Robin Taylor Zander Interview

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Is Rex. Hey, this isRobin. Hey Robin. What's going on?
Man? How's it going? Yeah, it's great. I just finished
doing today's show and I was readingthrough the pages that are sent to me
of all the information on you,so I can study you before before we
talk and truth be told, Iwatched the videos that were sent to me.

(00:24):
Man, there's that song that's stuckin my head, High and Low.
I think that's the one that's justlike, oh man, that's really
cool. And people don't know I'mtalking to Robin Taylor Xander, who's Robin
Zander from Cheap Trick's Son. AndI'll tell you this is not, you
know, a pre set up oranything. Everybody, every single one of

(00:46):
my listeners. For thirty three years, I've been doing the morning show over
at one on one, and everyonewho listens to me knows what a huge
Cheap Trick fan that I am.I've interviewed everybody the band. I've got
like, you know, photo albumswith just like tons of photos of me
and the guys hanging out, andthey're always just the nicest people. Is

(01:08):
your is your dad really that nice? Or is that just is that just
crowd stuff? Oh no, he'spretty much the same guy you met backstage
whenever that might have been. Isthe same guy who who lives at home.
You know. Um, he's prettymuch what you see is what you
get. You know, He's alwaysbeen that way. Everyone in the band
is pretty much you know, accessible, they're not jaded rock stars, you

(01:32):
know, they're they're working musicians andhappen in the same band since nineteen seventy
four and it's still three of thefour original members in the band. So
yeah, you know, something mustbe going right, you know, is
it tough for you to walk outof I don't want to see the shadow
of you know, their achievements andwhatnot. Because I listened to your music

(01:53):
and it sounds like Robin Taylor Zanderand not so much to me, like
you know, cheap trick songs.Do you hear? You know, differing
opinions on that, because your vocalmelodies and the way that you switch gears
in your music is like Robin Zanderin some ways. But then you have

(02:16):
your own your own pick, yourown key, your own your own thing.
What are people saying about the musicto you? Well, for me
personally, it's you know, mymusic is going to sound like me.
But to others, you know,they're going to compare it because of my
father and naturally, so you know, Um, to me, it doesn't

(02:37):
sound too much like cheap Trick.It sounds more like um contemporary, like
it's like newer Beatles or like newernewer pop rock music. Um, if
I were to classify it as anything, but I really am interested in in
the British invasion stuff from the sixtiesbecause that's what I grew up on.
Yeah, I grew up on mydad's record collections, so, um know,

(03:00):
the Beatles, the Who, theKinks, the Stones, those type
of bands, as well as someof the new wave of stuff from the
you know, stuff like the Jam. Um. I listened to a lot
of British music grown up, soto me, that's what it sounds like,
the melodies and the core progressions.But you know, to someone on
the outside, you know they're goingto compare it to cheat Trick. But

(03:22):
cheet Trick has some of that kindof Beatles quality too, so there's there's
some cross over there. Now whenI'm reading the you know how your music's
describe the distance as a sonic immersioninto rich pop melodies, awash and smoothly
textured instrumental and soaring layered vocal harmonies. I could have never written that,

(03:43):
But when it comes to the soaringvocal harmonies, you've got that. It's
wild hearing your range. When Iwatched the videos and listen to the music,
it's it's very impressive. Is thissomething that was always going to happen
for you? That you would eventuallyhave an album out? Did you always
know this from you know, fromthe very start? Yeah, I've I

(04:06):
was as a kid always taken bylive performance because I would go, you
know, as a little baby,go see my dad perform. And ever
since then, I've always want tobe a musician of some kind. But
the whole songwriting thing took a littlebit to you know, develop you don't
really write songs at a young age, or if you do, they're not

(04:28):
really worth much. But you know, when once I got to be in
high school, I started to reallytake music more seriously and as a more
of a career choice than just ahobby. And I started to try to
write and I work on my craftand this is kind of like, you
know, these songs on this recordare born from you know, the age

(04:50):
of eighteen till about twenty eight,you know, so about ten years of
writing is basically what this covers.And there's a lot of songs that didn't
make it, and a lot ofsongs that will be on the next record
and the record after that. Butthis is the best collection I had at
the time. And we did aco production on it, me and this

(05:12):
guy, Kenny Siegel up in upstateNew York. So you know, we
kind of just me and him workedon twelve tracks that we thought were really
strong, and we're really happy withhow it came out. That's amazing.
And going in and actually recording thesethings and seeing them come to life because
you play all of the instruments exceptfor the brass from what I'm reading over

(05:33):
here, which is you know,crazy impressive. When when you actually hear
it and it comes to life foryou and you get to do like the
final mix, that's just got tobe such an amazing sense of accomplishment for
you to go, Wow, thisis my own music. These are the
stories that I've put together over thepast ten or so years. For sure,

(05:55):
I've you know, I've really amhappy with how it sounds, and
partly because of the reason that isis because it's mixed by Jack Douglas.
And you know, for people whodon't know Jack Douglas as he you know,
worked on Double Fantasy with John Lennon, He worked on the first four
Aerosmith records. He did the firstCheap Trick record, he mixed live at

(06:16):
Boudhakan. So this guy, youknow, he's worked with Patti Smith,
I mean, you name it,everyone and one of my favorites, the
New York Dolls. I'm reading hereall the York Dolls exactly. Yeah,
he's worked he's worked with so manypeople. So when he heard this,
he heard he's friends with my dadobviously in Cheap Trick. So when he
heard these songs, he just starteda record label last year and he wanted

