Despite a career spanning well over 40 years, Robin McAuley shows no signs of slowing down! In fact, the ’20s might just be his busiest decade ever. At the very least, it’s a topic we touch upon in this new interview, which sees the veteran singer take us behind the scenes of his upcoming solo album, Soulbound. Armed with new producer/guitarist Aldo Lonobile, McAuley is back and heavier than ever, ready to rock the masses with loud guitars, anthemic choruses, and his signature powerhouse vocals. And as you’ll read below, Soulbound is merely the beginning of what’s bound to be an over the top 2025.
Greetings Robin and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Robin McAuley: I’m doing great! Thanks for having me on here.
Thank you for taking the time to come on! I started this webzine five years ago and we’ve been wanting you on from day one, so I’m happy the stars have finally aligned.
RM: Oh, dude! I’m always hanging around the house looking for something to do *laughs*. It’s a pleasure, and congratulations on five years. That’s awesome! Keepin’ it alive man, keepin’ it alive!
Thank you! In turn, I’d like to congratulate you because you are a few weeks away from a brand new solo album, Soulbound. How soon after the release of your last album, Alive, did ideas start coming together for this one?
RM: They try to do it every 12 to 18 months after the previous (album). We pretty much got into it around then. There was a couple of changes along the way. I had continued to work with Alessandro Del Vecchio, who was the inhouse guy at Frontiers Music. We had maybe 15-20 songs. We picked the 11 songs I was gonna work on. I demoed everything that I thought I’d like to work with for this album, sent it off to Alessandro, and then in the middle of all of that, he leaves the label.
I was introduced to the new current inhouse guy, Aldo Lonobile. Great guitar player, great bass player, great producer. We took a little bit of what we had and he made a few suggestions to put his stamp on it, bring some new songs in. So here we are with Soulbound. I’m real happy. It’s more gritty, more guitar-edged. I love my guitar player from Standing on the Edge and Alive, Andrea Seveso. He was on the first two records and now much more featured on Soulbound, and is more involved with the co-writing on about 2/3rds of the record. I wanted it to happen this way. He needs to be recognized. He’s a great player. I love his tone, love his melody, so here he is! I said all of that without taking a breath *laughs*.
Knowing you, I bet you could sing that without taking a breath too!
RM: No, I might gasp a little *laughs*.
You mentioned this is your first album with Aldo Lonobile at the production helm. What did he add to this release and can you see yourself collaborating with him again in the future?
RM: I absolutely hope so. Obviously, when you bring a new element in, you’re gonna get something different. That said, he was very familiar with what I did with Alive and Standing on the Edge. We discussed what to do on this one. I’m one of those guys who doesn’t like more of the same if I can help it. It’s always going to be in that classic rock vein because that’s what Frontiers asks of me. That’s kind of my bag, and I hate bags, especially old bags *laughs*!
So we discussed it and I wanted to keep this one a lot edgier. We also introduced a new drummer on this, Alfonso Mocerino, powerhouse drummer. Then, we brought in Antonio Agate. Although there’s not much keys on this, there is on “Soulbound”. I’m gonna get to that in a minute. And then Alessandro Mammola, awesome guitar player. So now we have new elements and Aldo himself played some additional guitars and bass on the record. Immediately, right there, we have new faces, new fingers on the fretboard, new tones, and it drives a lot better. We settled on the songs and I’m very happy.
Plus, an even more exciting thing for me, come April 25, 26, 27, it will be the Frontiers Rock Festival in Milan. I get to perform on the third day with this band that’s on the record. We’re looking at adding at least another 5, 6 shows throughout Italy into Spain. I’ll really get to hang with these guys. That’s just gonna be a blast, to do that finally and to bring those songs to life. I am out doing solo shows and I have different bands. I just came back from Sweden and I was backed up there by a band called Gathering of Kings. They’re all over YouTube, fantastic band.
