Husband-and-wife duo reveal how project evolved
By Pat Prince and Peter Lindblad
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Motor Sister is Jim Wilson, Pearl Aday,
Scott Ian, Joey Vera and John Tempesta |
Motor Sister's first-ever LP
Ride was released a few weeks ago, but the buzz hasn't subsided.
The first week of its release, the record, containing fiery reworkings of songs by '90s retro-rock underdogs Mother Superior,
Ride clocked in at #9 on the Billboard New Artist (Heatseekers) chart. It also debuted at #12 on the Billboard Hard Music Albums listing and #40 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart.
The story of Motor Sister began a long time ago, when Anthrax's Scott Ian started a love affair with Mother Superior's rip-roaring mix of '70s classic rock, blues, soul and blazing proto-punk.
For his 50th birthday party, Ian had a wish, and his wife, Pearl Aday, made it come true. Desiring nothing more than to be part of a band that would play his favorite Mother Superior songs, Ian got to live out his fantasy, thanks to his wife, as he got to play those songs alongside Jim Wilson.
It was Wilson who served as front man and the main songwriter for Mother Superior. The trio broke up in the early 2000s. More recently, Wilson has partnered with Aday in the making of her solo material. Given the chance to revisit his old Mother Superior catalog, however, Wilson jumped at it.
Playing in front of a small audience of friends and family, Wilson, Ian, Aday and the rhythm section of Armored Saint and Fates Warning bassist Joey Vera and drummer John Tempesta (White Zombie, The Cult, Testament) thundered through a set handpicked by Ian. Word of the raucous, powerful performance reached
Metal Blade Records, and plans to make
Ride, recorded in only two days,
were set in motion.
This doesn't appear to be some one-off side project for any of them. Ian and Aday talked to Backstage Auctions recently about their involvement in Motor Sister and their adoration for Mother Superior, a band that may be finally getting its due.
Pearl, I wanted to
talk about Jim Wilson for a bit. You first worked with him on your solo music
and his solo music, right?
Pearl Aday: Not on his
solo work, no. That was all Jim, but in terms of my stuff, Jim and I wrote all
that together.
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A tour may be in the works for
Motor Sister, when band members
can find the opportunity to do so. |
How did you and Jim
meet? How did that collaboration start?
PA: We met
through Scott, because Scott knew him already by the time I met Scott. And so
Scott introduced me to Mother Superior music and then introduced me to the
guys. And I think I became a really big fan of the music first and then had met
Jim and the other guys a couple times and then Scott surprised me by inviting
the whole band to my birthday party one year. And this was a long time ago, and
it was just awesome, and I got really excited, and throughout the night I
mentioned to Jim I said, “What would you guys think about working with a female
vocalist at some point?” I got the balls from somewhere to ask him that, and he
said, “Sure.” And then it just kind of started falling into place. We started
getting together and writing together.
And then you’ve
covered Mother Superior songs on your solo material. “Whore,” on the Swing House Sessions, it’s a real nice
country-blues rendition of the song.
PA: Uh, huh. Swing House Sessions was like an
acoustic version of a rock album Little Immaculate
White Fox, so “Whore” is on the rock album as well.
Oh, I haven’t heard
that.
PA: Yeah, that’s
a full rock album. It’s got heavy rock songs on it. And then the Swing House Sessions is the acoustic
version of that album. But yeah, we did it, we did a cool little country
version on the acoustic album. That was fun.
It just shows how
Mother Superior songs can work with hard blues, hard rock and acoustically as
well.
PA: Yeah, totally
versatile. Jim’s music is completely versatile, because he’s drawing from all
different genres.
And Scott, performing
during your birthday celebration with Jim must have sparked that this was some
special thought in your head. No?
Scott Ian: Yeah, it definitely
did. Just even going into it, it was something special that I wanted to do. Not
just even for me, but for all of us, just to get to be a part of that and kind
of play that music again. Nobody had heard those songs in a live element for
years, so it was just a case of having fun but with people who really love
Mother Superior. Just to get together in the jam room at our house and just
have fun doing it; that was really the impetus behind the whole thing. We
weren’t going into it with any plans past that. Everything that came after that
is just, you know, “Merry Christmas.” But the initial thing was, “Let’s just
play these songs and have some fun.”
And Pearl, were you a
part of that, too?
PA: Yeah, I threw the party for him. I got the
band together, and I sang that night, as well, because I’m in the band.
Well, your voice
blends together with Jim’s nicely. You can hear it on “Fork in the Road” on the
album. It’s a natural pairing.
PA: Thanks, yeah,
we do sound really great together and we work really well together. It is very
natural and organic for us.
And you guys recorded
the Motor Sister album in two days, right?
