By: Robert Cavuoto
After a 30 years absence in the rock n’ roll world, The Babys have reunited!
Original lead guitarist, Wally Stocker, and drummer, Tony Brock, have joined forces with lead vocalist/ bassist, John Bisaha, and veteran rhythm guitarist, Joey Sykes, to release their new CD, I’ll Have Some of That.
The new album is set to be released on June 24th, with two new members and a brand-new single, “I See You There”. And fans will be pumped to know that the group is ready to tour again.
Formed in London in 1974, The Babys were a formidable pop sensation with huge commercial success.
Between 1977 and1980 they released five albums and toured with Journey, Alice Cooper and Cheap Trick. They earned a loyal following based on their spectacular songs and explosive live performances right up until December of 1980 when the band split up.
Former members vocalist, John Waite, Jonathan Cain on keyboards [Journey] and Ricky Phillips on bass [Styx] have all given their blessings to the newest incarnation of the band.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Wally Stocker about the band’s rich history and what they are doing to preserve the integrity of the band 30 years after they disbanded.
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Robert Cavuoto: Tell me after 30 years why is now the right time for the band to reform.
Wally Stocker: Well, Tony and I been kicking the idea around for two or three years now. Through the years we’ve often had long conversations about possibly giving this another shot with John Waite.
Occasionally, we’d contact him and run it by him. He would basically decline, saying he was happy with what he was doing, and he didn’t want to be involved with us anymore, as far as a band. Obviously, we had to respect that, so we kept putting it off until finally a couple of years ago.
Tony called me up and said “Listen, seeing how John is really not interested, and there’re other bands out there that are reforming with new members, what do you say we look for a singer and try and give this another shot?”
It started from there. As long as we could find the right singer and maintain the sound that we always had. That’s how it kicked off.
We held auditions and we listened to a lot of great singers, but although they had great voices, they didn’t really fit in with what we were trying to do. Some of them really couldn’t pull off The Babys’ material, until John Bisaha. We liked his attitude, and his personality and especially his voice. We brought him back a handful of times to be sure he was comfortable with the whole thing. He had some big shoes to fill. He was ready for that and up for the challenge ahead. He’s a big John Waite fan, as well.
Robert: He does a tremendous job on vocals and sounds similar John Waite’s style.
Wally Stocker: We’ve got to do the old catalogs and didn’t want a clone of John [Waite] or become a karaoke version of ourselves. Not only can he pull off The Baby’s old material, but we also needed somebody who could put their own character into the things, and take on their own personality within the band. I think we managed to find that in John.
Robert: The new CD is very reminiscent of what you guys did back in the ‘70s. Did you write new materials for this album or are any of the revisited tracks from the ’70s?
Wally Stocker: Some of them are brand-spanking new, and some tracks we had in the vault, hidden away on old cassettes that we dusted off.
Mainly it was bits and pieces that Tony and I had recorded together through the years since the breakup.
We had fun in the studio laying down musical tracks. When it came time to get serious with this record, we sort of went through all the old material and found that we had a couple of gems hidden away there. We updated them, so some of those are actually on the new record now. I’d say it’s probably like 50/50 – old and new.
Robert: How long did it take you to write and record the CD and where was it recorded?
Wally Stocker: It was recorded at Tony’s studio, Silver Dreams Studio in Chatsworth, California, and he produced it. The writing started process started as soon as we found John. We sat around, coming up with melodies and lyrics to the songs we had. John really put his stamp on a lot of these songs. He’s a good songwriter, a good lyric writer.
We had about a 10-week window they wanted us to deliver the masters April 15th, so all in all, about two months from the start till the final mixing and handing over the masters. We were under the gun a bit, because two months can fly by pretty quickly when you’re in the studio.
Robert: When you were writing the new songs, where did you pull your inspiration from? It sounds like one cohesive CD.
Wally Stocker: I could say it was a conscious effort by Tony and me. We had discussed the fact that we wanted to maintain our identity in our music, as far as the sound. We were very conscious of that all through the recording.
We’d actually brought in a 30-year-old analog mixing board so we could go back to that time. That’s what we used to record on in the old days.