We only had two 4 hour rehearsal periods before going onstage last Saturday in Sweden. Never met these guys before and they sound just like the record. I’m going, “Woah.” That gave me goosebumps and I go, “Damn.” They even took it up a notch, which is always great when you get onto the live stage and it’s got same wellie, as we say *laughs*. I’m blessed having been surrounded with great musicians and people who like to play the stuff. That’s important. Somebody who’s just coming along for the ride, you don’t get the same drive and the same input, but they’re actually enjoying it and that makes it worth happening. There you have it!
When I reviewed Alive, I noticed it being heavier than Standing on the Edge. This trend continues on Soulbound, especially on cuts like the title track, “Bloody, Bruised and Beautiful”, and “Born to Die”. What led to this focus towards heavier material and at what point did it occur to you this was the direction the album was heading in?
RM: I made that decision right from the onset. I loved where we took Alive. It was definitely a step up. Standing on the Edge was my first solo album with Frontiers. My God, this is the third, man. This is the third! I’ll digress for a second because I just finished the third with Black Swan, so six records on Frontiers. Woah! *laughs* I made that decision on the outset. I wanted it to be just more guitar-driven. It will always have the melody because I don’t know how to do it any different. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s what I do. I always like to keep the story with the song and try to keep some sort of cohesiveness. You’ll never get a concept album from me. I’m not that clever *laughs*.
In all of my discussions with Aldo, we were on the same page right from the get go. It was always going to be different than the two previous records and it was always going to have an edgier sound to it. A funny story, to digress again, when I was cutting the vocal tracks, I think it might’ve actually been “Bloody, Bruised and Beautiful”. We sent all the vocal tracks back to…I work with the same engineer, Andy Zuckerman, who did the same for Alive and Standing on the Edge. Andy is my go-to guy, has absolutely no idea what I’m going to sing when I go into the studio. The mic is always set up ready for me to go. He gets all the stems in and I go, “By the way, this is how it goes.” We map it out *laughs*, so he knows what I’m doing.
We send the song off and I had some little side notes. I went, “Dude, Aldo, I hate that drum machine, man. I hate it. It’s hard to sing with that drum machine.” He said, “What drum machine? There’s no drum machine on there.” I went, “Yeah, there is.” So he goes, “Ah, you know, the drum tracks are not finished, so I was triggering some of my samples just to make it easier for you!” I went, “It didn’t make it easier, dude. Take that sample outta there.” *laughs* When he stripped it all back and Alfonso came in, it was a different coat of paint completely. He goes, “Dude, you got good hearing!” I go, “You’d have to be deaf not to hear that trigger.” *laughs*
We had a lot of fun doing it. He knew I was listening and I knew he was listening *laughs*. Even though you’re working on the transfer of tracks, using technology at its best, you still get the job done. It’s not like it used to be in the old analog days. Everybody’s in the studio. “What are we gonna do, man?” Then you waste hours and hours and hours doodling around. “Spontaneity, man!” That’s all good. It’s great to be in a room with the other musicians. That happens with Black Swan. It doesn’t happen solo. Solo stuff is very lonely life. Everybody points the finger at you and goes, “Yeah, dude, yeah. That’s the best you can do?” *laughs* It’s a great process. It’s amazing how much we get done, considering they’re in Italy and I’m here. That’s the age we’re in for some time. I’m happy. If you’re happy, I’m happy, Joe.
Between three solo albums and an upcoming third Black Swan album, is it safe to say the ’20s are the busiest decade for Robin McAuley?
RM: I think you’d be right. It certainly wasn’t…there was no blueprint for it. It wasn’t something I went, “You know what? I’m just gonna take time out and come 2020, I might just start doing something again.” It wasn’t at all like that. Going back a bunch of years, my wife and I had twin boys in ’99. I took time out. I didn’t want to be on the road. Even at that point, classic rock was pretty much dead in the water. It was grunge, alternative. Nobody wanted to hear any of the rock stuff. I always liked to tell people we were like a bunch of grazing dinosaurs *laughs* just hovering around there on the hills in the fields, waiting our time. It’s like the old circle of life. It always comes back around.
