Here is the last part of the gigantic interview with Jack Starr. (In case you missed previous parts here are the links: part 1 — about Virgin Steele, part 2 — about the first phase of Burning Starr, part 3 — about Jack's blues albums and his return to metal in 2000's) This time we touched such topics as the latest Burning Starr record "Souls of the Innocent", reissue of the band's back catalogue on Global Rock Records, recent triumphant show in Greece and some other stuff.
You started recording “Souls of the Innocent” back in 2019. Were all the songs ready by that time? Ormwere you still writing them?
We were still writing and Ned also came up with some completed songs that were quite good, so we put those in as well.
The album sounds a bit darker and more epic to me. Were there certain events in your life or around you that caused this?
I think it was a reflection of having undergone the COVID crisis which cast a shadow over everyone and everything back then.
Your original plan was to record the album with Bart Gabriel as a producer and release the album via High Roller Records. What happened to these ideas? Why did you part ways with Bart?
I don’t really remember except we had some musical differences and we decided to stand our ground and make it true to the vision that we had for the album. Bart is a great producer and very knowledgeable but we felt it was time for Burning Starr to make its own statement.
How did you find Giles Lavery who manages your band now?
We found Giles when I was talking to Carl Canedy the drummer of the Rods, and he mentioned that Giles had started a new record label and it might be a good fit for me to call him as Burning Starr was no longer going to be with Limb Music. Also, I had done a guest guitar solo on a Heavy Metal band that Giles had been in eight years earlier, so there was a connection and we were happy to communicate again.
Why didn’t you stay with High Roller and signed a deal with Global Rock Records?
We wanted to try something different, even though High Roller is a great label. We wanted to try something new.
“I am the Sinner” lyrically reminds me of “Living in Sin” of Virgin Steele. Was it done on purpose?
No, it was not on purpose, but there are many songs dealing with the subject of sin in Heavy Metal music, such as “Sinner” by Judas Priest, and one of my favorite non-metal songs “It’s a Sin” by the Pet Shop Boys, which was covered by a German Heavy Metal guitar player named Axel Rudi Pell.
No instructions were given and we were happy with the results because it captured the spirit of the album beautifully. Unfortunately we could not use Ken Kelly because he passed away unexpectedly.
“Ships in the Night” has a lot of keyboards. Could you tell me more about this song, please? And who played keyboards in the studio?
This was a song that was written by Ned Meloni and it was his vision to have it sound orchestral and unlike anything Burning Starr had done previously. The keyboards were played by Kevin Burnes who did the programming to give it a symphonic sound and everyone was pleased with the results.
To me “Road to Hell” is one of your darkest and heaviest songs. How did you get this idea?
We wanted to make people aware of the struggle that exists between good and evil and it’s something that is not confined to one country or one people, but it’s a struggle that affects everyone of planet Earth.
What were you thinking about while writing these mammoth-heavy riffs?
I was thinking that I have a sacred duty as a songwriter to write the best quality and best played music that is in my ability to produce and I wanted “Stand Your Ground” to be better than the previous album, “Land of the Dead”, and it was a difficult goal to set, but I felt that I had to raise the bar. Ned and Kevin Burnes also shared my belief that the magic that existed on “Land of the Dead” was not by accident!
Is “Road to Hell” about certain people that you have met during your career?
No it’s not about any particular people but about how easy it is to fall in with bad people and bad habits, there is a saying in English, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions”.
Is it correct that “When Evil Calls” was written during the “Land of the Dead” album? Why did you decide to release it only now?
That is correct. What happened was we had some extra songs from the “Land of the Dead” album and we had some discussion with Bart Gabriel and everyone felt that the album “Land of the Dead” did not need that extra song and that perhaps it was too dark for that album. But I was very happy that the song finally was used on a proper Burning Starr release as it is one of my favorite songs and lyrically it has a very strong message that many people interpret as Christian Metal and the message cannot be any more clear, “When evil calls, I will not answer”. There is no ambivalence in that answer.
Alex Penza did really good job on the album. Let’s talk a bit about him. Did you consider some other people on this position?
Bart Gabriel knew we were looking for a singer, and he suggested Alex and said that even though he was much younger than we were, he understood classic Heavy Metal and had an uncanny ability to sing this genre of music as if he had lived during the 80s, instead of someone that was born in the late 90s. Alexx also coincidentally was a fan of Rhett Forester with whom I had recorded the album “Out of the Darkness”. So it was surprising but really not surprising that after we invited him in our band to be the new singer, a photograph surfaced of a very young Alex getting my autograph at a festival in Germany in 2014.
