Posted: December 7th, 2008
Recorded: November 23rd, 2008
Contributed By: Chris

TuneLab Music: You’re currently out with Hinder and Trapt, how has the tour been so far?

Rich Luzzi: It’s been real good. It’s been a month and the shows have been great. Hanging out with those guys is always awesome.

Julien Jorgensen: It’s the Jagermeister Tour, so it’s kind of what you would expect out of a Jagermeister Tour!

RL: Yeah, its just crazy. They got us Jager machine on the bus. It’s been fun.

TLM: What has been the most memorable date of the tour so far?

JJ: Vegas was good for me.

RL: Yeah, Vegas was good. Last night in Myrtle Beach was good. The first show in Salt Lake City was good.

JJ: New York City was really good. We got to see some family and friends.

TLM: I caught part of your set at Rock on the Range earlier this year and your stage presence was full of energy. Is it hard to put so much energy into every show?

RL: Naw, I don’t think so.

JJ: Rich always says whether its 5 or 5,000 we’ll play the same. As it’s been getting closer to the 5,000 [laughs], it’s been a lot easier because the crowds are just great. The energy is great and we just feed off of it. So, it’s not hard to get motivated and ready to rock.

TLM: You’ve shared the stage with some pretty big names in the past. What have you learned from bands like Breaking Benjamin, Evanescence and Papa Roach and how did those tours influence what Rev Theory is today?

RL: Umm… it kept us with the eye on the prize. You can taste the success of wanting to headline big shows. It was great in that aspect. It always keeps you that much more hungry because when you play with bands like that and you’re hanging with them, gaining their fans… ummm… it makes you feel like “Hey, we can do this!”.

JJ: When we wrote the last record, I remember we talked about it because you could see what’s connecting and can kind of get why those bands are so big. You can see what a hit is and at that point we didn’t really have a hit. We were just hustling to make it happen. So going into writing this last record we really wanted to be conscious of writing great songs. We were real inspired by the bands we were able to tour with.

TLM: You shot a video for your new single “Light it Up” a few days ago. What was the concept for the video?

RL: It’s like really raw, underground kind of sex / fight club. We shot it in New York City and the fight club is just girls… girls fighting. So there’s some gambling and hot chicks. Just like a dirty underground culture. We got to shoot it on a ship in Manhattan named the Frying Pan that has sunk three times and it hasn’t been restored at all. So ascetically inside it’s just you know, beat up, and run down, just a rusty old ship.

TLM: The single has been described as an arena rock anthem. When you guys were writing the track is that something you had set out to write, or did it just come out that way?

RL: No, it just kind of happened.

JJ: Not really. We were conscious because we wanted to write a Rev Theory party song based on some of the strip club experiences we’ve had over the last few years. That party vibe you know, lyrically we wanted to capture that. We didn’t go out to write an anthem.

TLM: Do you think rock radio needs more of those type songs?

RL: Yeah! They need more of them from us!

TLM: A couple live videos were streamed on YouTube a couple of days ago, are there any plans to put out a live DVD in the near future?

RL: No, Kansas City was our first No. 1 market for “Hell Yeah”, the radio station there treated us great. We just wanted to take advantage of that and get some live footage from it. I think it turned out great and showed us that we definitely to shoot a live DVD.

JJ: We really pride ourselves on our live shows. That’s where we cut our teeth the past few years and I think we can kind of beat a lot of bands out there as far as our live shows go. And we really want make sure people can see that and a live DVD could capture that.

TLM: How has ‘Light It Up’ been doing sales wise?

RL: It’s selling really well. We’re north of 60,000 records and we are just now starting our second single. We have a huge Carl’s Jr. / Hardee’s campaign (revitupandwin.com) going on and they bought 150,000 downloads. That will give us another 15,000 records. Things are really good!

TLM: Your music has been used in several video games and by the WWE. How are those partnerships necessary now with overall album sales declining?

RL: That’s just what it is. You know it’s necessary in the fact that it creates awareness for your band. Not too many people are researching what records to go buy, however if they have other avenues where they are introduced to music they potentially may go out and buy the single or buy the album. It’s really really important because it’s just not cutting it with hard copy sales anymore. It also opens you up to a lot of people that have maybe not heard of your band.

TLM: What would you say the biggest misconception that people have about being a musicians and being in a band?

RL: That as soon as you get a record deal you’re rich!

JJ: Yeah, that’s one of the biggest things.

RL: Everyone thinks that once you have a bus and on a major label that you automatically have all this money.

JJ: That all your dreams have come true.

RL: But actually once those things happen, that’s when the real work starts. You really have to put the pedal to the metal and really grind it out. I think that’s a big misconception.

TLM: Do you guys feel pressured to write better songs and perform better live now that you are on a major label?

RL: Yeah, I think… it’s more of a challenge. More eyes are on you.

JJ: We welcomed it. The pressure is something we worked for. We worked to get this chance to have that kind of pressure because 99% of bands don’t get this far. We knew this was in store for us so we feel like we were more prepared than most bands to take it on.

TLM: What kind of advice would you give to bands who want to be where you guys are at now?

RL: Never expect anything. Always put the blinders on and work hard no matter what happens. When you feel like giving up, just remember that it could be right around the corner so just keep going!

JJ: Just have plan. You have to have a plan and a goal. Keep writing songs, it’s really all about the songs at the end of the day. It’s about getting out there and making it happen yourselves and like Rich said, not expecting someone to just kind of give it to you.

TLM: You’ve done a couple of the Girls Gone Wild Rocks America tours in the past, any plans to bring that back in 2009?

RL: Umm… No! [laughs] That was done because at the time we were pretty much an unsigned band and wanted to get in front of as many people as possible. We came up with that gimmick and it was great because it did put us in front of sold out crowds every night. At this point in our career, it’s not really who we want to team up with.

TLM: You have another month with the Jager tour. Anything confirmed after that?

RL: Nothing confirmed yet, but there is a bunch of stuff in the works and will be making announcement before the end of the year. We’ll definitely be out on the road in January.

TLM: Guns N’ Roses finally released the long awaited ‘Chinese Democracy’ today. Have you had a chance to check it out and what are your thoughts on it finally being released?

RL: I’ve heard a couple songs, and I can’t really weigh in yet. I haven’t given it a good enough listen yet.

TLM: What would you do if you had 13+ years and $13+ million to make an album?

RL: I have no idea! I couldn’t even imagine that!

JJ: I’d probably put ten of it in the band and let it collect interest and took $3 million and make an incredible record! The guy is just a maniac, but we’d tour with them in a heartbeat! Actually would we tour with them? They probably wouldn’t play.

RL: I don’t care, we’d play!

TLM: That’s all I have, anything you want to add?

RL: Just pick up the record!

JJ: Come see us live!