It’s nice when it comes back around with a little difference to it. Then, the newer bands started to come out, and there’s some great new bands out. Music is for listening, and I listen to everything that’s available. I’m not tunnel-visioned. I like it that rock n’ roll is in good hands of some of these younger bands like Dirty Honey and Wolfmother. It’s great to see it. Last week in Sweden, I did a show with the great, and I’m gonna say the GREAT, Dino Jelusick. People who have not seen that band live are in for some serious ass kicking time. This kid is off the charts. He has an amazing voice in every range. I see it and I’m gobsmacked. My jaw’s dropping and I’m going, “Damn, this is just great to see and great to hear.”
Music’s in a great place. Rock n’ roll is very much alive and kicking, not to use a well overworked phrase, but it really is. That’s good to see and good to hear. And people like Joe Miller are the “Defenders of the Faith”. Without people like you, without blowing your trumpet, that’s what we need. We need more Joe Millers out there going, “It is alive.” Come to me and you’ll hear as much as you want to hear. I’m having a blast. It ain’t over ’til I say so, Joe *laughs*.
The one thing that remains constant throughout the course of this release are your vocals, which sound virtually untouched by time. What are your secrets to keeping your voice in such great shape and what advice do you have for aspiring rock and metal singers?
RM: Oh God. None of that is true. I just take great care of it. I just turned *muffles voice* 72. I’m not supposed to be singing like this, I suppose, or am I? I don’t know. I don’t tend to think of it at all, seriously. I stress myself out a lot about it because it’s like, shoot, here comes the show. I just rehearsed for 3 solid days and now it’s the showtime and I over-sang at rehearsals and I still have a show to go *laughs*, followed by another 5 after that, and I’m going, “Dude, you gotta just put the brakes on. Take it easy!”
The rehearsal room is just that. You don’t have to go in there and start blowing it like you’re onstage. It’s really just to give the band a measuring stick of where they are and the arrangements, but you forget what you’re doing it and you get totally into it. Before you know it, you’re like *laughs*. I take great care. When I’m not singing *zips lip*, quiet time. Whispering is really bad for singers. You tighten up your vocal muscles when you’re whispering. A lot of people don’t know that. Hydration is super, super important. If I put a cap on this and I put a thingy on this *pulls out mister*, vocal mists, I use them a lot. That’s the kind of stuff I do. Steam, lots of steam.
Stuff that you shouldn’t do? Alcohol, very constricting for the vocal cords, which is a great shame because I do love bourbon, but that doesn’t work when I’m singing, so when it comes to work, I don’t drink, period. If it’s a day, if it’s a night, if it’s 5 nights, if it’s a month, if it’s 6 months, then I’m off the shot glasses. Don’t touch it. That works for me. Other people I know, it’s quite the opposite. It’s like, “You go dude!” *laughs* I’ve never smoked in my life. That’s a factor for me. I can’t speak for other people. That worked for me. Smoky atmospheres doesn’t work for me, and all of that sort of…that’s all I do. That’s all I do.
Plenty of rest, I get as much rest as I can. Anybody that’s been on a tour bus, anybody that’s toured more than a day understands that the rigors of the road are hardest on the vocal cords. If you’re a guitar player, drummer, trumpet player, you have a cold, you’re gonna be miserable, but you can still go out and perform. Maybe not at your best, but if you have all of those things, and fatigue and not enough sleep as a singer, I don’t care how good you are, you need to know your way through the wood to make those changes that allows you to get that show done as best as you can because I’ve been a ticket buyer. I’ve gone to see shows and I’m going, “Oh, man. Really?!”
It’s disappointing. I think singers have a responsibility because you know the guys in the band, I’m sure. You look like a musician. It’s the guys behind you that are going, “Ugh, singers.” As they said in The Troggs back in the old days, “Singers, oi shit ’em!” *laughs* That’s what it is! If the singer goes down, I’m sorry, but the show goes down. There’s a lot of pressure on the dude standing up front. The better you are, the better the show is, the better the band is. Life is great. If the singer goes down, everybody is at his neck. I have a responsibility to at least try to always be on point. You asked, there you have it *laughs*.
