{"id":37739,"date":"2019-04-14T12:39:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T02:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=37739"},"modified":"2019-04-14T15:48:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T05:48:08","slug":"dave-bickler-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2019\/04\/dave-bickler-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Bickler"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201c\u2026because of the ridiculous visibility of my past work with Survivor and \u2018Eye of The Tiger\u2019 and all that I don\u2019t have to start from scratch. It does give me a platform to have people listen to new music and give it a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: The voice on one of the most instantly recognizable and celebrated rock anthems of all-time is back with his first-ever solo album – with the arrival of former Survivor singer Dave Bickler’s ‘Darklight.’\u00a0Starting his musical career as lead singer of the 1970s rock group Jamestown Massacre (best known for the Billboard Top 100 Song, “Summer Sun”) and doing commercial jingle work in Chicago, Dave was the lead singer of Survivor from 1978-1984 and 1993-1999, and co-lead singer 2013-2014.\u00a0And his crowning career achievement was singing on the track “Eye of the Tiger” – the theme song for the hit film ‘Rocky III,’ which topped the Billboard charts for six weeks and won a Grammy Award for ‘Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.’ From 1999-2009, Dave served as the singing voice behind the most award winning radio campaign in advertising history (‘Real Men of Genius’), for Bud Light beer.<\/p>\n

In New York, Dave Bickler gave us a call to talk about his new solo album \u2018Darklight\u2019, its creation, why it took so long, its sound, touring, and of course about THAT song that you all may know him from\u2026<\/p>\n

After so long, why was now the right time for your first solo album?<\/strong>
\nWell my answer to that question and because I\u2019ve been thinking about it a lot is because it\u2019s done *laughs* time to release! I think it\u2019s a good time to release music and a bad time, things are wide open and it is what it is and I hope it\u2019s taken for what it is on face value. I\u2019ve gotten a lot of good comments and stuff from people about it, so I\u2019m kinda optimistic about that. Anybody can release a record these days but it\u2019s getting someone to notice it that\u2019s the hard part.<\/p>\n

Were these songs you\u2019ve had for a while or were these written solely for ‘Darklight’?<\/strong>
\nBoth, some songs have been around for a while and I finally figured out how to finish them and some were brand new in the process just before we\u2019d go and do them in the studio. So all of the above.<\/p>\n

What does ‘Darklight’ represent to you?<\/strong>
\nYou know what, the initial thing about \u2018Darklight\u2019 is some of the songs are kinda dark *laughs* and some of the songs are kinda light in other words very positive and some are perhaps a little of dark subject matter so Darklight there you go.<\/p>\n

Well you do open it with a song called \u2018Hope\u2019 so that\u2019s a lot more light than dark!<\/strong>
\nYeah *laughs* well it\u2019s first dark then light but it sounds good but I am on the side of light personally. Also the duality of nature and darkness and light without one there\u2019s not the other so it\u2019s a little bit of that in my head as well.<\/p>\n

What I love is that you\u2019ve made a real classic rock \/ AOR sounding record is that what you wanted to do when you were making it?<\/strong>
\nWell it\u2019s sort of where I come from, I like songs that have melodic content, that tension and release that age old thing about music is it makes them feel something with a little tension in it and release it and it hits people on an emotional level. Songs are an interesting thing because you don\u2019t have much time to speak so it\u2019s gotta be a great economy of words and lyrics in songs, you have to have the music to support that and work together so it\u2019s just a fun thing to do to create something and then stand back and go gee I think that works *laughs* that\u2019s a really good feeling.<\/p>\n

What were you able to do as a solo artist that you felt you were never able to do as part of Survivor?<\/strong>
\nWell in Survivor there were two guys as songwriters in the band and they wrote all the songs, I mean I did write later I was back in Survivor from 1993 \u2013 1999 and I got in to write song with those guys then but it was still kind of limiting, I had stuff that I didn\u2019t think that they would want to do and they were protective of it and I just wanted to be on my own to have that freedom.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Obviously as the primary song writer for your album, how is it having a whole album of your material?<\/strong>
\nWell it\u2019s great, I want to be able to conduct myself so it\u2019s a great feeling doing that, I always wanted to make this solo record so I\u2019m glad I finally got the opportunity to do it.<\/p>\n

How does making music today differ for you the most compared to your time in Survivor?<\/strong>
\nWell for one thing being a solo artist by yourself you can do a lot to flesh out your ideas, I\u2019ve got a songwriters studio at home and got some nice analogue gear and a computer, so you can do a lot by yourself to flesh out those songs so you can get your idea across at what you\u2019re trying to get at and make sure that it doesn\u2019t get away from me when we go to record. The technology is great, technology is amazing.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been out doing some shows, can we expect to see you at out on tour in support of Darklight?<\/strong>
\nI do we\u2019re gonna build on that, I\u2019m gonna be playing some songs from Darklight on those shows, I was over in the UK and I played a couple of songs from the record over there, I played four shows and they were very well received, I was very happy. It\u2019s a hard thing to do to play new music for people that they\u2019ve never heard when they come and see you I was grateful that people liked it.<\/p>\n

