In late 2014 it was announced that there would be an album coming forth the following year from a trio of classic rock master musicians that would be collectively known as Revolution Saints. Comprising long-time Journey drummer Deen Castronovo, Jack Blades of Night Ranger and guitar wizard Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, Dio, Dead Daisies), the band’s self-titled debut album, released through Italian label Frontiers Music, was a bona-fide hit, racking up excellent sales numbers but also substantial popular and critical acclaim.
It was a surprise even to the band members just how well-received Revolution Saints was, according to Castronovo in a recent interview with Music Life Magazine. Surprised or not, the success and high regard from that project has led to a second album, Light in the Dark, which will be release through Frontiers Music on Oct. 13.
“We were all in shock, totally honestly. When I first heard the demos for the first record I remember thinking it sounded a little dated. But once [producer/songwriter] Alessandria Del Vecchio and then Doug and Jack got involved, me made it our own and it’s very cool the way people reacted,” he said.
He was even more impressed at the outset of the project as it was intended to be a showcase for Castronovo’s under-utilized vocal prowess as well as his drumming abilities. The idea was forged in the extremely fertile mind of Frontiers Music owner Serafino Perugino, who has a passion for the melodic hard rock vibe of the 1980s, but with a modern twist.
“When Serafino approached me for the first record he was like, what guys would you like to play with and he started naming names and when he said Doug I said dude, perfect. If he will do it I would love to work with him. And then when he suggested Jack, well that was a no brainer. It was perfect and really cool how it all came together,” he explained.
“And I am still a little bit in shock every day since then. Because, in my mind I am a drummer who sings pretty good. That’s the way I see myself. I am no Steve Perry. I am a drummer who can sing, not amazingly, but I can sing. When we first started talking about this project, I was on the road with Journey and he said he wanted to do a solo record with me and I kind of giggled and said, sure that would be awesome, not thinking anything more of it. Well three or four months later all of a sudden Journey’s management came to me and said Serafino wants you to do this record and was I interested?
“I said I wanted to hear the songs first. So that’s how it kind of all came about. When I first heard those songs and I thought it would be fun. And it was for no other reason than to have fun. And the way it all came together was so fast and so rushed. The only time we could do the recording for that first Revolution Saints record was when I had a break in between Journey runs. We had 10 days off before we started a run up in Canada, so that meant I had 10 days to do drums and all the vocals for that first record, so I had to be quick.”
He admitted too that he still has a hard time listening to parts of the first album because he doesn’t feel he put down the best take each time out. But when talking about it further, he realizes that much of the energy and excitable, joyous tone of the first Revolution Saints record indeed came from the pace and ‘rush’ of having to lay down his vocals and drums in such a short period of time.
“It definitely was nice to go into a studio as three guys just with the pure intention of having a blast. We weren’t taking it too seriously. We didn’t think we were going to be massively huge so we went in there pretty loose and just wanted to have fun. And I think, upon looking back at it, that you can tell from the finished product that we were having fun. And even if you look at the videos we did, we’re all goofing around through all of them.”
Castronovo gives a lot of credit to the powerfully melodic sound and tone of the band’s music to producer/songwriter Alessandro Del Vecchio, who is basically Frontiers’ in-house musical guru, collaborating with many of the acts on the label.
“It’s amazing because he is extremely gifted. When he was finished the lyrics for Light in the Dark and I was looking through them I was like, ‘man, you really caught the sentiment that I had been feeling for the last two years. You nailed it bro.’ I fixed a few lines here and there where I know I wouldn’t sing a certain thing or a line that didn’t make sense, but he did such a good job. And it took away a little of the disappointment over the fact that we didn’t have a chance to write and record the album as a band,” he said.
“It took about six months to put it all together once we were all in and the green light was given, but what we didn’t know was that Alessandro had been writing songs the whole time. So when we said yeah, let’s go do this, the songs were already written again like they were for the first Revolution Saints record. The music was done, the lyrics were pretty much done which, as I said was a little disappointing, but it worked out great. And what made it all work was Doug.
“He is really an integral part. He is Revolution Saints, to me. It’s a very guitar-driven sound, this band is all about guitar and it should be that way because he is a master. He had those demos and we listened to them and we were like, ‘okay, they’re not bad, let’s see if we can do something.’ And of course Doug just made those demos amazing. He killed it on the final product, he really put his stamp on it and for that I am grateful.”
