TOKYO MOTOR FIST, the band featuring Trixter guitarist Steve Brown and Danger Danger vocalist Ted Poley released its sophomore album ‘Lions’, on July 10 via Frontiers Music, and what an album it is! We caught up with Steve to relive the glorious days of the 80’s and talk about the songs on what might just be the album of the year; not to mention checking in on Trixter, Def Leppard and asking were it all began for him.
Steve: Hey brother!
Mark: Hey Steve.
Steve: How are you?
Mark: Very good thanks Steve. How are you?
Steve: Excellent!
Mark: Many interviews today so far?
Steve: Yeah this is my third one and I’m fresh, I’ve got Tokyo Motor Fist on my mind so we’re all good brother!
Mark: That’s great. The last time I saw you was in a tent in Oklahoma in 2010.
Steve: Oh Jeez! Was that Rock the nation or something like that? There in Oklahoma City?
Mark: Rock in America, there at the Zoo Amphitheater.
Steve: Holy shit! That was a long way for you to come.
Mark: It was a fair trek, longest trip to a gig for me still. And I’d also seen you the previous year when something exciting also happened in Oklahoma while you were playing.
Steve: Oh Rocklahoma where we almost all got caught in that tornado!
Mark: Exactly. I remember whilst you were playing it got pretty windy out there and then all of a sudden Pete’s hat flew about a thousand miles into the air and all of a sudden the rain came and we all disappeared into the tent!
Steve: That was some pretty scary stuff!
Mark: It was and so my expectations are pretty high when I next see you as every time in the past something pretty memorable has happened!
Steve: Well I’m in my studio today so things are good. I will tell you this though it’s just started raining like a bitch here, it’s pouring outside so I can’t promise a tornado but if we do lose power I’ll try and get back to you as soon as possible.
Mark: (laughs) I think you must be pretty safe in New Jersey!
Steve: (laughs)
Mark: Lions is a wonderful album, I loved the first record when it came out but I think you’ve topped that with this one. How long did the whole process take for this new one?
Steve: Well I’m always writing. Luckily man I’ve been blessed I have a beautiful house here in New Jersey and I have a great recording studio that I’ve had for over 25 years now and as much as I love playing live, jumping around doing the Rock Star thing I love being in the studio. Mutt Lange is one of my idols and one of my biggest influences so I love to be in the studio creating. With that being said I’m always writing whether it’s for other people or working on producing and engineering different bands and what not. But I started writing for this new record in January of 2019. It was kind of like I was getting the itch again. We’d had such great success with the fans and the critics, everybody loved the first Tokyo Motor Fist record.
Mark: What motivates you to get down to work?
Steve: What it takes for me to get motivated to do a record is look, I don’t do this for the money because you know it’s not the 80’s anymore (laughs) and so we’re not getting those kind of budgets. I do this for the love of writing songs and a love of music and rock and roll. So for me to get excited it takes one or two songs so in January last year I started writing and I wrote ‘Youngblood’ and I wrote ‘Decadence on 10th Street’ and I finished them up. I don’t do demos here in my studio, I do finished masters, in essence I do like a Steve brown solo record and then I send the songs out. You know, I program the drums because I don’t play drums. So I program the drums, I play bass, play guitar and I sing. Then I send the songs out for the guys, and I sent two out ‘Youngblood’ and ‘Decadence on 10th Street’.
Mark: And I bet the reaction was good?
Steve: Ted basically jumped on his phone and said to me “These are the greatest two songs I’ve ever heard, I’m so happy” and so with that enthusiasm from Ted and the other guys Chuck and Greg who were equally enthusiastic I knew it was time to start making the record. And luckily, I’ve gotta be honest all of these songs just flowed so naturally out of me and I think you can hear it in the record.
Mark: Wow if that was the starting point no wonder you all got excited! They transport you right back to the 80’s and for a lot of us out there that’s some of the best music of our lives. To hear an album like ‘Lions’ in 2020 when we’re all collectively going through this Covid-19 experience, is a wonderful thing. How’s the pandemic affecting you?
Steve: Well the pandemic is with us all but, god bless my family and everybody is safe and healthy. My parents 85 years old, my father in law is 76 and everyone is healthy and getting through it. We did lose some friends and some family members, my wife’s Aunt passed away but other than that we’ve been blessed. I have a beautiful house so luckily it’s not a shitty place to be for three months and luckily I love my wife and my two daughters so (laughs) we’re able to get through it together. My oldest daughter finished sophomore year of college at home, and my youngest finished first grade at home so we all just pitched in and you know man, I’m a very positive guy, I think you know already, so I think the message I try to send out especially with this new record in these crazy circumstances is to try to find some positivity in all of this craziness.