PA: Yep.
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| Motor Sister's debut album 'Ride' 2015 |
SI: Yes.
Pretty much
straightforward live, just like the birthday gig.
SI: Yeah, well,
that was just one of our few things we said to the label was basically just,
“If we’re going to do this, we have to do it the same way we did it.” That’s
the way it should be, and I talked to Jay Ruston about it. I said, “Can we do
this? Can we just set up live in the studio and bust it out the same way we did
at our house?” And he said, “Yeah, absolutely. You guys all know the songs. You
don’t need to do anything else.” It was
that easy.
And Jay is the
engineer, the producer?
SI: Yeah.
Oh, okay. He’s worked
with you before on with Anthrax and stuff, right?
SI: He’s worked with Anthrax, he’s worked with Pearl, he’s worked
with Jim, he’s worked with Mother Superior. Yeah, he’s been involved with all
our stuff.
And the spontaneous
live feel, he captured something magical on the Motor Sister album. A lot more
bands should do that, just go right through the songs, instead of all the
overdubs and stuffs.
PA: You’re saying
more bands should try and do that.
Yes, exactly.
PA: Some bands
can’t do that. I don’t … You know what I’m trying to say, Scott. Just for us, it came really easy, because it
came from this night where we threw this party, and we were just doing it to
have fun. And we were just doing it to have drinks and make this music come
alive again and hear the music live again and celebrate Scott’s 50th
birthday. And it kind of fell into place, the fact that it was so great and it
was so exciting, and it was so good that this record company, Metal Blade, was
like, “Dude, we’ve got to make an album of this. It’s too good for everybody to
not to hear it.” So that’s why we were able to. It just happened so fast that
it just kind of … it was natural. Not kind of … it was natural in how it
happened, because it’s that good. And so were able to go into the studio and
make an album in two days.
I was reading some
stuff of Jim doing interviews and he said he overdubbed on Mother Superior’s
albums to get a dual-guitar feel. And with Scott, here you have that
dual-guitar feel on Motor Sister naturally. And I think he was very pleased
with that, that it was a live feel.
SI: Yeah. I mean,
yeah, it is, because we’re both playing. It is two guitars playing at the same
time; so he’s not overdubbing. So, of course, it would be a live feel.
But it was something
special, the overdub This sounded a lot more more authentic and exciting and
energetic.
SI: Yeah,
absolutely. Two guitars just gives it that much more energy. Certainly having
my playing on the songs is just going to change the energy of it as well. It’s
a different band playing these songs, so it’s definitely going to feel
different.
Did you find you had
to use a different guitar technique or anything playing this rather than an
Anthrax song?
SI: Nope, I just
play how I play.
As somebody who
doesn’t play guitar, I know it’s a silly question to ask. Some people have mentioned
that this album is metalizing Mother Superior. I don’t see that at all. I see
it as putting a new coat of paint on a race car. It’s just making it shine
better and faster.
PA: That’s a cool
way of putting it. I like that.
SI: Yeah, it’s
not … we didn’t "metalize" it. I don’t hear that. Metalizing it would have meant
me having, let’s say, my own tone that I would use to record an Anthrax record,
which I certainly don’t. Yeah, I played with much more of a rock tone than I
ever would on an Anthrax record. So I wouldn’t say it’s metalizing it at all.
Did you use different
guitars?
SI: I used one of
my Jackson signature models for about half the record, and then I used my Gretsch
Duo Jet for about half the record.
Maybe that’s the
question I should have asked. It’s not technique. It’s that you used different
guitars or amps or anything to get that hard rock sound.
SI: No, it was
just a matter of dialing the game back. My amp can get any tone I would ever
need, just by changing the gain structure on the head. My Randall, all I have
to do is pull the gain back and I can be as clean sounding as Malcolm Young or
as distorted and heavy sounding as my normal Anthrax recordings.
This is nothing new
for you, recording music outside of Anthrax. Out of all the outside material
you’ve recorded, is this one of your favorite projects?
SI: Yeah, for
sure. It’s not like I ever recorded anything with anybody that I don’t like
(laughs). What would be the point of … “I’m going to record on something I
hate.” That’s not something I’m out there trying to spend my time doing. Yeah,
I’ve enjoyed, whether it’s S.O.D. or the Damn Things or the stuff I’ve done
with Brian Posehn and now Motor Sister … I just love music, and when I get to
be involved in projects outside of what I do with Anthrax, it’s most of the
time with friends. I go back with every one of those things that I mentioned
basically happened because of friendship, from S.O.D. on through. Anything I’ve
done outside of Anthrax are hanging out with guys friends who also play music
and are into music and we inevitably start writing songs together or play
together, or jamming together. So, anything I’ve done outside of Anthrax is
just because what I naturally do anyway. So it just adds more … it’s like
having a whole bunch of different foods to eat instead of one food all the
time.
