"Yeah, yeah, just sitting here in my backyard having some coffee and knocking some interviews out. I have to admit, this is my spot. I get up every morning, I've got three dogs, a huge backyard, I sit here and have a cup of coffee, a cigarette and throw a ball for hours and then I feed them and come right back here to check emails and do interviews and whatever so, yes, this is definitely my spot; I'm an old grumpy man with a routine," laughed Dead Daisies frontman John Corabi as he discussed the band's latest record called "Light 'Em Up," the mystique of Muscle Shoals, the importance of music history to musicians and more.
Corabi, a New Jersey native and Philly area guy has bounced around in several notable bands including Union and a brief stint with Motley Crue but it's with the Dead Daisies where he's most comfortable and for their soon to be released on September 6 new album "Light 'Em Up," the band chose a spot to record some of it where many others have comfortably done the same.
"Light 'Em Up;" he began. "Obviously after the success of last years' tour that we did and for those who don't know, I kind of left the band for a couple of years and last year I came back and last year we went on tour. The band had kind of a "Best Of" record, they did a 10 year anniversary and put out kind of a "Best Of" record and went out on tour and promoted that and we had a great response from the fans. So, at the end of last year before the holidays, we sat down and talked about doing some really cool stuff and one of them was getting in and doing a new record. So, we all got together here in Nashville for a little bit and then had the great fortune of going down to; I don't know if you've seen the documentary, there was a documentary series on the Muscle Shoals sound, obviously in Muscle Shoals, Alabama; we went down there and did a little writing, a little jamming and some recording and came back to Nashville and finished the record. So, we're really excited about it, it's so easy writing with these guys, it's kind of like I never left the band but we're really pleased with how the record came out and we're excited for everybody to hear it."
"The first record I did with the band," he went on, "We did in Australia in Sydney. Again, anybody who knows the band knows that David Lowy was from Australia; he kind of bops around a bit so he's got a place in Australia and in New York but we did, "Make Some Noise" and "Burn It Down" here in Nashville and it was funny, we were just kind of talking about different studios and I believe with Glenn (Hughes) they did a record at Sunset Sound in L.A. and another one in France. So, we were talking about cool studios and it's just weird, there are certain places that just have a vibe to them. We had all seen the documentary on Netflix about the Muscles Shoals sound and we just kind of wanted to see what it was all about and there is a little bit of history there working with Marti. There was an original studio in Muscle Shoals called "Fame" and that's where the whole thing started and they had Aretha Franklin, all of these old Blues guys, a couple of killer Rock acts and a publishing company in the building and they had these session guys called "The Swampers" which Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote about in "Sweet Home Alabama." So, a couple of those guys left and started another studio across town which just kept building this insane clientele of different artists like The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger and all of these killer acts from the late '60s and '70s and then oddly enough, some of the people from the second studio actually left and came to Nashville and they bought a place called Quad which Neil Young recorded "Harvest" in and has a legendary list of artists who've recorded at Quad.The last two records that I've done with the band, "Burn It Down" and "Make Some Noise" were recorded at Marti Frederiksen's studio . is Quad. We wanted to get back to basics and all this other kind of stuff and somehow in the conversation we were like, well, we've got this kind of weird lineage with "Fame Studios," let's go down to Muscle Shoals and do some writing and some recording down there and as it turned out, we were walking around the room in awe of the historic story of that room. We were sitting there looking at pictures of Aretha Franklin singing at the microphone that I sang in and she's got a cocktail and a cigarette and she's just belting out this stuff and pictures of The Allman Brothers rehearsing in the room because they actually rehearsed in that room and just the story, the history and the lineage, we were just so blown away by it and besides the record "Light 'Em Up," we actually did some really cool jamiing and recorded some of that; so, there's some other stuff that may come out in the future that we did while we were down there, extra stuff that I think people will be blown away by. So, we just wanted to go down and soak up some of the mojo in the room, just sing on the microphone that Aretha Franklin or Greg Allman sang on. All of these legendary artists like Steven Tyler were down there; I guess it was a few years back he did a version of "Brown Sugar" there with Nuno Bettencourt there. It was just one of those bucket-list things, there's no rhyme or reason to it. We just wanted to go down, see what it's all about and like I said, suck up some of the mojo and hopefully get something good out of it and I believe we did. It's really weird, as a musician, I had the good fortune of being able to play CBGBs and back in the day when I lived in Philadelphia being able to play at The Stone Pony and when I moved to L.A. you sit there and read all these stories about The Doors playing and being the house band at The Whisky or Zeppelin on their first tour played The Whisky. So, when you get to play there, there's all of these little bucket-list things that most people probably don't think about as your average concert goer; you know what I mean? They're like, oh yeah, I'm going to The Whisky to see The Dead Daisies because that's their local club but for us to stand on the same stage as Robert Plant stood on on his first tour or Jim Morrison or Janis Joplin or any other