Especially with everything that’s going on in our country because I’m sure you’ve seen on the news America is an extremely divided country right now but the Politics of it all is just not my thing. But I really do try to encourage everybody to first off be productive like I’ve been, and try to see a light at the end of the tunnel. I believe that whether in a year or two years the world is gonna be a better place having gone through this together. I believe our economy is gonna come back and there are gonna be some necessary changes that needed to be made that will be made for social reasons and political reasons. And you know what, I tell ya, I think there’s gonna be a whole lot of great music that comes out of this.
Mark: That’s a great message. I know across the world musicians are having it really tough, but there is definitely a burst of creativity and let’s hope that continues. Let’s talk about ‘Lions’ again though – a record that does take you back to a time when music was definitely a lot more fun. And we need fun now more than ever. Let’s start with ‘Sedona’ when I heard that song the first time, I was blown away! You have to tell me about that one!
Steve: Well thank you man, I’m glad you enjoyed it and that is certainly a feel-good song. And you hit it on the head before talking about ‘Decadence on 10th Street’, I’m just trying to make music that I love to listen to. I’m still that little kid who was obsessed with Van Halen and Kiss and Def Leppard and Bon Jovi and that’s the music that I write the best and play the best so that’s what I want to do. ‘Sedona’ – the great story behind that is I’ve had that riff for 30 years! I wrote that right after we got done doing the first Trixter record. So it was meant to be a song that I was going to write for the second Trixter record ‘For Hear’ – it just never happened. About a month ago I gave PJ a copy of the album and he heard it and he was like “Dude where have I heard that riff for Sedona?” And I was like “I used to play it every day at sound check” when we were out with Trixter.
So better late than never, we finally finished it! And again I’m just so happy with that song because to me it’s got a kind of Van Halen/Toto vibe which is really cool. I’m a huge Steve Lukather fan, he’s a good friend, so it was really good to put that shuffle, Porcaro groove behind it that Chuck delivered so beautifully. And it’s just a unique song because I put my David Lee Roth hat on lyrically and tried to do what Dave used to do with songs like ’Panama’ or ‘Yankee Rose’. You never knew what he was really talking about – is he talking about a girl? Is he talking about a car? Is he talking about a place? So it was kind of my way of clanking a glass to David Lee Roth and his creative genius in lyric writing. I think I did OK?
Mark: You sure did. So what is ‘Sedona’ about then? A car or a girl?
Steve: (laughs) ‘Sedona’ is about escapism in a way in the way that wherever that place is in your life that can take you away mentally, physically and spiritually. It’s about taking you to a place where you feel the best that you can be in life. And production-wise it was really cool as we were able to bring in our good friend Mark Rivera who is Chuck’s bandmate in the Billy Joel band. He’s Billy Joel’s and Ringo Starr’s sax player. So I wanted to change the sound, and as I get older making records I kind of make a bucket list, and on this record I wanted real strings, so a violin I got that, I wanted horns. And I thought that ‘Sedona’ would be the coolest song to do that with – we put in a horn section like Extreme ‘Get The Funk Out’, like Aerosmith did on ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’ and then I was like, man instead of putting a guitar solo why don’t we put a sax solo, and why don’t we get Mark, because Mark’s become a friend of mine and I go to some of the Billy Joel show. So it was just a marriage made in heaven and I think it took to record somewhere else. I think the record itself is a next level type record it’s not another run of the mill, let’s say Melodic Rock record. There’s some stuff that takes it into a classier realm if you know what I mean and I think ’Sedona’ is a shining example of that.
Mark: I’m sure you’ve been reading my review. But you’re right it is an album that takes what we love about the 80’s to another level. Of course a lot of fans of Danger Danger and Trixter will love it but I’m almost tempted to say I like it even more. Old guys aren’t supposed to write music this good are they?
