by Alexandra Mrozowska
— Senior Columnist —
The more diverse an album is, the worse it goes down with the general audience. That’s probably the reason why many artists follow the path that leads them inevitably to being pigeonholed. However, there are those who oppose all labels and categories too, and Jeff Scott Soto is one of them. One of the busiest singers in the sphere of Rock and Metal returns with another solo album entitled Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) – out in November via Frontiers Music SRL. And unsurprisingly, it’s a record as diverse stylistically as the artist’s achievements throughout the years… However, Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) was merely a starting point for Jeff’s in-depth conversation with Hardrock Haven about the advantages of artistic versatility, the power of positive attitude, the importance of support between generations of artists and hardships of touring – with a few surprises he decided to share along the way…
Hardrock Haven: With your new solo album out soon, how do you keep your creativity flowing – especially considering so many albums under your belt and so many bands and projects you were or are a part of?
Jeff Scott Soto: To be honest with you, I blame the band Queen… (laughs) It’s like I blame them but I also give a credit to them… They had and still have so many different influences, so many different things that made that band so special. That was one of my biggest influences and I always felt that I wanted to also dive into different sounds and challenge myself into different styles and music and genres etc. And from that, I have such an open canvas of different things that I would love to do and – exactly what you say – with all those bands and albums I’m able to grab all those influences and all those things that I love about Queen and add them to all those different things… It kind of keeps the separation between all of these projects.
Hardrock Haven: That being said, you still continue solo career alongside all the bands and projects. What is the difference for you in artistic terms to perform and record under your own name rather than in a band? Is it a chance to re-define yourself?
Jeff Scott Soto: Not necessarily. It’s more or less a chance to kind of introspectively put them all together. I have to chance to take the combination of all the things that I love and put it into my solo career – and some of the things that are missing in other bands that I’m part of. I don’t get a chance to do certain sounds and certain genres with the other projects or the other bands, so I kind of fill those voids, I kind of complete the puzzle with my solo career. But I also like to add the other aspects of my life and my career into my solo career, because it just gives me the chance to flex my muscles and be more “me” without having to please anybody else… Musically, I don’t have to ask “Hey, do you like this? Is this good for you? Does this work for us?…” For the solo album – I wouldn’t say it’s self-indulgent, but I get a chance to just be me without having to worry about upsetting or having to please somebody else.
Hardrock Haven: There’s a three-year span between your new solo album and the previous one. Did you collect ideas for a new album since Retribution or is it more like a snapshot of the time it was recorded in?
Jeff Scott Soto: It certainly is a snapshot and I don’t really have the time to write just to write – just to write songs and say, “Okay, I’m gonna write some songs that someday will be on this album or that album.” These days I’m so busy I literally write for the moment at the moment for whatever I’m working on. That being said, the whole COVID pandemic time I’ve been writing and recording a lot and just doing so much… I’m collaborating with other musicians and other songwriters to the point where it’s more or less sessions for them, but we’re coming with such a great stuff that if they don’t do anything with these songs, I’m absolutely planning on holding these songs and possibly using them in the future. And this is probably the first time ever that I’m able to do this because the pandemic has allowed me to spend more time in the studio and more time working on songwriting. In normal circumstances I’m releasing an album, I’m going on tour, getting ready to write a new album for another band and then going on tour for them etc. etc. So the cycle continues and it doesn’t allow me the freedom and the opportunity like currently to be writing so much and kind of store up possible future material.
Hardrock Haven: So everyone is speaking about the pandemic in terms of its negative impact on artists’ work, but if it’s such a creative period for you, can you actually see any positive side effects of the entire situation?