I guess I asked
because sometimes you hear musicians say when they do an outside project, they
think it’ll be great, and once it’s done, they feel like, “I never want to do
that again.” But with this one, it feels special. It feels like it comes from a
special place because you were a fan.
SI: Yeah, it’s
certainly different from anything I’ve ever done. You know, all the stuff I
mentioned, all the stuff I did obviously I was involved in the songwriting.
Whereas this is essentially me having this idea to just have a party and play a
bunch of songs that I love that were written by Jim Wilson with my friends. And
then we made a record of it. Essentially, I’m playing a bunch of cover songs,
but a bunch of cover songs from a band that I love and now actually we made a
band out of it and I’m actually in the band with Pearl and Jim and Johnny and
Joey, because Jim was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” When we got the offer to make
the record, the phone call actually came to us, to Pearl and I. And I said,
“Yeah, I want to do it, sure. But you need to ask Jim. It’s not our decision to
make. This is Jim’s music.” And he was totally into it, and he was totally into
making it a band and playing shows. It’s really his thing. That’s what does
make this special, that in a lot of ways, it’s just me getting to play a bunch
of songs that I love. Like, what if I just said, “Hey, one day I’m getting a
band together to play AC/DC songs and somehow get Angus Young to play along and
go out and play AC/DC songs with Angus.” That’s the same thing to me, getting
to do this with Jim. That’s how cool it is.
And then Jim’s voice
has a very Paul Rodgers’ feel to it. It has a hard blues soul to it. And did
you find playing with him that any traditional hard-rock influence seeped into
this album when you were playing it?
SI: Well, I’m not
sure what you mean, because the songs were already written.
Well, I know they
were already played, but did you find that influences from the past – like hard
rock bands you were into, whether, and I’ll just throw some out there, Foghat
or any of those ‘70s bands – did you feel some of that seeping in, as well as
Mother Superior?
SI: Well, yeah,
Mother Superior obviously is influenced by a lot of ’70s music, whether it’s
Humble Pie and Free, or whatever. You name it. Me, KISS and Aerosmith … name a
great ‘70s band and Mother Superior … Thin Lizzy. Jim always says it best: In
the ‘90s when people were listening to grunge and rap metal Mother Superior
were playing songs that sounded like Humble Pie. That’s probably why people
weren’t paying attention.
You take a song like
“This Song Reminds Me of You ” … I almost feel like if that song was played on
a classic-rock radio station, listeners would be drawn to it, don’t you think?
It has almost like a Bad Company feel.
SI: Absolutely.
Given the opportunity, I think people would … I defy someone to listen to … if
you’re into rock ‘n’ roll, rock, metal in any way, shape or form, I defy you to
not get into this record. It’s almost impossible. I can’t tell you how many
people we’ve spoken to who’ve never heard Mother Superior before until now,
because of the Motor Sister record, and have gone out and bought a bunch of the
Mother Superior catalogs. So, it’s what we’ve been saying for ages, that this
is a great band and Jim is a great songwriter, and if this opens the doors to
more people getting into the music he’s been making his whole life, that’s
awesome.
That was my next
question. I think this is definitely going to turn people on. I mean I’d never
heard of Mother Superior either before this, and I’m going to go out and buy
some albums. And I just I find it weird that I’d never heard of them (laughs).
It was very strange that the band could be overlooked by so many people. It’s
almost unjust.
SI: Yeah.
PA: That’s why we
did this (laughs). That’s why we did this. Like I say on the featurette, it’s
just too good for people to not hear. And people are going to love it just as
much as we do. They just don’t know it yet. They’ve got to hear it, and then
they’ll go, “Aaargh,” just like you did and say, “I can’t believe I haven’t
heard of it before, you know?” I mean that’s why Scott wanted to, in essence,
resurrect this music again for his 50th birthday. That’s a milestone,
you know? And that’s the thing he wanted to do: “I’ve got to hear this music live
again, because this band I love them so much and they’re defunct, but let’s
give it life. Let’s bring it to life again. So that’s why we did it, because
it’s so awesome (laughs). And it shows in the way it’s being received now.
We’re just so lucky that things fell into place the way they have, because we
get to keep playing it live, you know what I mean? We don’t have to make it a
special occasion. It’s sort of like, “Wow! We were right. Everybody is loving
this. Everybody’s going to love it. And just more and more people get to hear
it, and we get to play it for them. It’s so cool.
