Derek Davis of Babylon A.D. Chats About When The World Stops

0:04 Hey, you have then too, censure. I'm for see wow, crazy young doesn't recis a bunning streets. Only the rock survive a battle way to saddle. Round Boss Fall. The Devil preaches along. So if you all. Love me, the Rabbit trumperstll the Lobby rup side God where the Dumber's.

0:46 Traws three Little World Stopster, the Boss Doner. It'll be all. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio. And I'm very excited about her. Next guess who has some killer new music. And they've always had killer music, so it's amazing you're still around. But that's because they're great musicians. So let's welcome to the show. Derek from Babylon A d how are you? Yeah, great man, great to be here. I'm glad I didn't screw up your band name because I've had like I don't know, I can't speak for some reason today and like ask the interview, I did I know the band name? It is just like bla blah blah blah blah. So this time it came out easily.

1:31 You've been called baby long before, so. I could see that too. Like that is my worst nightmare. Like if I really don't know how to pronounce a band name, I will ask them before I start to interview to tell me, okay, or I'll look it up and hear them in an interview say the band name themselves. Or like when I go over and I do festivals all over to US, UK and Europe, and I always let the tell me who they are, it's then good idea. Can't screw it up because to me, I don't know, I would be insulted if you were doing an interview and you mispronounced my band name, Like, come on, do your research, dude. But you know, yeah, I mean it's pretty cool that here we are, twenty twenty five and you got new music. You know, you've been around most of my life in the rock and metal community too, so you know, I always love when bands have been around this long and still can put out new music.

2:41 Like I'm in awe of how doing this after all these years, that you can still be creative enough to make new music. Of course there's a plan to talk about nowadays. But and like your newest title song, I mean, geez, I feel like we're living it. Yeah, I kind of think that's why I wrote that song when the World Stops is because I kind of feel the same way. Right right, I feel like the world is spinning so fast and we're all going to fall off and it's gonna. Stop absolutely at some point. Well that's for sure. And I think you know all of our lives, me and you, we've heard about the apocalypse, right. But what scares me is everything from back in the eighties that we were talking about is all coming true now. All the sci fi movies from that is coming true now. Yeah, please no apocalypse while I'm still on this planet.

3:42 Funny, me and my bass player were talking about that the other day when we were in Denver. We played Australi in Denver and we were sitting in the hotel room. We started talking about it, like did it ever notice that everything we seen when were your little kids is like kind of happened. Now, right, I mean, think about it. Okay, So on Star Trek when they had the flip phones, those are outdated now, Like Matt, I didn't think you'd have flip phones. Is missing as a beam me up Scottie part. When they get that down, then we know it's. Like whoa I know? Right? And then okay, so they would talk on video and here we are, like this was just sci fi. What we're doing right now was sci fi in the eighties.

4:23 I know, it's nuts, man, it is. That's why I think it's hilarious that you take bands that wrote music in the eighties and you could substitute, substitute places, substitute names, and it could be the same song yeah today, which that kind of that kind of blows my mind and is terrible. Other ins it's like you you would think we would be past all that stuff that we were writing about in the eighties. So you also have you know, as of recent years new members to the band, do you think that's put some fresh life into the band too?

5:06 Absolutely? Yeah, absolutely. When we got Dylan the drummer, he's twenty four years old now, we got him when he was twenty one, so he's been with us for three years now. He really it's really funny because this kid is he's twenty four now, but he is an encyclopedia of hard rock, of metal, of rock and roll. Love it. It's so weird, man. I mean, you could talk to him about Judas Priest or Aerosmith or a CDC or easy Top. He'll know all the guys' names, he'll know all their hit songs and everything. Wow. So and so there's a lot of kids in his generation that are just rediscovering rock and roll music, you know, hard rock. You know it's so it's pretty interesting. And then Craig Pepe pretty well known bass player on the Los Angeles area. So when they joined the band, it was very it was just seamless. The first time we auditioned those guys, they came together as a package and we played eight BACKI D songs and it was they played them perfect, just like We're wow stage the next day.

6:05 See. I love that about nowadays because I was just talking about this before I go and I do coverage at music festivals all over the US, UK and Europe, and one thing I'm in awe of is how many generations of people are at these festivals. Like I know in our time, I wouldn't go see a band of sixty year old for a metal show. It across your mind. You just said all those little farts, so I'm not gonna go check them out. I know. It's strange because I've noticed that as our shows go on and the more shows we play, and I think with the with the last album Rome Wasn't Built in a day and the little bit of fire we got so far into this album, it's weird. Man playing on stage and looking out of the crowd, You're like, there's about thirty percent of the people here that are under twenty five, right, and even a couple of years ago you maybe had five percent of the people. It's like there's some kind of resurgence man, you know, totally.

