Bruce Kulick Interview 2016

My name is Loose Cannon and I’m a KISSaholic, Podcaster, and occasional Decibel Geek staff writer.  It’s my goal to remove “occasional” from my description this year. I had the good fortune of an in-person, 90 + Bruce Kulick Interview 2016 prior to a Grand Funk Railroad concert in Key West, Florida.

The fact that this actually happened is beyond me. We covered his entire career including KISS Exposed video antics, Hot In The Shade drum machines, Alive III fixes, the timeline of KISS reunion negotiations and ridiculous stuff like Meatloaf and Michael Bolton.

This post is how Decibel Geek helped that interview become a reality and helped inspire a new Podcast.  It is also a salute to all hard rock fans and the ever expanding “Friends of Decibel Geek” podcast family. And if it inspires anyone to start their own podcast, even better.

NOTE: For those that just want to listen to the Bruce Kulick interview scroll down peeeople!

They say that comedy loves tragedy or tragedy loves comedy. It’s one of the two.

I do know that frustration creates blogs and podcasting. I’ve done both. I am 99% certain that all blogs and podcasts stem from the writer or Podcaster wanting to escape from reality and let their creative freak flag fly.  This often is a short-lived escape, much like a blog I started back in the day, and eventually dies on the vine after a short time. Part of that I’m sure is because writing is a solitary exercise – even if you have other writers on the site.  It becomes tiresome or you just run out of shit to say.

With podcasting, with few exceptions, there is also a co-host which makes it a hell of a lot more fun than talking to yourself in a dark room like a crazy man which is basically what writing is.  (Plus piles of cocaine if you are Stephen King in 1986).

Last year, as you probably guessed from the intro, I had frustration in truckloads. These are “First World Problems“ but frustrations nonetheless. And when you’re down in the dumps there’s only one thing that’s going to do it for you: “Cold Gin” & a microphone.  Inspired by years of listening to Decibel Geek I decided to start my own podcast. I can do this right? It’s just a bunch of talking into a mic, anyone can pull this off. I can feature and let my listeners discover great new bands just like Chris and Aaron have done for me. This will be super easy. Just grab a lot of great music and talk a bit about it.  Done.

Not so much (at first).

For me, the first couple episodes were a nightmare. I can’t record them at home with the kids running around or in my office during the day as people can hear my rants through the walls and I would sound like a crazy person. So in the beginning, I recorded the audio in my car during lunch while in random parking lots talking into the memo app on my iPhone which is what any well-adjusted human would do in their spare time.  This was done in spurts of turning the engine off and having the windows rolled up without the AC on to avoid background noise. This is not as easy as it seems as I live in Florida so the AC needs to be running constantly so you don’t die. I also began thinking I was quickly spiraling into madness.

Why was I doing this? This was not fun. It took a ton of time to dump everything into GarageBand, a program I’d never used before, and to make it sound decent at the end.  I did two episodes solo, focusing on newer bands that still had the riffs, sense of melody and attitude of classic rock. It nearly broke me and would’ve probably been the end of it, but I was compelled to move forward.NOTE: I want to give mad respect to those that CAN pull the solo podcast off. Joey at Rock Strikes 10 and Michael Butler at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Geek Show are the best examples of this in my opinion. 

There was something missing. I needed a co-host. So I listed a job opening on Craig’s List:

Podcast opportunity: Cohost needed that meets the minimum requirements:

• Questionable taste in hard rock music
• Likes interrupting others
• Attends 400 concerts per year
• Uses inappropriate genital references in all album reviews or articles
• Bonus Points: Is a prolific Decibel Geek staff writer named Bakko

The true version of the Cobras & Fire Podcast was born! The first ones Bakko and I recorded are the Greatness of Danko and KISS – Great Songs from Albums that Suck episodes. We began to disagree immediately.  The first few are a bit rough, much like the production of the Hotter Than Hell album, but the rapport was there from the start. This led to scoring the Bruce Kulick interview (with Decibel Geek‘s help) which was only our 8th episode; we recently recorded our 25th.

I want to salute both Chris and Aaron for coming out with an episode every week, which is nearly impossible. And why do they do this? Because of their passion for rock. Sure they might make a bit of money now from the new Patreon program (rightfully so, sign up!) and the Amazon links (bookmark it people!), but they do it for the same reason we listen: To Escape.

It’s my opinion that people that are not passionate about music are missing a piece of their soul. When I meet people for the first time and we get to talking about stuff and they say “I’m not really into music” or “I don’t like concerts” it just mystifies me. NO music at all? There’s no band you really like? Music is just sort of there for you? I guess that explains why radio stations are programmed the way they are and people don’t mind lip-synching and backing tracks at concerts (that they are forced to go to): It’s a passive experience for the majority.

The most awesome piece of music news that came out in 2015 was one from Spotify about royalty payments; one that proved something that hard rock fans have known forever: We listen to and play more songs and complete albums repeatedly then any other genre – thusly generating more royalties in this streaming age for the artists.

We don’t listen to albums once and move on to the next flavor of the month. If it was a tape we would wear those albums down to static and buy them again! Finally, there is scientific evidence of this and it proves that Hard Rock fans are the greatest fans in the world.

Bakko and I consider ourselves the bastard children of Decibel Geek. We want you to think of our podcast as a bonus episode of your weekly Decibel Geek fix and hope to also introduce you to new bands the same way Decibel Geek has.

The Bruce Kulick Interview 2016 below does not have Bakko on it except for the intro.  It also is Chris Czynszak‘s favorite episode.  I’m pretty sure that’s not a coincidence.The podcast name? In my infinite wisdom, I wanted the podcast to have a ridiculous hard rock band name like Savage Animal or Steel Panther plus gave a tip of the hat to GNR.  “Cobras & Fire” fit the bill. I will probably rethink that decision in a few years.

It’s available on iTunes, Stitcher – everywhere.  Soundcloud version below. 

Stitcher

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