“Rob has always done the lyrics and vocal melodies etcetera but I write pretty much all of the music with the band guys," states guitarist Chris Impellitteri of the band Impellitteri. "The line-up is myself; Rob Rock is the lead singer and he's done the majority of all the records. We have James Pulli on bass who's been with us since the late 80s, early 90s; so, pretty much the same bass player and you know we're a bit like Spinal Tap when it comes to drummers. We’ve had drummers who have toured with Slayer and some other hard-core metal bands like The Hollywood Vampires so, we've been all over the place with our drummers but that's pretty much the nucleus of the band and occasionally we'll use a keyboard player at times.”
To date, Impelletteri have sold more than two-million records worldwide as their brand of hard-core, metal and rock has resonated with fans here at home in the U.S. and literally all over the globe. Playing large festivals and arenas, sharing those stages with bands such as Black Sabbath, Journey, Iron Maiden and many more; Impellitteri long ago established themselves as a force to reckon with in the metal genre.
"Wake The Beast: The Impellitteri Anthology" is the latest addition to the band's catalog and a while back, we caught up with Chris himself to discuss the record, the band, their struggles here in the U.S. and successes in other markets; especially in Japan.
“Yeah, I don't know if it's luck, fate or talent, I'm not sure what it is but yeah, we've been pretty successful in Japan since the time we were kids," he began. "When the band did our first record called, “IMPELLITTERI Black EP” with songs like “Lost In The Rain” and “Burning,” these are songs that our fans know very well for some reason and we just struck a chord in places like Japan. So, it's been very lucrative for us but it's also given us a country to have a career in which has been awesome.”
Have a career in? Many bands struggle here in the States to breakthrough for various reasons and many find far more success in foreign lands; Chris has a "Theory" as to why their music has flourished overseas.
“It's just a theory, I can't prove it but my assumption is a couple things; one, in Japan the music has to speak for itself because remember, there's a language barrier. I’ll give you an example, in the United States, a lot of success for an artist is dependent on who you know, who represents you, how well connected are they in the industry, can they get you on major radio, can they get you on TV, can they get the media or can you convince the media to support you, because that's a big part of how you kind of build or establish artists outside of doing grassroots and doing performances; which could take years to build a band. So, in Japan the music has to speak for itself and look, in America, there are a lot of people that hate us and I know that for a fact. I've heard the friendly chatter backstage from the people in media who say there are those who would probably love to stop us but they couldn't stop us in Japan and we became huge. I mean, we go to Japan and we're competing with bands like Metallica for the cover of magazines and we've gotten the cover of magazines many times. So, it's a different world for us but to be honest, I think that's part of it but it's just that our music speaks volumes and there's no force that can stop us. We have it over in Europe too. We’ve done some big metal festivals where they had us playing a few slots below Iron Maiden. I think we were either above or around the same slot as bands like Anthrax. We're doing bigger festivals, playing in front of 20,000 to 35,000 people and the band goes over really well and those audiences are singing every word of our songs; it's pretty amazing and quite different than what we do in America. The industry has a lot to do with it but look, at the end of the day you still have to be good at your craft and be highly proficient and competent. I mean you gotta earn people's respect; right? They have to really truly enjoy your music and the industry or the good old boys club can't force that on people but they can certainly open doors and they can also influence people not to like people; if that makes sense.”
Along those lines, the band is signed to not one but they work with three different record labels; the latest being Global Rock Records and it is they who are handling the anthology.
“We're actually signed to JVC Victor Entertainment and they are our major label and they pretty much do Japan, all the Asian territories as well as Australia and New Zealand. We're also on a label called Frontiers and they have us, Whitesnake, I think they have Journey again and they handle the United States and all of continental Europe and South America for us. We're signed with those two labels and Global Rock really came in because we have a new manager and he really kind of initiated the concept of let's do this this anthology and he brought our attention to Global Rock Records mainly because they were really passionate about the band and without that, it would’ve taken a really interesting approach to find someone that loves our music and loves our band versus us trying to go to our existing labels or a major label to do this distribution; like a Warner Brothers. We’d probably get lost so, that's how we were kind of introduced to Global Rock and after hearing their plan and passion for the band that's how and why we brought them into the picture for the back catalog. First and foremost is to get the distribution right and get it to the masses because the reality is; our music has been only available via import or export and it's really expensive for people. So, now they'll have the ability to basically get it in any form at a very reasonable price.”
Most bands are fortunate to have one record company on board and the challenge is often staying true to who you are as an artist as many artists' development often fall victim to current sounds, trends or how the industry thinks they will benefit, also known as; what will make the most for the record companies financially. Chris, here too has some thoughts on the process.
