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Recently, acclaimed Tesla guitarist Frank Hannon, always a man of many words and interesting stories, was kind enough to take a break from hisdecidedly hectic schedule to speak with us regarding, among many other things, the release of the group’s latest highly anticipated effort Real To Reel…
Todd: I understand the group recently underwent a line-up change. Care to give us a little background information on how everything '...went down...'?
Frank Hannon: “…We’ve been through a lot of changes over the years. A lot of ups and downs and a lot of hard times. We’ve found a new guy who’s now officially in the band. His name is Dave Rude. …I have a solo band and Tesla was kinda docked, ya know? Like a big ship that was just kinda stuck at the dock. So I really had to go out and bust my ass with my solo band, playing night clubs in my motor home…promoting my solo album. I had another guitar player in my solo band that was a younger guy…like twenty three years old. There was a big age difference there and he wanted to do his own Punk Rock thing. I knew in my mind that I had to find a guitar player for Tesla. I was fuckin’ tired of not having Tesla out to sea, so to speak, ya know? So I started searching. I auditioned a couple of guys down in L.A.. I auditioned some really pretty decent guitar players, but I was looking for the right chemistry and someone who could have rhythm and soul in their playing. I just happened to find Dave Rude by accident on MySpace. I was searching MySpace for this band called The Ruffians out of the Bay Area that I knew from the ‘80’s. I found Dave’s picture on there, clicked on it and started listening to his tunes. I thought he sounded fantastic, so I contacted him and asked him if he’d be interested in going out on a Frank Hannon Band tour playing clubs in Ohio and the Midwest, ya know? I didn’t mention Tesla at first. He was really freaking’ cool. His personality was positive, he was really hungry…and so he came out, kicked ass and blew me away. I was so excited. I called the guys and said ‘…guess what…I found a guy who’s really gonna kick ass for us…’. So he toured with us all of last Summer because (original guitarist) Tommy (Skeoch) had his family…he had a new baby. …It was just better for both parties…for Tommy and Tesla both. There were just too many problems. It’s just better for everybody.”
Todd: Have you had the opportunity to do any songwriting with Dave?
Frank: “He’s always jammin’ on the bus and…I’ve heard a few of his ideas and they sound great. (Bassist) Brian (Wheat) has written with Dave and collaborated on a couple of tunes. I’ve shown Dave some of the ideas that I have in mind and he’s added some little twists in there, so yeah, unofficially, we’ve collaborated and jammed. But we haven’t actually recorded any new songs yet. We’re very excited to do that.”
Todd: What prompted the group to record an entire album of cover material?
Frank: “Well, honestly, the truth is that we’ve been planning and talking about doing this type of thing for probably fifteen years…going back to our Five Man Acoustical Jam, which came out right after our second studio album. Five Man Acoustical Jam has a lot of covers on it, but done acoustically, so even back then, we were like ‘…man, we gotta do something for the electric numbers…’. We’ve always done covers as B-sides and we did covers in the bars, so we’ve been planning it for a long time. It just kinda developed over many years. Then, when so many bands started putting out covers albums recently, we decided that if we were gonna do one, it needed to be kick ass…it needs to be great. We’ve been doing some of these songs for years and some of them we’ve just learned.”
Todd: In hindsight, did you find it difficult to decide upon a final track listing?
Frank: “…It wasn’t hard in a sense that we came up with songs that are actually easy for us to perform. …In the end, we would pick an artist and try a few different songs by that artist…like the Deep Purple thing, ya know? I’ve played “Highway Star” in other bands, but we ended up playin’ “Space Truckin’” with Tesla. It just seemed to work the best for the team. Some of the songs we’ve played live at our concerts for years like (the Black Sabbath classic) “War Pigs”. We’ve been playing that for years. And “Rock Bottom” by UFO. Brian and I have been playin’ that for years…since our first cover band back in high school. We tried the songs out live during our Electric Summer tour last year and the ones that worked great are the ones that survived. Some of them just fell by the wayside.”
Todd: Did you record any material for Real To Reel that ultimately didn’t make the final cut?
Frank: “Yeah. Before we came up with the concept of analog, we had digitally recorded some material which is going to end up on our box set. We had recorded that material digitally, but then we came up with the concept about a year ago to do it on reel to reel tape. So we found a studio in Texas called Sonic Ranch that had all of the old school equipment. From all of the Sonic Ranch sessions, only one song didn’t make it. It’s crossed out on the packaging. If you look closely at the song credits, you’ll see one of them is crossed out. I think it was (the Blues Image classic) “Ride Captain, Ride” or something. We tried it and it just really sucked. If we played a song once or twice and it didn’t sound good, we just scrapped it. …That’s the one thing that we’re really proud of…that we took the time to pick some tracks that are unique and really different that will maybe expose some people to something a little different. …Honestly, (the Rolling Stones classic) “Honky Tonk Woman” was the only one that is the most obvious. …And it’s funny…because it barely made it onto the record. Brian and I were very against that one, but we try to have a democracy and we took a vote. That one barely made it on and it’s probably the most obvious track.”
Todd: As far as individual performances, is there a particular track that stands out as your favorite?
Frank: “For me, on a personal note, it would be “Rock Bottom” as far as guitar playing is concerned because (former Scorpions/UFO guitarist) Michael Schenker was a real challenge to play. Overall, (the Uriah Heep classic) “Stealin’” for (frontman) Jeff Keith’s vocals and (the Led Zeppelin classic) “Thank You”. Jeff Keith, for me, really stands out on the whole album.”
Todd: What can you tell us about the box set? At this point, has a release date been set?
