Project Description

Interview with

LEIGH KAKATY

from

POP EVIL

by Brittany Long

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To celebrate their upcoming and first ever tour of Australia U.S. Active Rock superstars POP EVIL has released a new music video for their track “Be Legendary”. The band continues to wow fans across the U.S. on their current headline tour. “Be Legendary” marks the fourth music video the band has released from their most current self-titled album that came out last year.

In April the band will head to Australia for the first time performing for their fans in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane for a four-day back to back trek.

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So, how are you feeling about touring Australia for the first time?
Oh man excited, not excited about that long plane ride but once we get there I know we can’t wait. We’ve been waiting for so many years it seems like, to finally get a chance to play Australia and here it is 2019. So I know the band is just full of energy. We’ve been excited, we’ve had a month off by the time we get to Australia so we should be totally energised and ready.

What’s on your Aussie bucket list, is there sights that you want to see or?
Well we’re real bummed because we found out we’re not gonna get a lot of sightseeing time just because we fly to every show. So of course us being new to Australia we’re like ‘oh yeah we’ll take a tour bus and just go to the cities’ but now we gotta fly, I guess it’s just not as easy to bring tour buses to the outback who would’ve thought haha. So we’re gonna try and see as much as we can but to be honest I think this tour is focused on just Rockin as many people possible and just kinda getting our name to be more familiar with, again as many of our fans over there as we can and hopefully just be grateful for what we get to see. Honestly I’d love to see the Sydney Opera House just because of course growing up in the states that’s just like the Eiffel Tower, everytime you see Australia you always see the ‘Sydney Opera House’ it’s totally romanticised over here so definitely that’s something that we would love to see. But of course once you’ve seen that, hopefully when we get back to Australia we get a chance to see, I want to see where they filmed the Hobbit over there in New Zealand, and there’s a lot of cool things over there i’d love to finally get a chance to see, and of course the wildlife over there I’ve heard is amazing!

That sounds fantastic, and I think the perfect excuse to have to come back and tour Australia again!
That’s right, I almost don’t wanna see too much so it’s a good excuse to have to come back.

So, what sort of music did you yourself listen to growing up? Has that influenced the music you play now?
Not really now, I think the fans are more of an influence now right, I mean I think that rock radio’s changed over the years. You think when i was growing up with rock, pop rock was king so it was a lot about the 90s, was a lot of Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters and then of course in the 2000’s it was ‘The Shinedown’, ‘Theory of a Deadman’ , ‘The Five Fingers’ and then you know we ended up getting bigger right around that time as well so it was just kind of, nowadays it’s just kind of listening to what your fans want. The good news is now radio, at least in the States, is more open to more heavier riffs, heavy guitar, more screamin’ solos and metal infused songs, but you know I think pop evil’s been the perfect ying-and-yang of that rock and metal mix, i think we constantly walk the border of that, you know again, my voice I’m a melodic singer so I try to put as much melody in these songs as possible, just because it’s all about, for me and the fans,  and the band, it’s about having us all join as one to be part of a show together you know. There’s nothing more exciting when I think about some of those AC/DC shows back in the day that i was here or Lynyrd Skynyrd, I mean everyone was singing man, and everyone was part of the show and that kind of really infused in my blood early on. I just loved being a part of the show, I loved singing and just lettin’ that out, just hearing just thousands of people come together to you know put smiles on their faces and put your horns up and sing four minutes of their favourite songs. So that kind of I think is where my past influenced me now. Probably why we have so much more like anthem and motivational type songs which used to always hit me since I was a kid watching that stuff.

