The tanned tower of a drummer gives BW&BK/BraveWords.com the scoop. Is “old-school” a dirty word to Outloud? “I like dirty words,” says the cheeky skinsman. “Good old school! The name shined through a line in the lyrics to ‘Search For Truth’, where it says ‘.... And you’ll be cryin’ out loud...’ Tony (Kash, guitar) thought it sounded cool and we all agreed, since we wanted a simple name for the band and be far away from dragon slayers and mystical concepts. Outloud was perfect and suits more our era and genre. You know, thinking about originality, it’s very hard to achieve something unique musically nowadays, because in the past 30 years most of it has been done. With Outloud we wrote and played what we liked most. I’m sure you will find and hear similar elements you’ve heard before, we do too, but that happens in most bands. Why change a riff or beat when it fits? If we would leave out all these ‘similar’ heard before moments, what the fuck would it sound like in the end?”
Cross and Co. aren’t afraid to embrace the past, but as he made the distinction, “not being copy cats, but more showing respect to what they did. We were getting a bit tired with the cliché, so called, new concept bands. What happened to good old rock n roll? What happened to the fun times we had, what happened to all these beautiful girls and all our friends, man? That’s what we grew up with and in my opinion was deeply missing in the past years! These years were too dull and too serious for us! Dragons, speed, blood, hate and brutal outfits were never my cup of tea. I guess KISS and the Rocky Horror Picture Show had a big influence, but were also misunderstood! Outloud is a fun loving band and we wanna make sure that you’ll enjoy yourself hearing us with a smile on your face! A few weeks ago I had a couple of drinks with ‘Wild Mick’ Brown of DOKKEN at the pool bar in Crete and we were talking about this! He was right, don’t take everything too seriously, don’t drown in your daily problems, have fun and enjoy yourself as long as it lasts. We live in difficult times and we all need to smile… and have some fun!”
He’s right, the smile inducing rhythms are infectious. Rock You To Hell And Back Again is the soundtrack for convertible down, summer driving, yet still with ballsy guitars. “Absolutely! As I mentioned before, we wanted to have fun and man, believe me, simplicity rules. It felt very relaxing to do an album without the regular pressure and heat you normally get from your label or management: deadlines, and it’s gotta sound like this and that, and ‘You gotta top that previous album”, etc. We didn’t have a deal yet and set our times and terms. We kept the recordings simple and didn’t overproduce the album to make us sound like somebody we’re not, like so many other bands do. The secret lies in your abilities as a musician and performer, and I think we got that right. The album sound fresh, honest and relaxed and we were very lucky to find New York’s ‘Brightest Star,’ Chandler Mogel. His voice and performance is just amazing, I haven’t heard or seen anything like him in a long time!”
With the much publicized recruitment of Firewind guitarist Gus G into the OZZY OSBOURNE camp, people might think Outloud was a safety valve for Cross and Katsionis: uncertain of what would happen to their main gig, the two hatched a plan to pass the time. Nothing can be further from the truth. “No, not at all,” emphasized the drummer. The album was done before (Gus’ auditions). Fact is, Bob and I gave (Outloud) more attention since we knew that we won’t have too many shows with Firewind towards the end of 2009 and the press’ and fan response (to the album) has just been amazing! It would have been a pity to consider Outloud a simple side project and we made plans to bring it on the road. Firewind continues and remains our priority. We’ll enter the studio late September and will have our sixth release in 2010. In the meantime Gus will also be busy with Ozzy!”
So how was the album constructed? “There are the old ways and the new ways,” instructs Cross. “The old ways were being at rehearsals surrounded by your girlfriends and a bunch of six packs, before you got to serious writing and composing. The new ways are quite different. Everyone sits in front of his computer recording and writing his stuff which he later presents to his mates. In our case it was done both ways, Tony had a bunch of riffs and ideas he had worked out with Bob at his studio. Chandler was flown in from NY and added his vocals and Jason (Mercury, bass) and I were the last to fill the gap. We jammed, pre-produced and finally recorded it. And yes, the album has been done the old way and Tommy Hansen gave it the final polish with his mix and mastering.”
As he’s already intimated, there will be some downtime, after recording the next Firewind disc, what with Gus’ commitments, so what about live Outloud dates? Europe would seem a definite, especially with the rave album reviews. “Touring has become very difficult nowadays,” says the pragmatic drummer, “especially for new bands like us. Tremendous costs come our way and we can’t always play for free and owe thousand of dollars hoping to recoup from CD sales, merchandise, etc. We have a few shows planned towards Christmas, then spring 2010. Nothing official yet, but we will come your way (North America), that’s a promise!”
Can’t wait. In the meantime, check out their homepage: www.myspace.com/outloudtheband.
