Rob Rock is one of those names that are revered within the Hard Rock community, be it with his work on M.A.R.S. Project: Driver or Impellitteri. He was also a part of Tobias Samet’s all star Avantasia project which is a firm favourite of both mine and our esteemed leader Mr Cummings. Obviously we were only too pleased to get the chance to chat with Mr Rock especially as we also really like his new solo CD Garden of Chaos.
 
Imagine the scene: You’ve just put the phone down on Michael Weikath from Helloween and you’re having a comfort break when the phone rings. “Hi. It’s Rob Rock calling for Simon.” Oops, thought I, that’s two hours early. Quickly I dove into the bedroom where I’d been prepping as myself and Mr Rock discussed the vagaries of British Winter Time and Daylight Savings Time. I got my shit together and had this discussion with the rather personable Mr Rock.

Rob Rock

Where are you calling from Rob?
 
RR – Daytona Beach.
 
What’s the weather like there?
 
RR – It’s rainy and cloudy here.
 
It’s been lovely here today near Manchester. I’ve just been talking to Helloween from Germany and I get the impression that they’ve got a highly organised promo situation going on – how’s your promotion for Garden of Chaos going?
 
RR – Mainly I’ve been doing phoners every half hour to Europe in particular to magazines such as Metal Hammer.
 
We like Garden of Chaos here at HardRockHouse, what’s the story behind the record?
 
RR – Well, I started with Roy Z. We had the vision and started the project together before Roy got called away – I think with Halford?
 
So, you’ve been working on this for quite a while?
 
RR – Two years. Since Holy Hell came out so it has been two years.
 
Garden is very muscular, kind of manly but with great melodies. Would you agree?
 
RR – Yeah, people really responded to Holy Hell so I chose to write songs that were close to that degree of power and were also up tempo.
 
How did Gus G of Firewind get involved?
 
RR – After working with Roy Z I called Gus up and asked if he had any Rob Rock songs and he ended up sending me three. One of them I like so much that after adding some melodies It became the title track.
 
Is that how it works with you rock star types? You just pick up the phone and ask Gus G for songs?
 
RR – I’ve known Gus since we toured Japan together when he was with Arch Enemy in ‘04 and we’ve stayed friends. He’s a great guy.

At HRH it seems that a number of our readers are fairly young and like bands such as MCR . How would you sell Garden of Chaos to such an audience?
 
RR – I’d tell them that its high energy metal, probably with more uplifting lyrics! It’s more old school I guess.
 
What do you listen to Rob?
 
RR – At the moment I’m listening to the new Dream Theater and I want to listen to the new Primal Fear when I can get hold of it.
 
Dream Theater are playing across from my office next Sunday with Symphony X.
 
RR –They’re a great band as well.
 
I noted in my review that I thought that Only A Matter of Time sounded like Deep Purple circa Perfect Strangers. Has any one else said anything similar?
 
RR – No! I love Deep Purple so I take that as a compliment.
 
Millennial Reign – how did you hit those notes?
 
RR – A little squeeze here and there! When I’m singing up high I’m in falsetto but I give it an extra push and somehow find those notes.

On your website you have tips for aspiring vocalists – what are the best tips for any singers out there?
 
RR – Use your voice regularly, by that I mean at least half an hour a day. Avoid smoking and drinking and heavy partying. Sleep is another good ingredient.
 
The song Metal Breed has a chorus which says that you,  “can’t kill the metal.” Is that something you believe?
 
RR - Oh yes. I was reflecting on how, when I was growing up that on FM radio here in the States I could listen to Black Sabbath or Ozzy or even Foreigner, Boston but now … but metal survives despite the internet transforming everything with the shift towards downloads.
 
What is radio like in the States? I find that here in the UK I never listen to the radio because it’s full of what you would consider American Idol type shit.
 
RR– Exactly. Here you get two types; either country pop like Carrie Underwood or Jon Bon Jovi. You know where they shoot the dog or have a cheatin’ wife to make it country. Then there are metal stations with sick screams and growls. Classic rock stations never play new music at all. I’m encouraged by the reaction I get from satellite stations. When I was on XM people told met that they had heard me and bought my stuff, so I know that there’s a response to things like that.
 
Ode to Alexander was a song you wrote with your wife Lisa – how did that come about?
 
RR – Lisa’s a keyboardist and graphic designer so she’s very creative. When we had our son he was still born for a while but he survived and now he’s doing great and we wanted to mark the occasion with something special.
 
I remember when my youngest was born – a similar thing happened. It’s the worst feeling in the world isn’t it?
 
Rob Rock – Oh yeah, it really is.
 
But when he coughed for the first time there was feeling of overwhelming joy and relief.
 
Rob Rock – Yeah. He’s twenty-two months now and he’s great. I’m really appreciative of him.
 
I’ve got to ask; how did you get involved with Avantasia?
 
RR – In the beginning Tobias Samet e-mailed me and said he was a big fan of M.A.R.S. Project: Driver and would I like to be involved. So I asked him to send me some songs and if I liked them I’d help out. Well, when he sent them I thought, “This kid’s got talent.” So I ended up being on four songs over the two Avantasia records and I’m really glad that I did.
 
Rob, don’t take this the wrong way but you’ve been around for a while now – what’s left for you to achieve?
 
RR – Well, I’d like to reach a bigger audience that’s for sure. Like Iron Maiden! I’d also like to record a live DVD. We came really close last year but it didn’t come off at the last moment. I hope we can do that as well as a tour in 2008.
 
I always ask this question. How do you perceive The British music scene?
 
RR – I only really know Iron Maiden! That’s mainly because Roy Z is great friends with them especially Bruce Dickinson. I also look out for Trivium who are also from Florida and opened up for me a while ago and now they’re opening for Maiden. I feel like shouting, “Hey, that’s supposed to be me!”

Now the standard HRH closing question: is there anything else you’d like to add for our readers?
 
RR – I’d like to thank those people who have checked the samples on my website and then bought the CD. I’m amazed how fast music gets out there these days. I urge everybody to buy the full album not just down load the odd track and keep tabs on Rob Rock on my website. Also there’s my MySpace site which is RobRock1.
 
You mean there’s more than one Rob Rock?
 
RR – Oh yeah! When we set up the MySpace site I had to be RobRock1 because there was already Rob Rock!
 
(At this point I googled Rob’s name.) Actually you’re the first two Rob Rocks when you type your name into Google.
 
RR - The website is number one? Good.
 
Yes, but the third one is a professional golfer called Robert Rock!
 
RR – Wow.
 
Thanks for talking to HardRockHouse Rob. It’s been a pleasure to speak with you.
 
RR – And to you as well.

 As Rob mentioned you can visit him online at www.robrock.com  or via his MySoace site @ www.myspace.com/robrock1. In the meantime Rob's new labum Garden Of Chaos is out now via AFM Records and you can read the HRH review via this link