LIVE INTERVIEW
I recently saw something
you posted on social media
and wanted to dive in a little
deeper on the subject.
MIKE: Sure man, no problem. When Nina was
signed to Warner they told her rock was going
to be jazz very soon. So basically they signed
her whole rock band, fired all the members and
then owned her. They said you’re the next pop
princess, no guitar. Rock is gonna be jazz. It’s
not viable anymore. So she was just sitting there
saying What? I did not sign up for this.
“It’s a very interesting
time to be a rock musi-
cian, and personally, I’m
feeling a little lost. I’m just
trying to find where we fit
in this world right now.”
– Mike Keller
I posted the situation and then I just asked what
people thought. Rock is in this really weird
place right now. I’m personally feeling it and
I’m being it across the board.
Even the really big bands, you could see that
historically they are not what they were and
I think it kind of seems like the world doesn’t
see hard rock or metal as a cool genre to listen
to anymore. Thats what I’ve kind of been no-
ticing with the younger generation, you know,
the Instagram generation.
Even my younger siblings, the youngest being 9
years younger than me. I’ve been assuming the
hard rock genre is a bit stunted now, and maybe
to the point where the softer alternative bands
that you wouldn’t consider active rock, or hard
rock are now considered by the main stream as
what’s new in rock, which is really weird. A lot
of people call it rockternative, that’s what a lot
of these radio stations have been calling it.
It’s a very interesting time to be a rock musician,
and personally, I’m feeling a little lost. I’m just
trying to find where we fit in this world right now.
Is it now a market for niche
bands or classic ones?
Mike: Like I said it’s a very weird time for rock
and what I’ve noticed is that the last kind of
bands to come out of the active rock community
that is, able to play an arena type venue, or a 10,000 seater, is Five Fin-
ger Death Punch, and that’s with Breaking Benjamin, or a Godsmack or
a Shinedown. If you notice the same festivals have the same headliner
every year or they just switch them around and flip flop that and very few
of the newer, younger bands are moving their way up that lineup. They
are still playing the same slots. They are still playing the same thing and
then you kind of just wonder is rock at a stand still right now? Is there a
younger generation of listeners who are ready to kind of embrace rock
music and bring the next torch of whatever rock is gonna be? What I’m
seeing with these young kids is that it’s not cool to listen to rock anymore.
They listen to hip-hop, they listen to Post Malone, and rap. My parents
were rockers, but i was born in 1989, so I embraced it a lot more. My
siblings were 2000’s and they hate rock and are kind of ant-rock.
And its not that the music is bad, its some of
the best music ever been made.
MIKE: I remember 10 years ago it was cool to be in a band, it was like
“Whoa, thats pretty bad ass. You’re in a band?, thats crazy!”, and now
it’s like “You’re in a band? Wow, OK, later!” I live in the Silicon Valley,
all my friends work at Google, or Apple. I’m the only musician that’s out
there that’s playing rock music.
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