Groundwire Records and Groundwire Entertainment are the publishing armof Rock Voltage magazine, providing quality services to artists, consumers theEntertainment Industry. Groundwire Records and Groundwire Entertainmentis committed to fairness in business practices and supports protection of intellectual properties of artist. A division of Milestone Media Group, whichpublishes consumer magazines and expos, Groundwire Records is an independent record label and music marketing company that was created todiscover, develop, produce, and publish uniquely gied local artists and bands.Groundwire Records can be your company that takes care of your music business, allowing artists to concentrate on their creative aspirations and goals.Groundwire Entertainment is a companion company to Groundwire Recordsspecializing in concert promotions, bookings and artist management services. We also produce awide variety of marketing and image-building products designed to get bands the right identity andexposure.

Mid-Atlantic Rock Reviews has a mission to promote a positive imageof rock and roll and they work tirelessly to live up to their motto“Changing e World rough Rock And Roll”. MARR works withmultiple charities and organizations to promote a positive image ofrock and roll and to support their fellow man. Some of these efforts include selling MARR bracelets to benefit the Make-A-Wish Founda-tion, sponsoring a MARR Rocks for MDA Benefit concert and workingwith Voice of Warriors, Fallen Blue and supporting multiple othercharitable projects.As Mid-Atlantic Rock Reviews enters it’s third year, the founding couple has expanded coverage far beyond the Mid-Atlantic Region toliterally cover music all over the United States and beyond. MARR hasadded multiple contributors in the form of photographers and writerswho have helped expand their coverage of rock and roll and have apresence at live rock and roll shows and major festivals and rockcruises all over the United States. One of the trademarks of MARR isthat you will always find K-rock and Ms. MARR right there in the

trenches with the crowds at shows where they meet and greet their MARR Rock Army members whoare their readers and followers. eir unique way of covering music from a fans perspective surrounded by their followers and friends has legitimized their coverage by fans, bands promotersand record labels alike.

More information can be found on their Facebook page, Twitter and on their website at www.midatlanticrockreviews.com

M.A.R.R.’s founding coupleK-Rock and Ms. MARR

We are excited to launch Rock Voltage magazine online, a modern rock and roll magazine profiling local artists and venues in the mid-atlantic region and beyond.We cover the lifestyles of local, regional and national rock stars, plus emerging artists, and offerinsider tips on recording and breaking out in the music industry. Readers will also find music,concert and album reviews from our experts at Mid-Atlantic Rock Reviews, local journalistsand industry professionals. We will feature exclusive band interviews, contests, reader pollsand creative ways to interact with local artists. Rock Voltage was founded on the premise of educating and stimulating the local public about the musical talent that exists in our region.We also want to bring you the very best of a modern mixed-media experience: a familiar magazine reading format, available on your computer, laptop, tablet or mobile device anytime,and that instantly connects to music, videos and your favorite advertisers with a single click.

Who Are We?

What It’s All About...

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• When Embers Igni teINTERVIEWS

Pg. 16

• Chemical RedPg. 43

• Jason NewstedPg. 32

• Bloodline RiotPg. 46

• OtherwiseARTICLES

Pg. 8

• Rock AsylumPg. 14

• Becoming a RockstarPg. 20

• Rock the High Seas

• Hour HausPg. 64

• If It’s Too Loud...Pg. 27

Pg. 22

• Forever AutumnPg. 37

• LeftstrongerPg. 42

• Gorilla MusicPg. 61

• Matt Davis of 98 RockPg. 53

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• Regional Hot SpotsPg. 58

• Adam Ant

REVIEWS

Pg. 62

• VoivodPg. 29

• Concert Etiquette

FEATURES

Pg. 50

• Ms. Rock VoltagePg. 13

Publisher: Mona FreedmanEditor: Jay FreedmanLead Designer: Dallas AbramsonContributing Graphics:R C Lloyd

Art Direction: Jay Freedman

Contributing Writers: K-RockMs. MARRIvy WellsDavid SchroederDante MartinoBrian Hardaswick

Chris MaloneSade BrownJamesa SantiagoContributing Photographers:Glenn A. MillerRedhead LIVE! PhotographyMid-Atlantic Rock Reviews

Publisher’s Statement:Rock Voltage Magazine,Volume 1, Edition 1(c) 2013 Milestone Media Group, all rights reserved. No part of this publication, includ-ing images, may be reproduced, streamed,replicated, or downloaded for commercial useor re-publication of any kind without the written permission of the publisher. Singledownloads for personal enjoyment are permitted, as well as quotations, references,downloads and other reproductions for purposes of reviews or for promoting RockVoltage or its partners, featured artists, contributors or advertisers. All images and written material are used bypermission of the authors or owners, except

as indicated, who retain all rights. All linkedweb sites, videos and music and other files arethe property of the owners and we providelinks for informational and convenience usesonly. No warranty in offered or implied. Plus,we don’t even know if those links will work tomorrow. Let us know if you find dead links,we’ll be glad to correct them.All reviews, interviews and editorials are of-fered for education, entertainment and discussion purposes only. Views held in thosearticles are solely the opinions of the authors or interviewees, and not necessarilythose of Milestone Media Group.

Rock Voltage Staff:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Island-Bay-Day/112837648748

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It was a typically hot day in Las Vegas inOctober 2011. We were at the first 48Hours Festival seeing a parade of live

sets from one rock and roll giant aer an-other at this festival when we decided tohead to the main stage and catch the setfrom Otherwise, a band we knew nothingabout, except that they were playing intheir home town on this day. When Otherwise hit the stage we had an experi-ence that we have only had a few times incovering hundreds of bands. We (K-rockand Ms. MARR) immediately made eyecontact and I knew we were thinking thesame thing. Who are these guys, whyhaven’t we heard of them and why isn’tevery rock and roll station in this countryblasting the hell out of these tunes.

Little did we know at the time that as special as this show was to us it would be-come a bittersweet memory that the band Otherwise will never forget. On one hand,the show was a high point for the bandwho would present their demo CD to Jose Mangin of Sirius Octane who, as a result ofhearing this demo, would add Soldiers tothe regular rotation on the radio stationwhere it would eventually become a number 1 tune, the first ever from an un-signed band on Sirius Octane. Despitethe joy of 48 hours and the slingshot effectit had on their career, the band would soon experience their next low point when onHalloween they learned of the tragic loss ofdrum technician Ivan, cousin of lead singerAdrian Patrick and his brother lead guitarplayer Ryan Patrick.

Written by K-Rock

9

Still basking in the elation and celebrationof a bright future for Otherwise aer 48Hours Festival, no one could have knownthat their cousin and crew member hadshared the stage with the band for the verylast time before his passing two weeksaer this performance.

e roller coaster ride of highs and lowswould continue for Otherwise as the bandreached yet another high point in Decem-ber 2011 when they finally landed the

on their new album and I learned that oneof the amazing footnotes to the studio version of the song Soldiers is that theband used the backing tracks that theircousin Ivan recorded on the demo versionof Soldiers with Ivan’s voice in drummerCorky Gainsford’s garage on the actualstudio version of the album. As furthertribute to their cousin, Adrian wouldpoint out the title of the album True LoveNever Dies, was the tattoo Ivan had on

his neck. Adrian reflected “...So his voiceis out there in the universe and every timesomeone calls in and requests that songon the radio it keeps his spirit alive for us”.

In the year that followed the 48 HoursFestival we would see Otherwise performlive 9 times in 6 different states and watchthis band gather fans and

momentum at every show. Wewould learn that despite theemotional roller coaster ridethat fate has dealt them as musicians, they have createdone of the best album releases of2012 in “True Love Never Dies”and have maintained an exhaus-tive touring schedule. Other-wise’s live set will roll you overand has an energy you simplyhave to see to appreciate. Itmakes no difference whether

record deal they had worked so long for.e band signed with Century MediaRecords and would begin production oftheir debut studio album “True LoveNever Dies”. I spoke with lead singerAdrian Patrick last summer about the 48Hours show, and how it impacted them

Members of Otherwise pose with Ms. MARR & K-Rock

“ Fans are treated to the same amazing setregardless of the venue size.”

(Continued on page 10)

OTHERWISE: A YEAR OF TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY

they are in front of fans at venues thatrange from stadiums to intimate night-clubs. Fans are treated to the same amazingset regardless of the size of the venue. eband’s touring resume’ is impressive to saythe least. Otherwise has already become afixture at the mega-rock festivals playingthis year at mega-festivals such as Rock onthe Range, Carolina Rebellion, Rock Allegiance and Rocklahoma just to name afew. Not being settled with only thefestival environ-ment, the band hasbeen out on tourwith a regular who’swho of giants in therock world, closingout these types oftours late this yearwith dates with 3Doors Down andDaughtry.

One of the thingsthat impresses usthe most about Otherwise is thatdespite the fact thatthey play the big shows mentioned, theband fills their nights “off ” by playing atsome of the more intimate venues aroundthe country. e beauty about these inti-mate shows is that the band brings thesame “A” game set to the smaller clubs thatthey do to a stadium. e band embracesthese intimate performances as a chance tomeet their fans and does more than justoffer lip service to the concept. We havewitnessed the openness of these guys tohang out and get to meet their fans person-ally and provide the same excitement of the

oen premium priced “meet and greet”experiences that many bands of theircaliper charge admission to, simply bymaking themselves available to shakehands, sign souvenirs and pose for pic-tures. On occasion the band has even beenknown to bring a compressor and equip-ment to give fans temporary tattoos atshows featuring the bands logo, thePhoenix.

Musically there ismuch to love aboutthe band’s currentalbum. Die hardfans will recognizethat the band has ac-tually been releasingalbums since 1999,but “True LoveNever Dies” is thefirst release from theband since beingsigned. is albumis a “complete” solidrock album. It hasall the elements inall the categoriesyou want to hear in

a great rock album.

e songs fall into categories including the“in your face” hard driving rock tunes inthe form of tunes Full Circle and SilenceReigns. en there is a side of Otherwisethat at times fringes on progressive rock al-ternating between head banging riffs andcalming melodies within the same tune insongs like Lighthouse and Don’t Be Afraid.Of course, what legendary rock albumwould be complete without a rock anthem?Soldiers has that element to it and is a tunethat has the crowd singing the tune on the

Otherwise has already become afixture at the mega-rock festivals such asRock on the Range,Carolina Rebellion,Rock Allegiance andRocklahoma just to

name a few.

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walk back to the parking lot. No classicrock album is complete without a little debauchery and this one has that as well inthe form of Vegas Girl.

Despite all of these strong elements, thereis a sincerity and gut wrenching reality tothe set of songs that seem to be straightfrom the heart on “True Love Never Dies”that describe the agony and the ecstasy thathas been the storyline for this band’s pastyear of success and heartbreak in the formof the songs Crimson and Heaven. Both ofthese songs seem to have provided outletsfor the band to grieve the loss of theircousin and crew member and it is the emo-tion and power behind these songs thatseems to fuel the emotion and power thisband evokes on stage. ey are a band that

is swamped aer each performance withnew fans looking for T-shirts, CD’s andmost importantly, the chance to get toknow this band as we have. Otherwise isnot only a seriously talented rock and rollband, but a “fans band” who will hasclearly made it a mission to bond with theirfans.

As Otherwise continues to play in 2013,while we know the band will not ever for-get their losses, we’re hoping that the bandhas all tragedies behind them and that pos-itive karma follows them as they win fansover show aer show. You can rest assuredthat we will continue to follow them ontheir journey, listening to some great rockand roll all the way.

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http://www.facebook.com/showyoursoftside

http://www.midatlanticrockreviews.com

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ROCK & ROLL WITH A HEARTRock Voltage partner Mid-Atlantic RockReviews operates under the mission statement “Changing the world through rockand roll”. Each edition of Rock Voltage willhighlight rockers who are living up to thatmission statement.

