Robert Berry (3, Six by Six) Interview

In the annals of rock history, Robert Berry is forever known for filling the ginormous shoes of Greg Lake, performing alongside Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer in the prog rock supergroup 3 (Emerson, Berry & Palmer). Although the outfit was short lived, it set the trajectory for the rest of Berry’s career as an in-demand singer, songwriter, and producer. Recently, Berry has stepped out from behind the mixing board to yet again play in a prog power trio. This time around, he’s joined by Saga guitarist Ian Crichton and Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler in Six by Six. We sat down with Berry to discuss the formation of the supergroup, their plans for the future, and that time Keith Emerson got his motorcycle stolen.

Greetings Robert and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?

Robert Berry: I’m really good! You know, they used to call us (3) Emerson, Yank and Palmer because I was the only American in there. I liked it! It didn’t bother me at all *laughs*.

What have you been up to lately?

RB: Well I’m in California here. I’m just starting my day. It’s 10 AM. I have a session I’m mixing all day, a progressive band actually, which is sort of my roots. That said, I played with Sammy Hagar for a couple years. The hard rock part of me has always been there. I just happened to make my inroads in the progressive thing, working with Steve Howe and guys like that. But my heart, even though I’m not the guitar player in the bands, is in the guitar now. I’m having the time of my life. Let me tell you, this Ian Crichton…woah!

Absolutely! Last night I went to see Scorpions with my dad. They played this packed arena and everybody was singing along to every song. It got me thinking, leading up to this interview, that your era, whether it was Scorpions, 3, or so on, was all about big anthems and bring large groups of people together. And that’s very much the vibe I get listening to this Six by Six album. They’ve got the big choruses and big hooks. Could you give us some background on how the band came together? I imagine you go back with Ian and Nigel to the 80s.

RB: I played with Nigel in GTR, with Steve Howe. It was ’86, ’87 era. I was really impressed with not only him as a person, he was a really sweet guy, unless you make him mad of course, then you gotta watch out of course *laughs*, but he was a rock solid drummer who could play all the trilly stuff. I thought, “Wow, that’s interesting.” Now, coming from ’87 to 2022, you’ve had Cozy Powell in ELP. Cozy was a heavy hitter. Look at what that brought to ELP. That was strong. You had Alan White brought into Yes a long time ago, but he was a rock drummer. I love Bill Bruford, but Alan White really anchored that band. And there are a few others where that kind of drummer who’s capable of playing all that stuff, but lays it down like John Bonham, is where my heart is in drumming.

I should start at the beginning. Nigel was in on this a little bit. My manager in the UK said, “OK, so you say after the third 3 album, or the last 2 3.2 albums because Keith (Emerson) died, that it’s done.” I said, “Yeah, it’s a trilogy. There’s 3 albums. The band’s name is 3. Keith’s not around for me to do it anymore. I’m done with that. It has to be that place in time when he was alive and we worked together.” He goes, “What are you gonna do?” “I don’t know, but I’d love to find a guitar player with the genius of Keith Emerson.” “Who do you have in mind?” “I don’t know. He needs to make up parts like Steve Howe, but Steve Howe doesn’t have that heavy Van Halen tone that I love. He needs to be a virtuoso player, but have the sensibility of a Jeff Beck.”

He’s my favorite guitar player…or should I say “was”, because now I have this band with this guitar player who I’m his biggest fan. The manager calls me up the next day and says, “What about Ian Crichton?” I thought, “Wow.” I didn’t know Ian, but those Saga solos. When the guitar actually gets to come out of Saga, because they’re a keyboard band, that’s got everything I love: The tone, the style. You know when Ian’s playing. He’s unique. He’s one of those guys you go, “Is that Ian Crichton?” He’s got that thing, that plucking and clarity. Then he starts ripping something. I said, “Yeah, but would he be interested?” I never thought of that because I was stumped.

Nick (my manager) got his number. We talked. Ian happened to want to do a power trio. That was his dream. I of course had done trios most of my life with Emerson, Yank & Palmer. He sent me some bits of music: A little chord structure, a little riff. That’s what Keith Emerson used to do. This was just like when I was with Keith. Keith would send me those uniquely Emerson parts, and I’d make anthems out of them. I would make the songs. I’d glue it all together, write what was missing, and here I am with these great guitar parts going, “Wow, is this a gift from the heavens or what? Or from hell?” I wanted this to be heavy *laugh*!

