Guitarist Greg Fraser is probably best known as a member of Canadian band Brighton Rock with whom he released three albums during a ten year period between 1982 and 1992. He also played for Helix for four years in the 90’s. Brighton Rock reformed in 2001 and Fraser also released a couple of albums with Fraze Gang. He now has a new band called Storm Force and they released their debut album “Age of Fear” via Escape Music on 24th January.
I arranged to chat with Greg via Skype on 16th March and we chatted for about 35 minutes about Storm Force and the new album. We also discussed Brighton Rock, Helix, Fraze Gang, Rory Gallagher, the music scene and much more. That interview can be heard on the Friday NI Rocks Show from 20th March which is now available via our MixCloud page - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-greg-fraser-from-storm-force-and-brighton-rock-20th-march-2020/
Check out the band’s website at https://stormforce.ca/
The interview has been typed up and is posted below.
Playlist
OZZY OSBOURNE – Crazy Train
GOTTHARD – Every Time I Die
HEAVY PETTIN – Get Back to You
GASOLINE OUTLAWS – Breathe Again
BRIGHTON ROCK – We Came to Rock
Interview with Greg Fraser Part 1 (10 min)
STORM FORCE – Dirty Vegas
Interview with Greg Fraser Part 2 (6 min)
BRIGHTON ROCK – Young Wild and Free
Interview with Greg Fraser Part 3 (7 min)
STORM FORCE – Breathe
Interview with Greg Fraser Part 4 (11 min)
STORM FORCE – Age of Fear
BRIGHTON ROCK – Hangin High ‘n’ Dry
FRAZE GANG - Jackhammer
TRUCKER DIABLO – When The Waters Rise
BAD WOLVES – Sober
MAGNUS KARLSSON’S FREEFALL – Hold Your Fire
BAD TOUCH – Strut
SWANEE RIVER – Rollin
THE PRETTY RECKLESS – Going To Hell
AMARANTHE – Do Or Die
AD INFINITUM – See You In Hell
OZZY OSBOURNE – Diary of a Madman
NI ROCKS – Hi Greg, thanks for taking some time to talk to Rock Radio NI. Your band Storm Force released their debut album “Age of Fear” at the end of January and we’ll talk more about the album in a moment. First of all though, can you tell us a little about the band itself, when it formed and who is in the band with you?
GREG – Yeah, we formed Storm Force about three years ago. I live in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada and the other three guys in the band are all from really close to me here in Niagara. That was very important for me, compared to my previous band Brighton Rock, where we were a little more spread out. That made it really difficult to get together for rehearsals and to write songs; even the little stuff like having a band meeting and stuff like that. I found that having local guys. It’s fantastic! We can get together every single week, even just for a coffee; to talk and write songs or record.
The guys in the band – we have Patrick Gagliardi, he’s our lead singer. He’s a fantastic singer – I think he is one of the best singers in Canada. We’ve got Brian Hamilton on drums and Mike Berardelli on bass. They’re really fantastic players and we’re really lucky to find guys who are so good, being so local and so close to me. I’m extremely happy about that. We got the band together three years ago with the idea of making a record, but it was a casual approach. Every week we’d chip away at it and see what happens. There were no big illusions of anything.
Then, to make a long story short, Escape heard some of our songs; we’d approached them, and they loved them and they said let’s do this record right now. We weren’t really prepared to do it right away, but luckily enough we were about nine or eight songs in, so we only had a couple more to finish off. Which was a good thing, because this could have dragged on for another year or two the way we were going. It was just so casual, just having fun, having a few beers and making some music; but once Escape got onboard everything became more real. We’re really glad to be a part of Escape Music and the end result is what you hear my friend.
NI ROCKS – Where was the album actually recorded and who did you work with in terms of production, mixing etc?
GREG – The album itself was recorded at our drummer’s house. He’s an audio engineer; that’s his full time job when he’s not making records and stuff. He does live sound for a lot of big bands and stuff like that. He has his own recording studio at his house and the beauty of that is he lives ten minutes from my house. It was really awesome that we could do that. Then we got a guy named Darius Szczepaniak – he’s from Toronto and works in a legendary recording studio in Toronto called Phase One Studios where Triumph and Rush and a lot of big Canadian bands made their most famous records. That’s his full time job – he mixes records and jingles – he’s the guy that mixed the record and really brought it to life. The combination of Brian and Darius – we can be really proud of what the end result is.
