With a name so heavy like an anvil, with a history so long like a river, with a legacy so monumental and legendary, Riot V is coming to Greece and Cyprus, excited to play old-fashioned, old-school American heavy metal! “Mean Streets” was a maelstrom of melodic power metal and Riot V are now ready to take us by storm! Athens, Thessaloniki, Agrinio, Trikala and Nicosia, are you ready to taste steel? Myth of Rock, some days before these big live shows, talked with the great singer of the band, Todd Michael Hall, just to get prepared for the upcoming wild ride!
by Dimitris Zacharopoulos
Todd, Riot V released a new album, “Mean Streets”, some months ago. How do you see this album now?
It seems that the fans received it quite well. We had a lot of excitement about it, we really enjoyed it. We had set as a goal that the album would have kind of a diverse sound. It’s obviously all within the Riot’s heavy metal world, we wanted some old-school stuff, we wanted some pounders, some stuff with emotion in it as well. I think we have a very good mix of songs, and then we worked hard for a good sound mix too and I think the people really liked it very much. We recorded the drums, but we didn’t like the mix, so we got back to the studio and recorded the drums all over again. We went through three different mixes, and we finally had the mix that sounded well.
If you had the chance now, would you change something to the album now?
No, not really, I don’t have any post feelings about that album, like I wish it could be different. No, I don’t think so.
Let’s say that someone hasn’t heard the new album of Riot V. How would you describe this album to him?
You know, Riot has a really long history, I would describe this history. There are different kinds of fans, you’ve got some people who started with Riot in the early days and some other people who didn’t discover Riot until some of the other phases. It’s a simple fact, we are Riot V and with me as a singer it’s the fifth chapter of Riot. We are the current reincarnation of Riot, we touch all the phases of the band, especially since we have Mike Flyntz (guitar) and Don Van Stavern (bass) in the band, there is a link with the previous eras of Riot … I would say that we are firmly rooted to the – what I call – power metal side of the band, you know, the stuff you hear on the “Thundersteel” era. So, if you are a fan, who has heard only the initial Riot and not the “Thundersteel” era – I am not sure how possible that is, I would probably tell you we are a bit different than we used to be. But I have met people, even in Greece, who tell me that “Inishmore” is their favorite album and they really fell in love with Riot during the Mike DiMeo era! I can see that too and I understand that for some people Riot V may feel a bit different, yet I think that all these are sides of the same band. Half of the new album is written by Mike and the other half by Donnie, I can tell the difference in their style. When I hear a song, I say “ahh, that’s a Mike song”, Mike tends to have a more epic style that reminds me more of the Mike DiMeo era, while Donnie tends to be more on the power metal side of things, that’s his physical inclination. Of course, both of them can write stuff in the old-school style. If you look at the song “Love Beyond the Grave”, that riff reminds me of something from the Rhett Forrester era, like “Hard Lovin’ Man” (from the “Restless Breed” album) or something, it’s a great riff. Donnie and I write “Lean into It”, which sounds to me more like “Overdrive” (from the “Rock City” album) or something … I think true Riot fans really appreciate all the different eras.
How is the tour going until now?
It is going really well, we have played quite a few shows, we have these ten more coming up and we will be done for the year. I think the total is around 40 shows that we’ve played and, yes, it is going pretty well, the people have responded well. We had some good shows in Europe in May, and then June, we played a couple shows in Japan, then July we played in South America, it was fun too. We played in five different countries in South America and then Mexico, we skipped Paraguay due to some vaccine requirements that we didn’t know about, until we were trying to fly there the same day. The last time we played in South America we played in three countries, that we had also visited before, we had a great time, people were singing along, I was surprised that the fans knew even “Take Me Back” and some other songs from the “Unleash the Fire” album, released in 2016. In this trip I felt like there were more people, the clubs a little bigger and nicer, we had a lot of excitement and the funny part was that the people were singing the lyrics, even from the “Mean Streets” album. We have three albums with me on vocals, as Riot V, and I feel we are growing, the impact we have on people is getting bigger and that was exciting to see.
Which was your favorite concert from the current tour, until now?
Ohh … I felt that we did a really good job at the Rock Hard Festival, that one really sticks out for me. We had played there in 2016, and it’s kind of interesting, because it was at the end of the tour, we ended up not getting any sleep, before we got on stage. We got on stage mid afternoon, and we felt that we kicked butt. When you are close to the end of the tour, you are gelling together and firing on all cylinders, even though you are feeling much tired. I think this one was the same … We actually got really blessed by the Festival too, because they gave us the spot right before the headliner, which was a pretty nice spot for us. It started getting dark during our set, you could see the lights and everything. I felt that we did a great job and I am proud of it. And it was cool, because they had all the cameras, they did a great job editing, showing it all with multiple camera angles. You can see the whole thing online, it has been a couple of months now, but they have reposted it and you can see the entire performance.
