 Jimmy K here, Metal Voice. Look at us. The Metal Voice shirts are now on sale, just go to the video description to find out on how you can purchase one. Metal! Welcome to the Metal Voice and again on the show, joining us all the way in Ireland. Alan, can you pronounce our Ireland? Ireland. Ireland. Clock. Well, one of our favorite guests of all time, Mr. Jeff Tate himself. Hi, how's everybody doing? I hope you're well as I am. We're doing the best we can. Just talking about my new shirt. You like that, huh? I love that shirt. Is that new? It's new, so more nights as you know, we spoke about it. So they're trying to renovate or trying to keep it alive, the studio. Like a groundswell of funds to help restore the place back to it. Wow. They're trying. They're trying. They're trying. They're trying. That's a really great idea actually because there were some amazing records that came out of that studio and, you know, great bands that worked, they're great engineers that worked there. Oh, you know, it's a legacy. Yeah. There's one, there's one other great album that was recorded there, right? Well, one I know of. Yeah. All right. We'll talk about the studio. But first, let us talk about this acoustic live stream in Cork, Cork, Ireland, right? Right. And how do you pronounce Cork in Ireland, Alan? He was there two years ago and there was a huge debate. It's supposed to be CAC or Cork. So I don't know if you've entered into any of those debates, but well, it depends on your accent. The people in Southern Ireland have a R to their words that they say. And I cannot imitate it correctly, so I won't. It kind of sounds like C-A-R-C-K when they pronounce it. Did that make sense? Cork, Cork, Cork. Oh, there I did it. I told myself I wasn't going to do it. All right. When I was there, much to go for grin, I'm in a rock bar having a few beverages and in comes a guy with a brownie, Brian Downey experience t-shirt. He had just played down the street. They had done Thin Lizzie Live and Dangerous, the whole double album. And he's one of my favorite drummers. And sorry, I missed that show, so. Well, they have a huge music scene in Ireland and especially in Cork, Southern Ireland. And it's fantastic, not just rock, but all kinds of different styles of music. It's quite amazing actually how many great musicians there are here. How's this going to work? How's Jeff Tate acoustic going to work here? We've never done an online show before, so this is kind of new territory for us. But it promises to be a really interesting time. I have, a couple years ago, I did acoustic performance, a whole tour based around acoustic performances, acoustic versions of my songs. And it went down really well and I had a particularly good time playing that kind of format. And so we're going to reinvent that again for this show. And I've got some incredible musicians joining me and we're going to go online with it and see if we can make it all happen. And really, it's kind of a thing that being in the new world that we are now, where live shows are not permitted in a lot of places. This is kind of the new frontier, so to speak. So all the guys in my band have been out of work for months now because we were right at the beginning of our US tour when the pandemic hit. So we had to cancel all those dates and we have dates in August here in the UK that are canceled as well. Dates in Ireland are canceling or have canceled. And we have dates in Europe that are kind of on the fringe right now. So this might be all there is for the short upcoming future until maybe winter. So we're going to give it a run and we hope that people tune in and we're going to have our tip jar out there for all the musicians to split up, kind of like the old days, you know, when you had a tip jar on the piano or a tip jar on the stage, kind of revisiting that time again, you know, interesting. And Jimmy's on the show, we've already done two of these types of live streams and maybe this is the new norm moving forward for X amount of time, right? Yeah, well it might be, I don't know. But we're going to jump in there and see how the water feels, so to speak. I was going to just say I've seen two. I've seen Anvil and I've seen Voivod in Canada and it was a streamed like you're going to do it. And I think the difference, actually what I've noticed, people will pay if it's done right. If there's good audio quality and good video quality and the two that I did see were excellent. Excellent video quality, excellent song choices. If it's done right, it'll work. That's what I'm trying to say. People will pay. I hope that's, you know, in our case, I hope that's the situation. I'm actually really looking forward to it. I haven't played live or even played any music in, well, a few months now. So I'm kind of jonesing, you know, to play music with the band. I've been in the studio, you know, playing, you know, to making, you know, recorded music, that kind of thing. But it's really different when you have a band, you know. So who is in the band this time around? It's my, it's the