American singer James Durbin is my guest on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 26th February 2021, talking about his new album “The Beast Awakens”. I last spoke to him in 2017 when he had just joined Quiet Riot. That association ended in 2019 and he is now back with a new solo album under the name Durbin. “The Beast Awakens” was released by Frontiers Music on 12th February and the Show also features four tracks from that album.
The Show is now available now from the NI Rocks MixCloud Player - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-james-durbin-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-26th-feb-2021/
The interview has been transcribed and posted below.
TRUCKER DIABLO – Born Trucker
ROBIN MCAULEY – Standing on the Edge
SUNBOMB – No Tomorrows
NATURAL BORN MACHINE – Moonchild
LEE AARON – Metal Queen
SCORPIONS – Lovedrive
OZZY OSBOURNE – The Ultimate Sin
DURBIN – Kings Before You
Interview with JAMES DURBIN Part 1 (11 min)
DURBIN – Into The Flames
Interview with JAMES DURBIN Part 2 (7 min)
DURBIN – By The Horns
Interview with JAMES DURBIN Part 3 (12 min)
DURBIN – The Beast Awakens
RAINBOW – Stargazer
JUDAS PRIEST – A Touch of Evil
MAMMOTH WVH – Distance
HEART HEALER – This Is Not The End
SARA BALDWIN – Separates Me
LED ZEPPELIN – Kashmir
The previous interview from 2017 can be found here - http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews/3099-ni-rocks-interview-with-james-durbin-from-quiet-riot.html
Check out the website for more information and links - https://www.jamesdurbinofficial.com/
NI ROCKS – Hi James, thanks for taking the time to talk to Rock Radio NI. You’ve just released your latest album called “The Beast Awakens” and that was the first track released a few months ago called “Kings Before You”. What can you tell us about that track?
JAMES – “Kings Before You” is the second chapter. It's the second song on the record. The record begins with the “Prince of Metal” and kind of as an intro to the story of the Prince and who he is and what situation he's in. And “Kings Before You” is a song that I wrote about the Prince being approached by a wizard. A specific wizard, actually! I had a dream that Ronnie James Dio came to me on the dark side of a rainbow and basically told me don't be afraid to make this record. Don't be afraid to write these kinds of songs. Why be afraid? Why attach any fear to this? You're making music. Does it matter what genre it is, what style it is? What era in which you're putting the music out in? No, it doesn't matter. Make the music. Make the record. Do what you love because you love it! And I took that and ran with it. So the lyrics are “Sitting high atop the mountain”, and he's not sitting high above. We're not talking elevation here. We're talking, you're Highness. So he's -
“Sitting high atop the mountain. Over all there is to see.
The dark side of a rainbow - touched the earth beside me.
From the sky descends the Wizard - As he spreads his hands apart.
Manifesting right before me - holding out the sacred heart”
All very much letting you know which wizard this is. This is The Wizard. The returning of the Great Wizard. And after I had written the song, I reached out to my old buddy Chris Jericho and kinda said if you were to hypothetically saying on a kind of a D and D (Dungeons & Dragons) concept, Tolkien kind of concept album; what kind of character would you want to play? And he said either the villain or a wizard. Brother, I just wrote a wizard song (Laughs). So it's in your inbox, and luckily he really enjoyed it and the rest is history.
NI ROCKS – As well as Chris Jericho, Phil Demmel was involved on that track. How did you manage to get him involved?
JAMES - Yeah, Phil, I met through Jericho; actually at a Fozzie concert in San Francisco. We both ended up on stage with Fozzy playing AC/DC's “TNT”. We spoke after the show and exchanged contacts because he lives only about two hours away from where I live. So, I just kind of kept in loose touch with him. And after I had already had Chris locked in for vocals, I thought, you know, why not double up and have a double feature on this song? Because I knew that I wanted to have at least one feature on the record. If I was going to have any more than that, I would definitely want to just limit it to one song, so it was kind of a shot in the dark and I reached out to Phil and he enjoyed the song as well and heard a lot that he could bring to it. And at the time my bass player Barry Sparks had put in kind of a bass solo already in there. So, what Phil was able to do was he brought so much to the song he didn't overplay and only brought to it what it needed and he complimented Barry's base parts in the solo section as well as took his leads where necessary.
