Our Exclusive interview with Danny Vaughn

The following interview took place backstage (over a cup of tea) at JB’s Dudley on Thursday 22nd January 2009, before the first date in Europe of Tyketto’s “Around the World in 18 Days” Tour.

How’s the Tour going?

I mean so far so good, I think of tonight as the first night of the tour. We have done three shows in the US and it’s really because we’ve got two new members ( P.J.Zitarosa on guitar and Bobby Lynch on keyboards). To be perfectly fair, replacing Brooke St James required two guys and I don’t shy away from that fact, finding someone that can play as well as him and sing as well as him is a two people job. I didn’t want to spend years looking, especially not when I knew the guitar player, PJ, has played with me in my solo band. You know it helps with us not being together all the time, that the band can be centrally located, so we kind of keep everybody in New Jersey cos you know we are not doing this full time.
We are just doing it when we can, so that they can rehearse and then I can come in and put the icing on it and do the final rehearsals, so that was another thing finding guys in the area. Luckily Michael’s(Clayton ) got to tie in with all those working players there.

Are you hoping to do some shows in America through the Summer (Rocklahoma maybe)?

Actually no! We are gonna do Rock On Wild which is Iowa I think. It’s kind of Rocklahoma’s little competition but they came through with a lot of things, so yeah we are going to be doing that. I’m looking into some others over there, really got my fingers crossed for Sweden Rock this year but again it’s a maybe. I know all the people there, you know they’ve got to take all the money and get their heavy hitters committed before they can do the rest of us.

Any thoughts on recording new material as Tyketto?

A lot of thoughts - actually people ask all the time. So what I want to do is, I want to get to the end of this little bit of touring and then sit back and think about it because one of the things is that we always wrote as a unit and now things are different, everybody lives in different places. I’ve done a lot of work and a lot of writing by email sending files back and forth and it can work, but I prefer not to try it with Tyketto. I prefer to do it half and half and we are already discussing if Michael, PJ and I can get into the same place for a week and just kind of (once I get some basic ideas) try to thrash ‘em out. I mean it’s a matter of having the time. I think its in the cards but it will only be in the cards if its good enough and of course, with us there’s the catch twenty two there because nothing we ever do for some people is gonna be as good as “Don’t Come Easy”.
So therefore, whatever we come out with, people will say “err well, yeah”. So what we don’t want to do is be like a lot of bands I’ve seen, its kind of disappointing where they reunite, they use their old name but their music is nothing like what it used to be. That I don’t want, I do want to write this kind of music again.

Is that where you went with the latest “From The Inside” album Visions?

That’s what they wanted, yeah. I mean it was easy. I mean they pretty much put that in perspective "this is what we want". So Fabrizio and I got together and said "tell you what, lets go for a Journey thing" and that’s what we did, well the six songs that we wrote anyway.

Did you meet up with Fabrizio or was it an email thing?

We didn’t meet up once it was all email, same with the recording thing. There’s good and bad to that, I mean, my name's on the front of it but I didn’t have much to do with that one. I mean I came back, there are definite things that I wouldn’t have done. I thought that some of the guitar approaches were just a bit too metally for the music that we were writing and all that.

Did you actually meet up with Jimi Bell (House of Lords guitarist)?

I didn’t meet Jimi until afterwards when Tyketto and House of Lords played Brazil together. So yeah, I had nothing to do with that and that’s usually how those things go. It was on a limited budget and that’s what you get. Jimi’s a marvellous guitar player it just to me sounded like somebody I wanted - Neal Schon and Steve Lukather - for my own tastes as far as style and it came out much more like a Zakk Wylde pentatonic kind of thing. That’s just not me so I’m not dissing Jimi at all but as I say it was the producers choice. On the other hand, I gotta say I get plenty of emails from people saying that they love what Jimi did on it - it’s just a matter of taste really.

Back to Tyketto. Kieran Dargan got you back together for the Firefest shows over the last couple of years. How were they to do?

