As an original member of Night Ranger, whammy-bar aficionado, songwriter and all-around guitar God Brad Gillis is truly enjoying three decades in the legendary band. With their wonderful eleventh 2014 studio album, High Road, in the can and supported by shows in a city near you, Gillis gave us the rundown on his playing, influences and how it feels to be in a successful group that rose up from the MTV-era and is now a hard rock hit-making institution.
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I guess the best place to start is with the new album, High Road. It really rocks!
Thanks. Yes, we just stayed to the Night Ranger formula — rockin’ songs, three- part harmonies, strong melodies.
Other than the songs being truly infectious sing-alongs, it sounds like a bunch of guys having fun, ya know?
We really did have a great time making it simply because we had the luxury of spending over a year on it. We’d come off the road, record, listen, reevaluate — actually we did so much of that we nearly missed the deadline to get it out!
And you guys will be on tour to supporting it.
We’ve been lucky to have the William Morris agency booking about 70 shows a year for us, so yes we’ll be going out to tour the States. Once again one of the big highlights for us is getting back to Japan.
What I find real interesting about the Night Ranger sound, from this record to every place in your career, is the mix of the hard rocking with the commercial sound.
Yeah, we were always a heavy rock and roll band. From tunes like “Touch of Madness,” “Rock In America” to “Rollin’ On” on this record — it’s that mix of the heavy with solid melodies.
One of my favorite songs on the record is “Brothers.” I definitely hear a Beatles influence.
You have to realize how heavily influenced by the Beatles we all are. I mean in 64, I was seven years old and blown away like everybody else seeing them on Ed Sullivan, buying their records. In fact, right after seeing them, I asked my folks to get me a drum kit, but after a while they couldn’t stand me banging drums so for my eighth birthday I asked them to get me a guitar and I got a Kay guitar and amp, started taking lessons. So yeah, there is definitely a Beatles’ influence on the tail ending of “Brothers.”
Beyond the Beatles, who else do you count as your main influences?
I was lucky enough to have an older brother who had all the great rock albums of the mid to late 60s, so I got into all that great stuff — Hendrix, Led Zep, The Doors, Santana’s first album. For me specifically, leading the list it’s always been Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix.
I was quite taken by the last tune on the CD, “LA No Name” an acoustic guitar duet between you and guitarist Joel Hoekstra.
Joel and I had a couple days off before we were due in the studio a few years back. He came by my house in the Bay Area while Kelly and Jack were up in Santa Rosa and we had our acoustics and he played me a piece he had an idea about, I threw one back at him, we went back and forth like that with playing and harmonies and recorded what we came up with that night. The second day, we listened back and realized we had something, played it for the rest of the guys, and now it sees release on the new record.
Beyond the obvious high of having had such big hits, the great sound of this new record, just being together 30 plus years has got to feel like quite the accomplishment.
Jack and I look at each other and are amazed. We first got together in 1976 in Rubicon, that’s when I first met Jack, we released a couple of records, toward the end of that Kelly joined, and the three of us stuck together in the late 70s, made our first demo, took a couple of years to get a record deal then we came out with a bang as Night Ranger. MTV is breaking big, we get lots of exposure there then we have a huge hit with “Sister Christian” and next thing we’re huge all over the radio, jumped to headline status. Thirty years running, who’d thunk it!
I was quite taken by the last tune on the CD, “LA No Name,” an acoustic guitar duet between you and guitarist Joel Hoekstra.
Joel and I had a couple days off before we were due in the studio a few years back. He came by my house in the Bay Area while Kelly (Keagy) and Jack (Blades) were up in Santa Rosa and we had our acoustics and he played me a piece he had an idea about, I threw one back at him, we went back and forth like that with playing and harmonies and recorded what we came up with that night. The second day, we listened back and realized we had something, played it for the rest of the guys, and now it sees release on the new record.
Beyond the obvious high of having had such big hits, the great sound of this new record, just being together 30 plus years has got to feel like quite the accomplishment.
Jack and I look at each other and are amazed. We first got together in 1976 in Rubicon, that’s when I first met Jack, we released a couple of records, toward the end of that Kelly joined, and the three of us stuck together in the late 70s, made our first demo, took a couple of years to get a record deal then we came out with a bang as Night Ranger. MTV is breaking big, we get lots of exposure there then we have a huge hit with “Sister Christian” and next thing we’re huge all over the radio, jumped to headline status. Thirty years running, who’d thunk it!
And to still be doing it, not a lot of bands get to be still playing 30 years on.
Well, we still have a lot of fun on stage. It’s a blast on the touring bus, we joke around, are laughing all the time, and we have a great core unit with our two newer guys — they are excellent players musically. At this point I am anxious to have people hear the record, see us play the songs live because from the time you finish the thing then have to wait two months or so for it to come out you want people to hear it! I have been doing interviews for it, we’ve snuck “High Road” into the Frontiers Record Festival show in Milan and everybody seemed to like it and I am just waiting to play it for people and to have the record be heard.