NI ROCKS – You recorded most of the guitars on the album as well as obviously doing the lead vocals. You mentioned Barry there on bass, but who else is playing on the album with you?
JAMES - So Barry Sparks on base, Mike Vanderhule on drums from Y&T. Barry Sparks, of course, has played with Dokken, Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Ted Nugent, B’z from Japan. In addition to them and Phil and Jericho, is a bunch of lead guitar player friends of mine - Mark Putnam, John Yadon Jr, Dylan Rose, Nick Gallant and that pretty much rounds out the majority of them. There's also some different little parts and things that were added later and different accents by Jeremy Locke and Ryan Heggum as well as my producer Ellison. He kind of got in there where he wanted (laughs). And then we have Earl Solindo on keys and synths and we have Paul Grimm on pads and waves.
NI ROCKS – The new album is released on 12th February by Frontiers Music. Was that an obvious choice for you in regards to which label to sign to?
JAMES - Frontiers reached out to me in September of 2019. I had just kind of closed the chapter, closed the book on one endeavour and they were the first e-mail in my inbox and said, you know we've enjoyed working with you - as the band that I was with previously; they were signed to Frontiers. But I had never had any interactions with anyone at the label themselves. What they said was we're interested in the idea of you releasing your next solo album through us. And so we talked and we both agreed on classic heavy metal being the direction to go and it's just been so great working with Frontiers. They're there when you need them. But they've got enough on their plate with other artists that they don't kind of helicopter parent, you know around and stay when they don't need to stay. They give you the reins and they put a lot of trust in me to make this album and they were honest with songs that they didn't feel were good enough and where I needed to go back and work on some things. There are 13 songs that I wrote for the album. The 13th track ended up - well, I'd say it's actually the 11th track - ended up being the Japanese bonus song titled “Return Me to the One”, but it's a missing chapter of sorts to be played after “Battle Cry”; but that's for the nerds. (Laughs) The nerds like me. Yeah, it's just been great. It's been absolutely great. They put a lot of faith in me to deliver and we both believe that I delivered.
NI ROCKS – Where was the album actually recorded and who did you work with in terms of production, mixing etc?
JAMES - One of my longest friends, Ellison. Out here in in Santa Cruz, California USA and he manages a music store and so his studio is actually set up in the music store upstairs. So it was great being able to grab different guitars. He sets up guitars and works on guitars there at the shop as well. So anything we wanted to play, you know any amps, any pedals, any mics, any guitars that were there, we kind of had those all at our disposal as well as a lot of the people that played on the record. Paul Grimm, Earl Solindo, Jeremy Locke, Ryan Heggum and Ellison himself were all kind of hanging around or guys that worked there at the shop too. So that was really helpful and really fun. Ellison mixed it. And it was mastered by a good friend of mine named ‘Father’ Rick Vierra of Rocker Studios, whom I've worked with on albums in the past.
NI ROCKS – Your three previous solo albums were released as James Durbin albums. Why was the decision taken to release the new album simply as Durbin, rather than James Durbin?
JAMES - Well, I've done 4 albums before as James Durbin – “Memories of a Beautiful Disaster”, “Celebrate”, “Riot on Sunset” and “Homeland”. There's a distinct difference between the sound of those albums and the sound of this album and what I was going for. And I wanted to rebrand. I wanted to take a break from releasing music as James Durbin. There's a certain expectation I feel with James Durbin music - that it has to be very personal and very self exploring. And I wanted to take that pressure off. I'm kind of tired of writing songs about myself and my issues and my troubles and my problems. So I wanted to write a story about somebody else and their problems which is a lot more fun, if you've been doing the same thing for so long. And also, in all aspects and merchandise, I like designing merch and I want to wear my own merch - like I'm that guy (laughs). I'm that guy that doesn't mind wearing my own bands T-shirt, because I designed it and because I put things on there that I like. But I don't want to wear something that has my full name on it. I don't mind wearing something that has my surname on it because it's other people's surname as well. But in that sense and also I want there to be a distinction between if I make other James Durbin records in the future - to be different in nature, different in style, in form and genre, in content and I really wanted to put this in a category of its own.
