Hey everybody, this is Frank Hannon from Tesla
and I'm on my weekly mixtape with my friend Brian
Colburn. We're going to be talking about all
kinds of music and different things and stories
about Tesla. So stay tuned and I hope you enjoy
the show. Welcome to My Weekly Mixtape, a podcast
that takes the classic mixtape approach to building
a modern playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn.
Tonight, I'm excited to welcome to the show the
guitarist for one of the best hard rock bands
to come out of the 1980s, one of my favorites,
Tesla, and I get to welcome Mr. Frank Hannon
to the show. Frank, thank you so much for joining
me on My Weekly Mixtape. My Weekly Mixtape. I
like it, Brian. Thank you for having me. Sounds
like we're going to have a great conversation
based on what we're talking about here. Yeah.
So let's start with the actual name of the show,
because I always ask my first time guests the
word mixtape. What does it mean to you? Well,
it means to me what we used to make back in high
school when we actually had cassette tapes and
ghetto blasters. And, you know, we would make.
a compilation of our favorite tunes, you know.
And I can tell you, for me, even going back to
1979, my grandpa bought a ghetto blaster that
would record directly off the radio. And the
FM radio was playing such great music at the
time. And I remember hitting record when Billy
Squire was singing The Stroke. And then, you
know, I remember hearing Green Man Alifi by Judas
Priest on the radio, and I would hit record,
you know. it was a magical time back then to
make mixtapes. And so that's kind of what it
means to me. Well, it's hard for me to believe
that we're just a few short years away from the
40th anniversary of Tesla's debut album, Mechanical
Resonance. What would you say is the secret to
the longevity to such tunes as Easy Come, Easy
Go, Coming At Ya Live, and Modern Day Cowboy,
just for starters? Well, I would say... that
the secret to the longevity of that may lie in
the fact that we were a band that had been playing
the clubs for three or four years solid all the
time. We worked really hard on those songs, developing
them. a lot of different experiences with different
people before we even recorded that first album.
We were coached by Ronnie Montrose. We worked
with Dwayne Hitchings, who was a songwriter.
Max Norman came to one of our rehearsals and
scolded us. We were getting coached and beat
up by a lot of big name producers at the time,
working on those songs in the clubs and playing
them live. And when we went into the studio to
record Mechanical Resonance, we played live in
the studio. That was one of the things that Steve
Thompson and Michael Barbiero and Tom Zutaut
and Cliff Bernstein, the people that were working
for our management and our production at that
time, who took us under their wings, they insisted
that we captured the band live and what they
had witnessed us playing in the clubs. So I would
say that the magic of that first Mechanical Resonance
album and the longevity is a combination of it
being live in the studio and songs that had been
played live in the concert setting for a couple
of years developing. Now, the band's cover of
Ph .D.'s Little Susies on the Up charted higher
than the original. And I'm going to be perfectly
honest that I have shocked people when I told
them. That little Susie is actually a cover song
because I think it was the fifth video to air
on MTV. So to me, there's some historical significance
to it. But Tesla's version became so synonymous
with the song. People forget that the original
existed. I would love to hear how a cover of
a new wave song came to fruition in the first
place. Isn't that such a weird thing? That song.
And it's such a great song, honestly, the way
it's written and arranged. And for us, playing
the acoustic guitar on it really was the key
to making it sound like us. And again, I had
just mentioned to you that we played the clubs
for years and we were being coached by people.
We were being coached by Ronnie Montrose, who
was interested in being a producer at that time.
Now, you got to remember, this is in the early
80s, and the term producer, the producer was
like a big deal on albums of that era. Mutt Lang
was producing Def Leppard and Pyromania and ACDC,
and Bruce Fairbairn was producing Bryan Adams.
Max Zorman had just produced the Ozzy albums.
