WRIF Virtual Rock Room with Trevor Rabin
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00:00Thank you so much for watching Riff TV. Now this interview is obviously with video, but I don't
00:05interview everybody on Zoom. That's why I put it on my Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast. We talk
00:10to rock artists from all over the genre. So check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown wherever you get
00:15your podcasts. And now to today's video interview. Trevor, an honor and a privilege to talk to you.
00:22How are you? I'm really good. How are you doing? I'm doing great. So the new record drops on October
00:286th, actually a month from today as we record this. It's called Rio. Just real fast, sum up the album
00:36for us. What is this all about? You know, in a nutshell, I had not done a rock record with vocals
00:46for so long. Basically, my last album was outside of band stuff. The last album was
00:5489. And the weird thing is, it doesn't feel like that long ago, because I got into doing
01:03orchestral, well, film scores. And I started thinking I'll do a couple of film scores and
01:11then get back into it. But here I am, many, many years later, with having done 50 films.
01:19And it was like, Jesus, I haven't done a record for so long. I must get into it. Luckily, I
01:25went on the road with Rick Wakeman and John quite recently. I mean, both Rick and I had
01:33a thing after we toured together years ago. So we've got to have a bucket list. We've got
01:38to do this again. And we're dear, dear friends. So we did this tour, which was also going to
01:45be a couple of shows. And just have that to remember it by. It landed up over 200 odd shows.
01:56So my hands were really back in shape as far as playing. And my voice was back in shape. The muscle
02:03was really being worked. And so it was like a perfect storm. And I just, I had a movie I was
02:10finishing and some Jerry Brockheimer. What was a national treasure that, you know, I did the movies
02:17and then there was the TV series. So I did that. And then I thought, OK, I'm not doing another thing
02:22until I get into the album because I'd been writing stuff, but never, never finishing it. So I just
02:29thought, OK, I'm not doing another thing. And the one thing that happened from film is discipline,
02:34because, you know, if you're doing film score, you can't say, oh, I'm going to take a couple of
02:38days off. It's not coming to me. They'll say, oh, we'll get somebody else. So the discipline,
02:45I think, helped. And it had been so long doing it that I felt so completely fresh to do it.
02:52It felt almost like it was my first album. So it was really enjoyable. And the drummer on
03:00one of the tracks, I think one of the greatest drummers ever, Vinnie Kaliuda, said to me,
03:07and it's just in passing, you know, the minute you think about playing, you stop playing. And I
03:15didn't quite get what he was saying. And then I got it. It's like, if you just do, you can really
03:22get going. But if you start thinking about it, oh, I don't know about that note I played four bars
03:27ago. And it's even reading music. You can't ponder on the last bar if you've done it wrong. You've got
03:34to just carry on. So I think that also hit in. Just do this, you know. And I just worked
03:40really, really flat out and never stopped until the album was done. And it was probably,
03:49I mean, everyone, I'm sure, when you're speaking to people, they say, oh, this is my best album.
03:53This is my. So I know that. And then what I will say is that feels as fresh as anything I've ever
04:01done. And I enjoyed this certainly a lot. And of course, the records named Rio after your
04:08granddaughter, the album cover, you painted that, correct? Yeah. It somehow art came up and
04:16I was speaking to Thomas, head of the record company. And he was saying, yeah, I've got to
04:22start thinking of artwork and album cover. And then he just I think he brought up something about
04:32and I said, yeah, I dabble in oils and acrylics and and digital art, my new thing. And he said,
04:39oh, send me some stuff. And it was kind of simple as that. The only the only condition I said is
04:45if you land up in a week where you think, oh, no, this is a terrible idea. I don't like it. We
04:50mustn't use it. You're totally free to fire the artist. Other than that, I said, you know,
04:58it's absolutely whatever you want. So you dropped the first single a few weeks back. A big mistake.
05:04The new single is called Push. Both these songs for any any prog rock fan, especially any yes fan.
05:10This is right in the wheelhouse. What does the rest of the record sound like?
05:15Um, it's it's pretty diverse. I mean, there there are tracks which are I mean,
05:20there's like a country track with a picking chicken guitar. But, you know, it's
05:25it still sounds like something from a record I would make. So I think while demographically
05:34it visits a lot of different areas, I think it's pretty coherent and cohesive in
05:39stylistically of a record that I've I've penned, if you like.
