Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville - Behind-the-Scenes with Fastball's Tony Scalzo

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

Ever wondered how a hit song changes the trajectory of a band's career overnight? Join us for an exclusive conversation with Tony Scalzo of Fastball as he takes us through his musical journey, from his early days learning multiple instruments to the roller-coaster ride of fame with their smash hit "The Way." Tony reveals the band's creative process, the rejuvenation of their sound through his return to bass playing, and the relentless work behind sustaining success in the ever-evolving music industry. Gain a unique perspective on the pressures and rewards of life in the spotlight, and how personal and professional dynamics shape a band's longevity. Discover the secrets behind Fastball's ongoing success in a streaming-dominated era, their songwriting intricacies, and the modern logistics of touring. Tony discusses the transition from traditional royalties to continuous digital revenue, the blend of individual and collaborative efforts in songwriting, and the impact of advanced audio technologies like Atmos on their music. Listen to anecdotes from life on the road, the balance between passion and financial motivations, and the camaraderie that has kept Fastball thriving for over 30 years. Stay tuned to learn how you can follow the band on various platforms like Spotify, Instagram, and their official website. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

My career in the entertainment industry has enabled me to work with a diverse range of talent. Through my years of experience, I've recognized two essential aspects. Industry professionals, whether famous stars or behind-the-scenes staff, have fascinating stories to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories, which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution of their life stories. This podcast aims to share these narratives, providing information on how they evolved into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to stardom, discuss their struggles and successes, and hear from people who help them achieve their goals. Get ready for intriguing behind-the-scenes stories and insights into the fascinating world of entertainment. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. I'm thrilled to welcome Tony Scalzo of the band Fastball.

Fastball has made a significant impact in the music scene since 1994 with a unique fusion of the Beatles-inspired pop in 90s mainstream rock. Their debut single, The Way, was a resounding success, topping American rock charts and garnering two Grammy nominations. Fastball has continued to produce high-quality music, releasing nine albums over the years, including their latest album, Sonic Ranch, this past June. So, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. Let's talk. Let's talk. Anything you want to talk about. I'm here. And I'm so glad to have you. When did you decide that, hey, I think I'm going to be in the music business?

And did you and your wildest dreams think that you would be as successful as you have been and have the longevity that you've had? So at first, until I was maybe 14, I didn't expect that I would ever be a musician as a career. But I started playing with some older guys in my school. I was already taking piano lessons, maybe age of seven. I picked up the guitar. I was also in the school band. So in elementary school, I was playing trumpet.

And then I got into the band in the junior high. And by high school, I went into playing low brass. Like, I played a baritone horn. Okay. So that was mainly in the orchestra. I played trumpet in the marching band, a little bit lighter in the orchestra when it was like the wintertime. After the football season's over, we switched to orchestra and I played baritone horn in that. So I've always been musical.

I don't know a time when I wasn't either singing or, you know, messing around on the guitar, trying to learn, you know, songs off records and things like that. I learned how to do a lot of stuff by reading magazines, like Guitar Player Magazine. And Guitar Player Magazine wasn't really the magazine. It was later, it was just this really, really, I don't know, a really selective readership. So you kind of had to be a guitar player and or someone who was really obsessive because I began to learn about some of the vintage players like Frank Beecher from Bill Haley in the Comets and Eddie Cochran and learning about the blues and people like Buddy Guy and Freddie King.

Yeah. And of course, you know, the British grades like Jeff Beck and Robin Trower and Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore. I really got obsessed with guitar playing. So that in the 70s, as you probably remember, was pretty much it starts with kind of hard rock. Right. But it branches off into like fusion. See, I have like Steely Dad and Larry Carlton and people.

And the people who, you know, and like return to forever. and you get all these like in a bass too with like jocco pistoreus i'm a big fan of frank zappa i love jimmy hendricks and to this day i'm still obsessed with guitar playing i don't play a lot of guitar these days but i was for quite a long time in fastball i was playing guitar along with Miles for about 15 years in fastball and I only reverted back to the base about four years ago and it's been really great to take to take that old position up again because I realized that maybe the band had been lacking a little bit without my bass playing. I think that I was trying to do this other thing. I was trying, you know, as a singer-songwriter,

it's quite a challenge if you don't play music. It's kind of difficult to play bass when you're a lead singer in a band, and there's a few people who do it very well. That became my sort of recent goal is to get back that sound that we had when we started out in the 90s when we were a three-piece. Yeah. Things have gotten tighter and musically more focused on the live band. Yeah.