So Ronnie Montrose wanted to be a producer. And
you also got to remember that cover tunes at
that time, if you could find an obscure cover
and it became a hit, then that would be a hit
for a band. Like when Van Halen covered You Really
Got Me, right? Or when Quiet Riot covered Come
On, Feel the Noise. Ronnie Montrose wanted to
find a cover tune for us. And he brought Little
Suzy of all songs in the world. Now, you got
to remember, we were a cover band at that time
as well. We were playing Top 40 in the clubs
and we were covering Scorpions and ACDC. But
the logic behind Little Suzy was that it was
not a rock song. It was something completely
different, but it was still a great song with
a great message about a young gal trying to make
it. And so Ronnie Montrose knew of the song and
he suggested it to us and basically told us that
if we did a good version of it, that it would
be a hit. And he was right. And she's still paying
our bills today. Well, in between Mechanical
Resonance and 1989's The Great Radio Controversy,
the quote unquote hair metal moment was well
underway and labels were rushing out to find
as many MTV ready bands as they could, while
also working very hard to try to get other artists.
to conform their sound to what was currently
charting left and right on the charts. Yet when
I listen to songs like Heaven's Trail, No Way
Out, and Hang Tough, I hear a band that's 100
% confident in the musical statement that they're
making. And I always have wondered, did you have
to fight for the songs that Tesla wanted to record
and release? Or was Geffen 100 % in your corner
during that period in time? Well, I would say
it was both. OK, there was some songs that we
had to fight for, but we were always being directed
by the people that we worked with. to write the
best songs we could possibly write and not have
any filler material or cheesy garbage material
on an album. They always insisted that the entire
album be good, not just have one song on it that
was good and the rest of it be junk. And when
I'm talking about Cliff Bernstein and Peter Minch
and Tom Zutaut, they were directing us at the
time and they were responsible for Rush, Def
Leppard. Metallica, ACDC, and Dokken. They were
involved with some really high caliber kick -ass
bands that had integrity. We were very lucky
to be getting advice from them to try to write
real songs that were gritty and from the heart
and not cheesy. And they put a lot of high expectations
on us because we were, again, in the company
of bands like Metallica and Rush and ACDC, Scorpions,
Def Leppard. That was the goal of being, you
know, we weren't trying to compete with the glam
bands and the trendy stuff. We were trying to
be ourselves. And luckily, we weren't having
pressure put on us to. be glam metal. We were
having more pressure on us to be ourselves and
to write the best songs that we could for ourselves.
Well, speaking of best songs, one of my favorite
things ever to play on acoustic guitar, it's
actually the song that I play on a guitar when
I want to make sure it's a guitar I want to purchase.
is the beautiful finger -picking at the beginning
to the band's smash hit love song. And I've always
wondered why that gorgeous opening was never
included on the radio edit that aired on MTV,
because to me, that's part of the complete song.
And at that moment in time... bands were stretching
ballads well past the five minute mark because
you had Bon Jovi's I'll Be There For You and
Guns N' Roses Patience. So it always made me
wonder why that signature part of the song never
made the radio cut. Well, first of all, I want
to say thank you, Brian, for the kudos and the
compliment on that little thing there. And as
far as why it wasn't included on the MTV version
or whatever, I don't really know. We had a hard
time even getting airplay as it was because we
weren't a band like Bon Jovi that was that famous
at that time. And maybe they didn't want video
of just me playing the guitar by myself. I don't
know. But it is on our Times Making Changes video.
There's a version of me playing it live before
Love Song with a beautiful sunrise coming up.
There's a lot of... questions that we had on
why this didn't happen and why that didn't happen.
And I don't have the answer to that. But the
fact that a guy like yourself just told me how
much it means to you, then you know what? That's
rewarding enough for me, man. Thank you so much.
And it touches a lot of people and we play it
in every show. And it's the most simplest but
heartfelt little piece of music that. I've personally
written and I'm very grateful that I was allowed
to put it on the album, to be honest, because
I recorded it at home and I sent the tape to
New York and Michael Barbiero, bless his heart,
he told me he would put it on the song for me.
And so it was it was a gift from that angle that
it even made it on the album. Wow, that's amazing.
I actually had no idea about that. We were talking
about Little Susie, right? That we were. Well.
There's an acoustic piece that I did at the beginning
of that that I'm even more proud of than the
love song thing. And it's not even part of the
original Little Suzy. That little piece of acoustic
finger picking is something that I really am
proud of musically. It's on our first album.