Yeah, and there is an
appetite for retro-sounding stuff now. You can look at …
PA: The real old
stuff – something genuine, something authentic, something with some talent. It’s something
that people are hungry for, I think.
Look at a band like
Rival Sons. They’re very traditional, and bands like that … you almost think if
Mother Superior came out now would they be more popular?
SI: Yeah, that’s
an interesting question. Or if they would have existed in 1972 or ’73, would
they have set the world on fire. I mean, you could think about that all day
long. Let’s see. We are putting out a record now with all these songs on it,
and certainly there’s been no lack of promotion or awareness of what we’re
doing. The word is out there. So it’s a case of, people getting an opportunity
to hear it, they can click online or stream for free before they decide whether
or not they actually want to purchase one … you know, they don’t even have to
worry about buying a record that they may not like. They can listen to it
first, and then see how rad it is and then decide, “Hey, I need to own this.”
So I would think it’s a pretty good time to put this record out. Granted,
people don’t buy records anymore, but still, from just the point of view of
people wanting to hear a record like this, I definitely think it’s a good time
for it.
Yeah, Jim had a great
quote about this album. He said, “We were a little ahead of our time or a
little behind our time.”
SI: Right.
PA: And now
they’re getting a second chance.
Yeah, exactly … which
song on the album are you guys most pleased with?
PA: All of them
(laughs).
SI: Yeah, I mean
I picked my 12 favorite Mother Superior songs initially to do this party, so
those were my 12 favorites. So I don’t pick one out of those 12. Those are the
12 that were my favorites, and then even more. It wasn’t too long after we made
the record, one day Pearl was playing Mother Superior in the house and the song
“Rollin’ Boy Blues” came on. And we were both like, “What? Why didn’t we do
this song?” So you just … it would probably be easy to pick another 12 songs
(laughs) and do Vol. 2, but I would think moving forward, we’re going to try
and write our own music out of this lineup. And maybe do “Rollin’ Boy Blues,”
too (laughs).
I was going to say,
this can’t just be this one album. You’ve added something to that old Mother
Superior sound. Why not an album of originals?
SI: Oh,
absolutely. We’ve all been talking about it and it’s definitely something we
want to do. I think this lineup, getting together in a room and banging out some
songs can only be awesome.
And you’ve got a
superior rhythm section in Joey Vera and John Tempesta. That sounds great on
the record by the way. Those two together also sound great.
SI: Oh yeah, they
rule. Just the idea of us writing songs together, kind of getting in that room
for the first time, we have some awesome riffs that we’re jamming on, I’m
looking forward to that.
How did you get them
to commit? It’s almost like a supergroup? They have a lot of things going on.
SI: I didn’t have
to do anything. Joey has already been a Mother Superior fan forever. Joey’s
actually produced Mother Superior stuff in the past. Joey’s been playing with
Pearl and Jim together in Pearl’s stuff together forever. And then Johnny, all
I had to do was send him Mother Superior songs. He heard the music, and he’s
like, “How, when and where?” So it was literally that easy.
Do you think if you
did do something else, they’d commit to that as well?
SI: Oh yeah, they’re
already in.
Even a tour?
SI: Well, a tour
is something we’d all commit to. It’s just a matter of finding the window to
commit to it. Yes, of course. But as far as
a tour goes, we’re kind of waiting on some schedules to firm up with all of us,
with our day jobs, so to speak. And as soon as we know what’s going on in those
worlds, then we’ll be able to pick a window or two of time where we might be
able to go out and do more shows. I mean, we really want to get over to the
U.K. I think a week or two-week run in the U.K. with this would be amazing and
certainly get out and play through the Midwest through Milwaukee and Chicago
and Detroit and all those areas, I think it would be awesome.
So, what’s next? I know
you have a lot going on now, Scott. You’re wrapping up Anthrax, you’re wrapping
up the new album?
SI: Not wrapping
up. We’re right in the middle of it.
Oh, you are. Okay. So
you’re doing that, and what’s next for both of you? Pearl you’re working on
solo stuff?
PA: Yeah, Jim and
I have actually been working on an album for a while now, and we’re almost
finished. We’ve got I think nine songs and we just decided to add two more,
which we’ll be recording soon, so that’s really exciting and something to look
forward to. It’s not hard rock. You know, our last album Little Immaculate White Fox was hard rock and the Swing House
Sessions, and this is rock and roll, but it’s sort of more like The Eagles. We’ve been calling it “California country,” but it’s rock and roll, how that
term is used. I know people don’t really know that term anymore, but we do
(laughs) and we made a rock album, but it’s just not particularly hard.
Well, you have a very
Janis Joplin soul to your voice, so I think that would sound really good in that
Eagles sort of … add that country blues and make it heavy – that would be
really cool.