It’s truly something spectacular isn’t it, people coming from everywhere, all different demographics and walks of life and just all coming together and jamming to their favourite song from their favourite band.
There’s nothing more fulfilling and nothing more emotional for me, especially now, five albums in, 12 years since that record deal, to be thinking there’s people in Australia singing our songs, we just came back from Europe, and the people were non-stop, I think I sang the first song on a 15-17 song set list and they sang the rest, and I was sick with laryngitis for the end of the last tour, so I mean they were really graceful to me to really sing louder and help me get through songs, because I’m just a firm believer in not cancelling shows. I mean I wait around my whole life just to be able to tour, the last thing I wanna do is cancel. So you know I just think that rock fans are the best fans in the world, you tell ‘em how you are, they’re willing to lift you up. From what we’ve learnt Pop fans are here today, gone tomorrow but Rock fans are here for a career. That’s something that we’ve definitely experienced firsthand and we can definitely vouch for and we can’t wait to build that fanbase there in Australia. We’re nervous but excited, you know it’s always a little nerve-wracking, first time, it’s all fresh and we gotta start over . It’s almost taken us so long just to get where we’re at now that to start over is sometimes daunting, but it’s also exciting, gotta build that fanbase from the ground up, start seeing those faces that we’ll remember, that have been with us as we continue to tour Australia, hopefully get into New Zealand next time as well. Just to think about people across the other side of the world are listening and becoming friends, it’s really what’s special about this business and especially the rock world, it’s the friendships that come out of it so it’s not only the band members and fans but for other fans travelling in different cities, different countries, all coming together like you mentioned.

So, let’s talk about your latest release ‘Pop Evil’ can you tell me the inspiration behind that and specifically behind its name?
Yeah, I mean we felt like this was our first album in a lot of ways, it felt like a re-awakening. For the first time in our career we’re starting to know who we are off the stage, more than on the stage in some ways, you know, and I think that’s the beautiful thing when you really start to know who you are, and your identity as a person, in life, you’re able to be a better musician onstage, a better brother, sister, we’re better friends because of it, because we all want the same things knowing who we are if that makes sense. So ‘Pop Evil’ and the self-titled album felt like this was our first album, where we’re starting to know who we are, we wanted that perfect ying-and-yang record that is us. I mean we have songs that tread the border of metal and rock-n-roll, the common denominator for Pop Evil is my voice and the melody that it carries,so umm it’s always kinda been our way and whether we go strictly heavy on an album or whether we go completely more groove-based or whatever it is, I mean it’s definitely something we’re not afraid of is to always be thinking about our setlist, to always show our fans the ups and downs that are more relatable to life through our music so this album, most importantly was about us stepping into our own and really cementing ourselves. Telling our fans that, ‘look we’re not afraid, just when you think we’re gonna go one way, we’re not afraid to go the other’. You know we want to make music that we feel can entertain us and motivate us to get onstage, to hopefully bring positivity to other people, and this album had a real positive message behind it from our first single ‘Waking Lions’ to, of course our single right now ‘Be Legendary’. So it was a lot about inspirational positivity to hopefully help people through our music around the world come together to be better man.

Can you tell me the idea behind having the ‘Pop Evil video game’ in your song ‘Be Legendary’ and using kids to represent your younger selves?
Yeah it’s kind of again man, thinking about what it was to dream when we were kids you know, and I mean a lot of times the dreaming was about thinking outside of the box. I mean think about some of the video games back in the day, our parents would yell at us like “get off those games and get your head in a book” and who woulda thought nowadays people are making millions and millions of dollars off those video games. So just again, it’s about thinking outside of the box, coming together, the main message in the video to me is that, you don’t always have to win in the short term, to win in the long term. You know it isn’t about winning and being rich, it’s about the friends and the people that you have in your life. It’s not always about money, or about how much you have, you have people that support you, and of course having a female drummer in the band now has taught us a lot, that not only girls can do just as much as us guys can do. But they can also motivate us in different ways in the band to quit this boys club that once was Pop Evil, to remind us that you know we have a lot of female fans too. It’s great to think out of the box and understand that we all have different things about us that make us great, we have things that kinda bring us down, but when we can come together as human beings you know, we can be better with the people around us. That video definitely challenges us all to ‘be legendary’ together, don’t judge us based off our skin, our sex, our gender, our race. It’s important to just love man, and love the music, that’s the Pop Evil way.