Jeff Scott Soto: I’ve seen so much disappointment in my career and my life with a lot of the people I worked with in the past. I’ve learnt to always look at it in a way that when one door closes, another one opens. You know, I’ve had so much of that in my life that it’s not just a cliché from me, it’s actually a way of life for me. The pandemic absolutely closed doors on being able to tour and to travel, and I took that negative aspect into a positive. Not only I got to spend more time at home and sleep in my bed and I could really just concentrate on me for once for the very first time – maybe in fifteen years – because I’m always so busy with the next thing, the next album, the next tour… It’s given me a chance to truly just relax, to give my voice a nice, proper rest and as I’m resting, I’m constantly writing, I’m constantly in the studio, I’ve worked on something like five albums of material in the past seven months. Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) is one of them – also, we have a new W.E.T album and I co-produced and co-wrote an entire record for a band called Spektra that’s gonna be released on Frontiers Music SRL… So, basically I’ve done a lot of work, but I’ve also been resting my voice and I’ve also been enjoying all the benefits of my hard work. I’ve worked so hard to have a home and all the things in my home. Now I can finally enjoy them for the first time. So to me, I guess there is a positive – I’ve found the positive in the negative.
Hardrock Haven: You’ve also taken part in lockdown videos as we now call them – again pretty diverse – and what was the experience like in general?
Jeff Scott Soto: Those things are clearly meant to stay connected with your fans – we’re not releasing new music, we’re not doing anything interesting or new. These lockdown videos… well, pretty much you see them for what they are (laughs) They’re collaborations with friends that we don’t normally get to collaborate with, and because all my friends are so diverse as well, it gives us a chance to get out of our own boxes and just have some fun with some covers. Most of all, it just keeps us connected with people. Music is that for everybody; music keeps everybody connected. So, without oversaturating the market with new music and hoping that people like it, this is just the way to kind of help them chill and remember us and enjoy the moment in a situation that we are in. So it’s a kind of a therapy for all of us – for people who are watching and for the artists who are making them.
Hardrock Haven: Back to the topic of your upcoming solo album – to say the album title is meaningful would be an understatement. In what circumstances did you decide to name the album Wide Awake (In My Dreamland)?
Jeff Scott Soto: First I actually came up with the song itself. “Wide Awake (In My Dreamland)” was already written and recorded and I used this title because it certainly reflected what was already going on before COVID kicked in, before the lockdown, before quarantine… So from this I just felt especially here in the US there’s a division between people, there’s a fear and everyone’s angry, everyone’s divided – religion, politics… There’s so much going on, especially here, but also worldwide that it truly feels like we’re dreaming. I feel like I’m gonna dream. This can’t be the life that I lived for the past fifty years. This is somebody’s dream – or somebody’s nightmare – but the title does reflect the fact that we’re wide awake during this whole dream… this whole nightmare. More so, it took on a new meaning once the COVID and the pandemic began and it certainly does reflect the present than it reflects my original theme.
Hardrock Haven: Does the situation you talk about – I don’t mean the pandemic, but the social issues you mention – is also reflected in the lyrics on the new album, or is it more like a personal album?
Jeff Scott Soto: Maybe to some extent, in a sense that it reflected this “wide awake in dreaming” concept. There was also other thing I was worried about, calling the album this, ‘cause Pat Benatar had an album called Wide Awake In Dreamland [released in 1988]. I was worried that people will say that I stole the title from her or that it’s plagiarism. And it wasn’t like that at all. I wanted this theme, I’ve heard it a few times in conversations with friends, saying “I can’t believe it. I feel like I’m awake, but I’m dreaming.” So I wanted to actually utilize that topic without sounding like I’m actually just nipping it from somebody else who’s already had it. That being said, I just feel this is absolutely reflective of what we’re going through in so many things before pandemic and it’s just strange how it truly took a new meaning once this year pretty much shut down for everybody.
