 Jimmy K here, Metal Voice. Look at this. 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 Perrin is my co-host today. And who do we got here, Perrin? We got probably one of the best keyboardists of our generation, the one, the only Derek Sherinian. What's going on, Derek? How are you doing, guys? Thank you for having me on. Yep. I mean, exciting news. New Solom, the Phoenix on Inside Out Music. The release date is Friday, September 18th. And the last Solom was what? Nine, eight, nine years ago, Derek? Yeah. I took a little time off. And then in 2016, I formed Sons of Apollo with Mike Portnoy. So most of my riffs and musical or creativity was going towards that. And I just felt a real urge last year to start doing a solo record. So I went and got a new deal and called up Simon Phillips. And we got to work about 18 months ago. We started writing the Phoenix. And here we are. It's coming out in a couple weeks. And we're very happy with the result. And we're getting amazing worldwide response for the Phoenix so far. Why don't you tell us a bit about the record? I was just saying kind of offline that Inside Out, your record label, was nice enough to give us some advanced files yesterday. And you know, we get a few of these. And I have to say, this is like the most interesting thing that I've listened to in the last little while. I really felt it was a really diverse record. You know, a little bit of boogie woogie, a little bit of your prog influences, a little bit of Sons of Apollo and Dream Theater maybe, a little bit of jazz, a little bit of metal. So, you know, what goes through your mind and what inspires you when you're putting something like the Phoenix together? Basically, the Phoenix is a snapshot of my life for the last 18 months. And you know, I go through different moods and styles. And that usually comes out in the writing. And I think that there's a lot of variance in the songwriting, as you said, on this record. But what's really cool is that it's a cohesive recording in that Simon and I are the common denominator. So we're the thread that goes through it. But we picked the right bass players and guitar players according to the compositions. And I think that's part of the artistry is being like a casting director and choosing the perfect player to convey the musical idea the best in the song. And I think we nailed it all throughout this record. You got Zach Wow, you got Billy Sheehan, you have Steve Vai. So how is it? I mean, are you planning this beforehand? You're saying, you know, this sounds like Steve Vai. Steve would be perfect for this song. Or maybe you're working on material over the years together. How did you put all the pieces together with these names? Like, what is Steve Vai to you? And what is, what goes through your brain when you're saying, I need Steve Vai on this song? Well, the one song that Steve plays on is called Clouds of Ganymede. And I wrote that all myself. And it's very influenced by UK, Alan Holdsworth. And today Steve Vai is the guy that plays that legato style for the melodies that I wrote. You know, he was the only voice that I heard for it. You know, if Alan Holdsworth was alive, I'd have him play it, but Vai is the next thing. And I developed a relationship. I've known him a long time, like the last 20 years. But in 2017, he invited me to tour on the Generation X Asia tour where I was the keyboard player for He, Zack, Ingve, Nuno, and Tosin Abasi. And so Steve and I became closer during that. And when I told him that I was doing a solo record and invited him to play, he gladly accepted. And I think he did a great job. I'm really happy to have Steve Vai on one of my records. Derek, since we're, you know, we're a bit of a metal show, and Judas Priest is a favorite on the metal voice, you have Simon Phillips on the record. And Simon Phillips seems to be your constant through the record. And I think he's been a constant through a lot of your records. Yeah. So what is it about working with Simon that it's just, you know, whereas for other instruments you want to have, you know, gases coming in and out. But why is Simon the go-to drummer for you? He, just to me, is the best. He's earned, he's my favorite drummer out there. And he has been for the last 40 years. The first time I heard Simon was in 1980. Two of the records that I used to play all the time was Jeff Beck there in back and also MSG one. And Simon was the drummer on both of those records. And they came out about two months apart. And what struck me was how great the drum sounded, but I was blown away that it was the same guy on both records. And that he had such an identifiable style on the drums. And that had a huge impact on me as much as when I heard Eddie Van Halen in 1978 about having a signature style on your instrument and being able to play in different styles yet no matter what style you play, your personality is so strong on your instrument that people can identify you. And that's basically if you look at my career, the last 30 years I've gone from everyone from Dream Theater to Alice Cooper to Joe Bonamassa to Billy Idol to Inge all completely different styles, but the very best at what they do. And I'm able to navigate effortlessly through all of those genres yet still sound like Derek Chirinian wherever I go. All right. So Passadelo, Passadelo, how do you pronounce that? Passadelo. Which is a nightmare in Portuguese. All right. So is this a flamenco Brazilian flamenco? What is that? What's that style that's going on there? I guess it's a Brazilian flamenco. I don't know that flamenco is, I think that's more Spanish, but maybe it's a flamenco with a Brazilian twist. I guess. Nevertheless, Kiko is amazing. I've known him a long time, but this is our first collaboration and he, we wrote this song together. He came over to the studio a couple of days and we, we put this together and I love it. I think it is a great way to close the record. It's probably the heaviest thing on my record. And, and I really love the flamenco bit in the middle. And it's a nice change of pace and it's unexpected. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know it's it was definitely like the most metallic song on the record. And I think it was a really good, you know, good exclamation point on the record and, you know, Kiko being a mega death now and having been in Angra is definitely kind of like, you know, again, someone who's really on the radar of everybody in the middle. Yeah. And he's fantastic. And what a great fan base he has. He really has a whole country behind him. And I'm really hoping a lot of his fans become my fans after hearing this song. And I'm really looking forward to it. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm really looking forward to this album that you wanted that you didn't get. Yes. Steve. Well, always, you know, but I didn't approach him, but Steve Luke, a third I invited and he would love to have played, but he's just super busy this, this time, but he assured me the next record he'll play. And, and that's pretty much it. Everyone else. We figured it out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a track and period and sky that I, I felt was kind of, you know, maybe if you were showing nods to your predecessors, you know, to the John lords, to maybe the Rick waitman's, the Keith Emerson's, that's the track. You know, in my notes, I put it was like a prog lover's delights is what I wrote for. Imperious. Yeah. There's some Prague in there. It's kind of hard rock. And there's also a return to forever jazz fusion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a little bit of everything in it. I like the temple of Helios. Where is that? Yeah, cool. I think the Helios, I think was the island that the, the bird, the Phoenix was killed that. Oh, okay. I think I looked that up. And when I was looking for song titles, I was looking for a, for titles that would be related to the Phoenix. And I found that. So I actually know what that is. Derek, you know, not too long ago, you know, when I was at the last live show I was at, Jimmy and I got to see you of sons of Apollo here in Montreal. And, you know, when everything shut down in March, I was kind of bummed because, you know, you guys were getting such amazing buzz. The tour, the show here in Montreal was sold out and crowd was going nuts for you guys. And I had heard that all of the dates in the tour were going really well. And then you guys went to Europe and it seems the record was doing really well. And then you guys came to a halt. So, you know, what's going to happen in the new year in terms of starting up the machine and you want to support your solo record, but there's probably still some miles left in, in sons and their last record, 2020, or is there more sons of Apollo on the way? So just how, how are you going to kind of balance, you know, doing your due diligence with your solo record and career, but also maybe, you know, doing doing right by sons of Apollo. Yeah. Well, first and foremost, we have sons of Apollo dates rescheduled for May, 2021 for Europe. And then we also have South American dates in April. So fingers crossed that we're able to honor these dates and go play and get back to normal. It really does feel like there's unfinished business for the 2020 record. I mean, we only played three weeks worth of shows. The show here was great and really great. You guys had a great reception. Thank you. And it's fresh. Thank you. And as you said, you know, there was a nice buzz and the momentum was building. Business was up. Across the board. And we felt like, all right, this is fucking killer. The band is great. I mean, you see the bands like the Power Rangers up there. Every guy has his own, his own deal happening. And so, um, yeah, it just sucked that we had to cut it short when we did. And a lot of this downtime with so many bands that we're talking to now, you know, they're going, you know what? I mean, we're going to record another album and just keep it in the can or another album. I know there's just so many bands with so much free time because of COVID-19 has sons of Apollo started sort of bouncing ideas around for the next album. Well, I mean, I, I write every day and Ron writes every day and all I know is I just keep stockpiling ideas. And then I decide later, whether I'm going to put it for a solo record or sons of Apollo, it always kind of works itself out. So right now I'm just really, now that the Phoenix is done and I'm just doing press, I'm just really practicing on my instrument and trying to stretch my hands and new directions and stockpile new ideas. And I find that when I go into my studio with the mentality of practicing and, and experimenting rather than writing, there's less pressure and more creativity flows out of it. And so I'll just let the, the tape player role. And I'll just play and let my hands go. And