The Defiants
The 80s/90s melodic hard rockers on latter-day success, songwriting and the perils of steroids with Jack Daniel’s.
Given that bassist Bruno Ravel and guitarist Rob Marcello remain current members of the US hair-metallers Danger Danger, and that singer Paul Laine had two spells fronting the same group, similarities between The Defiants and Danger Danger were inevitable. Ravel and Laine discuss The Defiants’ second album, Zokusho (it’s Japanese for ‘sequel’), which looks set to feature among the year’s ‘best of AOR’ lists.
Classic Rock named The Defiants’ selftitled debut the melodic hard rock album of 2016. Did its critical success surprise you? Bruno Ravel: I had kind of expected diehard Danger Danger fans from the Paul Laine era to like it, but overall it exceeded any hopes that we might have had. We were pretty overwhelmed by it.
Coming from a time when rock records were immensely profitable, why do you continue to make music in this day and age? BR: We do it for different reasons now. Performing on stage is great, but I really love to write and create, to throw something out into the ether and get a response.
Can you talk us through the mechanics of a Defiants song being written? Paul Laine: Typically, Bruno sends me a riff and a drum beat. I sing the first melody and lyrics that come into my head for the verse and chorus, and after many phone calls we have a song.
Is that different to Danger Danger’s way of doing it? BR: Yeah. Paul and I have more freedom, whereas writing in Danger Danger, if Steve [West, drums] and I disagree over an idea, the song gets thrown out. With The Defiants we don’t get as critical and it doesn’t make us anywhere near as tense.
Just to be clear, do DD still exist? BR: Danger Danger will always play live, but there are so many obstacles in making records. I’m still up for that, but Steve believes that the way the business has gone, there’s no longer a point. When I asked him to do so he enjoyed playing on this record [as a guest], but that was just a fun thing.
You still write about important things in life – drinking, cars, staying up late, heartbreak. Philosophers need not apply. PL: It’s rock’n’roll, baby. Sometimes in this increasingly boring PC world, fewer fucks need to be given. I miss that in rock’n’roll. BR: Those elements you just mentioned are the key ingredients of our genre. Why mess with a winning combination?
The debut was promoted by a highly rock’n’roll gig at the Rockingham Festival in Nottingham which saw Paul drunkenly throw a bottle of Jack Daniel’s across the stage. PL: I have scar tissue on my lungs from having pneumonia as a child, so I take a steroid based inhaler about a half-hour before the show. At Rockingham I also took some belts of Jack Daniel’s, and felt it all hit just as I walked on to the stage. Oops. That night’s performance was dedicated to Keith Moon.
What are the chances of a return visit to the UK? PL: I’m pretty sure that’s going to happen. We’ve been in talks about it.
“Performing on stage is great, but I really love to write and create.”
Zokusho is out now via Frontiers Records.