Location: Metropolis / Munich / Germany
Interview date: 08.07.2009
It finally happened. Tesla have turned up on European concert stages a little closer to Slovenia. The road led me to the Bavarian capital. After needlessly wandering around, I finally found the Metropolis hall, in the revived Kunstpark Ost part of Munich. At the entrance, the band’s friendly tour manager Dean “picks me up” and leads me through the hall to backstage. Heaven’s Basement were up on stage doing their soundcheck. Backstage, Tesla drummer Troy Luccketta was already waiting for me, ready to chew the fat about this excellent hard rock outfit, which etched itself into the hearts of every true rocker above all with the run of its first four albums. A long pause followed, and Tesla came back in 2004 with the excellent “Into The Now”, which proved the band was nowhere near losing its explosive edge and freshness. The guys confirmed that with its successor “Forever More”, the album this tour is dedicated to and where I finally managed to catch the band on stage. After watching the live Tesla DVD “Comin’ Atcha Live” (2008), I was properly drooling. Anyway, the interview kicked off in the opposite direction from what I expected. The first question came from Troy…
Troy: How did the sound seem to you during our soundcheck? Did you happen to hear any of it?
RockLine: Yeah. Tesla are obviously in good shape. You were just running through the song Forever More.
Troy: Oh, thanks. I love hearing that.
RockLine: How happy are Tesla with how the current tour is going? How do you see it all?
Troy: Personally, I’m happy. I like that we’re hanging out with the fans again in this part of the world too. We come to them, they come to us, that flow of energy. Of course, sometimes I’d wish our shows were even better attended. It’s clear to us that we have to rebuild our name, fight for every single fan, and get our music in front of as many people as possible. Put Tesla on people’s radar. There are plenty of people who don’t know Tesla, so right now we’re also focusing on festival gigs, where a wide crowd gathers in front of the stage and there’s a better chance our name really catches on in Europe. I hope we can keep up this approach in the future too.
RockLine: About ten days ago, Tesla were supposed to play the Bang Your Head!!! festival in the German town of Balingen. You also had a confirmed slot at the Gods Of Metal festival in Milan (Italy) on the same day. You dropped out of Bang Your Head!!! What circumstances led to that decision?
Troy: It was an impossible situation. Right from the start everybody advised us not to try the impossible. Even when they “booked” us I was personally very skeptical, but then I thought: okay, let’s just let it all play out. Maybe we’ll pull off two shows in one day.” Physically it was impossible, even though we thought and said otherwise.
RockLine: Tesla’s return to the scene and the release of the excellent comeback album “Into The Now” in 2004, which you backed up with another very good album, “Forever More”, last year, presented a more mature, modern sound. In fact, “Forever More” has by far the darkest atmosphere, at least as far as I’m concerned. How do you comment on the latest Tesla album?
Troy: Do you mean dark in the musical sense or in terms of the lyrics themselves?
RockLine: Both.
Troy: When we headed into the studio, the record was nowhere near ready. We hadn’t worked out the material, let alone a release date or an album title. We locked ourselves in the studio with English producer Terry Thomas, and together we hammered out the structure and shape of the songs themselves. At the start we weren’t calculating anything or thinking about what kind of album we wanted. The album came together right there in the studio. Just as it is. All we said was: “Let’s go into the studio and record an album.” No pretension, no calculating ahead of time.
RockLine: You’ve successfully built your old-school hard rock approach, the one that gave you your famous classics, into some of the modern approaches in today’s production. How did you go through that process?
Troy: By the time we were building momentum for “Into The Now”, we’d all lost real touch with what’s modern in music these days. We’re just a herd of old-fashioned dinosaurs. Well, let me soften that. Every one of us has at least a bit of a dinosaur’s walk in our feet, ha, ha, ha… The reality is also that we’re all still very lively and vital, and we know we still have a lot to say and give to the music world. So the option of us being just another watered-down or faded name on the map today is off the table. We believe in ourselves, in what makes us special, in what makes Tesla’s music special. And the good news is that when people hear our new stuff too, they start believing in us as well.
RockLine: Troy. Tell us something about yourself. What inspired you to pick up the drums as a young guy?
Troy: Even as a kid I was constantly pounding away on a snare drum at home. Back then I knew and felt that I could really tear the place down if I had a whole drum kit. From the very beginning I wanted to play drums and nothing but drums. At first I played along to some particular record I’d spin in the background. That inspired me. I was ten or eleven years old. Soon I was able to buy my first drum set. And to this day I’ve kept the same passion and joy for drumming, no less than when I was 10. Of course, I still practice a lot today, study playing techniques, learn, try out different things on the drums. Even now I can listen for whole days and nights to the “madness” on the drums of the late John Bohnam. John Bohnam is absolutely my number one idol of rock n’ roll drumming. The favorite rock n’ roll drummer of all time. Even when I watch old Led Zeppelin footage today, I just can’t stop marveling at what a huge band that was, especially in terms of the “jams”. It’s unbelievable. Even after all these years, I still listen to exactly what kicked off my drumming career.
RockLine: So it’s something you’ve carried in your blood all along. It’s always with you, smoldering inside you?
Troy: Absolutely. The rest of the Tesla crew keep laughing at me about it too. You know, when I’m not on tour, I do regular jobs. I’m a family man and so on. So the only time that’s right for listening to and studying music is when I’m on tour. So I make full use of it, because otherwise I don’t have much time to practice on the drums.
