We love our independent artists, and nobody is more independent than Michael McClinton. A powerhouse of an artist with a passion in his veins flowing deep and hard for doing the right thing and creating real and meaningful music is putting this artist and his band, McClinton, onto the radar of many veteran acts. They’ve opened for some legendary acts such Ace Frehley, Stryper, Dio Disciples, and Kip Winger…as well as coming off tour with some of today’s hottest acts (Adelita’s Way, Art of Dying, RED, Saving Abel).
Michael sat down for a candid and enjoyable afternoon to talk about the status of McClinton today, labels, and many other interesting tidbits about the band. We are extremely pleased to be able to bring such an inspirational band and make them our INDIE BAND OF THE WEEK!
Are you calling from Las Vegas? Don’t you have a show tonight?
Actually no. We’re off of the Art of Dying tour due to many things. I’m actually on vocal rest for a couple of weeks. It gives me enough time to go home and go on vacation! I’m sitting in Orlando Florida.
I’m insanely jealous.
Sorry!
It’s okay.
The Saving Abel tour was really rough. Some of the clubs were, I’ve got to say this, the worst. It was very hard, and by the time we got to Adelita’s Way, we had our own sound guy on board, which was perfect. However, I strained really hard. We were offered to go back out with Adelita’s Way after I come off vocal rest, so I will probably do that.
A couple of weeks?
They have me on vocal rest for two weeks. It’s been a week. We were really looking forward to doing the tour with Art of Dying. It just kind of went the wrong direction. I mean, it went in the right direction after Saving Abel, Red, and Adelita’s Way, but towards the end of Adelita’s Way, the label and I were not seeing eye-to-eye. We were offered another deal with before this. It was just the better deal for the band. We are probably going to take the deal that we were offered. It’s a better label, bigger label.
You were on Jewell Lane. Aren’t they a newer label?
They are new, but the problem is that they don’t want to pay the people to do what needs to be done. They relied on me to do everything for the band. It got to the point that I couldn’t be on the road and running a label. It’s not my job. I mean, I was even tour managing for the first half of the tour. During the first leg of the tour I was like, “This ain’t happenin!” We brought in a tour manager after that.
I don’t understand how people do it today. Just hanging out in the press tent watching things happen, it’s like mass chaos all of the time. There are couple of people that do know what’s going on, and they show people around and guide them around.
It’s hard for a band to just be on tour, and let alone have to deal with everything that goes along with it.
Because you never know what you’re going to run into.
Right. Never! You can have contracts with people, and it doesn’t matter.
(Sarcastically) Lights? What? We were providing those?
(laughs) A PA system with a monitor guy? What? What is a monitor guy?
It’s amazing. I think it’s because there’s not a lot of money in it anymore. There are a lot of people who just do it off their laptops, on the run, all the time.
There is not a lot of money. Like I said, I was running a label, and running the band, and being the tour manager. I don’t think there was anything that I didn’t do on that tour. That was for the first part of the tour. By the time we got to the second part of the tour with Adelita’s Way and Red, I said, “I’m just going to be the singer now!” (laughs) Everybody was like, “What? Ok?” We had band meetings every Friday morning, and they would tell me that I was a great tour manager, and manager, but that they needed their singer. So, we got a tour manager and he did a phenomenal job. It was the most relaxed I’ve been in probably years! (laughs)
It must feel good to be able to hand off the reigns like that and focus on what you should be doing.
Oh yes. It was cool. Basically my doctor called me and told me that if I don’t take my two weeks of vocal rest, I could really hurt myself. We have a whole another album that we are working on right now.
I was going to ask you about that!
Me and Paul Carabala from The Ataris, actually recorded Final Closure. He worked with me on my first album as well. We only recorded a four song EP, and it took us a year. Nobody ever had the time. The band actually left me when I was on the table during surgery. So, Final Closure was written with the basis of “Fuck You! You screwed me, and now I’m going to stick it in your ass!”
Nice! Is there a song on there that says specifically “I’m going to stick it in your ass”?
No, but perhaps in the next album! I have a lot of anger right now because of what happened with the label! (laughs) We thought we were getting into a label deal and that was the whole premise of the tour. They pulled their backing while we were on tour, and then came back and said that they wanted a percentage of whatever we made, and it was something crazy like 75%.
Really! That’s nice of them!
Yeah it was REAL nice of them. And then they were like, “we will finish off the tour with you if you sign this addendum saying that will get this…”
Would you like me to sign that and bend over too?
(laughs) Right?! You have any butter with you? Parkay? Margarine? Something that doesn’t have axle grease in it?
Here is a pen and some butter!
(laughs) Yeah! We just looked at each other and said that we would finish off the tour, because it would be the right thing to do. I finished up the Saving Abel tour with my own money. You see, with the touring, we gained a lot of fans. We had fans travel six hours to see us. They just posted it on my twitter. “We saw you at The Whiskey and drove seven and a half hours to see you at Ace of Spades” I was like, “Holy crap!”
We made pretty good friends with Adelita’s Way. Rick was like, “We are heading out on a headlining tour when this is over. We would like you guys to join us.” Two shows prior to the end of the tour the doctor said that I had to either stop or wind up having surgery. I’d rather take two weeks off and see what happens.