I didn't say we're focusing on the. recording it right now because we do a lot of what we want to do and tend to branch out stylistically. Sure, sure. Which I think we've done for all of the 21st century that we've been playing, that recording and writing. When you first started, you was doing it for the love of the music, and you still are. Yeah. But as always, the music business will always take over. Then when you created Fastball, and of course you had that big hit that started it all.

Yeah. I'm assuming that you're probably like everybody else that I've dealt with that has had that one big hit. So how did you handle that impact of everybody wanting you all at the same time from all over the country? Look, it was hard, very difficult time-consuming work. You don't have time for a life. You don't have time to enjoy that sort of imagined fantasy. see, I've won the lottery, I can do whatever I want. You can't do whatever.

You can't do anything. You have to work and you have to continue to make that thing roll and pick up more dung as you roll it or snow. Right. So it gets hard and, you know, it goes by very quickly. And then you realize your standards have risen. You're more easily disappointed in things that never would have. bothered you before. And if you're not prepared for it, you're going to make big mistakes.

Yes. And if you're not prepared for it, you could die. Oh, yeah, yeah. Literally die. I will say from experience and from knowing many people who don't breathe anymore, right. It's freaking dangerous job. Yeah, it is. Show business in general is dangerous and the hazards are incalculable. Right. Yeah, yeah, because people, that do the average job Monday through Friday, they clock in, clock out nine to five, and of course there's nothing wrong with that. Of course not.

But when you do music, then all of a sudden you're elevated to that hit record star status, then the demands and the pressures come along, and it can be insurmountable at times. Yeah, it can. But it isn't insurmountable. Right. There are ways, and I think people,

you know, there's a lot of people that would have fared better if they had to listen to some people, maybe trusted them. Right. Or maybe not trusting some people. It would have been a good idea. Yeah. You got to learn how to put off your immediate gratification desires, if you know what I mean, to focus on the future, to take care of yourself for the next day,

to put your time in a way that's going to preserve your energy. and help you recharge so they go do it. And you can't kick gas if you're sick. It can make you very sick. And plus if you start drinking or you smoke a lot or you're into drugs. That's right. It may seem like it really works for a little while and maybe it does. But I mean, chances are that's going to put you on a fast track to death.

Yeah. And we've seen so many people, you know, hit that. Well, me too. Some people who you wonder, why were they so miserable, you know? On top of it all is the idea that you're expected to be super happy. Right, right. I'm talking about something from a perspective of one who is maybe in that point for a very short time, a long time ago. Right, right.

I'm not famous in the way that I don't suffer from fame. I'm able to enjoy it because I only utilize it when I'm placed where I'm supposed to be and where it does the best good. Right. And that's usually at my own performances and my own at our run around scenes in Nashville, in L.A. in New York and Austin and ask people if they don't know who I am. Do you not know who I am? Right. Right. Yeah, that's not an attractive position for me to be. So it sounds like you've got into your comfort zone. You've accepted your fame.

You've accepted the things that you've done, which allows you to keep working on new material and moving forward. Yeah. Yeah. And just, you know, focus on your work. Yeah. Yeah. And hopefully generate enough popularity within the audience

to building on that and keep things going. And we have more of an opportunity to do that now in this day and age. due to technology and due to connectivity between a great deal more people that exist now than did 25, 30 years ago. The population is increased. Yeah. Of course, the Internet has helped tremendously. And there's more people have the Internet, so that connectivity is in place. And now we know that we can literally keep a career going as long as it's, you're not trying to, like I don't have a 21 million monthly stream Spotify account.

If I did, I'd be under pressure to keep that up some way. Sure. I don't know. Maybe you don't have to worry about it too much because things sort of generate now. They self-generate. Yeah. We do have, you know, over a million monthly streams. And if I stop and think about that for a minute, it's kind of mind-boggling.

And it's like, wow, that's a million. times somebody's listened to one of our songs in one month and it continues to be the case and the beauty of that is the tiny royalty rates right on those streams notwithstanding the beauty of it is that it's a thing that continues you know as opposed to a hard recorded piece of material that you sell one time And you get that royalty for that one point of purchase. That's an opportunity. Yeah. I like that about today's music world.

