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SHY
is one of the best AOR bands ever to come out of the UK, and they are about to
make their fantastic comeback in the shape of the wonderful new CD 'Sunset and
vine'. This album is a must-have for any AOR fan, and is as good as JOURNEY in
their heydays. I had an interview with the mighty SHY lead singer TONY MILLS to
talk about this and that...
OK guys, congratulations for releasing
an amazing album, for me the best AOR album so far of 2005 and also the
best SHY album since 'Excess all areas', how did it all work out in making
this new album such a killer record?
HEY ! 2005 HAS ONLY JUST STARTED ! DO YOU KNOW, AT THE END OF THE DAY, IT ALL
WORKS OUT AS JUST A MATTER OF TASTE. YOU EITHER LOVE US, OR WELL, MMMMMM....WELL,
I'LL LEAVE THAT TO YA !! THERE WERE TIMES, AND I'M SURE SEBASTIAN WILL TELL YA,
WHEN WE WONDERED WHETHER WE'D EVER FINISH THE ALBUM AT ALL. AS USUAL, THE
USUAL TECHNICAL HOLDUPS AND ENGINEERS BEING UNCONSCIOUS (GOD, THE BUSINESS
NEVER CHANGES , DOES IT ?)BUT IN THE END, WHEN WE RETREATED BACK TO ANDY
FAULKNER'S STUDIO, 'SABLE ROSE' IN COVENTRY, IT ALL WENT RIGHT IN THE END. IT
WAS A HARD SLOG,
THOUGH. NOT QUITE AS BAD AS 'UNFINISHED BUSINESS', BUT IT HAD IT'S MOMENTS.
The JOURNEY influences are very
prominent, what other influences made this album sound like the pure AOR record
as it is?
I CANT REALLY SAY !? STEVE WRITES THE MUSIC, AND I WRITE WORDS TO MUSIC, ITS THE
ONLY WAY IT WORKS FOR US. SO IF THERE ARE JOURNEY INFLUENCES IN THERE, THEN
FINE, AT THE END OF THE DAY I'M NOT SURPRISED, WE'VE BEEN LISTENING TO THEIR
WORK FOR 20 YEARS !
BUT WRITING FOR SHY, I WRITE SONG IDEAS MAINLY AROUND TITLE IDEAS, AND WHAT
COMES OUT, IS WHAT COMES OUT. AS REGARDS INFLUENCES, UNLESS A WRITER BLATANTLY
PLAGUERISES ANOTHER WRITER, AND I HAVEN'T, THEN THE SIMILARITIES ARE NATURAL
RESPONSES TO THE MELODIES OF THE MUSIC THAT STEVE HAS WRITTEN.
Looking
back to the beginning, can you tell me how it all started in the early 80s?
SHEER LUCK FOR ME, PERSONALLY, IN THE FACT THAT I LEFT ONE BAND ONLY TO FIND OUT
THAT SHY HAD BEEN OFFERED A DEAL ON THE STRENGTH OF DEMOS THAT THEY'D RECORDED
IN WHICH I WAS A SESSION VOCALIST. SHY HAD BEEN BUILDING A LOCAL FOLLOWING IN
BIRMINGHAM WITH GROWING MANAGEMENT INTEREST ETC., AND IT SNOWBALLED REAL QUICK
WITH A FEW LIVESHOWS AROUND THE UK. THE LONDON SHOWS MADE A REAL DIFFERENCE TO
THE REPUTATION GROWING QUICKLY. AN ALBUM (WHICH COST THE BAND 2.5K TO RECORD) AT
EBONY RECORDS GATHERED MOMENTUM AS THE PIONEER OF 'THE NEW WAVE OF BRITISH HEAVY
METAL' LITERALLY WALKED US THROUGH THE DOORS OF RCA RECORDS IN LONDON TO A MAJOR
DEAL IN '84 AND SO IT PROGRESSED....
The first 3
albums of SHY were moving from melodic hardrock to melodic rock to aor on the
classic 'Excess all areas', why didn't this record take off in the USA,
because the music was basically perfect, with even MICHAEL BOLTON writing a
tune?
