BraveWords caught up with legendary Triumph drummer/singer Gil Moore recently to talk about the star-studded tribute album, Magic Power: All Star Tribute To Triumph, which will be released on June 6th on CD with a 12 page booklet and as a double LP gatefold edition. Pre-order here.
But let’s go back where it all began. Drummer’s that also sing are a rare breed. And Gil Moore has mastered both, making Triumph a truly unique entity in the rock world with some of his most memorable moments as a vocalist include “Rock & Roll Machine”, “I Live For The Weekend”, “Allied Forces”, “When The Lights Go Down” and “Spellbound”. BraveWords asked about the history on a recent episode of Streaming For Vengeance.
BraveWords: There’s a lot of people that have issues walking and chewing gum, for example (joking). How does a drummer sing and sing in tune? And where was the influence for you to do that? Tell me about that history.
Moore: “That’s a funny story. So, I started singing because I was playing in this band when I was a teenager and the singer quit and we had a job at Honey Harbour, which is just in cottage country.”
BraveWords: I know where Honey Harbour is. I used to have family there. It’s a beautiful destination in cottage country (about two hours and 15 minutes north of Toronto).
Moore: “Yeah! And it was in one of these old fashioned wooden dance pavilions that has no windows, so it’s just like, loaded with mosquitoes in the summer. So we were going to get 100 bucks and we were not losing that 100 bucks anytime soon because we had to pay the rental on our PA and stuff like that. And so, you know, these are the days of you all piling into the back of one van. You had no crew, no roadies. You just did it all yourself. And, so I phoned a buddy of mine in another band who was a lead singer, and I said, ‘Joe, can you help me out?.’ He said, ‘What?’, and I said, ‘Well, I got to teach everybody in our band to sing all at once because our singer quit.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll come over.’ So he came to a rehearsal and he lined us all up and said, ‘Ok, let me hear you. Ok. Let me hear you. Okay. Let me hear you. Okay, you’re all terrible. Let’s see. Okay, I’m going give you this, I’m going to give you this, I’m going to you this.’ And then he did individual coaching. So with me, it was deemed that I could maybe sound somewhat remotely like John Kay from Steppenwolf, right? And so the first song he gave me was ‘Sookie Sookie,’ and he said, ‘Okay, so you can play the song, you’re fine on drums.’ And I had the microphone here. He said, ‘I’m going to get next to you. I’m going to sing the song as you’re playing drums, and on one mic together you are going to sing along with me.’ And so, you know, that’s exactly what we did. So we played ‘Sookie Sookie.’ Eventually, I could actually do it. And then he says, ‘Okay, now we’re going to do ‘Magic Carpet Ride’,’ or whatever the next song was, or, ‘We’re going to do ‘Born To Be Wild’,’ right? So, I started like that, and then I got moved over into some Hendrix songs and stuff, and he did it with each guy in the band. So, the rest is history. We went, we played, we got bitten by mosquitoes, and we got 100 bucks. So it was a great outcome. And, you know, those are the final Spinal Tap stories that, you know, bands are all familiar with. So when Triumph started, I thought, ‘Well, thank God, I don’t have to sing because Rik Emmett, he’s great.’ And so we went to the first rehearsal and after we jammed we decided he was in the band. And they looked at me and said, ‘Well, like Rik’s really high, and plus he’s really energetic on stage, and Mike’s really energetic on stage.’ So there’s a lot of, not choreography, but sort of like unbridled enthusiasm going on, on the front stage. And so to really engage the audience and do some of the things we wanted to do, we were starting to dream up lighting effects of what would happen here and what would happen there.”
“And Rik can’t just be stuck in front of his mic stand,” Moore continues. “So, Gil, over to you, you’re going to have to sing, and I’m like going, ‘No, no, I can’t.’ I thought I was done with that. And that’s exactly what happened. So we had no original songs because we were just starting. So it was like, ‘You used to sing Jimi Hendrix songs, right?,’ I went, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ So, ok, here we go, Hendrix again. And then I got some Deep Purple and so on, and Rik did all the Led Zeppelin stuff and you know, that was that was it. It was through necessity. But the benefit, I think, I didn’t figure it out until decades later – so here at Metalworks, I did a fundraiser for Baycrest, which is a dementia hospital here in Toronto, and what they had asked was, could they play our documentary for a bunch of their donors and then bring the donors to one of our auditoriums here at our school, and would I do a Q&A related to the documentary, and so on? I said, ‘Sure, let’s do it, let’s raise the money.’ And through that, I met their chief neuroscientist, a wonderful woman named Allison Sekuler. She was on the podium after my interview, and she was pointing at the video screen, and it was her playing drums on the screen. And when I asked her afterwards – she asked me, first, ‘Well, I’d like to use sounds with dementia patients,’ and I went, ‘Sure, that would be great. I’m not sure how it would work.’ We had to figure that out, but I said, ‘Why?,’ and she said, ‘Well, I think it’d be great for them. And I’ve got some ideas about how it might work.’ And I said, ‘Well, why did you take up drums? I’m curious.’ And she said because drums fire more neurones, and there’s more activity in the brain than with other instruments. The first joke I made was, ‘Well, why weren’t you singing at the same time?’ So we had a good laugh, and then I told her another four or five of my drummer jokes. Some are good, some are not so good, and we became very friendly. Talking about drums and drum jokes, and so on. And so she’s involved with the LIVELab (Large Interactive Virtual Environment Lab) at McMaster University where they’re doing amazing brain research on music in the brain, and, you know, they can put two dozen skull caps on people and test them while they’re dancing to music or listening to music or playing, performing music, or engineering music any number of these things. And she introduced me to that world and I started to realize, yeah, actually, I was lucky that I was singing because it is, as you say, like it’s another thing – your activity, your brain is doing all this stuff with your arms and hands, but you’re also remembering the words. You’re also engaged in this physical activity of trying to maintain the pitch and so on, which is really difficult to do when you’re playing drums and your guitars are blaring, your pitch kind of goes out the window a lot. Unless you’re some of these guys on the tribute album that are unbelievable world-class singers, like Deen Castronovo, for example. I mean, golly. Or Joey Belladonna – wow, there’s a singing drummer that can really sing. But, I don’t know, if you get Mike Levine with his massive bass guitar blaring in the back of your head on one side, and then Rik Emmett’s Marshall stacks over here, and you’re trying to hear what the heck you’re doing. It’s not simple. It’s a lot of fun trying.”
