BR: I know Danny Louis isn’t an official member of POA, but he co-wrote the opener, “Planet Pt. 1” and plays on it – how did that come about?
MA: “Planet Pt. 1” and “Dressed Up Looking Fine” were the first two songs that we recorded – we did that on Easter Day 2010. “Planet Pt. 1” was an instrumental right from the start, but when we finished it, I knew it needed something. I kept going back and forth: “Should we put some kind of strange vocal on it?” “Should we put some saxophone on it?”
I was leaning toward that direction – horns – and I all of a sudden thought, “Hell – we need Danny Louis playing trumpet on this.” We sent him the files and he sent them back with the horns. We just flipped – it sounded so cool. We were so impressed, we said, “All right – we’ll give Danny a co-write on this.” That’s how that came about. I was thrilled that Danny put the time and effort into it – he did a great job.
BR: Usually what I do when I put an ear to a review album for the first time is scribble down my first impression – just a quick note. Here’s what I wrote for “Planet Pt. 1”: “Psychedelic James Bond movie theme.”
MA: (laughs) You know what? You got that so right on, man – that’s the way I think about it, also. Yeah … I’d love to place that song in the next James Bond movie … (laughs) It’s very dramatic and very movie score-like. To tell you the truth, we’ve already got a company looking to place this music in film or movies.
BR: How do you guys handle all the layers on “Planet Pt. 1” in a live setting? T-Bone’s only got so many arms and there are all kinds of guitar, keys …
MA: When we do it live, T plays keys and guitar – sometimes simultaneously. He’s got a guitar strapped on and a keyboard in front of him. T’s really our secret weapon; he’s a marvelous singer, plus a great guitarist and keyboard player.
BR: Describe the writing process for the album – how much of this stuff existed before you went into Jorgen’s studio?
MA: None of it. What we’d do is sit around and someone would start with, “Well, I’ve got an idea here …” and we’d spend a number of hours doing that; have something to eat; as the nighttime approached, maybe have a glass of wine … and just keep talking about the music and sussing it out in our heads. That’s how every one of the sessions went.
And then we’d say, “Let’s record now.” We’d go in and do it one or two times – and basically that was what you hear; from there we’d do whatever overdubs. It was an interesting set-up in the studio, because they were in the control room and I was in a completely separate room with no visual sightlines to them; we just communicated with headphones.
The whole album was written like that; we’d just get together and everybody would have an idea and we’d build from parts – it wasn’t that much of a preconceived thing. We’d never played the songs before we recorded them; we’d write; we’d record; and then we’d move on.
It was a great way to work – and that’s the way I like to work: don’t beat it to death. Let the creative thing cut in and just go for it.
BR: And if you have three guys who all feel the same way …
MA: That’s right; and there are so many influences that we all agree upon. It was real easy to play with Jorgen right from the beginning when he joined the Mule and when T came into the situation, it just fell right into place.
BR: Cool. So how about we dive back into the tracks?
MA: Yeah – go for it! (laughs)
BR: I loved the mix on “Dressed Up Looking Fine” – you go from feeling like the whole frigging band is right there in the living room with you to a fathoms-deep sound on the chorus. And it sounds perfectly natural … a really nice job.
MA: Absolutely. Between Jorgen and T being from Sweden and Steve being British, I think the whole record has a kind of European sensibility – the background vocals, the production, the mix … everything.
BR: And is that T doing the lead vocals on “Dressed Up Looking Fine”?
MA: Yeah, that’s right – he’s doing the lead vocals on everything except “Off The Hook”.
BR: And “Off The Hook” is you, right?
MA: That’s right. (laughs)
BR: You know what my first-blush scribble on that was? “Iggy Pop meets Deep Purple.”
MA: (laughs) Thank you! That’s amazing – have we ever met before? (laughter) Man, that’s how we were describing it ourselves! (laughter)
“Off The Hook” was a Jagger/Richards song, which you probably know. The first time I ever heard it was on a video from the 60s – the T.A.M.I. Show. The T.A.M.I. version is this real … (sings in laid-back, funky voice) “It’s off the hook/hook/dum-da-doo-doo-da-da” … it’s … I’m not sure what it is. (laughter)
BR: As I remember, it had a real “Alley Oop” beat to it …
MA: Yeah – exactly! So I saw it on TV and said, “This is a cool song … let’s heavy it up.” So we did – we made it into a Jagger/Richards/POA song. (Laughter) We rewrote the lyrics: I used the title and the first verse and wrote a new second verse.
BR: I would guess that the piano riff on “Anything You Want It To Be” was the first thing that existed on that tune. I love how no matter how wild-ass the song gets, the piano always holds its ground – and in the end, reclaims the song.
MA: You know what? You remember when that Elton John/Leon Russell record came out last year? I think I had that in the back of my head at the time … and I knew T played keys really well. I love the piano and I wanted keyboards to be part of the sound of the band. We sat down in the studio and talked about the song for a while and then I went in to lay down the drums. While the red light was on, we went through it – one take – and that was it. We thought that maybe it would make a good demo: “We’ll come in tomorrow and work on it.”
The next day I realized we were chasing something that was already done. I said, “Enough – that’s it. It’s a one-take song.” We just used that first take we did and built it from there.
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