Welcome everyone to episode 416 of Signals from
Mars. I'm your host, Victor. And for this episode,
it is the return of Xander Demos. He was on the
show way back when, when we were still Mars Attacks
podcast. Back on the show a dozen years ago.
And he's back to promote his new band, XDB. A
shout out to my patrons real quickly here. Sean
Richman, Chris Sinzak, Tony Espin, Anthony Mackey,
Ed Ferguson, Johan Edestrom, Metal Dan, Chris
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They never got to see on stage with my Patreon.
I kind of take it on the same way in the sense
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give you a 10th of the content. Let's be honest.
You know, anyway, I don't want to bash anyone
just for my benefit, but I'm open to, you know,
suggestions, discussions. And we've got, for
example, a Megadeth album countdown taking place
tonight. And we have a bunch of patrons that
will be joining me to discuss this countdown.
And it's interesting, all 17 Megadeth albums.
Actually, it's 16 plus an EP have made the list.
Every album has been voted for at least once.
And it's going to be a cool discussion. That's
what I like to do here. I like to discuss music
and bring you interviews whenever I can. In this
case, this interview with Xander. But anyway,
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.com to find out where you can keep up with the
show. This discussion with Xander I thought was
pretty cool. You go into interviews. And you
don't know what to expect, especially when you
haven't spoken to someone in such a long time.
You don't know what they want to talk about.
You don't know how to, you know, take the interview
in the sense that I try to not ask the same old,
same old questions. Sometimes it's inevitable.
But, you know, as you're feeling somebody out
during the interview process and you can throw
in some additional things that maybe come up.
during the interview it sweetens things up makes
things a lot cooler i think and that's what i
think the what ended up happening with this interview
with xander so uh if you enjoy it check out his
music and um yeah thanks for listening and let's
get on with the episode Welcome, everyone, to
the latest episode of Signals from Mars. I'm
your host, Victor. And joining me today for this
episode is Mr. Xander Demos. Xander, how are
you, sir? Oh, now I can't. I'm unmuted. Okay,
cool. So I had Xander on the show a little while
ago, back in 2013, actually. So practically yesterday.
At that time, you were working with James Rivera.
You were working as a solo artist. Now you're
back with XDB. Can you tell us a little bit about
how the band came together? Yeah, absolutely.
So XDB, it's not so much a mystery on the...
It stood for the Xander Demas band, you know,
for a while. But we like we're in a place right
now where I'm working with people that are really
good. You know, they're not like hired guns.
You know, I mean, these are all bandmates, which
is it makes a big difference. And so we said,
hey, listen, we already put the marketing in
for, you know, XDB being, you know, my you know,
I'm the XD and XDB. Right. I'm Xander Demas.
But so, but let's just go by XDB moving forward.
That way when people ask, they say, okay, this
is the origin of it. It was a solo project. It's
almost like, you know, I don't want to compare
myself to Yngwie. I mean, you know, I'm not in
the same class. He's amazing. And, you know,
I'm just a guitar player in my opinion, you know,
and he's, but Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force,
you know, I mean, like Rising Force was sort
of like the band, but it, you know, it had rotating
members in and out, you know, whoever was, you
know, some people were there for a long time.
Some people were not. This, we look at this as
like a band. This is a band effort. So that's
pretty much the origin. Was that something that
you were looking for after working as a solo
artist a while back? Did you want to have other
people that were going to be giving you input
and maybe, you know, help with what you were
trying to do as a guitarist to kind of push you
further as an artist? Yeah, I guess subconsciously
I pretty much was. I mean, I think it's fair
to say that because, honestly, I could only do
so much as a solo artist, honestly. Because a
lot of people, like this album that we have coming
out called Gods of Aliens, this was, when I was
going to do a second follow -up to Guitar Acadia
so long ago, I was going to have probably at
least five or six instrumentals on there again.
Now I have no interest in even doing that. I
do, but I don't. If I was going to do a solo
album that was going to be instrumental stuff,
I would just kind of piecemeal them and probably
just release them as individuals. Guitar Acadia
was sort of like my effort because there were
songs on there that I'd written so long ago.
There were some songs that I contributed to a
couple bands I was in. I said, you know what?
I really want to play this. I want to do these
tunes. So it was sort of like stuffing all that
stuff into one record. And then finally, when
it all came down to it, it was like, you know
what, let's just go ahead and, you know, on this
album, let's make this a true vocal album because
we got five people that can sing and three of
us are lead singers, you know, so it makes a
big difference. Okay. So that's something that
we'll expect to see is three different singers
on what you guys are going to release. Yes. Yeah.
I might sing on one. We have our, we have a bass
player. Her name is Emily Stroop and she is just
ripping bass player, 20 years old and an amazing
voice. And our keyboard player, Brendan Callahan,
he is 23 and he's just a phenomenal keyboard
player. A lot of, you know, and then there's
like myself and two other guys that are closer
to my age. So there's this big generation in
between us, right? But what's cool about that
is that, you know, those two, Brendan and Emily,
they have like this, they had the benefit of
like growing up in the digital age and the YouTube
age and all that stuff. So if they had to learn
something, I mean, it was just. It was free.
