INTERVIEW: Frankie Banali – Quiet Riot

Quiet Riot has an indisputable place in the history of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal and whilst they’ve had their fair share of tragedy over the years and also their fair share of line-up changes; one man has kept the music alive for both fans of old and those too young to recall the days when metal was number one on the Billboard Charts! Remember those days when people used to buy music? Over the years I’ve spoken to hundreds of musicians  and most of them are great to talk to but there are a few who you really feel like you can get into a real conversation with, and Frankie Banali is one of the best of them. We caught up for a long distance chat about the new live album ‘One Night in Milan’.

Mark: Hi, Frankie, how’s things?

Frankie: Hi, Mark, how are you?

Mark: Very good, thank you. The last time we spoke to you was probably around 8 years ago! It was the time you almost made it to Australia.

Frankie: Oh, yes, I do remember that failed attempt when it was supposed to be us, Warrant and LA Guns.

Mark: And sadly you’ve still not made it here, but maybe one day!! I love the new album, it’s a great production, well recorded, and a great set list, what more could you want from a live album?

Frankie: Yeah, the interesting thing about it, is to give you an idea of how much faith and trust I have in the band, meaning Adam on guitar, James on vocals, and Chuck on bass, is that we went over to do the show in Milan, and with the exception of bringing a guitar and a bass, we brought no other gear, so all the stuff we used was provided gear. But I’d made a conscious decision when I spoke with the promoter at the label, that it was going to be a true live record, and what I meant by that, is I wasn’t going to take any of the tracks after the fact, to the studio, and re-record anything or fix anything, which is the reason I titled it “One Night in Milan” because that’s exactly what it is, it’s where it was recorded and nothing was fixed.

Mark: Yeah, first time in Italy as well!

Frankie: Yeah, two places where Quiet Riot have never played!! Italy and Australia! Pretty much everywhere else we have played!! (laughs). So, I can tick off Italy, but I’m still waiting impatiently for Australia!!

Mark: We have a couple of pretty good promoters over here bringing over some great bands, so you never know, one day!! A lot’s happened since we last spoke, 2 albums, “Quiet riot 10”and “Road Rage” which was an absolutely great album, I loved it, but let’s talk about the festival and the live set, you mentioned it’s your first time in Italy, no equipment, recorded absolutely live and there’s a great crowd reaction you can hear, so tell us about it, it was a small festival, wasn’t it?

Frankie: Yeah, It’s not what you think of , when you think of a festival you think of these huge events, for example when you say festival to me, I think of the US festival, in ’83, when we played to 375,000 people!! But in this situation it’s a smaller affair, but you have a lot of those types of things over in Europe, in the summer season, you have the big, huge festivals, and during the other seasons you have the smaller indoor events. You know I really commend Frontiers Records for not only continuing to sign bands of the genre, but also putting on these festivals, because it makes it possible for a lot of fans to see bands they wouldn’t normally get to see. So, going along with that I expected obviously to see a lot of Italian fans but what I wasn’t aware of until I got there was how many other fans were going to be there, as this was our only show there in 2018, there were an incredible amount of fans who came from all over Europe, and oddly enough even from Canada, where we do play every so often, but there were a lot of European fans, and that was really rewarding for me.

Mark: Yes, it’s a great set up. You’ve done some great live albums in the past; I loved the one you did a few years ago from the Key Club, “Live in the 21^st Century”, how would you say it compares to that?

Frankie: Well, one thing that was clear in my mind when it came to selecting the songs for that particular set, I mean I knew there were time constraints, we were given a 75 minute set, and that was it, so I knew that one of the things I had to do was play songs that the fans would want to hear, and especially for the first time, so the staples of the Quiet Riot catalogue were represented. There was a lot of material from the “Metal Health” record, and “Condition Critical”, and some material from “Quiet Riot III”, and as well as 2 new songs from the “Road Rage” record. But the other thing I did, knowing that Europeans have a heavier fan base, I played songs I don’t normally play live, like “Whatever it Takes” from the “Down to the “Bone” record from 1995, I threw that in the set, and I also did the title track from the 1993 album “Terrified”. So, I gave them a good cross section, a good historical collection of the Quiet Riot material.

Mark: I think one of the highlights for me, and I didn’t realise the significance of it at the time when I first listened, was to hear “Thunderbird”.

