INTERVIEW: Tesla’s live sound captured on new ‘Full Throttle Live’ album
Photo: Tesla recently released their new live album, Full Throttle Live. Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by official site.
Tesla, one of the most cherished rock bands of the past few decades, are a mainstay of the touring circuit, making the rounds of the United States and beyond on a regular basis. For those fans who want to check out their live sound, a ticket to a gig is always a good idea, but thankfully the group has made the live experience even easier with the release of their new album, Full Throttle Live, recorded last year at the Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis, South Dakota.
The newly released recording features such songs as “Miles Away,” “Time to Rock!,” “Lazy Days Crazy Nights” and “Edison’s Medicine.” For Tesla fans, both new and old, the live album is a gift for summertime listening.
The group consists of Frank Hannon on guitar (and lots of other instruments), Brian Wheat on bass guitar (and lots of other instruments), lead singer Jeff Keith, David Rude on guitar and Steve Brown on drums. When the guys get together to play a live show, they are always recording the sound off the monitors. So, when this live album starting to come together, Wheat reached back into the archive to see what the recorded files sounded like.
“So we record every night, so every night the whole show is recorded,” Wheat said. “We thought, well, we’ll put out a track as a live track, something for the fans. So when I started listening to the performances of last year, I pulled up the Full Throttle gig that we did, and that gig was really good. So I started mixing this track, ‘Miles Away,’ which is the focus track on the album. It started to sound really good. So, why don’t we mix up a couple tracks and make it an EP? Once I dug deeper into it, every track was good, so we just kept going. And before you know it, we have what is the Full Throttle Live album. It was really simple.”
Wheat said his memories of that Sturgis gig are good ones, but honestly Tesla doesn’t have a bad night. As the bass guitarist said, this legendary band has earned a solid level of consistency in how they play.
“That just happened to be the first one I went to, to be quite honest, and there was no need to really look anymore,” Wheat said. “All of the pieces were where they needed to be, so that’s why that one came out. … There hasn’t been a studio album that really captured the band how we are live. I think the closest things were probably Psychotic Supper and Into the Now and Forever More. Those studio albums, I think, really captured closest to what we are live. … Some people are just that way. UFO were a better live band than their studio records. Their live album is amazing. I think Queen were able to do both, make it live and do it in the studio. I would say if you really want to get the essence of us, listen to a live album.”
Another major headline for the band this year was their successful Las Vegas residency at the House of Blues Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Wheat reported brisk ticket sales for the first set of shows, so much so that Tesla was invited back for another round, this one taking place Sept. 29 to Oct. 7.
“It’s been great,” Wheat said. “When we first put that thing up, we didn’t know what to expect. You’ve got to remember, we’d go to Vegas and play one night every couple of years, and to sit there and have them say we want to put five nights in the same place was pretty bold. I wasn’t really sure if we’d be able to pull it off or not and do the business, but lo and behold, I think we sold 98 percent of the tickets. And it was so well that they asked us to do an encore one, and we’re doing it in September and October, another five shows in Vegas.”
Wheat said there are pros and cons to a Vegas residency. The band is used to traveling around the United States on a regular basis, so they are in the groove of gigging and then jumping in the tour bus or catching a flight. To stay in Vegas for a set of shows, Wheat found himself sitting around for three days, almost antsy to get on the move. “I can’t say I like it or I don’t like it because I’m so used to being on a bus and moving, and that’s the first time we don’t,” he said. “So it took a little bit of getting used to.”
There are added (and welcome) challenges for Wheat as well because he’s not only the bass guitarist for Tesla; he is also involved behind the scenes on albums, like when he mixed the songs on Full Throttle Live, and he also manages the band, a herculean effort.
“Yeah, I’m not the lead singer,” he said. “I’m not the lead guitar player, but what I do is pretty important as well because I manage the band. And I do mix it. I don’t produce the band because it’s too difficult for one of us to sit there and say, ‘Let me produce,’ because you have to realize we all started in the garage together — me, Frank and Jeff. And it’s hard for one of us to tell the other one, ‘Well, I think we should do it this way.’ … [For] our live album, it’s easy to do it because we’ve already done the performance. It’s just mixing it. They let me do that, and they like the way I do that. So that’s good. I enjoyed doing it, and I think it sounds really good. The people are commenting that they like it, so that’s nice.”
Wheat added this about managing the band: “I do it because it’s hard to let someone else do it because no one does it the way that we would like it to be done, and I do it from a totally objective point of view and what I feel is best for the band, not for what other agenda may be there at the time or whatever.”
Tesla have no plans to stop, and Wheat said that even with the constant touring, he loves his life on the road.
“I like playing,” he said. “I don’t like traveling that much with a bunch of people and trying to coordinate all that. That can be nerve-wracking at times, but the concert, when we get on the stage and we play, that’s the fun part. So, that never gets old. Sometimes being in airports and on a bus and stuff can get old, but it’s the life I live. It’s my career. It’s what I’ve done for 40 years, so I don’t complain about it. I’m not going to stop.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Tesla’s new album is called Full Throttle Live. Click here for more information.
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