As a ticket buyer myself, two shows I attended where I wasn’t disappointed were both times Michael Schenker Fest came through Chicago in the late ’10s. Both times were at Concord Music Hall and packed to the gills. Seeing you up there with Graham (Bonnet) and Gary (Barden) was incredible. Going back to the McAuley Schenker Group days, between Perfect Timing, Save Yourself, and MSG, which album is your favorite and why?
RM: Oh! I think when we…when Perfect Timing was finished, there was a lot of excitement around Perfect Timing. Something new from Michael! The label really were pushing us to sort of make a dent on American radio. They needed to hear the songs because now we’re out there. It may have been a day late and a penny short, if I’m to be very honest, but we were out there against the Leppards and the Whitesnakes and the Warrants. All of the stuff on the MTV and that’s really what they wanted. “We need daytime radio in the US”, which Michael had not really had. Maybe in the UFO days, for a little bit, but in the MSG stuff, not really.
Of course, MTV was new. VH1 was new. Rock radio was always with us here in the States, thank God, but if you didn’t have one or all of those, you didn’t get the tours. Nobody knew who the hell you were. It was very hard to promote all of that sort of stuff. That was the first thing. Perfect Timing came out the gate. We were disappointed with the production. We felt it lacked Michael’s guitar playing. Sonically, it didn’t sit with us too well. Sure, we got our MTV stuff and we made our first sort of indent, but we weren’t really excited about it. We thought, here comes Save Yourself, we’re gonna fix that.
Frank Filipetti was at the helm for production and we wanted to make sure that we could hear the great Michael Schenker’s guitar. We wanted to hear it. We wanted to have more of a cutting edge on it. Bringing those songs, albeit commercial, but give them that push. You can be commercial and not lose that drive on the bottom end. We were very happy with Save Yourself. The last MSG studio record, we had of course the late and the great, awesome James Kottak on drums, who was a great friend of mine, and Jeff Pilson, who during that whole period of time, was best man at my wedding.
I’ve known Jeff for that long, and I’ve been married 31 years to the same woman, so I’ve known Jeff half a lifetime, at least. It was a great record, the last MSG studio record. A little more polished maybe, so I would say of all 3, I’d personally go for…I think the songs on the last record were maybe a tinge better than they were on maybe Save Yourself, but I like the Save Yourself production better, if I was to make a choice.
Throughout Schenker Fest and a lot of the MSG shows, we’d open the show with “Save Yourself”. Once that iconic opening riff came in and Michael played it just note for note, you’re going, “Fuck man!” Then, you’re going, “Here we are! Now we’re up and running.” It was just a great feeling to hear that because people go, “Here it comes.” It was unmistakable. For a band that’s not in every front room, there are certain songs within the realm of MSG that are unmistakably MSG. I think we captured that on the Save Yourself record. And the cover artwork was really cool because I was totally responsible for all of it *laughs*! I’m just kidding!
“Save Yourself” has always been my favorite McAuley Schenker Group song, so when you guys did it on the second leg of the Michael Schenker Fest, I lost it. Another interesting point you make, and I’m glad you brought it up, is when people look back on the ’80s metal and hard rock scene, they tend to lump it all into one. In reality, when you joined Michael, it was a very different world than it was just a few years earlier, when you were in Grand Prix and Gary Barden was fronting MSG. A lot changed in the course of 4 or 5 years.
RM: Yeah, it really did. Again, when you had a label going, “We need the songs. We need the songs.” Since we’re on the subject, when we hit the last MSG record, the last one with James and Jeff on it, we had submitted that record to the record label. The A&R department came straight back and goes, “I don’t hear the radio hit. Where’s the radio hit?” I was like, “What are we supposed to do here? Write by numbers? That sort of stuff?” I was plucked out of the batch and I was put together with a keyboard player, Jesse Harms, who was Sammy Hagar’s keyboard player.