I just love the unity that you keep talking about and bringing everyone together. That’s something that’s so important in this day and age, especially in a society where you’re judged constantly for everything; how you look, what you wear,  it’s a really important message to get out there.
I couldn’t agree more and being, well I’m a minority frontman in a rock-n-roll world, that’s normally, when you think about the US artists, it has been dominated by white singers and entertainers. So I think it’s important for other people, and other minority, and other women, anybody who’s thinking outta the box to not be afraid to do what you love. If you love rock, if you love hip-hop, if you love country, whatever that musical genre is for you, to not let race or any kind of division scare you off from being who you are, and hopefully not only can we motivate other people around the country, but we can challenge them to not be afraid of how they listen to music. You know, it’s okay, rock doesn’t just need to live in a box anymore. You know I think about those other genres they’re so open, the fans are so open to change and different ideas and collaborations, and when I think about you know rock and metal, the fans are so protective over us and our music and our sound, it’s like if Metallica does a country song, oh my gosh hell would have to freeze over if Pantero went and did a ballad oh my gosh they can’t do this they’re Pantero, it’s just like there’s so many judgements and so many boxes that we try to put, I guess our safe places in, we try to hide within those places, but the reality is, when we try to put them on a shelf in some music store, but the reality is, that music store doesn’t exist anymore. There is no categories anymore when it comes to music, it’s people. If you can make music that’s good, and people like it, and it can be positive and bring people together, then that’s what it should be. I mean we’re bands, it’s no different than us eating BBQ one day, and then us eating chicken the next, or eating steak on the third day, it’s music man,  if you can do it, and do it well I think you shouldn’t be afraid to try to say ‘well we can’t play that, is that really our band’, we’re one of those bands that are not afraid to challenge ourselves to hopefully bring all kinds of different elements from different genres of music, but again that tie is my voice and that melody it carries, and hopefully that will kinda keep the fans and the respect. It’s a thin line right, because you can’t abandon your rock fans and your metal fans, so we make sure we gotta have songs for them too, we gotta have, we’ve been famous for a couple of ballads too, so we can’t just not have a ballad or two on there, It’s important to consider the fans you helped create over your 12 years of existence, so I think that’s the challenge and again being motivated to keep doing it. If someone said to me a long time ago ‘hey you have success with this song, you need to do 15 different versions of that for the rest of your career’ I wouldn’t be interested, so I mean it’s important to challenge yourself as a musician, and as a human being, and to just be excited about it. I think people take it so seriously for the fact they forget it’s rock and roll man, it’s fun, it’s a dream job. It’s important to, I guess embrace that and show the people around you how much you love and how grateful you are, because there’s always someone trying to take this away from you.

If you weren’t a musician what would you be doing now? I read somewhere that you’re a golfer?
Oh man to be honest I don’t know. I am a golfer, but I haven’t golfed in about two and a half years, just because I’ve been so devoted to Pop Evil full time 24/7. I mean it’s been my band since the beginning, since I was a kid you know. I started Pop Evil and this was always what I planned to do, so I don’t know, who knows what I’d be doing now. You know I’m grateful that I don’t have to make that decision, you know probably selling real estate or something. I got my real estate license I remember, in college, just to have a fallback, just to make my parents happy probably, but I knew I wasn’t gonna be trying to do that, I didn’t want no desk job. So I started focusing on music, never looked back. We’re always clapping, there’s always more work to be done, I think with rock here in today’s world it’s not as mainstream as other genres right, so there’s always someone who doesn’t know your band and even if you did, you know you think about some of the bands you knew and loved whether you heard about ‘em on TV or on the radio, or whether you heard about ‘em when we were younger, you were really really won over when you saw them live. So it’s so important that us bands we get opportunities to travel and I swear the older we seem to get ,the travel just gets more brutal. Especially as a singer being a singer it takes a little bit more outta me. I don’t have an amplifier on my voice, so I have to make sure that I eat healthy, obviously sober so I can sound the best every night. Hopefully that’s when you know, fans are like ‘I heard a good band’ or ‘I’ve never heard of this band before but I saw ‘em live and I’m a fan for life now’. You know I mean it’s all about that live show. So it’s just so so important now at this point to be the best we can both on and off the stage, to hopefully you know entertain people when they come to a live show. I mean that’s when people can really feel that you believe in the songs that you write. So I mean that’s super important to our band.