NI ROCKS – When did you actually start working on the tracks on the album and who was involved in the writing process?
GREG – I write all the music and the vocal melodies. That’s usually the first step. I’ll have a song idea and I’ll have vocal melodies – I’ll know what I want the singer to sing, but I don’t have words written down. I’ll have a chord progression and then I’ll kinda hum what I want the vocals to be. That’s the way I write a lot of songs – I’ll have vocal melodies first, before I even have a guitar riff a lot of times. I’ll just be driving along and hear these vocal melodies – the ones that stick with me a lot, that I can’t get out of my head; I’ll make sure that I record that and work from there. Then I might get a basic drum pattern, like a little basic beat on a drum machine, no drum rolls or nothing, just that. I’ll have a tempo and I’ll lay some chords on top of that and maybe a basic bass line and then I’ll lay a vocal melody on top of that. Then I’ll bring it to the guys and say here’s a song idea I’ve got – here’s the vocal melody, a basic drum pattern, a basic bass. These guys being the pros that they are, they’ll put their own stamp on it. Pat will write the words and it takes on a life of its own. That’s the way I’ve been doing it. That’s the way I used to do it with my old band Brighton Rock and it seems to be working pretty good.
NI ROCKS – I’ve noticed that the band had a few gigs mentioned on it’s social media pages. What plans does the band have in terms of touring to support the release of the album? Although those may have changed with the current coronavirus outbreak.
GREG – Well, yeah, we’re kind of in limbo. Our next show is in five weeks and even that we’re thinking is this show even going to happen. Our Prime Minister, two hours ago, just announced that people from Europe, no one is allowed into our country, unless you’re a diplomat. Americans are still allowed in, but if you’re coming from Europe, the UK, it’s not happening for now. It’s kind of a scary situation. It’s funny because the president of our company (Escape Music), Khalil – one of the songs on our record, the second song is called “Age of Fear” and he thought that was a great title for the record, because the way things are now, people are living in an age of fear. Sure enough it has become a reality. The whole world is in fear right now. It doesn’t help that a lot of people, in the press, say everything gets blown out of proportion; who knows how bad this really is! As for live shows; we’ve got a couple of offers and we’re just like, let’s just wait and see how this unfolds. We’re going to wait for two or three weeks and start weighing up some of the offers and see if they’re worth pursuing. It’s kind of wait and see! It’s probably the same where you are?
NI ROCKS – Yeah, most of the American and Canadian tours are cancelled and all the local gigs are cancelled here too now.
GREG – What a shame!
NI ROCKS – Would you like to bring the band to Europe at some stage once all this has settled down?
GREG – Oh, absolutely. That’s where I’ve always wanted to play my whole life. All my favourite bands are like UK bands. One of my guitar players is Rory Gallagher – Ireland’s own. And Thin Lizzy. I’d love to go back there. When I was in Brighton Rock we were lucky enough in 2012 and 2013 to do the Firefest Festival two years in a row. This new band, Storm Force, it would be an honour to be invited to some of those big festivals over in Europe. In Canada especially they try to do some of those big festivals but they never happen. They end up getting cancelled or they’re really poorly attended. I don’t know what it is, in the UK and Europe you guys seem to have that down really good. It seems to be successful most of the time, year after year. To answer your question once again, we’d be honoured to play there, it would be an absolute pleasure for us.
NI ROCKS - The latest video to be released was for “Dirty Vegas” and we’ll play that track now. Can you tell us a little about that song?
GREG – Sometimes, like I said, when I’m writing songs I’ll have a vocal melody but there are no words. When I’m looking at my list of songs they have no titles, just numbers. So I’ll just make up song titles, just so I know which each song is, and I’ll tell the singer here’s the title of the song, feel free to change it, I just needed something to reference. That was one of those. I don’t know where I heard it – “Dirty Vegas”. It’s about Las Vegas and I said change the name, and he said no I love the name. The song is basically about the seedy life of Vegas – how it’s all glitz and glamour, but there’s a real seedy part that’s real naughty, which is alluring to a lot of people also. Some people want to go for that. It’s just a straight-up, balls-out rocker, talking about Las Vegas. We love it, and that’s our first real video. Our first single off the record, “Because of You”, was a lyric video, but this is the first video off the record where you can see what we actually look like and it gives you a little taste of what you’re going to see when you see us live.