Hardrock Haven: Among musicians credited on the album, there are some names your fans should recognize – like your longtime drummer Edu Cominato and guitarist you’ve also collaborated with in the past, August Zadra…
Jeff Scott Soto: Well, August actually plays only one guitar solo in one of the songs, but I absolutely needed him for backing vocals for a few songs too, because some of the songs Alessandro [Del Vecchio, the album’s co-writer and producer] wrote the melodies for were quite high. When I’m singing lead, they were quite high, so the harmonies above them were even higher… I personally wanted somebody who could hit those notes with ease, as opposed to me trying to force them or work them out until they finally get there. I just knew August will be able to do it so easily. And Edu is someone I absolutely need on every album I work on. He’s been working with me since my Damage Control album, and he’s records his drum parts like a songwriter would – as if he wrote the songs. He has this certain sensibility as a songwriter; he doesn’t play the drums just to show off and say, “Look at what I do here, look at how I do this there.” He’s an all-around ridiculously great drummer, so I really need to utilize his talent for the songs so that the songs stand out. And then everybody else is brand new on here. It’s Alessandro who co-wrote all the songs with me and produced all the album – he plays all the bass and all the keys – and also this newcomer from Italy Fabrizio Sgattoni, who actually does the guitars. So the only one that’s actually still by my side is Edu and one guitar solo by August.
Hardrock Haven: Talking about Alessandro Del Vecchio’s input – you and Ale go a long way back, so what do you think is a secret of your successful collaboration on the album?
Jeff Scott Soto: There’s one thing Alessandro did, coming into this, but didn’t tell me ‘till later. When I started hearing the songs, I started understanding what his process was gonna be for this record. He told me later, “I want to take the best of what I love about you,” meaning me, “what I love about Jeff Scott Soto and take the best of your career, of the things that I love about your voice, and the things that I love about the songs you’ve already done, and I wanna put them all together and every song is gonna reflect something that’s already existing in your career. But we’re gonna put a kind of a modern twist to it.” So he really nailed it as far as I was concerned in terms of drawing from so many different things. Even the current ones – even from W.E.T to Talisman to Yngwie [Malmsteen’s Rising Force], to some other things I’ve done on my previous solo albums… He really nailed it in terms of taking the best of what he loves about my career and putting it onto this album. But even my influences – as I already told you, one of my biggest influences is Queen and he gave me a Queen-type song, the song “Without You” [the video was released on the day of the interview, the 13th of October]. So, he took all the elements of who I am and what I’m about and that’s how he wrote music for this album – and I think he just crushed it.
Hardrock Haven: In general, is chemistry between collaborators equally important to or even more important than their individual skills?
Jeff Scott Soto: Absolutely! Obviously I’ve known Alessandro for a long time and I knew I could trust him. I knew that he was gonna come up with something that wouldn’t let me down and wouldn’t let the fans down. But more importantly, if I didn’t know him and if I didn’t trust him, we would’ve had to establish the fact that there was some kind of chemistry with the writing process, with the respect to I am and how I create, how I sing… Like, I never have anyone in the studio when I’m doing my vocals. I don’t necessarily ask for people’s opinions in terms of “Is this okay? Do you like this?” I literally just work and work and work and then I let them hear what I consider the final take. And basically it’s me telling them, “Okay, this is the final take and this is what it’s gonna remain,” because this is how much work I put behind it. I may just come up with the idea, and then I say, “Hey, what do you think of this…?”, because I want them to hear and see the full picture before they hear what I’m turning in. Usually, the ninety-nine percent of the time, they say “It’s goal, let’s move on.” And this is one of the things in creating this chemistry with Alessandro, because we’ve never actually worked together in that capacity before.
Hardrock Haven: So what was the songwriting and recording process specifically for this album like? How did your collaboration with Alessandro translate into the final result?
Jeff Scott Soto: Well, Alessandro wrote everything and played everything when he was writing and he was demoing all the tracks – did all the guitars, keys, bass and he was using some kind of a drum software so that we could get the song written. But it was mainly that he needed to send me the songs in a kind of a full format – they had to sound like in actual song that you could’ve released, or as close as possible with the demo limitations. It’s because at the time that we were writing the album, I was finishing concert dates with my acoustic partner Jason Bieler from Saigon Kick, I was also finishing up a SOTO tour in September and I literally had just enough time to come home and change my bag over to go on a Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour for two months. And during the Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour is when Alessandro was writing the album and he was sending me songs on the road so I can get my lyrics ready. I had two weeks in January when that tour was over to record all my vocals to the demos so that I could get ready for the Sons Of Apollo tour (laughs). It was a constant moving machine… I had sing all my vocals to the demos, and when Alessandro was busy crafting the finals, he was getting the final performances on the album by using my vocal stems to finish the record. He did all the work on the music and I just did only my vocals. So it was the other good thing that came out of the pandemic and lockdown – that I was able to come home and fix a few things that I thought might have felt rushed or like my voice wasn’t rested, etc. But it was a truly easy process for me because I didn’t have to sit there and oversee the writing or the performances. I put one thousand percent trust in Alessandro, and he delivered the perfect performances from himself and everybody else on the new record.