It was easy to learn. Myself and Rob Kane, which
is our lead vocalist, another guitar player,
and then Guy Cole, our drummer, we paid our dues
the hard way. We were like, this isn't how this
song goes. What's going on here? So we did things
the old -fashioned way. It's a really good synergy
or symbionts, if you want to call it that. But
yeah, as far as vocals go, we kind of spread
it out. Rob and Emily are the primaries, though.
They're the primary singers. Okay. And to date,
you guys have released a single called When the
Love is Gone. What stands out to me about the
track is that it's melodic, but at the same time,
it's still helping showcase the musicianship.
of the, uh, of the band, uh, reading the bio
that was sent to me, it was, it was interesting
to see the kind of two opposite spectrums being
mentioned. One was the band TNT and the other
one was sabotage. Yeah, that's right. So, um,
again, is, is that conscious that you guys were
looking to do something like that or with the
five of you, this is just kind of what. came
together when each one started throwing their
uh you know their their their spices into the
uh recipe it's a great question i mean it started
primarily as one of rob's songs really and then
he threw it out to us and we all started doing
our thing with it you know and it's uh so we
all contributed and um it was pretty cool like
how it came together and yeah there are elements
i mean i think all of us you know have the appreciation
for Bands like TNT and Sabotage and stuff like
that. I mean, I grew up around Sabotage in Clearwater,
Florida throughout the 80s and, you know, knew
them pretty well. And of course, they, you know,
knowing them as a much younger player, they shaped
my musical upbringing. So they're always going
to be like an influence. It's one of those things
where, you know, a lot of guitar players my age,
they say that they were influenced by, you know,
Eddie Van Halen. Randy Rhodes and even Yngwie
and, you know, guys like that, you know, the
late seventies, early eighties. And for me, it
was, I mean, there's no doubt it was Eddie Van
Halen and Chris Oliva were two of my biggest
influences. I'd say probably one, one more bigger
than them was actually Brad Gillis, you know,
because that that's what really made me want
to switch from drums back in 1982. Cause my parents
told me I sucked terribly at playing drums. So
I think I'm a different instrument for you. I
was 13, you know, and. So we did guitar and I
saw Brad Gillis, you know, on the Speak of the
Devil tour, all the videos. And I'm just like,
man, this guy's tone and this guy's playing is
just awesome. And I didn't even know who Randy
Rose was at the time. I had no clue. I had no
clue that he replaced him because he had passed
away. You know, I had no idea. I just liked the
tone. And then the Night Ranger video comes on.
I'm like, wait a second. Is that the same guy?
You know, it was freaking me out. But then all
of a sudden I'm like, OK, now this is making
sense. internet to say hey google who's this
guy you know and but um but anyway yeah so my
so my early influence there like yeah sabotage
had a big part of that and it was so even in
my songwriting even on some things on guitar
cadia uh there was elements of that in there
even though there's some instrumentals but as
i was writing more vocal tunes in the past like
10 years i noticed that unavoidable influence
yeah that's uh interesting that you bring up
the whole Brad Gillis thing for, for, for those
that are younger than us. Yeah. Before the internet,
if you were lucky to catch a blurb in a magazine,
you know, six months after something happened,
you were able to find out that Brad Gillis and
Night Ranger and Randy Rhodes and this and that
I'm kind of in the same boat. I mean, I, I think
I found out who Randy Rhodes was. when Ozzy released
the tribute album, you know, and they started
talking about that he had died and this and that.
And I'd heard crazy train a million times on
the radio. Right. Right. Don't get me wrong.
I love that tone. Yeah. You know, it was just
that, like, I, even though I'd heard the song,
it was, it was the, it was seeing it performed
live and like how thick that sound was, you know,
like on that, on just on those videos. And I
mean, that's all it took. I mean, those are the.
The videos that I would see on repeat would be
things from Speak of the Devil and then ultimately
things from Van Halen. You're talking about pre
-1984, right? So they were showing a lot of the
Van Halen concerts where they were doing Dance
the Night Away, Unchained, and So This is Love
and all that stuff. And you're seeing this wall
of amplifiers and this gigantic drum set. And
it's just like, wait a second. And the spectacle
of it was both of those. presented the same you
know what i mean you had your drummer way up
here on the riser you had your bass player and
your guitar player on the same side of the stage
singer in the middle i'm like okay this is the
formula i get it now you know you know but i've
always i always had the melodic you know part
of that too because you know one of my favorite
players growing up was tom schultz as well you
know and just boston in general and today i mean
i just you know how do you get that power soaked
sound out of the marshall you know, without,
without modelers, you know what I mean? Like
if you try to do it the old fashioned way, it's
going to take a lot of money and a lot of muscle.
And at my age in my mid fifties, I don't want
to lift that stuff up to go play a gig. Right.
I admit it. Absolutely. I mean, it's, and that's
without getting into a old bass amps or trudging
anything anywhere. So. You already mentioned
that you guys are working on more material for
an album. When The Love Is Gone came out in April,
are you spacing the songs out before the album
comes out? We are. Yeah, we actually over the
past couple of weeks, though, surprisingly, we
got asked to do like a bunch of shows. And I
mean, some of them were like, you know, not gigantic
spectacle or anything like that. Some opening
shows and. like even an acoustic show and stuff.
