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![]() Shaking The World: And Exclusive Interview With BLACK SWAN Vocalist ROBIN MCAULEY ![]() By Ruben Mosqueda, Contributor Saturday, February 29, 2020 @ 9:17 AM ![]()
Frontman ROBIN MCAULEY is happy to be alive, having recently suffered a health scare when he contracted a virus, which landed him in the hospital and in the intensive care unit. “I didn’t see it coming, I was packed and ready to leave for the 70,000 TONS OF METAL cruise with Schenker, I got cold and within a 20 minute window my body went into total shock! One of my boys called 911, next thing I know I’m in the ER, then I’m being transferred to the I.C.U., the long and short of it is that I contracted the E Coli virus then it became a bladder infection, which then became septic and tried to knock the old man down”!, recalls McCauley. “I’m grateful to be here, I was told by my doctor that because I was healthy I was able to pull through better than most people. I’m feeling great I’m back doing RAIDING THE ROCK VAULT here in [Las] Vegas and I’m getting ready for SCHENKER FEST which will go to Japan in March, then we head to the U.K. and Europe through April. Dead man walking”! In addition to his regular gigs, McCauley is getting set to release a new album with BLACK SWAN, the title of the album is Shake The World, due on February 14th on Frontiers. BLACK SWAN also features guitarist REB BEACH [WINGER, WHITESNAKE], bassist JEFF PILSON [DOKKEN, FOREIGNER, M.S.G.], and MATT STARR [MR. BIG, ACE FREHLEY] rounding out the band. <KNAC.COM caught up with McCauley who was doing press to promote the release and in addition to BLACK SWAN we also talked M.S.G. and he shared a short story about the late great producer ANDY JOHNS.
KNAC.COM: You’re releasing a new album with BLACK SWAN, Shake The World. The band features JEFF PILSON, who you have history with since you both played in M.S.G. together.
MCAULEY: Yes! On Valentine’s Day! I love working with Jeff. As you stated we worked together on M.S.G., he initially just wanted to produce the album.
KNAC.COM: Is BLACK SWAN a Frontiers project or are you hoping that this will be an ongoing thing?
MCAULEY: Well, I was initially approached by SERAFINO [PERUGINO] at the label [Frontiers], he said “I think we should do something, we haven’t done anything with you yet!” I said, “That would be great, I wasn’t taking it personally!” At the time that I was approached the timing wasn’t the best, because I was doing the Schenker thing and was busy with THE ROCK VAULT, we wound up putting that on the back burner. Jeff called me about a year ago, he said that Frontiers had contacted him about putting a band together, he mentioned that he had worked them quite a bit on a production level, he mentioned that his go to guy
KNAC.COM: BLACK SWAN does have a contemporary hard rock sound.
MCAULEY: Yeah, we didn’t want more of the same, we didn’t want WHITESNAKE meets DOKKEN meets WINGER meets FOREIGNER meets M.S.G. We really wanted to do something different that what people would expect or that we’d even expect from ourselves. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have some ‘classic rock’ elements but it’s our version of ‘classic rock”.
KNAC.COM: Who suggested to MICHAEL SCHENKER to change the name of the band to MCCAULEY/SCHENKER GROUP when you came on board?
KNAC.COM: You wrote two of the M.S.G. hits, “Gimmie You Love” [from Perfect Timing 1987] and “Anytime” [from Save Yourself 1989] which got airplay on MTV and got the band on the radio. Did you get any push back when you brought in these or other songs in, that might have been slightly uncharacteristically Schenker?
MCAULEY: Well, the label and management were looking for radio play in America and they wanted to get videos played on MTV. When I became part of the band that was the first time that Michael got any of that. I think everyone was thrilled with the songs that I brought to the table because they helped to hammer away at getting airplay on radio and MTV. We needed to get the ‘hit’ video on MTV to get the good tours, but at the sametime there were the hardcore fans that would be like, “this new singer has just destroyed everything that was M.S.G.”! Years later I have to point out I didn’t write the music, I wrote the melodies and the lyrics! MICHAEL SCHENKER wrote the music! [laughs]
KNAC.COM: You told me a story a few years back about working with Andy Johns, he got the snare drum sound by firing a gun into a sandbox in the studio?
KNAC.COM: You’ve been doing RAIDING THE ROCK VAULT for how many years now?
MCAULEY: 2020 will be our 7th year and it’s been a pleasure doing show, if you can believe this at the present time we have performed almost 1500 shows to date. It’s a great ‘classic rock’ show.
KNAC.COM: Lastly, I know you’re into vampires and you’re probably a yourself, how does a vampire celebrate the release of their new album on Valentine’s Day?
MCAULEY: Oh dude, by taking the biggest bite possible, of course! [bursts into laughter]
BLACK SWAN Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackSwanRockNRoll/
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