I think they were stunning especially the last one. They were really different animals. On the one we were Tyketto showing we can still do exactly what we used to. Brooke was one fire. The other one we were brand new, literally we had only had that change one month before the show. That was when Brooke let us know he wasn’t going to do it. It was a wing and a prayer in a way. The second show was more pure adrenaline. The first show is more memorable because it was a rarity, then people came out to see it. The singing along with the band was really big I don’t feel that they were any less enthusiastic at the second show. When you do things year after year people say ok. That first one had a real spark to it, for me in particular the second show had some real adrenalin. Ten minutes before I walk on Steve Augeri walks in and he says “Have you been on yet?” I say “No Steve how are you?” as I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years “Great” he says “I’ve just got in from Heathrow I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss you” I said “Oh great” so I had him, all of Danger Danger and Jeff Scott Soto all side stage saying “Have fun” so for me that was extra adrenalin and I actually thought I put on one of the best shows that I ever did. Later on I just felt that I was riding on top of a tank, nothing could get us we were untouchable that night.

Have you seen the FM CD/DVD from the shows? The packaging is superb, were you asked to release one?

I haven’t seen that, but yes we were and we have our regrets in not doing that. I saw the Harem Scarem one, I wasn’t quite as happy with that one but overall it is a good job. It’s just the wrong club to video in. You have great shots up of Pete Lesperance but behind him is one of these fluorescent light bulbs. It’s terrible but when for instance T.N.T did one in Madrid it just had a nicer look. We didn’t want to do it because there is a certain lack of control which is, we were getting together for one show and if said we were going to do the video we were contractually obliged to release that show and if it was crap you’re like “oooh” you’re stuck or you’ll have to do so many 'fix its' in the studio, so we were just too worried that we would have to release it. We would rather do it in a situation where God willing, we get a few shows under our belts beforehand, everything is solid and maybe we tape a few shows just to be sure. People have been asking for ages for a DVD, it’s gotta be done. Hopefully people will still be interested even though its not the central, classic line up.

I’ve read many interviews with you and a couple of questions came out of those. I read that you did a showcase with John Kalodner before you signed for Geffen. Can you remember what songs you played?

I would hazard a guess and say “Forever Young” absolutely I think we played five in all. Guess on “Walk on Fire”, Standing Alone.

Wings?

Not sure if that one has been written yet. “Lay Your Body Down” which at the time was called “Bourbon Street” - those for certain. It was an unbelievable thing because it was in the Big Room. Why did they rent out the Big Room at S.I.R Studios? This was the room that Motley Crue would go in to do production rehearsals, full lights and everything. So there we are all the way at the other end of the room, the man with the beard sitting there. Him and three other people while we played in this cavernous room, full gear on - which back in then was a big deal - leather with studs flying everywhere all that sort of shit. That was one of the more bizarre concerts I have ever given. We were signed so it was worth it.

I read you had problems getting “Forever Young” finished. What were the problems and were you happy with how it was finally released?

Back to that man John Kalodner, I’ll never know what the problems were. It was a problem child. It was one of those songs that by ourselves we had re-written so many times. I don’t know why? You get this thing in your claw, I’m not quite sure why this or that isn’t working. Sometimes you don’t feel it at all, a song just goes "it’s done!". With that one there was all these mixed opinions. We had it settled, we demo’d it and they loved the demo. The demo was pretty close to what we had. We recorded it, sent the it off to John Kalodner and he said “there is something not right about Forever Young”. Ok, could you define that? “No I don’t know what it is - it’s just not right” he said. Richie Zito is sitting there at three thousand dollars a day in the studio going “Arrgh!!”.

How was working with Richie Zito?

Richie’s great, awesome. About the fifth time we sent it back, we were just changing the mix until finally Richie said “What we need to do is send the one that we think is right” which was the original one. Tell him it’s great. We sent the original back and Richie is like "John thank God, you got it, thank God you told us because we got it! Now I know what you mean - here it is!" John’s like “That’s it” that’s the director business.

On “Strength In Numbers” you worked with Kevin Elson, many differences to Ritchie or similar to work with?