7:04 And it's like they're cool with being with the old dudes, you. Know, like like like I said, my drummer's twenty four, he hangs out with us. I mean he thinks just like we do, you know, I don't know. I love that. That's amazing, you know, And it just shows how rock hard rock and metal it stood the test of time. People said it was dying, but it stood. Listen. I think metal's bigger now than it ever was, to be honest. Yeah, it's like a dinosaur that just is not going to get go extinct. You know, right, totally, and even some of these fans, like you mentioned priests, I mean, to put out new music and for Halford to still have the voice he does, yeah, oh my god. Yeah, And I just saw scorpions at health Vest Priests too. But scorpions, man, they kicked ass like they were unbelievable, you know, And that's the cool.

7:59 And look at Ozzie. Okay, like that final show, I think he sounded the best he sounded in years. Yeah, that was pretty awesome. Man. It was a great tribute and that was pretty amazing. You know, it gave me chills. But I also I knew what was gonna happen after that because I've said for years, like Sharon kept trying againhim to retire him, like if he retires, he's just gonna die, because you know, he loves the stage so much. Yeah. Yeah, so you know, it was like it sucked. It was a shock, But wasn't that much of a shock to me when it happened afterwards, because it was like that was his last hurrah.

8:42 Yeah. I've seen an interview with Pierce Morgan, and I guess Pierce Morgan is a good friend of Sharon's and Auzie's, and he talked to Ozzie when he was in the hospital, I guess maybe two weeks before something. He went in for something minor and Ozzie just said, this is it, mate, you know, this is my last show. And after that, I'm that's what he told Pierce, and Pierce went okay, and then sure. Enough, Wow, yeah, what a shame. But man, talk about a mentor to everybody that you could be who Ozzie was and still last all this time and still be the hero to people. They was like the craziness that guy lived.

9:23 Geez, Like, I don't think I would have survived everything he went through. And I was in the Sunset strip on the in the eighties and I don't think I could handle a lifetime of that. Well, I think it would probably due to Sharon, right, Sharon's keeping him on the up and up and him having kids and having some kind of like normalacy. If he wouldn't have had her as his anchor, yeah, I would have went on the deep end a long time ago with no one to help him. You know that. That's a good point, because she was like the Evening now And I've heard stories about like Sharon just like him doing something stupid. She just would beat the shit out of him, you know, like, oh uh, put him right in his place. But yeah, I mean, listen, the hard thing is too and I'm sure you feel the same way, or else you wouldn't be doing anymore.

10:18 You gotta be having fun when you're doing this for a living, because you're in the wrong business if you're not having fun. That's the only reason I'm still doing it, and I know everybody in the band too. It's the only reason that we keep doing it because I think it would be like, you know, you're Michael Jordan, or you know, you're retired, but you're sixty years old or you're fifty five years old. You can't play as fast as you did, maybe you know, but you're still really good. You're still having fun, so you're not gonna quit playing basketball. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And I'll tell you what. Seeing the video, you guys looked like we were still in the eighties and nineties. Like just the energy of you guys playing in that video.

11:01 Yeah, it's just yeah, we still have that energy on stage. Everybody always says, how the hell do you guys do that? Man? We still kick ass when we when we when we hit the stage, it's kind of like we go out like if we're gonna go in a fistfight and we're not gonna lose, right, we all look at it like let's go kick some. Ass, no doubt. And I think a lot of people don't realize too when when you have this severe passion for what you do like you do, it's like you go into the zone when you get up on the stage and there's this adrenaline rush that doesn't matter anything else. You're just living in that moment right then and there. That's true, man, And it's a it's a great our hour and twenty minutes. Sometimes you know, it's it's just great man. Uh. You know, it's work getting to the show, doing your soundcheck, going back to the hotels and things, and getting ready for the show. But when you hit that stage, man, the rush and the adrenaline that you and especially when you see people singing the lyrics that you might have wrote three years ago and you're betting something and they're singing right back to you and it means something to you. And you get off stage and then you start talking to your fans and they're like, man, this you know this song Desperate saved my life when I was twenty because of this, And you're like, wow, the stories.

12:18 That you hear are like what a feeling? Right? Yeah? But then I think to myself. You know, for me growing up would be like me meeting Robert Plan or someone saying, oh my god, you don't know what this one song did for me. You know, it'd be the same thing, you. Know exactly, you know, And it's like and those first shows you went to, like you know, I went to concerts, but my first club show ever, I was just talking about this earlier was at the Roxy Motley Crue before they had an album, and I remember, okay, so they were trying to light the whole Roxy on fire to bring satan and I was like, man, I'm never going to a real or it ever again.