So, I know you’ve spoken a lot about physical health, but, on the other hand how do you keep your mental health in check. Like do you have strategies you use? Have you ever suffered from any kind of mental illness and, do you think this is an issue that needs to be addressed more in the music industry, particularly with Keith Flint’s recent tragic death?
Yeah I mean I think it definitely needs to be addressed, I think it’s something that you struggle with all the time. I mean our family and friends sort of outgrow us over the years I mean, you almost gotta relearn how to meet people. I think the last tour we did was eight weeks, I mean when you haven’t seen somebody, especially a significant other, or a child, or a mother, or a sibling, like, you haven’t seen that person in months so you kinda have to ‘re-meet’ them. You know ‘how you going? What’s been going on in your life? What have you been doing? You look a little different, oh my gosh is that a new haircut’ you gotta kinda re-introduce yourself and kinda get back into the real world. You know everything about our lives nowadays is not ‘normal’ so it is easy to be depressed and alone, even though you play these shows with thousands of people around you but by the time you’re ready to hang out with everybody they kick you out, well they kick everyone out, but that leaves you by yourself again.  So if you’re not strong emotionally it can be very disheartening, you know it’s a dream job but like any other job there’s pros and cons. So you know I think mental health issues are very real, and you think about that, there’s a lot of people that have mental health issues that turn to music to find some kind of a release or some kind of happiness. Similar to musicians man, I mean when we’re depressed we turn to our instruments, so I think it’s a very valid, real issue that needs to be addressed. Certainly we can’t just look away as some of our icons have sadly, you know ended their lives abruptly here quite recently. So it’s a serious, real issue and I think it’s important to, you know just keep the tables open, to discuss, and that’s the true only way you’re gonna really find positive ways to kind of get through these situations and create other avenues for people that are going through these mental health issues, to give them alternative methods to deal with their issues. Just by talking about it more, and making the environment not so, I guess ugly to discuss issues that aren’t so ‘glamorous’, that are usually what this profession is usually about, right. The glamour, the glitz, the fame, all the good stuff. But, there’s a lot of things that can be negative and dark and the people sort of keep in the back corners of their minds, and their houses and their personal spaces, so it’s important to keep the communication open. You know if we can help even one person along the way then it’s worth it. Hopefully as more people are open to be more positive to the music they can find more positive ways to create their energy rather than, you know doing as certain tragic events that have occurred in the past. It’s hard for everyone, everyone deals with their own individual, I guess, methods, and ways and thoughts, and their own demons. So, again I think as long as we just keep the communication positive about it, and let people know that there’s people who care. Your fans care, your loved ones care, you know it’s not worth it to you know, have something tragic happen or come to some of these tragic endings. Even with substance abuse as well it’s important to, I think it’s a lesson learnt for those bands that are on the rise to, you know, be grateful because it’s not like that overnight success happens anymore. I mean it’s possible, but most of the time you’re gonna have to get to the top by one step at a time. One song, one single, one album, one show. So once those things happen it can feel like they take forever. I mean even in our band, we’ve been around for 12 years and there’s still plenty of people who don’t know who we are. I think we’ve had five number one records or something, 15 top fives, but again that’s just in the US. So you gotta remember, there’s people in other countries that don’t care about what’s going on in other countries, they care about their own country. The way that their country embraces music. So it’s about us as musicians trying to understand our fanbase and their needs and different tastes. I think once we do that we can give them more focus on the music that matters to them. Whether that’s a setlist more focused around our Youtube hits, just because most of our fans in other countries are more interested in streaming things through our streaming platforms. Whether that’s Spotify or Itunes. Then there’s fans, more in North America that are listening to more like XM radio or Sirius radio, then there’s people in Germany that are watching just the music videos in a Spotify playlist. So it’s a better thing as musicians to focus on understanding your fans rather than just taking away from them. Hopefully we can get back to giving our fans what matters most and that’s Pop Evil music and shows, and hopefully we can grow our band and compete with the ‘other big boys’ so, rock can ‘become king once again’.

