By Andrew Bansal
Following the unanimously positive response to last year’s self-titled debut, The Winery Dogs recently released two more editions of the album, a 2-disc special edition comprising of the ‘Unleashed In Japan 2013’ CD which consists of live recordings from the band’s Japan tour along with a new track previously unreleased in the US, and a ‘Dog Treats: The Winery Dogs Deluxe Special Edition’, being sold in a box resembling a box of dog treats and including DVDs and other bonus items. Now, the band is getting ready to embark a short run of US West Coast dates and are all set to invade the Los Angeles are with two shows, on Friday June 27th at the Saban and Saturday June 28th at the Canyon. A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to bassist Billy Sheehan about the band’s journey so far, future plans and more. Enjoy the chat below.
Billy, it’s good to have you again on Metal Assault. The Winery Dogs have been doing a bit of touring in the States lately. How has everything been going for you guys?
Spectacular! Great attendance everywhere, sold out shows, amazing reviews, lot of happy people. All good!
You released a special edition of the debut album with a bonus live disc from Japan. You’ve always had a great connection with that country with whatever you’ve done. So when The Winery Dogs toured there last year, you must have already expected the band to do well.
Yeah, I knew that we would do OK there, but people focus on Japan almost all the time when in fact anything I’ve done in Europe, South America and USA is quite a bit more! I do a lot more shows in these places and in South-East Asia, but people tend to focus a lot on Japan.
That’s true. So, in these shows are you still playing all of the debut album, or have you written any newer songs?
We’re playing the whole record but we do have a few other songs we toss in, depending on the night and how we feel. There’s about four other songs that we do, sometimes we do them and sometimes we don’t. It depends on the situation and the audience too.
Right, I think you throw in a couple of covers in the set too, and one cover that you’ve been doing quite a bit in the shows so far is the Talas song ‘Shy Boy’. What’s it like for you playing that as a three-piece? You did at the Metal Masters show as well with Mike and it was great.
Yeah, it’s always a blast to do it! People always request that song and it’s been a very successful one for me. I did it with my old band Talas back in Buffalo and I’ve done it with a lot of different bands here and there, but people seem to like it, so I love to play it.
What’s the aim for the band in terms of the near future? Do you think you’ll write another new album soon or are you still going to continue touring for this one?
We’ll tour for as long as we can and then we’ll do another record as soon as we need to. Our long-term goal is to do as many records for as many years as possible, and hopefully in ten years from now we’ll be on record #10!
Awesome. With the musical style on the first album, I think all three of you were able to express yourselves pretty well. Do you think the band’s music will continue being a free-form thing in that sense or do you have any set goals for the musical style at all?
No, we never discuss goals or style or genre or market angle, or the future. We just play. That’s how we did this record. We just got together in a room and played. We didn’t discuss what type of songs, how many songs, whether it should be heavy or it should be this or that. We just got in a room and played, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do, and allow our music to evolve organically rather than plan it in a business meeting.
Right, and these days with the internet and all that, a lot of bands work individually and swap files across. But as you said, The Winery Dogs wrote this album the old-school way, together in a room.
Yeah, absolutely. All of this record was written and recorded with all three of us together in a room. That’s how we wrote the songs and that’s how we recorded them. And I think that’s part of the reason for the success of the record, that it’s real, and wasn’t done by file-sharing over the internet. We actually played together as a band.
That’s how it should be. Is that the way you’ve preferred to work throughout your career over the years?
Yeah, sometimes it has varied, specially if it’s a project. But if it’s an actual band and not a project, it has to be real and live. The Winery Dogs is a home for Richie, Mike and myself. We’re not really phoning it in, as they say, and we’re not piecing it together. We’re actually getting together and allowing it to take its natural course. We don’t get involved in much of the meeting, planning, scheming or business. We leave that up to our managers and label, and we just play. That’s what I love to do. We’d rather do it than discuss it, when it comes to writing and recording.
When the band was announced and started last year, I think all three of you were doing other things, but this band has now taken more of your time. Would you say it has become more of a priority than you were expecting it to be?
Well, I was absolutely expecting it to be a priority and it has become that. There are other things that I have obligations to, and so do Mike and Richie as well. We all had lives before The Winery Dogs so we’ve got to take care of those things, but The Winery Dogs is the main focus for all three of us, I would say, at least for me, certainly. I haven’t had too many things to do with Mr. Big in recent years, not much touring at all. I mean, we do shows here and there but it’s really not my main thing. Mr. Big will always be together and will always do something, but I have so much fun playing in The Winery Dogs and we’re able to play a lot of shows, which is real important to me, and that’s why it’s great to be involved with these guys. Mike is a madman when it comes to playing like crazy, and that’s what I want to do too, to play a lot of shows all over the place.
I have just one more question for you. The band is all about chemistry and the combined musicianship of the three members, and you play different stages small and big. Is it more challenging to gel with each other on a bigger stage when you’re far apart, and how do you deal with that?
I prefer being close together, and even on big stages we set up about the same in that sense. The amps are just as close to the drums. We generally have good communication and it works well on big and small stages, but I prefer to be tight and close as a group. We don’t want to spread it out too much. On the tiny stages it happens automatically but on the bigger stages we’re pretty close too.
The Winery Dogs links:
TheWineryDogs.com
facebook.com/TheWineryDogs
twitter.com/TheWineryDogs
Billy Sheehan links:
BillySheehan.com
facebook.com/pages/Billy-Sheehan/36797576876
twitter.com/BillyOnBass
The Winery Dogs upcoming US tour dates:
Tue 6/24 – Ramona, CA – Ramona Mainstage
Thu 6/26 – San Juan Capistrano, CA – Coach House
Fri 6/27 – Beverly Hills, CA – Saban Theater
Sat 6/28 – Agoura Hills, CA – Canyon Club
Mon 6/30 – San Francisco, CA – Yoshi’s
Tue 7/01 – Oakland, CA – Yoshi’s at Jack’s London Square
Sat 7/26 – Buffalo, NY – The Tralf
Mon 7/28 – Amityville, NY – Revolution Bar & Music Hall