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Interview with
Brett Scallions of Fuel
We were really excited to hear you’re back with Fuel; what brought you back?
Just having fun with life and having fun with music, it’s what people know
me from the most. I’ve got a great band with me now, and we’re just going out and having some
fun playing the music that got me where I am.
Did you have to go through any legal actions to use the Fuel name and any material written by Carl or
Jeff?
Well, none of the music was written by Jeff.
But, we started this thing together years ago, but I did have to work out some deals to make sure everything was properly
done. That way I wouldn’t have any problems. Stuff I can’t really talk about.
During your time away from Fuel, you had other projects;
did you learn anything from those projects that you brought with you to the new Fuel?
I learned that… I’ve worked hard over the years; I focused on being a better songwriter and just
learning about playing with other people – things like that. I’ve learned more and more about
how great it is just to experience different playing styles of musicians and just being better at what I do – being
a better singer… being a better guitar player… being a better general all around musician. It’s
been a lot of fun for the past few years.
The new Fuel lineup looks amazing; tell me about the guys.
I have Yogi [Lonich] on lead guitar, I’ve known him since he was playing with Buckcherry back in ’98
– I remember seeing him play for the first time and thinking to myself “Dude, I’m going to play with that
guy one day; I’m going to be in a band with that guy”. So it’s exciting for me to finally
say that that’s happened. And then a few years ago I met Brad Stewart from Shinedown; he was playing
bass. It’s great to have him with us now, he’s fitting in those beautiful tones that you need
there to make it sound great. I was working on writing a record with Sean Danielsen from Smile Empty Soul;
he advised us to Ken Schalk… he played the drum tracks for that record… so that’s when I met Tim for the
first time. After hearing him play I thought “Man, I’m never letting this guy go”.
They completed the outfit between the four of us; we’ve got about a week and a half of dates under out belt.
How are those going so far?
The shows are tighter and tighter every time we walk on the stage. The
energy is there for sure; it’s like an explosion of energy which is exactly what you want. The cool
thing about this is; when I told the guys… when I originally asked them to be a part of this I told them “Listen
to music and do your own thing”, and they’ve exactly done that… they made it their own thing.
When you go out and watch us you’ll know that this is the music of Fuel, but it’s done in a modern aged
Fuel kind of way.
That was actually my next
question; what new elements will the new members bring to Fuel?
I’m not one of those people that try to dictate or tell someone who they’re supposed to be on the
stage, I want people to be able to grow and be who they are. By exploring with the music and doing their
own thing to it, and making the music what it is now versus what it was back then.
Will you be sharing any of the songwriting with anyone else in the
band?
Yeah, we’ve already started throwing ideas around and
we’re going to make music any way that we can no matter who comes up with a riff… we’re all in this together.
Do you guys plan on releasing a new CD soon?
Right now we’re just in the very beginning of tour year,
we’re preparing for the music… we’re just taking things day by day and show by show and we’ll get
new music out there as soon as we can.
What was it like playing the old songs again after so many years away from the band?
It’s like putting that old shoe back on, and realizing how comfortable it was back then –
and knowing that it’s still nice and comfy.
What else do you guys have planned for this year?
We’re going to be out touring all year; throwing new music in
when we have it. I’ve got the World Fire Brigade record that I mentioned earlier [with Sean Danielsen
of Smile Empty Soul] – I’ve got that coming out at some point… either this year or the top of next
year. I’m busy; being creative… livin’ life and loving what I do.
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