Watch the entire conversation below:
Magic Power: All Star Tribute To Triumph tracklisting:
“24 Hours A Day” – Sebastian Bach
“Rock & Roll Machine” – Sebastian Bach
“Magic Power” – Joey Belladonna
“Spellbound” – Mickey Thomas
“Lay It On The Line” – Dee Snider
“Somebody’s Out There” – Lawrence Gowan
“Never Surrender” – Deen Castronovo
“Hold On” – Jeff Keith
“Just One Night” – Jason Scheff
“I Live For The Weekend” – Dorothy & Tyler Connolly
“Fight The Good Fight” – Nancy Wilson
“Follow Your Heart” – Jack Blades
“Allied Forces” – Phil X
“Blinding Light Show” – Envy Of None
“Fight The Good Fight” (encore) – Dino Jelusick
“Lay It On The Line” feat. Dee Snider:
“Fight The Good Fight” feat. Nancy Wilson below:
“Rock & Roll Machine” feat. Sebastian Bach:
The post TRIUMPH’s Gil Moore Says He Learned To Sing And Play Drums From STEPPENWOLF – “It’s Not Simple, But The First Song My Buddy Gave Me To Learn Was ‘Sookie Sookie'” appeared first on BraveWords - Where Music Lives.
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But let’s go back where it all began. Drummer’s that also sing are a rare breed. And Gil Moore has mastered both, making Triumph a truly unique entity in the rock world with some of his most memorable moments as a vocalist include “Rock & Roll Machine”, “I Live For The Weekend”, “Allied Forces”, “When The Lights Go Down” and “Spellbound”. BraveWords asked about the history on a recent episode of Streaming For Vengeance.
BraveWords: There’s a lot of people that have issues walking and chewing gum, for example (joking). How does a drummer sing and sing in tune? And where was the influence for you to do that? Tell me about that history.
Moore: “That’s a funny story. So, I started singing because I was playing in this band when I was a teenager and the singer quit and we had a job at Honey Harbour, which is just in cottage country.”
BraveWords: I know where Honey Harbour is. I used to have family there. It’s a beautiful destination in cottage country (about two hours and 15 minutes north of Toronto).
Moore: “Yeah! And it was in one of these old fashioned wooden dance pavilions that has no windows, so it’s just like, loaded with mosquitoes in the summer. So we were going to get 100 bucks and we were not losing that 100 bucks anytime soon because we had to pay the rental on our PA and stuff like that. And so, you know, these are the days of you all piling into the back of one van. You had no crew, no roadies. You just did it all yourself. And, so I phoned a buddy of mine in another band who was a lead singer, and I said, ‘Joe, can you help me out?.’ He said, ‘What?’, and I said, ‘Well, I got to teach everybody in our band to sing all at once because our singer quit.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll come over.’ So he came to a rehearsal and he lined us all up and said, ‘Ok, let me hear you. Ok. Let me hear you. Okay. Let me hear you. Okay, you’re all terrible. Let’s see. Okay, I’m going give you this, I’m going to give you this, I’m going to you this.’ And then he did individual coaching. So with me, it was deemed that I could maybe sound somewhat remotely like John Kay from Steppenwolf, right? And so the first song he gave me was ‘Sookie Sookie,’ and he said, ‘Okay, so you can play the song, you’re fine on drums.’ And I had the microphone here. He said, ‘I’m going to get next to you. I’m going to sing the song as you’re playing drums, and on one mic together you are going to sing along with me.’ And so, you know, that’s exactly what we did. So we played ‘Sookie Sookie.’ Eventually, I could actually do it. And then he says, ‘Okay, now we’re going to do ‘Magic Carpet Ride’,’ or whatever the next song was, or, ‘We’re going to do ‘Born To Be Wild’,’ right? So, I started like that, and then I got moved over into some Hendrix songs and stuff, and he did it with each guy in the band. So, the rest is history. We went, we played, we got bitten by mosquitoes, and we got 100 bucks. So it was a great outcome. And, you know, those are the final Spinal Tap stories that, you know, bands are all familiar with. So when Triumph started, I thought, ‘Well, thank God, I don’t have to sing because Rik Emmett, he’s great.’ And so we went to the first rehearsal and after we jammed we decided he was in the band. And they looked at me and said, ‘Well, like Rik’s really high, and plus he’s really energetic on stage, and Mike’s really energetic on stage.’ So there’s a lot of, not choreography, but sort of like unbridled enthusiasm going on, on the front stage. And so to really engage the audience and do some of the things we wanted to do, we were starting to dream up lighting effects of what would happen here and what would happen there.”