Hardrock Haven: You and Alessandro also collaborated on the new album you’ve already mentioned, the one by [the Brazilian band] Spektra, which is a project fronted by your longtime collaborator BJ. And it’s not actually the first time you help another artist like that – one of more recent examples could be Dino [Jelusick] and Animal Drive. So how important do you think this kind of support is in the music industry and did you receive this kind support yourself in the early stages of your career?
Jeff Scott Soto: One thousand percent no. I always dreamt I would have a kind of a mentor or somebody in a higher place in the music industry that could help me or that even would just reach out and say, “Hey man, I think you’re talented and I’d love to help you get to the next level.” I guess I was never an apprentice in that sense. So I wanted to have that role so much in my life and I wanted to pay it forward, so to speak, because I feel there’s so much talent that I’m surrounded by… I’ve been working with BJ for so many years and we’ve been trying for so many years to come up with a some kind of plan that I could get the rest of the world to hear him sing. This isn’t the first time I tried to get Frontiers interested in BJ, it took years to finally find the right material. And the material was accidental. It was Alessandro and I, because we already created our songwriting partnership, and I said, “Hey man, I’d love to get two songs – just maybe one or two songs from you – that we could actually have BJ put his voice on and let me see if I can give it one more stab with Frontiers.” I told Frontiers we were doing it and they said, “We can’t wait to hear it.” They loved his voice, they just weren’t crazy about the material that we turned in to that point. And when we did these two songs and turned them in, they signed them on the spot. So I guess I just feel like I’m giving something back to my fellow artists. BJ is a brother that has done so much for my career and my life that I wanted to give a little something back and I’m just so thrilled that Frontiers finally came to the table. One of the contingencies of doing this record was that Alessandro and I had to co-write the entire record and we had to produce it (laughs). So it was another thing added to my plate and another thing I had to utilize this COVID time to make such a great record.
Hardrock Haven: You’ve mentioned the other bands you’re currently a part of, including W. E. T, SOTO, Sons Of Apollo and of course Trans-Siberian Orchestra. And speaking of SOTO,
some reviewers were mildly surprised by your cover version of Michael Jackson’s “Give InTo Me” [originally released in 1991 on Jackson’s Dangerous album] on 2019’s SOTO album Origami. Which other influences of yours do you think your fans would be most surprised with?
Jeff Scott Soto: At this point I think my fans – especially those that have been with me all along – are not surprised anymore because my first solo album was called Love Parade and it was a cross between Prince, Michael Jackson, a few Rap artists that were influencing me at the time, James Brown… and so many other not-Rock’n’roll influences. And I think that was a kind of a beginning of a “Holy shit, this guy’s not just a Metal singer. He’s not just a Hard Rock singer. He’s not just a ballad guy. He’s one of these people that like to do it all and is influenced by so much.” So if I said, “Yeah, I think my fans would be surprised to hear that I’m a huge Bee Gees fan, or Earth, Wind & Fire fan”, they’re not gonna be surprised at all. They know that these influences were with me early on as a kid, before I was even an artist. They were things that I carried with me throughout my career and I personally feel that’s why my voice is so well-rounded. I’m able to add so many different influences and so many different genres even if in what I’m doing you wouldn’t normally hear that. One of my biggest compliments and validations as an artist came from Mike Portnoy [Dream Theater, Sons Of Apollo, Near Morse Band, Flying Colors, The Winery Dogs etc.] when he was doing interviews for the first Sons Of Apollo album and also, the new one. They were asking him to describe contributions or his feelings for each of the members of the band, and when it came to talking about me, he said, “One thing I love about Jeff is he’s the first and only singer I know of and heard that is able to inject Soul and R&B swag into Prog music.” It just doesn’t exist. When you think of Prog music, you think of Rush, or Genesis, or Yes… and these singers don’t have a soulful background, they don’t have an R&B base. And I’m not even trying to do this, I’m not trying to add a Black or Funky or R&B base to it, it just comes out naturally. And he hears that, and that’s important to me that he hears that, ‘cause that means I’m doing something just a little bit different than the typical Prog singer in terms of approach for this style of music. So, that to me is exactly what I’m trying to round off your question with – the question of what would people be surprised with. I don’t think there’s any surprises left (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: (laughs) In SOTO, you indulge in heavier and more modern sound. Do you still keep an eye on contemporary Rock/Metal scene and get inspired by modern bands that just have started out?