Which are your feelings now, some days before your Greek mini-tour?
I am really excited about Greece. This time we are going to visit a couple of cities that we never visited before, so that is pretty exciting, and I am looking forward to it, we always have a great time in Greece. I love the food, … and it’s funny growing up here – I live in a small town in Michigan, it’s not very big, you know, 50,000 people – so, my exposure to Greek food is a little limited … I remember the first time going to Greece, I was saying “ahh, I don’t know much about Greek food!”, but man, we went there in a restaurant, next to the Eightball club in Thessaloniki, I can’t remember the name, the owner loves heavy metal and he always serves us great meals. In our first time there, it was awesome, awesome food. So, I love that part, I love the visuals of Greece, the water and the buildings and the people, they are so warm and friendly and man, they sing along! We have so many memories of them singing along so loud to our songs! I have been in Greece with Burning Starr and Riot V, so yeah, I am definitely looking forward to returning to Greece, I am sure it is going to be exciting again.
What should the Greek fans expect from you and these shows in Greece?
Well, probably a continuation of what we are trying to do. We are trying to do a fair amount of Riot V, but then also, touch on the other eras. You know, that’s hard, since we have seventeen albums, it’s pretty hard to touch on everything. We do tend to be based more on the power metal era, so you are going to listen to many songs in the style of “Thundersteel”, we will try to play at least six songs from the Riot V era. We will drop some old songs, and will try to play at least one song from each era of the band. It’s tough! We have ten shows in eleven days, we say to ourselves “We will play only fifteen songs in each show”, so I tell the guys, “Take it easy, I can’t sing this much every night!”. And it’s hard, because we have the fans over there, so excited at the end of the show and we go, “What else can we play?!”, ha-ha, and finally we play three-four more songs! … Yes, it’s hard for us to stop, we do it for the love of being on stage and performing, you know, it’s a passion project for us, not something that brings so much money to us, it’s more for the love of music and playing live for the people.
How do you feel continuing the name, the history and the legacy of Riot?
I take it very seriously. I really, really enjoy that aspect of it, I see it as a kind of blessing. The fact that we are doing all these shows, is the result of this legacy, which brings us back. There is a ton of bands nowadays, it’s hard to get known, I know that from my work with other bands and even my solo projects and stuff. It’s tough to be noticed by fans, it’s tough to have them in your live show. That aspect of Riot is a blessing. What we are trying to do is to do the best we can, to continue on the legacy in the way Mark Reale would want. I had never met Mark, I didn’t know him, but I feel I kind of know him, from all the stories the guys have told me. I know he was a man of faith, right from the first album Riot had the phrase “shine on!”. Mark had, what I call, a very positive vibe, he was never one these negative people, in his music, and that’s an aspect I always liked in Riot’s music, it fits my personality. My style of singing is really appreciated by Riot, they like clean singers and that’s what I am. I feel I am blessed being in this band, it feels I meant to be in Riot.
Todd, what is more difficult, to satisfy the old fans or to win new fans?
That is a tough one! To me there are some people that I don’t really consider them fans any more, as they say “the only Riot is the original Riot”, but even that gets somehow confusing, these people say that Riot starts from this album and stops at that album, some albums with Guy Speranza, another album with Rhett and then suddenly it stops … to me, ignoring the “Thundersteel” album is ridiculous! This album had a lot of impact to a lot of people. But I get it, I won’t sit and debate it. If you ask me whether we are going to win these anti-“Thundersteel” people or not, well, it isn’t going to happen, I don’t worry myself about that! What we are trying to do is to offer the true Riot fans something that is professional and serious. The funny thing is that people ask us how often we rehearse. The answer is that we rehearse a lot on our own! So, when we get together, we really don’t need to rehearse a lot! I know from my younger days and my previous bands all these lazy musicians, who try to learn the songs, when the band meets to practice. We don’t mess around with that. The guys in Riot are so professional, they show up to play the songs. If we haven’t played a song, we play it together a couple of times and that’s it. So, i wouldn’t say we want to win over the old fans, but we want to maintain our fan base… to me, the old Riot fans, whom I call the traditional Riot fans, have this expectation that Riot is of a certain caliber, so we try to reach that level every time. As far as the new fans, I believe that if some people, who don’t know Riot, walk in and see a band that kicks ass, they will become fans too. I don’t know, in our minds people aren’t differentiated. To us it is a crowd of people, who want to hear great music, we want to get out and play for all these people. That’s how we see it.