CRUMBLE
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Smart. If you can prevent surgery, it’s always the better deal.
Right. I feel okay. I haven’t over exerted myself as far as talking goes. My wife and I talk, barely. (laughs)
Sometimes it’s best. Just to get along, the less you talk, the better it goes!
Yeah, if we talk, it tends to be a conversation about the baby. She just kind of rolls her eyes and says, “whatever you want to do babe!”
Good answer! Wise choice!
I think the best thing about her is that she supports everything I do as far as music goes. When we had to cancel the art of dying tour, he was like, “I hate to see you. You guys worked so hard for this, and now you have to stop.”
Give it a couple of weeks. She’s going to be all, “Honey? When are you get back out there? I’m tired of seeing you around. You’ve got to go.”
(laughs) When I got home, I was talking to the tour manager and the bass player (my bass player and I are very close). The moment we got home the text messages started flying, “We need to get back out because I hate being home.” (laughs) The tour manager was like, “I’m going stir crazy. Can we just do this already!?” This was our first national tour. We had done some smaller tours, but this was our first NATIONAL tour, where we went from Tupelo Mississippi to California, and everywhere in between. We were out there every night, five nights a week (six nights a week sometimes). You get used to that.
Yeah. You get into that routine and stopping is borderline painful.
Exactly. Also with the people you meet out on the road. You meet a lot of people. We have followers that travel several hours to see us every night. They would hang out with us at the merch table just to pick our ears. And that would happen at almost every show! For an indie band, that’s pretty good. Even the guys from Adelita’s Way said that. Scotty from Saving Abel said, “Here’s what I like about you. All your songs are real and they are about real-life. Everybody else’s singing about nonsense that doesn’t matter. You sing about real stuff, and that’s what I like about you.”
Awesome accolades. So after a couple of weeks, after your vocal rest, you’re getting back on the road with Adelita’s Way?
That’s the plan. We want to get back out on the road with Adelita’s Way. Their tour starting on July 19th in Colorado Springs. I don’t know if we’re are going to be able to get to that one. It’s really up to what the doctor says really. All have to do after that is to set everything up and make it work!
I’ll have to keep my eye out for it. What are your plans after that? Festivals? Radio?
Radio programmers today would not know a good song if it smacked them in the head. I could drop my drawers and smack them in the head with my junk and they still wouldn’t know a good song!
That is SO true! It could be crap, but if it’s done by Nickelback, they’ll play it! That is obvious!
Right! If it has a name on it, people will play it. The biggest response we got from a radio station was: “there are more important things out there right now to promote. I don’t think we’re going to work with this one.”
GASP
Yeah. It’s tough. Things are looking up though. We’ve been talking with our new label, and the first thing I said was, “Look, I really like to keep our PR people and our radio promoter that we have.” The most important thing is to keep the people that want to stick by you and do the right thing. There are a lot of people out there in this industry that just want to take you for everything they can.
And it’s a true shame. So, just to quickly summarize the future of McClinton, what is the quick and dirty, this is up next?
The band is working hard on the new album. It’s going to be a tossup between Godsmack and Five Finger Death Punch. The one new song that we have is called, “Who’s Blaming Who” because everybody seems to want to blame everybody (laughs). It’s heavy. It’s in your face. It’s really good! I was listening to it the other day, and I listen to it about five times and impressed myself! (laughs)
I can’t we to hear it! I may hold out for the “Hand Me a Pen and Stick of Butter”. That’s the song!
Hey! It may be on the new album! I’m telling ya! You might want to listen to it! We will get the axle grease out with some sand, and some butter and a pen, and we will be good to go! (laughs) We will call this one “Who’s Screwing Who”.
Oh my! We will see who walks away with a smile!
I’m going to be honest with you Alice. I always walk away with a smile! At the end of the day, I walk away with a smile because I can go to sleep with an open conscious. Other people can’t say they can do that, and I know I can. When I go to sleep at night I know that I do the best I can for the people I work for.
Speaking of going to bed with a smile and doing the right thing. I understand you are very philanthropically inclined.
Yes. We have a song called “Over It”. It’s a song about cancer. I had cancer. I beat cancer. I wrote the song. We actually have a shirt coming out that says “Over It” and on the back it has the middle finger and it says “Fuck Cancer”.
Nice!
I’m going to give a percentage of the sales for a cancer benefit. I haven’t decided what yet, because I’m not about the research. I want to give it to something worthwhile. We connected with a lot of fans because of that song. The people that drove the six hours, one of their brothers had cancer, and he made it. The song is what made them, all the way to see us again. To me, that is special. We were in Colorado, and I remember it very well, but kid came up to me and said, “I lost my mom to cancer. Hearing you say that you beaded and you get the live your dreams because of it is something special to me. Don’t let anybody take that away from you.” Those are the things that make me want to do this. I could care less about radio hits. I’m not Taylor Swift and I’m never going to be Taylor Swift. That is why I do this. To see fan’s faces, and talk to them afterwards, to me that means the world.