What convinced you that Alex was the right guy for this job?
Specifically we asked Alex to sing the title track “Souls of the Innocent” and Ned and I would listen to it and we would know by his performance on that song if he was going to be able to do a great job on the album. Ned and I were so pleased with his take on that song, that his “audition vocals” were actually used in the final product of "Souls of the Innocent”.
How was it to work with Alex during recording?
Ned took on the very difficult task of working on his pronunciation and making sure his vocals would be understood by the English speaking public. And this entailed hundreds of hours of Zoom calls between Ned and Alex, until Ned and myself were satisfied that his diction was understandable to average Heavy Metal fan.
He is relatively young. Did he write his vocal lines and melodies himself? Wasn’t he a bit shy to bring his own ideas?
No, the vocal melodies were already written, and Alex was okay with singing them the way they were written without interjecting too many changes. Yes, I’m sure it was a challenge and a daunting task for Alex to bring his ideas to the table knowing that the songs were already totally finished, and as good as his ideas may have been, we were already decided that the arrangements were going to be final.
Wasn’t it complicated to record the vocals remotely?
No, it was surprisingly easy and this is one of the great benefits of the electronic world we live in, it has broken down the barriers of geography and time, as we immersed ourselves in this new way of doing things, we didn’t even miss the face-to-face interaction in the real world and our new reality became our sole reality.
Ned Meloni is credited as a producer of “Souls of the Innocent”. What was his input behind working with Alexx Panza and his pronunciation and foreign accent?
Ned enjoyed the challenge of taking a raw talent like Alex and fine tuning his wonderful singing voice into what was needed in Burning Starr to follow the great vocals of Todd Michael Hall and Mike Terrelli. It was a challenge needless to say, but one that was gladly taken by Ned and Alex and a point of honor for all of us in Burning Starr to show that even with the departure of a great vocalist like Todd Michael Hall, we would still rise to the occasion with a new singer and create a great album that was just as valid and true to our goal and mission of creating World Class Heavy Metal.
As far as I’m aware, Ned writes a lot of lyrics. Is it easy for him?
Ned has a great gift for writing lyrics and has been influenced by a lot of the great Metal music from Dio and Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. He understands and strives to create lyrics that portray the heroism and gallantry of a long gone era and one that is admired by a new generation of Metal fans.
Do you pay attention to the lyrics and propose some themes to Ned?
Sometimes I do, and sometimes Ned is the one who is at the inception of a certain song or mood and we also brainstorm together sometimes to try and reach the fruition of these feelings and thoughts that stir deep within us. For instance, the song “All Out War”, was a reflection on if there were a World War III, it will be unlike any other war that mankind has experienced and it will be more devastating for everyone so this is something that we as artists must warn against, and that was the spirit of that song. It was what I would describe as a cautionary tale.
Last year Global Rock Records reissued your entire back catalogue which is really cool. But why did the label decide to split the songs of the Strider project between CDs 3 and 4?
I think it was done as a programming necessity to fit certain songs on certain CDs. I do feel that the Strider album is an overlooked album by many people including myself, simply because the album did not feature real drums and was the only one of all the other recordings that I have been a part of that used electronic drums, so a lot of fans dismissed it for that reason but it is a mistake because Strider contains some of the best guitar playing that I have ever done on any album, and I am very proud of it, as I am on all the albums that I have been a part of.
By the way, why did you ask to re-release “Under a Savage Sky” under the name “Burning Starr V”?
I did not want to use the Guardians of the Flame moniker for Burning Starr V because I felt it might mislead some fans into thinking it was the Virgin Steel album that I played on and this was something totally different so I was happy that Global Rock was willing to re-title the album as “Burning Starr V Under a Savage Sky”.
The box set also contains “From the Vaults”, a compilation of rare and unreleased stuff. Is it available separately? I guess many of your fans and collectors have all your full-length albums and would love to get only this item from the box set.
No, the only way to hear these unreleased rare tracks is by purchasing the box set.
Global Rock Records also released a 3 CDs best off/compilation. Did you pick the songs for this release? Or was it done by the label?
It was done by a collective decision of Ned Meloni, Giles Lavery and myself. Since there was quite an abundance of tracks to chose from we felt that the Burning Starr songs which represented best the kind of music that we are known for should be the ones that should be picked and we are very happy with the songs that were picked as we feel it is a very good cross section from back then and also moving forward into the future.
And what’s the point to buy this compilation for fans that alreadyhave all your albums?