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Now, let’s talk favourites for the fans. What’s your favourite food/ artist/ movie and, most importantly, your favourite Disney film?
Food: Oh my gosh, depends on the day, I mean I love BBQ. I’m from Michigan, so Northern United States, so BBQ’s real popular South of the United States, so I never grew up with that kind of BBQ. So I kinda want BBQ 24/7, yeah that’s one of my favourites.
Artist/ Band: Oh man, there’s so many. We just toured with Poison and Cheap Trick, those guys were amazing to tour with. Again, I’m a little bias ‘coz once I start to tour with them, I know them both on and off the stage. So, not only are those bands both great on the stage, but off it as people, the way they treated us as big brothers. I’ll forever love Poison and Cheap Trick. I’ll never look at them the same, just ‘coz they have so much pride for what they do. So yeah, those would be two of my favourites.
Movie: Oh man, it’s gotta be one of the Back to the Future’s. I love delorean’s and I love just the thought of going back in time and ahead in the future, it’s always something that’s fascinated me since I was a kid.
Disney film:  interesting question. Oh I know,  in tribute to it coming out soon, I’m gonna go with ‘The Lion King’.

So, back to the music, do you yourself write all the lyrics or is it a team effort? Can you talk me through the songwriting process, what’s that like for you?
It’s a very emotional journey, it’s everything. Everything we do that’s successful, unsuccessful, every tour, every show, every fan, all comes from the writing process man. I think that as we’ve gotten older, and the albums start to grow and add up, the writing process can be grilling man. Coz it’s hard too, coz you already have hit songs, so you don’t want to write the same song over and over again, so you’re constantly trying to bottle different issues that come up. That’s what makes it like a chess game, that’s what makes it fun, that’s what makes it exciting. I like to write to be honest when I’m not touring, because then I can focus and then obviously my voice is healed and ready to go, ‘coz usually on tour your voice is broken and broken down. I use that kind of recovery period to really try and explore  ‘do I sing falsetto here, do I need to be screaming here, does this need to be more of an attack song, or an attack vocal’ a lot of different elements to the writing process, but every song’s different. You’d be like well what do you on the song, but you’d have to tell me what song and I’d tell you because every song’s different.

Do you find inspiration for your music from events that have happened in your own life or are you influenced by events going on around the world?
Yeah sometimes. We’re an older band so obviously with national events there’s a lot going on in the United States with Trump and all the stuff that was the new presidency and all the divisions that people were having right around that new presidency when we were making the new record, so it’s hard not to be affected by that. A lot of the times our fans have an influence, and now you think about what are they writing about on social media, obviously within respect, because everyone’s got an opinion. But more times than not we try to take into consideration when people have constructive criticism, we’re like ‘okay they want that, let’s try this then’, you know maybe this would be something our fans would enjoy, rather than, in the early years when it was about well ‘I think that sounds good, I wanna do this’. We don’t make music for ourselves the same way anymore, we have a fanbase, and I think it’s important to be responsible to have a fanbase. Which means it’s not about you anymore, it’s about us as a team, and as an entity that is rock’n’roll and metal, that we come together as a community to put together songs, to hopefully stand the test of time and help people respect our genre again. You know I think there’s a bit of a chip on our shoulder as artist’s these days, especially when you come from a country that prides itself on ‘freedom of speech’ but somehow people that listen to rock and listen to metal music in the US our voice matters just a little bit less, it’s really messed up. Again I have a bit of an angst, an anger, a pride, to fight for our kids and the next generation, so they don’t just grow up playing computers and they can actually pick up a real guitar and play.
I think there’s something special about bands and musicians that still play real instruments, I think it’s something that can be life changing. Not to take away from Dj’s or people that wanna make music on their laptops and keyboards. I mean music’s art, who am I to say what’s the right way or what’s the wrong way. All i do know is music, real music can make a difference in kids lives, and there’s something about playing in your parent’s garage, or with your buddies growing up, coming together, getting an opportunity and dreaming about playing in Australia. That can happen for anybody who wants to put the work in. So, again that’s where my pride is when it comes to music.

