible. So I kinda had a lot going on and I wouldn’t be able tossing backgrounds and do that at the same time.
Mark: All the more impressive then.
Danny: I’m not claiming to be a great singer or even throw my hat into the arena of singers like Derek the powerhouse, but you do your own thing that leads you to express yourself in your own way and that’s the beautiful thing about this album for me. It’s like a bucket list thing.
Mark: So what’s next with the album? I’m talking to you because I love what I’ve heard and want people to gout and have a listen. Is it just available digitally at this stage?
Danny: Yes right now, but the CD will be available in February, probably late February because I want to put out a couple more singles before the full CD.
Mark: and the question I really want to ask, do you plan to play it live?
Danny: I really want to, I did put a band together and we’re gonna start rehearsing here in a few weeks and I’ll see what the opportunities are to play some shows because I would love to do that, that kinda completes the whole package for me.
Mark: So give us a feel for the rest of the album, I know ‘The Mirror’ has kind of serious lyrics.
Danny: Yeah, The Mirror is really the only song on the album that has a more serious lyric, the rest is kind of ‘tongue in cheek’ like ‘Acid Flame’ being about fever dreams. One is about a girlfriend drinking too much, one is about a girlfriend wanting threesomes, the songs are just like little movies in my head where I came up with a storyline, but ‘The Mirror’ has a little more serious stuff feeding into it. I just thought of someone who was kind of destitute on drugs, you know meth is a big problem out here, and depression like it is worldwide, but there are some problems that we have that we need to trawl over and sometimes it takes you looking at them and thinking maybe it’s me and I need to make the move to make things more positive and that’s really what those lyrics are about.
Mark: And of course if you get that band together come down and see us!
Danny: I will. My brother in law played in Australia a while back he’s in Kill Devil Hill, Mark Zavon is his name and I remember he went, and it’s been a couple of years, and he loved it.
Mark: I must have seen him play, I was at that show.
Mark: Now we get to the end of the interview and our traditional closers. The first of which is ‘If you could have been a fly on the wall for the creation of any classic album from the history of Rock, what would it have been for you? What album would you have loved to have seen being made?
Danny: Oh gosh, that’s a great question, I’m thinking of so many great albums. I think it would have to have ben Journey before Steve Perry – the ‘Looking at the Future’ album. I love that, I love Neal Schon and I used to try and learn from his lead playing along with Ronnie Montrose and Ritchie Blackmore. But I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that, there was just so much going on in those songs.
Mark: It really was an interesting period for the band.
Danny: It was and I saw them live then several times as a teenager. For me that would have been great to see.
Mark: If you could have been credited for writing any one song what would that be? What’s the song that resonates with you the most?
Danny: That’s even harder! There’s actually a few for me that give me that feeling, but Stone Temple Pilots ‘Sour Girl’ I love that song.
Mark: Great song.
Danny: And why not.
Mark: Two very interesting answers. The final question is of course the easy one – what is the meaning of life?
Danny: (laughs) Well for me the way I look at life is that it’s not meant to be easy and I think too many people feel that way, that everything is expected. I think life is about learning, about good times and bad times and how you react to the bad and how you react to the good. And help others. That is the meaning of life, to do the best you can and walk the walk and talk the talk and to do unto others.
Mark: A great sentiment. And I Think you’re right so many feel entitled these days without having to do the hard work and when the bad times come then it’s hard to cope. It’s been great to talk, thank you so much for that. And when February comes I’ll be holding out for that hard copy of the album!
Danny: I look forward to hearing your feedback, I really appreciate it. Thank you Mark.
Mark: Take care of yourself Danny.
Danny: Be safe out there.
Danny’s debut solo album ’12 Weekends’ is out soon: Pre-order here