Frankie: What made “Thunderbird” special for this performance on “One Night in Milan” is that we’ve been performing that song in honour of Randy Rhoads since 1983, but when we recorded it in 1982 for the “Metal Health” record the song began with a piano, which is something we have never done live, and so Alessandro Del Vecchio, who was picked to produce the record, he’s a friend of mine, and he’s an incredibly great guy and an incredibly great keyboard player, and so I got in touch with him and said I’ve just had this great idea to do “Thunderbird” as it was recorded 36 years ago with piano, would you be prepared to do it? And he was very happy and very humbled by it. He did a phenomenal job, and for me it was great to hear that song in a manner that I haven’t heard it live in since we recorded it in 1982.

Mark: It was fantastic, and really stood out for me, to hear the song in its entirety, such a great song for Randy.

Frankie: Yeah, it’s an emotional part for me every time we perform that song, when Kevin was with us he would dedicate it to the memory of Randy, and now it’s in my charge to not only dedicate it to Randy, who was one of the most incredible guitarists I’ve ever heard, but also one of the sweetest guys on the planet, but also dedicate it my friend Kevin.

Mark: That’s wonderful. You have a new singer as well, James Durban, since last we spoke, he’s very impressive, I’ve enjoyed listening to him live, tell us a bit about him.

Frankie: Yeah, it was great to have James on board, he’s just started his second year with us and when I brought him on board the things that, for me, were a must, was that he would have the same range that Kevin had, or similar to what Kevin had, Kevin could sing the highs of highs and the lows of lows, and this was something that was part of who James is as a vocalist. So, that was important, but equally important, Kevin loved being on stage, and if you’ve watched any performance you could tell he loved it,  he was a born professional on stage, and James has a lot of those same qualities, a great performer and loves being on stage, so for me that was a win, win situation, in order to continue performing Quiet Riot material from over three decades ago you have to have the voice, and to do it live you have to be able to give people a show.

Mark: Exactly! You played a slightly different set at the Frontiers festival than on the video. Are you thinking of taking some of those songs that went down really well there, on to the set list of the tour of the US?

Frankie: It’s really interesting, I tailor the set to the place we’re playing and to the audience we’re playing to. There’s a certain formula of songs that have to be included that are expected, but I don’t go changing it up, I think if you give the audience the songs that they want and then give them something unexpected, it’s a great situation for the audience, but also a great situation for the band.

Mark: If I can go back, “Metal Health” was one of those albums, growing up, that meant so much, it was a time when Rock music got back in to the mainstream, and last time we spoke I asked if you knew it was going to be such a huge album for you, and obviously nobody knew at the time what it was going to do, but you put it back to number 1 in the charts. And I think that resurgence of Rock was partly due to Quiet Riot. It must have been a wonderful time, but a lot’s happened since then. What advice would you give to a band that is just starting out these days?

Frankie: I have to be honest with you, I feel sorry for new musicians, I admire them no end, as they have the same desire that I had as a kid growing up, wanting to be a musician. The big problem now is that the major labels aren’t signing any new bands, there was a time when independent labels were doing it, but a lot of them don’t exist anymore, so you have that issue where in the past, a label would sign you for a 2-4 record deal, expecting your first record not to do much, and it was a building process, and they made an investment in a band. Now, most labels don’t make any investment in the bands, they may invest in a single, and if that single doesn’t get good “streams” then that artist disappears as quickly as he arrives! So, that is an issue and the other issue is the radio for the most part, is not playing new music, they’re playing catalogue things, their programmed by very few people with whatever particular tastes they have, so that is a problem with promotion. We had MTV, which doesn’t exist anymore as we knew it; they may as well take the M out of the title, as very little music is played on MTV!! And finally, unless you have the situation, that has the name, unless you have a brand, or have been around a long time to be able to draw fans to come and see you, bands don’t have the opportunity to play anywhere unless they pay to play, it’s a nasty business!

Mark: Yeah, where do you stand on things like streaming? To me it’s one of the worst things to happen to music over the last few years, especially the lack of money that is given to the artists when their music is put up there! What’s your take on it? Do you think it’s a necessary evil, do you think we have changed that much?

Frankie: No, I don’t think it’s necessary at all, what it’s done is kill the music industry! Now, if an album sells fewer than 10,000 copies, but you have 30-40,000 streams, your record’s number one!! And it’s so deflated, it really means nothing! In our era, we were selling at one point between 35 and 50,000 records a week!! We stopped counting how many records “Metal Health” had sold worldwide in 2003, and at that point it had sold over 10 million copies! The single for “Cum on Feel the Noize” sold a million copies plus, on its own, that just doesn’t happen anymore, we live in a very disposable society. I remember when I was a kid growing up, I couldn’t wait for the next Zeppelin record to come out, or the next Rolling Stones record, I’d ask the guy in the record store if it had come in and then buy it, I would take it home, look at the picture and read all the liner notes, and where it was recorded and all of that, so I was making an investment with the artist that I love. The same thing happened with us, now, because you can switch over and over, you have 20,000 songs at your disposal, you can listen to the first fifteen seconds and if it doesn’t hit you, you go to the next one without knowing that two seconds later is the key part of the song, and you may have loved the song! Music has become so disposable, phones, flat screen TV’s, cars, have all become disposable!!