Very different approach, neither one of them better or worse. Probably the thing that I regret the most about no longer working at that level is working with guys like that, I miss that. I still work with good people. When I did “Traveller” Peewee Coleman was engineering. He’s right up there with them so that was the same sort of feeling. When you get involved with guys like that, that are just so sharp and inventive and seem to know just how to be on.
At the rate you pay a producer like that they best be on seventy-five grand to do an album you don’t want them to have an off day. I just come in and absorb and absorb.
Kevin had a very different approach. For a guy who’s sold more albums, I didn’t even realise. I went to his house one day and I looked around and said “You gotta be kidding” platinum, platinum, platinum records. He’s so unassuming and what was different about him was the he actually came to the house where the band lived. He didn’t even stay at a hotel. He said “You got a spare room? That’s all I need”. Really we thought we would put him up at The Sheridan and split the cost. He stayed with the band for 3-4 days, went down in the basement with us and sat there taking notes. I think that should be different, that’s unbelievable. I don’t know anybody that works like that. That was very different Ritchie worked more like a “Hollywood” concentrated environment. There were phone calls coming in, he was checking on other things but he had his method. Phil Kaffel the engineer had this absolute working relationship that was just sobang, bang - I had a great time with both of them.

When Music for Nations released “Strength in Numbers” was it released as Geffen had it before deciding not to release it?

Yes it was released almost exactly. You know we were absolutely crushed when Geffen dropped us. The timing was so bizarre. I mean they had sent out blank cassettes to radio already promoting the album. There just wasn’t any artwork. That was the only thing that hadn’t been finished. They were promoting the release and there was a change of hands and basically the accountants said they hadn’t made as much back as they would have liked to on the last one so “No”. That was it, I think. I’m guessing as no one ever stood or took credit for it. I’ll put it down to John Kalodner once again.
After a while were were in such a serious depression. It was Michael who got up the guts to call and ask “What do we do?” We had a finished album, they actually said “Well you know what? - take it!” After spending over 100 thousand dollars or something, they said if you can get someone to release it, its yours. They gave us the masters. I’ve never heard of that happening to anybody. It was released as Kevin had mixed, finished it, we just had to find someone to slap a label on it and put it out.

A lot of your songs feature acoustic guitar. Is that how most of your songs are written?

Yes, absolutely I am an acoustic guitarist first. I’ve started playing electric guitar more seriously in the last couple of years, but for whatever reason acoustic is always the instrument that appeals to me. Consequently my stuff will almost start out sounding like country music. A lot of songs I have to be careful to sing and play. I have a fast right hand strum that is my substitute for not having a drummer when I’m writing. That kind of thing keeping my own rhythm, pretty much everything I write is on an acoustic.

You said Tyketto’s writing was more of a band thing?

We all lived together that was our main focus that was how “Don’t Come Easy” was created. We called it Boot Camp! We all lived together - when we needed to go to work we did. I would get ideas at two in the morning (and) bang on Brooke’s door. He wasn’t usually asleep at two in the morning. "Take this, do something with it!" That was the thing. I would structure something between the core of us. In particular I would structure something but it would be generally choral and I would take it to Brooke and say "now play it like a rock guitarist". He would always say "I know you’re gonna hate this". He would play the riff to “Sail Away” and I would be like "wow!"
Michael’s part of it was the arranging mind of it. Michael would go as a listener. “This part is going on too long I’m getting bored, this should be shortened we need something to get us from here to here.” Those kind of things we go back to the drawing board and try and create, so as a trio it worked very, very nicely that way.

If you could recommend one Tyketto song which one and why?

Good question. I don’t know which foot to lead with.