Am I correct in saying that you never made it to Australia?<\/strong>
\nI have never made it down to Australia *laughs* no I have not, I have family members, but I sure would like to come! If we can get that going I can get down there, sure I would be thrilled to come down there.<\/p>\n

Even though you will always be asked about it and I apologize for doing it, I do want to ask about \u2018Eye of The Tiger\u2019 if that\u2019s ok?<\/strong>
\nOf course! *laughs*<\/p>\n

Great, now when you were recording the song did you think it would transcend time and go on to become a song that has become one of the most recognizable and most popular songs of that era?<\/strong>
\nNo *laughs* I thought it was a good record but who could\u2019ve ever imagined that it would still be a thing today, I mean that\u2019s what\u2019s really crazy and I\u2019m not sure how many years it\u2019s been now but quite a few and I still have neighbours of mine that have little kids their five year old and they tell me that \u2018Eye of The Tiger\u2019 is his favourite song *laughs* really?<\/p>\n

What is your best memory of the song?<\/strong>
\nWell you know it was amazing in the studio when we first cut it because I\u2019d never heard the song we went in to demo and was kind of in a big hurry because it was gonna be in the movie so we had to get to the studio and do the demo as quick as possible so I just learned it that day or that evening and we cut the whole track and did all the vocals in one day. Then off it went and it was accepted and off we went and then the first night we went out we went from doing small arenas to really big stadiums and stuff and going out on stage after that first gig, we were out with REO Speedwagon and there was just this amazing sea of people and were screaming at the top of their lungs so that was a pretty cool moment.<\/p>\n

I do have to say also it is one of my favourite 80\u2019s videos of all time, the beret, walking down the street\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah that\u2019s kind of amazing too it\u2019s been watched like a billion times or something. It was the lowest production video ever *laughs* MTV was new, it was a new thing so it was just like us walking down the street *laughs*<\/p>\n

Do you still have the beret?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve got one of them, I had two and one of them disintegrated. Once in a while I put it on and wear it actually. Somebody was asking me when I was over in Germany they said \u201cyou\u2019ve gotta wear the beret\u201d so I wore it that day.<\/p>\n

As a solo artist are you going to try and distance yourself from it or do you welcome it?<\/strong>
\nYou know I don\u2019t want to distance myself from the past exactly but I think \u2018Darklight\u2019 like you said it\u2019s definitely got a melodic rock feel to it. that\u2019s me, I like melodic rock and I think it\u2019s a better sounding record the production is great and with Ryan Hoyle on drums, Brad Smith from Blind Melon played bass, Steven DeAcutis helped me produce and play a whole bunch of guitars on there, he made it sound real clear and really punch which I really liked so I thought it turned out really good.<\/p>\n

It was a great line-up, I love Collective Soul and I love Blind Melon and these guys are awesome players to have on the album!<\/strong>
\nYeah I was trying to figure out how I could start off because you\u2019ve gotta have drum tracks, if you\u2019re making a rock record you\u2019ve gotta have great drums and a friend of mine Jeremy Holiday works at Sony\u00a0 and he\u2019s been a friend of mine for quite a while and said why don\u2019t you think about this guy he\u2019s got a drum studio out in California in LA, and I listened to his website and thought hell yeah I want that guy and his reputation speaks for itself and he\u2019s played on all these great records. So I went out there and worked with him and it was just fantastic he was just the perfect one for me.<\/p>\n

Over time it can be easy to say what\u2019s changed, but what would you say is the one thing that\u2019s stayed the same in your time making music?<\/strong>
\nI think a good song is a good song, man. How it\u2019s presented like I said \u2018Darklight\u2019 is a good production but a good song is a good song no matter when it was write, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s changed at all.<\/p>\n

Lastly I like to get people to look ahead to the future, so finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2019 Dave Bickler will\u2026<\/strong>
\nHave another album out.<\/p>\n

Oh are you working on one?<\/strong>
\nI am! This one won\u2019t take as long *laughs* I could tell you all about that but that\u2019s another long story, it was done in piece sand all that stuff.<\/p>\n

So this really has lit a fire under you and you\u2019re ready to keep going\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah, I really do have a fire under me, I\u2019m having a lot of fun writing songs for this next record and I sort of have my machinery in place as far as making it now, I know who to go to and can get what I need for the player sand stuff so that will all be streamlined for this one. I\u2019ve got a great team of people.<\/p>\n

Does it feel like you\u2019re having to start all over again in essence?<\/strong>
\nNot quite, not quite, again because of the ridiculous visibility of my past work with Survivor and \u2018Eye of The Tiger\u2019 and all that I don\u2019t have to start from scratch. It does give me a platform to have people listen to new music and give it a shot.<\/p>\n

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Essential Information<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> USA<\/p>\n

Album Website:<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.davebickler.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> \u2018Darklight\u2019 (Out Now \u2013 Deko Music)<\/p>\n

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