Oh, how nice.

It wasn’t really his normal fare of music but he had the whole crowd dancing and at one point during the show in that funny voice he has, he asked if everyone was waiting to hear some Primus songs. “Well, you got screwed.” I burst out laughing. Hell, this wasn’t a Primus show. It was a Les Claypool show.

Right. At least he had a good sense of humor about it. It sounds like the audience supported him.

Absolutely. I don’t know why it is that when somebody does something that’s a little bit different from their normal fare, people always ask if they’re going to do this song or that song. No, because this isn’t that band. This is something else.

I’m very familiar with that because of my dealings with Rocket Scientist and Erik’s solo stuff. A lot of times it’s the same with me. It’s like “aren’t you going to do any Lana Lane stuff?” No, because it’s a Rocket Scientist show.

Exactly, that’s what makes it so cool. The last time I had talked to you, you had released Project Shangri-La.

Wow, that’s been a while. A lot has happened since then.

Tell me what has gone on the life of Lana Lane since then?

Well, we did Winter Sessions and we’ve done two covers collections. Yeah, a lot. Not to mention stuff with Rocket Scientists. We try to keep busy.

There’s some Lana Lane stuff that I need to get into my music collection. On Wednesdays I do a gig on www.rocknationradio.com and it’s called Twisted Metal. The first hour is hard rock and the second hour is metal like anywhere from power metal to death and black. Whatever just turns my crank at the time. I’ve played some of your stuff on my show and people absolutely love it. They ask who it is and I tell them they have to check this lady out.

Oh well, that’s great.

She’s got one of the most powerful voices in metal.

It must be fun to have your own show like that. You get to totally play what you want and expose people to stuff that they normally might not listen to.

Exactly. My friend owns the station and told me the format of my show was whatever I wanted it to be.

Love him.

That’s what makes it so fun. I was looking at your website and I noticed that your five favorite vocalists are Ann Wilson, Glenn Hughes, Ian Gillan, Tony Bennett, and Joe Lynn Turner. That is such an eclectic collection of people.

It is and Ella Fitzgerald is missing from that list too.

That is so awesome. Your favorite albums are anything from Heart to Deep Purple to Styx to Harry Mancini to Ella Fitzgerald to Chris Cornell.

Yeah, I think for me the jazz influence and the big band influence is pretty big with me basically because that’s what my parents listened to. My parents were way into that kind of music while everyone else was into Elvis and what have you. My parents were into the big band swing and I notice that a lot of the phrasing that those singers used, I totally use in music because I think it’s important that the lyric gets across. For some reason those singers really delivered lyrics and I totally respect that and try to use it as much as possible. I think it’s important so that’s why they’re influences and that’s why I listen to them on top of liking the music. I know it is kind of weird and eclectic when you read the list that way.

It’s awesome though because I just recently did an interview with Glenn Hughes and he is the most amazing person to talk to. I always love it when I get to talk to him.

Not to mention an amazing singer. He did a vocal track for one of Erik’s records and I was there when he was doing the recording and he has to be one of the most powerful singers I have ever had the honor of being around. It’s amazing what power comes from that man.

Oh, I know. For some reason I don’t really like the style of singing that these big band singers did but I tell you what, Gene Krupa is my ultimate favorite drummer of all time.

Wow, there are a lot of rock people who like Gene Krupa.

He was the man who took the drums from the background and put them in the forefront.

Yeah, there are a lot of innovators like that. That’s why I like Frank too. If you listen to the phrasing of the lyrics, there isn’t anybody that can do it like that. That’s why he was so smooth.

I was doing an interview with a hardcore band one time and I asked the vocalist who some of his influences were and he told me Frank Sinatra. He thought Frank Sinatra was the ultimate showman.

Yeah, it is amazing. It’s so different now. Eirk and I had Tivo’d a Frank Sinatra show. I think it was live at The Sands and speaking of owning the stage, him and his glass of Jack Daniels, his cigarette, and just standing there by himself. It was just amazing what command he had.

He still does because even though he’s dead, he’s immortalized on film.

That’s for sure.

That’s one of the funniest jokes I have with some of my friends. When some performer dies that I think sang horribly, I always wish that you could just bury everything with that person. Or they’ll find the lost recordings of some person and put that out. It seems to me that if that person wanted to release those recordings while he or she were alive, they wouldn’t be lost.

Yeah, they would have done so.

Because everybody, no matter what a wonderful performer they are from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley to Kurt Cobain, they knew that there were times that they recorded stuff that was absolute shit. They knew it.

Of course.

Then you wait until they’re dead and then you bring this absolute shit out to everybody.