And we had been spending time like rehearsing,
like, well, God, if we got to play for two hours,
you know, what are we going to play? We never
really scaled down our set. So, you know, we
wouldn't, you know, we ended up playing like
all covers just to make it easy. We have been
asked to, you know, to do it again and stuff
like that. So we said, yeah, okay, you know,
we'll go ahead and do it. And, but it also means
that each week that passes by, we don't get something
else done on a record. Like Rob, my singer, you
know, we live right near each other and where
we live in Pittsburgh. And so it's very easy
for him and I to get together and do things.
And it's just been sometimes it's been chaos
and we just can't get together as much as we
want. So ultimately, what we end up doing is
I might like he'll send me a track. I'll pull
it into Studio One or whatever. I'll record it
or zero track it, send it back if he needs a
solo or something like that. Right. We are doing
that and we're and we're making progress. We
just have to actually finish about four other
songs and we can release the album. But we do
want to release two more songs over like as as
originals or I mean, two more songs as, you know,
cuts. But instead of releasing one, we want to
do like a nice one to punch and. Maybe release
it a couple weeks apart. That way there's a lot
for people to talk about. And then we'll go ahead
and release the album because the album's got
a lot of great stuff on it. Okay. Is there an
ETA as to when you guys think the album will
be coming out? I'm saying late summer. The original
thing was to try to get it in for summer, like
sometime in the summer. So if we get it in late
summer, I think we're good because we're going
to try and do another big show in Pittsburgh
with Red Beach. from White Snake and Winger and
then bringing some people in from Guy and Rob's
other project called Love and Chains. If I'm
not mistaken, I can't remember if that was the
one that's on Frontiers, the Frontiers label
that's overseas and stuff like that. And we're
going to be shopping ours around too. We have
some interest in a local, local being Ohio, a
label out there, but we're just trying to look
for some different terms on it. And I think the
material will speak for itself because it's,
Like I said, it's very, it's very melodic. It's
very, some people would call it poppy, but it's
hard to describe it that way. You know, it still
has a very heavy edge to it. The solos are melodic,
but I mean, I throw the elements of like shred
guitar in there and all that kind of stuff. I
hate saying that term anymore, but it's still
a thing, I guess. Right. Okay. When we spoke
way back when at that time. You were coming out
with a signature model from Esoteric. How has
your gear changed since then? Pretty dramatically.
So there's been a couple, there's been some big
developments with that. Esoteric, I don't think
we ever came to terms on anything. David Thomas
McNaught makes my signature model. And so it's
called the XD, you know, imagine that. Uh, it
comes in, you know, whatever flavor you want,
six string, seven string. Um, if you, if somebody
just says, Hey, I just want like one of his guitars,
the way he plays it, it would be 27 frets, uh,
bare knuckle pickups, uh, the hip shot, you know,
tremolo system on it. Um, not a big fan of Floyd
roses and I haven't been for years just because
of my fat hands dig into them, you know? So I
like a low profile trim. Um, they're, they're
really, I mean, It turned out to be like a really
cool guitar. And amazingly enough, he sold well
over 20, I think almost 30 of them so far. And
then recently I have just joined up with Headless
USA because I've been a huge, huge Steinberger
player for, I mean, 30 plus years. And I don't
play the Headless guitars. That's the irony in
the whole thing. I played the only one they ever
made with a headstock when they were really trying
to get into what they call a super strat. back
in the late eighties and early nineties. So if
you saw like Brett Garson from Nelson and a few
other players, like even Buckethead, they play
like this, this guitar from Steinberger called
the GS. And that's, I have, I have two of those
and I play them like almost every show. So I
usually take my signature guitar. I have a seven
string and a six string. And then I, I usually
take, you know, one, one or two, one of the two
Steinbergers I have. And then the other one I
usually take is either like over here hanging
on my wall is a, either a Sir or an Anderson,
like a Superstrat, so I can get those tones.
So I always bring three guitars to every gig.
It's kind of weird like that. It's like an OCD
thing. And it's funny. But anyway, yeah, so I've
just joined forces with Headless USA, who owns
the Steinberger. Basically, they don't own the
Steinberger brand because that's Gibson. They
own the Steinberger intellectual property or
IP, if you want to call it that. So if they go
to re -release the GS, I mean, I'll be one of
the players for it, which is really cool. OK.
And as far as taking those three guitars out,
do you play all three? Always. Yeah. You know,
if we do a half hour show, I'm more inclined
to basically stick with one. Tomorrow night we're
playing like a full hour set, like we're headlining
a place called Jurgles here in Pittsburgh. And
I will be playing at least at least two different
ones because I want to play my seven string on
two songs. And then I'll be playing, you know,
one of the other six strings on the other. So
if I start out with a six and I switch to the
seven, I'll play the other six for the rest of
the night. You know, it's just, it's, it's one
of those things where whatever, whatever fits,
I mean, it's, and also, it also depends on what
you're gelling with at that time too. Like I've
been playing my Steinberger Steinbergers a lot.