Jeff Scott Soto: Absolutely! That’s one of the reasons why I hate when people accuse me of just wanting to jump on whatever’s current, like “He’s only doing it ‘cause he’s trying to be current, he’s trying to be like some of these other bands.” I’m forever a student of music. I’m forever going to be influenced by music, I’m forever gonna be listening and studying music the same way I did when I was eight, the same way I did when I was fourteen, the same way I did when I was in my 30s… It will continue for the rest of my life, as long as I’m recording. I love music and I love different styles of music and different genres, especially when it comes to Rock. When I hear something new and interesting that I wasn’t a part of, I love it so much that I say “Damn, I wanna be a part of that!… I wanna inject that influence in me.” Because if I’m just gonna release the same kind of records that I did thirty years ago, you’re gonna hear the influences of where I was back then. I’d rather you hear the influences of where I am now mixed with influences of where I was back then, so you get the whole thing, a big rainbow canvas of different things in one go as opposed to “Oh, he’s just wants to be like Five Finger Death Punch or Stone Sour.” It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with – I’m a student of music and I’m forever absorbing and learning from it.
Hardrock Haven: W. E. T and Sons Of Apollo are real supergroups – I mean, each a clash of huge talents and distinctive personalities. Is creative tension a part of this kind of experience, or is it smooth sailing?
Jeff Scott Soto: It’s never a smooth sailing when you’re working with a group of individuals or a collaboration because you do come from different threads, different cuts and different cloths. I can’t expect Portnoy, Billy Sheehan and all these different people that I work with to absolutely one thousand percent love my ideas when I come up with them. So instead, I put my ego aside and say, “What can I write – or what should I write – that I think these guys would absolutely love…?” I don’t say, “This is what I hear, this is what it has to be. If you don’t like it, fuck you.” We respect each other so much and what we have to bring in and what we do bring in to this band, or any of my other bands. This is what we were talking about regarding my solo records – you have to think for others and know that these people come from a different world of what they’re influenced by and especially what we’re trying to achieve here with these bands. So from that, I respect that process and I constantly think that they might not like this – they might think this is absolute shit… So I always keep an open mind and I’m ready to change anything and everything at the moment’s notice ‘cause I realize that in order for us to have our sound, I have to have an open mind to what they feel this sound should be.
Hardrock Haven: Last year, you reunited with the rest of surviving Talisman members to record “Never Die (A Song For Marcel)” dedicated to the memory of your bandmate Marcel Jacob. The other example is on Retribution – “Song For Joey” dedicated to your brother. Singing such song is obviously an emotionally charged experience, so is it a challenge on a human level or actually more of a katharsis?
