Sabastian Bach slams young bands

[That 70s Guy]

classicrockmagazine.com





Sebastian Bach says he covered April Wine track Rock n’Roll Is A Vicious Game as an attack on young bands who have an over-developed sense of entitlement.

The song appears on his latest album Give ‘Em Hell, and he tells Classic Rock Revisited: “I chose that song because of the lyrics. I meet so many young musicians. Actually, not even musicians – people who get into rock’n’roll. These young people have this huge sense of entitlement.

“Just because they play in a rock band, they don’t understand why they don’t have a mansion, or a ****ing helicopter, and they whine and moan.”

Quoting the song he says: “Isn’t it a pity, isn’t it a shame? No one ever warned the boy – rock’n’roll is a vicious game.”

Bach goes on: “I think it has something to do with technology. I’ll record in the studio with younger guys and I’ll sing the first chorus. They’ll look up and me and go, ‘You’re done. We’ve got it. We’re just going to cut and paste from here.’

“I tell them, ‘No we’re not.’ I’ve actually gotten into arguments with kids telling me they don’t have time to sing the whole ****ing song. I’m like, ‘You sit the **** down and let me take you to ****ing school. This isn’t about cut and paste – this is about ****ing rock’n’roll.”

Give 'Em Hell – which features Duff McKagan on a number of tracks – was released last week via Frontiers Records.

 

[Musikwala]

Okay.... I don't know what he's talking about? Who cuts and pastes? From where?? Old songs? I'm sorry but Sebastian comes off more jealous of younger bands than anything else.

 

[HonkinOnBobo]

Sebastian comes off more jealous of younger bands than anything else.

Jealous? Of what?


If you don't know what he's talking about with cutting and pasting, I'd venture to say you've missed at least the last 20+ years of pop music

 

[Musikwala]

Jealous? Of what?


If you don't know what he's talking about with cutting and pasting, I'd venture to say you've missed at least the last 20+ years of pop music

I don't know. I just expressed my views based on how he came across with all the F words and anger at modern bands. There are plenty of modern bands that are making brilliant original music out there even today. So kindly enlighten me what he is talking about over here... Does he mean those stupid mainstream acts that release umpteen new hip hop versions of classic songs? If so, yes that is lame.

 

[LG]

I understand exactly what Sabastian is talking about, it's called 'the course of minimal resistance', in other words the easiest path to a goal. Human nature being what it is I get that, but those of us who predate the digital/computer/internet world realize that there is nothing wrong with hard work.

I've had many run-ins with the 'copy-paste' generation and from where I sit it doesn't bode well for the future, not just in music either.

This is also why so many newer bands can't pull of a good live show, they haven't had to work their way through the dances/bars/clubs that their predecessors did before they ever got to look at a recording contract.

I'm a massive April Wine fan and that song was Myles Goodwyn's take on how hard it is to make a living in the music business.

 

[AboutAGirl]

Just an old man railing against technology. Music evolves. New technology arises. Before recorded audio, bands had to travel around the world just for people to even hear their music. Is it lazy that bands now can release albums??

Music evolves whether or not the stars from thirty years ago care to evolve with it. As a musician I'd hope Bach would be more open-minded than that. It's usually just small cliques (generally of non-musicians) that feel so entitled that everybody seriously HAS to make music the same way they prefer. And that's exactly what Bach is saying, "you have to do music my way. This is not negotiable."

I like Sebastian's songs, when his band played thrash they were awesome. But I can't say much for his understanding of music, if he wants everybody to do it the same way he does. It's a wide, wide world out there and there is more than enough space for every different style, approach, and ideology. If music was as homogenous as Sebastian Bach would like, I'd have lost interest in the medium ten years ago.

There's nothing wrong with liking music one way or another. I wholeheartedly prefer Sebastian's approach myself, I've always been a diehard fan of raw, live-in-studio style recording. But it's just plain silly for a grown man to rail against people as if they have to play music his own way. We all have our preferences, but there's never going to be an Adolf Hitler or Mussolini of music who goes around enforcing rules. That's something we just have to live with, people can and will record music however they please.