then I'll go back and listen later and see if I can find any nuggets out of it, you know, it was so cool. So Derek, I mean, you've been lucky enough to kind of, I mean, anyone who's new to Derek watching this show, just take a look at your resume. I mean, I've personally, in 1990, I saw you on the trash tour of Alice Cooper. I remember seeing you as part of Dream Theater on that tour of Deep Purple and Emerson Lake and Palmer. When I lived in San Francisco, I saw you play at the Warfield of Billy Idol. Wow. And we saw a son. He's been following you all around. Yeah, well it's amazing. I'm a music lover and I've seen you play in so many different bands, and that's why I'm glad to be here today. Oh, that's amazing. What have you learned from just, you know, playing with this who's who? Like, are there, are there any, you know, stories or moments you take away, whether it's from Alice, or whether it's, you know, being on tour of Dream Theater Deep Purple ELP or from Billy? I mean, everything kind of goes into your life toolbox, I guess in your music. Yeah, absolutely. You take the good and I mean, all of the people that you mentioned are at the top of their game for a reason and there's greatness there. And so when I'm playing with these people, no matter who they are, I just try to absorb as much as I can and learn and try how can this apply to what I'm doing. And then I also conversely will see the mistakes made business-wise or creatively or whatever, you know, and so I take it all in and, you know, over 30 years of doing this stuff, you find that there's always going to be issues that you're dealing with, but you just get a little bit smoother at it as time goes. And you want to get to a point where you're self-sufficient enough that you can generate your own business without having to worry about touring or playing in a band. Like, it's been very difficult since all the tours were canceled and a lot of musicians are going, how in the hell am I going to make a living during this? I can't go play shows, what am I going to do? And I've been very fortunate because I've always have done keyboard sessions on the side for unknown artists and famous artists. Like, for instance, I just played on Michael Shanker's new 50th anniversary record a couple of weeks ago, and then I played on a couple of White Snake albums for David Coverdale last year, which are now appearing on all of the rock album and then there's going to be a ballad album and a blues album. I'm on all of that. And so I do a lot of keyboard sessions for famous artists and up-and-coming and new artists, guitar solo artists and bands as well all over the world. People are hiring me to play on their records and it's great. What's been a little side business all these years has turned into full on business. So I'm doing that and simultaneously finishing my solo record, working with Simon and doing other sessions and promoting the Phoenix doing press like this. So every day is action packed. But yeah, the session business has been amazing and I've been really getting to hear and play on a lot of great up-and-coming new artists from all over the world. And it's very gratifying for me to contribute to their sound and see how happy they are afterwards. And then they release it with me, special guest Derek Sharini and they're getting new fans that they normally wouldn't have had because a lot of my fans want to be completists and have copies of everything that I play on. So it's all good, man. I love it. So Michael Schenker, I saw the press release a few weeks back or maybe a month ago. What type of song is it that you're guesting on? Is it a rerecording of a classic or a brand new track? It's a brand new song. I'm not sure who the singer was on it, but Brian Tishy's on drums and it sounded great. I mean, it sounds like a classic Michael Schenker song. But what really turned out, which I'm really happy about is he wanted me to play solos and he gave me like two different solo spots to play. So I did my thing and he was so happy with how it turned out that his manager or lawyer, whoever it was, wrote me back saying how happy Michael was and he wants to do more stuff in the future. And then they're saying, well, how much do we owe you? And I said, listen, I don't want to be paid to play with the great Michael Schenker. It's my honor. And I said, if he wants to return the favor and play on my next solo record, that would be awesome. And so they immediately wrote back saying, Michael would love to do it. Just send us the track. So me being me, I immediately wrote like the killer ultimate Michael Schenker track, which is like, like a new into the arena 40 years later. But I had Simon Phillips play drums on it and Tony Franklin's already recorded the bass. And so I've sent it off to Germany. And so I'm waiting for Michael to lay his tracks. And this will be for my next solo record. So it'll just be sitting in the can. Wait a second. So this is the new, new solo record. Yeah. This is number nine that hasn't been released yet that I'm writing right now. You don't know about, like, if there's a second wave, there will be another Derek Schoering solo. Yeah. I'm utilizing a third actually. If I can't tour, I'm in the studio. Good on you for not, you know, I guess when Michael Schenker says, sure, I'd like to play on your record. You kind of jump on that. You write an album. Yeah. Well, yeah, I wanted to take advantage of it while it was