Jeff Scott Soto: It’s certainly therapeutic when I feel I want to send a shout-out or dedication. It’s in my heart that I miss this person or that I’m gonna miss this person or that I feel devastated by the loss of this person. I feel it’s my duty not only to pay tribute to them, but also kind of create the process for my own self to grieve and also how to start learning how to move on in life without them. So it’s a process for “Desolate July”, a song for David Z on a Sons Of Apollo album [MMXX, 2020] and “Song For Joey”… the losses that are so great in my life that they have to followed up by something that keeps me grieve and something that’s therapeutic in that sense. I also realize that every day people around the world are losing somebody close to them, so my reflection also kind of helps them. They get the same feeling and the same therapy from a song that I’ve written for a loved one, they might be able to also utilize that as a therapy in a grieving process.
Hardrock Haven: We’ve already mentioned Trans-Siberian Orchestra and speaking of the band, both the audience and the artists involved always say it’s such a unique experience for them – and what do you think makes it so?
Jeff Scott Soto: Trans-Siberian Orchestra is very musical theater-oriented. In particular, the lyrics. When you’re going to see a play on Broadway, it’s a story. You’re seeing a story from beginning to end. TSO is a theme, all music is themes and all the lyrics are reflecting the stories from the albums. So these stories are very deep, very heartfelt and people connect to these stories in a way that is also therapeutic, like me writing songs about somebody I’ve lost. These stories connect with people and especially around that time of year – around the holidays – it’s the time when you truly miss the people in your life that you lost. And that’s why TSO, especially here in the US, connects with so many people in so many ways. It’s not just the fact that they married the Classical arrangements and the whole Broadway theater thing with Rock’n’Roll. That’s the other element of why it’s so popular, but mostly it’s because of the stories they connected.
Hardrock Haven: After so many years of your career, do you have any regrets? Is there anything you’d like to travel back in time to improve on or change?
Jeff Scott Soto: No, because I feel every experience – whether it’s a negative one, or a positive one – is something you learn from. I would never regret anything in my life, even if it was a negative situation, because I learned something from it. If I didn’t have that negative situation, I wouldn’t know how to actually grow from it, move on from it or not repeat it again. So every situation in my life and my career I don’t see as a regret. Even if it was painful and even if it’s something that’s still painful or maybe harmful in some way, I look at it as a lesson and I look at it as necessary to actually get through. Without failure and negativity you wouldn’t have success and positivity. That’s basically the bottom line and that’s how I see it.
Hardrock Haven: You’ve mentioned it already when talking about the situation we all deal with worldwide – how to find a positive aspect in all the negativity brought in by the pandemic. Still, this situation derails promotional plans for the newly released albums, so how do you plan to promote Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) when you can’t just go on tour?
Jeff Scott Soto: Well, after last the SOTO tour I’ve made a pact to myself, one that I actually didn’t announce officially, that I’m probably not gonna be touring any more as a solo artist or as SOTO or any capacity. It’s based on the fact that I’ve been doing for so long and busting my ass for so many years… and unless the demand and the level of interest change and grow, it’s literally like beating your head against the wall. Most people don’t realize that and don’t understand… When you release tour dates, they say, “Hey, what about my city…? What about my country…? What about my region…?” They don’t realize the parameters of how difficult it is to get number one: interest, number two: promoters to commit to the budgeting of the costs, because there are many, many, many costs involved in a tour – so much than I can go up for five or six weeks and come home with just not enough money to cover me for the next month. I put my life and my absolute soul into touring, but unfortunately, unless there’s a return at some point or unless I see the growth of the venues and the attendances, at some point I have to say I can’t keep killing myself, sleeping in horrible conditions and travelling in terrible conditions and putting on so many shows in a row that trash my voice until I see there’s a demand for it in a bigger way. And after the last few tours, I’ve made this pact to myself that I’m probably not gonna be doing that many tours anymore ‘because I can’t see this growth and demand for us. And if that happens, absolutely we’ll go on the road and I absolutely wanna tour!… So again, COVID kind of gave me the out in not having to tour right now and concentrate on promoting the record the good old-fashioned way, the same way the artists who never tour do it. That’s to really saturate social media, make sure your presence is known in so many factors and have your friends help you push your product because at this point it’s the only product you have. And even if and when things change, they have to change a big way for me to get me back on a tour bus.
Hardrock Haven: In the past it was touring that brought money, so what’s changed that much?