 

[LG]

^^You make a couple good points AAG but you are also missing a big point.

Work Ethic, it's one of the fundamental changes in the world around us including music, that is what he's talking about.

Copy/Pasting has been a double edged sword, it is both a really cool innovation but also leads to sloth and lack of imagination and thinking for yourself, to deny that is to deny the reality of the world we live in. And there are still plenty of very talented new musicians constantly filling the ranks as the older artists fade into the ether, that is also part of the business.

 

[AboutAGirl]

I don't see copy/paste that way at all. Copy/paste in editing terms is a production tool no different from Hi-Fi technology or any other advancement in the studio over the last 50 years. Sure it'd be harder to repeat the same segment over and over again, but it'd also be harder to handcraft your own instruments or hand crank your recording machine, that doesn't inherently make it better.

And because it's harder doesn't mean it's the right way to do things or that not doing them that way is lazy. It's solely about different aesthetics and different approaches to your music, and how you want your music to sound. For certain genres recording the same thing multiple times isn't just unnecessary, it's actually detrimental. For a crisp, clean song you may want the chorus to sound identical each time. And on the other hand if you want a rough, raw song you're going to want to emphasize the warts and not copy/paste. But there's no inherent wrongness between the two, only preference.

I always think about Tom Petty and the album Into the Great Wide Open. On that record he didn't play live like usual, they recorded each instrument separately in a sound booth and then layered them on top of each other. And not only does it sound good, it actually sounds really raw and natural, almost lo-fi. So to me it's all about whatever is going to make the best music, and every different approach can yeild good results in the right hands.

Given his demeanor, I suspect Bach would look at a techno producer copying one beat along a line so that he can add & manipulate beats on top of it, and he might look at that as being lazy. But in reality that's the genre of the music and the natural, stylistic necessities of that art form. If someone were to say that using digital editing technology (aka copy/paste) is flat out wrong, that's as ignorant and nonsensical as if someone goes to a violin concert and yells at them for not playing guitar instead. Different styles of music demand different approaches and benefit from different strategies. And it's not just dance music vs. rock, every genre spans the gamut. There is raw, live-recorded dance music and clean, copy/pasted rock music and both have their rightful place in the spectrum.

But I'm completely repeating myself... I'm sorry. I guess, just I don't think copy/paste makes people uncreative necessarily. I've seen as just as many generic folk singers at open stages, contributing nothing new to music, as I've seen generic DJs at clubs, contributing nothing new to music. To me it's all about putting the tools in the hands of the artists. A good artist will use everything at his or her disposal to create great music.

As far as work ethic, you're right, Sebastian Bach must be talking about that. It sounds like he's talking about some kids, I mean like actual kids, 15 or something. Because if they're playing rock music and they think they're going to get a mansion? They've gotta be naive. Someone trying to get a mansion these days would be playing a different genre. I wonder if Sebastian teaches at some high schools or runs a low-cost recording studio, because I'm not sure where else he'd be encountering these people. I mean, he's talking about being in the studio with them and telling them what to do, it's not like he's meeting these bands at gigs. So I'm kind of curious what the context is.

 

[Drew j]

I mean he may have a point, but I'm recording a demo with my band ( we're in high school), and we haven't cut and pasted at all. We can play all of our songs live. Whatever, if you want to see my youtube channel where I post guitar videos, you can see it here https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCPc2QTAXXdnKRg8fFNY2Z0w. The support is much needed!

 

[Slip'nn2Darkness]

I've always loved Bach's way of thinking. And for my view of the topic of what engineers do for a band is ALOT!!
If it wasn't for the guys who know just how to bring out the quality of a not so good band then you need to go behind the scenes and see just how much they can color up a song so it's as good as it get's.
Autotune anybody?? If you can't sing a lick well no worries.. Just throw some autotune in there if you want perfect pitch.
Bach has one of those voices that can shatter glass!! He's like so many other older musicians who look at the way these new groups don't have what it takes to call themselves true Rock and Roller's.