Now, are you going back on tour? Back on tour? Yeah, we're always playing. Okay. We're planning for a fall tour in late October, November, but this summer's been full of weekends, jumping around on planes, going to different city. Yeah.

And then we did actually, in April, some of the timing got a little bit messed up and we had a record that came out in June and had already done a proper tour in April, May that, you know, kind of missed the mark. Yeah. But, you know, again, it's a new world now. And so like, here I sit in my comfortable home in central Texas and I can talk to you and I can currently say that, you know, I'm working. Yeah.

That's awesome. And I can do all this stuff from home. Meanwhile, Saturday night, I was in Morgantown, West Virginia, and we had a great show. And in a couple weeks, I'll be in Georgia in the Atlanta area. Yeah. Fastball plays all over, and we're trying to keep that going for as long as we're healthy and able to do it.

I've read with the latest CD that you've recorded and put out has gotten great reviews. I've heard a few songs often. That's really good. I think you've really hit the mark with it. Thank you. Yeah, we like it. We're very happy about it. And we're planning on doing some more,

seeing as we can, you know, get enough songs together to justify going to studio. Now, do you do most of the writing yourself, or do you collaborate? How do you come up with your songs? Well, how does that whole thing work anyway? People want you that, and it's like, I'd give hour and a half seminars to people on songwriting.

I wouldn't call them seminars, but I've spoken on it, and I've done roundtable discussions with young artists. And, you know, there's a lot to be said for the craft of songwriting. Yes. I can break it down with our band. It's myself writing usually at home and trying to, get the bulk of a sum together, maybe 89% of it together here on my own. Right. Which is sort of a comfort zone so that I have more control over what it sounds like

late band, which is not necessarily an ideal thing. So, you know, that's what I was saying. There's a lot to be said. There's many ways to create songs. That's right. No wrong ways to do it. No. So sometimes you have to put aside what you think is the way a song sounds and let some other people jump in and do what they do. And maybe you'll get something really great. Yeah, collaboration.

I write by myself and then Miles writes songs on his own or he might collaborate with someone else. Sure. I might collaborate with someone else too. Sometimes Miles and I collaborate together. And that has been fruitful over the span of nine albums. Yeah. We just, you know, it's hard to say how you do it when you haven't written a song in a while.

And I'm still working on getting some songs together since this record was recorded. And it's kind of baffling, you know. On the other side of an album, you go, well, how did I do that? How did we come up with that material? And it sounds so good. And it's just because you're in it, you don't really, you don't know how it's going to come out until it's all done. Exactly.

And that goes through a lot of phases. You know, there's the writing. There's the working out with the guys. Right. And then there's the recording where you're working with a producer who says you hear something here. And there's the mixing. in which case the mixing,

you might feel like after you get a couple of mixes together that you want to add something even more or you want to edit something, you want to change something. Or you want to fuse two songs together. Yeah, there's a process and everybody has their way. And then there's mastering. And then there's mastering. And then you've got to think about how you're going to put this out.

Are you going to put it out only streaming, only digital? Are you going to put out a vinyl version? You have to get mixes that are analog friendly. That's right. Or you get mixes that are digital friendly. Yeah. So, and now there's a thing called Atmos, and then there's enhanced audio, which is phenomenal sounding if you have a really, really good, recorded performance.

Yeah. I found that it works for some of the songs. We've done a few Atmos mixes, and most of them work really well, and I won't say which track it is, but for me, there's a lot. another. There was one song that came out that I was noticing it sounded like disjoint it because there's so much separation and there's so much spatial organization of the different tracks that it's glaringly what it's like putting a spotlight on some of the less perfect bits. And so that's one of the reasons why mono and early stereo sound so good to us.

Right. We listened to records by the Beatles, which are mono mixes from a four track at the most, right? And we hear that those levels had to be perfect upon tracking. Yeah. And everything had to be good and the performance had to be tight as you can get. You know, here we work a lot fast here and now we work a lot faster because we want to be able to get to certain.

parts and we want to be able to hear different ideas at a quicker rate so we actually don't waste our time or scrap a whole recording yeah yeah and the beauty of the 60s and the 70s is that sometimes the music was perfectly imperfect one of the instruments might have been out of tune slightly or just different little things that happened but when they had all the players playing it together it just got that right sound and it came out perfectly imperfect. Yeah. And now we've got Pro Tools and QBase and all those platforms where you can manipulate whatever you need, but sometimes that raw feel is just the sound that you actually need.