Jeff Scott Soto: Right… I came up with the solution to what my problem initially was. When I was touring with an all-American hired band, all the guys were from America and we had to tour the world, it would cost me a fortune to travel with these guys around the world. There’s a lot of singers like myself – especially on a solo level – they would pick up local musicians in whatever regions, so that way they don’t have to fly them anywhere. When I do my shows, I have a certain way that I do it. We just don’t go song-song-song-thank-you-goodnight. We make a show out of it and we make a fun event, but the chemistry I have with my bandmates is something you watch and feel; you don’t just watch me singing a few songs that you know and go home. You walk away with an experience. So I need my guys, my team, my crew – the ones who absolutely know how to deliver what I have in my brain and the idea of how I actually wanna present that. That being said, when I reinvent my line-up, I specifically tour in Europe and South America, so I decided I’m gonna have a South American band and a European band. So I have two guys from Europe and two guys from Brazil and when we’re playing South America, I’m only buying three tickets for us to get to South America and when we’re playing Europe, it’s still three tickets to buy only. It kind of helps with the finances and the costs. But now that creates another problem – if US wants us on tour, then I gotta get all these guys on board and you have to deal with visas and so many other things… So when you add all these costs, it now turns into the same problem I had before, when I had an all-American line-up. If you’re not meeting all these costs when you’re on the road, it comes out of your pocket. Then, the next thing you realize, you’re playing to smaller crowds at smaller venues – and you’re paying for it. If I’m paying for it after doing is for thirty five years with over eighty albums over my belt, there’s something wrong with the picture. I need to actually turn this around to my advantage, so people can actually see the show that I want to bring them, but it also gives me the reason to go up there and I’m not losing money.
Hardrock Haven: Do you think changes in how we consume music these days – I mean, with streaming platforms, YouTube and a lot of people claiming they prefer to watch a concert DVD in their house instead of going to the concert – also had an impact on the way the music industry changed?
Jeff Scott Soto: Possible. The thing is, I have a lot of older fans and that’s another reason I love staying as current as I can get away with. I’m not gonna try to fool people and do music that’s geared towards fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds, because they’re gonna look it and say, “The music’s great, but I don’t wanna see this old man on stage” (laughs). So I try to do music that appeals to them as much as possible but also still appeals to my crowd and my age group. That being said, because a lot of my fans are older, or close to my age – like you said, they’re going to shows less and less, they’d rather see the performance at home or just listen to the music and it’s harder and harder every year to get them out to shows. So that could be the reason why the numbers diminished at some point, but also because I never reached the levels of Queen, Rush or Van Halen. I’m not able to have my music transcended to other generations to continue to bring in arena-size capacities. Also, the loss of physical product has hurt a lot of people as far as the finances that they were making on releases are concerned. For me, it’s actually helped me. If somebody has my album and puts in on a file sharing application – and fifteen or twenty or even a thousand other people steal it, so to speak, they now know who I am, they like who I am and if I’m coming to their town, they’re gonna buy a ticket. They might have not bought a record, but they discovered me because of these free files and now they’re actually come to see me on stage. So I do find a positive in that negative in terms of music theft and piracy. I do find that it actually helped me in the past when it came to people knowing who I was.
Hardrock Haven: …So it seems there’s a positivity in almost everything.
Jeff Scott Soto: Absolutely! (laughs) Like I said, I always want a positive out of a negative! (laughs)
Hardrock Haven: Exactly how it should be! So with no touring or limited touring in the future regardless of the pandemic, what are yours and your bands’ future plans? You’ve mentioned a new W. E. T album and the new Spektra album as well…
Jeff Scott Soto: I also sang backgrounds on Joel Hoekstra’s new album and, in general, you’re gonna see a lot more recorded material coming out in 2021, trust me… And it’s from a lot of people – not just me. But speaking of my bands, Sons Of Apollo is the only one at the current time that I will continue touring with because that is at another level that I can actually feel like I’m moving up, so to speak. And again, it’s even more expensive to put that show on the road, ‘cause we have many techs and more costs than even my tours. But overall it’s a bigger spectrum than I can actually possibly add to my own spectrum, and that’s why Sons Of Apollo is the one band I’m gonna tour with. That’s probably the only one – and also, like I’ve said earlier, I’ve got my buddy Jason Bieler and we’re doing these acoustic gigs and those have been growing and they have been selling out in the US. So I will go on with those, once we’re able to play again. And of course, I’m looking forward to Trans-Siberian Orchestra next year if – and when – we’re able to resume that. Otherwise, that’s pretty much all I have on my plate in terms of playing live. Everything else is just going to be a lot of studio work and just doing the albums that people wanna listen to.