So, going off that, what’s your number one piece of advice for anyone who wants to get into the music industry?
You gotta be positive right, you gotta be realistic with yourself. Focus and set realistic goals every six months, make sure after six months you get together with your band or your family or whoever you made those goals with and discuss, you know how close you were to your goals. It’s important to celebrate the achievements you did you know, six months ago. You might’ve put in the time to have a hit song so you write it, then the next thing you know, six months later it’s a hit song, look hey you wanted to play a packed show, sold out, well guess what you just did it! Again, this business is all about the next to next, don’t be afraid to go back and say ‘hey, you know what we accomplished this goal, so let’s all celebrate by having a toast’ or ‘let’s all celebrate by everyone buying a cake’. Again, it’s those little celebrations that really create unity as a band. Think about it like a sports team; you don’t win the championship without winning the National title, or the regional title and then of course you win the world title. So it’s important to understand that those little wins are all about your story and I guess the biggest advice after knowing that, the biggest thing is, don’t run anyone else’s race, run your own race. Don’t be worried about what your friends band, or the next band is doing, just worry about your own race,  tell your own story man. There’s no rule that says somebody’s iPod or iPhone can’t have all the great new music on it. There’s no limit unless they already have so many gigabytes that are already used up, There is always room for great songs and great bands. Just run your own race.
It’s the little wins man. if I’ve learnt anything, especially getting older and in this business, it’s how to be grateful for those things. Because it’s easy in life to just be like ‘I want a hit record, why aren’t we selling out, why haven’t we been in Australia more’. It’s gonna happen sometime, there’s gonna be a first time and You gotta be grateful. Rock’n’roll has really taught me how to be humble and how to be grateful, looking at the glass half full rather than it being half empty.  

What’s next for pop evil, is there any new music on the horizon?
Yeah, we’re thinking maybe May we go in and start, just thinking about the writing process, so that’s about as far as we’ve gone with that. Just because Australia has been that big thing on our radar for so long, so we’re really excited to hopefully have a successful experience playing over in Australia. Then of course when we get back we’ll start looking at maybe when we’re going to start focusing on the new music. We’re hot and heavy over here with our new single ‘Be legendary’ so we’ll see how that ends up/ Obviously spring/summer is the best time tour with festivals and just nice weather. Anyone who’s a musician will tell you that spring/ summer is the favourite time for everyone to tour. So we plan to enjoy that first. An album cycle’s more fun to tour because everyone knows the songs. It’s always a little weird when you tour with an album on it’s first legs because nobody knows the songs or the album.
Maybe I wouldn’t mind doing a couple of songs here and there, but by the time maybe a year and a half goes by maybe we do an album, but we put it together at the end of the album cycle, rather than at the beginning, we’ll see. Who knows. I’m just gonna kinda focus on the now, and be the best frontman and singer I can be, I haven’t been to Australia so I’m excited to tour there, so that’s where my head’s at.

If you could play with anyone onstage, dead or alive, who would you choose? Why?
Oh man there’s so probably many. I’m a Michigan boy so i’d love to play with ‘Kidrock’. We have a couple of times but I’m always about playing with ‘Kidrock’, Bob Seger those are all Detroit, Michigan guys so that’s always cool. But then you start to go legendary. Obviously Queen would be one, Aerosmith, I mean any of those legendary bands, always grateful to play with just ‘coz there’s so much history there. If someone had’ve told me I’d play with Judas Priest, tour with Judas Priest, tour with Cheap Trick or Poison, I woulda been like ‘you’re kidding me’. So I mean those are the moments that really kind of you know, make you pinch yourself and go ‘wow we’re a part of this rock and roll history book,might be a small page but you know we’re part of it, and again that’s about appreciating those real wins. But for the most part whoever’s willing to play with us, we’re always open. Again, at the end of the day just trying to focus on being a headliner one day as we keep growing, just focus on that ‘coz then we get to play longer, so that’s always what I would think about more nowadays rather than playing and opening for someone, we wanna play all night long.  I don’t know if I think about opening as much, but you know back when you start you’re like ‘oh my god it’s so cool to open up for bands, you just wanna play man. Let’s keep in mind that we love getting a chance to play with them, and it’s great playing the festivals with them right, because you get the best of both worlds. You get to see so many great bands and you’re a part of this big special lineup. So, festivals are always wonderful, but I think I’d think about now, like you said, playing other countries, and playing to see new fans singing back to you, that’s more of the rush, rather than I don’t think I really think about ‘I’d love to play with this band’. It’s always more about ‘man I’d love to play this country and hear them singing back to us’ that’s kinda I think where the dream is ya know.

