Send to a friend

While the ‘80s were certainly good to the Canadian rock outfit Loverboy as they rocked the charts with one memorable hit after another (“Turn Me Loose,” “Working for the Weekend,” “Hot Girls in Love,” “Heaven in Your Eyes” and many others), the band proves with their first studio album in more than a decade that its title JUST GETTING STARTED says it all.

While grunge and boy bands supplanted the pure rock spectacle that Loverboy was known for throughout the ‘90s and after, their new release puts them back at the top of their game with a super-charged ten-song disc that won’t disappoint old fans and will likely earn them brand new one’s as well.

In iF’s second of its two-part exclusive interview with Loverboy lead singer and co-songwriter Mike Reno, he discusses the inception of the band and its journey to finding its true voice during the ‘80s.

iF MAGAZINE: It seems like you were marketed many different ways in the beginning – first as New Wave, then rock and roll and then a “power ballad” band.

RENO: On the very first album, we did what we wanted to do. We put four different styles of music on that album. There was reggae, there some pop-rock and punk-rock, there was a mixture of punk and pop and there were some power ballads. So we were testing to see what people would like that we played and certainly after, the record companies started saying “well, this song sold really well, why don’t you write a whole bunch of other songs like this.” Then they started getting so pushy with us and telling us what to do. One time, they asked us before we recorded an album, they said “give us something new, that’s completely different.” And we recorded a whole album of completely different stuff, they said, “this doesn’t sound like Loverboy.” And I looked at [guitarist] Paul [Dean] and said “these guys are out of their minds, do they not realize how much money and time it takes to record a whole album.”

iF: Did that album ever come out?

RENO: It ended up turning into LOVIN' EVERY MINUTE OF IT. At that point, we started using some outside writers, which we never did before. I got frustrated and said, "I’m not playing this game, I’m going fishing. You guys tell me what you want to do. Put together whatever songs you want and send it to them and we’ll record them.” So that kind of took the life out of me. After awhile, I said, “this is a joke. They don’t even know what they’re doing and they’re in charge.” Nowadays, because they’re not in charge anymore, we’re in charge and we’re putting out music we write and like. And it shows when you listen to it and it shows it’s actually good and people are liking it because it’s what we want to do.

iF: Is it satisfying that the songs you did in the ‘80s don’t sound dated and have taken on this whole other life? You hear them on the radio and they still sound fresh and they’re used all the time in the movies. A whole new generation gets to rediscover Loverboy every five or six years.

RENO: That’s the most satisfying thing about having a song that withstands the test of time. We’re noticing now that our live audience is younger and a lot of it is, every movie you watch, there’s a Loverboy song in it. These kids come to these concerts to see if the band is any good and they come the next time and the next time and we look out in the audience and it’s twenty-year -lds and they’re just rockin’ and having a good time.

iF: Did you do okay in your dealings with your record label in the '80s?

RENO: With Columbia Records, Loverboy cut one of the best deals in the business, second to only Michael Jackson, who had the best deal in the record business as far as how much you get per record. We had always done well and we kept most of our publishing ourselves. They tried to steal it off us. They got some of it and we ended up getting some of it back. We own the majority of our publishing. We actually did okay, because we had managers that were looking out for us and they cut a really good deal right from the beginning. And that was also back in the day when people went out and bought the albums because there was no other alternative. This is before you could download. We were fortunate that we were in the era when people bought record. We used to go triple, five, six times platinum. Nowadays you don’t see that hardly at all. If you take the CD off the internet for free, there’s no accounting for that. So let’s say, a million people steal it, you don’t get a platinum album. It’s a total wank, what happened there. Nowadays, a million people will come to your show because they love your CD, even though they didn’t pay for it. But what people don’t understand is they’re putting bands out of business. The bands they love are going to go for broke. That’s why I said, let’s almost give it to them for free. Let’s make sure they actually buy it. I feel really bad for younger bands who don’t have a catalog like we do, because if they don’t sell any records, how can they tour. If people really think about it, if they don’t have  themselves and actually buy these records, instead of stealing them, they’re going to put the record business out of business. Whose going to be a recording artist if you can’t sell records. It’s not like we’re trying to get rich and buy a house on the beach, we’re trying to be popular so we can tour. And if people don’t buy anything, you have to close the tent and find another thing to do in your life.

iF: It seems like it’s a problem that isn’t going to go away that easily.

RENO: A lot of people are now considering and I’m almost there, the CD is a promotional tool.  It’s almost like giving it away like a promo picture. If everybody gets it, then at least they come to the concerts and buy a T-shirt. A lot of people in the industry. I’m almost there, I’m almost giving it away, but I have to be able to pay for the recording costs. You can’t record for free. You have to pick up some reward. And writing songs isn't easy, especially writing hit songs.

iF: What broke up the band originally?

RENO: The band never broke up. After the record company was jacking us around and radio stations stopped playing rock and roll,  Paul and I took a motorcycle ride up the coast and discussed what we wanted to do, and said “why don’t we just go fishing a couple of years until these people get their shit together.” Radio stations stopped playing rock. They were playing Backstreet Boys and boy bands and all the radio stations jumped on it. It left groups like Cheap Trick, Journey and ZZ Top. Then they decided to get their act together and radio formed a Classic Rock station. The record labels however did not come to their senses, so we didn’t even do another record for Columbia. So we sat back, went on tour, played out catalog and had a lot of fun. So we went out and earned a living for the last fifteen playing our classic catalog and having a hell of a good time doing it.

iF: What was the impetus of getting back in the studio?

RENO: One, I had something to say. I had to get it out. It’s better than going to a therapist. The other thing, our fans finally said, “okay, this is the fifteenth year you’ve come through out town, we haven’t heard any new songs lately, what's they deal.” I tried to explain to them that “why, no one buys them.” Then I finally got over my cynicism, if we record this, and work with an independent label, we can use the Internet and our fanbase. So we have a fan base we actually communicate it with. So not only are we promoting ourselves, the fans are digging it and they’re helping promote it. They’re helping us promote the new record, because we did a new record and they happen to love the new record.

iF: You said you recorded 35 songs for your new album, will some of these songs end up on another record?

RENO: They’re sitting there all recorded and ready to go. I’m not saying I would release those. What I am saying, out of the 35 songs, we had a panel of six of us who were involved in writing and producing the record, the deal was, if it wasn’t a hit song, it wouldn’t be on the record and if it wasn’t a radio friendly song, it wasn’t going to go on the record. That was the toughest job of the whole process to get 35 songs to 10 and a lot of the really good songs got left off this record. I’m not sure what we’ll do with them, but they’re there, we’ve recorded them. What I did want to make sure, the ten songs that made this record, they’re ten, extremely well crafted and well performed songs, so when you buy Loverboy’s new CD, you like every song on the CD, you like every song on the CD. When does that ever happen?

iF: I always thought it was cool that “Almost Paradise,” became such a huge, huge hit.

RENO: Do you know that album [to FOOTLOOSE] sold nearly 30 million copies because it was such a good movie, everyone bought the soundtrack. That was a fabulous song because it took about an hour to do the whole song. That was just me and Anne Wilson [of Heart]. It was produced by Keith Olson. He had the music track roughed in. Anne and I got together, sang right into the same microphone, did it once and said “see you later.”

10302-10322

---