OTHER TECH

Yeah!, Baby

Speaking of Yeah!, I have to say thanks for putting together a pretty cool covers compilation. Yeah, it is pretty cool, isn't it? We're very happy with the way it turned out.

I'm glad to see you avoided the "easy" calls you could have made in your sleep and instead went for some more obscure choices. Well, specifically in America, they're much more obscure than they are in Great Britain. What we did do was avoid all things cliché: Zeppelin, the Beatles, and the Stones. There didn't seem to be much point in doing bands like those that we admire hugely, because they weren't massive direct influences on what we do. We've never really overtly done a song like the Beatles or the Stones, although we do take their senses of melody and their muscle into consideration of any songs that we write, as we would with any artist.

But the songs on Yeah! specifically were on the radio when we were 12 and 14 years old. And radio in England was in such a sorry state - as opposed to now, with satellite radio and a thousand other choices. Back then, there were two outlets for music that were of any use to people our age. One was Radio 1 on the BBC, which was only a Top 40 station. So, for every Sweet song that we got to hear, we had to sit through Donnie Osmond, Perry Como, or whatever. And the other station was Radio Luxembourg, the pirate radio station that had a slightly more adventurous playlist. That's where we got to hear things like ELO's "10538 Overture." I mean, it got played on the BBC, but it got played four times as much on Radio Luxembourg. When you hear a riff like that when you're 12 years old, it comes under the banner of rock, even if it was on 7-inch vinyl and was the most commercial, lead-off track on the record.

That's why we always had leanings toward pop music. We've stood and waved our arms in desperation at the media, saying, "Look, we're not a f---ing heavy metal band; why don't you get it?" We tried talking to people about it, but figured they might get it if we sang it and played it instead.

People do like to label things. It's interesting that you mentioned the state of radio and satellite radio. How do you get your music on the radio these days? If I knew anything about that, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing for a living! I'd be a radio guy! [both laugh]

It's a lot more difficult for a rock band to get on the radio now than in the '80s. I think the '80s were easier than the '70s, but the '70s were probably better than they are now. It's easy for a Christian act and people like that because they make music that's designed to get on the radio. Rock bands, by the nature of what they are, are much more maverick and independent than the commercial bands like Bon Jovi or whomever you care to mention. When we make records, we don't really take all the people's opinions into consideration. We make records as a statement. If we decided to make a recording that sounded like, I don't know, Judas Priest, or make a song that sounded like Robbie Williams, that's our choice. We will do it if we feel like it. We've always tried to be varied. You know, we do album tracks that are much more adventurous than the 3-minute pop song. But we like both, so for forever we will do both, because it satisfies our kind of hunger for a bit of variety.