So I'll probably start the night with them or,
you know, I'll, I'll, I'll play my signature
guitar. And because. Dave McNaught, he's so good
at what he does. He's the only one, one of two
Luthiers I've worked with that when I said, I
didn't send him a Steinberger to base the neck
on. I just know that anytime I buy a guitar,
I always compare it to how those GS guitars play.
Because I play differently on those necks. It's
weird. They're not wood. They're made out of
graphite. if I can really play the way I want
to play on those instruments or on another instrument,
then I say, yeah, this guitar is in that same
class, you know, is that graphite. Like I have
a Brian Moore MC1. It has a Sustaniac I put in
it and stuff like that. It's cool. It's got that
graphite, you know, fingerboard and it has that
feel to it, you know? So I like, I like a lot
of those, you know, it's kind of strange shaped
guitars like that. At the same time, I'm a traditionalist
where I like a nice double cutaway. I'm really
weird. I'm glad my wife never has had to buy
a guitar for me. She'd be like, yeah, I'm not
doing this. You mentioned the bare knuckle pickups
before. Yeah. I'm trying to think. I think I've
had one or two other people mention them over
the years to me. Are they active pickups? Are
they passive? They're passive. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
The ones I use are passive. I actually use the,
um, it's a whole, it's called a Holy diver. It's
in a bridge. And then the, uh, the neck pickup
is called an Emerald. Okay. Um, I actually have
that in my McNaught signature. Um, in my seven
strings, I use EMGs and, and, uh, Steinbergers.
I actually have EMGs in there. Um, but, uh, I
do have one guitar that a local Luthier built
for me. His name is Mike Caldwell. And I needed
a guitar that was going to be in standard tuning
all the time. Everything we do is an E flat,
like everything. Now we even do some things that
are like in straight D, which is like, if you
see the, the wall of ghost stuff, I'm a big ghost
fan over here. And they do everything in straight
D and stuff. And it's like, I have, I play through
a quad cortex and I actually have a setting on
their transposer that will, you know, transpose
up. And I mean, the processor on that thing is
incredible. So there's no issue with like, you
know, latency and stuff like that, even playing
really fast. And I mean, I like that, but at
the same time, I do like the organic feel of
having a different, different tune guitar when
necessary. So I had Mike build me one that was
a little bit shorter scale and we based it on
sort of like the Ernie Ball Luke and 24 fret
though, instead of the 22, cause I'm just weird
like that. Another OCD thing. And then, and then
on that guitar. He did the neck actually similar
to the Steinberger too. So, I mean, it's all,
I mean, it just has that feel to it. And we used
a Duncan pickups on that one. We actually went
with like traditional hot rails and a Duncan
distortion. And man, is the thing just screaming.
It's just beautiful because if I do a filming
gig for somebody and I can't convince them to
tune down, I at least I'll grab that guitar and
say, okay, I've got this. You know, I filled
in for a friend of mine's band who has a heart
tribute band. And you know, I just, I already
knew how they were. I'm like, yep, they're going
to be playing everything standard, so I'm going
to grab that guitar and that's it. But yeah,
anyway, that's how I roll on that. I don't even
remember what your first question was. I was
asking about the bare knuckle pickups, but that
makes sense. Bringing that up more than anything,
because I've got a few different guitars and
they've all got different pickups from DiMarzios,
TMGs. I'm trying to think I've got blackouts
in something as well. And it's always an interesting
thing to bring up and, and talk to people about,
because I don't think a lot of even players,
I don't think realize that the difference that
having different types of pickups can offer you
with sounds and, and different things that. Oh
yeah. It's huge. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yep.
And I do think it does matter for the instrument.
There's a lot of great 7 -string passive pickups
out there, but for some reason, like in the first
McNaught signature I ever got, which was the
7 -string, I've had the EMG 707 and then the
707TW in there, which a lot of times people just
say that is like a basic pickup. And you know
what? It is, but it's always clean. It always
distorts right and all that kind of stuff. So
I've never had any weird inconsistency problems
with it. And I mean, ultimately, it looks really
cool. I hate to say it. I mean, it just looks
nice on a guitar that's got 27 frets. You know,
I mean, that's what else can you say, you know?
And so, yeah, I think if you have multiple guitars,
it does help to actually experiment a little
bit. Yeah. You know, Duncans, DiMarzios, Bare
Knuckles, Jim Wagner. I think I have a guitar
that has Wagner pickups in there. Um, I even
had some, uh, uh, the, uh, what is it? Um, the
Fishman, uh, guitar player named Greg Koch, uh,
Telecaster player. He's frighteningly amazing.
And, um, I actually have a set of his that has
a little button on there that actually changes
to the voicing, uh, for like tele pickups and
stuff like that. So it's really have that flexibility.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, When we first started
the interview, I brought up the name James Rivera.
You had played with other people in the past
as well. Do you still get people like that reaching
out to you, wanting to work on different things
or maybe just do solos for, you know, maybe for
a song or two here? Yeah, here and there. Honestly,
it doesn't happen as much as it did in the past.