New York City’s ZO2 is a band thathas had their hands in just aboutanything you can think of. eir

experiences range from being a touringrock band who has toured with the likes ofKISS and Poison, to having their own tele-vision show to the individual pursuits ofBrothers Paul and David Zablidowsky(Paulie and David Z) and drummer JoeyCassata. e trio formed the group “e Z

Brothers” to perform for kids while pursu-ing their dreams of becoming mega rockstars. In addition, David is well known forbeing the bass player in Trans-SiberianOrchestra and has toured with other greatartists such as Joan Jett. Paulie seems tohave no end to his musical/acting pursuitswhich even include his appearance in thelead role of the musical Europa. DrummerJoey Cassata has performed with the LasVegas version of the Blue Man Group.

Recently Paulie Z has taken his passion forworking to help children and found a wayto merge his passion for helping childrenget a better education with his passion formusic. He is the founder of Rock AsylumFoundation. e foundation’s mission

RockAsylum

Article written by: K-Rock

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reads as follows: The Rock Asylum Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that creates opportunities for elementaryage students to engage in learning theCommon Core Standards throughoriginal music, both recorded and live.These songs are being written to target academic areas that many children find challenging.Rock Asylum has created the modern dayequivalent of what those of us in our 40swill remember as “School House Rock”cartoons that taught us important educational lessons set to music. RockAsylum has re-invented this concept andcreated songs“based on statestandards andcountry-wide academic deficien-cies” (Rock Asylum Facebookpage). e bandfirst released themusic video “ScientificMethod” in April2012 which featured a hardrocking tune thatdescribes the stepsof the scientificmethod and starsZO2 performing inthe video along with students from NewYork School PS119.

Check out the Scientific Method videoon Youtube.com.Rock Asylum hopes to produce a series ofCD’s featuring similar songs designed tohelp students achieve in identified areaswhere students across the country may belacking in skills and provide these CDs

free of charge to schools. In addition theband has scheduled a series of concerts tobe performed in schools in New York Cityand looks to expand beyond the city to doa 5 concert tour.

For those who may look at rock stars witha skeptical eye wondering what kind ofrole models they make with elementaryschool kids, one need look no further thanRock Asylum Founder Paulie Z. Paulie hasbeen a musician who has debunked thestereotype of the heavy drinking, drugusing rock star and in reality Paulie him-self does not drink or use drugs and hasavoided those perils throughout his career

as a rocker.

I asked Paulie how hemanaged to stay clearof these pitfalls.Paulie responded “Istayed clear because Ihad great parentswho didn't do any ofthat stuff either. I alsochose to hang aroundpeople who were asclean as possible”. eorganization is onewe believe is a greatexample of a band inthe rock world“Changing the worldthrough rock androll.” Rock Asylum

has another big fundraising event inMarch in CT for which details are not yetavailable as the time of the release of thisarticle. To learn more about Rock Asylumor to donatez to the cause, you can go totheir web site at www.rockasylum.org ordonate at: http://www.rockasylum.org/donate/index.html.

These songsare beingwritten totarget

academicareas that

many childrenfind

challenging.

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Sometimes you can see a band play forthe first time and know within thefirst few minutes that you are going to

be a big fan. However, it’s not oen that onehas that same experience with a band whilewatching them perform their very first liveset as a band together. is was the case forme as I watched the first live performancefrom When Embers Ignite.

ere are really three things that jump outat you right away about When Embers Ig-nite, whether it is at a live show or on a stu-dio recording. First is the incredible vocalwork of lead singer and front womanTawni Lee. Tawni has a amazingly strongvoice perfectly suited for harmonic, heavyrock music. e second thing that stands

out about this band from Baltimore, MD isthe harmonies that grab you in all of theirtunes. It is always tough enough for bandsto belt out great harmonies on studiorecordings, but When Embers Ignite notonly does just that, but this band nailsthem at a live show as well.

e third thing that has grabbed my atten-tion has been their great song writing.While this is a band who just recently celebrated their one-year anniversary as aband, they have created some incrediblemusic already that has fans eagerly await-ing an album release in early 2013. RockVoltage’s K-rock had the chance to catch upwith lead singer Tawni Lee and talk aboutthe band and the upcoming album release.

Written by K-Rock

17When Embers Ignite performing live

Photo courtesy of Redhead LIVE! Photography

K-rock:How would you describe When Embers Ig-nite to fans who have not seen you before?

Tawni: I would describe us  as a careful andunique balance of mainstream rock andpost-hardcore with strong female lead vo-cals, solid harmonies, clean and thought-provoking lyrics, guitar lines that will bestuck in your head for days, strategicallyplaced but never overwhelming screamparts, and drums and bass that comple-ment and accentuate the song, all wrappedup in a big ball of adorable dorky energy.

K-rock: ere seems to be a lot of emotion in thelyrics to all of the songs. Are these songspersonal?

Tawni: Everyone in the band contributes to thewriting process, including the lyrics.  Sowhile I can’t necessarily say that all the

lyrics are personal to me, they’re meaning-ful to all of us and we put a lot of thoughtand care into them.  ey reflect a numberof situations we’ve each faced in our lives orhave witnessed in the lives of others.  Wehope that anyone listening to us will beable to relate to and appreciate that, as wellas the sincerity and the emotion in thelyrics.

K-rock: From the first time I saw you, I was im-pressed with the harmonies in the songs. Isthis something you hear a lot?

Tawni: We do get a lot of comments on our har-monies and it means a lot to us!  It’s some-thing we take a great deal of pride in and wepractice them repeatedly to make surethey’re as good as they can be.  It’s alsofunny that when we went into the studio,our producer wanted more harmonies thanwe had done before, so you’re likely to hearsome new ones on familiar songs.  We have

(Continued on page 18)

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a lot of work to do!

K-rock: Is it tougher breaking out as a femalefronted band, or is it no different?

Tawni:I don’t think it’s any different in this day

and age.  All original bands have to workequally hard to create our music, get it outthere, encourage the masses to listen to it,and hope to make enough money to sustainthe cycle for years to follow.  It’s undoubt-edly tough, but I don’t think gender makes itany more difficult.

K-rock: You have not been a band all that long. Howlong have you actually been playing to-gether and how is it that you guys have be-come so tight on stage so quickly?

Tawni: at’s right – we’re just about to hit the one-year anniversary of our very first show.Hard to believe!  As a total unit, w e’ve onlybeen together for about a year and a half.Before Josh and I joined the band, Drum-mer Mike, Mike D, and Bobby had beenworking on music for this project for about9 months, so they had some pretty solidideas in place when we got there and thatcertainly helped us get tighter live morequickly.  ose 3 guys had also played to-gether in bands before, so they had a famil-iarity with one another that created a solidfoundation.  Once Josh and I came in,adding our input was easy and seamless.  Ithink the fact that we’ve all been in success-ful local and regional bands definitely allows things to solidify faster.  Not to mention that we have some seriously talented dudes in the band!

K-rock: Is there a song that is a personal favorite ofyours on the EP?

Tawni: We’re hoping the EP will be comprised of 2-3 existing songs and 2-3 brand new tunes.So I don’t know how I’ll feel about the newsongs just yet!  Of the existing songs, mypersonal favorite is “Goodbye In Any Lan-guage,” the single we released about amonth ago.  I think it perfectly showcaseseverything that we do well: anthemic leadvocals, catchy guitar lines, killer harmonies,thoughtful lyrics, Josh’s epic screams, andthumping rhythm from Drummer Mikeand Bobby.  When we wrote it, it felt like wehad found “our” sound for the first time.But don’t get me wrong – I’m very excited about the other songs and can’t waitfor everyone to hear our second single.  It’scalled “Siren Song” and it turned out unbe-lievably awesome.

K-rock:What has been the high point of the pastyear for the band?

Tawni: ere have been so many: playing our firstshow to a packed Recher eatre, openingfor huge influences like e Letter Blackand Blameshi, sharing the stage with somany ridiculously good local bands here inBaltimore, and recording in a pro studiowith a producer who has worked with someof our favorite national acts, to name a few!We were super excited to release the firstsingle from the EP, and we’re definitely get-ting excited to release the second one hereshortly.  I think quite frankly we’re justthrilled to be writing the music we want toand seeing people react so positively to it.

Rock Voltage has been following When Embers Ignite throughout the course of their first year as they have explodedon to the regional music scene in Baltimore. We will be eagerly awaiting the release of their debut album in early 2013.

You can find the band on their Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/whenembersignite

http://www.mdparty.com

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Everyone has that moment. e mo-ment when you realize that music isyour life. You can’t live without it.

Any other career is not an option. Maybe ithappened during your first concert. Maybeit happened watching an artist perform onSaturday Night Live. Maybe you are justcompelled, for no explanation at all. Youwill be a Rock Star.

You start writing. You take instrument les-sons. You start putting the word out thatyou’re looking to form a band. You holdauditions and secure a garage or basementfor practicing. Finally, your hopeful band isnow a reality. You’re jamming, writing anddreaming of encores.

So now what?

I’m here to help you. I will get you startedon your yellow brick road to the Blizzard ofOz. I have been in the local music businessfor over 20 years. Heed my advice.

What do you call yourselves? Pay attentionhere, because this is very important. Beforeyou choose the perfect name that repre-

sents you in one, two or even three words,make sure you can register its domainname. Do not pick a name that’s alreadytaken. Do your research and then secure it.Choose what suits you, but please, I begyou, make sure you can pronounce it with-out stuttering. Choose simply and wiselyand have a story to support your choice.No one wants to hear that you chose thename because it sounded cool; that’s justlame. Be smart and back it up with history.One of the first questions asked of newbands is, “How did you pick your name?”Make sure your story is worth it. Peoplelove stories.

Now take a cattle prod and brand your-selves. Every musician I know is either anartist or knows someone who is. Enlist hisor her help in creating your logo. It needsto represent you and your music. Yourbrand is your band. You can even have adesign contest and accept submissions. Itshould be something that is instantly recognized. You can use a computer generated design or freehand. It’s up to youbut be careful. No $ or 69s. Really.

Written by Ivy Wells, Groundwire Entertainment

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Gigs…..how are you going to get gigs?You’re new, just starting and no one’s evenheard of you. No one cares……yet. Youcan’t get gigs on that smile of yours. Youneed a press kit. You need photos, postersand a decent website.

is is your band on paper and online. Youonly have one chance to make a first impression. Make it count. You need a fewphotos. Have a professional take them; notyour best bud with an iPhone. Image is ex-tremely important. What you wear in yourphoto-shoot represents who you are. Always dressfor the job youwant to have,not the job youcurrently have.What I meanby that is, dresslike rock stars.Be original.Stand out.ere arethousands ofblokes just likeyou; create animage uniqueto your band.

Helpful tip: Print your website address andQR code on the photo along with a phonenumber and band name. Not sure what aQR code is? Google it. ey are free andyou can get one in 5 minutes.

Next is your bio. Who are you? What doyou stand for? What kind of music do youwrite? Include a song list. Include covers.You have to play covers. I know most original bands don’t want to hear that; butit’s the nature of the beast. Create a storyfor yourselves. People love stories, remem-ber? Don’t just list the facts. Write how youmet and what music means to you. Write

about your experience, but keep it brief.We have become an information over-loaded society. Too much detail and peoplewill stop reading. Get a professional toprint your media kits. Glossy paper is amust.

Your website is extremely important. Makesure its mobile ready. We are an eyes downsociety living our lives through the threeinch screen we clutch in our hands . Yoursite needs just a few songs, videos, yourschedule, contact information and a placefor people to sign up for your email list and

texting reminderlist. Yes, texting isthe wave of thefuture. Alwaystext and email re-minders to yourgigs. is is justfor starters. Pho-tos are key. Takephotos of garagegigs; get all ofyour friends to-gether so it lookslike you have afollowing. Actionshots are a must

and so is video. Get a decent recording of amontage of your music. Originals and cov-ers. Get yourself into the studio and cut ademo. I know you already know this, but itbears repeating. You must have a Facebookpage, Twitter, Pinterest, You Tube Channeland MySpace. ese sites are the new wordof mouth. Use them to your advantage andcreate incentives for your fans to share in-formation. Buy them a drink at your gig forsharing and showing up. Get my dri?

