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Sebastian Bach
 Sebastian Bach is probably best known here as the original (many would argue the best and only) vocalist for Skid Row. Australian audiences were reacquainted with Bach earlier this year when he supported Guns'n'Roses on their tour, and now he has a new album out.
"It's called 'Angel Down'. There are fourteen songs and I've been working seven years on the record. The Australian fans will be familiar with the songs because we did a lot of them on tour with Guns'n'Roses. I've actually got Axl Rose singing with me on three songs on the album, Love Is a Bitchslap, Stuck Inside and Back In The Saddle."
"The band is basically the one that toured Australia, except that the drummer and the bass player are different. Bobby Jarzombek, the drummer on the album, when we came to Australia he broke his wrist!" Cue uproarious laughter from Bach. "I'm like 'Dude! What are you doing?!' So we got Jason West for the tour, who did a very, very good job but Bobby is my main drummer. We're a very tight band now."
Bach worked with noted metal producer Roy Z on 'Angel Down'. It seems a perfect match. "Well, Roy Z is really talented at producing albums by lead singers that got kicked out of their band!" More laughter ensues from Bach before he continues, "he's produced Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford and me! But he's got a great ear and he's so objective, he comes in with great ideas. I never would have thought of covering Back In The Saddle [originally by Aerosmith] but everybody loves it."
'Angel Down' is a surprisingly heavy album, musically and lyrically, and it appears this was something Bach was striving to achieve. "When Skid Row put out 'Slave To The Grind' everybody said that was a really heavy record. It was really my intention to make an album now that would make sense to somebody that loved 'Slave To The Grind' but that also had production and songs that were more current. Negative Light would be the heaviest song I've ever done. 'Angel Down' also has a couple of ballads, one that I wrote with Roy Z and one that I wrote with Desmond Child. So I think there's a lot of different kinds of sounds on the record. But the thing about heavy metal and heavy rock is that I need it to survive."
Bach turns forty next year, something that doesn't concern him in the slightest. "I look at it this way. I really survived a tough business. I think everybody knows how hard it is to succeed in rock'n'roll and to stay successful. So if I'm forty years old with a brand new record with Axl Rose singing on the album, I think I'm doing great. I think you get better as a musician as you get older. I mean The Who are still playing, Led Zeppelin are about to play. I just bought the new Neil Young CD and it's great, and this is a guy in his sixties."
As we chat about Bach's many side projects (which include Broadway musicals and acting) he provides some amusing insights about working with the egomaniacal, pro-guns and anti-drugs Ted Nugent on the reality show 'SuperGroup.' "Ted is definitely the alpha male. I always wondered why Ted had different lead singers on every one of his records but now I know why. He's the lead guy, plus he carries a gun! I'm not gonna fuck with that!" Bach exclaims as he breaks into hysterical laughter once more. "When we did one show I had this new leather outfit. I said to Ted, 'Look at this new killer new outfit dude!' He said, 'Look at my outfit' and lifted up his shirt. He had a loaded gun on stage. He brings a fucking loaded gun ON STAGE!"
Lastly, we talk about the striking cover art for 'Angel Down', which is a painting by Bach's late artist father David Bierk and leaving in effect a lasting, tangible legacy from both father and son. "I hope it's kind of fascinating to be able to look at something where the cover is done by the dad and the music by the son. It's about love, it's about family and it's very, very meaningful. If music is about emotion, how could you get more emotional than that?"
James McKenzie
'Angel Down' is out now on Caroline Records/EMI.
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