NI ROCKS – We’ll play another track from the new album now. Do you want to pick a track and tell us something about it?
JAMES – Well, today is the one year anniversary of the day that I wrote “Into the Flames”. I recalled that today is the one year anniversary of writing that as I just found an Instagram story memory that I posted - something about that I had written a song in the style of Finnish (album) “Love Metal”. I love the band HIM. It was about Samwise Gamgee and his dedication and loyalty to Frodo Baggins as they embark on their quest to take the one ring into the fires of Mount Doom.
NI ROCKS – Covid has obviously had a big impact on live performances. Are there any plans to play some shows in support of the new album at some point once things start to clear up?
JAMES - Yeah, definitely, once things are cleared up we'll put those things into effect and kind of see how everybody feels about it. That's the thing playing in a band also is you have to make sure that everybody is comfortable. But for the time being, no, there's no plans because there's no road to hit. We can't hit the road when there's no road to hit. So when it happens, it'll happen and we just want it to be right. I really want it to be right the first time that these are played live with full band. I don't want it to fall short of my own expectation for what it could be.
NI ROCKS – And in those live shows would you focus on the vocals or would you do guitar as well? What way would you do it?
JAMES - I definitely would not do guitars as well, I definitely only focus on vocals.
NI ROCKS - And any idea who you would want to do it for you?
JAMES - It would consist of people that played on the record, probably depending on who's available, who could quit their job (laughs), or go out on tour. So, definitely, some of the different solo performers that provided leads on the album could be Dylan Rose, Mark Putnam, John Yaden Jr.
NI ROCKS – The Frontiers Music press release talks about a multi-album deal. The first of those has obviously just been released, but when do thoughts turn to working on the next album?
JAMES - We're already working on another album, kind of a group effort, with some other members of different bands that are also on Frontiers, so we're working on that now and I've already begun kind of early songwriting in preparation for a follow up to “The Beast Awakens”.
NI ROCKS – Do you have a fairly distinct process when it comes to song writing or do different tracks develop in different ways?
JAMES - Definitely different ways. I've never found one way to rule them all (laughs). A lot of the songs that were written on “The Beast Awakens”, including the title track, were written through recording voice memos of myself singing a guitar hook. The title track “The Beast Awakens” started off as a voice memo on my phone that went – (voices the tune) - like playing the drums with my voice and like different hits and different things like that. So I took that and I transposed it to my guitar and it just happened to be in Drop D Flat and it just worked perfect.
NI ROCKS – Was there any one track on the album that took that much more time and effort to get it completed the way that you envisioned it?
JAMES - Definitely, I'd say “Evil Eye” took a little longer. I find the songs that take longer are the songs that you start with a melody. So I had written the music and I had sung a melody over it with kind of like scatting lyrics, like zoo, baba dapa dooba (laughs). And it started off like (sings rough lyric) - and you know, I could be singing about anything. Every note was in there, give or take a few differences and not remembering what I had sung in the previous version. But the chorus was really there. I could find the words in the nonsense that I was spewing along with the melody I found – ‘I'll walk through hell alone and swear as long as I'm still breathing, I will live to overthrow the hellion and blind the evil eye’. Like it was all there and I've read and studied that Steven Tyler and Anthony Kiedis, are just a few of the people that have written like that and have found the song within the nothing.
NI ROCKS – We last spoke back in March 2017 when you’d just released the Maps to the Hollywood Scars “Volume One” EP. You’d mentioned at the time that you had ten tracks recorded and that the plan was for two EPs. I don’t think the second EP was ever released. Are those tracks ever likely to appear now?
JAMES - I don't know, it might be in the cards for one day. I feel like on “Volume One” we put the best of what we had on there. There were a couple we kind of rebranded at a certain point and released 2 songs as a different group called The New Strange. And those songs were “Tomorrow Never Comes” and a cover of Benny Mardones's hit “Into the Night”. I feel like that's just kind of where that's going to sit for the time being and one day there might be cause for that to start back up; but for the time being those lines are just kind of closed.