05:46Yeah, I saw it. You're you're thinking. Well, you should have named a demographic nightmare. I saw
05:49that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.
05:53So what is what is harder is recording a record harder is or is doing the music for a movie a score
05:59harder? You know, I I think doing a record is kind of harder because you thinking of the whole package
06:07with a film, you've got it. You've got the script. You've got everything. What's harder about a film
06:12is you working. Well, first of all, you've got to write the themes and the people have to like the
06:18themes and and then those themes have to be attached to different things, different people and different
06:24characters. And even there's a theme for a you might write a particular theme for a chase scene or
06:31or whatever the case may be, and then attach those within kind of a 30th of a second. You know, you
06:38you're writing to frames. The director might say to you, oh, you know, on the third reel, when
06:44when Nicolas Cage opens his eye, I'd like the cue to start as the eye opens. So there's like six frames of
06:52when it opens and which frame would you like. And so you go through that so that you don't have to
06:57worry about with a record. But the inspiration is no less making a record. And obviously
07:05the added bonus is, you know, you've got stories to tell because the film isn't telling them.
07:13You have to come with up with those stories and the lyrics and then sing the damn stuff.
07:18That's right. Yeah. And you do a lot of that. So as far as your movies are concerned, what's
07:24what's your favorite movie that you scored? You know, I think and it's maybe not the most dynamic
07:30or and not the biggest. I think the biggest film I did was either Armageddon or National Treasure or
07:38Bad Boys 2. One of those three was the biggest commercially. But the film I'm proudest, there's two
07:44that I'm really proud of. One didn't do commercially very well. It's yeah. Oh, God, what was it called
07:51now? It's the Philippines war. Oh, God, the the death march. And oh, my goodness, I can't believe
07:59it. But it doesn't matter. The main I think my my most enjoyable and proud I am of the score was
08:06remember the Titans. Oh, OK. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's amazing. That's really cool stuff.
08:11And because you're scoring all these movies and stuff, it probably gives you a little bit of
08:15latitude to kind of do your own thing when you want to. Correct. Yeah. And, you know,
08:20unfortunately, it led to me waiting 34 years, but I'm not waiting again on that. When I finished this
08:27album, something weird happened to me. It's almost like a drug addiction. It's like, I got to do this
08:32again right now. Is there an antidote? So because I wasn't finished. I mean, I finished the album,
08:40handed it in and everything was as you know, it's funny because my guy who assists me on the
08:48he mastered the album is a great guy, Paul Linford. He said to me, because I said to him,
08:53shit, you know, the there's the right symbol on the chorus of toxic. It's not loud enough. It should
09:01be louder. And he listened to it. And then he called me up and he said, you've just finished
09:07mastering the record. It's done. Let it go. And he was right, you know, and I did let it go.
09:14And I'm really happy with it. Although the weird thing is I can't hear a record once I've handed it
09:19in. I don't really hear it for a couple of months until I'm it's it's fresh again. I still listen to
09:26it because I want to, you know, there might be things I need to do to and videos to make, but
09:32it's, it's, it's, it's a peculiar thing. I don't hear it for a while. And what I do have those I've
09:41got to, you know, I got like cash in my pocket. I want to spend it and that cash is more material.
09:47So I want to do another one. Yeah, there you go. You know, I don't get a chance to talk to many
09:53musicians from your neck of the woods down in Southern Africa, but there is a band called
09:58Seether that we play that those guys came, you know, they came up in the late nineties, early
10:03two thousands. How does it, how does a guy like you discover music back in the day? And what was
10:09your childhood like as far as, you know, discovering music and playing music? Well, I just wrote down
10:14Seether because I want to check that out. I'd never heard of it. Oh, okay. No, that's, that's great.