Steve: Well you know I’ve gotta be honest with you man, and I think you for saying that. I’m just so happy that 30 years as a national act and making records for 30 years that I honestly believe I’ve made the best record of my career and I think that Chuck, Ted and Greg feel the exact same way so ow cool is it? I’m gonna be 50 years old on Monday and Chuck is in his mid-60’s and Ted and Greg are in their late 50’s but we’re still making great music at our age. And the great thing about it is that we still get that buzz from making these records. We’re not making these records to make money and to get rich because we’re not of course getting rich doing this. We do it for the love of music and one of the most important things about tis record is how much I believe in the full record because you know we’re living in that age where it’s all about singles. It’s almost who cares about making a record, just make one song and make it good enough and it’s all about how many ‘likes’ and how many ‘views’ and all the social media bullshit.
I’m old school man, I’m still a fan of the old school vinyl records and that experience whether it’s a vinyl or a CD where you crack it open, you read the booklet while you’re listening to the record, you read the lyrics and you look at the pictures. And the thing that goes along with that for me is that every song on this record and the last record even the last two Trixter records that I did. Every song to me is as good as the next one, and that’s important man. And you probably know this better than I do Mark because you get a lot of records. How many records do you get a year that have maybe one or two great songs and the rest of them are throwaway tracks, you know – you can hear it. To me and for the guys it’s so important that we deliver a full album of great songs and I think that’s what we’ve done. Even though it’s my music I still get excited every time I listen to this. I’m proud as hell of this record.
Mark: You should be it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard in some time and like all good albums every time I play it I like it just a little bit more. And as you say you don’t expect it, you open up with a couple of great tracks and you think” OK that sounds good but…” and you’re almost waiting for the filler, but that doesn’t happen here! No way! This one keeps on giving. Thank you so much.
Steve: Thank you.
Mark: What’s it going to take to see Tokyo Motor Fist live?
Steve: Well I mean we had a bunch of things booked for this year which unfortunately were put on hold. We were grateful that we were able to get in on two shows on the Monsters of Rock Cruise in February – that went over phenomenal and we played ‘Decadence on 10th Street’ live and the crowd loved it so we were very excited about that. But if you want us to come down there then we just signed with a new booking agent. We had dates booked in Japan in February but they got moved so if you want us we will come! This is all of our main band you know. Chuck of course has a great job with Billy Joel and Ted and I sometimes do shows with Danger Danger and Greg likewise with Ted Nugent but ‘The Fist’ is where our hearts are at right now so I’m hoping we can get one or two shows in by the end of the year and then next year we’ll have to see. Right now we’re trying to figure out doing some new videos – we want to make one of two more.
Mark: One of the questions that I always love asking when we talk to someone for the first time is was there a moment when you knew that music was going to be such a huge part of your life, a defining moment maybe? Or was it something more gradual?
Steve: No it was very much a ‘hit me with a sledgehammer’ moment – that one we talked about a bit before – Kiss ‘Rock and Roll Over’. The story of it is really cool I was about 7 or 8 years old and I was over at my sister-in-law’s – she was my brother’s girlfriend at the time. I was at her house and I looked in the bedroom and I saw this record – the ‘Rock and Roll Over’ album cover and it was like a movie Mark, I could have sworn smoke was coming out of it, there was fire, and it was calling my name! And I went up to it and I picked it up and I’ll never forget my sister-in-law Maryanne’s brother came up to me and said “Steve you gotta check this band out”. And I was a little kid, I didn’t know what it was, I thought it w a comic book, and he goes “You gotta listen to this”.
So I went home, I dropped the needle down and ‘I Want You’ started and I thought this is nice – the acoustic guitar and (Steve sings) “In the morning I raise my head” and then all of a sudden when those guitars kicked in (Steve mimes the riff) and the drums and that voice! (Steve sings) “I want you!” my head exploded! I was hit like a sledgehammer and all those other clichés! But it was the coolest thing I’d ever heard in my life and I listened to the whole record and I remember ‘Calling Dr. Love’ especially, hearing Gene Simmons sing – I’d never heard anything like that before. It completely changed my life forever! And then a couple of months later a neighbour of mine said “Steve you gotta hear this new band that came out” – it was Van Halen and he played me ‘Running With the Devil’ and then the next thing that comes on is ‘Eruption’ – and I’d never heard guitar like that!
Ace Frehley was a great guitar-player but he wasn’t on the same planet as Eddie Van Halen! So hearing that song as an 8 year old kid especially when it got to the end and Edward was doing the tapping – I didn’t know if that was a guitar or a violin or keyboards or even a video game! I didn’t know what it was but I knew it sounded like something that wasn’t of this Earth! And probably a week after that I told my parents “I wanna take guitar lessons” and the rest is history. Like I say “I sold my soul to Rock and Roll” in 1978!