RockLine: How do you maintain and look after your day-to-day physical drumming condition?
Troy: Yeah. You have to keep taking care of that stuff all the time. I have some videos with me that I use for certain exercises. The basic thing is that you have to look after your knees and elbows and keep them in good shape. So you don’t accidentally injure your joints. You have to take care of your body, not wear it out or burn it out. That goes for everyone in Tesla. And I definitely can’t get lazy behind my kit. I want to enjoy playing, to be as good as I can be. These days there are lots of excellent drummers in the music business, and in that company I wouldn’t want to become some old, burned-out drummer. The fire in me is still burning.
RockLine: Last year you released the live DVD “Comin’ Atcha Live”…
Troy: How do you like our DVD?
RockLine: It’s excellent. Unbelievable chemistry, tightness, energy! Incredible live sound. Because of it I told myself I absolutely had to catch you live in Europe.
Troy: Oh, thanks, thanks…
RockLine: Well, what I wanted to say is that, going by what I saw on the footage, your name still enjoys a lot of support in the US in the new millennium.
Troy: Yeah, that’s true.
RockLine: The concert captured on the DVD was played in a packed hall in Minnesota (USA). How did that show feel?
Troy: You know, the US has always been a receptive market for Tesla. It always soaked up our music well. Thanks to that, we survived on the scene all these years. The feeling at that show was incredible. At the time that footage was made, we were touring North America. It happened totally unexpectedly that we decided to record that particular show. Unfortunately Jeff had a cold that night, but we gritted our teeth and fought our way through the show. Honestly, though, things aren’t always in reality what you’d wish them to be. We’d already thought about not recording that show and picking another location for the occasion. But everything was ready. Once we made peace with the fact that Jeff was a little “hoarse” here and there, we decided to go out on stage, face it head-on, and leave our balls out there on stage. Give it our best. Does that sound right to you?
RockLine: Yes. And as far as I’m concerned, after watching that DVD I wanted to see your show at all costs. That’s why I was properly furious when you were forced to cancel at this year’s Bang Your Head!!! festival, which I attended. So the only option was to catch you here, today, at the show in Munich.
Troy: Sincere thanks. And you know what? Honestly, Tesla have been on the scene for a good 20 years or so. Sometimes all you want is for the fire to keep burning. That means you want to stay in action, pushing your motto to the very edge and trying by every means to avoid a situation where you might get comfortable. You know what I mean?
RockLine: It’s dawning on me.
Troy: You don’t want to be pretentious, brilliant,… You just want to be real, to have a good time with your band. The reality is that not every night on stage can be perfect, but the fact is that from every show and every day we spend together on tour, we still always pull out at least some positive results, if not the daily maximum. That drives us forward, keeps us young inside. It inspires us and gives us the motivation to be what Tesla are.
RockLine: Are any new ideas taking shape for the next studio album?
Troy: No. Not yet. We haven’t even started writing material. But we already have a release date for the new album, ha, ha, ha… The new album is supposed to come out in early 2011, which means we’ll start recording the material for it next year.
RockLine: How happy are you with Frontiers Records?
Troy: That question would be better suited to our bass player Brian (Brian Wheat, editor’s note). He’s the one in touch with the label’s people and has the best insight into how it works with our band. I can’t give you a concrete answer. I just hope we work well together. Do you think it’s a good label?
RockLine: In Europe, definitely the most reliable among those that look after bands playing melodic hard rock and AOR. Bigger bands have put out albums with them too, like Asia, Survivor, Night Ranger, Toto,…
RockLine: What circumstances led to Tesla taking a longer break after the release of the album “Bust A Nut” in the mid-nineties?
Troy: It was simple. In our last year of activity, 1996, Tesla were just a foursome. Tommy (guitarist Tommy Sceotch, editor’s note) left us in 1995, then we kept going as a quartet until the end of 1996 and decided to take a break. There was nothing deeper behind that decision and no particularly weighty reasons. It was just time to rest. Then there was one show in Sacramento that marked Tesla’s return to the scene. So it happened after we hadn’t planned anything. Just one show. At that show we didn’t expect, or even think, that there were still people out there who cared about our music. Times change, just like trends and people. But after the show we realized our music still means a lot to people. So we pulled the best out of that experience.
RockLine: And how happy are Tesla with the work of your new member, guitarist Dave Rude?
Troy: Dave was discovered by Frank (guitarist Frank Hannon, editor’s note) through MySpace. Dave played in Frank’s band and solo projects. Frank always had a push to introduce Dave to the rest of Tesla too. I think we couldn’t have found a better guy for the guitarist spot next to Frank, and I’m very happy Dave is with us. Dave just clicked with us right away. We were really lucky in that respect.
RockLine: He’s a very versatile, talented guitarist.
Troy: Dave is an old rocker soul and exactly what Tesla need. The rest of us are “old schoolers” too, so Dave had no trouble filling the empty pair of shoes in Tesla.
RockLine: And what are Tesla’s short-term plans?
Troy: The current plan is to put out a live CD from this tour. So not a DVD, but a live CD. Later we’re heading to the US, where we’ll be recording our shows as well. That way we’ll get a lot of extra material we can include in the release. We’re also working out putting out a special live release of the acoustic set we played with Tommy in the lineup, but that’s still up in the air. Otherwise, the general plan is to firmly re-establish our name and status in Europe and strive to get our music to as much of the European audience as possible.
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