PAUL SHORTINO
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 15th June 2009.
Paul Shortino is a full-on metal god. Not only was he the vocalist in Rough Cutt and (for one album) Quiet Riot, he had a role in the seminal film Spinal Tap. Not bad for starters...
After many other albums both as a solo artist and with other musicians under various banners, he's back with a record 'Chasing My Dream' under the Shortino name.
We caught up with Paul via telephone on Wednesday the 10th of June.
Hi Paul, great to talk to you. Where are you at the moment?
Paul: I’m in Las Vegas. I’ve lived here about a year and a half now.
What’s the rock scene like there? Las Vegas is renowned more for its cabaret isn't it?
Paul: Actually it’s pretty cool. Last night I was sat in at the Rio... in the Voodoo Lounge. We all were jamming last night. So, yeah, it’s really cool. You get a lot of acts come through Las Vegas. A lot of acts you see in Los Angeles, it’s a lot easier to get in and see them, get in backstage.
Do you do any performing in Vegas with local bands?
Paul: No. I just go in every so often and sit in. We’re going to have a release party on the 27th (June 2009) the day after the record’s released at the Ovation Lounge. It’s a theatre in Green Valley - we’re going to have one of the guitar players who wrote some of the stuff, Ira Black from L.A.. We’re going to perform a few songs.
Silly question now... Have you ever sung one of your own songs in a karaoke bar?
Paul: (laughs) No I haven’t.
You haven’t been tempted?
Paul: No. Actually they’ve got a rock karaoke night here on Monday nights at the House of Blues. They have a band that plays with tracks so it sounds like the record. But, you know, it’s still karaoke...
The Rough Cutt anthology was released in 2008 with a load of unreleased tracks on it. Are you likely to record any more material under the Rough Cutt name?
Paul: We were actually going to do a whole record. The budget wasn’t actually worth all of us stopping what we were doing. So, probably in the near future. There’s nothing we can really do for the next year and a half.
On your website, your biography describes you as a ‘veteran rocker’. Do you feel like a veteran rocker or are you still 18 inside?
Paul: Yeah, I feel like a veteran rocker. You’re only as young as you feel. You hit the big five-0, you’re on the downside of life. Not literally being ‘down’ on it. The best years may be to come, buy maybe the worst health (laughs). You never expect to live this long in rock’n’roll! I wish knew what I know now when I was younger.
I’m sure you wouldn’t go back and change anything if you had the chance.
Paul: Actually, no, there’s a lot of beautiful times there. Good memories... like being left in the women’s loo. I went out to go to the bathroom - we were in Canada, in the Rough Cutt days. It was snowing, coming down like cats and dogs. You could walk and it would cover up your footprints. I was in the loo and I heard the bus take off. I was in my sweats and a t-shirt!
Did they remember you?
Paul: I actually caught up with the bus. They were stopping to get something to eat about a couple of miles up the road. I was running behind the bus, screaming, whistling. The snow was coming down – it was very picturesque. I looked behind me and the snow was covering up the tracks of the bus. I came walking in, covered in snow. Thank god it wasn’t freezing out! The temperature wasn’t too cold but I just walked in and said, “You guys need to check the bunks man!”
Onto the new album. Is it something you were planning to write yourself or did the record company ask you to do it?
Paul: What happened is, my wife asked me if I wanted to do a song for this album ‘Voices Of Rock’ on AOR Heaven, and I said sure. So we started with that, and then they came back and asked if I would be interested in doing the record. I wasn’t sure. I was in the middle of producing a young band, I’ve been doing that for quite a long time - it was a band called Black Tora - so I said’ “Yeah, why not?”
My wife Carmen put the thing together and they started sending me over some tracks. ‘Side FX’, ‘Remember You’, ‘Chasing Your Dream’ and ‘Nocturnal’ were tracks that I had recorded here in the States with guitarist Ira Black who has just left Lizzy Borden and was also in bands called Vicious Rumors and Metal Church. He’s a young guitarist. Him and Patrick Johansson - drummer from Yngwie – we were doing a charity on the road when we met. It’s called Rock For Christmas. It’s a rock’n’roll thing for kids that don’t get Christmas. I’ve been doing it for 4 or 5 years in a row. We just talked about doing a record, next thing I know they turned up in L.A.. The guitarist was from ‘Frisco and Patrick was all the way from Florida. They just showed up and they laid this stuff down in 10 days. And then we started adding bass players. Doro Pesch’s bass player, the bass player that was in Whitesnake.
So I’ve got all these great tracks of stuff and we’re short on material for this record (Chasing My Dream) so I submitted 4 tracks and asked the guys if they’d mind if I did that. So that’s how 4 of those tracks came about. A song called ‘To The Cross’, the drummer from Rough Cutt – because we were going to put Rough Cutt back together – had showed up here in Las Vegas from Detroit. He had a bunch of material that was going to go through as Rough Cutt stuff, but then this anthology came out so we just put that stuff on hold. That song was really happening. This friend of mine who’s a lyricist had some lyrics and they fitted right to that track. We put that on there and sent it to Michael (Voss) because the song was only about a minute and a half and he took it to another verse, he modulated it, it was more raw – there were no keys on it – he rerecorded it and sent it back. The last song ‘Plan Of Attack’ that was written by a young guy here in Las Vegas. So that’s how those 6 songs came about. The other stuff like ‘Alone They Ride’ Michael Wrote. He wrote the song ‘Missing’ with someone else but I really like what he did with some of the stuff production wise.