THERE'S PROBABLY A SIMPLE ANSWER TO THAT ONE REALLY, AND THAT IS, RCA NEVER
ORGANISED ANY TOURING OF 'EXCESS ALL AREAS'' IN THE USA. THEY FOCUSED MAINLY ON
THE UK AND EUROPE AND DIDN'T INTEND TO COMMIT TO US TOURING UNTIL THEY HAD
ACHIEVED THEIR DESIRED SALES IN THE EUROPEAN MARKET. THEY NEEDED TO SPECULATE TO
ACCUMULATE FURTHER ON THEIR BUSINESS INTEREST BY TOURING THE US, BUT BASICALLY,
THEY WOULDN'T STICK THEIR NECK OUT FAR ENOUGH. ALONG WITH MANY OTHER ACTS ON RCA
IN THE MID '80'S, WE WERE EITHER CONSIDERED AN ASSET ON A CREDIT OR DEBIT SHEET
FROM THEIR ACCOUNTANTS POINT OF VIEW. IT'S VERY SAD REALLY, BUT LIKE MANY MUSIC
LAWYERS HAVE TOLD ME OVER THE YEARS, THE MUSIC BUSINESS HAS VERY LITTLE TO DO
WITH MUSIC AT THE END OF THE DAY, BUT EVERYTHING TO DO WITH MONEY.
What happened after 'excess', because
the following album was more a LA Party Hardrockalbum and had nothing to do
with the classic AOR SHY brought us before, why did you change the style back
then?
I KNOW FOR A FACT IT WASN'T A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO BE SOME SORT OF METAL BAND,
BUT WE HAD BEEN INFLUENCED GREATLY BY BANDS LIKE DOKKEN, QUEENSRYCHE, AND THE
GENRE OF BANDS THAT STILL HAD COMMERCIAL HOOKS IN THEIR CHORUS LINES EVEN THOUGH
THE GUITARIST HAD BEEN GIVEN A FREE REIGN TO DEMONSTRATE HIS CAPABILITIES
THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE SONG. THE 'RIFF' BECAME A MAJOR PART OF THE WRITING,
RATHER THAN THE MELODY OF THE SONG. ON TOP OF ALL OF THAT, THE 'TOO MUCH, TOO
YOUNG' SYNDROME BEGAN TO BURY THE BAND, AND WE BECAME VERY SELF DESTRUCTIVE AT
THAT TIME.
a very weird twist in SHY's history
came in the early 90s when you (TONY MILLS) was replaced by a different singer
and the sad thing was that you guys delivered a very weak album, was this all
due to the Grunge movement?
WHEN I LEFT IN 1990, JOHN WARD TOOK OVER THE VOCALS (NOW WITH SAXON) THIS WAS NO
GREAT SURPRISE TO ME. JOHN HAD BEEN ONE OF THE SINGERS IN SHY'S PREVIOUS LIFE AS
'TROJAN', AND THEY SOCIALISED WITH HIM IN LOS ANGELES WHEN EVER WE WERE OVER
THERE. 'SHAME' WEREN'T DOING A FAT LOT IN L.A., SO HE HAD NOTHING TO LOSE BY
COMING HOME TO THE U.K. THE SONGS WERE POOR, WHICH WAS THE REASON I LEFT THE
BAND REALLY AT THAT TIME AMONGST OTHER REASONS, SO I AM NOT SURPRISED BY
YOUR COMMENTS.
I CANNOT COMMENT ANY FURTHER REALLY, AS I WASN'T PART OF THE BAND THEN, I WAS
OFF DOING VERY DIFFERENT THINGS WITH 'THE WHO's PRODUCER ANDY MACFERSON.
Anyway,
Tony, you also did some great work with a band called SIAM, can you tell me
about that?
SIAM WERE MY PRIDE AND JOY TO A GREAT EXTENT. WITH NO INTENTION OF RELEASING ANY
MATERIAL,THE PROJECT WAS WRITTEN AND RECORDED FOR PURELY PERSONAL PLEASURE, IT
WAS UNEXPECTED TO BE HOUNDED BY NOW AND THEN RECORDS FOR ITS RELEASE. TO TOUR
THE PROJECT WAS EVEN FURTHER FROM MY MIND. AGAIN, THESE THINGS RATHER OVER TOOK
ME IN THE END,WITH EUROPEAN RELEASES AND JAPANESE RELEASES ETC, BEFORE I KNEW IT
'PRAYER' WAS UNDERWAY AND THE BAND HAD TOURED THE UK EXTENSIVELY. 'PRAYER' WAS
VERY SELF INDULGENT, AND I PUT PEN TO PAPER TO RELEASE A LOT OF PERSONAL
AGGRESSION ABOUT MY FAMILY AND FEELINGS ETC.
THE WHOLE STORY IS REALLY ON :-
WWW.TONYMILLS.NET
'THE LANGUAGEOF MENACE' WAS AN INCOMPLETE CONCEPT ALBUM, THAT WAS SPLIT UP INTO
DIFFERENT TRACKS BY THE JAPANESE. BUT 'PRAYER' WAS A FULLY COMPLETED FINE PIECE
OF WORK OF WHICH I AM STILL VERY PROUD.
