Rock Music Interviews

Rock

Front Page Rock Interview Archive

_{dBs Drummer Will Rigby}

_{_{What
do the Peter Holsapple (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Will Rigby
(drummer), Chris Stamey (guitar, vocals) and Gene Holder (bass) have in
common? Well, quite a lot of things actually, they all grew up in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, they formed a Power Pop band, the dB’s in
June of 1978 and earlier this year (2024) they reissued their first two
albums, Repercussion and Stands for Decibels, on the
record label Propeller Sound Recordings.
On December 6th, they will conclude a 3-month tour in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the Southeastern Center for
Contemporary Art.}
Drummer Will Rigby
sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine to talk about the band’s history
and the two albums reissued.

“We started in New York City and Chris Stamey was already living there.
He invited Gene Holder the bass player and myself, the drummer to come
up and play some gigs with him in June of 1978. Peter (Holsapple) joined
us in October of that year, to record the first two dBs albums. However,
we were all from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I was in the third grade
with Peter, and I have known him since then, for more than fifty years,
going on sixty at this point. I believe we did meet in 1964. Most of us
knew each other, long before we made it to New York. Gene and I did not
know each other, before we moved to New York, but I knew who he was, and
I am sure he knew who I was. The rest of us all knew each other.

_{Read More}}

Poco - Rusty Young

“I really am pleased (with that album). It was a neat experience. I had never done a solo record. I had always focused on Poco records and in 2013 and 2014 I was thinking about retiring and just doing things that I enjoyed, fun shows with friends and that kind of stuff. Jimmy Messina called me, and he said I have five or six shows on the west coast, and it would be great if you came out and played with me. We did old Poco songs and it was a fun thing to do.

We were doing a show in California and this guy Kirk Pasich came up to me afterwards and he said have you ever thought of doing a solo record? I said not really. The opportunity has never presented itself. He said, I have a label Blue Élan and we would love to have you make a record for us. I thought about how everybody who has ever been in Poco have done solo records, Paul Cotton and Richie Furay, Timothy B Schmit and Randy Meisner. I thought it might be an interesting thing for me to do at the end of my career. It was the best way for me to illustrate my part in the sound of Poco. If you listen to Richie Furay’s records you can hear what he contributed to the band and the same with Paul Cotton (and the others). They all have their style and their songs. It was a chance for me to show what I brought to the scene. I thought it was a really good challenge at that point in my life.”

Continuing to talk about the album he says, “The first song that I wrote was “Waiting for the Sun.” After I wrote it, I called Kirk and I said listen let’s do this record.

We live in a cabin or a log home in Missouri in Read More

Raised On TV

On the last day of May this year (2024)the California Rock band with the funky name Raised On TV released their eight record Make Time To Make Time, and Keaton Rogers, who formed the band with his brother Kacey Greenwood in 2016, walked the walk, by making time to make time to sit down with Riveting Riffs Magazine.

The album opens with “Just Wanted To Tell You,” from whose lines the album takes its title, a song that will have you dancing from the first few beats. The brothers Rogers and Greenwood are joined on electric bass by Blaine Billingsley.

“(The song) is about my wife. The lyrics, particularly the chorus is a love letter to my wife. It is a sentiment that is good to get across and to say. It is not strictly on one narrow path the whole time. I wrote the verses, while we were on the road. I think we were pulled over at a coffee shop or something and we were taking a minute. I had the chorus about my wife, and I liked that. I wanted to say that, and it was truthful. The verses I was still trying to figure out and the words just came. The verses have a story behind them, but the chorus is about my wife,” says Keaton Rogers, providing us with some insight about the song.

Historically bands from California, going back to the 1950s, has had a distinct flavor and we talked about that, before digging deeper into the sound of Raised On TV, “I would say it still does (have a distinct California sound), maybe not as much as it once did, if you go back to the Beach Boys and Surf Rock and The Ventures or the Laurel Canyon scene in the seventies. I think those times were more distinctly Californian, Read More

Maia Sharp and Reckless Thoughts

It is always great to sit down, (even if it is over the miles) and chat with Maia Sharp. The renowned singer, songwriter and musician, whose songs have been recorded by artists such as, Cher, Trisha Yearwood, Terri Clark, Bonnie Raitt and Art Garfunkel, will have just released her new album Reckless Thoughts by the time you are reading this. Maia Sharp is as candid, as she is thoughtful when talking about her life, career and songs. She breathes fresh air into the world of music. She is comfortable collaborating with other songwriters and she is quick to share the spotlight and credit with them, even though it is her name on the album for which the songs appear.