Mine would be Forever Young! Maybe a Danny Vaughn Song?
I would still have the same problem. They are all my children you know. Personally I would say Standing Alone just because it’s the one, even above Forever Young, more people have taken to heart in a different way. That song was one of those that was literally written in about 15 minutes and I wrote it before being in Tyketto. It was a real thing that I was feeling at the time. It just went out on paper and by accident Michael heard it one day and he said “Why aren’t we doing that”, “That?” I said "nobody wants to hear that". "No, No, No!" Michael said "we are going to do that". It just came out that way and I guess that one because it certainly stands for all what a lot of Tyketto was about. When I’m up on stage going sing. I try to make it a community thing, I go to concerts because I want to let loose, because I want to sing. I want to jump up and down. I just think that it’s a little bit sad when people forget that’s what we are here to do, just to cut loose and enjoy and not be too cool. I think that represents a bit of Tyketto, its meant to pull you as being a part of the whole thing.

Have you seen an increase in interest over the last couple of years in the melodic/hard rock scene?

Seems to be it’s always a deadly question isn’t it? If it comes back into the mainstream it will be in a different form and I think it is in a funny way. People are starting to look for particularly singers again which has always been my beef with a lot of stuff. Everybody for about 10 years sounded like they were doing a version of Eddie Vedder. I like Nickelback as a band but I can’t listen to the guy singing for very long. It just doesn’t suit me. It isn’t my type of singing.
But for instance Daughtry, Michael said "you gotta hear this guy, sounds like what you would do". It seems like the hair is getting longer, you're getting some of these interesting bands like Wolfmother. I went "Wow! Wolfmother is just like the seventies". That’s my era and I kinda appreciate that. You never know what’s gonna open up.

What were your earliest influences?

Oh boy it’s a long list. Anything from The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Grand Funk Railroad, Doobie Brothers, Blackfoot it goes on and on Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin.

How do you view the internet with downloading/illegal downloading? On your site you have the rarities CD (which I paid for and is superb)

Thank you, what you did you helped fund the guy who does my website.

Are you a CD or an Ipod Person?

I’ll buy the CD and put it on my ipod. Itunes is very addicting. If you sit long enough and think "oooh I haven’t got that". What’s nice for instance is the other day I was in the gym and a video came on from a band I’ve never heard off. It was so different from what they normally play in the gym which is Dance over and over again. I thought “I like this” so I immediately went to Itunes. It was a band called Elbow. I downloaded the song and I love it.
Overall I think it’s good. It has killed certain things about music but I think we are going to adapt. What I appreciate about it is that the people who were getting fat are getting what they deserve. Now because unless you got Britney Spears or Beyonce, you’re in panic mode.
There is still a buying public out there but as kids get younger and younger as they don’t know there is nothing but the internet that’s gonna go away, so they have to find a way to make it work.
I heard that in the beginning John Mayer used to go around in concert telling people where to get his album online for free, and people would download it. What it generated was something similar to what you just did - you pay a little bit. Enough people did it and everyone knows who John Mayer is, well deserved because he’s brilliant.
I think it gives the opportunity to any musician who can invest a little bit into gear but it’s cheaper now. I think the musician can get his stuff heard. There are sites like CD Baby that only do unsigned bands. Hundreds and hundreds of ways to market yourself and have a change as opposed to hoping someone at the record industry got your letter (it's a) million to one chance. They might come to your concert if they’re not to busy buying cocaine that night or whatever. Those days are going away, it actually started a long time ago.
Nirvana comes up a lot with us because that was a band that killed bands like us. I don’t resent them for that, they didn’t set out to do it As we were on the same label I know this, Geffen was completely taken by surprise when it happened - they didn’t have a clue! They only knew this band sold 60,000 of their own albums playing in colleges. So they said “Hell we can’t lose that album” they bought it done and just put it on so they didn’t lose any money. Nobody expected what happened and I always respected what happened because the audience made that decision not the record company. That happens in music because sadly music is so fashion related. There was just one too many bands all in matching leather studded outfits with the perfect hair and suddenly people were saying I’m going over here now, I’m going with the guys dressing like my grandparents! I don’t like that, I miss the Rock Gods, I miss the larger than life stuff. I never saw them live but you see films of Zeppelin. I’ll show that to people now who never really got Zeppelin and say "sit down and watch this". They’ll go "oooooh these guys don’t look human. They look so much bigger than us". I kinda like that in rock n’ roll. Coverdale had that and he still does. He has a presence for me. Coverdale, Paul Rodgers. Those guys exuded something that they are just human but I don’t go there for just human I want a bit more. I miss that a little bit. There are some out there, but it's just less and less.

