Tommy Solo classics with Frank Soda part two

This is part two of my 2020 conversation with seminal singer/guitarist/songwriter Frank Soda.
In this part of our chat Frank talks about how he survived the music business by widening his horizons & not being afraid to diversify his act.
As this episode was originally recorded during the big Covid lockdown, he also reflected on expanding his musical horizons further & his plans to return to Ontario with his classic rock show.
Frank is still going strong over three years after we recorded this, & this interview was pivotal for me as a podcaster.

If you enjoy my show & would like to help us to keep it going, why not go to my "buy me a coffee" link & toss a few bucks into the kitty? https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tsolobandq

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Episode Transcript

(00:22):
Welcome to Tommy Solo's Famous Friends.This is part two of my twenty twenty
interview with Frank Soda. Where weleft off in part one, the band
had just signed to Quality Records andtheir manager convinced Frank to replace the rhythm
section for the Saturday Night Getaway album. Now we continue the story from there.

(00:44):
You can't not have a road managerbecause you know, you guys still
want to go up and not tooin your drums or move your gear and
all that. You know what Imean, right, So it was one
of those things that happened with mein and so he ended up like just
hiring those two and later on,like I said, he still remained friends
and stuff, you know, right. Well, you mentioned Lee Aaron.

(01:04):
I'll tell you that the probably theonly reason that I heard of her to
begin with was because there were peoplelike yourself and I think Rick Santer's and
maybe Moxie Singer Buys Sherman. Ohyeah that's right. Yeah, yeah.
So I mean she had an allstar lineup on her first record, and
like I say, if it hadn'tbeen for your name and Rick Sanders,

(01:27):
et cetera, I might not haveever heard that first album, that's right.
Yeah, but it was also RickEmmon at Client on that too,
right yeah, and Bus Sherman andMoxie. Yeah. Well what happened was
my make the manager bau Kong atthe time, he had a musical background.
He had a band called StarCraft.I can't remember his band, so

(01:48):
he was very experienced. He puttogether stuff like that. He was the
guy that saw Karen you know,Lee Aaron playing and then he said that
here's what we're gonna do. We'regonna launch this and he got me to
write a song on grec Ammet Santorsand then the Bus Sherman and stuff and
then which also later led to thatlive Simal cast that we ended up doing
too, you know. Cool.Cool. So then after you played on

(02:13):
her debut album and contributed as asongwriter, you ended up doing a five
song EP, The Adventures of SodaMan. That was something that was a
little bit ahead of its time aswell. Yeah, well that's it,
you see, that's once again that'sBob Conne the manager. He says,
well, Frank, you're not reallydoing much right now. Why don't we
just do something like like an EPthing? Because he had connections to get

(02:37):
stuff pressed and stuff, and hesaid, we'll just do it in the
basement. He says, we'll justdo that and then we'll present it as
a gift, you know, torecord executives to radio people and blah blah
blah that type of idea. Itwas a promotional tool, really is what
it was. And from there,yeah, so that's what he thought.
He said, well, why don'twe just do something we'll call the Adventures
of Soda Man and then can puttogether a little video on it. And

(02:59):
that's what ended up happening was heended up getting me to sort of write
songs and an idea about this guycoming from another planet. You know,
that's some idea to save the earth. But he said, forget it,
let's just party type of idea.And then he said, just put any
kind of songs like that together andthen we'll put video and an IP and
then use it as promo. Sothat's how that happened, you know.

(03:21):
Yeah, well a picture desk,I mean that was that was certainly ahead
of its time. Yeah, butthe music wasn't like I said, I
didn't, you know, because itwas done kind of in the basement.
We used lin drums at the time, you know that we didn't really spend
as much time musically on that.But that's my only regret there. You
know, once again, it's gettingto be all the flash and the glitter
in the show as opposed to sittingthere doing the music. I was going

(03:45):
to do like basement stuff as ademo and then maybe like sort of start
working more on the songs. Butthat's what happened. So we just sort
of said, we haven't got enoughof a budget. Now this is presented
like this, and then we'll gofrom there. So that's what ended up
happening. So I thought the musicdidn't live up to expectations about what I
wanted it to be anyway, youknow, right, sometimes the machine just

