A Conversation with The Babys’ Tony Brock – HuffPost 5.27.14
Mike Ragogna: The Babys have a new album, I’ll Have Some Of That. So…thirty years?
Tony Brock: I know! We would’ve like some of that over the last thirty years, too. Unfortunately, we disbanded and we’ve been pecking away at trying to put the band back together for a number of years. I asked John Waite a few times, we stayed friends with John and everything’s great, he’s given us his blessing but because of his career he just doesn’t need it. So I decided I’d had enough and I basically wanted to give it one more shot because I felt like we were robbed from being pushed over the top to being a superstar band. Basically, I put the word out that The Babys were getting back together, I had held auditions for a singer and they were around the block. I got John Bisaha in, the poor lad, just to make sure we kept the integrity of the band. He’s worked out fantastic. Then Wally Stocker came from Florida and away we went. We did a few gigs just to get our feet wet, I’m lucky enough to own a studio so I ended up producing a new album for the Babys to get a fresh start and here we are.
MR: What the heck were you doing in the mean time?
TB: As soon as we realized there was no chance of The Babys getting back together I joined Eddy Money for about six months and then I went to Rod Stewart for almost twelve years, I got to play with Jeff Beck and Tina Turner and people like that, so that was a lot of fun. Playing with Rod was a great experience because it was a Rod Stewart group, we were more of a band instead of Rod Stewart and his backing band that he has now. We did everything together as a group, it was fantastic. From there I got an offer to start producing a guy down in Australia called Jimmy Barnes, he’s Australia’s number one male singer down there. We had seven hit albums together, and in doing that I got to produce Keith Urban, the first thing that he ever did down in Australia. It wasn’t country then, but it certainly is now, I know. Then from there I came back and just hooked my studio together and I’ve been doing sessions and producing from my studio for the last ten years. That’s what’s enabled The Babys to put a new album together.
MR: The Babys are coming back into a very different music world than the one it left. How does I’ll Have Some Of That fit into the whole paradigm of what’s going on in music right now?
TB: Well I feel like the younger kids, twenty to thirty year olds, they know of Led Zeppelin and Bad Company and it’s not like the old days where you’re an old fart because you don’t know about those bands. In my family I grew up knowing all the old soul artists, where The Babys grew from. Today’s kids are ready to accept that late seventies, early eighties music again. It never really went away for some people. The kids still love Zeppelin, they still love The Who and Bad Company, those sort of bands have never gone away and they’ve still captured a younger audience. The Babys have never really gone away, because luckily we had some great songs. It’s kind of a silly name, but I think the cult following and having great songs and being respected by musicians and people like that has kept The Babys going. I think with a new generation they’re going to love it, they’re going to think they’ve found something new, the way I look at it.
MR: What are the main artistic differences between The Babys then and now?
TB: Where we ended up on our fifth album with Keith Olsen, we kind of got into that Americana sound, very tight and poppy, and that’s not what we were about. In our early days, Ron Nevison was producing us and we kept our raw English things, we still used strings and brass and stuff like that, but that’s not over-producing. Today when you over-produce you use tons of reverb and delays and that sort of thing that’s on every record that I hear on the radio. We haven’t done that, we’ve kept to the true form of what the Babys were, writing great songs, keeping it raw and sounding really good. In fact, we’re even going to make some vinyls, because the young kids are starting to play vinyls again. As far as other differences, the only difference is that we have a couple of different players. But Wally’s sound and my sound has always been at the forefront in the Babys albums and the drum sound and the guitar sound have always been there and we’ve kept that. I don’t think we’ve veered too much apart from our new singer, obviously we weren’t trying to copy John Waite, but we needed someone to keep the soulfulness in it because that’s what we’re about. So we needed a real soul singer and I think we found him. Hopefully we haven’t veered much at all, we’re trying to stay true to what we believe in and all love.
MR: When I think of The Babys, I always think of “Head First.” It was such an anthem, even if it didn’t cart as highly as your other hits.
TB: No, I know, but to this day if you go down to a lot of clubs where there’s a band doing top forty “Head First” always comes up. If I get invited up on stage the first thing they want to play is “Head First.” That song actually just arrived because I got a white grand piano in ’77, I put it in my apartment and when you play a brand new instrument it’s always good for a new song, just for the sounds and the fun. That was the first song that came out of it, “Head First” and “Silver Dreams” came from that piano. Fond memories.
MR: What is that special thing about The Babys?
TB: Well, I think it’s the sound and the way we put songs together. We have a magic together, and that’s why it was so important to put the right members in the new band. We had a magic band and to this day “Every Time I Think Of You,” “Isn’t It Time?” “Head First” are still being played on the radio. I’m hoping and praying that we’ve still captured those songs on “I’ll Have Some Of That” and we’re going to have a hit single. That’s how it’s going to resonate, we’re just doing what The Babys do and enjoying it. It comes off on records that we’re enjoying it, too. You can especially see on the records that we’re having a great time, making The Babys reborn–no pun intended. We’re just hoping and praying that it works for us because we’ve put a lot of hard work into it and whichever way it goes I’m very proud of it. You’ve got to give it a shot, right? If you don’t try, you never know!
MR: What advice do you have for new artists?
TB: I know it sounds like your father speaking to you, but you’ll have to practice and you have no choice but to be totally into it. I used to practice eight hours a day and think nothing of it. People ask me all the time, “Did you ever think you were going to fail at what you were trying to do as a musician?” I look back and I think, no, I never thought once that I was going to fail. That thought never entered my head. It was just something that I love so much–it has to go through your body and you have to love it and enjoy it and soak everything up and learn from other people and watch them. Like I did as a producer, I stole Ron Nevison’s ideas, I stole Keith Olsen’s ideas, all the greatest producers that we had I took just a little piece of them and worked it in to make it me. That’s what you have to do as a drummer, as a guitarist, as a singer, you pick your favorite people and pick what you love and then put it all together and make it your own. That’s my advice to the kids, that’s what you’ve got to do, if you don’t truly love it deep down then don’t bother because it’s a lot of hard work. There’s a lot of people ready to smack you down, so you’ve got to believe in what you do. We weren’t ready to give up yet, that’s why The Babys are back.
MR: So new artists shouldn’t be ready to give up at that point in their careers either?
TB: No! As long as they believe in what they’re doing they’ve got to give it a try because later on you’ll be kicking yourself wishing you’d at least given it a better shot.
MR: What do you think The Babys are going to grow up into?
TB: I don’t have any answer as far as dates, we’re going through it this week with our promoter, but we have some festivals already set up and we’re going to try and jump on a few tours from bigger bands and see if we can put some bums in seats. That’s all we know right now, but it’s looking good.
MR: All right, well I expect to be able to get an interview with you on the next album as well. Is it going to be another thirty years?
TB: No, I’ll be in a box by then. [laughs]
MR: Only CD boxes allowed.
TB: The box set.
Transcribed By Galen Hawthorne