Vocalist Robin McAuley (McAuley Schenker Group), guitarist Reb Beach (Winger, Whitesnake), bassist Jeff Pilson (Foreigner, The End Machine, ex-Dokken), and drummer Matt Starr (Ace Frehley, Mr. Big) have joined forces in Black Swan, a new project signed to Frontiers Music Srl. The band’s debut album, Shake The World, will be released on February 14.
Rock Confidential spent a few minutes with Reb Beach to talk about formation of the group and how they approached songwriting for what would become Shake The World. We also touched on Reb’s other gigs in Winger and Whitesnake, looked back at his time in Dokken, and learned his new solo album will finally see the light of day this year.
How are things going? You seem to be staying pretty busy.
Yeah. Usually with Winger and Whitesnake, Winger will go when Whitesnake isn’t. Whitesnake usually goes year on, year off. David’s been going every year now. Winger’s been booking gigs in between. I’m learning a bunch of new Winger songs right now and a couple of new Whitesnake songs and man, rock n’ roll is so similar. I’ll start playing a Winger lick in the middle of a Whitesnake song. That’s never happened before and I’m getting them mixed up now. (laughs) I’m 56 years old. Every rock song is either in the key of E or A and all the riffs are starting to meld together in my brain. I can focus on one thing, but if you ask me to multi-task I’m gonna have a couple of flubs here and there.
Winger is playing that 80’s cruise coming up, Monsters Of Rock. I’m actually flying to Kip’s place in Nashville on Sunday to write the new Winger record. We already have three songs. We did a week a couple of months ago and we’ll do another week on Sunday to get that together. That’s always exciting. Winger stuff is pretty complicated and he raises the bar pretty high. It’s definitely hard work.
On the other hand, Black Swan is more straight up rock.
That’s because I wrote it! (laughs) That’s the kind of stuff I write. I’m an 80s guy that happens to be a good guitar riff writer. That’s my forte. When we started the Black Swan thing, I came in with about 50 ideas, verses and choruses. We went from there. Jeff’s a great arranger as well as a producer. He would take my ideas and say, “Go to F#, do the solo and an outro and we’re done.” It went really well. Really fast. It was great to write with Jeff again. The last time I did that was Erase The Slate with Dokken.
When I first saw that you guys were working together again, I knew it would be a quality project. Erase The Slate is a great album.
These songs kinda sound like that to me. It sounds like Erase The Slate a little bit. The rhythm guitars ended up being a little low in the mix for me, so it doesn’t quite rock as hard as I wanted it to. Other than that it kinda has an Erase The Slate quality to it.
Black Swan started out as an idea between the record label and Jeff, right?
Yeah. Jeff’s done a bunch of stuff. He has a really good relationship with them. He’s friends with the label president (Serafino Perugino). He’s a great producer and he’s done a few things for Serafino. When Serafino suggested Jeff do another project, Jeff was on the road with me – Whitesnake was opening for Foreigner. I guess he thought of me for that reason and I jumped at the chance to write with Jeff again.
So you two were the first guys involved in the project?
Yeah. That’s usually how it goes, for me anyway. Kip with Winger and Whitesnake when I wrote with David. Just two guys. When you get a bunch of guys in there – like a whole band – there’s too many chiefs and not enough Indians. It’s much better to have two guys playing off each other that are from different schools.
Plus, you and Jeff had already worked together.
Anybody would want to work with Jeff Pilson. He’s got this thing. It’s very genuine. He acts like what you just did is the greatest thing ever played by man on the guitar. He gets so excited about everything and he makes you feel like you’re the greatest musician in the world. He’s just an amazing arranger, like Kip Winger. I’ll write myself into a corner. What can you do with this? What can you possibly do? Where do you go from here? He and Kip Winger know exactly what to do and it ends up getting done. Playing solos for Jeff is great. I’d play one and he’d say, “That’s amazing! Listen to that. You’re done! That’s incredible. You did it first take!” We’d do a couple of more takes and he always ended up liking the first take better. Most of the solos on the album are first takes.
Do you remember the first song you wrote together for this album?
That’s a great questions. I honestly don’t remember. The last one was “Shake The World.” That one wasn’t an old idea. We used up all of my ideas for the record. I have a million ideas but not all of them are 80s rock. I needed to start writing from scratch. “Shake The World” is the first one I wrote from scratch and is actually one of the best ones.
It must be because that’s the name of the album!
Yeah, well I told them not to call it Big Disaster. (laughs) Bad idea. Don’t use that for the title track.
L to R: Reb Beach, Robin McAuley, Jeff Pilson, Matt Starr
How long did it take to finish the record?
We wrote it in two weeks and then Robin did the lyrics. It went pretty darn quick after that. About as quick as a record can go. We had all the elements and weren’t starting from scratch. If you work with guys that know what they’re doing it goes very quickly.
When did Robin become involved?