NI ROCKS – Your big break musically was of course with Brighton Rock back in the 80’s. I actually picked up a vinyl copy of the debut album “Young Wild and Free” in a record shop a couple of weeks ago. What are your over-riding memories from the period when you were recording and releasing that album?
GREG – We were young kids, like 22 years old back then. That was 1985 when we recorded that. That was a dream come true. When you’re a young kid, or teenager, you’re dreams are of making a record or stuff like that. Back then, it’s not like now when everyone has Garageband and anyone can record their own record at home and release it on their own. You couldn’t do that back then. You had to go to a real recording studio and a record company had to sign you so that you had the privilege of getting vinyl, or later on CDs or something like that. The fact that we got a record deal was a dream come true. Working with the legendary Michael Wagener; who at the time wasn’t as well known yet. Our record was before Skid Row came out or Extreme came out. A lot of those big bands that he became known for; their records weren’t even released yet. We had a blast making that record.
We recorded that in Toronto at Phase One Studios, the same one that we did this record with. But we got to mix it in Amigo Studios down in Los Angeles. That’s the same studio where Van Halen did their first two or three records. The thing about that recording studio, which is the same as Phase One Studio in Toronto; there’s two studios, Studio A and Studio B. But the lounge itself, if you want to take a break, there’s only one lounge and only one kitchen. So if we’re in one studio and there’s another band in the other studio, sooner or later you will see each other. You get bored being in the studio so you’ll go watch a movie or something in the lounge. Sure enough, David Lee Roth from Van Halen would come in and you’re like ‘oh my god, there’s David Lee Roth’. I’m a young kid from Canada, we don’t get to see rock stars and movie stars like that, ever! Down in Los Angeles they see that all the time. The next day, Ronnie James Dio comes by; ‘oh my god, I can’t believe this; can i get a picture with you?’ I got to hang with him for almost half an hour. He actually made me a coffee! A few days later Alice Cooper is there! This is blowing my mind! Little stuff like that and we got to stay right on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip for the whole time that we were there. That was in the mid ‘80’s when Sunset Strip and the Boulevard, LA and Hollywood was just alive! We got to experience all that when it was really at its peak and looking back it’s probably one of the most fun times that I’ve had in my life. It was all new and fresh and you weren’t really aware of all the downfalls of the music business yet as that was still to come. Getting ripped off and this and that! The time was just so exciting and I look back at it with extreme fondness.
NI ROCKS – Brighton Rock split in 1992 after releasing three albums. There have been a few reunions since then. What is the current position with Brighton Rock?
GREG – We basically broke up in 1992 and after that I joined a band called Helix for three or four years. Every once in a while we get an offer to do a charity show as Brighton Rock, so we do one. Other than that, the band is not a full time band. We tried to make a record a while ago and it just didn’t happen. Every once in a while since 2012 when we played the Firefest Festivals; since then every year we do maybe two or three shows a year, but that’s it. We’re not going to go on tours because the band itself – everybody is so scattered, they all lead different lives now. Our singer in Brighton Rock, he has his own record pressing company in Canada. It’s one of the biggest. When you get a vinyl record it’s pressed by his company. It’s extremely, extremely successful and that takes up all his time. It’s impossible to get us together; never mind to make a new record, but even to rehearse for a show is almost impossible. It’s really tough. It’s not that we’ll never play again, but it’s tough. Going forward it’ll be just like that. Maybe doing the odd show here and there. We haven’t done a show since we did the Monsters of Rock Cruise which was a little over a year ago, at the end of February going into March. We do get lots of offers but we have to turn them all down which is really sad. I still love that band. That’s my heart and soul I put into that band and we all still love each other like brothers. But that’s what it is. Once in a while you might get to see us, but other than that my total focus now is on Storm Force.
(Sadly, Brighton Rock vocalist Gerry McGhee died from cancer in August 2020, about five months after this interview was recorded.)
NI ROCKS – You mentioned there that you played for Helix for a while during in the 90’s. That was quite a difficult time for the band probably. Do you regret not getting the opportunity to release an album with Helix?