I wrote a song out of it and sent it back to Ian. He calls me right away and goes, “Dude, this is magic. The arrangement chops of what you’ve done to it…this is exactly what I’m looking for.” I go, “This is exactly what I’M looking for!” He threw me 110% of what he does. I threw back at him 110% of what I do. It worked, without any compromise on either person’s part, which is really cool. That’s the way bands are in high school or junior high school, when you’re first growing up. You don’t know how to compromise. You just gotta do what you do. You can’t think about it. You just play. The good ones stick. The other ones fall by the wayside. This one had a bunch of good stuff and we knew what we wanted to do.

We wrote most of the songs and I think it was Ian who said, “We need a drummer.” *laughs* For sure! This feels like a real band, and it is a real band now, but until you get all the players, and all the players get along, and all the players have a common goal, you don’t really have a band. You have a project. We didn’t want a project. There’s so many of those. I get called every month, “Will you sing on this? Will you play on that? Everybody that’s died in the last 10 years has been in this band and we want…” I don’t want to be a part of that. I used to do a lot of that. I enjoyed it, but there’s just too much of it now. I like…well you saw Scorpions last night, right?

Yep.

RB: There’s a lot of guys left in that band. They’re happy to be there. They’re playing their life’s music. It just feels different than some band like Foreigner. I love Foreigner, but it’s like, “There’s Foreigner…with no original members!” They sound good *laughs*, but it’s not the same feeling that you got last night. So I said to Ian, “I think Nigel Glockler’s the guy for the job.” He goes, “Well, Saxon and Saga have played around together. I don’t really know him, but OK.” I called up Nigel and said, “You know Nigel, we’ve been friends a long time, but I gotta ask you something. What’s wrong?” “I got a new band with Ian Crichton. Wanna be our drummer?” “I’d be honored!”

It was just like that! We got along really well. He knows my musical qualifications and I know his, but personality wise we get along too. As you can see in some of these older bands now, Jon Anderson won’t sing with Yes or Steve Howe…whatever it is that’s going on there. Mötley Crüe gets mad at each other, then they get back together because they need money *laughs*. Who knows what it is?! We gave this a try and it felt organically right. I’m sorry I’m so giddy about this. I’m just really excited. This feels right. It’s a guitar-heavy band, and it’s gonna get heavier. If I didn’t think it was gonna get heavier, we wouldn’t be talking to you right now.

There’s stuff on this album that’s lighter and moody, has nothing to do with the hard rock or metal scene. But I’m finding that guys like you are noticing the hard and heavy parts, and you can deal with the lighter parts. It’s like a cracker in between sips of wine when you’re a winetaster *laughs*.

Yeah, there are a lot of heavy parts on here. It especially comes out when you guys are jamming. I get a strong early 70s vibe from those passages. They remind me of bands like Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel era Genesis, Kansas. And that chemistry is certainly there. I can hear it coming out of my headphones.

RB: Genesis? Deep Purple? You look pretty young, but you must be what…80 *laughs*?

I’m 23 and was raised right!

RB: You said you went last night with your dad. The coolest thing about that to me is that you guys have a connection in music, and there’s not a better connection in the world. My dad loved what I did, but he had a big band. It was Benny Goodman and Louie Bellson, all the horns. They were well known around here. But the divide happened before I was born with Elvis *laughs*. Once Elvis hit, they were like, “Where’s music going?” But they always supported me. When I got that first check when I was playing with Keith and Carl and I showed my dad, he went, “Wow! You’ve really done it here! You’ve made a living in music.”

He was so proud of it, but he still wasn’t embedded in it like you and your dad. He wouldn’t have gone to see Deep Purple with me *laughs*. Although he sold Vox guitars and amps, which is what The Beatles and Queen used. He was hip! But musically, what you have with your dad is a special deal. The nice thing about the kind of music you like too is…it’s sort of like dance music: Disco, hip hop, soul. It’s always gonna be here. Hard rock and heavy metal is always gonna be here. It’s not like today’s pop where…I’m getting off on a tangent here *laughs*.

*laughs* You know, I wasn’t even going to ask this, but you mentioned GTR and I have to. I feel like I asked Nigel about this last year, but how far was the band into a second GTR album and did any of those songs make it onto subsequent projects that you did?