Mark: So, what’s the answer?

Frankie: I don’t know that there’s an answer! There are so many other world problems that I don’t think countries are really going to take it seriously. I think most politicians think most musicians are drug addicts or ‘not an exemplary part of society, so why should they worry about putting in legislation to help that industry when they can help another industry? So, I don’t think there’s a way out, the worst thing that ever happened was the invention of the CD, because a CD is an exact copy of a master recording! And as soon as CD’s became available it was only a matter of time before people were going to invent the recordable CD player, and so began the decline.

Mark: I think you’re right. Let’s talk about more positive things now! I loved the documentary that came out a few years ago, and there’s been a few released over the years, but I think as far as an insight in to the band is concerned, “Well Now You’re Here”, which I think came from the song “Bang Your Head”, was fantastic and I now the big thing to hit has been the Queen film, have you seen Bohemian Rhapsody?

Frankie: Oh, yeah, I went to the theatre to see it, it was an amazing film, everything about it was amazing! It’s up for Oscar nomination, so I’m hoping it’s going to do well       `because it was really, really well done. I’ve heard some critics out there that have complained about this, that and the other, which is something I heard to a lesser degree about the Quiet Riot video. What you have to understand is you have x amount of time constraints for making a film, and if you have a band with a 30 or 40 year history like Queen has had and continues to have, and Quiet Riot has had and continues to have, you have to pick and choose what’s going to be in it and what’s not going to be in it. The acting was so phenomenal and spot on; I’m looking forward to seeing it again. I’m not going to buy it, but I’ll see it at the theatre again, to get the theatre experience on the big screen because it was really phenomenal!

Mark: I think it was a wonderful bit of entertainment. I think if you’re a big Queen fan there’s stuff in there that would bother you, but if you’re just going to see the film and be entertained, which is what it’s all about.

Frankie: Well I would always say to critics who have said negative things about the Queen movie, listen, if they could have made a Queen movie that was 6 months long then it might satisfy everybody out there, but that’s just not realistic!!

Mark: That’s right, and I’m hoping it’s going to lead to some type of resurgence in that type of film and maybe people getting interested in the sort of music that we love as well. I think Quiet Riot would be a band that would really suit that treatment; you’ve had a wonderful story so far and continue to have. I don’t know what your thoughts are on that, has anyone ever approached you?

Frankie: No, but I’ve been asked the question before, if there were to be a film who would you want to play you?? And I said, hands down Johnny Depp, he has to be me!! (Laughs). Why? Because he’s so much better looking than I am!!

Mark: Yeah, it’s not a bad choice; I think I’d choose him too, you can’t go wrong!! One thing I’ve always wanted to ask you, and we didn’t get the chance last time, was, if you could have been a fly on the wall for the making of any studio album, just to see how the magic happened, what album would it be for you and why?

Frankie: For me personally, without a doubt it would have to be Led Zeppelin I, because I think Led Zeppelin began to grow and evolve and change album by album, but the blueprint for everything that they did in their career was that first album. I’m talking about the song writing, about the performance, the individual performances, the production, everything across the board. It was different to anything that had come before it, and I don’t think anything has equalled it since.

Mark: It was ground breaking and changed music as far as I’m concerned. We have a podcast every month and we’d love to play one of the live songs, which one is getting played at the moment?

Frankie: That’s so difficult for me to answer because; the obvious one is “Bang Your Head”, but there’s b tracks, like “Whatever it Takes” and “Terrified” and then there’s “Freak Flag” and “Can’t Get Enough” from the Road Rage record, and then of course there’s “Thunderbird” with piano which hasn’t been performed live before, it’s very difficult to choose, so I think it’s a coin toss!

Mark: Some great songs there.

Frankie: Well let’s find a promoter to bring us down to Australia so you can hear them, and when I get there, I can meet you and you can have as many pints as you like on my credit card!! And if we can’t, I’ll just have to take a vacation there, and I will still, I will still fund you pints!!

Mark: We’ve always got some room here for you mate; you have a lot of fans here in Australia, take care and thank you so much, I shall be dreaming of those pints all day now!

Frankie: I would love it, I’ve never had the opportunity to go, and if the opportunity comes along I will do everything I can to make it a reality! I’m very grateful to you for taking the time to talk to me about the new album, take care.