Towards the
end of the 90s there were quite a lot 'new' SHY albums released, such as the
live record, the regenaration, the re-issue of your debut 'once bitten', were
you happy with this and did it gave you the power to continue SHY and record
new material in the old classic 80s SHY?
WHILST THE BAND WERE RELATIVELY INACTIVE, A LOT OF THESE ALBUMS WERE COMPILED
FROM OLD UNRELEASED MATERIAL, SOME GOOD, SOME NOT SO GOOD. I THINK IT WAS VERY
MUCH A COMMERCIAL EXERCISE RATHER THAN ANY REAL ARTISTIC STATEMENT. THE
RELATIONSHIP WITH THESE LABELS HAS SINCE BROKEN DOWN OVER MISSING ROYALTIES ETC.
The album
'Unfinished' was more or less a comeback of SHY, although you also released a
solo-record, please tell me more about these records?
WELL, THE TWO SHOULD REALLY NOT BE CONFUSED. > 'UNFINISHED BUSINESS' WHICH TOOK
TWO YEARS TO COMPLETE, WAS AN ALBUM CONTRACTED TO 'Z' RECORDS IN THE UK. THIS
WAS A MAMMOTH PROJECT TO WRITE AND RECORD AND THE DELAYS WERE ENDLESS. IN
THE MEANTIME, I HAD RECORDED A LOT OF MATERIAL FOR MCA AS A SOLO ARTIST, WHICH
HAD REMAINED FORGOTTEN ON STUDIO SHELVES ETC. IT SEEMED A SHAME FOR THIS TO BE
THE CASE, SO WE RESSURRECTED THE MATERIAL AND FORMED AN ALBUM, WHICH I ENTITLED
'CRUISER'. THIS ALBUM ENJOYED SUCCESS IN EUROPEAN ROCK CHARTS, WHICH WAS A
PLEASANT SURPRISE. IT REALLY HELD SWAY FOR THE RELEASE OF 'UNFINISHED BUSINESS'
WHICH WAS THE MAINPRIORITY OF THE DAY. WHEN 'U.B.' FINALLY LANDED IT WAS
ENGULFED IN CRITICAL ACCLAIM THE WORLD OVER, AND IN MY OPINION, IT WAS DESERVED.
Then back
to the new record, tell us more, when was it released?
'SUNSET AND VINE' IS RELEASED THROUGHOUT EUROPE ON MONDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2005.
You have
been through a lot of label changes, do you think you now finally found your
home at MTM?
I KNOW THAT MARIO AND SEBASTIAN AT MTM ARE GENUINE PEOPLE AND HAVE TREATED US
WELL. I SEE NO IMMEDIATE REASON TO WORK WITH ANYONE ELSE.
Any touring
plans? Hopefully back to Holland? When was the last time you played here?
Do you guys also play the old classic stuff like "Can't find the nights" -
which happens to be one of my all-time favourite songs!
WE ARE AWAITING BUDGETS FOR TOURING PLANS. WE HAVE BEEN ASKED TO PLAY IN VARIOUS
COUNTRIES AND ARE AWAITING FINANCIALS. HOLLAND IS A GREAT PLACE TO PLAY, BUT AS
FAR AS I KNOW IT'S BEEN OVER TEN YEARS SINCE SHY PLAYED THERE. I REMEMBER SOME
VERY STRANGE CLUBS WHERE THE GIGS STARTED AT 1PM ! IT'S DIFFICULT NOT TO INCLUDE
CLASSIC TRAX FROM 'EXCESS ALL AREAS' AS THEY ARE DEMANDED BY THE FANS !
Also will
there be official European re-releases of 'Brave the storm' and 'Excess all
areas', because they are very hard to get and would perfectly fit on the
MTM CLASSIX release schedule?
HEY, I'LL SPEAK TO SEBASTIAN ABOUT THAT ONE!!!! THEY HAVE BEEN RE-RELEASED IN
JAPAN, AND ARE AVAILABLE ON IMPORT ALREADY ON VARIOUS WEB SITES. TRY
ROCKDETECTOR.COM AND CDQUEST.
anything to
add for yourself ???
THANK YOU FOR THIS INTERVIEW, ITS GOOD TO KEEP FOLLOWERS UPDATED ON WHATS GOIN'
ON. 'HI' TO ALL NETHERLANDERS WHO ARE INTO THIS SORT OF MUSIC, KEEP YOUR EYE ON
WWW.TONYMILLS.NET
FOR FURTHER UPDATES.
All the
best and maybe we'll meet someday!