Ratt Interview

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: HEY WARREN THANKS FOR TALKING WITH ME TODAY.
Warren: Oh, you're welcome.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOUR FIRST STUDIO RECORD IN 11 YEARS, INFESTATION RELEASES ON APRIL 20TH. THIS IS YOUR SEVENTH STUDIO ALBUM IS THAT RIGHT?
Warren: It's our ninth actually, but it depends on where you start counting. We consider the EP the beginning of this line-up. We did an album that was comprised of songs that were not recorded and we did it independently, so I'm not sure if that really counts either.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS COMEBACK?
Warren: It feels really good, the material came together very naturally and we didn't get bogged down spending too much time on any one thing. It seemed to have a momentum that we've seen in the past and it was really nice. It was a great experience.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU GUYS ARE PLANNING ON COMING BACK STRONGER THAN EVER.
Warren: We had a really good time last year. We toured for the 25th Anniversary of Out of the Cellar and we did that in its entirety. It's our first time hitting the road with Carlos Cavazo on guitar and it was a really good experience. We are looking forward to doing it again with new material.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: SO FAR YOU HAVE ONE SINGLE CALLED "BEST OF ME." I KNOW IT HAS ALREADY HIT THE AIRWAVES. WHAT HAS BEEN THE REACTION?
Warren: The reaction has been really great. There has been really great support from the fans that have been waiting for this and believe it or not from the skeptics that really didn't think this would amount to much. We are very pleased with the way that it's going.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE YOUR LAST ALBUM. WHAT DID YOU DO DIFFERENTLY ON THIS ALBUM THAT YOU HAD NOT DONE ON ANY OF THE PREVIOUS ONES?
Warren: It wasn't so much that we did anything differently, it was just that we sort of decided on going with the approach to records like Out of the Cellar and Invasion of Your Privacy in the sense that we tried to keep it high energy and bright. You know the twin guitar sound and the double lead sound that Robbin Crosby and I came up with in the early 80's? That kind of stuff as opposed to really exploring and trying to find colors that we've never used before. That was about the only thing going in.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: WHAT WAS IT ABOUT MICHAEL "ELVIS" BASKETTE THAT MADE YOU THINK HE WAS THE RIGHT PRODUCER FOR THIS RECORD?
Warren: What was great about Michael for this was that Michael was a fan and he actually saw "Round and Round" on MTV at the time. Michael brought a consciousness from a fan perspective and equally from a production perspective so it was a great sort of lighthouse for us to know which way to go at times.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: HOW DID IT COME TO BE THAT CARLOS CAVAZO OF QUIET RIOT JOINED THE BAND?
Warren: Well you know we were in a situation where the guitarist spot opened up, but it wasn't the first time. Carlos has been in the band a year now. A couple years before that we were in a situation where we thought we were going to have to do it so he was at the top of my list back then. In between that time I ran into Vinnie Appice, we were catching up and he mentioned that he was doing a project with Carlos so I got Carlos's number from him, but I didn't use it for two years. The situation came up again and I still had it in my phone so I was like "Here goes." I called him and I probably hadn't talked to him in twenty years.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: IT'S A GOOD THING HE DIDN'T CHANGE HIS NUMBER.
Warren: (Laughing) Yeah, it was really funny. We didn't announce it or anything, but there were other guitarists down there as well. Ozzy was rehearsing in the room to the left of us and George Lynch was rehearsing to the right of us. I think we played maybe half a song with Carlos and I'm not even sure we played with the other people that came down because Zakk, George, Carlos and I were in a sewing circle for about six hours talking about guitars. We hadn't seen each other in years so it was more like a reunion than an audition.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU WILL BE RETURNING TO THE LEGENDARY SUNSET STRIP ON APRIL 20TH TO CELEBRATE THE RELEASE OF THE NEW ALBUM. HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE YOU PLAYED THE STRIP?
Warren: We did some holiday stuff and played at the House of Blues last December. It's been 25 years since we've played that club. We are going back to 1980 or 1981. That club (The Key Club) used to be called Gazzarri's. We just finished our second tour and I'll never forget coming back from that and on the radio was an ad for Gazzarri's. It was Bill Gazzarri and he would get on there and say "Come to Gazzarri's. We have great bands that play on the same stage that The Doors, Van Halen and Ratt started." I was on my way home from that tour and I was like "Wow!" What a long, strange trip it's been.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I CAN'T WAIT TO GO. THEY SAY THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A STAR-STUDDED EVENT.
Warren: I'm really looking forward to playing these new songs live and in the moment.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I NOTICED THERE ARE NOT MANY TOUR DATES ON YOUR PAGE. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR TOURING IN SUPPORT OF THIS ALBUM?
Warren: The only thing that is set at the moment is Europe. We are starting out with the Sweden Rock Fest on June 10th and we are really excited about that. We've got probably five or six weeks of festivals, some of our own shows and some special guest stuff. I probably shouldn't say, but we are going to be the special guest on a few shows by some guys who are dressed really sharp.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: THAT'S AWESOME! HOW MUCH OF THE OLDER MUSIC WILL YOU PLAY ON THIS TOUR OR ARE YOU GOING TO PLAY MOSTLY THE NEW MATERIAL?