13:02 Yeah. That's funny because when right when Motley Cruze released their very first album, they must have been out maybe a week or two, they opened for a band that I was in in the in the Keystone, Berkeley at the at the Keystone, and it was really weird because I guess Tommy was probably fourteen years old, fifteen years old in or something, and I was like, who the hell these guys, how'd they get an album? And then they were telling me all about it. Yeah, man, we put together this album and we were playing pool with them everything. Never ever dreamed that they were gonna be didn't even didn't even dawn on us that they were going to become a big band. Right, And they were. I gotta say in LA they were the epitome of the best promoters of their band anywhere.

13:46 Like that's what That's what I got. Yeah, that they just knew how to promote. Man. Oh they there were flyers for them on every telephone pole in Los Angeles, you know, like, no matter where you look, there they were. When you could do that, and then they pass that ordinance about ninety one or ninety or something like that and screwed everything up. Yeah, that's how you found out about bands, Like I found out about bands by seeing those posters and going, Oh, that band looks cool. I'm going to their show or I'm buying their album. You know, I miss those days. That's one thing I do miss is like these kids nowadays, with Spotify and stuff like that, they have this track track track mentality. They don't get the whole benefit of it, you know.

14:31 Yeah, they don't get the same thing. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, it's like you didn't buy an out first of all, you bought an album with you had no money, and you scraped up the money to buy an album and you didn't know what it sounded like because you couldn't hear it. And most of the stuff I listened to wasn't getting played on the radio, and so you would listen to it over and over and over again. Just sit there. It was a whole experience, you know. I would sit there on my balcony with the headphones on the outl bum reading all the lyrics. Like my kids will say, how do you know the lyrics to like every single song? And that's why, because I sat there. It was like class I was studying, you know.

15:14 And just look at the album. You're looking at Rainbow and all you're doing is look at it. Every time you put it on. You just keep looking at the damn thing. Wonder what these guys really look like, you know, right right TV back then, so you're like, what the hell and you look at it Led Zeppelin album and there's no pictures of these guys. What the hell they look like? You know? Or how about like the Beatles with that brilliant marketing of Paul McCartney being dead and you had to find all the clues on all the albums. I know that those guys were their management was marketing geniuses. Oh one, you know, And I think that's something we need to bring back. Bands like that, Bands like Zeppelin, bands like the Beatles. I mean, look at Ozzy. It's funny we're talking about Ozzy. Who would ever think that there would be no Aussie if there were no beat Like he said it over and over and over again. Now, yeah, the Beatles are the reason he does what he doesn't.

16:06 You wouldn't even think of that or associate that either, you know. But I mean, yeah, think of Helter Skelter. It's like one of the first heavy metal songs. Besides Sabbath and other stuff, but it's like one of the first heavy metal songs I think of, you know. I think, yeah, you're exactly right between led Zeppelin and and Black Sabbath. It's like, man, they had they just had that heavy song. I mean, we used to call it heavy metal. You know, people don't really call it heavy metal anymore. But no, I think it's been as heavy metal. You know, it totally is. Now this will be funny for you, but first of all, if you google led Zeppelin, it shows their genre as heavy metal. But here's something wild.

16:51 I had one of my interviews go viral because it was Carmina piece and he and this wasn't that long ago at mug and he yeah, he said he didn't think Black Sabbath was heavy metal, that Metallica was the first heavy metal band. That's why he said. And all the uproar for saying that. You know, it's kind of strange that he would say that, because even before Metallica, the word heavy metal was already out there in the seventies, before Metallica became popular. Way before I was at Metallica's first show ever, and before that I was listening Maiden and Priest and Black Sabbath.

17:35 In seventh grade, I remember going. I had this new friend and I went to his house and he pulls out this album that was black with red writing and white lightning bolts for the s's We sold our souls for rock and roll, And that was that was really for me. I was like, man, I'm sold. I'm a metal head forever now, and here I am and here you are, and you guys are going on tour and you're going to Europe. So one thing I've noticed is, like I've said this a couple of times today. The bands that I thought during the nineties and two thousands, I'm like, oh, I wish that band was still around.

