By: Ryan Sparks,
November 2008
When I caught up with guitarist Pat
Travers a couple of months ago he was in the midst of recording
a brand new album of all original material. While the album
isn’t likely to see the light of day until the first half of
2009 at the earliest, Travers certainly isn’t waiting around in
the meantime. He’s never been known to rest on his laurels or
remain idle for very long, so once the principal recordings were
completed he did something that comes as natural to him as
waking up in the morning, he booked a tour and got back on the
road. Ever the road dog, Pat recently barnstormed his way
through a successful run of European shows. I managed to catch
him just as he was on the eve of gearing up for a limited run of
shows in the States to close out the year. We discussed not only
the recent run of shows and how his audience has changed over
the years, but I could tell that he’s really chomping at the bit
to get this new studio album out, so he graciously gave Classic
Rock Revisited a sneak peak bit of what to expect from this
highly anticipated new album.
Ryan: You
recently got back from playing a string of dates in the U.K. how
did that go?
Pat: Yeah, we
actually started out in Germany and did a bunch of dates there
and in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and one show in
Sweden. Then we wrapped things up in the U.K with six shows
there, finishing with a show in London at the end of October. We
had a good run; we did about twenty two shows. It was good.
Ryan: Now you’ve
got some shows lined up here in North America this month.
Pat: Yeah I’m doing a
bunch of shows here before Christmas. In December I have to mix
my new studio album and I still have a couple of overdubs that I
have to do on that as well.
Ryan: Are these
dates a warm up for hopefully a larger scale tour in 2009?Pat:
It’s hard to say. To be honest I’m a little frustrated at the
moment because a lot hinges on the release of this new CD and
the marketing campaign. Right now my hands are a little tied and
I wish things were a little clearer than I thought they’d be by
this point. It’s tough because I worked very hard on the record
and I’m very excited about it and I want it to be out. The last
time I spoke to you I was still working on the record wasn’t I?
Ryan: Yes you were
in the process of recording it. Had you planned on it being out
by this point?
Pat: Well I was
hoping to have a single or at least something available to go
into the New Year with, which would really help. That’s what I
was hoping for and really until I have that ammunition there’s
not a whole lot I can do, so I’m just trying to keep busy and
stop myself from going crazy. It’s true but a man has to work.
It’s funny because I guess people fantasize about not having to
go to work and not having to do this or that but we’re not
designed that way [laughing].
Ryan: How’s the
live album (Stick With What You Know) doing?
Pat: You know I
really don’t know. The live album was actually recorded two
years ago and at the time I really thought it was just going to
be a European release, but my record company over there has
since branched into the US. I’m sort of living in my own little
world here so I haven’t paid to much attention to it. All I do
know is that most everyone I’ve talked to that’s heard it seems
to like it a lot and that’s good. But I have no idea how it’s
doing or if it’s doing. I’m just marching on.
Ryan: How does it
compare playing over in Europe to playing in the States, do you
notice any differences?
Pat: Sure there are
differences. People over there are a little more reserved but
they are very enthusiastic at the appropriate times. In between
songs they tend to be a little more attentive and they don’t get
as rowdy. It’s a little weird for people who haven’t gone over
there before and aren’t used to it, especially a place like
Switzerland for some reason. I remember way back the first time
I experienced that it was very strange because you would finish
a song and the audience would go [makes the sound of a cheering
crowd] and then in a second there would be dead silence. So it
was a little weird but I guess I’m used to it now. I realize
that they’re being respectful and that they’re really paying
attention so that’s pretty cool.
Ryan: Did you
change your set list around at all? For example are you trying
out any of the new material or playing any older material that
maybe you haven’t done for quite awhile?
Pat: We changed a
couple of things around with regards to the older material
awhile ago and then I started adding some of this bluesy stuff.
Once I began working on the brand new material I was just so
excited to play something brand new that we added a couple of
new ones as well. The great thing is they just go down fantastic
and I’m not sure if that’s because we’re so enthusiastic about
them when we’re playing that people feel sorry for us and want
to make a lot of noise [laughing], but they seem to generally go
down really well. That doesn’t surprise me; I think it would
surprise me if the response wasn’t as good because the new stuff
is very, very powerful and very on the mark.
Ryan: Which is
great to hear because as a classic rock artist you can kind of
get stuck just playing just the old stuff can’t you?
Pat: Yeah I changed
it, now it’s called post-modern rock [laughing]. I have no idea
what that means it just sounds good. But yeah I’m also aware of
how difficult it is to get something new played and taken
seriously. Fortunately this stuff is so powerful, the songs are
so strong and the sound is so great. One thing it’s really going
to do is broaden our audience. I have no doubt about it, this is
going to make my audience larger, and we have a couple of songs
on there that are hard to categorize. They’re just good songs
and hopefully people will like them.
Ryan: Any song
titles you want to share?
Pat: The big song
that I expect to do a lot is called “Stay” and I hope that will
be our lead off (single). It’s a very powerful tune and a little
bit different for me vocally, but not really because when you
hear it, it sounds perfectly normal. Ryan: In what sense is
it different?