It's an acoustic solo that I did that wasn't
it got included on the song Little Suzy, but
it's not a cover. That's my piece of music that.
is actually harder to play than Love Song. Well,
as someone who can play the opening to Love Song,
but can't play that acoustic opening to Little
Susie, I'm going to say you are 100 % accurate
with that. Yeah, that little acoustic thing,
it's called dad -gad tuning, D -A -D -G -A -D.
And man, I really struggled hard to get that
little thing. And I recorded it in my bathroom
at home. And again, I sent the tape. to New York
after the record was done and Michael Barbiero,
the engineer, took the tape and snuck it in and
slid it in onto the song. So that acoustic thing
on Little Susie and the acoustic thing on Love
Song were both little pieces of music that I
wrote that were added into the music. Wow. Yeah.
That blows my mind right there. Yeah. Well, I've
always felt that the band's album, Five Man Acoustical
Jam, was part of the musical lightning rod that
led MTV to really dig their heels into the unplugged
movement as we move throughout the 90s. And from
what I've read over the years, the band was at
one point reluctant around the thought of playing
an entire acoustic set. So I would love to know.
how this classic live acoustic album came to
be and what the band thinks of it now in retrospect.
Well, I would say that we weren't, it wasn't
that we were reluctant to play acoustic because
me personally, I was always the guy in the band
playing acoustic. Right. And what we would do
is we would go to radio stations during the day,
like usually during a lunch hour. or do an interview
or whatever. And we would bring acoustic guitars
and we would talk on the air and we would play
acoustic guitars and sing a couple songs. So
we were always doing acoustic stuff like that.
But I think what happened was that we were invited
to perform at an awards ceremony in San Francisco
Bay Area called the Bay Area Music Awards. And
all of our electric equipment was in a truck
on the East Coast. And we were only home for
a few days. And so the only way we could perform
at this Bay Area music thing was acoustically.
And we didn't want to miss out on that opportunity.
So we did it. We played one song or something
and the crowd went nuts. It was like, wow, OK,
this is something different. And the promoter
of that show invited us to play at a club. and
do a whole entire show, not only just one show,
but two shows in one night at Slim's in San Francisco.
And then that's when we started getting reluctant.
We're like, wait a minute, that's going to be
boring. I don't know. We don't know if we want
to do a whole entire two shows of acoustic. And
our manager, Peter Minch, said, well, maybe you
guys just can't do it. You're not good enough.
And so that was the challenge. And we said, OK,
we'll show you. So we went to we rehearsed for
three days and. changed our songs around a little
bit to fit an acoustic vibe you like you know
the the modern day cowboy now the campfire version
of it exactly yeah coming at you live ended up
being the grateful dead trucking version of it
you know so we changed our songs to be a little
bit more campfire friendly and we played the
shows and they sold out and people loved it so
fast forward a couple months that we were on
the road with motley crew and we had a couple
days off where we were bored, and we went ahead
and booked a couple shows, and Philadelphia turned
out to be one of them, and we recorded it, thank
God, and then we mixed it. And the magic of that
album to me is the audience. When we were mixing
that album, I was in the studio in the control
room, and I told the engineer to make sure and
push the faders up. and turn up the audience
sound really loud because I want the people to
hear and feel the audience of the room. To me,
the audience plays a critical role in any live
performance. And if you listen to Five Man Acoustic
Jam, the audience is really audible. I always
loved the origins of the Five Man Acoustical
Jam. album name as a nod to the five -man electrical
band the original writers of the song signs and
obviously the song went on to become a massive
hit did you guys have any idea when you played
that show that night where signs was just gonna
blow up like that we really didn't have an idea
that it would blow up but we did know that we
loved the song and Signs is an example of when
a lead vocalist feels the lyrics of a song and
they deliver it. Jeff Keith, our singer, loved
the lyrics of that song. We would just goof around
on it and play it at radio stations. We were
goofing around at a radio station in Boston.
