In a recent interview conducted by France’s Loud TV , Skid Row guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo and bassist Rachel Bolan at a recent stop on the band’s European tour. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On the direction of the band’s new material:
Snake: “We’ve been around for a long time. We started the band in 1986, so this is 32 years and everything always, it’s a cliché, but it’s true: Everything comes full circle. We started figuring out when we started the beginning of this trilogy that we were getting back to square one of why we started doing this in the first place. We found our original spirit again. It’s always been SKID ROW throughout our career, but everything sort of, seems to me anyway, comes full circle. Lyrically and musically and melodically — it just seems, I don’t know any other way to describe other than that it’s powerful. Everything is always from here [points to heart]. Not so much from here [points to head]. That’s been the basis of our band since we started it. We wanted to remain and always be true to who we are as individuals and as friends and as bandmembers. It’s really important that you maintain that integrity and character throughout your work. Something really gratifying where we’re at right now. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s something really, really gratifying and inspiring, too. It’s been a fun process. It’s been completely different, like Rachel had just said with gathering the material and writing the material, it’s been a different process and I think that’s fed a lot into pushing the process further and pushing ourselves further. It’s gratifying, is a way I would describe it.”
On whether new singer ZP Theart (DRAGONFORCE, TANK, I AM I) has been involved in the songwriting process:
Snake: “He’s been helping, for sure. He’s contributed some stuff so far, like Rachel said, in the past, it’s been the two of us in a room working and stuff like that. So, we’re opening up the doors, so to speak and he certainly given us input to the songs so far. And that’s only going to continue and grow. Once we get back home and we have some time where we’re not touring and stuff like that and we can get in a room and everyone starts throwing the ideas around and whatnot, it will be much more of a contribution. The short answer is yes, he has.”
On Theart:
Snake: “Such a great amount of positivity to the band.”
Rachel: “Great energy.”
Snake: “He’s very much about the band, not about himself. It’s like ‘Okay, what can we do? Not how can I make my star shine brighter? What can we do? The five of us?’ That’s really been important. That’s been our mantra our whole lives.”
Rachel: “That’s what a band is supposed to be about. About the band. As ZP joined the band and good stuff started happening for the band, touring-wise, just the attention and reception. Now, we have labels coming to us. And it’s a really, really good feeling. People that we’ve known from the past and people that we have relationships with are, like, ‘All right, what’s going on there? We want to get in on this.’ It’s a great feeling to have people in your corner and we’re looking really forward once we make the decision which label we go to. We can’t wait. We can’t wait to get this record going. It’s going to be great. We’re psyched.”
On the constant calls for the band to reunite with former vocalist Sebastian Bach:
Rachel: “The only one that can put pressure on ourselves, is ourselves. If someone wants to complain about it and someone wants to post horrible things about it, don’t f*cking listen to us, man. There’s so much more music out there to listen to if you’re not happy. You know what? Do something with your life. Go out and do something. We’re very happy and we’re creative and this is it, man. If people got a problem with it, that’s exactly what it is: It’s their problem.”
Snake: “At the end of the day, that’s what matters the most. You have to be happy with what you do. This is our lives. It’s not a job; it’s our lives. Every day you go out there, you lay your heart out there, you lay your soul out there. You have to be happy and be able to look in the mirror and be able to look around that stage and say, ‘I don’t want to be anywhere else but onstage with those four other guys.’ And that’s what we have. That wasn’t always the case. So, but now it is. That’s all that matters is right here and right now. I don’t want to be traveling around the world in a bus with people I can’t stand. What’s the point? I’ll go flip burgers if [that makes me] happy.”