Next issue - Getting the gig.

“Who are you?What do stand for?What kind of musicdo you write?...Create a story for

yourselves.”

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If you search the web right now, youwill find that in the past severalyears a new way to enhance theconcert experience is gaining momentum. The rock and roll cruiseconcept is becoming more andmore popular and has grown to thepoint where the rock cruise plannerscan now charter an entire cruiseship for their event. Rock Voltagereporters K-rock and Ms. MARRhave been out in the field, or shouldwe say on the ocean, for the past

several years, and have learned allabout these cruises first hand fromexperiences on the Vh1 Best CruiseEver, Monsters of Rock Cruise andShiprocked Cruise. In this article wegive you an overview of what the experience is like, some of the prosand cons of rock cruises, and somehelpful advice on what to do andwhat not to do to make your rockcruise the most memorable vacation of a lifetime.

Photograph courtesy of K-Rock

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The first thing you need to do is readcarefully about the cruise you arebooking and determine the band

lineup. For many cruisers we spoke withthe lineup will naturally make or break theexperience. In addition, some rock cruisesshare the boat with“regular cruisers” whomay or may not haveany idea that they aresharing the boat withrockers. For purposesof this article, we haveonly experienced thecruises which are fullychartered by the rockcruise events. To usthe most importantthing about the cruiseis who the artists are.Most rock cruises are“themed together”, featuring artists thatwill in general attract similar fans. In thecase of Monsters of Rock, the bands are all80’s Hairmetal era bands for the most part,whereas Shiprocked features a more mod-ern much heavier lineup and Legends ofRock Cruise features all classic rock bands.

Pick you genre and check the lineup.

ere is much debate among rock cruisersabout the importance of the number ofartists on the ship. While each artist mayplay 2 or even 3 times during the cruise on

some cruises, remember that themore artists there arethe more potentialfor overlap of performances whichmeans you may notsee every perform-ance on the cruise.Our take on this hasalways been prettysimple. We want tosee as many artists aspossible on the ship,even if it means someoverlap. e shipshave multiple venuesand the more artists

that are playing means more choices. emore choices, that we have, the happier weare. With a little planning on our part wecan decide who to see and at which venueon the ship to see them.

Imagine getting to see your favoriteband in a small venue right up close.Imagine next that as you are watching

you turn to your le and right and noticemembers of other great bands standingthere with you watching the show. Imaginewandering around the ship and having thechance to walk up to your favorite artistsand snap a picture, share a drink at the barwith them, play a round of miniature golf

or even join them on a excursion at one ofthe ports. No these aren’t dreams, they areall realities aboard the three rock cruiseswe’ve had the opportunity to experience.ese experiences are the reason that rockcruises are the only cruises for K-rock andMs. MARR of Mid-Atlantic Rock Reviews.So you want to share the dream do you?Well let us offer some guidance on how tomake that dream come true.

Which cruise do I pick?

23

Cruisers aboard the ships deck for a show

(Continued on page 24)

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The cost of the cruise can add upquickly if you don’t pay attention toa few things. Drinks can be a bit

pricey and if you let the drinks start flow-ing without periodically checking your bill,you might be surprised with your bar tab atthe end. Most Cruises offer drink packageswhere you can pre-purchase a number ofdrinks at a reduced rate. Buying the drinkpackage not only reduces the prices ofdrinks, but helps you to “budget” your con-sumption. Most cruise lines have a featurewhere you can monitor your bill from thetelevision in your room. We recommendchecking this daily.

Another cost that can add up quickly is cell

phone service. Call your provider beforeyou go to find out what the rates are to thevarious countries you’ll be traveling to.Rates in other countries can vary widely.We actually recommend turning off dataroaming as well. Also, check the time set-tings on your phone. If you plan to useyour phone as an alarm clock, you’ll needto turn off the automatic time update fea-ture or the time may not be accurate onyour phone.

Call your credit card company before youleave home and make sure they knowwhere you are traveling and the name ofthe cruise line so that they do not disableyour card assuming you have been the vic-

Protecting your savings account:

24

Some of you out there may be a littletimid about being out in internationalwaters with thousands of rockers. Let

us put that fear to rest. Yes, you will be surrounded by people covered in tattoosand piercings. No, you willnot stand out like a sorethumb if you are notdressed this way. I urge anyof you who would stereo-type these cruisers to spendsome time getting to knowthem the way we have andyou will find that the stereo-type of the typical “rock fan”covered in tattoos and pierc-ing being someone to keep an eye on isridiculous.

e behavior of the crowd on all threecruises we have covered has been amazing

and quite frankly, we have found the cruisers on the rock cruises to be more polite that the people we’ve encountered onnon-rock cruises and at other publicevents. ere is a sort of fraternity that

forms and a common bondamongst the cruisers thatseems to make people morewilling to be tolerant ofeach other, say please,thank you and excuse meand help each other out inneed. You may be skepticalat first, but we have seen itthree times now, and cruis-ers we spoke with have

confided that it is the people and thefriends they make on the ship that bringspeople from all over the world togetherthat makes these cruises the experience of alifetime.

The Experience: is it really what I think it is?

K-Rock, Ms. MARR and Geoff Tate

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• Even though you are surrounded bypeople sharing a common interest, youare still surrounded by many strangersas well. Use common sense precau-tions in deciding who you invite to yourroom, share personal information withetc. Travel with a group and take careof each other, especially if everyone isdrinking.

• Place your cash and credit cards in theroom safe when not at port. You won’tneed them on the ship. Everything ispaid for with your ship card issued atdebarkation.

• Bring sunblock. Even though it may becold where you are, the sun in thesouthern climates and tropics is verystrong.

• Pace yourself with drinking. You needto make sure you can navigate yourway around, especially while in a portcity in a different country. You don’twant to lose your way in a anothercountry and leave yourself vulnerable.

• Be mindful of the time while at port.Allow extra time for the return trip tothe port, especially of you have tocatch a cab or shuttle. If traveling toanother country, have a passport withyou just in case you miss the ship.

• Consider paying cash when possiblewhen in other countries. We have heardinstances of cruisers who chargeditems at port in foreign countries laterfinding credit card fraud on their accounts.

Common sense & safety advice:

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tim of fraud. We have witnessed this hap-pen to cruisers. Be careful to use goodjudgement about what you post on-line.Remember that when you post live fromthe Bahamas that you are telling the worldyour house is empty back in the States.

e cruises themselves can vary in pricebased on the cruise line, the number ofdays at sea and especially depending onyour room selection. A typical cruiser suchas a couple traveling together can plan onspending anywhere between $550 - $1500on average per person (based on samplingof Kid Rock Cruise, Monsters of Rock andShiprocked). e main two componentsdetermining price here are the type ofcabin and the number of cruisers in cabin.Interior rooms with no view cost less thana room with a view or a balcony. A cruiser

booking a room as a single will pay morethan those sharing cabins. Keep in mindyou will also likely need a hotel the nightbefore the cruise unless you live in closeproximity to the port of departure and thatyou will need some cash for tipping thedrivers and bag handlers who assist you.Tips on the cruise ship itself may or maynot be included. Check the fine print in thepricing for each individual cruise.

If you are spending your savings on thecruise, consider insurance that protects youin the event you need to cancel. No one ex-pects a death in the family or an auto acci-dent on the way to the cruise, but we haveseen both happen to folks. Don’t let a badsituation become worse if you have to cancel.

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• Do your homework and look at recent pic-tures of all of the artists. Consider printingtheir pictures so that you can discretely reference to help identify who people are asa cheat sheet.

• Look for the “Artist” badge. Almost all of theartists are wearing apass on their belt oron a lanyard that says“artist”. Don’t beafraid to just politelyask “Which band areyou in”? Rememberthey are just people.On rare occasions youmay meet some artistthat is full of them-selves and acts rude,but we have found thisto be the exception.Normally they simplytell you who they are.If they are rude or con-descending, our philosophy has beenthat we probablydidn’t want to meetthem anyway.

• Give them room tobreathe. Treat theartists like humans.Don’t approach them while they are eating,using the bathroom, trying to order foodetc. Some common courtesy goes a longway towards getting the photo you want.

• Have your camera set up, ready to go andwith you at all times. You never know whenthat sighting will occur. This advice applieswhile in port as well.

• Bring lots of extra photo batteries and memory cards. We also recommend

bringing a 6 outlet extension cord forcharging these itemsas there is normally only one outlet per cabin.

• Don’t rely on cruisescheduled “meet andgreet” sessions. Theseare usually mass meetand greet sessionswith hundreds of fanswhere the event pho-tographer will take avery quick photo ofyou with the band. Youwill likely not be al-lowed to take yourown picture or getitems signed. Theseevents are crowdedand bands may haveto leave before theconclusion of theevent. If you simply

must be a part of these events, considerbuying a VIP package for the cruise whichoften allows you to be in the front of theline.

Tips for meeting your favorite artists:

A cruiser chats with a Gator Guard

Ms. MARR, Gator Security & K-rock

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Contrary to what many people maythink, more and more people at-tending rock concerts have come to

the realization that even though it is fun tohear the great music with unprotected ears,there could be a cost to pay in the form ofhearing loss. I write this article with the fullunderstanding that I may not fit the profileof the typical concert attendee in the sensethat I oen attend multiple concerts withinthe same week. However if me protectingmy ears at a show makes me un-cool or tooold...call me a nerd and sign me up for asenior center.

e wake up call came for me aer a showwhere we stood in the second row, about 4feet from the speakers in a small club. I hadbeen used to the normal “ringing in theears” until the next morning, but this timeit was different. e ringing didn’t go awayfor a day or so and quite frankly it scaredthe daylights out of me. Music is mylife...what if I can’t hear it anymore?

From that day forward I have always wornear protection at a show and we actuallycarry extra ones with us that we have pur-chased to hand out to those we see obvi-ously struggling at shows. e typical scenewe see in a person that is struggling is that

they are standing near us, obviously tryingto cover their ears with their hands, and insome cases trying to remain cool lookingwhile doing so. e funny thing is the reac-tion people have when we offer them a setof earplugs. We don’t preach to folks. Wesimply hand the ear plugs to the strugglingperson. If they decline we walk away andsay nothing. We normally receive one oftwo reactions. Many folks gush with grati-tude, practically hugging us for the reliefwe have provided. e other reaction weget is a startled look of “who me?”. Somefolks have even seem offended by the offer.

ink about it this way. If the vast majorityof the artists on stage are wearing hearingprotection, shouldn’t you? Aren’t they stillcool? In 2009 the Milwaukee-

IF IT’SYOU’RE

TOO LOUDTOO OLD

Written by K-Rock

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Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reported on concert and noise induced hearing loss. As theywandered around the 2009 Summer Fest they reported thefollowing:

Fans who rocked out to No Doubton ursday night at the MarcusAmphitheater experienced 107.5decibels halfway back at thevenue. At 10 rows back at theEnglish hard rock band Whites-nake, we measured 105.4. Evenstanding outside the bleacherseats, Whitesnake still hoverednear 100 throughoutits set.

According to the National Institute ofHealth: e louderthe sound, theshorter the time period before NoiseInduced HearingLoss can occur.Sounds of less than75 decibels, evenaer long exposure,are unlikely to causehearing loss. Long orrepeated exposure tosounds at or above 85decibels can causehearing loss. Accord-ing to many experts,for 95 decibels, thelimit is four hoursper day. For 102 decibels it's an hour and ahalf.

Our goal here is not to recommend anyspecific type of hearing protection. We do

not possess the expertise tomake that recommendation.Our goal is simply to encour-age you to think about it.andwear something! For thosecurious, I personally wear aset of custom moldedearplugs from Radians thatlook like “silly putty” and fitto you ear, are quite comfort-able and really don’t distortthe sound of the music verymuch in my opinion.