Speaking of festivals, do you get to hang out with the other artists or do they tend to keep to themselves.
Sure you can hang out with them. I mean it depends on how close you are to them obviously. The thing is that every singer’s a little different, just because it depends on how your voice is feeling. Like yeah I used to hang out more, but if we’re headlining more of the tour before the festival then depends on my voice. Like when we in Germany especially, my voice was really sore, so I couldn’t hang out when we went to Europe as much as I would’ve liked to. But, everyone in bands that you hang with understand they’ll just be like ‘okay well Leigh’s not talking at all’.  But at least I can just be next to somebody and be around, you know the musicians, everyone gets it, everyone’s cool. But I think for the most part yeah, everyone hangs out. Usually there’s cafeteria areas or at the food places everyone says ‘hey’. Or we’re out watching their sets or out in the crowd mingling with the fans as well. Especially in other countries that’s always a great experience.

Where did the name ‘Pop Evil’ originate? It’s a band name that’s quite unique, what’s the inspiration behind it?
Yeah it’s a cool story. I mean pop evil was never a band name, it’s always been a lifestyle for us. So right around mid 90s you know, the US was starting to abandon rock in a way. It was starting to kinda fall off, so you know a lot of my friends and family, we could say the ‘F’ word before we could say the ‘P’ word. So ‘pop’ was the bad word right, so pop was evil. So ‘pop evil’ was kinda like a mission statement that got me up in the morning. That, when things got tough for me with being in a rock band, I just read the name. Like ‘pop evil’ I gotta do this. Kinda like being a crusader for rock and metal. So that was kinda the purpose. Yeah like people hated the name, everyone’s like ‘pop evil’. I was like you can hate the name but if I’m not motivated from it, then I might as well not even have a band. So it kinda it probably got me into it, Because, you know, I grew up in a conservative, very religious, Western Michigan, and as a brown guy, half mixed from India, my mom was Canadian. I mean a bunch of Americans, first generation in the US, I mean there were a lot of factors that could’ve stopped me, and prevented me from having success when everyone in the world around me was saying ‘no, no, no, no, no’ , so pop was evil. I was like ‘ I don’t care what you guys think, the pop and rock’n’roll needs me, and I need to fight for this and figure out how to make this work. Took me a long time, but finally you know, got it done. I’m in a new type of crusade, it went from being a kind of local and a regional thing to now it’s kind of more of a global attack and approach, to remind people that rock’n’roll is very much alive. I mean again, that’s another thing that gets me, it’s like out of all the genres of music we know and love, the genre that I love, rock and metal, somehow there’s a thing called ‘rock’n’roll is dead’ right, that’s pathetic. Like, I can’t believe that that’s even allowed, like what other genre has that saying. If that doesn’t get us, those rock and rollers, then we’re doing something wrong. Like we gotta almost take that’s serious and take that to heart and have a little bit of anger. Not that we need to be mean to anybody but to be like ‘wow, rock’n’roll is very much alive, okay thankyou. That’s the most ridiculous statement and I don’t know where that started or why it’s even still around so it’s embarrassing. It seems like you wanna say rock and roll is dead but every time I go to a mall or or shopping centre you can find that little ‘I’m a rockstar t-shirt’ anywhere for little Joey or little Lizzie, in any of these kids shops. But no one wants to give credit to the real rockstars that are basically cleaning the toilets now. Rockstars are the janitors I like to call it of the music business nowadays. Because we’re cleaning the toilets, we’re open 24/7, we’re open 365 days a year, we’re open 7 days a week, we’re open after midnight, I mean there’s no ‘closing’ for us. We basically clean up the scraps and we have to be grateful doing it. So, again it’s just a different mentality you have to have to be able to do this. It relied on people being a crusader for it. There’s no fluffiness, there’s no excessive money and riches and fame the way that it once was. Like you know, when you watch that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ film with Queen back in the day and those bands, you know were in the ‘Golden Age’ for rock and metal. Nowadays it’s harder, so we have to hopefully try to do our part to remind people that rock’n’roll is not dead. It is very much alive and well and it is around the world and it’s kinda a direct slap in the face to our fans to see, when I hear people say that to me ‘well rock’n’roll’s dead’. Well what about the fans that come and see me everyday, what about the fact that I’ve been touring for 12 years nonstop, 280 shows a year, what about those people, who’s fighting for them? So again, I just get really passionate and angry about it.

