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Randy Allar: Congratulations on Bozzio, Levin,
Stevens, both the first one and the new
one. Fantastic records.
Steve
Stevens:
Thanks, man! They're a labor of love,
those records, and we enjoy doing them.
They're two of the most gifted
musicians, and I just shut up and play
my guitar.
Randy Allar:
You play a great flamenco guitar.
Steve
Stevens:
Thanks. Actually I started playing
flamenco before playing electric guitar.
It's always been a love of mine.
Unfortunately, when you're doing pop
records, I'd bring it out. The response
I'd get is, "Save it for your own
record." So I have my own flamenco
record which came out a couple of months
ago. It's great because Tony (Levin) and
Terry (Bozzio) are really open to
anything out of the ordinary.
Randy Allar:
With the first record, you guys wrote
everything, rehearsed it and recorded it
in two weeks.
Steve
Stevens:
The first record was done entirely
improvisational. No rehearsal. They
basically dumped us in the studio,
rolled tape and what we got went on the
record whether we liked it or not.
There's a couple of mistakes, but that's
the nature of the beast. With the new
record, we actually had some rehearsal
time, a little bit of preparation time
so we could come up with some musical
ideas before getting into the studio.
Randy Allar:
There are two completely different
types of approaches. Both are incredible
records.
Steve
Stevens:
We just do what we do.
Randy Allar:
You started out with Billy Idol.
Steve
Stevens:
Right. Billy was the first high profile
thing at that time.
Randy Allar:
You really turned some heads with
that one.
Steve
Stevens:
Yeah, Billy had just come over from
England and I was with a struggling New
York band. We took the subway to
rehearsal. It just happened, it was the
right time and the right chemistry. The
stars were aligned for good things for
us.
Randy Allar:
You were also working with a band
called The Atomic Playboys.
Steve
Stevens:
Yeah, that was a band that I put
together after I left Billy in '88 or
'89. I was signed to Warner Brothers and
put together a group to do a record
with. Just a one up deal.
Randy Allar:
Any chance of that band getting back
together?
Steve
Stevens:
Absolutely not. That group was a very
expensive hobby.
Randy Allar:
Bozzio, Levin, Stevens, what an
amazing band. I hope you guys can take
it on the road.
Steve
Stevens:
We're trying to. The logistical problem
is that you have three guys that are
pretty busy. Our bass player (Tony
Levin) is really busy. He's like the
A-list call guy so it's just a matter of
trying to coordinate a tour. A record is
no problem, but a tour is a little bit
more difficult to get three guys on the
same page. Possibly it will happen next
year.
Randy Allar:
We're hoping!
Steve
Stevens:
The one prerequisite that we all have is
that we want to play venues that are out
of the ordinary. Maybe museums, maybe
parks. We don't want this to be at your
local rock club because it's an
improvisational band and it should be
presented in the right context. So that
also creates problems because it's out
of the ordinary.
Randy Allar:
I think the draw would be good.
Individually, the three of you would
draw. Put the three of you together, you
could go anywhere and fans would follow.
Steve
Stevens:
There's a process that happens when the
three of us get together in a room to
create this music. I don't see that
process getting on a stage in a bar.
That's the real issue.
 Randy
Allar: I couldn't see the band playing a smoky venue either.
Steve
Stevens:
"Okay, everybody put your hands
together for..." Out in L.A. I've
been seeing some amazing performances in
the most unorthodox places; yoga
centers. It's weird, but that type of
environment opens you up to really
listen to listening and not having to
use sheer volume to get people's
attention.
Randy Allar:
With the yoga centers, do the people
in front sit and cross their legs?
Steve
Stevens:
Actually, the last show I saw at the
yoga center was two musicians that
worked on my solo record named Greg
Ellis and Azam Ali. They're in a duo
named Vaz and they actually have three
records out. They performed at a yoga
center that I went to and it was
amazing. Everyone sat. It may sound
metaphysical, but it was the closest
musical performance I've ever saw that
brought me to tears and moved me
spiritual level.
Randy Allar:
How did Bozzio, Levin, and Stevens
get together to form this project?
Steve
Stevens:
I think that originally Terry (Bozzio)
was approached to do a project by Magna
Carta, the record label that issues
these records. Terry and his manager sat
down and went through a list of guitar
players. He pitched all the usual guitar
heroes to Terry, and Terry Bozzio being
Terry Bozzio saw my name on there and
thought I was the one guy that was not
in the same...a) I wasn't an
instrumentalist, b) I had never done an
instrumental based record. Terry and I
made our careers in much the same way.
He left Frank Zappa to do Missing
Persons. Missing Persons' first record
came out approximately the same time as
the first Billy Idol record that I
worked on. I remember going to the
studio to do White Wedding and hearing
Mental Hopscotch on the radio. I
remember wondering who the hell was this
drummer? For many years, there were two
drummers I would have given my eyes, and
something else to work with. That was
Terry Bozzio and Steward Copeland.
Fortunately I've had the opportunity to
work with both. So there's a lot of
common ground between Terry and I. He
performed at the House Of Blues out here
and I went and met him. We decided to go
ahead and do this thing.
Randy Allar:
Who did most of the writing on the
second disc?
Steve
Stevens:
I don't think I'm stepping out of line
by saying I did. Most of the
compositions came initially from me. But
as is the case with this group, what you
hear as the end result is collaboration.
I would come in with a series of chords
or a structure and what happened with
that is a three-way collaboration.
Randy Allar:
With the first record, "Black
Light Syndrome", I find it hard to
believe that you guys improved a record
because it is so structured and complex.
Steve
Stevens:
We got lucky I guess. It is structured
and it's not. You look at the length of
songs, some are creeping up around nine
minutes, you can tell we're obviously
searching around. The way we went about
it was when we were in the studio we
would jam. Go into the control room and
listen to the jam. Then we would
structure the jam.
Randy Allar:
You're also working on film scores.
Steve
Stevens:
I've dabbled in film scores since the
early '80's. I won a Grammy for
"Top Gun". Every now and again
I get called to do something. It is not
very easy to do. My hat goes off to guys
that are successful film scorers.
Randy Allar:
Steve Stevens is in the process of
scoring films. His solo project called
"Flamenco A Go-Go" is an
impressive release that features Stevens
with an acoustic guitar playing in a
flamenco style, but also using a pick,
which is untraditional for flamenco. The
performances are outstanding with many
twists.
One other thing Stevens was involved in was Steve Vai's second
Christmas disc called "Merry
Axemas, Volume 2". Stevens's
version of "Do You Hear What I
Hear" is one of the most memorable
this critic can remember.
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