I was impressed with of the effects on there. There’s a lot of stuff I really wasn’t expecting. It sounds really good.
Paul: It was really interesting when he started sending me tracks. I was a little sceptic about some things. I laid my part down and sent them back. Towards the end we got right down to the wire and my wife said we’ve got to get this thing done, they want a release date. So ‘Nocturnal’, ‘Chasing Your Dream’, 'Promises'... That song was written with a piano playing friend of mine. So Jeff Northrop took this piano piece that, recorded it and just chopped it up and wrote it into a song. So it was really trippy how that song came about. They needed another track so I said, “Well, I’ve got this song that I was going to use for something else...It’s really raw and stripped down to the bone.” They said yeah and Michael took it and added the solo.
Well it all works. Some albums have every song sounding the same, whereas this one has variety. It’s nice and heavy too.
Paul: Yeah, it does have some heavy moments; a little darkness there too. I’m really happy with it. I don’t listen to a lot of stuff that I do. You know, you spend so much time on it, by the time it’s finished you never want to hear it again. But this one I actually enjoy to listen to over and over. I like the sound of my voice, what I did on certain things. During the Rough Cutt days you do something and you don’t like what you did but the producer loves it so it stays. Every time that part comes around you cringe. So, very few times I was happy with what I put down. There were a few other records – you know, the Quiet Riot record and a record I did with Jeff Northrop ‘Back On Track’. If I could take part of the first Rough Cutt album and part of the second album and make it into one album I would do so.
You work with quite a few German musicians. How did that come about... was it through the record company?
Paul: Yeah, them and Michael. if I come over to Europe to tour I’ll probably just bring 1 or 2 people over with me and use mostly European players.
I was going to ask you how the band would actually work. You’ve got a number of different contributors on the album.
Paul: I’ve already spoken Michael and he’s turned me onto some promoters and agents over there. It would be more feasible for me to put a band together over there. Some of the guys who tracked on the record are interested. I’m also putting a band together here in the States to tour.
So you’re going to do a U.S. tour and then head to Europe later in the year?
Paul: Yeah, or maybe later this year start with Europe and come back here to the States. They’re working on a release through Steve Vai’s label. Hopefully that’ll come to pass and there will be distribution across this country which will be cool – whilst you can still buy a CD in a store anyway.
How long that’s going to last for who knows?!
Paul: Yeah, pretty soon you won’t be able to get anything. But, hey, at least you know you get paid.
So what are your thoughts on the present state of the record industry?
Paul: I think they were very unprepared for the internet. Thank god for the internet. It allows young talent who would never get signed to be seen. It seems like, out of the 70’s and early 80’s people that were in the record industry signing bands were in bands too. They knew music. And then all of a sudden they started signing people that got out of college and you ended up having corporate people. It cuts off the creativity when it gets too commercialised.
It’s the same thing with our lifestyles. Everything is throw away. Before, they used to make things and then you used to have to fix them or you’d got a record and they’d put so much work into it. You know, we’re moving at such a fast pace. It’s the same with our lifestyles, our government seems to be getting bigger all over the world, wanting to control everything. It’s kind of the same thing with the record company trying to gobble up everything and squash anybody that was independent. Now they’re out there in the cold because they weren’t prepared for it. I suppose that is the good thing now.
The present way things work is bad for the big bands and good for the small ones.
Paul: Absolutely. It’s like a revolution. It opened up and, you know, they weren’t prepared for Napster or anything, these people.
Speaking of the digital age, I was wondering how you got involved in singing on the Sonic The Hedgehog soundtrack. It seems to attract a lot of big names like Tony Harnell and Johnny Gioeli.
Paul: That’s another thing my wife put together.
She likes making you work!
Paul: Yeah she does! (laughs) She’s great, she handles my career and she’s a really great lady, keeps me in health. I’ll probably live to be in my hundreds because of her.
I’m glad to hear it.
Paul: We’re got a 13 year age difference, she’s a little hottie! She keeps me together and keeps everything going on in my career. I really want to thank her for all the things that are going on at the moment, especially this record and organising interviews. I did an interview yesterday. I was live on the radio and slipped the F-word.
Good man.
Paul: (laughs) Yeah, sorry about that.
If it works for Madonna...
Paul: Oh yeah.
Anything else you want to mention?
Paul: Just wanted to say it’s going to be great getting back out there and I look forward to seeing all the fans again.
Thanks Paul, thanks for calling.
Paul: Thanks Jon.
The new Shortino album is out at the end of June. Check out the review on Rock Realms here for further details. Keep an eye out for tour dates across Europe and the U.S..