I mean, I wouldn't mind, you know, someone to
come and ace, you know, throw a solo down and
stuff. And maybe there's just a bigger pool of
people to choose from. I mean, which I can respect
that. But it was I think that I'm so wrapped
up in what we're doing. So I don't know if I'd
actually have that kind of time. I did. Rob has
had Rob Kane from XTB. He's actually brought
up some things for me with a few people. And
there was somebody who had like an alternative
metal song that, you know, kind of sounded almost
like fear factory in a way. And then they, you
know, they said, you know, Hey, can you, can
you have your guy throw a solo down? And I threw,
I gave him three and Robbie such a, he's such
a mastermind in the studio that he actually took
elements of all three solos and, and, you know,
put them together, I guess, like almost on the
four, you know, of the beats and stuff. He's
like, I liked the way you started this one, but
this one ended better and, and all that and stuff.
So I guess it's, it's still going on. Yeah. Okay.
Cool. You mentioned that you have a show coming
up with XTB. How many shows do you have planned
out in the in the near future? As of right now,
we are we have. OK, so it's a great question.
Let me let me preface the answer on that. So
XTB, as the way you're interviewing me right
now, it's XTB, the original project, you know,
like our original music and. That's what we want
to play, you know. But we have two other elements
of the same five people. We have one called Vox
Acoustic, and that stands for Voices of XTB Acoustic.
We strip it all down. We play, you know, with
a cajon kit. And I mean, I can't play acoustic
guitar because I'm just a sissy and I need my
electric guitars that have piezos. And I play
the acoustic sound that way. And we just all
five of us sing. So all five of us actually,
you know, sing. you know, some of those tunes,
you know, mostly covers, of course. And then
we have what we call XTB under the covers. And
under the covers is if somebody says, hey, we
need a cover band for this thing. Sometimes it's
private parties. Sometimes it's, you know, at
a club where they say, hey, didn't you used to
be in this band? And didn't you used to be in
this band? I mean, like my drummer was in a couple
of Motley Crue tribute bands and stuff like that.
And they did really, you know, they played huge
shows and stuff. And because tributes are, tribute
bands are still big. For us, it's basically like
saying, okay, look, we're going to do three sets
for you. We're going to do 10 songs per set.
You know, you're going to hear your standards.
You'll hear like an REO Speedwagon. You'll hear
a Boston. You'll hear a Journey song or two.
Maybe something more modern like Lit or something
like that, right? Maybe a Poison tune just for
the hell of it. No backing tracks. I mean, since
we have such strong vocals and background vocals,
you know, we do that very well. And then, of
course, you're going to you're going to have
to deal with a one or two of our originals. So
that actually gives us a way to hoe ourselves
out. But so, yeah, we we definitely have three
flavors. Tomorrow Night is basically just it's
original. We're playing a couple of cover tunes,
but it's our albums. Our album is called Gods
of Aliens. And we're doing basically six tracks
off of that, plus two songs from Guitar Acadia.
And then. three cover tunes, which we've, we've
selected, you know, you know, just for like a
night, like tomorrow night and we have two openers
and stuff. So it's going to be fun. Okay. Moving
on down the road though. Like then we have some
vacation time. Everyone's got some time coming
up. I think we get back to work probably mid
July. We have like three shows in July and another
three in August. And I think that we're trying
to put something together for the fall. Okay.
Yeah. What are some of your favorite covers to
play? Ooh, man. Going to go down that rabbit
hole. I love playing stone and love from journey.
Cause I love doing the solos. There's a lot of
fun. I man cover tunes. Wow. We actually had
taken some liberties and done some other crazy
cover tunes. Like we've done, we've done rising
force from Ming Bay. We've done pull me under
from dream theater, which is a blast to play.
Okay. Yeah. And then we've, like Square Hammer
from Ghost is a fun tune to play because a lot
of people, they dismiss them because they look
all goofy and stuff like that. And that's fine
if you think that, but there's no doubt that
Square Hammer is a banger of a tune. You know
what I mean? It's just really, it kind of fits
with all those classics, you know? So that one's
fun to play. I probably would, I mean, I like
the challenges, you know what I mean? I like
some of the ones that, you know, have challenges
to them. We'll do carry on wayward son, you know,
we got the vocals nailed down, you know, and
I mean, we do more than a feeling between Rob
and Emily and their range. Oh my God. I mean,
they get, they, they get that like effortless
and it's, I mean, I'm looking at him saying,
why aren't we doing a Boston tribute band? Would
we clean the house with that? You know? And you
know, my only thing is I won't play a gold top
less ball. Nope. Sorry, Tom. Is, is there any
cover tune that you've brought? to the rest of
the band that has gotten vetoed? Um, not really.
I, that was probably more of a thing back in
the day when, when, when I was just in cover
bands, we had a, we had a cover band called into
the arena and it was a lot of fun. I mean, we,
you know, it was, you know, arena rock stuff,
you know, and the ones that probably they, they
pushed back on were the ones that were our biggest
successes live. And I'll give you an example.
Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. OK, I play there like,
dude, you're crazy. We're not playing a Lady
Gaga song. I said, hear me out. All right. And
we just started playing it. I actually sang it.