band that I've been touring with the past couple years. Kieran Robertson on guitar, James Brown on guitar, Jack Ross on bass guitar. And then I have a new guy that I've never played with before on a cone, which is kind of a, you know, a square box, basically. And I honestly, I can't remember what his name is. I haven't named it yet. We're going to meet for rehearsals. And so I'm, he's a referral. Yeah, because my regular drummer can't get into the country. So we're using a different drummer. So that'll be interesting too. But he is apparently very familiar with my music. So we're going to get together for a few rehearsals and give it a go. So what, what happened? Were you in Ireland to do these planned dates and they got cancelled? And this is the alternative? Or how'd you make it into the country yourself? Well, my wife and I spent a lot of time in Ireland, actually. It's one of our places we love. And so we were here and now we can't get out. And that's fine. It's a great place to hang out for the summer, you know. And so we're enjoying that and visiting our friends and our daughters here. And we have family members here. So it's, it works out great. Great. And what kind of set list are we looking at here? Okay, there's some classics and a few surprises. Okay, I mean, you're not going to tell me the surprises, but what are we looking at in terms of what you can tell us? Well, it's kind of a set list of a lot of different things. You know, I've got 20, 21 albums, I think, material. So I have a pretty, you know, deep, deep set list if I, if I start picking stuff. And what's kind of neat about acoustic performance in my mind is that you can take a really, really heavy song and completely turn it on its head and do it completely differently, acoustically. And I'm not, I'm not talking like, you know, folk music style. This is a Jeff Tate kind of acoustic thing. It's quite a bit different. And I don't know really how to describe it other than that. People just have to kind of tune in and see, but there will be an array of songs from all my discography. Oh, very cool. Very cool. Discography. Yeah. No, speaking of that, I mean, we're just about to do our, we do going back all those years and we take a, we're 1984, the top albums of 1984. And here's a spoiler alert. This one's going to make it. So, you know, and look at this, I'm digging through all my old magazines here. Here's a hit parader with some fresh face boys here. And I mean, you know, the EP really opened up a lot of doors. The, the warning is one of the best sounding debut albums I think I've ever heard. And it was done at Abbey Road Studio. So we're talking about Lyre Studio and that's an Abbey Road. Is that the, what's, what's your thoughts about that album coming out at that time? Were you just a brief, brief reminisce? Oh, well, it's don't get me started. That was an incredible time in my life. A real changing point, you know, where you experience a lot of different things in one, one big time and it really sets you on a course that's different than where you started from, you know. And we were living in London at the time and making the record, writing songs and just immersed in the London music scene, which was a really cool scene at that point. And all these great clubs and I don't think I really slept much at that time. I was, I was wide awake, you know, I didn't want to miss a thing. So I stayed up a lot. The vocals did not suffer. No, well, I was 22 years old, you know, it's easy to recover, you know, when you're that age. But I mean, EMI at the time was not one of the heavy hitters when it came to the metal scene. And again, it seems looked like all stops were put into for Queen's right to have success right out of the gate. So, well, they did give us sort of carte blanche, so to speak, to, you know, make the record. And we hired just a phenomenal producer, James Guthrie, who was just freshly off of working with Pink Floyd and the wall and final cut. And of course, he's gone on to, you know, be the Pink Floyd, you know, engineer, you know, done so much work with them over the years. And, and he's why, you know, we picked him because of his connections with Floyd. We wanted to have his experience and his kind of wisdom at the, at the mixing console, you know, and learned a lot from him. That was the first time we'd ever used a computer, you know, which was fascinating. And just being in those, you know, London studios at the time, I remember walking into Mayfair Studios where we were finishing up The Last of the Overdubs and meeting Tina Turner there. And she just finished the private dancer album there. And she was on her last day there. And so we got to spend quite a little time with her talking and having lunch. And that was quite a wonderful experience. And we met up with Iron Maiden at that time. Hey, there you go. Josh. Five guys out of Washington, right? And you were worried to, hey, how are we ever going to be noticed out here in Washington? And now you're meeting Tina Turner and Iron Maiden, right? Yeah, all of