fresh on his mind. All right. So someone, a band like this, what do you, what do you learn backstage from kiss? Oh, yeah. You were the keyboardist. Was it, um, uh, what tour was it? It was revenge. That's it. That's it. That's it. You're backstage with them. What have you learned from them? The do's and the don'ts. Like you said, I mean, this is like a huge organization here. It's huge, you know, and it was a great experience watching how Jean and Paul ran their business and the crew and, and just the whole mechanisms of a huge, rock band like that going on tour. There's a lot of moving parts and there's a lot to learn. And so I kept my eyes open and knew that one day I'd have my own band like sons of Apollo and all the things that I learned from touring with Alice Cooper kiss and Billy Idol. I'm learning on their dime. And so I can apply it all to my deal later on. Yeah. Any, any stories about like, you know, I, I've seen you in kind of, uh, you know, more of some metal settings, but Billy Idol is not quite, you know, metal or he's rock. What was it like? Billy and he worked with Billy for quite a while, I believe. Yeah. 12 years, uh, for like pretty much every summer. Most of the summers I go out and play. It was great. He was a very cool boss and it was restricting for me, plain wise, just going out there and playing the hits. Yeah. It's straightforward. I would say. It's pretty straightforward. I guess that material. Yeah. All night and, and it's all based around, you know, backing Billy up and Steve Stevens, who is fantastic and has played on a couple of my solo records as well. Um, yeah, Billy was cool, but it's a pop scene and, you know, it's for, for someone like me, it gets old fast. And after 12 years, I was just, I was done. All right. So here's the last question. I was at Kathy Rhodes's winery in Burbank. I did a, I did a piece with her there. I mean, I've met, I've went to Masonia, I did a piece there and they, they just mentioned your name out of the blue. They go, Derek, sure. And he is always around here. I mean, what's your, your, your, what did round your roads mean to you as a keyboardist? Uh, or was he influenced you? He was a very huge influence. Like when I was 15 or 16, when the Blizzard of Oz record came out, I immediately gravitated to Randy Rhodes. At the time I was only listening to Eddie Van Halen. And then all of a sudden Randy came up and was like, Oh, what, there's someone new. That's really, you know, cool. And I got into his playing really deep. And I related to him because I could hear the classical influence. And at the time I was studying Bach piano and like, I saw the relationship. Yeah. And the benefits of learning classical because Randy was doing it. And he applied it to rock. And when he died, it was, it was very devastating for me at the time. I remember I was a junior. In high school. And I remember wearing a black arm band around my arm out of, you know, to honor Randy. And it was, it was very sad because he was a hero to me. And it was just so sudden, all of a sudden it was, it was gone. And so I've always been a huge Randy Rhodes fan. There's a big, there's a lot of Randy DNA in my keyboard style and the solos. At times it really comes out for sure. But over the years, I've developed a friendship with the Rhodes, the siblings, Kelly and Kathy. And, you know, they're great people. And I've played at the Randy birthday celebrations, Diary of a Mad Man with a string section. I did a or an orchestration for strings. Yeah, it's on YouTube if you search, but it's for Diary of a Mad Man. And, uh, no, it's really great. Randy Rhodes was awesome. I did, I did a report on rent on Kathy and Kelly. And me, Sonia, you check that out. It's got a lot of hits. It's, it was a great piece that I did. I just basically went into the whole family, but it was not only about Randy was about the Rhodes family. So yeah, great people, great folk. Oh yeah. Fantastic. Do you have any last questions? Yeah. Well, just Derek, maybe you just last word about the Phoenix. What would you want the metal voice fans to know about the Phoenix? The Phoenix is the guitar. Not only is it the keyboard record every year. That's a given. The record is the guitar record of the year. And the best guitar talent in the world is on this record for blues. I got Joe Bonamassa. No one plays blues better than Joe right now. I have Zach on guitar for the metal. I have Vi. And then Bumblefoot is the, the sickest shredder out there right now. It's just absolutely playing stuff that no one can even touch. He's playing double neck, a fretless guitar. And he's just getting sounds that others aren't even coming close to. And Kiko is, is fantastic. And then I have all the great bass players, Billy Sheehan, Tony Franklin, and then Simon Phillips on drums. It doesn't get any better than that. So if you're into great instrumental music, great production, you have to get the Phoenix. There it is. Derek Shurnian, the Phoenix, Inside Out Music, release date September 18th, 2020 available on all platforms, I assume. Yes. All worldwide. All platforms. And proclaimed the greatest album of 2020 right here and now. Thank you. Is this self-proclaimed? Self-proclaimed or did you proclaim it? I proclaimed it and so did you. So it's a mutual proclamation. And I love it. Mutual proclamation. All right. Derek, thanks for your time. Have a great day. Be safe. All right. Thank you, Derek. Take care. Bye-bye.