We played Signs and goofing around. They recorded
it from that particular recording. their telephone
started ringing. People were calling them and
saying, hey, we want to hear that song Signs
again. And so we did get a notion that people
loved the song and they could feel that Jeff,
our singer, was delivering it. And so that's
when we decided that, well, heck, let's release
it from that Philadelphia show and then the rest
is history. Well, I have one last question about
Five Man. Because this is a part that on the
VHS tape that I owned growing up, five -man video
band. During Love Song, which we spoke about
earlier, you guys play the first half of the
song acoustic. And then you stand up, smack your
mic stand over, and start shredding on electric
guitar. Seeing that moment for the first time
on VHS and hearing it on the album blew my mind
as a 13 -year -old. I'd love to know what the
mindset was for the band to take that moment
in time to plug in and kind of break the acoustic
ceiling, if you will, for that part of the song.
Well, I appreciate you saying that. That was
just one of those kind of fluke moments where
it was the end of the show, the very end, and
the guys in the band were telling me that they
really missed my solo of the electric guitar
solo that i play in love song the actual solo
itself is pretty melodic and a big epic kind
of thing and love song does that on its own even
the studio version starts off mellow and ends
with a big crescendo yes so i just randomly did
it when we were doing those shows uh when we
were practicing i just randomly picked up the
electric guitar kind of out of frustration of
sitting down all night and just it was an accident
and i did it and the guys were going yes do that
frankie do that they you know they were giving
me a lot of support you know brian and tommy
and jeff and troy those guys you know i was the
youngest guy in the band at the time and they
were always really supportive of me as being
the young guitar player guy and whenever i would
come up with a crazy idea or something they would
give me the thumbs up and It was just one of
those flukes that I did on accident and it worked
in the show. That it certainly did. Moving along
the timeline here. There's a meme that's circulating
about seven cassette tapes that were originally
released in 1991 and all were within 44 days
of each other. And those cassettes were Metallica's
Black Album, Pearl Jam's 10, Guns N' Roses' Use
Your Illusion 1 and 2, Red Hot Chili Peppers'
Blood Sugar Sex Magic, and Soundgarden's Bad
Motor Finger. But fun fact... Right dead smack
in the middle of all those releases came Tesla's
incredible Psychotic Supper, which the lead single
Edison's Medicine is probably my favorite Tesla
track of all time. Given the change in the music
climate of 1991 and the massive success of Five
Man, did you guys feel that the stakes were even
higher for Psychotic Supper? Well, you know,
Psychotic Supper is an album for Tesla. that
we were very strong willed at that point wanted
to do whatever the hell we wanted to do and we
weren't really taking that advice anymore that
we used to take like i told you we were always
being instructed and coached by people and at
that point we were like giving the middle finger
to everybody and i think i think it really comes
across on the album you can really hear the angst
and the edginess of it we put a lot of pressure
on ourselves to try to capture the band live
on that particular album. It's really raw. And
we recorded it in Manhattan, right in the city
at the power station, right in the center of
Manhattan. We were there for three months and
just going crazy. And that's why the title of
it, Psychotic Supper, is definitely appropriate
for it. Tesla didn't really. have a problem with
the changes and the grunge and the trends that
came and went through music most of our own problems
were self -inflicted within internally as far
as you know drinking and using drugs and not
ever taking a break you know we didn't ever take
a break from the time we released mechanical
resonance until we did the psychotic separate
tour headlining all the way until we did last
action hero and then We really got burnt out.
And, you know, we had a really great run. But
we near the end of it, we started really like
every band. I don't care if it's Led Zeppelin
or Van Halen. The first 10 years, the ending
part of that first 10 years when you're really
getting high all the time on drugs and alcohol
and egos are out of control. You know, we kind
of self imploded at the end of that headlining
tour. But it was that I'm not going to blame
grunge or any of that. You know, I mean, yeah,
grunge probably killed a lot of glam metal lipstick
wearing bands, but we didn't have that problem.
It was mostly our own problems. But, you know,
all those bands you just mentioned, Guns N' Roses,
Soundgarden, we love all those bands, have mad
respect for all of them. And by the time you
got to 1994, like you were talking about, the
band was in this burnout. When you listen back
to Bust a Nut, to me. That's still a classic
Tesla album. Cause I think about, they had the
radio hits mama's fool and need your loving,
but there was songs like the gate invited and
solution that to me were, is some of the best
stuff Tesla's ever done. Did you guys really
feel at that point? Like there was some writing
on the wall or something. Cause it was shortly
after that album that the band decided to take
a break. Yeah. Yeah. That album was at the end
of our first chapter. And like I said, we had
reached a point at that point with substance
abuse and egos and problems that weren't there
for the first half of that 10 years that manifested
themselves. Again, I agree with you. It's a great
album, Shine Away, Solution. I mean, we worked
really hard on that album. And Terry Thomas,
the producer, was a fantastic engineer, killer
producer, learned a lot from him. You know, he
salvaged it as much as he could. He also went
on to produce our later albums like Forevermore.