And I got it kind of like a high raspy voice
when I sing. So I was able to kind of nail like
some of her, you know, inflections and stuff
like that. And we did it. And of course, you
know, I did it with, you know, like heavy guitar
and stuff like that. And then we all looked at
each other like, oh, this is going to kill. And
we played it. We ended up playing it like a week
or two later, and it was one of our best tunes
live. And we kept it under rotation. So there
were other songs that kind of got shot down.
I do know that our old bass player, he brought
Footloose to us, and we all vetoed that one.
It's like, dude, I'm not playing Footloose. I'm
not playing that song. Because I told him I was
going to break into an 80s dance in the middle
of it, and I said, you don't want to see me doing
that dance. And he started cracking up. But I
gave it a college try. We all played it. And
our drummer, he just stopped, he stopped halfway
through and he pulled his hat down and he's like,
no, it's just like stuff like that. So, I mean,
I try to, you know, bring songs, you know, that
were, that'll work. I think in our acoustic,
our acoustic set that we're trying to do, I think
I did, I pulled up Ed Sheeran, Thinking About
You, or no, Thinking Out Loud. Okay. Easy song
to sing, you know, like I, you know, saying through
it but we kind of like left it off of our list
because i know they weren't crazy about it i
mean i do play with like some people that are
more rockers and stuff like that but we end up
playing like pink houses from john cougar you
know and right i mean i was okay with that i
just it's kind of a to me it's kind of boring
but i mean it's that's okay i mean people that
were there they liked it and that's all that
matters you know so i'm very flexible like that
yeah well it seems like With all the different
songs that you're throwing out there from Ed
Sheeran to Lady Gaga and stuff like that. Oh,
yeah. And Dream Theater. I mean, you're pretty
open to pretty much doing anything. Pretty much.
Yeah. It's kind of funny. I mean, well, you know,
there's very little that like we won't kind of
get into just in case. You know, there's very
little that we won't get into because we do like
between the five of us and the difference in
ages. And difference in experiences and stuff
like that. We have all five unique tastes. Right.
It's really cool though. Like my singer and I,
we're both huge TNT fans. So there's, you know,
there's things in there that we like, you know,
there's elements you'll hear even in the new
songs that we have coming out that actually have
elements of TNT in there. But mostly I would
say the TNT probably from intuition is probably
our favorite. Okay. So if you're familiar with
that album, like our songs have more of that
vibe than maybe like the, you know, night to
the new thunder, which is like the early stuff.
Um, as far as sabotage, you know, kind of things
go, I mean, more, more later leaning almost towards
the TSO stuff, you know, is kind of like, you
know, where, where I've approached that. Um,
they've been timeless though, for so long. They're
one of those bands that are just completely timeless
in my eyes. So would you be more, um, willing
to cover handful of rain as opposed to gutter
ballet? I'd have to go gutter ballet. Okay. I
love handful of rain. Don't get me wrong, but
I, I would want to be able to play that nasty
drop the riff, you know, God, I love it. I was
playing it the other night, just messing around
with it. And I hadn't played it in a long time.
And I, I actually, I think it was sitting in
my living room and I, I had that, that, that
standard tune guitar I was telling you about.
And I. drop deed it. And I was playing along
with some stuff and I said, Hey, I'm going to
grab, you know, I'm going to sabotage. So I go
on YouTube on my TV and I started playing along
with the video. So I'm playing like, you know,
Jesus saves and gutter ballet and believe, and
you know, like a bunch of, a bunch of classic
power of the night. I mean, you know, that song
is way too much fun. And some of those are actually
in a half step down. So I just, I usually have
both of those guitars like sitting next to me.
So if I've got to change that, nobody can ever
agree on the tunings. Right. That's the one.
That's the only thing I was really just kind
of like a pain in the butt about, you know, like
whenever anybody's ever joined our band, I've
always said we are any flat. And I had one bass
player. His name was Ben. Amazing bass player.
But he just all he did was he tuned his lowest.
He had played a five string. He tuned his lowest
string down a half step. And I said, what about
like if you have to like ride the E? He's like,
no, no, I'll just hold it down. I'm thinking
to myself, that doesn't sound the same. It doesn't
look the same. But I'm not worried about that.
But he was so good at it. He was just like, you
know, if I was playing an open E, he knew that,
you know, he would be like on the F or not the
F, but yeah, the F on his, you know, on his,
he'd be on the first fret. I'm like, okay, wow,
that's crazy. He has no problem with that. Right.
You know, he had no problem. He never missed
a single note live. I'm like, wow, how do you
do it? And he filled in for us a couple of years
ago when we did a solo show opening for a friend
of mine who came in from California. We did a
weekend with him. And it was funny because he
said at the time, he's like, yeah, I'm getting
a little bit older. He's like, I'll tune down
a half step, you know, because he likes his strings
really tight. And he's got these giant, you know,
scary hands that, you know, it looked like he
was strangling his base and it looked, it was
really cool. I mean, I just, I couldn't pull
that off. You know, I like. I like my light string
tension and all that stuff. Gotcha. Okay. Looking
forward to the new album. Are you guys looking
to just release that digitally? Are you looking
to release it in a physical format, CD or vinyl?