Frank: “There’s no official release date. We have a target date for Christmas. We’re hoping for Christmas, but honestly, we want it to be filled with a lot of video footage…demos and stuff. I really can’t comment because we’re gonna try and cram it with material going back all the way to like 1982. …Brian and I started the band Earth Shaker when I was like fifteen and he was like eighteen. We’ve got some Earth Shaker demos that we wanna put out. We wanna make it like a time machine.”
Todd: Do you have any plan to ultimately sell Reel To Real, Vol.2 within a traditional retail setting?
Frank: “Probably next year or the year after. We’re definitely gonna include it in the package. We wanted to give people the option. If we would have included it in the package for people to buy at stores, it would have been really expensive. We’re givin’ ‘em away at the shows (with the purchase of a ticket) and it’s cool because people get to take something home with them even if they don’t buy a shirt. What’s cool now is when we do autographs, people bring their Reel To Real that they bought at the store and then they can put the second CD in. Actually, last night, we did an autograph session and that was the first time I had seem both reels in the package at once where it looks like an actual tape machine. It’s freakin’ cool looking. …It’s kinda like a little collector’s piece. It’s pretty neat.”
Todd: What was the main motivating factor behind the formation of Tesla Electric Company Recordings? I would imagine the group’s less than stellar dealings with Sanctuary Records weighed heavily on the decision…
Frank: “Well, that did motivate us. I don’t wanna get into any negativity about Sanctuary, but…what prompted us was many years of workin’ for the man. These days, it’s different, ya know? You don’t need to have a big label. We don’t need to be developed, ya know? We’re already developed. We’ve already paid our dues. We were just tired of getting ripped off.”
Todd: It must feel great to finally have the opportunity to put some of the profits back into your own pockets…
Frank: “Yeah, we spent our own money to make the records, so we should be able to recoup it on our own terms. I have my own friends that do artwork. I don’t like having someone tell me that I can’t do something creatively, ya know? All the artwork and the liner notes? We did that all ourselves, ya know? And it’s the best lookin’ stuff we’ve ever done. …A song like “Rock Bottom” has a really long guitar solo. In the past, I would have had record companies telling me ‘…you can’t do that…’. So fuck that. Right now, we’re at a point where we wanna do everything that we wanna do. Life’s too short.”
Todd: What are your current touring plans? How important is it that the public at large become re-familiarized with the Tesla “brand name”?
Frank: “We are planning on going overseas in July to do a festival with Aerosmith. We’re currently headlining our own shows. We’re playing anything from two thousand seat House Of Blues type venues to twenty thousand seat outdoor festivals. …We’re gonna play selectively. The Midwest is a big area for us. I’m not really part of the management stuff, but yeah, our goal is to try and get out as much as we can. But we wanna try and keep it in places where our fans can enjoy the shows.”
Todd: What type of set list have you been working with?
Frank: “…That’s another cool thing. Now that there’s so many songs to choose from and we’ve listened to our fans on the website complain about how we used to always play the same set, this year we’re changing it up. We’re digging into the archives and playing songs that are like relics and we’re changing the order of our set. We’re totally going for it. In the past, it was more comfortable for us to play the same set every night because you know what to expect and you get really rehearsed at it. But now we’ve rehearsed multiple tunes and we have a different set every night. Over the past six shows that we’ve done, the set list has been different every night, varying with different song. And it’s gonna get even more varied as time goes on. We’re gonna pull off deep tracks like “Freedom Slave” and some different songs off the albums that people haven’t heard before.”
Todd: At this point, have you found yourself growing tired of playing (the Five Man Electric Band classic) “Signs” every night?
Frank: “…Absolutely not. And I’ll tell you why: it’s because that song is a great freakin’ song. The lyrics are fuckin’ killer and it’s just a really good song. Now if it had been some cheesy Pop song, some song that we were embarrassed about, then yes, we would be like ‘…oh my God, why do we have to play this shit?’. But because it’s such a great song, I never get tired of that one.”
Todd: Will there ever be a second Moon Dog Mane album?
Frank: “Absolutely not. …I’m actually really proud of the album. I produced it and recorded it myself on a reel to reel eight track machine in my basement. The singer (Brodie Stewart) and I had a real brief burst of creativity, but there were too many personality conflicts that will prevent that band from every reuniting. That should have just been a Frank Hannon solo album because I produced it, wrote all the songs and did all the work. It was my first work separate from Tesla. Since then, I’ve done an album called Guitarz From Marz. I’m probably always gonna do solo albums. I’ve got an acoustic Classical solo album that I’m gonna do…with a lot of finger picking and a lot of Classical elements. But honestly, I just wanna focus on keepin’ Tesla floatin’ like a big cruise ship (laughs). I just wanna focus on Tesla.”
Todd: Can your fans expect a new Tesla studio album in 2008?
Frank: “You can definitely expect one by Summertime or the end of 2008. …I’ve got about twenty five new riffs, ideas and arrangements that I’m working on. I know we all have a bunch…it’s just a matter of finding the time when we’re not out of tour to get together and spend two weeks recording demos. …Then we’ll take time away from that, let Jeff chew on ‘em and write lyrics, then, two weeks after that, we’ll take another two weeks and put everything together, ya know? We work in like two week increments.”
Select Discography
Real To Reel (2007) **
Standing Room Only (2005) *
Into The Now (2004) *
Replugged In (2001) *
Times Makin’ Changes: The Best Of Tesla (1995) *
Bust A Nut (1994) *
Psychotic Supper (1991) *
Five Man Acoustical Jam (1990) *
The Great Radio Controversy (1989) *
Mechanical Resonance (1986) *
* features guitarist Tommy Skeoch
** features guitarist Dave Rude