this, like the same couple of weeks and meeting the people from Floyd at the time was phenomenal for me because I'm a huge fan. But you know, the, the scene in London was, was kind of widespread. There was, there was metal, there was rock, there was pop music. There was this underground music happening at the time. Depeche Mode was just sort of starting to come up. And I went on a lost weekend with Martin from Depeche Mode at that time. Chris, our guitar player ended up hanging out with Jimmy Page for a couple of days. And at that time, you know, there's no cell phones. So people just would disappear, you know, and you wouldn't be able to contact anybody. You know, it was strange to think about it in today's terms. But yeah, it was a phenomenal time that I have great memories of. And again, the EP opened so many doors for you, which led to this album. But what, how would it be different today if you were to go about it? I mean, it's a completely, like you said, new world. How would I go about recording an album? Yeah, how would you, you know, the EP, that was the strategy, you sold it independently, it led to a record deal. And then to the warning, today it would be much, much different process, I would imagine. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, at that time, you know, record, record industry was an industry, you know, it had millions and millions of dollars to spend on its artists. And, you know, it employed, you know, multiple thousands of people, you know, working for the record company. And it was a whole way of doing things that just doesn't exist anymore. You know, in fact, my daughter is Emily has had her first album out, and she's just finished her second one. And she's asking me these questions about, you know, how the record industry works. And I honestly, I said, well, there really isn't a record industry anymore. You know, it really is a whole different thing. And it is, it's doesn't even resemble, you know, what it was then. So I, if I was going to start over, I don't know if I, well, I don't know if I could, you know, I wouldn't know where to start because it's so fragmented, you know. Yeah. And you're constantly being like, you know, we check out little magazines like this here and try to get a feel of what bands are coming. And, but now there's just so much saturation and you're being bombarded at all times. It's hard to kind of find, find the band. It is. It's almost like there's too much information to sort through. Yeah. I think we've gone from mystique to personal. Like now people have that touch with, with, with their bands, or in the older days, you couldn't, you know, talk to them on Facebook, let's say, or you couldn't talk to them with email or whatever the case is or Instagram, right? There was no connection back in the day. Now it's, today we have that touch, but back then we didn't. And in the way, riffing off what you said, yeah, exactly. And almost because there wasn't a connection, we would fill in the blanks with our own mind and come up with what we thought was going on, you know, which most likely wasn't entertaining. All we had is the back cover of the band to just look at who they were, right? The mystique of it all before videos. And we stared at the back of the album for hours as we listened to records. Switching it from one side back to the other side. Who is this Jeff Tate character? Who is this Jeff Tate guy? But how about this? How about this studio? And I mean, I don't want to get too into it, but what do you remember? I mean, you did tell us about the recording of Operation Mind Crime and, you know, writing it in Montreal at the bar on St. Denis Street. But what do you remember from sort of the atmosphere of creating the album Atlas Studio at the site? Well, it was very inspirational to be there because of its location. At the time we were there, it was winter. So it was snow, snow, snow, snow. And we would get up early in the morning. I know it sounds very unrocking role, but that was kind of our thing. We get up early in the morning, we go skiing. And we ski all morning, come back to the studio, and they always had like a catered breakfast brunch kind of thing for us. And we start the day with a nice healthy, you know, breakfast, and then we work all night and take a dinner break, you know. And if you ever went to the studio, you'd know that in the control room, there was this big windows that looked out on the landscape. And it was snow with this beautiful lake right there. And it was very picturesque. And always something, if you, well, if you're in the studio, a lot of times you're staring, thinking, you know, and you'd be staring at this beautiful picturesque scene, you know. So I found it personally very calming. And so it was a way to kind of calm your mind. And so you could concentrate, I guess, a little better, you know, maybe focus on what it was you were working on. I don't know. I really enjoyed the vibe there. And then also, there was this kind of electric buzz about the place, because the people that worked there