What’s your favourite song on the new album and why?
Impossible question, I’ll tell you why. Because I love all my kids right, songs are like children, you write and create them and spend a lot of time doing it. So to love any of them, more than the other is just, I can’t. But to answer your question, obviously when the songs become a part of people’s lives, singles and that, to hear them singing them back, it’s always a huge honour. But to say I have a favourite now, I don’t know. I’ll be honest, just when you guys are starting to really find, I guess solids in our album or our catalogue, I’m thinking about new songs. You know I haven’t even thought about the album since I wrote it. Once we released it, what was it a year and a half ago, it’s no longer my record anymore it’s your guy’s record too. I’m onto the next, thinking about touring and stuff. I honestly haven’t thought about what song did I write the best at all, I couldn’t tell you.

I love that you’re so focused on the fans and creating that experience for the fans.
It’s important to me man, like you can’t be a frontman, seeing the tears and the cheers coming for you and not want it, you can’t not be grateful for it, otherwise you shouldn’t do it. You know I didn’t get in this to get rich and famous anyway. I got into this because i wanted to play shows man and have fans. That’s the true gift right, I’m not bringing what, all the money i could make, all the plaques on the wall I’m not bringing any of that with me but I’m bringing those experiences with those fans,  hopefully I’m bringing them closer to their loved ones, their friends, their family through the music and in some way you know, hopefully our band could be a positive influence and role model for these people. That’s a huge win I don’t know why people don’t really embrace that more. I mean, no gold plaque or silver medal, or whatever it is, is going to be worth more than that to me. That’s kind of the true gift. We’ve been doing it for a long time and at some point you know what you’re doing it for. Like I said this is the ‘reawakening’. We know who we are now off-stage. I don’t need things the things I thought I needed when i started, I don’t need those things anymore. I don’t need to be on TV, I don’t need to be ‘Justin Bieber famous’ or Katy Perry or whichever pop star they are, I don’t need to be popstar famous. I mean I’m very content with the success that the good Lord’s blessed me with.
Look I’m blessed I get to go to Australia, and rock for people. I don’t not only get to go to Australia, I mean people are paying to have me come to Australia to do what I love. If you can’t be grateful for that and give 100% to fans, who don’t even know they’re fans of Pop Evil in their great country, then what are you doing it for. As we continue to grow there we’ll always remember that first tour, we’ll always remember what it was like to play for small crowds in that place. You can’t play for the big ones until you play for the small ones. Again, it’s just about there’s nothing about this business that spoils you, if you don’t get humble or learn how to be humble, the chance is you ain’t going to make it very long because it’s a brutal business.

Final question for you, Do you have a message for your Australian fans?
Yeah, I mean just how excited we are to meet all of you. Hopefully you’ll be driven enough to bring as many people as you can to the shows. Obviously there’s plenty of people that don’t know Pop Evil there, so we need the people who do know Pop Evil to please spread the word. Come see us live, if you’re on the fence. I mean, I know life is tough and people get busy; families, school and jobs, you name it, there’s plenty of legitimate excuses not to come to a rock show. But if you love Pop Evil, or you want to see us for the first time, then bring three or four people with you. The more people we can bring, and the bigger we get the band, the quicker we can be back. You know it’s important. We need the fans to do their part and that’s coming to the shows, and we’ll do our part making sure we entertain you, and give you one heck of an evening to remember. Hopefully after we do that we can repeat and repeat for many years to come. So that’s my quest to the fans. If you do like Pop Evil, you like the band and you are coming, or you’re on the fence, come, bring some people please and be open minded to new music. I know we’re really excited. it’s been 12 years in the making, so hopefully we’re gonna see a lot of new people and really start something special in Australia. We can’t wait!

Well Australia is definitely ‘ready to rock’ with you and Pop Evil, Leigh, we can’t wait! Thankyou so much for chatting with me today and I can’t wait to meet you.
I can’t wait to meet you! You’re such a strong woman and hopefully this is the start of many more interviews! Spread the word and I can’t wait to see you in a couple of weeks!

 

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POP EVIL

AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2019

Thursday 4th April: The Gov; Adelaide

Friday 5th April: The Prince Band Room; Melbourne

Saturday 6th April: The Metro; Sydney

Sunday 7th April: The Zoo; Brisbane

Tickets on sale now from HERE

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AMNPLIFY – DB