18:21 I found out when I went to Europe that they were still around. They were just touring in Europe all this time because those people love love this music still. They don't need the newest stuff, you know, they just love it all. What's kind of weird when you go over there is like you jump back into a time warp, right, But it's cool. It's a cool time warp. You know, it's totally cool. Like I was saying before, I have gone on several road trips and you turn on the radio and it's like you're turning on the radio in the eighties, you know, that's what you hear on there. And you know we're talking about like I was just that bloodstock in the UK and ten thirty in the morning you were bands playing that Man the crowd that they had at ten thirty in the morning for a nobody band, you would think they were the headliner.

19:11 Yeah, absolutely, And it's crazy. That's what's good about it though. I mean that still gives us places to play in a little bit of hope, you know. I just wish America was more like that. You know, they're just scouted out clubs around and no matter what, there's just not that. I mean, everybody over there has got a jacket like this or something with all their bands on it. I mean it's like a you're in a gang. Well, this is my gang, this is my game, this my you know, my band, this is my my gang for my band. You know what I mean. And they look about it and it gets crazy. What's funny about that is I started recently. I had my battle vest from the eighties scene in my closet for many years. My grandson was wearing it for a while, and I decided to bring it on interviews when I go to festivals. And it's not like the battle vest today where you can buy. I am pre made, yeah right.

20:02 Mine has some blood and sweatd literally, it has blood on it from stage dives and rocking, yeah, and drawings. I drew on it like I was. I was interviewing at Hellfest. I was interviewing Geene Hoagland and I pulled out my battle vest and I showed them I have dark Angel like the logo's perfectly drawn on my battle vest and he's like crap, you know, and it's like just so much history there. That's what it is. It's it's history. I can't even wear the thing anymore because you know, I'm not big now, but I was certainly really small as a teenager. You know. I've got my old stage clothes too. Man. I could never squeeze into it. It maybe though I'm still you know, I'm not heavyweight or I got to overweight. It's just I'm like, man, I was like one hundred and thirty five pounds held it.

20:52 You know, right exactly. But it's like you put your heart and soul into Ease battle vests and instead of just buying it, it was like, and you said the gang thing. So it's funny. So they didn't even have a Slayer patch when I started his vest. So I got vinyl and not vinyl felt writing letters and it spells at the top Slayer and it's funny. I used to walk around LA and people thought I was a gang banger and that was my gang name. You had a new new Hell's Angel Club. I know, right, Oh that's so funny. And then Winston from Parkway Drive, I have to jump in the fire Metallica back patch on it. He's like, holy shit, like where did that logo come from? I've never seen that Metallica logo, you know, and so but it is still cool to see kids nowadays still doing that, still keeping metal and rock and a hard rock alive and bigger than ever, I think, you know, like when would you have There was only one time when I was a teenager that I went to a show that had as many people as you see festivals now, and that was the nineteen eighty three US Festival. But but other than that, you know, there was a small group of us, you know that used to go and it's it is great to see that bands like you in some ways I think,

22:28 are playing to bigger crowds now than back then. It kind of feels like we just left off, you know. It's just kind of strange. It's just like we never missed a beaty with though those many years in between when we missed mini beats. Right. Yeah, it's you know, I don't know if i'd call it a resurgence or what. But maybe it's people waking up and like they went on some kind of dream vacation with grunge and hair metal for a while, and then they came back right right. So what else you got going on down the pipe that you want listeners to know about? You got the new album. I mean, we're here with the new album when the world stops, and that drops on September first, the CD where right now you can get pre orders and they are starting to get out. I I just seen a post from a girl saying I just got my pre order, so she's probably one of the first persons to get one.

23:25 Nice. Yeah, And then we have the digital releases coming out one month after that, and then following that one month we have the album coming out, so we're kind of spacing it out just a little bit. I like that. I like that before, and the record company suggested and we said, okay, yeah, that sounds like a pretty cool idea, a little bit different, So we keep having a little bit drip drip drip, so this hasn't all come back and come out in one day and then people start forgetting that getting about it like three months later. You know, this way, we'll still have a little bit of a some to talk about. You know, after our tour, you know, we're going to be over the UK for a few weeks and then we're gonna play Greece nice. Well, yeah, so it's pretty exciting time for babylon Ad right now.

24:07 You know, I love hearing that. Man. That's but that's because you guys are true musicians, true artists, and that's what we need. The resurgence of that, I think we're getting. You know, even there's some younger bands now that are bringing back that old school vibe. Yeah. You see a lot of bands that they look like they could have been right out of nineteen eighty eight, right exactly, Middle Edged magazine. You're like, wow, that's kind of weird. These guys must be thirty years. Old, right. Yeah. So it's good because I think those were the times that you had the true musicianship, and I think we might have gotten away from that for a while. I always like to say that some of the metal nowadays, it's like they use this formula, like an algebraic equation to make metal, and I like that where we have bands that are geting away from that and doing it the old school way because it.