Although Tony’s studio is very well equipped with Pro Tools and all that, we wanted to get that warmth out of an old analog board. Tony wanted to maintain his big drum sound; we managed to achieve getting my guitar sound back. It was all recorded in the one studio; I think that’s why its sounds so cohesive.
We didn’t want to lose out identity as far as the overall sound of the band. I think that could have been the kiss of death had we gone somewhere else with our songs and our music, and we would have lost everything we had built up this far.
Robert: Was it difficult to write new material with new members and still capture the vibe of what the Baby’s stood for?
Wally Stocker: No, not really. It all seemed to fall into place once we collectively put our heads together, it felt quite natural actually. John and Joey Sykes, our new guitar player, both grew up fans of the band. So they knew what we were looking for from the beginning. They helped us achieve that.
Robert: What are your plans for touring going to be like?
Wally Stocker: Well, nothing is set in stone as of yet. We’ve got the single out, “I See You There.” The album will be out next month on the 24th.
Right now we’ve got people still working on gigs and tours and things like that. We’re just looking forward to the release, and, hopefully, by then we’ll have some more news as far as touring.
Personally, I can’t wait to get out there. Hopefully, we can get ourselves on maybe a support tour with somebody. That’s what we used to do, touring around with Journey, Cheap Trick and all those kinds of bands. Of course, they’re all still around. To get on a tour like that would be really beneficial to us right now.
We’ll just have to see how it goes. We’re hoping maybe some festivals and things like that before the summer’s over. So, like I say, nothing really set in stone yet, but it’s being worked on as we speak.
Robert: What do you think touring is going to be like now compared to back in the ‘70s?
Wally Stocker: It’s going to be different from the old days. Tour support has all gone away now, which was really beneficial from the record company – even though they billed you for it. [Laughter]
I anticipate good things. The music business has really changed since we last time we took this out full time. We did a handful of gigs late last year just to get our feet wet and see fan reactions. It went over very well.
All the old Babys’ fans have stuck with us; they’ve been very supportive. You would think after being away that long, that maybe they would have moved on to something else, but they’re still up for it. They still loved it, plus now it’s almost like the second generation of Babys’ fans. The kids that used to come and see us are now parents and they’ve turned their kids onto our music too.
We’ve had them showing up at the shows as well. It’s almost like two generations of fans. So, I’m looking forward to more of that. Hopefully, we can attract a lot of new Babys fans.
The obvious question was, “Without John Waite in the band, I’m not really sure how this is going to go.” Once people see us play and hear us with the new lineup, all those things sort of get pushed aside.
Robert: I can’t agree with you more. Many bands from the ’70’s are out touring with multiple new members like Kiss and Journey and it works out great.
Wally Stocker: Yeah. Well, that was our plan from the beginning as long as we could find the right members. It was like, “There are other bands out there doing it, and they’re packing the house every night without new product. There out playing their old catalog!”
That logic inspired us to get some new product, so that we weren’t just doing the circuit, playing the old songs. It’s always nice if you can have a new product out there to promote the tour as go around the country. The fans have something new that they can listen to and enjoy.
Robert: I think my favorite song on the CD is “Grass is Greener”. I think it’s one of the edgier tracks on the CD. Can you give me a little insight about that song?
Wally Stocker: We dug that music out of the archives. We basically had a melody for it back then, but then we just let John run with it. He came back with some nice lyrics, and it all came together. I like that track too. It’s not too different for us, but it’s different enough. I think it still catches what we’re all about and brings it a little more up to date.
Robert: What have The Baby’s always stood for?
Wally Stocker: I think musicianship! The Baby’s has always been strong from day one, no matter what the lineup was. We always based our sound on big drums, big guitars. Not necessarily heavy guitars; sparse, melodic and a lot of melody.
We can also turn the corner with softer songs like “Isn’t It Time,” “Every Time I Think of You” and “Not Ready to Say Goodbye.” It was like a conscious effort to incorporate all the sounds we’re known for with our music. We’ve never shied away from strings, brass, or female backup singers. If bagpipes sound good on the track, we’ll use them.
We’re not afraid of instruments. In fact, it gets us excited. When you have a large canvas like that, and you can use different instruments for different colors, it makes recording exciting.