Yeah. Well, I will say that you can definitely get all of those things that we love about that music from those times. You can get it from a digital format. Yeah. You just have to do things. kind of the way they did them. And really what you're trying to do is capture the way an instrument sounds in a room,

and which means you've got to use vintage microphones. You've got to use vintage instruments and amplification, drums. That's right. Maybe just crazy placement and baffles. Yeah. So if you can do all those things, you can still utilize the benefits. of digital, you can use the pro tools because like I say,

if you are really, if you're working with it, and if you're working with a producer like Davy Garza, who's like a mile a minute, this guy can go. And you don't even know what's going on because he's jumping around, jumping from like a melotron to a xylophone. And then he'll pick up a guitar and play this Spanish thing

that'll just boil your mind. And, you know, if you are doing that in a set period, like they did things back in the Beatles times at Abbey Road, you're talking about hiring people to come in. Right. You try it out. You spend two days and it doesn't work.

And you scrap it all. Yeah. We know within a couple of hours, whether it works or not. So in the last 20 years or so that you've been out there performing, what comes to your mind, something that you'll always remember and can be a performance, someone you met, Just anything. Yeah.

Well, a lot of things, obviously. You know, I remember actually more of how we adjusted to kind of a decline. Then I do the actual being up there, the heady times. Right. They're heady. And that's going to make things blur in your memory a little bit. Forget where you were when something happened. You'll only remember certain aspects.

This is just basic psychology of memory. But you'll pick out. things that are not the whole picture. You know, what do I remember the most? I just remember, I don't know, you know, gosh, there's no one incident, that's for sure. Yeah, I get that. I remember going to the Grammys. I remember not winning a Grammy. Yeah. It's okay. Yeah, sure. I remember being around people, famous people. I remember just a constant feeling. Like I fly, a lot still and i remember a lot when i'm on a plane especially in the summer yeah when we were moving our fastest in 1998 because the record was on the top of the charts and we were doing

m tv and vh1 all the shows all the tv shows and then radio shows giant radio shows and stadiums i remember the way i felt on this plane's very excited and very like here we go yeah And I, you know, I don't really feel that today because it's been done a million times and I've sat on those planes. But I do remember that feeling every once in a while and I remember how it was, you know, kind of compare and contrast that experience. Yeah. I'm not motivated by most of the things I was motivated by back then. Yeah. Like I was really interested in, you know, women and how much play I could get out there and because that's what rock stars do and you know the partying. A lot of what I think about when I go out and work is I tell myself to try to, you know,

keep it together, you know, don't go out and you're, you know, eating a giant Italian meal with two bottles of wine is probably not going to feel that great, you know, because experience tells me so. Yeah, absolutely. I get it. I remember a lot of the painful, horrible moments actually. Really? Being sad and lonely in the middle of, you know, in a hotel room and say, Oslo and just freaking out kind of, yeah, drinking way too much and just losing it.

Yeah. And feeling like crap, having to go to the doctor a couple times. Yeah. You know, knock on wood, it never really, I'm sure it probably affected my and our careers, you know, negatively in some way, but for the most part, not consequential. Yeah, it sounds like you transitioned really good. Yeah, and we're all doing very well now, and we're good little boys. Yeah. And our job subsequently is easier and more fun.

We're way better at playing. Yeah, and the thing is, is back then it was the rush of everything. Oh, yeah, what else are you going to do, right? Yeah. You got this many hours before, you don't have any hours. You have an hour usually. When you have a hit record in the late 90s and you're a band, you basically get up from a sleep that's only about three and a half hours old. Yeah, yeah. Because you didn't get to bed after the show until three in the morning.

now you've got to go do morning radio and you have to go and morning radio you know what morning radio's like oh yeah been there it's a big joke right people just joke around about it you can't be serious about anything if you have anything serious on your mind you're going to be the butt of more jokes so you kind have to go along with that and you know you do that you sing your songs on the radio yeah oh you got to go to another one right after that. Oh, yeah. Then it's lunch, hopefully. Yeah.

Next thing you know, it's sound check. You might be able to go home, get in that, when I say home, you know, a hotel room or your bus. Yeah. I'm up and go and have a little nap, but then you got to play again. Right. Exactly. And sometimes you have to sit at dinner with a bunch of people for a couple hours.

