INTERVIEW: Sons of Apollo’s Jeff Scott Soto is going to have a wild ‘MMXX’
Photo: Sons of Apollo feature, from left, Billy Sheehan, Mike Portnoy, Jeff Scott Soto, Derek Sherinian and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal. Photo courtesy of Hristo Shindov / Provided by ABC PR with permission.
Supergroup Sons of Apollo recently released their second album, MMXX, and they are gearing up for a string of concerts in the New York City area, including Feb. 6 at the Gramercy Theatre in Manhattan and Feb. 8 at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey.
The band, which has a progressive-rock feel, consists of former Dream Theater members Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses), Billy Sheehan (The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Journey, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force), according to press notes.
Sons of Apollo have been around for a couple years, and almost instantly (and quite amazingly) they seemed to strike gold in the music industry. Their debut album, Psychotic Symphony, was well received and had the guys touring the world, and they decided right away that this initial set of songs would not prove to be a one-off.
“We discussed it pretty much during the Psychotic Symphony tour in 2018,” said Soto, about the decision to record MMXX. “We discussed that we wanted to jump right back in and follow up as soon as possible, not only just to keep the fire lit and keep the momentum going, but we were just on a road creatively. And the chemistry was just so strong once we actually were touring together, we wanted to emphasize that. We wanted to capture that before it got cold, so it was a mutual decision that we should dive right back into it and get ready for album #2.”
Soto is the singer for the band, and he and his bandmates were determined to make sure fans didn’t think the debut album was some type of experiment. Thanks to the rock ‘n’ rolling of each member and the writing talents of Portnoy, Sherinian and Bumblefoot, Sons of Apollo wanted to show to the world that theirs was a true commitment.
“It wasn’t just a one-off or something we were looking to see if anybody might be interested,” Soto said. “We were going to do this regardless.”
Each member of the group has had successful runs in other popular bands, and it was this shared talent that led to the formation of Sons of Apollo. They were borne from another supergroup called PSMS, which stood for Portnoy, Sheehan, Macalpine and Sherinian.
“Originally Mike asked me to sing for the third PSMS album,” Soto remembers. “So he had already done two albums instrumentally, and they thought, let’s try to get more appeal with this and push it toward a more vocal-oriented album.”
They eventually contracted the help of Bumblefoot, and Sons of Apollo started to take shape. This was a special time in Soto’s life. He had spent time in a lot of previous groups, from Trans-Siberian Orchestra to Journey to his own solo projects. The call that came in for him to contribute to the third PSMS album, which directly led to being asked to join Sons of Apollo, still plays vividly in the back of his mind.
Here’s how Soto remembers the official call to join the band: “It was in November 2016 that all my birthday calls and texts and emails were coming in from everybody I know, and then I got a text from Mike saying, ‘Happy birthday. I’m going to call you in a few days and tell you what your birthday present was.’ [I was thinking] — oh, man, Mike got me a car, or he got me a new drum kit that he’s handing me down. He finally called me, and he told me, my birthday present, should I accept, was the invite to sing for PSMS on the next album. He gave me all the details without even sending me a song. I didn’t really know anything about PSMS. I just said yes. I wanted to do it regardless of what we were going to be doing because I knew the level of what these guys could come up with was going to be quality. I just wanted to be part of it.”
Now the guys have had a couple years to perfect their sound and develop a bank of original songs, including “Goodbye Divinity,” “Wither to Black,” “God of the Sun” and “Coming Home”. Their live performances, where they blast out these hard-rock anthems, are frenetic energy personified.
“There’s a lot of technical stuff, but it’s also a very rock-oriented show,” Soto said about the live gig. “You would expect a band of this caliber, in the sense of its playing abilities and the technical side of things, to basically just stand there and just concentrate on their chops. But we put on a show the same as the categories of Van Halen and Kiss and the bands that influenced us that we watched growing up. … That’s injected into what we do. We don’t just go out there and stand there. We wanted to make sure we didn’t just look like you’re watching guys performing the CDs.”
Soot said, with a laugh, that after a show, the members of Sons of Apollo are spent. At their age (not that old, but not young anymore), each show takes its toll, but it doesn’t sound like Soto would want to be anywhere else in his career or his life.
“We put so much into every show,” he said. “I guess in the beginning, we’d come off stage and go, ‘Man, we’re getting too old to do this,’ in the sense of the energy and what we’re putting out there. But then once you fall into your comfort zone of what you do and how you do it, then we actually pump it up and add more. I find we’re going out there and acting like we’re 25 when we’re putting on a show. We’re not just statues. We’re doing something very active. … One of my greatest inspirations of all time was Freddie Mercury, and that guy knew how to work a stage. So I kind fall into that category, from that school of entertaining and keeping even the person at the very back or the highest level seat in a theater or arena, enthralled as much as the front row.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Sons of Apollo will play Feb. 6 at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City and Feb. 8 at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