were very into music, very into the sound, very into technology, and the developing technologies. And there was always conversation about what was happening, what kind of gear was being used, and how we could pot rod the gear and make it different. And, you know, that's very interesting conversation for a musician to always have that kind of thing going on. And if you broke something there, they had a guy there that was a complete tech head who could fix anything. And he would always be there on call to, you know, replace a wire or fix a ground issue. Yeah, he was great. All right. How about like new music? Have you been working since all this downtime, this COVID-19? Have you been working on a new album or new music or what's going on there? I'm finishing up one album with Italian friend of mine. And we're about three quarters of the way through that. And then I've done a couple of one-off songs for different projects, a film song, it's going to be in a movie. And then I'm also working on a new record that I can't talk about right now. Okay. All right. Always busy, always busy, including Avantasia, which we had met the last time. And again, following the interview, went to the show, our cameraman's like, oh, you know, that's not really my cup of tea. It's too melodic. I said, you will be amazed. You will be amazed. This will probably be the greatest concert you ever saw. We met up after the concert and he's like, Alan, you were right. I was unbelievable when you got that much talent on the stage and you being a big part of that as well. It was a really great show at Montreal. And in fact, every show was great. That Avantasia band is always on. I think, you know, all the shows we did in the last few years, I've only heard one mistake and it was me. Oh, the texture of your voice and everything. I remember, I still get chills about it. I got goosebumps. Look at that. You can see them. It's unbelievable. Because the funniest thing is I got to tell you this. My mistake was it was my first show. I think it was in Switzerland. And the way I entered the stage was up this stairway up and back. And then I get to the top of the of the stairway and it was a big ramp. And that's where the reveal would be all the lights would hit me. I'd start singing the song. So I walk up, I'm standing on the stairs, getting ready to go up. My cue is coming. And I feel somebody tapping me on my foot. And I look down and I think, oh, it's the side stage crew chief and he's tapping me on the foot. He wants me to go on stage now. Oh, maybe I've missed my cue. So I jump up on the stage. I go to sing my song and I realized why he was tapping me on the foot was that my microphone was not on and he wanted me to switch it up. So the first line I was not heard. My mistake. All right. So let's circle back now. Friday, the 21st, August in August. Of course, this is like, what is it like next week or in 10 days or nine days? What? Yeah, you got to get ready. Get ready. August 21st and it's a 5pm Eastern Standard Time, 2pm Pacific, 10pm UK Time Zone. Jeff Tate and his band will be performing songs throughout the years, some classics and some you won't be expecting. Alan, you want to guess maybe throw out some, throw it out. Throw it out, Alan. Throw it out. Maybe something off of an American soldier maybe. You know, I don't know. There's lots to choose from. That's for sure. Lots to choose from. 222 songs. So I think you could purchase your ticket on the Operation Mindcrime Facebook page, correct? Where else can you get it? Is there anywhere else you could purchase? Jeff Tate Facebook page as well. Okay. All right. And you could see a little video message there. You could join the event. Purchase a ticket. Well worth the money. I'm pretty sure. This is Jeff Tate. Acoustic Jeff Tate. This is a must. This is a must. What's really cool about it too is if it's in, of course we're kind of straddling time zones around the world. And if you can't watch it, you could still get your ticket and you have 40, 48 hours. Oh, I like that. I like that. Yeah. So it's a delayed thing. So you can work your schedule around it, you know. So it's very, very good. Any special Irish guests joining you? Maybe just jump it in. Maybe like a bono or something. No. Yeah, me and Bono. Alan, do you have anything to add? No, no, this is a thanks again, Jeff. It's always, always a pleasure to speak to you and find out what you're doing. You're so busy. You got so many projects and some you can't even talk about their top secret will be shot if we remember. You know, live album, live album. I'm expecting a live album. Maybe just to bring it all together a live album. You know, that's a good idea. I haven't done a live album in a long time. Yeah. Yeah. All right. There you go. Put on your list. We're live streaming instead of live album, live stream. Right. Say thank you to your wife. Thank you. Thank you to your wife for setting this up. Thank you, Jeff. And we will talk soon. All right. Thank you guys. Good seeing you. Good talking to you. Thank you very much.