That’s so evil.

I’m Native American and I believe that spirits are earthbound. You do this stuff and these people’s spirits are floating around.,p> Going “what the hell?”

Word to the wise. If you ever record anything that you know is absolute shit, burn it. Burn it.

Yeah, get rid of it.

You did a CD called Gemini and it’s covers of a bunch of different songs. You have one of my favorite songs on there.

Which one?

“White Rabbit” by Jefferson Starship. I absolutely love songs like that. Like “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” by the Beatles. It’s a drug song. I’ve never taken drugs but I love songs about them.

I know what you mean. I have to say it was one of the most fun ones I had on the record. It was the most fun to do because it’s pretty much out of my comfort zone. The just really uninhibited singing but it was like you know what, got to be true to Grace and just do it so I did.

Tell me a little bit about Gemini and why you decided to cover some of the songs that you did. Plus I love the artwork. Your CDs have the most awesome artwork.

Yeah, he’s a good artist that guy.

I wish I had a house that looked like that.

Yeah, I know. He’s just so innovative. The story behind Gemini is that the first covers collection that I did, a lot of the songs were suggestions and picks from fans and business associates and the record companies and ones that Erik and I liked too. That was kind of a melting pot of songs as it were.

So everybody had input.

Yeah, everybody had input on that and some songs that I wanted to put on didn’t make it because they felt other ones would be better. So when we did this covers collection, Erik and I decided no one was going to pick the songs but us and they’re going to like it and that’s what we did. I’ve always covered one song at least on most of my studio ones. Number one I think it’s fun and challenging and number two, I think you may be exposing people to artists that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise listen to. When we did these songs, we were going to pick the songs we like and go back in because some of them were on the list from the first covers collection. We did them and so far the reaction has been unbelievable. The saying is true that you’ve got to follow your heart because people walk into it for sure.

Yeah, because you pick such cool songs and they were such a variety.

There are a lot of them too that have been covered before but not like I’m going to do them.

You put your own mark on it.

Yeah, I was really excited to be able to do a couple of Heart songs too. I wanted to do Heart songs for a long time but didn’t want to do the normal ones that everyone always does like “Barracuda” and stuff like that. I wanted to do the songs that I really loved growing up. The ones that I really locked into so that’s why I chose “Dream Of The Archer” and “Johnny Moon”.

One of the things I like to do on my radio show is sometimes I’ll play the songs that made it on the radio.

The hit songs, yeah.

A lot of times I like to play that one song that really never made it on the radio but damn it, I liked it.

Yeah, that was a great song and there were many like that. There are many songs like that. Some of them when you listen to an album from back then, now most of the time you get one good song and the rest of the album is the shits, but back then there were many great songs on an album. Sometimes it was weird to me what songs they chose to be the ones that they were going to push so hard and these other diamonds sat there. That’s why I like covering the weird b-sides too. I used to do it in my live shows too. I used to cover popular artists but songs that weren’t on the radio from them.

You also covered “White Room”.

Yeah, because I love that song.

That’s always been such an awesome song. It’s really funny. My dad listens to an oldie station because he’s like old.

He’s an oldie.

He’s an oldie but a goodie. This is so funny because this is a song I’ve known about ever since I was a kid and that he had just recently discovered and that was “Hotel California” by the Eagles.

What?

Yeah, and he’s just so totally intrigued with that song. My dad is late on a lot of things but it’s better late than never.

Oh, that is so funny.

He is so intrigued by that song and of course it came on the radio last night when I was driving home from the Les Claypool show. That has always been an intriguing song because it puts your imagination into overdrive. What the place is like.

Yeah, it’s great.

I’m the same way. I grew up with a lot of bands but there was so much stuff on the radio that I didn’t have time to really take it all in. I find myself reaching back into the past pulling out stuff. It was a few years ago that I built up this Deep Purple collection. I knew there had to be more than “Smoke On The Water”.

Of course.

I started buying their CDs and listening to them and I’m totally hooked on that band now.

Yeah, it’s one of those things where you also reach back because you see and for me too just how artistic bands were back then. Now they’re a little homogenized I think. Especially the ones that are played on the radio for the most part.

The Clear Channel bands.

It wasn’t that way back in the ’70s. You had time to develop as an artist and it wasn’t like “okay, if you don’t sell a million copies you’re dumped from the label.” They cultivated relationships with artists and gave them a chance to become better. Better songwriters, better singers, and so on.

As one musician put it to me once, there used to be a time when record labels were run by people who loved music. Now they’re run by accountants in business suits and Gucci ties.

That’s right. The ones who are running it don’t care about the music anymore.

They care about dollars.