Whatever you choose, wehope that protecting your ears

enables you toattend, enjoyand hear concerts wellinto yourGolden years aswe plan to do atMid-AtlanticRock Reviews.One finalthought: If youchoose to ignorethis advice wecompletely respect your decision although we willdisagree with it.However, if youbring a child to aconcert, weplead with you to

provide hearing protection designed for achild and protect their hearing. So crank u p the music, stand up front, scream at thetop of your lungs...but be smart. I don’twant to have to scream it to you.

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If you've never heard of (or heard) theFrench Canadianband VOIVOD,

imagine gene splic-ing the music of KingCrimson, Pink Floyd,e Dead Kennedys,Motorhead, and VanDer Graaf Generator,with the minds of Ri-dley Scott, Rod Ser-ling, StephenHawking, and H.G.Wells. You might getsomething similar to what VOIVOD cre-ates lyrically and musically. en again youmight get something that is so strange, it'sbetter off that you kill the experiment. Ifyou are new to VOIVOD and are willing toopen up your mind, you'll be in for oneamazing ride, but be prepared, because thisisn't you're "girls, drugs, cars & sex" kind ofband.

For those of you that have been fortunateand cool enough to follow this band's career from the beginning when they un-leashed "War and Pain" onto an unsuspect-ing world in 1984, you'll know that theband have evolved, mutated, and trans-formed over the years but somehow alwaysbeen able to be identified as VOIVOD.

VOIVOD’s latest release Target Earth takesyou back to the classic days of Dimension

Hatross, and Nothingface; yet, like these al-bums (and most ofVoivod’s catalog) it doesn't sound dated, orsound like a rehashedversion of a previousalbum. One of the mainreasons is that the origi-nal bass player, Jean-Yves"Blacky" eriault, isback in the band and hisplaying had a major im-pact on the unique soundof VOIVOD. Not taking

anything away from Eric Forrest or JasonNewsted who helped keep the VOIVODmachine running aer Blacky le theband; but, their sound and vibe was noth-ing like what eriault creates with his"Blower Bass". Also helping create TargetEarth are drummer/album artist (and onlymember who has been on every album)Michel "Away" Langevin who is still layingdown his tribal grooves and monstrouspatterns, and singer/lyricist Denis "Snake"Belanger who continues to take you mindinto uncharted territories with his brilliantwordcra and distinct vocals.

en there is the guitarist. For many fansof VOIVOD, when original guitarist Denis"Piggy" D'Amour passed away in 2005,from complications of colon cancer, they

TARGET EARTHAlbum review by David Schroeder

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VOIVOD

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thought there could be no one that couldfill his shoes, and VOIVOD would eventu-ally cease to exist once the band finishedusing all the music Piggy had created,amassed, recorded and le them on hiscomputer for future albums. In order toplay concerts and keep the spirit of Piggyalive the band tapped the shoulder of fel-low Canadian Dan "Chewy" Mongrainwho was the guitarist/singer for the techni-cal death metal band (for lack of a betterdescription) MARTYR. Mongrain grew upon VOIVOD and was very influenced byD'Amour's playing, and made the perfectreplacement to pay tribute while the bandtoured. A bond was formed and the four-some started writing new music that waswithout a doubt VOIVOD in every shapeand form.

Now that your history lesson has con-cluded, lets get into the masterpiece that isTarget Earth.

Note that these are just my interpretationsof the songs, and like most great art forms,each song could mean something else todifferent ears. I'll touch on a few of themand leave the rest for you to discover onyour own.

The album begins with the title track,and aer some sci fi sound effects,Blacky makes his presence known

with a killer bass groove and we're off onSnake's lyrical adventure of world destruc-tion via computer viruses, and hackingfrom a character who claims "I am the Goderaser / I am a planet killer". What a start,and the journey has only begun.

You're immediately drawn into the music;and, if you follow the lyrics it's easy to cre-ate images in you head as the stories un-fold. You also realize that Mongrainchannels the spirit of D'Amour's dissonant

chords, and time changes while adding hisown signature style to the sound of VOIVOD.

Next up is "Kluskap O'Kom", which aer abit of online research I found out Kluskapis from Indian folklore and was a sort oflike Prometheus ... a human with Godgiven powers. O'Kom is Dutch for "OhCome". e lyrics encapsulate Kluskap'sjourneys and adventures.

"Empathy for the Enemy" begins with anice acoustic guitar that changes into anelectric riff before the entire band blaststhrough and then slows down, speeds up,slows down... as the story of a soldier'sview on war and his enemy transpire.

e first single to come off Target Earthwas "Mechanical Mind" and it's great wayto introduce, or reintroduce yourself toVOIVOD. An awesome song that beginswith an interlude that reminds me of anouttake from RUSH's 2112 album beforethe song kicks in.

e pace slows down considerably and thedoomy "Warchaic" begins. From doom &gloom to swirling and building, which fitperfectly with Snake's vocals about the de-struction and reconstruction of the planet.

"Rise up, speak loud, move on, scream,shout, protest, about..." so begins "Resistance" and we're groovin' along. Ifyou don't find your head moving or yourfoot tapping, or entire body convulsing,you best check your pulse, because you'reprobably dead. Stand up and fight for whatyou believe in. "We may just crush them,like little ants..."

"Kalieidos" speeds though with riffs andleads that get your heart rate up and headreeling. Is this about a psychedelic trip orsome kind of interrogation tactics... ormaybe something completely different. I'lllet you decide.

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"Corps Etranger", is all sung in French. etitle means 'foreign body'. Feel free to bab-blefish the lyrics, I didn't... yet. But I sureenjoy the ride this song takes me on, evenwithout a clue of what is being communicated.

A reoccurring VOIVOD theme rears it'shead again with the extraterrestrial tale of"Artefact". is song just tears it up and getsyour blood pumping and heart pounding.

e final track (unless you purchased thelimited edition mediabook, box set, orJapanese edition which have 2 extra livetracks - the Japanese version having differ-ent songs than the other releases men-tioned) is "Defiance". Clocking in at arounda minute and a half it's like an epitaph forthe album with a final line that says exactlyhow I feel aer listening to this timelessmasterpiece: "knowing your life won't bethe same..."

roughout the entire album there's insanetime signature changes, stops and startswithin songs that allow you to catch yourbreath and then pummel you mercilessly asit takes off into another realm...basicallyeverything and anything you can image tokeep the album exciting, intriguing, andmind blowing. Because that's just whatVOIVOD does. Away and Blacky createdsome interesting spacey interlude piecesthat start off a handful of the songs on thealbum. e grooves are so incredibly ad-dictive that you'll find yourself playing thisalbum over and over and over again until itbecomes part of your DNA.

It might only be January, but I'll have ahard time finding another #1 album for2013, even with all the great bands that arereleasing material this year. Target Earthjust has everything that excites and electri-fies me about music. Brilliant musicianship

and insightful, genius lyrics with a uniquedelivery of both that has always madeVOIVOD stand out from so many otherbands. Oen imitated, never duplicated.

For those of you, like me, who are a bit"collector obsessive", there's plenty of waysto purchase this album:

• the regular ten track jewel case version;

• the limited edition 12 track mediabookthat contains live versions of "TargetEarth" and the Die Kreuzen tune "Manin the Trees" which also has guest vocalsby Dan Dubinski;

• the box set which contains the media-book release, the live at Roadburn 2011Festival (which was previously onlyavailable on vinyl), a VOIVOD belt, 3Target Earth postcards, and a black andwhite poster;

• the 12 track Japanese release which con-tains live versions of "Tribal Convic-tions" and "Nothingface";

• the double 12 inch black vinyl;

• the double 12 inch limited edition redvinyl;

• the double 12 inch limited edition bluevinyl;

• and there's a rumor of an orange vinyland a purple vinyl edition, but we'll haveto see about those;

• there's also a red, a blue, and a black 7inch single sided vinyl of the song "Me-chanical Mind" which has a cool etched'b-side' of Away's artwork.

So, the future looks very bright forVOIVOD, and who knows where they'lltransport us to next time? - RV

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Dante: What’s up man how are you?

Jason Newsted: I’m good man thanks.

Dante: ank you for doing the interview.

Jason Newsted: No problem at all.

Dante:I know it’s been awhile since this happened

but, first I want to congratulate you on theRock N Roll Hall Of Fame. It must feelgreat to be apart of that.

Jason Newsted: It’s pretty surreal, really. It was a greathonor and I tried to take it all but it waspretty over whelming to try to think aboutthat in any reasonable terms. e peopleyou are elbow to elbow with once you areput in that place, it’s quite a feather in thecap, and I don’t think I have fully fathomedit yet now that you mentioned it.

Interview with the Rock and Roll Hall of FamerFormer Metallica Bassist Jason Newsted interviewed,talks new band “NEWSTED” and new music “Metal”

Interview by Dante Martino

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Dante: How did your newband “Newsted”come about?

Jason Newsted:I have been jammingwith these guys for awhile, but I think itwas pretty muchLars’s fault. He calledme in October of2011 and asked meto come jam withthose guys for the30th anniversarything. I didn’t reallyknow what to expectI just knew I wasgoing to have a goodtime. I was lookingforward to seeing thefamily again. It’s thesame people thathave worked with Metallica fordecades, all the crewguys and everyone soit a pretty tight knit bunch.

I was just looking forward to seeing every-body. I went down to check it out. I startedto hang out with my people and the crowdstarted reacting to me being there and westarted playing on stage and it was justoverwhelming, the energy that they weredirecting toward me. And each day it justgot heavier and heavier. So yeah Lars,asked me to do it and the people took overand called me back. It really was that. at’swhy I am doing it now because I got such astrong feeling from the fans that night.

Dante:When did you decide to put“Newsted” together?

Jason Newsted: I started figuring out myoptions in December of2011. I started to ask myselfwhat I could do. Could I goplay with Flotsam, could Iput a super group together?I could go play with someguys I have some historywith. So I played someshows with “Flotsam AndJetsam” in early 2012 we gotthe original line up togetherand played “Doomsday Forthe Deceiver” for a coupleof different days. It was the30th reunion for the Flotsam guys as well and 25 years for the Doomsdayrecord, so it was an appropriate reunion for us.We just jammed it and hada good time. But I didn’t seeit for anything more thanwhat it was. So I started

putting together what I was going to do fora band. ese guys that I am with now, wehave been jamming for a few years. We gottogether, and I got on my iPad last year, Ithink it was in September and wrote allthese tracks.

We recorded 11 tracks so far in a coupleweeks time. I wrote all the songs on guitarand recorded all the tracks and had theseguys learn the songs for when we wouldrecord them for real. I played all of therhythm guitar on the record. All of thebass, some of the leads and all of the vocals.

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It was quite an undertaking, about 14 month’s time;Metallica said I need to take it to the peo-ple again. So that was it. It was because thepeople ask me to do it basically.

Dante:Live are you going to be playing guitar aswell?

Jason Newsted:Yes, mostly bass but I should be playingguitar as well and if everything falls together theway we wantit to, weshould beplaying as afour piece.

Dante: Do you haveany ideas whoyour guitarplayer isgoing to be?

JasonNewsted:I do have myperson chosen but I am not telling any-body yet.

Dante:When is the full length version of thisgoing to be released?

Jason Newsted:We have 11 songs, we are going to do 3E.P.’s and at the end of all that we will release the full album and that will be re-leased on vinyl and all other formats but inbetween the CD’s will be available 2 weeksaer the iTunes E.P. releases. So Jan 8thwas the Itunes release, preorders for theCD of the E.P. start on the 15th and the CDships on the 22nd and ultimately the full

CD will be out by the summer and will beout in all forms by the end of the year.

Dante:Do you have any tour plans yet?