And, you know, we love Terry Thomas, great producer.
He produced Bad Company and some other bands.
But we had gone through a period at that point
by then at the end of that first chapter. And,
you know, like I said, Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin,
Van Halen with David Lee Roth. Every great band
goes through their heyday of about the first
10 years. And then they self -destruct and then
they get back together and try to resurrect it
again, which is what we've done. We're looking
at 40 years now, you know, and we've made a lot
of albums after that chapter two and chapter
three of Tesla. You know, we did Into the Now.
We've done Simplicity, Real to Real, Forevermore,
you know, Time to Rock, Shock. We've done a lot
of recordings and stuff in the chapters following.
But Bustin' Out was the end of chapter one, and
it was a difficult time for us because of our
own internal problems that we were having. Well,
I want to talk about chapter two now, because
after that 10 year break, the aughts brought
two incredible albums that you just mentioned
in what you were talking about. 2004 is into
the now, which features amazing tracks like what
a shame, mighty mouse and the title track. And
then 2008 is forever more featuring. I want to
live the first time and the title track. Both
of these albums show to me a perfect balance
of a band that. knows how to balance the sounds
that people know and want to hear from tesla
but also push new grounds musically and it was
also between these two albums where tommy skio
was replaced by dave rude in the band can you
talk about what the aughts were in terms of a
musical transition and what dave brought and
continues to bring to tesla currently yeah sure
you know let me see so yeah you mentioned into
the now uh that's when we got back together and
we had gone through a period of time like four
or five years of very difficult low period of
time for all of us individually i had a band
called moondog maine that i worked really hard
on that didn't get very far and the same with
Jeff and Tommy and Brian had Soul Motor and Tommy
and Jeff had Sofa King or whatever. And it was
a low point because everyone, our fans wanted
Tesla. They didn't want any of that other stuff.
They wanted to hear Tesla back together. So we
got back together and we sold out a show immediately
on Halloween night. And it was amazing. And then
we went on tour and we did the Rock Never Stops
tour in 2000, 2001. the fans were just really
supportive of us being back together so we put
together the album into the now which the title
itself is talking about us coming into the new
millennia after you know 2000 y2k pass and now
here we are again it was like a rebirth you know
what i mean but it's a roller coaster ride man
i tell you man when you've got personal problems
and personalities and bad blood and history and
the different ego trips and problems that sometimes
will still exist, you know, and Grace Lick said
it perfectly. When rock and roll is great, it's
the best. It's the greatest thing. And when it's
not, when it's hard, it's the worst. It's the
hardest. It's a freaking roller coaster. I always
equate it to being a surfer, man, and you catch
a wave and you ride it in and then you got to
swim back out and catch another wave, you know,
getting back to those waves of hard times during
that period uh i searched and searched and searched
for a guitar player that had the personality
that we needed that was solid and dependable
and into the band for the band as a team you
know and i found dave rude on myspace and went
and jammed with them and the chemistry was great
and i had already jammed with about 10 other
players and they were great players but it just
the chemistry wasn't right with the right hand
when you're a guitar player you got to have the
right hand synchronized and rhythm the body clock
and dave fit perfectly with that and brought
a great new energy to the band and he's been
with us now for what 18 years or something it's
it's been great and uh we've kept this thing
going kept it alive and created some new music
and uh been riding those waves man And now we're
looking at 40 years of this. We're going to be
in Las Vegas doing residencies again. We got
invited back to perform five nights in one venue,
which is a feat. We've done tours with Def Leppard,
with Styx, with Joan Jett, with REO Speedwagon.
We just did a show with them last month. So we're
firing on all cylinders. And it's survival, man.
You got to swim back out and catch another wave.