RB: Carl Palmer had called me right here where we’re talking. I just had a local band, Hush. We did really well regionally. We won something called a Bammie, which is the big award in California. We had a little record contract, but it was done. I couldn’t do anything more with it. It just didn’t have that ingredient of the songwriting. Carl calls me and says, “John Kalodner of Geffen played me your tape. I’m looking to start a band or put somebody into Asia because John Wetton is having a problem.” I was really interested.

Carl and I tried for about 6 months. I went over to England and played with a few people. Nobody really worked with us. Then Steve Hackett left GTR, and the manager says, “Steve Howe likes your cassette tape. He’s wondering if you’d like to replace Steve Hackett?” I’m nobody. I’m just a guy thinking, “Wow, I might be getting my big break!” But there was no band, so I was a realist about it: I’m not IN something. So I got together with Steve one afternoon and he gave me a song. It was called “You’re to Blame”. He said, “Take this back and see what you can do with it. I’ll see you tomorrow.” What?! 24 hours to impress one of my heroes, Steve Howe?! Hush started as a progressive rock cover band. We played “Roundabout” and all that stuff.

I knew Steve Howe and I loved that I got to talk with him, let alone have to rewrite one of his songs. So I go back to my flat there and was up until 4 in the morning, dong what I think GTR should be: A guitar band. It’s called GTR. The first album sounds like synthesizers. I take it back to him the next day, circles under my eyes. I said, “This is too hard for me to play and sing.” He had an 8 track in his attic with all his beautiful guitars up there. “If you could record a couple tracks for me, I’ll put it together.” “Oh yeah, sure.” So he was my engineer, which still makes me smile.

I put down a rough guitar and said, “Steve, I’m not gonna worry if I make mistakes, if it’s clumsy. I just wanna show you the song.” So I do this really shitty version of the guitar and then I sing it, just a one through vocal. The singing was okay, but I had changed all the lyrics to be about, “I only have myself to blame. Not “You’re to Blame”. I’m gonna take on the responsibility.” Because the guy I had lunch with at his house the day before was a really sweet, caring guy. He wouldn’t blame you. I record it and he says, “Let me listen.” He sits back and he listens one time, quiet as can be. I’m shaking in my boots. He turns it off and goes, “No one has worked with me and co-written a song like this since Jon Anderson did “Roundabout”.” I say to myself, “I think that’s a good thing!”

So we start writing. We do a bunch, bring it to the band. The band hates the new American kid because he’s nobody and he’s the yank in GTR. Well it wasn’t everybody. Nigel was the new drummer. He told me he was shaking in his boots because of Steve Howe. I said, “Really Nigel?! You were so solid!” He goes, “I was scared to death working with Steve Howe.” The cool thing was Steve loved all the material. I loved the material. We really had something moving forward. And the singer (Max Bacon) really disliked me because my deal was if I give up the thing with Carl, I get to sing one song on the album, and of course I’m gonna sing a lot of harmonies. The singer wanted nothing to do with Mr. Yank from California.

This wasn’t my plan, but I stayed long enough. We recorded all the demos of the whole album. I was harassed so much. Even singing background vocals, Max would come and sing next to me, and he is a powerhouse. He’s so loud and I’m not that loud. He’s twice as loud as me in the same mic, obliterating my voice, which I get it. He was probably thinking, “Is this guy gonna take over?” That’s never my plan. I’m a team player, but I can see from his point of view. I certainly don’t hate Max at all, although I quit because of him.

I sent Steve a letter and the management a letter. You gotta remember, I was nobody in the music world, but I was at peace with what I wanted to achieve, who I was, and what I thought my capabilities were as long as I was a team member. I said, “I know there’s something better for me out there.” and I resigned. I had no idea what was better for me. I just know I had written an album. Arista Records OK’d the budget because they loved the songs. “Here you go. You don’t need me anymore.” The manager was really mad. I’m flying home in 3 days. The day before I leave he goes, “Keith Emerson wants to have lunch with you.”

That was the switch, but the whole album, I stayed to make sure the material was there. Max and Phil (Spalding) had written a song. Geoff Downes contributed a song, but the bulk of it was Steve and I. I used a couple songs on my Pilgrimage to a Point album. Steve actually put “You’re to Blame” out a year and a half ago on a collection of unreleased demos, the terrible version he sent me to start with. You can hear some of the riffs and some of the format of it. It’s kind of cool! I haven’t heard it since 1986.

That’s wild.