“And Rik can’t just be stuck in front of his mic stand,” Moore continues. “So, Gil, over to you, you’re going to have to sing, and I’m like going, ‘No, no, I can’t.’ I thought I was done with that. And that’s exactly what happened. So we had no original songs because we were just starting. So it was like, ‘You used to sing Jimi Hendrix songs, right?,’ I went, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ So, ok, here we go, Hendrix again. And then I got some Deep Purple and so on, and Rik did all the Led Zeppelin stuff and you know, that was that was it. It was through necessity. But the benefit, I think, I didn’t figure it out until decades later – so here at Metalworks, I did a fundraiser for Baycrest, which is a dementia hospital here in Toronto, and what they had asked was, could they play our documentary for a bunch of their donors and then bring the donors to one of our auditoriums here at our school, and would I do a Q&A related to the documentary, and so on? I said, ‘Sure, let’s do it, let’s raise the money.’ And through that, I met their chief neuroscientist, a wonderful woman named Allison Sekuler. She was on the podium after my interview, and she was pointing at the video screen, and it was her playing drums on the screen. And when I asked her afterwards – she asked me, first, ‘Well, I’d like to use sounds with dementia patients,’ and I went, ‘Sure, that would be great. I’m not sure how it would work.’ We had to figure that out, but I said, ‘Why?,’ and she said, ‘Well, I think it’d be great for them. And I’ve got some ideas about how it might work.’ And I said, ‘Well, why did you take up drums? I’m curious.’ And she said because drums fire more neurones, and there’s more activity in the brain than with other instruments. The first joke I made was, ‘Well, why weren’t you singing at the same time?’ So we had a good laugh, and then I told her another four or five of my drummer jokes. Some are good, some are not so good, and we became very friendly. Talking about drums and drum jokes, and so on. And so she’s involved with the LIVELab (Large Interactive Virtual Environment Lab) at McMaster University where they’re doing amazing brain research on music in the brain, and, you know, they can put two dozen skull caps on people and test them while they’re dancing to music or listening to music or playing, performing music, or engineering music any number of these things. And she introduced me to that world and I started to realize, yeah, actually, I was lucky that I was singing because it is, as you say, like it’s another thing – your activity, your brain is doing all this stuff with your arms and hands, but you’re also remembering the words. You’re also engaged in this physical activity of trying to maintain the pitch and so on, which is really difficult to do when you’re playing drums and your guitars are blaring, your pitch kind of goes out the window a lot. Unless you’re some of these guys on the tribute album that are unbelievable world-class singers, like Deen Castronovo, for example. I mean, golly. Or Joey Belladonna – wow, there’s a singing drummer that can really sing. But, I don’t know, if you get Mike Levine with his massive bass guitar blaring in the back of your head on one side, and then Rik Emmett’s Marshall stacks over here, and you’re trying to hear what the heck you’re doing. It’s not simple. It’s a lot of fun trying.”
“24 Hours A Day” – Sebastian Bach
“Rock & Roll Machine” – Sebastian Bach
“Magic Power” – Joey Belladonna
“Spellbound” – Mickey Thomas
“Lay It On The Line” – Dee Snider
“Somebody’s Out There” – Lawrence Gowan
“Never Surrender” – Deen Castronovo
“Hold On” – Jeff Keith
“Just One Night” – Jason Scheff
“I Live For The Weekend” – Dorothy & Tyler Connolly
“Fight The Good Fight” – Nancy Wilson
“Follow Your Heart” – Jack Blades
“Allied Forces” – Phil X
“Blinding Light Show” – Envy Of None
“Fight The Good Fight” (encore) – Dino Jelusick
“Lay It On The Line” feat. Dee Snider:
“Fight The Good Fight” feat. Nancy Wilson below:
“Rock & Roll Machine” feat. Sebastian Bach:
The post TRIUMPH’s Gil Moore Says He Learned To Sing And Play Drums From STEPPENWOLF – “It’s Not Simple, But The First Song My Buddy Gave Me To Learn Was ‘Sookie Sookie'” appeared first on BraveWords - Where Music Lives.
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