10:19Um, you know, a lot of the music that, uh, during the apartheid, uh, era was the, a lot of the music
10:28we would get and listen to other than the, the, the, you know, the radio and local stuff, because
10:34there was sanctions and things, some things weren't allowed, but a lot of British rock. So we got very,
10:41very little American rock and the influences on a lot of musicians, you know, like 13, 14 year old
10:49musicians would be, you know, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Hendrix, just, uh, I guess the normal thing that
10:56you would expect anywhere, but bands like Kiss and stuff, just, you never heard of them in South
11:02Africa. Uh, but definitely the British rock invasion, if you like, and obviously the Beatles
11:09and Dave Clark five and stuff like that. I love the Dave Clark five and Jerry and the pacemakers,
11:17but essentially the Beatles. And then, then the rock stuff, uh, the only, um, American rock band,
11:23which, uh, I loved. And, uh, we used to do when I was like a teenager, but we used to do cover
11:31versions of was, um, I've got, what's the band's name? Mark Farner. Um, yeah. Yeah. We used to play
11:39like a 25 minute version of inside looking out because I loved Mark Farner's voice. I thought
11:45he was such a great singer. Yeah. Cause, uh, those guys would tell me that, you know, they were,
11:50they would, they would trade tapes and CDs and the whole thing like that. But I always thought
11:54that was interesting because nowadays in 2023, the world's a lot smaller, isn't it?
11:59Oh yeah. I mean, it's impossible to keep up with everything that's happening. I mean, uh,
12:05one benefit to me is my son's a record producer and he was in a band. I don't know if you've heard of
12:10group love. Yeah. I saw that. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, they had, and he was the producer of the record
12:16and writer, co-writer of the songs and drummer. And, uh, he did, he did such a phenomenal job
12:24producing the first three albums. And then he decided, uh, I want to be a producer and, uh,
12:30he's been producing ever since. And, uh, Keith Urban is one. He produced, uh, BB Rex. It was another
12:36one. And, and, uh, just tons of artists. He's, I mean, he'd left a half an hour ago to go to the
12:42studio. So, but he keeps me in touch with, uh, a lot of the stuff and I keep him in touch with a
12:50lot of things he hasn't heard. Like, uh, today I, the last night I said to him, I don't know what
12:57came, we were watching the tennis and he said, uh, he was talking about something and I said,
13:02have you ever heard weather report? And he said, who? I said, weather report.
13:08And he said, no, I said, probably the greatest bass player ever. Uh, Jaco Pistorius.
13:14And then I played, and then I played in Birdland and he was like, wow, what is this? So now
13:19it's in his car, you know, he's listening to weather, but what's it called? Bad weather or
13:23whatever the album was called. Yeah. Jaco during the pandemic, I watched a documentary about him.
13:29He was, he was unreal, man. He's there's, I, I, you know, everyone talks about Hendrix of being
13:36the unique thing. I think Jaco was an equal, at least to Hendrix as far as, uh, listen, and
13:44musically is way advanced of just about anyone, including Hendrix, but he, he was just so phenomenal
13:51Jacka, you know, but what about Chris Squire? Oh, Chris, you know, I got to say, you know,
13:58having, I mean, I've played with a lot of people and listen on my third solo album, Jack Bruce
14:04was the bass player. I've had, you know, I, I haven't had slouches playing, you know, playing
14:08behind me and having Chris Squire playing bass behind you is like having a bulldozer. You
14:14know, you can't relax. How I met Chris was, I was writing an album, which basically was
14:20the material on 90125. And, uh, I'd finished, you know, Owner of Lonely Heart Changes, a bunch
14:28of the tracks on there. And, uh, I was on a development deal with Geffen Records and, uh,
14:35cut a long story short, six months in, I get a call and I think they're saying, Oh yeah,
14:41we're going to have lunch next week. Can you come? But it wasn't, it was them saying,
14:45hi, it's Sunset from Geffen. I just want to let you know you've dropped. And the phone
14:49went down. It was pretty boom. And it's like, okay, well, I've just spent all the money I
14:57made from producing Manfred Mann years ago to build a studio. I've got a mortgage. So
15:04what do I do now? And Matt Lang, who was a good friend of mine and producer said to me,
15:09um, foreigner looking for a keyboard player. And I thought I got to do something. So I flew
15:15and I rehearsed with foreigner for a while and Mick Jones called me and said, look, if
15:19you want this, let me know. But I've just listened to your album and, and, uh, you should
15:26be playing guitar and you ain't doing it in my, in my band, which was the sweetest compliment,
15:31you know, and he's been a friend ever since, but, um, I didn't do that. And, and then I sent tapes
15:39out trying to get a record deal. And I only had two offers. One was from RCA and, uh, a guy called
15:46Ron Fair who thought owner of Lonely Heart was a smash. He's the first person who said to me,
15:50that's a smash song. And one other company was interested and, but I had a lot of rejects.
15:58I got a rec, uh, uh, uh, I got a letter from Clive Davis, you know, long before emails and stuff,
16:04got a letter from Clive Davis saying, while we feel your voice has top 40 appeal, we feel the song
16:11owner of Lonely Heart is far too left field for the marketplace today. So three years later,
16:17I took a Polaroid and sent a picture of the billboard to, to Clive. Not that he has to
16:22worry. He's had pretty good, pretty good success. And a pretty good track record, right? A little
16:27bit. Yeah. But yeah. And the other, the, the other thing is Phil Carson, who was a great record
16:34guy from Atlantic said to me, look, I've just listened to your stuff. I think what might work
16:40great for you is to put a band together with this material and with you as the singer.
16:47And just do this with Chris Squire and Alan White. And I said, well, I don't know them.
16:53He said, well, let me go to London. I'll send you to London, meet up with them. And Chris
16:58got the tape and he said, oh yeah, I'd like to meet this guy. And it was very kind. And
17:03of course, Chris turned up at the meeting late, which he never, ever did. I mean, I, I suggested
17:09on his tombstone, they say the late Chris Squire, but he became seriously. And I know
17:19we all say he's like a brother to me. Chris was literally like a brother to me. He was,
17:25he, he became a real confidant and such a close friend. And on stage, he was even closer.
17:31We had such a rapport on stage and I miss him. You know, he, he was a tremendous guy
17:37to play with. And, uh, there were a couple of times during the nineties where he, he said
17:43to me, come back to the band. But at that point I was so involved in film scoring that, you
17:49know, Mike, I think my agents might've put a hit on me, you know, so it wasn't going to
17:54happen. But, uh, yeah, the devastating when Chris passed away, one of the greatest ever,
18:00you know, and, uh, yes, it was such a, and obviously in the seventies, but in the eighties,
18:05they, it just, it just cranked up the machine. It was like, it was like, you guys were all
18:10over the radio. I mean, just hit after hit after hit is unbelievable.
18:14You know, Chris was such a, he had such a dry cynical sense of humor, but in the sweetest
18:20way. And I'll never forget when owner hit number one, Chris came up to me, he had a
18:26couple of drinks and I had, and he said to me, he shook my hand. I said, what's that
18:30for? And he said, I just want you, I wanted to thank you for revitalizing the entire back
18:35catalog of years. I said, you bastard. I said, do I get any? And he said, no.
18:46Hey, a couple more things here for you. We'll cut you loose. I really appreciate the time.
18:50Uh, what is it like for a kid from South Africa to be inducted into the rock and roll hall
18:54of fame? Um, if I'm not mistaken, it's the first time ever. And I was, it was my manager
19:02had said to me, you should really mention that. And I absolutely, I just forgot to mention
19:07it, you know, when I was saying thank you. Uh, but it was hard to think of too much because
19:14Rick's speech was so incredibly funny, you know, kind of took all of us by surprise,
19:21but yeah, it was, it's, it's amazing. I mean, what an honor. It was just an amazing honor.
19:26Although it was so long, it was like, Oh God, when does this end? But thank you so much.
19:32Yeah. That's a, that's unreal. Um, by the way, I see you wearing a titleist hat every now
19:36and then are you a golf fan? My brother is okay. Uh, and, uh, that's his hat. He gave
19:43that to me, but he's, I mean, all my friends are avid golfers. And if we go for dinner with
19:51the wrong friends, I got nothing to say. Cause I'm sitting there listening to, yeah, we should
19:56have used, um, I, I, I supposed to use a wood on that. And it's like wood means different
20:01things to me. All right. The first single you released off the record is called big
20:06mistakes. I'll ask you a final question. What was your biggest mistake? Um, my, my biggest
20:14mistake, uh, God, what was the biggest mistake? Um, I think my biggest mistake was, was waiting
20:23too long to move out of South Africa. Um, because I was so, I was, um, urging to get out and play
20:33in England and then in America. And, um, but I still had fun in South Africa with the band,
20:41but the politics were just really a little bit, uh, unacceptable to say the least.
20:49Well, Rio comes out on October 6th. Uh, Trevor, uh, once again, it's an honor to talk to you
20:55big fan and, uh, uh, uh, just, uh, I can hardly wait to check out the rest of this. Like I said,
20:59big mistake and pusher out right now and October 60, uh, rest of the album drops. So Trevor,
21:04good luck with everything. And we appreciate, uh, talking to us.
21:06All right, man. Great talking to you. We'll do it again. I hope.