Yeah. But like all three, we want to go digital.
We want to go CD and we want to go vinyl. We
just, I mean, I know vials made us come back
and we, you know, we've been negotiating some
deals to get. some vinyl pressing so they're
going to be of course you know limited um if
we you know it also depends on you know whatever
whatever deal we end up striking up with uh you
know somebody says hey look we'll give you distribution
you guys can do whatever you want with the physical
you know a lot of those rules have changed and
sometimes i don't understand them but rob um
our singer he's got much better handle handle
on that stuff so i i leave it i leave it to him
i just stroke the check that's all What would
you like to see with, with the vinyl? Anything
specific you're looking at? I don't know. It's
a good question. Yeah. I mean, I would be kind
of cool to do like, I mean, a lot of, a lot of
what I have, but Scott, I have a couple of guitars.
Let's see. I've got my sir. I have my Anderson.
I have a Conklin. I have my signature guitar
sitting right there, my seven string. And they
all have like a, and everybody in my band will
completely agree with me on this. I have a green
and blue fetish, you know? It's gotta be like
some form of green and blue or teal or something
like that in between. And, um, uh, it'd be really
cool to have kind of like a burst, you know,
like a, kind of like a starburst on the, on the
vinyl itself. Like there'll be like blue and
green, you know, and I'm sure everybody in, you
know, if they, they go to watch this video, they're
going to watch this interview later on. They're
like, of course you had to say that, didn't you?
Um, it'd be cool to see that. I mean, just, it'd
also be cool. Like, I mean, I, you know, you
know what it was like growing up and, You know,
when you get that vinyl, you're like looking
at every detail, especially like on an Iron Maiden
album. Remember that? You're like all the small,
like, you know, the details that the artist,
you know, put on there and stuff like that. It
was always cool to look at. It just, you know,
CD was almost, you know, I mean, I'm like, I
got my readers on here, but I'm like, oh, my
God, I can't see that at all. So I'd like to
see like, you know, some cool artwork possibly
on that, you know, to make people like want to
buy it just to say, hey, I've got this. And hey,
would you guys sign it and all that kind of stuff,
you know? So it'd be pretty cool. Do you have
something in mind for the graphic design of,
of the album cover? Have you guys gotten that
far? We have an idea. Um, we have an idea for
the cover or maybe, uh, a lead in from the cover
to the back of the, um, of the, of the vinyl
itself or the, the, the cover of the record itself.
Um, because we have a promo pick that we really
like, we wanted to also do a, um, you know, so
it's called gods of aliens. We wanted to basically
have the same picture, but on the back, have
it kind of like, you know, cartoonified or AI
generator, not AI generator. I'd like to actually
see an artist do it, but where each of us has
like a different alien head kind of thing, but
in the same exact pose that we're in kind of,
you know, so it just depends. We're, we're kicking
some ideas around. I think right now, once we
get the music done, we're going to be like, okay,
cool. Now let's design an album cover, you know?
So I might put that out there for somebody to
do. Like, I mean, I'd be happy to, you know,
pay them for their time and stuff like that.
But, um, I would definitely want it to be, you
know, unique, you know? Gotcha. Okay. Uh, where
should people go to keep up with, uh, XTB? So
right now the best place is, um, XTB music .com.
Uh, so we old school website, you know, we, uh,
we do update it as much as we can. Um, you follow
us on Instagram and Facebook. So under Facebook,
it's just, um, facebook .com slash Xander Demas
music. And then, um, at Xander Demas on, uh,
on Instagram, we are setting up a, a new XTB
profile on Instagram. We get, we ran into an
issue with that before they, we got locked out
for some reason. I don't know what that is, but
anyway, um, we're still, we're still kind of
old school on the, on the website thing. We would,
we would like to be able to embed videos and,
you know, and do that stuff linked to YouTube
and everything on YouTube. It's the same thing.
It's, you know, Xander Demas. Um, we just, we
kept all that stuff alive. Cause that's where
it was, you know, like when we talked even what,
2013, I was like, you know, 12 years ago. So,
um, a lot of that stuff is, you know, it's still
the same where, you know, we want to get new,
new subscribers, new fans and stuff like that.
Um, this is going to have a better outreach.
I think, um, these next two songs that are coming
out, I think are going to be, uh, I would say
a little bit more universal and they should,
they should be pretty easy for people to, you
know, if they like this type of music, Um, we,
you know, I think if somebody really had to put,
you know, kind of pigeonhole it, say, look, you
want to, you can say you're, you're, you know,
you're unique all day long, but where are you
really drawing it from? Um, I mean, it would,
are you familiar with a lot of Swedish bands
out there? With the what? I'm sorry. Uh, Swedish
bands. Yeah. Okay. Uh, heat and eclipse. Have
you heard of those guys? Yeah, absolutely. Okay.
We are kind of like this new album is sort of
like eclipse. Okay. Sabotage. Maybe a little
bit of racer X, tiny bit, you know, and maybe
an element or two of white snake. Okay. But I'd
say like those, you know, those first two and
then, yeah. And then, you know, TNT. So they're
definitely the melodic sense of it. You know,
the high energy guitar, the big vocals, you know,
like eclipse and heat have gigantic vocals, you
know, in their songs. Right. Stuff like that.