The music of Revolution Saints, unsurprisingly, is deeply melodic, but still hard rockin’, which makes sense considering the pedigree of each member of the creative triumvirate. Blades has been on the forefront of so-called ‘arena rock’ or AOR (album oriented rock) for more than three decades as a founding member, songwriting and vocalist for Night Ranger. Aldrich has had significant tours of duty with hard rock legends Whitesnake and Dio, and is currently a member of another highly successful rock supergroup, The Dead Daisies.
Castronovo is best known for his tenure in Journey, which ran for 15 years before his addiction and legal issues lead to a parting of the ways in 2015. Prior to that, he was in the super group Bad English, which featured Journey members Jonathan Cain, Neal Schon and former Babys frontman John Waite. He has also been part of Ozzy Osbourne’s road band and worked with Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler on his solo G/Z/R project, among other musical endeavours.
“I have known Jack since I was 17, so that goes back years and years. I met Doug when I was on the road with Journey and we were touring with Whitesnake over in Europe. And I got to know Doug through a tattoo party. I was having a tattoo party up in my room in Sheffield, England and told Doug to come up and get a tat; everybody was coming to get tats. And he and I just bonded after that. We just got really close,” Castronovo said.
“And as far as our sound goes, it is melodic hard rock with an emphasis on melody and on great vocal harmonies. It’s very lush, you know. And I can’t help, after being in Journey for 17 years and playing with Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain in Bad English before that, I can’t help but have that influence. I mean, Steve Perry is still my favourite vocalist of all time and that’s from way before I was even in Journey. What it comes down to is that in Revolution Saints, we’re all good players; we all know we can play and we all have an ear for melody. But in my opinion, if a band is going to be successful, both artistically and in every other way, there’s got to be a ton of chemistry. Not just musically, but as people. And that’s the beauty of this band – there are no egos here, there’s no arrogance, no rock star crap.”
Lyrically, as has been touched upon, the songs written for Light in the Dark, including the title track and songs such as I Wouldn’t Change A Thing, The Storm Inside, Running on the Edge and Falling Apart, completely encapsulate the struggles, the reckoning and the redemption that Castronovo went through after his highly publicized arrest in July 2015, which came as a result of him hitting rock bottom due to substance abuse issues that he had been battling for years.
Castronovo said he was legitimately surprised at how well Del Vecchio had captured his own thoughts and feelings lyrically and also how the accompanying music is ultimately just as positive and seared with hopefulness as the words.
“You can’t help but write about your life. And for me, even being able to embellish on the lyrics was a very healing thing for me. It was therapeutic. And it’s hard for us not to have music that is ultimately very positive with just the chemistry we have – we’re all very upbeat people anyways. Jack, Doug and I area always smiling and saying things are great, even when it’s a crappy day. We’re breathing, we’re alive so yes, everything’s good,” he said.
“I am in a really good place, life is good. I have a little app that tells me how many days I have been clean and I have two years, two months, three weeks and four days. And the whole experience of getting back with the guys and making this record has been really, really positive and I have been very grateful because I didn’t know if it was going to fly. I didn’t know if I was going to do another record, I wasn’t sure I was even going to play music again. I laid it down for a couple of years. I needed to focus on recovery and sobriety, that was my priority.
“But everything changed for me over that time, for the better. The priorities have completely switched so now it’s about God, sobriety and family and the career is at the bottom of that list. It’s there and I will continue to do it, but you realize what’s important once you’re out of that cloud. You see what’s really important in life, and I get it. It was a horrible way to find out but I am grateful I did. And I am even more grateful that my fiancé and I are still together after all this and we’re doing much better than we have ever done. You take the alcohol and the drugs out of a human being and they are actually human instead of these crazy creatures that are living with the reptilian brain. For me, I am just grateful to wake up every morning, bro.”
Revolution Saints has only played one live show, and that was late last year as part of the Frontiers Festival in Milan, Italy, which took place around the same time as the band was in the studio recording Light in the Dark.
“At the same time as we’re down there recording we’re also in there getting ready for a show as well. Man, they were killing us but it was kind of fun at the same time. It was very frenetic and there was a lot of energy. We just had a blast playing life together, as much as we did doing the recordings for the first two albums,” Castronovo said, adding that he would love to play more dates with Aldrich and Blades.
“Schedules permitting, bro; in a perfect world, if the stars align and Jesus hasn’t come back yet, we will play. But Doug has The Dead Daisies and a couple of other things and of course Jack has Night Ranger, so we will work around their schedules. But I do know that we’ve got the itch and we want to do it again.”
For more information on Revolution Saints and Light in the Dark, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RevolutionSaints, or http://www.revolutionsaints.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
SHARE THIS POST:
