Interview: Steel Panther
on February 19th, 2012Steel Panther are one of the many bands invading our shores this week to kick off Soundwave Festival for the year. They continue to support their most recent album ‘Balls Out‘, and will also play a couple of already sold out Sidewaves with Alter Bridge while in the country. Deborah Konopnicki recently caught up with Michael Starr from the band to chat about the tour and what we can expect when they hit town. Expand this post to take a read.
Hi Michael! How are you?
Hi Deb. How are you feeling?
I’m feeling pretty good chatting to you right now!
Yeah… I feel good too.
I’m a massive Steel Panther fan so I’m glad to hear you say that Mr. Starr! What’s happening down your end of the world at the moment?
Right now I’m laying in my bed and looking out my window. I live in the Hollywood Hills so I can see all the mountains and shit and the Hollywood sign and just thinking about coming to Australia and rocking some pussy!
Well that’s just made my day. It’s not long to go down until you guys touch down for the 2012 installment of the Soundwave festival so how is the vibe in the band just before coming down to Australia for the first time to rock our faces off?
I’m all fired up – I can’t wait! I’m so excited man. We get to hang out with all of our friends in the other bands and just fucking tour all of the countryside. It’s going to rock! I just can’t wait. It’s like a dream come true for us.
Well it’s a dream come true for a lot of Steel Panther fans out there that have been waiting a little while to get a chance to see you play. This will be Soundwave take 2 for you guys after the Soundwave Revolution was chopped and changed last year. Was it then the intention for you to hop onto the next available tour that presented itself?
Well once the Soundwave Revolution got cancelled they said that they were going to put us on the next Soundwave, so we knew that we were going to do this. Our first reaction was like “Well fuck! We’ve got to get back out there! Everyone’s been waiting for us!”. We felt so fortunate to be booked on this one with Spundwave and be able to come out and honor the dates. We’re just so excited.
I think that it’s safe to say that your appearance is one of the most anticipated amongst people heading to the festival. Your sideshow in Melbourne didn’t take too long at all to sel out and a pretty big venue so if that’s any indication of what your crowd is going to be like then it’s going to be one to remember. When I spoke to you last year you said that it was an amazing feeling to have all of this support from Australia but it seems that from the second the tickets when on sale that the urgency to see you has shot up again.
Yeah. It’s so exciting and surreal. I can’t tell you, we’ve worked so hard and we’ve been working every week. There’s a lot of bands that put a record out and get signed but prior to that they weren’t writing much. We’ve been playing for like 13 years, every week around 3-4 times a week. Every week. We don’t ever take a break unless we’re on tour supporting “Balls Out” or “Feel The Steel”. It feels so good knowing that there are people on the other side of the world waiting to see what we’ve created. It’s exciting man.
As you just mentioned you guys have been a band for quite some time and have really done the hard yards playing shows for all of these years. I know that in the scheme of things that “Feel The Steel” is still quite a recent record but what do you think it was all of a sudden that really struck a chord with people?
I think that Steel Panther is great, and I really mean it! I just fucking love our band and I think that we’re really good and we’re not bullshitting. We’re truly heavy metal guys that love it. We like to party and we like to have a good time and we do it with a laugh. If you’re into rock and metal, you want to have a good time! I think that’s what Steel Panther is. We’re the party man! Here we come! Who wants to party!? That’s what I think. That’s what it’s all about.
The brand new album that came out at the end of the last year “Balls Out” is fresh in people’s minds. There was a tiny delay in the Australian release but the demand for the record sorted that out quick-smart. How are you guys feeling about the record a few months on?
Well before it came out we were all very confident about what we had put on there. We felt like we did a great job and we felt like the songs were super good and that we did a great job. The artwork was amazing, the photo shoot came out killer & the packaging looked great! We were just wondering how it was going to be received and how people were going to take to it. A couple of months down the road; fuck man. It’s just more than we expected.
You had quite a while to work on “Feel The Steel” in the sense that the songs on there had been played live for some time. “Balls Out” was coming from a different place where there was expectation, anticipation and a much shorter time frame. Did that weigh on you at all?