Yeah, they care about the bottom line which is very, very sad.

Somebody was telling me about how in Iraq they should be glad to get the capitalist system there. I thought to myself what has the capitalist system done for us except make people greedy. Why do you want to take a system that clearly in my opinion doesn’t fucking work and impose it on somebody and tell them this is how they have to be now.

I totally agree.

I find the older I get the more my bullshit radar just pings constantly.

Yeah, it does and you find you have less tolerance for it. I have the same thing.

So it’s not just me.

No, no. It’s you, me, and Erik.

I’m an over the counter pharmacy manager and it’s so funny. They’re pushing this diet pill called Alli and one of the side effects of it is that if you eat anything that has grease in it, it makes you have the shits.

What’s it called?

It’s called Alli. They’re so excited about this diet pill and they’re pushing it. As someone who has a parent with irritable bowel syndrome, that’s a really, really horrible pill and all they care about is how much money it’s going to make. Not the horrible position that it puts people into.

Wasn’t there one, Alestra or something that they used to put in and maybe they still do, they made potato chips and stuff with it. It was the same thing where you had loose stools as it were.

This Alli thing used to be a prescription diet pill. According to someone I know they said it didn’t sell then.

So the idea is that you won’t eat things with grease in it because if you do you’ll get the shits. That’s how you lose the weight.

Let’s say you go to a restaurant and you don’t realize something was cooked in grease. You can’t even go out to eat. I can’t see myself pushing this pill as the next best thing. But it’s all about “do you know how much money we’ll make off of this?” I don’t care. If a friend of mine or a relative of mine thinks about that, I’m going to slap them across the face and say no, you don’t. That’s what it comes down to. Money is important and the human condition doesn’t matter.

That’s right.

You did a record called Lady MacBeth and I was curious about that. What does that record entail?

Well, I have this strange obsession with some of the Shakespeare stories and in particular Lady MacBeth because she’s just so vilified and rightly so. Erik and I thought it would be interesting to write an album from her perspective as opposed to the way stories are usually written about her by a third party. I thought what if I wrote the song from her perspective and tried to give her some sort of humanity. Not to justify her actions and things like that. Just to make it interesting. So that’s what we did and we’re really proud of it. It’s really musical and it’s basically the story of Lady MacBeth from beginning to end with our own adaptations of how we think things turned out.

Everybody is human. My mom grew up in post WWII Germany and she said that even Adolph Hitler helped a little old lady cross the street once. They all suffer from the human condition. Some people choose to walk into the light and some people choose to walk on the dark side. I think it’s interesting what you did with Lady MacBeth. Of course you’re not excusing what she did but at the same time you’re pointing out that this lady was actually human.

Yeah, and she killed herself because of her guilt. Obviously she had some remorse for what she did in her life so that’s what we did. It was really, really fun I have to say. It was really fun to play a character like that.

Yeah, I can imagine. You’re putting yourself into somebody else’s moccasins.

Yeah, it was very cool. I’ve had a lot of people ask if I’ve ever thought of bringing it to the stage.

Lana Lane goes to Broadway with Lady MacBeth.

Not yet.

That’s an intriguing idea, my dear.

I know. Not yet. I haven’t reached that part yet in my career but it may not be too soon off.

It’ll definitely take a lot of production work and a lot of planning and thinking.

Casting.

And Lana Lane can play Lady MacBeth.

That’s right.

Now that you’ve done this cover CD, are you working on any studio stuff?

Yeah, we are. We actually have started writing for a new album that I think we need to deliver for the Christmas season. Erik is just finishing up some video editing for the Rocket Scientists box set that’s going to be coming out. When that’s finished we’re going to resume the new Lana Lane record. It’ll be a studio album. It won’t be covers of course.

Do you have any idea of what direction that’s going to go in?

Yeah, but it’s going to be a surprise. It’s a surprise. We absolutely do. We’ve got our theme going on so it should be fun. The specialty records that I do like the Covers Collection and Winter Session, we usually do those every couple of years because my Japanese fan base loves those.

It keeps you out there.

Yeah, and also I certainly love to honor and give back to them because they’re really the fan base that made it happen for me. That gave me the chance.

Yeah, that’s so crazy. Everybody always talks about America this and America that. Why doesn’t America do something really cool like support American musicians.

Yeah, exactly.

Isn’t it sad that your largest fan base is in Japan and Europe? Here I play a song by you on my show and everyone is like who is that. God damn, get out from under a rock.

Yeah, and it’s thanks to people like you because otherwise we’d still be under a rock.