NI ROCKS – You’d mentioned that you’d always liked band name Hollywood Scars. Did you ever consider using that again?
JAMES - It's possible. I don't want to beat a dead horse too often. And I've got enough projects as it is right now and I'd rather put that energy into something that I can more easily attach myself to like my last name (laughs).
NI ROCKS – We’ll get back to the new album again and play another track. Again, can you pick another track and tell us something about it?
JAMES - Yeah, let's go with “By the Horns”. I'm just proud of the song. I remember the day that I wrote it and was working on it. Trying to figure out word play and I just love the word play with some of these songs on the album. Writing poetry and phonetics. How words sound and how you can shape a word to fit –
Entering the chamber. Headed for the door.
Amassed the shadow flayer. Like wings, spread wall to wall.
The deep beneath the chasm. Cold as the tide of death.
A fate that lay before it. When he feels the whip connect.
Fly, Falling faster as he flies
To catch the glowing eyes
And face the overlord
Beyond the edge of fire
Racing for the sword
Dragging down the demon.
By the horns.
NI ROCKS – You rose to fame of course after taking part in season ten of American Idol in 2011. I noticed you shared a video this week of a contestant in the current season, Anilee List, who also suffers from Tourettes. How involved are you still in raising awareness of that condition?
JAMES - Very much so. Definitely, it's taken kind of a back seat due to the current pandemic going on, but before then I really enjoyed doing keynote speeches at conferences and doing outreach programmes to different communities to help people. I've become, in a way, just through pomp and circumstance, I've become the thing that I wished I had growing up; somebody that I could look to and say, you know what, that person's just like me, that person deals with what I deal with. They know what I'm going through, and yet they're there; they're living their dream. And to be that kind of embodiment of something that people can look towards, to live their own dreams and find their own successes, in spite of what they are told they have that limits them is very, very powerful. It keeps me humble, it keeps me very grateful for every opportunity that I have to talk about it and talk to people and tell them that despite what you were diagnosed with by a doctor or a neurologist; despite that, despite the limitations that they've given you and told you what society expects of you and the low bar that you're given you can you can raise that bar, you can raise it tenfold. You can achieve far, far, far beyond what they expect of you. And you don't have to commit to what they've told you that you are and you know it's like anything in society and, especially people with disabilities and so many people out there with disabilities that show that dreams are worth living for. And Anilee is another example of that. I remember I met her at a Tourette's Association event at Disneyland, actually and heard her sing there and got to meet her. And she came to another show of mine but was too young to get in. So she came to soundcheck and we hung out there and kind of caught up and then just last November I got a call from American Idol saying that there's a young woman with Tourette's that you're her inspiration for doing this. And I just said, like on a whim, is her name, Anilee List. And they were like, wait, hold on, we gotta check; yeah, it is. Do you know her? Yeah, I've met her a couple of times. That's just so crazy how 10 years goes by that fast and just the seeds that you planted 10 years ago could be harvesting now in somebody else's dreams and hopes. It's really powerful.
NI ROCKS – You also recently shared some photos from your performance with Judas Priest during the season 10 finale. Does that still rate as one of your biggest musical highlights?
JAMES - It definitely is, absolutely. You saw the pictures recently then. It's the spike studded gauntlet that I still wear and wore for my “Prince of Metal” and “Beast Awakens” press photos. My Judas Priest shirt that I'm wearing in those photos is the same shirt that I wore when I sung on stage with them and the gauntlet and I have the hat in my closet and I just think about that so much; just how great that was and having the opportunity to have somewhat of like a distant like a pen pal relationship with Rob Halford, with one of my favourite singers and someone that's very inspiring to me. You know it’s really like something I love to remind myself about and Rob was really helpful with this album, whether he knows it or not because I was sending him songs as I was writing them and demoing them. He was the first person other than myself and my wife to hear “The Beast Awakens”, the title track. I guess there was a part of me that was hoping that I could get him to sing on a song with me, but he was very, very busy as well. Writing a new Priest album and finishing writing his book and recording the audio book and so many other things. So it's fully understandable, but just the fact that he gave me his time and would listen and would offer, what he thought of the song and just to say great job or you're on the right track, this is really good. And he was one of the first people I sent the finished album to hear the masters and heard back from him. And he said that just a couple days before Christmas how much he enjoyed it and had listened to it several times and so it's really something. I never thought that it would go beyond just playing with them on stage. But we send them Christmas cards every year and he sends me a Christmas text every year and whatever. Christmas jammies, lightsaber pictures or the cactus Christmas tree this year was great. So yeah, it's just been great to keep in touch.
