3)
Well, to many readers you are a
newcomers but Sedona has released acouple
of cds before. What's the story of the
band in brief?
Since putting the band together in the
fall of 1989, Sedona has put outthree
CD's, played on some of the most
sought-after stages in America, and
appeared with many of the most legendary
rock acts in the business. Show by
show, I scratch another name off my list
of favorite bands I'd like to share the
stage with. We've opened for
Foreigner, Fleetwood Mac, The Doobie
Brothers, Cheap Trick, Night Ranger, Bad
Company, Heart, Peter Frampton... all the
bands I idolized as a kid. Even if
it was all to end right now, we've had a
hell of a great time.4)
But Dragonfly is your first full-length
album right?
Yeah, but you gotta understand... we're
perfectionists in the studio. We
will release no CD before it's
time. We spend a lot of time just
getting the right guitar tone or drum
sound, and expend a lot of blood, sweat,
and tears on the little nuances of the
recording. We're not one of those
bands that walks into the studio, runs
through the songs twice, and calls it an
album. Dragonfly took over a year
to record. My brother, Mike Fox (Sedona's
lead singer) produced the album himself,
and it certainly took a toll on his
personal life. But the end result
was worth it. We're very proud of
the album. And, like most of my favorite
recordings, it's headphone-worthy, full
of ear candy that you might not discover
until the 75th listen.
5) You have put
much effort in it. Vortex is your own
company? How was it created?
Our independent label, Vortex, was
created out of necessity when were leased
our first CD, Drift. It was during
the height of the Grunge era,and the
record companies simply weren't
interested in our style of music at the
time. We were at the opposite
extreme of what they were signing.
We joked that if we all traded
instruments, played left handed, and
choked our way through a record, we'd get
signed immediately.
6) So you are
seeking a distribution deal in the US,
Europe or even Japan?
Most definitely. The
US is just starting to come around again,
but Europe and Japan have maintained an
appetite for melodic rock over the past
decade, and we'd like to tap into that
market. Our good friend Eric Martin
is huge in Japan, and he's always been a
sort of mentor to us. Nothing would
please us more than to follow in his
footsteps in the Japanese market.
7) Your
brother's vocals have reminded me in
places of Eddie Vedder but with an AOR
touch... has anyone said the same? Well,
in fact Sedona's music is a combination
of 2 different eras (90's and 80's)...do
you agree?
Yes, there have been
comparisons to Mike and Eddie Vedder, due
largely tothe growling baritone that they
both possess. But he's also been compared
to David Coverdale, Joe Elliott, Paul
Rodgers, and Lou Gramm. A pretty
diverse sampling of singers, I'd say. And
yeah, we manage to straddle the line
dividing the music of the 90's and the
music that inspired us to play in the
first place. Sedona's music is
aculmination of many influences, from
Aerosmith to Zappa. Somehow we
manage to attract a young crowd that's
totally into today's music, as well as an
older crowd that has an appreciation for
Classic Rock. We get the best of
both worlds.
8) Something
that makes the cd very interesting is the
Multimedia content.Could you explain us a
little bit about it? Who created it?
We were about half way through the
recording of Dragonfly, and we began
torealize that the album was evolving
into something really special.
Aboutthat time, our engineer, Ralph
Stover, made the suggestion to take it
tosome unexplored territory and turn the
project into an Enhanced CD. Mike
and I had absolutely no clue as to what
we were getting ourselves into (luckily)
and we proceeded to learn as much as we
could about all this multimedia
stuff. I just so happened to have
been dabbling with Apple'sQuickTime
Virtual Reality and some 3-D software,
developing 360-degree panoramas of
imaginary worlds. When I showed the
guys in the band what I'ddone, they
flipped out! We went full-steam
ahead on developing the rest of the
content. I handled the graphics and
QTVR stuff, and Mike dove intolearning
how to edit digital video and program in
Lingo. Mind you, we had NO
experience with multimedia prior to the
making of Dragonfly. But after6
months of gruelling labor, we finally
emerged with a unique, ground-breaking
multimedia experience that we're very
proud of.
9) Another
highly interesting side of the band in
the live performances. Iwas impressed to
see you have played with almost every big
AOR act in the US including Rick
Springfield, REO Speedwagon, Eric Martin,
.38 Special toname a few... you should
have a great management office!!!! Tell
us something about these gigs. Any
funny stories behind any of them?