That's just how I look at it. There's a lot of
swimming involved, man. You know, when you're
a surfer, you're not riding waves. You got to
fucking work and swim and you got to go out there
and find the right wave to jump on. And that's
kind of how it is with music. When you're in
a band, you ride a wave and then you get back
on the beach and you write some more songs and
you swim and you work hard and make another album.
Then you go back out there and ride that wave
again. Every year, it's a new wave. Well, I want
to talk about the wave from 2007 because I am
a sucker for cover songs and the band's reel
to reels volume one and two are some of my favorite
cover albums ever. And I want to focus on one
song because when I was a kid, my parents fooled
me and they got me to listen to music by explaining
to me that if they put a record on, they were
going to show me a guitar that would talk to
me. And my parents put on Frampton Comes Alive
and introduced me to Do You Feel Like We Do?
Your version on that album is literally equal
in power to me. And I would love to know from
one guitarist to another. How do you put your
stamp on a legendary solo, talk box and all,
and approach the balance between paying homage
to a song that you love and putting your personal
stamp on it? Because you guys knocked it out
of the park. Well, gosh, thanks, man. I appreciate
it. And that's a song that, yeah, you don't want
to screw it up. You know? Yeah. You hear a lot
of covers and you hear a lot of people do things
and sometimes they'll butcher a song and change
it to try to be clever and make it their own
and they'll train wreck it. We didn't want to
do that. We wanted to keep it true to what Peter
Frampton did and so we tried to keep it true
to that. But it's ingrained. That song is ingrained.
I've been listening to that live album, Frampton
Comes Alive, in my headphones since I was 10
years old when it came out. And I probably heard
it 7000 times in my ears, you know, so it's kind
of in my blood. You know, some music, it's weird
with music. There's some songs where I can pick
up a guitar and just start playing it. And I've
never played it before, but I just can I can
play it just because I've heard it so much. It
becomes second nature. You know, it becomes part
of your DNA. And, you know, Aerosmith and Frampton
and artists like that are definitely part of
our DNA. And that's why we did S .O .S. Too Bad
on our new live album, because that's part of
our DNA. You know, J .K., our singer, Steven
Tyler is definitely part of his DNA influence,
you know. So that's where that comes from. And
speaking of real to real, I want to announce
that we're remastering it for vinyl and it's
going to be coming out on Record Store Day next
year. We just finished the artwork for it. And
it's going to be really great. Remastered on
vinyl. Oh, I can't wait. So there you have it.
News announcement for you. Well, I appreciate
you using my weekly mixtape to announce it. All
right. Now with eight studio albums, two cover
song albums, and multiple live releases, the
band has quite a massive song list to pull from.
How do you guys decide what songs make your live
sets? Because at this stage of your career, I'm
certain the crowd is divided between the folks
that want nothing but the hits and the folks
that want to hear deeper cuts and some jams like
the tracks that you guys included on Full Throttle
Live. Because to me, Full Throttle Live feels
like the cornucopia of Tesla Deep Cuts. Well,
thanks. Yeah, we did that on purpose. We decided
for Full Throttle Live to keep it with the deeper
tracks and the heavier side of things, like miles
away and lazy days, crazy nights and stuff like
that. You know, the deeper cuts. Well, we did
that on purpose for Full Throttle Live. So, you
know, one of the great things about these residencies
is it forces us to. change our set every night
a little bit i mean we obviously play the hits
that sports fans want to hear but the true right
diehard fans want to hear different ones and
the ones that come to every show we wanted to
change it up for them so we practice during the
day and we listen to jk his voice you know and
determine what he can honestly sing and what
maybe we shouldn't try to make him sing you know
that's going to ruin his voice and i'll experiment
with trying the songs maybe in a better key for
him you know it's things like that and make the
song sound better and if the song sounds great
at soundcheck then we'll put it in the set that
night and you know we have a list of a songs
b songs and deep c songs that are deeper cuts
and you know like if we're doing 18 songs we
want to do 12 of them that are the hits that
we have to do like what you give love song modern
-day cowboy signs and then we've got three or
four songs that we rotate like stir it up or
song and emotion or The way it is or whatever
songs that we rotate and change the set different
each night So that's how we do it and it all
depends on what he can say well since 2021, the
band has released two new studio singles, 2021's
Cold Blue Steel, which is a nod to Southern rock
legends Lynyrd Skynyrd, as well as 2022's Time
to Rock. Are the days of Tesla's studio albums
done, or are these two songs maybe teasers to
a new full length? Well, we might put these all
together on a compilation thing, you know, but
I don't really know the answer. I don't really
have a crystal ball. other than things have changed
completely. We're a lot older now and the media,
the way people consume music, the way people
listen to music is different. So we don't want
to lock ourselves away up for a year and try
to fabricate 12 songs and hopefully somebody
will like one or two of them. It's like it's
a waste of time now to do that for us at our
stage in our life. We would rather create one
or two new things that we're feeling really strong
about and put them out now while they're feeling
good. Instead of like doing it the old fashioned
way where we would spend a year trying to write
a full length album and it's not the same anymore.