Yeah. Been there, done that. It may be great. a couple of times. Yeah. Well, the good thing is that you're still here doing it, you can reflect on the things that you've done. I don't have to work us hard either. Right. You can appreciate what you're doing because you started out, you started out with it for the love of the music, and now it's truly for the love of the music because you've done it all. Yep. It's 80% for the love of the, no, it's 50% for the love of music. It's 40% for the money, and it's 10% because I'm codependent and I don't want to let my friends down.

We're in a band together. Right, I get it. You don't just say, I'm out of here after 30 years. That's right. You've got to put a little bit of a, what do they call it, a two-week notice? Yeah, yeah, noted. I just read our partnership agreement today. It says we have 60 days.

And that's whether we're leaving our company. not. Yeah, yeah. And if you bring you could reach your partnership. Oh yeah. You know, how many times has been done? But that's fine. No, no, no, we're cool. I'm only joking about all the, it's true. We do have 60-day notice. That's the only thing I shall reveal about our business. It's fun. Yeah. To be in a band with the same guys for 30 years. That's awesome. You'd end up doing this thing. And it's funny because, well, you know, like twins have a language. Okay, well, we're like triplets and we have a language for sure. And you have a sound guy who's only been with us for a few months. He's funny because I saw a post that he did on Facebook and he said, I've been with these guys for a couple

weeks, man. Sometimes I don't know what they're talking about, but they'll say a couple of things and they'll look each other and the whole room just starts busting up in laughter. And I don't don't even know what they're talking about. And that is what we're, that's what I'm saying is we have this thing in place that sometimes a look will do it. We don't have to say much. We definitely see that we have to communicate and communication is a key to any relationship. That's right.

Any relationship. A business relationship, a personal relationship. Yeah. A parent, kid relationship. The cool thing that you've done is you've not. only stayed consistent, but putting out great music. Well, I appreciate that. I think we've had some low, low points. Everyone does. But not in our recording. Good. Not in our recorded output. Yeah, that's great. And if I, I would say that if I had any reason, if I had a couple of things I'd

like to change or do better, it would be to be a better performer 20 years ago. 20 years ago, I think we were up on our laurels a little bit and we were complacent. We were bored. We were kind of trying to figure out if we liked each other as people and we wanted to be in, we want to continue this. And then I wish that we had made more records. Honestly, I'd like to have made more records. I'd like to have made maybe four or five more records. Yeah, sure. Well, I have to say this. What you've done is really good

because you've been together, what, 25, 26, 27 years? We've been together for 30 years. 30 years. Yeah. That's astounding. For any band to stay together that long, that's just amazing. Yes, I agree, it is.

It is. I've seen so many come and go in my 30-plus years here in Nashville. And a lot of times it's just one, the one guy who sang or wrote the hit gets rid of everybody else and just gets a bunch of people he could boss around and pay. Yeah, so true. We put in our deals with each other. We worked that out beforehand. We made it a written thing, which is how we agree and we did it early. We did it before there was anything to even argue about. So it's all in place. Yeah. So how do people find you?

How do they find us? You can go to Spotify, Fastball. You can go to our website, Fastball theband.com. We have pages on Instagram and on Facebook and on TikTok. And we are on YouTube. We have a Fastball official Facebook. And if you want to see a lot of our stuff, in video, you can go on there. There's a lot of stuff that other people post.

We have a new video out that goes with our new single. which is called Rather Be Me Than You. We shot a video in March here in Austin, and it's a great fun video. It's a real rock video, and you can see that on YouTube right now, and I urge everybody to come to our shows. You can buy merch from us at the shows.

We always come out and sign stuff for people if they buy something, and even don't buy something, we'll sign it. But if you don't have money to buy our stuff at the stores or through our website, feel free to stream on the streams, man. I have no problem with that. It helps our band. It supports our band.

And you can listen as many times you want. And, you know, it's great for us to have a million streams every month. It actually pays off. It doesn't pay all our bills, but it helps. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I tell you, it's been great. I really appreciate you coming on. Tony, it's been a pleasure. Yeah, man. I've had a good time. Yeah, me too. The pleasure is all mine.

Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed the show. This has been a Tony Mentor production. For more information, contact media at plateaumusic.com.