Why did you want to be a singer?

I didn’t want to - they made me! I’ve been singing pretty much in the womb according to my mother -embarrassing fact. Apparently back in the days when if you had a good stereo the speakers were about this high. My parent would have Beatles albums on and I used to stand behind the speakers and sing harmonies with The Beatles and yelling to my mom “see you can’t tell can you?” that was there from the beginning. I was a very, very hyperactive child. No doubt, these days they would say “ooooh he’s got A.D.D. put him in a programme”. Thank God they didn’t! What they did was they put me in the High School chorus early, even before I was in high school. Picture my voice as powerful as it is, but twice as high. Oh my God it was torture. I was doing a lot of that in school. They really nurtured that.
It’s funny you mention that because literally just the other day I was visiting my dad and we stumbled across one of my old school years books. I am looking through it the page opened to a page of teachers and there were the teachers that actually taught me music. How to sing and how to be excited about it? We used to do Gilbert and Sullivan stuff like that. It really hit me one way or another (and) I’m eternally grateful. Its not like I don’t own anything - actually I don’t have any money or anything but I’m still very, very happy with my choice. I owe them for that. That was literally “We have to do something with him - he won’t shut up”.

We have one like that at home!

Have you? Channel it. Kids do that by the way, just put an instrument around them, one you don’t mind getting covered in chocolate. They will do things with it and it will go past banging after a while. I’m very enthusiastic about this now because I am a guitar teacher as well. I see that with kids when they get that first “oh hang on I can actually do this” and then things start happening. Then when they come back and they’ve worked on something that to them is brand new. I still go through that and I think most musicians do where you stumble across a chord formation or a series that for a minute you invented. Of course there is only 12 notes and they have all been done but for a minute it is all new to you and you get that with kids.
Everything is new. I had a student who’s really into My Chemical Romance and I actually quite like them as well. So I started off teaching him blues and that wasn’t really exciting him much, trust me on this I said. Just showing him the typical blues chug in a very T-Rex kind of thing. He got that down so I said now we play “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance and he went “that’s it” yes that’s all it is and now you play it. The kid after that was happy with anything I wanted to show him he was “Bring it, Bring it”. They just become sponges.

Our eldest son (Daniel) has just had a song that him and his mates wrote put on a school Christmas CD and in a couple of months he has a school play and he wants the part with the main solo song in it!

Hey, that’s good tell him to just go for it. I think anything with music and art should be absolutely mandatory. It is in more advanced educational systems. America’s killing it. Hopefully not now, but the last President killed that budget for all that and what people don’t understand is one stimulates the other without a doubt. I would get calls from parents going "he does his homework now because he knows he can’t practice guitar until he does" and he’s excited about practicing. Music has math - those kind of things which always horrified me because I was terrible at them. Again if you were in music and you said "by the way you’ve done math check it out", they say “really??”, I’m very enthusiastic because it helps out whatever you are going to do everybody’s got a creative bit in there. Usually the pattern is we all get to 50 or 60 and we go “I always wanted to paint” and then they start. Keep doing it - whatever is good who cares? People set out to do a Da Vinci and say "I never could do that". Why are you supposed too?

If you had any advice for a budding musician what would it be?

A lot of my advice is going to sound very new agey. You’ve got to believe in it - whatever it is you’re doing. If you stare at music and go "that’s really popular I’ll do a bit of that" you’re gonna get disappointed, I was. I was very addicted to fame for a long time. I was more interested in being famous than I was in being rich. I didn’t get either! But what the hell, that is a slippery slope. There came a point - particularly in that point when Nirvana came along - it separated the men from the boys because a lot of bands just disappeared. I did for a while for various reasons but I never stopped writing music. Its just part of me it doesn’t matter what it is I’ll be sitting in a pub somewhere when I’m 60 strumming away. I’m doing this with The Illegal Eagles now.

