wasn't what you were doing right, it was more of what you were doing wrong. I am actually more comfortable hearing what we can improve on than hearing everyone say Oh my God it's so great and things like that. I don't want to be surrounded by yes men who will tell me how great it is, and nothing bad. I know there's bad stuff out there(laughing). I hear my voice on the album and I'm happy with it, but I always picture someone that I've
put up on a pedestal like Robert Plant or Steven Tyler and thinking that they could kill that note so much better. It's good to be happy with what you have done, but think of ways to improve and be better next time. You can look a the successful people out there, regardless of what it is, and you see that they are successful because they don't let anyone work harder than they do. I always impress that on the guys in the band and there is a level of respect and trust and I think that's why we work so well together.
DDR: As I understand, your debut album was comprised of music that you guys have been playing for awhile. Can you tell me why you chose to record those songs instead of new material?
SS: First, that's an awesome
question, thank you. I think it was because of the way they were realized. Before we were signed to a label, we were very nickel and dime and we were not able to put the time or the money into recording these songs to get them to where we would perceive them to be a high level production. Alex ended up having to move back home to Columbus, OH for family reasons and he left the band for a bit. During that time, we brought in some session musicians to keep the thing going, which is actually when we got signed. We recorded the album with the session musicians and they brought some interesting ideas to it and pushed some of the songs in a heavier 70's direction, which we really liked. It just kind of turned out that those guys were not the right people for the band. A year or so later, we had the opportunity to bring Alex back and
we wanted to have the original band on the album, so we recorded the whole thing again. We used the changes that the session musicians suggested and we were able to make the songs the best they had ever been.
DDR: Your debut album were songs you cut your teeth on. Your old fans as well as your new fans coming on board are going to want to know