Warren: I would guess it will be a real decent amount of the new stuff. One of the things that we try to keep in mind was how these songs were going to play live. The technology in the studio allows for an infinite amount of tracks as well as the unlimited amount of stuff you can do. Sometimes, you can paint yourself into a corner where it is hard to reproduce what you do live because you used something to create a texture. It's very hard to duplicate. That was not the case on this; it was designed to be road worthy.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I HAVE BEEN NOTICING THAT A LOT OF THE KIDS THESE DAYS ARE REALLY INTO ROCK FROM THE 80'S. YOU WILL PROBABLY SEE A LOT MORE OF THE YOUNGER KIDS AT THE SHOWS NOW.
Warren: I've seen a lot more younger kids at the shows. Everyone that was following the band when we started now have young adults. It's a trip to look out there and see.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I THINK IT'S COOL TO SEE THE KIDS WALKING AROUND WITH THE RATT T-SHIRTS ON.
Warren: I do too and it's really cool to see my daughter like the stuff that I liked back then. We do agree on some stuff and it's neat. I was on tour last summer and she bought the Guitar Hero game and was telling me how much she liked it. When I came back she was like "You've got to try it." I was like "No, I don't want to try it." She said "You have to try it, we are going to play Round and Round and I'm going to beat you." And she did. I'm playing Round and Round with my daughter on a game for music that I wrote twenty five years ago and she's killing me.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: IT'S A LOT DIFFERENT THAN REALLY PLAYING.
Warren: It is and it isn't. I have to say I really liked it. I think it is a very healthy thing. It sort of does line up to certain things that apply when you get the real thing. I also like that you inadvertently get sort of used to reading because of the way the fret board comes at you. It is a little bit similar to sheet music. I think it's a great thing.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU JOINED RATT WHEN YOU WERE EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD. IS THAT THE ONLY BAND YOU HAVE PARTICIPATED IN OR HAVE YOU HAD OTHER SIDE PROJECTS OVER THE YEARS?
Warren: I had a couple of bands in high school. One was called The Plague, we had a few originals and did a few covers. I think it was probably the gig with that band that got me in RATT because I was friends with Jake E. Lee and he got my group to open for RATT in Burbank. That went really well because the drummer of my band recorded a live broadcast of Ozzy that he did in the U.K. That broadcast had an unreleased song on it from their forthcoming record called Diary of a Madman and the song was "Believer." My band learned it and it was kind of our thing, we had an unreleased Ozzy song in our repertoire. When we played that when we opened for RATT, it got an especially good reaction. Of course, Randy Rhoades was from Burbank. It was killer and I joined RATT about three weeks later.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU ALSO DID A LITTLE TOURING WITH WHITESNAKE DURING THE TEMPORARY BREAK-UP.
Warren: Oh that's right, I did.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I REMEMBER THE VIDEO FOR "ROUND AND ROUND" PLAYING ON MTV. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS AS FAR AS MAKING VIDEOS FOR THE NEW ALBUM?
Warren: We have one, its shot and on its final edit now. I really like it and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I usually have to get used to stuff like that. I liked this video right away. I'm really anxious for it to come out and I think that's very soon.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I PUT IT OUT THERE TO YOUR FANS THAT I WAS DOING THE INTERVIEW. I RECEIVED A REALLY GOOD RESPONSE; YOU HAVE A LOT OF FANS OUT THERE.
Warren: Oh right on.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I PICKED A FEW OF THE QUESTIONS THEY WANTED ANSWERED.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR HOBBIES?
Warren: My brother gave me a camera for my birthday a couple years ago. On the road I have been getting into taking photos and it's really fun. If I have enough time, I like to do home improvement stuff, which gets me right to the edge. I think photography would be at the top of my hobbies. While touring you get the opportunity to shoot a lot of beautiful scenery. I also like to shoot on site gig stuff or whatever is interesting at the time. The last time we played in New Mexico, I remember I got some dramatic photos of canyons and mountains.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: IS IT TRUE THAT STEPHEN PEARCY SANG COUNTRY FOR A BIT?
Warren: I haven't heard that one. I was doing a shoot with an old friend of mine who has been in the business for years. He told me that his neighbor co-wrote a song that Ronnie Dio recorded when he was starting out and that was a country song. That tripped me out, but no I have never heard Stephen Pearcy singing country.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: HOW LONG WAS JAKE E. LEE IN RATT?
Warren: He was in RATT for about a year and a half.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW WARREN. IT WAS A REAL HONOR AND PLEASURE TALKING WITH YOU.
Shauna, I had a great time and thanks for telling me about the fans. It's really nice to hear and it makes all the difference when the going gets tough. It's really the fans that are keeping it going.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU ALWAYS HAVE MY SUPPORT.
Come on down, we are playing the 20th if it's not too far for you.


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Tags:  Ratt, Warren De Martini , Warren De Martini (Guitar), interviews

SHAUNA O'DONNEL    March 08, 2010