legendary artist is just kind of a fun bucket-list thing. I know this sounds really weird but you just hope to take a little piece of that mojo, put it in your back pocket and say, OK, cross that one off, I've played there. So, regardless of what it means to anybody else, for us, it was just such an honor for us to sit in that room and record some of the stuff we did while we were there. I can literally say to people, yup, I've recorded at The Record Plant, I've recorded at this place and that place and by the way, I've actually recorded at Muscle Shoals; same place as Aretha Franklin, The Stones, The Allman Brothers; it was just an honor for us, this bucket-list thing and I can't say it enough; we were in awe of the place and then come back to Nashville and step into Marti's studio which is part three of the lineage of the Muscle Shoals sound. I remember getting The Village Voice or The Aquarian when I was in Philly and seeing ads; who is this guy Springsteen playing at The Stone Pony? There's just certain places that have a history to them. There is another one in New Haven, Connecticut, I believe it is called Toad's and it's like, Toad's, yeah whatever, I've never heard of it. Yeah, well, hey dude, that's the place where The Stones went into unannounced to do warm-up gigs before they went out on a huge stadium tour. Like I said, I was incredibly fortunate to play at CBGBs in 1999 and we were so excited to be in there because that's where Blondie and The Ramones and all of these legendary bands played. The Surf Ballroom in Iowa. You walk into that place and it's this beautiful old '30s ballroom and there is all of this stuff on the wall about Richie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper; that was the last place they played before the plane crash. So, there are all of these kinds of bucket-list recording studios and clubs that may not mean anything to the average person but for a musician and I'm kind of a little bit of a historian when it comes to music; it's an honor to stand on the stage where Buddy Holly played his last show. I remember back in the day when I was with Motley Crue, I got to finally go to Japan and it was my first trip.I was so pumped months before we even went that I was gonna get to play Budokan; you just sit there and think, "Cheap Trick Live at Budokan" and this was live at Budokan. So, there's just certain places around the world that are in their own right, these legendary places that it's just awesome to walk into the building, write some music, accomplish something and then take it off your bucket-list and say, I played there. So, just from a personal historic thing, I can tell my grand-daughters, Grandpop played Budokan (laughs), if there's still Cheap Trick records, I can say, Grandpop played the same place (laughs)."
The importance of history not only drew them to Muscle Shoals but it was by looking at other band's and their recording histories as well as that comfort level once again that seems to give the Dead Daisies a little extra push.
"The record itself; I don't think I've ever been in a band that from a song perspective has never been this creative. I remember the first record I did with the Daisies, the manager came to us and said, "OK, we're going to do a record. I need you guys to fly to Australia. You're gonna go in on March 10 and be done by April 10 and I'm sitting there going, wait; what? We have a month to write, record, mix and master a record, artwork and everything included? I'm sitting there thinking, this is crazy. Then I saw this documentary album series thing; they did one on Queen "Night At The Opera" and Pink Floyd and they did one on Deep Purple "Machine Head." Initially, Deep Purple had three-and-a-half weeks to do an album, went to Switzerland and the Grand Hotel burned down and they had to move and then to a second place and then they had to move a third time but they did "Machine Head" in like 21 days. I was like, OK, if they can do eight songs I think on that record in 21 days, then we can do 10 in a month. We went down there, we all got into this room and wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered this record in a month and when we did "Make Some Noise," we did it in like three-and-one-half weeks and when we did "Burn It Down," it was in like three-and-a-half weeks or a month. Doing this record; we went on tour last year and everybody kind of got in a groove and fell into their place and as I said, it was like I'd never left. We got into the studio and we had ideas that we put into a Dropbox and then we got together as a band and go through everybody's ideas as a band and the one that everybody says, "Oh, that's cool" and we work on it, try to map it out, lay it down and then I go into another room by myself or with Marti and try to work out melodies or start hammering lyrics and it just came together really fast again. The crazy thing, I told you we did some jamming down in Muscle Shoals so we have some additional material and then there are a ton ideas in the Dropbox that we didn't even get to. So, we've probably got another two or three records of material that we can break out in the future. This band, for some weird reason, we get into a room, the four or five of us and we're all throwing ideas in and we're saying, instead of going to this chord try this one and it just works and it's fast. It's an odd thing because the first Union record was like a year or a year-and-a-half of just writing and then the Motley record was like a year-and-a-half or two years; the other record that became "Generation Swine" when Vince Neil came back, that was two years. So, it's just odd for me, pardon my ego, to literally be in a band that can produce something that's pretty kick ass in a relatively short period of time.I just feel really blessed at this point of my career to be involved with four or five other talented people, including Marti and be able to put together killer records in just a month; it's crazy."
"Light 'Em Up" is due to be released on September 6 while the band is currently out on the road overseas. So, to discover more about them, Corabi and the album, please visit https://thedeaddaisies.com/
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