That’s just absolutely crazy. Stop listening to this generic shit that’s being churned out by Clear Channel. People have access to the Internet. You can find out anything you want to from obscure musicians to what’s going on in the world around you. Use that as a tool for information.

It’s so interesting that the Internet has been such a double-edged sword for us because people use it of course to illegally download things but also we’re exposed to hundreds of thousands of more people than if it were done in the traditional publicity and marketing ways which we couldn’t afford being a small label like we are. It’s kind of hard but we’re not going to look a gift horse in the mouth for sure.

Absolutely not. I think one of my radio shows is going to be about chick singers.

Good one!

And you’re going to be on it.

Yes, I better be.

Damn straight or you’re going to hunt me down and kill me like the dog I am.

That’s right. Yeah, the chick singers need to have some more exposure in a good way. Not as a lot of people like to talk about a chick singer.

Yeah, people complain that there are all these chick singers in metal bands. Do people honestly think you have to have a penis attached to your body to be able do something worthwhile? I don’t think so.

In the music business?

Or in anything. We all know that everyone is born female and that for some people something horrible happens and they become guys. We know that.

Exactly.

You’ve also released some live DVDs.

Yes, ma’am. I had my 10th anniversary concert in Japan in 2005 so what we did is, we basically took I’d say probably two songs from each of my records of the past 10 years. From 1995 to 2005 which was not an easy feat in itself because it was a lot of material to go through. What we tried to do was also choose songs that weren’t on my Storybook DVD because I hate when bands keep putting out DVDs and it’s a lot of the same songs. It’s like okay, we’ve heard these already. So that’s what we did and it was really, really cool and had such a great time. It was full circle for me to be able to celebrate 10 years which is a big deal for independent people like us to be able hang in there that long. And two years past that I might add currently. And the DVD was a learning curve too because Erik does a lot of the editing or all of it actually so it’s been a really good move for our company too. We now can do professional looking DVDs which is great.

He’s a pretty talented guy.

Yes, I’m afraid he is. I’m not going to trade him in yet.

What kind of future plans do you have like touring and whatnot?

We just got back from a European tour in April. In that particular concert I did the entire Lady MacBeth album as my part of the concert because it was Rocket Scientists and myself. The first half of the concert was Rocket Scientists and the second half was the entire Lady MacBeth album. Hopefully we’re going to make that into a DVD as well which will be very cool.

We’re almost on the way to the Broadway musical!

That’s right. See? We’re starting small. We’re going to see how it goes. And the new Lana Lane studio album which we’ve started working on. That’s enough for now.

I just absolutely love your album covers because they are so unique. Nobody else does anything like that. Nobody comes even close to that.

Yeah, that was something Erik and I had decided very early on in the development of Think Tank Media was that back in the ’70s when you had albums from Yes, you recognized them because of the artwork. That has been lost along the way so we really wanted to bring that back. So I feel really good when people compliment us on the album covers because I think you do recognize a Lana Lane album now if you see a series of CDs sitting out and then you see a picture that’s on the cover of one of mine. You know it’s a Lana Lane CD.

I think one of the things that was lost going from vinyl to CDs was that when you had vinyl records you had this huge palette to work on.

Yeah, a piece of art.

You could get all of this stuff on there. Now that everything is a little bit smaller, it’s a little more difficult to do that but I think it can still be done. You guys do it.

People choose not to do it because they think what’s the purpose because the surface is so small. There is a point because it’s all a part of the music as well. It’s a whole package.

It gives you an idea of what to expect. It’s something I look at. I look at album covers. I’m a very visual human being.

I think it’s a very good pairing when the artwork matches the music. It’s a whole sensory part of recording.

Your album covers give me an idea of what I’d like to do with my new house. When I get my new house together I’m going to credit it to you.

Yes, go ahead. Actually credit it to Jacek Yerka the artist. It’s really his visions.

It gives you so many ideas because it looks so cool. You don’t know where the house ends and Mother Nature begins.

Yeah, and each time you look at it, you see something new. He puts all these little secret things in that you miss the first few times that you look at it and then you’re like “oh, what’s that little creature over there? What is that?”

Exactly. I love that. Back when I was a kid, the guy that used to design the Dallas area phonebook cover would design it the same way with all sorts of things to look for and you’d study it for days on end.

A phone book.

There were all these little things on there and every time you looked at it you’d find something new.

That’s cool.

It’s too bad that they don’t do that anymore because that used to be the highlight. Getting the phonebook. The new phonebook’s here! What’s all on the cover this time?

The new phonebook’s here!

Yeah, I’m crazy like that but I love stuff like that. I love to be able to look at something and say “hey, I didn’t see that before.” Any other thoughts or comments?