Hardrock Haven: Any more details?
Jeff Scott Soto: Well, there’s actually one album… I’m gonna bring it up now ‘cause I think it could be a good way to kind of let people know it’s coming. This is something else I started thinking of during the lockdown… I have quite a few songs that I’ve written entirely in my past that have been released on different solo albums or on Talisman albums or whatever. And I heard something the other day, a kind of an acoustic, really stripped-down version of a very famous song – I think it was a Nirvana song. And it was really unique and interesting take on a song. One of the key things we think of as musicians, when we’re writing a song, is that the song’s more important than the actual contents. Forget about the solo, forget about how crazy the high screams are; if the song’s not there, then it means nothing in the end. The songs have to be great songs in my view, before you can turn them into something that other people can listen to. So, I have a bunch of songs that I would love to actually revisit and re-imagine so to speak – take a different approach to how these songs sounded when they were originally released fifteen or twenty years ago, or just a few years ago. So I’m working on this album now, and that’s my latest pet project. I think I’m gonna call it A Hundred Percent Re-imagined, and “a hundred percent” part means every song’s gonna be a hundred percent written by me, played by me, sung by me, mixed by me… everything about it is gonna be a one hundred percent me – but all the songs are gonna be familiar songs from my career re-imagined. So like, say, a song “Holding On” which is on my Prism album… I’m gonna do it in the form like “Eleanor Rigby”, just like The Beatles did – with only strings, with only moving and plucking strings and giving it a whole new spin… and see if I can take these great songs and put a new, re-imagined spin on them. So I wanted to drop that information because I’m working on it now and it’s coming together so well that I’m really excited about it… so I wanted to drop that extra nugget on there for you.
Hardrock Haven: Sounds exciting, but also a bit risky in terms of the audience’s response – this year also Lynch Mob released a reworked version of their Wicked Sensation album for its 30th anniversary and reactions were pretty mixed…
Jeff Scott Soto: Lynch Mob is a band with a few albums and a sound people are used to. I’m an artist with over eighty albums and a sound that people are used to me changing it and doing so many different things already. So I think this will be a welcomed addition to everything that I’ve done – only because they’re used to me trying and putting up new things and new version of who I am and everything that I do. So I think this concept is gonna work in terms of my fans actually enjoying when I’m kind of giving them a new spin or a different spin of who I am already. And it just extends why they listened to me in the first place. I think that’s gonna work for me ‘cause they realize I’m influenced by everything from the Bee Gees to Metallica. So this is not gonna be anything crazy or out-of-the-norm for me or for them. That’s how it goes – people are used to Lynch Mob’s Rock songs because they’re a Rock band with a Rock sound, so maybe the regular Lynch Mob fan doesn’t want a Reggae version of a Lynch Mob song (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: So your artistic diversity actually comes to your advantage in this respect.
Jeff Scott Soto: Well, if it doesn’t, I come from the school of Freddie Mercury: Try it, do it, because you believe in it. If it doesn’t work – hey, move on. At least you can say you did it.
Hardrock Haven: Thank you so much for the interview!
Jeff Scott Soto: Thank you! It’s my pleasure.
Visit JSS online: http://jeffscottsoto.com/retribution/index.html
Photo credits (both): Photos by: Lexie Boezeman Cataldo – In Joy Photography (Thousand Oaks, CA)