RB: That was a long story. I’m sorry *laughs*.

Hey man, that’s why we’re here! I just don’t wanna take up too much of your time. I could talk to you for hours!

RB: I go back when I think about it. Otherwise, I’m a guy that says, “What am I gonna do tomorrow?” That’s my whole thing. What am I gonna do tomorrow? What’s today’s plan? How am I gonna move forward? Influence my circle of…but then you ask me that and my mind goes, “Oh yeah.” Keith Emerson got his motorcycle stolen during lunch! I don’t know why I’m remembering that *laughs*.

Was it ever found?

RB: No. I don’t believe so. I think he bought a new one. It was a Norton, a beautiful English bike.

When you were writing for this album, did you do so knowing it was going to be specifically for Six by Six, or do you continuously write whether it be a solo album, side project, etc.?

RB: I get into what I’m into at the time. It’s a timestamp of my life too, when I’m involved in something. Who knew if Ian and I would get a record deal, if we’d continue writing? Who knew if every song I sent him would be, “Wow.” and not “You know, I can see we lost the thread here.” That didn’t happen. I got a bunch of new stuff from him that I’m starting to write. He just has the coolest things that he comes up with and then inspires me in a whole different way than I’ve been inspired before. We managed to write all the songs and become a band.

The funny thing was, one of our dreams was to be on InsideOut Records. They’re a Sony subsidiary; small, but big. They know how to treat artists. Either Nick, our manager, or Ian called Thomas (from InsideOut) and said, “We’ve got this new band.” He said, “I’m not signing anybody. I’m full.” “We’ll send you a song anyway.” He got the song and called back. “I want this band!” Just like that! We had multiple offers from record companies, but that solidified us in a way that we went, “We have something special here. Not only do we feel like a real band, but someone else says this is worthy of releasing and spending the money it takes to launch a new band.”

Are there any recurring themes, whether they be musically or lyrically, that steered you during the writing process?

RB: One of the funny things is when Ian sends me those little bits, he has a folder of the month and time he’s writing. This one, the name of the folder happened to be “James Bond”, and every song got a James Bond movie title. Therefore, when I got them I went, “What’s this? They’re all James Bond?” He sent me 3 or 4 at a time. “Skyfall” remained the title of that song because that’s about anxiety. The sky’s not falling. Even though you think it is, it’s not. Take a deep breath. Everything’s OK. Some other ones got changed. I won’t mention what they were now, but they were all Bond titles. I don’t know what the new ones are. There’s some weird ones. It’s funny. I can say, “What about “The Battle of a Lifetime”?” “Oh that was “Level 21″.” or whatever the folder said. He still remembers it as that *laughs*.

The theme for me is something positive. Even the song “China”, which I think is the heaviest song on there, is a wake-up call. Sure it’s negative against the Chinese government, but it’s positive for the Chinese people. The government is infiltrating. They’re trying to control, but they’re doing it silently. We should really pay attention to that. I don’t think anybody disagrees. I’m not being political when I say that. I’m just trying to state fact. I guess it’s political, but you know what I mean. I’m not taking sides. We should all not want China buying our farmland in the Midwest. We shouldn’t want it *laughs*. Anyways, the whole album is based on positive thoughts and trying to make a difference. What am I gonna do tomorrow to make a difference in that circle of influence that I have?

We talked a bit earlier about some of the jam sections scattered throughout. These specifically standout on cuts like “Reason to Feel Calm Again” and “Save the Night”. When it came to these passages, was there a general structure or did the band improvise?

RB: The structure was set up because those sections; even though the jams came from Ian, where they’re placed came from me. It’s like you have a piece of paper with numbers on it. You cut up all the numbers and you throw it on the floor. You go, “OK, so number 4 needs to come after number 1 because number 4 leads into number 7 which is 3 and that’s the verse.” It’s that kind of thing. It’s something I’ve done for a long time writing wise, even on my own songs. I call it flow writing. Whatever it is that comes out, whether it makes sense or not, it comes out, I put it down, and I look at it, verses, choruses, solos, whatever.

Round 2 is let’s make sure this makes sense now. Some of it is gobbledygook. Some of it just isn’t right. But round 2, I don’t finetune it to mean the exact, straight on point that it’s supposed to mean. Sometimes it fits, but it can be taken a few ways. Ian stopped me before I got to round 3. He said, “I really like the lyrics on this. They’re a little psychedelic.” “Really?” “Yeah, I get the meaning of the song, but it’s open.” I didn’t do round 3 on Six by Six, finetuning all the lyrics to mean exactly what I mean.