They went, “Jesse’s a great writer. He’s written all those hits for Eddie Money. He writes with Sammy. Go to Jesse and see what you come up with.” I’m going, “Why me? Send Michael over there!” I went with Jesse and he goes, “I don’t know what you want.” *laughs* “I don’t know what they want either! I guess they want “the power ballad”.” At the time, the power ballad was the thing that got your little in at radio. Why? Because it’s easier to play during the daytime, or whatever the protocol is. Anyway, out of that collaboration came “When I’m Gone”. It did great at radio, so they heard it and they went, “Yep, now we got it.”
Out came the record, and as the record came out, that whole downhill trend started to begin where classic rock was going out, in comes grunge, the whole Seattle scene. I always say, right or wrong, if you pick…I’m moving around the place. Then you go back to punk, when punk just obliterated everything, and every A&R guy wanted to sign a punk band. You had how many really notable…give me 5 punk bands that you can name that really stand out and you remember from the punk period. Move forward, the ’80s going into the early ’90s, with grunge. Give me 5 bands. I can think of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden. Nirvana is probably more alternative, and now I’m lost.
Alice in Chains?
RM: Alice in Chains, you’re right. I’m thinking I’m not gonna find 10. That’s for sure. I’m not gonna find 10. Give me the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, and I can go on all day. Those songs are with us today as fresh and as good and as memorable and as hooky as they were when they first came out. That’s the difference in the type of genre that I belong to than the type of genre that I don’t belong to. Do I dislike any of it? I do not. I love progression. I think that’s very important for the industry, very important for music, that we keep going forward, which is why I love these new bands.
They’re taking elements and they’re making it their own, moving into the next phase. That’s what it’s supposed to be like, because where else is it gonna come from? Look at The Stones. They always talked about Chicago blues as their big, big influence, so off they went, and they became The Rolling Stones, doing it their way. Clapton loved the Chicago blues, loved blues in general. Took it and made it his thing. Here we are with all of that great, great, great, great music today. Why? Because somebody set the tone. Even Pearl Jam were big Sabbath fans, big Zeppelin fans. It had to come from somewhere.
Now you get the flavor of the week and I have no idea where it comes from, but it didn’t come anywhere I know about *laughs*. I’m just saying! Honesty’s hard. It’s a hard bullet to bite down on. So they become the flavor of the week and they don’t stand the test of time. I can go back to what got me interested in music. It was Motown. Is Motown good to this day? Goddamn it, it’s the best. Can you remember it? Oh my God, all of those hits, all of those songs. That’s the kind of music, and when I say I listen to everything, that’s why I say that. You have to listen to it all to appreciate it.
We’re lucky. There’s such an enormous catalog of music out there. Don’t spoil the party. Listen to it all. You’ll be partying all night because there’s so much music to play *laughs*! Anyway, I know I’m moving around the place, but that’s how I feel about it. I feel very strongly about it. I’m just happy that I can still step up to a microphone, be it studio or live, and sing and write a song that somebody goes, “Dude, I think that’s cool.” I’m blessed. I’ll take it.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve taken away from your time with Michael Schenker?
RM: Oh, dude. A little bit of advertising: I will play the Monsters of Rock Cruise come March 10th through 15th. I’ll be on the MSG show with Michael, and I’ll promote him. He didn’t ask me to. He’s doing his 50 Years of UFO, and he will do a lot of shows in Europe with Erik Grönwall, since he left Skid Row. Erik will be his singer for that. I would love to have done that because I’m a huge UFO fan. Strangers in the Night is probably one of the best records ever made. Made in Chicago, sir! One of the best!
To stand onstage with Michael all of these years later, he is playing like a son of a bitch. How can you say he’s better than he was? He’s just better than he was. He’s very focused. He’s very detail oriented. He’s very, very particular about his tone, his sound. It’s awesome to watch him just going through his stuff. That guitar, it’s him. It’s a part of him. In the last year, Gibson, after all of these years, have finally come to the party and made him a signature Flying V, which they never did before because he lost his Gibsons. Then, he was with Dean guitars for many, many years with the late great Elliot Rubinson, whose birthday is coming up very soon. God rest his soul. Gibson put a cease and desist on the model Flying V. Now, they’ve been making Michael signature Flying Vs. He used it on our UK tour last time, on the festivals, Sweden Rock, Barcelona, and Hungary last year. It’s just…he smiles.