Have you started writing songs for the next Riot V album?
Ahhh, not so much … there are always some songs that you talked about and that you didn’t finish for the previous album. I think there are a couple of those. Both Donnie and Mike that musically speaking, they have some new songs. What usually happens is that they will give us their songs in demo form, I will get these demos, I will listen to them and try to write down the lyrics and the vocal melodies. Sometimes Donnie writes his own lyrics, so he shoots to me these songs and I practice my singing on them … I don’t have any of those, I don’t have any demos from the guys.
You released “Mean Streets” via Reigning Phoenix Music. Are you going to release also the next Riot V album via RPM?
Ohh, that’s not for me to say. That’s Donnie’s decision. We had some internal disagreements about what we thought it would be the best way to go, about the label. It’s not that I don’t like Atomic Fire or Reigning Phoenix Music, the people are all nice, for me the proof is how many albums you sell. The music industry is tough, there is an aspect of the music industry that’s really focused only on the digital side of things. As a musician there is not much money on the digital, streaming side of things. So, you need, especially we the old-school, traditional metal people, we need to have a pretty strong emphasis on physical product sales, because that’s how you get back the money you invested in the making of the album. I don’t know if the whole thing is the best for the band, but in the end it comes down to Donnie and Mike to decide which thing is the best. It’s their decision.
OK!
I am not sure what is going to happen with the next album. I don’t remember, I think our contract was for one more album, so I don’t know what happens after “Mean Streets”… When we signed to Nuclear Blast, I am sure it was a two-album deal. I don’t know how that worked later, but when they sold and things moved around, there was a notion that people could go to Atomic Fire, if they wanted to, and that was what we did at that time. I don’t know, that is Donnie’s world, I don’t deal with the record people at all, I don’t know much about that.
What should we expect from Riot V in the future?
I don’t know, it’s tough, because we all have a lot of responsibilities outside of the music world. We definitely would like to write another album, and play more shows, that short of stuff. I am sure the show will come first, since albums are tough, albums are tough to bring together, because you have to find the time to put it all in. I am sure you can imagine that, since we don’t do this for a living, we cannot spend full time on music. Sometimes people wonder why there is a delay in the release of an album – that’s part of the reason. We can’t put unlimited time into it… we haven’t started writing a new album, but I would be surprised if we didn’t do another album. I feel that right now we are still in the “Mean Streets” phase and we still want to promote it more. When the new year comes, there will still be territories that we haven’t visited, so …
Which are your three favorite singers of all time?
Ohh, wow! Obviously I am alive for a while now, I am 55, so I am influenced by a lot of people, haha! In my younger, formative years, I had Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche and Eric Adams of Manowar as my favorite singers, they were my two absolute, biggest influences. I love Eric, how clean he is and how he can scream like an animal, … maybe not the guttural stuff some people do, but he can get a lot of rasp, which I can’t do and am jealous of. And then Geoff! To me, Geoff represents, what I call, flawless execution! He was the guy that gave me the feeling that no matter where he sings and his range, he just sounds that he goes there and sings it! He doesn’t ever sound that he is struggling to hit a note, not at his early recordings at least. That was always my goal – I want to be able to sing like I sing anywhere in my range, not to struggle to do it, except for the times I want to give some emotion to my singing. As far as my third favorite singer is concerned, well, there are so many, a ton! I remember really liking Tony Harnell from TNT, Tony Mills from Shy, the guy from Malice, his name is … hmm … James Neal, Parramore McCarty from Warrior, the guy form Q5, I can’t remember his name (Myth of Rock: Jonathan Scott K.), there are so many great singers! Even Michael Sweet from Stryper, Ronnie James Dio obviously, Bruce Dickinson!
Finally, I would like you to send a message to the Greek fans!
Hey, I would like to shout out to all our Greek fans that we are so excited to return to Greece and Cyprus, we will visit two other Greek cities we’ve never been before! We hope everybody comes out for us, we are excited to play all the songs you love as well as some new ones from the “Mean Streets” album! We are looking forward to singing along and having a great time!
Thank you so much, Todd, for answering my questions!
Thank you, Dimitris!
(photo of Todd Michael Hall by Greg Gayne/NBC)