25:05 Doesn't take over, you know, in the next couple of years or whatever. Because what happened to us, it's happened a few other bands. I found out too. But last week, all of a sudden, a fan, a couple of fans contacted us and said, hey, man, I see you guys got a new single out. Is this new single off your new album? And we're like, what the hell are they talking about? I thought they were talking about when the World Stops as a single, right, So I pressed the button and sure enough, there's a song called fuel the Fire by Babylon A d and the Vinnie Vincent Invasion. And it wasn't or it was not Bennie Vincent. It was all AI made up by something. Oh yeah, we found who the guy was. We researched him and found out who it was. We told him, you better take that down unless you're gonna get a you know, lossuit up your ass. And uh, we cleared that up and now it's gone. But still, I mean, I can imagine and from what I gather, this same guy has done it to I think it was Slaughter, three or four other bands and a bunch of country artists. So this guy making AI songs, putting him out there and if nobody catches him, he collects the money.

26:05 Yeah, and you know what, it's bullshit because anybody you know, it's like that meme they have I don't know if you've ever seen it of the rock star in the eighties and the rock Star now, and it's got a picture above of this dude lying on the ground with his guitar in one hand and Jack Daniels and the other, and then the one below the one now he's sitting in a chair as computer with the guitar on his lap while he's typing on the computer. Yeah, making this song up. I want to. I want the guy that, you know, I want the singer to sound like this. I want that. Recently, I was approached by a company to use my voice in AI Wow, to be the singer I guess for all this AI project shit, and I said, no way. Many screw might have to be broke to even think that way. You know.

26:58 Yeah, it's terrible because you know, you can't even tell the difference sometimes, you know, yeah I can't. I mean I heard it right off the bat, you know. Yeah, you can. Of course, you could put that average listener out there. The average listener can't. No and listen. It's a lot of work to be an artist. I think people don't realize how much work it is. They just look at Oh you're living the dream life blah blah blah. But they don't see everything that goes into it, and it shouldn't be as easy as pushing a button. I don't. I mean, I'm in the recording study right now. This is where I live basically, and here creating ideas I don't get on my Macintosh and just an hour later have a song and I tell all my friends, look at this song I wrote when I really didn't do nothing but just tell the AI ate a song.

27:44 You know, totally, it's just cheating. Man. One of my friends did a couple songs like that, and he was like, what do you think? Man? I was man, I, I reamed his ass. I was like, good for you. He's a songwriter too, And I was like, you're really. Gonna do that as a song? I said, what are you saying? Like grandma's eighty two years old? She could just write her new hit song now and put a meme on there that looked like she's fourteen years old. Wow, Come on, man, where's your integrity? You know, no doubt, especially if you're an artist, you should totally have integrity. Like, to me, the only people that would be doing that is people that don't know how to play an instrument and don't know how to write songs, and you know, not people that like that's their passion.

28:28 Yeah, exactly, And if they're gonna do it, let everybody know, Hey, AI wrote this, and this is not you know whatever, I own it maybe, but this is just my idea that I put into a computer somehow. You know, they should have a some kind of clause when you listen to the song it's this is AI generated whatever. Well, you know, we did say in the eighties that the machines were going to take over, and that's what's scary right now. Yeah, I mean, if this AI thing keeps going like it is, probably within five years, nobody's even gonna probably people not even get a care because they just grew up like that and just yeah, information just kept coming like that where where they won't care, you know, just as long as they like the.

29:11 Song, which is a shame, because art saves lives, I. Believe, yep. The correct lyrics and the correct melody saves a lot of people's lives. And especially the musicians and like people talk about how they relate to your songs. But I think a lot of musicians, artists, songwriters. Man, it saves their life first, and that's why it saves our life absolutely. Man. Yeah, well, I'm glad that you're here doing real music. You know, what a concept and you know, being a real musician, because to me, real musicians they figured things out and make mistakes along the way and experiment. And I remember I was playing guitar when I was a teenager.

29:58 My Dad's like, you suck, you should give that up. And really, what I was doing is I was just experimenting. I wanted to see what sounds I could make out of the guitar. I didn't want I didn't give a shit about the scales. I wanted to hear what I could make that guitar do. Yeah, so that's cool, And everybody should check out the new album. Get it, pre order it now if you don't get it on the first, and check out your tour dates and everything else. And man, I'll tell you what I like the new music, and I know they will too. So thank you for still being a great musician and a true artist. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Payment. Yeah. Thanks for having me, man, Thank you, thank you for listening to the Adventures of Patemn.

30:52 I'm w for Cui Radio