GREG – It’s funny! When I joined the band, the singer, Brian (Vollmer), was trying to put a solo record out. He didn’t use anybody in the band Helix. He got a guy from New York City called Mark Ribler and they made a fantastic record. When he went to shop the record the one record company that was going to sign him said I love this record, but there is no name power with just your name Brian Vollmer. If you want us to sign you you’re going to have to call this Helix and he said Ok let’s do it. Then I joined the band and the album itself was called “It’s A Business Doing Pleasure”. I get credit on the record and you’ll see my picture on the record; I get credit for playing guitars, but behind the scenes I didn’t play one note on that record. None of us did. The Helix guys got all the credits but we didn’t play on the record.
I don’t really regret not being part of it. I knew that when I was going in. When I joined Helix they said they were looking for a hired guy so I knew what I was getting myself into when I joined the band. I wasn’t going to be a permanent member of the band, just a hired gun and I was totally ok about that. Helix has a way of doing things and it has been very successful for them all these years and decades later. I’ve got a way of doing things also and if I has stuck with Helix there would be no Storm Force. It worked out for all of us. I love those guys in Helix and I wish them all the best, but Storm Force is my number one priority right now and I couldn’t be happier with it.
NI ROCKS – Just moving forward slightly; yourself and Brighton Rock bass player Stevie Skreebs formed a band called Fraze Gang and released an album in 2008 and another in 2012 I think. What led you to start that project and are we likely to see anything further from it?
GREG – I’ve always been a song-writer. That’s how we got our record deal in Brighton Rock. I wrote 99.9% of every song that Brighton Rock did – that you hear on all those records. When the band broke up I just continued to write songs. It’s not like I forced myself – sometimes it’s a blessing and sometimes it’s a curse. I’ve always got these songs buzzing around in my head all the time and I don’t know what to do with them; so I keep jotting them down and recording them. After a while they start to accumulate and I think it’s a shame I’ve all these songs – it’s like a painter who keeps making all these paintings and they just sit in his room and nobody gets to look at all these paintings! That’s the way I feel with my music. I get to point that I feel that I’ve got to start doing something.
Being that Brighton Rock was no longer and I wasn’t in Helix anymore, I thought let’s make a new record. So I tried auditioning some singers but couldn’t find anybody that I could vibe with so I thought I’m going to record myself singing it with the intention of getting someone else to come back in later to re-do my vocals. Once the record was done the guys said I think what you’ve done is great man and I was like – Really! I’m pretty self-conscious about my vocals, but the guys were happy with it so we released another record. It was pretty successful on a smaller level and then we did another one. It was great, but I really did miss having a lead vocalist; where I could just hang in the back, play my leads and have some fun and let the singer do his thing. I found when I was playing live with Fraze Gang that it was very tough for me to be a frontman and be guitar player. It was too much for me. I wasn’t used to it and I didn’t have as much fun – rather than just being a guitarist. That’s why I made sure when I did the next record that it wasn’t going to be like Fraze Gang – I had to get a lead vocalist in the band and thank god we got Patrick Gagliardi because he really knows how to do that.
NI ROCKS – Both those Fraze Gang albums are available to download, so I thought we’d play a track from one of them later on in the Show. Do you have a favourite track from those albums?
GREG – Off the first record the song “Jackhammer”. That was the lead song off the first record. It’s mixed by Beau Hill who mixed the entire second record. Beau Hill is a very famous producer back from the 80’s – he did Winger, Warrant and I think he might have done Slaughter. He did a lot of big, big bands. We were lucky enough to have him help us out and we were really impressed with the sound that he gave us. I really like that song “Jackhammer” off the first album. If for some reason you can’t find it – off the second record we’ve got another one called “Juggernaut” – I like that one also. They’re both heavy, party songs. Either one of those is fine with me my friend.
NI ROCKS – Getting back to the Storm Force album. We’ll play another track from it. Do you want to pick one this time and tell us something about it?