The label got more involved in the second record because they thought that we were ready to do what we’re doing right now. They wanted to make sure that we were focused on the direction of what we’d created and that we we’re going to continue on down that path and not get distracted. They actually did help us out in that way and Satchel writes really great, great stuff and he will come up with parts – verses and chorus – and then we’ll head into the studio, work on them all together and turn them into Steel Panther songs.
Would you say that you’ve taken it up another notch with this record?
It’s pretty, pretty, pretty hard to beat “Feel The Steel”. I guess so, but honestly I don’t know. All I know is that we go out and we play stuff from “Balls Out” and people just fucking go nuts like it was off “Feel The Steel” or something. They were totally into it. We then play “Feel The Steel” and people go even more crazy. All I know is that it just feels great. Our success isn’t measured in dollars. Our success has been monitored by how many people come to our shows. I think that “Feel The Steel” is the introduction for us to Australians because now we’re coming out and while we’re going to be supporting “Balls Out” we’re also going to be supporting “Feel The Steel” for the first time there. It’s going to be hard to write the set list!
Do you think that playing the “Feel The Steel” tracks for the first time over here is going to make them feel brand new again; just by seeing how the Aussie crowds react to the music?
It’s already happened! The sales for “Feel The Steel” have gone up like 50% since “Balls Out” came out. It was rad! Out of nowhere the label called us and was like “Hey! “Feel The Steel” is moving up! We don’t do the sales like Eminem – we’re not selling millions of records. I don’t think that we ever will. If we do, that will be great. As I said, we measure our success by how many tickets we sell for the shows. I don’t even care if people download our music for free. The only thing that I would like to have in my lifetime is a platinum record.
I think that’s highly possible with you guys!
I hope so! If not, right now if we got dropped from the label and we didn’t have any more shows and it was over, I would be completely happy at the success that we have right now. I feel completely fulfilled.
From the fans perspective I think that you’ve created a bit of a legacy as well. There aren’t really any bands out there at the moment that are doing what you’re doing; and doing it so damn well! It’s just so exciting.
Yeah, all of that. We can’t wait to get down to Australia and meet the fans. I want to meet as many people as I can, get a feel for the land and the people. When we first went over to the UK it was so different for us but it was great. I can’t wait to get over there and take it all in and just hang out and jam. The funny thing about being in a band and people don’t really realize when you’re on tour – let’s say the show is an hour-and-a-half – out of a 24 hour period there’s so much more going on. The show is the end result of all of your work. Just like getting to the venue, getting the gear, doing interviews, all of that stuff is the stuff that I can’t wait to do because that’s when I get to meet everybody and get a feel for everybody and then I get to do the show! That’s the easy part.
I’m just about to run out of time, but just quickly what do you think that 2012 holds for you guys? Is it the year of the panther?
Well after we leave you guys we go straight to Finland and we do an European tour which lasts about four weeks. It ends in the UK and all the shows are already sold out. I think that by the end of 2012 we’re going to be an arena band.
So that means that you’ll be back down in Australia later on this year and filling stadiums?
Oh yeah. We’ll be back! I’m sure that we’ll start off a little more modest but I like to think big and I think that we’ll be an arena band very soon.
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STEEL PANTHER – ‘Balls Out‘
Available now on CD and Vinyl
Order online [Here] with free postage
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Catch Steel Panther playing Soundwave Festival nationally. [See Timetables]
FEBRUARY
25th – RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane [AA] SOLD OUT
26th – Showgrounds, Sydney [AA] SOLD OUT
MARCH
2nd – Showgrounds, Melbourne [AA] SOLD OUT
3rd – Bonython Park, Adelaide [AA]
5th – Claremont Showgrounds, Perth [AA]
—> Full details at www.soundwavefestival.com
Also playing Sidewaves with ALTER BRIDGE
FEBRUARY
28th – Enmore Theatre, Sydney [Lic/AA] SOLD OUT
29th – Palace Theatre, Melbourne [18+] SOLD OUT
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