From her home in Nashville (yes, she did indeed move from California a few years ago), she talks about when the seeds for Reckless Thoughts were first planted.

“The first song that I knew was going to be the beginning of a new album project was “Kind.” I wrote that with Mindy Smith and Dean Fields in 2019. When we were finished with that one, I knew I needed to start thinking about another project, even though Mercy Rising (the previous album) wasn’t even out yet. I knew that one was already finished. I knew that “Kind,” wasn’t going to be on Mercy Rising. It already set the wheels in motion and I thought I guess I am going to be making another record.

“Too Far Now,” was the next one. Those two songs are so different from each other that they really presented a challenge. How am I going to write or look through my catalogue for a body of work that makes sense, so all of these songs can play together and sound like one animal. They are the most different genre wise. I think my production, the Read More

Electronic Firefly from Spain

Electronic Firefly combines the extraordinary talents of violinist Silvia Carbajal, cellist Carlos Perez-Íñigo, and keyboardist Rebeca Nayla who all now live in Madrid, Spain, but at one time lived in different parts of the country. Recently, Carlos who prefers to be called Charlie and Silvia sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine over a Skype call during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain and talked about their careers, the formation of Electronic Firefly and the future. For the purposes of this interview, as we often do we are going to dispense for the most part with referring to them by their last names and stick to first names.

The pandemic and for almost three months having to stay inside their homes, put the debut Electronic Firefly album on pause. Sylvia and Charlie have recorded music together aside from Electronic Firefly.

Silvia begins by talking about their music, “We do different types of music and some covers, because people want to hear something that they know like electronica, Frank Sinatra, Amy Winehouse and AC / DC are our favorite types of music. This music is for events and concerts, because people want to hear something that they know. We also do our own compositions. We work with a pianist (Rebeca Nayla) and we do a mix of electronic music and music for films. We are doing our first album and it will be an album with our songs.”

Charlie continues, “We have quite a lot of songs recorded, but this project with the electronica is new. There are three of us in the group and it is completely different than anything we have done before. We have recorded five or six songs already.” Read More

Katja Rieckermann - Double Release

You know the song “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” from when Rod Stewart recorded it on his 1978 album Blondes Have More Fun, but you have never heard it played like this before. Saxophonist, arranger and composer Katja Rieckermann and TMTQ turn in a stunning dance version of the song, with new vocals by Sir Rod Stewart. Rieckermann who toured with Stewart for fourteen years and during that time she began her solo career, which to date has produced three albums, the self-titled Katja (2007), Horn Star (2010) and Never Stand Still (2014). Katja Rieckermann has performed with a diverse group of artists, which include, Carole King, Brooks and Dunn, David Foster, Mary J. Blige, Al Green and Jeff Goldblum.

Katja Rieckerman first started thinking of recording “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” “about two and one-half years ago. Originally it was going to be an instrumental version of “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and it was going to be very close to the original with the tempo and the vibe of it. I wrote a couple of horn sections for it and we recorded it.

I sent it to Rod for approval and said what do you think? I said hey Rod what do you think? I am thinking about releasing this version. Do you like it? He wrote back, yes I love it. How about I sing on it? I was like wow! That is crazy. Of course, that would be fantastic. He ended up singing over the original track that I sent to him.

I thought now I have these newly recorded vocals of Rod and it is too close to sounding like the original, so I should do Read More

All written material, all photographs and all designs are protected by copyright © and patents by the writers, photographers, editors, designers, musicians, songwriters musicians and filmmakers who contribute to Riveting Riffs Magazine or have by consent allowed their work to be exhibited in Riveting Riffs Magazine, and / or Riveting Riffs Magazine and Joe Montague. Use of any material that appears in Riveting Riffs Magazine, without the written permission of the publisher and where applicable other rights holders, is strictly prohibited and is subject to legal action. This includes the reprinting, in whole or in part on the internet, by photocoping, reposting on blogs or other websites or magazines or newspapers that appear in print or quoting more than 200 words of any one composition, on terrestrial radio, internet radio, satellite radio, webcasts or television.