“So, now we have three labels that are doing our stuff and to be fair to record companies this is the reality; if you look at them as if they’re investment bankers, they underwrite and they put up the capital to make the records. When you listen to an Impellitteri record, this isn't done in our bedroom, the opening track of the anthology is a great example, we did that in a Hollywood, CA recording studio and Metallica had just finished their “Black” record and as they were loading out, we loaded in; right in the same room and the engineer who had just done the entire “Black” Metallica record did our entire record. The reason I'm telling you this is because when we're doing records, these records were not cheap to make. We're spending hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars to make these; right? We're trying to capture the band live, we're trying to use the best equipment, the biggest room so that we get the sound right and especially in the early days, unless you want to write your own check or unless you have family money or something; you need a major label to be able to put that money up. So, now the label is taking a risk; what if they give you $300,000 to make your first record, do videos and maybe get a head start out on the road and you bomb? That means they just lost $300,000; right? I mean, initially at least, when we had labels, that was a really important factor and now today, in this day and age, we use JVC Victor and Frontiers and they still give us recording funds so we can go into major label studios like Capitol Records or NRG where we usually track and this way, we can capture the band live versus hey, everybody's working at their house on the computer. I mean, not that we don't do that, we do implement some of that as well but we really try to capture the band in a live atmosphere and to do it correctly you need he right equipment like vintage consoles, you need a big room, you need great mics and some of these mics; just a vocal mic can be forty-grand. I guess what I'm just trying to do is, I’m trying to be nice to the record companies in some way by saying that the capital they put up is a risk because if they fail or those bands fail or they don't sell or move product; then the label is in the red.”
Impellitteri is just gearing up but as he and the band does so, they have decisions looming; things such as where to tour, what venues and the sizes of the rooms and they also have another record in the works.
“We’re more than a year into this record," he explains, "We started in the middle of the pandemic so we probably have another four or five months to go because we have to deliver another record by, I think the latter part or by the middle of 2023 or maybe by the early summer and then the idea is to go on tour. So, we'll definitely go to Japan, Europe, places like that and then the U.S. and as we said, that's always been a difficult market for us and I get it. I think the promoters; I think they're probably terrified because overseas like I said, we play arenas. We play very large venues and if we try to do that in the United States, I think promoters and to be fair to promoters; they may be right. We don't know if we play a 3000 or 4000 seat venue; will we pack it and sell it out or will only 300 people show up? So, we're trying to get through that challenge and we're not really sure how to do this but we do want to play the United States. We have a lot of fans around especially here in the United States that still love the band. The question is; how do we reach them and also bring our show and our production? So, it's like we have no intent; we're never going to be one of these club bands. I don't want to do that but if we can make it work, we'll come to the US and do it.”
“In many ways I love the small venues," he continued, "I've done the big festivals and we've certainly done major stadium type shows with different bands; especially in Asia where we headline. There's a tremendous amount of people there but the reality is, it does feel a bit surreal. You have barricades and the audience is probably 20 feet from the stage. I remember playing some very big festivals; years ago, we played one where we were on the headline stage and I think there were like eight stages there and it was us, Black Sabbath and I think Dream Theater. So, we were the bands on the headline stage and I remember there were probably 30,000 people there and it was one of my first festivals. I remember thinking how it was you couldn't see anybody past, I don't know, 150 feet. All you saw were heads and then all you see is a blur. So, you don't really have a great interaction with the audience and we played great and had a great response but it felt a little sterile to me versus when you're playing a venue with like a 2000 seat or 3000 seat capacity; those are cool because you can pretty much see everybody and their faces.”
“We’ve done shows in those venues where we’ve played to 500 people and we’ve done shows at one point where we were shocked if there were thirty people there and we had a blast. We have a time of our life playing those shows but you know it's really about bringing us and our production. A couple of years ago we were doing a Japan tour and we went and played what would have been in your area; we played a club in New Jersey, then we played Connecticut and then we did New York City and I remember some of these places and we kind of basically booked these smaller rooms and we announced that there was going to be a rehearsal; a live rehearsal and we invited people to come on down and hang out with us. We did that and it was a lot of fun but I remember thinking, if we were really trying to do a tour doing these kinds of venues; I mean, our drums barely fit on their stages. So, never mind massive back lining; we use a lot of the amps for real so, it's like bringing our back line and all that stuff we could never fit it in there. So, it's kind of like we feel like we're gipping our audience; you know? They want to see the show; it kind of reminds me I guess of a band like KISS; that would be a great example. KISS could play in clubs but they couldn't take their show there; right? It's not that you're ripping anybody off because you're not but it's kind of like, well there's so much more to this band with that big production and it’s the same thing with bands like Queen. I know these are legendary artists, I don't mean that I’m comparing us to them, that's not what I'm doing but it’s just kind of that we want to bring that production, that show that we can bring in Japan and places in Europe; we want to also bring that to America. Not to sound full of myself, I tend to run my amps pretty much wide open so, they're very, very loud and it's hard to control that and especially if you're playing in a small club. I mean, it becomes obnoxiously loud and then you start to hurt people's ears. I remember we did a show like that in Los Angeles at a place called the Whisky a Go Go, a very famous place, everybody from Van Halen to The Doors played there. We did that show and we tried to keep it under wraps; we were going to Japan and wanted to do a rehearsal and I remember that show was funny because it was like 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon and we were coming to do sound-check and there was already a line going around the block trying to get in for a show that wouldn't start until 9:00 o'clock that night; it was pretty crazy.”
"Wake The Beast: The Impellitteri Anthology" is available as well as discovering more about the band by visiting their website at https://impellitteri.net/band/.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
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