Jason Newsted:ere is a lot of stuff on the table. erewas a lot of interest generated over the hol-idays. When everyone came back to workon the second of January everyone startedblowing the phone up. I’ll be going out toL.A. in the next week or so to meet with

everyone tofind out whatthe real dealis becausethere is al-ways a lot oftalk in thisbusiness. So Iwant to meetwith peopleto find outwhat’s goingon for real.ere are afew offersdomestic and

international festival stuff. ere are somecool mid size to big club gigs. I would liketo do some 4 or 500 seaters to bust the rustoff and sweat and stuff like that. And thereare some support slots with a few herobands. So all those things are being talkedabout. My quest has not changed from thetime I started in Flotsam And Jetsam, takethe music to whoever will listen to it any-where on the planet. Anywhere that ac-cepts our westernized music, I want to takeit to them. I have already played in between40 and 50 countries and I plan on playingin more than that. Anybody that will haveus, we will go and take care of business ifeverything works out.

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Dante:How would you describe “Newsted”“Metal” compared to everything else youhave done? Are these songs from a differ-ent place compared to Flotsam, Voivod,Metallica, Echo Brain and Papa Wheelie?

Jason Newsted:Yeah, this is quite a bite different in a lot ofways. I have been out of the serious per-formance business since 2006; I did theRock Star Super Nova thing. A little bitewith Ozzy and Voivod surrounding that.at was the last time I was out amongstthe people besides for a few Papa Wheelieclub shows. at part is going to be differ-ent, going out and assuming new rules asthe lead vocalist, bass player and guitarplayer as well. ese are things I’ve neverdone. I have done it with Papa Wheelie butthat was just improvisational, sloppy, slabsof metal that doesn’t have to be too precise.In this band it’s a little more serious. I didconstruct all the songs myself, I am puttingmy name on it and I am singing lead vocalon the recordings too. So it’s a lot of newsteps. With all those things in mind this isa pretty fresh approach to things. I reallyhave to be on my toes. I have to work a lotharder and I have to remember a lot more.It’s a lot more to take on personally as faras performer goesfor sure. I am readyfor it and I am a littlescared. I would say Iam excitedly scared.

Dante: Since you mentionedOzzy, I wanted toadd that was prettycool seeing you atOzzfest playing withhim.

Jason Newsted:Yeah that was my third dream come true. Igot to play with Metallica, Voivod andOzzy and I am working on my fourthdream right now man.

Dante:I have an off topic question for you if youdon’t mind?

Jason Newsted:Go for it?

Dante:Was that Rock Star Super Nova thingfixed? Because it sure as hell looked fixed? Iremember watching the first show with mywife and we picked the winner from dayone.

Jason Newsted:No, not as far as I was concerned. I knowwhere my vote was. I know how honest Iwas about everything and I know who Iwanted to win. I put in my vote like I wascommitted to at the beginning when Isigned the contract with those people. Isaid I was going to do this and this andthis, for this much money and that’s what Idid. I never agreed to do the tour or any-thing like that. I fulfilled what I said Iwould fulfill. It was a way to Hollywood for

me, bro. I learned a lotfrom the experience,that’s for sure. emoney was incredibleand the actual time thatTommy Lee and I got tohit as a rhythm sectionwas killer. We only prac-ticed about 4 or 5 timesbut it was killer and I hada lot of fun with it. Whenit gets down to making

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the volume I am all about it, but the rest ofthe things that surrounded it, and everyonegets so distracted with all of their Holly-wood bull shit, that’s just not for me man.at is the opposite of what I want to do. Ifwe are not going to plug in and make noiseI would rather not be there. You have to letthe music do the talking and everythingelse flows from that. Not the other wayaround. Just because you wish it’s going tobe great does not mean it’s going to.To put three guys ina room frombands that didok and say“We’re not ask-ing for much,just give us thenext Stairway“ iscrazy, and theywere serous. eywanted a Bad Company or LedZeppelin song thatwas going to sellmillions of copies.at’s how cluelessthe T.V. guys were. Itwas a weird experi-ence but I’m glad I didit because it made mebetter.

Dante:How does it feel to havebeen in a band that mentso much to so many people?

Jason Newsted:I really didn’t know. Looking back its goodto know I have made more people smilethan frown. Just now, these last 5 or 6weeks. Aer getting a handle on socialmedia and talking to people from all corners of the globe, parts I have not

played yet, but the music still reachedthere. It’s a pretty big deal and I am justnow figuring out what you’re talking about.I am just now fathoming, the seeds that Ihave planted by giving people the time ofday while touring around the world is nowcoming back to me with this beautiful fruitthat I just did not know would be there. Iknow Metallica ment a lot to people be-

cause they meant a lot tome before I joined thembut when you are in it, it ishard to stand back from itand see what’s going on.It’s kind of awkward. Iam able to reflect nowthrough people wordsand expression andtheir positive energy.

Dante:Is there anything youwant to say to yourfans before we wrapthis up?

Jason Newsted:I just want every-body to realizethe truth of this.I was inspired allthe way throughto come back

again by that feeling, I tastedthat feeling again, and I want to thankeveryone for helping me realize it was ok tocome back with new music. It feels reallygood because I am doing it for everybodyand because I want to do it. And it hasnothing to do with anything other thanthat. And just so there is no confusion, it’s“Newsted”, it’s “Metal”, so you know whatyou are going to get.–RV

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The title of the post is much more than just that. It is ourmission statement here at Mid-Atlantic Rock Reviews. Wewould like to take credit for the wording, but that credit

goes to Dawn Botti from the band New Day Dawn who droppedthe phrase on us as we were having a conversation one night, andit was obvious to both Ms. MARR and I that this simple statementso perfectly describes why we do what we do.

CHANGING THE WORLDTHROUGH ROCK & ROLLMore Than Just a Mission Statement

Written by K-Rock

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In the past two years we have had thehonor of covering live music all overthe country and we have seen bands

demonstrating time and time again that therock and roll community consists of themost caring, giving, thoughtful and awarepeople this world has to offer. On Decemver 22, 2012, we had the honorand privilege of covering the Forever Au-tumn memorial event at the TLA inPhiladelphia, PA. For those who may notknow the story, Autumn was a beautifulchild and family member of the band eElectric Boa who’s life was senselessly takenfor no good reason. Autumn’s untimelydeath le not only her family asking “why”,but le her family and extended family inthe band e Electric Boa, e Philadel-phia rock music scene, and the world whowatched this story unfold acrossglobal media, asking the same question - “Why”?Quite simply there is no answer thatwe know of that can explain Autumn’s loss. What we do know isthat while we may not be able to an-swer why, we are le trying to figureout what we can do to ease the painof Autumn’s death for those who loved her,and seek to find ways to bring peace andhealing to those le to mourn her. While nothing can bring Autumn back,guitar player Joe Fortino of e ElectricBoa managed to find a way to honor Autumn that simply blew us away. Joe organized the “Forever Autumn” memorialevent which featured 12 bands fromPhiladelphia and beyond who came together to celebrate the life of Autumnand to help each other heal. e effort that Joe put into organizing suchan event is deserving of more recognition

that we could ever begin to bestow uponhim. is was a top notch event with incredible bands and auction items from allfacets of the community including memorabilia from national artists, collectibles, and donations and even somegis that honored Autumn by featuringsome of her favorite things in life such as aBMX bike and her favorite candy. We want to publicly recognize Joe and eElectric Boa for putting on a show that wasa tribute to Autumn. I hope that thisincredible event provided some measure of

healing to those suffering this loss. For usthe show demonstrated something aboutthe rock and roll scene in Philadelphia aswell. e musicians who performed at thisevent were amazing talents. Even moreimportant, we were so impressed to see the

camaraderie of the members ofall of the bands, many of whohave shared the stage with eachother for years, and who havetraded band members and bandnames over the years come to-gether for a untied cause. We had the opportunity to simply sit back and observe

from back stage as band aer band appeared and worked together to honorAutumn and support her family. We sawno ego trips, no petty squabbling overdressing rooms, no prima donnas. We sawa community of musicians who were proudto be a part of the live rock and roll sceneand who were especially proud to be a partof the Philadelphia music scene. We sawmusicians who put aside other things intheir lives during the busy holiday seasonto help a friend. We saw fans who lovethese bands come out in full force and support their favorite band, and the rockand roll lifestyle as well.

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http://www.groundwirerecords.com

http://www.groundwirerecords.com

Lestronger has had any great shows inMaryland and surrounding states thisyear. e Honor Ride: a weekend of

remembrance biker event drew huge crowdsfor Lestronger in Winchester, VA, duringthe day and the at the Aer Party at night;they blew the roof of the Blue Fox!

ey had an amazing time in Virginia withpay and paid accommodations. ey rockedat Rock Out Colon Cancer, a charity cancerfundraiser when they donated their performance to the cause and were asked toplay longer at Noise in the Basement concertwhen the crowds wanted more! Matt Daviscame over to join the fun. At the Island BayDay Concert, they shared the stage with Na-tional Acts and headlined the Hammer-jacks, 98 Rock and Groundwire's Battle toRock the Shore aer Bad Seed Rising andKing Belvedere and others took the stage.

ey played a few more local shows andthen rounded out the year performing atone of the largest NYE events in the regioncalled Charm City Countdown in Towson,MD. ey had a great year with CD saleshigh, an agent in NY and great shows on thebooks! ey are continuing to rock out thisyear and working on their next full lengthalbum-the sky's the limit for this talentedband!

Chcek out their latest video “One HotRocker” on Youtube.com

and

Free downloads on www.lestronger.com

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Chemical Red is a band out of Balti-more, MD which was formed froma group of veteran rockers from

the Maryland music scene. Chemical Redhas released their debut album entitled“Hollywood Scars”, and we could not bemore excited about a release than we areabout this one.

We had the chance to talk with ChemicalRed at e Deep End Studios while theywere recording Hollywood Scars.

K-RockGive us a flavor of what Chemical Red ismusically.

Jarred (Guitar): It’s definitely a step in a different direction.We’ve got two former members of ColdHarbour who everyone in the Baltimoremusic scene knows. It’s a step off from thatdirection, and we’re actually a bit mellowerthan Cold Harbour was.

K-rock:How did this band come together?

Joe (Drums):I just came back from retirement. Forseven years I didn’t play. Mark and I use toplay in Carolina with the band Influx. Itkinda just died off because I guess weweren’t ready back then.... I did the familything for seven years, and Mark gave me a

call and was like, hey, why don’t you comeplay, and I got back on the horse andstarted riding.

Jarred (Guitar): It’s been an odd trip. Mark and I were thefirst two in as Chemical Red. Cold Harbourhad just split and I was in Roll it Over . I’vealways respected Mark musically a lot and Ifeel like he and I share a lot of influences, alot of similar styles. We sort of had the op-portunity originally where we were goingto try to pick up where Cold Harbour leoff. As we got together and started playingand played more and more together... thesongs just started flowing.

Eric (Guitar):I was in Cold Harbor, and actually I wasgoing to retire for a while myself. I loveplaying with Mark. He hit me up and wasinterested in what they were doing withChemical Red. I was going to do the studiothing and become Dr. Luke, you know andproduce all the stars. One night we had acouple shots and hung out, heard a coupledemos and I was sold.

Jarred (Guitar):It’s cool for me to finally play with Eric.What a lot of people don’t know is thatwhen I moved to Baltimore, I joined aband that Eric had recently le. So I went

By K-Rock

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in and learned everything Eric was playingfor a different band. en I joined Roll ItOver and Eric was in Cold Harbour. WhenCold Harbour split, Mark called me and Iwent and learned all of Eric's stuff again...(laughing) I feel like I should just let himwrite my stuff and then learn it.

You can see the entire video interviewwith Chemical Red on our YoutubeChannel for Behind e Bands.

So now that the album is complete, whatdo we think about the finished product?Hollywood Scars is an absolute masterpiecefrom this band who seems to have paidtheir dues for so long in so many differentbands, and has finally found whatI believe is thechemistry neededto explode in 2013.

Hollywood Scars isan album made upof six fantastictunes. e song-writing on thisalbum is truly worth paying attention toand the tunes are infectious. Singer MarkRichey has never been one for writinghappy go lucky tunes about sunshine andrainbows and the dark emotional themesthat run through much of the past musiche has created are ever present in Holly-wood Scars. e dark themes are not a detractor on this album, in fact, one findsthemselves drawn to the emotion in a waythat has you wanting to listen over and overagain as you wonder about the stories behind the songs.