GREG – Maybe “Breathe”. We’re starting to get a lot of attention with that song. It’s more of a moody song and it’s a duet with a really well known singer around where we live here in Niagara Falls. Her name is Serena Pryne and she has a group called The Mandevilles and they have a couple of records out here in Canada. She’s a fantastic singer. The song itself – we recorded it and it was all finished and for some reason I messaged our singer saying what do you think of having a girl singing the second verse – like doing a duet – to give the record a different flavour. Right away he was – no man, I love what I sang on that second verse, don’t touch it, I love it! I said what you sang on that second verse is incredible, but let’s just try it for the heck of it. If it doesn’t work we’ve got your version which is fantastic. He said ok and she came in and just nailed it. I said to Pat, what do you think and he says I’ve gotta admit I like it; and now that’s his favourite song on the record because of that. It really adds a different flavour and dimension to the record and like I said it’s more of a moody song. It kinda stands out on its own and I think it has some guts to it. It’s got a hard edge to it and I really like it. We’re told that it has a European sound – whatever that means; so I guess we don’t sound Canadian on that one (laughs).
NI ROCKS – “Age of Fear” has obviously just been released, but have you given any thought to a follow up album?
GREG – Yes, for sure. We’ve got some songs; not finished, but that we’ve been putting aside – ok, that’s a good one, let’s make sure we look at that one! Right now our concentration is rehearsing for our next show – if it does happen, because of the whole coronavirus thing. But, we’re definitely doing another record. We had no idea what to expect when this record was released because we’re such a new band and there is a lot of new bands releasing records. But the response has been overwhelming. Critical acclaim everywhere – it’s like wow! This is amazing. So it’d be a shame not to follow that up with another record and the guys in the band – I was lucky enough to release some records with Brighton Rock and even Fraze Gang, but the other guys in the band have never had a chance to make records on a worldwide scale before. Now they’re seeing all these different reviews – from Japan, Germany, the UK, you name it – all these different countries – they’re like oh my god this is so exciting. Now they’re really amped up to do something – c’mon let’s get going – I’m yeah, yeah, ok let’s do it! Everybody is really excited. We’ll definitely do a second record but I’m not sure how long it’s going to take. We’re going to make sure that it’s right – we’re not going to rush it by trying to capitalise on the momentum that we have now – it would be stupid to rush something and have something that is half-assed. To answer your question – yes we’re definitely going to make another Storm Force record.
NI ROCKS – You mentioned Rory Gallagher earlier and I was doing some research on your website – actually the Brighton Rocks website – and there’s a Q&A on it that mentions that the first gig you went to was Rory Gallagher supporting The Doobie Brothers. What was it that actually inspired you to pick up the guitar? Was it Rory or was it something else.
GREG – Well, Rory definitely. There was a song he had – I have a whole bunch of his records – there was one song “Messin’ With The Kid”. That song - the live version of that - the guitar lead in that song is unbelievable. To this day I’ll play it for people and say what do you think of this and they’ll say who is that! This was back in 1973 or something – it’s crazy how long ago it was. Before Stevie Ray Vaughan and all these other well known blues players that you hear of now. This is before Gary Moore and all that stuff. We had these TV shows – are you familiar with Johnny Carson and stuff like that? (Yes) Ok, well there were other shows like Johnny Carson - you had the Mike Douglas Show, the Merv Griffin Show – they’d have an actor come on, a comedian and then they’d have musical artists once in a while. Being a young kid, every once in a while you’d see Rory Gallagher come on. I wasn’t crazy about his lead vocals so much, but when he started going on the guitar it was like oh my god, who the heck is this guy? How come we’ve never heard of this guy before? So I always took note of that and when I started learning how to play guitar that was one of my go-to guys – Rory Gallagher, Richie Blackmore, Jimmy Page.
When I was in Grade 7 he was coming to Niagara Falls, New York, which is – this is a border town – it’s America. Niagara Falls, Ontario is where I live. He was coming with the Doobie Brothers and I was like, oh my god, I’ve got to see Rory, I’ve got to see the Doobie Brothers, lets go! So that was the first concert that I ever paid to see with my own money. That was a blast. It was such a shame that he passed away. A lot of young people today, they have no idea who he is. I still like waving the flag and letting everybody know – if you think Stevie Ray Vaughan is the man or Robin Trower or all these guys – go check out this guy – this guy is the real deal. If you look it up on YouTube you’ll see even Brian May from Queen bows down to Rory Gallagher. It just goes to show! I’m just giving credit where credit is due – Rory is the man; always will be.
NI ROCKS – I’m not sure when the Q&A on that Brighton Rock website was done but it mentions that the last album you bought was “Rise Up” by W.E.T. – which was 2013. So what is the last album that you bought now?