You can see that tone is back. It’s not that it ever went away, but it’s just great. He loves it. He loves playing. He’s an art unto himself. There’s so many people who look up to him and revere him and try to model themselves after him. You know, he plays fast. I don’t consider Michael a “shredder” by any stretch of the imagination, which is great because I don’t think he likes shredders. What he is is an awesome guitar player who loves melody. Yes, he can play really fast, but it’s the melody and the tone that comes out, and the memorable stuff that he leaves behind.
I think we timed it one night on Schenker Fest. I think the solo in “Rock Bottom” was about 17 minutes long *laughs*. And he could’ve kept going! I think it got longer because my shows with him last year were 2 hour long shows. That’s a lot of singing, so I was thinking, “Shoot, can you run that solo maybe 25 minutes and give me an extra break here?” *laughs* “Keep going! Keep going! 8 more bars!” *laughs* He’s playing great! The band is spectacular. The band is awesome. (Keyboardist) Steve Mann, Barend Courbois on bass, (drummer) Bodo Schopf, it’s a very, very tight unit, and very supportive of Michael’s playing.
It’s funny you say that about the set times. The first time Michael Schenker Fest played Chicago, I remember it was St. Patrick’s Day, and being that it this IS Chicago, I remember the band did an extended UFO set at the end. You guys must’ve been on for close to 4 hours. It was well over 3, I can tell you that.
RM: You know, had a great time, don’t remember a thing *laughs*. That’s very possible. Schenker Fest was definitely over 3 hours, no question about that. There was a lot of material to cover. When Schenker first stopped touring, now it’s back to the MSG segment, I was out there for most of that. Ronnie Romero came in. Ronnie wasn’t in for very long, and then I was asked to step back in. 2 full hour shows and no chit chat, so I was praying for those long songs *laughs*.
But there’s a lot of great material in there. And we didn’t even cover McAuley Schenker stuff, which is why promoters are now…I did Firefest Festival in Manchester in the UK in October, purely because the promoters were going, “We’ve seen all of these MSG shows and we don’t hear any of our favorite McAuley Schenker stuff. Do you want to come out and do some solo shows and only give us that stuff?” I went, “That would be kind of weird. I’d have to relearn everything.” *laughs* True! So I did and combined it with solo stuff and threw in one or two Black Swan things just for the hell of it. We even did some Grand Prix stuff when we went to Firefest. I contacted the Grand Prix guys and they made the guest appearance in my show. It was just awesome.
Now, I have a ton of shows coming up here in ’25, just on the back of that one show. Sweden, I’ve got about close to a dozen shows coming up in the UK in August. I have Germany, Sweden again, the Monsters of Rock Cruise with Michael. Then, I have the Frontiers Rock Festival and we will just segue into Spain and Italy for some more shows. It’s gonna be busy and people seem to want to hear it. Supply and demand, Joe. *laughs*
If the opportunity presented itself, could you see yourself doing one of these solo retrospective shows here in the States?
RM: That’s the plan. Somebody asked me that yesterday and my answer is really simple. The reason I can do Europe is I’ve had the calls from promoters requesting that I do that. The same thing has to happen for the States. There needs to be a promoter in Chicago that’ll go, “I just loved those songs. How come you don’t play them? Will you come to my club and play those songs?” If it’s logistically possible and we get the whole thing working together, I’ll be there in a heartbeat. If somebody in New York and somebody in Kentucky and yada yada puts a run together, I’d be all over it. It’d be an absolute blast. If it’s anything like I’ve got in Europe, it’ll sound just like the record, except a lot more powerful, in the now, in 2025. Absolutely, is the answer.
