By: Johnny Price, Lead Senior Journalist
The lead singer of a band releasing a solo album is nothing new in the music industry, but waiting to do so 25 after your band’s debut album is usually not the course of the norm. Mark Slaughter, of the band Slaughter, surprised his fans and did just that with the surprise of a debut solo album entitled Reflections In A Rear View Mirror, which will release in the U.S. on May 22.
Although Mark has kept busy over the years doing voice overs and making guest appearances on various albums, Slaughter’s last studio album was 1999’s Back To Reality. It’s apparent that Mark got that creative itch and his fans are now reaping the benefits of his latest imaginative surge.
Slaughter has delivered a solid album packed with eleven tracks of classic rock – all in that voice that made millions of young ladies scream throughout the years. He also chose to do so on his own, distributing it through his personal website, thus bypassing all those suits who tend to think they know what’s best for the artist.
I sat down with the man who gave us such classics as “Up All Night” and “Fly to the Angels” and we discussed his latest batch of soon-to-be classics, changes in the industry and the upcoming 25th anniversary of Slaughter’s debut album, Stick It To Ya.
Hey Mark – it looks as if you’re keeping busy these days.
Yeah man, it’s been a good run and it’s still going. We just got back from doing a show with Kix; it was a sold out show and a lot of fun, so everything is going well.
This solo album seems to have caught a lot of people off guard. After all this time, what made you decide that now was the time to do one?
Well, Slaughter (the band) hasn’t made a record since ’99 and my band, meaning Dana (Strum), Blando (Jeff Blando) and Zoltan (Chaney), moonlight and play with Vince Neil’s solo band. They were out with him and I thought that I would start writing. Well, I did and I started putting songs together and I just thought that I would go ahead and do a solo record. So, I just started making music. When I was done with it, I started looking at various labels and different people and I just decided to do everything myself. It’s probably easier to take the music out and do it that way than to turn around and go through a lot of the garbage that goes along with the labels and all of that stuff. You know, I just really wanted to get some new music out there.
Were these all brand new songs or maybe some things that you had lying around unfinished?
There are a couple of songs that had been sitting around and I decided to revisit those two. I had the ideas for those down, but I didn’t quite have them done. So, other than those two it was all new stuff that I put together for this album.
When it comes to naming an album, some people go with a particular song off of the album, but you didn’t. What can you tell us about the title of your album?
I really wanted to take something and make a record that was more like a classic rock record than a “let me try out my demos,” which is what a lot of artists do nowadays. I really wanted to take people back to their influences and make something that was old school. I mean, what do you feel from the songs that you’ve heard?
I’ve listened to the whole album and it does sound like classic rock without sounding dated. There was one song that caught me a little off guard, but I really liked it and that was “Carry Me Back Home.” I thought that song, which may have been partially because of the instruments included, had a little bit of a country flavor to it.
Yeah, you’re absolutely right and it’s funny that you should say that because I’m living in Nashville now.
I remember someone mentioning that to me in one of my interviews not too long ago. I can’t remember if it was Jeff Labar of Cinderella or John Corabi. It seems like there has been an influx of rock stars moving to Nashville and the surrounding communities. There also seems to be a lot of artists going there to record albums as well. I think I remember reading about Halestorm working on their new album there.
Yeah, Lzzy was out here working, Mick Mars is out here, Brad Whitford, there are a lot of people like that out here. I guess everyone in Cinderella is out here except Fred (Coury). It’s changed a lot and turned into a different kind of town, but music is music and it’s about writing the songs and getting them out there.
Did I read correctly that you pulled “a Prince” and played all the instruments on this album except drums?
Yes, the only other instrumentation that I had on there was a girl named Gena Johnson who sang on “Don’t Turn Away.” She’s Michael Wagener’s second engineer and she has a great voice, so I threw her on it. The guy that I wrote “Don’t Turn Away” with plays the keyboards on that one and I play all the strings and everything above that. I had my friend Mark Goodin that I grew up with in Las Vegas do all the drums and he did a phenomenal job.
I read that Michael Wagener was involved with this album. Did he produce it or mix it or both?