I enjoy listening to it now because on The Rules Have Changed, the first album I did with Keith after 27 years, which is the one he committed suicide in the middle of, the lyrics really changed. They came from a place inside of me. I was hurting a lot because here was my big chance to do an album with Keith again. That was all on point and needed to have that third round to look at it. This one didn’t need that. It was a good experience for me to stop at that point and let the lyrics take on a life of their own.

There’s also some very melodic songs on here, like “The Upside of Down”, which has that classic 80s prog feel of Asia or 3. For you, what are the biggest differences between progressive rock of the 70s and 80s?

RB: The 70s really wasn’t progressive rock in my mind. It was like an extension of The Beatles. It was creativity. The guys were young enough to not be hampered by the record companies saying, “We need a hit song.” They just did what they did. I know Genesis was a folk band. A lot of times the time signatures were like in country music because they were either not educated enough to know there needs to be 4 beats in a measure, or the words take 5 beats. Or 6 beats! Even in the old country music, you’ve got some of this weird timing. These guys were doing that according to song and recording what they wanted to do.

In the 80s, I think it got a little heavier and a little more…I hate to call it “pop”. It got a little straighter with Genesis and Yes as examples. Everybody needs to make a living and evidently, 18 minute songs weren’t the flavor of the day. When you’ve got Foreigner and Boston and everybody to compete with, some pretty heavy hitters. Mötley Crüe, Scorpions, they were all really big. People liked the 3 and a half minute song and I will say, today, country music is that. It is the 3 and a half minute song with the rock drums, rock guitars, pedal steel banjo, and a twangy vocal, but it still rocks. It’s obvious why the rock people like it.

The one thing I have a hard time with now with progressive rock is the seeing a spaceship on the album cover, burning dragons, all that stuff. I’m not really into that. I’m not into the lyrics that mean nothing or are…I don’t know *laughs*. I can’t define them. I prefer to hear, I don’t care if it’s a story or whatever, but I like to hear something real, even if it’s made up *laughs*. Right now, with the progressive rock stuff, it’s either a throwback to the 70s, which confuses me, or it’s the metal Dream Theater thing which, an 18 minute song that doesn’t repeat, is a little too much for me.

Don’t get me wrong. Jordan Rudess, I know him. He’s incredible. In fact, James LaBrie has recorded here before. But it’s just too much for me. I don’t want my brains beaten out all day long listening to it. Some of the heavier prog is a little over the top. I recorded a lot with a guy named Trent Gardner who had a band called Magellan. He was one of the early progressive metal guys. I did a lot with him. That was really cool to work on.

I know you asked me about the 70s and 80s, but it’s evolved in a way that I’m not quite sure. I think Six by Six wants to be a rock band with a little progressive in it. Rush did that. Rush was considered a rock band by a lot, but they had those progressive undertones. That’s more where we feel we lie, although we wanna be heavier than Rush because of the guitar parts that Ian does. He lays it down.

Are there any bands today, whether they be prog or otherwise, that you feel are setting the path for the next generation of aspiring artists and songwriters?

RB: I showed you my studio before we started. There’s a skylight up there and that’s about the only bit of daylight that I see *laughs*. I am so lucky. I’ll scan this for your pleasure *moves camera*. This is an old vintage rack, that’s an old vintage Neve console from 1974, the Moog, the Pro Tools stuff. There’s the keyboard Keith got me, called an Oasis. I love what I do and I do it Monday through Friday for everybody else. My day job is music.

I play a lot of instruments as you know. Most of my business is either mixing somebody’s album or they’ll bring me their song because they don’t have a band and I’ll work on it with them. We’ll get what they need. If it’s country, gospel, mariachi, progressive, hard rock. If it’s right, I love it. I’ve done all kinds of styles. What I do and what I love for myself is what 3 did with Keith and what Six by Six are doing with Ian and Nigel now. I don’t get exposed. I don’t buy records. I don’t listen to music because I’m in the eye of the storm everyday.

