LOVERBOY - New Interview With Frontman MIKE RENO Available Classic Rock Revisited recently caught up with
LOVERBOY frontman
Mike Reno, who is out doing therounds promoting the band's new album, Just Getting Started. Th efollowing is an excerpt from the interview:
CRR: Just Getting Started is a definite return to the bands classic sound yet it also sounds amazingly fresh and modern as well so it’s really the best of both worlds.
Mike: "I appreciate you saying that because we tried really hard to make it sound fresh, yet still retain the classic Loverboy sound, which may on the outside seem like a very simple task but when you have the guys in the band playing, it’s going to sound like Loverboy no matter what you do. We didn’t want it to sound like dinosaur Loverboy, we wanted it to sound like 2007 Loverboy, so that was a good observation on your part because it does have a nice, fresh sound."
CRR: I guess the first question I have is you guys have certainly proved you’re more than capable of creating vital new music today, so why has the band only released three new records in the last 20 years?
Mike: "Well I don’t even know if there’s one answer to that, but the one answer I can give you is, the reason we didn’t put out album after album is the record companies were in turmoil, buying and selling each other and closing down. Sony used to be Columbia and then there’s Sony/BMG and EMI bought the publishing of, you know what I mean? There were all these businessmen in suits buying and selling these companies and then closing them down for their assets, and then selling the publishing. It was just turning into a meat market of bullshit to be perfectly honest with you. There was nobody actually worried about the music; they just wanted to know who had rights to all the publishing. Our contract basically ran out and we didn’t bother renewing with them because the writing on the wall was that the major record companies weren’t getting into the digital age and they were going to start to falter, and shortly thereafter that’s exactly what happened. At the same time we were out earning millions of dollars each year playing classic rock shows throughout the United States and Canada. On a regular basis we were playing up to a hundred or more shows a year and perfectly happy with our semi-retired situation, playing hits that everyone knows and loves. So for us to jump into the studio there’s also another side to that whole thing and that is, a band that’s been together this long kind of works really well when there’s a bit of distance, and jumping in the studio was not always a good idea for us because it’s a close knit situation that can cause problems. The whole thing about keeping this little marriage which is Loverboy together is we have a like a ten row plan on the airplanes. I joke about it a little bit but when we check in they put us all in one big group and we go 'We actually don’t all want to sit together, he reclines, I don’t recline, he’s gonna bug me all day,' that kind of thing."
CRR: Just Getting Started is a great combination of high charged rock anthems and slower ballads and the pacing and placement of the songs is fantastic.
Mike: "I appreciate that, those are very kind words and are very welcome to my ears because we put a lot of effort into this record. We hired young guys to mix it and to help write and we concentrated not just on how it was going, but every word and we made it sound seamless and easy, but a lot of thought and effort went into those songs I can guarantee you that. We’ve been getting a lot of early reviews back and everybody seems to think it’s a wonderful record so I’m really happy about that."
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