He mixed it and mastered it and I did all the production on it. It was just one of those labors of love and I’m real happy with the outcome.
You mentioned the Kix show earlier and I was wondering if you were doing any material from this solo album in concert?
No, I’m not doing any of the material from the album at all due to the fact that this is a solo thing away from the band. That show with Kix is more of a show of us doing the songs that people know and love instead of me trying to shove new music down their throats. I’m making music for the sake of making music and those who enjoy that know where to pick it up.
I was just curious because it seems like when a band from, for lack of better words – your era – makes a new album, the crowds at a show aren’t always very receptive to it because they want the nostalgia and to hear the hits. What’s the feedback been like that you are hearing?
Well, it’s only been released on iDitty download cards only so far. The actual release of the record, meaning an actual CD that people can pick up, will be on May 22 in Asia, Europe and here in the US. As for what I’m hearing from the fans that have picked up the iDitty cards, they love it and are letting me know what their favorite songs are. They’re also very happy with the production of it. It’s not just a demo that a lot of artists are throwing out there. It was done with the mind-set of doing a real recording as if a real big label was involved and everything. It was done properly as opposed of just throwing it together. The digital download is the future of where things are going and, for now, it seemed like the best way to get it out there.
It’s been a while since you released a new studio album, which was Back To Reality in 1999. It used to be that an artist could just pick up Billboard Magazine to see where they were on the Top 200 Albums chart and see how many copies of their album had sold. With all the changes that have happened in the industry, how do you gauge how successful an album is now?
What is a successful record? Well, I think it’s just really getting the music out to the fans. I’m not looking for millions and for those who like what I do it’s there for them to enjoy. Music’s like a child and you really don’t worry about which child is the most successful because they’re all your children. You’re going to love each one the same and have the same kind of attitude and that’s kind of how it is. I’m not having false expectations nor am I trying to diminish what it could do. An artist creates and it’s one of those things that has been going on in my head – that’s just to continue to make art.
SLAUGHTER : “Up All Night” (Official Video)
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It has to have been refreshing to create your art on your own without all the suits from back in the day breathing down your neck and telling you what to do?
The suits can only do so much, anymore. That record label, the EMI that I knew of, isn’t even a label anymore; Universal just bought up the remnants of that. There are only a few labels that are working and putting product out anymore. The only platinum record last year was Taylor Swift. It’s a different time now, but it’s not a big deal. It’s about making music and art that people like.
What’s the difference in going out on the road now as opposed to in 1990 when you were supporting Stick It To Ya?
Well, there are some of the similarities because people still know the music and they might even be more passionate about it now because it’s a part of their life. The music back then was the soundtrack of the moment and now it’s the soundtrack of what’s going on in their lives. Music is the only thing that can take you to those emotions, other than smell, of where you were and what was going on at the time. The hourglass gets flipped over for the time that you’re listening to that song and it takes you there.
We have a fan-submitted question from Mike in Alaska who wanted to know if you could share an Eric Carr story with us? For those who may not know, Eric Carr was the drummer for KISS when you guys opened for them on the Hot in the Shade tour in 1990 and he passed away in 1991.
He would always take time out for the fans and he always had a smile on his face. He was such a great guy and we would sit and talk about life. We were in the venues doing out things more than we were going out and hitting clubs. We traveled differently than KISS did back then and when we had a day off, we would go play somewhere.
Do you have anything special planned for the 25th anniversary of Stick it to Ya this year?
No, nothing really planned at the moment, although Dana and I have been kicking around a couple of ideas and they will probably be implemented next year. Yeah, I can’t believe that it’s been 25 years!
25 years later and that album has held up really well! Mark, I could probably sit here and talk to you all day long about music, but I know you are a busy man. Did we miss anything or is there something you’d like to close with?
Thanks Johnny, I really appreciate you wanting to talk to me and your interest in the record as well. It’s a classic rock record and I just wanted to bring back how people made records back in the day and I think it’s pretty much there. Who knows? If Dana can get himself away from those guys running out and about, maybe we’ll put out a Slaughter record, but until then, I’ll just keep putting material out for the fans.
Photos By: Chad Lee Photography – Facebook / Instagram / Website
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