Because this includes new digital mixes which were done by Kevin Burnes in his state-of-the-art recording studio and the tracks actually sound better than the originals, so for that reasonalone I would say it’s a good thing. Also, because after all when dealing with all things music, besides the writing and theperformance, the sound is the most important. Great songs are still not good with bad sound, and alot of advances were made in sound recording and mastering in the last decade and we wanted Burning Starr fans to be able to benefit from these changes.
Jack Starr and Kevin Burnes at the "Up the Hammers" festival
Picture by Cristina Alossi
Could you tell me a bit about your latest travel to Greece? I believe the show you played at the Up the Hammers festival was triumphant. But wasn’t that a bit exhausting to travel for such a long distance to play just a single gig?
Going to Greece was a wonderful experience for myself, Ned, Alex, Kevin and Rhino, as it enabled us to see firsthand the love and respect that our fans have for this music that we have been doing for the last four decades. It is a wonderful great feeling to play a festival half a world away and have thousands of people singing along with your music. And we saw that when we did songs like “Sands of Time” and “Don’t Say Goodbye Tonight”, and many others. This made the travel immensely worth it and we would do it again tomorrow.
Usually it is Marta Gabriel of Crystal Viper who plays rhythm guitars during your concerts in Europe, but this time that was Kevin Burnes, if I am not mistaken. Why didn’t you ask Marta to join you this time?
Well, we loved working with Marta, but we felt that since we had less communication with Bart it would be awkward to have her join us on stage and that is why we decided to ask Kevin. Plus the fact that Kevin knows all the Burning Starr material very intimately as he has worked tirelessly to bring these songs to life in his studio and through his expert playing.
I guess you always work on new songs. How it’s going right now? Does the new album take its shape already?
Right now we are working on a new album, which tentatively will be titled “Chasing the Ghost”.
Have you ever considered an idea of writing a memoir? I guess you’ve witnessed so much over decades so you could share a lot of stories about the early days of heavy metal in the USA.
I have considered it but it’s too early for me to do so because I am in full expansion mode and I am doing better and better and playing bigger places selling more records and making better sounding records, so I think maybe in five years, but not now. Also I am completing a Jack Starr solo album which is something I have not done since “Out of the Darkness” was released in 1984. So that is another reason why it would be much too early to sit back and reminisce about the wonderful career that I have had, considering that it’s still climbing and there are new fans coming into the fold every year and there are more great experiences to be had. But I would love to share some of the great experiences that I have had over the past four decades such as meeting guys in Metallica, Accept, and Ozzie, and also working with some very talented musicians like those famous ones that are on many of my albums. Also in my possible autobiography, I would discuss my Blues career and some of the wonderful Blues shows that I’ve done include the Woodstock Experience 2019 where I had the honor of playing with some of my childhood heroes from the original Woodstock.
I guess one of those stories which you could write about is your audition for Kiss. How did that happen and why didn’t you get the gig eventually? Weren’t you upset? By the way, what year was that?
It was around 1984, and I was not upset at all, because I realized it was not based on my guitar playing ability, but in the words that Gene Simmons said to me, “Jack you are not right for the part”, it was in that moment that I realized that Kiss was much more than a Rock band, but a theatrical act that had to have a certain look and Gene was right, I was not right for the part. The following week, they auditioned a friend of mine, who I thought was a great guitar player, and I thought looked great, as he looked like Randy Rhodes twin brother, (lead guitarist of the Metal band Cities) so when I found out they didn’t chose him either, it made me feel better and it was a confirmation that they were really casting for something that was more than a rock band. But without sounding bitter, I think that either one of us could have added immeasurably to Kiss and would’ve created another musical direction which they probably didn’t want anyway.
Are there some goals, plans or ideas which you’d like to achieve: playing your music with an orchestra and touring across the United States?
I would love to play some shows with a full orchestra but that is not high on my list of things to do, but I would actually like to play some shows with Burning Starr head lining some venues where great attention to the sound is made and also where we are able to put on a big production and put on a large light show with laser lights, big sounds, video projection screens and all the accoutrements of making a larger than life Rock show, so before I can think of playing with an orchestra, I first need to cross that bridge though we did come close in Greece, as the lights and sound were quite good.
So in closing, I want to thank all the Burning Starr fans throughout the World and thank them for their loyalty through the years, and know that as a band, we will always respect that loyalty by creating first rate albums and performances so that any music fan can know with certitude that Burning Starr albums and performances will always be of the highest quality. I want to say that Burning Starr will continue to make great music and respect the taste of our fans. Keep the Metal Burning ,
Jack Starr,
Florida 2024
Jack Starr Web Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment