Interview: Last Chance Talk Debut Album
Where did the inspiration for the album come from?
When we started writing the songs for the album, we didn’t have any pre-conceived starting point of what the album would or should be about. That said, we started writing just around the time of the initial COVID lockdown, and that certainly colored everything! It was a very dark time for everyone including us. The song Sick of it All, for example, came directly out of the frustration of that period, and it was about that topic.
But it was a dark time in other ways, too. In addition to COVID, we were all going through other personal problems as well. So everything we were going through — every stressor — all the anger, pain, and loss went directly into the songs. Our songs are mostly about real-life pain. For example, Anything but That is a very literal song about the pain of losing my father – horribly – to Alzheimers in 2021. It doesn’t get much darker than that one!
When we finished writing the songs, we realized we’d created a pretty dark album. One reviewer called our songs soul-crushing, heartbreaking, anger anthems from men who’ve seen too much, and have had enough. That’s a pretty accurate take! We put Tough Titty on the album just to add some humor and a slightly lighter mood to an otherwise dark album.
How did you find the process of making the album?
SLOW! The album took two years to make. We had two major hurdles. The first, as mentioned, was COVID. That meant for about a year, we couldn’t get together in the same room to work. Beyond that, all of us live in different cities. I (guitarist/songwriter/producer), Dave, live in Brooklyn, (singer) Frankie Rage lives in Miami, and (bassist/coproducer) lived in DC, but moved to LA during the making of the album. So all of the songwriting, arrangement, and pre-production demos were done over Zoom. At times, I was in Brooklyn, literally producing Frankie’s demo vocals as he cut them in Miami, over Zoom in real-time. That was slow.
Tracking the instruments was less of an issue. Our drummer Jordan, would listen to the demos and replace the drum machine drums with live drums in his studio. From there, I’d track guitars and Rob would add bass to Jordan’s drums. Each from our own studios. By the time we were ready to track vocals, the COVID lockdown had relaxed, and Frankie and Rob were finally able to join me in my studio in Brooklyn where we tracked final vocals in person.
Once all the instruments and vocals were finally tracked, producing the album presented Rob and I with another set of technical challenges to overcome. Traditionally, when you’re mixing songs, if more than one person is doing that work, they both have to be in the same mixing room, hearing the same playbacks, through the same monitors to reach any kind of consensus on what they’re hearing. But we had to do all of that remotely too. Fortunately, we found a couple of products that helped us stream the exact output from my studio in NYC to Rob in LA so we could be sure we were both hearing exactly the same mix.
None of this was perfect, or ideal, but it did let us slowly progress remotely. That said, I think that if we’d all lived in the same area, and hadn’t had to deal with COVID, we could have probably made the album in one year rather than the two years it took.
Is there a message behind the album? What do you hope listeners take from it?
Well we talked about it being dark, but there isn’t necessary one, over-arching message, except perhaps that for most people, life ain’t easy!
No one in this band is a kid. These songs come from adult experience, and deliver an adult perspective. Frankie and I wrote all the songs. We’ve both lived a lot, experienced a lot, and I think that comes across in the lyrical content. At the end of the day, we think it’s an honest album, with songs about the human condition, filled with real, raw emotions that we hope most people will be able to relate to.
Musically, we hope listeners will find the songs catchy, and hope they (and other musos) will enjoy the musicianship, too. Reviewers have been very kind in praising the vocals, the guitar riffs and solos, but our rhythm section never gets enough love! I hope people will hear how great Rob’s bass lines and Jordan’s drum grooves are on the album. They’re both amazing, and they created the foundation for everything.
Which artists are you listening to at the moment?
I can only speak for myself, but I’m pretty old-school and don’t listen to much newer music. It’s usually classic rock, heavy rock, or melodic metal for me. Yesterday I was listening to the Stones. Today it’s the Scorpions.
Which of your influences would you have dinner with? What would you want to ask them?
Good question. There are folks whose music I enjoy a lot, who I think would just be fascinating people to talk to about non-musical topics. Mick Jagger, for example, who can speak very eloquently about virtually any topic you’d care to bring up. Sammy Hagar — because no one has more fun than Sammy, and he and I are into similar hedonistic pleasures. Bruce Dickinson — the most interesting man in Rock!
But on the music side, as big an influence as he’s been on my guitar playing, and songwriting, I think I’d love to talk to Jimmy Page about music production. Because Jimmy the producer has been just as influential on me as Jimmy, the guitar player and songwriter.
Do you have any upcoming projects on the horizon?
Last Chance are slowly ramping up to do a follow-up album. We’ve got the first three songs in the early demo stage. As with the first album, it’s going to take a while to write the rest of the songs, but once we have them, we work faster now than we did in 2020. Hopefully it won’t take as long as the first one.