That said, the progressive band I’m mixing, who I started last week. They’ll bring me Porcupine Tree and Yes. They’ll say, “We like this sound.” Once in a while, a dad, like your dad, will bring the kid in and say, “My kid likes Scorpions, but he’s writing stuff that sounds like Donny Osmond. Do a track to this song he wrote.” And I’ll do a Scorpions track to it! You’ll sing it and the dad will go, “He got it. He knows what he needs to do to get on track with what he really wants to do.” I do a lot of that. It’s kind of funny.

I had an Indian lady this morning send me her daughter’s Billie Ellish kind of song. Everything’s out of tune and out of sync. I go, “She can come in and record it, but if you want her to learn something, we should at least do one song with the professional studio thing and let her learn from that. She needs to step up before she can do more.” That’s my life. That’s what I do. And then for pleasure, I get to work with Ian and Nigel. That is…I’m sorry, I don’t want to go on a vacation. I do because my wife’s a second grade teacher and she needs a vacation, but I don’t need a vacation *laughs*. I love what I do! I am blessed. I’m so lucky. So when someone says, “Give me your top 10 list of songs of your lifetime!” I just don’t think in those terms. To answer your question, I don’t know *laughs*.

When you formed 3 with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer, did you feel pressure knowing you were going to be held up to the standard of Greg Lake?

RB: I knew it was coming. How could it not? Greg had a bigger history than Emerson, Lake and Palmer. He was just incredible. I think my saving grace was I was a big Greg Lake fan. When Keith and I had that first lunch, I was nervous to meet him because I thought he’d be a mad professor like Einstein who spoke in equations. I’d seen him before and thought, “This guy has to be nuts!” He wasn’t. He was so down to earth and fun and joking.

What really put me at ease, after 2 hours of talking and having a great lunch he said, “If we start a band, I need to ask you one thing.” “OK, what?” “Would you mind playing a couple ELP songs if we go on tour?” “Of course not!” I’m thinking “Lucky Man”. No, that wasn’t it at all. We were playing “Rondo” and all the hard stuff. But it never bothered me because I was a Greg Lake fan. I knew I had that battle, and that’s only earned over time. It took 30 years for people to say, “You know that 3 album? I really like that album.” Back 30 years ago, they wouldn’t say that.

Emerson fans especially were so against Greg doing anything but ELP. I understood that. I started as a keyboard player. If Keith’s stuff wasn’t so hard to play, I probably would’ve been playing more Emerson stuff and not as much Greg Lake stuff *laughs*. It never worried me except for at that first lunch when I met Keith because I didn’t know what to expect.

That first 3 album, …To the Power of Three, has since become a cult classic within the prog community. If you had to choose a favorite song off of it, what would it be and why?

RB: I’ve said this only a couple times. It’s almost for selfish reasons. When Keith died, they did a tribute to him in L.A., 6 hours away. They had everybody there who were friends of his, but not one of them had a Top 10 album with Keith Emerson. I thought they’d call me and say, “We need you to come sing one of those songs.” There’s a song on there called “On My Way Home”. “On My Way Home” was written by Keith and I, but he wrote it for his manager who died, so I gave him the lyrics. I said, “I want you to have 100% writers on this.” This came from you. This is about Tony (Keith’s manager). Take it.

Well now that Keith is gone, I wish my name was on there because that song is about death. They didn’t invite me to sing it. It’s sort of self-serving for me to say this, I don’t mean to whine, but I thought, “Wow, there’s not a better song than “On My Way Home” to play at a tribute for Keith Emerson.” The other fact was that he and I were working on a new album in the middle of all this. That is really close to my heart. What has done the greatest good for me, what I love playing, and I did it on my 3.2 tour, which we did a few of them this year and 27 shows before COVID, is “Desde la vida”.

The cool thing is Carl lived in Spain or something like that a lot of the time. His wife and daughter were there. He thought of himself as a Spaniard, so he knew Spanish. He’s talking to me in Spanish and we’d have Spanish wine. He said, “They put the bug on the vine in Spain. They don’t use insecticides. It won’t give you a headache.” He knew all about it. It was so much fun to hang out with him. He was a very intelligent guy and a fantastic drummer. I said, “Carl, why don’t you help me write the lyrics to this “Desde la vida” thing?” Actually, it wasn’t called “Desde la vida” then. It was just a bunch of music we worked on.