(04:06):
rolls on. So then how didyou end up in a duo with x
Max Webster keyboardist Terry Watkinson? Okay, so at the time, like because
we had a fallowing you know,like Frank Gold in the Inn had a
following with the show, we couldalways keep playing and doing. So what
happened was, at the time ofthe Stimulcast, I was playing with Brian

(04:30):
Ganjon and Glen Graddo. Now BrianDanjon he was always trying to talk me
into We toured back and forth acrossCanada and near the eighties that time period.
I can't remember the exact year,but something like that, just after
they release A Saturday to Getaway anyway, and Brian was always trying to talk
me into doing what I'm talking about. He said, hey, you should
get into the studio and do moreof this. So he ended up leaving

(04:51):
the band after a couple of toursand saying, you know, I'd better
spend more time in the studio.But at the time Terry Watkinson was let
go from Max Webster and he endedup saying, well, you know,
took a sis or fink, youknow, I want of Jesus, grab
Cherry there and do that, likeadd him to your band, which we
did. But the problem was atthe time he had just a child that

(05:14):
was born in his daughter and thenmy son was born at that time because
we had both had just started family, well he had a family from the
four because this was a new additionto his family, right, and then
he said, well, Jesus,why don't we just do a dual thing,
you know, take the band offthe road because he didn't want to
travel him through as much and hedidn't want that kind of a headache.
So that became a duo and hewas ahead of his time because he secrets

(05:36):
all the drums. He did allthat played left handed bass, and we
did that for quite a while.Nice see. I ended up for a
while in a band with a keyboardistthat played left hand bass, and at
the time that was one of thecraziest things I'd ever seen. I thought
it was going to really suck.But for some reason in the eighties they
had keyboards that you could play lefthand bass and it sounded okay. Oh

(05:58):
I know, no kidding all tothis day they can sound awesome. Yeah,
that's crazy. So then you dothat and then nineteen eighty eight finds
you behind a girl group called thepop Tarts. How did that happen?
Oh yeah, well the pop doesWell. What happened was it was a
decision I had to make. Basically, I was happy in torontod and they
don't get me wrong, and I'dmade a lot of connections, a lot

(06:19):
of friends and everything else. Well, my dad got bill in Vancouver.
He got very sick. So SamFeldman, the agency that was booking bands
and stuff like that, I saidwell, listen, I'm going to go
see what's happening with my dad,and I'd like to book a tour across
Canada and then maybe stay in Vancouverfor a while to see how, you
know, hopefully things go well withmy dad. So I'd like to book

(06:42):
a tour. But at the timeI didn't really have a band because I
had kind of taken the van offthe road and I had done the duel
with Terry, and of course Terry'snot going to come out with me and
move to Vancouver or do whatever,you know. I mean, it's one
of those things. I can't justsay, hey, Terry, you know,
can you do this with me?You know? So I says,
let's just put together a little project. And I've known Tessa Kimmel. She
had an all girl band, andso my manager, I think Bob Conny,

(07:06):
was telling me about them as well. He says, why don't you
just put this together as a littleproject, all cross Canada on tour and
see how your dad's doing. Thattype of idea, you know, stay
there for a while maybe. Oh. So it became one of those it
was just like a little project.One the girls were actually good and you
know, it was something interesting todo, but it never really got anywhere

(07:28):
because when I came to Vancouver,course, my dad was pretty ill,
and I had to make a decision, you know, do I stay that
of idea and I ended up stayingright. Well, family comes first,
and you know, yeah, sometimesit takes us a while to realize that.
You know, you've got to getout there on the road and show
your wild oats and so on,and all of a sudden you realize what's
really important. So yeah, speakingof family, I know that you also

(07:53):
are in a duo with your wifecalled Classic Soda, And I can tell
you that one of the best thingsthat ever happened to me was meeting my
wife, who is very much behindthe music and is my muse. So
that's a lucky thing when you've gotsomebody with you who's that supportive. But

(08:13):
I mean, to go on theroad with your wife, that's pretty awesome.
That is well, whatever I waswhen I met Joyce. I remember
my wife, she had actually beenin a music business herself, but at
the time, you know, weweren't together at all. She had been
dating someone else, and she waswith someone else. That's about it here.
So I knew she was musical,and you know, she was a

(08:33):
model sized. She she had knownabout the business. She had known that,
you know, and I know aftera couple of years back and forth,
Sua, she ended up breaking upwith the poor friend at the time,
you know, and that's when wesort of connected, and so I
knew that she was into music andeverything else. But once we started a
family and then we came out hereto Vancouver. Vancouver is one of those