NI ROCKS – During our previous interview we also chatted about your first solo album “Memories of a Beautiful Disaster” which you worked on with producer, writer and Sixx AM frontman James Michael. You mentioned at that time that you’d written a whole load of songs with James for your second album but that they were turned down by the record company. I never actually asked then, so I’ll ask now - what happened to those tracks that they turned down. Did they ever appear elsewhere or are they still sitting there?
JAMES – No, they're still sitting in my e-mail; (laughs) in the saved folder in my e-mail. And now that I listen to them like with hindsight, I'm glad we didn't put those out. I'm very glad for what I learned as a songwriter, but I think that that those songs aren't necessarily like a good representation of me. But you know what I learned as a songwriter and what I gained of the experience of spending time with him; spending three months with him basically, writing every day, writing with him, writing with different songwriters, his methods as a producer, as a singer, as a performer, as a songwriter and just as a human being were all things that I still apply to my life today.
NI ROCKS – Do you still have a wish list of people that you’d like to work with?
JAMES - Not really. I just try not to set expectations of what something's gonna be. Because usually when I set expectations, my experience is below the expectation and then I end up feeling depressed and bummed out. So I just try not to set any expectation, not to try to have like an expectation of who I can work with and in what capacity and any of that. And I'm just kind of surprised and blessed and grateful for the opportunities that come forth and the people that I'm able to work with that reach out to me. Everybody on the album. Even if you just send a quick text and someone's like, oh, hell yeah, I'd love to, that'd be great - with you, Durbin, yeah, sure, man, it's awesome. You do the work and you treat people a certain way. It's the golden rule. Treat people the way you wanna be treated and you get what you give.
NI ROCKS – Presuming Covid starts to clear away, what are your musical priorities for the next six to twelve months?
JAMES - I'm still just songwriting, working on new records, working on another couple of albums with Frontiers. Figuring out what form a follow up to “The Beast Awakens” looks like, sounds like. I'm looking at artwork right now that's inspiring ideas where that can lead, and the ongoing chronicle of the Prince of Metal and what happens to him and what experiences in my life, what truths I can retell and kind of repackage in a fantasy way. This album was made after a really interesting experience. And since then, I've had nothing but a lot of positivity; after a couple years of mixed emotions and things. So, there was a lot to be able to draw upon and a lot of feelings, a lot of emotions to be able to draw upon to tell this story of “The Beast Awakens”. And you know now that the beast is awakened, what motivates it, what keeps it going. Really figuring that kind of stuff out.
NI ROCKS – That’s all the questions that I have, but we’ll finish by playing another track from the new album. Again, do you want to pick a track and tell us something about it?
JAMES - Yeah, of course. Let's go with the title track “The Beast Awakens”. This is the first song that I completed writing for the album and ended up being the title track and I told kind of how the song was written beforehand; how the idea of the music was written. But the song itself, the lyrics, I was inspired by an article I was reading on famous Japanese professional wrestler, Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger, who was retiring in January of 2020, pre pandemic. And one of the subtitles of the article was ‘The Beast Awakens’, and it was about his evil persona. If you remove his mask, you don't find the man underneath, you find the beast and you've awakened evil incarnate who will try and drive a steel stake through your heart. He never achieved that (laughs); of course his opponents would move at the last second and it would go through a table or something. If you remove the mask, what's underneath? In a way, I wore a metal mask for a couple of years, and in a way, had to hide behind that and wasn't able to fully let myself be myself. And this is me coming back into my own, once more and really removing that mask and really unleashing the beast within.
NI ROCKS – Thanks again for chatting with me and good luck with the new album.
JAMES - Awesome. Thank you, Nigel. Appreciate it. Good to talk to you again.