I wanted to do something in Spanish. He said, “Well I don’t write words.” “That doesn’t matter. I do and you translate!” “I don’t know.” “What’s something in Spain you like?” “Well, when we drink, they call it the “blood of the bull”. Sangre de toro.” “Oh my God! *sings* Sangre de toro!” He looked at me. I go, “Drinking the wine!” Mixing Spanish and English, that has done so much for me in South America and Mexico. When I recorded a band called Los Tigres del Norte, who are considered the Mexican Beatles, they have 14 Grammys, so they’re huge…it’s nice to be involved because I don’t speak Spanish. Carl coached me every inch of the way *laughs*.

That’s an important song off that album because of the reach that it had. For me, that’s incredible that a song would do that. And now Six by Six wants to head to South America where Saga’s big. I believe Saxon’s big there too, but you know the heavy metal crowd. You guys are a bit rough on me *laughs*. I might be afraid to go back down there. I’m not sure *laughs*.

Saxon definitely has their crowd, which is a great segue into the last question. You’ve mentioned throughout this interview that Six by Six is 110% a band, not a project. Is there any chance of Six by Six doing live shows? If not a full blown tour, perhaps a one-off at a festival or Cruise to the Edge?

RB: That is the talk right now. It’s always been in the plans. It was my big idea, oh I’m so smart *laughs*. “Let’s keep this a secret until the first single is released. We’re not gonna tell anybody. Our wives and manager will know. That’s it. Then we’ll be a brand new band. We won’t use up anything.” Well that was great, except for day 1 when we came out, we had no history, no reach. We had nothing *laughs*. We wanted to get interviews, but there was only 1 song on a single. Nothing was out. People were really liking that song, and it’s still going. It’s got 120,000 views. The second single has 125,000 views. It’s quite a bit for a band who was unheard of 12 week ago because we kept it a secret, my big idea *laughs*.

It was weird to think, “We have to tour if we’re gonna be a real band, but we have no reason for anybody to book us because my big thing was to keep it a secret.” Right now, fortunately, it has really opened up in a big way. There’s a couple of trolls that got on the videos first and said they didn’t like the drums. I said, “Are you kidding me? Gimme a break. This guy’s a genius drummer.” But you could tell they were just doing that because that’s what they do. Or maybe they were Saxon fans who wanted to give Nigel a little pinch in the back. Other than 2, the reviews have been stunning.

Look, you tracked me down. You wanted to talk about this. It had to have been important. You must like the album, or you wouldn’t be bothered with it. I feel like people want us to do well. There’s something fresh in it and something retro in it all at the same time. And it’s a cool combination of 3 different countries, these guys that got together. I really feel people want us to do well, but come and see us play live. We needed to prove something first before an agency would come and get us booked. Now we’ve proven a little bit.

We still need to push through and sell more copies, of course. Get more streams. As much as I hate streams, that’s the name of the game. And do more things like speaking with you: A guy that obviously has a knowledge way deeper than his years. Did you ever go to school? Or did your dad say, “Here’s a box of records. That’s your school. Don’t come out of the room until you know everything about these guys!” *laughs*

Yeah I went to elementary school in my SPARE time *laughs*!

RB: Man, that is school, working with the guys I worked with. Their knowledge…they could’ve not gone past 8th grade or junior high or senior year of high school, but what they’ve learned through music touring around the world and everything is amazing. It’s the universal language, and you speak it well my friend!

Man, I appreciate that.

RB: I appreciate it! The more we get into the rock guys like you, I think the better we’re gonna be. I’m already pushing the next album in an even heavier vein. There’s also a graphic novel coming out! It’s coming out at the end of this month and it’s just about done. It’s funny. The last picture was roughed out by JC Diaz, the graphic artist who’s amazing. You go, “Wow, it looks like the real thing.” Well of course it does. Our album’s the real thing.”

I said to him, “You know, JC, I think the last page should be like a movie, to be continued.” He goes, “I love that!” “Here’s the lyrics to the first song off the second album. Let’s put “to be continued” and the lyrics. No pictures. No nothing, so people know.” There’s gonna be another graphic novel too because he’s committed to it. That’s a lot of work for him. 70 pages of drawing that have immense detail. I don’t know how he does it. That’s gonna be coming out, and if you like that type of Batman, Star Trek, Star Wars type of stuff, this guy’s the real deal. We’ve made a story out of all the songs. They run though the whole thing lyrically. It’s really cool!

Six by Six is available now on InsideOut Music. For more information on Six by Six, visit www.sixbysixband.com. For more information on Robert Berry, visit www.robertberry.com.