Actually, we're looking for a good
management team to represent us. So
far, all our success has been achieved
through our own determination and
tenacity, and through grass roots
efforts. Imagine what could
accomplishwith a little professional
help.
As for "funny"
stories, well, when we opened for
Fleetwood Mac, their crew was having a
great time messing with us. They
were screwing with our sound, unplugging
cords, etc. It got to the point
where we weren't even coming through the
main speakers. We just stood at the edge
of the stage, singing as loudly as we
could, hoping the audience in the back of
the auditorium would at least hear the
vocals. Somehow we got through the set,
and afterwards, Mick Fleetwood came out
of his dressing room and apologized, in
his elegant English manner, for all the
crap his crew had given us.
I remember when we opened
for Foreigner, we were all standing
backstage after our set just as the band
came out of their dressing rooms to go
on. There's 10,000 people chanting
"Foreigner! Foreigner!
Foreigner!", rockin' the
joint. Lou Gramm comes walking by
on his way onstage, spots us, and makes a
detour to come chat with us. Here
he is, giving us compliments on our set
and making small talk, while 10,000
sreaming fans are going wild in their
seats waiting for him to come on.
It was a very surreal moment.
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Then there was the
time we were on stage,
soundchecking before a show, and
suddenly the air was filled with
what sounded like African safari
drums. We turned around to find
Loverboy's drummer, Matthew
Frenette, back behind his congas,
playing along with the
band. He smiled and said
"I just wanted to be able to
say that I jammed with
Sedona." He went so
far as to let our drummer,
Darrell Hale, use some of his
drum kit during our set.
Very nice guy. |
10)
But you also tour intensively as I have
seen in your website... actually you are
to do a couple more gigs with Eric
Martin.
Yeah, the next two weekends we'll be
playing with Eric. What a talent he
is. Our guitarist, Mark Holley has known
Eric for years, but most of us first met
him right after Mr. Big's Lean Into It
came out. I remember my first
encounter with him, when he walked in
while we were soundchecking, and his jaw
dropped. He just stood there
staring for a minute. He had heard
us running through Don Henley's "New
York Minute" while he was out in the
parking lot, and was amazed to walk in
and find that it wasn't just the CD
playing. At the time we met Eric, Lean
Into It really hadn't done all that well
on the charts, and Eric was out doing his
solo thing around Northern
California. We wound up doing an
acoustic show with him, and he dug the
band so much that he gave us a song of
his for our first album, Drift, and we
ended up doing a whole string of shows
with him. He really liked the
band's vocals, so we'd go up and finish
out his set singing background harmonies
with him. In the midst of these gigs,
"To Be With You" had rocketed
up the charts, out of nowhere. So
there we were, doing this gig at a small
club in Sacramento called the Boardwalk,
just when it hit number one. We were up
on stage with Eric singing "To Be
With You" and the audience was going
absolutely crazy. Honest to God, it
sounded like the Beatles at Shea
Stadium. I will never forget the
sound of those girls screaming.
11) So is there
any hope for Sedona's music in the SF
area?
I sure hope so. We take great pride
being from this part of the world. The
San Francisco Bay Area has been home to
some of the best rock bands ever to step
foot on stage. To be listed among
those names would be a dream come
true. I remember standing on stage
when we played with Frampton at the
Fillmore, thinking of all the legendary
players that had stood where I was
standing. It was quite a rush.
12) After
ending the interview, I am gonna ask you
the same that I have asked to Scudiero
and Freak Kitchen. Why the fans of
Melodic rock should buy
"Dragonfly"?
Put me on the spot, why don't ya?
It's hard to be objective when talking
about your own art, but I feel Dragonfly
is truly a great album. The songs
are very diverse, so there's something
for every fan of melodic rock. Rich
harmonies, tasty guitar solos, meaningful
lyrics, and just plain good music.
Not to mention the cool Interactive
portion. That's worth the price of
admission alone. Stop by www.sedonaworld.com
and check out the RealAudio versions of
Sedona's music on our website. All
of Sedona's material is there for the
listener to explore and decide for
themselves whether it's what they've been
looking for. Or go by mp3.com and
download some of Sedona's MP3
files. If you're into melodic rock,
I think you're gonna like what you hear.
13) Well,
thanks a lot Ray for answering these
questions. I wish you all the luck... and
hopefully a good contract.
My pleasure Roger. Anytime.
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