That was my next question!

Hey I knew that! I’ll let you come to that. It’s a gratifying thing. What I mean is players play. If you’re young and you’re looking - don’t play in the closet, find other players to play with. You gotta keep absorbing.

So the Illegal Eagles, how did that come about?

Just a random introduction to the other singer/guitar player Jeff Green.

Hasn’t he left?

Yes he has. We have two new guys coming along. We are expanding to a 6 piece. Sounding stunning.

How much of the material do you sing lead on?

I’m not all lead but I’m on it. That was the thing about The Eagles music, you never really got a rest. Everyone’s singing. It’s a whole other world. Its ensemble work and I love it. It’s very challenging.

You have some big gigs too?

Yeah we do we are playing the O2 (Indigo) how cool is that?

We are gutted because the night you play Oxford we are seeing Judas Priest.
I’m gutted too - I want to see Judas Priest! It's an example of players playing it’s a sum of so many parts.

You have Chris Childs also of Thunder in the band too?

Chris is an amazing guy. We have really bonded. A fantastic bass player and so naturally talented too.

You got a great review in The Independent did you see it?

I did. It said I was a great singer and an attractive guy! Can you imagine the rest of the band. "Here comes Mr Attractive" I have to say I have had to tone myself down. When we started I was full on rock “yeah!!” but it is an older audience so I have had to adapt. Quieten myself down a bit.

You recently did a couple of Christmas acoustic shows I’m led to believe you have recorded them for a future release. Did you record both shows?

I wish we had. We didn’t record the JB’s show but it was a great show. It was something I’ve always wanted to do, an acoustic, unplugged thing. As we said earlier my songs are predominantly acoustic led so it lends itself well to that style. It started as just me, then Tony Marshall heard about it, then the rest of the guys in the band did and said “Hey we would love to do that” so it ended up as a 5 piece. It’s all Danny Vaughn songs whether it’s from Tyketto, Danny Vaughn or From The Inside CD’s.
Some of the songs had never been played live before and the guys said “How are we going to play this?” I’d say give me 10 minutes and I’d get back to them.
I’ve done this sort of thing before. I toured on an acoustic on my own (with Bob Catley) and then me and Tony did it with Journey (in 2007) of course I released an acoustic CD before, which Steve from Hardrock House (http://www.hardrockhouse.com/) had just re-released.

I hear there will be 2 versions coming out?

The idea is to have a longer version for the people who attended the show in Newcastle. We’ll have to see if both come out, if enough people want to hear it.

I certainly would. Have you heard anything of it yet?

I should get the rough mix today (Tony Marshall had told us earlier he had heard some and it was stunning) we may have to do a little to it like backing vocals but hopefully it will come out as it was recorded on the night. It should hopefully be out in April or May through Hardrock House.

Lastly do you have any message for your fans?

Thank you. I have been doing this for 28 years, 22 of them professionally and I am so lucky doing something that I love. I’ll tell you something. At the recent Newcastle gig near the end of the show I started to well up. Three hundred people had come to see us and they knew every word. These songs mean a lot to me and they had spent time learning all the words and it meant something to all of them like it does to me. As I said I’m a song sort of a guy, I’m very lucky.

Danny I’d just like to say it has been a pleasure, thank you for your time and enjoy the show.

It’s been a pleasure.

Thanks for the tea.

Yes, not bad for an American!

So after a couple of photos (one with me and one with my very happy wife Shazz) we left. A genuinely nice man who loves music. The show later on was a total success with the 2 new guys fitting it seamlessly. Danny’s vocals soaring through 9 songs from “Don’t Come Easy” it doesn’t get any better than that!

A few days after the interview we found two tracks from the gig on You Tube... you can see them here and here.

Interview by: Mark Evans (22.01.09)
Transcribed by: Shazz Evans/Mark Evans
Pictures by: Shazz/Mark Evans

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