And things change. That's just the way it is.
And we're happy with the way we're doing things
now. Will we ever, never make a full length album
and do it the old fashioned way? I can't tell
you. All I can tell you is that right now we're
really happy creating a song and putting it out
in the moment. And we've got a new song in the
pipeline that we're planning on recording in
February. It's going to be another love song.
It's called All About Love. We've got a couple
more ideas for a couple more different covers
we're going to do. I've got a new solo album
I've been working on. You know, Brian's got projects.
Dave Rude's going to come out with a project
he's been chipping away at for a year. So, you
know, we're living more in the moment now than
we ever have before, because thanks to the cell
phone and the way social media is today, it's
all in the moment. Everything is fresh and in
the moment. I can record a thing right now and
post it and it'd be out there right now. Whereas
in the old days, we would have to keep our fingers
crossed and hope that MTV might play it if MTV
was still around or if a radio station maybe
might play it. Nowadays, we don't have to freaking
worry about that. We can just record what we
want and put it out and people are going to hear
it right away. And we like that. Singles or albums,
as long as there's a steady stream of Tesla music
still coming the fans way, I think we're all
going to be happy. Yeah, yeah. We don't want
to make people wait and we don't want to wait
and slave to the grind for a year trying to create.
Because then you're in a mindset of fabricating
something that maybe is not going to be as good
as if you just focus on one or two things in
the moment and put them out when they're feeling
fresh. It's a lot more fun. Well, if you had
to sum up Tesla's musical legacy in three songs.
What three songs would you choose and why? And
I don't mean your favorites. I mean, songs that
you feel like if you had to tell someone this
is the story of Tesla in three songs, which three
songs would they be? Well, I would stay away
from the covers, even though we do covers really
well. I would stick to modern day cowboy because
to me, that song is timeless with the lyrics.
and the guitar riffs are a great example of us
being a team and collaborating and putting together
guitar parts that were very innovative at the
time and the lyrics jk's singing about the usa
and the ussr and it's still relevant today so
modern day cowboy being our first single to me
definitely i'm very proud of that song and then
i would say love song because it's Another example
of a song that we fought for that has the acoustic
intro and has the musical arrangement of something
that's very different. And then I would say probably
What You Give. Lyrically, it's one of JK's best
moments. And those would be my three original
songs for Tesla. Well, Frank, this has been an
absolute pleasure speaking with you tonight.
Thank you so much for joining me on my weekly
mixtape. My weekly mixtape. I love it, Brian.
Thank you for having me. And I hope I didn't
bore y 'all with too much weird stuff. I would
say quite the opposite, man. Again, man, we're
riding that wave, swimming and swimming and surviving.
Well, thank you very much for doing that because
we here appreciate the music so, so much. Thanks,
man. And I want to tell everybody that's how
life is, man. You can survive the storms. It's
a crazy world. Just try to, you know, find some
inner peace and just don't get too caught up
in the craziness and just keep on swimming, keeping
your head above the water and hang tough out
there. And remember, mixtapers, you can head
to the episode page at myweeklymixtape .com and
hear a playlist of all the songs we've discussed
in tonight's discussion. You can also head to
myweeklymixtape .com to hear the full catalog
of my weekly mixtape episodes. And if you like
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me out by either telling a friend. leaving the
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.com forward slash myweeklymixtape. That's all
for this week. Thanks again for listening, and
until next time, enjoy the tunes.