(08:54):
scenes where there's a lot of coverstuff. So that's what we ended up
doing. We ended up just puttingthat as a project, you know,
just to keep us. You makea little extra money, keep your fingers
moving, you know what I mean, and you have fun just doing stuff
like that. That's how that started. Nice. So then nineteen ninety eight
you signed with Pacemaker Records and putout the Greatest Hits on CD. Oh

(09:16):
yeah, that came to bit bitof a court case almost, And we'll
be right back after this. Whathappened was yet Pacemaker heads phoned me and

(09:41):
said, heiny, Frank, wewant to just release some of your whole
stuff from the records onto a CD. Blah blah blah. It was in
the nineties late nineties or whatever,and I said, well, I'm sure
that you can. Let me formmy manager. I phoned my manager,
I phoned the lawyer that has doneall that, and basically they said that,
oh yeah, I all the rightsrevert to you after ten years.

(10:01):
So I ended up saying yes,yeah, go ahead, just release it.
So they took some songs from thealbum, you know, they just
sort of mastered them again and theyre released it and that was fine.
Ended up going to Toronto to doa couple of shows there, and then
they put a season desist order onthat. Because the record company all of

(10:22):
the records they go on bankrupt andthey sold to a label from Montreal.
They found out about it, andso they sued Taste Made of Records.
Now, I think it's all beenworked out that at that time I couldn't
even go out and do the showsthere because of that. They put a
season desist on that. Wow.Yeah, just crazy because I didn't know

(10:43):
what I was doing at the time. When I signed UFF back then,
God, I was only in earlytwenties. Whatever is when you're signing,
you're going, well, yeah,let's just get this going. You know,
you don't know what you're signing.Meanwhile, they have the rights to
it, and even when they wentbankrupt, they still have the rights to
it. You know. Yeah,it's funny. I was offered a record
deal when I was in my earlytwenties, and I had an uncle who

(11:05):
was an entertainment lawyer and advised meagainst it basically because well, you know,
they give you an advance, YadAYadA, and he just said it
wasn't a good deal. But thenyears and years later, I signed a
distribution deal for one song off afairly recent album. I read the contract
and I laughed the whole time.I thought, this is half of nothing

(11:26):
and half of that, half ofnothing and whatever, and I just thought,
well, I know what's going on, so whatever. You know,
it's not the end of the world. Nobody's making money in this business anymore
anyway, you know. Oh,I know, no kidding, no at
all, But hindsight being twenty twenty, man, yeah, there's some pretty
scary stories out there about people thatwere on top of the world and are

(11:48):
homeless today, et cetera. Sokudos for being a survivor. Well,
you know what, like I saidwith me, I ended up coming to
Vancouver and I did like music,and I also did part jobs and I
did different things, you know,because I didn't want to travel. So
I ended up right now that Ican live off some of that, you
know what I mean, I canlive off some of the money that I

(12:09):
made with that. Some musicians theydon't have that at all. They kept
just doing just music, and Ifeel bad for them absolutely. Now are
you still the vice president of thePacific Songwriters Association? No, No,
I prob would ended up happening withthat. When I first moved out here,
the fellow that was doing it askedme to do him a favor.

(12:30):
It says, Frank, can youcome here. I got this organization and
this and that, and he neededme to do it. So I would
do a little sort of where peoplebring songs in, then you analyze them
and you do that, you know. So I was there doing a bit
of that. Then he asked meif I could think over the duties of
whatever is as the president, Andat that time I had just moved here,

(12:50):
and I said, you know what, I'll help out. But ended
up that that specific songwright Association,it basically sort of got together with a
songwriters association to be here or whatever, you know what I mean. So
that title was kind of taken away. It was like a different kind of
songwriters association kind of tick over.It wasn't just a specific it was the

(13:11):
whole I think Canada thing, youknow, right, It one brings us
all, you know, but Istill kind of keep keep my fingers in
it. If someone sends songs inor he's still you know, he'll phone
me up and say there's a clinicthere, you know, and I also
check it out see if I canhave my two bids. Right, So
you went from being an influencer toa mentor yeah, exactly. You know.