Go to work, Joe *laughs*. Go to work and tell people. Tell the promoters, absolutely. Call McAuley and just say, “Hey dude! Wanna come here to Chicago?” Chicago loves that stuff. We love Chicago. Let’s get that out of the way. Chicago has always been a great, great, great place for MSG to play, and there’s a reason for that. The audiences in Chicago are loud and awesome. A little Irish in there, which I particularly like *laughs*. It’s just great. It’s always a very high energy experience when we come to Chicago, so absolutely, we’d love to do it. I’ll probably never get to make a Strangers in the Night type of record, but I will go there with the intentions of *laughs*. That’ll be in my mind.
Being a Chicago guy, I’d be remiss if I finished this interview without asking about your time in Survivor. What events led up to you getting that gig? As a singer who tackled both the Dave Bickler and Jimi Jamison eras love, how do those two singers compare and contrast to you?
RM: That’s an awesome question. 1994 saw me free from the McAuley Schenker period. I was floating and John Kalodner that was over at Geffen Records, who signed Guns N’ Roses and everybody else, Aerosmith and all that sort of stuff. He had put the feelers out that reached the ears of Frankie Sullivan that it would be a great collaboration if we got together and see what we could come up with. John Kalodner’s own words were he thought that “Anytime” from the McAuley Schenker Group should’ve been a #1 record. That was his opinion. He would always say, “Eh, those guys over at Capitol, they messed that up!” *laughs* That is a true statement!
So I get a call from Frankie Sullivan. In actual fact, I got a call from Ricky Phillips first. Ricky Phillips was still with Bad English and Ricky goes, “Ha, that son of a bitch Frankie! I was supposed to be the one doing the writing.” I had recorded Elements of Friction with Ricky Phillips, that came out I think on Mausoleum Records or something. Obviously, I knew Ricky. I had a great time with Ricky. Frankie calls me and goes, “Hey, John Kalodner thinks that we should get together.” We started writing and wrote a whole record. Nobody wanted it because, once again, it’s ’94, and that whole transition is taking place from the grunge into the alternative. Nobody wanted that sort of “commercial” sounding classic rock. Nobody wanted it. We tried and nobody wanted it.
It sat for years. A Japanese label picked it up. I spoke to Frankie. He goes, “Eh, put it out as solo record.” It came out as a solo record for me called Business as Usual and was only on import from Japan. To answer your question more directly, during that time, Frankie goes, “You should join Survivor.” And I said to Frankie, “I should not join Survivor because Survivor is a pop band and I don’t want to be in a pop band.” That was the joke. He goes, “You’re wrong! It’s a rock band! It’s not a pop band!” I said, “Survivor’s a pop band. That’s all there is to it. Leave it at that. Goodbye.”
There was nothing more said about that, and there was all of this stuff going on between him and Jimi Jamison, God rest his soul, at the time. I said, “You go back to Jimi. Jimi’s the guy for you.” Those were great hits. “High on You”, “I Can’t Hold Back”, “The Search is Over”, “Burning Heart”, I could go on. I said, “You know, it’s established. They don’t want to hear me. They want to hear either Dave or Jimi. That’s established. That’s what it is. Stick with what works. If it works, don’t fix it. All of that stuff went on and it went silent.
A number of years passed. My wife and I had our twin boys in ’99 and now we’re up to 2006. Then, I started getting emails from Frankie. Now that’s a long time. So my wife would say, “Hey, did you ever answer those emails to Frankie?” I said, “No, I know what he wants.” *laughs* I don’t want to be pompous or anything like that because in the meantime, my boys were born. I’d actually happened to be in Japan and missed my son Jamie’s first steps. I was totally bummed. I came home and I went, “I’m getting out of this. I’m going away for a long time. I’m going to get a real job.” She goes, “This is your real job.” I said, “No, no. A real job with a real paycheck.” *laughs* “I’ll get a monthly check.” She goes, “But that’s not what you do.” “Well, it’s going to be what I do.”