I think he was involved right from the get-go because he’s good friends with Jeff. They’re very, very close. Their families hang out together and stuff. It was the obvious choice and I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else.
The vocals are so powerful.
The vocals are insane. His vocals are the best part about it for me.
You and Jeff keep extremely busy schedules. Do you anticipate live dates for Black Swan?
I’m booked all year and I’m sure Jeff is, too. You get little breaks here and there. It’s in the contract to do live shows but that’s dependent on how the record does. If it does well then we’ll need to do another record. Frontiers is going to want some shows, like the Frontiers Fest. I would hope we wouldn’t do one show like that because then I’d have to learn all those songs just for one show. (laughs) That’d suck. It’d better be a damn good show. I’d love to play live with Jeff again and be on stage with Robin and that amazing voice. All four of us sing so I think we’d end up sounding pretty good. We’ll see how the record does. If it takes off then I’m sure we’ll do some shows.
When you’re writing new material, do you always write the same way and the people you’re working with influences the outcome or do you specifically write differently for each project?
I have that thing that I do. I write a riff. With Winger, we start with me. I’ll write a guitar riff. Kip will turn on the drum machine and play the bass. Then I’ll start playing and he’ll say, “That – what’s that?” I may not remember but he’s been recording the whole time so we’ll rewind and I learn it. With David it’s a completely different thing. He’ll have all the ideas. He comes in, plays you the three chords he likes and you try to jazz it up like a guitar player would play it, rather than a guy on an acoustic.
What do you remember about writing and working with Dokken?
What do I remember about Dokken? Drinking. Heavily. Before the show, which I never would do these days. That was the funnest gig I ever had. It was just a big guitar solo. Don would sing one chorus and leave the stage for the solo and I would just solo for as long as I wanted. There’s only one other musician that plays an instrument that has to be in tune. It was just a lot of fun in Dokken. That was a great point in my career. That’s when I was playing at my strongest. And I looked good, too. (laughs) It was nice being thin. As far as writing, it was a lot like how Winger does it. We’d just come up with parts and Jeff would always know what key to go to. You need a guy like that and I am not that guy. I am not that guy! (laughs) I hear one riff and I don’t hear the whole song. Kip Winger and Jeff Pilson hear the whole song. They think ahead musically to project what it could sound like and be the best it could be. I’m terrible at that. I’m just your beer drinking, guitar playing guy who can come up with riffs on the spot.
Well that seems to be working out! You’ve had quite the run so far.
I have. I’ve been really lucky to still be working at my age in a big band like Whitesnake. I was thinking earlier, what other gigs are there for a guy like me with a big 80s stamp on my head? Probably the best gig there is is Whitesnake. Or Winger, but Whitesnake is a guitar player’s dream. It’s all about the solos and all about the guitar. Each guy gets his own solo and everybody leaves the stage. It’s kinda like a guitar hero gig. I don’t consider myself a guitar hero, although I have seen that said about me which is nice. I just do this one thing. I’m not a guitar virtuoso. I was watching George Lynch the other day, trying to come up with ideas for clinics. I watched one of his clinics. He has a rhythm track that’s just drums and bass playing the same note, jamming out in E. He’ll just jam in E for 15 minutes. He’ll totally make mistakes. He doesn’t give a shit. Most of what he plays is totally awesome. Scales I’ve never heard before. It sounds cool as hell and he can play with fire. The key to being a great guitar player is being able to convey emotion. I soloed the tracks for John Sykes on the ’87 Whitesnake record when I was in the studio. They had that album in Pro Tools so I soloed his tracks and they were on fire. I got goosebumps. You could picture a young kid hungry to make it. Soaring, screaming notes. That’s the way it should be. That’s rock n’ roll. That’s the kind of guitar player I aspire to be. Or used to – I don’t anymore. (laughs) I don’t practice anymore. Those days are over. It is what it is at this point. (laughs)
Any plans for another solo album?
Yeah, it’s an instrumental record. I don’t expect it to go huge because they typically don’t sell anything. It’s hard to get a record deal with an instrumental record. Even instrumental labels don’t want them to be instrumental anymore. I’ve had this forever and have been saying I’m going to release it forever. I’ve got to get it out this year. It’s done and ready to go. I’m doing the artwork now. I think it’s going to be called A View Of The Storm. It’s cool. It’s kinda like Jeff Beck-y but more rock. It’s not your typical solo record with a customary funk track or whatever. It sounds like a keyboard player playing a Fender Rhodes with a guitar player, drummer and a wicked bass player. It’s real live sounding. Remember earlier I said “That’s because I wrote it” because it was basic? That’s what it is. Basic, straight-ahead rock. A little fusion-y here and there. I don’t write stuff that’s “out there.” I don’t like anything that disturbs me in any way. I don’t want any diminished chords. At all. (laughs)
Reb, I appreciate your time. Anything you’d like to say to wrap up?
Just be sure to check out Black Swan and watch for my solo album, probably coming out this fall. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone out on the road!
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