I am not exaggerating when I suggest thatthere are six tunes out of six with greatradio potential on this release. HollywoodScars has a slow but heavy riff to it and is

the first single and the first tune the bandhas produced a music video for. I think myfavorite tune on the album is FlickeringJudas, which is a mellower tune, but whichhas an edgy chorus that still hits you prettyhard. It is the tune that I think best cap-tures that painful dark side that permeatesso much of the bands music. It is a dark butrocking  tune at the same time. I have togive the nod to Never Gonna Change as thetune I think is the most ready to grab theairways and start earning fans quickly forthe band. While it is indeed the most main-stream of the tunes on the album, it stillhas that edgy style that is both melancholyand rocking at the same time. I was a fan of

Cold Harbour priorto the breakup andwhile there arehints of the legacyof Cold Harbour inthis release in thestyle of music, thereis an evolution aswell. At times thisrelease reminds me

of that style of music I still don’t have aname for, that has been made popular bybands such as 10 Years, Janus, Tool andChevelle. I think that fans who like any ofthese bands will find a great deal to like inHollywood Scars.

I cannot say enough good things about thisalbum. I give it the coveted Rock Voltage“must own” status and would encourageyou to check out the tunes on the band’sfacebook page at http://www.facebook.com/chemicalredmusic.

You can also check out the video for thefirst single, which is also the title track tothe album, Hollywood Scars athttp://www.youtube.com. is is a band weare expecting to see big things from in 2013.

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DETROIT’S BEST K EPT SECRET IS FINALLY

OUT OF THE BOXBloodline Riot is keeping the phrase

“Detroit Rock City” Alive. If youlook around at pretty much any city

with a thriving music scene, you’ll find thatspecial band that is made up of a collec-tion of musicians who have paid their dues

for years in various bands who finally findeach other and the right combination for agreat album or more. In Detroit, Michigan,we have found another example of such aband in Bloodline Riot. e collection ofveteran Detroit rockers came together and

Interview by K-Rock

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released their first single as Bloodline Riotentitled “Burn” in May, 2011.

is release was no garage band produc-tion. It was produced by Andy Patten(Sponge, Taproot) and mixed and masteredby Chuck Alkazian (Pop Evil, Trust Company). A quick listen to “Burn” willhave you eager to hear the rest of the band’sEP “Keys and Clockwork”. Each song onthe four-song EP is a strong effort worthyof some significant radio play. In fact, theband started to catch some of that covetedair time with “Burn” in their hometown, aswell as stations in Las Vegas, Texas and beyond.

Bloodline Riot’s music has a great combination of melodic verses, meshedwith a pounding backbeat that keeps youenergized throughout all of the tunes.ere is a certain versatility to their soundthat has a bit of something for the metalfan, while at the same time finding somepleasing choruses for the fan of more progressive sounding rock. Perhaps thebest example of this style is also perhapsthe strongest tune on the CD: “Element”.e blending of sounds in Bloodline Riot’sstyle seems to have been recognized by thelive music world as well, as they haveshared the stage with a diverse collection ofacts such as Drowning Pool, Fuel, Taproot,Soil, Nonpoint, Powerman 5000, Dope, 12Stones, e Dreaming and many others.

Bloodline Riot’s EP “Keys and Clockwork”features some nice work from guitaristJason Caine. I had the chance to catch upwith Jason and ask him about BloodlineRiot’s music and the music scene in Detroit.

Rock Voltage:You guys hail from Detroit which has hadits challenges in the recent economic times.What is the Rock and Roll Scene like therenow?

Jason: e Rock scene in Detroit is interesting.ere is an amazing amount of raw musicaltalent in Detroit. I'm proud and honored tosay that I know a lot of amazing bands andmusicians who easily hold up to what'sbeing played out there on mainstreamradio. at said, the Detroit music scenehas had it's share of challenges due to theeconomy as well as smoking being bannedin clubs/bars. e thing about the people of Detroit is this however: e people of Detroit are not only some of the hardestworking people you'll meet, but they're survivors.

I'm happy to say that despite the challengesto the scene, I know bands that are thrivingand adapting to the changing environment.I think to be a musician/ band with anysort of longevity, you have to be adaptable,strategic as well as talented and versatile. Iknow several bands that have been signedto label deals within this past year or so &have been touring with some of the biggestRock acts out there. Ghosts of August, Battlecross, & We Came as Romans, for ex-ample, are all Detroit-based acts that havebeen doing amazing things and a great ex-ample of what I'm talking about. Also,we're fortunate that Detroit is considered amain touring hub for national acts as well,so that definitely helps local artists gain exposure to the mainstream audiencethrough opening slots. Detroit is alive and

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well as far as our music scene and gainingmomentum every day.

RV:Tell me about the video for "Element".Where as it shot? Anything special about it?

Jason:e video for "Element" is a live perform-ance video that was shot by our goodfriends Nick Barry & Terrance Centofantiat Visual Zen studios. It's kind of funny because the video was taken during a liveperformance we played at the Detroit Pubin Clinton Township, Michigan. It was alljust one video take, since we were playing ashow, without any staging or real planother than usplaying ourshow. I was unfamiliar withtheir work at thetime, but once Isaw the finalproduct I was really impressed. Especially sincewe weren't playing to a clickor the recordingof the song itself, yet they managed to synceverything perfectly, grabbed some amazing footage and made us look great!

RV:You each come from different bands. Didyou know each other well before formingthis band or was it an audition type of thing?

Jason:Amber (bassist of Bloodline Riot) and Ihave been in bands together now forroughly 5-6 years. Our former band was acompletely different kind of band. It wasmore of a Pop Punk type of thing where Isang and played guitar with much more of

an emphasis on songwriting. However, I'vealways considered myself more of a guitarist than a singer and studied guitar incollege, so to shake things up, I'd throw in acrazy shred guitar solo in the middle of ourset that led into one of our fastest songs.People really seemed responsive to thatpart of the show. We toured, won a contestand opened for KISS, were nominated forDetroit Music Awards and had a great run,but in my heart I always wanted to focus onsongwriting with more guitar involvementwith a singer that could focus solely on vocals so I could really focus on playingguitar. Amber and I decided it was time to

follow up on thatand write heavier material.

We wanted to doour best to findmusicians thatwere the best attheir instrumentin their bandsthat had the samedrive, positivityand goals that wedid. It was alsovery important to

us that it felt like more than a work envi-ronment. We wanted a band that felt likefamily. We had a very strong idea of whatwe wanted to do and had a strong plan ofaction. Matt Marriott (original drummer)was someone we'd met through the musicscene and had known for a while. Seeinghim play in his band, not only was he agreat drummer, but his showmanship onthe drums was something to behold. He isone of the most entertaining drummersI've had the honor of playing with. When we were ready, I calledhim up and we had a three hour phone

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discussion about the entire idea,and he was in. Aerwe had the coregroup, we put out thecall for vocalists any-where and everywhere. It was actually very dif-ficult for us because notone bad singer came into audition. Some hadsome amazing back-ground and experienceand others were total dia-monds in the rough thatwere awesome. MikeHughes was recommendedto us through a mutualfriend. I was familiar with allof his previous bands, andhad probably been in thesame room with him a dozen times atshows and clubs, had a ton of the samefriends, but for some reason had never methim in person. He came out to talk aboutthings to make sure we were all on thesame page then came out to sing with theband. Although every singer that came outwas great, Mike had the right chemistrywith the band, experience in the industryand a unique vocal quality that we wantedto explore. It was tough. Every singer thatcame out could be or have been in success-ful bands. Aer the band was finalized, werecorded our first single, "Burn" at the Lowith Sponge guitarist Andy Patalan, whichwon us a spot on Rockstar Uproar 2011.From there, we went to Pearl Sound Stu-dios in Canton, MI with producer ChuckAlkazian (Pop Evil, Trust Company) andrecorded our CD "Keys and Clockwork"which was just released this Fall.RV:Are there any big tours/shows/plans

coming up in 2013?Jason:Our immediate future plansinclude recording our newsingle, writing for the nextalbum, a full productionvideo and regional touring. We also plan onsome promotional photoshoots and videos forour endorsement com-panies, Krank Ampsand Unlocal Clothingas well as shots including gear we loveand use such asSchecter Guitars,Coffin Case, etc. We

have a great show at the TokenLounge in Westland, MI for theRawRadioX Launch party on Feb. 23 forthose in the area. To stay on top of ourschedule, visit our website at www.bloodlineriot.com or our Facebook atwww.facebook.com/bloodlineriot underthe band profile tab.RV:Since I've never had the pleasure...Whatcan folks expect to see at a live BloodlineRiot show?Jason:A Bloodline Riot show has everythingyou'd want from a live show. It is a high-energy event filled with theatrics, lights,lasers, fun & tons of great crowd interaction. Everything we do, we do forour friends and fans. ey're the reason wedo what we do, and we do our best to givethem the best show we can every singletime. You have to see it to get the full picture. We promise a great time for everyone.

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When we came across this posting from Drum Tech Brian Hardaswick on his Facebookpage we immediately got in touch with him and asked if we could include it in RockVoltage. Brian shares his observations of concert fans and provides some proposed

ground rules to make us all happy concert and festival goers.Whether you agree withall ofthe rules or not, it certainly provides some great food for thought from an industry insider.

Well, it’s almost that time of year again, the2013 concert season. New tours, new artists,new bands, and the problem..new concertgoers! Now don’t get me wrong, concert at-tendees are great! They support the music,the artist, and the venues. The problem iswhat these first time concert goers are doing.Attending hundreds of concerts in my life, I’ve

seen the same stupid people, doing the samestupid s*** time and time again. So I’ve de-cided to make a list of “street rules” that alltrue concert fans should follow to show re-spect to their fellow concert goers, the artist,and the venue.

-Brian HardaswickDrum Tech, Pop Evil

1Don’t bitch about ticket prices! Doyou know how much it costs to puton a concert? Oh, you don’t? WellI am not going to break it all downbut here is an idea. Venue (needspower, staff, janitorial staff, barstaff, HVAC, security, production,rental costs, production engi-neers, green room staff, parkingattendants, promotional costs,booking the band (which includesa bus, trailer or bandwagon costs,paying the crew, eating, diesel,equipment) ...the list goes on.

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If it were up to me I would allow the first 3 songs to be shot/filmed on aphone. If you get caught after that its taken away, marked with a numberand can be picked up after the show. Nothing is more annoying thanwhen watching a show and all you can see is a glow of small whitescreens. Did you really pay $30 to 100 to watch a show through a smallscreen? The other night I was in Vegas at a theater style show and allI could focus on was the little screens all over the venue, bouncingaround, turning on and off and making noise. Granted you cannot hearthem during a show, but either way its rude, disrespectful, and a wasteof money. Watch the show, enjoy it, you paid hard earned money for it!

This should be pretty standard knowledge. There’s going to be a lot ofpeople smashed in a small space for a long period of time. The standardconcert wear consists of cut off shirts, shorts, thin strap shirts, and in mostcases no shirt. Wear some deodorant, no one wants to smell your nastyass B.O. when you walk by, or in the worst cases when you have yourhands up right next to my head. A shower and clean underwear is not abad idea either. I will be the first to admit, I do not shower religiously, butI always make a solid attempt to at least wear deodorant and cologne.

I get it, the band is playing the first song you heard when you and yoursignificant other met at Wal-Mart. That’s great, but no one wants to seeyour hand inside of your girlfriends shorts while you’re trying to tastewhat she had for lunch with your tongue. You want to slow dance,maybe a peck at the beginning and at the end...completely acceptable!Making your 7th child in the middle of the floor is disgusting! No onewants to see it. Take it to the car in the parking lot! (I hear girls like that)

If it was supposed to be free then there would not be a price tag on themerch in the first place. If you are a lawyer, will you give me a free case?If you are a convenience store clerk, can I have free beef jerky? Oh, Ican’t? The same rule applies here. No you can’t have a free shirt. Merchandise is one of the main areas where an artist makes profit to con-tinue their musical career. In many cases that money goes back into ordering more merchandise so you can have a memory of the show sinceyou don’t remember it due to filming the entire thing and followed by babymaking on the arena floor! Buy merchandise, support the band.