GREG – The last one that I paid for would be the very latest Whitesnake one. Before that I got the Rival Sons record and I bought The Struts – I bought both The Struts records. Also, Judas Priest’s “Firepower”. Those are the bands that I don’t want to listen to the MP3 – I want the actual CD – I want to hear it the way that it was meant to be heard. I still believe in real sound – in CDs. The kids today don’t know what that is anymore. They don’t care about sound quality. When my favourite band has a new record out I still go and support it – I’ll pay for it and I don’t care if it’s an import or not.
NI ROCKS –Do you tend to listen to the classic rock bands or do you listen to a lot of new bands too?
GREG – I listen to everything. I like to keep up with the new bands. I’ll look at all the magazines and online websites and I’ll keep track of everything. If people are saying this band is fantastic, I’ll think really? And I’ll go and check them out. A lot of these bands that are coming out of Sweden – like H.E.A.T. and Eclipse and I mentioned W.E.T. which is the combination with Jeff Scott Soto. When Brighton Rock got to play Firefest a lot of the bands on there are really big bands in Europe but in Canada they’re totally unknown – the headliner one night was Gotthard. I’d never heard of them before and I’m ashamed to say that, but in Canada they’re just not known – they’re not in the magazines here, they’re not on the radio here, they’re not on video. They’ll literally totally unknown. I was thinking who are these bands and why are they headlining and then when I saw them live I was like – Ok I get it, these guys are fantastic. I definitely keep my ear to the ground to see what is new. There’s another band that I just came across – Crashdiet – that’s another band. I guess they’ve a bunch of records out, but they are brand new to me. Their latest record is fantastic. But I still like my classic rock – I still love UFO, Michael Schenker, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Bad Company and all that stuff. That’s my DNA, that’s the stuff I’ll never give up on – Thin Lizzy and stuff like that. What about you – what’s your new bands that you like.
NI ROCKS – I’m a big Gotthard fan as well – they’re not new. We were supposed to be going to see them in London in May, but whether that is cancelled now or not I don’t know! Crazy Lixx who are another Swedish band - I’m big into them.
GREG – I’ve heard that name, but I’m not sure if I’ve heard their songs yet. I’ll definitely check them out though.
NI ROCKS – And a lot of local bands here that you probably wouldn’t have heard of. On the Show I’ll always play three or four local bands to make sure that they get in there too.
GREG – Yeah!
NI ROCKS – As far as I’m aware “Age of Fear” hasn’t been released on vinyl yet. Is that something you’d like to see and how do feel about the whole vinyl revival in recent years?
GREG – I would love it to be on vinyl and it would be fantastic if it got released on vinyl. I miss vinyl. Back in the day vinyl had a certain thing to it – this is before we had computers, satellite TVs, iPhones. You put a vinyl record on and you watched the record – there were no distractions. I don’t know if it’s just me but I still think that it sounds better than a lot of the CDs. It sounds warmer and doesn’t sound so brittle and abrasive sometimes compared to CDs and stuff like that. I think that the revival is a really cool thing. Some people think that it is just a novelty, but I don’t know man. It’d be great if it made a huge, huge comeback. I’m hearing rumours that they’re starting to outsell CDs – that’s a good thing. I can’t see how that is happening, but if it is that is great. The fact that it still exists! I miss having big album covers. You put your vinyl record on and sit there with the cover in your hand and you look at the cover. Album covers were a work of art back then. I remember that one “Demons & Wizards” by Uriah Heep – I thought that cover was amazing. Now, you see it shrunk down on a CD copy it kinda loses all its lustre you know! Stuff like that – I miss that on the vinyl. I hope it sticks around. It seems to be doing good but time will tell if the teenagers of today are going to carry on with it.
NI ROCKS – That’s all the questions that I have for you, but we’ll finish by playing two more tracks. One from Brighton Rock and I’ll let you pick any track and then one more from “Age of Fear”.
GREG – For Brighton Rock maybe play “Hangin’ High n Dry” off the second record. That seems to be a pretty popular song. And then for Storm Force, maybe the song “Age of Fear” – the title track. It kinda speaks a lot to what is going on in this world right now.
NI ROCKS – It does indeed. Thanks very much for talking to me.