(06:39):
to sign me, you know,so he not only got to mix the
record, but he signed me tohis label and that we're putting it out
under Confidential Records in New York City, which is his record label. And
so really because of a few peoplethat I met along the way, it
kind of became what it is now. And I'm really excited for people to
hear it. And they can hearit, they can get it. Actually

(07:00):
at Amazon dot com, or youcan grab it on iTunes or stream it
on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon. We'll have physicals later the summer,
so Vinyl, we'll have CDs andall that. Will be selling that on
my website, Robin Taylors Andrew dotcom. I was going to say,
where have you been? Because youknow, honestly, I hadn't even really
heard of your existence until you know, most recently, but you've you've been

(07:26):
doing this forever. It must bebecause of the release that now there's more
and more press and more and morepeople talking about you, and plus you're
actually are you part of like thetouring band Cheap Trick Now? Yes,
yeah, I've been well so sincetwenty seventeen, I've been a touring member
will So. Yeah. When Iwas twenty four, about to turn twenty

(07:47):
five, I started playing with them, doing rhythm guitar and background vocals,
and so I've been doing that forabout six years with them. And other
than that, you know, Ijust I went to school, I went
to college before then, and Imoved to Nashville when I was twenty three
and kind of just started writing music, you know, all all day,
every day and just to get betterat it, and that's where all that

(08:11):
started. So it's been a slow, kind of late blooming process for me.
You know, I've a lot ofpeople try to get music out right
when they're in you know, they'reearly twenties, mid twenties, and try
to keep a momentum going. ButI've been slowly building up and now that
I have an avenue to release musicthrough Confidential, I do have this kind

(08:31):
of feeling that, you know,it's the best way to go about doing
things. You know, I'm notin any rush, and a lot of
people are taking well to the singlesso far from the from the release,
so I'm really excited. Are youplanning on doing like a solo tour thing,
because I know you're out on theroad with with Cheap Trick, but
are you Are you planning on doingyour own deal? And when the first

(08:54):
time that you walked out with CheapTrick, what was that like? Well,
yeah, the second question first,Yeah, it was insane um to
go out there the first time.I did partly because I was actually filling
in for the drummer um Dax,who was having a baby with his wife
at the time, their first child, and so I filled in for two
weeks while he was at home ondrums, and that was insane because I'm

(09:20):
I played drums in the studio,but you know, playing drums live for
a rock band and a completely differentanimal, and so that was a that
was just a fun kind of learningcurve. But other than that, you
know, I I feel like,you know, the touring aspect of things
has really made me a better musicianin general. I think that working with

(09:41):
what Sheet Trick, they've been doingit since nineteen seventy four and so they're
fifty years next year, and soyou learn a lot from that. What
was the first question before that wasa two parter. I was asking about
you going on a solo tour doingthis. Yeah. Yeah, So I
do have a band based out ofNew York. They do their own music

(10:05):
and put out their own songs andthey're called Boys Go to Jupiter and you
can find them on Instagram and Facebookand all that. But they're going to
be my backing band for these nextshows that we're going to be putting up
soon on my website. And sothroughout the summer we have Cheap Trick gigs
and then I have time off andin that time off, I'll be playing
with this new band. We'll justcall it Robin Taylor Xander and won't have

(10:30):
an actual band name, just bemy name. And we've already done actually
a handful of gigs to promote therelease of the record in April May,
and we're gonna announce a few morethat are happening in June and July and
August in the next week or so, so you can find all that info
on my website. You know,a lot of a lot of bands out

(10:50):
there. They can't do it live. They they don't sound the same at
all. And I've seen Cheap Trickmany times, even before I got into
radio, and they always sound likecheap Trick. Is that a when you've
gone around and and tried yourself,you know, tried your stuff live,
did it sound right to you?Was it like, oh, this is
perfect because it sounds just like werecorded it. I know it's got to

(11:13):
be very difficult, but you knowwhat a huge challenge to to uh emulate
or duplicate what people are going tohear when they actually have that CD or
that MP three. Well, it'syeah, it's hard to duplicate what you
hear on a record. And Iyou know, especially when you have so
many overdubs like on this, Ihave a lot of layered of backing vocals

(11:35):
and strings and horns and keyboards andyou know, you name it. So
only I only have a five pieceband. So a five piece band is
going to cover only so much ground, you know. But um so what
we do is we take what wehear on the record and we do our
own little version of it. Andso far it's worked out great. Um
we have everyone in the band sings, you know, which is helpful.

(11:56):
Um. So we have the backingvocals covered, and you know, when
it comes to all the overdubs likethe horns and stuff, you know,
we have a really good keywordist andhe's able to cover some of those samples
on keyboards. So it's great.We you know, we're able to get
around it and do our own kindof thing. But I think in general,
live performance is meant to be differentthan the record, you know,

(12:18):
And like you said, cheap trickis they're more known for being a live
band because of the energy, andif you listen to some of their records,
some of that energy isn't you know, it's different, you know,
it's not like you when you seehim live, So in my opinion,
the live performance is always going tobe different. You know. That's very
cool. In stores now, thealbum's called The Distance. You can grab

(12:39):
it on Amazon or iTunes or streamit pretty much everywhere. We're going to
play high and Low coming up righthere on One on One man. It's
been great to talk to you,Robin Taylor Zander, best of luck to
you, and I'll post all aboutit and we'll we'll get you, we'll
get you deeply recognized with the We'reon One audience. Well, I appreciate

(13:01):
it, man, Thanks for havingme on anytime. Hey, fantastic talking
to you. Have a great dayand we'll talk soon. Thanks,