RESPECT: This is a BIG one. I have seen time and time again rude, obnoxious, pushy concert goers pushing their way through the crowd,spilling one of the 17 beers they are trying to hold above their head andmaking rude comments to other concert goers.First off, did you wait inline for 6 hours to get up front, in some cases overnight? No, well thenstay in the back where you belong. The fans in the front earned thosespots. They waited in the blistering heat, freezing cold, pouring rain, ormaybe even a tornado to be where they are. Do not try and be a toughguy and take their spot. This is where more fights than any break out dur-ing shows. Some rude, drunk asshole is pushing and shoving their wayto the front and eventually pisses someone off and they take a swing.

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You know that giant stage your favorite artist is performing on, with all thatsound you hear coming from those big speakers, and that thing with allthe buttons on it? Yeah, that is called FRONT OF HOUSE. An audio en-gineer has spent countless hours making sure the sound can be as pleas-ing as possible to you, the listener. Please do not disturb the FOH guy bymaking suggestions, asking questions, or by flailing your drinks aroundby the console. When the show is over 75% of audio guys will be happyto talk shop and answer any question you may have. But right before orduring the show is rude, disturbing, and downright annoying.

OMG! COOL YOU ARE ON THE BUS?!? This is a big one. First off, knowthat this is our home. It is where we live all year long. Yeah, there arebus parties and drinks, and good times are welcome, but there are somepretty simple rules to follow. The Tour Manager, Band and Crew are incharge. If you are disrespecting our home, anyone in it or anything in it.BYE. No questions asked. There is no reason to act a fool, spill drinks,throw s***, or break s***. That’s the bands job. Unless the band approvesphotos on the bus, don’t take them. I have seen some pretty nice cam-eras get smashed out. The back lounge and bunk area is a PRIVATEarea. There are personal belongings, personal items and our beds. It isnot a place anyone belongs. If someone tells you stay out, STAY OUT! Ifyou are invited in, you are welcome, but do not over stay your welcomenor act a fool. Also, if you are offered a drink you may accept, but do notroll up and play bartender, that’s a good way to get thrown out.

SECURITY: This is very simple. They are there to keep everyone safe.The artist, the fans, the crew, and the venue staff. Don’t get mad whenthey tell you to go back to your assigned seat. There is probably someone wanting their seat. Don’t get mad when they take your drink.If you are beyond hammered and spilling on people and causing a disturbance, chances are they are probably doing you a favor. If you aregoing to surf, be smart and don’t kick people, don’t hit people, and whenyou get to the front allow security to catch you and get out of the way!

It’s a rock show, drink, smoke, do whatever it is you wannado, but please be careful. Not only for yourself, but othersaround you. Especially with festivals coming up. It’s goingto be hot and packed with people. Drink beer, liquor, support the venues, but stay hydrated. I, just as everyoneelse, have had too much to drink at shows and probablypissed someone off. Watch your booze intake, have agatorade and drink some more. Its a party not the MMA’S.

I don’t blame them. Know your spot, stay there and have a good time. I also have to give theartists and security crews props for handling these situations with the utmost class. With outgreat security and the artist keeping an eye out there would be so many more unnecessaryinjuries and possible deaths.

With this said, I wish everyone a very ROCK & ROLL 2013 concert season. I’m readyto get in the bus and tour the world this year. Keep your eyes open for the new Pop Evilrecord and tour dates! VERY BIG THINGS ARE COMING THIS YEAR!

Brian V. Hardaswick, Drum Tech, Pop Evil

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Rock Voltage:Explain the primary purpose of the Noisein the Basement program. What is yourmission statement?

Matt Davis:Well, to give you a quick little backgroundon it, this is something I’ve been doing eversince I was very young. I’ve been promot-ing bands since I was a teenager, so this isvery close to my heart. We have an amaz-ing scene, and I guess my goal is to givebands opportunities that maybe I didn’thave growing up, and at the same time ex-pose our music scene to the general public,who really doesn’t have any clue about thissub-culture.

RV:And how did you get Noise in the Base-

ment off the ground, as far as your timehere at 98 Rock goes? How did that hap-pen?

MD:Well, I actually inherited the radio showfrom Kirk McEwen, who was here formany years, and when he signed on to dothe morning show, the torch got passed tome, because he knew I was just so involvedwith the local music scene anyway. As faras the live show goes, the live showlaunched years later in 2003, and that’s justsomething that I was fortunate enough tohave develop. One of our sales people herewas very involved with the music scene aswell, and we just kind of put our heads together and helped to launch this thingalong with Brian Fletcher, who was the

Interview by Chris Malone

Matt Davis is the Sunday night DJ on Baltimore’s 98 Rock (97.9FM) where from 9-10pmhe hosts the local band feature “Noise in the Basement.”

(Continued on page 54)

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owner of Fletcher’s at the time. e three ofus kind of spearheaded this whole thingand launched it.

RV:So, you’ve been doing the live show since2003. How long has the radio program itself been on the air?

MD:I’ve been the host since 1997, but Kirk… Ican’t remember how long he did it. He didit for many years before I did, actually. So,I’m not sure the exact start date of whenNoise in the Basement was.

RV:Do you think it’s safe to say it’s been on theair for more than twenty years?

MD:Absolutely!

RV:Twenty years on the radio is a long time!How many notable acts have come throughyour program?

MD:You know, just in my time, some of thepeople you guys would know would beJimmie’s Chicken Shack, of course. AllTime Low, who is huge right now, thoseguys were one of our very first Band’s ofthe Month, and Halestorm! We’re reallyproud of that, too – those guys used to playNoise in the Basement on a regular basisfor many years, and they’re out touring theworld now!

RV:Obviously they’ve had a lot of success,

which has to be some testament to how effective your program is. By the numbers,about how much exposure is your averageband getting when they get onto 98 Rock?

MD:It’s hard for me to give you an exact num-ber of people that listen, but you know, Ithink with especially the amount of sup-port from the different bands over theyears, and the musicians that are regularlisteners, plus the other bands promotingthe show as well, you get an extra boostright there. I will say that my boss, DaveHill… as far as program directors go, he’sbeen the most supportive out of everybody.He gives the show a lot of promotion, as faras promos during the week saying, “Hey,Noise in the Basement is happening onSunday night,” and allowing the DJs to readliners and talk about the fact that the showis coming up, so it gets a lot of promotion.It really does.

RV:Having that support, obviously somethingis going right with the program. ey’renot trying to fill the time with somethingelse.

MD:No, absolutely. Dave has been one of thebiggest supporters of this whole thing, andhas slowly given me more and more free-dom and support with this as it’s grownover the years.

RV:Talk about growing over the years, ’97 is along time to be on the program. You’ve

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seen a lot of bands come through! Whatare your tips for a good radio interviewwhen you reach this Noise in the Basementcountertop with the microphones?

MD:It’s interesting you say that, because there’sa happy medium when a band comes to aradio station. You know, there are thebands that are tough to interview, becausethey just want to sit there and be inter-viewed, and then there are bands that wantto go off on crazy tangents. I think a happymedium is a good place to be, and I thinkalso remembering that this is your time topromote yourself. is is your time toshine - it’s your time to be memorable tothe radio audience, so really bring some-thing to the table. e easier you make itfor interviewer to interview you, and makesomething interesting out of your band, thebetter the interview is going to go. Morepeople are going to pay attention to you,and you’ll probably be invited back.

RV:But obviously the interview is just one halfof the opportunity. You’re also playing asong selection. As far as what song you’replaying on the radio goes, do you have anytips for that?

MD:Well, I mean if you’re looking for tips for98 Rock, obviously a song that would fit theformat is going to be the best, but if you’relooking tips for general radio, I would justsay something that isn’t a super long song.Some people’s attention spans just aren’t

there. We’re dealing with the Youtube gen-eration. You should also choose something catchy, something that best represents your band, and something that’sgoing to be memorable to the audience, Iwould say.

RV:How about the kind of quality you arelooking for, in terms of the sound for radioplay? Are bands expected to have a studiorecording, or can we really do something inthe basement and then bring it to Noise inthe Basement?

MD:It’s probably best if you wait until you havesomething studio, you know? People Ithink even these days, with their basementrecordings, are able to get a polishedsound, and I think whether the general listening public is listening to the radio orthe internet – I think they’re used to a gen-eral sort of quality. If you want to be takenseriously, I think you have to have some-thing that sounds pretty good, even if it’sonly one song. I don’t think you necessarilyhave to have an album’s worth of music, butif you just have that one nice polished song,you’re going to use it to market yourselfthrough broadcast and internet.

RV:Are there any Do’s and Don’ts to approach-ing Noise in the Basement? Like, if there’sone thing you should definitely do, and onething you should avoid at all costs, whatwould it be?

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MD:As far as getting booked on the show? Youknow, I think it all kind of fits into one, be-cause you really want to have a nice solidpackage as far as your promo kit goes, andwhen I say that, I mean an all-encompass-ing package. You want something to marketyourself, your EP – you want some way toget your music out to people, whether it’sdigitally, a demo to sell, something like that.You should have something to promote andyou should have your stage show prettymuch ready to go, I think, and I think youshould’ve marketed yourself enough towhere you can bring a crowd out to theshow, you know? Even though we like togive everybody a shot, it really is a big opportunity. It’s a lot of radio promo, andyou should be ready to show off your bestside when you do the show.

RV:Now, you mention the actual live aspect ofthe performance piece of Noise in the Basement. It’s been since 2003, and you’vebeen through a few venues at this point, youstarted at Fletcher’s…at this point you’re onyour forth venue, e Ottobar. How arethings working out at these live venues?

MD:I think it’s great. It’s the real deal concertvenue. Huge sound system, huge lights,great promotion, we’re right in the heart ofBaltimore, and the bands seem to love it,and that’s obviously a very important thingto us as well. I think the people like it, too.

RV:You mention having your stage show ready.What should a band do to prepare for eOttobar?

MD:You know, I think there’s different thingsthat different bands do, whether it’s playingaround and town and getting in your owngroove – I know there are bands I’ve talkedto over the years, that in addition to thempracticing their songs and writing new material and things, they actually gothrough their set with their stage theatricsand practice what they’re going to look likeon stage. So, I guess whatever that means toyou, whatever you goal is as a band, be aspolished as possible, and just be ready to hitthe stage.

RV:In a live show, where do you rate showman-ship vs. musicianship? Where do you rateputting on a show vs. playing the music?

MD:I really think it’s an even balance. I don’tknow if you can put one over the other. Ithink you really need to have both if youwant to have excellence in the business.

RV:Finally, you have a new project called “Outof the Basement” – do you want to explainor elaborate on what that is?

MD:Sure, Out of the Basement is an audio fea-ture we’re doing now, and the goal is to edu-cate and bands and to help share ideas. e

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topic is pro-motion and marketing, andthe goal is to help people get their musicout there, gain new fans and pack clubsand things like that. We’re doing that byinterviewing different national artists, whowill share some ideas, but also act as an in-spiration for people. We’re also interview-ing independent artists from the area whohave done particularly well in a specificarea of marketing and promotion. Wewant to highlight that and in the future, wewant to talk about things. How do you getyour bands booked in other markets? Howdo you sell hundreds of tickets to everyshow? How do you form a street team?ings like that. Everybody knows flyers,

but do you know the art of the flyer, how tohand it out and really connect with people?e goal of that is to make our scene bigger and to help get their music out thereand get them a ton of fans!

If you’re in a local band, Matt Davis wouldlove to help you out, too! Just be sure todrop off your band’s demo with contact in-formation on Monday nights at e Ottobarin Baltimore, or stop by the 98 Rock studioto drop off your band’s promo package!