Pat: It’s probably
the way I should have been singing all these years. I get to use
my lower range because my voice is very deep. For most of my
career I’ve been singing out of my range, not a lot but a little
bit. I’m on my tippie toes a lot.
Ryan: So where
you’re at today vocally, you’re saying you’re more comfortable
with your voice?
Pat: Yeah and I have
a lot more power. It took some getting used to, to be able to do
that because I’m so used to having to get really pumped up to
sing stuff, and with this it was the exact opposite. I had to
get very relaxed and kind of mellow to get the stuff to sound
good.
Ryan: It’s funny
because we touched on this last time. I’ve always been a big fan
of your vocals, but I was surprised to learn that you were never
really comfortable with your voice.
Pat: No. Singing for
me is sometimes super easy but even when it’s easy it something
I really have to keep my eye on. I think now I’m really starting
to know my own voice and I can hear it objectively, because
that’s always the hard part. I’m sure you’ve been in a situation
where you heard your voice back for the first time, nobody
sounds like what they think they do, and people are generally
disappointed with what they hear. When you’re singing a vocal in
the recording studio and you’re in there isolated, singing
through a $1700 microphone, through a half million dollar
console and they’re playing it back, you can hear the hairs
whistling in your nose, every grunt and every groan. It’s so
revealing and x-rated that it can freak some people out. Now I
feel a lot more confident and I’m able to utilize my voice a lot
better. I just feel that selling the song is the most important
thing for me to do.
Ryan: The comfort
level where you’re at now with your voice, is this something
that has just developed gradually over time?
Pat: It’s been coming
along over the past few years. I noticed when I was in the
studio this time that I didn’t have one bad vocal day. Even this
one vocal that I did at three thirty in the morning, which is
like three hours past my bedtime, came out great. Then we did
this trip to Europe and did all those shows and my voice was as
strong on the last night as it was on the first, so I think I’ve
improved my technique and everything else and that’s something
that just comes with time.
Ryan: What’s it
like for you on days where you have a show. When you come
offstage probably the last thing you want to do is talk to
anyone afterwards. Do you have to take special care of your
voice?
Pat: I try not to
stay up too late and talk too much because that really is the
killer, and people don’t realize that. The other thing is after
a show you’re generally more hyped up so everybody is talking a
lot louder. I usually go out and do the meet and greet after a
show. It’s generally noisy and I’m talking loud which really
puts more strain on your voice. After I’m done I go back to my
hotel and have a cup of tea and some ice cream or something and
hope that maybe The Simpson’s are on somewhere [laughing].
Ryan: You’ve seen
all ends of the spectrum playing live. You’ve done clubs, arenas
and stadiums. Do you prefer the intimacy of the smaller venues
or does it make a difference for you?
Pat: A gig’s a gig. I
think everybody prefers the larger gigs because there’s a lot
more energy, its more exciting and it’s a bigger payday. I don’t
tailor my shows or my performance from one venue to another. I
basically perform with the same intensity no matter where I am
because I don’t really know any other way to do it. The only way
I can get the notes out of my guitar or out of my voice is to
give it everything I’ve got. I couldn’t hold back, it just
wouldn’t feel right.
Ryan: Some artists
have said that when they’re playing live that they’ll play to a
particular spot or focus on one specific person in the audience.
Have you done that?
Pat: To a certain
extent I’ll do that but I try to play to the entire crowd. I’m
aware from looking at photographs and stuff that it’s really
easy to get caught up in just the first few rows. You see
photographs of yourself just looking down so I try
intentionally- actually it was something I read from Bob Dylan
where he said that you should always look into the lights
because your eyes twinkle in a special way [laughing]. It really
does look like your looking out into the whole crowd so it’s
really a professional technique. That’s not to say that I’m not
above zeroing in on someone, or picking up on something where I
can really connect on an intimate level musically. Even if it’s
just a smile, a joke or somebody catches me making some kind of
goofy mistake.
Ryan: Your loyal
fans who are known as Hammerheads follow you around, but what
have you noticed as far as the age of your audience goes, has it
changed a lot over the years?
Pat: We’re starting
to see another generation come in. I get people come up to me
and say that they’ve been a big fan of mine since this album or
that album and I’ll be like “There’s no way because you couldn’t
have even been in your teens when that album came out”. They’ll
say “Yeah well my mom or my dad used to listen to it and I
really liked it”. This happened just the other night when we
were playing in Michigan and there was this young lady who was
really jazzed up and knew all the words and she couldn’t have
been more than in her early twenties. She was there with her mom
and her dad and she said “I’ve been listening to you my whole
life” and I thought that was really interesting.
Ryan: They weren’t necessarily there at the very beginning
but they may have had an older sibling or even their parents
pass it down to them.
Pat: Right. My
objective now is to get past that and to have something
completely new that everybody can discover. At the same time my
diehard fans can have a big “See I told you so. You just picked
up on him now, we’ve been listening to him for years” coming to
them.
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