(13:33):
Like the songwriting, it's very It'sone of those things where you know,
can be very individual. What youmay think is a great song,
someone else they may not think it'sa great song at all. So if
someone brings the song in and itwas a real progressively type of song,
I'll say, well, if you'regoing into that market, you've got to
decide or you're going to go intothat market to be a progressive site,

(13:56):
you know, because if you're doingthat, you're doing the right thing.
That's good because you're going to becommercial, you know what I mean.
That sort of thing will then maybethat's the wrong thing. So that's kind
of what advice I would get,you know, in the direction that they
were going right. Well, you'vehad a long and illustrious career, and
it's kind of cool to know thatonce the world turns back on you are

(14:16):
still actively involved in playing editors.Note we recorded this interview originally during the
big COVID lockdown. Now back tothe show. I don't know that I
have any more questions for you,Frank, but having said that, I
like to let my guests have thelast word on the show, so I'll
let you say whatever you like tothe people at this point. Well,

(14:37):
basically, you know, during thisCOVID nineteen thing, I've been doing a
lot of reflecting on everything, becauseit's so funny that you even mentioned doing
an interview with me and everything else. Yeah, I just ran reflecting on
how I go into my studio andI go, gee, all these songs
that something came up and I didn'tend up finishing them, or these guitar

(15:00):
parts that I used to practice allthe time that then when I used to
you know, met you in thunderBay, I would always be practicing and
doing and then I kind of letthat slide. I didn't practice as much,
you know what I mean. It'sbeen a very reflective time for me.
So what you gotta do is istake whatever you got now and just
brush off on what you want todo. And so that's what I'm doing.

(15:20):
I'm basically just trying to see whatsongs I want to finish. I'm
collaborating with like Mike Tilga, TerryWatkinson still, you know, from Toronto.
They're sending tracks out. I'm collaboratingwith all my friends and stuff out
here. So it's a good timeto just sit and say, what do
I really want to do. Imean, back in the day when I
first met you, you had yearsand years ahead, a year you saying,

(15:41):
Wow, I can do whatever Iwant, the big, open,
wide open road, you know.But now as you get older, you
got to sort of click and too. You're not going to be Steve Y
or you're not going to be soand so. But here's what I want
to do with these songs. Soyou know, you just got to know
where you are at this time ofyour life and just sort of focus on

(16:03):
that. So that's kind of whatI'm trying to do. Rush up on
songs on guitars that I want tofinish and collaborate with friends and people that
met and stuff through the years.Well, it sounds to me like you're
doing what I've chosen to do,and that's to live love and live life
for the love of life exactly.Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do.
Yeah, awesome. Well, youknow, Frank, I started to

(16:25):
do this podcast for fun and thanksto you, this has been another fun
one. So I thank you verymuch for taking the time out of your
day to share your stories with me. And until next time, cheers.
Well it's your next ment to share. And when I'm back on Ontario though,
like I say, when this thingsort of subsides, I got lots
of people to visit and stuff inOntario, I'll definitely give you a shelder

(16:47):
something. I'll let you know I'mhiding that way. That sounds like a
plan. Well, now that wasa lot of fun. Frank Soda has
often been described as a seminole Canadianrocker, which means, for those who
may not be aware, someone who'sinfluenced others greatly. And I have to
tell you that Frank Soda was anearly influence on me as a guitar player
way back when he talked to meabout things like string gauges and guitar tone

(17:11):
tuning, etc. So I reallydo hope that Frank does make his way
here to Ontario and we can havea visit before too long. Now,
without further ado, here is asong that Frank is widely known for in
his live shows. Exploding a TVon his head. This is called TV
people enjoy. This is called TVpeople Man. It needs your bad to

(18:03):
see, consumes your time in mind. I say it swells in your right
trying to see your name, yoursense of paying the matter to these people,

(18:25):
show full to mama, jeez youJesus people rail in your mind a
deal business prevented in the time andTV channels. You can get out your

(18:45):
first space shops. But I'm gettinga picture of your imagine name. He
shah, that's your name. Andwhen that's around your own with how power,
I will just brow shot swells inyour way trying to see your sense

(19:07):
of name, battle tease people,shoe through moll to mama. Jeers here,
Jesus, people, lay in yourmind. I'll see your wishess from

(19:29):
man to fanci Tommy Solo's Famous Friendsis a one man production, meaning that

(20:26):
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The theme song for Tommy Solo's FamousFriends is a clip from my original
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(20:49):
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