Check out the studio’s website online at

www.98online.com

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The Ottobar

First you have to find it. Positioned ina sketchy alley off of North HowardStreet, with no discernible signage,

sits one of Baltimore’s best concert venues. e Ottobar, a premiermusic venue, is a cache worth discovering.Large names like, the White Stripes, JimmyEat World, Tune Yards, Queens of theStoneage, and Lamb of God, have allgraced the stage at the Ottobar. Voted Baltimore’s Best Rock Venue countlesstimes, the Ottobar’s multi-floors and hole-in-the-wall appearance is a secret worthdiscovering. And now it’s the new home of98 Rock’s Noise in the Basement on Monday nights.

Located in the diverse Charles Village the

outer appearance of the bar isn’t much tolook at but, as Laure A. stated, “its the in-side that counts.”

e small setting of the venue creates acommunal hub of personality, and a freeflowing ambiance that gives the Ottobar itscharm. is location features both up anddownstairs seating. e bar is fullyequipped with light displays and welcoming bartenders that add to the magnetism of the venue. e Ottobar is theperfect place for happy hour, with its ever-popular Two for Tuesdays. Outfitted incombat boots, band tees, funky haircuts,and good taste in music and atmosphere,the frequent patrons of the Ottobar are justas interesting as the venue itself.

Baltimore Soundstage

“Thunderous bass, inexpensivebar, and clean bathrooms, whatmore can you ask for in a con-

cert venue,” stated a regular patron of oneof the Baltimore harbor’s newest locations.e Baltimore Soundstage is a combinationclub, bar, and concer t venue, located indowntown Baltimore, across from theInner Harbor. is location features national touring artist like Grace Potter andHalestorm with many appearances from regional performers in its intimate club setting. e Soundstage is outfitted with asizeable stage, three full bars, state of theart sound/light features and plenty of spaceto dance and rage all night; or until the

lights come on. Regulars of the venue takepleasure in the décor, stating that theframed guitars and chandeliers over thebars deliver a, “classy melodious feeling” tothe club. e revelry of this location makesit a great play to rock out, either in yourseat or on the floor. e view of the stage isideal from any spot in the venue due to thetwo-step. e venue also has table seatingand the fully equipped kitchen allows patrons to enjoy a meal with their show.With its weekly college nights and plethoraof live performances the Baltimore Sound-stage is a treasured addition to the Baltimore performance scene.

Regional Hot SpotsWritten by Sade Brown

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9:30 Club

The 9:30 Club sits on the corner of9th and V St. in NW, Washington,D.C. When you enter the club ran-

dom sections of indigo painted walls drawyou in. Once inside the main room, you’retaken back by the large space and aboveseating, which reminds you of an amphitheater. When the show begins, it really begins. Whether it’s an indie act likeCocoRosie, or a soul stirring artist likeAdele, the 9:30 Club is the perfect canvas.From the spectacular light display to theamazing acoustics and sound, you are submerged in live atmosphere surroundingyou. e lighting creates a transitive spellbinding pulse of visual waves that

seem to only enhance the sound and youroverall experience. e structure of theclub makes it so that no matter whereyou’re standing, there is a clear view of thestage. Up above, in the balcony area, theview is much the same. e spacing is comfortable enough for you to enjoy anuninterrupted view of the stage. With all ofits great aesthetics it’s easy to get lost on theambiance of the club. Close your eyes, andyou can feel the music and flashing caressesof light li and enhance your experience.Once you’ve experienced a show at the 9:30club you will find yourself wanting to goback for more.

The Black Cat

Black Cat is a music venue located at1811 14th St. NW, Washington, DC20009. ey feature local,

national, and international independentand alternative music on two stages. isvenue also offers the Red Room Bar andFood For ought Café, seven nights aweek. is venue has maintained its iden-tity and dedication to proving the area withgreat music since 1993, despite the arbitrary changes in the local music sceneand, the ever-varying rock music industry.“Nevertheless, we remain committed to ourcommunity-oriented atmosphere and ourestablished identity as an alternative/ independent music venue,” says a quote

from the Black Cat website. e Red Roomfeatures a fully stocked bar, pool table, pinball machine and a jukebox for patronsto gel to. e setting is laid-back and comfortable melding regulars and newcomers alike. If you’re looking for an evenmore relaxed space to meet friends andgrab a good meal the Food for oughtCafé is probably more your speed. e café features everything from sandwiches to salads and even provides vegan friendly options for those interested. e Black Cathas a little bit of everything, making ittreasure to the community it supports.

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As many new and struggling musicians soon find out, possess-ing killer talent and melodic flare

isn’t enough to make it big in the musicbusiness. In many cases artists have tocommit considerable amounts of legworkand a constant exertion of effort to achievethe desired results of fame. One organiza-tion that understands the seemingly endless grind musicians face, especially inthe early stages of development, is GorillaMusic.

Gorilla Music is a management and promotional organization that assist novicemusicians—of many genres—in the beginning stages of conception. JohnMichalak and Dan Cull, co-owners of Gorilla Music, have over 40 years of experience in the music industry, from performing, and running a recording studio, to owning and operating Peabody’sconcert club in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.ey also operate one of the most success-ful concert production companies in thecountry specializing in music festivals andbattle of the bands competitions. ey havebeen booking and managing local bandsacross the country for the past 15 years.

Aer realizing how effective hosting battleof the bands competitions were to theCleveland, Ohio (the birth place of GorillaMusic) local music scene, Dan Cull de-cided to start Gorilla with the hopes of

helping numerous emerging artists.

Gorilla Music is currently the largest com-pany that aids in the promotion and devel-opment of local musical acts. Eventcoordinator, Bryan Pauley, explained in aninterview the positive impact Gorilla has inthe local music scenes across the country.He described how the company uses manydifferent live performance opportunitieslike: competitions and festivals; along withbusiness advocacy—song writing, networking, and design—to usher bandsinto a level of self-sustaining independence.

Gorilla also offers its services as managersin which they help musicians to recordsongs that grab the attention of not onlyfans, but large record labels, while teachingand guiding them on how to become thenext big act in their market.

One famous artist Machine Gun Kelly(MGK), a Cleveland native, found thatworking with Gorilla and dedicated per-sistence, can result in an unimaginable payoff. “He would show up to shows andwork hard which got him a $1.3 milliondollar deal with Diddy and Bad BoyRecords,” stated Pauley.

He could not over stress how large a rolepersonal responsibility and hard work playsin becoming a successful musician. “Youhave to put in the legwork.”

Gorilla Music — a music management and promotional organizationthat helps to lay the groundwork for emerging artists.

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(Continued on page 66)

Written by Sade Brown

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Review by K-Rock

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OPEN FOR BUSINESSRock Voltage:What's your title?

Mike Franklin:I serve as production manager and chiefengineer at Hour Haus Recording

RV:How long have you been working at HourHaus?

MF:I have rehearsed here for the past 10 yearsand have been handling the studio and liveproduction since 2009.

RV:Tell us about your Staff:

MF: We are a collective of Baltimore-based musicians. e space is managed by RaySchafer who has a deep appreciation forlocal music and the arts. Together with hisbrothers Chris and Joey they have main-tained the building as a musician’s sandboxfor the past 15 years, although the historyof the Hour Haus as a rehearsal hall, studiospot, and underground venue goes back atleast 25 years. I have been operating out ofthe studio since 2009, in 2012 Jeff Boydjoined the team with audio production andartist relations.

RV:What type of gear are you guys rocking?

Q&A Chat session with musician and engineer, Mike Franklin atone of Baltimore’s most original venues, Hour Haus Studio.

Written by Jamesa Santiago

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MF:e gear we have now is the result of 15years of my personal music habit. We currently run a Mac-based pro tools LEsetup with Lacie hard drives for data storage. We do have some front end pro-cessing by Presonis, Focusright, and others.Our two house consoles are vintage Allenand Heath and Amek/TAC. We stockShure, Sennheiser, Blue, Cascade microphones, and a few other fun odds andends. We are always adding to our inventory, there is a partial gear list on ourFacebook page and website.

RV:What does Hour Haus pride itself on?

MF:As long as I’ve been here, the Haus hasbeen an oasis for music and creativity. Talkto anyone who has played or recorded hereover the years and they will tell you someof the best times playing music in Baltimore have unfolded here. I personallytake pride in providing a creative environ-ment for people to create, record, and per-form their music.

RV:What services does Hour Haus provide?

MF:We operate as a private rehearsal hall, fullservice recording studio, and live musicvenue.

RV:How many people can Haus "Haus" in itsvenue?

MF:Comfortable capacity for our main room is150-200 people

RV:How much do you charge for your services?

MF:All of our pricing varies depending on theneeds of the project. Rehearsal wise weoffer private rooms and storage space withaccess to our stage for dress rehearsals withthe option for full PA, lights, video, andrecording. is space can also be rented forprivate and public events.Recording rates are based around the overall time spent, equipment needed, andother needs. Block and day rates are available.

RV:What kind (quality) of product can a clientexpect to walk away with upon leaving theHaus?

MF:As far as the studio goes, the quality of therecordings really depends on the amount ofwork the artist puts in. We have profes-sional gear, attitudes, and work ethics. atbeing said every band is different in termsof what they are looking for. I have workedon everything from voice-overs, livedemos, EPs, to full length recordings.When I get a call or email from a prospec-tive client, I talk them through what we doand where they see their music going. Ifeveryone is on the same page then we takeon the project from start to finish.

RV:What artists major/independent haverecorded or performed at Hour Haus?

MF:Most of our clients are local and regionalindependent artists, but we have had several national and international artiststhrough at one time or another. Last yearwe hosted the first annual Ratscape, a minifestival that coincides with Artspace inwhich we hosted over 45 bands in threedays. at was our biggest milestone that Ihave been involved with to date. Since I

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have been here we have worked with andhosted promoters and projects that haveacts such as; Rusko, Biodiesel, TsunamiRising, Grey March, and way too manyothers to name. We also got involved withBetascape, a string of 8 bit shows, and localmusicians networking meetings.

RV:What has contributed to Haus's longevityin the business?

MF:We have a great location being at the cor-ner of North and Howard streets in theheart of the Arts and Entertainment Dis-trict, and that has been a great startingpoint for us. Fortunately the city has beengiving the area a lot of attention in terms ofdevelopment in the last 5 years and you canreally see the neighborhood changing. It’sgreat to be a part of.

RV:What industry trends does Haus follow?

MF:We have always been a DIY establishmentrun by whoever is here at the time, so thebands and people involved has alwaysmade it what it is.

RV:What genre does haus usually work with?

MF:I personally have worked with acts rangingfrom Salsa to R&B, Country to Rock and

Roll. I would say most of our businesscomes from the rock and roll community;Jeff specializes in hip hop production. Iwould say, though, that the more difficultthe genre is to describe, the more fun it isto work with. I would never limit myself toany one style of music.

RV:What other things would this company liketo branch off and tackle, if any?

MF:ere has been talk of converting to a non- profit entity to support th e local arts,that has appeal to me and is hopefully apossibility as we move forward.

RV:Tell us about some upcoming changes andhow you think it will affect business.

MF:We have just upgraded our PA and haveplans to install at the end of January. Atthat time the Studio will also have somemoderate construction improvements toseparate recording and live productionspaces.

RV:Why choose Hour Haus?

MF:I tell people that if they are looking for aplace to develop their music to come checkus out. More than likely, we’ve got a lot incommon.–RV

Gorilla provides many opportunities foradvancement and business assistance, butnone of it means anything if artist aren’twilling to put in work. Pauley went on totalk about how many of the popular artistcurrently in the lime lig ht don’t possess halfas mush talent as many of the local bands

he encounters at work possess; “But theyworked hard to get where they are.”

e main message expressed by the GorillaMusic team was that, “talent and song writing can only take you so far. Hard workwill beat out talent any day.”

GORILLA MUSIC (Continued from page 61)

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