I went back to college. I studied graphic arts. Got a job. I became a production artist for almost 16 years. I got a regular paycheck. I had all of the insurance coverage, medical for my kids. I was now a dad. I was very happy, and I went, “This is how it should be.” I was getting musicians here in L.A. who would go, “Dude, how did you do that, man? I wish I could do that because I can’t give myself away. I’m broke. I have no work coming in. How do you do this?” I’m getting all of these calls from all of these people going, “Oh man! You have like a real job, dude? Like sitting in an office?” “Yeah dude! I have people in the office.” *laughs*
Did I love it? No, of course I didn’t love it. But responsibilities rule the day and I’m a hardcore family man. Long story endless, I answered Frankie’s email and he said, “Are you ready now? Are you done with your day job?” In 2006, I flew into Chicago. I sang all the Survivor stuff over two days. Did I know it? Not really. I had time to listen to it because Marc Droubay, the drummer, came to my workplace, handed me a bunch of CDs, and said, “Learn this stuff.” That was it! Then, I’m in Chicago. I wasn’t auditioning. It was a foregone conclusion. He’s going to be the guy.
I come in and within a week, I get another call, “By the way, we’re playing a corn festival. Eddie Money’s on the bill and we’re on the bill. Can you be ready?” I’m going, “I don’t know these songs.” “You’ll be fine.” I walked up onstage for an entire Survivor set. I had all the lyrics up on the keyboards. Once I turned the page for every song and I saw the opening line, I felt, “That’s good! At least I know the opening line of the song!” *laughs* I had no idea because we hadn’t rehearsed endings or anything. No segues, nothing. I was flying by the seat of my pants and before you know it, I’m 5, 6 years in Survivor.
Dave’s material was just awesome. He was a grittier singer. “Poor Man’s Son”, I used to love singing “Poor Man’s Son”. “Take You on a Saturday”, all of that sort of stuff was just great. It was just great to listen to Dave’s singing. Jimi comes in, the golden voice. Very, very different. “The Search is Over”, “Burning Heart”, “High on You”, “I Can’t Hold Back”. Beautiful texture in his vocals, just great. The period ended, and then they brought both singers back in, Dave doing his, Jimi doing his. Unfortunately, it only lasted about a year before Jimi passed away.
The God’s honest truth is those were huge, huge shoes to fill. “Eye of the Tiger”, one of the most iconic songs period. I went, “I can’t do this.” As I told Frankie in the beginning, “I’m not the guy.”, but I came in and I did it. What I tried really hard to do was to keep the integrity of the Survivor catalog, so that when I sang it, I wasn’t necessarily doing my version. I sang it note for note, melody for melody, because that’s what I love. That’s what I know. That’s what people know. That’s what they need to hear. They don’t need to hear McAuley coming in and going, “I’m just gonna do my version of “The Search is Over”.” No you’re not.
I tried really hard to stay in my lane, as it were. It was wonderful. We didn’t work particularly hard. It was weekend warrior stuff. For me, I needed more. I needed more nitty gritty. I needed more rock n’ roll. That’s what I needed. It wasn’t anything spectacular when Jimi and Dave came back in. That fizzled out really fast also. And I went on to do more *laughs*. I have my own niches. I will fill in for Dave next week. We do some shows with a great event called Icons of Classic Rock.
Alex Ligertwood from Santana is in there. Johnny Edwards, who sang a little bit with Foreigner is there. Dave Evans, who was the original singer with AC/DC, is on the show. Paul Shortino from Rough Cutt and Quiet Riot is on the show. Stephanie Calvert, one of the background and lead vocals who sang with Starship for a bunch of years is there, and Dave Bickler. Sometimes when Dave’s not in, I come in and do the Survivor stuff. It’s a huge, huge production. We do a bunch of shows. I’ve done a bunch already with them, and I’ll do that next week because Dave’s wife is not feeling very good. We support each other. It’s great. You hand over the baton for a little bit, then it’s back to the racetrack.
The new Robin McAuley album, Soulbound, comes out Friday, February 28th on Frontiers Records. For more information on Robin McAuley, visit www.robinmcauley.com.
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