So we, we have those elements in there. Yet the
simplicity of like bands like Ghost, you know,
there's nothing from Ghost that's really complex.
But we don't have like the early album doom metal
sound. We kind of like more from Raquel onward,
you know, like with Rats and, you know, Dance
Macabre. There's real melodic, you know, poppier
tunes and stuff. Right, right. Gotcha. A little
bit of, you know, a pretty big stew of everything,
you know, but so it's old and new. It's not just,
you know, oh, we're, you know, we sound like,
you know, Whitesnake on steroids or we sound
like, you know, this band from the 80s. No, we
don't sound like them at all. have a very much
of a modern edge i've embraced you know like
a lot of those modern bands and stuff yeah yeah
i mean even i think a lot of people talk about
heat and eclipse and and they just talk about
oh well they sound like bands from this era and
if you actually listen to them sure they've got
elements yeah tuning differently they're playing
stuff a little different as well and you know
i've got followers who are who are big into both
of those bands and Yeah. Videos by them all the
time. So yeah, they're, they're great bands.
And I mean, my wife and I have seen them on a
bunch of the monsters of rock cruises and stuff
like that. And I mean, they're just so much fun
to watch because it's just, you know, I'm not
trying to, you know, dis on bands. Like for example,
kicks, we saw them a couple of years ago. They're
great band. I mean, they're, you know, classic
hard rock from the eighties. And I mean, they
still kept it going. I mean, I give them credit
for as long, but they finally said, okay, guys,
We've had enough. We're done. Right. Direct end
scene. You know what I mean? And it was just
one of those things where it's like, Hey, look,
age has caught up with them. And a lot of the
guys in like in heat and eclipse are much younger.
They bring like, you know, another, another level
or another element. And I love it. I mean, I'm
glad that, you know, that no one's trying to
beat the dead horse. You know what I mean? Right.
And you know, if kicks wants to come back, Hey,
you know, and I'm just using them as an example.
I've seen them live. what, four or five times,
I think a couple of times on those cruises, they
always, they bring the energy, they bring, you
know, they bring a good show, but ultimately
it's, it does come down to, you know, they were
around at that time when some of these guys,
maybe an eclipse weren't even born yet, you know?
So it's, it's, it's good to see that I embrace
the new, I, cause I do see a lot of stuff on
Facebook where people are like ripping those
new bands apart. It's like, how can you do that?
I mean, don't you want to like, keep this going
because eventually if you just follow the ones
we grew up on, they're going to die out. I hate
to say that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We do, um,
a monthly new releases show just of that. And
I, I like to call the people that are stuck in
89 lazy listeners because I think there's good
music coming out all the time. I mean, I don't
think, I personally, I'm never looking for something
to replace my favorite album or my favorite this
or that, but I'm looking to add to the menu.
You know, it doesn't mean that you can't add
different things to a playlist that are going
to accompany, you know, a classic that you've
always loved. Exactly. That's, that's always
been my attitude about that. And I'm, I, I stick
with it. I mean, I, I'm very passionate, you
know, about, you know, about that, about that
thought, which is why, Right. You know, I got
into bands like ghost or I got into eclipse and
I got into some of the, you know, like even like
the heavier ones that were more prominent in
the, in the two thousands, like trivium and bullet
for my Valentine. I mean, I saw both of those
bands live and they put on a great show. Right.
You know, I mean, they're, they're a little bit
more like a more melodic and slick version of
like Metallica, less thrashy, but you know, more
flashy. I mean, I guess you could say, but they
still, they, they really did have like a nice
heavy edge to them, but they, retain that you
know melodic memorable you know uh sound like
that what was that song from trivium uh dying
in your arms or whatever or a great tune still
to this day it's it you know if you just start
you know building you like you said your menu
you meant if you're if your menu started with
you know the trooper right and ace is high and
maybe you know um i don't know love bites or
turbo lover or something like that your menu
started there and it just kept expanding I mean,
you'd see, you know, Master of Puppets on there
and you might see, you know, Rising Forest from
Yngwie or you'd see Pull Me Under from Dream
Theater. And eventually, as time goes on, you'd
see, you know, what's the Tears Don't Fall from
Bullet for My Valentine and so on. And you get
all these great songs that it's OK to say, hey,
I put this tune on. It's from 1982. And hey,
I put this song on. It's from 2008 or whatever.
You know, it's I love that. I mean, I love that
evolution. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you
100 percent. Cool. Yeah. Xander, it's been a
blast talking to you again. Same here. Same here.
Pleasure. Hopefully it doesn't take another 13
years for us to hook up again. Yeah, I hope not.
Yeah. So around the time the album is out, you
know, hit me up again and hopefully we can talk
about the full album. Definitely. And you'll
get a copy. Awesome. I appreciate your time,
sir. All right. Thank you, Victor. It's been
great talking to you. All right. See you. All
right. Have a good one. You can subscribe to
the show on all your favorite podcast platforms
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Amazon and more. Go to signalsfrommars .com for
more information. This concludes our show.