Mark: And let’s hope there’s a kid out there who picks up some Tokyo Motor Fist and that’s his inspiration to pick up the guitar. I’m trying to do the interview without looking back and I’ll bet you get asked all the time about previous bands and why you aren’t playing together. But at the moment I’m in that whole other camp – I just want more Tokyo Motor Fist. Where do you sit on that question – do you like to hear the hits time after time or do you think musicians owe the fans new material?
Steve: Well I’ll be honest with you I love to see all the old bands but I love that some of them like my sometime band mates in Def Leppard are still making new music. My good friend Dennis DeYoung just came out with a phenomenal record, and I sometimes play in his band. But you’ve seen it and I’m not going to mention any names but you hear some of these older Rockstars saying “There’s no point making a new record, nobody cares. All they want to do is hear the hits anyway. If we make a new record and play one of the songs live people will just go and get a hot dog!” Now to me that’s kind of a bullshit attitude. My attitude is that if you love music you shouldn’t be motivated to make music because you’re gonna make money, because most of the Rockstars I know have more money than God anyway; so be productive and work if you care about your fans even a little bit! Look Mark, as much as I’m a professional musician I’m still a fan as well. I gotta tell you when Van Halen released ‘A Different Kind of Truth’ a few years ago I was so happy I felt like a little kid. And I thought they made a great record under the circumstances. And again I thought the last Def Leppard was really strong.
As you get older it gets harder and harder to do this, you know what I mean. I have a family the other guys have families and we have other gigs, so you really have to just love doing it. But I believe that there’s a time and place for everything and thank God I’ve been blessed in this business, I’ve been lucky to have played all my life, I’ve had hits songs that have given me a good life but money doesn’t drive me. And with some of the much bigger Rockstars why not make music? What else are you gonna do? You owe it to your fans so they can see that you care. And as you get older of course things change. We all know David Coverdale doesn’t sing quite like he used to, but heck he’s still making new music, he’s still making records. He’s got a great band and I tip my hat to people like that.
Mark: And there are more still doing it and doing it well.
Steve: Sure look at Glen Hughes, he’s still out there doing his solo stuff and now in the Dead Daisies, they’ve made a great new record. And I love to see that!
Mark: You’re right, we don’t just close ourselves off when we get to a certain age. But I do know that desire burns stronger in some. I can’t see you hanging up the hat any time soon!
Steve: (laughs) All I ever try and do, and I’m gonna speak for the guys here it try to do your best and once in a while you hit on something extra special and I believe we did that with ‘Lions’. I think it’s a notch above the rest and a notch above even what we thought we were capable of doing. The end result man when we got done, and it was really cool to have Bruno Ravel from Danger Danger and The Defiants mixing it with me. And I have to give him a shout out for doing such a great job! And again I could have mixed it myself but I knew how much better this record was than the last, so I wanted someone with that talent coming in to help. I knew bringing him in was going to take the record ten steps up, and I did that because I thought I owed it to the band, and I owed it to people like you and the fans to put out the best that we could do.
Mark: Well you certainly managed that. Thank you so much for time Steve, it’s been great to talk about the new album. And you know what? I’ve been enjoying talking about the band so much I haven’t even got to my Trixter 1st album Anniversary questions or talked about Def Leppard. We’ll have to do this again soon!
Steve: Hey man I’m available you got my number, let’s go again in a couple of weeks! I’ve got time for you and we’ve hung before so we’re family!
Mark: (laughs) sounds great Steve let’s do it! There’s so much of your career I want to touch on but obviously the main thing for me is getting people out there to listen to this great new album!
Steve: Sure man, it’s been a ride – 30 years! I’m 50 on Monday and then we’re celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the 1st Trixter album! I can’t believe it man, and I remember it all like it was yesterday! And let’s end on this – As long as The Stones and Paul McCartney are still out there kicking ass I’m feeling young too! Did you hear that new Stones song a few months ago?
Mark: I did, very good it was too.
Steve: Those guys are 80 and they’re still kicking ass! I said that to Joe and Phil in Def Leppard who take their health very seriously – I said guys you’re 20 years younger that Charlie Watts – so when they get to their 70’s they’ll still be young! So let’s hope they can continue making great music and putting on great concerts and there’s no reason to stop.
Mark: Rock and Roll alive and well, what a great way to close!
Steve: Thank you Mark, Bye, bye.
